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- ↓ 4.50
- ꩜ 5.93
- ↑ 8.03
{C} → Snivel
If the Defending Pokémon attacks Togepi during your opponent’s next turn, any damage done to Togepi is reduced by 20 (before applying Weakness and Resistance). (Benching either Pokémon ends this effect.)
{C}{C} → Mini-Metronome
Flip a coin. If heads, choose 1 of the Defending Pokémon’s attacks. Mini-Metronome copies that attack except for its Energy cost. (You must still do anything else in order to use that attack.) (No matter what type the Defending Pokémon is, Togepi’s type is still {C}.) Togepi performs that attack.
illus. Ken Sugimori · LV.8
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Still only a hatchling, it uses poison to chase off its enemies when threatened.
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This Togepi card was released in 1999 in Japan, and Neo 1 wans’t out yet, so it used the “Base era” template of the TCG – i.e., amongst other things, you wouldn’t have the Neo “swooshes” for Weakness and Resistance. More importantly, because the card pre-dates Neo 1, there’s at least a couple things of consequence that result here*, with the second point I list off here having a longer-term consequence for the TCG;
· Togepi’s type was probably not formally revealed. As much as this card is giving it away – {C} means it’s some combination of Normal, Flying, or Dragon, and there’s not much to suggest the latter 2 – they probably wanted to keep things at least somewhat mysterious, and so Togepi doesn’t have a Weakness. This special treatment extends to the Togepi’s Neo cards, as well as Togetic’s, but it’s pretty awkward because this treatment matches the way Dratini, Dragonair, and Dragonite are handled in the TCG. The e-Card era is going to unceremoniously “demote” Togepi and Togetic to more accurately reflect their video game typing than worry about carrying on with this legacy kibble.
· Togepi, who in the video games is essentially a Baby Pokémon, is printed as a Basic Pokémon for its debut. This is most likely simply because “Baby Pokémon” wasn’t a thing for the Base era, and even for Neo 1 Togepi was left Basic – presumably for consistency’s sake. But this would go on to be a precedent years later for any Baby Pokémon who debuted in the same Generation as their “Basic” form. e.g. Riolu should by all means have gotten the awkward special treatment Baby Pokémon were getting in the DPt era, and Lucario have been printed as a Basic Pokémon, but the precedent set by Togepi gave some wiggle room on that front. (The entire affair of the awkward treatment Baby Pokémon get in the TCG has myriad compounding factors, but this precedent appears to be a fairly important one.)
*All of this is true for Southern Islands Togepi as well. Despite being printed in the Neo era for the English print, SI Togepi was also originally a Base era card.
Warnock 2022
Second Pokemon with a “Snivel” attack
