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 Hey there, do you like playing children's card games? What about a children's game based on a children's card game? Then you're in luck! The Pokemon TCG is one of the earliest marketing ventures of the series, being released in Japan in 1996, the same year Red and Green came out! While it's approaching 30 billion cards printed, it's a relatively simple game that has you attach energy to Pokemon to attack your opponent so you can claim all your prize cards. So of course some video games were gonna follow this. The first TCG game released in Dec 1998 in Japan and followed the TCG launch to America coming out shortly after in early 2000, with the TCG launching in 1999 by Wizards of the Coast. The game features the first main set, the Base Set, as well as the first two expansions, Jungle and Fossil, totalling 228 cards in total to collect, battle with and trade with your friends! It follows the TCG incredibly closely, using artwork and data from it, with a couple of changes here and there. It also has a fair few exclusive cards that had some become actual cards later on. It was a pretty short game, but it had some good stuff, still, it took 3 years after its release in Japan to get a sequel in March 2001. This was never localised, but since it has an English patch, I imagine a lot of you are going to see this game for the first time, more than likely both of them are new to you, which is great! This game, despite the much later release, only included one new expansion, Team Rocket, making it a generation behind, and has you defend the island from Team Great Rocket, the best villain team in the series. Both of these games are pretty rad sandboxes for you to use various decks and fight some simple AI to get your feet wet so you can properly go out and buy endless booster packs, yes, consume, consumer. They're simple, a little bit easy, but if you love the TCG like me, then it can be great fun to go back to the beginning, before EXs, or Tag Teams, or 300HP or any of that garbage, these are two great games that need to be shown! Don't worry if you've never picked up a Bill card in your life, I'll go over everything you need to know, and more besides, as always. And of course, since these are relatively obscure...  NO SPOILERS AT ALL! If you're familiar with Gen 1 (or even my Yellow LP) then you might see where this game is going, but the second one is truly crazy, so strap in. Pokemon Trading Card Game (game) Part 1: Welcome to TCG Island Part 2: Big Explosions Part 3: Competitive Splash Part 4: Technikachu Part 5: Mind Over Missing Part 6: To Beat A Master Side Notes 01: Playing the Pokemon Trading Card Game (From Part 1)  Pokemon Card GB2: Here Comes Team GR! Part 1: Welcome Back to the Resistance Part 2: Half Liberation Part 3: Few, Frenetic Fights Part 4: An Entire Update About The Game Corner Part 5: War Recovery Part 6: Meet Team Great Rocket Part 7: Electrifying Progress Part 8: You're Hot Then You're Cold Part 9: Fight, Fight, Fight! Part 10: Seizing Strongholds Part 11: Final Filler Part 12: Checkmate Part 13: Ghosts of Card Games Past Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Jun 7, 2020 |
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Oct 23, 2019 03:36
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Pokemon Card GB2: Here Comes Team GR! Part 1: Welcome Back to the Resistance Part 2: Half Liberation Part 3: Few, Frenetic Fights Part 4: An Entire Update About The Game Corner Part 5: War Recovery Part 6: Meet Team Great Rocket Part 7: Electrifying Progress Part 8: You're Hot Then You're Cold Part 9: Fight, Fight, Fight! Part 10: Seizing Strongholds Part 11: Final Filler Part 12: Checkmate Part 13: Ghosts of Card Games Past Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 23:46 on May 29, 2020 |
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Oct 23, 2019 03:36
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Part 1: Welcome to TCG Island Title Screen    Before I jump into another long main series Pokemon game, there are other gems here and there. I skipped a lot of side games when I did Conquest a fair while back, but the TCG games for the GBC are pretty drat good. Or, they're good sandboxes, but you'll get what I mean soon enough. As always, peep the music, it's some 8-bit deliciousness.   Look at all those crazy options. Our MC is Mark, but with a bandana like that, he needs a cooler name. Main Menu Never Seen Again Narrator: One day, Marco heard a rumor: "The Legendary Pokemon Cards... the extremely rare and powerful cards held by Pokmeon Trading Card Game's greatest players... the Grand Masters are searching for one to inherit the legend!" Dreaming of inheriting the Legendary Pokemon cards, Marco visits the Pokemon Card Researcher, Dr. Mason... TCG Island   You want to learn how to play the Pokemon Trading Card Game? So you, too, finally want to start playing the card game. Well, dueling is more fun than just collecting cards! First, you should try playing with a practice deck. Here, I'll give you this deck. And now you need an opponent... hey, Sam! Play with him for a while! Yes, Dr. Mason. Hello, Marco. First, ask Sam the basics of the game. OK, Marco. What do you want to ask about? This game was very, VERY much intended for you to be your introduction into the TCG, but I'll tell you all about it in Side Notes to go over each mechanic, but I'll do a quick rundown during our first proper duel. Don't worry, it's very simple, and that's one thing I love about it, but if you combine it with 20 year old AI, you get a game that is also... very simple, but more on that in a bit.  Since this is your first time, just try to learn the basic steps. I'll be coaching you. So follow my advice. If you don't do as I say, we won't be able to proceed. It might be easier if you read the Pokemon Trading Card Game instruction booklet while we play. OK then, let's start your practice game!  We have to follow exact steps, but that's no fun to watch. Instead let's talk about some other things, like artwork!  I hope you like DYNAMIC POSING, this game is full of it. Also note the design on the back of the card, which is the Japanese one, which are localised to the familiar design. This game follows the TCG incredibly closely, down to even weirdly small details.  And the professor for this "region", modeled on one of the game designers of the TCG, Kouichi Ooyama, who has also worked on Pokemon Duel, and even Earthbound! I'll be using character artwork where appropriate and in-game headshots for everyone else, since there's not much artwork, especially for TCG 2.  Hmm... let me add some of my own cards to yours! Now, Marco, what kind of deck do you want? Ah, the classic choice. Well, not really, you can trade cards with your friends and battle with them, but there's no exclusive choices to be made, if you're diligent, you can obtain all 228 cards in the game all by yourself! ...okay 226, but we'll get to that later. Basically, what I'm trying to say is choose whichever you like, all 3 decks are good choices, Squirtle is the most broken, Bulbasaur is the most consistent, and Charmander is the fastest. This choice won't matter in the long run for this LP.  You should duel with many different people. Why don't you go to one of the club cards. There are many people playing at the cards. Collect new cards and try building a new deck!  Ah, much better, the starting message speed is just awful. Also this setting lets you speed through any animation that you can't already skip, it's very nice. Watching a speedrun of this game can be hard since they speed through menus and make the screen flash so many times in a short space of time.  Pokemon cards! Listen to what people have to say and read the books on the bookshelves. If I have any information, I'll send you an email, so check the PC every so often to read your mail! Let's go and log onto 1997 Outlook on this personal computer.  Are you getting the hang of the Pokemon Trading Card Game? I have some information for you about Booster Packs. If you want to collect the same cards, duel the same person many times to get a particular booster pack! By doing so, you will be able to collect the same cards, making it easier for you to build your deck. Another method for collecting cards is to use Card Pop! When you and a friend use Card Pop!, you will each receive a new card! One you Pop! with a certain friend, you won't be able to Pop! with that friend again, so find many friends who own the Pokemon Trading Card Game for Game Boy and Card Pop! with them to get new cards! Oh, here's something for you... Like with the actual game, you won't get very far with just your starting deck, you need to also obtain booster packs for 10 random cards.   There are 4 different booster packs, based on real ones that contain around 50 unique cards each, totalling to 208. This is where you'll get what you need, though your starting deck can get you so far. All booster packs contain one energy, usually an evolution or few, may contain Trainer cards and is the best way for you to scramble some kind of useful deck, since the game has a pretty bad time making good decks for you to use. This game draws from the Base Set, as well as the first two expansions, Fossil and Jungle, with two exceptions of a Base Set Electrode and a Fossil Ditto due to their complexity. These refer to the Japanese expansions, so there's no regular versions of cards that are holographic, like ours were. I'll be sending you useful information by email. I'll also attach a booster pack for you. So check your mail often. Mason Laboratory, Doctor Mason  Pause Menu Alright, let's take a look at our starting deck to the sweet tunes of the pause menu. You can have 4 different configurations at once, but you can save deck lists in this lab, so be as free as you'd like... within the confines of your pulls, of course.   Oh... oh no... this is a really bad deck. What the hell is going on? There's no cohesion, no structure, they literally gave you like 80 cards and randomly threw 60 at you to pick up off the floor. Basically, to make a deck worth anything, it needs four components: your main star, the Pokemon you're building up and using to attack, this can just be one evolution line, but is usually two as a backup. Next is your support Pokemon, who have moves or abilities that help your main or hinder your opponent, it's up to you how many different Pokemon you use and with what main mons. Third is your Trainer cards, which are one time use effects and can be used as many times as you have them in your hand. Finally, Energy, the backbone to your deck. These are attached to your Pokemon once per turn, with exceptions, and fuel your attacks. You usually want around 12-18 of these, depending on your strategy.  Let's give this a quick edit, remove most of the garbage we won't use, since a deck is only useful if you're able to pull off the strategy as smoothly and effectively as possible. Little difficult to attack when you don't get any energy since you keep drawing random Pokemon. You can have up to 59 energy in a deck, since the hard limit is 60 and you need at least one Pokemon to make it a deck, but all other cards have a limit of 4. This is why the Charmander deck is useful, since it starts with two Bill cards, the best card in the game. I'll be going over specific cards here and there, there's a lot of interesting ones to talk about, but how about we actually get battling something, eh? It's only been 80 images!   You always face Sam with the practice deck, but by choosing Normal Duel, you can do whatever you want with that deck and aren't railroaded into a specific strategy.   If you want a lot of different energy, this is where you go to grind, it's relatively quick. If you're building multiple decks at once, you need a lot of energy since any that's used for one deck can't be used for another without dismantling it, just like in real life. Which is also annoying as gently caress, but forces you to be strategic when you have limited options such as this game.   If you win, I'll give you a booster pack - but it only contains energy cards. Ho-ho! Please choose the deck you wish to duel against.  Let's finally see what this game is about, using our pretty lovely starting deck. TCG Duel    At the start, both players shuffle each other's decks and draw 7 cards. From that initial hand, you choose a Basic Pokemon to start out front as your Active Pokemon. If you don't have a basic Pokemon, you put your hand back, reshuffle and draw 7 again, and continue until you get something. It later games this is a mulligan that lets the opponent draw an extra card for how many times you had to do this, but since there's no penalty here, it's definitely a strategy to only use one line and get the right Basic up front.   If you have any other basic Pokemon, you can place them on the Bench, but it's not mandatory, then you place down however many prizes, 1-6. There's 3 winning conditions, first is if you knock out enough opposing Pokemon to draw all of your prizes. Second, if you knock out your opponent's Active when they have no Bench Pokemon to move up to replace it, and third, if your opponent is unable to draw a card at the start of their turn due to an empty deck.     Ah, coin flips, bane of my existance. You always want to go first so you can set up first and attack first, it wasn't until later in the TCG that attacking on the first turn became prohibited. If the coin lands on its side, congrats you're a wizard, but also flip again. You also don't use any random coin for this either, there are specific TCG coins you must use to decide stuff, though each player has their own coin. And no, we can't change ours, that's next game.   Considering this is a small screen, they get everything they need on this. Seeing the pixillated base set art is also real cool. Ignore the levels, it's just lore fluff.   Alright, off to a good start... all Pokemon have various attacks they can do when they have the requisite energy, though no Pokemon has more than 2 attacks and no move costs more than 4 energy. Don't quote me on it.   Status conditions are a thing and they work a little differently, such as Paralysis making you unable to attack or retreat for your turn, but is always healed before your opponent's next turn. Using an attack will always end your turn, though you can end it at any time without attacking, or doing anything really.    Some cards are pretty important, and I'll post the full artwork of them and talk about them in detail. What better one to start than with Bill? It's as simple as it is effective, since you can use as many Trainers in a turn as you'd like, if you're lucky, getting 4 Bill means 8 free cards, which is ridiculous. Always have Bill, always use Bill, he is your friend and lover. It doesn't work well with the other main Trainer you should have in every deck, but it's a small price to pay for such useful utility.   Playing this game means moving through a fair few menus due to the small screen, but this overview screen is very useful to see what's up. You can look at any Active or Bench Pokemon at any time, as well as both discard piles.   It's always important to brush up on what your Pokemon can do, as some attacks have additional effects to them, positive or negative. All Pokemon have 1 type, as well as one weakness and usually a resistance. As you saw from the deck menu, there's only 7 types in the game, Grass, Water, Fire, Lightning, Fighting, Psychic and Colourless, with all but the last having an associated basic energy with it. This crunches down some other types, Rock and Ground become Fighting, Poison usually becomes Grass, but can be Psychic, while Ghost is also Psychic. Flying and Dragon are Colourless, Ice is Water and Bug is Grass. When Dark and Steel were introduced, they became their own types, Darkness and Metal, as well as their own energy, as did Fairy. Dragon took their time to get a type, but not their own energy. Uh, anyway, energy costs, it depends on the specific Pokemon, even the same move on different Pokemon. The star symbol is Colourless and you can use any energy card towards that cost, while specific symbols require that energy. Damage is always done in multiplies of 10, and is a damage counter system, which you use a physical bag of and place on your Pokemon. You also turn the card different ways to represent status ailments, thankfully that doesn't happen here. Retreat costs range from 0-4 energy that need to be discarded for the Pokemon to swap with another on the bench. Useful to get the hell outta there, but also cures any status conditions. The symbol on the side represents rarity, which doesn't really mean much, but you can surmise some cards are harder to find than others.   All cards also contain various fluff at the end which doesn't mean anything much, but it's always good to check your opponent's weakness, they take double damage from a Pokemon that is that type, even if the attack itself uses different energy or whatever. Resistances work the same way, but are usually only -20 or -30, which isn't as impressive, but the power ceiling is still pretty low.   Since we can't attack, might as well do whatever, we've got plenty of HP. Computer Search is another very important card, discard 2 cards from your hand to pick any one card from the deck, shuffling after. Uh, yeah that's amazing, good way to get a specific Basic down, since you need it for evolving. Or to pick a draw supporter to make your hand less poo poo. Since you're able to look through the whole deck, this is also a good opportunity to see what you have left, and if anything important is in prizes.   We'll just end our turn, evolving a Pokemon heals them of status, but you can't evolve on your first turn, and it wouldn't be useful anyway, since Charmeleon needs 3 energy minimum to attack and we'd get paralyzed again before killing it.   Like so. And bonus, an opponent using a card means I don't have to explain. ...still gonna, very good card to have, it's as if you drew an energy, and that's always important to do.   Hey remember that evolution advise I gave? Well I didn't follow it.   At least I didn't get screwed by it. Charmeleon is a very good budget card, dishing out consistent damage once you get the energy going. Slash does 30 damage for 3 energy, fine, but Flamethrower does 50 damage for 2 Fire energy and a Colourless, though you have to discard one Fire to use it. Still, the opponent doesn't really do that well if you constantly deal out hits and knock out their main hitter, since they usually focus on building up on one Pokemon at a time, making them a prime target.     There's no strategy to prize picking, just do whatever. I won't go over every card, but I will highlight any good ones we see and their best move. Rampage does 20 damage plus 10 damage per damage counter it has, so up to 50 more, which is interesting on decks that can control what damage Pokemon get. It does flip a coin to see if it confuses itself, but that's still not bad if you can keep it going.   Ooh, tricky evolutions. For whatever reason no AI will ever use Prophecy, which lets you look at the top 3 cards of either deck and rearrange them. So we have some time before it actually attacks. Dark Mind also deals 10 damage to a Benched Pokemon, but weaknesses or resistances usually aren't applied to bench mons.     That Grass energy is really screwing Aaron over. Let's just say the AI doesn't do much forward planning. He could've retreated too, but chose not to.     There we go, they usually retreat if they've taken damage, which can be annoying, but hey, they're burning energy, what do I care?   That blows, but at least it got confused. If you're about to attack, flip a coin, if heads, continue, if tails, deal 20 damage to yourself and end the turn.   This is a Fire deck after all, so let's power up Arcanine. Kangashkan's Fetch is good for biding time, since it's very tanky. Comet Punch requires 4 energy and you flip 4 coins, doing 20 damage for each heads. For attacks like this, use the average damage if you want to bother with it, so 40 damage, which is alright, but is also very slow.   Ah nice, Kanga has 3 retreat, so this is faster, but we got lucky with the coin flip.    And here's the second half to Bill. Professor Oak is tricky, but absolutely essential to get a better hand, at the cost of burning what you already had. Usually you can justify to yourself doing that, but it always hurts. But definitely use it when you're absolutely sure you can't use anything else in your hand and you must use it now! Or just go through your deck without a care in the world and get everything you need to win faster, up to you.   Alright, we've got him on the ropes! 1 energy for 20 damage? Yes please! And Machop can even take a hit or two, very nice early card.   If you're just falling short, then Pluspower is a very useful card. Your attack on that turn does 10 more damage, and it can stack up to +40! It's situational, only if you're gonna get knocked out next turn or want to knock something out now, but definitely has its uses. Its opposite is Defender, which stacks up to 40 less damage from opponents. Meh.   Alright, we've done our setup, now it's time to finish this up.   Easy as that. Another Flamethrower, same as Charmeleon's.   Ho-ho! How about it? Did you get a feel for your deck? Ho-ho! Came again. I'll be glad to duel you any time.Battling Sam is faster, but it's true that if your deck can't pass this test, something has gone horribly wrong.   It's time to finally leave the confines of the lab and experience a truly open world game! Seriously, the entire game is open to us. ...it's a very short game, please clap. Rival Ronald   What? It's you, Marco! What are you doing? Huh? That's a deck! Are you... trying to get the Legendary Pokemon Cards? WHAT!?! I can't believe it! You? The Legendary Pokemon Cards? Ha ha ha ha ha! Don't make me laugh!!! Alright! Listen up! I'll teach you what it's about! To inherit the Legendary Pokemon Cards, you must defeat the 8 Club Masters and get the 8 Medals! Then you have to go to Pokemon Dome and defeat all 4 of the Grand Masters there!!! There's no way you can do it!!! You might as well just give up and go home! 'Cause the Legendary Pokemon Cards are gonna be mine! I already won the first medal! See ya, Marco! Ha ha ha ha ha!!! Fighting, Science and Fire Clubs CLERK: Here at this club, we duel using Fighting Pokemon. No dirty dueling is allowed! Only nice, clean duels are allowed in this club.   I have to warn you that you will be unable to defeat me! If you wish to duel with me, you must defeat my pupils first! My pupils are training at other clubs! Go see if you can defeat all 3 of my pupils!Of course, it's never that easy, most of the leaders won't fight us without some preamble and it differs for each one.  MAN: I prefer collecting the cards. By the way, would you happen to have Rapidash? If you do, I was wondering if you might want to give it to me? How about it? Each club has the main room and then the side room with a variety of people. Some want to fight, others want to trade cards. We won't be able to do any trades yet, but we will, and it's definitely not worth it, but if you're lucky to get the right one to trade, might as well?  Talking to a Club Leader or going to their main room, or other various triggers will have Dr. Mason send you an email. I'll post these when we actually fight them since he gives you hints on what deck they're using. You'll want to trigger these often, because...   Mmmmmmmmm, each email has a different booster pack. Gotta collect 'em all!     Here's stuff we can't do, wheeeeeeeee. Still, if you had a friend (lol...) then this could really last as a game. Card Pop! is from the main menu and very useful to get new cards, including 2 we can't get anywhere else! We'll hack them in later. Water, Rock & Psychic Clubs  CLERK: This is a club devoted to Water Pokemon. There are many different types of Water Pokemon, so it's fun just to collect them.   If you wish to duel Amy, go defeat Sara and Amanda first. Then I will test your skill, and if by chance you should win, I will introduce you to Amy, the Club Master! That's another one we can't do just yet, but since the game is pretty open, there's not much of a difficulty curve, aside from what you get in booster packs. Oh yeah, every single Trainer we can fight in this game has a portrait, of which I'm using the next game's, since they're clearer and more colourful.  LASS: dressed all in black! You'll find him dancing away in the lounge at one of the clubs! He stands out, so it shouldn't be too hard to identify him. But maybe you shouldn't go near him! Grass & Lightning Clubs Alright, next one, if there's any various trades or side things, we'll cover them when we actually go to that club for realz, but for now, we're just browsing.  CLERK: This club is for girls who love to grow flowers. The Pokemon cards used here are also beautiful flowers. There's one of the Fighting club. We'll get back to him later or whatever.   ...hmm, let me see... if you defeat... 3 members of the Grass Club, I'll tell you where she is. So, how about it? Alright, something we'll have to come back later for. Not all club members are in the main room, but only the Fighting club members actively leave their club. Also while the main rooms are different, the lounges aren't, so I won't show them all now.  CLERK: This club is for technicians who love the sciences. The Pokemon cards used here are those with the powers of science!   middle of an important experiment! He has no time to see someone like you! If you really want to see him, you must defeat me first! Oh neat, another email, even though we didn't talk to Rick.   Another Laboratory pack, surely all these random mons that have no real relation to each other can gel with our current deck!  CLERK: This is a club for boys with a burning passion for Fire Pokemon. Fire Pokemon have the greatest attack power of all Pokemon!   to inherit the Legendary Cards? WHAT!?! You have almost no cards! If you wish to duel me, go collect more cards! Well this is nice. We need 300 cards to fight Ken, which is easy enough, we can fight everyone infinitely to get all the cards we need.      CLERK: This club is for people who use Psychic Pokemon. Psychic Pokemon are difficult to use, but they're very strong.   ...alright, uh, let's come back.   More mail and another Laboratory. He definitely likes sending those. This Ditto is actually really interesting since it's a game exclusive card that's never been made, to replace the Ditto left out from the Fossil expansion. It's still not very good, but there's a fair few cards made for this game, some made available, some not. Pokemon Dome   Defeat the Masters of the 8 Clubs and attain the 8 Medals. Once attained, defeat the Grand Master here at Pokemon Dome... then you shall inherit the Legendary Pokemon Cards." Yes! The Legendary Pokemon Cards will be inherited here at Pokemon Dome! Of course, I, Ronald, will inherit the cards! Hey, did you collect the medals? Duh! That's pretty obvious you didn't! There's no way you could collect them all! Why don't you just give up? See ya!You can activate this moment up until you collect 7 medals, since Ronald will always say he's one ahead of you.   CLERK: At this club, we use decks made up of mostly Lightning Pokemon. Would you like to get charged up with us?  You can fight a leader right now if you wanted, honest guv.   CLERK: This club is for members who use Rock Pokemon cards. Rock Pokemon are defensive and take very little damage.   Isn't Rock good, Marco...? Rock is hard and strong! Doesn't crumble under pressure! After you duel me, you'll know I'm right! Come! Show me what you're made of! There we go, Gene is the only Leader you can fight asap, though some others are easy enough, as you saw. All we care about is the booster packs, gimme gimme gimme!!!   The final booster mostly has, well, Evolution Pokemon. All 4 boosters contain cards from each of the sets this game has, so you've gotta collect them all lots of times to get the evolution lines you need. But there's just a little left of the island to explore before we finish up.    I'm a Pokemon Card Collector. I love collecting cards. I see you also love Pokemon cards. Please come see me again. We must trade some sometime. Oh! If you're playing with the cards, please read some of the books here. I believe they will be helpful.Of course this chap is based on Tsunekazu Ishihara, the president and CEO of the Pokemon Company. He was inspired to create the TCG game, which he did at Creatures Inc., which formed from the disbanded Ape Inc., which created Earthbound! Weird how this all works out.   CLERK: will begin soon. If you win the Challenge Cup, you will receive a Promotional Card! Please join us for this competition.   Exciting stuff, soon is later, but that's everything on the island! Seriously though, we've seen every room in the game bar two (the door in the Challenge Hall is just decoration), so now it's time to decide on what order we're gonna do things in. And for that, I'll require your help to- hey what's that music?  Imakuni?   I am the Super Musical Star, Imakuni?! I'll sing the Pokerap - you dance! La di da la di da la di da la di da... hey! Move those feet! What? Cards? You want to duel me? OK. But if I win, you dance! OK. A 1-match duel with 6 prizes! ...whatever that means... ]  ...right, yeah. Okay, so Imakuni? is one weird motherfucker, and he's probably one of the greatest people on the planet. So Tomoaki Imakuni is a musician who performed some music for the Pokemon anime. He also loves the TCG and heavily promoted it, so he's got quite a few cards to his name. They're all gag cards and they're absolutely amazing. He was even a designer for the first two Ranger games! So let's see how tough he is.   Ponyta has two good attacks that also require 2 energy, so give it a second.   Alright, uh, cool.   Nothing much to it, this Slowpoke can make us forget one move for a turn, but this is a damage race we'll win.   ...huh???  Your Active Pokemon is now Confused. This card cannot be put down on the field as a Pokemon. Dances and sings in the Pokemon Card Game TV CF Song "Can You Name All the Pokemon?" If you see him in the streets, be sure to greet him by saying "Imakuni?, hello". So yeah, this is an actual card that was first available in English in this game! It was a Sep 1997 CoroCoro insert and was later printed in English for the Generations expansion. It's as useful as you think it is, but you know, he might be cuter than Pikachu...   Onto actual mechanics, coin flipping is a cruel mistress, but I've been working on something in the back.      Dugtrio absolutely wrecks poo poo. 4 energy for Earthquake is a little steep, but it does SEVENTY damage and oh no your bench took 10 damage, whatever. We could probably use Duggy for the rest of the game and never even blink. It's fun to play around with this game, but it has to account for you getting garbage from booster packs, so the difficulty is very, very low.   You should definitely battle Imakuni?, he's real easy and he gives you FOUR booster packs.   Ah, DCE is an absolute classic and is Colourless energy, but since it's classed as Special Energy, and was the only one of its kind for quite a while, you can only have 4 per deck. Still, incredibly important for those that can use Colourless energy, or if you just need a nice bump towards a specific attack. Not all decks need them, but those that do really really love them.   Alright, so what club are we gonna do first? How's this game gonna play out if I spend most of the game cobbling together a less and less poo poo decks from boosters? Well I'm not gonna do any of that.  This game is easy, only using one deck is boring, and I want to experiment, use some cards I've never even thought about, and I want you guys to contribute, because that's always fun. So I'm hacking in infinite booster packs and getting every single regular card.   And there we go, all done. I only need 4 of each card and a chunk of energy, but I got over 2000 cards getting the last little stragglers. It's definitely worth it, because now we're truly open world.  While we get some ideas going, let's take down 3 different clubs using a real proper deck of each of the starters, and see exactly how they work out. Now the fun begins. Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Oct 23, 2019 |
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Oct 23, 2019 03:37
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Alright, it's time to properly begin. I've given you a tour of the island, the lay of the land, so what kind of crazy stuff do you want me to use? Here's every card in the game, I have nearly everything, and will get everything, so even if you don't have a specific deck in mind: Pick two different evolution lines for me to use! Maybe they're an interesting combo, maybe they have no synergy at all and you want to see me suffer, I don't really care, I'll use whatever! They're won't be any voting, I'll just pick stuff I like the sound of and I'll use it in a Club, or during a Challenge Cup, or another random challenge, it doesn't matter. Post Trainers and other support Pokemon along with the two suggestions if you want me to use something specific! Also feel free to name your deck, 20 character limit, or I'll give it a dumb name and you'll look all silly! This game might seem short, but don't worry, we'll have plenty of time to show this stuff off, I can't wait! Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Oct 23, 2019 |
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Oct 23, 2019 03:37
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 Alright, I leave for Darkrai raid hour and come back to around triple the audience participation I was expecting. Nice!I'll only do a Pokemon once, even if it has a different card, so since I'm doing the starters for recording buffering, I won't be showing them again. You're free to edit your stuff at any time, I won't be picking suggestions for a week or so. Make sure to remember to name your deck too! Otherwise, good suggestions so far, definitely getting the wheels in my head turning.
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Oct 23, 2019 21:19
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Side Notes 01: Playing the Pokemon Trading Card Game (tm) So is this LP the first time you've experienced the Pokemon TCG? Don't you worry now, here's the comprehensive list of every aspect of the game, so you'll know how to play with the players. First, we'll start with the board and setting up a game. First, a deck is comprised of 60 cards, no more, no less, and one of those cards MUST be a Pokemon. There's a lot of different cards, but they're divided into Pokemon, Trainers and Energy, and a balanced deck usually has a similar chunk of each, but of course it'll vary depending on what you're using. Each player shuffles the opponent's deck, and they you draw 7 cards from your deck. If you didn't draw a Basic Pokemon, then you show your hand to your opponent, shuffle your deck and draw again, repeating until you have one to place down. Every time you do this, it's a mulligan, and your opponent has the option to draw an extra card. Some of these things won't apply to the TCG GBC games, this is a more general overview. You select a Basic to go into the middle, that's your Active Pokemon, the one that can attack. If you have more Basic Pokemon, you can place them on the Bench, which has a max of 5 spaces, but that's optional. Then flip a coin to see who decided who should go first. Each player has their own coin and going first is usually the best option, you can set up first, you can attack first, though you aren't able to attack on the very first turn, but your opponent can attack on their first turn, if they went second. Both players are unable to evolve Pokemon on their first turn. With that all set up, take the first 1-6 cards from the top of your deck and put them on the side as prizes, face down. The main objective is to knock out your opponent's Pokemon and draw all your prize cards, though there's 2 other win conditions. Each Pokemon you knock out awards 1 prize card, though some later cards like EX and GX award 2 and Tag Teams award 3!!! Anyway, at the start of your turn, draw a card, you can have as many cards in your hand as you want. You can place down as many Basic cards as you have room, evolve as many Pokemon as you're able past the first turn, and play as many Trainer cards as you'd like. You can only place 1 energy, basic or special, per turn, unless Pokemon or card effects allow you otherwise, and certain Trainers are Supporter cards, which can also only be played once per turn. No matter what you do, if you attack, your turn ends, but of course there's always a bunch of effects and abilities and cards that let you get around that or whatever. There's also Stadium cards that you place in the side center that stay on the field with various effects and can only be discarded by move effects or if another stadium is played. All cards are one use only unless specified otherwise and are placed in the discard pile, face up, which both players can look through at any time. There are also specific cards like Prism cards, or specific move effects that put cards in the Lost Zone, which can never be obtained for the rest of the duel, but that's only a thing in specific rotations. Alright, that's everything on the board, but what about the cards themselves? For every card except basic energy, you can only ever have up to 4 in one deck but as mentioned, one of the cards in a deck MUST be a Pokemon, there actually are some decks out there that are solely energy and 4 Pokemon, they are hilarious. Anyway, let's go over every aspect of a Pokemon card.  All Pokemon cards have rad artwork, so long as it's not stock Sugimori artwork on a plain background. You have the HP amount, damage is always done in multiples of 10, with specific physical counters to track the damage. Each Pokemon has one type of which all of their attacks are of that type, even if it uses a different energy. You need to attach the requisite amount of energy to that card to use that attack, with specific symbols being that type's energy, with the star, identical to the one under retreat cost, is Colourless energy, which can be any basic or special energy. Most attacks do set damage, while others require you to flip a coin for additional damage or another secondary effect, like a status condition. Some moves have you do something before or even after you attack, such as discarding 2 energy cards BEFORE using Fire Spin. Note that it doesn't specify what energy to discard, but it has to be 2 energy cards, not 2 energy total. Pokemon Powers have varying specific effects that are either passive, ones you can use as many times as you like before you attack, or ones you specifically have to trigger, usually the once during a turn. Some Pokemon will just have two moves with no effects, others will have effects but do no damage, and some are a mix of effects, Poke Powers, no damage, or all of them. Definitely read each card carefully so you know exactly what a card does. There's usually not much room for rule wiggling. Next is the weakness, a Pokemon will take double damage from an opponent of that type, again, even if the move uses different energy. Resistance is the same, but is usually by a specific amount and while every Pokemon has a weakness, not all have a resistance, or even a retreat cost, the amount of energy you need to discard to switch this Pokemon with something else in the bench. Note that this time it's just amount of energy, not energy cards, it ranges from 0-4, so there's some very hefty mons out there. And then the various text on the bottom of the card is flavour, levels don't apply, moves do the same damage no matter the evolution or stat difference or what have you. Lastly, let's go over the specifics of a few other things, like types, win conditions and special conditions. There's only 7 types in the game, Grass, Water, Fire, Lightning, Fighting, Psychic and Colourless, with all but the last having an associated basic energy with it. This crunches down some other types, Rock and Ground become Fighting, Poison usually becomes Grass, but can be Psychic, while Ghost is also Psychic. Flying and Dragon are Colourless, Ice is Water and Bug is Grass. When Dark and Steel were introduced, they became their own types, Darkness and Metal, as well as their own energy, as did Fairy. Dragon took their time to get a type, but not their own energy. Special conditions are status effects, of which there's 5, Poison, Burn, Confusion, Asleep, Paralyzed. Of those 5, only 2 can be stacked with others, Poison and Burn, since they have specific tokens, while the others rotate the card a specific way. Poison deals 10 damage between turns, Burn has a coin flip, heads, no damage, tails, 20 damage, this condition was introduced later on. Asleep Pokemon are turned counterclockwise and inbetween each turn, if the coin flip is heads, it wakes up, or stays asleep if tails. Confused Pokemon are turned upside down and if it tries to attack, it flips a coin, heads, the attack occurs, but tails makes the Pokemon deal 20 damage to itself and the turn ends. You also have to flip a coin for retreating, AFTER discarding the energy and if it's tails you don't do anything. This was later dropped, with confusion now doing 30 damage and retreating is the same as any other Pokemon. Finally, a paralyzed Pokemon cannot attack or retreat for one turn, being cured at the end of the turn. So with all these tools, how exactly do you win? Well, if you claim all your prizes, you win. If you knock out your opponent's active Pokemon and they have no bench Pokemon to replace it, you win. And if your opponent is unable to draw a card at the start of the turn due to having no cards left in their deck, you win. Overall, this game is pretty simple, but the variety of Pokemon and effects and strategies and decks, make it an absolute blast to play. Would definitely recommend it! Or, well, it's quite expensive to keep up, so maybe just play these games?
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Oct 26, 2019 07:44
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Part 2: Big Explosions Fire Club   Why me? I'm Jessica of the Fighting Club. Oh! You must be Marco. I heard about you from Mitch. Defeating you must be more fun than training! OK! A single match with 4 prizes. Let's go for it!  We're using a revamped Charmander deck, so might as well fight Fire with Fire. And since one of the Fighting members is here, let's try things out! Charmeleon, and Charizard I guess, is the main attacker, but having a backup, like Magmar is useful for building up a Charmander, or when you don't draw one.   Some Basic mons have Powers, but they're, uh, not very good.  Anyway, ow, every character has a specific deck that revolves around some... interesting strategies. So we'll go over them and see how effective they are. This one kinda works? It's a bunch of Colourless and Fighting mons that can evolve and deal big damage with Fighting Energy, with some Pluspowers and Potions for good measure. So long as she doesn't get up Machamp you should be fine.   Pokemon Breeder lets you skimp on a few mid evolution cards, so we only have 2 Charmeleon, since as long as you have Charizard in your hand, very easy to get with Computer Search or Pokeball, and have a Charmander on the bench for 1 turn, you can use this card and skip right to the good stuff. We'll be using it a lot, but onto the star of the show, nay, the series. Here's the biggest and best card in the TCG, the one everyone clamours over, the one that sells to the highest bidder and the one that's... pretty drat rubbish. This card has the biggest numbers with no modifiers and due to being a goddamn Charizard, is incredibly sought after. Your old card collection is most definitely worthless unless they're still sealed in booster packs, but good condition Charizard sells for thousands of dollars, to those willing to buy them. As for the card itself, too slow and way too big of a drawback. You'd think its Power would help it be fueled by DCEs and fire off attacks all day, but you discard two energy cards, not two basic, so it'll only take you so far. Other cards will deal more damage over a shorter period of time, it even gets outpaced by its previous form! Charmeleon can attack for 50 damage every turn if you get constant energy, which very quickly adds up. Due to no real Fire energy acceleration, Charizard is just a pretty display item that sees no real use.   Cool. This Machoke is becoming quite a problem, especially if it evolves. But there's one card that can take it down! Uh, not yet, still charging...   There we go, as easy as that! Now to wait a couple turns until I can do it again.   But here's Charizard's main issue, are we really going to spend 2 turns and then discard 2 energy just to deal 70 overkill damage to a Rattata? I think my time's better spent building up a Charmeleon.    There are some cards you just don't think about because they're so unbelievably ubiquitous, but they should still be highlighted. This is why no one gives a poo poo about big heavy retreat costs until right at the end of the game. If you have some big boys, you should have 4 Switches, their utility is practically unmatched aside from the odd Poke Power.   But hey, she only got Primeape up, which can also use Tantrum for an extra energy, dealing 50 damage and confusing it if tails. Not a bad card, honestly, since it's pretty cheap to retreat.     Most wins will net 2 booster packs, which, since we've gotten every card in the game, is practically useless, but that's okay.   LAD: Come back and see me when you collect a lot of energy cards! Then... I'll let you in on a secret! Really should be able to trigger this guy by now, but I guess not. Later then!   Trading Cards get together for heated duels! Join the fiery fun! 4 Prizes! Let's heat it up!  Fellas, is it gay to enjoy heated card games with your bros? Anyway, Cubone is a bitch because it just keeps crying and giving itself, in essence, a +20 HP boost. Then when you chip it down, it then uses Rage and can do 40 damage if it's nearly dead. Not fun.   drat, the Pokeball is a great card, letting you choose any Pokemon in your deck, but only if you get heads. You can imagine how many times this might screw you over. Gust of Wind is also a great card, just choose a specific mon to be dragged in so you can kill it before it's ready, or if you need a cheap kill for the last prize.   Well gently caress. This is the one downside of running few Pokemon, you don't draw into them and don't get anything for the bench. Despite Pokeballs and Computer Search and Oaks and Bills, I never drew another Basic. Sucks, right?     However, death is just a very slight inconvenience, since you can fight any trainer an infinite amount of times, there's very little in differing dialogue or any real story progression outside of picking up medals. It's fine to die, you just need to draw a better hand next time.   Since Dodrio only has Rage for 3 energy, if we build up Charizard and one shot, there's no risk. It can be useful, though, its Poke Power, Retreat Aid, reduces all retreat by 1 while it's on your bench.   Beautiful. We've seen all the interesting parts of John's deck, he doesn't even have a Marowak! He fuels a bunch of Colourless Pokemon with DCEs and equal Fire and Fighting energy and has a lot of drawing power, along with Pluspower and Gust of Wind to knock out key threats. Uh, you know, I'm saying this like the AI is smart enough to pull this stuff off. They have the tools, but not the hands to use them.   Hell yeah, it's very easy to burn through your entire deck getting the right components, so we'll build up a Charmeleon since Charizard is nearly spent.   Still, even if you don't want to endlessly charge up Charizard, it makes a nice meaty wall since 120HP is the max in the game. I know, crazy how that's been doubled for a long time now.   Let's heat it up again!  If you have Pokemon Fever, duel with me!!! A single match with 4 prizes! Come on, duel me!   Not exactly the best start, that's why Magmar is a good backup, does a lot of damage for not too much energy. Though since I've been powering up Charizard to live my childhood from 20 years ago, I haven't been really using it. Being on similar HP to Charmander doesn't do it too many favours either, but it's a potentially good early game option.   Because of how random this game is, sometimes the only time we'll fight someone it'll be as short and pathetic as this. Womp womp. We can pull this off by turn 2 if we get lucky with DCEs, but turn 3 with a Pokemon Breeder is fine by me.   And as you'd expect from the deck name, Adam has 22 goddamn Fire energy and practically every Fire type in the game for using Flamethrower with. With 4 DCEs, Energy Retrieval and a Charizard, you'd better watch out! But with only 3 Bill, he has a habit of getting a little stuck if you knock a mon or two out.   Fire Pokemon! OK! Let's duel!!! A 4-prize match! Here we go! Fire Pokemon! Nice Fire Pokemon, doofus.     God DCEs are so good. Charizard really shines in short battles where you're one shotting the freshly evolved enemy.   Jonathan's deck is mostly Colourless that are fueled by Fire energy, with a bunch of Basics and Ninetales to fuel Wigglytuff's bench dependant attack. Both the Ninetales and the Pidgeot he uses are exclusive to this game, we saw Ninetails, so we'll go over that. It forces the opponent to put all their Basic and Evolution cards into their deck and randomly draw the same amount of Basic and Evolution cards, which is pretty silly to try irl. And for 3 Fire energy, flip EIGHT coins and do 10 damage per heads. Not too bad, honestly.  Then let's begin our duel! We'll play with 6 prizes! If you win, I'll give you a medal! Come on! Let's start the duel! Club Master Duel   It's me, Dr. Mason. have you collected many cards? I have some information about Ken's deck - he's the master of the Fire Club. His deck consists of Fire Pokemon and Colorless Pokemon! Pit a Water Pokemon against the Fire Pokemon and a Fighting Pokemon against the Colorless Pokemon. Study the decks from the Water and Fighting Medal Deck Machines! Here's a gift for you! It's a Mystery booster pack! Look closely at the cards you just received. You should be able to come up with a winning strategy! Mason Laboratory Doctor Mason   Alright, great start... Sleep can be bad if you're unlucky, as you flip a coin between each turn, so hopefully it happens before your turn, or the enemy will just put you to sleep again. Still, Jigglypuff is whatever, but it lets him build up his bench, which has some real nasty stuff.   Annoying, but I've been building up a Charmeleon, so we'll be just fine.   He has four Jigglypuff, with three of them being our first Promotional Card. We'll go over them when we obtain them, just know that most of them are pretty rubbish, but gotta collect 'em all.      Now comes the real problem. Of course Chansey has the highest HP of all Basics, it can stall an opponent if you get lucky, and then smacks the hell out of them unless they're similarly bulky. If without Double-Edge, it'll quite happily sit there for a long time and let you set other things up, and is definitely a card we'll see a lot.   Still, Ken's deck is full of Pokemon with hard hitting tactics that don't work out too well if you've already damaged them. The AI definitely prioritizes KOs over self-preservation. And while the nuke is a waste, don't really have a choice.    At least by nuking his bench, Wigglytuff is much less dangerous. Filling up the bench is easy, getting 3 energy is easy as Colourless, and doing 60 damage a turn is incredible. Wigglytuff is one of the best mons in the game, and it's always something to watch out for with AIs that love shoving down any Basic they come across. Guaranteed Sleep is also very powerful while you're waiting for the setup, so better not, heh, SLEEP on this mon. Alright, we're done here.  So, uh, we never saw a Fire type, he does have them, honest! His main attackers otherwise are Arcanine and Magmar, with enough defensive Trainer utility in Potion, Recycle and Energy Retrieval, to ensure he can keep firing off big hits and recovering from the endless Double-Edge. But as you're seeing right now, it's a lot of luck whether we actually see a strategy get pulled off, the AI is just as luck beholden as you are.   With this, you're a little closer to the Legendary Pokemon Cards! Here, take this, too! I hope it will help you out!  How thematic, the legendary Pokemon aren't special cards or anything, you can pull them out of booster packs if you're lucky. It's Promotional Cards that are hard to get ahold of. Grass Club  Onto the next deck, featuring Venusaur and one very special guest! Oh I'm excited for this one.     Not all trades are for Promotional Cards, some are just bog standard. It's alright, I guess, but nothing really special, especially with the chance of healing, bleh.    Who? The Master of the Grass Club? Do you mean Nikki? Nikki's out. I need a break. Do you want to play the Pokemon Trading Card Game with me? OK! A single match with 4 prizes. Let's start!  I hate Pokeballs so much...   This is a fight you won't win. Bulbasaur takes a little to get going, needing 2 Grass energy, but can subsist with Leech Seed just fine.   Ivysaur also has pretty good damage, Vine Whip for an immediate 30, or Poisonpowder for 20, to slowly whittle away at opponents. Poison does 10 damage between each turn, so it technically outdamages Vine Whip by 10 by the time it gets back to your turn.    Now we're getting to the good stuff. Venusaur doesn't have the raw power of Charizard, or the broken acceleration of Blastoise, but it's still very helpful when you have a lot of Grass energy on the field. Move onto a specific Pokemon to launch a devastating attack, shift it off something that's about to die, or just spread it around so anything can attack at any point. It means you can evolve a Venusaur in the background, while still attacking with your Active and then being able to swap to Venusaur for nice consistent damage and to take a few hits.   Even on a dinky little screen, most mechanics are pretty simple to use, using this stuff is a lot of fun! It lets a real strong fighter loose, but we'll see exactly what that does in a moment.   Humph! It's not much of a break if I lose.Brittany has a weird deck, it's called Etcetera for a reason, since it uses every type except Water and Colourless, with energy to match! This does mean she can catch you by surprise, but she has no evolutions, so only Magmar is a consistent threat, but with only one, what are the chances you'll see it? She can't annoy you with Tangela if she keeps drawing Psychic energy.     Got another Fighting member, and boy is he a pain is the rear end. If he gets another Fire energy, we're screwed, since I have nothing on the bench, as you can see.   Boy did I get lucky, but losing is such a non-issue that it's whatever.    Oh poo poo, it's time for the real Haymaker to start. That's what Micheal's kinda emulates, just a bunch of hard hiting Basics, with Primeape to keep the Fighting theme afloat. One energy for 20 damage is just great, especially with that bulk, with Special Punch being worked towards for even more damage! Notable to take down Fighting weak Wigglytuff, we'll be seeing more of the Haymaker archetype later, Micheal even has another one with Electabuzz.   We're all set up, so it should be a clean sweep from there. But what if we didn't want to take any damage in the process? After all, I have some DCEs, and Micheal has plenty of bulky mons like Hitmonlee and Kangaskhan as well.    Venusaur's partner in crime, though it's so easy to use in any deck with a lot of energy, if you like coin flips of course. Still, with 4 DCEs, that's still an average of EIGHTY damage, along with anything else you can add. With Venusaur it's incredibly easy to just get it set up, attack with Solarbeam in the meantime, then transfer everything over, Switch, and go to town. It's so dumb, it's so fun, no Psychic energy required.   Coin flips are a pain, though you can influence them in a way, but it's not something I fancy doing. We'll go over it later, since this will be far from the last time we get flipping.   Oops! Before I go... since it's the rule, take this! I'm heading back to the Fighting Club. Bye! See you again.    Onto the rest of the Grass Club with an... interesting deck. Using the Eeveelutions for different elements, with Porygon to change the opponent's weaknesses. Seems an interesting idea... each Eeveelution has an exclusive card to this game, though this Jolteon is not that.   Thankfully evolving removes the changed weakness, but if Quick Attack had gotten heads and been boosted to 30 damage, we would've lost, again no bench.   Charizard? Who's that?   Porygon does absolutely no damage, just changes weaknesses and resistances, which is pointless with only 30HP. It's probably one of the worst cards in the game, they did my pointy boy dirty.  I can't believe I could lose... I need to practice more...  I don't think she's here at the club at the moment. Would you like to take care of the plants? We could duel with cards if you prefer... we'll play a single match with 4 prizes. Don't take me lightly just because I'm a girl!  This is what happens when I never get to go first.   Still, with a couple of lucky rolls, we can eke past it. It's a bulky bitch with paralysis and confusion, man I hate this card. Thankfully only Poison can be stacked onto another special condition, since it has a specific token, while the others require card rotating.   Trader is interesting to help get the right things you need, but other cards, even draw supporters help with that, so it depends if you have the space for it, and you usually don't. Kristen has basically every Grass type, or at least the ones that aren't primarily Bug or Poison in the main game, but no draw supporters, so while she could get all of her 3 stage evolutions up, she probably won't naturally get to them. Only Venusaur does consistent damage anyway.   But hey, guess what time it is. Or, uh, let's try that again...   GUESS WHAT TIME IT IS!!!   I believe Nikki is at Ishihara's House. Maybe you should go meet her there, since she's late getting back.   for me? Oh my... I'm very sorry to keep you waiting. I was doing a little research here. I assume you would like to duel? I only duel at the club. I'm sorry, but could you meet me at the Grass Club? I will head back to the Grass Club and wait for you there. You are indeed the number 1 Pokemon Trading Card Collector. Oh, no! You give me too much credit... if you need to research anything, please come see me again! Thank you very much, Ishihara. If you will excuse me... I'm sorry I kept you waiting. Shall we duel? Shall we play with 6 prizes? Please go easy on me. Club Master Duel  Marco, it's me, Doctor Mason. Have you won many Master Medals? I have some information for you about Nikki's deck - she's the Master of the Grass Club. You must be wary of Exeggutor's Big Eggsplosion in Nikki's deck. Use your Fire Pokémon to knock out Exeggcute and Exeggutor at an early stage! I suggest you study the deck from the Fire Medal Deck Machine. I'll give you a booster pack that should contain a lot of Fire Pokemon. Did it have a lot of Fire Pokémon (the weakness of Grass Pokemon)? Mason Laboratory Doctor Mason   Well she got right into it, yes she's using the same strategy as us. I've only played this game a couple times, and I don't want to restrict myself with what I use, so who cares, it's a mirror match! Though she's using it just a bit too early.   Because when Exeggutor gets going, there's no survivors.   God that's so good! Maybe we can do better... she also has the Oddish line, as well as some Psychic energy and Pokemon Breeder. So if you let her set up, she will absolutely go off, but if you knock out her Bulbasaur nice and early, she'll get a bit stuck on energy, especially with no DCEs.   Admittedly, even some regular GX cards don't reach that amount of damage regularly.  Maybe one day you will inherit the Legendary Pokemon Cards. Please allow me to give you this Grass Medal.  My duel with you was... quite fun! Please allow me to duel you again! Rival Ronald So you won the second Medal? You must have been really lucky! I'll see how good you really are! Come on, let's duel! We'll play with 6 prizes! If you win, I'll give you a really rare card!  Ah crap this is the worst thing he could start off with. Ronald actually does the Blue surprise of appearing when you least expect it... not that you need to heal your Pokemon between fights.   Alright, time to let Venusaur shine!   Ah dammit he keeps drawing Fire energy. Well, Exeggutor can save us. Anyway, Ronald will always challenge you after getting your second medal and his deck is a mix of Fire and Water, with a Cubone line and 8 Fighting energy for... some reason. He focuses a bit more on the Water side, but doesn't have the full evolution lines of the starters. That actually works in his favour for Charmander, but since he only has the one Prof. Oak, his draw power is pretty bad, so you should be fine. Should.   We should be fine now, since Lapras is a good card, but only if you stack the energy to boost Water Gun. Still, this is supposed to be a Venusaur deck, so let's show it off one more time.   Ah, that's the stuff! Marowak can call for Basic mons for 3 energy, which seems a little much, but can also throw two bones for 30 damage per head. Meh.  I... I wasn't really trying that hard! Well, a loss is a loss, so I'll have to give you this card.   Our first of many promos we'll obtain. Most of them are bad, but there are definitely some to highlight. You can usually get one through the main story, but in the postgame an event opens up that lets you get any promos as often as you like, including any you miss, such as this one, as you only get the one chance to get it from this fight! You can see it's not that amazing, but it was one of the first cards ever available, being in the October 1996 issue of CoroCoro along with a Pikachu promo, which we'll get later. It became available in English if you mailed proof of purchase of the first Pokemon Movie soundtrack. Wow.  Next time, it's our first big splash, in more than one way! Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Oct 31, 2019 |
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Oct 26, 2019 07:44
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Part 3: Competitive Splash Water Club  What better place to use a Blastoise deck than by the pool? But let's trade one good card for a kind of alright one.   Looks badass, but is it bad? Well, under the right conditions you discard 2 Fire energy for 100 damage, which sounds familiar, but if you can't keep the upkeep then it's a discount Charizard you can only have 1 of per deck until postgame. It was available through official TCG leagues in March 2000, while the JP release was through a Toyota auto campaign in Oct 1997, with a rerelease in 1999 through the Pokemon Song Best Collection.   Isn't it wonderful to duel in a place like this? OK, we'll play with 3 prizes. It'll be a 1-match duel!  Let's start with a splash, Water Gun is a very common TCG attack that deals more damage the more Water energy you attach, so it can get pretty strong pretty fast.   Squirtle has some slight stall with Bubble paralyzing, but I wasn't getting very lucky.     Oh hey, good way to knock these both out at once. They're bench fillers, which is useful for certain strats, but the Mysterious Fossil is needed to then "evolve" into the 3 fossils, making those stage 1 cards in a way. It's a shame they're not that good considering the extra work you put into them, but whatever, wonder why she has both?    Oh. Ohhhhhhhhhh. poo poo. Amanda has a nasty little combination, keeping you from evolving with Aerodactyl, so she one shots you with Wigglytuff with a full bench. Thankfully I don't take much stock in my lead mon, so I've got a Wartortle in the back.   This can get very quickly out of hand. Thankfully Wartortle is like the other 1st stage starters in having consistent damage and Aero doesn't really do much when it's out.     Despite her Potions and waves, since we kept her bench low, it wasn't a big deal.   Do you want to take a swim? Or would you rather duel? There will be 2 prizes. The duel will be 1 match. OK, let's start!  Mirror match! Due to lower prizes compared to other clubs, it seems like this was intended to be your first club. But having a Wigglytuff and Aerodactyl deck as your first seems a little mean, so I dunno. Oh yeah, she also had Scyther, because of course she did.   But of course, paralysis aside, this isn't just the Squirtle show, we have a second friend that works very well with what we've got. But first:    Like come the gently caress on, how could this card not be completely ridiculous? Slowly charging up Pokemon with one energy a turn is a big part of this game and stops you rolling over your opponents. Well this lets you attach as many energy as you want each turn, which also lets you then charge it up and attack at full power the turn it comes out, as well as making any Water deck shoot up in viability. Of course, as a stage 2 it's slow, but you'll zoom past when you get it set up, especially with a Breeder.   It's so stupid how quickly we can charge everything up. This is on turn THREE with me burning through the entire deck for the heck of it. And while I could put in basically any Water mon, like Sara does for her deck, it's nearly all Pokemon, legendaries are just random cards you can pull, so let's use some!    Put any Water type here and it'll be the same result, but I chose Articuno since paralysis is really good, and its heavy energy costs are but a drop in the ocean. Heh, get it? Well, the million water puns aside, it's a pretty dependable card, and while the Blizzard damage can go either way, if you've got Blastoise set up, there's really not much your opponent can do, even if it is slightly damaged.  swimming so much. I guess I have to practice more to improve my Pokemon Card Game. As promised, I'll test your skills. If you win, I will introduce you to Amy... OK, this will be a 1-match duel with 4 prizes!  Alright, how quickly can we obliterate this guy? Call for Family pops up every now and then, and it's pretty useful early game for specific builds. Not that we're gonna see it work out.   It really is that loving easy.   I didn't need to build up another Blastoise, but I could, and that's what matters. Joshua has a lot of Water mons and a lot of energy, using the ones Sara didn't get round to, since there's a lot. The fact each deck we're facing have like 10+ different lines to them shows how bloody awful they are.  Well, since I promised... I'll introduce you to Amy. Don't think you're that good just because you defeated me. We still have Amy here at the Water Club. Amy! Please wake up!! Huh? What's going on? I was enjoying my little nap... Well, um... (psst, psst, psst) What? You lost? How could you!?!  I, Amy, the master of the Water Club! OK! A 1-match duel with 6 prizes! Let's do it! Club Master Duel  Marco, it's me, Doctor Mason. I have some information for you about Amy's deck - she's the Master of the Water Club. Her deck uses Rain Dance - Blastoise's Pokemon Power. This deck allows her to keep attaching Water Energy to her Water Pokemon to power them up. Her deck's weakness is Lightning Pokemon! I suggest you duel her using the deck from the Psychic Medal Deck Machine. Here's a booster pack for you. Marco! Keep at it, and don't give up! Mason Laboratory Doctor Mason   Yep, of course Amy uses Blastoise as well. But since I have 2 Breeders and 4 Blastoise, it's much easier to get it out compared to 1 and 2, respectively. And of course knocking out Squirtle helps a lot, the AI won't retreat their main Pokemon unless it's the specific card they've been told to protect. So they'll do a lot more to protect their Scyther compared to a Wartortle.   She has some disruption in a variety of other Pokemon and Energy Removal, diluting her pool even more. She even uses Seaking as her backup attacker, as well as a couple Lapras, but you find out in the tutorial how weak Seaking is.   But I guess if she keeps removing Blastoise's energy, we'll use something else instead. Using this deck is just cheating, let's never touch it again.   Well, since I lost, you can have this Water Medal. This should get you a step closer to inheriting the Legendary Cards! Here, you can also have these! They should come in handy! Come see me again! I'd love to duel you again sometime! TCG Island  We've gotten into the swing of things, so since we're done with the starters, let's see what tools the game has for doing different decks. In the side room where we fought Tech Aaron, each of the machines is activated when you get a specific medal, the one in the top corner is something for later.   Each give you a selection of decks you can build, with the different symbols indicating how much of your current deck you can put towards it? I guess? Well we won't be bothering with any of these archetypes, there's some interesting ideas, sure. But this game thinks a good deck consists of 25 different Pokemon, 2 Bill and split energy. loving trash!   In the bottom corner is a machine that lets you save all the different decks you've made. I'll only use each deck once, but I'll store them here for posterity. After all, I'll be using decks chosen by YOU! Or at least, you guys chose the two Pokemon you wanted to see, I picked any I liked the sound of and filled in the rest. Toyatasomi no Miko first suggested a Nido deck and a fair few people agreed, so let's give it a run!  LASS: Pikachu's cute, but I prefer Clefairy! I'll give you this Pikachu if you give me a Clefairy! OK then let's trade! Pikachu for Clefairy.    God this card is so loving freaky... I've been forgetting to clear out all the lounges of interesting stuff for clubs we've already been to. But I have no idea which ones these are looking at the screenshots lol Anyway, Pikachu has a few different Promos, because of course it has, and this is the least interesting one. It's just bad. No Promo Raichu, the savages, so it's just stuck like this. Yikes. This was the other Promo card with Jigglypuff in the Oct 1996 CoroCoro and was also rereleased with much better artwork by Sugimori for the Toyota campaign along with Arcanine. It was released in the west through official TCG leagues in July 1999, woo.  LAD: cards. Please give me all your energy cards! Give me all the energy cards that aren't in your deck!!! Gimme, gimme! Gimme all of 'em!!!   LAD: Since you were so nice, I'll tell you a secret! Check the wall 2 tiles left of the bookcase... you'll probably find something really nice! Thanks again. Bye!  ...yeah. I did this to really illustrate that any energy not in your decks is completely gone. It's not a big deal for me, I can get a lot more very quickly, but if you say no without knowing what's going on, he gets upset and leaves, never to return. Pretty lovely, gotta say.    Headbutt Amnesia: Choose 1 of the Defending Pokémon's attacks. That Pokémon can't use that attack during your opponent's next turn. Well that was incredibly not worth it, but the story behind the card is always better. This card was first released in May 1997 along with official playmats in Japan, and was never physically released in English, its only appearance being this game. Due to its rarity, no one's really felt like scanning it, but it was reprinted in a future Japan only expansion.  WOMAN: It's the talk of the town that Ishihara wishes to trade a very rare card. Maybe I'll visit him myself!   I'm thinking about trading my Surfing Pikachu for it. Do you have Clefable? Oh wonderful! Then without delay...   Of course we've got lots of Pikachu to collect! The only interesting thing is it uses Water energy, but whatever. This is the first appearance of Surfing Pikachu, available in Japan from Aug 1997 CoroCoro, with the English version from the TCG Leagues in Aug 2001. And so began the many, many different forms of Pikachu. May it never end. Oh right, uh, an NPC will tell you if Ishihara wants to trade something, but it's a different NPC each time, so good luck. With all that done, it's on to something a little different. Challenge Cup  CLERK: opponents here, and you shall be presented with a wonderful gift! Please join in the competition!  I'm the one who's going to defeat 3 opponents! The prize, Lv60 Mewtwo, belongs to me! You just sit tight and watch me win! See ya! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! CLERK: Defeat 3 opponents to win the wonderful prize of Lv60 Mewtwo! The game will be a 1-match duel with 4 prizes! We are now accepting entrants here. Wouldn't you like to enter? Then please proceed to the stage!  Heh, our character doesn't know what to do since he's never been on a stage before.  HOST: Presently, Marco is still a contender! Marco is the new challenger! There will be 4 prizes! OK!! Let the duel begin!   So the Challenge Cup is interesting, but not too great, win 3 matches in a row that you can save and edit your deck inbetween to get a single Promo card! The tricky part is actually going to one of these, the first one is after we get the third medal and we only have that window to do it. If we get our fourth medal, then the Challenge Cup ends and Ronald wins the Promo card, which he never uses. You don't get another chance, so don't miss it! Or do, it doesn't really matter. In any case, this is how you get missed Promo cards in the postgame, but we'll get to that later.   Our opponents can be any of the regular Club members, even if we've never met them, not like they have any dialogue for this. It's a bit risky starting off with Nidoran M, since Horn Hazard only deals damage if you get heads, but I specifically have less Nidoran F for the strategy. And, uh, Energy Removal, uh, does the thing. You know, one from an opponent's Pokemon. It's cool, I guess.   We wanna start with Nido F since she has Call for Family, which includes both Nido, which is nice. But this Persian is a problem, so let's reach the final form.     A simple enough combo that can deal huge damage and is also something I never completely pull off. Evolving stuff in the right order is hard yo. Even with a couple of Nidoking, Boyfriends does great damage, so it's not really necessary to get 4 Nidoking, even though I do have that many. And Nidoking is no slouch when it comes to attacking, let's see, shall we?   Jesus christ, Toxic's animation is loving brutal.   HOST: Marco has defeated 1 opponent!!! Most unfortunate, Chris. Have a safe trip home! Let's meet our next challenger!     You can access your menu, so there's no worry. Always make sure to save, RNG will gently caress you if it can and if you lose, you cannot attempt this again.   Alright, Heather's deck, if you remember, was a bit weird, but- oh wait, she doesn't have any bench Pokemon.   HOST: One more opponent to go before winning the Challenge Cup! The third opponent is Ronald!   HOST: Well, Marco, let the third, and final, match begin! Rival Duel  Huh, never had that happen before.   Thanks coinflips. The AI likes leading with Kangaskhan to draw cards with Fetch. For all Challenge Cup matches against him, Ronald uses the same deck, standard basic stages monsters that are a pain to get around, as well as Muk and Graveler. But we should be fine, how hard can it be?   Still, despite hurting us Thrash is some real nice damage. Grimer is less fun, since paralysis is such a pain, but we won't need to deal with it for long.   It's the power of love!   Hrmmmmm, Pokeballs are so loving bad, but you need them!!!   Oh of course he drew a DCE and a Pluspower at the same time, giving him just enough to OHKO me. Well at least he's using the bad Magmar.    Or at least it should be the bad one. It just lets him get Scyther fully set up. Sigh. It's definitely a lategame card for Haymaker, but its main draw is high HP and resistance to the main Haymaker fighter, Hitmonchan. Swords Dance is only useful if you're not able to damage the opponent, or you're able to start using Slash next turn. Very dangerous card, but is a little slow.   Oh of course I get all tails for my Thrashes so I don't knock out Scyther and it puts Nidoking in range of Rock Throw, which does 40 damage. I still have a Nidoran M, and Graveler is weak to Grass, so if I get heads, I win.   gently caress off game, jesus. If any of those coinflips had been heads, I would've won, the only reason I lost was because I got all tails all in a row. But that's why you save. And also don't use coinflips, they're garbage.  HOST: It was close, but Marco was defeated by the third opponent! You see! I'm the better player? Two more opponents to win the Challenge Cup!!  Let's try that again, I get 3 heads in a row for max Double Kick damage, great.   But there we go, a single heads so I can 2HKO a Scyther, christ.   He had another set up, which is quick to do, but I just keep landing those heads! Hell yeah! I'm not mad at this game! Please don't post in the thread that I was mad!   HOST: Most unfortunate, Ronald. Do try again in the next Challenge Cup. That was luck! But a loss is a loss... MARCO! I won't lose next time!     Of course Mewtwo gets some promos, and it's not bad, getting it set up in one turn if you discard some energy beforehand, preferably from a Computer Search that resulted in the Mewtwo. This card was first available as an insert with the Pocket Monster Fan Book in April 1997, while the English version was one of four promos you could get from buying a theatrical ticket to the first movie. Then they ruined the artwork by putting a dumb gold stamp in the corner.  Next time, more medals, and the rest of the game features decks chosen by you guys!
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Nov 1, 2019 03:53
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It's weirdly worded, but if you guys are having trouble understanding this move, then you're not gonna like the even crazier poo poo, especially next game.
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Nov 1, 2019 19:46
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Yeah later TCG gives you a lot more options so you can put a variety of Pokemon in it, but for these games you want as little Pokemon as possible so you can draw into them, preferably with Pokeball or Computer Search.
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Nov 3, 2019 17:37
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Part 4: Technikachu Science Club What up nerds, it's time to go to loser central and swirly some peeps.  LAD: another rare card. I wish I could trade cards like Ishihara.   I'm thinking about trading my Flying Pikachu for one. Do you have a Ditto? Oh wonderful! Then without delay...   Alright, the last Pikachu promo card. Uh, kinda. Also marks the first appearance of Flying Pikachu, being an insert of the Nov 1997 CoroCoro magazine and available in the west through official TCG leagues in Aug 2001. Like the other Pikachu promos it's pretty bad, doesn't even have the consistency of Surfing Pikachu, but hey, maybe we'll find a way to make it work.   Science Pokemon cards! Science Pokemon are exceedingly strong. Would you like to duel against my Science Pokemon deck? We'll play with 4 prizes. Let's begin.  Another club, another new deck. Since there's more clubs than types, they improvised a couple, since there's no Colourless Club. The Science Club uses Colourless and Grass that tend to be Poison types.   For our deck, as you can see, we're using Wigglytuff, because Do the Wave is insane, as well as Clefable, since it's also very interesting. The GB Jigglypuff is very useful to start off with, as Friendship Song, when the coin flip is successful, picks a random Basic from your deck to put on the bench. You'll notice a lot of GB cards have these random effects, which definitely isn't something you could do in an actual irl match. Anyway, this deck was first suggested by PMush Perfect, called Clap! Your! Hands! because there's no emoji for it in the game.  And since we haven't used Psychic energy yet, might as well, Colourless Pokemon are free to use whatever, we could only use DCEs for our energy if we were loving insane.   Arbok is what Erik has the most of, even though it's a pretty bad card, it also has Poison Fang that does 20 for 3 energy and also poisons. Ew. He also has Beedrill and Nidoking, as well as Weezing, but with very little draw support, the chance of him getting two evolutions is rare. He even has 2 Imposter Professor Oak, which only helps us! It makes us shuffle our hand into our deck and draw 7 new cards, it's pretty funny.    It keeps swapping us around, so we get to show off Clefable for a moment. This card is actually insane under the right circumstances, for 1 energy it can use any move in the game without any penalty. But that's the main problem, it is wholly dependent on the opponent. If you're fighting a Charizard, you can hit it for 100 damage for 1 energy AND don't have to discard anything, it's nuts. That's why it's pretty garbage in this game, since you should be knocking out your opponent's Basics before they can do anything, and they usually have terrible moves. We'll see this later. Also it can never proc weakness damage, but still, very quick to set up and kinda tanky, so it's fun to experiment with!   Easy enough since once Wigglytuff gets going, it loving destroys the opponent. I love it.   For some clubs you need to beat every member, like the Water Club, whereas for some you only need to fight whoever's in the way, like this one, but we'll still fight everyone at least once.   Huh? Oh, this? This is a machine that makes decks. It's much better than Dr. Mason's. Hmm... let me see here... do you want to duel against me? Shall we begin the match? It will be a single match for 4 prizes.  Interesting David's deck is named as such, he has 2 Nidoqueen... and 1 Nidoking, which doesn't feel very optimal.   Ah, DCEs are always wonderful, don't have too much on the bench, but we'll fix that.   YESSSSSSSS!!! Farfetch'd is a joke in this game too, but you never know, it could work out.   But uh, yeah, Do the Wave, what a surprise. David had a few Basic Colourless mons but focused on Poison types, with a Pinsir just for the heck of it.   If we only used Wigglytuff that'd be boring, which is why I always want to focus on at least 2 Pokemon per deck, so let's give Clefable a go, I'm sure our next opponent will be just fine!   Alright, onto the actual path.   Joseph's gimmick is Flying types, his entire deck has them, as well as 2 Flying Pikachu! He's pretty balanced between Grass and Lightning energy since most of his deck is fine with either.   Best to set up two of the same Pokemon, since he loves shifting your mons.   Two can play at this game! Not that it's very helpful, we'll be here a while if this is all we can do.   Uh, okay. This game has a lot of different trainers, but I haven't really talked about them since a lot of them are pretty meh and you don't have too much room after Bill, Professor Oak, Computer Search, etc. Like this just means both players get bricked and can't draw support, which seems a little pointless, but I suppose it's useful if you've gotten everything you need and don't want your opponent to get a better hand.   Ain't this just great. It's even worse using it on Pidgey, since it only deals 10 damage!   Begun, the Peck wars have.   Alright this was a terrible battle to use Clefable, Wigglytuff it is!   Alright, one more try, though we could both use Leech Life on each other until the heat death of the universe. It also has Wing Attack for 30 damage.     Clefable got a kill, which is all I care about. Let's get the gently caress outta here.   And... take this. Rick's in the middle of an experiment, so don't bother him too much.  Science rules nature! That is why it is so strong. Do you wish to test the strengths of science by playing against me? Alright, 6 prizes! Let us begin! Club Master Duel  It's me, Dr. Mason. How are you doing, Marco? I have some information for you about Rick's Deck - he's the master of the Science Club. His deck uses Muk's Toxic Gas to prevent your Pokemon from using Pokemon Power! Avoid using a deck that relies on Pokemon Power to attack. His deck's weakness is Psychic Pokemon! Collect Psychic Pokemon to duel his deck! I suggest you study the deck from the Psychic Medal Deck Machine. Hopefully, it will be of some assistance... Win all 8 Master Medals, Marco! Mason Laboratory Doctor Mason   Grimer's paralysis is annoying, but I can reflect is right back at- oh who am I kidding.   After getting paralyzed enough and doing mediocre damage in return, best just fill out the bench and do something useful with our lives.    And there we go, just blow through every Basic he has. Rick can be tough depending on your deck since he can lock down Poke Powers, and he even has a few Mewtwo to surprise someone bringing their own Psychic deck. His other main gimmick is bringing a bunch of Trainers, such as Pokedex and Maintenance, which is why he wasn't drawing into his various Basics and let me take them all out. Sucks, but you can see how effective one half of my deck was compared to the other half due to how the AI works.     Legendary Cards are but a legend! Science is the only truth! I must continue my research of Science Pokemon! Lightning Club Now to fight Lightning with Lightning, with a twist. Of course we had to use Pikachu eventually, but we're bringing along Meowth so the two can work together for once. This deck was suggested by dungeon cousin and called Best Frenemies.   More promo cards? Hell yeah, this is- hey, wait, this is a lower level!!!    Holy poo poo this card is bad, goddamn. But hey, it can be a good shield that does nothing in return, as it's the only Pokemon aside from Charizard and Chansey that can take a Fire Spin! I can't think of anything else it can do. It was available in Japan via the Official Card File in June 1997, whatever that means, and was one of four cards you could get for buying a ticket to the first Pokemon movie. Gotta say, I'd feel pretty ripped off getting this instead of a Mewtwo.   I see those cute little eyes! Hey, do you want to duel my Pikachu deck? OK then! Let's play with 4 prizes!  Well let's have some Meowth action so we're not overloaded with Pikachu like every single game in the franchise.   Ugh, loving Pokeball. This Meowth is a GB one that does 20 damage to a random opponent, so that's neat I guess.    We've fought this before, but I'll always highlight the two Pokemon we're using, no matter what. Nothing too crazy, but it's dependable damage that also keeps you alive and well and that's nice. Might as well always use Pounce, unless you know the enemy won't attack next turn.   But yeah, Pikachu is the name of the Jennifer game, with a few Raichu to evolve her non-Promo ones. Or more specifically, you can evolve Promos, so long as it has the same name as the regular card. Raichu evolves from Pikachu, but that's not what the Surfing and Flying Pikachu cards are called. Also having her lead with Surfing Pikachu is great since she has less Water energy, making her stuck for a bit, though she does have 4 Bill. Maybe the first trainer to do such a crazy thing.   Ugh, she does have a lot of Potions, also, including Super Potions! Discard an energy from a Pokemon to heal it by 50, which is pretty drat good, but I prefer saving deck space.    Lightning mons love doing bench damage, as we see with our first Raichu, as I'll split the card designs if the chosen Pokemon has more than one in the game. This one isn't as useful, but what a happy little bench destroyer this is, even if it's very slow for not much payoff. You'd rather big upfront damage than multiple turns plinking the bench.  Awww! My Pikachu lost! You have to take care of your Pokemon cards!  What? A Pokemon Trading Card Duel? I'll be glad to duel any time! OK, 4 prizes! Ready? Let's do it!  Ah dammit, I hate coinflips. The other Meowth we're using has Pay Day, 20 damage for 2 energy is cool, and the chance to draw an extra is also cool.   Let's get these outta here, the regular Pikachu can do some damage with Thunder Jolt while Voltorb only has Tackle for 10 damage lol   I have 2 Water energy specifically to use Surfing Pikachu, easy enough to find them with Energy Search.   There we go, Surfing Pikachu is pretty consistent. Brandon uses a lot of different Lighting mons and uses both varieties of the mon, with the exception of GB Jolteon. So long as you don't let Magneton explode or Electrode charge up the bench you should be good.   And since I haven't mentioned it, the Club Master won't battle you until you beat everyone else in the club.   Lightning Pokemon are the toughest Pokemon! How about it? You want to duel me? OK! Let's start! 1 match with 4 prizes!  Oh hey, remember when I said watch out for Selfdestruct?   Brandon is exactly what you think, he uses Weezing, Magneton and Golem, all Selfdestruct users, but it also makes his deck a bit unfocused and stocked up with THIRTY energy. He also uses Defender so his Pokemon aren't knocked out by their own Selfdestruct, the prick.   Graveler is a nasty card since Rock Throw does 40 damage for 3 energy, which is very nice, but we just happen to having a Fighting resist here.   And it only takes about 4 turns to knock it out! Woo!   Oh hey this Magnemite is GB exclusive and also weirdly terrible. He could've used Tackle, but I guess the AI looked at Magnetic Storm and thought better of it. It removes all energy cards attached to your Pokemon and then randomly reattaches them. I don't know why they thought that was a good idea.    It's too easy to set this Raichu up in the back and endgame sweep. It deals a lot of damage, but you'll need to keep it healthy if you want to keep using it. Still, while it's pretty drat slow, Agility can help you with setting something else up if Thunder's recoil would KO you. My Lightning Deck lost... I can't believe it... I won't lose next time! I'm gonna zap you!  Got to keep it looking smart! I'm the Lightning Club Master! Sure! I'll duel you! The sparks will fly with 6 prizes! I'll show you what my Lightning Pokemon Deck can do! Club Master Duel  How it's going, Marco? It's me, Doctor Mason. I have some information for you about Isaac's Deck - he's the Master of the Lightning Club. His deck is a Selfdestruct Deck! He uses Selfdestruct for maximum damage! Watch the number of Energy cards on his Pokemon and look out for Selfdestruct. I would suggest using Fighting Pokemon such as Cubone and Rhyhorn to counter Isaac's Deck. The Cubone & Marowak Deck from the Rock Medal Deck Machine is probably your best bet. I hope you find many Fighting Pokemon in this booster pack! Did you find the Pokemon you were looking for in the booster pack? Mason Laboratory Doctor Mason   Oof, you hate to see it, but I've gotta get a better hand.    Let's look at a better Electabuzz than the earlier one. Due to its high HP and ease of getting 40 damage for 2 energy, this fits right into a Haymaker deck, especially since you only need the one Electric energy, so the rest can go to Zapdos. Definitely a dangerous customer, and you can see as we're meeting all the different pieces how they all fit into place.    Well, rip. A dangerous move that nukes most things that aren't Chansey or Charizard. I'm highlighting this different Magneton due to how quickly they stopped the Defender Selfdestruct cheat by making it do more damage than you could stop, but it's still funny to think about.   That put Isaac back to square one since the AI can only focus on one thing at a time, we've been building something in the back. Aside from exploding with Magneton, he also has Electabuzz as his main attacker, as well as some Colourless mons like Kangaskhan and Tauros. Add in Potions and Defenders, he then becomes pretty tricky to take down with all those big HP basics.   Two of us can play at bench damage, we just select the 3 we want to damage and it's good he has 3 on the bench so we get max use out of it!   I got a bit lucky, so we're able to slowly but surely snipe the bench and finish up the match!     And here, take this Booster Pack, too. I'm going to polish my card skills, so come duel again. Rival Encounter I already won the sixth Medal! I'll see how much better you've gotten! If you win, I'll give you another rare card! Come on!!! Let's duel! We'll play with 6 prizes!   Yes it's another Ronald ambush after the fifth medal. He's getting too Haymaker for my liking, with his only evolution being Dodrio, but he has all kinds of Basics, which makes him very unfocused, especially since he has NO DRAW SUPPORT!!! Anyway, this Mewtwo can be pretty dangerous if you've got a big attacks, but it'll only do 50 damage if you've got the usual 4 energy, and you can fudge that with DCEs. It'll slay Exeggutor but doesn't really have the oomph to take out the big evolutions. You still want to use it, since it'll OHKO a 2 energy Hitmonchan with Pluspower, which is very important.   Well this isn't good, of course the Haymaker comes out when you have a Fighting weak deck.   Still, he keeps retreating and losing energy, and this Raichu can do a lot of damage.   It can take a lot of damage, but hey, if we don't one shot, might as well try Agility, you still do the damage even if you don't get the coinflip.   Ugh, Mr. Mime, that's a pain in the arse that we'll deal with later.  Thankfully we don't need to think about it!     The Legendary Pokemon Cards belong to me!!!  Now this is what I'm talking about! Two cards for 4 discarded energy? gently caress yeah! This was first available in Japan in Apr 1997 as an insert with the Pocket Monster Fan Book, I imagine a lot more copies sold because of it. It only came to the west as part of the Neo Genesis expansion, the first Gen 2 set, so this game was the first English print of the card! It's a shame we can only get one until postgame, I need it!!! Anyway, that's two more clubs down, we're getting through this game. Next time, more decks, more medals and maybe even something else!
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Nov 7, 2019 03:34
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Part 5: Mind Over Missing Rock Club  There's just 3 clubs left to go, don't think there's anything that really happens between 5 and 6, so we'll be using this Haymaker deck by The Golux, though it's not the kind you're expecting. After all, there's plenty of random Basics to throw into a deck.   before you duel the members here! OK! A single match with 4 prizes! I'm going to defeat you!  Of course we're gonna use Farfetch'd, it- gently caress, we didn't get the slap.   Still, Hitmonlee is much less dangerous than the chan, so we'll use Farfetch'd to its full potential later. And I'm still putting Hitmonchan in because I need something dependable, christ.   If you let it power up, then it can snipe the bench for 20 damage, or smack you real hard with Hi Jump Kick. Alright, let's see what else he-  How could this be!?! I'm the one who was defeated! I must return to the Fighting Club to start my training over!Oh, he never drew another Basic. Cool! That's actually weird considering he has FIFTEEN BASICS, but such is life. He used Mankey and Machop along with the hitmons and balanced it with various Colourless that he could cake in the 26 Fighting energy he probably kept pulling. That was about it for his strat, such is his deck name.   I just finished a duel! I won, of course! The Legendary Cards will belong to me! How about it? Would you like to duel me? OK, same as last time! We'll play with 4 prizes. Is that alright? OK then, let's begin!  He says same as last time even though this is the first time we've fought. Matthew only has the one Snorlax, so it's very unlucky to lead with it.   He's a bit of a staller, but we've got something in the back to take on this crying child.    Seriously. With 3 energy, Farfetch'd is able to dish out consistent damage. Somehow. It's dumb, but not as dumb as this endless stall! But hey, let's be frosty and go for Leek-   gently caress     Wow I'm in hell, but hey, since I can discard Psychic energy for Computer Search, Mewtwo can charge up in 1 turn. But due to Snivel and Defender, it's still alive!!!   Not gonna kill it this turn, so I'll get some more energy. Just because I can.  I'll never get the Legendary Cards if I play like that... I'm going to win the next time we duel.Thank god that's over. He should be using the Geodude line to deal damage, instead of wasting time with Basics that don't do anything other than waste our time. 4 Defenders and 3 Gust of Wind tell you everything you need to know.   Rock Pokemon... doesn't the name rock? Won't you duel against my Rock Pokemon deck? Thanks! We'll rock this match with 4 prizes!  The Haymaker-Style is split between Farfetch'd, Hitmonchan, Promo Mewtwo, Jynx and Mr. Mime, since we hadn't had a Psychic deck yet, so let's not use Hitmonchan for once.   Meditate deals 20 damage plus 10 more for each damage counter on the opponent, so a reverse Rage, which makes it not as useful. Best used to pick off Pokemon that are barely under half health. The AI usually retreats around then, so you probably won't get it to stick. Also it has Doubleslap, whatever. You're right, I should have posted its card since I was highlighting it, but it's Jynx, it should never be highlighted.   Ponyta hits hard for its stage, but Rapidash only does 30 with Stomp or Agility with a chance of added effects and is pretty mediocre.   I have already had enough. But rejoice, my children, for the SAVIOR HAS COME!!!   HELL YEAH! Also get that crying child outta here. Andrew was another person that should've evolved his mons, but decided to just stick around and stall because I guess I don't have anything better to do with my time. I mean they're kinda right... However despite only having Rapidash and Jynx, he has a lot of energy space for them, making it hard to find other mons.   A Rockin' guy like me should be hard to beat! I've got to rock harder!  What? You want to duel? Alright. You want to duel now? Let's make it a quick single match with 3 prizes. OK, let's start!  Nice little boxing match to start us off, but since I threw the first punch, I'll win the war. Unless we keep healing it off.   No evolutions, baby! But aside from just endless punching since I didn't get many Basics, there wasn't much to the fight.  Whoa! I lost! Here! Take this! What's going on? Must be my unlucky day...We didn't see the weirdness, such is one and done fights, but Ryan has a full fossil deck, so he has Shellder and Omanyte as Water mons, with energy to match. Though if you take down his Mysterious Fossils, his best options are Hitmonchan and Sandshrew. Also because he has so many Pokemon he'll never actually draw into the ones he needs.  Our duel will be played with 6 prizes! You won't get the Rock Medal unless you defeat me! Club Master Duel  Marco, it's me, Doctor Mason. I have some information for you about Gene's deck - he's the Master of the Rock Club. His Rock Crusher Deck is extremely strong against Lightning Pokemon. But it's weak against Grass Pokemon! I suggest you study the deck from the Grass Medal Deck Machine. Oh! Before I forget... here's a booster pack for you! Marco! Go defeat Gene, the Master of the Rock Club! Mason Laboratory Doctor Mason   I'm absolutely gutted that didn't work. Oh well, we're getting lucky with the Leer flips.   Like real lucky, I love it.   But hey, we've yet to see one member of our team, let's give it a shake. Seems a bit fragile though...   You can fight Gene immediately, but if you don't know what you're doing, you'll walk right into a drat Dugtrio, which seems a little mean. His Diglett are fragile, but Defenders seem to be everywhere in this club, bah.    Ah I'm being coy, we're actually completely safe. Mr. Mime is probably one of the most annoying Pokemon in the game. If you don't have any status to disable its Power, then you can only ever 2HKO it at MINIMUM. This Dugtrio cannot touch us, though it'll take some time to actually kill anything due to Meditate being pretty mediocre.   How crazy, Rhyhorn has an attack that's not Leer. Well it's just Stomp, so whatever. Mr. Mime doesn't work amazingly against the AI since they tend to not evolve their Basics due to never drawing into the evolutions due to terrible deck builds, but that's not a surprise. But hey, at least the game will never be mean enough to base an entire club about the Psychic type. Haha.   He's stuck on energy with a big heavy snake that only does 10 damage and only exists to stall against small damage. It's over.  Wonderful... your persistence - persistence that can even break rock - has led you to defeat me! You are worthy of receiving this Rock Medal! And take this Booster Pack, too. I look forward to the day we duel again!Alright, six medals, it's time for a Challenge Cu- Rival Encounter The Challenge Cup is over already! Too bad you couldn't enter! The prize belongs to me! Lv8 Mew! You should really enter the next Challenge Cup! But then again, why bother, since I'll also win that one, too! See ya! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! GUIDE: cool too! Challenge Cups are the best! I wonder when the next one will be?   Pokemon Power: Neutral Shield Prevent all effects of attacks, including damage, done to Mew by Evolved Pokémon. You can't use this power if Mew is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed. Psyshock Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed. Well if Mewtwo got a bunch of promos, then of course Mew did. They're all terrible, but that's fine, I'm very miffed about actually missing a Challenge Cup. But I've corrected many Bulbapedia mistakes over the years and the second cup takes place between medals 5 and 6, not 6 and 7. It kinda makes sense, you face Ronald right after medal 5, so to fight him again in a Challenge Cup immediately after is just weird. I also had the bright idea to save beforehand, so I'm not restarting. Ronald will win any Challenge Cup you don't do, but he doesn't add the prize to his deck. I'll use the deck I was planning on using elsewhere, it's not a big deal, you'll just have to get the missed Promo from a postgame Challenge Cup. Anyway, the card itself, the Power is actually unique right now and very powerful... if Haymaker didn't exist. Still cool though. The card itself was released through the Jan 1997 CoroCoro and available in English through official TCG leagues in June 2002, though an error made Psyshock's side effect Confusion instead of Paralysis. This game marks the only accurate English translation, and the first one to boot!    And since we're cheating in the missed Mew, might as well get the two cards only available through Card Pop!, which require another game, and are completely unobtainable in the 3DS VC version of this game. You're not missing much. Venusaur is interesting, but the one you'll actually get in game is just so much better. Though attacking with this is risky since you won't be able to heal yourself if you get statused. It was created for this game, but you got a physical copy of this card in Pokémon Card GB Official Guidebook in Japan or the Pokémon Trading Card Game: Official Nintendo Player's Guide in English. So that's neat.  Mystery Attack This attack does a random number of damage and may cause a Special Condition to the Defending Pokémon. Well it could be interesting? We only have this scan of the GB card, since they were all included in a Pokemon card Price Guide for whatever reason, but this card cribs artwork from the regular Mew in this game, from the Mystery boosters. Weird, but gotta make the kids use Card Pop!. As an aside, the Mystery Mew was available in Japan from the Fossil expansion, but it was moved to a Promo for the English release, from official TCG leagues in Jan 2000.  Well hey, let's cheer ourselves up by visiting... the worst club in the game. Aw man. Psychic Club  My Ghost deck is really strong! It doesn't have any weaknesses. And it's difficult for opponents' attacks to cause damage! Would you like to duel me? A single match with 4 prizes! Come on, my precious ghosts! Let's make his Pokemon disappear!  Lord help me I'm using an Eevee deck. This was suggested by TheMcD and while it's not optimal in the slightest, of course we've gotta use it! And Porygon to make the eeveelutions hit harder, but I'll just do more damage by not constantly switching to take advantage of this.   Zubat is as annoying as you think with Supersonic and Leech Life. But we've got something in the back, let's use it.    Double Kick Flip 2 coins. This attack does 20 damage times the number of heads. Stun Needle Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed. For even more crazier options we're using 1 of each of the eeveelutions, one actual and one GB, each with different strengths. Regular Jolteon has some nice average damage in Pin Missile while GB Jolteon has much more consistent damage in Stun Needle.   Transforming into a random Basic just isn't as fun as the Defending Pokemon like the actual Ditto they didn't implement in this game, but what can ya do?   Robert's deck isn't massively threatening since Gengar doesn't do a lot of upfront damage and he's clogged up with Zubat, Meowth and Ditto. A surprise Pokemon Breeder might turn the tide, so knock out the little Gastly asap.   If you're unlucky enough to get two Sleep rolls, then Dream Eater does a lot of damage. Thankfully it doesn't heal Haunter.   The other Haunter only does 10 damage with Nightmare, but has guaranteed Sleep, as well as a rad Power to stall, if you get lucky.     Might as well get as much use from Porygon as possible, even if it's a pretty rubbish gimmick. Oh well.   But I see the future... you will lose... OK, a single match with 4 prizes! Here we go!  The Psychic Club love using some Colourless in their decks, and Lickitung is by far the worst. Has a load of HP and either paralyzes you or confuses you. What an infuriating combo.   It got paralysis all 3 times, so let's use the other Jolteon for Quick Attack, I guess. All the main eeveelutions learn it and it's an alright move, but definitely not something to rely on.  Don't ask how long it takes to kill a Lickitung, I don't remember and I don't want to know.   Hell yeah confusion. Just use a Switch, flipping to see whether you waste your turn is not worth it.   Cool. A nice way to absorb 50 damage, but becomes incredible Gust of Wind bait.     Come on people, let's get it together. At least Vaporeon can deal big damage as it's charging, but the biggest wall against this deck is Mr. Mime. Really, what are the chances we'll roll 20 or lower for our attacks? Anything set is 30 or above, which is definitely not allowed.   Our best answer is Quick Attack when it lands tails, letting us 4HKO Mr. Mime. But at least it's nearly de-   gently caress!!! Well at least we have our secret weapon.  Eevee and Porygon has -30 Psychic resistance and a lot of Psychic mons hit that benchmark, making us invincible while we slowly whittle down with Quick Attack. Joy. I didn't really realise how big of a problem Mr. Mime would be to this deck, but I've chosen it for this club, so we're sticking to it.   Oh wait we decked out, rip. Let's try that again and hopefully not face Mr. Mime. Or at least not use my Gust of Winds too early.   Now that's what I like to see! Well, I did get tails on the Quick Attack, what a surprise, but let's see what else you- oh you already know what's coming.  I can't believe my prediction was wrong... I see a vision... you're dueling me again.Mr. Mime aside, her deck isn't that bad due to the glut of Psychic mons she's using, including a few Mew! Still, she has PlusPower and Trader to get the right things and ensure they hit harder, so try to avoid that.   so he'll probably duel you now. By the way. Would you duel me? Let's play with 4 prizes. OK. Here we go!  Uh, yeah that's the deck name. I think it's time to face another Wigglytuff.     Focus Energy During your next turn, this Pokemon's Bite attack's base damage is doubled. Bite Vaporeon does some good damage when combined with Blastoise to set up with 5 Water energy, otherwise it's a bit slow. The GB scan is incorrect for whatever reason, all the GB eeveelutions don't require specific energy. Bite is consistent and you can make it nice and big the turn before you get all the energy, or you can't attack the enemy for whatever reason.   Well okay, feel free to drag in this duck, means Vaporeon doesn't take any damage. It's a perfectly fine strategy to leave some weak mons in the back so the AI gets greedy with sniping.   And then it rolls from there, not drawing any energy hmm?  You're no ordinary player if you can defeat me! Next time we play, I'm going to win!Like you'd expect from the name, Daniel uses a lot of Pokemon that can induce Sleep, like Paras, Exeggcute and Jigglypuff. The only Psychic mon he uses is the Gastly line, so his deck is very simple, but can be quite a pain if you flip poorly.   who's visiting the clubs to win the Medals. How do I know this? Because I'm psychic! OK, let me test my new card strategy... against your deck! Are you ready? When you duel me, it's for 6 prizes. Shall we start then!?! Club Master Duel  Marco, it's me, Doctor Mason. Are you getting any closer to inheriting the Legendary Pokémon Cards? Murray of the Psychic Club - I have some information on his deck! It seems to be a deck that uses Alakazam's Damage Swap! It will be difficult to defeat his deck of Psychic Pokemon. Psychic Pokemon are tricky since their weakness is Psychic Pokemon! Try to defeat him before his Pokemon evolves into Alakazam. Murray is a tough opponent... here, take this! Fight to the end, Marco, and don't give up! Mason Laboratory Doctor Mason   Alright, it's the worst fight in the game, Dr. Mason isn't kidding, Murray is tough because his strategy is so simple and so effective even an AI can pull it off! He has plenty of big Colourless Basics that'll become a problem if we let it.   He's a stalling little bitch as well, so my strategy of burning through my deck to overwhelm the enemy won't work as well this time.   But it's good of him to try and build his Kangaskhan up to attack, means all those Psychic energy go to waste.   Of course he's got more than one Kanga, but that's fine, watch the deck amount.    Oh boy, here we go. Alakazam is pretty deadly, not just because of its Power, though it's definitely a big reason. If you have a bunch of big Basics, your Active has practically infinite health, especially when combined with Scoop Up, which Murray has. Thankfully it's a little fragile and easy to snipe before it fully evolves, but when it gets to fully strut its stuff and annoy the hell out of you when it's attacking, this is by far one of the hardest fights in the game.   Thankfully he's running a bit low on energy, so Chansey will just sit there while he runs out of cards, but I can still do some good damage!     Bite Rage Does 10 damage plus 10 more damage for each damage counter on this Pokemon. Surprised he let me KO the Chansey, but I'm not complaining! Flareon is the most dependable out of all 3 eeveelutions, with great damage in Flamethrower and perfectly fine in Bite, and even Rage when you're a little beat up, though it only goes up to 60 damage. Still, something very hard hitting is exactly what we need right now, the more damage the better.   Kadabra hits drat hard with Super Psy, but without another Fire energy, we can't OHKO in return.   If we used Bite every turn, you can see how long it would take to finally defeat Kadabra. Murray at least doesn't use Damage Swap onto any Psychic mons, so you ONLY have to contend with 3 Chansey, 3 Kangaskhan and 2 Snorlax. That's a lot of HP, but they're just annoyances until he pulls out Alakazam.   Well we beat a Kadabra... now he's ready to use his ace. Oh dear.   My strategy is just ignoring these monsters and sniping the big boys that can't do anything back. We're incredibly lucky that he hasn't put down any Mr. Mime, which is what Gust of Wind is there for so I can ignore them, or Scoop Up, to pick up any damaged Basic and place them down immediately after fully healed at basically no cost. It's a bitch and a half.   Running out of Gust of Wind, or even Switches, makes the rest of the fight a coin flip as to whether you can even do anything and it sucks. Like, really really sucks. The amount of times I failed to beat Murray due to any combination of immortal Actives or bad Confusion luck, or getting decked out by Mr. Mime is something I'm glad to never let see the light of day.   Alright, let's neuter the Alakazam for a bit, one energy discard for two opponent's is great, if only we got more than one before postgame.   So, since I don't have any Switches, if I don't want Murray to get a free prize card, then I need to get the heck outta here.     loving finally! Using up the energy and then flipping to see if you escape makes Confusion much deadlier than it should be.   Alright, annoying, but he's running out of options. Guess he discarded his Scoop Ups when he used Oak, not gonna complain!     Well this turned very bad very quickly, if I can get that last drat Gust of Wind, then I can win this match!   While Eevee and Porygon are great walls since Alakazam only does 30 damage, confusion still occurs. Still, it was a very, very close game, but I did have him in checkmate.  Really, where's the fun in letting him deck out. I can ensure you the rest of the game will be pretty drat easy compared to this, it seems no matter what deck you're using, you'll have trouble against Murray.  Well, you must be pretty good if you're trying to inherit the Legendary Pokemon Cards. Here, take this Psychic Medal.  I'll think of a new strategy, so come see me again! I'll be waiting! Ha ha ha ha ha...... PAPPY: I feel so much better! Here, let me give you this Mewtwo card.   Another day, another Promo Mewtwo. It's identical to the previous Promo, but different artwork, which is the case irl as well. It was available in Japan one month after its previous from the May 1997 CoroCoro magazine, and in English as an insert in the VHS and DVD releases of the first movie. This also makes it the first English card to get a reprint with different artwork. PAPPY: Thank you for defeating Murray! I feel so much better since you defeated Murray!  There's only one club left to go, crazy. Next time, it's... the rest of the game! Seriously. Things are feel real Gen 1 in here.
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Nov 18, 2019 23:46
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Feel free to keep suggesting decks, since we'll be using them for a chunk of the second game before moving to the new expansions.
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Nov 18, 2019 23:47
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Part 6: To Beat A Master Imakuni?  Well, it's been a long road, but unfortunately this action packed game must end eventually. Since Imakuni? is in the Fighting Club, might as well beat him up again.   We've got quite a good deck this time around, but surely Machoke getting beat up makes it not that effective?   Unfortunately for my opponents, using an Alakazam/Machamp deck is quite illegal. Brains and Brawn by SleuthDiplomacy, since Alakazam's Power is stupid and lets your Machoke fire off full power Karate Chops or ignore Submission's recoil, and lets Machamp become practically invincible. This is the same as the Blastoise deck, it feels too good for me to actually use, but that's the fun of it!   We get another 4 booster packs, so we'll have to find him again, soon enough.  This guy is a bit of a butt, he requires 5 cards for 1 Promo and something you can chip away as you play the game. There's no time progression in the game, things move forward when you reset, so let's do that a bunch and give him a Golem, Omastar, Parasect, Rapidash and Weezing. This better be worth it!!!  MAN: Please accept this card as a gift from me to you. It's a Lv16 Pikachu. Please take good care of it!    Another Promo Pikachu? Yup, don't need to translate this, it's the same as the Ivy Pikachu with Growl and Thundershock. This was the reprint available through a Toyota campaign alongside Arcanine and this game is the only time it was available in English. At least we're nearly done with all these dang Promos.  How about a rematch? No? OK. But do duel me again sometime.All the Fighting members have returned to the club, but have the same deck, so we won't fight them again. Onto the main event!  Let's see if you have what it takes to inherit the Legendary Pokemon Cards! OK! Are you ready? Come on! Show me what you've got! We'll play with 6 prizes! Club Master Duel  Marco, it's me, Doctor Mason. I have some information for you about Mitch's deck - he's the Master of the Fighting Club. His First-Strike Deck is built for a quick attack, but it's weak against Psychic Pokemon! I suggest you duel him using the deck from the Psychic Medal Deck Machine. Here's a booster pack for you... Marco, I know you can do it! Go win the Fighting Medal! Mason Laboratory Doctor Mason   Leading with Abra isn't the best idea, but with Hitmonlee as the opponent, it doesn't really matter where we put it.   Still, sucks to lose a Machop to Hi Jump Kick, least I've been building stuff in the back. Getting Alakazam up asap is very useful.   God this is so easy lmao    Because of how good Machoke is, you might forget about evolving to the final stage. Machamp is very bulky, very, VERY consistent and its only weakness is being slow to set up. 10 retaliation isn't much, but if your enemy isn't hitting very hard, then it'll add up quickly, even if Machamp gets KOed! Of course with the combination of Alakazam, it becomes practically invincible and I could easily sweep the rest of the game with this combo.   Mitch is out of energy and out of time. I like how the entire continent just crashes down, sorry to all you Aussies, such is the fate of racist prison desert. Mitch also uses Machamp, but with plenty of other Fighting mons and only 4 Bills as draws, it'll be tough for him to get things in the right order, so make sure to snipe the Machop when they come up. The main concern is Hitmonchan and the various Potions, Defenders and Switches he can use to protect it.   Here, take this. It's the Fighting Medal! You'll find the secret to the decks of this club encrypted in it. Here, take this, too. It's a Laboratory Booster Pack. I hope to duel someone like you again someday! Pokemon Dome  With all the medals... uh, there's nothing else to do in the entire island, so off we go to face the Grand Masters! Make sure you'll full of healing items- er, I mean, make sure your levels are high- er wait, what game are we playing? Still, Dr. Mason has been our mentor, so let's see what other emails he's sent us throughout the game. Marco, it's me, Doctor Mason. It looks like you've won quite a few medals. Want to try building your own deck? Start by changing some of the cards in your present deck. Keep changing a few cards at a time, and eventually you'll have your own unique deck! It's not that difficult. Give it a try! Mason Laboratory Doctor Mason P.S. Here's a deal - this time, you get 2 booster packs! Did you try building your own deck? This time, I'll give you tips on the types and number of cards you should include in your deck. If you have 3 of a Basic Pokemon card, you'll want 2 of its Stage 1 and 1 of its Stage 2 Pokemon. If you follow this rule, your deck will be well balanced. You should have about 14 Basic Pokemon and anywhere between 20 and 26 Energy cards in your deck. The type of Energy cards will depend on the type of Pokemon you have in your deck. You might want to look at the decks in the Deck Machine for hints. Mason Laboratory Dr. Mason P.S. This time, I'm sending 2 booster packs again!Thanks doc. The info the games tell you for deck building is supremely terrible, following my strategies will give you much better results. Nowadays having a lot of Basic Pokemon is recommended due to their powerful draw or support effects, but that was incredibly rare back in the day, meaning you should have few Pokemon, few Energy and the rest should be Trainers to draw into everything you need. Seriously, Computer Search is probably one of the best cards in the game. Also having 4 of a Stage 2 mon means you're likely to have some not prized up and has a higher chance of having them in your hand for Pokemon Breeder. The game really expects you to use their lovely prebuilt decks until you get enough cards to branch out on your own, but seriously, don't listen to their advice, you'll be just fine.   It's time to end the game.    Grand Master Courtney, the Fire Queen. Grand Master of Lightning, Thunder Steve! Grand Master of Ice, Gentlemanly Jack. We are the 4 Grand Masters who guard the Legendary Pokemon Cards. If you can defeat all of us, then you will have earned the right to inherit the Legendary Pokemon Cards! Marco, take your place at the table.   opponent! We shall see if you can tak the heat. A 6-prizes match! Hm-hmm-hmm... let's go for it! Grand Master Duel  Marco, it's me, Dr. Mason. You're finally going to be dueling a Grand Master... Grand Master Courtney used the Legendary Moltres, so her deck should be made up of Fire Pokemon. Be sure to use Water Pokemon, since Water Pokemon are the weakness of Fire Pokemon. Other than that, just watch how your opponent plays, and choose your strategy accordingly. Mason Laboratory Doctor Mason P.S. You're almost there. Keep up the good work!     Dive Bomb: Flip a coin. If tails, this attack does nothing. Alright, we're starting off with a Legendary card right out of the gate. Each of them have pretty powerful bench entry effects, but thankfully this only puts lots of energy into the hand, imagine if you could put multiple onto one Pokemon in a turn, that would be busted as hell! However, as we're about to see, they're no slouches when it comes to fighting either, so let's see how this works out.   Ah. poo poo. Sometimes the TCG is quite cheeky in what a Pokemon resists, but it makes sense. It's just very annoying.   Thankfully we get lucky enough to survive one.   Oh wait I have Alakazam, I didn't mean one, I meant ALL!!! I also evolved so we could bang our head against resisted damage without lots of recoil.   Of course you can never have enough Moltres, so here's another one. It's not too great, but Wildfire has its uses and Dive Bomb is still a nuke, if you're lucky. This isn't a Legendary Card (tm), those are the GB exclusive ones.   Ow, Take Down hurts like a bitch. Since I don't want to deal with resistance, we'll just ignore any more Moltres with Gust of Wind, I have only so much time in this life, so I'm making the most of it by, uh, well you get the joke.   Sweeping with Machamp feels like cheating, so let's sweep with Machoke instead.   Now we're out of wind... sigh...   Back to consistency and another Arcanine is here, using Flamethrower to burn me away.   Even with all her drawing, she eventually ran out of energy, since she didn't use any Energy Retrieval. The only mon of hers we didn't see was Magmar, but she mostly builds up Moltres with all her new energy and tries to burn you up. Not too bad, but we had a real powerful deck.  as how you've come this far. Your next opponent is waiting for you! Very good, Marco! Your second opponent is Steve!    This could've become a pretty nasty challenge with 4 fights in a row, but you can freely change your deck and save between each one. Which is good, cause we've still got some stuff to show off!  Our first pure Psychic deck is a Gengar and Hypno deck by Level Seven, as you saw from the previous fight, the Grand Masters can be tricky, but they're not very difficult either, even if a couple of them took me some tries. We'll be using some different decks to round out the LP!   Dos time.   Marco, it's me, Dr. Mason! Grand Master Steve uses the Legendary Zapdos. The Legendary Zapdos's Peal of Thunder and Big Thunder randomly choose a target, so you never know which Pokemon will receive damage. Be sure to look after, not only your active Pokemon, but also the Pokemon on your bench. His deck should be made up mostly of Lightning Pokemon, so duel him using your Fighting Pokemon. Defeat the Grand Masters, Marco!!! Mason Laboratory Doctor Mason P.S. 3 more to go!  Nice. Zapdos is scary and random, we should be able to dodge most of its attacks due to not putting down as much on the Bench compared to the AI, but that's not a given.   Phew, lucky, since while Gengar is a good Pokemon, it starts off super fragile.   Let's drag in the big hitter and also put it to sleep. I mean, what are the chances Steve has an energy while also being able to wake up on the same turn?    Well crap. If you don't have anything on the bench, then using this Zapdos is absolutely amazing! We got a bit unlucky, but we have more Gastly, I'm sure we can flip this to our favour.  See, like that. This is one of the best ways to fight Steve, just let him kill his bench with Zapdos. It comboes especially well into what this deck can do.    Mmm, that's the good poo poo. Gengar is similar to Alakazam, except it's one damage counter per Gengar and you can, of course, use it to KO enemies. Since this doesn't count as an attack, you can use it to get multiple prizes in a turn, or knock out the Active to then attack whatever gets switched in. The more damage counters you place down, the more fun you can have. And we've got an enemy that just loves putting down damage counters.   You know, if the opponent can even survive a Big Thunder. Dark Mind doesn't do crazy damage, but it's consistent and lets you spread the love around. If you moved the counter onto the active, then it technically does 40 damage, which still ain't bad.   And bonus, with an evolved bench, nothing of ours gets one shot. It really is that easy.   Even retreating won't save you. Again, they're out of energy and out of time.     lmao nice going idiot. I guess we'll talk about the other Zapdos, as well as the one Zapdos we didn't see, but it's no surprise Steve didn't get around to using this one, cause boy its attacks are bad! Very slow to build up for such a big hit that you need to build up to again. Thunder also doesn't do enough damage for the amount of energy it needs, as well as the recoil. But such is the life of a Basic. The second one seems interesting enough, but potential bench damage isn't very strong, especially with the nasty recoil if you get unlucky. It's a good way to spread lots of damage to snipe stuff later, but man are coin flips never fun, so it's more of a cautious recommendation.  Nice and smooth, but our deck was really able to take advantage of his, we'll see how that works for the next fight. Steve will use Zapdos a fair bit, but also has Jolteon and Electrode as stuff to power up in the back. Along with some Pluspowers, Steve can start randomly nuking stuff, but of course because of Big Thunder, it's too easy to turn his attacks against him.   feel we can give you the Legendary Pokemon Cards! Very good, Marco. Your next opponent is Jack!  Nothing to change, so let's jump right into it! After saving of course.   It's me, Dr. Mason! 2 more Grand Masters to go! Grand Master Jack uses the Legendary Articuno. He will use the Legendary Articuno's Quickfreeze to paralyze your Pokemon. Also, be wary of his other Articuno's Freeze Dry. His deck should be mostly Water Pokemon, so it will be weak against Lightning Pokemon! Go get 'em, Marco! You're almost there! Mason Laboratory Doctor Mason   Hmm, this is looking pretty bad, but what if I told you that we could win this, easy.   Ahahahahahaha!!! This is why I use certain cards of a Pokemon over others.   While we have our tricks, Psychic decks really struggle against the multitude of chonky Basics, especially since their attacks usually do 30 damage due to having secondary effects. There is one way around this.   It's not pretty though, secondary effects occur even if you don't do any damage, so we can slowly but surely move it onto the Ditto to knock it out. You might wonder why not just use Gust of Wind, but you can see the reason I'm saving it down there. Yikes!   Get that poo poo outta here! They're not too bad if there's already a lot of damage counters around and we have multiple Gengar to shift them, but one issue with KOing mons is it heavily reduces the amount of counters. It's a tricky balance.   Also cool cat strats, moving a counter onto Articuno to KO it with Dark Mind. And since Jack is poring energy onto his other mons, his walls of HP just remain that, so we can easily go around them.   Hey, get back here!   We can only keep this up for so long. But we only have so many prizes left.   Slippery little fella. You might think this is trivializing a Grand Master, but since we're sniping his Basics that he's building up, he's running out of Pokemon and energy. Seems to be a consistent problem with the AI, huh.   At least you guys are seeing this abridged version, cause this battle was absolute hell, especially since decking out was a serious problem.   Alright, 3 counters a turn, very nice. Better keep them all in good shape, cause only doing 1 per turn is so, so miserable.      Ice Breath: Does 40 damage to 1 of your opponent's Pokémon chosen at random. Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for this attack. (Any other effects that would happen after applying Weakness and Resistance still happen.) Huh, guess Jack got bored of not doing any damage and decided to have some fun. Articuno is a real pain with paralysis, but is otherwise kinda whatever, not really much else to say. And while it's tempting to beat it up, there's a much better option.    ...oh yeah this deck has another Pokemon. It's quicker to set up and helps with the spreading of counters, with the same kind of problems Gengar has. I'm sure Prophecy has its uses, but meh, let's not look at this thing any longer than we need to.  Anyway, lots of Colourless mons made this absolutely miserable to fight, he nearly used all the ones he had. Thankfully he didn't use a single Scoop Up or Energy Retrieval, we're getting real lucky in dumbass AI not using Trainers. He can set up very quickly due to only having Dewgong to evolve, with Lapras getting pretty strong pretty quickly and both Articuno getting built up behind the big walls.   It is a mortifying thought, but it appears you are better than I. Very well! Now on to your final test... Spectacular dueling! I, Rod, will be your final opponent! This is your final duel! Show me what you're made of! Is your deck ready, Marco?  Indeed we'll get our deck ready! What better way to face against the legendary leader than with... some bugs. But here's the twist, the bugs are gonna kick this guy's rear end. I'll show you the power of Butterfree and Parasect from this deck by werbear!   It's me, Dr. Mason! The final duel is here! I have some information on Rod, the leader of the Grand Masters. Rod uses the Legendary Dragonite. The longer the duel takes, the greater the advantages for his deck. His workhorse will be his Evolution Pokemon, so defeat them while they are still in their Basic stage! Follow the simple strategy of striking early. This is the final test in inheriting the Legendary Pokemon cards! Go, Marco! Be a part of the legend! Mason Laboratory Doctor Mason   Looks fitting for the final fight, yup.   Even Metapod is able to deal damage with Stun Spore, but before the Lapras can start dealing lots of damage, there's some small fries to deal with.  But of course I activated its trap card, letting it do max damage with Flail!!!    While we wait for Butterfree to show up, here's the other half. It's alright, nice damage, Sleep while we wait for more energy. Nothing crazy, but it's doing its best.  Oh hey, the AI can do that too. Uh oh.    Slam: Flip 2 coins. This attack does 30 damage times the number of heads. A support Legendary Card is interesting, definitely used late game to clear up all the healing, but since this is the final update, I'm not gonna act like I'm gonna use these drat things. Like Rod will ever fumble into getting the other one out, so the healing is whatever and its attack is coin flip meh. But hey, this card was physically included in the JP copies of this game.   Best way to deal with these mons is, obviously dragging in the weak Basic, like Dr. Mason said. Hey, it's almost like evolutions are a slight liability. You can also make their big attacks worthless by removing energy. Never leave home without it.      Now the fun begins. It takes a bit to set up, and is pretty fragile before then, but once you start rolling the Mega Drain, then it becomes a bit tough to kill. If you've got a defenseless enemy, then you can fully heal yourself in only a few turns, it's pretty nice. Guess what we've got in front of us. And anything you don't like the look of you can just blow away, which also softens them up for when they come back.   And that, friends, is how a butterfly soloed a dragon.   Pah, coward. Anyway, now that we've dealt with the bigger threats, he's out of energy and out of options. It's really easy to brick the AI, almost like they keep drawing random Pokemon and no energy or Trainers. I wonder why!!!   You can also get outta here.   And then drag you back for the final prize. It really is that easy. Rod is honestly the weakest Grand Master since he relies on evolution with not much to support it. Like yeah, 2 Breeders are fine, but only 2 Oaks? TWENTY FIVE POKEMON??? Might as well play 52 card pickup with how much random garbage he was probably getting, goddamn.   Wonderful! This is wonderful!! Congratulations, Marco. You have proven yourself worthy enough to inherit the Legendary Pokemon Cards!!! Except... we have a problem... there is another who has defeated us... you must duel him... Guess Who I have already inherited the Legendary Pokemon Cards! No, Ronald! That cannot be allowed! He, too, has earned the right to inherit the Legendary Pokemon Cards! Ronald! Marco! You two must duel to determine who will inherit the Legendary Pokemon Cards. So say the rules! Alright, Rod! Is your deck ready, Marco? OK, then let's begin this ultimate duel! I was here first! The Legendary Pokemon Cards belong to me! I'll make it all too clear to you, Marco! It's a 1-match duel with 6-prizes! Let it begin!    Well that was an easy first prize lmao. It's weird, Rod says we're battling for the Legendary Cards, but Ronald seems to have ignored that and is using all 4 of them! And the Eeveelutions! You might wonder what his Energy is looking like, but we'll see shortly.   In this fight, it's a great idea to snipe the Basics before they become a bigger problem, and also because I don't have enough energy yet.   Ah crap the AI figured out how to use Scoop Up. I'm sure I can get lucky.   Quit it!!!   He's using the GB Eeveelutions, which don't require specific energy, which is annoying, but also makes sense, which is annoying.   However, here's the real kicker, he only has Fire energy, or DCEs, meaning Articuno and Zapdos are complete deadweight, he'll never be able to attack with them. Use this to your advantage to get a bunch of free turns.   Moltres and Dragonite, as well as Kangaskhan aren't hindered by this, so they're ones to look out for.   But, uh, his deck is pretty unfocused and has lots to snipe or drag in, so if you avoid getting tagged by too many bench entry effects, you'll be just fine. The AI struggles with their one strategy, asking them to juggle all these evolutions and legendaries is too much for the poor guys. Pokemon Dome    No...! NOOOOOO!!! Congratulations, Marco! You are a card master worthy of inheriting the Legendary Pokemon Cards! The Legendary Pokemon Cards recognize you as a true master! Now go through to the Hall of Honor to receive the Legendary Cards! to be passed on to you Marco. Hurry and go through to the Hall of Honor! Please build a powerful around my card! Congratulations! You're the Champ! My Zapdos card belongs to you! Congratulations! My Legendary Card belongs to you! Please take good care of this card! Hall of Honor Our long journey is finally at an end...     We finally got them! Just the one though, don't be too crazy now. If you want another copy, then do this all again! There's also a machine at the back of this hall that gives you some deck builds for the Legendary Cards. I'm good thanks.   Children's Playing Cards: Our master must not forget: inheriting us does not make you a Pokemon Card Master! A true Pokemon Card Master is one who has the skill to use the abilities of the different cards and the courage to duel powerful opponents. And most of all, the ability to love the Pokemon Trading Card Game no matter what - win or lose! A new journey has just begun... Credits    And then credits, yadda yadda, thanks for watching, we'll move onto the next game in just a moment, we've got a few things to clean up first. TCG Island Legendary Pokemon Cards! The strength of a deck does not depend on any single card, but on how skillfully you are able to use that card. The power of the Legendary Pokemon Cards depends on you! You must become a skilled card master! Use 1 deck to beat 5 opponents and continue your streak for... content? I guess? It's no Battle Tower, but it's the best you've got.   Does your deck have what it takes to beat stronger and stronger opponents? Ah, who cares.   Still, massive thanks to those submitting, these was a real blast to use and made this LP way more interesting! I had fun with every deck, especially to spotlight some interesting cards I wouldn't have looked at otherwise. Of course, we'll be using more decks and then some in the next game, can't wait to see what you guys come up with!  But really, what else is there to do in the game? Like the generation it cribs heavily from, there's really nothing to do aside from getting the last few cards. Uh, not that it matters since you don't get anything. Still, even if I hadn't hacked in every card, I would still collect all the Promos. Speaking of which...  inherited the Legendary Pokemon Cards! Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to trade them to me. Besides, it would be a waste not to use the Legendary Cards for dueling. Make sure your duels are worthy of the Legendary Pokemon Cards. I couldn't believe that I could lose, but now... now I understand. The fun thing about the Pokemon Trading Card Game is not who wins or loses... I couldn't inherit the Legendary Pokemon Cards because all that was important to me was winning. But now I understand! What's important... is to love each card, to use all the different cards to build different types of decks, and to play against different people! So... Marco... will you play with me again? With all sorts of different decks? Oh hey a character arc. It's as poo poo as Blue's was, sure, but such is early Pokemon. So you can fight Ronald again, there's a chance he'll be in a Challenge Cup, but he can also be rematched with his revamped deck in a small chance when you load up the game. It's a very small chance since it's not listed anywhere. Does it even exist? Ah, who cares. There's 2 cards left to obtain, so let's go grab them.  LASS: Blastoise is cool, but I prefer Charizard! I'll give you this Blastoise if you give me a Charizard! OK then, let's trade! Blastoise for a Charizard!   How very prophetical. I'm pretty sure I talked to every character, is this a postgame or lategame trade? Ah, who cares.  LAD: very, very, very rare card! I wish I could trade, so I could meet Ishihara.  I'm looking for a Chansey this time! I'm thinking about trading my Surfing Pikachu for it. This one has a different illustration than the last one. Do you have a Chansey? Oh wonderful! Then without delay...   It feels like the Promo Pikachu never end. This second version of Surfing Pikachu was only in Japan, available via a stamp rally in Sep 1997, featuring Mt. Fuji and a bullet train, since you went to participating stations for the stamps. This game is the only time it was available in English and of course you should look forward to lots more Pikachu Promos in the next game!    And then Ishihara fucks off. Well, see you next game I guess.   There's one last thing to do, in our third and final battle with Imakuni?! What kind of deck am I using? Hmm, you'll find out next game   Defender and Selfdestruct is so cool, add in some Super Potions and you can chain exploding multiple times! And then there's a snake that deals 20 damage, as well as Poison, making it 40 damage by the time you get back to your turn. That's pretty nice damage.   You won 3 times against me! Does that make you happy? Does it? I don't really want to give you this, but here. Take care of it.  And there we go, the final card of the game. Like I said at the start, this game is short and hilariously easy, but I can't help but love the little sandbox you're given, using all kinds of cards has made this so much fun to play, so cheers for making it another cool LP! But this was just the tasty little starter, the real meat and potatoes and an actual proper game is right around the corner! But, hmm, what's that droning sound?
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Nov 29, 2019 20:39
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 There's artwork listed, but never where it comes from, there's this one as well, but I didn't see the need for it since we had a full bodyshot. He has proper Japanese backs in his GB2 artwork, of course, I didn't even notice that it came from the edited Prima guide.
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Nov 30, 2019 21:07
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Part 1: Welcome Back to the Resistance  Another day, another new game. This time, we're jumping right into the sequel of an alright game.  Title Screen  Looks like this peaceful island nation is about to be ready for war!   If you thought the first game had Gen 1 vibes, well it's about to get very Gen 2 in here, we can play as a girl! About drat time! Since the boy was Mark, then this girl is Mint, but since this English translation patch of a game that was NEVER RELEASED OUTSIDE JAPAN, then we have access to Hirigana and Katakana to spice up the name. Note, I don't know what this symbol is, other than it looks like a smiley face.  Oh Hey It's The Narrator Again: Minto came to this island seeking the Legendary Pokemon Cards. 8 Club Master guarded the way to the Grand Masters, and the 4 Grand Masters protected the Legendary Cards. After many card duels, Minto beat the Grand Masters! The 4 Legendary Pokemon Cards were finally inherited by a new Master Duellist. Then, one day... something terrible had happened! Enter Team GR!  Oh Hey It's The Narrator Again: They called themselves "Team Great Rocket", or Team GR! Team GR attacked the island's card clubs and stole all their cards!   Oh Hey It's The Narrator Again: You must notify Dr. Mason about these Pokemon card thieves! Let's go to Dr. Mason's lab immediately... Ronald Encounter  Remember me? I'm your long-time rival, Ronald! Minto, do you have any Pokemon cards on you? Oh! Team Great Rocket stole them?! I'd better check them out to stay one step ahead of you! By the way, I think Dr. Mason wants to speak with you. Well then, see ya, Minto! TCG Island It's awful! A group called Team Great Rocket, or "Team GR", invaded! This island's card clubs were attacked one by one! Everybody's cards were stolen, and many club members were kidnapped! Team GR stole the Legendary Pokemon Cards from the Grand Masters, too! Please help us get the cards back from those villains! Uh, you know, look man, I've been thinking about it, and there's more to life than children's card games...   ...but at the same time I think my collection was worth thousands of dollars, so I'm gonna loving kill them!!!  Since they took your cards, you'll need a replacement deck. That way you can use your deck to battle with others. Here, take this deck, luckily it wasn't stolen by Team GR!    It can list your card collection, check mail, and even record decks! All recorded decks are sent to our Lab's Deck Record Machines, too. I'm counting on you to get everyone's cards back, Minto! You must find all of the members of Team GR. Ronald and the others need your help. Search all of the clubs! Alright, time to get all the cards again. As you can see from the DOUBLE AMOUNT, this game is quite a bit larger than the first one, having all the cards from that game, and then some! We'll get them all, don't you worry about that.  Unfortunately one of the best localisations changes, the large deck limit, wasn't carried over to this English patch, so the JP limit is probably in place, or maybe the JP version reduced it between games, who knows.     We don't get a choice of decks, this time we're stuck with a thoroughly terrible Charmeleon deck. Though this is really all you need to beat the entire game, if you noticed how little trouble I had last game with consistent damage. But we'll get a way to get more chunks of cards later, so don't start hyperventilating just because we have ONE DRAW SUPPORT WHAT THE FU   We have mail on the move and can record decks on the fly, though we need to come back to the lab to rebuild them. We can also see all the cards we've obtained from each booster pack. The mailbox is unchanged, but has more utility we'll get into later, though it can only hold 8 mail and we can't get more unless we delete some. Oh yeah, we can also change our coin this game! There's a lot of coins, some are incredibly tedious to get and I won't get them all!  Finally, we can change the window colour. Best game, 10/10.  PCs don't see much use in this game since it's all on our... Poryphone, I think the kids call it? But what's this deck diagnostic?   Oh no...  There is a decent amount of Basic Pokemon in this deck! In that case, this deck is in prime shape to battle right away!This guy wouldn't know a good deck if it slapped him in the face.   I know, I know, many of you were clamouring to see Tech Sam again! At least you're not forced through the tutorial again, but hey, might as well. D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Duel  The game is still the same as it ever was, but the presentation got a cleanup, much more colourful and card backgrounds are now much clearer. Overall, just makes more a more enjoyable experience, even if the base gameplay is basically the same.    A lot of moves got updated animations, such as Double Kick... uh, well you see. Ahem. Opponents will also emote as the duel progresses depending on how they're doing. One happy and one sad! Since we'll always see the sad one when we beat them, I'll also post the happy one, cause they add a lot of characters to these, uh, characters! Admittedly, it might not be much sometimes, but hey, why not. Anyway, like before you're following Dr. Mason's steps exactly.  However since it's optional you don't get anything from it, you need to beat Sam in a normal duel to get booster packs of energy from him, which you also need to build up again. Fun. But there's a new room to the west!  How do you like our new training room? It was built to help tutor players of the Pokemon Card Game! You can start your training at Step 1! You must start with Step 1 first. Would you like to try it?    Let's get through these quickly for some booster packs. I'm only bothering with this side mode so we actually see Tech Aaron in this game.   Each of the booster packs have different designs and also aren't split up according to the expansion they have, so you never really know what you're gonna get. Of course Present boosters only contain energy.  Come back for more training whenever you're ready! Hoohoo!! Step 2 features the Poison, Sleep, Paralysis, and Confusion statuses.  We're using predetermined decks for these, so we'll see some cool new cards, which mostly end in Charmeleon hitting everything for decent damage and winning. The Wartortle was from the Intro Pack, a Japanese exclusive half-deck released in Jul 1999 to introduce younger players to the TCG. It featured Bulbasaur and Squirtle and a fair few cards from this pack is in this game. The Grimer, meanwhile, is from the Team Rocket expansion, which was the biggest expansion yet! Shame that they've already infiltrated this much!   Now for the first booster pack, Beginning Pokemon in Japan, of course, this booster has a mix of Base Set, Jungle and Fossil cards, such as Charizard, Gyarados, Dugtrio, Machamp, etc, but it also contains cards from the Intro Pack, as well as Vending Machine cards. These were also Japan exclusive that came in, well, vending machines that were randomised into sheets with 3 cards each, until the 3rd set had a fourth card on the back. Each of these 3 sets of 36 cards can be considered Promo cards due to looking pretty different in comparison and being very difficult to get, not including the additional Promo cards included in this set that we'll get to later. In case you forgot, there's a lot of loving cards in this game.   Pokemon Powers? Well, I don't think the tutorial will use anything that terri-   Why are you using Alakazam/Chansey??? WHAT KIND OF TUTORIAL IS THIS?!   Oh well, we still have mister illegal over here, so I think we'll be fine.   Remove all damage counters and energy from a Pokemon? Yeah that seems pretty nasty for an Alakazam deck, least Murray was kind enough to use Scoop Up. Legendary Power contains cards from all sets bar Team Rocket, which obviously won't happen until later and contains a fair few cards we're used to, as well as DCE and Breeder, always very important.  However, Step 4 lies ahead of you! You'll have to try it sooner or later if you want to get better! Hoohoo!! I'm waiting! Alas, we can't do Step 4, which is a normal duel against Aaron, until much later, so his happy face will have to wait until then! I know, I'm also disappointed.   Second room has a lot less to it, auto deck is still poo poo, never use it!   Firstly, let's tackle the biggest elephant in the room, how long has this been here?  GR No.5: You don't have the 4 GR Coin Pieces required to be one of the 'chosen'. If you want in, find the GR members numbered 1 through 4 on the island. If you manage to defeat them all in card duels, I'll step aside. Every member you defeat will award you with a GR Coin Piece. Beat them all and you'll be given a ride to GR Island!  WOMAN: He's the man who made Team GR's new cards! He's so amazing, don't you think? *sigh...* Well we found out our goal pretty quickly, wow there's a whole new island to explore! Also note that since this is a fan patch, all the various names to new characters are not official ones, such as キング ビルリッチ or King Biruritchi becoming King Villicci. Yes it's kinda the same, but had this game been translated, he would've been called like Matt, or something. Ronald Encounter It's more serious than I thought!! Every club has been burgled! Team GR doesn't seem to be in this particular club at the moment. I've heard that there's been a sighting in the Rock Club, though. Anyway, I barely have any cards to duel with as it is! Say, why don't we Card Pop! to get some new cards? Come on, let's Card Pop! Card Pop!  A-Alright, I don't think this is how cards are made, but hey, might as well.   In any case, Team GR isn't here. Minto! Please go check out the Rock Club! I'll visit the other clubs and gather information about Team GR. Later, Minto! GR Takeover All the clubs have gotten a makeover and it all looks rad as hell, definitely one of my favourite things about the game.  Our Club Master, Mitch, was defeated by GR No.1! All of the Fighting Club's cards were also taken by Team GR! Jessica told me they've done the same at all of the other clubs... now it's impossible for us to fight back against Team GR... I beg you! Please defeat GR No.1! Oh?? For real? Thank you very much! Before you go take on GR No.1, though, have a duel with me! If you win, I'll give you a few new cards! We'll have a duel with 4 prize cards! Let's go!  So not everyone had their cards stolen, a select few club members will still be available to give you unlimited boosters so you can rebuild your collection. Sure whatever. Like all the boss battles in the last game, the GR ones aren't difficult either, but we could use some better cards!   However don't think these will be interesting battles. See, depending on game progress, certain opponents will upgrade their deck to something you'd see in the first game. So Michael right now has Machamp and Raticate as evolved Pokemon, 1 Professor Oak and 2 Pikachu... for some reason. It's gonna be a while before we start seeing new stuff, since it's going to be very unlikely that your opponents will actually evolve their stuff, due to having terrible deck builds. But what else is new?   Not that we can talk, since we don't even have a drat Dugtrio! Like last game, you're very beholden to booster packs, but there's other opportunities to get cards, so you're not completely outta luck. Also Diglett is still a monster, just very fragile.   Still, we won't have any problem, once we get a lot of Fire energy rolling, Charmeleon becomes one of the best Pokemon in the game. I wish I was joking.   You're just as strong as I thought! Here, take this! You didn't need anything training after all. You're already strong! SENIOR: No one seems to talk with me, so I have no opportunity to trade. I'd like to have the rare card Hitmonlee Lv23 for my new deck. In exchange, I'll trade you a Mewtwo Lv60, if you don't mind. Of course trades are back for mostly Promo cards. If you thought there were a lot of random Promos last game, HOO BOY have I sights to show you later.   Main counter remains the same, except you now get booster packs by purposefully losing to yourself because you don't have fri- wait a minute this game was Japan only, so of course you had friends to play with!!!  The game is poking us towards the Rock Club, but we can fight the GR leaders in any order, so might as well scope out the situation proper.   You want the cards we stole from you back, I'll bet! Well tooooo bad! Prepare to be defeated for defying Team GR! But I'm too lazy to do it myself... Nicholas! Yes, miss GR No.4! Isaac!! ......... Go ahead, take care of this chump! Show him the power of our new club! Heh heh... If you manage to defeat these two, I'll take you on myself! I don't like to waste my time with weaklings, you see?    It seems some of our friends, and characters you definitely remembered the names of, have turned against us!  As per GR No.4's conditions, you must duel me. Are you ready? If you don't fight me, you won't be able to advance. I tried to protect my dear Pikachu deck, but now it's gone! Even if I could have a deck without a Pikachu card, I would be happy... Our club has been taken over by a girl calling herself 'GR No.4'. If it wasn't bad enough, Isaac, our club master, is working for her. Is it possible for you to defeat GR No.4, Minto? After all, you were strong enough to defeat the Grand Masters...  Seems like a ripoff, we'll come back later.  But fine, fine, this is next on the list. If you were curious what Ronald says if you visit this club first: It's serious, Minto! Team GR is here! A weirdo calling himself GR No.1 is attacking the Rock Club! The Club Master and members are trying their hardest to resist him. I'd like to fight him myself, but I don't have any cards to duel with! [Card Pop!] Just one card isn't enough for me to take care of that guy... alright, Minto! I'm leaving it to you!!      Save yourself the trouble! Fall to your knees and respect me, GR No.1! Ah, but you're so inexperienced! I won't do anything of the sort! Gah! Impossible...! That I, GR No.1 of Team Great Rocket, would lose... tch!! So it seems I've failed to capture the Rock Club... it figures that the Rock Club's the only one good at defense... Rock Club Master Gene!! I may be retreatin' today... but be warned! I'll return and beat you to a pulp! Rock Club I see! Minto! Team GR has been attacking the 8 clubs on this island recently. But I, Gene, have defended the Rock Club like a hardened stone. The other clubs, though, seem to have been taken over. I know you had the power to defeat the Grand Masters once before! Please help all of the other clubs by taking down Team GR! So your cards were taken away, don't despair, Minto! Feel free to duel the members of the Rock Club to gain some cards back! But I, Gene, have the toughness of a hardened stone! I made a deck that makes GR No.1's deck look weak in comparison! Are you ready to fight against Gene, the Rock Club Master? He kept his cool during the duel against GR No.1 and easily won. It's easy to see why everyone admires him in this club. Hey, why don't we have a duel? I'd love to practise my own style.If you want some booster packs, this is a good place to get them, but we can come back and beat everyone here later, since we'd need to fight Gene to then fight GR No.1 since they wouldn't appear otherwise.  WOMAN: He's a strange little man who dresses in black tights, you see! He tends to wander aimlessly from club to club on this island. If you find him, challenge him to a duel! You may learn something!  GIRL: Hey, do you have a Snorlax Lv20 card? If you do, may I have it? If you do, I'll gladly trade you my rare Jigglypuff Lv12 for it!  Let's see if my main man avoided this purge. Invasion? Warring island states? Ishihara's House I love collecting Pokemon Trading Cards. However, Team GR seems to have everyone's cards at the moment. Team GR has effectively shut down the clubs and Challenge Hall. Is everyone okay? Pokemon Dome  Oh yeah poo poo, should probably check if anyone's still alive.  GR No.5: The Grand Masters have been caught and taken to GR Island! Once we're done with our takeover, we'll have every last card there is! Pokemon Trading Cards are simply wasted on the likes of you fools. We'll pick all the best cards for our decks and lock the rest away! Team GR will have all the cards in the world soon enough!!!   In GR Island... first you get the Pokemon Trading Cards... then you get the power... then you get the women...  RECEPTIONIST: This is the building where we hold the Challenge Cup Tournament. ...but we can't hold a new cup since everyone's cards are missing. Please do something, Minto!  Alright enough distractions, back to the clubs.   Ugh fine, uh, whatever your name is.     Didn't notice anything different in the Psychic Club, guess it was too weird to invade. What next?  Team GR caught me unprepared, beat me in a duel, and locked us all up. There's no way to open the doors, either. Only GR No.3 can do that. If you want to help us get outta this cell, defeat GR No.3. You're our only hope for freedom. You can do it! GR No.3 took us all one, and we all lost, one after another. Our cards have also been taken. What can we possibly do? That GR No.3 guy left saying something about the Waer Club... I'm the Fire Club member who burns the hottest! 'tis I, John! ...but since I've been caught, I'm not feeling so hot any more... Even if it's caught! Fire! It can't be put out! Fire! Even if we have no strength left! Fire... Imakuni?  Don't call me baby, baby. Wait, what's that music?  Eh? Who am I?! Well! Don't you know me? It is I, the Super Musical Star Imakuni?! But I'm sad right now... there are no Pokemon cards left... or right! Hey, you! Card Pop! with me! Even if you don't want to! Let's Card Pop!  The card I got was Machamp, hooray! You got... an Imakuni? card? You're so lucky! Be glad! Yeah! Since we had a Card Pop!, we both got cards we never had! GR Takeover Look at this place! GR No.2 of Team GR is to blame for all of this! Our club's been taken over, and our Club Master, Rick, was kidnapped! Only you, the one who defeated the Grand Masters, can do this! I've been told that GR No.2 is over in the Grass Club. If I understood correctly, he's taken control of their garden. Oh no, not Rick, how terrible.  Team GR has locked up our Deck Machines, though. It's a mess. However, would you care to duel me? I've hidden my cards from them. We'll implement 4 prize cards for this duel! I'll have you know, though, that I won't be defeated so simply!  There hasn't been enough battles in this first update of this card battle game, so let's fix that! Disable could be annoying from this Vending Venonat...   But Ponyta has 2 good moves, so I don't care. Oh yeah, he still has a Nidoran deck, it would be scarier if he actually fully evolved them, but he only has Nidorino and Golbat. And then 2 Porygon for the heck of it. Don't think about it too much, they needed to fill 60 slots and boy did they!!!   We get lucky enough to ignore Ponyta's fragility, since we can't evolve it, and clean house.    Though eventually we have to let the big boy in the back take charge. Or girl. Gender isn't really a thing in the TCG. Ahh, just as I expected, easily defeated without the Deck Machines. Well, a loss is a loss. Here, take these booster packs. You can definitely beat Team GR! That's my hypothesis, Minto!  Alright, not having many leads with these northern clubs.   Or, uh, indeed any of the clubs we're meant to go to. Hello?  You're Minto, the one resisting Team GR, right? Well, Club Master Nikki was driven out of the club by GR No.2. Our club is now unfortunately the territory of the nefarious Team GR. In any case, take this. I managed to keep it hidden.  Neat. Island of Fossil contains cards from all but the Rocket expansion, with very important trainers like Computer Search, Mysterious Fossil... and Pokeball. Also got Articuno and Vileplume and that.  Our Club Master, Nikki, has fled from the club. I was told to give you this if you stopped by to investigate. Please do your best to help Nikki. Brittany knows where she fled to. You can find Brittany sitting at the duelling table over there. Say, you're Minto, the kid going after GR No.2, right? If you wanna beat him, you'll need to speak with Nikki first. Beat me, and I'll tell where she is. Lose, and I won't tell you anything. If you're ready to test your abilities, let's duel! In that case, 4 prize cards!  Since we're forced to use Fire, this was never going to be difficult.   Still, we're pretty weak and have a terrible deck, so it might even out.   The translation team screwed up repeating her deck name, it's called the Poison Bee deck and features Beedrill! We won't be seeing it, but uh, I can highlight it since it's the first interesting card I've mentioned so far that we haven't come across! Don't worry, there's plenty more to discuss later on. She's also got Intro Ivysaur and Nidorino, wow!     I showed that Butterfree is drat good, and hey, so is Beedrill! 40 damage for 3 energy is some good poo poo and if you land that poison chance, it'll do 60 damage by the time you get back to your turn! Definitely slow, but can still work in a Venusaur deck. Of course, more cards means more strategies, but they're not as helpful as you'd think. And if you don't fancy the poison chance, I guess you could flip one extra coin to do the same damage?  You wanted to know where Nikki is hiding, correct? You can find her at Ishihara's, the house near the northwest cape. Hurry to Ishihara's house and speak with Nikki! We'll go there later, since it's literally the second place I'd look.   Take a look at the pool! Just look at the Club Members! Sara, Amanda, Club Master Amy... though Joshua ran away before I could catch the little whelp. But why are you here? You want me to free them from their cage? Alright then... if you can beat me in a duel, I'll free them all! Don't you want to help the members of the Water Club? All you need to do is duel me. You may win ownership of the club! Well, suit yourself. Thanks to Club Master Amy, I was able to escape unharmed. Amy, Sara, and Amanda have all been captured by GR No.3, though. You gotta help us defeat Team GR, Minto! GR No.3 is in our play hall along with the captured girls. However you won't be ready to duel him until you can beat me! We'll duel with 4 prize cards. Let's go, Minto!!  This is a slight problem, but thankfully Diglett isn't weak to Water. Most of our deck is though.   Stop running away! Ah well, I've been slowly making this deck less poo poo, and a Hitmonchan means instant competitiveness.   Hmm, can't take it out in one punch, man, so a horse will have to do. Such is the upper echalons of heroes.   I've been defeated... here, take this booster packs! You may have beaten me, but you'd better not lose against Team GR!  Haven't I been forgetting some- oh poo poo, mail!!!   Alright, we've got Ronald telling us about upcoming battles, but we'll save that for when we fight them, like before. What does the old man want?     Ok boomer, give me what you owe me and stop calling me!!!  Ah, but now we've scoped the situation, things are looking pretty bad. We're gonna need to think about what we can do with our current deck. Man, if I only I had every card in the game.  ...oh. Wait, uh, hold on. Sorry, ignore everything I said, I just found all my cards. In my other pocket, what are the chances? Next time, we'll rise up and fight back against these foreign invaders. And we won't be taking any prisoners! Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Feb 11, 2020 |
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Dec 11, 2019 05:22
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I had enough suggestions from before to carry over to everything I want to cover with them, so suggestions for the new expansions will come in a little bit! For now, welcome to La Resistance.
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Dec 11, 2019 05:23
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Part 2: Half Liberation Rock Club  One club got liberated without our help, so let's start there with decks chosen by youuuuuuu! Er, for the last game, but enough were suggested that I feel I could carry it over to this game. So let's properly show this Team Rocket's Rockin team first suggested by BisbyWorl, but we have a muuuuuch shorter character limit this game, whoops.   Sure, it might be cheap to use a Grass deck for this, but it's the early game, it really doesn't matter what we use.    Gas Explosion: This Pokémon does 30 damage to itself. If this attack Knocks Out the Defending Pokémon and your opponent chooses a new Active Pokémon, your opponent's new Active Pokémon becomes Poisoned. Any Vending or Intro cards we focus won't have any English translations since this JP only game was the only one to feature them! This card has some nice synergy, but only if you get lucky with coin flips and also KO. If the opponent doesn't clear out the Poison, then they'll take 70 damage by the time it gets back to them, 10 from initial Poison, 20 from the boosted Poison, and 40 from Gas Explosion. Of course you can combo with Defender so Weezing takes pathetic damage from it, pretty drat fun.   Bah, fine, we'll just poison whatever comes in.   Ugh, of course it's the Snorlax that can't get statused. Fine, we'll nearly wipe out this Onix in return. If you used all your Defenders and didn't take damage, then you could fire off this attack 5 times before fainting, which is pretty nuts.    Wrap: Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed. Deadly Poison: The Defending Pokémon is now Poisoned. If the Defending Pokémon was already Poisoned, this attack does 10 more damage. Ugh, Leer. This Vending Arbok comboes very well with Weezing since its attack has a guaranteed Poison, but I am using various versions of each mon if I can, so we're still using the Fossil Arbok that briefly showed up last game. The fact that you get 30 extra damage from using both Pokemon when the opponent is poisoned is beautiful and really makes it easy to use these Pokemon. Love it! First attack is first attack, you'll notice I rarely talk about those.   Fossil decks take a while to set up, but they're usually given good Powers to compensate. Andrew actually has a Kabutops to use, woah! As well as the Vending Omanyte that doesn't need Water energy, as well as evolution lockdown Aerodactyl and Rhydon. Not a bad deck, but he doesn't use many Trainers, so he doesn't have much spice to him. Oh well.   It has a good ability, but 4 energy for 30 damage with a paralysis chance is a big oof.    It's part of my style to have regrets whatsoever! I love a good duel! It helps develop my own style! Team Great Rocket... the moniker GR No.1... there's no one, no matter how weird, that our Club Master can't overcome! We'll fight against all of Team GR! We have the might! Are 4 prize cards acceptable? If you beat me, I'll give you a booster pack!  I'm really starting to dislike Pokeballs. Maybe there's other options...   Ryan has the... Great Earthquake deck. Uh, I feel like the translators messed up all the deck names, but whatever. So everything that has Earthquake, meaning he uses actual evolutions! Too bad he'll never find them. Since this Rocket Ekans does dependable damage, it'll rip right through this team if he can't KO me back.    Spoilers, he doesn't and I cut most of the battle due to so much SNIVEL Gaaahh, I lost! As promised, here's your booster pack. Your body and mind are both impressively strong after all! I'll take you on when you like. Any time! Kyah! Despite what it looked like, Team GR never got close to conquering us! Though I had been defeated by that GR No.1 fellow... but Team GR won't ever win again. I'll fight anyone who wants to duel! Alright, let's play! We'll use 4 prize cards! If you can beat me, I'll give you a booster pack!  At least we're not weak to Fire, phew.    Aright, what's ne- ah ffs, even with FOURTEEN BASICS you didn't draw into any, mama mia. He had some spicy Fire types along with Dugtrio and Golem to get the rock rolling. Might've been a bit tough, but you had your chance to show off, buh-bye!   Easy enough, now for the main event, since it's good to get early booster packs.  I'll give you the deck I used to flatten GR No.1! Well then, are you ready to take on the Rock Club Master or not? Bring it on! We'll use 6 prize cards. Club Master Duel  Aw yeah, fighting the Club Masters again. Well, the ones that haven't been kidnapped at least. Ahem.    Bind: Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed. Rock Seal: Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon can’t retreat during your opponent's next turn. Trying to paralyze me? I'll just evolve and poison you. Hah! There's some cards I wanna highlight just cause of the art. Nothing more.   Isn't this just grand. How's it going? Things are fine for me, just playing a fun game, getting a little stuck cause it keeps flipping Leer.   Exploding is a little excessive...    But watch this drive. Since this card keeps not popping up, I'll have to cover it during this easy enough battle. Rhydon takes no damage from Ram with Defender, but constantly swapping out the opponent is a bit annoying. Otherwise it's relatively cheap and can sometimes force your foe to swap in a weak mon they were powering up.   Best part, it lasts through the enemy's turn, so we're able to hang on and do it again! We're not getting a lot of evolutions even though Gene doesn't have a lot to clog up his deck. There's Rhydon and Vending Graveler, as well as lots of energy and even 2 Bill! However, too many Basics like 4 Onix probably slowed him down, but one day Onix will be good. It's called Steelix.    Take this, my GR No.1 K.O. deck. It should prove useful for duelling GR No.1! Also... take this gift from me!  By all means! Please use it in your duel against GR No.1! At the moment, GR No.1 seems to have retreated to the Fighting Club. Please, Minto! You're their only hope!  I'll probably swap coins when we swap decks and show as many off as I can. But there are some you just should not try to collect, you get plenty of cool ones during the story. Anyway, doing some parts of the story reward you in theme decks! Available in all good toy stores now. They focus on a specific strategy and are a good way to get some specific cards. But, well, of course they're bad in this game. Still, free draw supporters, or, well, 1 Oak. Still, Sweat! Anti-GR1 Deck focuses on Fighting and Grass mons, with Graveler and Nidorino being the only real highlights. The other evolved mon is Metapod, which doesn't count. Honestly just take the Diglett and use it in a better deck, and 2 bonus Energy Search is nice. You're only using this deck if you want a challenge or if you have literally no other cards to use. Such a shame.   Gotta get all the Promos again. Most of them are still bad, but there's even worse ones in this game! Hahaha...  Hmm, what is it? Oh. It's you again! You already had a Card Pop! with me. We can't have another, you know! Maybe we'll get more cards later! See ya! GR Invasion! That's his Stone Coin! It's proof of your victory. In that case, I challenge you to a duel. My question is, do you have the courage to fight the great GR No.1? We'll battle with 6 prize cards! If you manage to beat me, I'll retreat from the Fightin' Club! Just a fair warning, though: it's impossible for you to win. Team GR Battle Yo, Minto! I'm just writing you to say that I'll relay any information I find out about Team GR via mail. Remember to check your mail frequently for updates, okay? I have some intel about GR No.1! His deck is made of Water and Electric Pokemon, so fight him with a deck capable of repelling his Magnemite! Later! Ronald (O__O) So our first GR battle, and you'd think that with the Grass emblem on them, they would have that deck, right? Nope, Water/Electric! Seems legit.   At the same time, this Pikachu is being annoying, but it's pretty fragile, so it's only one boomer away, ok.    Bite Tail Drop: Flip 2 coins. If either of them is tails, this attack does nothing. The first Kanga was useful as early game draw support, while hitting hard if you found 2 DCEs, but this Vending one is, uh, interesting looking? And quite strong if you don't get tails. You'll get tails though, so maybe don't bother. Am I posting these final stage Vending mons due to the art? Maybe. Are some of them usable? Also maybe.   Oh no, not the bubbles.   Since I've only played this game once, I don't really remember what GR uses, so stumbling into another weakness advantage is a shame, but whatever, if you don't find your evolved mons, that's not my problem.   Taking 40 damage between my turns is enough to make any Pokemon feel a biy sickly. This deck could eventually reach Vending Poliwrath and Jungle Electrode, but I doubt it with equal energy and more focus on Water cards. Also 4 Magnemite that can't evolve lol      Hmm, Dark Pokemon? Wonder if we'll see more of those later, fufufu...   You've got a lot of guts, kid. To take on the illustrious Team GR. Try to collect all four pieces of our coin. If you can manage that, you'll be able to travel to GR Island! However... can you truly collect them all? By the way! Team GR still has the Club Master, Mitch, held captive. If you'd like him back, find your way over to GR Island! Fighting Club I promise to protect the Fighting Club until Mitch returns. I won't stop my training. You do your best, too!  All the trades can be done as soon as you encounter them, but since you won't have the cards, they can wait until we liberate that club.   We've got another good deck from Blaze Dragon, fittingly, as we light the electricity... on fire? Sure.     We'll say this is stylized, otherwise this artist doesn't know what circles are. It does have an interesting attack that does 20 plus 10 more for each Voltorb in play, so up to 60! For 2 energy! Too bad it dies easily.   Alright, well we haven't gotten any Bench Pokemon, so hopefully Sonicboom doesn't kill us. It might.   Aw man, well in very dire situations, I use an Oak to burn my entire hand in the hopes of getting some kind of Basic! So we're fine.   Noooooooo!!! Intro Growlithe!!!    This is a very powerful mon that can easily outdamage Charizard if you keep it supplied with energy and it takes a long while to charge up in the back, making it real easy to snipe. Its first attack lets you drag in something heavy so you can set up in its face, but you really don't wanna waste a DCE for it. Can even OKHO itself!   Didn't get a Fire energy on that turn, but I did now! Nicholas has a mix of Colourless and Lightning, lots of speedy Pokemon like Fearow, Electrode and Dodrio   I'm steadily putting in new cards so there's not too much to go over at once, Nightly Garbage Run is a nice way to stop you getting decked out, which happens too many times than I'd like, rolling a Revive and Energy Retrieval into one.    Hurting me only makes me stronger! This is a Promo card from last game, which we won't get for a fair while, but any Promos we saw last game are fair to use now, I say, deciding that right now.   We'll play with the full 6 prize cards. It's a duel to end all duels! Try to enjoy yourself! Club Master Duel  The classic fight, dog vs rat.   This Pikachu is kicking my rear end, however, Spark is a nice 20 damage.   Might as well attract this genderless ball towards us to take it out, still a couple turns from hitting it though.   Hm? Oh right, our first Dark Pokemon we're fighting, should probably talk about these, since as you can see they're not a huge improvement, but they're at least interesting. Introduced in the Team Rocket expansion, they have a fair new fun mechanics to them, but aren't related to the upcoming Dark, or Evil, type, they're just Bad Pokemon. As you can see, Energy Bomb isn't a very good attack, but there 31 Dark Pokemon in total, all evolved Pokemon, so I'm sure some of them will be good.   Alright, Ninetales needs to calm down.    Rude. Here's the other star of the show, Arcanine does a lot of damage once it gets properly set up and has a weaker, but still very sufficient Flamethrower. It's also pretty drat bulky for a Stage 1, so it can take a few hits while you're powering it up. Defender will also makes sure it spends a long time tackling things to the ground.    Enough to torch what's left. Isaac also mixes in some Colourless like Pidgeotto, but also has Dark Raichu and Fossil Zapdos. He does a lot of bench damage and has plenty of Potions and Gusts to keep things on his side. Of course, as you saw, the AI did basically none of that, I keep listing the potential of these decks, but it's a miracle if they even evolve anything, let alone follow a strat. I wonder if I should even bother lmao  Whaaat?! Isaac, you clumsy fool! Alright, Minto, you may have won this time... but you're still no match for me. Take some time to toughen up. I'll be waiting in in the Psychic Club for you. See you. Oh, oh, and since I don't need the Lightning Club anymore, it's yours. I don't need to collect any of the weak cards here anyway. Later, Minto. Remember, I'll be waiting at the Psychic Club. I can't belive it! You somehow rescued the Lightning Club! Please take this Lightning Coin as a reward!  I've heard that their Club Master, Murray, has also been captured. Surely you can find a way to help him like you've helped me! Good luck, Minto!! The Psychic Club has been under GR No.4's control, too. Surely she's employed some sort of dastardly trap over there... That GR No.4 ran off... now how will I get my Pikachu back? I just saw GR No.4 running out, yelling about you, Minto. I just knew you were strong enough to defeat Team GR. You're so tough, Minto!! Well we can't let them just escape like that!    Dizzy Punch: Flip 2 coins. This attack does 10 damage times the number of heads. Mega Punch Our first new Promo is a pretty standard Kangaskhan, nothing particularly special about it, though it is quite a coveted and rare card. Released through the Parent/Child Mega Battle tournament in May 1998 to those with a certain number of wins, it has the TCG logo as the set symbol, reserved for the rarest of cards, making it a very pretty collectors item. That's about it.  That's great... but you won't fight me just yet. Isn't that right, Murray? Precisely... Lady GR No.4... These are my terms for our duel: you must defeat Murray first.    We can head straight to Murray, but he's not the only fight in this club, so hey, let's fight Stephanie.   What?! That's like my entire strategy!!! gently caress!!!   Oh hey remember when Kadabra cards used to be a thing? There's actually 2 Vending Kadabra since there's no Vending Alakazam, though only one is in the game. Its first attack, Psycho Panic, is pretty crazy, 30 damage for 2 energy and does DOUBLE DAMAGE against other Psychic cards. Remember some of them are weak to Psychic! All for 2 energy, goddamn.   Anyway it dies in one hit, same for Abra. Thank you for not using Base Alakazam, although the Promo Alakazam is also pretty scary, we'll see it later I'm sure. Otherwise she has Gengar and Mewtwo, being able to trade for which cards she wants, as well as Breeder to fully evolve them. Since we need to beat the Lightning Club to come here, the difficulty is bumped up ever so slightly.      Man, do I have to fight Murray?  If you wish to challenge me, you must defeat Murray first. I've already told you this! Remember this time!  He doesn't seem any different. He was one of the hardest fights last game, let's see how he is now. Club Master Duel  I'll drink to that bro, he's starting off with Friendship Song.   Alright hopefully I can draw into something and actually hit this drat puff.  Oh hey, an evolution card. Finally.   We saw this GB Ninetales last game, Mixing Embers has the potential to be crazy, buuuuuut to beat one 50HP mon that keeps spamming SHINING FINGER for 20 damage is going to be...     Fun. Very, very fun.   Easy clean up from there. Murray doesn't have Alakazam, thank god, but does have Vending Slowbro and Wigglytuff, which are annoying and terrifying, respectively. Standard healing items, then Moon Stone, from the Vending expansion, lets you search for an evolved Colourless, interesting, couple of those to save Computer Search.      It seems to have been triggered from my defeat! Thank you, Minto! Will you still fight with GR No.4? In that case, accept this gift. You should find it quite helpful to take her down!    It's a nice change of pace. While I seem to be freed from the mind control, the others are not. I'm afraid the spell can't be broken until GR No.4 is defeated. Please do your best, Minto! Ew, another lovely deck. Unforgiving Anti-GR4 Deck focuses on Psychic and Lightning, with Haunter, Kadabra, Raichu and Electabuzz. It has 2 free Bill and a DCE, so hey that's nice, but with no fun evolutions, it'll probably come up short. Still Kadabra's Super Psy and Intro Raichu do some pretty good damage, but best to wrap them into something else and have fun with some alright toys.  Big deal! I'm super-strong myself, so you'd best be ready to loooose! 6 prize cards, kid. Oh ho ho, can you really beat me? Team GR Leader Yo, Minto! Are you checking your mail? I've got some intel about GR No.4. Her deck uses Water and Psychic Pokemon. She's got pure power with her Kingler's Double-Edged Claw! I've gotta go talk to Murray from the Psychic Club somehow so he can give me some tips on how to ward off her evil spirits... Ronald (O__O) Alright, since we just got the deck to beat her, then you know what types she uses. Well, her mask is actually truthful this time, since she has a Psychic and Water deck.   Ice Punch hurts, so we'll have to use this Vending Vulpix, which can drag in opponents before doing damage.   Oh no you don't!   Let's use the other GB attack. It bites me immediately.    Salt Water: Flip a coin. If heads, search your deck for up to 3 Water Energy cards and attach them to this Pokémon. Double-Edged Claw: During your opponent’s next turn, all damage done to this Pokémon is doubled. Until it helps me instead! Like I need double damage to kill this Vending Kingler, but it could be real scary if you can't retaliate!  Remember that this isn't the Card Pop! Mew, it's the standard devolution one that also really hurts cards with a lot of energy on them.   But since she keeps getting lucky with Hypnosis, let's switch and flip a million coins instead. Sound better? Sure, we'll go with that.    She keeps retreating, so this isn't too great. You ever try to punch a psy? A bench punisher is pretty funny, especially since it can't be resisted by common Colourless mons, but in some situations, especially early game, Psypunch will do you better.    She won't show it off, but its art is badass, so here it is. I guess this gives a Psychic deck options against Fire ones? Still, 3 cards in a pinch is pretty good, and Super Psy has always been a good card, so definitely an interesting niche it's carved out.   Just like that. We saw drat near every card in her deck, aside from Seadra, so you can see what she wants to do. Couple of Energy Removals, couple of Bills, nothing all that crazy, just hits you hard with Psychic damage, or in the case of Golduck and Jynx, Water with Psychic or Psychic with Water.   It was just a fluke you won... but because you bested my toughness, take this coin piece.  You can travel to GR Island if you collect all 4 GR Coin pieces! With the full coin, you may ride our airship at the island's airport. That all depends on whether you're strong enough to beat us all! Well, see ya! Thank you, Minto. It seems the club's safe now. I'll make sure Team GR doesn't capture us all again. Oh? Is that so? Thank you, Minto! My name's Robert. I'm a member of the Psychic Club. Really, thank you so much for saving our club! I'm Daniel! I'm in the Psychic Club. Thanks for bringing us out of that trance Team GR put us under. But please don't lose respect for our Club Master, Murray... it's been so long since he's had such tough opposition... I am... Stephanie of the Psychic Club... GR No.4... this resentment... I will remember...Phew, that was quite the update, we've done quite a lot, so next time we'll head to other Clubs and hopefully we'll get this wrapped up in- Rival Theme Wow! So you beat two members of Team GR already? I wouldn't expect otherwise from my destined rival! Fortunately, I've been amassing lots of card myself. I've got a full deck now! Let's have a duel! We'll use 6 prize cards! If you win, I'll give you a rare card!  Ronald was one of the few characters to get new artwork. Dr. Mason got some too, but the scans are incredibly bad, and only 1 new character in this game got artwork, you can probably guess who. Anyway, he's still got them poses down after all this time, I'm so proud.   We're at a bit of a disadvantage since he's using Water, but maybe if I confuse him enough...    But hey, we've got some embers going, so maybe- I wonder how many times I can make this joke. As expected, the cards I had gathered weren't quite enough... well, I guess it was inevitable. Here, this card is now yours! I need to collect more cards... anyway, if I dig up any new intel about Team GR, I'll let you know!Cool, with that diversion out of the way, it's on to the next club! Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Feb 11, 2020 |
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Dec 20, 2019 00:08
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Part 3: Few, Frenetic Fights There's still half of the island to free, and we'll do so with a fossil Lockdown deck, suggested by Gridlocked. I wanted to show off a fossil deck, since they're... interesting. However, the main issue is that Mysterious Fossil isn't a Basic, so you can't solely use Fossil mons, so Lapras will be slapped on for better energy balance and something to start with.  If so, you must first defeat me in a card duel! 6! We'll duel with 6 prize cards! GR Leader Battle Yo, Minto! Are you checking your mail? I've secured some more important information about Team GR! This time, I pulled all the stops! Don't let my efforts go to waste! I've been shadowing GR No.3 lately. His deck is made of Grass and Fire Pokemon! If he sets up his Exeggutor, its Big Eggsplosion can really hurt! Be careful! Ronald (O__O) First goal of any fossil deck is getting out your Mysterious Fossils, and hoping to god your opponent doesn't snipe them during their turn. Fossil Excavation is useful for this since it lets you find one from your deck OR discard, which will keep this deck running smooth.   Fuckin balls... anyway we've seen what this Lapras does, so we'll focus on the other cards. And of course, despite having a Lightning mask, we're fighting a Grass and Fire deck. One does lead to the other I suppose.   We nearly lost here since I wasn't drawing into anything and was left with a single Mysterious Fossil. That was a close one!    Thankfully we're able to turn this around, cause this Kabutops is great! I like using the different cards a mon has, but Kabutops only gets the one until the GS era for whatever reason. Anyway, Sharp Sickle is very useful and if you charge it up some more, it'll heal itself, since it's pretty drat fragile. This is essentially a Stage 2 for how much it needs setup, but since we're facing a Vending Moltres that needs as much setup as us, I think we'll be fine.   The, well, Fossil Omanyte has a pretty drat good power, seeing what our opponent is up to, the cheeky bugger. That Exeggutor looks scary, so let's try to avoid it. I'm also using the two Vending Omanyte, which also have interesting effects, giving you 10 extra damage from all your fossil mons for a turn, or letting you draw a Mysterious Fossil from the discard. If you get a coin flip, of course.   This Fighting resistance all the birds have is a pain, but it's not like it's doing anything in return.    Let's at least speed this up a bit. If they didn't keep running away. OMASTAR can be built up in the back for Water Gun, which is still a nice attack, even if you lose Clairvoyance to do it. You could also try your luck with Spike Cannon, but Water Gun gets just as strong with a couple extra turns of setup, so it's not a big deal. Still, considering how much effort these fossils are to evolve, the end result isn't hugely amazing.   Oh yeah, that's why you use fossil decks, cause Aerodactyl has an amazing power. Make sure you've got everything you want before you plop this card down, especially if you're using other Aerodactyl to attack. But if you've got a deck full of Basics, then you can completely screw over your opponent. Uh, unless they're also using Basics, but really, it's not like they're the most popular cards or anything, r-right?   But of course this screws over the AI like you wouldn't believe, leaving them with a bunch of weak unevolved Pokemon that you can easily pick off. Okay, these images aren't the best examples, but GR No.3 has 6 different cards that can evolve, even if they don't have the entire evolutionary lines.   This constant switching is a bit of a pain, but that's why running two types is useful in case you run into a deck that really screws you over.    Ah, more of these Dark thingys. There is a Dark Charizard, but GR No.3 decided not to use one, probably because it can only evolve from Dark Charmeleon, whereas this can evolve from any Charmander. Its attack is weirdly worded, of course you'd need Fire energy to use it, morons, but a coin flip is pretty eh. Considering regular Charmeleon is pretty drat good, it's hard to recommend it, but maybe Dark Charizard is worth it (spoilers, it isn't).    In a pinch, Aerodactly does alright damage with Wing Attack, nothing too tough!  And you'll take these lovely booster packs! I'll set the club members free from their cage now. Here goes--! GRAAAAAAAHHH!!!! Don't think you've won! I've still got the Fire Club under my control! I'll be waiting for you at the Fire Club, kid! Water Club Thank you so much for defeating that Team GR member! Here-- take this deck as a reward for your victory. It should be useful in battling GR No.3 later!    GR No.3 is in the Fire Club now. Be extra careful around him! I know you'll succeed, Minto!! Both Amanda and I almost drowned in the pool... we were getting exhausted treading water inside that cage. Thank you, Minto. You saved us just in time! I'm Amanda! Thank you so much for your help. Only you could have done it, Minto!Hmm, well, maybe I should've done this first, considering they were on a time limit to drowning and all... those wacky card games!  That GR No.3 was rushing out of here so fast, he dropped some cards! I'll take this Lost Isle booster pack. Here, you can have the other, a Legends booster pack! Keep up your rhythm of defeating the Team GR members! I'll help by sharing any booster packs I find! Later, Minto! Now that we've had help from our ~ Friendly Rival ~ it's time to free another club.    Scratch Clear Profit: Flip a coin until you get tails. For each heads, draw a card. Oh look it's a terrible Promo Meowth that I guess you could use for early game draws before dying? It was available as an insert in the Jan 98 CoroCoro issue and was never available otherwise. Cool, or whatever.  He has since returned here and is waiting for you! You can win again, I know it! Good luck, Minto!! It was my own foolishness that cost me ownership of the Water Club. It caused me a lot of mental trauma losing to a twerp like you! However, I've gotten stronger. You'll never free the Fire Club! We'll have a fateful duel with 6 prize cards! If you somehow manage to best me again, I'll free the Fire Club! GR Leader Battle  Boy doesn't this look familiar. GR No.3 is lying, he's using the exact same deck, but we got a theme deck to make this rematch easier, since we had such a hard time last time? Vengeful Anti-GR3 Deck features Gyarados, Wartortle, Ninetales and Arcanine, so it's not too bad, but it has too few Fire energy for how discard happy that type is. But I'll happily take the Bill and Prof Oak! Sucker.   Here's a fun strat, let's slap down an Aero immediately so all we have to face are weak basics. Sure, we could've put some more Aero down, but oh where's the fun in that. This is all we'll need.   Dry Up can be a pain, but only if it actually lands more than 1 head.   Paralysis is a great time to switch to the Vending Lapras. 2 energy for 30 damage with Surf is pretty nice.     But man this is pretty easy, imagine if he could actually evolve any of these mons??? Well, as you can see, Dark Gloom is annoying, but nothing too crazy, but Dark Vileplume would've screwed us over, though thankfully Mysterious Fossil is a Trainer in name only. Thankfully its attack means you don't want to do more than 30 damage, but it's also not a big deal with switches. Otherwise, they had Jungle Pinsir, which does a fair bit of damage for not much setup, and Exeggutor, which we all know how terrifying that is.   Ahah, you just activated my trap card! Surprised it took me that long to make that joke, but leaving a Mysterious Fossil around can be helpful, since the AI can't resist and you don't lose a prize for it.  Nooo! Defeated again... how are you so strong?! Argh... take these booster packs. You've also earned this for defeating me twice.  If you own all four, you can use our airship at the airport. It only flies to GR Island, where I happen to be headed myself. Since you've defeated me, I'll free the Fire Club right away. Fire Club  Minto, you have my gratitude. Please, come over here. We! The Fire Club! Thank you for your help!! I know it's not much, but take this Fire coin. Use the Fire coin in a duel to singe your competition! Please hurry and defeat any GR thugs still hanging around! We saw your battle, and wow! You burned so hot! I'd love to have a duel with you! You burned! You sizzled! You spread like wildfire! I can't help but feel the urge to have a duel with you! Thanks, Minto! You pulled through! Fire! Come back sometime so we can have a duel! FIIIRE!! One last GR member remains, and since we've done 2 battles so far, we'll stick with the fossil deck for a little bit longer.  You fought Miss Brittany to learn of my whereabouts, right? Thank you very much, Minto. Since you could defeat Brittany, surely you're trustworthy. Please take this. It might be useful when fighting GR No.2.    Please do your best to save the Grass Club!  Alright, let's go fight the- uh, are they not here? Team GR Takeover!  Ah, so a GR No.3 situation, gotta fight them twice to clear out both clubs. Very well, I accept! Oh wait, got some mail.   Riveting, gimme the free stuff old man!!!   That includes this Club's Master, Rick, of course! He's aaall ours! Ohhh? Who's there?! So the rumors are true! It's you, Minto! Let's see just how strong you are in reality! 6 prize cards! Let's gooo! GR Leader Battle Yo, Minto! I've got some new intel for you. It's really useful stuff!! I wrote as soon as I could! Be sure to keep checking your mail for my updates, Minto! My latest reconnaissance uncovered GR No.2's deck: it's made of Grass and Fighting Pokemon. Be especially wary of his Dark Arbok! (O__O) Alright, what kind of deck have you got?  Just what Ronald said, was he also using Omanyte? The Give In! Anti-GR2 Deck is alright due to having Seaking and Parasect as the main focus, along with Ivysaur and, uh, Kakuna? 2 Pluspowers are very, VERY nice and you're given enough Magikarp between 2 decks to fill them out, so that's cool I guess? All these theme decks are mostly lame, but that's why you carve them up into something delicious!    Alright, enough of these drat evolutions, let's slap you down! Attacks that have the opponent flip the coin are pretty rare, means it's not your fault if it doesn't work out, but due to how hilariously fragile this mon on, I don't think they're really gonna retreat, right? I don't really see the point in using this over EARTHQUAKE!!!   Oh hey Sandslash isn't a Pokemon we haven't really seen, but that's because they're pretty bad. Maybe this Vending one is maybe slightly more interesting? Maybe not.   Alright, it's probably for the best we can evolve stuff again, might as well have the opponent put up some kind of resistance.   Dynamax Diglett???    We're nearly at the end, and to be fair, they're kinda kicking my rear end, but here's the other Dark Pokemon they're using. It's fine, I guess, Poison Vapor takes a lot of energy for not a lot of damage, but it has utility. If Stare was a blanket Power stop for a turn, then this could've been interesting, but it's a bit fragile and doesn't do too much to justify it.    And that's a wrap, somewhat of a close fight, they had a Parasect, a Pinsir and Onix as other mons we didn't see, but they could get cluttered with spare Geodude and leftover Ekans that it's a miracle we saw as many evolutions as we did.     Go on over to our airport. Show them that coin and you can fly for free! By the by, we still have the Science Club Master, Rick, in our custody. If you want him back, you'll just have to come to GR Island. Maybe I'll see you on our island! I'm outta heeere! Rival Theme I was busy while you were fighting against the members of Team GR. I snuck aboard their airship and took back some stolen cards! The cards have been returned to their owners in the island's Clubs! I also managed to snatch a few booster packs while I was there! Here, this Lost Isle booster pack has your name on it!! The airship that flies to GR Island is finally ready to board! You've gotta go! But be careful! It's enemy territory over there! I'm going to stick around this island and collect some more cards. My deck needs a lot of work before I'm ready to travel! I'll see ya later, Minto.  Guess we only fight GR No.2 the once? Weird. Well, everyone has their cards back and are ready to duel, if we so wish, but to dangle this new island in front of you and not go would be pretty mean, so let's get rocking!  GR No.5: Great! I'll allow you free passage to GR Island! Follow me.   They're acting like we can't immediately head back. Don't worry about any of that, hopping between both islands is what we'll be doing a fair bit of. On To GR Island!    Well there's our final destination. Boy is there a lot in our way to get to it. GR Island    Already there's a lot to explore and go over. Starting with, hm, this place?   Alrighty then. Well, we're in enemy territory, people are relying on us and we need to take them down as soon as we can, and there must be absolutely no distra-  Ooh, gambling! Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Feb 11, 2020 |
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Dec 26, 2019 04:06
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Short and sweet Xmas update cause I usually have quiet holidays, so uh, why not? Anyway, now that we're on a new island, it's time to open the floodgates and let you guys suggest decks to use for the rest of the game! Like before, it'll be pretty simple, but this time, you're offering up a Dark Pokemon for me to use! Just make sure it's not from a future expansion like Neo Destiny. Feel free to suggest a second Pokemon to pair with the Dark Pokemon, no matter how well they synergise, preferably a Pokemon we haven't focused on before. You can also suggest Trainers and full decks if you really want, but I'll definitely focus on the Dark Starters if you want to suggest partners for those. There's over 400 cards in this game, so I'd better see some cool poo poo!
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Dec 26, 2019 04:11
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Don't forget to name your decks also, though I'll come up with my own name if need be. Also, I should mention that since this game came after Neo Destiny, despite not featuring Gen 2 mons, any exclusive cards to this game appear under the Dark Pokemon from that set specifically to annoy me, so don't miss out on including Dark Ninetales, Dark Starmie, Dark Marowak, Dark Gengar, Dark Clefable, Dark Fearow, or Dark Venusaur in your considerations!
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Dec 27, 2019 00:16
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Part 4: An Entire Update About The Game Corner Game Corner  There are lots of slot machines and video games you can play here. You can exchange the chips you win for a Promotional Card Voucher. I just got a few vouchers myself. Here, take one, Minto! Of course, you can't put that card in any of your decks! Instead, you trade it and one of the other listed cards for sweet Promos! Be careful, though, because you won't get either card back. Anyway, I'm off to search for the people that Team GR kidnapped. I was so hooked to the games here that I almost forgot! Heh heh... later, Minto! Bill's PC This card is needed to exchange either an Omanyte, Haunter, Machoke, Graveler, or Kadabra for its corresponding evolution card. This is a card necessary for enlistment in the "Communication Evolution campaign". For detailed contents, carefully read the remarks on the "Expansion Sheet – Green Edition". (You can't use this card in games.) So here's a weird card. It is an actual card that was released in the third series of the Vending expansion. Available on 2 of the 18 sheets, Bill's PC could be mailed to MediaFactory before April 1999 along with 1 of 5 cards, Kadabra, Machoke, Graveler, Haunter and... Omanyte. You'd then get an evolved Promo card back from them, which was the only way to obtain them. It's definitely, uh, one way of doing a promotion, but we'll be able to obtain all of those cards in this game through a similar method.  CHIP GIRL: You don't have any chips, do you? Here, I'll give you 10 chips! Alrighty, then! Please enjoy your time at the Game Center! Just remember that you can't take the chips outside of the Center.   You have to leave your chips at the left counter, but can reclaim them at any time, while the right counter is the prizes! We can get as many of these as we want, bar the coin, with the Present Pack being that amount of that booster, which, since we're not in tutorial land, can contain any card from any booster. You might recognise the top cards, they were the Card Pop! exclusives from last game. There's 2 Card Pop! exclusives in this game too, bah.   So you want to get every card in this game?   This is exactly how it sounds. No real tricks or cheats, you've gotta get 10 loving heads in a loving row. What are the chances? Well, 1 in 2, since they're independant variables, but it's a 1/1024 chance so we can go wow at the big number. So getting the Mew card is basically like getting a shiny, so congrats if you get it! I won't be getting it. As for payouts, you get rewards for 3 heads on, for 20, 40, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 3000 and then Mew.     Got kinda close after 45 minutes of trying. Even if you won't get the Mew card, because of how quick this game is and how good the rewards are if you get lucky, this is the best way to get chips and if you want to get 4 of each card, then you'll need a lot of chips. You don't need to buy any Bill's Computer though, since we get 4 more elsewhere, and you only need 5. As for the Mew card? It's the one from the second Challenge Cup last game, uh, the one we technically didn't get. You're not missing much, though it doesn't take damage from evolved Pokemon. So, moving on!     Here's one way to get 5 Promos, I guess. Let's go over them, since I'm never gonna come back here after this update...  Tentacle Grip: Flip a number of coins equal to the number of Water Energy attached to Omastar. For each heads, draw 2 cards. Corrosive Acid: Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed. If tails, you can't use this attack during your next turn. Let's start with the odd one out, since it's something we could've seen when I used the fossil deck, but they're tricky to show everything if you don't get the right order, so oh well. It's not a great card due to so many coin flips, but you could use it for draws as you're charging it up. Probably not gonna though, and not being able to use a 40 damage attack if you flip wrong is proportionately excessive.  Oh hey some English cards! We did get some Vending, as well as the Promos, you just didn't know it. This was available through TCG leagues in Feb 2002 and seems pretty alright. You can do a lot of flips if you get damaged to increase your odds of more damage, but Fling is probably a preferable option since that's a lot of damage to then use with a bench damage mon or something. Still, ones where they choose the mon aren't as effective, but still not bad.  Rollout Rock Blast: You may discard up to 5 Fighting Energy cards attached to Golem. For each Fighting Energy you discarded, choose 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon and this attack does 20 damage to it. (You may choose the same Pokémon more than once.) Don’t apply Weakness or Resistance. Hmm, well this one isn't as good. You can't get max damage consecutively for Rock Blast unless you have NINE Fighting energy, which seems a bit much, but man that's a lot of damage you can spread around. Still, considering how much effort you need to evolve this all the way, I think it's a bit much for a Stage 2. Oh well, maybe that's why we didn't get some cards, they're a bit poo poo!  Psycho Panic: If the Defending Pokémon is Psychic, this attack’s base damage is doubled. Trance Damage: Discard all Energy cards attached to Alakazam. Move all damage counters from Alakazam to the Defending Pokémon. This one seems a lot better. Psycho Panic pops up a couple of times and it's a very good move, since Psychic cards usually have a weakness to Psychic cards, so it's 120 damage for 2 energy, which is super big brained. Also 3 energy to fully heal you and KO any Pokemon lower than 80HP? Yes please! However, outside of those niche incidents, it's not a fantastic card and could also find itself on the other end of a Psycho Panic. But that first attack alone makes a good card.  Power of Darkness: When you play Gengar from your hand, you may flip a coin. If heads, choose 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon. Your opponent returns that Pokémon and all cards attached to it to his or her hand. Psy Horror: Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Asleep. If tails, the Defending Pokémon is now Confused. Last one is tricky, like Gengar usually is. If you're facing a scary evolved mon then the chance of getting rid of it is pretty drat powerful, while getting any ailment from an attack is always a good damage trade. No matter what, your opponent needs to flip well to do anything or get switching. Overall, not bad, but really, how many people really used these cards with how rare they are? At least this one got reprinted in the Web expansion...   Phew, that was a few Promos, so let's talk about more Promos! Well, while we can get a variety of Promos depending on the cards we put in, only 1 is actually exclusive to this machine, the rest are obtained through a variety of ways, mainly NPC trading, so this is a way to get more than 1 easily. Or, well, easy when you know the combinations. Look online.   Still, there's a LOT of combinations of cards you can feed into this machine to get various Promos, or evolved cards, or even a lot of random stuff, such as trading in 5 Energy Search for 1 Computer Search. Trading in Pokemon of different levels can result in getting the same evolution back, such as getting Fossil Arbok regardless of which Ekans you trade in, which you can then trade 5 of that to get 1 Vending Arbok. The combinations are endless and also not listed aside from a few extra outside of Promos! Great fun. Let's go over the exclusive Promo!  Peek: Once during your turn (before your attack), you may look at one of the following: the top card of either player's deck, a random card from your opponent's hand, or one of either player's Prizes. This power can't be used if Mankey is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed. Scratch By trading in a Fossil Hitmonlee and Vending Hitmonchan, you can get this cool card. Well, it's identical to the Fossil Mankey, but this was an insert to the first volume of How I Became A Pokemon Card, a manga that delved into the backstories and origins of various illustrations that also lasted for 6 volumes! Crazy what kids those days were into.  Kinky. This will be the bulk of the update, but there's 2 more attractions to show off.   Of course these are here. Depending on which symbol you match up depends on what you get paid out. No I don't know the amounts, but getting Fire/Lightning pays more than Water/Colourless.   It's best to use the golden machines instead, as they offer 5 times the rewards for 5 times the price, it just speeds everything up.   There's a very good chance you'll get something when CHANCE! comes up, but you can still fail. Lining up the only 3 Rainbow puts you into a bonus round where you can win 100/500 chips depending on the slots, or a booster pack with energy. Woo.   Not bad after a bit of playing, so this is the main reward we're getting.  Now we can get all these prizes as many times as we like!    You need to pay 10 chips to fight. Will you challenge me? We'll have a duel with 4 prize cards, then! Come on, let's fight! Normal Duel  Ah dammit we have Fighting resistance while I'm using a Fighting deck. While on GR Island, we'll be using their own tools against them, so this is a Dark Machamp and Dark Primeape deck suggested by LiefKatano and anilEhilated. Good to lead off with the cool Promo.    Thankfully we have a card that lets us ignore resistance, since Drag Off is a very good attack to hit stuff you switch in. Or, you can do the opposite and hit something before it gets switched out, so it gives you a lot of freedom with your opponent's bench. And you know how much the AI loves slapping down any Basic it gets it paws on.   You can run, you can heal, but you can't escape! Honestly, it's a bit hard evolving Dark Machoke due to its utility, but Dark Machamp has its positives, too.   Besides, since we're not using a Water deck, this Moltres won't be doing much anyway. Also I like using Peek and other effects like it to see prize cards so I can pick the ones I need, uh, so long as I remember where they are.   This strategy will only work for so long lmao. Pawn's deck is pretty drat simple, just lots of beefy Basics to try and roll for various effects. Moltres is there so Fighting doesn't roll right over her and Magmar does some alright Fire damage. She also has 4 Potions and Energy Removals just to be the most annoying.    Paralysis is one way to get me to evolve! Nice and dependable damage with Mega Punch and then an incredibly devious attack in Fling. Usually if you throw a Pokemon away, the opponent can recover quickly by putting it back on the bench and attaching some energy. But throwing back into the DECK is so evil. Sure, they could draw it back with Computer Search or Pokeball, but only the Basic stage and it really helps getting rid of anything you seriously don't want to deal with. I do prefer sniping for prizes, but drat does this have utility.   The only thing is we, uh, need 4 Fighting energy for that, so let's show off the other half. We can finish off this Chansey no prob-   Hey, get back here!    Mmm, sounds about right. 2 energy for 70 damage is incredible, but you could also slam yourself in the face and die the next turn if you don't flip well. You can use a variety of switches, as well as using the free retreat from Mankey to get around dealing with confusion, cause 40 damage is still pretty drat good, but I tend to just eat poo poo when relying on coin flips, so I don't wanna bother with them otherwise. Shame, cause it's a fun concept and you can even use Imakuni? to deal 70 damage all the time! You know, if it works.    Wicked Jab: Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed. Focus Blast: Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 20 damage to 1 of your opponent's Pokémon. Apply Weakness and Resistance. Still, when I run out of options, I have one last idea, HADOKEN! I mean, uh, Fighting Spirit Bullet? Sure. And only if we get the flip.    Because of your victory, you may advance deeper into the dungeon! You may now leave with your winnings or continue your journey! Will you fight on? As you wish! I'll open the doors ahead! By all means! Advance onward!  If you seek to delve deeper into the dungeon, you'll need to defeat me. You may wager 10 or 20 chips on our fight. Whichever amount you pay, a victory will get you double your wager. Do you understand the rules? Would you like to challenge me? How many chips will you wager? So you're wagering 20 chips. We'll use 4 prize cards, then. Come one, let's battle!  Looking pretty similar, though the deck name indicates what fun we'll encounter shortly. Good thing about Machamp decks is Machop is so good, though we are using the Vending one also, this just shows up when I need it.    Mega Kick Steady Punch: Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 20 more damage. What's that, you wanted ANOTHER Vending Machoke? Great card, 2 energy for 30 damage, or 3 energy for the same thing, but the chance of doing even more damage. Simple and has great artwork, of course I'll highlight it!   Lots of effects going around, wonder if he'll use them? Thankfully he doesn't have the evolution stopping Aerodactyl and also, uh, no Omastar? Well, his Kangaskhan and Charizard can pick up the slack when he just has Mysterious Fossils, because he will be using 4 Fossil Excavations. You might not kill them with 4 Defenders and 4 Bill either. Weird, seems like the AI are actually getting less garbage decks???   ...uh, he just used Kabuto's power to devolve Omanyte, which KOed itself since it had 30 damage, so I couldn't get the prize card. loving big brain plays over here, goddamn.   Not that it really matters, fossil decks are always a pain to get going and it seems like he wasn't having much luck. Hell, we don't even need to be confused to OHKO his last mon.    Will you continue fighting or do you want to retire? Then I shall open the doors! There we are. Please proceed to the next room.  If you think you can compare to my might, bet me 10 or 30 chips! If you emerge victorious, you'll win a greater sum of chips back! If you wager 30 chips, you'll win 60. That is my decree! Choose now! Will you challenge my might? You're wagering 30 chips? Alright, let us begin! We'll duel for 4 prize cards!  Grass deck, this time around, surely it won't be that bad?   Ah crap Fighting resistance, ah crap confusion. But hey, I think we've got one more way around that.   The OG Machamp is still a terrifying threat, especially because Zubat is taken out in 1 turn even with resistance!   So good it happens 3 times! The AI never learns. Another load of Fighting resists in Golbat and Scyther to help Porygon and... Cool Porygon do their weakness and resistance changes. Hm, we'll see soon enough if it is as cool as it says. Otherwise, Switches and Scoop Ups let him keep his annoying mons nice and healthy, really glad we didn't see any Scyther, sheesh.    As I am defeated, I must open the door onward. Will you continue? Behold! The doors open at my call! Now continue your journey!  If you have the power to defeat me, you may go on to meet our queen. To battle me, you'll need to wager either 30 or 50 chips. Do you understand? Have you the courage to fight me? I'll take your 50 chips. Prepare yourself! I fight to 5 prize cards!  Another fight, another resistance. We're getting to the end, but hopefully we can ignore this bird long enough to snipe some stuff.     Well since I knocked out the Basic, guess he switched up what he was gonna attack with. Fearow can be tricky, but its biggest attack has the chance of doing nothing, so maybe we'll get lucky.  Just one attack will take us out. But don't worry, I've got a backup. Of course I do, do you think I was worried this whole time? Well, I wasn't! Don't put in the paper that I was!   The main issue is we need to knock out something in one hit so it doesn't retreat. Recycle Energy counts for 1 Colourless energy and returns to your hand instead of the discard, so it's very stubborn to get rid of.   Sheesh, finally. Was wondering if I was ever going to sack this thing.   Anyway, gently caress outta here. We saw most of what Rook does, though he has the GB Eeveelutions to not rely on specific energy, as well as Dark Vaporeon, which is just below. He also had Moon Stone to draw an evolved Colourless mon from the deck, so he could get set up quickly if he got lucky, along with Trader and Energy Removal.  Oh no the fox has become EVIL! Well it seems pretty standard, but can drain your enemy with energy discard, which is always devilish. Emergy Retrieval hampers this strat somewhat, but if your opponent is struggling with their hand, having them unable to attack at all is the best thing you can do in the game if you can't knock them out.    How about it? Will you challenge the Queen? With my magnificent power, the doors shall open! The Queen awaits you just ahead!  It's quite a feat to make it to my throne room, I must say! My wait is over. I can finally put this duelling table to use! This is the dungeon's final battle. I am known as Queen. I'm afraid to say that this castle has no King, unfortunately. However, you should find me more than tough enough! You may wager either 50 or 100 chips in a battle against me. Are you prepared for a climactic finale? Finally, a true card battle! Best of luck to you, warrior. Sit down in the chair opposite me and we shall start our match. We shall fight using 6 prize cards!  This turned into quite the side mode, didn't it? Still, we can beat down any deck that comes our way! Right?   Well this might be a little trickier due to all the big Basics this deck is comprised of. There's Magmar, Lapras, Electabuzz, Jynx and Hitmonchan, with plenty of energy for each. It doesn't matter if she draws into the wrong one, it'll still do some damage and she has a bit of a way around that.   Woah, the absolute lad got a big attack off! If only it wasn't the only one with 80HP.   But hey, even Mankey gets a kill due to Thunderpunch's recoil! We're staying afloat.   Oh poo poo.   OH poo poo! Well hopefully she doesn't get another Intro Jynx up. Due to weakness, Doubleslap does 40 damage for each heads.   Thankfully Breeder lets you go straight to the last stage, even for Dark Pokemon, so we're still in this! If only I had one more energy!!!    She just threw. Now we can knock it out next turn with Mega Punch! Rainbow Energy is super useful when you need a specific energy and you need it now. The 10 damage is a little annoying, but this is obviously a better sub for mons that need 2 different kinds of energy instead of just Colourless. Oh wait we lose if she gets 2 heads.    Oh mama that was close!  You are indeed the warrior I've been waiting for! What strength! Well, then. Take your prize. And with that, I must bid you a fond farewell, brave hero. I do hope you'll come play again. It gets so lonely back here!  Alright, well, uh, that was a lot. For 220 chips. It's an interesting idea, but such a slow way to get ca$$$h, so just play the coin flip, since that's basically what we did.   Still, nothing an AR code can't fix, but that's it for the Game Center! That was a lot more than you expected huh? Well I'm sure next time it's time to, you guessed it, finally explore the island!  After all, a lot's changed on TCG Island now that Team GR have left, so let's check in with everyone! Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Feb 11, 2020 |
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Jan 2, 2020 07:40
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Here's to a new decade of LPs! As always, please keep suggesting Dark Pokemon and Vending/Intro cards to use, try not to be too fancy in suggesting a bunch, I like keeping my decks simple enough that we can cover most of what it offers in the 5 or so fights we use them in. Also, thanks for continuing to read my stuff, my LPs have changed a lot over the last decade, cause I've been doing these for a lot longer than I might admit! But I'm really happy with where I've ended up and there's plenty more to do.
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Jan 2, 2020 07:43
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Part 5: War Recovery Could you do me a favor? Battle me so I can gauge my power! 4 prize cards, then! These 2 booster packs are on the line! Duel Time  It's time for lots of battles, since we'll be seeing who got their cards back on TCG Island and giving them their one moment in the sun. It's earlygame crew time, suggested by 1234567890num, no Dark Pokemon in this deck, nice to still use some of the earlier suggestions.   Doesn't matter that we've got resistance, since we'll be going to lots of different clubs anyway. All the Fighting members are back, but Mitch has been kidnapped, so we'll be coming back to the island later to properly fight everyone missing.   Master Balls are hit or miss since you can only see the top 7 cards of your deck, but at least it's better than whiffing a Pokeball. These are the only tools aside from Computer Search we get to search for any Pokemon, but there are other items useful for some decks.    Oh yeah, we're against a Fighting deck. Well, Raticate only got the one card until one of the last smaller expansions of Gen 1 in Southern Islands, which isn't in this game. It's meh, Super Fang carries it, but if the opponent has too much HP, then Bite can't finish them off and it's usually too fragile to last that long. So yeah, sounds about right for the earlygame rat.    Slicing Wind: Does 30 damage to 1 of your opponent's Pokémon chosen at random. Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for this attack. (Any other effects that would happen after applying Weakness and Resistance still happen.) Gale: Switch Pidgeot with 1 of your Benched Pokémon chosen at random. If your opponent has any Benched Pokémon, switch the Defending Pokémon with 1 of them chosen at random. (Do the damage before switching the Pokémon.) First up is the GB Pidgeot and Slicing Wind can be fun, especially when your opponent has a weak bench, but due to the randomness of all of its effects, it's not as useful as the actual Jungle Pidgeot. Still, it's a lot of bench damage for not much effort, which you could make use of with other Pokemon.    Here's the main offense for the deck, Hurricane is a pretty good attack, not as crazy as Dark Machamp, but evolved Pokemon become much less of a problem with this. Otherwise it has an alright chunk of health and doesn't take much to get going. Fine enough.   Machoke could be scary, but it goes right back! Chris's deck mainly focuses on Sandslash and has Kangaskhan for early draws. It also has Machoke and Vending Hitmonlee, though you can see the latter is quite fragile and can't touch us past resistance. Add in a smattering of standard Trainer cards and it's a pretty meh deck overall.   Hunh? I have failed... I seem to lack proper discipline. Alright! I'm going to try harder!! I want to start training again but don't have any Pokemon cards... won't you continue your attack on Team GR?I won't talk to everyone who's still missing cards and will only get them when you clear a certain point on GR Island, but I'll note anyone we don't fight, since we've already beaten Michael. Now he does have a new deck, but I definitely don't care.   Not worth 4 Voltorb, but at least it's over.  Hey! Come play with me and my Pikachu! Okiedoke! We'll play with 4 prize cards!  Cowabunga, dude! We'll have a bit more trouble here, but now Raticate can shine.   Jennifer still has every goddamn Pikachu, but also has Wartortle so her Water energy for Surfing Pikachu isn't completely wasted. Can be a nasty surprise if you're using a Fire deck!   Hell yeah Slicing Wind.   Ah crap, we're fighting an Electric deck! Still, we have some neat tech for more Colourless energy, such as Full Heal Energy and Potion Energy, which, well, do I really need to tell you? We also have Recycle and Rainbow, as well as Lightning, so we can still use Energy Search and not be limited to 4 of the specials.   Hey, you can't successfully use Pokeball! Ah whatever, we can blow away the last mon and boom, we win. It still feels illegal.   Ahhh, my Pikachu were defeated! Come back later to play with my Pikachu again!  Straight and to the point! We already fought Nicholas earlier and while we did fight Isaac, once he gets his deck back, we'll fight him, Club Masters are the exception, of course.    Thundershock: Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed. Look at my round son.    I guess you really didn't defeat GR No.4 by luck alone. I wondered if you won by luck, but I see now that it was all skill.  People have cards again, so now we can trade them!   Remember when Surfing Pikachu had Mt. Fuji in the background? Well, the Flying Pikachu is the same thing, available throughout 1998 via All Nippon Airways. You could redeem your boarding passes for this card and the flying Dragonite we saw last update and hopefully this is the last drat Pikachu I need to highlight! Challenge Cup    Since we're liberated the island, it's Challenge Cup time! Yes they're still determined by story progress, no the game doesn't tell you a drat thing. At least one guy in the lobby trades you various cards and also does puns, so he can gently caress off.   Same as before, beat up 3 kids and win a Promo!!!   Looks like we'll be fighting Michael's new deck after all, what are the chances?   Now that's a bitch, they're my entire strategy! Michael has Primeape and Machamp, as well as one of each Hitmon to deal some damage, but always has Gastly to disrupt and even some Psychic energy to use for it and the Colourless Basics every deck has, like Vending Tauros. It also means he has 2 Bills and 1 Oak, rip.   Alright, who's next?   You'll notice we skipped over the entire Rock Club since they kept their cards and we've fought them already.   But that's cute, get outta here.   Oh hey, this is someone new.   Nice to start off with some paralysis... so Heather is someone we can't face at the moment, since we need to progress more into GR Island, but the Challenge Cup doesn't give a poo poo, it'll select any Club Member with their final deck no matter where you are in the story.   Her main way of filling up the bench is Vending Paras, which is a reskinned Call for Family.   At least Raticate had some mushrooms for lunch, but then gets paralysed into oblivion.   Dunno what you would use Mr. Fuji for that Scoop Up doesn't already do, but whatever, her strategy is overwhelming you with a full bench, but she doesn't have the energy to keep it up. But when she gets rolling with Vending Parasect and Jungle Vileplume it could be a problem. But such is draws when you only have the 1 Oak. Poor, dumb AI.    What can I say, my rat just can't help itself.     Well that was fun. Finally we get a new Promo and it's totally different to the other Mewtwo Promo, it's a slight edit to the Gen 1 artwork and it's flipped! Well the JP one was first released at the 7th Next Generation World Hobby Fair in Dec 1997, with the English version released through Nintendo Power in Apr 2000, getting new artwork due to being pretty similar to the other Mewtwo Promo from the first movie. Otherwise, it's an alright card, with the first attack useful disruption while you build it up.   Stop   We fought Murray and Stephanie before, while Robert and Daniel have to wait until later, so another club to skip!  I've gotten a few cards from Ken after we were freed from that cage. If I don't keep battling, my fire will burn down to nothing. C'mon! Let's have a duel! We'll burn brightly with 4 prize cards in this match! DUEL? DUEL!!!  We'll use a new deck for the second half of the island, so here's Dark Raichu and Dark Magneton by FoolyCharged. This Promo Pikachu is probably the best one to use, since you can charge it up in 2 turns and deal some drat good damage.   So good I got away with it twice. It's actually kinda funny, Adam is using a Fire/Lightning deck and he's also using Raichu and Magneton! Also has Rapidash and Ninetales to do some heavy damage on both sides with enough energy for both. It can be a pain fighting him with a Water deck.    Oh no, it's turned bad! Raichu isn't too crazy, but spreads a fair bit of damage around and requires 2 heads to get its full potential, but also getting 0 bench damage is lame. It also has some interesting history in that it was the first Secret Rare and caused the Rocket expansion to be delayed in NA due to Wizards having to get approval from Nintendo to make this card and have it as the Secret Rare.   I've completely burned out! I've got to remember to watch my blaze when I'm duelling you! I hid this deck before we were attacked! Fire! 4 prize cards! Fire!  Ah nuts, time for the other side and the Vending Magnemite's Power lets us search for Magnemite if we get the coin flip.   Which comboes nicely with Rocket Magnemite that has an attack that deals up to 40 damage for how many Magnemite, Magneton or Dark Magneton you have on the bench. Pretty powerful attack, but we need to get lucky for it.   And then 10 damage wherever, but we're getting roasted and we're not even Steel yet! As you'd expect, Jonathan uses Fire, with Kangaskhan being the only exception. Burning you away with Arcanine and Charmeleon, with plenty of Energy Retrieval and plenty of energy.    A bit fragile and not too crazy, Dark Magneton can ignore resistance and shift energy around, which is way more useful on multiple energy decks. Otherwise it's a way to make your opponent unable to attack and hopefully survive a couple attacks.   That duel ousted my fire! If you want another battle, just say the password: FIIIIRE!  Can't fight John or Ken, so onwards!  Naturally, you're up for playing Pokemon cards with me, right? I propose we use 4 prize cards!  Gotta give the nerds their weekly swirlies.      Microwave: Does 20 damage to 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon. Don’t apply Weakness or Resistance. Then, flip a coin. If heads, discard 1 Energy card attached to that Pokémon. While it isn't too useful, this Vending Magneton can also do a fair bit of bench damage and disrupt with energy discard, but pure damage is preferable most of the time and it's a lot of setup for not much of it, so it depends if you really need something like that.   You should work harder to study decks built around science research. I'm not in Team GR, of course, but they also use science-themed cards.Easy enough, Erik, named wrongly in this patch, has a full Nidoran deck, 2 Nidoqueen, 2 Nidoking, which doesn't make Boyfriends sting that much, but it's better than nothing. Has a couple Breeders to help with that as well as a couple of Colourless, like the Vending Tauros, Lickitung and Clefairy, because every deck needs Colourless!  However, I've collected enough cards to duel with you. Want to play? I'm partial to duels with 4 prize cards!  Aw man, at least he isn't using any of his 4 Defenders!   Christ almighty, that's not weakness damage, Focus Energy lets Horn Rush hit for 80 damage, if you flip heads on the attack. At least, uh, I could show this off. Haha.   Thankfully even though his Nidoran M are kicking my rear end, he's running out of energy to put on stuff cause it keeps getting moved. We're facing another Nidoking, but it's joined by Arbok and Weezing, so poison is the name of the game. Along with 4 Potions and the aforementioned Defenders, it becomes a bit tricky to knock out his stuff before poison damage does.    Yes! Just as expected! Here, these booster packs are yours! By earning booster packs, you get stronger and stronger. As long as you use that strength to save Rick, I'm happy losing.  Only 2 clubs left to check out and we've already fought Heather, so we won't be coming back even when she gets her deck back, that's convenient!  Beautiful gardens call for beautiful card battles, right? Then let's set aside 4 prize cards.  I sleep.    Quick Attack: Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 10 damage plus 20 more damage. Thunderbolt: Discard all Energy cards attached to Raichu. Let's see what Dark Raichu is dreaming about. Oh? All it's longing for is to relax at home and to give em a Dunderbolt. Goals right there.    Time for Magnemite to go on a rampage. Kristin gets her deck name from Venomoth, even if we won't see it, it's pretty neat, but Venom Powder would be much better without the coin flip. Oh well, at least you can Shift your type to an enemy's weakness, or failing that, a resistance. Otherwise her deck is split between some Colourless, like Porygon and Wigglytuff and other strong hitters like Scyther, as well as Potions and Full Heals all Grass decks seem to have.    It was my loss. You really are a strong kid! Please come back if you'd like to play again. You've done me a great favor, and I thank you whole-heartedly. Even though it's been a while, could I have a card battle with you? I like to have battles using 6 prize cards. Please try to relax and not get worked up. Club Master Battle  At least we're able to face some Club Masters. Aside from Gene, at this point, only Nikki has her cards back and we'll be able to face the others when we free them. Hopefully this Caterpie doesn't paralyze us too much!   We're gonna be here a while.   This is looking familiar, wonder what deck she has.   Please let me go.   Oh boy, this is a problem. Thankfully the AI won't over energy, so this is the worst we'll get.   Nothing a Super Energy Removal can't fix. And just in time too! Nice strategy, too bad it only works for me!   And then she had the big brained idea to move energy from her active onto Venusaur so she couldn't attack. Thanks for the free prize card!    I see what's she trying to build up to, but let's snipe something instead, even though we could easily beat it! Since she only has Venusaur, Exeggutor and Butterfree, she could get her strategy rolling pretty quickly, this deck is still no joke. 4 Bills and 2 Breeders make this a lot more likely too!  I had a lot of fun in our battle, Minto. Please do your best in your fights on GR Island. Feel free to come back to our club. I'll be waiting for your return. Do you feel like duelling me with my newfound freedom? Umm... let's use 4 prize cards. Sound good?  Only one fight to work with weakness, which is why I left it to last!   Though a lucky Quick Attack means we won't roll over this too quickly.   She's not getting Vaporeon, so Eevee is gonna run away. This Intro Wartortle does consistent damage with Surf and is one of the best attackers of her deck, along with Lapras and Seadra. She also has some Poliwag and lots of Water energy, so she won't be running out of mons to throw at you anytime soon.   She just comes right back in with a lucky boosted Quick Attack and claims another prize, quit it!!!    So that's how you beat the others... Minto, you're so strong! If you feel like challenging me again, come back to the Water Club! You're free to do as you like, of course. Alright, that's enough distractions, we can't fight Amanda or Amy yet, so it's time to finally take down a criminal organisation, overthrow their king and free prisoners of war. You know, card games! Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Feb 11, 2020 |
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Jan 11, 2020 04:01
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We're beginning our proper assault on GR Island, so if you want to submit some Dark Pokemon for me to use, now is a great time, and I'm not just saying this because I don't have many decks left to use!
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Jan 11, 2020 04:02
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Hey there, card games were wearing on me a little so I took a break and I'm back and ready to party! Uh, mostly, apparently all the Bulbapedia articles for this game got overhauled during my break, so I can show off all the portraits! Yes this is exciting for me. Also just gives me a more consistent resource. In the mean time, please feel free to suggest more decks, I'm really excited to show off some more stuff, cause this game still has a good chunk to it and sorry for delaying Team Great Rocket's proper debut for so long!
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Feb 11, 2020 01:01
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Part 6: Meet Team Great Rocket GR X Encount- hey, wait a minute!   You... you're not a member of Team GR! It also seems that you're in possession of Pokemon cards, too... that's good! I'd love to see your play style! Is it possible that you could oust my Dark Pokemon? Let's duel, Minto! Start the 6-prize battle!  Boy, I wonder who this is. This is a bit of an awkward start, you might think, with Psychic against Colourless, but this Dark Alakazam and Dark Hypno deck from Haifisch has a few tricks up its sleeve.   But surprise, we can handle the infinite Colourless decks these games love throwing at us! Dark Kadabra is super drat fragile, but 2 energy for 30 damage no matter what is very, very nice. Sure, it means you lose the Psychic mirror, but they're pretty uncommon, but you know exactly what is common. It, uh, it's Colourless. And throwing away cards to draw more is nice, can pair with Revive, or Nightly Garbage Run. But again, will die super easily.   But, uh, even though there's Dark Muk, Dark Golbat, Dark Raticate and Dark Persian... that didn't really matter if he only puts one thing down. Guess they weren't worried.   I've been using this disguise to spy on the area's activity. Take these booster packs! Hopefully they'll help you beat Team GR! Should be seeing more of these booster packs here on this island.  Members of Team GR utilize Dark Pokemon in their decks. They only fight challengers if their decks meet certain conditions. Moreover, some have also added special duelling rules! Battle with the rules in mind and take advantage of their odd effects. Otherwise, you may find it hard to win. Anyway, I'll see ya around! I'll keep up with my spywork. Good luck, Minto. GR Grass Fortress RECEPTIONIST: Allow me to tell you about your opponents and explain the rules. The Leader of the Grass Fortress is a man named Parker. In order to fight him, you must first defeat 3 GR Fortress members. You'll learn about each member's special battle rules inside. That is all. Please enjoy duelling in Team GR's Grass Fortress. The receptionists never really mention much, simply who's in charge and how many members you'll face. We're unable to progress further into the island, or well, we sometimes can, but you'll see later. But first, let's check the side room, because of course we should!    There's new promos to be had! Now, this is different to the one we can get in the Game Center, this is identical to the Base Set Venusaur, except with artwork by Ken Sugimori, wow! So this was another send in promotion to Media Factory, between Feb and July 1998, using a flyer found in the album of Trade Please! by Suzukisan, along with any 2 TCG cards. You selected which course you went on via the flyer, A for Charizard, B for Blastoise and C for Venusaur, and got promo cards of those mons in return, as well as a promo Trade Please card, which... well, I'll just show you, since it's not in this game.  Look at your opponent's hand and choose 1 card there. Then, show your opponent your hand and have him or her choose 1 card there. Ask your opponent if you may switch those cards. If your opponent accepts, switch those cards. If your opponent declines, draw 2 cards. (You can't play this card if you have no cards in your hand other than this card or if your opponent has no cards in his or her hand.) Of course, this is an illustration by Imakuni?. The scope of covering all the promos in this game is starting to sink in, yes. ANYWAY, it's GR time, let's kick some butt!   I'm Melissa, one of the members of Team GR's Grass Fortress. It's nice to finally meet you. I was told you would be coming! As per Team GR's orders, you must fight me to open this gate! So, will you have a duel with me? Win, and you'll get some new cards. Of course, you may also advance and will free this guy behind me. Isn't he the Master of the Science Club on your island? He's free to go... if you can defeat me, of course. Okeydokey! We'll have a pleasant match with 4 prize cards! GR Battle   Alright, our first GR fight on home turf. And surprise, they're not a bunch of masked mooks! Also the music is still as fantastic as ever.   We'll beat this Weedle up with Vending Abra and Dark Kadabra. Psychic Beam is nice at the start to just deal 10 damage wherever.   Let's get rid of the Colourless, then let Dark Hypno have its moment.   Unfortunately she doesn't have much on the bench, surprise for an AI, but we don't have much to worry about this Metapod. Pssh.   Ah, well that went south quick. Turns out Psychic weak Psychics hate confusion!   Butterfree is scary, but we can take one hit with this Clefairy Doll! No, wait, it doesn't come with that attack... this Vending Hypno does!  Power: Puppet Master If a Clefairy Doll is your Active Pokémon, it may use any of this Pokémon's attacks as long as this Pokémon has enough Energy cards attached to it to pay for that attack's Energy cost. (The Clefairy Doll can make that attack even if it does not have the appropriate number or type of Energy attached to it necessary to make the attack.) Mind Shock This attack's damage isn't affected by Weakness or Resistance. Don't want your main cards getting hurt? Send an army of dolls their way. So long as this card has 2 Psychic energy, then you can attack for free with as many Clefairy Dolls you have. And since they count as items, it's pretty easy to get them back with Item Finder or Recycle. I'm only using the one, but it can work pretty alright, though the AI usually likes dragging them in to KO them, can't resist.     Let's have the star of the show finish up, since it can do a fair bit of damage. While it's super fragile, swapping it out with Teleport Blast is great fun and only needing 3 energy gives it a fair bit of utility, since you also don't have to switch. You can also just blast fools for that little bit extra, especially since the tanky Colourless don't mind 30 damage all that much. Definitely a useful card. Oh yeah, Melissa has a buggy deck, using pretty much all of them, as well as some Colourless mons. She's only got 1 each of Butterfree and Beedrill, so it's unlikely you'll face them, relying on Venomoth more. But she can heal and support her Scyther, so watch out!  I did my best. I have no regrets. Because you defeated my deck, I'll open the gate. Rick will be free to leave his cage as well. Please take this card as thanks for your valiant rescue.  Eat: Put 1 Food counter on Hungry Snorlax. You can't use this attack if Hungry Snorlax already has 2 Food counters on it. Rollout: You may remove any number of Food counters from Hungry Snorlax. If you do, this attack does 20 damage plus 30 damage for each Food counter you removed. If you don't, this attack does 20 damage. Uh, sure, why not. If you can stick around for a fair few turns, then eating for 2 turns will do more damage overall than 3 Rollouts, uh, barely. Seems like a lot of doing nothing for not much damage, since 80 over 3 turns is pretty rubbish. Anyway, this was originally released as an N64 bundle package, but later reprinted to be included in the Pokemon Song Best Collection CD.  As for me, I'm going to return to the Science Club. Feel free to stop by when you're back on our island. I'd be more than happy to have a duel or two with you if you're game. You may proceed to the next room. James is waiting for you there. You'll battle him, too, correct?    If I do, there's no way the King of Team GR will forgive me! C'mon, let's go, Minto!! 4 prize cards, then! I'll show you the true strength of my deck!  So we've unmasked one of the GR numbers. Interesting that he's only the second rung out of four, but went to invade our island. Still, since Dark Hypno is easy to set up, I think we'll have some fun.   Bats! They're weak to Psychic so it's easy enough to overwhelm him aaaaand oh we've won.    James had few mons, but they were nasty, like Dark Venusaur, Dark Golbat, which we'll go over for the heck of it, and Vending Haunter, which does more damage the more Prize Cards your opponent has taken, nasty! He also has an uneven split of Grass and Psychic energy, which explains his slowness. Dark Golbat is fragile and doesn't do much damage, mainly being there to overwhelm the opponent with constant evolutions and sniping the bench. Nothing else to it though. This card changed a bit in localization, Sneak Attack didn't apply Weakness and Resistance originally, and Flitter failed to mention having other effects occurring after dealing damage, such as Machamp's Strike Back, making it a pretty free attack.  *sigh*... it seems like all I do anymore is sigh... man, I sometimes wonder if you're unbeatable, kid. Well, a loss is a loss. I'll open the doors. Open Sesame! Go quickly! Liz is waitin' for you in the other room. She's so much stronger than me! So go on already!  I am Liz. Of course, I am also a member of Team GR. I am addressing Minto, the child defying Team GR, correct? I suppose you're looking to battle Parker for a GR Grass Coin. In order to get through to him, though, you'll need to defeat me. Then let's duel! ...but I want to finish tending to these flowers... but battles come before begonias. I have special terms for duelling. I only fight against decks with Grass as their only energy cards. That is my only condition. Up for a duel, Minto? Oh, your deck only has Grass energy. Great, we may begin our fight, then! We shall have a duel with 4 prize cards!  So here's a "fun" twist, some members of Team GR can't be fought unless your deck has specific conditions. This is a big reason why I'm accepting a wide variety of decks from all types, we're gonna need them! It also means previous decks will get an extra fight in the spotlight, but we'll be back to the Alakazam/Hypno deck soon enough.   This also lets those we're facing to softly counter what we're bringing, since we're forced to use Grass energy. Now that's not a big deal if we were to wrangle Charizard into this, since she's using a pretty standard Dark Arbok and Dark Weezing deck, but she's also got Charmeleon just to roast your Grass types, which- wait she only has Grass energy too. Meaning she can only use Slash. Huh. Also you can't rely on powers much, since she has Gas Goop Attack, which disables them until the end of the opponent's turn.    Since we're bringing back the Arbok and Weezing deck, might as well throw in the Bad versions of them. If you've got a lot of Super Potions, then Mass Explosion isn't a big deal, since you don't need to discard energy to heal the bench ones if you don't have any! If both players are using Weezing decks, then the numbers get pretty ridiculous, up to 160! Of course keeping everything alive is the key. And hey, if you don't want to murder everything, its second attack is pretty respectable, especially with the double Poison from the Vending Weezing.   Since we weakened a fair few things, they're easy pickings with Dark Arbok's stare, so even though she picked up 2 prizes from our Weezing going boom, it wasn't a problem.    I'm surprised. You have quite a lot of skill, Minto. Since you have defeated me, I shall open the doors leading to Parker. Please wait just a moment. ... Go on ahead. You shouldn't leave Parker waiting! I have my own business here taking care of this flower garden. Alright, what kind of MONSTER is running a joint like this? As an aside, got any?   Yes, I am indeed Parker, but you... you are Minto, correct? I assume you're after my coveted GR Grass Coin. If that's the case, you must first challenge me to a battle and win. By the by, there are special rules when you duel here. Grass Pokemon are immune to Sleep, Poison, Paralysis, and Confusion. No status conditions at all. It's an amazing addition! Now that you're aware, shall we duel? Let's not play too quickly. We'll use 6 prize cards. GR Fort Leader Duel  Yo, Minto! I've collected some information about the Grass GR Leader, Parker! During battles against him, Grass Pokemon are immune to Poison, Sleep, Paralysis, and Confusion! I've also got some tips on the deck he uses! It's Grass-themed, of course! His deck utilizes two Dark Pokemon cards: Gloom and Vileplume! Both of these Pokemon have powers and attacks that deal with Confusions. Some attacks Parker uses normally confuse the user, but since they are Grass-type Pokemon, the Confusion is ignored! He won't be an easy adversary! You've got to nip Dark Gloom in the bud somehow before it evolves into Dark Vileplume! Ronald O_O  Alright, being scary right out of the gate, I can respect that! As Ronald so succinctly put, Parker, and GR Fort Leaders in general, have a special condition that applies to their type. Sometimes it doesn't matter much, other times it can get real nasty. Thankfully this deck doesn't use status much, so we won't have much difficulty getting around that. It applies to both sides, so you can bring in your Grass decks and use the same strategies he is!   At least we can get the Psycho Panic Alakazam out quickly and deal some quick damage. He can't go for Swords Dance next turn or he'll faint!   GR-3 had Dark Gloom and Dark Vileplume, and they're even nastier in this fight. Sure, Dark Gloom can hit itself with its Power, but due to the status immunity, there's no risk involved! But hey, doesn't its attack deal damage and Poison? Giving us...   50 damage to transfer over to Gloom, that's right! Man this card is rad under the right conditions! Does make us a sitting duck for what's next.   Always carry a Switch, kids! Since he's been investing in other mons, he's out of energy for Kangaskhan. Not to worry, he probably thinks in 1999 AI, I can't get hit!   You're dead wrong. Dark Vileplume is super dangerous in this fight, since it disables Trainer cards, the lynchpin to all my decks, and its attack can confuse it if it deals enough damage with it, except that doesn't apply, so it can spam that attack no problem! Thankfully the chance of him getting those cards in the right order is pretty rare and Oddish and Dark Gloom are easy to snipe due to their fragility. We saw every Pokemon line he has, since he has Wartortle and Rainbow Energy to stop your Fire types running too rampant. Otherwise he could get lucky finding stuff with Computer Search, as well as Trader and Breeder, he really wants that Vileplume!    Additionally, to show your victory, I must give you the GR Grass Coin. With that coin, you will be allowed to enter the GR Electric Fortress. Come visit again if you'd ever like to battle in nature's magnificence!  One fortress down! It wasn't too tough, but of course the limitations and conditions will get trickier. In case you were wondering, we can only visit some facilities after clearing others. GR Lighting Fortress  And any facilities we can reach, as we can go to others aside from Lightning, we're coin gated, so let's continue on!   Why does he keep forwarding these emails about an Orre prince???   Neat.   Oh hey I wonder if Imakuni? got his cards back yet.   Oh look it's this drat Pikachu again. Stop calling me!!!   I've heard rumors about you. What are you doing here, though? ...I guess I should introduce myself first, eh? The name's Peter. I came to this island because Team GR fascinates me. I've been having battles with many different Team GR members. I've compiled a cool deck from my victories. Care to have a duel? If you beat me, I'll give you a booster pack or two. Good to hear! We'll use 4 prize cards. Regular Duel Against Regular Guy  So, uh, do you know this guy? What? I don't know this guy, I thought you knew him! Anyway, let's see what this guy is up to.   Interesting, but trying to screw me over with Colourless mons won't work!    Guard: As long as Snorlax is your Active Pokémon, the Defending Pokémon can't Retreat. This power stops working when Snorlax is affected by a Special Condition. Roll Over: Snorlax is now Asleep. Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Asleep. This guy, uh, sure loves Snorlax. This Vending Snorlax is definitely a stallmon, but drat that's a lot of energy for not a great attack. The important thing is the artwork, it was part of the first illustration contest available to Corocoro readers in Nov 1997. This was 1 of 3 that won, all of them are in this game, as well as the winner of the second illustration contest from Apr 1998.   Oh hey, wanna see Clefairy Doll be MVP and win the match? Peter has an alright deck, with Dark Raichu and Dark Dragonite, with Snorlax to bide time to set them up. As you can see it wasn't hugely impressive, it isn't a bench damage deck like the name would imply, more his bench is scary and looks bigger than it is? Dark Dragonite will be seen in future I'm sure, it's lucky we had ways around the Snorlax, AI can't resist placing them down!   Waah!! ...oh, please excuse me. I guess I lost. I'll give you your booster packs immediately. If you'd be up for it, I'd love a rematch sometime. We're never gonna see him again. Next time, our next Fortress awaits!
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Feb 14, 2020 03:10
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Deck suggestions suggestions are endless, especially so we cover all the types and let's me show off most Dark Pokemon.
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Feb 14, 2020 03:12
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Part 7: Electrifying Progress Lightning Fort  If you can beat me in a card battle, you can enter the next room. But I have a request all challengers must agree on first... sorry! Please include 4 Pikachu cards in your active deck before we start. I don't mean Flying Pikachu, either. Just regular cute Pikachu cards. Are you willing to do that and have a duel with me? You have... 4 Pikachu cards, right? Thank you very much. As for prize cards... please place 4, okay?  Oh isn't it handy we already had a Pikachu deck we used earlier. Having a wide variety of decks is pretty handy in this game, but the game is easy enough that you can spare 4 slots for Pikachu. They make great Computer Search discards!  Still, even with the best deck, it doesn't matter if you can't find a second mon!   Let's try that again, this time using some magnets! Pikachu just charges up and oneshots us, but such is life.   Of course since we have to use Pikachu, Cassie gets cheeky with some Fighting mons like Marowak and Sandslash. Bit rude, but we can take it.   Uh, barely.   Best get evolving that furball, cause the real mascot is here to win!    Quick as a flash, due to how ridiculously fragile this thing is, Dark Jolteon mainly relies on evading the next attack, unless you're feeling lucky with Thunder Attack. Taking away a fifth of its health if you get the wrong flip is pretty bad, but 30 damage is pretty standard, so maybe you'll stick around for a bit. Otherwise, Cassie uses Electabuzz for quick damage, as we saw, as well as Intro sits-in-its-house Raichu, pretty simple deck, nothing some Pikachu can't handle.   Minto, you're really strong, aren't you? You have my respect. Even moreso since you freely came to GR Island and you're fighting alone. That takes some real courage. I'd like to be courageous, too... I'm going to try my best to be just as brave as you! Now to input the password so the doors will open... the next room is guarded by Chip. We also have a Grand Master there. Please try your best, as Chip is a strong card player.  The amazing leader GR No.3! That's right! You may have beaten me before, but you can't defeat me here! I have a special requirement for challengers here, however! The only energy allowed in your deck is Electric energy! I won't play against a deck containing any other energy type! A victory here wins you some cards and the release of our Grand Master. The one named... Stan or something? Anyway, he's fine. Aha! So your deck does have purely Electric-type energy cards. In that case, let's duel! We'll use 4 prize cards!!  Welp, looks like we're using the Pikachu deck again. It's just too convenient. Since Magnemite had its fun, Pikachu needs its time to shine. It has been about 5 minutes since it was last on your screen, after all.   He sit.   He get hit by Selfdestruct. Ow.   But since we charge up first with Pikachu, we can win the mirror, it's a pretty drat good card! Chip has dropped his weird Grass and Fire deck from before and goes all Electric, with Dark Magneton and Dark Electrode as the highlights, along with Flying Pikachu and Zapdos. Not surprised he didn't evolve anything considering he has 22 Pokemon cards and 1 Oak. Better luck next time, eh?    I didn't expect to be defeated with such brute force. Alrighty, then, Minto! I'll keep my word! There's a special method to open that capture pod. Okay, you. Go stand in front of the pod.  I was captured because I wasn't able to beat Team GR. Here, take this gift.  Hold it, Stan! What is it? Take these booster packs to redistribute over there, will you? Oh, thanks a lot, sir. You're a good man. Say, Minto, you'd like to fight against me at the Pokemon Dome, right? I'll be there waiting for you! I must follow the rules of Team GR's Lightning Fortress. I'll open the doors leading to Catherine for you now!  A shorter fortress this time, but no need to extend it if you don't need to. Oh yeah, this is your last chance to do TCG Island's Challenge Cup, since they're more stealthily tied to plot progress.   Oh! You're Minto! So you've finally come here. I suppose you wish to fight for ownership of a GR Thunder Coin. But this won't be your ordinary card battle. All damage done by Electric-type Pokemon is increased by 10. Knowing that, then, is your deck good to go? We'll use 6 prize cards. Fight! Fight! Thunder Fight! Let's make some sparks! GR Fort Leader Duel  Minto! I hope you're well! I have information about Team GR's Electric Leader, Cathering! She uses a rule called "Thunder Charge" that powers up her Electric attacks, doing +10 extra damage! That means that Electric Pokemon attacks that do 10 damage would then do 20 damage! Catherine's deck uses many Electric Pokemon, including Pikachu, Voltorb, Dark Jolteon, and Dark Raichu! Will you make your own deck of Electric Pokemon and try to overpower hers? How well you do is up to you and what strategy you use! Ronald (O__O)  Good we're starting off with Doduo, since Catherine is pretty drat scary, 10 extra damage per Electric attack adds up very quickly, so you could get swept pretty early.   Oh hey, remember this attack? Now imagine if it could 2 shot our entire deck!   Best way for us to get around it is to peace out, brutha.   Oh yeah, Speedball does 30 damage for 1 energy, absolutely terrifying!   Since Dark Alakazam is our best, if fragile, attacker, we gotta scoop if we wanna win this.   Well that's a dead Hypno. Catherine has a very quick deck that uses Dark Jolteon, Dark Raichu, Voltorb and Doduo. And that's it, she attacks quickly and pretty drat hard in that short time, so her little variety really works in her favour. She also has 4 Bills and 3 Potions, making me almost think she's one of the deadliest opponents we've faced thus far.   Thankfully being able to keep our main attacker healthy while also being able to oneshot Voltorb makes this fight a lot more forgiving. Still, the effect works for both sides, so you can absolutely obliterate her with your own Lightning deck!      Using that coin, you may enter both the GR Fire and GR Water Fortresses. It's all you, Minto! Go, go, go! We won't be visiting those fortresses just yet, as something more interesting is on the horizon. GR Challenge Cup  Now we have a second Challenge Cup to miss out on when we forget stuff! We have until we beat the second of the two Fort Leaders we just unlocked to clear this Challenge Cup.   That's the third one we can get.  Despite the Thunderdome aesthetic, the cup is exactly the same as the TCG Island one, beat 3 in a row and claim a hopefully not poo poo promo card.  HOSTESS: You've done well surviving this long, Jess! Here's our next challenger, Minto! Let's see... if my information is correct, Minto is Team GR's rival! Are you both ready? Place your 4 prize cards first! Now then!! Start the competition! GR Member Duel  First of three! Like the TCG Island Challenge Cup, who we face is completely random, so any regular fort member could pop up, spoilers!   Since the Dark Weezing, Dark Arbok and Dark Persian deck only got a bit of the spotlight in the Grass Fortress, so we'll finish its run here. Lots of nice status to throw around, always a good time.   We'll go over the actual cards we're facing when we face the peep for realsies.   Doing alright so far, so let's throw it all away.    I'm really struggling, why is it so bad??? Both of its attacks are practically trash, sure you can drag in something big with the first attack, but that's not really gonna stop them? Then you've got to flip to land the poison and do piddly damage until they die? Big woop, especially with how fragile you are as well. Not all Dark cards are created equal, and a fair few of them are just too mediocre or frail to do anything of note.  The AI also isn't giving Dark Persian much of a chance. That's a surprise.   But sure, we'll say it softened them up for us.   Oh hey someone we already faced. Bit of a shame, but it'll only get more likely the more of these cups we do.   We're using the same deck against her, but her restriction of only Grass energy obviously doesn't apply here.   Woah, Dark Persian got a kill, stop the presses!   We could plink away for a million years against these guys, so let's speed it up a bit and explode on them.   Ah, much faster, Hey, you guys suggested, so I show it. Doesn't mean it's any good lol.   Team GR sure has a lot of variety...   Any before battle restrictions don't apply in Challenge Cups, but their in-battle rules are absolutely still a thing. That's not too big a deal, but it can hurt some bench damage decks.   It's Dark Arbok's turn, so it'll Stare at stuff and make them hurt slightly.   Hurts a fair bit, but when we get to Poison, they tend to run away.   See, like that.   The trick to winning these fights, aside from the enemy running out of energy, is to have an identical mon to move in when one gets defeated. Flawless, really.   Ah poo poo that was the reward??? Abort, abort!   A card so good they released it twice! This promo was released as an insert in Volume 3 of Pokemon Card Fan Club in Nov 1997, though when it was released as a Wizards Promo in Nintendo Power Aug 2000, Giovanni was removed and it was replaced with a standard holographic starry background. Boo.     Well wasn't that fun, we've got 2 fortresses ahead of us, so we'll cover them next time, making this a little short. But hey, let's at least meet the locals.    Oh hey it's the most sought after card in the game. Again. Obtained through the same way as Venusaur, this time through the A course.  Next time, we'll plunge into lava and water to get the next 2 coins! Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Mar 18, 2020 |
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Feb 26, 2020 02:33
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Part 8: You're Hot Then You're Cold  Okay, so if I mix in a pinch of ginger now... no, I should stop and think this over first! I'm Jess, a member of Team GR! Bernard has given me orders to improve my cooking skills. 4 prize battles go quickly, so let's use that amount! Team GR Duel  For a good chunk of this update we'll be using this Dark Dugtrio and Dark Marowak deck called Emo Kid, by Slaan. The Diglett line were monsters in the Base set, so let's see how the other sets fare.   Dark Dugtrio works pretty well, chance of doing 40 damage and makes the AI stop switching so drat much.    Go Underground: As long as this Pokémon is on your Bench, prevent all damage done to this Pokémon by attacks (both yours and your opponent's). Earth Wave: This attack does 10 damage to up to 2 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon. (Don't apply Weakness or Resistance for Benched Pokémon.) This'll be Dugtrio's first fight, we'll see Marowak later. This Promo is nice and tanky, taking no damage on the bench and does a fair bit of spread damage for your other Dugtrio EQ shenanigans. Pretty alright card but the Base Dugtrio is just too good.    Oh hey you could fail the retreat and give me the last prize, fine by me! This is a mistranslation, when the opponent is flipping a coin, tails is usually the activating effect, so just do the opposite of what it says. Anyway, Jess has a lot of Fire energy and a lot of discard to use them with, like Dark Rapidash and Base Arcanine. Extras include Vending Magmar, which can discard all Fire energy for big damage, and the ubiquitous Kangaskhan. GR Fire Fort Next, I'll open the doors leading to Kara's room. When I press this switch, it should open. You're free to advance onward. I hope you go quickly!  Umm... and... what was it? (Uhh... I announce myself first, and then battle after that...) I am the mighty Kara of Team GR! So, I'm cooking for Minto... no, wait, we're supposed to duel! I challenge you to a card duel, Minto! If you defeat me, I'll give you a booster pack! Umm. A battle against me... is that it? (What cards should be allowed...? Only Fire energy...) A card battle against me comes with a special condition! The only type of energy cards allowed in your deck are Fire-type! Are you ready to fight using such a deck? We'll play to 4 prize cards!  We'll bring the Ninetales and Arcanine deck back out for this fight, this Rocket Charmander can move energy onto itself and only needs 1 to do 20 damage, it's a good start!   Kara tries to catch you out by using Squirtle and Dodrio, which don't need specific energy as she only has Fire. However, I do have a set up Arcanine, so, uh...    Yeah, that happened. She has Dark Charizard and even 4 Bills, but the AI will always struggle with evolutions without Breeder. Also to pair with her various Basics, she scoops them up and also loves removing your energy to draw everything out so Charizard can get set up.  Uhh... when I'm defeated in a duel... (If you lose, remember to open the locked doors.) I will now open the doors that lead the way to Ellen! Open Sesame Seeds! Now it's all up to Ellen!   You and I... a card battle... you must fight... if you win... that woman... Grand Master... Courtney... will get... her freedom... battle... special condition... Eevee... 4 contained... in deck... comply... then battle... prizes... 4...  Now we could use an Eeveelution deck, but no one's suggested it yet, so we'll shove 4 Eevee into this deck to use as Computer Search sacrifices. Vending Cubone either does 30 damage to the Active or 10 damage to the bench.   [F][F] Bone Headbutt: Does a randomly selected amount of damage (0, 10, or 20) to 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon chosen at random. Then, switch that Pokémon with the Defending Pokémon. Dark Marowak is very interesting in that it's a GB exclusive card that also wasn't made into a real card and it does some alright damage, the swap is the main disruption and is pretty handy, even if you can't pick which mon it is.  Get back here!   Little less scary since it's not being boosted, but can still be dangerous if you get unlucky.   Easy enough, Ellen doesn't really counter you using an Eevee deck, but she uses both Dark Jolteon and Dark Flareon, as well as Charmeleon and Electabuzz. She's quite split between energy so she usually doesn't get what she wants and her entire deck is pretty fragile, we just got a little lucky with weakness, since I don't remember what decks are used beforehand.    You're... strong... ...Courtney... free...  But... oh ho ho... I'm so happy that you came to rescue me, Minto. Because I'm so relieved, I'll give you this card! Please use it to empower your future card battles! Oh ho ho... I think I'll return to the Pokemon Dome. Remember, the Pokemon Dome... I'll be waiting! Oh ho ho! ...Bernard... ...go...   I'm also the head chef. But you don't look like a cook... before we get down to business, listen up. When our team puts special cards in our decks, we mean to use them. Putting pointless cards in a deck is a folly we don't aim to perform. Every card should be useful in a duel to claim a true victory! That's the ambition of the great Team GR. It's also the vision of our prestigious leader, King Villicci. Keep that in mind when you meet any of our talented members. Now that we're acquainted, we may start our card battle. As the other Fortress Leaders, I have special duelling rules. Around this flowing lava, Fire Pokemon are especially robust. In fact, their common weakness to Water is effectively ignored! Keep that on your mind, if you're ready, let's cook! We'll use 6 prize cards. I'm interested to see just how well you can cook! GR Fort Leader Duel  Minto! It's me, Ronald! I just got some intel regarding Team GR's Fire Leader, Bernard! He surrounds himself with hot lava! Because of that, Fire Pokemon in his room don't have a weakness to Water. In other words, his Fire Pokemon have no weaknesses whatsoever! What's more, his deck is themed around Fire-type Pokemon cards!! That means he doesn't have to worry about weakness at all! Fighting him certainly won't be a walk in the park! Think hard about strategy when you build your deck, Minto! Ronald (O__O)  Good thing we don't have to worry about weakness, but 20 damage for 1 energy is annoyingly common in the first few turns, so hopefully we beat it down quick.   Softening up is pretty handy, giving us an early lead.   [F] Perplex: Your opponent flips a coin. If tails, your opponent doesn't draw a card at the beginning of his or her next turn. [F][F][C] Nine Tails: Flip 9 coins. This attack does 10 damage times the number of heads. And there goes our lead... Dark Ninetales is GB only, never made into a proper card, and for good reason, Nine Tails is a nuts attack! If you get lucky, that's pretty crazy damage for only 3 energy and it even has a cool animation as well! No matter, if we get one boosted Knockdown, then it won't be a problem.   That was close, can we clutch it out?   No, but thankfully I always build one in the back.   Unfortunately so did he. Again, since the opponent makes us flip the coin, it's a mistranslation, so do the opposite.   Man, Dark Dugtrio is having a rough time.   Our last line in the GB Marowak which can only do 10 damage, so this is gonna be close!   Base Diglett secures the kill! Bernard has all Fire mons, so he truly has no weaknesses, using Trader to get the right Pokemon and Pluspower to overwhelm you while you're unable to overwhelm him. He also had Dark Charmeleon and Fossil Magmar, but Ninetales is honestly enough, snipe those Vulpix asap.    The way you handle your cards has shown me a thing or two. I'd love to see how Villicci handles your imaginative playstyle. Here, take this: the GR Fire coin. I suppose you'll be visiting the GR Water Fortress next, eh? I wonder just how far you'll make it on this island... I hope you'll return sometime for a casual duel or two. GR-X Encounter Be thankful I'm not really part of Team GR! It's me, Ronald!! Is that coin you have the GR Fire coin? Cool, but you'll need another coin to enter the GR Fighting Fortress. If I'm not mistaken, that coin is the GR Water coin! The GR Fighting Fortress seems to be a much larger fort than this. It's been a while since we met, though, Minto! I'm here to see if you've been getting stronger like I've been! Let's have a 6-prize card duel! Win, and I'll give you a cool card!  Been a little bit since we last fought Ronald, he'll always fight you after the Fire or Water fortress, whichever you do first. A few things also change, beating the first of these two leaders unlocks the 2nd TCG Island Challenge Hall, so can't forget about that. Beating the second leader ends the 1st GR Challenge Hall.   Imposter Oak's Revenge makes us shuffle our hand and draw 4 cards. Can be useful, but you usually don't want your opponent to redraw their hand, not that the AI needs much help in bricking. In the meantime, Diglett can Peck this blob.   drat Focus Energy!   But we're out of the woods for the moment, so many Kangaskhan, but it means we can gear up.   Alright, I'm ready. As you can surmise, Ronald uses all 3 Eeveelutions as well as a host of Colourless, finally ending with Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan. Since all the GB Eeveelutions don't need specific energy, he's loaded up with Fighting a lots of special Colourless. It's not a bad deck, though 20 Pokemon is a bit of a hard sell.   Gimme that Kanga!   Another weird card, we'll see the intricacies in just a moment.   Still, we lucked out with the weakness, but this battle is pretty fun! Lot better than last time when Ronald decided not to put any more Basics down.   Close, but the Kanga you kept switching out is nice and low, so it won't appreciate this next bone hit.  It seems like you've gained a lot of experience fighting Team GR. Alright, a promise is a promise. Take this special card!  An interesting card, only really useful if you're completely stuck and weren't going to attack anyway, but giving your enemy more cards, cause why wouldn't they pick 5, isn't that great either, especially when they immediately get to use them. This promo was first released in the Jan 1998 issue of CoroCoro and then through the Kamex Mega Battle tournament in Jul-Aug 1998 and then again in the Pokemon Song Best Collection in Jan 1999. English versions were through local Pokemon Leagues in May 2000. How you use that card is entirely up to you. Anyway, I'm gonna go get stronger. Fight on, Minto! GR Water Fort    Nothing much to do but deal with this fort next. We're slowly but surely getting through them.    Much prettier, still broken as hell. This was obtained in Japan through the Trade Please campaign mentioned before using, you guessed it, the B course. It was also available through the Intro Pack as well as, you guessed it, the Pokemon Song Best Collection CD. Man that gets around. Alright, onto the main fort!   Me? I'm Jacob, one of Team GR's Water Fortress members. I used the power of Water to become one smooth dude. Just kidding! I think I've got the picture. You're Minto, right? Team GR's Water Leader, Brooke, totally admires you, kid! Have a card battle with me! If you win, I'll open the doors. But I have a special rule! I won't battle without using it! The only type of energy card you may use in your deck is Water energy! I'm sure you understand! If you've got it, let's battle! Because I like the number 4, we'll use 4 prize cards!  We've got a lost Team Aqua member here, so let's fight Water with... uh, Water. One of the non-serious suggestions from FoolyCharged was a Blastoise and Dark Blastoise deck and you know, it's not too great, but that won't stop me!   You can have up to 4 Pokemon of a specific name in your deck, so we can have 4 Blastoise and 4 Dark Blastoise in one deck, the issue is only 4 Squirtle, doesn't matter what set they're from, you can only have that many. That's why there aren't any Basic Dark Pokemon. But hey, we can make this work, Vending Squirtle ain't too bad, pretty bulky and can triple Pound's power, making it an effective combo over 2 turns. Since there's no penalty for a mulligan, it's only a matter of time until we get one to lay down at the start.    Since we can use Breeder for regular Blastoise, we can spend some time charging up Dark Wartortle for its evolution, since it's not too amazing. Doubleslap does 10 damage on average, pretty pitiful, so if you know the enemy is gonna do more than that, Mirror Shell is the option. Of course, it can only reflect back a certain amount of times and you really don't want it getting knocked out, but it can give your enemy pause for their big attacks. Gust of Wind weakens this strategy by a lot.    Okay cool, onto the main event. With Blastoise support, Dark Blastoise is able to easily deal out massive damage very quickly. While it doesn't have the god tier ability, it only requires 4 energy to hit max damage, even 30 for 2 energy is nothing to sneeze at, and can even protect itself if you get lucky, though it's somewhat fragile so maybe don't. It even does 10 more damage than Blastoise! Of course, overall the utility of Rain Dance makes Dark Blastoise a hard sell, but when Base Blastoise is only one Breeder away, pairing them up is a pretty drat good idea.    Pokemon Power: Rebirth: As often as you like during your turn (before your attack), you may use this Power. If you don't have any Staryu in your deck, this Power does nothing. Discard Dark Starmie and all cards attached to it. Then 1 random Staryu in your deck is chosen and put onto the same place. Shuffle your deck afterward. This Power can't be used if Dark Starmie is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed. [W][W] Spinning Shower: Flip a coin. If heads, a number (1 or 2) of your opponent's Pokémon is chosen randomly, this attack does 20 damage to each of them. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance.) 1 random Energy card attached to each of them is discarded. Close, but no cigar. What a weird phrase in the modern day. Jacob tries to zap your Water deck with Electrode, or at least only uses Tackle due to not having Lightning energy, but also has Dark Vaporeon and Dark Starmie as well as plenty of energy removal and Bills to keep you stuck. Dark Starmie is, well, pretty bad. Its Power would be better if you didn't discard everything attached to it to put a defenseless Staryu in its place and its main attack does nothing if you land tails, yikes. As you can see, this was a TCG exclusive card, probably for good reason.   Keeee!! Unbelieveable! I was defeated! Aw, man! I gotta give you a booster pack! If I had it my way? I would give you diddley-squat. I'm only giving this to you because Brooke gave me special orders!! Ergh... even though I don't like it, I have to be courteous. That's another of Brooke's orders. I'll open the doors leading to Cody! Look, we're done here! Go on ahead quickly. I'm tired of seeing your face!!  We're the ones who caught and are holding Grand Master Jack! I'll release Jack and let you into the next room if you can beat me! Of course, you'll also win a free booster pack for a victory. To fight, I require opponents to use 4 Magikarp cards in their decks. I can't wait to duel. Do you want to duel me now? Magikarp... all accounted for! Set aside 4 prize cards. Alright! Let's duel!  It's the battle of the karps! Since we're forced to use Magikarp, hey, might as well use a dragon deck. Or more specifically, Dark Gyarados, Dark Charizard and Dark Dragonite by Leraika, for a literal Bad Dragon deck. It's a bit clunky, but there's one card that makes it work way better.   Unfortunately we didn't go first, so we lose the mirror, but hey we've got a nice Rocket Charmander to fight back, what's the worst that could happen?   Oh, that. Alright fine, back to karps.    Alright, this should make things much easier. Dark Dragonair is the reason this deck full of evolutions works as well since I only put 1 Dratini in to conserve as much space as possible. Getting this set up asap is the main strat to the deck as it shouldn't be doing much, even evolving itself. We will show it off later, don't you worry, but it's not much to write home about if you're using it to attack on the way to Dark Dragonite.    Depending on what energy and Basics we get first depends on who we fight with and this time it's Dark Gyarados. The Rocket Magikarp also comboes well since one of its attacks lets it evolve into Gyarados or Dark Gyarados for 3 Water energy, letting you spam Ice Beam thereafter. Final Beam is a little lame if you don't get it, but paralysis is always nice and it's consistent damage, even it's as fragile as the other Dark Pokemon. As a hilarious aside, the Japanese text for Magikarp's evolution attack only specified Pokemon that evolved from Magikarp which meant you could use Gyarados ex from FRLG or even Gyarados-GX from a 2017 expansion, which is why it gets limited in the translation. Also, it could be used with the Recall card that let an evolution use its previous attacks, letting you stack Gyarados onto a single card. That was quickly banned for obvious reasons.   So I could whittle this Poliwhirl down and try and roll sleep a million times, but what about using something cooking in the back?   Mmm, yep, that's a Charizard alright. We'll switch back to the Marowak and Dugtrio deck to round out this fortress, but we will see Dark Charizard soon enough.   Cody is a pain in the arse to fight since he uses Dark Gyarados, Intro Wartortle and Vending Poliwhirl, all of which can paralyze, the latter can also Confuse and Sleep too! He has plenty of Pluspowers and Bills to ensure he does as much damage while doing it too, along with removing your energy. We got pretty lucky we managed to avoid most of it, since he does need to evolve to make it work.   Surprised it took us this long to see the last booster pack. It contains a good chunk of Vending cards, as well as a smattering of Base, Jungle and Fossil. You had quite a lot of strength, even under my duelling terms. Umm, I guess I have to release Jack now.  I haven't seen you for quite some time, Minto. It's me, Jack, the Pokemon Card Grand Master. For your selfless help, you have my utmost gratitude. I'll give you a special card to express my thanks. Please use it to make an absolutely gorgeous deck.  Trickle: Flip 2 coins. This attack does 10 damage times the number of heads. Dragon Rage: Flip 2 coins. If either of them is tails, this attack does nothing. Oh boy, this promo. How did you get this exclusive card back in the day? Well it was simple all you had to do was go through the "Tamamushi University Hyper Test" campaign held in June 1998. The campaign was publicized in Shogakukan's magazines for primary-school children in the form of a series of tests in which participants could complete and send back to Shogakukan within a limited period. Those that passed were sent an invitation to a two-day conference in Osaka. On the first day, the participants were separated into three age categories and were then assigned groups based on the various Gyms in the Pokémon games. Each player within one of these groups battled other members of that group, with the top players within each group qualifying for the second day. The second day consisted of a series of battles between the top players within each age category. Those that won a battle during the course of the day were awarded this card at the end of the conference. Simple really. It was later reprinted in the Web expansion.  If you could, Minto, please go to his aid. I'm going to return to my place at the Pokemon Dome. Please stop by sometime for a card battle or two. I'll be waiting to fight you with my gorgeous deck! I guess I should open the way to Alex's room, huh? I'll just place this here... geronimo! There you are. You may now go into Alex's room. Alex is a fascinating guy. I hope you both have a great duel!  Water! I'm Alex! *SHHH*... One of Team GR's Water members... *GOHHH*... Erm, if you'd like to go on, fight me... water! *SHHH*... However... *GOHHH*... I have a special rule... *SHHH*... *GOHHH*.. Your bench... may only have 3 Pokemon. Lay out 4 prize cards and we shall begin! Waterrrrrr!  This is the unsettling guy from the Challenge Cup, so let's see what he's made of! Using the Bad Dragon deck in these circumstances would've been pretty nasty, so Diglett it is!   Nice start, but, well, you can see in the corner that he has no bench Pokemon. I'm serious, I beat this guy in 2 turns. Well, that was your chance, despite having a bench reducing effect, he doesn't really use it since he has just as many mons as everyone else like both Surfing Pikachu promos, Dark Gyarados and Vending Dewgong, which can Rest to stall for a bit. His Trainers reveal more of his strategy, like using Pokemon Flute to put cards from your discard onto the bench and 4 Gust of Wind to drag those out when you're not ready. Otherwise there's not much the AI can really do to make use of this.    *SHHH*... *GOHHH*... I'm drained and defeated... water!! *SHHH*... I'll open the doors... *GOHHH*...  That was a pain to type out. Onto the leader!    And I imagine you're Minto, the one famed for defying Team GR. Are you here to claim the GR Water coin from me? The process is exactly the same as the other Team GR Fortress Leaders': if you can beat me in a card battle, you'll win the Water coin you seek. There's so much water here for my adorable Water Pokemon. Because of it, Water Pokemon pay 1 less energy card to retreat here. 3 energy cards become 2. 2 energy cards become 1. Understand? If you've got it, let's fight! Just like the other leaders, we'll use 6 prize cards. GR Leader Duel  Yo, Minto! I've got some information about the deck of Team GR's Water Leader! Water Pokemon are quick in her room! When Water Pokemon retreat there, they pay 1 less energy card. Brooke's chosen a few Water Pokemon with low retreat costs. She tends to make them retreat if things don't look good. By doing this, she makes it hard to knock out her Pokemon. Strike hard when you can! You've gotta think yourself whether you'd rather your Pokemon risk staying in or safely flee... think hard about it! Ronald (O__O)  Oh great we've got a nice tanky Lapras upfront that also only takes 1 energy to retreat! Thankfully it's not a massive deal, the AI loves retreating anyway, so this fight shouldn't seem too different.   Oh sure, don't get the boosted Knockdown, whatever, I'm not mad about it. At least the AI doesn't know how to use Water Gun the most.   Thankfully we're able to overcome it before she can set up too much, but the fight's only just beginning!   Luckily she's not getting many Basics down, so if we can soften these up before she gets some, then we can get an early prize lead.   ...she, uh, she just threw. She shuffled her half health Staryu back into her deck, leaving her half health Goldeen as the only Pokemon she has left. What? WHAT??? Pokemon AI never changes... Lapras and Promo Articuno only have 1 retreat, while Seaking and Dark Starmie get free retreat, so she can be pretty dangerous if you don't have a way to keep up the offense. And as you saw she has 4 Mr. Fuji to save her injured evolutions, but that doesn't always work out great, ahem. We got a bit lucky, but she's not massively dangerous, so there's not too much to worry about.    And I will now happily present you with the GR Water coin. Here you go! You've earned it! Oh, you already have the GR Fire coin? Amazing! You're qualified to enter the GR Fighting Fortress now. Are you going to go? Do your best!  That's another chunk of the island down, but there's still plenty more to go. So let's...  Head back to TCG Island for the Challenge Cup, babyyyyyyyy! Next time.
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Mar 21, 2020 03:54
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Yep, someone beat you to it, we used it in the first game, for best inspiration, have a gander at the list of Dark Pokemon, it's still pretty likely you'll pick a new one.
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Mar 25, 2020 06:19
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Part 9: Fight, Fight, Fight!   Wait a minute, this isn't part of the original 151, what's this unoriginal garbage doing in my trading card game??? Indeed, there are some Gen 2 Pokemon in this game, but just as promos, this, along with a Togepi, were the first Gen 2 cards released, both in the June 1999 issue of CoroCoro and through Pokemon League tournaments in Dec 2000 in English. If you look closely you can see the subtle card design differences they'd introduce in the new set 6 months after these promos. You'd also have to wait then to get an Azumarill card, which also isn't in this game. TCG Island Challenge Cup  Oh yay, a Pikachu card, makes me super enthused to go for it.   We'll use the Blastoise deck for this since it gets this over with as soon as possible. And hey, we haven't faced this guy yet in this game.   And it's over, least we don't have to fight him later! Robert uses Fossil Gengar to move damage counters around, as well as Wigglytuff and Fossil Hypno, to really punish those with big benches. Of course, with only 2 Bills and a bunch of random Trainer cards, it's practically impossible for the AI to actually get its act together.    Who's next?   Ah, this guy again. You can see how quickly south this is about to go for him.     This deck is so effortless, but even with the 4 Squirtle handicap, Rain Dance is just that good.   Ooh this is new. By the time the second cup goes live we've rescued all of the Club Masters except for Mitch, but this cup sticks around until the Psychic Fort, so he can be included in this line up. Or not, who knows. Club Master Duel  Even with 6 prizes to chew through, this shouldn't take too long.   Using Dark Wartortle isn't a great idea due to Doubleslap being lame... having to shuffle all Trainer cards away also doesn't help, but what are the chances he'll do enough damage to knock out my only Active mon?   ...oh. poo poo. Well whatever, the Recharge Pikachu is pretty alright, but we've used it before. Imakuni? What is it? Oh, it's you! You're persistent! Are those your cards? Would you like a card battle? Don't be shy. You'd like to have a duel with me, wouldn't you? Have I trained enough? We'll see! 6 prize cards! We're battling seriously!!  Remember Imakuni?? He's back, in duel form! As always he loves using his Imakuni? card to confuse his own Pokemon.   Truly he is a maverick of the ages.   Anyway, I think this will about do it. Due to Gambler, he's got pretty much no cards, so he's stuck and getting picked off one by one.    His deck is as weird as you'd expect though it does have some offense in Fossil Golduck and Vending Slowbro, which can attack while asleep! Otherwise he has no real draw support aside from Gambler, you can see how that worked out, as well as Poke Flute and Goop Gas Attack, which stop Poke Powers for an entire turn. It's functional, which is the best thing you can say about it.  If I give you these booster packs, promise not to tell anyone I lost! Well, then. I guess I'll continue to wander around. Alright, that'll do for now, we could fight Imakuni? for a few more exclusive promo cards, but I can't be bothered. Defeating Imakuni? 3 and then 6 times will net you 2 more Imakuni? cards, while defeating him 3 and 9 times nets you a Promo Farfetch'd.  This is the same Leek Slap Farfetch'd we've used before and features artwork by Tomokazu Komiya, a regular TCG illustrator, as well as one of the artists for the Pokemon Tales manga, short kids stories focusing on individual Pokemon, some of which were even translated by Viz! This card was available in the Apr 1998 issue of CoroCoro. GR Fighting Fort  Ah what, there's no side room? But what about the trade? WHAT ABOUT THE TRADE???   I'm Brutus, the Leader of Team GR's Fighting Fortress! I'd like to fight you immediately, but I shall first test your might! Meet some pupils of mine. Tony! Good day. I am Tony! Grace! Afternoon. I'm Grace! Confront these two fighters and win. However... you'll need to find and fight them inside our labyrinth. If you can defeat both pupils, I'll accept your duel challenge. If you succeed and defeat me, I'll hand over the GR Fighting coin. With this coin, you may open the doors behind me. Going through that doorway will put you 1 step closer to the GR Castle. Well, what are you waiting for? Go on and fight my two pupils!  Dungeon crawling? In my trading card game? It's more likely than you think.  Cool, this basement room seems unimportant, so let's head in properly.   We only see a square of the labyrinth at a time, so get to mapping, it'll be very important!   One important thing to map will be the invisible pitfalls! They dump you in the basement room and you'll have to start all over again. And they won't stay uncovered.   There's a few chests scattered around but only contain a booster pack, so it's not a massive deal if you get them.  Here's a map of the entire place that I stitched together and added the pitfalls and chests all by myself. I don't know why I did this, it took like 30 minutes and I'm a little scared of what this lockdown is doing to me. You're welcome!   These two chests are right next to each other, nice and easy.     Without a map this place is kinda confusing, however only 3 squares are identical to another. The two by each entrance are the same, so you'll never really mix those up, and the other two pairs have one crucial difference, one has a pitfall, one does not.  It is I, Tony, of Team GR's Fighting Fortress! I don't negotiate! It's pointless! I'd much rather fight with cards! I just loathe people who try to drain my spirit or energy!! I hate all decks with Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal cards!! If your deck includes some of those cards, I won't fight you! Otherwise I'll be stuck using weak moves or doing nothing at all. I'll wager the Club Master here that you'll lose in a duel with me! Now allow me to begin this fight, MINTO!!!! 4 prize cards, noooow! Let's go, let's go, LET'S GOOO!!! Team GR Duel  This restriction works fine since most of my decks don't use energy removal! I like using it, but I usually don't have space. The Bad Dragon deck is back and, well, bad. No, the 90s bad. So good. Not bad.   Good thing I never really switch! I always like leaving stuff in to pad while I build something in the back.   This is actually a great opportunity since the Promo Golem can't really deal damage to Dark Charizard. So let's poke it a bit while we build up.    So Charizard was one of the biggest cards in the Base set, and is still crazy expensive to this day. It wasn't a great card though, as it was incredibly slow and didn't have much to deal with small mons without doing ludicrous overkill damage. Dark Charizard kinda helps with that since it's not completely helpless, but also doesn't do a lot if you don't want to use Continuous Fireball. That move, however, requires you to be a little lucky and get as many heads as you need to knock your opponent out. Too few and you'll probably get KOed since you're pretty fragile compared to Base Charizard. But too many heads and you'll lose all your energy and have to start from scratch. It's risky, but can also oneshot practically everything with 3 energy. If you're lucky.   Wow this was the perfect example of Dark Charizard, it rolled low every time and was able to one shot all the Lickitung. Because this dude had a lot of Lickitung. He moans about not being able to do big attacks, but he doesn't need much energy for Dark Dugtrio and the AI would never use the full potential of Promo Golem's Rock Blast, preferring instead to build up something in the back, leaving it with the cheap Rollout. He has a couple of Breeders to help, as well as Defenders so he can be nice and slow and paralyze you lots with Lickitung. Hypocrite.    Gah ha ha haaa!! Beaten, beaten! I was beaten! I lose the gamble, which means I lost the Club Master as well!! It seems my training wasn't good enough to avoid capture. This is my expression of my gratitude. Please accept it!   Porygon is... interesting. It has an actual attack, which puts it above the Porygon we used last game, though Rocket Porygon has Psybeam. It has a leg up over Rocket Porygon by also changing its own resistance as well as the opponent's weakness to better level the field, since it's still super fragile. This was released alongside Hungry Snorlax for the N64 ad campaign in Dec 1997, while being part of a N64 Pokemon Stadium bundle in English. I'd like to go together with you, but I can see you'd prefer to stay. Are you certain, Tony? I am to take these booster packs? Gah ha ha ha haaa! I don't mind, I don't mind! We have an arrangement that must be honored since I've been defeated. Take 'em! They're fifth edition packs! That's the 'Flight' series! I see! Then I suppose this is goodbye! I'm strong when something's on the line, but you're much stronger. Minto! Do what you like. I'll be here fighting on!! One down, so across the way we go.      Peck Trip Over: Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 20 damage plus 10 more damage. Can only access this room from the top and we'll definitely need one of these, we've used the Dugtrio promo, but can't forget about this little guy! It's nice to use early game since it's kinda tanky and can dole out big damage. It was available in the Understand How to Play Pokemon Cards Now: Newest Edition (Asobikata Volume 2) in Nov 1998. It was sealed together with its evolution, though since it only required a Diglett, you could evolve the Promo Dugtrio from any of them.   So did the developers play SMT beforehand or...   Will this be better than a Promo Diglett?   Nothing will be.   Alright, last chest!   Well wasn't that fun, there's nothing else like it in the game, so let's finish up.  Allow me to formally introduce myself. I'm Grace. Card battles with me are only held under specific personal rules. All energy cards in your deck must be Fighting-type! If your deck has only Fighting energy cards, then let's begin! Set aside 4 prize cards! I'll take you down!!  This isn't a surprise, so let's bring out the Machamp deck again and lay waste to these fools!   That's to be expected, Scyther doesn't need specific energy to attack, only for Swords Dance, so let's try to avoid it.   Thankfully the AI can't resist its free retreat, so we can get just slightly more damage on this but hopefully keep avoiding it.   Oh huh, this Onix has an actual attack? Well whatever, we'll throw it back. Grace is pretty mean by using both Scyther and Dark Fearow to screw over your Fighting decks. Still, quite a few Machamp have ways around resistance, as we've seen, so you should be fine. She also has Dark Machamp and shouldn't have too hard a time finding it with Trader, as well as The Boss's Way, which let's you get a Dark Pokemon from your deck. She also has 3 DCEs, which is technically cheating? Well it didn't really matter.   Didn't get to use Primeape, but maybe we'll use this deck again, the requirements will always pop up when you least expect them.   Sky Flying Pokemon is the final booster pack we can get and contains the other good portion of Vending mons, as well as a smattering of Base, Jungle and Fossil.  The card in this chest is for your collection, Minto. I don't like it very much, but I'll bet it suits you just fine.  I'll take that, no issues here. We'll fall down the closest hole to quickly get back to the entrance, it's leader time!  Let's get to our battle immediately! But heed this warning: I am focused and disciplined! I can unleash Fighting-type's full power. All Fighting-type Pokemon here ignore resistance when they strike! Even if a foe has a -30 to Fighting attacks, they hit at full force. So what will you do? Are you still willing to fight me? I'll show you my mastery of Fighting in a 6-prize, all-out battle! GR Fort Leader Duel  I have news, Minto! I'm telling you now before I forget! I've got some interesting facts to share about Brutus, the GR Fighting Leader!! Brutus uses the Earth Power rule! This rule negates the usual -30 damage reduction for any Pokemon that resist Fighting attacks! In other words, Fighting Pokemon always hit for at least full damage! You might want to try making a deck that panders to Fighting's weakness since resistance is useless! I guess... just hang in there! Ronald (O__O)  Oh BABY is this a good start. We'll let Kangaskhan Fetch cards for a bit while we build everything up and evolve them.   Pfft, what's he using this wack promo card here for? I thought this was a serious-   Ah... poo poo. Thankfully that didn't work, but you can see the nasty combo he can employ here to keep his Dark Primeape kicking for longer than it should!    Since we got Dark Dragonair early, let's have this come out to play. Due to Dragonair's amazing utility there's usually not much point in evolving it, but the Power can maybe tempt you. Otherwise its attack is expensive and only works half the time and it's pretty drat frail considering it could spend multiple turns doing gently caress all. This... is not a very good card and that might be why we've held it off for so long. Dragonair is still great though!   And that was Dark Dragonite! Will I use it again? Eh, probably not.   Okay please stop using Dark Primeape better than I ever will. Still, there's always Final Be-   gently caress! At least we can salvage this.   Alright, let's get Charizard out of there and build it for later. And huh, Gyarados is weak to Grass. Who knew.   Ooh we can build up here! We're nearly there!   Hilarious, nothing like overkill to finish up. Brutus can be pretty brutal, as you saw, since he really doesn't take much to build up, we saw every Pokemon he has, it's a nice mix and with 4 Imakuni?, he'll get a chance to confuse his Dark Primeape for sure. Dark Marowak doesn't do too much, but since it's not resisted, it doesn't need to. And then Scyther is your standard monster.    My Fighting power was overwhelmed. This GR Fighting coin is a suitable prize for such a strong adversary. Here, Minto. Take the GR Fighting coin. You can now open the doors behind me to continue your journey onward. Team GR's Psychic Fortress awaits!  Alright, we're onto the last part of the island! ...wait a minute, we've had a spy here the whole time??? Ishihara's Villa  Did you know? That in Japan??? TCG 2 is called Doki Doki Duel?????  I can see that you're being quite an active player over here. As you may know, this is my personal villa. I frequently use this as a retreat to contemplate complex strategies. If you wish to see what cards I am trading for, stop by sometime.  Gee thanks. Once you've traded enough cards with Ishihara on TCG Island, he comes here so you can trade even MORE with him! As you can see, it's totally worth it.  Here's our final destination. How far can we get?   Well there's a surprise. Still, only 2 more fortresses left to go and we'll finally fight the king! Seems getting to a ruler in all Pokemon games is a bit of a pain. GR Challenge Cup  Since there's a bit of time, let's take on the next Challenge Cup! It's only freshly open from beating the Fighting leader, so let's dive in with a new deck!   Well that's cool, we're facing someone from the Psychic fortress. I wonder if the pool changes depending on where you are in the island. Well we'll fight Psychic with Psychic, a fantastic idea I'm sure, using this Space Invaders deck of Dark Gengar and Dark Clefable by Ranndalor, wasn't quite enough room for Wigglytuff, but boy would it have helped!   Sigh... this is the main problem with using Psychic decks in this game, every single AI has some Colourless mon of some variety and the resistance is enough to make most Psychic attacks useless, since they often deal 30 damage. There are some Psychic attacks that ignore resistance, but we used those last game, and we have something to help with all these Colourless mons!   Pokemon Power: Darkness Veil: All damage done to Dark Pokémon is reduced by a random number (0, 10, 20) as long as that Pokémon is the Active Pokémon. This Power stops working if Dark Clefable is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed. [C][C][C] [30] Dark Song: Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Asleep and this attack does 10 damage to each of your opponent's Benched Pokémon. Exclusive to this game, Dark Clefable is a solid tank, able to survive multiple hits if you're lucky, and also has its power extend to ANY Active Dark Pokemon, which helps their survivability immensely. Dark Song can also be pretty deadly if you get lucky, but even just 30 standard damage is good as hell. It won't blow you away, but it won't be blown away either.   Good to block while we get Dark Gengar built up.   But you can see the issue this game has when the Psychic members have half of their decks devoted to Colourless Pokemon. It kinda sucks even if it's smart.   Pokemon Power: Play Tricks: Once during your turn (before your attack), you may choose to have all damage counters on your opponent's Pokémon randomly rearranged (your opponent's Pokémon cannot be knocked out in this way). This Power can't be used if Dark Gengar is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed. [P][P] Push Aside: Flip a coin. If heads, your opponent shuffles a random Benched Pokémon and all cards attached to it into his or her deck. Another GB exclusive, hey what are the chances, Dark Gengar is... tricky to use. While it doesn't do any damage, it can win you games like Dark Machamp if you get lucky, but if you don't, it'll just sit there and easily die despite how slow it often is to evolve. It's the same as Dark Machamp though it's random what it pushes out and it's also MISTRANSLATED, it can push out the active, but again, it's random which one, and it will push out the active if there's no bench, unlike Dark Machamp. Since its Power is random and is at odds with its attack, it can be worth going for while you're powering this up, but it's definitely tricky to properly utilise.   If you want to actually attack with something, we also have the Promo Gengar which we've already seen.   Another Psychic member? What are the chances? Seriously that's pretty annoying since this guy is loving awful.   Guaranteed sleep is great fun, so let's blow that away and build up something in the back.   This is definitely a nightmare.   It took a bit to actually build up something in the back cause I was getting poo poo for draws. Like 3 Nightly Garbage Run at once draws, which is a problem when I need Haunter or Breeder!!!  Guess what this does.   It doesn't work. Twice.   And then he had a guaranteed sleep attack anyway! At least we're finally getting some good damage on it.   GAHHHHHHHHH   Now I can't draw any goddamn energy! My decks are balanced so this usually isn't a problem, but sometimes I get pretty unlucky.   Thankfully Dark Clefable resists Dream Eater and can even reduce it further! I have spent half of this match asleep and the other half landing tails on Dark Song. I hate this so much.   There's a reason I'm not using Dark Gengar, but we can make some inviting targets for Dark Clefable instead.   Alright, finally making some headway!  But it didn't matter since I knew TWENTY TURNS AGO that I was gonna win. This is why I didn't want Dark Gengar to push stuff back into the deck, I figured I'd ride the endless sleep until one of us died of boredom. Thank gently caress that is over, hopefully the last match won't contain any Colourless Pokemon!   WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING HERE   This is... a slight problem. If you don't remember, we faced this random guy in the Lightning Fort and he had a bunch of Colourless and Lightning mons.   Well this went even further south. I had a Dark Gengar in my hand, but no Dark Haunter, Computer Search or Breeder. All I needed to do was push the Dragonite out and it would've been the easiest fight of my life. Alas.   Okay, okay, we can bounce back from this. It's a prime push target, but it'll sweep us with enough turns.   [P][P] [30] Disgust: Flip a coin. If heads, shuffle a randomly selected Trainer Card from your opponent's hand back into his or her deck. Exclusive GB Dark Gengar also means exclusive GB Dark Haunter. It can be worth not evolving this if you want to deal some damage and screw over your opponent with Trainer shuffling, or maybe not. Pretty dependable damage that could get your opponent stuck while you try and find Dark Gengar, like what I'm doing.   Didn't I say I had a Dark Gengar in my hand earlier? Well to try and find something to fight with, anything, I used Professor Oak to find a Dark Haunter. This has been a real upsetting fight lmao   And that's that, goddammit. I was a bit annoyed at this, but then I remembered this was just for a Bill's Computer card and then immediately felt better again. Oh well!  Next time, we take Dark Gengar directly to the source so we can push their cards into their loving face. Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Apr 1, 2020 |
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Mar 29, 2020 05:39
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Curses! The one place I never looked! Oh well mine is better.The Golux posted:Why would 3 Double Colorless Energies be cheating? Usually both parties follow the rules set, I'm not allowed to have DCEs in my deck, she refuses to battle you if so, but I guess that doesn't apply to her!
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Mar 29, 2020 21:35
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Part 10: Seizing Strongholds Colorless Altar It's me! Ronald! Good to see you again!! Did you have some trouble in the GR Fighting Fortress's labyrinth? I got sick of waiting for you! Listen, I have new Team GR intel. There's a man called the GR King in the GR Castle just north of here! There's a catch, though. You need 2 coins to meet him. Those would be the GR Psychic coin and the GR Colorless coin! You should get them quickly and attack that castle! But seeing how slow you work, I bet I'll get there first!! I'm off! Later, Minto!!  Who is this again? Not important enough to be in this game much it seems!   We three are the Clerics... Avery! Your attention, please! Ah...? We three are the Clerics who protect the Colorless Altar. If your goal is to enter GR Castle, you must fight all three of us! Only be attaining our approval will you earn the GR Colorless coin! We three each require specific cards to be in your deck when challenging. Well, that's all you need to know. Come ye and fight us!  I'm done being GR No.2, though. Would you like to fight me as Avery? I have special deck requirements to prevent me from losing, though. I want your deck to include 4 Dark Pokemon cards. It's the only way I'll agree to have a card battle with you. Okee-dokee! You've got everything I called for. Time to unleash your 6 prize cards! Let's begin. GR Fort Leader Duel Yo, Minto! I've got some info about the Colorless Altar! You'll need to defeat the three Clerics there: Seth, Alan, and Avery. Each specifies different cards to use in fights against them. Moreover, after a win or loss, they may change the cards they require! It's quite troublesome... every time you lose, you'll have to change your deck all over again! But anyway... if you find that you're missing a card and don't know what series of booster pack it's in, try checking out the Card Album. Fight someone who gives out that booster series until you have all 4 required cards. By the way, you could always return to our home island to see everyone again and challenge them for cards. If you rush, you may mess up... Ronald (O__O)  Dammit... well Ronald went over everything I wanted to talk about, so that helps! Since we can face any of the 3 in any order, let's shake it up by taking on the leader asap! Like Ronald mentioned, after a battle with them, they can change their requirements for battle, Avery can request 4 Rattata, 4 Meowth or 4 Dark Pokemon in a deck, which can be a pain depending on what cards you've gotten in this game.   Looks like he's stuck on energy, cause I'm tearing through this guy.    And one more Gengar evolution was enough to close it. Avery's deck isn't intimidating, since it has Jungle Pidgeot and Flying Pikachu, along with Vending Tauros and Jungle Fearow, doing a fair bit of Colourless damage, but nothing crazy. He's got Full Heal Energy and Potions, as well as Defenders and Gust of Wind, so he can be tough to crack, but, if like me, he barely does anything, then he's real easy! Still a few too many Pokemon for my liking, but enemy decks are getting better Trainers and energy balancing, so they're getting tougher! btw, some enemies have text in their sprites, the big images I'm using are from Bulbapedia who use the JP versions since there's no official English translation after all. The victory sprite will always have the same phrase as the regular sprite, it's the lose sprite that changes, but you'll see those in English, so you're not missing anything!  You've defeated me, so you've earned my approval. You'll need the other Clerics' approvals to get our coin, though. Once you defeat the other Clerics, come speak with me again. Dratini cards! Use them and I'll fight you! But if your deck doesn't have 4 of them, I'll refuse the challenge! So, what say you? Does your deck have Dratini cards? If you do, let us begin this decisive battle! Check! You have indeed heeded my request! Then let us stall no further. Set aside 6 prize cards!  The Bad Dragon deck is back again, that's just how it be sometimes, though Dratini has increased from 1 to 4, while Gyarados and Charizard have been reduced to make room. Alan can also ask for 4 Jigglypuff or 4 Mysterious Fossil. We haven't used the Fossil deck in a while...   So wait, Gyarados resists Fighting, due to its MSG Flying type, but is also weak to Grass? Sure, TCG.   Ah someone's seen the greatness of Dark Dragonair, definitely want to get rid of that quickly!   Let the older sibling show you how it's done. But... what's this? Is the youngest taking me on?   Due to paralysis being bullshit and Giant Tail being an awful move, this isn't that unlikely of a scenario...   Ah gently caress this, let's end this using the third and final dragon! Well technically none of them are actually Dragon... Alan has Dark Dragonair, but only Clefairy and Dratini evolve, since he has Onix and Hitmonchan otherwise. With Super Potions and Potion Energy he's a real pain and his Pokemon don't take too much to set up, especially if he gets Dragonair up, so get rid of it asap.    A loss is a loss. I'm not ashamed to admit it.  Create a deck containing 4 Spearow cards, then! If you complete that requirement, you shall have your card battle! Fail to do so, however, and I will refuse your request. If you fulfill that criterion, let us begin the fight! Set aside 6 prize cards! Beat me, and I'll give you a booster pack!  Oh goody, he has other massive blobs that aren't Snorlax. We'll be bringing back the Pidgeot and Raticate deck from the first half of TCG Island, though it's been tweaked for the specifications, since we need Spearow. He can also suggest 4 Pidgey, as well as 4 Double Colorless Energy, but since there isn't a Dark Pidgeot, alas, let's try out Dark Fearow.    Wow, a shittier Dark Dragonite! Even the Super Fang Base Raticate has is better than this, cause being this fragile means your attack shouldn't fail on a coin flip! Otherwise yeah, it's a Bad Raticate, this was as good as it was gonna get.   I hate this guy so much... stall was an annoyingly good part of the meta... not as bad as Gen 2's MSG meta... but boy do I hate my life right now...   Of course, stubbornly using a coinflip attck is similarly painful. Thankfully he isn't drawing enough energy to make my life hell. Yet.   And of course he has Lickitung! God what a miserable card to fight on top of this!    Fly High: During your next turn, Dark Fearow's Drill Dive attack's base damage is doubled. Drill Dive: During your next turn, you can't use this attack and Dark Fearow can't retreat. This GB exclusive was made into a real card as an insert for the strategy guide for this game and it's... alright. At least when it comes to Drill Dive's effects, it's easy to ignore with a Switch and then a free retreat bench Pokemon, but you can usually survive one hit to get Fly High going. Still, attacks with effects like this mean you're only doing 20 damage every turn which is terrible for a card as fragile as this, but when you want to drag something in and oneshot it, this is definitely a way to do it!   I couldn't have picked the two worst cards to be doing this with, but we're slowly but surely making it through this, Super Fang makes it so much easier. If you thought you could be clever and bring in the small basics to snipe, well Lickitung is it, Chansey, Lickitung, Snorlax and Kangaskhan are his only Pokemon. This is what's called the fourth circle of Pokehell.   Always pack a Pluspower or 4, kids!    Quick Attack: Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 20 more damage. Drill Dive: Flip a coin. If tails, this attack does nothing. You had one job Vending Fearow! It's like the Bad version, but bad, like anything relying on coin flips to loving ATTACK!!! Still, you have to go for these big plays or you're not a real gamer. Just adds a bit of variety if you want to potentially attack every turn, but it's still not great.    Ugh, there we go, it took forever, but I beat up 6 beefy mons. He had one of each energy and 4 of each special energy, as well as Super Energy Removal and Scoop Up. gently caress this guy, I hope I never see him again in my life...  Well I'll be. It's been a while since I've lost. The next time you come to fight, I may change my card requirements.    The only person who has that coin is Claire in the GR Psychic Fortress. So go on over to the GR Psychic Fort! GR Psychic Fort  Man the Altar had some right weirdos, thankfully I've never met a weird Psychic user in my life, so this should be good.   Good trade, I think we're nearly done with last game's promos, but still plenty to go otherwise!   ...uh, hello? Is anyone here? Well guess this means I don't need to get this place's coin, off to the castle we-      You've indeed come far. I won't praise your efforts, though. I assume you've set your sights on GR Castle? Well, you've got to get through me first, kid. I won't go easy on you. However, if you happen to beat me, I'll admit my defeat. Allow me to introduce my fellow stronghold members. First is Clyde, to my left!    Easy, Victoria! Please wait for me to complete my introductions. I wasn't thaaaat loud... you don't have to be so strict! There you go again. You don't listen to a word I say! Okay, okay! Stop it, pleeease! I'll be quiet... I bet you never suspected the famed GR No.4 could be so pretty, eh? That's right! Cute little Victoria was GR No.4 the whole time!    If you can manage that, I'll turn my elevator on for you. I'll be waiting for you in the upper room.  Battles with me are a bit extreme. I use a custome rule for resistance. Instead of the usual -30 resistance, all resistance is a -10 reduction. If you feel confident with -10 resistance, let us start the duel. 4 prize cards. Team GR Duel  What a host of wacky characters! Team GR is honestly great, I really like grunts with personality and this game goes like 4 steps further. Anyway, each member has their own rules and Kevin's is the lightest, don't need to think about it if we use a deck that is neutral against Psychic!   Ow, not a good start, so let's drag this in. We're using a Dark Ninetales deck, cause it's pretty drat good!   But this kicking chop is too much, Ninetales is pretty fragile. So what are we pairing with this mon?    We'll go over this card's history in a moment but yep, Dark Venusaur is in this deck called Brushfire by Kemix. They don't mix in the slightest, they're just 2 really good cards, so hell yeah that makes a good deck, why not? I really like this card, consistent damage and it can screw over your opponent no matter the roll. If it lands paralysis then they can't do anything but take 90 damage, 30, 20 from Poison, another 30, another 10 from Poison, it's so good. If they don't wake up, whoops that's another 90 free damage and if they get confused and hit themselves, wow, 110 free damage! Of course switching out ruins it all, but it pins your opponent and is something they can't really prep for since the effect is random. God this card is good! Anyway, this was made into a physical card the same month as the game's release as an insert in Pokemon Card Trainers magazine Vol. 10, in Mar 01. It was reprinted in the Web expansion and made available in English via Battlezone events in May 03, with a "Winner" stamp in the corner if you won enough matches.     Psy Crush: Does 10 damage times the total number of [P] Energy cards attached to all of your opponent's Pokémon. Super Psy This is only the 6th Mewtwo we've gone over, what of it? This is the first Vending Mewtwo, the second one we haven't seen yet! It crushes opposing Psychic decks since they usually go to 3 energy for their attacks, but 50 damage for 3 energy is still absolutely nuts. A welcome addition to Psychic decks to overcome their Colourless resistance. And Dark Venusaur crushed Kevin pretty similarly, though he could've crushed us similarly. With Hitmonchan, Kadabra and Dark Hypno, he sets up very quickly and does a lot of damage for little energy, it's pretty scary at the start! He's got a lot of energy searching so he usually gets to attack and he doesn't have to bother with evolving Machop or Kadabra, so he doesn't get bogged down trying to find the evolutions. Of course, once he's out of cards, due to 2 Bills, he's usually out of steam.  It's rare for my psychic powers to be so inaccurate. Oh, I guess I should activate my elevator switch for you, then. When 3 of the elevator's lights are lit, you can use it to meet Claire. You can't reach her any other way, I'm afraid. Alriiight! I'm a strong, serious and determined fighter! There's no way you'll be able to top my deck this time. Nope! My challenger requirement is a restriction on energy type! The only energy cards you're allowed to use are Psychic energy cards! I hope your deck is made with the Psychic-type in mind! C'mon, c'mon! Let's fight!! I'm gonna blow you away! Hah! Your deck's energy cards are all Psychic-type! Then let's start this show right with 4 prize cards!  Back to the Clef/Gengar deck for a bit, mainly because we have to, and also because the Alakazam/Hypno deck had its time.   Nice as this is, could we get an evolution maybe?   Well at least Kadabra doesn't beat me anymore.    We'll finish off with Gengar, cause why not, Dark Gengar seems a bit shy rn. Victoria has a lot of Pokemon, like Dark Golduck, Dark Alakazam, Mewtwo, Dark Raticate and Kangaskhan a lot. She can get her Dark Pokemon easily enough with The Boss's Way, otherwise with 1 Oak and 2 Bills she usually has a hard time, as she just showed. At least she only has to bother with Psychic energy since Dark Golduck uses that despite being Water and can do a lot of damage if she gets setup. The keyword for Pokemon heavy decks is if, ah well.  It's no wonder I lost so badly in our prior confrontations! Hey, I'll activate my switch. You can thank me later! When the three lights are lit, the elevator is activated. But I'll bet you already knew that from before, riiight? You already beat me with your stupid superhuman abilities!! You have to defeat other members now if you want to go on!!  I'd like for your deck to have a total of 6 Gastly and Haunter cards. Any combination of the two is fine. 3 and 3. 4 and 2; whatever works. Of course, you're free to even use 4 Haunter and 2 Gastly if you want. Anyway, when your deck has at least 6 of these Ghost cards, I'll duel. So are you ready to fight? Feel free to build a new deck if you need to. Yeah, you've got a combination of 6 of the cards I requested! With that aside, let's duel with 4 prize cards. Well, shall we begin?  Oh goody, the nightmare is back. We're basically forced into a Gengar deck for this, but they're good cards so can't complain.   Main issue is these Hypnosis Haunter, maybe this Vending Haunter works out, 20 damage plus 10 more for each prize card your opponent has taken, definitely something to think about late game.   And here's the problem again. Man, do we have nothing for this???   Well maybe if we'd gotten Confusion instead of Sleep 3 times we could've made it less likely to attack, you see that energy building up. It also woke up immediately 3 times so it could keep drawing cards, bah.   Well back to this again...   But hey, knocking out Dark Clefable gave us just enough to clinch victory! Anyway, this boy has Push Power Gengar as well as Dark Hypno, not that you'd notice since he just uses Hypnosis Haunter and Long Distance Hypnosis Drowzee endlessly, god he's lame. Still, I'm very glad we took him down before a deck exhaust win! 4 Sleep!, 2 Full Heal and 4 Full Heal energy for when he gets tagged by Long Distance Hypnosis makes him even more of a fucker.    But how could I lose...? Boo hoo hoo... oh, I'll turn the final switch on. Since this means the elevator is now operational, you can move on. Claire should be waiting for you at the top of the stronghold.  Hey guys... did you know... if you beat 3 trainers... you can take the lift up! Just making sure. Of course, we're gonna fight all 4, why wouldn't we?   You chose me to be one of your required opponents, correct? In that case, I must ask you to follow my own personal rule. Please do not include any Trainer cards in your deck for our battle. This means you can't have any cards like Potions or Clefairy Dolls. If even 1 is included in your deck, I will refuse to battle you. You have followed my request most admirably. If you would please, place 4 prize cards so we may begin.  We left Heidi to last because her requirement is pretty nuts! Trainers is like the main reason I do so well. Still, we're both under the same restriction, so if it's gonna be slow going, then it'll be for the both of us. There's a few ways around it, using the max 4 of all Pokemon in a deck and then filling it with energy means you might get lucky, obviously one energy type helps a lot here. Otherwise, using Pokemon that have abilities to help search for others and energy are real nice, especially if they don't take much to do damage.    Buuuuuuuut, well, I got lucky and she didn't. This could've gone either way, so it was pretty fun to think about. Her deck will never have Trainers, even when you face her in the GR Cup, bet you didn't notice! I didn't... Her Pokemon are mostly self-sustaining, Rocket Slowpoke can get a Psychic energy from the deck, while Base Kadabra can get them from the discard. She also has Dark Dragonair to help her along, if she can find it. She also has Dark Persian since you don't have Full Heals, while she has Potion and Full Heal energy. It's not a bad deck, though the AI is very bad at it, but they're also bad with Trainers, so who knows. Try it yourself sometime!  Mother, I hope it is alright... your daughter has lost... I suppose I should still follow the protocol for activating my switch. ...even though the elevator is already available for use. Well wasn't that fun, onto the final GR Leader!  Before we start our battle, allow me to summon the fort's special guest. He's a young man my members happened to kidnap. He'll be here shortly.  I can't say for certain! We can only get confirmation by watching the future unfold. Well, I'm ready for our battle, Minto!  I'm fairly certain you do not have the capacity to defeat me in battle. It's a whole different experience when you battle against me. Normally, you discard a K.O.'d Pokemon and its energy cards. Under my rules, the discarded basic energy cards return to the hand. So? Do you understand my terms? Then I suppose you'll be challenging me to a duel next? We'll use 6 prize cards. GR Fort Leader Duel  Minto! It's Ronald! I've acquired some information about the GR Psychic Leader, Claire! Claire is a very wise opponent! She employs a very strange rule. Any time a player's Pokemmon is knocked out in a battle against her, the energy cards attached to it are returned to that player's hand! This means you'll certainly have a lot of energy for this fight. But she's too clever to let you take full advantage of that. To counter this, she has plenty of Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal inside of her deck. She uses those cards to ensure you don't get any energy when she knocks out your Pokemon... and be careful of her Dark Gengar's Push Aside attack!! It can push Pokemon back into your deck! You may have no other choice than to create your own Psychic-type deck with Energy Removal cards as well, just like hers... Ronald (O__O)  So for this duel every basic energy card has the effect of Recycle energy. This is gonna get your hand pretty full, but this makes it all pretty fun. Claire is pretty tough since she uses her rules to good effect, by pulling from the deck, she's basically getting them into her hand when Slowpoke goes down. Still, this Rocket Bulbasaur is great to start off with to Poison stuff immediately.    Ah a beautiful sight, Dark Ivysaur is pretty good, 30 damage to the opponent, but where they choose. Of course, the AI doesn't really get it right, but after enough of these attacks they'll have some tricky choices to make. The description is a little misleading, you remove the markers at the end of turn, you use them in the TCG for a variety of things, but you don't remove the damage. Honestly Dark Ivysaur can work on its own, but when combined with its evolution, suddenly all that extra damage becomes incredibly lethal. Great combo! Like Dark Venusaur, Dark Ivysaur was a GB exclusive before becoming a proper card in the magazine insert, and then available in English as a prize for the BattleZone events, same as its evolution, of course, otherwise how would you use Venusaur?   She's got a lot of energy now, but I've got quite the prize lead. Her AI also went a little weird and used 2 Professor Oaks in a row, never seen that before. We're in a commanding position, so let's see how she can yank it away!   Ah boy, Dark Haunter would do it. Consistent damage against my fragile deck and removing Trainers I so desperately rely on due to lack of skill. This might be a problem.   Ugh, the Pluspower makes it as if I'm flipping 10 coins, but apparently that wasn't enough! Thankfully we have some backup, but we're also running out.   Alright, both of them are down, she's clawing it back, but we just need one more to win!   How did I get TWO HEADS??? If she keeps spamming this then we'll run out of Pokemon faster than we can build them in a way to knock this out.   Ooh boy, I don't wanna think what would've happened if I hadn't drawn that Grass energy... that was pretty drat scary! Her deck is pretty simple, get energy with Slowpoke, remove yours with Super Energy Removal, Mr. Mime to stall hard hitting decks and Dark Haunter and Dark Gengar to set you back. Also 4 Kangaskhan, but it feels like every AI deck has those. She's tricky, but can't overwhelm you with damage and she's prime Base Blastoise bait if you can get past the Mr. Mime.      That's the GR Psychic coin, a prize that is required to enter GR Castle. Your next objective is to meet with King Villicci in GR Castle. It seems the child is just as you've said: tough and enjoys duelling... I see now why you had no worries waiting here for Minto. Then honor your promise. Hah! You're free to do as you wish. Minto. I'm Grand Master Rod. I was waiting for you to win your way here. It is my belief that only you hold the power to defeat Team GR. I don't think it's wrong to use Team GR's cards. However, taking others' cards away from them is a different story. I'm certain you understand best after all of your fights so far. Go find the GR King Villicci! Find him and defeat him. I don't mean to sound demanding, but you're the only one who can do it. I sincerely hope that this card will help you on your journey.  Ehhhhhh, I'm alright. Like, it's a tankier Dark Dragonite, but its Power ain't too useful and its attack is pretty meh, like all of them when you flip tails. Anyway, this is the final Mewtwo Strikes Back promo and the last All Nippon Airways promo, feels like we've been finding these cards over 2 games. Oh wait.  Once there, we'll begin preparations for the Final Cup. The winner of that Cup earns the Legendary Pokemon Cards. I hope you'll visit once we have everything ready to go. Then we'll see for sure if you have more power than the Grand Masters! I will remain here in case you would like another battle. Who cares about those lame cards? We've been building to this since we got to this island, next time we finally meet the king. Time to get overthrown!!!
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Apr 3, 2020 01:00
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This is your last chance to submit any decks for the last fights of the game, doesn't matter if they're too cohesive, having a fun lightning round to do the few postgame fights sounds like fun!
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Apr 3, 2020 01:01
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Part 11: Final Filler  Receptionist: Since you have collected both coins, the doors have opened at last. Ronald Encounter  Oh, Minto. Gosh, the players in here are indescribably strong! I couldn't do a thing, even after all of my work to get here! But Minto, you... your deck might do the trick. This is the end, show everyone your power! If you can't defeat me, though, you won't stand a chance in there. C'mon, we'll play with our usual 6 prize cards rules. If you win, I'll give you a rare Super Energy Retrieval Card!  We've gone one last obstacle to face before the Castle, shouldn't be any trouble with our deck, though we will change to a proper deck befitting of the finale.   Ah come on let me flip a hundred coins at your face.   This Gengar isn't too scary and we've been building up a Venu in the back. While Dark Venusaur is terrifying, regular still hits really drat hard.    Complete Recovery: Discard all Energy cards attached to this Pokémon. Then, remove all damage counters and markers from this Pokémon and this Pokémon is no longer Poisoned or Confused. Psycho Blast: Flip a coin. If heads, discard 1 Energy card attached to the Defending Pokémon. He got a bit stuck so we've won. Regardless, here's the SEVENTH Mewtwo card we've gone over in this LP, eventually we'll run out of Mewtwo cards to go over. This was in the third Vending set and is illustrated by Kazuhiko Nishihara, who was the winner of the Mewtwo's Counterattack Commemoration Illust Artist Contest run by CoroCoro. As a card it's alright, there have been plenty of other, better, Mewtwo cards, but it means you can have some variety and choose a kinda tankier stall one? Well gotta do something with your life. As for Ronald's deck it's something we only see once, so whatever, has the devolution Mew as well as Dark Dragonite. Only 2 Bills so he'll definitely get stuck trying to evolve everything, so it's not a difficult lategame deck. So long as you don't get screwed early maybe.  Anyway, here's your new Super Energy Retrieval Card. I'm sure you can beat these guys!! You just gotta do your best! Anyway, fight on, Minto!! GR Castle   You'll have to collect the Legendary cards before I recognize you! Prove yourself by collecting those cards and putting them in your deck. I know you believe you know what direction is best for Team GR... but I'll never agree with you! My ideals are immaculate! I'll fight you myself if I have to! Executive Clay! Ha!! Executive Allison! Yes, King Villicci! Minto! You must fight my two Executives first! Only with victories against both will I confront you in combat! If, that is, you can win... I'm your first opponent. They call me Executive Clay! But let us not fight here. Head over to the Duel Table. But I have special requirements for our duel that you must uphold! I've heard so much praise about the Pokemon cards of legend... you've undoubtedly heard about them. They are the following four cards: Moltres Lv40!! Articuno Lv37!! Zapdos Lv68!! Dragonite Lv41!! Put all four of these cards of legend into a single deck. If you do that, I would be more than happy to have a duel with you.  Well as you could tell by the title of the update, we won't be storming the castle just yet, we need to beat up the strongest nerds on this island. And then beat everyone else up cause I have to pad out this LP somehow! Pokemon Dome Thanks, Portly Man.  That's the only way to make Team GR change their terrible ways. You'll need the Pokemon cards of legend to have a duel with Villicci. So, let's start the Final Cup! Well, assuming you're prepared. Very well! Let's enter the Finals Hall.  We are the Grand Masters, keepers of the Pokemon cards of legend! Without defeating all four of us, you can't earn the cards of legend! Let's begin. First you'll duel Courtney! Take a seat, Minto. Oh ho ho... but don't get comfy. Let's start this 6-prize card duel! Grand Master Duel  What was once the final battles is now the training arc to the final battle!   While this is absolutely miserable, we're not in much threat at the moment.   Give 'im a swift kick m8, oh yeah since I've covered most submitted decks I wanted we've got a good backlog to crack open and have fun with it.   By sweeping around with Surprise Thunder we can mill most of her bench and have an easy time of it. We didn't see the legendary Moltres, thankfully, which is why she got a bit stuck not being able to draw Fire energy. Otherwise she has Nightly Garbage Run to keep them in her deck to draw from and Switches and Scoop Ups for her big stuff.    Your next battle is against Steve, Minto! I'll show you why they call me Thundering Steve! Minto, would you like to change your deck? Okay, then. You may start the battle against Steve. 6 prize cards sounds good to me! Ready? Let's gooo!  Here's the Dark Weezing and Dark Arbok team again, might as well. Up against Speedball Pluspower Voltorb but we should be fine maybe.   Ah poo poo, oh well.   Adding in Thunderpunch Electabuzz is also not okay! drat we're getting owned a bit.   Least we can do is keep dragging in the stuck Zapdos while we build up in the back.   Yo Poison Claws actually worked? Who knew Persian could be so, srnk, good.   Alright, we can't ignore this any longer, so hopefully we can Poison it down.   Okay, we have prize card lead, let's keep it!    Alright he got stuck and that's a win, phew that was kinda scary! The only mon we didn't see was evolution shutdown Aerodactyl, but it's easy to snipe the fossils to ensure that doesn't happen, cause our deck is kinda lame without evolutions. Otherwise 4 Electabuzz is pretty scary as well as a bunch of single trainers like Computer Search, Super Potion and Gambler, as well as 2 Pluspowers and 2 Fossil Excavations. This is a pretty okay deck, but can get stuck without much energy draw.  Impressive, Minto. Your next duel is with Jack! I won't lose this time... not with the full power of my gorgeous deck. What would you like? I suggest 6 prize cards.  Well at least it's not the Scrunch Chansey...   Oh please what is this gonna do?   Exactly bitch, gimme all that energy.   Yo remember this is weak to Grass lol   And we're back where we started, with Arbok not able to paralyze it.   It's alright, Persian is here to save the day!   And another one out of steam, it's just that easy! Kingler is scary if you let it get set up, but you can usually kill it afterwards and get him stuck on energy. Otherwise Sing Chansey is annoying but not overly so and while paralysis from Articuno is annoying, it's the mildest legendary effect, well aside from Dragonite. Otherwise there's a cheap Sleep and Paralysis Jynx, a fair few Switches and Bills and Energy Removal, just to keep you locked down.    Your power is just as impressive as I expected it to be. Minto, as usual, you played wonderfully! It's time for you to face off against me! This is the last battle of the Final Cup! I won't let the Pokemon cards of legend go so easily. Set aside your 6 prize cards.  Hmm this isn't a great start.   Still, Dark Raichu really snipes evolution heavy decks, we might get lucky.   Close, but with no bench and no energy, he's outta luck. Of course the last Grand Master gets chumped. He only has regular Dragonite, but an early Dark Dragonair can get him rolling, even if Charizard is the only other recipient. He can use 3 Kangaskhan as well as 3 Bills to keep the cards flowing, as well as 2 Breeders and 2 Master Balls. He has a pretty quick deck, so I dunno what happened, just how the Krabby crumbles.    You're the only suitable player to have the Pokemon cards of legend. Here. I proudly confer the Pokemon cards of legend to you...    With those, Minto, fearlessly enter GR Castle. Once there, meet with Team GR's leader, King Villicci. I fear that's the only way to make Team GR change their terrible ways. The other Grand Masters and I are looking forward to that change. We'll all finally be able to play cards with Team GR peacefully. Do your best, Minto...  Now that sounds fun and all, but what if we spent the rest of the update fighting the last few TCG Island denizens we haven't gotten around to yet. Normal TCG  After clearing the Fighting Fort we can fight Aaron with a regular deck. Now we'll be fighting all the leftover peeps, but I won't be going into too much detail, cause there's still a few and let's be honest, neither of us really care to go into much detail.   When in doubt, bring out the Dark Hypno and Alakazam deck.   It was a close battle. I assume, I don't remember all the specifics. His first deck is a mishmash of Fossil and Vending that does lots of damage to the bench through Gigashock Raichu, Stretch Kick Hitmonlee and Mach Punch Hitmonchan. Little tricky fighting it with fragile Abra, but we managed. With Energy Removal, Potion and Defender, it is absolutely miserable to survive. His other deck is a combination Grass and Water that fills the bench for Wigglytuff with a lot of draw support for it, as well as a hard hitting Hydro Pump Vending Poliwrath. Vending Pinsir is fragile but good fodder while he evolves his Jungle Victreebel.  Just as I suspected: you're tough! I'll give you this as a prize. Come back again.  I said that once I got my real deck back, we could have a true duel. Well, I was given my deck back! I also have some new booster packs! It's the start of a new era of electrifying battles! The terms haven't changed: we'll still use 6 prize cards! You'll know the strength of my deck after this fight! Club Leader Duel  I've got my list of who to fight and I'm checking it twice, only Isaac in this club remains!   Full heal? Don't mind if I do.   And that was basically a solo, though Doduo not resisting Psychic helped a lot! His deck has things that explode, Magneton and Electrode, as well as the dastardly Thunderpunch Electabuzz and Fossil Zapdos. Also the Vending Dodrio is here, but requires coinflips to deal max damage with Tri Attack, yikes! Only Electrode and Zapdos require full Lightning energy, so he has Full Heal and Potion Energy to be fancy, as well as 4 Defenders to survive going boom and 3 Bill! Wow!!!  I guess I gotta recharge the power of my deck after this loss. I'll admit my loss. I have some ideas to polish up my deck, though!  ...want to know why? S-i-m-p-l-e! I can play now! I've got plenty of cards to play with now! C'mon, already. Let's battle! How's this? We'll use 4 prize cards! I'd enjoy that!  I'll give this Shellder something to wink about!    And wasn't that one crazy fight??? Anyway she was supposed to show off Fossil Cloyster, which can have both attacks do 0 damage if you get unlucky, as well as Fossil Tentacruel and Base Starmie, something we haven't really seen since the tutorial! Only Vending Kingler does any real damage, so there's nothing much to worry about, especially since she has a wide variety of Trainers, but no draw support!  Well, it was fun! I'll gladly take you on again... but more importantly, thanks so much for getting my cards back! You've been showing everyone on GR Island how strong you are. The cards that have been returned allowed me to make a decent deck. How about it? Would you like to see it in action? Do 6 prize cards sound good to you?  Oh goody, as if we need the rain blessed here. Let's snipe the Squirtle before they can be too annoying.   Imagine being 2x weak to hitting yourself.   We're taking down her Wartortle, but she's blocking another one with a Lapras!   Running a little thin, but I'd rather sacrifice some Drowzee so Dark Alakazam can keep teleporting out.   Okay, hopefully she doesn't have the resources to make another one, cause I would really like to not fight that.    Rest: Remove all damage counters from this Pokémon. This Pokémon is no longer Confused, Paralyzed, or Poisoned. This Pokémon is now Asleep. Aurora Wave: Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Confused. Always nice to end it with a Clefairy Doll. Been a little bit since I highlighted a standard card, but the Vending expansion is pretty unfamiliar to most of us, so here's a neat looking card from it! It's not particularly good, but when have I really cared about that?   We saw everything Amy's deck had to offer and that's all it needed, goddamn what a terrifying deck. Sure, Dewgong doesn't do too much, but Lapras is a bulky wall that slowly gets stronger and Blastoise is, well, Base Blastoise. With Computer Search, Breeder, 4 Bill, 2 Oaks and 25 Water energy, she can actually be a real menace! Don't feel bad losing to this deck, Blastoise is so goddamn busted!  I know your fights against Team GR are all deadly serious. Just remember to have a little bit of fun along the way, too, okay?  Battles against me are always to a full 6 prize cards. Let's begin this Psychic battle!  Ugh, Murray, didn't really want to fight him again, but Club Masters are the exception to forced story battle. Didn't really intend to reuse the Dark Raticate and Fearow deck for this fight, but it didn't get much spotlight in the Colorless Altar. Still, I'm just sick of fighting annoying Psychic decks.   Hey get back here, last thing I need is some Alakazam running around, cause you can guess what deck this motherfucker is running again.    Poke Power: Neutral Damage: As long as this Pokémon is on your Bench, each Active Pokémon has no Weakness or Resistance. Juggling: Flip 4 coins. This attack does 10 damage times the number of heads. Now of course new game means new tricks, he thankfully only has 1 of the Jungle Mr. Mime, even if 1 is all he needs, but this Vending Mr. Mime ensures you can't wall Murray with a Colorless deck. That's why I didn't mind, I can still beat him on an even playing field!   Ah gently caress! Of course I'll be using as many Hyper Fangs as possible because I'm an idiot who loves flipping coins to do all the damage or none of the damage.   At least it can work both ways.   This, uh, could be going better.   Alright bro, that's it.   Since I was diligent in sniping his Abra, he didn't get the loving Damage Swap Alakazam up and running to make my life hell. Also surprised he didn't use any Scoop Ups, cause yeah he has all those tools still. With 4 Bills, 2 Nightly Garbage Runs and 2 Traders, his deck is even worse than the original, if that was even possible. I hope I never fight this guy again, good lord.  It seems you've got a secret power that trumps my psychic abilities. I'm going to focus my mind and power up so I won't lose to you next time!  C'mon, let's battle! I wanna begin right away!! Let's make it a quickie. 4 prize cards should do the trick!  Tired: using a Psychic deck for the Fighting club; Wired: using a Colorless deck for the Fighting club.   But I guess it didn't really matter? Goddamn Raticate you're on a rampage. Pretty simple deck, Jungle Primeape, Base Machamp, only weird card is Vending Hitmonchan, she even has 1 Moon Stone to get Jungle Dodrio out earlier. Otherwise 4 Potions, 2 Pluspowers and 2 Defenders make it impossible for her to draw anything useful, hence the very fast battle    A booster pack reward is given to the victor, as always. Training is hard, but battling is quite fun. But in the heat of battle, there's no room for kindness or manners! Would you like to fight me to get that adrenaline pumping? Real battles are fought using 6 prize cards! Now! Begin! Come on, Minto!!  Ow. But also, uh, did he just...    Yup, dunno why he decided to do any of that, but we take those. He has 3 Mr. Mime for some reason, works a lot better in a Psychic deck, but I guess it has its uses. He bulks out with Lickitung and Promo Kangaskhan to build up the Evolution Promo Machamp which can hurt you before forcing you out. Otherwise with a smattering of Rainbow Energy and DCE, he has 2 Gust of Winds are something non-standard. Should've been a longer battle, but whatever.   Only 2 clubs left to go!   Let's have us a hot, blazing duel! Battles are more fiery with 4 prize cards!!  Man am I sick of this Magmar.   Least we can get it outta here, sure it would've been a waste if I'd gotten either coin flips wrong, but that's just how I roll!    I see 80 health disappearing next turn. This is a bit of weird card, do you want to do 40 damage for 4 energy or 40 damage for 3 energy? Decisions, decisions... At least John also has the Vending Rapidash which does up to 50 damage for 3 energy, as well as Promo Arcanine and GB Ninetales. Oh and a Meowth to draw cards, since aside from 26 Fire energy and 3 Bills, not much else to his deck.    Please use the cards you got from those boosters to make a fiery deck! I've got some boosters with your name on 'em -- if you can beat me. Take 'em if you can, Minto! Let's have a heated battle! Better gather 6 prize cards as fuel for this blazing bout!  I swear I've faced this Vending Hitmonchan like 5 times today.   We don't have to Fly High every time we want to Drill Dive, but being out for a turn is a little annoying.   Please free me from this smokescreen hell.   I lived bitch   Okay we're back on track, phew, little dicey when you need to flip 2 coins to attack! Ken has a weird deck, Base Dewgong is cool, since it does FIFTY damage for 3 energy, which is actually kinda nuts, as well as Base Arcanine and Jungle Dodrio, letting him retreat easier. However only having 12 Fire energy limits him somewhat even with 4 Bills and 2 Traders, so it can be a puzzle for his AI to actually get the right combination to attack.    That was indeed a fiery match, Minto! Well played! Battles with you are always hot! You never fail to satisfy. If you can defeat me in a card duel, I'll award some to you as a prize! Shall we set aside 6 prize cards as we have done in the past? Let's make this duel a fun one!  Now we lost to this guy before, but it had been a long day, I left the washing on, there was dust in my eye and I think my refrigerator is running!   Still, sniping some Basics helps get an early lead.   And then we take down some more Basics. Uh, okay, this is quite the lead we've now gotten.   Alright, well, if I land a Hyper Fang next turn I win since he decided not to evolve anything...    Cool. Well his deck did have Basic issues, since Zubat and Grimer and plentiful and also can't evolve. He has Base Chansey to stall while he sets up Vending Arbok and Weezing, but that didn't really work out for him. He had 2 Master Balls but only 2 Bills and had not many useful options like 25 Grass energy, Gambler and The Rocket's Trap, which only shuffles up to 3 cards from your opponent's hand, if you're lucky. In reality, you just snipe the Zubat and get an easy win, man how did I lose to this guy? I'm really bad at this game...  You've got some really strong cards and amazing strategies at work. Because of those traits, I always have fun when I battle against you. Well wasn't that fun? Don't answer that. Next time is when we finally storm the castle, this pawn's gonna sink your battleship, Yahtzee!
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May 12, 2020 04:56
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Part 12: Checkmate Imakuni...?   Oh? Who am I, you ask? Don't you know me? 'Tis I, the Super Musical Star, Imakuni?! What? You say Imakuni? wears black? No way! Don't you know anything? I'm the one and only Imakuni?, and you can clearly see I wear red. You're saying you've seen a black version of me? Preposterous! I'm red! Don't try and dispute the facts! What? Would I like to play cards with you? Sure thing kid! I'm just itching to duel 'em all! 6 prize cards! I don't like short duels!  To challenge the ultimate being, we've created the ultimate deck! Now you could put all 4 Legendary cards in your deck and not use them, but where's the fun in that, so we're use two versions of each Legendary, should be pretty wonky, but you can spend some time to build them up since they're pretty bulky.   As you'd expect, Imakuni? uses some... interesting cards you can only find on GR Island, but I don't think we'll have too much trouble.   Chad Imakuni? card versus Virgin Bill card.   The Legendary play from hand effects will be pretty helpful. You know, if they work.   We're basically set up here, so let's go to town. We need 3-4 energies for our attacks, so it's gonna take a while, but once we get rolling, it's very difficult to stop.   Hey he got a prize card! Good for him!    Raging Thunder: Flip a coin. If tails, this attack does 30 damage to 1 of your Pokémon. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance.) Thunder Crash: Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 20 more damage. If tails, this Pokémon does 20 damage to itself. One of the new cards we'll be seeing is Vending Zapdos, which does a lot of damage, potentially to both sides! Takes a bit to get going, but can be more reliable than the actual Legendary card, you know, if you can survive the onslaught it can potentially deal back. Red Imakuni?'s deck is similar to Black Imakuni?'s deck, y'all. All Psychic aside from Golduck, this time Dark Golduck, as well as some Colorless, in this case Meowth. His main draw is through Computer Error so he can get stuck very easily, but if he gets his Mr. Mime and Dark Hypno set up, he can do damage to all kinds of decks. Or confuse himself and get clowned on, either or.    Eh? I lost? Well... take this, then. When you see me next, I'll be even redder than I am now! I'm off to continue my vacation! I just love traveling, see you! GR Castle No more distractions, onto the Castle! Like his Black counterpart, yo, you can fight Red Imakuni? a few more times for more Promo cards, such as his Imakuni? card after 6 and 9 battles, getting you 4 copies, nice. Defeating him 3 and 6 times results in the Amnesia Slowpoke that we got trading unused energy in the last game, so not really worth it.   Ooh, you're hard, we'll be using the Legendary deck for the rest of the update, though it's kinda close to the Zapdos Scoop Up deck suggested by Chamale. It had no energy and had you playing Zapdos and Articuno over and over again to paralyze/do lots of damage to whatever unfortunate Basic is on the field, letting you win some games on the first turn, wow! Moltres is too good to have otherwise since I can usually procure energy for it, since we have to use it, but it was a cool idea regardless!    Poke Power: Aurora Veil: As long as this Pokémon is your Active Pokémon, prevent all effects of your opponent's attacks, including damage, done to each of your Benched Pokémon. This power cannot be used if this Pokémon is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed. Ice Beam: Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed. Yeah get used to that... we're starting off with this Promo Articuno, which I transcribed anyway since the only English scan is a little blurry. Indeed, this was originally a Vending card that was translated into a Promo in official July 2002 Pokemon Leagues. being updated to just include "Special Condition" since Burn was now a thing. It's a nice bench blocker and can attack with enough coaxing, but it's honestly just worth its Poke Power alone.   I like to start off building up a Moltres since I can get energy for it, which isn't guaranteed for the other 3, to then start building the others up as I get Energy Search and Bills and whatnot.   Well this is miserable, let's switch, it's not like the opponent is really doing all that much.   We're 3 battles from the end of the game, but it seems the opponent loves getting stuck and unable to evolve things.   Looks like Moltres can sweep from here, but come on, where's the fun in that?   We'll use Legendary Articuno which does 40 damage to a random opponent, not consistent, but I need some variety, using the same Pokemon against poor dumb AI is just sad.   Oh hey he's able to whittle me down and get a prize card, nice!   Alright you've forced my hand, I'll use Legendary Zapdos, which does 70 damage to a random Pokemon on the field, also not very consistent, but we're so far ahead I can be a little frrrrrrisky.     Now that could've gone very poorly, but you just needed to believe in the liver of the Kuriboh or whatever and you'll be just fine. It's not too surprising Clay wasn't able to do much, since he has 4 different types and barely enough energy to go around, with 4 Bills and 3 Oaks he could probably get them easily enough, but it's having the right cards to get Dark Gloom, Dark Charmeleon, Dark Golduck or Dark Slowbro, the latter of which could've really helped him early, especially since its attack isn't all that. It can be a tricky deck to prepare for with the Legendary albatross around your neck, but the AI really struggles with more than 2 types of energy.  I won't lie. Whelp... I admit that you do have some strength. You may have won against me... but Allison is still here!! There's no way you'll beat her. You'll never make it to Villicci! Go on! It's time to fight Allison! Clay, please step aside. Everything rests on my shoulders now. Ahh...  The first rule is "Tough Escape". All Pokemon retreating to the bench pay 1 extra energy card to do so. As such, Pokemon normally paying 1 energy to retreat must now pay 2. My second rule is "Black Hole". All cards placed into the Discard Pile are removed from the game. Finally, I may implement the "Low Resistance" rule. The reduction that resistance has on attacks is -10 instead of -30. When you duel against me, one of these 3 rules will be in effect. That said, will you fight me or will you withdraw? All Pokemon must pay 1 additional energy card to retreat. Let's get started with our 6 prize card duel!  Phew, we didn't get Black Hole. That rule is so much worse than the other two it's actually funny, my standard strategy would completely fall apart if I couldn't regain stuff from the discard with Nightly Garbage Run. The other rules are so whatever, I hardly ever retreat since I run 4 Switches and the resistance rule doesn't matter if you're not hitting for weakness, which I try to avoid to make this even slightly challenging.   Looks like I'm using Dragonite this battle. Woo. Early paralysis helps a lot to stop Scyther from murdering me, though it's still a couple turns from Slash.   Of course I'll be powering up a Moltres in the back, and also energy for Dragonair helps too. Unless you need the heal, there's not much point evolving to the Legendary Dragonite since it has the exact same Slam attack. At least Fossil Dragonite let you switch it in after you evolved it and its Slam did 10 extra damage.   Stalling with Hyper Beam is also very useful if your opponent can't attack with their Active just yet, mills their energy something fierce.   But hey, if you keep rolling double heads, then maybe this Dragonite ain't bad at all. (It's still bad).   Alright that's enough of that garbage for a lifetime, let's freeze some fools.    Good thing I got a second Dragonite, we might need it. Dark Muk is pretty scary if you don't have Switch, though I don't know why you wouldn't. This is when the rule actually becomes a little tricky since now we need SEVEN energy to retreat our big birds, which is pretty insane. Guaranteed Poison means you also do 40 damage for 2 energy, which is nuts! It's pretty drat fragile, but will happily trap that big Basic the AI just loves throwing down.   Okay phew, landing both coins was instrumental in doing enough damage to knock it out. Now to clean up with... what mon do I have left to attack with?   Hmm. Hmmmmmmmmmm. This might be a problem. At least you can use it in this deck due to all the high HP Basics.    Phew, that got a little scary, but that deck was a lot of fun to dance around. Of course she has a different deck for each rule, so let's go over them. The only mon we didn't see from this one was the Neutral Mr. Mime, not that you'd use a Fire deck anyway since all but Scyther are weak to Psychic. She has a couple Full Heal Energy so you can't disable Dark Muk's ability too easily with status, as well as Gust of Wind and Defender to have you slowly die from Poison with little recourse. For her Low Resistance deck she uses some real hard hitters of Base Hitmonchan and Mewtwo, oh and Wall Mr. Mime so your increased damage against her will get blocked instead! Evil fucker. I guess Fossil Sandslash is here too, but whatever, her layout is otherwise pretty similar, with Potions instead to heal that pitiful 20 damage, along with more Energy options due to using two types. Finally, her last deck is the most delightfully devilish, having SEVEN Super/Energy Removal to really ensure you can't attack, since it's all completely gone. She has 4 Bills, 4 Oaks and 4 Bill's Teleporters to make sure she can draw as much as possible before you can discard it, as well as Gust of Wind to force you to retreat. Oh and the cherry on top is Base Blastoise, letting her put down a lot of energy before you can do anything about it. And she has Hyper Beam Golduck as well, just in case you didn't hate this deck enough. Do not fight her under these conditions, she will do everything she can to make your life miserable.  It's no surprise that you've won against both Clay and me. You have some very unique and cunning tactics indeed. Since you've defeated us both, it's time for you to meet Villicci. Please follow.    Hoho, so you managed to best both Clay and Allison, I see. The time has come for you and I to have our decisive card battle. Clay! Allison! Begone! When you lose miserably to Villicci, you'll come to understand his power. You'll find out the hard way that Team GR is in the right. I'll be pleasantly surprised if you can defeat Villicci.  It is under this philosophy that I have founded Team GR! What's the point in collecting cards if they are not useful in battle? They must be used, I say! I have invented new ways to battle, putting those wasted cards to use! This is the ultimate for of devotion towards Pokemon cards! They are not meant to be stashed away like our foes do with them! Only one with the upmost respect for cards can be a master of them. I will never be defeated by a simpleton who merely collects them! But the time has come! Have a seat, I shall destroy you in a fiery duel! Of course, you will have the chance to do the same with your decks, too. Let us begin our decisive battle. The first player to gain 2 total wins will be declared the victor. Set aside 6 prize cards. Now, which deck shall I use? Team GR King Duel  Minto... I feel this is the final stage of our fight against Team GR... but I've already lost... it's all up to you now! Please, Minto! Defeat King Villicci! Stop Team GR! Use your amazing cunning to utilize the full power of your cards!! I beg of you, Minto... heed the boons of my final scouting mission well. I was completely overwhelmed by the Team GR Executives... because of that, I couldn't gather much information about the GR King Villicci. I do know that he has 4 different decks, though! Moreover, a battle against Villicci is a long ordeal to say the least. You need to beat him 2 times, and he switches deck for each match! He'll switch freely between his 4 powerful decks, so stay alert! Make sure you use your most reliable deck and play carefully! Hang in there, Minto!! Ronald (O__O)  Here's what we've been building up all LP, not off to a great start, but I gotta say, after everything we've heard, seeing his intimidating artwork, yes that's the best quality we have, his in-game portraits are absolutely hilarious and completely undercut the tension! But maybe that's the point, let's see how our Legendary deck fares!   We've got an early lead due to some lucky Ice Breaths, but hitting the solid wall in front of us would be nice.   Oh now you hit it, after he switched it out.   Still, the Legendary Moltres is here to beat you up.   Uh, most of the time. That's what the Dragonite is here for!  Well that was... anticlimactic, at least there's a second fight. As the name implies this was SUPPOSED to be a Dark Machamp deck, but that's a little difficult when I snipe your Machop and only leave you with barely benign big Basics. Also included Dark Clefable so you couldn't deal with Dark Machamp before it could throw out half of your squad, along with copious amounts of Defender and Gust of Wind to stick around and get rid of the most dangerous members of your team. Again, like I say for MOST opponents, in theory. Evolutions are a big pitfall in the TCG and sniping those poor wee Basics makes his strategy that much weaker. Oh well, next!  You are free to change your decks. What will you do? Good... then let us begin the next battle! Set aside your 6 prize cards and we'll start the competition.  Alright at least this way he can get some cards to start off with. But what's with that deck name, what Pokemon could he use that would make him say RIP?   Oh. OHHHHHHHHHH FUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK. This might be a problem.   At least we're able to deal with this immediate issue, but that still doesn't solve the Dark Dragonair, Dark Venusaur combo.   Who has two thumbs and doesn't have any Full Heals, this fucker.   Well ain't that just loving great. Paralysis is a death since it 2HKOs everything with Poison. Sure I'm relying on getting through Confusion in order to attack, but that's all I have.   But hey even with Poison I can now survive a Horrid Poll- OH COME ON!!!   But hey that's... that's one down... If you were wondering what the opponent could use so I finally have a rough time, this is definitely one of them. Thank god this is 2 outta 3.   Okay let's switch and regroup. If we could just ignore Dark Venusaur that'd be great...   Okay, we've got Articuno on deck, if it could hit the Dark Venusaur that'd be great... but I won't say no to another prize card.   Please stop kicking my rear end... Still, since he KOed a weak mon, we get a turn to attack. If I hit it or something weak in the back with an Ice Breath, we'll be through!   We broke through Confusion and hit Mr. Mime twice! That's a baseball!   gently caress me, what a way to end this game. Still, that's what makes it fun! I still had the deck out option in case things went super south, even Dark Venusaur couldn't chew through all of my team in 4 turns. Maybe. We saw his whole strategy and how it nearly worked, he'll use his 3 Traders to get Dark Dragonair, AI likes using that card, and will shore up his Dark Venusaur with Pluspower and Gust of Wind to kick your rear end. GR Castle How could I have been defeated in a card battle against you... twice? Yet I had insurmountable fun in these duels... how could this be? My heart... it's still beating so fast! I've never had such fun playing the Pokemon Card Game before! This is the first time I've ever lost playing the Pokemon Card Game. Do you remember what I said before? "Cards are only meant to be used". I thought cards were only useful when they brought power to a deck. No matter how you use your Pokemon cards, you must enjoy yourself! You made me realize this during our card battles! Minto... thank you very much! I give you my word that we shall stop stealing cards from innocent people. Pokemon cards ought to be in the hands of the people who love them. If I've learned anything from my cards, it's the value of friends. Here, take the insignia of my friendship now! I'll also give you this very rare card as a gift from Team GR. That resolves our dispute, then! Don't you agree, Minto? Let's both continue on, sharing passion for our Pokemon cards! Credits  Well, uh, that's one way to stop an evil king, steal his heart of the cards! That was a drat fun game, won't spend much time on the credits, we're all eager to move on.   Thanks for joining me on these 2 gems. Well, the second game is definitely great, but the first one should be appreciated so you can get a hang of things. These games aren't difficult in the slightest, there's a few tricky spots, losses mainly due to a bad opening hand, but thanks to everyone submitting decks to make this a really amazing sandbox LP, I had an absolute blast, like always!   Of course we're not done just yet, there's a little more to go over, just a bit more than the first game, look forward to the Sealed Fortress, spooky! Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 05:07 on May 12, 2020 |
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May 12, 2020 04:56
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There we go, took a bit of time, but better to pace yourself and finish than never finish at all! Thanks to everyone joining me on this little adventure, even if it took a little longer than I would've liked. Of course, there's still a bit of postgame to cover, but that doesn't mean we can't start planning our adventure in the Big Applin! What do you call a fire pig? There are literally hundreds of puns you can make so it better be a good one!. Also what will his green monkey companion be called?
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May 12, 2020 04:59
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Votes so far! Tepig: Boaris: 4 Hamlet: 3 LtBacon: 2 BcnRevenge: 1 KrisPBacon: 1 Glazed Ham: 1 Applewood: 1 Fighting: 1 Pansage: Specter: 2 Disappoint: 1 Cilantro: 1 Thyme: 1 Grookey: 1 Tristan: 1 Garnish: 1 Sage: 1 Parsley: 1 Shortened a couple of names due to character limit, it's the gen AFTER this that we get 12 characters to play with. Otherwise it's still anyone's game! Mmm... game....
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May 13, 2020 21:47
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Part 13: Ghost of Card Games Past TCG Island It's all because of my great support that you defeated Team GR, you know! Feel free to thank me, Minto! Alright, postgame, there was barely anything last game and while everyone's kinda settled into their roles from that postgame, there's a bit more in this game! We won't be doing most of it, but it's there, and that's the important part!  Your bravery and Villicci's will to accept his mistakes opened our eyes. Everyone who loves Pokemon cards is a friend to us. This is a sincere moral we've all learned from our bouts with Team GR. No matter what, just keep that love and tolerance in your heart...That's deep man. Anyway there is something to the Pokemon Dome, not that we'll see, because it requires Link Battles! After you win 10, then the Grand Masters Cup will be available, it's an elimination tournament against the Club Masters, with the finals have you fight a Grand Master. If you win, you can pick any TWO Promos in the game, aside from the Bill's Computer ones, Imakuni? or GR's Mewtwo. If you win FIFTY Link Battles, you'll get the Raichu coin, which Ronald uses and is one of the many awfully grindy coins I'll be showing.  GR Island  Anyway, that's enough of that lame place, we'll be on GR Island for the rest of the update, oh no what a shame. Oh? I've got postgame mail!  It's a marvelous machine constructed by the famed Dr. Mason. Please stop by and try it out -- it's lots of fun! If you earn 50 wins in a row, you'll be awarded a new rare coin! It's the coveted Gengar coin! Please do your best to earn it. Team GR King Villicci (-_-)  Yep. These are still things, there's one on TCG Island as well in Dr. Mason's lab, same as the previous game, but hey there's actually a reward for grinding out FIFTY fights, TWICE! Wow, what a waste of time, here's some lovely coins.   And since we're in the Challenge Hall, like the previous game's postgame, there's a chance there will be a new Challenge Cup when you start the game up to get more Promos. If you beat Challenge Cups on either island 10 times, you'll get a coin! Wow! What a load of garbage grinding again!    Mr. Ishihara has an awe-inspiring library of books about card battles. As a top Executive, I need to study new and interesting duel strategies. Oh, is that why you're here, too? ...well, that's fine. Let's have a rematch sometime soon. I won't lose next time! However, it's better to do it at GR Castle than right here... I'll see you later, Minto.  There's still a few trades to do with Ishihara, but there's only two Promos left in the game we haven't seen yet! And you won't see them normally because it's Card Pop! exclusive like Mew and Venusaur last game.  Alright, onto the main meat of the postgame... fight Villicci... again.  Would you like to have a casual battle or two with me? As before, we'll fight to two total victories. I'll be having fun using my four specially crafted decks! Then let's have some fun! We'll use 6 prize cards. GR King Duel  We're back here again, yes we do need to beat Villicci a second time to continue with the postgame, it's riveting I know, but hey, we could potentially see his other 2 decks this way, isn't that exciting???   Since he had a Dark Venusaur deck, then you can expect the other 2 Dark starters, thankfully Dark Charizard isn't too bad to face, since the AI will only give it extra energy when it really has nothing else to give it to. 2 energy is still 100 damage, but come on what are the chances of-   Ah goddammit!   Well whatever, since this game isn't difficult, we can pull out a tricky deck like the Lockdown fossil deck to beat the final boss. Would be nice to get Aerodactyl out, but it's not a massive deal against some decks.   I tried.   Even we can't Absorb past Poison damage...   It's time for Clairvoyance Omanyte to take the stage and not because I haven't drawn into an Omastar yet!   Here's the trade evolution Omastar, don't think I used it last time, it's alright I suppose.   Little tricky due to Dark Charizard, but not a bad deck. We saw everything he used, he uses the Neutral Damage Mr. Mime in every deck, thankfully it's not the Invisible Wall one... he just gets Dark Charizard out and shields it somewhat with Dark Clefable, drawing with Kangaskhan and side attacking with Magmar, nothing really out there, few Defenders, 2 Energy Retrievals, it's a deck that chugs along and is simple enough for the AI, which is all you want.   Ah dammit the Dark Venusaur deck again... well I'm sure we'll be fine.   Uh oh, Intro Bulbasaur can do 30 damage for 2 energy, which is always scary early game!   Alright let's stop this evolution nonsense, I say putting my only way of doing that in danger.   Oh hey we're weak to Grass. poo poo.   Still, we're able to save Aerodactyl and since Villicci is low on energy, there's not much left to this fight, thank god.   Ah poo poo, well anyway the last deck we didn't see was Dark Blastoise, surprise surprise. Since he also doesn't use Blastoise, it's not as effective but he uses Dark Clefable again to keep it around to stack energy, though the AI doesn't do that too much. With 3 Super Potions and 3 Breeders, he can get a healthy Blastoise up quickly and can supplement its fewer Water energy with Pluspowers. Also has Scyther that can't use Swords Dance, mainly due to 18 Water energy limiting what he can do. Also has Fossil Lapras for side attacking, alright deck, not as effective as the others.   No, no! I lost again! No matter, though! I thoroughly enjoyed our battles, Minto. I think that fun was worth giving you another special card.  Poke Power: Dark Wave: Whenever 1 of your Pokémon with Dark in its name does damage to any Pokémon with an attack, flip a coin. If heads, flip another coin. If the second coin is heads, that attack does 20 more damage. If the second coin is tails, that attack does 10 more damage. If you have more than 1 Great Rocket's Mewtwo in play, use only 1 Dark Wave for an attack. This power stops working while Great Rocket's Mewtwo is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed. Dark Amplification: Flip a number of coins equal to the number of Pokémon with Dark in their names on your Bench. This attack does 20 damage plus 20 damage times the number of heads. Now that we're not at the end of the game, we can talk about GR's Mewtwo. This was physically released in 2001 as part of the Special Edition Celebi Game Boy Advance bundle package and was updated slightly to that era. In its debut game, Dark Wave randomly increases a Dark Pokemon's attack by 0, 10 or 20, so it's very useful in the postgame to passively boost your Dark decks and can deal some damage depending on how many Dark Pokemon you use, but it lives and dies on the coin flip, so it could do up to 120 damage. Or not, and that's its main issue. You can get as many copies as you want by beating Villicci, but we'll use 2 cause gently caress that. Pretty alright card, but not amazing and thankfully the last Mewtwo card we need to go over!  You're welcome in our castle any time you wish to have a card battle. I shall also give you permission to enter the Sealed Fortress. There are formidable decks contained within that building's halls. They are deck even I, the GR King, am afraid of confronting. It's your choice to investigate it or let such power be. ...either way, be careful, their power is unpredictable and fierce. All I wish is for everyone to have fun with their Pokemon cards!  Woo, credits, onto the Sealed Fortress!   Now my collection of Legendary Flying Pokemon Cards is complete! Sealed Fortress     Our power was so frightening that we were all locked inside... fate has brought you to this place. Why not indulge its hosts' requests? Have card battles with us, you will learn the power of your deck. Speak to the statue of the player you wish to challenge. We are all skilled at card combat, choose your opponent wisely!   Before we can fight, you must sit at the duelling table. Let's start the duel already! Set down your 6 prize cards. I'm going to show you my prized "Everyone's Friends" deck! Sealed Fortress Duel  So this is how we'll end the LP, we started going around our island fighting locals for medals and end fighting ghosts sealed in a fortress by an evil king we befriended through card games. The usual fare.   Out of the 9 fights in this fort, we'll use a GR Mewtwo and Dark Golduck deck for 5 of them, there's some extra variety if you use Water energy, but I'll use solely Psychic energy for a Psychic deck that doesn't immediately get walled by Colourless decks!   3 energy for 50 damage is good, but a potential extra 20 on top of that makes this deck very nice, remember this is Water damage, despite requiring Psychic energy.   GR's Mewtwo will have to pick and choose its fights due to endless Colourless mons, but with enough Dark Golduck on the bench it can be pretty good. Can.   Let's have Mewtwo do something in its debut fight.   Do The Wave, still good after 2 LPs.    But phew, that's the first Ghost Master down, Axel had a very clear archetype, all of them do, in a light Haymaker, though with no Grass energy Scyther can only do so much damage. With 4 Gust of Wind and 4 Pluspower, he can pick and choose who to knock out and because he's got a bunch of easy Basics, he can slap them down for Wigglytuff, drat dangerous deck, but energy is a little thin. That's the only issue with this deck, 4 Bills, 3 Oaks and 3 Computer Errors finally give the AI some useful draw support, took long enough. Hopefully the other 8 battles won't have decks this tough!   Your deck is certainly a tough one after all, I must admit. See ya later!You get 1 Present pack for beating these guys, which will contain any cards, which doesn't help you get specific ones, but a nice bonus.  UGGGGGGHHHHHH this fukkin guy    Our card battle will be a full game with 6 prize cards. Allow me to show you my "Invincible Pokemon" deck.  We're switching to the Dark Raticate deck again for a very good reason.   Ah, the Damage Swap Chansey combo. It sucked when Murray had it in both games and it super sucks now, especially since he gets Alakazam up as soon as possible and has the tools to do that quickly, unlike Murray. I hate this guy so much, especially because my best damage option is Hyper Fang, Drill Dive is way too slow and Dark Fearow doesn't resist Psychic anyway.   Thankfully he only has one Neutral Mr. Mime, so it's not too likely he'll be able to overpower your Colourless deck, which I don't like using, but in this specific case, gently caress this guy!   And now the most miserable part of the duel. God this is a bad deck to use against this bad deck, but I have my plan and I'm sticking to it. Also this is the last coin we haven't seen, gotten after ONE HUNDRED LINK BATTLE WINS! Great.   You have to use a deck that deals some small damage otherwise his 3 Mr. Mime walk all over you.   Also the Fossil Tentacool can remove 2 damage counters from the bench the turn after you put it down, nothing too crazy but every little helps.   Yo, this is our chance, since Chansey is gone, there's a good chance Alakazam won't be able to remove all of its damage counters in one go, unless he has a Scoop Up maybe.   Okay, I think we've got an opening here, of course that Kadabra is a walking time bomb, shame it has 60HP, otherwise it'd be easy bait.   ESPECIALLY when this mime comes out, need to nip that in the bud immediately, we cannot let Kadabra deal dam-   Uh, Alakazam deal damage, due to the confusion chance as well. Absolutely miserable to face, I hate this archetype so much. Still, I spy 2 more snipes that will secure us the game!   Oh.   Always have a Plan A folks, cause Plan B was actually getting all prize cards lmao. So yeah, completely miserable deck to fight but thankfully only 2 Chansey and Mr. Mime aren't too bad to deal with if you have a 20 damage card. But with 4 Nightly Garbage Runs, you might face 2 more Chansey if you're unlucky but hey, ONLY 2 Centers! I don't wanna talk about this archetype anymore...  Here, take this gift. I reward all those who defeat me... you have my deepest thanks for a truly memorable battle. I'll be leaving, now... Still, let's move on to the next one.    Let's go! 6 prize cards! Our fight will be to 6 prize cards! You won't feel so hot when you fight my "Sealed Trainer" deck!  Alright, let's see if we can deal with these before we get Dark Vileplume.    Alright, cool! I'm glad that went quickly, Dark Vileplume is miserable to face since Trainer cards are kinda all I do at all times, but it also hurts him, so I guess it's not the worst thing. Due to only having Psychic energy he doesn't use Dark Vileplume to attack so that gets him stuck faster than he'd like, but with 4 Traders, 4 Bills, 3 Oaks and 4 Bill's Teleporters, I'm really surprised he didn't find what he was looking for over the like 7 turns it took to beat all the Dark Gloom. Not complaining! Otherwise he uses Vending Haunter to deal more damage since your hand contains all these useless Trainers and Dark Golduck for good damage. Effective, but definitely fallible.  Tch!! I guess it was inevitable. Here, take this booster pack. Mark my words, kid: I won't be defeated next time! 'Bye! Alright, what random deck will I choose next? After this we'll skip to the 6th statue, save the middle for last after all.    6 prrrrize cards! Leeeeeet's boogie!  There was a gap in recording Villicci and some of the Ghost Masters, so didn't mean to use the Fossil deck twice in one update. Oh well!   This will go like usual for this deck. I'd love to use Omastar, but if it doesn't pop up, what can ya do?   While Foxfire made Aerodactyl a little stuck until a Switch, Fossils are great bait so we can get back to slaughter.    Easy enough to sweep from there, Pierrot doesn't have many tricks, just a pure Fire deck that deals a lot of damage with Defender and Potions to keep them around for longer. Only 3 Energy Retrieval, so he'll run out of energy if he keeps his cards around, especially since Magmar is the only light attacker he has, Base Ninetales and Arcanine are pretty drat slow, so as long as you burn off the energy, you should be mostly fine. That's about it, simple deck, simple to stop.   Hopefully after the miserable second fight the rest are gonna be nice and smooth. Seems to be going that way, but we're getting kinda lucky!     Straight to the point, like a lightning bolt. Funny that.   Thankfully he lead with Zapdos, or we would've been hurting a tad.  He's hurting for energy and that isn't really helping, if a little annoying.    Well since he didn't draw another Pokemon, Promo Gengar will gently caress him up. Not too surprising, he only has 12 Pokemon in his deck, which is weird for the AI. Base Chansey to absorb the GB Zapdos hits in case it goes pearshaped and then... GB Ditto.  Pound Morph: Remove all damage counters from Ditto. For the rest of the game, replace Ditto with a copy of a Basic Pokémon Card (other than Ditto) chosen at random from your deck. Ditto is no longer Asleep, Confused, Paralyzed, Poisoned, or anything else that might be the result of an attack (just as if you had evolved it). Exclusive to this game due to Fossil Ditto being a pain to program, Ditto works in this deck since it either becomes a Chansey, always nice to have, or gets Zapdos out to drop the thunder. Of course it needs 3 energy, so it can be sniped beforehand but it's a way to accelerate a specific mon, especially ones that require 3 energy. Still, it's up to you whether you just want to build that Pokemon on the bench, or this fragile one. Nothing a Computer Search can't really handle. Regardless, Frank has Defenders and Scoop Ups to keep everything around, as well as Energy Removal so you can't remove Zapdos before it removes you.   I'll be here waitin' for you! Challenge me again sometime! I'll be seein' you!    This game has no shortage of weirdos...   Wow, a second Colourless deck, gently caress off!   Mewtwo isn't completely helpless with 3 Dark Golduck behind it, mwahahahaha!    Mmm, that felt good, especially because he's using the exact same deck! With Dark Dragonair to set up and Dark Clefable to reduce damage, Masquerade uses Dark Golduck and GR's Mewtwo to deal lots of damage quickly and effectively. Unfortunately I was faster, even though they have 4 DCEs and 4 Recycle Energy to get Dark Clefable attacking quickly too. 4 Bills but only 1 Oak make it a little trickier to get what they need and of course if you don't get Dark Dragonair it becomes harder to amplify GR's Mewtwo. Definitely a deck to watch out for, but seems I keep getting lucky with all these quick kills, not complaining!   Three to go, can't wait to see what reward I get for this!   Good afternoon! Do I finally have a customer? I'll gladly take your order if you have a seat at the table!  That's a relief, I haven't had any money all LP!   Time to take down this waitress with some bad dragons, I'm sure we'll have a great time! ...what?   I was getting unlucky to begin with, but a Breeder usually fixes most problems.   Still, I imagine I'll use up all the energy on the wrong thing and use the Dark Gyarados in the back.   Hmm, I've been using the perfect amount each time, but of course I need to roll 2 to take out Dark Clefable, and any Sleep will spell certain doom for Dark Charizard.    Alright well that was a great sweep! Yet again we had Dark Clefable, but Anna had an interesting mix of cards, from Jungle Exeggutor for all 4 DCEs to Dark Gengar pushing your Active so Exeggutor has more time to set up, to Intro Jynx which, well, doesn't really do much aside from padding. There's not much cohesion with her deck, having very few Trainers and even 2 Grass energy, despite Exeggutor not needing any for Big Eggsplosion. I guess this is a chaos deck, cause I can't figure out what the theme is!  Thank you very much for the battle! I'll be waiting for you to return!  Hiiiii! Hello there! You wanna battle, right? Then go sit at the duelling table! It's great to have a card battle after waiting for such a long time! To get the most enjoyment out of it, let's play to 6 prize cards!  Of course we couldn't escape this archetype, after all I used a pretty similar one towards the start of the LP. My how far we've come.   Okay we get it, you have Articuno.   Before we even deal with Blastoise, Intro Wartortle ain't a slouch either, 30 damage for 2 energy.   Alright, phew, she's mostly out of energy. Gotta get Blastoise out quickly if you want to use big, slow legendaries.   Still won't give me a break after all this time, huh game.    Easy enough! You know, when you don't let Blastoise come out. The deck is exactly what you expect, Blastoise, Lapras, Articuno, along with 2 Breeders, 3 Traders and 2 Computer Search, so getting Blastoise out shouldn't have been too difficult. 22 Water energy to seal up and even 2 Potions just to make sure, it's terrifying, but without Blastoise, Articuno is slow and Lapras can only do so much. Maybe I'm lucky, or maybe I'm just really good at this game.  Thanks so much for playing cards with me. You'll play again, right? Goodbye for now!  One Ghost Master remains, the leader, I can only imagine what deck this guy has.   Hmm, maybe Dark Muk? Dark Venusaur? Nidoking Toxic?    Peck Poison Horn: The Defending Pokémon is now Poisoned. Ah of course, the deadliest lead! You might think I'm joking, focusing on Vending Weedle as one of the last cards of the LP, but guaranteed Poison is pretty nasty on turn 1 and will usually net you a kill if they don't retreat. I'm also highlighting it because this is its final form, Toby has no Kakuna or Beedrill cards.   Please kill this next turn thanks.   Well that's fine, I still use Pluspowers just in case GR's Mewtwo lands 0 and in this instance it did, so I'm glad I had a backup.   Otherwise, gotta keep knocking these Scyther down before they can reach Slash.   Oh yeah, we deal Water damage, I nearly forgot.     Psychic: Does 10 more damage for each Energy attached to the Defending Pokémon. Wave Splash We'll finish up with the Vending Golduck that didn't see too much use, but was very useful against the high energy mons like Comet Punch Kangaskhan and various legendaries. Not too useful overall, the AI doesn't stack energy as much as it should, but I suppose it properly fears these attacks! I guess you can use the second attack, depends which one you want to ignore, since Water and Psychic usually don't mix outside of Golduck. Oh yeah, Toby, despite being the apparent leader, he's actually a joke, intentionally of course, his Japanese name is literally Tobichan. His main attackers are Scyther and Magmar, since he has Kangaskhan for draw and Weedle or Charmeleon otherwise. He gets stuck easily due to 2 Bills and makes up for his lack of power with 3 Pluspowers, but otherwise his split energy doesn't help much and even his best attackers don't do much damage. But at least we're done!  Heh heh heh... well, that's that. Prepare yourself for your next duel. Hopefully we'll meet again, Minto. Ishihara  I believe I've finally collected all of the cards I've been looking for.That's the last of the trades done! But yeah, that's it for the Sealed Fortress, you don't get anything for beating all 9 Ghost Masters. Getting the Lugia coin would've been cool, but whatever, see if I care! Now there's just a couple of little things to take care of.  Constantly restarting the game and reloading Ishihara's Villa got old pretty quick, but it's the fastest way to progress in the trade sequence.  Thanks to you, I've collected all of the cards I've wanted at last. Thus, I no longer need to trade any more! Now I can use my cards to have some exciting battles. What do you say, Minto? Would you like to battle me? Thank you very much, Minto. I hope our battle is most enjoyable. If you would oblige, we shall play with 6 prize cards.  Okay, phew, we're past the hardest part of the game! Ishihara is the final opponent we'll face in this LP and his deck is full of Promo cards we've been traded throughout the games. It's mainly Colourless Promos, of course, but has Marill, Base Gyarados and Surfing Pikachu, so it has predominately Water energy. I'm saying this now because it's not much of a challenge and I can use this time to mention the last few things left to go over.   Oh yeah Promo Electabuzz doesn't require specific energy aside for Light Screen, so it slots in quite nicely.   Due to only having 2 evolutions, this deck is pretty fragile, but let's talk Dark Pokemon. We encountered a fair few throughout this game and I'm pretty happy we talked about most of them. There are just a few we didn't encounter or weren't suggested, so let's go over Dark Flareon and Dark Rapidash, mainly because we didn't use many Fire decks!  Shame we didn't really encounter this one, cause it's not so great! Either you do 50 at 10HP or 50 if you discard an energy, which is alright, but man this thing is so fragile that setting up Rage is super not worth it, while you can chain the second attack pretty easily, or you can just use Rage at 20HP, up to you.  This one seems perfectly fine if really uninteresting, like hey 30 damage for 2 energy is cool. I guess if you have a lot of energy in the hand you can add another 10 on top, but it'll take quite a few turns to be effective. Still, maybe you could soften up the bench so that a 50HP mon following a 60HP mon is KOed in one hit. Otherwise it's so whatever.    Since we've got a dangerous Magikarp out, might as well cover the dangerous evolution. Gyarados works really well in a Blastoise deck and Dragon Rage is a solid attack, while one extra energy for some extra utility is pretty cool. Decent card, weird Grass weakness still and has solid HP, hey wait why didn't I use this card???    And there we go, not particularly difficult. Even Cool Porygon and Super Energy Removal can't help this deck from being a jumbled mess! There's just 2 more cards to talk about and then we'll have covered everything I wanted, man, another LP is over? Well, that's fine, card games can only be so interesting before they get just a liiiiiitle repetitive. So it's Card Pop! time!  Woah, is that an anime reference??? I kinda forgot this card was a Promo cause I've been using it in every deck lmao. You only ever need 1 and it's super useful, just knowing what Prizes are what is great, so what if your opponent also has that advantage, you at least know what cards they're picking up! It's also interesting in that it's one of the first Holofoil Trainer cards and the first Super Rare card.  Aeroblast: Flip 2 coins. This attack does 20 damage plus 20 more damage for each heads. And here's the final card in the game, Lugia, pretty fitting. Included along with the game in Japan, it's... meh. Future Lugia cards were definitely more impressive. Hmm, kind of a lame note to end on, but what do I care! I don't really know why I highlighted 160+ cards and talked about them and made this LP longer, is there something wrong with me? Well while I figure that out I should move on to my next LP.  However, it was a truly fun battle. Here, take this as your prize. Please use the cards you just received to make a new deck. I'll be more than happy to challenge your new creation, too! In any case, Minto, you're welcome to return at any time. What an adventure! While this side project went on a little longer than I would've liked, I'm still super happy I could show off these two gems, especially the wacky sequel. Thank you very much for watching, but don't just sit there, we're off to the Big Applin in Pokemon White, drat the games just keep getting better!
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May 19, 2020 01:43
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