Rattata, Raticate, Girafarig, and Hyper Beam (PAC)[WRITTEN]

[Tinkerer]

Hello, fine peoples!

 

I guess these cards are trickling in just a few at a time. Here are a few more for the pile.

 

 

PokéNormal Rattata

EARTH *

Beast/Effect

You can banish 2 Spell/Trap cards in your GY to Special Summon this card from your hand. If this card is destroyed: Special Summon 1 "PokéNormal Rattata" from your hand or Deck.

500/500

 

By all intents and purposes, this shouldn't be in Advanced. Really, its only utility outside is possibly helping self-destruction effects plus instead of break even, but there are better cards for such utility.

 

PokéNormal Raticate

EARTH ****

Beast/Effect

You can Special Summon this card from your hand, by tributing 1 level 4 or lower "PokéNormal" monster. Thrice per turn: you can pay 500 LP; Special Summon 1 "PokéNormal Rattata" from your GY. This card gains 200 ATK and DEF for each "Rattata" monster you control. If this card would be removed from the field: you can destroy 1 "PokéNormal" monster you control instead.

1700/1600

 

So I made a version of Agent Venus for the Poké archetype. Saying "'Rattata' monster" was for the sake of futureproofing. I wanted for it to be able to include Alolan Rattata, whenever someone ends up making it. It, like Rattata, isn't much meant to be the star 'mon, but a bit of a utility choice if someone were to make a "PokéNormal" Deck.

 

PokéPsychic Girafarig

EARTH ****

Psychic/Effect

This card is also always treated as a "PokéNormal" monster. If this card declares an attack, you can Special Summon 1 "PokéDark - Backend Token" (Fiend/DARK/Level 1). The "PokéDark - Backend Token"'s ATK/DEF are always equal to half this card's ATK/DEF. Once per turn: you can discard 1 Spell; Increase the ATK of all "PokéPsychic" monsters by 500, also, until the End Phase, if a "Poké" monster attacks: your opponent cannot activate monster effects until the end of the Damage Step.

1500/1000

 

...and my bonus 'mon. I just really wanted to adapt Girafarig's tail to a Token summoning mechanic.

 

PokéMove Hyper Beam

Spell

Target 1 "Poké" Monster you control to activate this card. Destroy up to 2 cards your opponent controls. The "Poké" monster you targeted to activate this effect has its effects negated until the End Phase. Also it cannot attack, be Tributed, or be used as Material for the Summon of a monster this turn. You can only activate 1 "PokéMove Hyper Beam" per turn.

 

+1 Non-targeting destruction with the drawback that the 'mon becomes near-unusable. Pokémon's abilities still work when recharging from Hyper Beam though, hence not negating their effects.

 

[spoiler=Side notes on Rattata/Raticate]

Making Rattata/Raticate was... difficult. Not because there's anything ridiculously new being explored in their effects, but because there is a lot of material to work with when it comes to this particular line: from Joey and his top percentage Rattata, to the fact that it is probably one of the first pokemon you ever encounter when playing gens 1-2. From F.E.A.R. to their Alolan forms.

 

...but ultimately, it is a rat that is really mediocre, so I just adapted that.

 

As always, CnC much appreciated.

 

Cheers!

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Might as well grade these since none of the others in PAC have said anything about them thus far. 

 

Rattata: As far as our current format goes, most this does is banish any of the Gyms or attack cards. For RL applications, uh, nothing really comes to mind in terms of cards that benefit from banished S/T cards. Floating into self is fine since it does fit thematically with its appearances in-game (and well, actual rodent problems). 

 

Raticate: Technically speaking, you are breaking the mold a bit with this one (but let's face it, both forms really do suck and the effect here isn't really worth having to Tribute a certain monster). I don't exactly agree with using other Pokemon as meat shields for this, but I suppose that it does spawn enough Rattatas to go Link 3+ (if/when we get to giving PAC any Links)

 

Then again, until you or whoever else does the Alolan form stuff, this is really all we have here. 

 

Girafarig: Card is generally fine overall. Just going to assume that the stat boost is permanent (see Calm Mind, I guess) and the inverted Ancient Gear clause applies only until End Phase (opponent can't chain stuff like Fader, Scarecrow, Gorz, etc)

 

Hyper Beam: No one's complaining about non-targeting 2 card removal, though because of how our "evolutions" are set up, this card's restriction on using them as material won't apply (as they are being TRIBUTED). When we start going into the legendaries or Trainers (idk about the latter), then sure. Right now, we can still target a pre-evo, blow up stuff and then go into the evolved forms without any setbacks. Might want to address that loophole. 

 

---

 

Overall, the cards should be fine for the club, but it'll require that Rep and Ninjask give their two cents about things as well.

[Tinkerer]

Thanks. Addressed the Hyper Beam tributing thing.

 

I guess in terms of card design, I'm trying to walk the thin line that looks forward to new "Poke" supports while also taking into account the massive pool Konami's already made. That said, don't hold back from talking about card interactions IRL if you see something that is potentially noteworthy.

[Ninjask Is Bae]

Sorry for taking so long! I'm currently abroad.

 

Rattata

Fine. Fits thematically. Rattata is bad in the games too.

 

Raticate

A bit inconsistant. But potentially powerful with the right GY set-up because of the protection.

 

Girafarig

I personally really like it. Though it is more fun than actually very good. Because it simply doesn't do a whole lot yet without the right support.

 

Hyper Beam

I'm a bit iffy to be honest. It's a straight up +1. Yes it disables your monster. But if you have a bit of a defensive monster on board. Then it can potentially be just a free plus 1. Like Raticate, which can protect itself with Rattata and doesn't really want to attack that much anyways. And even if your monster would like to attack, popping 2 at the cost of 1 card is clearly not a bad alternative. I'd say, even though it goes against the idea of hyper beam, make it negate the effect. Otherwise I'm afraid it'll become too good with some cards in the future.

[Tinkerer]

Mm, yeah I get it.

 

I really didn't want to have it negate the effect mostly because then Octillery would not be able to use its effect afterwards. Then again, since this is the best "Beam" and a non-targeting +1, I think it should be fine just destroying.

 

Fixed Hyper Beam to negate the 'mons effects!