From: Brian Brokaw
www.pojo.com
To: PoJo TCG fans
As a designated PoJo reporter, I attended Wizards of the Coast's
first online/live moderated chat dedicated to the Pokemon TCG.
It took place Thursday, January 20th 2000 at 4pm PST in Wizard's
TCG Forum of their chat client.
As I am supposed to be.. ahem... working at this time, I had a
few minor technical problems that got in the way. But, for the
most part, I was able to ask a few questions and monitored many
other questions and answers.
NOTE: I have to use the Java (from behind Firewall) chat client
and it does not allow me to cut-n-paste. I hope to have this
resolved before the next chat, but until that time all "quotes"
are not exact quotes, but rather pretty-darn-close quotes ;-)
My biggest surprise was how SMALL the chat was! There was never
more than 10 people in the chat room, and about 4 of those were
WOTC ops (operators).
I was very impressed with their organization, and TSRO_Ruffle
should be commended for his handling of the event. They have a
protocol you must follow when you wish to ask a question, and
Ruffle was great at private messaging folks to keep them in line.
Also, Master_Trainer Mike was very clear with his responses, and
types reasonably fast ;-) I was happy to see that someone who
obviously follows the game somewhat closely was answering questions
(although I believe he made one error... more on this later.)
The majority of questions asked were not Rules questions, but
rather "When is Base Set 2 / Team Rocket / Gym Series / Souther Islands
/ Holo Mew Promo / etc etc etc going to be released?" or "What is
Promo #6 going to be?" (heh, several of those questions were mine,
but other folks seemed like minded ;-)
"Fanger" was on-hand asking questions for a short time as well.
Fanger is a somewhat eccentric Pokefanatic from a parallel dimension
(or some silliness) but asked a very good question about the promo
card that will be released with Pokemon Card GB (U.S. version).
Master_Trainer Mike's answer: "We generally don't release information
about promo cards prior to their release." Mike did reveal that
another one of the Japanese promo Mewtwo cards WILL be released,
(holo Mewtwo) but would not specify which promotion this will be.
Here are other snippets of information that Mike made known:
- "Base Set 2 looks to be released in late February."
- "Team Rocket should release in March sometime."
- "Base Set 1 and Jungle will be in print until Base Set 2 is released,
at which point they will be retired."
- "Gym Sets are on schedule for release some time late this year (2000),
but this is too far away to give any specifics."
- "There are no deals worked out with Nintendo yet to release Silver/Gold
(NEO) Pokemon cards." (but WOTC used to say this about the Gym series
and apparently they have plans to do those now...)
Most of the rules questions that were asked were pretty simple.
The only one that I believe he was wrong about:
"Does Agility prevent Moltres' Wildfire from working?"
In other words, if I use a Rapidash's Agility attack, and flip heads
(so that the Agility "effect" is attached to Rapidash), and then on
your turn you use Moltres' Wildfire attack, Will I be forced to
discard cards from my Draw Pile to my Discard Pile?
Mike's Answer: No, you won't have to discard, because Agility stops
all effects from attacks.
I believe this is wrong, because Agility stops all effects from attacks
that AFFECT RAPIDASH (or the Agility Pokemon).
This is clearly different from Eevee's Tail Wag effect that stops
the opponent from ATTACKING, and I believe this is the attack move
that Master_Trainer Mike was confusing Agility with.
I believe (and will continue to respond to rules questions this way):
Agility only prevents effects (including damage) that AFFECT RAPIDASH.
It cannot prevent effects that affect benched Pokemon (like from a
Self-Destruct move) or effect the player's Draw Pile (like Wildfire).
I'd love to hear other opinions about my interpretation... There are
several of you out there that are VERY GOOD at keeping me on my toes!
Well, that was all I noted about the chat.
Look for a report from me next week as well!
Brian Brokaw