From: Brian Brokaw
www.pojo.com
To: PoJo TCG fans
Greetings fellow Poke-fanatics! My life continues to keep me super
busy these past weeks (er, more like months ;-) but I'm efforting
to stay in touch and to stay on top of all the Pokemon TCG rules &
trivia that I can.
As a service to you (and to fulfill my need to ramble-on in front
of large audiences), I would like to submit this "report" of the
2nd Official Online Pokemon Chat at Wizards of the Coast's website.
Here's the details:
It took place Thursday, January 27th at 4pm PST.
It lasted for an hour and was held in the TCG Forum of their chat client.
The chat client can be accessed by your browser at the following URL:
http://www.wizards.com/chat/login.asp
Several official reps are online during this hour, and all questions
are answered by WOTC's customer service group. In fact, it seems
that the custserv folks make their boss do all the typing for
Master_Trainer (while I'm sure they sit in a room with him and
snicker at his typing skills ;-)
The end result, however, is the best, most-direct/official info
that can be had. If you have a chance to attend this weekly chat
session, check it out.
And now it is that time of the week:
Brian (self-appointed "King of the Bill") Brokaw must eat "Yamikarisu"
(that's poke-lingo for "Brian Brokaw must eat crow")
I WAS DEAD WRONG! doh!
Last week I asserted that Master_Trainer Mike's response to an
Agility question was wrong.
yep, you guessed it... Mike knows his stuff, and Trainer_Brokaw
needs to go back to Poke_School. PoJosama will revoke my license
to post if I keep screwing up like this!
The question was: Does Agility stop Wildfire?
The CORRECT answer: Yes, because Wildfire's discard "effect" DOES
affect Rapidash.
So, does Agility stop Fetch (is the card draw an "effect" against
Rapidash)? Does Agility stop Stretch Kick (is the damage to the
benched Pokemon an "effect" against Rapidash)? These are all questions
that I would have unflinchingly given my interpretation to (which, please
remember, is UNOFFICIAL) but now I'm unsure! I'll pursue my understanding
of Agility some more and be sure to bore all of you with it at a future
date! (yes, yes, no need to thank me. You're welcome :-)
(many thanks to Chris for helping me on my way to clean-livin' Agility
rules questions!)
OK, OK, stop yelling.. No more Agility nonsense. I promise.
Here's all the juicy stuff that was discussed:
(didn't get my laptop dialed in fast enough so used the Java chat client
again... this means that all stuff noted is NOT direct cut-n-paste, but
the best I could do with pen and paper while watching chat scroll by.
sorry.)
- Q: If DCE is Energy Burned (Charizard) does it produce 1 or 2 Fire Energy?
A: After Energy Burn, DCE is an energy card that produces 2 Fire Energy.
- er, to be completely honest, I guess I didn't take very good notes
on the rules questions. There were several others, but they all seemed
pretty straightforward. I'll do a better job of this next week! (sorry)
- Q: When is Base Set 2 coming out?
A: Late February.
- Q: When is Team Rocket coming out?
A: mid-April (FYI, last week Mike indicated TR in late-March)
- Q: When is "Gym Expansion" coming out?
A: After Team Rocket. Sometime this year (2000). Can't be more specific.
- There were lots of questions about "holo promo Mew, holo promo Meowth,
new promo Mewtwo" etc. But in every instance WOTC cannot reveal this
kind of information. They just won't. We all wish they would, but
they have their reasons.
- A few more peeps took part in the chat this week. I counted 22
total at one point.
- Things were a tad rowdy this go around, but to be honest I was
floored with the civility during the first week! Pokemon just isn't
Pokemon without obnoxious, out-of-protocol requests for price quotes
on ultra-super-valuable-misprint-japanese-pocket-monster-merchandise ;-)
- Making statements like: "This sucks. I'm going to the PoJo to chat on Gooey."
is NOT within Wizards of the Coast's protocols ;-)
Well, that was all I noted about the chat. (that was pretty skimpy eh?
I'll do better next time.) Look for a report from me next week as well!
Brian Brokaw