Japanese Cards, *ahem* "Rant"
    A lot of people post articles everywhere on the Pojo talking about how
great some upcoming card will be.  Sure, a lot of these cards *sound* great,
and sure, the translations were probably provided by some official-looking
magazene, but I took a look at old translations (like some for the Fossil
set, etc.) and realized that a lot of important information had been
sacrificed, either for space or due to a mistake.
    One example is Mr. Fuji.  According to the Team Rocket Patch for
Apprentice, Mr. Fuji says: 
"Choose one of your Pokemon.  Reshuffle that Pokemon and all your cards
attached to it into your deck." 
    Now that's basically what the *real* Mr. Fuji says, except for several
important little details.  Here's what my Mr. Fuji says:
"Choose a Pokémon on your Bench.  Shuffle it and any cards attached to it
into your deck."
    Like I said, not much of a difference.  Except for the part "On your
Bench."  A lot of people were treating Mr. Fuji like the "New Scoop Up," you
could "save your active Pokémon!" Unfortunately this isn't true.  Well, okay,
it's true, if you discard energy to retreat your active pokemon, you could
"save" it and its energy, if there is any left.
    Another example involves Fossil/Promo Mew.  On Apprentice (like I said,
with the Rocket patch... Gym patch didn't have it last time I checked) Fossil
Mew only lets you de-evolve an opponent's Pokémon.  This kind of hoses that
online Flareon and Jolteon and Mew deck idea I had (ha ha ha).  It gets even
more scary when people use the translated names instead of the card names of
certain attacks.  "Insight" instead of "Clairvoyance," or "Send Kid" instead
of "Fetch." 
    I'm not saying that people should NOT look forward to upcoming cards, but
they shouldn't say these cards are the "greatest ever made" without knowing
*for sure* every bit of text the card has on it.  A simple phrase can make a
world of difference!  It's scary, all these people talking about Blaine's
Arcanine or Brock's Ninetales (or whatever they are!) as if they'll be the
next Super Pokemon Cards. 

How can you rate a card without knowing its full text in your own language?!

    Sure, I admit that I am looking forward to several cards, mainly because
I'm a big Dratini fan and I'd probably *buy* a Dragonair card even if it had
the worst attack/Pokémon Power in the world!  ((I've been trying to think of
the worst possible Poképower in the world, and the only one I could imagine
is something along the lines of "Whenever your active Pokémon attacks,
discard your hand."))  I have two "Evil Dragonair" cards, and according to
all sorts of sources, the Team Rocket Dragonair's Pokémon Power will let you
search for any evolution card from your deck (once per turn).  This sounds
pretty nice.  I imagine that when it comes out in English, it will have some
sort of limitation, like it must be the evolution of a pokemon you already
have in play, or some such silliness.  However, every translation I've found
for this Pokémon Power has a different name.  Evolution Beam, Evolving Ray,
Evolve Search, yada yada yada.
    One of the most annoying thing about Japanese Cards is when people take
cards that have barely been translated (aka NEO CARDS) and build decks around
them.  Now, those Neo cards sound pretty cool, but they're so new that there
has not been terribly much time for people to translate them perfectly.  I'm
not saying that people like Edo
(http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Alley/2247/Poke.htm) are wrong, but at
least Edo has disclaimers with his work, along the lines of "not the last
word on the translations of these cards."  This is in part to save Edo's rear
from people complaining "But (magazene name here) says that (japanese Pokémon
card name here) does (attack name) instead of (another attack name!)" or from
other people griping, "I just got (card) from the (new english expansion set
name) and it says that (card's attack) does (some effect) when YOU said it
does (different effect)!!"  This was pretty smart of Edo.
    I'm running out of steam now.  I was never really *infuriated* by
japanese-card-worshippers, but I was really annoyed.  I've got a grand total
of 4 japanese cards, all obtained by either trade or outright gifts.  (the
trade was really good... one ice cream cone for Sabrina's Slowpoke and
Sabrina's Slowbro, becaue I'm a Slow fan, and my little sister is not)  I
don't plan on building decks around these cards at the moment, in part
because I don't have the proper ratios, but mainly because they are not
tourament legal and I don't really want to use them (at all) until they are. 
This is personal preference; I let my sisters use japanese cards in informal
games sometimes, but I have more patience.
        Rainy, the Furry Blue Mock-Dragon
            RainStr0m@aol.com