Talk:Special Condition (TCG)

Paralysis

In regards to "Attacks that cause paralysis always have the player flip a coin" in the TCG Paralysis section, I must remark that "Paralyzing Gaze" on "Multi Technical Machine 01" (http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Multi_Technical_Machine_01_%28Expedition_144%29) does not require the player to flip a coin. Formally, this is an attack, so the above text is de facto not completely correct. Should a mention of this be written in the article, or is this exception such that it needs not be stated there?

~ Blue Charizard

Confusion edit

I WAS going to edit the Confusion section, but what I wrote turned out to be WAY too long relative to the other entries. I'll just post it here, so feel free to replace the current Confusion section with what I wrote, albeit edited down... assuming I don't get to it first. The reason for the edit is due to the fact that I think the section was written a little poorly and thus could use a little sprucing up.

The Confusion Special Condition is one of the most commonly used Special Conditions, next to Poisoned and Paralyzed, and its current incarnation was introduced in 2003 with the release of EX Ruby & Sapphire. Confusion affects a Pokémon's ability to attack and retreat normally, and once a Pokémon is Confused, it must be turned upside-down to show that it's Confused. Confusion also remains on a Pokémon each turn, and is removed only when the Confused Pokémon is either: made Asleep or Paralyzed, is placed on the Bench (either by retreating or some effect switching it with a Pokémon on your Bench) or some other action is taken (such as the use of a Trainer card like Full Heal).

If a Confused Pokémon attempts to attack, the player must flip a coin. If the coin is heads, the Pokémon can attack as normal. However, if the coin lands on tails, the player puts three damage counters on the Confused Pokémon and the turn ends without the Confused Pokémon attacking. If a Confused Pokémon wishes to retreat, another coin must be flipped. If the coin is heads, the Pokémon us able to retreat as normal--the player discards the appropriate number of energy in order to retreat, and the Pokémon loses all appropriate affects on it as a result of being placed on the Bench. However, if the coin lands on tails, the Pokémon stays your Active Pokémon and is no longer able to retreat for that turn.

The current rules for Confusion is somewhat different than the Confusion rules set when the game was initially released in the late 1990's. If a Confused Pokémon's attack failed, it would instead attack itself for 20 damage versus three damage counters being placed on it. Now since this action was considered an "attack", it would be affected by Weakness, Resistance and other effects on the Pokémon (like Special Metal Energy). Furthermore, if a Confused Pokémon attempted to retreat, because one was allowed to retreat a Pokémon as many times as they wish during their turn, the required Energy had to be discarded before flipping a coin to see if the retreat was successful. If the flipped coin came up as tails, the player could not retrieve the Energy cards discarded in this way.

Enjoy! -- Nick15 01:14, 13 March 2011 (UTC)