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? - unsigned comment from Blue Charizard (talk • contribs)

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)

Cards that cause special conditions.

I think there should be a list page for each special condition of cards that are able to inflict them. It would be good for unlimited deck building or just normal curiosity. I've seen some pretty unnecessary lists. I.e. "User in a relationship " --Sivart345 16:20, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

So if somebody wants to use the fact "it is unnecessary," then they should look at the other articles that are "unneccassary." I can start the lists one set at a time per special condition. --Sivart345 16:24, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

Rule changes

Did the rules about confused and asleep change in any way between 1998 and 2002 (inclusive)? sumwun (talk) 20:26, 19 July 2018 (UTC)

there not special conditions

please stop making articles about the cards if you dont know how they work!!!!! this site is always spreading wrong information and you wont fix it. i hate it and wish you would delete the whole website since all it does is confuse people. you guys SUCK! - unsigned comment from Network Dongbanja (talk • contribs) they keep telling me i have to post in the talk page but how they dont make posts in here? you are cowards and writing wrong facts you could find out you were wrong if you spent 5 minutes looking stuff up online. this entire website is like this. GO AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - unsigned comment from Network Dongbanja (talk • contribs)

^ Imprision, Shock Wave & Friends aren't Special Conditions

Hey hey, turns out the point above is correct. Imprison and Shock Wave, and any other assorted marker effects aren't Special Conditions! Says so in the Dragon Frontiers overview, and by Dragon Frontiers Tropius naming those attacks separately from Special Conditions. Seems like an open and shut case. I'll delete those sections in a few days. Maybe they can live on a section of the "Attack" page, since they are effects of attacks. Salmancer (talk) 00:59, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

While agree that they aren't special conditions on their own right, they are still similar to special conditions, in that they have their own marker and place a condition on a Pokémon. For that reason I think the "other conditions" section is still a fitting place for them, provided we make it clear that these aren't really special conditions, just have similar attributes to special conditions. It's important to make sure if we do remove the mention from this page however, that the content isn't wiped from the wiki, if we feel like theres a more suitable home for this, (perhaps in the Glossary) we can entertain this too. 4iamking 01:09, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

Official word says they're effects of attacks that place markers. (Compendium entry) (Seriously, sometimes sticking to official terminology has it's downsides.) I also contest calling them "similar" considering the lead section in the rulebook says "They can only happen to an Active Pokémon—when a Pokémon goes to the Bench, it recovers from all Special Conditions. Pokémon also recover when they evolve." Two out of three of which don't apply to the marker effects.

Considering Special Condition is a mechanically relevant term (in that something that prevents Status Conditions doesn't help against marker effects), I sincerely think that these actually wind up living with "attack", hiding behind the excuse of their effects being named. To make things less crazy, there could be an "effects of attacks" article that lists many common effects of attacks (5+ cards maybe) and then throws these on because they are named. I don't think the Appendix is the greatest place to anything, considering how infrequently its used, and therefore how infrequently people update it. Salmancer (talk) 01:53, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

It gets worse. Turns out, markers are just a subset of counters. (Talk:Marker (TCG)) If that's true... then "has a bone" is a condition as per a promo Cubone's "bone counter" and damage is a condition because it's tracked by "damage counters". The second one is incredibly silly, but it clearly means the Special Conditions being Special Conditions is entirely separate from the marker-ness of Poison and Burned. Things can't go here just because they are markers. Char gets to stay because its the concept of Burned before Burned becomes an full mechanic, but that's it. (and it also has to be copied to wherever Shock Wave and Imprison go) Salmancer (talk) 11:43, 30 January 2024 (UTC)