How does Jirachi's Time Hollow Work?

[ShiningLion]

I have long been confused about this. Say I use Time Hollow to return my opponent's Wartortle card to their hand. The Squirtle underneath stays in play.

It is now my opponent's turn. Can they evolve the same Squirtle to Wartortle again now? Or do they have to wait until their next turn to do it?

Someone once mentioned that it would mean that Squirtle is now technically on its first turn in play (again) and can not be evolved until the next turn. Is this right or wrong?

 

[Darksanctuary]

They can evolve it again.

 

[ShiningLion]

They can evolve it again.

Okay, then my friends lied to me. Lol.

So then I'm guessing the best times to make this work would be to do it on a stage 1 so that they can't get their stage 2 into play as quickly, or to do it on a stage 2 that had been evolved with a rare candy so you can drop it back to basic and leave them with potentially no other rare candy or stage 1 to evolve it again...

 

[Napoleon]

Okay, then my friends lied to me. Lol.

So then I'm guessing the best times to make this work would be to do it on a stage 1 so that they can't get their stage 2 into play as quickly, or to do it on a stage 2 that had been evolved with a rare candy so you can drop it back to basic and leave them with potentially no other rare candy or stage 1 to evolve it again...

You usually use Time Hollow after you've dealt damage to several Pokémon on the field. When you de-evolve them, they will usually lose a significant amount of HP (for example, Magnezone Prime can lose 60 HP if taken down to Magneton, or 90 HP if taken down to Magnemite). This allows you to take multiple KO's in one turn and leaves your opponent with relatively useless high level evolutions which they won't be able to immediately play.

 

[PokePop]

When is your attack?
On your turn.
So when did Wartortle turn into Squirtle?
On your turn.
Next turn, Squirtle has been in play since your turn.
It's been in play since before that player's turn started.
So, they can evolve it.

It's all thinking about when attack effects are happening.

 

[ShiningLion]

When is your attack?
On your turn.
So when did Wartortle turn into Squirtle?
On your turn.
Next turn, Squirtle has been in play since your turn.
It's been in play since before that player's turn started.
So, they can evolve it.

It's all thinking about when attack effects are happening.

The term "in play" is a bit vague to me. When is a card "in play"?

Does it have to be played on the field? Does it count when it is in your hand? Does the discard pile count as "in play?" It often confuses me.

 

[PokePop]

The discard pile is not in play.
Your deck and prizes are not in play.
A card must be on the play field.
If a Pokemon is evolved, the lower level stages are not considered as in play, only the top evolution stage.

Your hand is not in play either.
How could you put a card into play from your hand if its already in play when there?

 

[Patsfan112892]

U wanna have enough damage on the pokemon so when u devolve the pokemon the lower stage is KO'd from the damage on it
Posted with Mobile style...

 

[Tash]

Okay, then my friends lied to me. Lol.

So then I'm guessing the best times to make this work would be to do it on a stage 1 so that they can't get their stage 2 into play as quickly, or to do it on a stage 2 that had been evolved with a rare candy so you can drop it back to basic and leave them with potentially no other rare candy or stage 1 to evolve it again...

The rare candy thing is the main use for it, since it can be used in conjunction with trainer lock to force your opponent to use the Stage 1 (you just have to hope that they don't have a Rare Candy during the turn after Jirachi attacks). Since most decks count on using Rare Candy, they usually only have a Stage 1 or two thrown in for emergencies and not much in the way of getting them out of the discard pile.