I've been working with the Chinese and English cards in Asia, and I have recently judged at a large event with a sealed pack component in the tournament. In that event, a curious question came up, which I will explain below:
A player using Quaquaval ex (PAL 052) was up against a Nymble (PAL 019);
The player using Nymble used Slight Splash, and flipped heads for it
(Slight Splash: Flip a Coin. If heads, during your opponent's next turn, prevent all damage from and effects of attacks done to this pokemon)
The turn following, the player using Quaquaval ex (PAL 052) and attacked with Exciting Dance
(Exciting Dance: Switch this pokemon with 1 of your benched pokemon. If you do, switch out your opponent's active pokemon to the bench. (Your opponent chooses the new Active Pokemon))
In this case, our Judging team ruled that the Nymble player would have to switch their active pokemon with their benched pokemon, as the Chinese version of the card says rather (if I may translate roughly, and this was confirmed by Japanese speaking Judges and looking at the Japanese version of the card) [Switch this pokemon with 1 of your benched pokemon. If you do, Your opponent switches their active pokemon to the bench.] Hence, the target of the attack is on the opponent player [i.e. in this case, the player controlling Nymble] and the effects of Slight Splash would not occur, since Slight Splash only defends the Nymble from effects, but not the player controlling it.
In investigating this case, our judges have looked into other cards with similar effects, namely Floragato (PAL 014) and Claydol (FST 145), which their relevant attacks I will quote below.
Floragato (PAL 014) Magic Whip
Switch out your opponent's Active Pokemon to the Bench (Your opponent chooses the new Active Pokemon)
Claydol (FST 145) Rapid Spin
Switch this pokemon with 1 of your benched pokemon. If you do, Your opponent switches their active pokemon with 1 of their Benched Pokemon. (Your opponent chooses the new Active Pokemon)
In both cases, we have compared the cards to their chinese and japanese texts. As such, I will provide a rough translation of the texts from Chinese to English, with an added emphasis on the targets of the attacks
Magic Whip
Swithc out your opponent's Active Pokemon to the Bench (roughly the same as the english version)
Rapid Spin
Switch this pokemon with 1 of your benched pokemon. If you do, Your opponent switches their active pokemon to the bench.
As such, we have also interpreted that the effects of Magic Whip and Rapid Spin would target the opponent's active pokemon and the opponent respectively. This is significant in the context of using Dodge effects like Nymble's Slight Splash (or more commonly the Fly attack from Flying Pikachu V (CEL 006)) As the dodge effects only protect the pokemon and not the player from such effects, so Floragato's attack effect would be dodged, but instead Claydol's attack effect would go through.
From this analysis, I would like to pose a question, would there be a problem with Quaquaval ex's current text, not targeting the player but rather targeting the active pokemon. As by literal meaning, the effect would be targeting the active pokemon when in actuality, the effect targets the player as intended by Japanese card texts?
I apologize in advance for my lengthy analysis, and thank you in advance for reading through this.
A player using Quaquaval ex (PAL 052) was up against a Nymble (PAL 019);
The player using Nymble used Slight Splash, and flipped heads for it
(Slight Splash: Flip a Coin. If heads, during your opponent's next turn, prevent all damage from and effects of attacks done to this pokemon)
The turn following, the player using Quaquaval ex (PAL 052) and attacked with Exciting Dance
(Exciting Dance: Switch this pokemon with 1 of your benched pokemon. If you do, switch out your opponent's active pokemon to the bench. (Your opponent chooses the new Active Pokemon))
In this case, our Judging team ruled that the Nymble player would have to switch their active pokemon with their benched pokemon, as the Chinese version of the card says rather (if I may translate roughly, and this was confirmed by Japanese speaking Judges and looking at the Japanese version of the card) [Switch this pokemon with 1 of your benched pokemon. If you do, Your opponent switches their active pokemon to the bench.] Hence, the target of the attack is on the opponent player [i.e. in this case, the player controlling Nymble] and the effects of Slight Splash would not occur, since Slight Splash only defends the Nymble from effects, but not the player controlling it.
In investigating this case, our judges have looked into other cards with similar effects, namely Floragato (PAL 014) and Claydol (FST 145), which their relevant attacks I will quote below.
Floragato (PAL 014) Magic Whip
Switch out your opponent's Active Pokemon to the Bench (Your opponent chooses the new Active Pokemon)
Claydol (FST 145) Rapid Spin
Switch this pokemon with 1 of your benched pokemon. If you do, Your opponent switches their active pokemon with 1 of their Benched Pokemon. (Your opponent chooses the new Active Pokemon)
In both cases, we have compared the cards to their chinese and japanese texts. As such, I will provide a rough translation of the texts from Chinese to English, with an added emphasis on the targets of the attacks
Magic Whip
Swithc out your opponent's Active Pokemon to the Bench (roughly the same as the english version)
Rapid Spin
Switch this pokemon with 1 of your benched pokemon. If you do, Your opponent switches their active pokemon to the bench.
As such, we have also interpreted that the effects of Magic Whip and Rapid Spin would target the opponent's active pokemon and the opponent respectively. This is significant in the context of using Dodge effects like Nymble's Slight Splash (or more commonly the Fly attack from Flying Pikachu V (CEL 006)) As the dodge effects only protect the pokemon and not the player from such effects, so Floragato's attack effect would be dodged, but instead Claydol's attack effect would go through.
From this analysis, I would like to pose a question, would there be a problem with Quaquaval ex's current text, not targeting the player but rather targeting the active pokemon. As by literal meaning, the effect would be targeting the active pokemon when in actuality, the effect targets the player as intended by Japanese card texts?
I apologize in advance for my lengthy analysis, and thank you in advance for reading through this.