The Pokemon Card Garage Episode 2: Dialga (3/95)

[deckmaster]

Episode 2: Dialga (Call of Legends, 3/95)​

[gal=51443]Dialga[/gal]​

What on Earth were they thinking when they created this card!? was my first response the very first time I saw Dialga from Call of Legends. I thought to myself: did they forget to add some other effect for Time Rewind, or did they run out of ink just before the card hit store shelves? I thought Dialga was one big mistake. I sadly learned that this card was no typo—it just sucks plain and simple! After attaching four Metal Energy cards, you are rewarded with the worst effect in Pokémon trading card game (TCG) history by shuffling your hand into your deck! If I were a betting man, it is safe to say that this card will never win Worlds in our lifetime.

Folks, let’s DRASTICALLY fix this guy up: let’s make Dialga a contender in our format! ​

Before I begin, I want to acknowledge the fact that the set, Call of Legends, is more of a series of cards to collect rather than a deck building and meta-game changing card collection. Yes, there are several reliable cards in Call of Legends, like Lost Remover, Lost World, Pachirisu, etc., and the improved artwork on the "Shining Pokémon" looks fantastic. However, Call of Legends will, in fact, be a set aimed more towards people looking to trade rare and obscure cards for other valuable cards, or have an entire deck filled with holographic Energy cards. Nonetheless, because I am more in favor of cards that are actually playable, I disapprove of the Pokémon Company using this idea ever again—I believe that every new Pokémon TCG set should and always be created towards introducing new strategies, and meta-game changing cards to prevent a static format from ever happening again.

To begin with, I am going to boost Dialga’s HP to (130). I want to make Dialga into the big, bag legendary Pokémon that he actually is because his original wimpy HP of (100) does not do anything for him. More importantly, I want to make Dialga into the One Pokémon Army who can go the distance and survive on his own. Dialga will be a very efficient Pokémon by himself, however, the added benefit to protecting Dialga with various Item cards, such as, Defender, or Special Metal Energy encourages the player to use more than needed Items or Energy for their Dialga just to prevent knock out. Furthermore, most legendary Pokémon have (130) HP, and rightfully so. Dialga should not be excluded from the (130) HP rank.

Next, I am going to do justice for Dialga’s terrible attack, Time Rewind. Time Rewind will still do (70) damage, now cost only (2) Metal Energy, and will read: “Flip two coins. If either of them are tails, shuffle your hand into your deck”. By doing this, this change will facilitate Dialga's ascendance to a top tier class Metal Pokémon card who can be played in conjunction with other Metal Pokémon, other draw Pokémon and/or Supporter cards, or as a stand alone deck centered on a turn-two (70) hitter. Effectively, Dialga's flexibility and potency increase twofold: he can either be a turn-two (70) hitter, or be used in conjunction with other Pokémon. The decision to still include the horrible effect of losing your entire hand helps balance Dialga because he can now hit for (70) damage very early in the game. As a result of these changes, I believe the top play style for Dialga would be as a turn-two hitter. Therefore, the incentive to stack Special Metal Energy to protect the active Diagla would be increased, and the chances of attacking quickly with a second benched Dialga would be decreased because of the decision to allocate more Energy to the active Dialga, thus using up the Energy attachment for the turn.

Dialga’s weakness and resistance will remain the same though. On the other hand, Dialga’s retreat will be decreased to (2). Dialga’s weakness and resistance are fairly applied to a Pokémon who has the disadvantage against Fire decks and the advantage over Psychic types, so naturally I could not find any faults with this because it relates to the world of Pokémon accordingly. On the other hand, I felt that Dialga’s original retreat cost of (3) Energy would make him awfully clunky, so for that reason, I reduced the retreat cost to (2) Energy allowing Dialga easy better access to retreat when necessary.

Looking toward the future, and keeping the idea in mind that Dialga has the ability to warp time by either speeding it up, slowing it down, or stopping it altogether, I believe Dialga will work extremely well with Victini, the (60) HP basic Fire Pokémon from the upcoming set, Noble Victories. Victini has a helpful Ability named Victory Star. Victory Star states:

“You can use this when your Pokémon flip coins as part of an attack. Ignore all results of those coin flips and re-flip from the beginning. You can’t use Victory Star more than 1 time during your turn even if you have multiple Victini in play”.​

This little guy would truly bring victory to you, the Pokémon trainer, because you now have the potential to avoid losing your entire hand when using Dialga’s attack, Time Rewind. This is, of course, should be the case granted your coin flip is not in your favor.

Adjusting Dialga’s HP to (130) makes Dialga a much more versatile Pokémon card. Leaving Dialga’s damage output untouched at (70),decreasing his Energy requirements to (2) Metal Energy with the coin flip for Time Rewind will make Dialga stable, and more Pokémon players think likely of building a deck with our well-known beast. Not to mention the future possibilities Victini offers from the forthcoming set, Noble Victories, benefits our legendary friend later this tournament year. If these changes were applied, surely Dialga would see some more play in the 2011-2012 Pokémon tournament seasons.

Don't forget to Check out the new Dialga!​

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/690/retreat2.jpg/http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/690/retreat2.jpg/

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more episodes of The Pokémon Card Garage!​

Missed Episode 1? Click here to stay current on The Pokémon Card Garage​

--Frankie Durso--

Special Thanks to:
MyPokemonCard.com
PokePop
DarkStar20
Baby mario
Jjkkl​

 

[yuki_potsd]

Play! pokemon will be sure to read your card creating resume. lol nice article.

 

[bullados]

Awww... You could do SO many more fun things with this card. I'm just going to put out one of my favorites...

100 HP is quite fine for a Basic Pokemon, Legendary or otherwise. Quite frankly, Chansey should be the ONLY Basic Pokemon that can break the 120 barrier on a Basic Pokemon. Its HP stat is one of the highest in the video game even before evolution. Forget about Blissey for a moment.

That attack is generally decently costed now that Metal is a Basic Energy. However, the drawback is insane. Let's clean that up a little bit, shall we? Rather than purely shuffling in your hand, let's make it shuffle in your hand and draw the same number of cards that you had before. Or the same number as your Opponent. Either would suffice as an effect of the attack. It turns the effect from an absolute detriment to something of a positive. Heck, you could probably have it shuffle in BOTH players hands and have each player draw the same number of cards as either they had before or as their opponent had before the shuffle.

But 4 Metals is kinda steep to play this thing, dontcha think? Let's give Dialga a PokePower or an Ability to even that thing out a little bit. I prefer a PokePower here because there's the potential for that to get shut off by various means. Something like this...

"Once during your turn (before you attack), you may use this Power. All Energy attached to Dialga now provide Metal Energy instead of their original type. This Power cannot be used if Dialga is affected by a Special Condition."

This turns a 4 energy attack into a 2 or 3 energy attack using DCE, while providing enough of a drawback that you can't rely upon the Power 100%. It also makes another type for the PachiMin engine to power, which IMO is only a good thing.

I'd also like to give Dialga a nice Vanilla attack so that you don't have to wait before attacking if he's your starter. Something like...

[MC] Metal Claw 30

Combined with the Power outlined above, it's essentially a 1 for 30 with the right support, but it can still be useful if the support doesn't materialize or if the Power isn't working.

So, after all of this, you end up with a card that looks like this...

Dialga
Basic Pokemon
100 HP
PokePower "Steel Conversion"
Once during your turn (before you attack), you may use this Power. All Energy attached to Dialga now provide Metal Energy instead of their original type. This Power cannot be used if Dialga is affected by a Special Condition.

[MC] Metal Claw 30

[MMMM] Time Rewind 70
Each player counts the number of cards in his or her opponent's hand. Then, each player shuffles his or her hand into his or her deck and draws a number of cards equal to that count.

W: Rx2
R: P-20
R: [CCC]

There's a well balanced card that can attack for power and be a starter while disrupting. It needs the correct support to be a reaonable attacker, but it can pack a wallop when the time comes. It's also helped greatly by Special Metal reducing damage. Possible combos with this card include Double Colorless, Typhlosion, Emboar, and PachiMin. Cards like Switch would also help out, as well as cards that can reduce your own hand to nothing or almost nothing on a whim. It's also FAR more interesting than the original version while not being a broken attacker, for the most part. If you can find a way to abuse Time Rewind with a good combination of Trainers and Abilities, you're doing really, really well for yourself. I think that this new version would do well as a TecH card for specific scenarios in decks like TyRam, RamBoar, and ZPT.

 

[deckmaster]

Awww... You could do SO many more fun things with this card. I'm just going to put out one of my favorites...

100 HP is quite fine for a Basic Pokemon, Legendary or otherwise. Quite frankly, Chansey should be the ONLY Basic Pokemon that can break the 120 barrier on a Basic Pokemon. Its HP stat is one of the highest in the video game even before evolution. Forget about Blissey for a moment.

That attack is generally decently costed now that Metal is a Basic Energy. However, the drawback is insane. Let's clean that up a little bit, shall we? Rather than purely shuffling in your hand, let's make it shuffle in your hand and draw the same number of cards that you had before. Or the same number as your Opponent. Either would suffice as an effect of the attack. It turns the effect from an absolute detriment to something of a positive. Heck, you could probably have it shuffle in BOTH players hands and have each player draw the same number of cards as either they had before or as their opponent had before the shuffle.

But 4 Metals is kinda steep to play this thing, dontcha think? Let's give Dialga a PokePower or an Ability to even that thing out a little bit. I prefer a PokePower here because there's the potential for that to get shut off by various means. Something like this...

"Once during your turn (before you attack), you may use this Power. All Energy attached to Dialga now provide Metal Energy instead of their original type. This Power cannot be used if Dialga is affected by a Special Condition."

This turns a 4 energy attack into a 2 or 3 energy attack using DCE, while providing enough of a drawback that you can't rely upon the Power 100%. It also makes another type for the PachiMin engine to power, which IMO is only a good thing.

I'd also like to give Dialga a nice Vanilla attack so that you don't have to wait before attacking if he's your starter. Something like...

[MC] Metal Claw 30

Combined with the Power outlined above, it's essentially a 1 for 30 with the right support, but it can still be useful if the support doesn't materialize or if the Power isn't working.

So, after all of this, you end up with a card that looks like this...



There's a well balanced card that can attack for power and be a starter while disrupting. It needs the correct support to be a reaonable attacker, but it can pack a wallop when the time comes. It's also helped greatly by Special Metal reducing damage. Possible combos with this card include Double Colorless, Typhlosion, Emboar, and PachiMin. Cards like Switch would also help out, as well as cards that can reduce your own hand to nothing or almost nothing on a whim. It's also FAR more interesting than the original version while not being a broken attacker, for the most part. If you can find a way to abuse Time Rewind with a good combination of Trainers and Abilities, you're doing really, really well for yourself. I think that this new version would do well as a TecH card for specific scenarios in decks like TyRam, RamBoar, and ZPT.

Of course there are SO many things I could have done for this card. I was thinking of keeping the (4) Energy attack cost and horrible effect, however, the attack would instantly K.O any Pokemon on my opponent's field. Or I could have made Time rewind would de-evlove all my opponents Pokemon into their respective basic Pokemon.

The sky is the limit with Dialga--but the original Dialga had no effort put into it at all.

 

[StormFront]

The shining pokémon from CoL were never orginally intended to be playable, which is why I don't agree with "What were they thinking" analysis. When you're making rare promotional cards, its rarely a good idea to make them playable, because the secondry market for these cards start to inflate to YGO territory, which will only benefit the richer players.

Like last time I'd like to note when you're proposing changes you should try to make as few changes as possible. So I'll propose 2 changes

1. Drop the attack cost to 3 metal energies
2. Change the effect of the attack to discard a :metal:, both players shuffle their hand into their deck

 

[MultX]

I'd like to not change Dialga's attack cost and power, but the effect will be "your opponent shuffles his or her hand into his or her deck". That will be one badass heavy-cost attack.

 

[MrScaryMuffin]

The shining pokémon from CoL were never orginally intended to be playable, which is why I don't agree with "What were they thinking" analysis. When you're making rare promotional cards, its rarely a good idea to make them playable, because the secondry market for these cards start to inflate to YGO territory, which will only benefit the richer players.

Additionally, as a CCG designer, you actually want to have a few terrible rares in each set because it makes opening packs more exciting.

 

[Ty_Sylicus]

I've always felt it's a set-back to open a pack and get an average Rare. To get a super lame and completely useless Rare such as THIS Dialga, is a slap in the face; just plain rude. When you pull a card this BAD, I don't see how you could ever trade it away! Sure, I'll stick one in my binder and give my cardlist a checkmark but, I'll burn the next one I pull. >: (

So! Onto the fixing.

HP wise, 100 is fine as Dialga is a Steel Type that can make use of Special Metal Energy. Given it's x2 Weakness to Fire, it'll get Knocked-Out by any attack that could do more then 40. At 130, it seems like a bit much, considering what I'm about to change.

I wonder if a card-drawling Poke-Power would be more fun / more playable? Could we change this Dialga into a powerful Draw engine?

I agree with the Vanilla attack, however, (to my knowledge) most Pokemon that have a lengthily-worded Ability only have a single Attack.

Lastly, while I love the idea of Dialga's expensive attack targeting both Player's hands, that seems like a bit much. Also, it's too expensive for only 70 damage. Pokemon like Krookodile and Gothitelle from EPO only need 3 Energy to attack.

Here's my new Dialga:

Dialga
Basic Pokemon
100 HP
Poke-Power "Time Fast-Forward"
Once during your turn (before you attack), if this Pokemon is your Active Pokemon, you may draw three cards.

[MMC] Time Rewind 70
If you used "Time Fast-Forward" this turn, shuffle your hand into your deck and draw three new cards.

W: Rx2
R: P-20
R: [CCC]

:lol: hmmm...still looks pretty crayz. What do you think?

 

[deckmaster]

The shining pokémon from CoL were never orginally intended to be playable, which is why I don't agree with "What were they thinking" analysis. When you're making rare promotional cards, its rarely a good idea to make them playable, because the secondry market for these cards start to inflate to YGO territory, which will only benefit the richer players.

Like last time I'd like to note when you're proposing changes you should try to make as few changes as possible. So I'll propose 2 changes

1. Drop the attack cost to 3 metal energies
2. Change the effect of the attack to discard a :metal:, both players shuffle their hand into their deck

"The shining pokémon from CoL were never orginally intended to be playable". Yes, I agree, however, that's only after the fact that they WERE purposely made to be terrible.

You do not agree with my analysis, therefore you don't mind wasting money on a mediocre set plagued with inferior cards.:nonono:

 

[ShiningLion]

That attack is generally decently costed now that Metal is a Basic Energy.

>.>

How is having to have 4 of a specific type of energy just to do 70 damage even remotely decent? Even on a basic, this is a horrendous attack cost for the damage amount, especially considering its complete lack of beneficial effects.

 

[bullados]

Lion: I hate power creep in all its shapes and forms. I remember a time when [CCCC] was a vanilla 40 damage attack. I liked those days. I wish those days could come back. I design cards to avoid power creep as much as possible. Also, consider the Ability/Power that I gave to Dialga. You can pay for that 70 damage attack with 2 energy cards. In my world, that's STILL a power creep card!

Ty: That's fun, but I'd prefer to see that attack cost [MMCC]. Again, anti-power-creep player.

 

[Ty_Sylicus]

@bullados - I could deal with [MMCC]. My main point is that there cannot be more than two Metal energy in the cost, as that's just ridiculous.

 

[thepliskin5005]

Well....this card could be good with magnazone prime and electrode prime LoL.

 

[bullados]

@bullados - I could deal with [MMCC]. My main point is that there cannot be more than two Metal energy in the cost, as that's just ridiculous.

If you give it the Power that I give it, the [MMMM] is rather trivial, dontcha think?

 

[Mewtral]

Read the article, but not the comments.

Dialga in this format actually isn't so terrible. Lot's of legendary/strong pokemon are going to be played and dialga could be a counter friendly stale. Let's look.

If your running a metal deck, with the Klingklang ability to move around energies you could put a dialga in there to help fight against Yawnmega players. Sure it cuts down your hand size, but the opponent would either have to loose their hand just to attack, or take the time to build energy. (Most likely they are gonna Copycat/Judge, but even the Judge would hurt them/help you.)

In the future, with all those powerful EX pokemon on there way, I kinda think this card deserves more credit. WHY? Two words, Zoarark Counter. Zoarark will obviously see lots of play when EX's arrive, simply because it has a better chance at using the foe's attacks faster than the opponent. Here is where Dialga comes in, limiting your opponents choices to just 70 and shuffle away hand, means they won't attack. Perfect for taking a turn to rebuild, or even a hit and run strategy.

Also if that pesky LostGar gets to popular again, this would even be a tricky card for it to handle. Considering Gengar prime needs the opponent to have a hand to drop pokemon in the lost zone.(and dialga has resistance)

One final thing I find cool about this dialga is that you will never deck out. (potentially.)

 

[jumpluff82]

I think at the end of the article, you should write out a clean, clear example of the fixed card. You know, like

Dialga - Basic - 100 HP

Attack One- 40
fakjshflkahflkh

Attack Two - 90
askljhuvev

Weak: Resist: Retreat:
I think this would be better because you can see, clearly, the main points of the card so you don't have to scan thorugh the article to figure out the fixed card.

 

[deckmaster]

I think at the end of the article, you should write out a clean, clear example of the fixed card. You know, like

Dialga - Basic - 100 HP

Attack One- 40
fakjshflkahflkh

Attack Two - 90
askljhuvev

Weak: Resist: Retreat:
I think this would be better because you can see, clearly, the main points of the card so you don't have to scan thorugh the article to figure out the fixed card.

Or just click on the link I PROVIDED that shows the new attacks, HP, effects, etc.

 

[Carvanha]

I like the new one you made - But I think It would have been fair for it to give you a card after the shuffle if you flipped 1 heads.

 

[Regis_Neo]

I like your ideals this time around, though [MM] for 70 and only a 25% chance to shuffle your hand away is a bit too powerful I think; maybe something more like [MMC] for 80 and the double tails effect would be more reasonable I'd think. 130 HP isn't unreasonable, but at the same time, this isn't exactly Reshiram or Zekrom, both of whom pay a cost each time to attack with their main nuke; in Dialga's case, with it's one attack, something more like 110-120 HP would be more in line I think.

Finally, I'd add a "beginner" attack just so you aren't stuck looking dumb while stacking Energy on him, something like [C] for 20-30 just so you have something to do. Or an effect to grab a [M] out of your deck to slap onto him.

 

[bullados]

Regis: The effect in his example happens when either coin is tails. It only doesn't happen on double heads. Does that change your thoughts?