Forget to put an Active Pokémon

[Profesor Bain]

This happened recently at an event and I can't find which ruling is the apropiate. The situation goes like this:

Player A knocks out Player B's Active Pokémon. Player B thinks for some seconds, and then proceeds to start his turn without putting an Active Pokémon. Puts a DCE on a benched Pokémon and plays Sycamore. While he is drawing the seven cards, the judge notes that he didn't put an Active Pokémon. Then Player B puts a Benched Pokémon into Active and continues drawing for the Sycamore efect without any penalty.

¿Which ruling and penalty has to be applied?

 

[FincastlePokemon2]

This error would be, at its base, a Game Play Error - Minor. It is certainly easy to fix.

If the player has only one Benched Pokemon, then the fix is the most simple. That pokemon is promoted and game play continues.

If more than one Pokemon is on the bench, the player would need to stop drawing for Sycamore immediately, and I would recommend they put their hand face-down, then choose a new active.

If part of the turn "so far" was to bench a new Pokemon, they could not select to promote the newly benched Pokemon to the Active spot.

I might consider escalating the penalty if any game actions which reveal new cards (like the Sycamore) have occurred before the new Active is selected. For example, if you played a Sycamore and started to draw your cards, and saw that you were (or weren't) hitting key card combos for a specific attack, then you have an advantage in choosing your next active Pokemon.

GPE - Minor begins with a Caution (Tier 1) or Warning (Tier 2), but I would probably rule a "Warning" in the scenario above - again, unless there is only one Benched Pokemon to choose.

I would not recommend allowing the player to "take back" the actions they already made. Simply advance an active, assess the penalty earned and continue play.