Pokémon: the Gathering - A Custom Cube

NidoranM.pngOddish.pngPoliwag.pngPsyduck.pngRatata.pngRhyhorn.pngTangela.pngTentacool.pngWeedle.png
My biggest concern is that quite a few of them are defensive and it feels necessary due to their Pokemon capabilities.

EDIT: It's worth noting that I didn't list all the token details on Tentacool. I don't intend to. It makes the cards much wordier and I'm aiming to have like 2-3 double sided tokens (4-6 tokens total), so you could just look at the token if you wanted. It's also not going to come as a surprise that the Fish token is Water or that the Eevee token is Normal.
 
Last edited:
That caterpie is way stronger than the Tangela. I'd give Tangela more toughness, it has high defense in the games.

Psyduck might be too good, since it shoots down so many mons starting on T1.
 
Oh, great, the one drop post got split up by the page break lol.

That caterpie is way stronger than the Tangela. I'd give Tangela more toughness, it has high defense in the games.
I was thinking since Caterpie does only half a turn and Tangela can do a whole turn, maybe it's ok? Hard to do too much more toughness on a one drop. Any Tangela designs at 1-2 mana you'd prefer? Or Caterpie changes?
Psyduck might be too good, since it shoots down so many mons starting on T1.
Yaaaa. I'm also worried about that. Not sure how else to show it's kind of a weak dumbass.
 
You're right, I think they are on par with each other. Personally I like them, just would add more beef to Tangela and a higher mana cost (1/4 for 1G?).
 
You're right, I think they are on par with each other. Personally I like them, just would add more beef to Tangela and a higher mana cost (1/4 for 1G?).
Looking at WotC's tappers and damn do they put a premium on it. I think I'll make it a 1/3 for 1G, as Tangrowth is a 2/4.
For psyduck: what about a better body, but it hits itself?
Would it kill itself? If it just slaps itself a little, that doesn't hurt too badly. I don't like my Golduck, either.

Tangela.pngTangrowth.pngGolduck.png
 
Lands
There's an emphasis on adding any color so that Psychic can exist without a basic land and so that the lands are more versatile. I don't think I've created lands that enable too much greed. A land will always be better in a deck with fewer colors.

Expensive Getaway.pngGathering Place.pngGluttons Paradise.pngOaks Lab.png
Plus Reflecting Pool with new art, but it would put me over the attachment limit.

Altar of the New.png
One for each color.

Ancient Temple.png
One for each color.

Cerulean Cave.png
One for each non-Psychic color pair.

Celadon Ablaze.pngExtinguishing Clearing.pngUnjust Slopes NAME.png
These are enemy lands. The dominant color is free and it's painful to produce the color that would lose via Pokemon effectiveness rules. It doesn't make sense to do ten of these because the weakness chart isn't balanced around five colors, so I need an additional 7 two-color lands and I'm not sure what I want their drawbacks to be.
 
Last edited:
HitmonHelp
Hitmonlee.pngHitmonchan.pngHitmontop.png
There's the Hitmon- series. Various fighters of the same MV with variation in stats based off their in-game stats.

The problem with these is I don't know what to do with Machop, Machoke, and Machamp. The two triplets feel so similar in that they're primarily fighters and not a lot else. I have designs made for Mach___s, but they're so bad that I won't even bother posting them. Looking for ideas!
EDIT: @ravnic
 
Last edited:
Machamp kinda has to get double strike, so maybe they should get a combat ability to go with it? Saboteur triggers simultaneously do and do not seem appropriate for fighting types--what do you think? Alternatively, it could just be an on-attack trigger. If you're including treasure tokens, they seem like a good candidate for things to get on dealing damage to a player, symbolizing how these three are essentially prizewinning bodybuilders.

The OG pokedex entries state that Machop can throw a hundred adults a great distance all at once like some kind of disturbingly amorphous railgun, Machoke wears a power-limiting belt, and Machamp can punch real good, so I see your problem with trying to make cards of these. But when in doubt, you can make them your keyword soup mons with like haste, vigilance, trample, etc.
 
Machamp kinda has to get double strike, so maybe they should get a combat ability to go with it?
I was thinking block three additional?
Saboteur triggers simultaneously do and do not seem appropriate for fighting types--what do you think? Alternatively, it could just be an on-attack trigger.
I like on attack or on combat damage triggers. That's definitely something.
If you're including treasure tokens, they seem like a good candidate for things to get on dealing damage to a player, symbolizing how these three are essentially prizewinning bodybuilders.
Meowth.pngPersian.png
These could probably be more interesting, but that's where they're at.
The OG pokedex entries state that Machop can throw a hundred adults a great distance all at once like some kind of disturbingly amorphous railgun, Machoke wears a power-limiting belt, and Machamp can punch real good, so I see your problem with trying to make cards of these. But when in doubt, you can make them your keyword soup mons with like haste, vigilance, trample, etc.
Vigilance is cool with extra blocking on Machamp. Still unsure.
 
I love the designs and the concepts, but I hate the idea of sacrificing babies. Maybe Happiny couple be rephrased somehow? Make it go to the command zone just so you don't, you know, kill a baby for personal gain? Is the Baby superttype mechanically relevant? If not, I feel like the squick factor is off the charts, but that's just a flavor thing.
 
I love the designs and the concepts, but I hate the idea of sacrificing babies.
Ok. Ya. Fair.
Maybe Happiny couple be rephrased somehow? Make it go to the command zone just so you don't, you know, kill a baby for personal gain?
Would exiling be enough of a change?
Is the Baby superttype mechanically relevant?
I was thinking I'd make a card or two that care about babies, yeah.
EDIT: Maybe a Learn-style mechanic that can grab a Starter or Baby? Maybe add an Eeveelution as an option?
 
Last edited:
Free Mana (scary pls help)
Recap: You can produce Psychic, Fairy, or Dark mana by producing mana of any color. Fairy and Dark also have their alternate, 0 mana, costs, as noted on the cards.

Clefairy.pngClefable.png

Jigglypuff.pngWigglytuff.png

Sylveon.pngUmbreon.png

Mr Mime.png

Free mana is super scary and these might be totally fucked, I have no idea. They're difficult to assess.
 
I can't tell, honestly. 4 life is quite a bit, but it seems like the rest are at a pretty high power level so it might be fine. I'm more scared of Bulbasaur aggro TBH.
 
A potential solution for Happiny is to put it on the bottom of your deck, which would also give it some utility in control decks to prevent decking.

Agreed on Bulbasaur aggro feeling like a very strong archetype.
 
I can't tell, honestly.
Same *shrug*
A potential solution for Happiny is to put it on the bottom of your deck, which would also give it some utility in control decks to prevent decking.
This is kind of nice. Not sure on Pichu. For some reason, it's much easier to imagine Happiny calmly tucking itself away.
I'm more scared of Bulbasaur aggro TBH.
Agreed on Bulbasaur aggro feeling like a very strong archetype.
And I'm nervous for aggro because Clefable and Mr. Mime look like such roadblocks. There's more defensive bodies here than a typical environment. Probably going to come down to testing, but I wanna be sure the power levels are somewhat reasonable before I send it off to MPC.

I'm also not sure a single 3/2 is going to be that problematic, but I could be wrong. I'm imagining cubes with Nacatal, Loam Lion, Kird Ape, Goblin Guide, etc and those are fine. Granted, that's Naya.
 
Are you meaning to draft this as a set cube or make it into a constructed format?
It's a 360-405 cube.

EDIT: From the OP
Target cube size will be 360-405 and could include further releases that would expand the cube.

EDIT EDIT: Changed thread title in case someone else doesn't read the entire OP. Which is probably a lot of people.
 
Last edited:
Ramp / Green Stuff
Vileplume.pngBellossom.png

Bellsprout.pngWeepinbell.pngVictreebel.png

Paras.pngParasect.png

These probably all look familiar. They're extremely derivative of MtG counterparts.

The current land/energy suite doesn't include anything too crazy to search up. Bellsprout and Weepinbell are strong fixers, not powerful enablers for anything like tron.
 
Learn adaptation?

Trade. (You may discard a card. If you do, search your library for a Baby, Starter, or Eeveelution Pokémon.)

or

Trade. (You may discard a card. If you do, draw a card or search your library for a Baby, Starter, or Eeveelution Pokémon.)

It could also conjure an Eevee (it's a 2/2 for (2)). Having a density of Eevees to evolve into the many Eeveelutions is problematic, as I'll probably post the cards for soon.
 
Last edited:
Eeveelutions pt 2
Travel Across the Land.pngSearching Far and Wide.png

Eevees Rainbow.pngThreevee.png

My main issue is trying to reach a density of the basic Eevee in order to enable evolving. This could be achieved through conjuring Eevees. Or maybe it's not worth trying to do. I'm unsure, but there's so many Eeveelutions that it seems worth pursuing in terms of flavor.
 
Top