Pearl Kingslocke: Episode 13

Big rules here, little rules down there, let’s go.

(Also, I’ve just remembered that the Eight of Cups should have actually been put up on the board when I drew it a couple of episodes ago, to remind us that Andi has to stay in the Mate Crate and that there should currently be only three Eights in the deck; I’ll add it next time)

INTO THE MARSH!

Two – You: You may catch one Pokémon of your choice in this area.

Hmm.  This is a little bit tricky because the Great Marsh has special mechanics for which Pokémon appear in each area.  By default, area 6 always has Psyduck, Azurill and Marill, Wooper and Quagsire, Bidoof and Bibarel, Hoothoot, Starly and Budew.  Any area of the Great Marsh can potentially also have Golduck, Roselia, Carnivine, Skorupi, Croagunk or Staravia, but it changes every day.  So I get one Pokémon of my choice, but I don’t exactly know what I have to choose from.

Oh, also this guy is here.

Sure, this’ll do.

Seven – Lucky Sevens: Draw two more cards and follow the rules for both.

Death: Box any of your Pokémon that are defeated in battle.  You can’t use them again until this rule is overwritten.  Pokémon that are defeated while Death and Snake Eyes are both in effect remain unusable until both effects have ended.

Eight – Mate: Box the Pokémon in your current party that has been with you the longest over the course of the game (this may be a judgement call).  You cannot use that Pokémon again unless another card revokes this rule.

Death does nothing for us now, but it’s going to hang over our heads and be pretty nasty with that Waterfall still in play.  Snake Eyes (the rule for the Nines) does basically the same thing as Death, but automatically ends Waterfall if you draw it; Death pointedly does not give you this way out, because I felt that the Major Arcana should be able to do nastier things to you.  As for the Eight of Wands, I’m pretty sure the Pokémon that’s been with me the longest out of my current six is King Louie, my starter, so when we’re done here, he’s going back in the box with Andi Site.

The Moon: You may not check information from any reference resources outside the game (e.g. for encounter rates, move lists or trainer data).

Okay, so from now on I’m going from memory.  Depending on how you normally play, the Moon can be kind of a softball rule – as I’ve been trying to show, I look stuff up quite often.  One thought that has occurred to me is that, if you were to play this challenge run live with an audience, you might normally ask people in your chat to look things up rather than doing it yourself.  If that’s the case, you can continue to do that while the Moon is in play, but members of your audience can and should lie to you about everything (after all, in divination the Moon represents deception and uncertainty).

The other important thing to note here is that we now have five Major Arcana cards in play: the Hermit, Justice, the Emperor, Death and the Moon.  If we draw another, then the oldest one – the Hermit – will go away.

Four – Elements: Your Pokémon may not use attacks that get a Same-Type Attack Bonus (unless they have no un-STABed damaging moves; note that moves with fixed damage like Dragon Rage and Nightshade do not have STAB).  Pokémon in your active party with no un-STABed attacks must learn one as soon as they can (use a TM if necessary).  This rule ends if you draw another Four.  You may catch the first Pokémon you see in this area that does not share a type with any of your current party Pokémon.

Okay… so we can’t use STAB moves or switch in battle… and our Pokémon die if they faint.  That sounds great.  Let me just check that all my Pokémon have a move they’re allowed to use…

Jerry: Water Gun, Pluck, Hidden Power (Ground), Hyper Fang
Brighteyes: Spark, Return, Charge, Bite
Karpe Doom: Leer, Tackle, Bite, Dragon Rage
Sandra: Protect, Bite, Yawn, Strength
Divine: Flash, Astonish, Confuse Ray, Psybeam

Yeah okay, we’re fine; don’t need to use a TM or anything.

Now… the first Pokémon I meet that doesn’t share a type with anyone in my party… Bibarel, obviously that doesn’t work… Psyduck is Water, that’s shared with Jerry and Karpe Doom… Wooper, likewise, and also shares Ground with Sandra… Starly, that shares Normal with Jerry and Flying with Karpe Doom… but this…

(King Louie is a Fighting-type, but he’s not “officially” in my party anymore since I’m supposed to deposit him the next chance I get, so Croagunk’s Fighting/Poison works fine)

Queen – A Ship Came Into The Harbour: …carrying a boatload of Pokémon! Keep catching the first Pokémon you see in this area until your party is full (or until you have caught three, if you have fewer than three empty slots in your party).

Three Pokémon, nice.  Let’s see what we get.

Well, hey, you can never have too many Bidoof, right?  Now for the final area…

Page – Never Have I Ever: Teach all of your current party Pokémon a new move from a TM (if possible, this must be a move that Pokémon has never known in the past). If some of your Pokémon can’t learn any new moves from the TMs you have, do as many as you can.

Okay, sounds good(ish?) to me.  I’m gonna get out of here and pick a replacement for Louie before resolving the Page of Pentacles though.

Let’s see… I need a male Pokémon, whose nature is not careful, relaxed, gentle or hardy…

Y’know what, yeah, you’ll do.  No un-STABed attacks, but we can change that.  Let me see… I could teach Jerry Blizzard, that’d be kinda funny, I guess; Dig is probably more sensible though.  Thunder can go on Jerry, Otto or Divine, and would be a lot of fun in the Water-type Pastoria Gym.  Brighteyes could take Light Screen.  Fire Blast on Gyarados is kind of a meme unless you’re in generation I, but it’s not the worst choice I could make.  Payback would make a lot more sense.  What the hell am I going to give Sandra…?  Stealth Rock, maybe?  Or I guess I could give her Rock Smash; it’s not a TM but I think it would still count.  Okay, let’s do this:

Jerry – Dig
Brighteyes – Light Screen
Karpe Doom – Payback
Sandra – Rock Smash
Divine – Aerial Ace
Otto – Thunder

(Otto’s other moves, by the way, are Stomp and Psybeam, which he isn’t allowed to use, and Baton Pass)

Otto’s presence actually brings up an interesting question – with Waterfall in play (which forbids me from switching), am I allowed to use Baton Pass, which Otto knows?  I’m sort of inclined to rule “yes,” just because it’s quite a rare move that isn’t normally very good in a typical single-player run, and I think it’s more interesting to give a restricted handful of Pokémon a way to sneak around a rule than to just say “no.”

Time to head for the gym, with the most complicated ruleset we’ve had going into a boss fight so far: in addition to the limits on which Pokémon I’m allowed to use in the first place, my Pokémon can’t use STAB attacks, I can’t switch in battle or reorder my party, and any Pokémon that faint will be “dead” until I can ditch the Death card.  Also, I can’t check any out-of-game references – I remember Wake’s Pokémon are Gyarados, Quagsire and Floatzel, and his signature move is Scald, but I’m not sure what other attacks they’ll be packing (although I have to assume Gyarados will have Dragon Rage, which does a flat 40 damage, enough to two-shot most of my Pokémon).  This should be interesting.

Oooh, exciting.  Haven’t had one of these in a while.

Ten – Rule Card: An observer to the game may revoke any or all of the rules currently affecting you, and either make up a new rule or change an existing one.  If no observers are available, you may revoke a single rule.

As for the observers to the game – that’s you!  Or at least, it’s you if no one else has gotten to the comment section first!  If you’re the first one on the scene, you can do the following:

Take any number of cards off the board, or none of them.

AND

Make up a new rule, or modify the terms of an existing one (but not both).

And as a reminder, these are the cards and rules currently in play.

(Note: Unlike the Major Arcana, here’s no limit to the number of cards from the Minor Arcana we can have in play – if we need more space, I’ll just draw more slots)

If you have a killer idea for a rule to fµ¢£ me over, hurry and get it in before someone else beats you to it!