From:   pokeprofessor@wizards.com  
To:   POKEPROFESSOR-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM  
Subject:   Pokemon Rules Team rules updates  
Date:   Wed, 13 Mar 2002 20:02:14 -0800  


Hi all,

Sorry I haven't been able to answer many emails the last few days.  Getting ready to leave tomorrow for the upcoming East Coast Stadium Challenge.  I will have a laptop with me and will be able to do some work for the Pokemon emai list but it will be limited.  I won't be back into the office until March 25th so e-mail activity on this email list will be very limited until that date.

We had a last minute Pokemon Rules team meeting today to finalize outstanding issues for the upcoming tournament.  Here they are:

1)  A Buzzap'd Electrode is considered a Special Energy card, meaning it can be affected by all effects that target Special Energy cards.  This also means that a Buzzap'd Electrode provides 2 colorless energy if a Light Dragonite and its Miraculous Wind Pokemon power is Active.

2)  A correction.  A Miracle Energy card WILL stay in play while a Light Dragonite and its Miraculous Wind Pokemon power is active.  If at the end of any turn the Miraculous Wind Pokemon power is NOT active then the Miraculous Energy is still discarded as normal.

3)  The Here Comes team Rocket Trainer does NOT permanently change a game rule as previously understood.  It has each player flip over all of their prize cards to face up.  If a subsequent effect states place a prize card face down, then you place that prize card face down.  If an effect (like Rattata's Trickery) has you trade a prize card and does NOT state to place it face down, then you put the new prize card out in the same state as the old one.

4) Shining Mewtwo's Reflect Shield should have said "Shining Mewtwo does 20 damage to the attacking Pokemon."  Apply Weakness and Resistance for this attack as normal.

5)  If Magby uses Sputter then Suicune's Crystal Body Pokemon power WOULD be shut off as it is NOT targeted against Suicune but is a global effect.

6)  If Magby's Sputter was in effect (of Goop Gas attack for that matter) then "when you play" Pokemon powers (such as Dark Golbat's Stare or Dark Crobat's Surprise Bite) still function.  This is because those effects are triggered by playing the card and take place BEFORE they are put into play (where Sputter would shut them off).  This is the same reason why Rainbow/Potion/Heal energy still do their "when you play them from your hand" effects even with Light Dragonite's Miraculous Wind active.

I have also finished updating the Master Rules document (for the most part) and hope to have it updated online tomorrow.  Thank you to Team Compendium for keeping track of so many of our rulings.  I would suggest using this document until Team Compendium finishes their updates.

Hope to see many of you at the East Coast Stadium Challenge (you might even catch a glimpse of upcoming promo cards if you play any of us).

Michael Gills
Wizards of the Coast 
Mass Market Programs Manager
(425) 687-8177