Since 4/10/1999,
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News from January 2003:

Wednesday, January 29th 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• Super BattleZone Modified A Bit - [drags himself out of his pit to report this]
• Sumiyoshi Kizuki Has a Posse - Like Andre!

Today's General Comments:
I'll tell you two things;

One: School has started. So updates are going to be a tad bit far and few between until I get my schedule squared around. I'm taking like 5 classes, 15 units, which is like oh... 15 hours of school per week. Then work has me for 26 more hours per week, so my time is becoming just a tad bit limited. Fortunatly I get like 6 or 7 hours between school and work, which is like enough time for me to work things together. But uhm... give it a little bit first. I guarentee a ton of content upgrades over the next month or so. Some Summer 2003, PA! will be a totally reborn site. Good times.

Second of all, if you haven't already considered getting it, I highly suggest upgrading to a Total Fark account. Sure it's $50 for a year, but it's a well spent $50 (head starts on Photoshop contests are a must).

Super BattleZone Modified A Bit
The format for Super Battle Zone will be Modified instead of the previously mentioned Unlimited.

... That's all. Pokémon news is slow.

[someones nudges Nick] Oh! And according to IndigoMaster of WizPOG, it turns out Best Promo #2 is Base Hitmonchan. With 60 HP. Sixty. Yet the jumbo version has 70 HP. IndigoMaster's source is reliable too. Is this an Error or Errata? Time will tell. [Nick returns to his homework stuff] Why do they call it homework? You're not working on your house.

Sumiyoshi Kizuki Has a Posse
Here's something I found while rummaging around in Google.... One of my artistic heroines and popular Pokémon TCG artist, Sumiyoshi Kizuki, has a website! Yippie!! ... If you're not sure who I'm talking about, take a look at TR Koffing or TR Diglett.

MicRomania

If you didn't figure it already, I just love and totally admire her artwork! (I mean look at some of my fakes!) Check out the gallery section, if you dare. And I'll add this link to the non-existant link section. Good times. (^_^)



Sunday, January 26th 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• ADV Minor Update - So THAT'S what it does...
• Promo Thingys - Should "Thingys" end in "ys" or "ies"?

Today's General Comments:
The internet has suxor lately because some virus is attacking Windoze computers and slowing them down. The good news is that my webserver is AOK (as it's OSX/Unix). The bad news is that the fakecard.com server is I believe Windoze 2000. Meaning this site may be prone to not working at times. Dagnabbit. Oh well.

ADV Minor Update
According to vincent0906 from WizPOG, the extra ruling on EX Pokémon states:

"If this Pokémon is knocked out, your opponent may draw 2 prizes instead of 1."

Is THIS the level of balance for a 150 HP Tyranitar we were looking for? Perhaps. If you get 2 prizes, that's like knocking out 2 Pokémon. And 150 HP split into 2 is 80 and 70. Seems fair to me, no?

Anyways, this final bit of ruling more or less completes out ADV 1 section, short of card scans. We're working on that.

Promo Thingys
Two news bits on some promo cards.

First; BEST PROMO #4 has been revealed via eBay (where else?). And tadah! It's Rocket's Scizor, originally seen as a Japanese VS Promo card. Nifty!

Second; Info on the forth Pokémon movie DVD had been posted some time ago, and the promo for the DVD will be Suicune (according to one Skywolf1). I also think that it'll be the last of the Black Star Promos... but I certainly hope that's not the case.

OK, that's all I got.



Thursday, January 23rd 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• ADV Spoiler Completed - 100 Cards Total Of Fun!
• Super Duper BattleZone - Officialize, Shazam!!

Today's General Comments:
Blanking had been suspended for a while just to work on the spoilers. This means I don't expect to have them done before school starts on the 27th... but I'll work on that.

ADV Mega Mania
Wahoo! I've completed the spoilers for the entire ADV set (main set and precons). And much has been revealed about the set. Here's what I know:

• The set has a total of 100 cards, not including Energy cards. 55 are in the main set, and a total of 45 original cards are in the three 30-card preconstructed decks. Each of the three 30-card preconstructed decks however have 19 original cards in each of them (which is why they're labled XX/19), even though there are some reprints of some cards in each deck.
• All the starter Pokémon missing from the base 55 cards in ADV ARE in the three 30-card preconstructed decks. [phew!]
• There are a total of EIGHT EX cards in ADV, and each are "Extra" versions of existing versions of those Pokeémon. There is; Scyther (Jungle?), Magmar (Fossil), Lapras (Fossil), Electabuzz (Base), Hitmonchan (Base?), Mewtwo (Movie Promo), Sneasel (Neo Genesis), and Chansey (Base). Funny how there is no Metal-type EX card. Hmmm....
• Besides EX-type Pokémon, there are no new types of cards or abilities in this game. Maybe for the better because it's getting harder to keep track of everything.
Nifty! Again I must point out that I'm very excited about this set! I can't wait to get my hands on it when it's released in English. Good times.

Oh yeah, and here's the spoiler page for the cards found in the three 30-card preconstructed decks. Clicky hereski.

And looks like an error has been found; Mewtwo EX is missing a few symbols. See if you can spot any.

... Looks like that's all there is to show for ADV. Once it's released, I'll post some card scans. Maybe update the spoiler pages every so often as well. Enjoy!

Super Duper BattleZone
Wizards has officially posted Super BattleZone information on their wonderful website. Good times had by all.

Super BattleZone, The Website
Super BattleZone, The Sites of Super BattleZone

Zippy nifty keen! However one little bit if info has raised the hairs and taunted the brain capacity of SBZ players....

The format for Super BattleZone tournaments is Unlimited constructed

UNLIMITED? What are they trying to do to us, bore us to death? Maybe it's for the better... I haven't played Unlimited in a while...

Suprizingly enough, there is no Californian SBZ's yet. How strange....

More info when I wake up. [mumbles to self] Gloop tub hreat yor man it horse grab mug.



Wednesday, January 22nd 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• ADV Mega Mania - Yes, we have no bananas!
• Advance Naming Scheme - Some Pokémon get their English wings

Today's General Comments:
Today's news is utter proof that we're far from dead. I'm dedicated to scout for new news for PA!, and this is a great example. In short, today's news is 100% PA! EXCLUSIVE. Good times. :D

ADV Mega Mania
I've got only one thing today, but it's a doozy. ADV Mega mania! I've got the entire card list for ADV 1 and (here comes the best part), the 99.44% pure spoiler for ADV 1. Yippie!

Here are some facts first. ADV 1 obviously revolved around the new Pokémon found in the new Ruby/Saphire games. It has 55 cards (12 Commons, 12 Uncommons, 12 Rares, 14 Rare-Holos, and 5 Ultra-Rare-Holos). The newest feature in ADV are EX or "EXtra" type Pokémon, however I'm still not entirely sure what they do yet.

Concerning EX Pokémon however, I DO know that they aren't entirely original, and the "Extra" actually means something (as opposed to some bit of English the Japanese think it's cool to use just for the heck of it). There are 5 EX cards in ADV, Electabuzz, Mewtwo, Hitmonchan, Chansey, and Sneasel... and all of which are "better" versions of some of the original versions of each Pokémon's card. For example, Mewtwo is just like Movie Promo Mewtwo, but with only 100HP and it Psyburn does 60 damage over just 40. Neat, huh? You can only imagine what Sneasel EX is like. And thus the "Extra" part seems to make sense. But because of all this Extraness floating around, it needs to be regulated. Now even though I don't know what the ruling for EX types, I can only assume you're limited to 2 of them in your deck. Now whetner or not "them" means just "Electabuzz EX (for example)" or ANY 2 EX cards is beyond me. I'll see what I can scrounge together for that.

But now without further adeiu, here are all the ADV Mega Mania info I have for you drooling masses:

Card List
99.44% Pure Spoiler

Nifty, huh? For once, I can be a man and say that I actually DO look forward to a TPC-made set! (Can you believe that?) I swear, TPC has made up almost totally for the last few crappy sets. ADV 1 actually has some cards I feel EXCITED about. PS, I'm working on trying to acquire some scans. As soon as I have some, I'll let you know.

EX cards aside, my favorite pick of the set goes to Guraena (#48/55). Why? It's the first real card that can actually DISCARD a card from your opponent's hand rather than just shuffle it into your opponent's deck. SCORE! Not to mention Peribaa (#18/55), which can do 70 damage for 2. Easily. And without being broken either. WOW. Then there's also Nozupasu (#35/55), which can return a Pokémon back to your opponent's hand with a coin flip, and it's only a common! (Let's just hope that my translation is correct. :D). Donphan (#32/55) also does what I had originally done with my OWN Donphan card, an attack that does 120 with 2 coin flips. Good times. Heck, even the normal commons do something neat all the time, and very few of the cards use an annoying ammount of coin flips! Maybe TPC wised up recently. I love it!

The cards are are a plus, but there's only one downside. For a set that's supposed to be a new revision (like Neo Genesis was), it does seem awfully small. 55 cards isn't much for a set like ADV 1... but the cards themselves are pretty swift, so it might even out in the end. Not to mention that the starter Pokémon aren't even part of the 55 cards, but their Stage 2 evolutions are. Weird. Wouldn't doubt though that these will make their way into the Wizards release somehow (I think the starter Pokémon were in the three 30-card starter decks).

Just remember, ADV 1 will be released in Japan at the end of the month. Wizards hasn't announced a release date for North America (they're still in the middle of getting Skyridge out). So here's hoping that ADV 2 and 3 are just as exciting and awe-inspiring as ADV 1! Viva la TPC!!

Stick around tomorrow, I think I might have some more spoilers for you, like the cards found in the three 30-card preconstructed decks. :D

Advance Naming Scheme
IGN.com posted some new English Ruby/Saphire screens, and with it comes a few English names. Good times.

Pocket.ign.com

In short; Eneko is now Skitty, Jiguzaguma is now Zigzagoon, and Subame is now Taillow. Good times, good times.



Tuesday, January 21th 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• Pokémon Underwear and Erasers, Soon A Rare Collector's Item - No more license to ill
• ADV Bits Of Info - It's coming to a head

Today's General Comments:
If you're reading this, then it means you're at school wishing you had another day off. Hahahahaah.

Blank wise... I'm barely halfway done and beginning to get sick and tired of making them. This is going to be a LONG week. But I do plan on getting them done before I start school on the 27th.

Pokémon Underwear and Erasers, Soon A Rare Collector's Item
The days of wearing Pokémon underwear or changing your tires with a Pikachu tire iron are numbered. Nintendo, whom we all love and obey dearly (like a big brother of sorts), had finally conceed that Pokémon is no longer a fad and has decided to reevaluate the francise. (It took them a team of accountants to figure out what I could have told them for $50.)

According to an article at Gamers.com, Nintendo has decided to slow down the marketing blitzkreig it begain some 3 years ago. Nintendo said that it would reevaluate their licensees and determine whether or not they promote and improve upon the Pokémon brand name. This means that if Nintendo doesn't like that Bulbasaur pooper scooper, then it's axed.

This really can only mean good things for the world of Pokémon. First off Nintendo can really spend their time focusing on the animated series, video games, and card game. This rather than wasting time and money dealing with merchandizing rights for the latest Mewtwo underwater basket weaving kit.

Second of all, it'll be a good chance to free the consumer from all sorts of crappy merchandice and awful repetition. You remember that "All your base" thing and how sick you got of it after hearing it for the millionth time, right? Well, the same goes for Pokémon. Nintendo doesn't want to turn Pokémon into another boring franchise for that same reason.

This could also help the licensees themselves because then they won't have to waste any more money making more useless items. Bonus points for Hasbro as now all they might need to spend money on is the card game.

We'll see where all this takes the game and such in the future. But for now, let me enjoy with my Charizard alarm clock with squirt gun before they stop making them.

ADV Bits Of Info
According to several secret Japanese sources, there's a few neat things going on with ADV. Here's the deal;

1. First off Japanese packs won't have just 5 cards in them like they did in the Card-E sets, mostly because TPC no longer will use Dot Code technology and therefore will no longer have to pay to use them. Therefore, TPC has decided to copy Wizards in the pack design (like that's the first time they did) and stick 11 cards in each pack. The rarity scheme is unknown right now, but I do know that there will be 10 cards plus 1 energy card per pack. A la Wizards. Each pack will be sold for 300 yen, which is about $2.50, give or take.

2. Three 30 card preconstructed decks will be made avaliable at the same time the packs are released. They are called "Kimori", "Achyamo", and "Mizugorou". The names of some of the decks can be loosly translated as "Good/Heart (Kimori)" and "Water Ground[?] (Mizugorou)". In each precon deck box will be the 30 card decks, an instruction manual, a coin, damage counters, and poison/burn markers. It'll be sold for 900 Yen, which is round about $8 or so.

3. The chances of a few new game addition is pretty high. We've seen the EX types, and I'm now sure that it's yet another Pokémon type (like Baby). But again, what it does is still a mystery. Another addition to the game is... another Pokémon type all together (like when Darkness/Metal was added in Genesis). However that I can't be too sure. The translated text came out to be "'The extra card (ability is strong, but the card whose also risk is large) new appearance' and so on the new element fully loads!", so it's mostly guess work here. "The extra card" is most likely the new EX cards, since EX DOES mean "EXtra". Then there's also mention of "the new element", but that could just be refering to the EX cards. Can't be sure until the set is released.

4. And then we all know that TPC had added Team Multiplayer to the game. Or at least SOME form of 2-vs-2 battles.

Hmm... this is all that I managed to decipher from my mystery page. More on this as soon as it's released. Good times.



Monday, January 20th 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• BattleZone And You - Part 1 of a series of self-help films
• ADV EX LOL OMG - I'm sick of abbreviations and acronyms

Today's General Comments:
If you're reading this, then it means you got a day off from school/work to celebrate the life and times of one Martin Luther King Jr.. Good times be had by all, and very seriously too.

In PA! news, I'm a third of a way finished with all my blanks. I'll be glad when this is all over. Especially when I burn this all onto CD so I'll never have to redo my blanks ever again. Concerning blanks however, currently the plan only includes working on a base set of around 380 blanks. Specialty blanks won't be made right now as I don't have the time for it. But not to say that PA! WON'T provide any, we're working on a few good blank ideas right now and will work on them as soon as PA! is back in its prime. (Yes, this also means the highly requested Ghost/Dragon/Bug/etc blanks will be back.)

Concerning hits and PA!; I'm not worried about what we're getting right now in terms of hits. I mean even though PA! is up (as opposed to not being up), there is still a lot of things we can do with it. We have plenty of aces up our sleeves, more than enough to give some other websites a run for their money. All will be revealed later on as time goes by. But for with now, bear with us as we try to gather the pieces and put things back in order. Good times.

Most importantly, bear with me as I'm trying to fight off yet another head cold. Maybe I should eat more vegetables. Nah.

BattleZone And You
BattleZone is here, and Super BattleZone is just right around the corner. While we wait for the MT's to post some official info on where everything is going to be and what SBZ will official be like, some rumors of what might happen have surfaced. As since PA! is nothing but a silly rumormongering website, we're going to post it for you.

The following bit of info comes from GymLeaderPhil of WizPOG, who poked and prodded a few premier Tournament Organizers for info on Super BattleZone. He managed to get one from Georgia to spill the beans (as well as break the ice and fail to build a cootie first), and this is what he got in an email;

Super BattleZone is a program designed to kick off the BattleZone League and showcase the latest Pokemon product release, Aquapolis. All Super BattleZone tournaments are sanctioned and will take place on February 15th, 2003. Entry price is set at $5.

The first 50 participants will receive a Super BattleZone lanyard, badge, and a fairly limited release promo card (Lucky Stadium promo - only available in NYC). Each Prize kit will also include one case (six displays) of Aquapolis product for prizes, 16 oversized Electabuzz promo cards, and 2 trophies (1 for the best player 14 and under, 1 for the best player 15 and up). There will also be a special product prize for ³Best Sportsman age 12 and under²: a Best Sportsman certificate and a full set of Expedition box-toppers.

Lanyard? Meh. But the rest sounds pretty keen. Even the (gasp!) NYC Lucky Stadium Promo card! All reet! And I'll tell you this, if there is a Super BattleZone in the San Francisco Bay Area, it'll be the best incentive for me to (finally) get my drivers license.

In other BattleZone news, according to Pokeplayer of the aformentioned WizPOG website, it turns out that Best Promo number 3 is... Professor Elm! Ah, the fate of this little plucky card is secure when Genesis is dropped. Batter yet, it'll be reverse-holo as well. Good times. Well, be sure to stick around your local BattleZone for FUN!

ADV EX LOL OMG
Just a minor update on ADV; turns out that these new "EX" type Pokémon are more than meets the eye. They're a new type of Pokémon (ugh) with its own type of ruling (ie Baby Pokémon). But what they do is beyond me, at least right now. Rumor speculates that if an EX Pokémon is Knocked out, your opponent takes control of it rather than having it going to your discard pile. But that's just a rumor. I'll try to find out more about this thing soon enough.



Friday, January 17th 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• Aquapolis Deal - It's out and it's... here.
• Get Yer Fake Card Tournament Rules! - A real format for a fake tournament.
• Some "Cool" ADV Additions - And I'm being sarcastic here.

Today's General Comments:
I spent about 2 hours redoing the card lists for each Pokémon TCG set as well as linked to them on the General TCG Info page. Take a look! Oh, and in doing so, I found another error; in Legendary Collection, the card The Boss's Way is out of place. It should be before Bill as opposed to after Scoop Up. Maybe I do have too much time on my hands.

Aquapolis Deal
Feh. Aquapolis is here. And once again Murphy's Law is proven to me; everyone ELSE has their cards before I do. Never fails. Anyways, BECAUSE it's out, there's a lot of information on it available. At least enough that would make for one smashing news report. Do I smell a Pulitzer Prize?

First bit of news comes from Kirblar of Wizpog (sounds like a name from the Lord of the Rings), as he posted the deck lists to both of Aquapolis' theme decks, Abyss and Rock Garden. And here they are.

Second bit; Seems as if there are only 4 box toppers for THIS set, and they are Entei, Espeon, Scizor, and Suicune. Yeow!

Third bit; eBay has tons of card scans from those... lucky.... people who have already bought their Aquapolis boxes, ripped open the packs, seperated their cards, and (here comes the exciting part) scanned the cards onto their computer AND posted them on eBay. Lucky ducks. Anyways, you can search for them, but I thought I'd be your best friend by posting you this link for you.

Forth bit; it seems as if the race to find errors have started, and someone who isn't me is in the lead (is that possible?!). According to LizardsOTC at WizPOG, Lanturn has a Poké-BODY icon when it shouldn't have one. Ack. And not to mention Crystal Nidoking's Body power has a Fire energy symbol when it really should have a Fighting symbol (a la Blaine's Charizard). Pfah, I'll bet I'll just be left to discover the piddily litte text errors again.

And uhm... that just about wraps it up. DMTM did post a new card of the day, but you've probably already seen it by now. :(

Get Yer Fake Card Tournament Rules!
Ever wanted to use fake cards in a tournament, but everytime you do use them, you get unfairly disqualified? Well, I have two ways of solving that problem. One way would be to give the TO a knuckle sandwich. And maybe an Indian burn or two (that'll learn 'em). Another way would be to download this; The Pokémon TCG Fake Card Tournament Rules! Your eyes doth not decieve you, such a thing exists. Even though I made it up myself.

Yes, if you click on that link, you can download the rules to organize your very own Fake Card tournament. The premise is simple. Everyone has their own regular 60 card Modified Pokémon TCG deck, with one acception. Each player is allowed to have up to 4 copies of ONE fake card that they created to help their deck. Sounds fun, right?

Actually for the few lucky souls who actually got to really organize and play in one, they all had a blast. And you can too! Just download the rules and set up your tournament. The rules are really straight forward and easy to follow. It's obviously not complete because there's always something that I can't predict without actually playtesting it.

Which is where YOU, the viewer, comes in. Feel free to organize your own tournament and tell me how well/bad it went. And if you have anything you want to add to or change in the rules, you can tell me about that as well.

The BIG goal is to have the rules complete by the time the Challenge Series begins, so that I can give this a whirl in the late night match-ups in San Diego, New York, or at Worlds itself. Of course since no info on the Challenge Series are avaliable yet, I seem to have plenty of time to perfect it.

Well, feel free to download it and give it a try at your next Battlezone or Tournament date. Maybe if you send me a Report, I'll post it on PA!. Heck, maybe I'll even provide some sort of Prize support for anyone who organizes one. :D

Oh and just for your information, this is NOT an official DCI tournament format. It's 100% unofficial, unsanctioned, and unapproved by Wizards, the DCI, or TPC. Just thought I'd point that out.

Some "Cool" ADV Additions
It's official, this game has lost it's logic. Mr. Spock will be quite displeased when he finds out.

Case in point; the recent Itar-line ADV promos being passed around the internet has a little something that has raised the collective feckles of many players. (Feckles, heckles, hackles, schmeckles. Whatever the heck they are, they're up right now and pointed at TPC.) ... If you haven't seen it already, here they are:

Check out Tyranitar "EX" there (that better not stand for "Extreme" or I'm going to puke). 150 HP and double weakness. That alone is breaking any number of fake card rules. [slapes forehead]

OK sure, double weakness isn't anything bad. I mean I used it on a fake card or two myself. Seems pretty interesting. But the 150 HP is something I don't like. All in all though, it seems like TPC is willing to break the rules (even though they wrote them) if it seems "cool" enough to sell cards. Worse, it's like they don't bother to milk an idea as they seems to be doing something "cool" every smeggin' day! I mean are they SO strapped for ideas that they think that they can't do anything BUT make a 150 HP Tyranitar?? Aaargh!

There is just no more logic in this game. The day when there are 200 HP Dual Type Triple weakness Tyranitars that can allow you to attach 8 Darkness Energy cards to it (even though you can have 4 in your deck) will be the day I quit this game. Or maybe petition to Wizard/Hasbro to buy the game from them.



Thursday, January 16th 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• Aquapiledriver - Another card of the day thing
• ADV Advances - We get scan. What!

Today's General Comments:
How are you today? For the heck of it, I condenced the TCG set info from a long list of sets to a small little link. Now to get all your TCG set info, just click on on the "TCG Set Info" link. Simple, no? Also planned in the near future of the TCG section is a nice little overhaul of the Card Lists, Preconstructed deck info, and maybe even card scans as well. Good times.

Aquapiledriver
Well, Aquapolis is just about here. I've got my five boxes reserved. 3 for me, 2 for.... well, we'll see. ;) But until all that Aqua goodness is in everyone's hands, DMTM will still be posting Aquapolis Card of the Days. And I'll be posting them for you to enjoy.

Entei reads:

Entei / 70 HP
Poké-BODY: Pure Body
To attack a FIRE Energy card from your hand to Entei, you must discard an Energy card attached to Entei. (Attach the Fire Energy and then discard and Energy from Entei.)

[FCC] Burning Fang (40 Damage) You may flip a coin. If heads, discard a FIRE Energy card attached to Entei and the Defending Pokémon is now Burned.

Weakness: WATER
Retreat Cost: C

...I'm seriously SERIOUSLY trying to not not-like this card. But it's hard. Honestly, this card is utter crap. If Dunsparce was a rare, this card would be worse than it.

I mean think about it. To attach a Fire energy card to it you have to discard an energy card? Yeeeccc. OK sure, there have been some negative powers not unlike Pure Body (Aquapolis Muk springs to mind), but at least those card's attack had SOMETHING to do with the power. But here we've got Entei with is crappy power, and an attack that has nothing to do with it. The attack isn't even overly broken just so that the power could keep in in check.

Ways to fix it? Sure. 80 damage for RRC would be fair considering the power. I mean if it's going to take you (generally) 5 turns to power it up, you might as well make it worth your time.

Ways around it's power? Fossil Muk springs to mind. 40 plus Burned for RCC is fairly fair, and useful if its power didn't work. Or maybe Rainbow Energy. Some of the earlier Aquapolis Pokémon that had some Energy-based powers might help. But the best way around Entei would be hoping you don't get one in a pack.

In other Aquapolis news; the link to Aquapolis has been unlocked on Wizards' Pokémon website. So you know it's bascially officially relased now. Good times. ;)

ADV Advances
While North America anxiously waits for Aquapolis' arrival, our more luckier counterparts in Japan are counting the days down to TPC's release of ADV 1. If you don't know ADV is the first set to feature Pokémon from the recent Pokémon Ruby/Saphire Game Boy Advance games. ADV. Advance. Get it?

In the recent Coro-Coro magazine, they had some ADV promos in it. And we have some scans of it. Yippie!

The Back Front Side (look, they didn't change the backs!)
Kaiooga
Guraadon

Nifty little creatures, aren't they? And lo and behold, you can see how much they resemble Magic cards too. Oh well.

Besides the totally new design, it seems as if a lot of things got moved around and changed. Well, duh, but more so than some of the previous design revisions. For a quick low-down on it all, click on this happy looking link. Have you clicked on it yet? DO IT NOW!

Well, much like how the title "Attack of the Clones" had grown on me despite sounding otherwise crappy, these new face designs are starting to look a bit cooler and less kiddish. Maybe for the better. [Nick15 crosses his fingers for black bordered cards]

So when will this game land in the US? Give it around late-summer. Maybe earlier if we're good little boys and girls. Score.



Wednesday, January 15th 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• The Aquapolis Review - I actually have some Aquapolis NEWS!
• Modification of the Modified Modified - MMMF?

Today's General Comments:
Nick15: It's 3 AM. What are you doing up this late reading this site? You should be in bed.
John Q. Viewer: No, it's noon. What are you doing updating PA! at 3AM?
Nick15: Ah, anti-semitism!
John Q. Viewer: Not at all. And this is NOT Monty Python. That phrase is not funny.
Nick15: Oh, your no fun anymore.
Camel Spotter (Mr. Sopwith): Right, I warned you about pinching my line! [throws Nick15 in front of a camel]
Nick15: It's not just about the Holy Grail! Waaaugh! [gets run over by a train]

I'll give a cookie to anyone who is not GrandMoffT who can understand what all this was about.

The Aquapolis Review
Yeah, so I didn't update yesterday. At least you get to see two new Aquapolis cards again. Squweee!

They reads:

Bellossom / 90 HP
Poké-POWER: Flower Supplement
Once during your turn (before you attack), you may flip a coin. If heads, attach 1 basic Energy card from your hand to 1 of your Benched Pokémon. This power can't be used if Bellossom is affected by a Special Condition.

[GGC] Knife Leaf (30x Damage) Flip 3 coins. This attack does 30 damage times the number of heads.

Weakness: FIRE
Resistance: WATER
Retreat Cost: CC

---

Electrode / 70 HP
Poké-POWER: Super Dynamo
Once during your turn (before you attack), If Electode is your Active Pokémon, you may flip a coin. If heads, choose a LIGHTING Energy card from your discard pile and attach it to 1 of your Pokémon. This power can't be used if Electrode is affected by a Special Condition.

[LC] Swlft (30 Damage) This attack's damage isn't affted by Weakness, Resistance, Poké-Powers, Poké-Bodies, or any other effects on the Defending Pokémon.

Weakness: FIGHITNG
Retreat Cost: C

Concerning Bellossom... SUMIYOSHI KIZUKI!!!
She is my favorite aritst!!! I'll use this in a deck because SHE drew it! .... The card itself is pretty solid. I don't like the flips on the card. But the power works on the bench, so you can have multiple Bellossom out and use its power any number of times. Then with say Wild Growth Meganium or Harvest Bounty Venusaur, you can get some fast Energy out. :D

As for Electrode, it's yet another extra-Energy type card. Sure it's a neat change of pase, but there's that flip again. Plus it's starting to get to the point where soon people will get sick of all this extra energy-proving powers. But I guess I'm just extra paranoid.

Now in other Aquapolis news; I'm under good authority of someone (LizardsOTC) who's under good authority from an inside source that Aquapolis is out. Like right NOW. As in if you went to your local card store, you might see a few boxes on the shelves. ... Maybe. Well, you could just give it a try. But don't kill me if it's not there. :P If it's not there, then try on the 28th of this month. I hear that it'll be released on that date too. Good times.

Modification of the Modified Modified
Word on the street is that Wizards plans to modify the Modified tournament format very soon. How soon? We're not sure. What will be dropped? Another grey area. Some people will think that only Genesis will get dropped. But I think otherwise.

I have written up a lenghty hypothesis, and I'm fairly positive that it's probably what'll happen when the time comes. If you want to read it, swing by WizPOG, or click here.

In short though, I believe that around late this summer, Modified will get modified again. We'll lose the 4 sets from the Neo block set, as ADV1 will be released around that time. (So instead of Modified being Neo/Card-E, it'll be Card-E/ADV). Some people think that we'll only lose Genesis, but I believe that we'll lose the entire block. The point of Modified is to keep things fresh... but even without Genesis, Entei/Magcargo and Kingdra decks will still exist, and I don't call that "keeping things fresh".

More importantly, I feel that if things stay the way they are (in terms of set releases), Modified will be modified every year around the same time as there will be a new set from a new block to replace the oldest block in Modified. This'll prove to be fun in future Modified events.

Now if you're interested about this topic and would want to read more, be sure to check out the link I posted two paragraphs up on it. You'll get both sides of the arguement, the reasons for why I think what I think, and maybe a picture of a headless chicken running around as well. :P

Well, enjoy your day! May happiness bring love to your town.



Monday, January 13th 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• Aqua...norpy - Wait, I found another weird word.
• New Blanks Preview - Look at the green-ness!

Today's General Comments:
It's 12:30, nothing's open, and I'm bored. Ni! I am the keeper of the sacred word, Ne-Wom! I have a goal in my life. Because Little Sister is watching you. ... Am I making sense? I don't blarney.

Aqua...norpy
This is becoming eaiser and easier to post as all I have to do is copy yesterday's post and repost it here today. Good times. Since I didn't post yesterday, and DMTM did a late "Suday" night Card-Of-The-Day, so here are two cards once again. Yippie!

They reads:

Ninetales / 80 HP
[R] Miracle Tail (10 Damage) Flip a coin. If heads, choose a Special Condition (Asleep, Burned, Confused, Paralyzed, or Poisoned). The Defending Pokémon is now affected by that Special Condition.

[RCC] Roasting Heat (40+ Damage) If the Defending Pokémon is Burned, this attack does 40 damage plus 20 more damage.

Weakness: WATER
Retreat Cost: C

---

Steelix / 100 HP
[CC] Earth Rift (10 Damage) This attack does 10 damage each of your opponent's Benched Pokémon. (Don't apply Weakness or Resistance for Benched Pokémon.) Then flip a coin. If tails, this attack can't be used during your next turn.

[MMCC] Iron Smash (50+ Damage) Flip 2 coins. If both are heads, this attack does 50 damage plus 20 more damage. If both are tails, this attack does nothing. If 1 is heads and 1 is tails, this attack just does 50 damage.

Weakness: FIRE
Resistance: GRASS
Retreat Cost: CCCC

Ninetails... NEAT! Think of the colors! Second turn; use Miracle Tail and get heads, then choose... oh... I don't know... maybe Burned for example. Next turn you slap on another Energy to Ninetails and use... Roasting Heat! 60 damage plus Burned damage. WOW! Good times, no?

Steelix seems less appealing. FAR less appealing. Too many coin flips for my tastes. True, a few Metal energy and a good flippy coin can do wonders for this guy, but if you're not too keen on coins, it'll do you no good. Good times, no.

Hmmm.... tomorrow might have some neat little thingys, I guess. Swing by just incase of FUN!

New Blanks Preview
Remember how I lost all my blanks? Well, I've managed to unlose all my grass ones though a combination of time consuming scanning and Photoshopping. How do they look? Take a look for yourself;

Nifty, huh? All crisp looking AND without the "difficult" to edit out E-Reader bars. Ph33r my 1337 photoshopping skillz!!!1!!@!! And if you're interested, some more of the new blanks can be found here. ... Well, actually right here.

Now this is just an example of things to come. Here's the deal; They're JPG files, see? But they're at 10 Quality, meaning there is NONE of that crappy JPEG compression stuff making them look all funky and weird (like some other blanks I can think of off the top of my head). Sure it's upped the file size from like 50k to 180k, but hey, at what cost beauty?

These aren't actually primed for a major release, there's a few cosmetic issues I need to take care of (like image dimensions and darkening up the Light blanks)... and maybe even finishing off the other 8 types and the trainers as well. But hey, it's a neat little preview of some really good quality blanks in the near future.

And then when I'm done with this (give me a week or so), I'll get the ball rolling on new fake cards. Isn't that cool?? ... OK, the news is finished. Time for some Monty Python.



Saturday, January 11th 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• Aqua...polis - I've run out of funny names

Today's General Comments:
Not much to discuss. Maybe that Razzo and a few sections will be updated very soon. BTW, I CAN'T recover my blanks from what fakes I made, because I just remembered that those are just all my Neo blanks, and not my Gym or Original blanks. Meaning I have to redo all of them. Bleck. But because of which, I won't be making Japanese blanks. I mean seriously, who would use them? It'll be a waste of my time. I'll also rework the blanks section just so that it's a little bit easier to download blanks from.

Aqua...polis
Sleepy. Yes. But to make up for being sick on Thursday, DMTM's posted two cards on Friday. And here they are.

They reads:

Exeggutor / 80 HP
[C] Super Eggsplosion (40x Damage) Discard any number of Energy cards attached to any of your Pokémon. Flip a number of coins equal to the number of Energy cards discarded in this way. This attack does 40 damage times the number of heads.

[G] Called Shot Choose 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon. This attack does 0 damage times the amount of GRASS Energy attached to Exeggutor. (Don't apple Weakness or Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)

Weakness: FIRE
Retreat Cost: C

---

Tentacruel / 70 HP
Poké-POWER: Strange Tentacles
Once during your turn (before you attack), as lon as the number of Energy cards attached to the Defending Pokémon is less than the number of Energy cards attached to your Active Pokémon, you may choose an Energy card, if any, in your opponent's discard pile and attach it to the Defending Pokémon. This power can't be used if Tentacruel is affected by a Special Condition.

[WC] Poison Sting (20 Damage) Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Poisoned.

Weakness: LIGHTING

Exeggutor. Is. Spiffy. I see a good combo with Expedition Venusaur. If you're good at flipping heads, then that's 80 right there in 1 turn. Easily. The second attack is also great for picking off those Baby Pokémon from your opponent's bench. Good times or what?

Tentacruel seems not-very-good, doesn't it? I mean you get to put an energy card onto your opponent's Pokémon, right? Well, true, but there's more to it. On a simpler level, if your Pokémon's attack does damage based on the number of Energy cards on the Defending Pokémon, then you got yourself 10 extra damage right there. But even more interesting is if you combo this sukka up with say... Light Golduck, that does exta damage for each Special Energy cards attached to the Defender. Therefore, if your opponent is in pain because all his/her Darkness energy is in their discard pile, give them a hand with Tentacruel... and then nuke 'em with Light Golduck. Evil evil evil!

Ok, that's all I have today. Now go away. Shoo shoo!



Thursday, January 9th 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• Aquagroovalisticprosifunkstication - God bless George Clinton
• Achoosel - Blessyoumon.

Today's General Comments:
I got nothin'.

Aquagroovalisticprosifunkstication
Too tired to write a weird story, here's DMTM's Card of the Dayness.

It reads:

Hypno / 80 HP
Poké-POWER: Sleep Pendulum
Once during your turn (before you attack), if Hypno is your Active Pokémon, you may make the Defending Pokémon Asleep. This power can't be used if Hypno is affected by a Special Condition.

[PCC] Spiral Aura (30 Damage) If the Defending Pokémon isn't Knocked Out by the damage from this attack, you may choose 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon and switch the Defending Pokémon with it.

Weakness: PSYCHIC
Retreat Cost: C

Well? I like it. It's another cool Card-E card. (I can admit that too.) You know why? Well... with Dark Gengar and maybe even LC Dodrio, you have one kick butt combo. I mean think of it this way... have Hypno automatically put the Defending Pokémon Asleep, switch it with Dark Gengar, then have your way with it. And early in the game to boot. Better yet, stick Expedition Vileplume (you know, the one that can do auto-Poison). Poisoned AND Asleep, without having to attack. Can we say good times?

Ruling thought; I'm assuming that the damage is done before you switch the Pokémon. Although that isn't made clear without a ruling statement in the attack. Oh well.

Wonder what's next in the little bag of Aquapolis goodies? Stick around for tomorrow's little... thingy.

Achoosel
BattleZone has come 'round, and guess what, it has a promo. Cool!

You might recognize this card from when VS was first released. It ranks a 6 out of 10 on my Meh-O-Meter, it's cool that it's Sneasel... but not much else.

Word on the street is that you can nab one of these kitties by winning a BattleZone tournament. So be sure you swing by your local BattleZone location to win one. Good times.



Wednesday, January 8th 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• Aquabonanza - Another real (small) card
• Game Boy Advance Advance - And I just bought my GBA two years ago.

Today's General Comments:
Uncle Steve and his Reality Distortion Field has come and gone, and we Mac users were left with a lump in our throat and cashless wallets in our pockets. Lousy Apple making really cool stuff that makes us cry. .... We were also left with a Beta version of Apple's new Safari web browser, which has officially replaced my IE as "Nick15's Offical Extreme Web Browser of the New Millennium 2003". With that said, there'll be some really cool changes made to PA! over the next... whenever, with respect to Safari. We've decided to add 50% more racing stripes to PA!, allowing the site to look like it's downloading faster in Safari. On top of that, we've also added favicon.ico's to the site, just to make good use of that feature in Safari. I guess. Unfortunatly Windows users won't be able to make good use of the PA! upgrades, so tough. More on this as it develops.

Aquabonanza
In the world of Pokémon, Dark Master Trainer Mike and HIS Reality Distortion Field has been activated once again on the pages of WizPOG. This time it opened a portal to the Anti-Matter universe where it released the entity known Togetic. Now in this Anti-Matter universe, not only was Togetic a scourge of its nation, it also had the ability to write with both its left and right hands. But since its now in our universe (the backwards one), our laws apply, and Togetic is turned into crap.

For those who can't read it, it says...

Togetic / 60 HP
Poké-POWER: Miracle Shift
Once during your turn (before you attack), discard a basic Energy card attached to 1 of your Pokémon. Then, choose a basic Energy card from your discard pile and attach it to that Pokémon. This power can't be used if Togetic is affected by a Special Condition.

[C] Mini-Metronome Flip a coin. If heads, choose 1 of the Defending Pokémon's attacks. Mini-Metronome copies that attack except for its Energy cost. (You must still do anything that's required in order to use the attack.) (No matter what the Defending Pokémon is, Togetic is still COLORLESS.) Togetic performs that attack.

Weakness: LIGHTING
Resistance: FIGHTING
Retreat Cost: C

One word comes to mind; "Crap". Of course, that's because Togetic is in our universe now. In the Anti-Matter Universe (OK, Japan...), Togetic's power was able to swap any Energy card for any Energy card. Sounds about right, no? Nope. Can you imagine swaping a plain Energy card for a Metal or Darkness Energy card? If you can, then imagine swaping it for a Steelix or Tyranitar (or Sneasel in Unlimited). Ugh. Not good times. And thus here in the US, Wizards changed the power from potential brokenness to ridicously pathetic. Oh well, maybe it WAS for the better.

Togetic's attack though keeps reassuring the question; why do they even bother? Period. I mean seriously, slap on an another Colorless energy cost, ditch the "Flip a coin" bit, and you've got a somewhat half-decent card! But NOOO.... all TPC likes to make are "cute" attacks. Heck, even Muk's attack can be consider "cute" since it only does 10 damage. For a rare. Pppffftttt....

Now if you've been paying attention, DMTM has been releasing cards without repeating types. Meaning you just KNOW that the next one will be a Darkness type Pokémon. And since the only GOOD Darkness Pokémon in Aquapolis is Tyranitar... it'll probably be Houndoom. Blah.

Game Boy Advance Advance
It seems like a lot of people have been activating their own personal Reality Distortion Field today. I wish I owned one. That'd be cool.

In this instance, Nintendo activated their unit and out came a new Game Boy Advance. Named Game Boy Advance SP, this one has a folding screen with a front-light (backlight not good enough for it, eh?), as well a rechargable internal battery. Like the popular iPod, the GBASP can get 18 hours of battery time for 3 hours of charge time. But like the old GBA, it can't recharge your love-life. ... The GBASP be released in the US on March 23rd, curiously close to the US release of Pokémon Ruby/Saphire, for $99. And in two spiffy colors, Platinum and Cobalt. I'll buy the Platinum one because it'll go with my 17" Platinum PowerBook G4. OK... maybe the one in my dreams.

Here's a handy, not-swiped link for you:
http://pocket.ign.com/articles/381/381613p1.html

If you don't own a GBA, buy it! [Nintendo hands Nick15 a C-Note] And if you just bought a GBA, return it and but this one! [Nintendo hands Nick15 another C-Note] ... uhm... Nintendo RAWKZ! [Nintendo punches Nick in the jaw for saying "rawkz"]



Tuesday, January 7th 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• Aquamania - I'm gonna run out of these titles soon...
• A Few PA! Deals Up And Working - Two things down, eleventy one things to go.

Today's General Comments:
Yup, I'm still very busy getting both PA! and my personal site up in working condition... but fortunately Pokémon news is few and far between, so I can afford to not update. Good times.

Now after today's update, I need to get some sleep. Uncle Steve and his Reality Distrotion Ray will be active tomorrow at MacWorld San Fran-Borking-Frisco, showing off some of his secret Apple goodies. So I have to wake up early for this. I love this company!

Aquamania
If you've been paying attention to me, then you'll know that there's going to be a new set released called Aquapolis. Ooooohhh.... And in this set will be some not-quite-lame cards. One of them is listed below.

Muk! If you can't read the agonizingly small text, here it is.

Muk / 70 HP
Poké-BODY: Heavyweight
As long as there is a GRASS Energy attached to Muk, you must pay an additional CC to retreat is.

[CC] Burning Sludge (10 Damage) Flip a number of coins equal to the amount of GRASS Energy attached to Muk. If any of them are heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Posioned and Burned.

Weakness: PSYCHIC
Retreat Cost: C

The card itself seems pretty cool. 70 HP for a Stage 1? Fair. It's crappy negative Body-power? Manageable. The art? Uhm.... The fact that the attack does BOTH Poisoned AND Burned makes it quite impressive. (I'm calling an Card-E card "impressive"?! What's the world coming to?!)

However the point of THIS card is to be combo'd by something else. Say.... Fossil/LC Muk (which can cancle out Aqua Muk's power perhaps?). Or maybe Porygon 2, which can turn your random energy into Grass Energy just for the effect but not for the negative Body-power? Or even my favorite, mix it with LC/TR Drowsee for the wonderful chance of having the Defending Pokémon [deep breath] Poisoned, Burned, AND Asleep? Oooh... the combos are endless!

Now in other Aquapolis news, if you take a look at the Aquapolis Card List, you'll notice a few little interesting little deals going on. First off, DMTM confirmed that obvious, the cards labeled "H1-H32" are holo versions of the non-holo rares. Yeah. But better yet, an even more confusing numbering question had been answered. If you didn't notice, some of the cards were labeled with an "A" and a "B" next to their numbers. This is not because those cards have an alternative artwork or are named the same but are different cards. It's actually because the E-Reader bars are different from each other. Meaning if you scan in say Drowzee #74a, you'll get a different E-Reader whatever-thingy from Drowzee #74b. Got it?

Ok, that's all I have to say about that.

A Few PA! Deals Up And Working
PA! is still a work in progress, if that hasn't been made obvious yet. But at least I'm working on it rather than having it sit and get all stinky and moldy... and then it'll be too green and icky to update, and I'd have to throw it out. PU!

Anyways, I did manage to get a few things up... the Donate Your Worthless Money and the Advertise PA! sections are up and ready to be viewed by your tired and radiated eyeballs. Of doom!

In other PA! news; once I get my blanks together, I plan on updating the blanks I have at PA!, as well as clean up the whole download section. And once THAT is done (like heck it will be), I'll be pulling together the details of a new Fake Card Contest. How does that sound?

... I need sleep now. Of doom!



Sunday, January 5th 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• Nothin' - As in I got nothin'.

Today's General Comments:
Remember how I accidently deleted my computer some two months back? I managed to undeleted a good portion of it, but as I'm going through all my undeleted files seeing what I can salvage, I realize something. None of my blanks work. Bah.

So what does this mean? Right now I can't make any fakes. Which kinda sucks because this IS a fake card site (and what is a fake card site without fakes?) But I did managed to make backups of all of my old fake cards, and because I didn't flatten the fakes I made, my blanks survived. But it'll be a while for me to sift through all my backup CDs and retrieve those blanks. Aaargh.

But other than that, I don't have much to talk about today. See you tomorrow.



Saturday, January 4th 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• TPC Announces Pokémon Ruby/Saphire Cards - More like "Announced" in the past tense
• Pokémon on GameCube - Good times?
• Aquapolorama - I didn't change the name, just to save me some time.

Today's General Comments:
Day TWO of the Pokémon Aaah! ressurection celebration (and day FOUR of the Two Thousand and Three New Year celebratitron), and we haven't been deleted yet. And look, we're updating again! That's a 100% update rate based on the time we're up. What website can say THAT? Very few indeed. :D Even more interesting, PA! has been more or less dead for a year (and up for only about 12 hours yesterday), and look, we managed to get round about 200 hits Friday. Do I fear for the life of PA!? Naaaah....

Actually, just a small reminder that Sundays probably won't be a day I update. Usually because either it's a day of rest, or because I stay out until 5-6 AM hanging out at the KCSM radio station as part of the Sunday Morning Snackers Crew. There's even a link where you can listen to KCSM on your computer, so give it a try and you might even hear my name or somethin'. Good times.

On a seperate note, now that PA! is up, my priorities have been shifted from PA! to Nick15.com (my more older-folk orientated personal site), meaning that a lot of errors on THIS site won't get addressed until after Nick15.com is back up. Hey, it's not my fault both PA! and Nick15.com got deleted! .... No wait, it was my fault. I suck.

TPC Announces Pokémon Ruby/Saphire Cards
Look who's coming to dinner.... Yeah OK this is old news to... probably everyone. But hey, I'm sick, I need help.

With the release of the new Pokémon Ruby and Saphire games for Game Boy Advance in Japan, it's only obvious that the card game would follow. With this said, Japan's The Pokémon Company (TPC) showed off their new card set, ADV, as well as some of the new cards in this new set.

Neat looking, true. But who thinks that:

1. It's annoying that they changed the designs AGAIN?
2. They look like MAGIC cards?!
3. TPC is out of their smeggin' minds?!!

I don't know about you, but I don't like this at all. But hey, at least it'll look "cooler". [shrugs] Whatever.

Also new on Japan's tournament radar is... Team Multiplayer! Yes, a Wizards invention seems to have made its way over the Pacific and into the hearts of Japanese players alike. Good times.

Anyways, with this set on the... "set radar scope" thingy, I've added a new section for it, as well as a few empty slots for the obviously obvious other two ADV sets, 2 and 3. Bah.

Pokémon on GameCube
(Let's see how many times I can fit the word "GameCube" in one sentence...) On the... GameCube radar thingy, one new bit of GameCube news comes out concerning the obvious GameCube-based Pokémon game for the GameCube.

According to DarkAspenth, according to Neowin.com, according to Gamers.com, according to the Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun, according to Nintendo, Nintendo plans to release a Pokémon GameCube game before this summer in Japan. Good times.

Apparently it'll be cheaper than a GB game (or a GC game for that matter), and can only be played if you own a copy of Pokémon Ruby or Saphire. This obviously is trying to take advantage of the whole GameCube-GBA connectivity deal Nintendo has, but maybe a bit more than normal. Well, I guess that's how Nintendo plans to stay alive; Accessories, accessories, accessories!

It probably will also be more like a Pokémon Stadium type game over a true-blue Pokémon RPG game, with maybe a GBA emulator to play Ruby/Silver on it.

More news when my typing fingers hurt less.

Aquapolorama... Part 2
Today is part two of our little Aquapolorama deal. And look what we have! Lifted Aquapolis images! Score!

At WizPOG, Dark Master Trainer Mike has his little Aquapolis Card of the Day thing going on, and has posted the following Aquapolis cards. Good times.

Ampharos
Arcanine
Azumarill
Espeon
Nidoking
Scizor
Click here for s'more Aquapolis junk

Just though I'd put these up for the heck of it. Do I have an analysis for it? Yeeeeaaa... uhm... no.



Friday, January 3rd 2003
Here's What's New for Today...

• Like a Long Tailed Cat In A Room Full of Rocking Chairs... - Why Does God Punish Me This Way?
• So What's All This Then? - A Trip Down the Memory Autobahn... with Flying Cars!
• Aquapolorama - A Few Bits of Aquapolis Info

Today's General Comments:
Hello, Nick15 here. I'm running PA! again, and doing the news. The use of the first person conjunction of "I" will refer to myself, other staff people will be refered to by name. Normally this wouldn't happen, but hostonce.com won't allow other people to access the FTP, meaning no one else can do the news. Sla.

For newcomers to this site, this comments box is where I say whatever the heck I want to, provided it's off topic and had nothing to do with the daily news. Usually I just talk about my day or whatever happened to me or why I didn't update (keep tabs on what excuses I use to make sure I don't repeat myself). Of course a lot more personal daily Me news can be found at Nick15.com, but it's not exactly for kids. I guess this'll be sort of the toned down and censored version then.

Anyways.... Back from vacation, I am. Had fun, I did. Met cool people for the first time, I had. For a good portion of my trip I was in Waukesha, Wisconsin where I played in two tournaments run by one Jared Spriggs (aka LizardsOTC). I had tons of fun and did pretty well (9th out of 24 on Saturday night), especially considering that I'm pretty rusty. I also got to meet a Steve Reich (aka Yoshi1001), but didn't manage to play him. I got a kick out of all the people asking me to draw them pictures. Good times. After Saturday's tournament (and a rather lengthy discussion with Yoshi and a pair of twins who's names unfortunatly escape me at the moment as well as dealing with Yosh's stalled car), I visited my Grandmother in Michigan and had some New Years fun up in Kalamazoo. Score! Too bad though my trip is all over now, as now I'm back home and probably have to go to work too. Blah.

Well, at least in all my free time I managed to get the ball rolling on PA!8. What I did is what you see now. Ltots of loose ends though, but I hope to clean them up over the next week or two. ... So, let's just hope nothing jynxes THIS incarnation of PA!. Cross your fingers.

So did you wonder where we were for the past YEAR? Keep reading.

Like a Long Tailed Cat In A Room Full of Rocking Chairs...
I got nothin'.

Well, to put it shortly, 2002 sucked for PA!. If you didn't notice it already, the site was rocked from ruined plans, lost hosting, and destoryed information. All of which totally prevented PA! from going online. (I swear, someone was out to get us this year.) Heck, we doubt there's anyone left who remembers PA! any more, but we aim to change that.

So what happened to PA! in 2002? Here's the low-down:

In January 2002, PA!'s then-host PokéWebmasters decided to shut down totally out of the blue. PA!6 was soon lost after the host went down, as well as when then-webmaster PMX's copy of it got deleted. Because of this total lack of PA!ness online, I (Nick15) decided to come out of "retirement" to help work on PA!7. That alone was a major task, and took me a few months to work on. It was ready and went online in March. However due to the lack of enthusiasm between myself and PMX to update it regularly, PA!7 instantly grew stale and was never got updated. It probably wasn't one of the fan's favorites either because of its ridiculous use of frames. (See, I can admit that now!)

Summer came and passed, and PA! was fading away from the public's eye. What made matters worse was some cyber-squatter stole the PA.com domain name we had, and so PA! was domain-nameless.

Late Summer 2002 rolled around, and PMX decided a PA! ressurection was in store. PMX's PA!8 was a redesign tour de force, and promised to deliver what PA!6 and PA!7 couldn't not. We also decided on getting two new domain names for the site, and aimed to get it up in September. However, PMX's interest in Pokémon was fading, and although a skeleton version of PA!8 existed online, a full version of the site never saw the light of day. PMX would later quit, leaving PA! without a webmaster.

After PMX left, I decided to come back, and planned to work on my own PA!8 (while uploading a stripped down version of PA!7 to stall for time). Things were finally looking up after months of downtime, and in mid-October, I finished with the stripped down PA!7. However, as I was uploading PA!7, I accidently deleted my entire computer... and PA!7 went along with it. It took me two months to finally undelete most of the lost files, as well as recover what I managed to upload to the fakecard.com server. But because of this unfortunate event, the plan was changed slightly; I would work on a new PA!8 from what I can piece together from my lost files, and work on PA!9 later on. During Christmas, I spent any spare time I had on my vacation time working on PA!8... and when I came back, I uploaded it.

And this is where you came in. PA!8 in all it's ressurected glory. HOPEFULLY nothing will kick the tar out of PA! this year, and we aim to prevent this sort of crap from happening again. (We're making backups of our backups!)

BTW, a similar story can be applied to the PA! Forums. I forget how many different forums we've had now, and all the previous forums have been lost due to server switches, lost info, or changed ownerships.

Keep on reading to find out what's planned for PA!8 here...

So What's All This Then?
It's official. PA!8. Here it is. Look familiar? It should... this is a slightly updated version of PA!4. I figured since the design was pretty popular in its time (and still is considered one of the best designs of PA!), I decided to ressurect it for PA!8. Mostly also because a number of PA! old skoolers might easily familiarize themselves with this design and not some other ones. Plus the site itself is easy on the eyes and not graphic intensive, always a plus in web design. Good times.

But this really isn't PA!4... it's PA!7 with a PA!4 design... with more info and staff members. Sla? Yeah... First off, if you didn't notice it already, PA!8 is totally frameless. People don't like frames. I'm sick to death of them as well. So I decided to axe that. Thank goodness for SSI, the one thing that makes frameless sites possible.

I do want to point out that this site always looks better on a Mac, as it was built on a Mac and made for Mac users in mind. OK, more like Internet Explorer 5 for Mac, but only because all Macs come with it. Windows users have to suffer slightly, as a lot of the site might not look all that well (considering that I didn't exactly have a PC to use to test this site on). Also Windows users have to deal with viewing the site in Arial, as that's the closest thing to the Mac's Geneva and/or Helvetica fonts I could find. Sukkaz! (Mostly because you can't imagine how incredibly BORED I am using AND seeing Verdana and Tahoma being used on websites. Bleck!)

Sections also got mixed around back in PA!7, and that is still apparent here. The Fiction section is now part of the Other section, while the Fake Card section have been split into two; Fake Card Sets and Faking Guides. Pretty self-explanitory... Fake Card Sets has all the fake card we created for PA!. Faking Guides has information on how YOU can make your own fake cards (as we ll as tips on fake making, etc). Not too difficult, no? ... I'm going to be working on some new blanks to replace the ones I lost in my computer crash, as well as some Card-E blanks soon (with the whole Expedition-being-released thing).

The news format is no longer run off of NewsPro. I missed the old format. It missed you too. So I brought it back. The only difference is that only today's news is on the News page, all previous news gets archived immediatly. (I may change that if it proves unpopular.) Sections can also be found in a few new places, I got rid of the classic number format for section organization and added front pages to each section.

Staff changes are also apparent; I'm back as head webmaster. That retirement business was a sham, I shouldn't have ever left this site. RyoShinX accompanies me as Co-Webmaster. Dark Aspenth has steped down as webmaster, but still sticks around as a site aide. New faces include Kaizer Myuu, a fantaboulous artist and a good friend of mine, as well as LittleOD2 as THE forum guru dude. Check out more about us on the staff section.

We also are sporting two new dom1ain names; PokemonAaah.net and FakeCard.com. PA.net was chosen after PA.com was snatched up, but right now it's being used for the forums. FakeCard.com was nabbed because... well, we ARE a fake card site! Plus the staff decided that it would be a good idea to use the name to advertise with, as people can remember "fake card dot com" better than "pokeymon aaah dot net", especially since people might think "Aaah!" is spelt "Ah!" or "Ahhh!" or so.

Keep in mind though, since I haven't been able to upload nor test out any part of the site, there will undoubtedly be a lot of loose ends that I would need to lock down. So bear with me until things get evened out. I mean this wasn't an easy project, and it CERTAINLY wasn't something I could piece together perfectly in 10 days. (What a way to spend my vacation though, eh?)

But even still, there's also a number of other projects and new concepts for PA! to keep me busy for a while... but too many to type up. You'll just have to do a bit of exploring to find all of them. :D Good times.

Aquapolorama
Well, we don't want to be TOTALLY lacking in news for the first day of the rest of PA!'s life. We've got SOME Aquapolis info for you in an easy to swallow pill form. It includes basic set info as well as the DUH-DUNNNN card list.

Now for those who haven't been on the ball for the past few months (ie ME), Aquapolis is the next card set Wizards will be releasing very VERY soon. It'll be a mix of Japan's Card-E 1 and 2 (a two for one deal, good times). Why Wizards is pushing both sets out at the same time is beyond me at the moment, I'm guessing that they want these crappy sets out as soon as possible just to get some superior set out sooner. Either that, or they just want to cheat in playing catch-up with Japan. Either way, I'll wring it out of DMTM pretty soon.

In short; Aquapolis is Wizards' 14th Pokémon TCG set, it has 182 cards, and will be released sometime this month. There are two preconstructed decks, but what they are is unknown right now. There will be reverse holos and box-toppers (par usual), but I'm not sure as to how the pack formation will be. I hope it's not like Expeditions Rare-O-Mania, where you always had a good chance of getting 3 rares in a pack. Because of that, I have 7 Mews and only 1 Magmar. Thanks, Wizards. :)

An interesting side note on the Aquapolis card list; the Holo-Rares are numbered differently from the rest of the set. Maybe Wizards is working on phasing out holo rares from their sets, much like the stopped making 1st Edition cards back around Neo Revelation. We'll find out more when this set is released and in sets to come.

The next set will be called Skyridge, and its section is up as well. But there isn't much there... not even a wimpy little title graphic. Dagnabbit.


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