Pokemon Card Gets Banned From World Championships For Being Too Confusing

We often hear about Pokemon cards being banned from official tournaments for being too powerful and unfair, but what about for being too confusing?

The card in question is called “Blaine’s Quiz Show”, which was just introduced in the Pokemon TCG’s Unified Minds expansion pack. The card’s effect involves what seems like a simple guessing game involving the players’ cards, and you can read it for yourself below:

While the card’s effect seems like fun on paper, some players quickly noticed a few complications when used in practice. Namely, the card’s intended effects do not really pan out if the two players speak different languages, as translations of Pokemon and move names can be quite complicated and confusing to interpret.

For an explanation of the issue, we refer you to French player Stéphane Ivanoff, (courtesy of Pokebeach):

“Here’s a simple situation: if I play Blaine’s Quiz Show at Worlds, using a French Pokémon card, should I announce the name of the attack in French or in English?
-> If it’s in French: unless my opponent speaks French, they probably can’t guess the Pokémon. Is this an intended effect of the card?
-> If it’s in English: What if I don’t know the English name of the attack (since my card is in French)? Also, even if I know the name, what if my opponent doesn’t speak English (say it’s a Japanese player)?

“If using translators, there is one major issue: attack names don’t always map one-to-one between languages. Here is an example:
Lillipup (BLW 81) and Gliscor (UNB 99) have the same attack Collect. In French, Lillipup’s Collect was translated to ‘Collectionner,’ and Gliscor’s Collect was translated to ‘Collecte.’

If I play against a French-speaking player and announce “Collectionner,” they know it can be Lillipup and not Herdier. If I play against an English-speaking player and announce “Collect,” it can be both. This means that doing the exact same game action has different results depending on the language used.”

Due to this complication, the “Blaine’s Quiz Show” has reportedly been banned from the World’s Tournament, although it will still be allowed at official events where players all speak the same language.

Its an unconventional reason to ban a card from the tournament, but perhaps necessary to keep the playing field even.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.