Dual Ball

What it does

Dual Ball flips 2 coins, letting a player search the deck for a Basic Pokémon card for each heads result, up to two Pokémon in one play. Unleashed's wording clarified that the deck is only shuffled 'if you do' find a Pokémon, tightening the earlier wording that always called for a shuffle afterward regardless of whether anything was found.

Printing history

The earliest catalogued Dual Ball is the 2004 Team Magma vs Team Aqua printing, with art credited to Big Mama Tagawa, who also illustrated the Delta Species and Crystal Guardians reprints. Takashi Yamaguchi illustrated the Unleashed printing that introduced the reworded conditional shuffle, along with the Call of Legends reprint in the HeartGold and SoulSilver era, completing the card's five-printing run.

Trivia

The EX era prints of Dual Ball feature a full-frame view of the same artwork and omit an exclusion of Baby Pokémon cards that had appeared in the card's earlier text, a small but notable wording difference between printings. The Delta Species and Crystal Guardians reprints kept Big Mama Tagawa's original artwork unchanged, giving the card three consecutive EX era printings under a single illustrator before Takashi Yamaguchi's later art appeared. Dual Ball's five printings across two illustrators, Big Mama Tagawa and Takashi Yamaguchi, give the card a clean split between its EX era and HeartGold and SoulSilver era art.

Cards to know

• Dual Ball (Team Magma vs Team Aqua #72)

  Team Magma vs Team Aqua printing is the earliest catalogued Dual Ball, illustrated by Big Mama Tagawa

• Dual Ball (Unleashed #72)

  Unleashed printing introduces the reworded conditional shuffle

• Dual Ball (Call of Legends #78)

  Call of Legends printing carries the card into the HeartGold and SoulSilver era