Maintenance

What it does

Maintenance trades 2 cards from hand for a fresh draw by shuffling them into the deck rather than discarding them, a way to cycle unwanted cards without losing them to the discard pile. Furious Fists' wording added a clarifying restriction that the card can't be played if a player doesn't have 2 other cards available to shuffle, a limitation not explicit in the original Base Set text.

Printing history

Maintenance first appeared in Base Set in 1999 with art by Keiji Kinebuchi, reprinted with the same art in Base Set 2. Toyste Beach illustrated the Furious Fists and Generations printings during the XY era, and the Evolutions printing reused Keiji Kinebuchi's original artwork as a retro card with a template reminiscent of the Original Series layout. The card went unprinted in English between Base Set 2 in 2000 and Furious Fists in 2014, which brought it back with new art as an Item card.

Origin

Maintenance began as a Trainer card in Base Set, first released in Japan's Expansion Pack, and returned as an Item card in Furious Fists, first released in Japan's Rising Fist expansion; the Generations print came from the Japanese BREAK Starter Pack. All five printings are Uncommon, and Toyste Beach's Furious Fists art was reused in Generations.

Cards to know

• Maintenance (Base Set #83)

  Base Set printing is Maintenance's first appearance, illustrated by Keiji Kinebuchi

• Maintenance (Furious Fists #96)

  Furious Fists printing introduces the reworded play restriction

• Maintenance (Evolutions #79)

  Evolutions printing is a retro card reusing the original Base Set artwork