@Testers we need your rulings on a few Ditto questions. Some of our recent Ditto fixes rest on our own reading of the card text instead of an official source, and one of them may go against an old WotC ruling. If you know a ruling, a Japanese Q&A, or just how you would rule it, please reply.
Card texts (Vending Machine cards are Japan-only, so this is the English translation we use):
Ditto (VM 97), Pokémon Power: Amazing Transformation
Once during your turn (before your attack), if this Pokémon is your Active Pokémon, you may flip a coin. If heads, choose any Pokémon in play. From now on, treat Ditto as if it were the same card as that Pokémon, including HP, Weakness, Resistance, and so on, except this Pokémon can’t evolve or devolve, can always use this Pokémon Power, and you may treat any Energy attached to Ditto as Energy of any type. If tails; if this Pokémon is Benched; if this Pokémon becomes Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed; or if the Pokémon you choose leaves play, treat this card as Ditto again. This power can’t be used if Ditto is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed.
Ditto (FO 3/18), Pokémon Power: Transform
If Ditto is your Active Pokémon, treat it as if it were the same card as the Defending Pokémon, including type, Hit Points, Weakness, and so on, except Ditto can’t evolve, always has this Pokémon Power, and you may treat any Energy attached to Ditto as Energy of any type. Ditto isn’t a copy of any other Pokémon while Ditto is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed.
Because Ditto VM 97 has no official rulings, we have been ruling it like Fossil Ditto, which uses the same “as if it were the same card as” wording.
1. Is a Ditto (VM 97) copying an Evolution an “Evolved Pokémon”?
What the game does now: yes. Since Oct 12 a Ditto (VM 97) copying an Evolved Pokémon counts as Evolved, so Mew (WBSP 47)'s Neutral Shield (“Prevent all effects of attacks, including damage, done to Mew by Evolved Pokémon.”) stops its attacks. This followed a tester reply in 17434 and fixed 17119 and 17040.
The conflicting ruling, for Fossil Ditto under Boost Energy (“can be attached only to an Evolved Pokémon”):
Q. Can I attach Boost Energy to Ditto while it is copying an evolved Pokemon?
A. You can’t. It is not “Evolved” and copying an evolved Pokemon doesn’t make it one. (Jan 23, 2003 WotC Chat, Q663; Jan 30, 2003 WotC Chat, Q746; WotC Rulings Compendium)
On the other hand, we use “same card as” in the other direction elsewhere: a Ditto (VM 97) copying Shining Tyranitar is a Shining Pokémon and can take Miracle Energy (13789), based on the WotC ruling that a Fossil Ditto copying Sabrina’s Kadabra can have Sabrina’s ESP attached (Nov 2, 2000 WotC Chat, Q303).
Question: should Ditto (VM 97) count as Evolved when it copies an Evolution (Mew’s Neutral Shield, Boost Energy, and anything else that checks “Evolved”)? If we follow the Boost Energy ruling, it would not, and 17119/17040 would go back to how they played before.
2. Other Ditto readings without an official source
a) Ditto (VM 97) follows the copied Pokémon’s evolution and devolution. If the Pokémon Ditto copied evolves (Nidoran
to Nidorino to Nidoking) or is devolved, Ditto becomes the new card, with its HP and attacks. “Can’t evolve or devolve” is read as applying to Ditto itself. (17228, 17213). The alternative is that Ditto stays a copy of the card it chose.
b) Ditto (VM 97) under Magby (N1 23)'s Sputter (“All Pokémon Powers stop working until the end of your next turn”). The game now treats the transformed Ditto as a plain Ditto while Sputter is active. The end conditions still apply: if Ditto is Benched, becomes Asleep, Confused or Paralyzed, or the copied Pokémon leaves play during Sputter, it stays Ditto. Otherwise it is the copy again once Sputter ends. (15834). Is that right, or should an already transformed Ditto stay transformed through Sputter?
c) Fossil Ditto’s Energy types. The game treats every Energy on an Active Fossil Ditto as every basic type at once. WotC later ruled that the player chooses:
R&D has “corrected” a ruling they made a few months ago. As Ditto states, you may treat any Energy attached to Ditto as Energy of any [Basic] type. It is now ruled that the controller of Ditto can CHOOSE what energy type Energy Cards attached to Ditto provide (as long as Ditto is the Active Pokémon). (Jan 4, 2001 WotC Chat Announcements)
Q. … What happens if you do not declare what type of Energy you want it to be?
A. If you don’t declare, then they are whatever type of energy it really is. (Jan 25, 2001 WotC Chat, Q111)
Where it matters: a Ditto as Blaine’s Charizard using Roaring Flames (“Discard all Fire Energy not used to pay for this attack’s Energy cost”) today has to discard every Energy not used for the cost, Psychic Energy included. Under the WotC ruling the player could leave a Psychic Energy as Psychic and keep it attached (10949). It also decides which cards count as [R] for Dark Charizard’s Continuous Fireball (13554). Should we switch to “the player chooses the type, otherwise it is its real type”? Ditto (VM 97) has the same “Energy of any type” text, so it would change the same way.
Please reply with your ruling and a source if you have one. Thanks!