One of the best cards in two staple Pokemon TCG Pocket decks has a surprising weakness that the opponent can exploit to win games.
Fighting decks have seen a surge of use in Pokemon Pocket. Chief among these is Golem decks, which have amazing combined offensive and defensive abilities, while Aerodactyl ex is not far behind, with its capacity to shut down evolutions.
A prominent card in both decks is Marshadow, a Fighting Pokemon with the powerful Revenge attack. If an allied Pokemon died the previous turn, then Revenge deals an additional 60 damage, bringing it up to 100. Unfortunately, as pointed out by users of the PTCGP Reddit, there’s a way around it.
Marshadow’s Revenge can be countered with indirect damage
The text for Revenge states that it only activates when a Pokemon is KO’d by the damage from an attack used by an opponent.
However, there are other ways to KO a Pokemon in the game than straight up battle. One key method involves Weezing and its deadly Poison effect. The chip damage inflicted by Poison can KO a Pokemon, but it’s not classed as an attack for the purposes of Revenge.
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The same is also true of any damage caused by an effect. Probably the biggest example in the Pokemon Pocket meta is Druddigon, whose Rough Skin Ability deals 20 damage back to an enemy when they use an attack. If Rough Skin KO’s an enemy, it also doesn’t activate Revenge.
Marshadow’s whole purpose in competitive decks is as a follow-up striker after a KO. With Revenge dealing 100 damage when it activates, it can take out a ton of threats, especially if they’ve been wounded in the previous round.
However, if Revenge isn’t powered by a KO, then it only does 40 points of damage, which is a lot less potent against the bulkier Pokemon that exist in the competitive scene.
Players who aren’t aware of the method for bypassing Revenge might throw Marshadow in, expecting it to take down the enemy, only to be surprised when it tanks to lesser amount of damage. People using Marshadow need to therefore pay close attention to how previous Pokemon are being taken down.