After a discussion about this at league with some of the older players, I thought that this issue warranted some clarification. First, I'll provide the necessary information, and then my thoughts and some others from the discussion.
How Do You Figure Out the Damage?
(source: page 17, all EX series rulebooks; text below from TM/TA and paraphrased a bit)
a) Start with the base damage....
b) Figure out damage effects on the Attacking Pokemon (for example, the Darkness Energy effect, or Altaria's Dragon Dance)....
c) Double the damage if the Defending Pokemon has Weakness...
d) Subtract 30 damage if the Defending Pokemon has Resistance...
e) Figure out damage effects of Trainer cards and Energy cards on the Defending Pokemon (like Metal Energy, or Buffer Piece).
f) Apply any relevant effects resulting from the Defending Pokemon's last attack (...) or relevant Poke-Powers and Poke-Bodies.
g) For each 10 damage ..., place 1 damage counter...
h) ...if the attack does anything other than damage, do all of that.
Strength Charm (TM/TA)
Whenever an attack from the Pokemon that Strength Charm is attached to does damage to the Active Pokemon (after applying Weakness and Resistance), the attack does 10 more damage. At the end of the turn in which this happens, discard Strength Charm.
For the record, the issue is that the wording on the TM/TA Strength Charm is not supported by any of the EX rulebooks. The other version of Strength Charm also has the "after Weakness and Resistance" clause, but it was printed before the rule change.
At league, I made the temporary judgement (on the understanding that I would ask this question to get an official response) and said that the damage would be added "before" Weakness and Resistance, to match the rulebook. It is clearly a damage-adding effect on the Active Pokemon, and I think it would clearly fall into step b) for calculating damage. I feel that Strength Charm is not added in step e) since the example given (Buffer Piece) does support that it is limited to Trainers on the Defending Pokemon.
The argument on the other side was the fact that the card was printed as "after W/R" even now into the fourth EX set with that rule. Furthermore, their argument was supported by the fact that the Darkness Energy from Ruby & Sapphire and the league promo does have the "before W/R" wording.
To me, this is an uncertain issue, but hopefully it is worth the time to address. Any thoughts you have on the subject would be appreciated. Thank you.
(The ruling here would also affect PlusPower, since it also has the wording "after W/R" in a game where than now happens "before W/R".)
How Do You Figure Out the Damage?
(source: page 17, all EX series rulebooks; text below from TM/TA and paraphrased a bit)
a) Start with the base damage....
b) Figure out damage effects on the Attacking Pokemon (for example, the Darkness Energy effect, or Altaria's Dragon Dance)....
c) Double the damage if the Defending Pokemon has Weakness...
d) Subtract 30 damage if the Defending Pokemon has Resistance...
e) Figure out damage effects of Trainer cards and Energy cards on the Defending Pokemon (like Metal Energy, or Buffer Piece).
f) Apply any relevant effects resulting from the Defending Pokemon's last attack (...) or relevant Poke-Powers and Poke-Bodies.
g) For each 10 damage ..., place 1 damage counter...
h) ...if the attack does anything other than damage, do all of that.
Strength Charm (TM/TA)
Whenever an attack from the Pokemon that Strength Charm is attached to does damage to the Active Pokemon (after applying Weakness and Resistance), the attack does 10 more damage. At the end of the turn in which this happens, discard Strength Charm.
For the record, the issue is that the wording on the TM/TA Strength Charm is not supported by any of the EX rulebooks. The other version of Strength Charm also has the "after Weakness and Resistance" clause, but it was printed before the rule change.
At league, I made the temporary judgement (on the understanding that I would ask this question to get an official response) and said that the damage would be added "before" Weakness and Resistance, to match the rulebook. It is clearly a damage-adding effect on the Active Pokemon, and I think it would clearly fall into step b) for calculating damage. I feel that Strength Charm is not added in step e) since the example given (Buffer Piece) does support that it is limited to Trainers on the Defending Pokemon.
The argument on the other side was the fact that the card was printed as "after W/R" even now into the fourth EX set with that rule. Furthermore, their argument was supported by the fact that the Darkness Energy from Ruby & Sapphire and the league promo does have the "before W/R" wording.
To me, this is an uncertain issue, but hopefully it is worth the time to address. Any thoughts you have on the subject would be appreciated. Thank you.
(The ruling here would also affect PlusPower, since it also has the wording "after W/R" in a game where than now happens "before W/R".)
