Ruling Damage and Effects of an Attack

[dbgoldberg323]

The number to the right of the name of an attack on a Pokémon card is the attack's damage.
Example:

{G}{C} Razor Leaf 20

This attack directly does 20 damage, and is not an effect.

All text beneath the name of the attack is considered the "effect of the attack", right? So, if you have an "attack" that does not list damage to the right, like this:

{P} Brain Control
Your opponent reveals his or her hand. Choose a
card from there and put it on the bottom of your
opponent's deck.

then it does not do damage but it has an effect. However, what if the attack reads as follows:

{W}{C}{C} Spinning Tail
This attack does 20 damage to each of your opponent's Pokémon.

Does this mean it actually does "do damage" directly to the defending Pokémon? I am asking because I know that attacks that say:

{P} Cursed Drops
Put 3 damage counters on your opponent's Pokemon in any way you like.

count as the "effect of an attack" and bypass weakness, resistance, Special Metal Energy, Eviolite, etc, because it is placing damage counters, but how do attacks like Spinning Tail work? There are cards like Eviolite that say "damage done to this Pokémon by attacks is reduced by 20". How would Eviolite interact with Spinning Tail, either as an active or benched Pokémon, or attacks like this:

{L}{C}{C} Flash Impact 80
Does 20 damage to 1 of your Pokemon (don't apply Weakness and Resistance when damaging the Bench).

Would Eviolite prevent the damage from the "effect" part of the attack (the 20 damage) because it is coming from an "attack", or not because this is an "effect of the attack"?

Sorry if this is covered elsewhere, and thanks for the help. This stuff gets confusing sometimes lol.


Also, the sticky at the top of this Category helped too, so thanks for whoever put that together. I had a question about Prism Energy qualifying for attacks/items/abilities that referenced the energy type (not an "energy card") and the FAQ answered it.

 

[Sleeping Snorlax]

Eviolite reduces ALL damage from an attack by 20 done to the Pokemon it is attached to. It does not reduce damage counters since damage and damage counters are different. So attack like curse drop will not be reduced. Then attacks like donphan primes earthquake will be reduced.

 

[DNA]

All text beneath the name of the attack is considered the "effect of the attack", right? So, if you have an "attack" that does not list damage to the right, like this:

I think you're making a fallacious assumption here. Usually, when a card is referring to an "effect of an attack", it refers to any part of the attack itself that does not do damage - but strictly speaking, ALL PARTS of an attack are effects of it.

Look at this card here for a moment and read its Poke-Body; it prevents all effects of attacks, excluding damage, done to it. That means that damage is an effect of an attack, technically, but it's usually not regarded as such when it reacts to cards.

To show how that Poke-Body would react to the scenarios you gave, I'll compare each attack:
Razor Leaf: That would work just fine. It's just doing damage.
Brain Control: This would also work just fine. Why? The effect is not targeting the Pokemon; it's targeting a player's hand.
Spinning Tail: Spinning Tail works because it's doing damage - 20 damage to each opponent's Pokemon, in fact.
Cursed Drop: Cursed Drop wouldn't work against this Pokemon. You can try and put damage counters on it (i.e. it's a valid target), but that effect would be nulled against Bibarel.
Flash Impact: Bibarel can be damaged by the recoil effect of Flash Impact, because it is damage from an attack.

It can get pretty confusing at times, but generally, the rule of thumb is that an "effect of an attack" is something that doesn't deal damage that is part of the attack. The card text may or may not include any "effects of an attack"; e.g. Yanmega's Linear Attack is not an effect of an attack in this way, because the text tells you how to deal damage.

Also, the sticky at the top of this Category helped too, so thanks for whoever put that together. I had a question about Prism Energy qualifying for attacks/items/abilities that referenced the energy type (not an "energy card") and the FAQ answered it.

Oh goody; finally someone is reading it; that makes me very happy since most people who bother to post here don't