Ruling Garbotoxin + Weavile's Rule of Evil

[HouchinsDJ]

So I was at a local league last weekend and another player said that if Garbotoxin is active and Weavile uses Rule of Evil then only Garbodor takes damage, regardless of how many Pokémon with abilities are on the field, because Garbotoxin specifically states that every Pokémon on the field has "no Abilities" except Garbotoxin.

Just seeing if this is accurate, and if so, I wonder how many people are unaware of it. I could see people not really realizing it.

 

[jessalakasam]

it's false, the Pokemon still have abilities, they just are unable to use them

 

[HouchinsDJ]

it's false, the Pokemon still have abilities, they just are unable to use them

http://compendium.pokegym.net/cpdmbw.html#539

Based off of this, it says that only the Garbodor would take damage. Since you have to take the literal word-for-word translation of the card, Garbotoxin says that all Pokémon in play have "no Abilities," not that they're just inactive.

 

[Jacktropolis]

Garbotoxin does say "no abilities" so thats an interesting situation, best way to test it normally is online in my experiences

 

[lukas2aces]

Interesting discussion!

I tested this, I tested with Weavile in one of my decks. Based on what Pokémon TCG online does, only Garbotoxin Garbodor takes damage like @HouchinsDJ (and his opponent at the league cup) said.

 

[AuraJackle]

Yay finnaly someone asks a question that is fairly difficult on pokebeach. I can confirm as a judge that only the garbotoxin garb takes damage. Also if there's 2 or more garbs in play with garbotoxin in hits the all regardless of tools attached

 

[PMJ]

"No Abilities" means just that. Garbodor treats all other Abilities as if they weren't even written on the card. That is why only Garbodor takes damage.

Garbotoxin does say "no abilities" so thats an interesting situation, best way to test it normally is online in my experiences

This is not a good way to get rulings, PTCGO is very unreliable in terms of ruling accuracy. Best way is to do as OP is done and ask here.

 

[HouchinsDJ]

Thanks everyone! I figured only Garbotoxin would take damage but I felt that it was still worth asking because I've never seen it come up before.

 

[Dar Ksereth]

yea, the wording on garbotoxin is fairly explicit in this case

" each Pokémon in play, in each player's hand, and in each player's discard pile has no Abilities (except for Garbotoxin)."

so if you had 4 garbodors and an octillery, only the garbodors should take damage (since all garbotoxins are active, but octillery has no ability due to garbotoxin)