Opponent's ATK didn't drop after using an attack on Aegislash's King Shield?

Question

Here's what happened:

Opponent sends out Pangoro
Aegislash is in Blade form
Aegislash uses King's Shield
Aegislash turns into Shield form
Pangoro uses Slash (for whatever reason I don't know but that's what they used)
Text says: Aegislash protected itself!
Turn ends.

Pangoro's attack did not fall. Pangoro did not have Mold Breaker, although I don't think that would've changed anything regardless. The only possible reason I could think of for why his attack didn't fall is because Slash can't do any damage to Aegislash. But if that's the case then that's stupid because the opponent still technically tries to slash me with its claws, so it should still make contact to the shield that is up, especially since the shield is not a ghost-type shield. Anyway, if someone could definitively explain this, please and thank you!

Comments

My assumption would be that it is due to the fact that a Normal type move was used on a Ghost type Pokemon (No Effect!).

Outside of cases like Scrappy, Foresight, or Odor Sleuth, Normal type attacks are completely negated when used on Ghost type Pokemon.  Slash is a Normal type move, so it was negated automatically.  Because the attack was negated, Pangoro never actually made contact with your Aegislash, making it impossible for King's Shield to lower Pangoro's Attack.

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That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming :)

Answer 1

The reason King's Shield didn't affect Pangoro is because Slash never connected in the first place. Yes, Aegislash did "protect itself," but because Normal-type moves have no effect on Ghost-types, Slash never actually made contact with Aegislash. Since King's Shield only lowers the Attack of opponents who land a contact move, and Slash never made contact, it did not lower Pangoro's Attack.

Comments

What about moves like Earthquake? My Garchomp once used Eartgquake, - physical move, on Wikistroms Aegislash during Kings Shield, but his attack was not lowered.

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Earthquake is not a contact move, and as such his Attack was not lowered. If you'd used Dig, Dragon Claw, etc, the attack drop would happen because those are contact moves :)