Does increasing or decreasing damage affect Pokémon who have no damage value?

Question

So I have several Pokémon, such as Morelull from the Sun & Moon expansion, that have at least one move that has no damage value. The Morelull I mentioned has an attack called Flickering Spores, which has no damage value but rather makes the opponent fall asleep. Now suppose I played a Professor Kukui, or some other damage increasing card, and then used Flickering Spores as my attack, would Flickering Spores be able to damage the opponent? Or since it says to increase, not add (hope that makes sense), damage, then would the attack carry on without any change at all? Also, if a card that decreased my attack power was played, and I used Flickering Spores, would the attack carry on like normal, or would the attack do nothing? I think it would just carry on without change, but I'm not sure.

Answer 1

No

According to the Pokemon Trading Card Game Rulings Compendium, which is a collection of official TCG rulings from the Pokemon Company:

An attack has to do "some" damage before an effect can add "more" damage to it.
Source: PUI Rules Team
(2008-01-31)

So, because Flickering Spores does no damage to begin with, playing Professor Kukui or other cards with the same effect cannot add damage to it.

To answer your second question, yes, your Flickering Spores wouldn't be affected by damage-decreasing cards. Inflicting a Special Condition is considered an effect of an attack, not damage.

Source

Comments

I wasn't sure about this so I thought I would ask. Thanks Joey!

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No problem!