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Published:  April 21st, 2025


16 pages
Tsubomi, Retto's and Letto's old rival, approaches the two bearing a gift; an invitation to join the "PokéCa Wish-Upon-a-Star-Dan"...? By answering a series of Pokémon Card Game related quizzes, she explains, they'll each earn a Star Piece. If they can manage to collect all the Star Pieces they'll be rewarded with one of the new "Glory of the Rocket-Dan" expansion packs. Retto and Letto get excited and head into the building where the Pokémon Card Game Quiz has been set up.

Question 1

The first question is provided by their old rival Ringo.


True or False: The four cards below have icons to the lower right of each illustration that feature different Trainers. Despite these different icons, these cards are still classified as "Rocket-Dan Pokémon." True or False?

Rocket-Dan's Tamantula	Rocket-Dan's Freezer	Rocket-Dan's Fire	Rocket-Dan's Thunder
Icons under the card art

This is an easy one. Even though the Trainer icons are all different the card names all have "Rocket-Dan" in them and so yes, these are all treated as Rocket-Dan Pokémon. So the correct answer is "True."

Ringo announces they got the correct answer and rewards them with a Star Piece.

Question 2

The second question is presented by another old rival, Momoko.


In "The Glory of the Rocket-Dan" expansion pack, there are a lot of "Rocket-Dan Pokémon." For the second quiz, Retto and Letto are tasked with drawing arrows connecting each card below to their evolved forms. The cards are spread out on a table like this:


The two challengers connect the correct Pokémon together, earning them their second Star Piece.

Question 3

The third question is presented by Shuumei.


For the third question, consider this lineup:

Retto & Letto		Shuumei
Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Porygon-Z (+ 2 Basic Energy Cards)	Active Spot	Doronch (+ 2 Basic Energy Cards)

#	Card	Art	Card Text
1	Rocket-Dan's Porygon-Z		Ability: Reconstitute You must discard 2 cards from your hand in order to use this Ability. Once during your turn, you may draw a card. R Command (20x) This attack does 20 damage for each Supporter card in your discard pile with "Rocket-Dan" in its name.

#	Card	Art	Card Text
1	Doronch		Ability: Recon Directive Once during your turn, you may look at the top 2 cards of your deck and put 1 of them into your hand. Put the other card on the bottom of your deck. Dragon Headbutt (70)

In this scenario, the player wants to use Rocket-Dan's Porygon-Z's "R Command" attack to defeat his opponent's Doronch in one turn. The question is: how many Rocket-Dan Supporter cards will the player need in his discard pile to be able to pull this off?

• Three cards
• Four cards
• Five cards
  

Retto does some quick math; if Doronch has 90 HP, and the "R Command" attack does 20 damage per Rocket-Dan card, then that means:

• Three cards x 20 damage = 60 HP
• Four cards x 20 damage = 80 HP
• Five cards x 20 damage = 100 HP
  

Retto answers that the least number of cards he'll need in his discard pile is five. He gets the answer right, earning him his third Star Piece.

Question 4

The fourth question is provided by Irasaku.


This one's another battle related question. It's the start of a match, and you've won the coin toss so that means you get to go first. As your base Pokémon, you put down a Rocket-Dan's Dogars in your Active Spot.

#	Card	Art	Card Text
1	Rocket-Dan's Dogars		Ability: Alert Smog If this Pokémon is in the Active Spot and is damaged by an attack from your opponent's Pokémon (even if this Pokémon is Knocked Out), search your deck for up to 2 Pokémon with "Dogars" in their names and put them onto your Bench. Then, shuffle your deck. Gas Leak (30)

You want to immediately add three Pokémon to your Bench even though it's still your first turn. Which of these six cards in your hand should you play in order to achieve this?

#	Card	Art	Card Text
1	Doctor's Research		Discard your hand and draw 7 cards.
2	Rocket-Dan's Lambda		Search your deck for a Trainer card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.
3	Basic Darkness Energy
4	Rocket-Dan's Crobat ex		Ability: Bite Around When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may choose 2 of your opponent's Pokémon and put 2 damage counters on each of them. Assassin Return (120) You may discard all cards from this Pokémon and put it into your hand.
5	Seille		If you go first, you may use this card during your first turn. Discard your hand and draw 5 cards.
6	Rocket-Dan's Lance		If you go first, you may use this card during your first turn. Search your deck for up to 3 Basic Rocket-Dan's Pokémon, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

The answer is, obviously, Rocket-Dan's Lance. Retto and Letto earn their fourth Star Piece for their correct answer.

Question 5

Only two more to go! The fifth question is delivered by Biwa.


She asks the challengers to consider the following scenario. Retto/Letto have three Prize Cards while Biwa only has one left.

Retto & Letto		Biwa
Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Persian ex (140 damage)	Active Spot	Yadoking
Bench		Bench	Natio
			Natio
			Yadon
			Yadoking
			Yadoking
Prize Cards	3	Prize Cards	1

In this scenario, the player uses Rocket-Dan's Persian ex's "Haughty Orders" attack.

#	Card	Art	Card Text
1	Rocket-Dan's Persian ex		Haughty Orders Your opponent reveals the top 10 cards of their deck. You may choose an attack from a Pokémon you find there and use it as this attack. Your opponent shuffles the revealed cards back into their deck. Cruel Slash (140) Your opponent's Active Pokémon is now Confused.

Of the ten cards revealed, only three of them end up being Pokémon cards. Those three are:

• Regigigas
• Yadon
• Kyurem

The question is, which of these three Pokémon attacks do you have Rocket-Dan's Persian ex use, via Haughty Orders, to help turn the tide around and win the match?

#	Card	Art	Card Text
1	Regigigas		Jewel Breaker (100+) If your opponent's Active Pokémon is a Terastal Pokémon, this attack does 230 more damage.

Regigigas' "Jewel Breaker" is an early contender, but Letto points out that since their opponent isn't a Terastal Pokémon the attack wouldn't be enough to take out Yadoking.

#	Card	Art	Card Text
2	Yadon		Dangle Tail Put a Pokémon from your discard pile into your hand. Tackle (30)

Defeating any of their opponents with Yadon would be difficult, so the two take a quick sidebar to talk about the Rocket-Dan's Persian ex already in their Active Spot.

#	Card	Art	Card Text
1	Rocket-Dan's Persian ex		Haughty Orders Your opponent reveals the top 10 cards of their deck. You may choose an attack from a Pokémon you find there and use it as this attack. Your opponent shuffles the revealed cards back into their deck. Cruel Slash (140) Your opponent's Active Pokémon is now Confused.

Retto suggests they can also choose from Rocket-Dan's Persian ex's very own "Cruel Slash" attack to defeat the opponent's Yadoking. That should work, right? Letto replies that while the attack would indeed be enough to defeat the Yadoking currently in the Active Spot, it would also set up their opponent to just turn around and move one of their Benched Yadoking to the Active Spot and have it use its "Super Psy Bolt" attack. The attack would be enough to Knock Out their low-on-HP Rocket-Dan Persian ex, and since their opponent only has one Prize Card left a KO like that would earn her the win.

So all that's left is Kyurem!

#	Card	Art	Card Text
3	Kyurem		Ability: Plasma Bane If your opponent has any cards in their discard pile that have "Achroma" in the name, this Pokémon can use the Trifrost attack for Colorless. Trifrost Discard all Energy from this Pokémon. This attack does 110 damage to 3 of your opponent's Pokémon. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)

If they discard all the Energy Cards attached to this Pokémon they'll be able to use its "Trifrost" attack to deal 100 damage to three of their opponent's Pokémon! If they target those that have less than that -- the two Natio (100 HP each) and the one Yadon (80 HP) on their opponent's Bench -- they'll be able to Knock Out three Pokémon in one turn, earning them the three Prize Cards needed to win!

So, the correct answer is Kyurem! Letto and Retto get their fifth Star Piece.

Question 6

The final question is posed by Tsubomi herself!


Consider this set-up:

Retto & Letto		Tsubomi
Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex	Active Spot	Shirona's Gaburias ex + Maximum Belt
Bench	Rocket-Dan's Wanaider	Bench
	Rocket-Dan's Golbat
	Rocket-Dan's Wanaider
Prize Cards	???	Prize Cards	???

In the player's hand, they have the following:

• Rocket-Dan's Surprise Bomb
• Gravity Mountain
• Basic Psychic Energy
• Rocket-Dan's Crobat
• Rocket-Dan's Golbat

Tsubomi predicts that on her next turn, she'll have her Shirona's Gaburias ex use its "Dragon Buster" attack, and since it's also holding a Maximum Belt the attack will do 260 + 50 = 310 damage. Even with Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex's resistance to Fighting-Type moves the attack will still end up doing 280 damage, enough to cause a Knock Out.

#	Card	Art	Card Text
1	Shirona's Gaburias ex		Screw Drive (100) You may draw cards until you have 6 cards in your hand. Dragon Buster (260) Discard all Energy from this Pokémon.
2	Maximum Belt		Attacks used by the Pokémon this card is attached to do 50 more damage to your opponent's Active Pokémon ex (before applying Weakness and Resistance).

So! The question is; how can Retto & Letto defeat her Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex first before she has a chance to put that plan into action?

Retto notes that Shirona's Gaburias ex has a whopping 330 HP, meaning whatever strategy they come up with will have to be an attack that can cause at least that much damage. Letto believes an attack by itself is unlikely to do that much damage all in one go so they'll have to look through their Pokémon Abilities to see if there's anything there that could help.

#	Card	Art	Card Text
1	Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex		Ability: Power Saver This Pokémon can't attack unless you have 4 or more Rocket-Dan's Pokémon in play. Erasure Ball (160+) You may discard up to 2 Energy from your Benched Pokémon. This attack does 60 more damage for each card you discarded in this way.
2	Rocket-Dan's Wanaider		Ability: Charging Up Once during your turn, you may attach a Basic Energy card from your discard pile to this Pokémon. Rocket Rush (30x) This attack does 30 damage for each of your Rocket-Dan's Pokémon in play.
3	Rocket-Dan's Golbat		Ability: Sneaky Bite When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may put 2 damage counters on 1 of your opponent's Pokémon. Confuse Ray (30) Your opponent's Active Pokémon is now Confused.

Unfortunately, none of these three Abilities -- Power Saver, Charging Up, or Sneaky Bite -- do anything to increase damage.

The two remember they also have a Rocket-Dan's Crobat ex in their hand, and so they put the following plan in motion:

#	Card	Art	Card Text	Effect
1	Rocket-Dan's Golbat		Ability: Sneaky Bite When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may put 2 damage counters on 1 of your opponent's Pokémon. Confuse Ray (30) Your opponent's Active Pokémon is now Confused.	They start their plan by taking the Rocket-Dan's Golbat on their Bench...
2	Rocket-Dan's Crobat ex		Ability: Bite Around When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may choose 2 of your opponent's Pokémon and put 2 damage counters on each of them. Assassin Return (120) You may discard all cards from this Pokémon and put it into your hand.	...and evolving it into Rocket-Dan's Crobat ex. They then have it use its "Bite Around" Ability to deliver 20 damage to the opponent's Shirona's Gaburias ex, taking its HP from 330 down to 310.
3	Rocket-Dan's Wanaider		Ability: Charging Up Once during your turn, you may attach a Basic Energy card from your discard pile to this Pokémon. Rocket Rush (30x) This attack does 30 damage for each of your Rocket-Dan's Pokémon in play.	Next, they'll have one of the Rocket-Dan's Wanaider on their Bench use its "Charging Up" Ability to attach a Basic Energy card to itself.
4	Rocket-Dan's Wanaider		Ability: Charging Up Once during your turn, you may attach a Basic Energy card from your discard pile to this Pokémon. Rocket Rush (30x) This attack does 30 damage for each of your Rocket-Dan's Pokémon in play.	They do the same thing with the second Rocket-Dan's Wanaider on their Bench as well.
--	Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex		Ability: Power Saver This Pokémon can't attack unless you have 4 or more Rocket-Dan's Pokémon in play. Erasure Ball (160+) You may discard up to 2 Energy from your Benched Pokémon. This attack does 60 more damage for each card you discarded in this way.	If they do all this, they reason, then when Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex uses its "Erasure Ball" attack they can discard the Basic Energy cards they just attached to their two Rocket-Dan's Wanaider cards to 160 + 60 + 60 = 280 damage. This would only bring Shirona's Gaburias ex's HP from 310 down to 30, however, so they're going to have to figure out a way to deal with that extra 30 HP.
--	Rocket-Dan's Surprise Bomb		Flip a coin. If heads, put 2 damage counters on 1 of your opponent's Pokémon. If tails, put 2 damage counters on your Active Pokémon.	They consider using the Rocket-Dan's Surprise Bomb, but 1) the coin toss dependency means there's no guarantee it'll cause their opponent any damage, and 2) even if it does it'll only deal 20 damage, not 30. Is there anything else...?
5	Gravity Mountain		Each Stage 2 Pokémon in play (both yours and your opponent's) gets −30 HP.	Retto then suggests they use Gravity Mountain. The Stadium card is used to reduce Shirona's Gaburias ex's HP from 310 to 280.
6	Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex		Ability: Power Saver This Pokémon can't attack unless you have 4 or more Rocket-Dan's Pokémon in play. Erasure Ball (160+) You may discard up to 2 Energy from your Benched Pokémon. This attack does 60 more damage for each card you discarded in this way.	Now that Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex's "Erasure Ball" attack is sufficient to Knock Out its opponent, Retto and Letto end the turn by having it use this attack.

Shirona's Gaburias ex is defeated, earning Retto and Letto their final Star Piece and the grand prize, one pack each from "The Glory of the Rocket-Dan" expansion pack. They both open their packs right then and there and pull rare cards -- Letto a Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex, Retto a Crobat ex -- much to the chagrin of the other players in the area.

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Notes
The names and appearances of the rival characters in this chapter are based on similar characters from the Pocket Monsters Scarlet & Violet video games.

Tsubomi (つぼみ)	Botan (ボタン)
Ringo (凛悟)	Piña (ピーニャ)