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Published:  May 21st, 2025


16 pages
Letto gets a phone call from his parents telling him that they'll both be returning to Japan...tomorrow morning!? Letto's parents' house is currently a mess but Letto doesn't want to bother cleaning it up, and so he frantically thinks of a way to trick Retto into doing it for him instead. He eventually comes up with the idea to challenge Retto in a series of three Pokémon Card Game matches using the "Glory of the Rocket-Dan" expansion packs, with the loser getting stuck doing the cleaning! Retto agrees and so the two get started right away.

Match One

We start the first match with the following line-up:

Letto		Retto
Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Dogars (Darkness Energy x1)	Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Fire ex (Rocket-Dan's Energy)
Bench	Rocket-Dan's Dogars	Bench
	Rocket-Dan's Dogars
	Rocket-Dan's Dogars
	Rocket-Dan's Porygon-Z (Darkness Energy x1)
Prize Cards	???	Prize Cards	???

#	Card	Art	Card Text	Effect
1	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.	Letto starts off the first match by using his Rocket-Dan's Lance card to add three Basic Rocket-Dan's Pokémon to his hand.
2	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)	He then takes the Rocket-Dan's Dogars in the Active Spot...
3	Rocket-Dan's Matadogas		All-Out Explosion (40x) This attack does 40 damage for each Pokémon in play with "Dogars" or "Matadogas" in its name (both yours and your opponent's).	...And evolves it into Rocket-Dan's Matadogas! He then attaches a second Basic Darkness Energy to this Pokémon, enabling it to use its "All-Out Explosion" attack. Since Letto has three Rocket-Dan's Dogars on the Bench and one Rocket-Dan's Matadogas in the Active Spot, the attack does 160 damage (40 x 4) to Retto's Rocket-Dan's Fire ex.

---

Letto		Retto
Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Matadogas (Darkness Energy x2)	Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Fire ex (Rocket-Dan's Energy) (220 - 160 = 60 HP)
Bench	Rocket-Dan's Dogars	Bench
	Rocket-Dan's Dogars
	Rocket-Dan's Dogars
	Rocket-Dan's Porygon-Z (Darkness Energy x1)
Prize Cards	???	Prize Cards	???

#	Card	Art	Card Text	Effect
1	Rocket-Dan's Energy		This card can only be attached to a Rocket-Dan's Pokémon. If this card is attached to anything other than a Rocket-Dan's Pokémon, discard this card. As long as this card is attached to a Pokémon, it provides 2 in any combination of Psychic Energy and Darkness Energy.	Retto starts his turn by sending the Rocket-Dan's Energy card attached to his Rocket-Dan's Fire ex into the discard pile.
2	Rocket-Dan's Fire ex		Flame Screen (110) During your opponent's next turn, this Pokémon takes 50 less damage from attacks (after applying Weakness and Resistance). Evil Burn Discard a Rocket-Dan's Energy from this Pokémon. If you do, discard your opponent's Active Pokémon and all attached cards.	He then uses Rocket-Dan's Fire ex's "Evil Burn" attack to send Letto's Rocket-Dan's Matadogas and all the Basic Energy cards attached to it straight into the discard pile.

---

Letto		Retto
Active Spot		Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Fire ex (220 - 160 = 60 HP)
Bench	Rocket-Dan's Dogars	Bench
	Rocket-Dan's Dogars
	Rocket-Dan's Dogars
	Rocket-Dan's Porygon-Z (Darkness Energy x1)
Prize Cards	???	Prize Cards	???

#	Card	Art	Card Text	Effect
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 that has "Rocket-Dan" in its name in your discard pile.	Letto moves his Rocket-Dan's Porygon-Z into the Active Spot.
2	Rocket-Dan's Lambda		Search your deck for a Trainer card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.	He then plays the Rocket-Dan's Lambda card to draw a Rocket-Dan's Athena card and add it to his hand.
3	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 that has "Rocket-Dan" in its name in your discard pile.	Letto activates Rocket-Dan's Porygon-Z's "Reconstitute" Ability to send two cards -- Rocket-Dan's Athena and Rocket-Dan's Porygon -- into the discard pile. He attaches a second Basic Darkness Energy card. Letto then ends the turn by using "R Command." Since he has three Rocket-Dan Supporter cards in the discard pile (Lance, Lambda, and Athena) the attack does 60 damage, enough to Knock Out his opponent's Rocket-Dan's Fire ex.

With this, Letto has won the first of three matches.

Match Two

We join the second match after it's already started.

Letto		Retto
Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Nyula	Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Sonansu
Bench	Rocket-Dan's Golbat	Bench	Rocket-Dan's Redomushi
			Rocket-Dan's Eolb
Prize Cards	???	Prize Cards	???

#	Card	Art	Card Text	Effect
1	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.	We join Retto as he uses Rocket-Dan's Surprise Bomb. The coin toss comes up heads, allowing him to put two damage counters on Letto's Rocket-Dan's Nyula.

---

Letto		Retto
Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Nyula (80 - 20 = 60 HP)	Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Sonansu
Bench	Rocket-Dan's Golbat	Bench	Rocket-Dan's Redomushi
			Rocket-Dan's Eolb
Prize Cards	???	Prize Cards	???

#	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.	Letto evolves the Rocket-Dan's Golbat on his Bench...
2	Rocket-Dan's Crobat ex		Ability: Biting Spree 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's Return (120) You may put this Pokémon into your hand. (Discard all cards attached to this Pokémon.)	...Into Rocket-Dan's Crobat ex. Since he evolved one of his Pokémon during this turn, Letto's able to use this Pokémon's "Biting Spree" Ability to deal 20 damage to the Rocket-Dan's Redomushi and Rocket-Dan's Eolb on Retto's Bench.
3	Rocket-Dan's Nyula		Scratch (20) Neck Slash This attack does 20 damage to 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon for each damage counter on that Pokémon. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)	Letto ends the turn by having Rocket-Dan's Nyula use its "Neck Slash" attack on the Rocket-Dan's Eolb on Retto's Bench. That Pokémon has two damage counters already and so "Neck Slash" ends up doing 40 damage, bringing the total amount of damage up to 60.

---

Letto		Retto
Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Nyula (80 - 20 = 60 HP)	Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Sonansu
Bench	Rocket-Dan's Crobat ex	Bench	Rocket-Dan's Redomushi (80 - 20 = 60 HP)
			Rocket-Dan's Eolb (130 - 60 = 70 HP)
Prize Cards	???	Prize Cards	???

#	Card	Art	Card Text	Effect
1	Rocket-Dan's Eolb		Ability: Rocket Brain As often as you like during your turn, you may move 1 damage counter from 1 of your Rocket-Dan's Pokémon to 1 of your other Pokémon. Psychic (40+) This attack does 40 more damage for each Energy attached to your opponent's Active Pokémon.	In the next turn, Retto has his Rocket-Dan's Eolb use its "Rocket Brain" Ability to move the two damage counters from the Rocket-Dan's Redomushi on his Bench to itself. Now, Rocket-Dan's Eolb has 80 damage altogether.
2	Rocket-Dan's Sonansu		Rocket Mirror Move all damage counters from 1 of your Benched Team Rocket's Pokémon to your opponent's Active Pokémon. Headbutt Bounce (70)	Retto ends the turn by having Rocket-Dan's Sonansu use its "Rocket Mirror" attack to take the 80 damage from the Rocket-Dan's Eolb on his Bench and transfer it to his opponent's Rocket-Dan's Nyula. This is enough to Knock Out Letto's Pokémon.

This victory wins the match for Retto, making the two rivals tied at one win each.

Match Three

The tie breaker match plays out like this:

Letto		Retto
Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Nyarth (CoroCoro Ichiban! ver)	Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Tamantula
Bench		Bench
Prize Cards	6	Prize Cards	6

#	Card	Art	Card Text	Effect
1	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.	Letto starts by playing his Rocket-Dan's Lance card to pick three Rocket-Dan's Pokémon: Rocket-Dan's Nyula, Rocket-Dan's Thunder, and Rocket-Dan's Freezer.
2	Rocket-Dan's Nyula		Scratch (20) Neck Slash This attack does 20 damage to 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon for each damage counter on that Pokémon. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)	Letto places Rocket-Dan's Nyula on his Bench.
3	Rocket-Dan's Thunder		Jamming Wing (30) You may move an Energy from your opponent's Active Pokémon to 1 of their Benched Pokémon. Bad Thunder (60+) If this Pokémon has any Rocket-Dan Energy attached, this attack does 60 more damage.	He does the same with his Rocket-Dan's Thunder.
4	Rocket-Dan's Freezer		Ability: Resist Veil Prevent all effects of attacks used by your opponent's Pokémon done to your Basic Rocket-Dan's Pokémon in play. (Existing effects are not removed. Damage is not an effect.) Dark Frost (60+) If this Pokémon has any Rocket-Dan Energy attached, this attack does 60 more damage.	Rocket-Dan's Freezer, likewise, is placed on the Bench. Letto attaches a Basic Water Energy card to his Rocket-Dan's Freezer. He ends the turn by having his Rocket-Dan's Freezer use its "Resist Veil" Ability to protect his team during his opponent's next turn.

---

Letto		Retto
Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Nyarth (CoroCoro Ichiban! ver)	Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Tamantula
Bench	Rocket-Dan's Nyula	Bench
	Rocket-Dan's Freezer
	Rocket-Dan's Thunder
Prize Cards	6	Prize Cards	6

#	Card	Art	Card Text	Effect
1	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.	Retto starts his turn by also playing Rocket-Dan's Lance, enabling him to draw three cards: Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex, Rocket-Dan's Tamantula, and a second Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex.
2	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.	Retto places his first Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex on the Bench.
3	Rocket-Dan's Tamantula		Take Down (30) This Pokémon also does 10 damage to itself.	He places his Rocket-Dan's Tamantula on the Bench. With this, Retto has two of these cards in play; one in the Active Spot, one on the Bench.
4	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.	Retto then places his second Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex on the Bench.
5	Rocket-Dan's Tamantula		Take Down (30) This Pokémon also does 10 damage to itself.	He attaches a Basic Grass Energy card to the Rocket-Dan's Tamantula in the Active Spot. He ends the turn by having its Pokémon use "Take Down" on his opponent's Rocket-Dan's Nyarth (CoroCoro Ichiban! version). The attack also inflicts 10 damage on its user.

Retto's pretty happy with this setup. On his next turn, he imagines, he'll be able to evolve his Rocket-Dan's Tamantula into Rocket-Dan's Wanaider and use its "Rocket Rush" attack to deal 120 damage (30 x 4) to his opponent.

The turn after that, he can use his Rocket-Dan's Sakaki card to bring his Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex to the Active Spot, attach a Rocket-Dan's Energy to it, and then have it use its "Erasure Ball" attack to deal 280 damage to his opponent.

But will Retto be able to use this strategy?

---

Letto		Retto
Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Nyarth (CoroCoro Ichiban! ver) (70 - 30 = 40 HP)	Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Tamantula (50 - 10 = 40 HP)
Bench	Rocket-Dan's Nyula	Bench	Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex
	Rocket-Dan's Freezer		Rocket-Dan's Tamantula
	Rocket-Dan's Thunder		Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex
Prize Cards	6	Prize Cards	6

#	Card	Art	Card Text	Effect
1	Rocket-Dan's Athena		Draw cards until you have 5 cards in your hand. If all of your Pokémon in play are Rocket-Dan's Pokémon, draw cards until you have 8 cards in your hand instead.	Letto surprises Retto by starting his turn with Rocket-Dan's Athena. Since all the Pokémon he has in play are Rocket-Dan Pokémon, Letto is able to draw eight cards.
2	Rocket-Dan's Energy		This card can only be attached to a Rocket-Dan's Pokémon. If this card is attached to anything other than a Rocket-Dan's Pokémon, discard this card. As long as this card is attached to a Pokémon, it provides 2 in any combination of Psychic Energy and Darkness Energy.	He attaches Rocket-Dan's Energy to the Rocket-Dan's Nyarth (CoroCoro Ichiban! version) in the Active Spot.
3	Rocket-Dan's Nyarth (CoroCoro Ichiban! version)		Paw-cket Pilfer Choose a random card from your opponent's hand. Your opponent reveals that card and shuffles it into their deck. Fury Swipes (20x) Flip 3 coins. This attack does 20 damage for each heads.	Letto ends the turn having Rocket-Dan's Nyarth (CoroCoro Ichiban! version) use its "Paw-cket Pilfer" attack to steal the Rocket-Dan's Wanaider card from Retto's hand!

---

Letto		Retto
Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Nyarth (CoroCoro Ichiban! ver) (70 - 30 = 40 HP)	Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Tamantula (50 - 10 = 40 HP)
Bench	Rocket-Dan's Nyula	Bench	Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex
	Rocket-Dan's Freezer		Rocket-Dan's Tamantula
	Rocket-Dan's Thunder		Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex
Prize Cards	6	Prize Cards	6

#	Card	Art	Card Text	Effect
1	Rocket-Dan's Super Ball		Flip a coin. If heads, search your deck for an Evolution Rocket-Dan's Pokémon, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If tails, search your deck for a Basic Rocket-Dan's Pokémon, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.	Since Retto no longer has his Wanaider card he has to think of a way to try to get another one. He starts the turn by using Rocket-Dan's Super Ball in hopes of being able to draw another one, but the coin toss comes up tails.

The battle continues, with the next few rounds all occurring off panel. Judging by what's left in the panels that follow it seems as though Letto's Rocket-Dan's Nyula, Rocket-Dan's Thunder, and at least one more Pokémon were dealt Knock Outs off-panel, while one of Retto's Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo exes and two other Pokémon suffered the same fate.

We re-join the two players with the following cards in play:

Letto		Retto
Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Freezer	Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Wanaider
Bench	Rocket-Dan's Nyarth (CoroCoro Ichiban! ver) (70 - 30 = 40 HP)	Bench	Rocket-Dan's Dogars
	Rocket-Dan's Fire ex		Rocket-Dan's Tamantula
			Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex (+Rocket-Dan's Energy)
			Rocket-Dan's Dogars
Prize Cards	2	Prize Cards	3

#	Card	Art	Card Text	Effect
1	Rocket-Dan's Sakaki		Switch your Active Rocket-Dan's Pokémon with 1 of your Benched Rocket-Dan's Pokémon. If you do, switch in 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon to the Active Spot.	Retto starts off whatever round number this is by using Rocket-Dan's Sakaki to bring his Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex to the Active Spot. The card is also used to bring Letto's Rocket-Dan's Fire ex to the Active Spot.
2	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.	Retto finishes the turn by having his Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex use its "Erasure Ball" attack. It ends up dealing 220 damage, causing Letto's Rocket-Dan's Fire ex to suffer a Knock Out. The Pokémon ex rule enables Retto to claim two prize cards for his victory.

Retto only has one prize card left to go and so he starts to think about the next move. His Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex's "Erasure Ball" attack is enough to defeat both of Letto's remaining Pokémon, while none of his opponent's available attacks -- Rocket-Dan's Freezer's "Dark Frost," Rocket-Dan's Nyarth's "Paw-cket Pilfer" / "Fury Swipes" -- can do the same. He also still has a ton of cards both on the Bench and in his hand. And so Retto's feeling pretty good about his chance of victory!

---

Letto		Retto
Active Spot		Active Spot	Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex (+Rocket-Dan's Energy)
Bench	Rocket-Dan's Nyarth (CoroCoro Ichiban! ver) (70 - 30 = 40 HP)	Bench	Rocket-Dan's Dogars
	Rocket-Dan's Freezer		Rocket-Dan's Tamantula
			Rocket-Dan's Wanaider
			Rocket-Dan's Dogars
Prize Cards	2	Prize Cards	1

#	Card	Art	Card Text	Effect
1	Rocket-Dan's Apollo		You can use this card only if any of your Rocket-Dan's Pokémon were Knocked Out during your opponent's last turn. Each player shuffles their hand into their deck. Then, you draw 5 cards, and your opponent draws 3 cards.	Letto starts the match by playing Rocket-Dan's Apollo, taking advantage of the Knock Out he just received to change up the cards in his hand.
2	Rocket-Dan's Nyarth (CoroCoro Ichiban! version)		Paw-cket Pilfer Choose a random card from your opponent's hand. Your opponent reveals that card and shuffles it into their deck. Fury Swipes (20x) Flip 3 coins. This attack does 20 damage for each heads.	He then takes the Rocket-Dan's Nyarth (CoroCoro Ichiban! version) on the Bench...
3	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.	...And evolves it to Rocket-Dan's Persian ex. He then activates the Pokémon's "Haughty Orders" Ability. For his attack, Letto chooses the recently discarded Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex and its "Erasure Ball" attack. He discards the two Basic Energy cards attached to his Rocket-Dan's Freezer to boost the attack power to 280, enough to Knock Out his opponent's Rocket-Dan's Mewtwo ex. The Pokémon ex rule allows Letto to claim two cards for his victory. With no prize cards left, Letto is declared the victor.

Letto has won two out of three, which means Retto's the one who has to clean the house before Letto's parents get home! But...the two are so exhausted from their matches they just fall asleep without doing any of the cleaning at all!

---

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.

Ouri (央理)	Olim (オーリム)
Fuuto (風斗)	Futu (フトゥー)