Ruling Team Aqua's Secret Base + ManaphyEX = ?

[Phototoxin]

Team Aqua's Secret Base ManaphyEX

So do my pokemon with WATER energy attached have a retreat cost of: 1 or 0?

 

[My Little Keldeo]

Good question! The catch here is that Manaphy-EX's Aqua Tube Ability sets a Pokemon's Retreat Cost to zero rather than subtracting from it. Contrast that with Hydreigon-EX's Dragon Road, which reduces your Dragon Pokemon's Retreat Cost by two. If a Retreat Cost has been set to zero by an effect (this would also aply for Float Stone, Darkrai-EX DEX, etc), it can't be added to or subtracted from. If you have Manaphy-EX in play, any o your Pokemon with Water Energy attached would not be affected by Team Aqua's Secret Base, so long as Aqua Tube isn't disabled.

 

[Phototoxin]

So the logic is: Pokemon with retreat cost of 9 has a water energy and some 'evil stadium' in play (which we pretend adds a 20 to the retreat cost) the retreat cost of what would otherwise be 9+20=29 is just set to zero due to ManaphyEX?

My concern was that it would be set to zero and then have +1 added to it. But again even if it does add 1 to it (making that example-a-mon above retreat 9+1=10) it is still set to 0.

IE the manaphy trumps all other effects for this as long as its pre-requisite is met?

However I guess a pokemon with no retreat cost (Vespiquen or Raichu) would be at retreat 1 due to team aqua as no retreat cost is not the same as zero retreat cost.

 

[My Little Keldeo]

Once the Retreat Cost has been set to zero, other effects can't add or subtract to it. It doesn't matter how high a Pokemon's REtreat cost is, if it's under the effect of something that sets it to zero, it can Retreat for free. This isn't the same for Pokemon that have no retreat to begin with, or if an effect subtracted the cost but didn't specifically say "has no Retreat Cost." A Pokemon like Raichu XY or Vespiquen AOR could be affected by Team Aqua's Secret Base and would have their Retreat Cost increased.