Pidgeot attack : Hurricane

Ok so, i found my old pokemon stash with 7 strong poke decks ready for action + bunch of unused cards, when i was around 10 i went to those local tournaments, and was very into pokemon cards. So nostalgia got me and me and my friends want to try once again to play these cards. Basic rules we all know, but i have a question that confuses us all.

I gonna go with my Neutral poke deck which has in it Pidgeot + all its basic forms. Thing that bothers me is its his second attack "Hurricane" and it goes like this : "Unless this attack Knocks Out the Defending Pokemon,return the
Defending Pokemon and all cards attached to it to your opponent's hand." + it deal 30 damage.

What if i use this attack againts third stage pokemon with bunch of energy cards attached to it, and i dont knock it out. That pokemon has to go back in opponents hand. What can my opponent do on his turn, right after i used this attack?
Do the damage counters stay on that pokemon? Does he starts again in play with its basic form without energy cards attached? And 30 damage is too low to knock out most pokemons, does that mean i can go on and on returning his pokemons untill i want?

Thank you in advance.

You opponent would have to start all over again with that Pokemon. They would have to evolve it from scratch again and apply the energy one at a time all over again. That makes sense enough but the damage doesn't, not to me at least. When it goes back into the hand that heals all. That is how myself and my friends play it.

I really can't fathom the point of the damage. :-/

Odd one.

Well thanks for fast answer and clearing up this attack for me.

Btw, Its the jungle edition Pidgeot.

That is okay. The only way that the damage would work is if your opponent had only 30hp left. A hand trick to point out (thanks to my wife pointing it out) is to then play a card that makes you opponent discard some cards in their hand. That way you could blow the defending Pokemon and cards back into you opponent's hand and next turn hopefully have some of them discarded. That'd be a blow to your opponent.

:-D Evil but fun!

Yeah, I think the 30 damage only applies if they have 30 or less life left. Then it knocks out, else it has no last effect.

The attack deals 30 damage to the opponent's active Pokemon. If the opponent's active Pokemon has only 30 hp or less, it is knocked out so the 2nd effect does not apply.
If the Opponent's active Pokemon (known as the Defending Pokemon) survives the 30 damage attack, it will be returned to the opponent's hand, meaning the opponent must send out a Pokemon from the Bench to become the new active Pokemon.

Quite a tricksy move which is handy against uber-powerful Pokemon and handy if the game is nearing its end.

I find if you can't out muscle your opponent than cards like that can be a nice way of getting around them.