All Gens Favourite Moves

Disaster Area

formerly Piexplode
Often there's complaints on the forum about many things - scald, spikes, stealth rock, et cetera, or at least these complaints have existed at some point, as well as about a couple of abilities and such (like arena trap), and I thought it would be interesting to ask, what are people's favourite moves (and also stuff such as abilities)? Like, what adds the most interesting counterplay and competitive dynamics? Or at least have a consistency you can rejoice of?

I'll start it off with Transform since I like, particularly in tiers where it has relevance of some kind (such as RBY Ubers - unless it is banned for infinite-games related issues RIP) it creates an interesting dynamic of play, that concept of turning a players' own weapons against them is something very neat.

I posted it here since it felt like a good place to do it, and a lot of the complaints about various problematic moves and other such things are often centered on gen 1-5, or at least involving them, so I thought it would be interesting to see if people have any moves that they sorta have the opposite reaction with in some way. If nothing comes of it that's an interesting results in and of itself.

:]
 
I like Scald =/ For real tho, it enables so many pokemon to spread status where otherwise they'd be doing fuck-all for a team. This particularly helps defensively inclined teams obviously, while I think the difficulty of switching into Scald is exaggerated.

I've come to really love RBY Hyper Beam- it's just such a fun move to use, with an interesting risk-reward element associated with it.

Any base 120 move with accuracy >= 85% is fun, I just really like being able to fire off random nukes, there's a nice simplicity to using these moves since it's just doing craploads of damage and that's all there is to them (generally)
 

Disaster Area

formerly Piexplode
The responses have already made this thread worth it! Keep them coming :)

I'll deliver a biggie, I think Substitute is a kind of incredible move. Whilst perhaps it could be perceived as some kind of skill leveler, I find that it takes skill to use correctly, and it's very versatile in how it combines with other moves. From forcing the opponent to attack you (outside of gen 1 of course, where you can get around it) to allowing you to fire off powerful attacks if played correctly (like focus punch) to abusing things that require lower HP (Reversal and Flail, Pinch Berries, Endeavor!), it's so versatile and adds a fantastic element to the game, especially thankful to its literally incredible distribution.
 

McMeghan

Dreamcatcher
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis an Administrator Alumnusis a Dedicated Tournament Host Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis the 5th Smogon Classic Winneris the Smogon Tour Season 14 Championis a defending SPL Championis a Past SPL Champion
Big Chungus Winner
Pursuit is one of my favorite moves. It has a great distribution, and trapping is hard/impossible to be played around. It can also be pretty clutch in unexpected scenarios (imagine pursuiting a 5% poisoned Tyranitar with Scizor in BW when they have a Healing Wish user in the back for example).

Baton Pass is also up there in my list. It's at the basis of many underrated and broken strategies.
 

mags

Banned deucer.
toxic is my favourite move. When you toxic a pokemon you can strategically switch around dodging ground moves and what not until the pokemon faints. You can also recover stall pokemon. This is the most important move to stall other than recover moves and its what makes stall so unique.

I also love toxic spikes because well they give everyone that touches them toxic and i love toxic lol.
 

Disaster Area

formerly Piexplode
I find it interesting that some people particularly enjoy some strategies that other people find compromising, such as baton pass and scald. Is it because of their incredible effectiveness, or because they frustrate people, or is it that you find the way in which they play challenges the player to think in different and creative ways to gain an advantage over them - or on the flipside, that it is a rare strategy (in certain contexts) but very effective and introducing different interactivity between players?

I guess each of these moves, you have different reasons for, I just find it curious when people profess liking moves that anguish so many! Not that it should be taboo, of course, and it's nice to see players being open with it. :)
 
Baton pass is interesting. I think it's a broken move, full pass, Smashpass, all those strategies are absolutely ridiculous. Also it means playing the game in a way that is totally different to how it's normally played, and I don't enjoy it. Even in GSC where it's at its weakest, I hate facing it.

That said there are so many good uses for it outside of those strategies, and it is really fun to use- in my brief foray into PO's version of OU I used a NastyPass Celebi on one of my teams and absolutely loved it. BP is fantastic for just passing small boosts and also keeping momentum and getting Ghost/Psychics out of Pursuit, it's just a shame it's so easily abusable otherwise.

re my thoughts on Scald: One of the biggest struggles I had building stall teams was finding ways to actually do meaningful damage to the opponent. Stallmons' attacks are invariably so weak as to be irrelevant, while hazards are easier to remove than ever. So status becomes vital, but it's often tough fitting a status move onto a set when you've got a heap of other stuff you need to fit on there. Moves such as Scald and Lava Plume make things easier in that regard, it condenses moveslots and enables you to status things that would otherwise be difficult to touch.
 

Disaster Area

formerly Piexplode
I think baton pass is a mixed bag. I understand the hatred of fullpass etc and shit that's generally considered cheap with it, but then I've also played adv nu where one of the main walls/pivots relies on baton pass + a mixture of toys - intimidate+steel typing (+okay physical bulk overall being impressive) + SD, Iron Defense, Taunt, Focus Punch, Hidden Power, Rock Slide.. so much. There's some weird and wonderful ways to play with it. One team I tried lead Venomoth with Substitute Sleep Powder Psychic Baton Pass + Petaya Berry. Wasn't ultimately a very effective team, but the ability to pass pinch berries on something fast with good enough bulk, some handy resistances, and the flexibility to run about 5 different attacks, on both ends of the physical/special spectrum, 2 status moves, it was just a little moster especially to face. In that tier I've never seen fullpass attempted and I don't think it would be all that effective either, but running one bpasser is pretty common, and 2-3 isn't even that rare, I guess like OU, but the fact the main steel is a baton passing pivot with medium speed and intimidate, well that's actually pretty awesome and dynamic!

It requires careful counterplay but is beautiful to make work. On offense, you either use mons that can wear it down + a really solid switch-in or two, or mons that don't let it cause any issues (there are many, since it's quite specially vulnerable, with a couple of abusable physical weaknesses too).
 
Thunder Wave. Paralysis is a phenomenal status, both for the speed drops and the ensuing hax it causes in your favor.

U-turn's ability to grab momentum is fantastic. Baton Pass and Volt Switch can both work here as well, but the former's not doing chip damage and the latter's blocked by Grounds. U-turn always accomplishes something good for you.

Offensive boosting moves like Swords Dance, Dragon Dance, etc. are also always fun to use.

For the first four gens: Explosion. It's kind of the ultimate risk / reward move.
 

dekzeh

B is for BRUTUS
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Past WCoP Champion
From a game design and balance perspective, I've always been a fan of high risk/high reward moves that involve skill instead of chance (no Zap Cannon, for example). Things like Focus Punch (favorite by far), gen 1 Hyper Beam, Pursuit, Explosion and similars, Destiny Bond, gen 4 onwards Outrage and similars etc.

I think those moves are necessary to a balanced game and a big part of what was ruined going into newer gens is that those moves lost their place into a metagame that became more and more about strong AND safe moves (your Close Combats, Scalds, Stealth Rocks, U-turns, etc). The consequence of this is, imo, a metagame with a lower skill ceiling and in general "dumber".

I'm derailing from topic I guess, oh well.. As far as moves I like in order to win games: Spikes and Baton Pass.
 

Lavos

Banned deucer.
my first pokemon game was fire red version for the game boy advance. naturally since i possess two testicles, i picked charmander. and since i was 7 years old, i got stuck in viridian forest for a while. when i emerged my charmander was level 13 and had picked up the move "metal claw" but i had yet to use it. i faced off against that one little shit in the pewter gym who thinks light years are a measure of time not distance, consulting my type chart to learn that steel was super effective against rock, and clicked it. little did i know what i was about to experience.

SHING SHING
charmander's body is encased in pure steel as it shimmers with power..
SHAK SHAK
he strikes twice, gouging deep black lines with red border into geodude's face

fucking
brutal
 

The Avalanches

pokemon tcg
is a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
I quite like Earth Power. It's one of the only good special Ground-type attacks, so it's unusually satisfying to see a physically bulky Steel- or Rock-type take so much damage. The animation is pretty cool too; several columns of magma rising from the earth. The only downside to it is how few Pokemon can use it effectively.
 
If were talking competitive, Pursuit is probably my favorite even though I was historically pretty bad at using it. Switching is so common in competitive, a move that punishes the opponents for playing it safe is really cool. Few thing are as sweet as Pursuiting something with a Banded Tyranitar. I also enjoy Wish.

Flame Wheel and Fire Blast are my personal favorites, thanks to Typhlosion in the Crystal days.
 
I like ancient power because when i played fire red for the first time I couldn't beat that fire elite four leader, that piece of shit with his ancient power Aerodactyl killing my charizard
 

xJoelituh

Banned deucer.
Counter for sure is one of my favourites only because of its powerfull mechanics in RBY, also i love so much the Selfdestruct/Explosion PreGen , the BoomLax is sooo damn cool.

In case of animations and powerfull maybe Hyperbeam and Fire Blast. Specially the gen 2 animations :]


 
Will-o-wisp. Very few things handle burns well and the animation for it in adv coupled with the idea that it's a rare move centered around ghosts and stuff is really cool. Also Will-o-wisp gar in adv is one of my favorite pokes to use.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top