Data Candles of Known Brightness: OU edition

[Molk]

just going to pop in and say i think Cute Charm clefable could be a candle of known brightness, it recieved almost 2% usage last month and there's pretty much absolutely no reason to use cute charm over either of clefable's other abilities, which imo are a lot of the reason why clefable is good in OU in the first place (unaware CM clefable :]). The only reason any decent player would ever have it is if they forgot to change it on the teambuilder.

Magic Guard 79.562% | Unaware 18.560% | Cute Charm 1.877%

 

[Ninja Charizard]

Since somebody mentioned the neutral natures, I'd like to add Lax/Gentle natures too.

I googled them on the other day and simply failed to find anyone mentioning an use to them.

 

[JayHankEdLyon]

Competitively worthless status moves (attacking moves are easier to parse)

- OHKO moves and Evasion-raising moves, which don't work.
- One-stage status lowerers/boosters (your Tail Whips, your Howls)
- Any Doubles/Triples-specific move (Helping Hand, Quash, Ally Switch, etc.)
- Mud/Water Sport
- Supersonic/Sweet Kiss/Flatter
- Sing/Grasswhistle
- Mist/Safeguard(Non-Wobbu)/Embargo/Heal Block/Lucky Chant
- Poison-inducing status moves that aren't Toxic (eg Poison Powder, Poison Gas)
- Teleport
- Metronome
- Bide
- Psywave
- Splash/Celebrate
- Sketch
- Conversion/Conversion 2/Camouflage/Reflect Type
- Nightmare/Dream Eater
- Mind Reader/Lock On
- Detect
- Spit Up/Swallow
- Recycle+Unrecyclable item
- Grudge
- Role Play/Skill Swap/Entrainment/Simple Beam/Worry Seed (and possibly Gastro Acid)
- Power/Guard Swap
- Aqua Ring without Baton Pass (and arguable, WITH Baton Pass)
- Captivate, possibly Attract
- Ion Deluge
- Bestow
- Terrain moves
- Crafty Shield
- Electrify
- Happy Hour
- Venom Drench (arguable)

 

[Rotosect]

^ You forgot the mother of all useless moves: Synchronoise.

 

[Ajwf]

Ajwf, any fringe uses? At all?

No... from a stall perceptive, even, I can't imagine why you'd use protect on Zard... The ONLY thing I can dream up is they're trying to stall on a burn willowisp or something. If someone else has an idea, in my mind it has no use at all.

Edit: Reflect type has some niche. It definitely isn't what it was last generation but occasionally Latias likes to get out of pursuit traps with rather minimal damage.

 

[JayHankEdLyon]

^ You forgot the mother of all useless moves: Synchronoise.

Which is an attacking move. This list was compiled by going through every move with no attacking power in Bulbapedia.

 

[Rotosect]

Which is an attacking move. This list was compiled by going through every move with no attacking power in Bulbapedia.

So are Psywave and Dream Eater.
Edit: never mind. I understand what you were going for.

 

[JayHankEdLyon]

So are Psywave and Magnitude.

But they cause damage, so I weeded them out. Same with Sonicboom/Dragon Rage.

EDIT: before you continue to pointlessly nitpick, Nightmare/Dream Eater and Spitup/Swallow just look too pretty together. All pair-like.

 

[aesf]

Is it bad that the third most commonly seen item on blissey is Focus Sash?
Speaking of Blissey, 16.556% of them run flamethrower, which is almost twice as much as the percentage that runs stealth rock.

Also, it kind of bothers me when Sleep Talk has a higher percentage of usage than rest.

 

[Adonzo]

Detect is fine. It is literally the exact same thing as Protect, so not outclassed, and is arguably superior due to it being less likely to be affected by Imprison shenanigans.

EDIT: Flamethrower nukes Scizor, who is otherwise anathema to Blissey

EDIT2: Missed Detect's lower PP

 

[JayHankEdLyon]

Detect is fine. It is literally the exact same thing as Protect, so not outclassed, and is arguably superior due to it being less likely to be affected by Imprison shenanigans.

Detect is Protect with max 8 uses.

 

[Antar]

JayHankEdLyon, is anyone actually using any of these moves?!?

Thisisafake name Sash Blissey probably has some sort of niche.

Edit: Detect is fine--in most cases, 8 uses is enough.

 

[Sergeant Spooky]

^ You forgot the mother of all useless moves: Synchronoise.

Synchronoise can be used by Jolteon to hit other Electric types pretty hard. It doesn't have the best coverage anyway.

Anyway, the Doubles only abilities are Plus, Minus, Friend Guard, Telepathy, and Healer. AFAIK everything that gets these has a better option.

Symbiosis and Flower Veil are exclusive to Florges, who doesn't have a choice.

 

[Aragorn the King]

Competitively worthless status moves (attacking moves are easier to parse)
Memento (when user has Destiny Bond)

I'd disagree with Memento. It has a different use than destiny bond: namely to force a switch from the opposing pokemon on the next turn so that your pokemon can sweep.

 

[JayHankEdLyon]

I'd disagree with Memento. It has a different use than destiny bond: namely to force a switch from the opposing pokemon on the next turn so that your pokemon can sweep.

You're right, I was misthinking.

 

[Hidious]

Detect is fine. It is literally the exact same thing as Protect, so not outclassed, and is arguably superior due to it being less likely to be affected by Imprison shenanigans.

EDIT: Flamethrower nukes Scizor, who is otherwise anathema to Blissey

This isn't doubles, no one uses imprison (maybe a candle itself but probably has a niche somewhere). Protect has more pp and everything that has detect has protect. 8 uses may not be enough if you are toxic stalling multiple pokemon

 

[JayHankEdLyon]

JayHankEdLyon, is anyone actually using any of these moves?!?

Edit: Detect is fine--in most cases, 8 uses is enough.

Is anyone ever using confuse berries or Heal Pulse or Shell Bell? Because those certainly made it on your list.

Bear in mind this isn't a "pick me, pick me" affair, but your list implies you wanna be thorough, including incredibly marginal strategies. If that's not the case, perhaps impose stricter limits on what we're looking for, percentage-wise?

Finally, no staller in their right mind would say 8 is enough when you could have 16 on literally every pokemon that could use Detect.

 

[Taehl]

•Neutral nature even though it's bad, this could be used by something like Kyurem-B who needs all of it's stats.
•No item Because of the lack of a Flying Gem, Acrobatics users are sometimes better off running no item.

 

[Hidious]

Anything that isn't mawilite on mawile should be removed, because normal mawile has a niche on baton pass teams. In fact it's a D on the viability rankings. A good niche? Nope, but if we are going to be strict it should be removed.

 

[Antar]

Is anyone ever using confuse berries or Heal Pulse or Shell Bell? Because those certainly made it on your list.

Surprisingly yes. Maybe not Heal Pulse, but I'm going to check.

Bear in mind this isn't a "pick me, pick me" affair, but your list implies you wanna be thorough, including incredibly marginal strategies. If that's not the case, perhaps impose stricter limits on what we're looking for, percentage-wise?

I *do not* want to be thorough. I'm hoping for a small number of really good candles.

Finally, no staller in their right mind would say 8 is enough when you could have 16 on literally every pokemon that could use Detect.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've got Doubles on the mind. I'll add it to the list.

My two issues with Ninjask are

1. These rules should ideally be applicable in every tier, not just OU, and Scolipede's BL.

No they absolutely should not! Things are gonna change a lot between tiers.

Also, if hasn't been mentioned before, Pokemon with less than 4 moves on a set and aren't Ditto should qualify.

Last Resort.

Taehl, you're still better off using a nature and making it up with EVs. This is, as far as I know, *always* the case. I'll go ahead and make an exception for Acro no item, though.

Hidious, I got that one hours ago.

 

[Aragorn the King]

If hasn't been mentioned before, Pokemon with less than 4 moves on a set and aren't Ditto should qualify.

Last Resort is a gimmick, but if it's used, it should be used on a pokemon with less than 4 moves.

 

[alexwolf]

Item that's not Mawilite on Mawile

Regular Mawile is viable on Baton Pass teams. It's mostly outclassed yeah, but definitely not completely outclassed, as Intimidate + Taunt + Fairy typing are all pros that Mawile has over Scizor, the other Steel-type that can fit into Baton Pass teams. Regular Mawile without Baton Pass though should never be counted.

 

[Sergeant Spooky]

Whirlwind>Roar on Skarmory. It'll almost never come up, but Roar does not affect Soundproof Pokemon. Whirlwind only has the added bonus of affecting Pokemon using Fly.

| Roar 4.339% |

 

[Antar]

Regular Mawile is viable on Baton Pass teams. It's mostly outclassed yeah, but definitely not completely outclassed, as Intimidate + Taunt + Fairy typing are all pros that Mawile has over Scizor, the other Steel-type that can fit into Baton Pass teams. Regular Mawile without Baton Pass though should never be counted.

Does Mawile-Mega not do this better? Intimidate still activates before the MEvo, and with BP teams you don't tend to switch stuff back in.

Whirlwind>Roar on Skarmory. It'll almost never come up, but Roar does not affect Soundproof Pokemon. Whirlwind only has the added bonus of affected Pokemon using Fly.
| Roar 4.339% |

Nice one!

 

[Sergeant Spooky]

Does Mawile-Mega not do this better? Intimidate still activates before the MEvo, and with BP teams you don't tend to switch stuff back in.


Nice one!

They might want to use a different mega; Mega Absol gets Magic Bounce and Baton Pass, for example.