The Best Attack in Gen IV

[SlottedPig]

Most of these aren't attacks at all. You should probably change the title to "The best move in Gen IV."

I think that Spore is hands-down the best of those moves. Breloom is one of the best pokemon in the game, and Sleep Clause is needed to check him; even with those chains, he creates a massive amount of trouble.

 

[Xing]

Steal(th) Rock. It automatically steals at least ~62.5% of your opponent's total HP, not counting the tons of switches that would be happen.

 

[Omnipresent]

Most of these aren't attacks at all. You should probably change the title to "The best move in Gen IV."

I think that Spore is hands-down the best of those moves. Breloom is one of the best pokemon in the game, and Sleep Clause is needed to check him; even with those chains, he creates a massive amount of trouble.

Lol spore would have been my second only reason I didn't vote that one was because I think it's a little easier to work around but my god.. Could you imagine if there was no sleep clause?

 

[PenguinKnight]

Breloom is the dumb (insert vulgarity here) it is cause of spore. I'd vote stealth rock though. Makes sweeping muchmuchmuchmuch easier, and it also shaped the metagame a bit by relegating things like Yanmega to BL, Charizard to NU, Moltres to UU and makes Ho-oh little used.

 

[Mailman]

Stealth rock without a doubt

 

[Mike B]

I was thinking Fake Out because it narfs Sashers and then hopefully kill the lead before they can use Stealth Rock, but no.

 

[ParadoxFtw]

My vote:
Stealth Rock: It alone keeps some pokemon from being viable and making sweeping much easier and switching more costly. It's on pretty much every team and has helped change the meta into an offensive one.

2: Substitute
3: Spore
4: U-turn
5: Priority

 

[norelationstojfk]

There's no argument here. It's Stealth Rock. It's such an incredible move. It forced Pokemon like Charizard and Yanmega completely out of usage due to it stripping them of half their health. It makes using monsters like Gyarados and Dragonite a gamble because their HP is put at risk. I couldn't imagine playing without Stealth Rock up because it's an ultimate, universal utility move.

 

[Focus]

Spore. Stealth rock is an amazing move, but Spore is the reason that Sleep Clause exists, even with crappy distribution (Parasect, Smeargle, and Breloom). Imagine if something with a decent Speed stat had access to Spore and Sleep Clause didn't exist. Most Pokemon would have to be sleep absorbers with Chesto/Lum Berry or Sleep Talk. Finally, Spore is really the only thing you can expect from Smeargle, dispite its sky-high support movepool. That alone says a lot.

 

[Zacchaeus]

The best attack isn't the best move, move and attack are two different things. The best move? Stealth Rock. The best attack? I'd have to say either a move like Earthquake for hitting so many things, or Draco Meteor for having so few things to deal with it

 

[cayr]

close combat, u-turn and SR are the most important ones, as taunt serves kinda the same purpose as encore

 

[purpleturtle96]

Oh, wow. I'm the only one who voted Taunt. But I voted for it because it can stop your opponent from boosting stats and setting up. And it works well against Pokemon like Shuckle, whose moveset is almost all stat boosters

 

[Tory]

Oh, wow. I'm the only one who voted Taunt. But I voted for it because it can stop your opponent from boosting stats and setting up. And it works well against Pokemon like Shuckle, whose moveset is almost all stat boosters

U-Turn is my favorite move of the 4th Gen of Pokemon. Taunt is a great move too. Tyranitar@Leftovers, Adamant nature
~ Taunt
~ Dragon Dance
~ Rock Slide
~ Earthquake

This moveset kicked ass since the 3th Gen. Some users want Crunch to kill Gengar & Alakazam. But Tyranitar doesn't really need Crunch with the Dragon Dance, unless your heading for Dusknoir. Once Tyranitar Dragon Dances, it doesn't even need Crunch to KO Gengar & Alakazam. Rock Slide is already enough to take them out. I always prefer Rock Slide over Stone Edge. Stone Edge is 5 PP, 100 power and 80% accuracy, the only time I will use this move is with Machamp. (due to No Guard)

 

[Colonel Darren]

Stone Edge is 5 PP, 100 power and 80% accuracy, the only time I will use this move is with Machamp. (due to No Guard)

Using Stone Edge. On Machamp. That's asking to be killed quickly.

 

[diinbong]

Stealth Rock shaped the metagame but that doesn't make it the best move. Stealth Rock given to a random Pokemon doesn't really make it a lot better. But if you give Spore to a Pokemon it becomes loooooooads better.

 

[Donny Mae.]

I voted for U-Turn.

My reasoning for this is solely the fact that it allows you to constantly gain momentum. If your opponent switches in a counter, U-turn the switch in and switch in your counter to their counter. Bug is also fantastic offensive type, with its only notable resistance being steel.

 

[Magik0722]

Voted: Stealth Rock
The next 5 imo would be
Spore
U-Turn
Dragon Dance
Draco Meteor
Outrage

 

[BurningMan]

Stealth Rock is imo the best cause so many pokemon get it and it was the move that shaped gen 4 (and i am almost certain it will shape every gen for now) the fact that it makes so many pokemon unviable or way or harder to use effective shows how important and powerful it is.
Next would be U-Turn as it is a great move especially for offensive teams to gain momentum.
Substitute is great because nearly everything gets it and it makes predicting way easier.
Taunt/Dragon Dance/Spore are great moves too but the latter suffer from bad distribution(wich is propably good especially in case of Spore^^).

 

[Nix_Hex]

I've skimmed through this thread and I am very surprised that the somewhat rare Encore was included but Trick/Switcheroo, Roar, and Whirlwind are nowhere to be seen! Tricking an irrelevant Choice item to an opponent's wall is practically Encore but they can only escape its clutches by switching. Roar and Whirlwind are excellent early game scout moves.

 

[doomvendingmachine]

I've skimmed through this thread and I am very surprised that the somewhat rare Encore was included but Trick/Switcheroo, Roar, and Whirlwind are nowhere to be seen! Tricking an irrelevant Choice item to an opponent's wall is practically Encore but they can only escape its clutches by switching. Roar and Whirlwind are excellent early game scout moves.

DOH! I helped nails make some of this list, and to the best of my knowledge, neither of us ever thought of trick, which is a shame, as it probably should be on there. Nails and I did discuss whirlwind/roar though.

 

[Tory]

I've skimmed through this thread and I am very surprised that the somewhat rare Encore was included but Trick/Switcheroo, Roar, and Whirlwind are nowhere to be seen! Tricking an irrelevant Choice item to an opponent's wall is practically Encore but they can only escape its clutches by switching. Roar and Whirlwind are excellent early game scout moves.

Yeah, I like Trick/Switcheroo. In this generation, there are many choices like Choice Specs, Flame Orb, Toxic Orb, Choice Scarf, etc. Alakazam@Choice Specs > Encoring+Substitute Alakazam any day for me. This Pokemon will actually fuck Blissey up during the whole game, lol. I like Blissey too.

Speaking of new items, this is going to blow you all away... I never enjoyed Gyro Ball Bronzong. I just believe its better for other stuff such as special walls, physical walls, tricking, and stalling. Hell, I even like Calm Mind with this Pokemon better.

 

[DDRMaster]

I've skimmed through this thread and I am very surprised that the somewhat rare Encore was included but Trick/Switcheroo, Roar, and Whirlwind are nowhere to be seen! Tricking an irrelevant Choice item to an opponent's wall is practically Encore but they can only escape its clutches by switching. Roar and Whirlwind are excellent early game scout moves.

I've Tricked walls and gotten Tricked many times but I've noticed that it really isn't a big deal unless you have a Recovery move. For example, in a typical battle, I would switch in Swampert into something like Tyranitar and they would immediately switch to something like Celebi. Obviously, I'm not going to stay in on something that OHKOs me, so I switch and only actually use one move while Swampert is out.

In the case of things like WishBliss, it's a real pain when you get Tricked because Blissey can't heal effectively and it usually gets killed if I can't take out their Pokemon quickly. However, it's still not dead and I find it hard to use Trick when something like CB Scizor or Tyranitar comes in and gets a free kill with Pursuit.

 

[Indra]

Close Combat

 

[Zero_Falcon]

Substitute pretty much shuts down most of my Pokemon. Not being able to OHKO foes with my high Sp. Atk Pokemon would mean my Pokemon would be OHKO'd instead, with their abysmal defensive stats.

If there are other moves that I would call gamebreaking (at least in my case), it would be Extremespeed. Base power of 80 with heightened priority is insane! x)

 

[Johnny_Darko]

Stealth Rock. It causes so many 2HKOs to become OHKOs and has caused people to run Spinners just so that certain Pokemon can be effective instead of losing half of their HP instantly.