There's already a popular, excellent OU Healing Wish user in Latias, who is well-suited to the job; it's fast, durable, and it can defog. I can't imagine us coming up with a more effective Healing Wish-er than that. Broadening the concept to include Explosion and Memento (and other self-destruct moves I may be forgetting) might give it more mileage; these are somewhat unexplored (and ineffective, at least on their current users) in OU. It could be fun to reach back to DPP days when Explosion was a big deal.Name: Neutralizer
General Description: A Pokemon that can work as a player's "panic button" when no other possible route seems possible....with a steep price.
Justification: There is a select group of moves known as "self-KO moves," which do exactly as they say. However, they always seem to act as a method to support another Pokemon instead of doing what they initially were designed to do: act as an emergency fail safe with a steep price. Even in Pokemon today, we hear of people referring to Pokemon as "panic buttons," which they only use in case the situation turns sour. What we don't know, however, is what exactly a panic button is, or why the price to so many seem to be rewarding. That is what this project will focus on: figuring out the science behind a fail safe.
Questions:
Explanation:
- What is a panic button exactly? What makes it a panic button?
- Why do the price of so many "fail safes" seem to be a benefit to ones team?
- How exactly can we make a true panic button? Is there more to it than meets the eye?
As far as I know of, we have only two moves that seem to fit in with this project like peanut butter and jelly: Lunar Dance (which, if I remember correctly, is banned from CAP) and Healing Wish. Both of these moves are highly effective a turning a a bad situation and playing it into your hand if played correctly. Also, in this case, only one ability seems to fit nicely: Prankster. I don't think we should just immediately jump at this option, however, as then this thing would basically destroy all forms of offense and stall alike. Only Hyper Offense would remain, and I'm not quite sure if that would count as a "balanced" metagame. Of course, the part about this is that you have to lose something significant to your team; if you simply use this thing to use Healing Wish, then you instantly ruin the whole point of this project. So, I'm thinking of a scenario of where you lose a late game win-condition or you lose a game guaranteed. Catch my drift?
(Also, this is my first time through. I hope I don't screw everything up!)
Also, as I understand it in your explanation, the only thing that distinguishes a 'failsafe' healing wish from a regular support one is the cost involved. Part of what makes Latias a good user is that it can fulfill its defog role early/mid game then self-KO after its usefulness is exhausted. Running Healing Wish on a late-game threat is thoroughly counter-intuitive, as it would rather spend that fourth moveslot on a move that's useful at every stage of the game.
I would reformulate it to focus more on the mechanic of self-destruction itself, the cost/benefit aspects of that, and the questions it raises, but otherwise personally I think you have an interesting concept.
Edit: In response to Dry Paratroopa below, as this isn't worth a post of its own: self-KO =/= discouraging the opponent's KO. There are big differences in the discussions involved. 'Can I afford to sack this' vs. 'can I afford to KO this'. In my opinion, the two concepts are distinct enough.
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