Pokémon Movepool Oddities & Explanations

[Codraroll]

I actually wonder how a Pokemon would feel when you order them to use Explosion/ Final Gambit/ Healing Wish... etc.
What makes them willing to sacrifice themselves anyway?

Back in Gen. I, I read somewhere (back of a card, perhaps?) that Voltorb and Electrode actually enjoy blowing themselves up for any reason, including boredom, excitement and/or no reason at all. It is, after all, a major trait of their species, so a healthy and powerful kaboom must be considered quite attractive (while Voltorb and Electrode are genderless and thus don't lay eggs, they appear to live in packs where the one with the biggest boom is the leader). For this reason, and their fondness of magnetic fields and dark places, they're considered vermin. Imagine opening your basement door and seeing a host of Voltorb sucking on poorly insulated cables...

 

[Pikachu315111]

Back in Gen. I, I read somewhere (back of a card, perhaps?) that Voltorb and Electrode actually enjoy blowing themselves up for any reason, including boredom, excitement and/or no reason at all. It is, after all, a major trait of their species, so a healthy and powerful kaboom must be considered quite attractive (while Voltorb and Electrode are genderless and thus don't lay eggs, they appear to live in packs where the one with the biggest boom is the leader). For this reason, and their fondness of magnetic fields and dark places, they're considered vermin. Imagine opening your basement door and seeing a host of Voltorb sucking on poorly insulated cables...

Electrode's Gold/Stadium/HGSS Dex entry says they like to explode:

It is dangerous. If it has too much electricity and has nothing to do, it amuses itself by exploding.

It also sounds like they're a bit addicted to consuming so much electricity they're always ready to explode:

Crystal: The more energy it charges up, the faster it gets. But this also makes it more likely to explode.
Ruby/OR: Electrode eats electricity in the atmosphere. On days when lightning strikes, you can see this Pokemon exploding all over the place from eating too much electricity.
Sapphire/AS: One of Electrode's characteristics is its attraction to electricity. It is a problematical Pokemon that congregates mostly at electrical power plants to feed on electricity that has just been generated.
DPP/BW/BW2: It is known to drift on winds if it is bloated to bursting with stored electricity.

 

[Aditya.A]

Its very odd that Anorith learns Water Gun on leveling up.Can anyone justify this?

 

[Talpr0ne]

Its very odd that Anorith learns Water Gun on leveling up.Can anyone justify this?

It's a marine organism.

 

[Antihaxxer]

Yes ... From Bulbapedia :
These wing-like projections are used to propel Anorith through the water. Now extinct in the wild, it lived in the seas of ancient times.

 

[SwampySwampert]

Purely gets Attract, Charm, and Captivate. Ummm....

 

[Cresselia~~]

Purely gets Attract, Charm, and Captivate. Ummm....

I think you mean Purugly.
But well, stuff like Garbodor and Muk can learn attract too.

 

[JES]

Purely gets Attract, Charm, and Captivate. Ummm....

Apparently, what one considers butt ugly, another considers cute.

 

[SwampySwampert]

I think you mean Purugly.
But well, stuff like Garbodor and Muk can learn attract too.

Yes, Purugly. Darn autocorrect...

 

[Pikachu315111]

Purugly gets Attract, Charm, and Captivate. Ummm....

Purugly gets it because Glameow gets it.

Hey, let's look through the Pokemon who got a Mega Evolution and see if they have any movepool oddities due to that:

Mewtwo: No Close Combat or Superpower? Okay it has Drain Punch which is nice, but with an Attack like that you want it to go all out. Superpower is a move that the Tutors have in ORAS so it could have at least learned it there.
Gardevoir: It would probably use a few more Special Normal-type attacks. Now it get Hyper Voice, but it gets Moonblast so what I think it more needs are utility Normal-type attacks. Maybe like Swift so it has a non-missing move. Or you could give it Boomburt for the lulz.

Huh, not that many oddities as I thought. Well, there are some moves that I think they should get, but that's more wishlisting than actually oddities.

 

[Kurona]

Purugly gets it because Glameow gets it.

Hey, let's look through the Pokemon who got a Mega Evolution and see if they have any movepool oddities due to that:

Mewtwo: No Close Combat or Superpower? Okay it has Drain Punch which is nice, but with an Attack like that you want it to go all out. Superpower is a move that the Tutors have in ORAS so it could have at least learned it there.
Gardevoir: It would probably use a few more Special Normal-type attacks. Now it get Hyper Voice, but it gets Moonblast so what I think it more needs are utility Normal-type attacks. Maybe like Swift so it has a non-missing move. Or you could give it Boomburt for the lulz.

Huh, not that many oddities as I thought. Well, there are some moves that I think they should get, but that's more wishlisting than actually oddities.

There's also the fact that Pidgeot has no moves. Ironically making it the new Flareon. Helix lied to us...
But really it is kind of annoying. We all joke about how it doesn't get Focus Blast, but... really, why didn't they give it any good moves for it's new role? Not even something like Hyper Voice for a normal STAB? It's things like this which tell me GF don't know what they're doing half the time. Hell, they didn't give Gyarados a dark STAB in XY, having to wait until ORAS. Just a little more foresight, jeez

 

[Karxrida]

Purugly gets Attract because nearly everything gets it. We actually discussed this on the first page or something.

Kurona to them Hurricane was probably considered enough; remember that Machamp only has a couple moves to abuse No Guard with. By the way Gyarados did have Bite and Payback in X and Y, so it had something to use for STAB if it really wanted.

 

[Kurona]

Purugly gets Attract because nearly everything gets it. We actually discussed this on the first page or something.

Kurona to them Hurricane was probably considered enough; remember that Machamp only has a couple moves to abuse No Guard with. By the way Gyarados did have Bite and Payback in X and Y, so it had something to use for STAB if it really wanted.

True, but the point is it does show how short-sighted and worryingly simple they are with decisions - rather than make Pidgeot as good as they could, they instead have it be a one-note gimmick of "100% accurate hurricanes!" and that's about as far as the design process got. It's a little... shocking.

Anyhow, the everything-learns-attract thing is explained pretty easily -- notice how everything with a gender (aside from Cryogonal; likely an error) gets it. ie everything that can breed without a ditto. Animals usually have mating calls...

 

[Talpr0ne]

Purugly gets Attract because nearly everything gets it. We actually discussed this on the first page or something.

Kurona to them Hurricane was probably considered enough; remember that Machamp only has a couple moves to abuse No Guard with. By the way Gyarados did have Bite and Payback in X and Y, so it had something to use for STAB if it really wanted.

Compared to Pidgeot, Machamp has a much wider movepool. It gets Dynamic Punch and Stone Edge to abuse No Guard, and then it has Knock Off, Earthquake, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Fire Punch, Bullet Punch, Heavy Slam, Poison Jab and Dual Chop. Not all of them are actually useful, but it's still a wide attacking movepool. Meanwhile Pidgeot has just Hurricane and Heat Wave as viable attacking moves... but at least is better than Doublade, which can't abuse No Guard at all.

 

[dsm77773]

Surprised nobody mentioned this...
Flareon and Entei of all things learn Rain Dance.
Ok Flareon comes from Eevee.
But Entei? Fucking Entei? Rain Dance? Can somebody explain me this?
Thank you in advance!
Rain Dance Entei new meta

 

[Kurona]

Surprised nobody mentioned this...
Flareon and Entei of all things learn Rain Dance.
Ok Flareon comes from Eevee.
But Entei? Fucking Entei? Rain Dance? Can somebody explain me this?
Thank you in advance!
Rain Dance Entei new meta

It just wants to be a good brother to Raikou. Suicune's a dick and Raikou just wants to set off 100% accurate thunders :(

Regardless I think it's a reference to the event that devastated the Burned Tower. Lightning struck it and rain happened during that and all that shiz

 

[jordanthejq12]

Entei is so selfless it will willingly weaken its own attacks for the sake of its brothers!

...anybody?

Anyway, so do the Legendary Birds. Considering two of them get Hurricane to abuse it, it makes a tad more sense for Moltres. Other Fire-types to learn Rain Dance include Heatmor, Litleo and Pyroar, and the Fennekin line. None of these get Thunder, Hurricane, or any Water move.

Meanwhile, there are Water-types who get Sunny Day! These are: Slowpoke and its evos, Vaporeon (Eevee), Corsola (have fun with that 4x effective Solar Beam), Remoraid and Octillery, Suicune, the Lotad line, Surskit (Bug-type, so I guess it helps), Bibarel (but of course), and Palkia (what 4x resist?). And Volcanion, but that's trading one STAB for another, much in the vein of Moltres in the rain.

 

[Karxrida]

Meanwhile, there are Water-types who get Sunny Day! These are: Slowpoke and its evos, Vaporeon (Eevee), Corsola (have fun with that 4x effective Solar Beam), Remoraid and Octillery, Suicune, the Lotad line, Surskit (Bug-type, so I guess it helps), Bibarel (but of course), and Palkia (what 4x resist?). And Volcanion, but that's trading one STAB for another, much in the vein of Moltres in the rain.

Several of those get Fire moves (Slowpoke line, Remoraid line, Palkia) or Solar Beam (Lotad and Surskit). The only ones that don't make sense are Suicune and Bibarel (if I remember my science correctly, coral are photosynthetic or whatever so it's not a massive stretch for Corsola to get it).

 

[Trainer10913]

Several of those get Fire moves (Slowpoke line, Remoraid line, Palkia) or Solar Beam (Lotad and Surskit). The only ones that don't make sense are Suicune and Bibarel (if I remember my science correctly, coral are photosynthetic or whatever so it's not a massive stretch for Corsola to get it).

Well, note that, as Kurona said, if Entei can learn Rain Dance as a reference to the Burned Tower incident, then that would explain Suicune learning Sunny Day as a result.

And as for Bibarel, well it builds dams doesn't it? If it used Rain Dance, would this not overflow the dam, thus causing it to be ineffective in normal, everyday Pokémon life? Therefore, it might have the ability to learn Sunny Day as a way of counteracting the heavy rainfall which would otherwise overflood the structures it builds!

 

[brightobject]

EVERY Pokemon that can learn TMs can learn Toxic, which means every Pokemon (aside those who can't learn TMS, and even then maybe...) must has some sort of venom gland.

Isn't this the case with Protect and Hidden Power as well? I'm thinking TM's modify the Pokemon, teaching them some unique method of synthesizing poison (Toxic), manipulating the environment to generate a protective field (Protect), or unlocking their inner genetic potential (HP), which makes sense if you consider how they look like (educational) CD's.

On the other hand it could also be the TM's, as discs, may be directly modifying the 'data' of the 'mons--perhaps there's some other mechanism( that's as of yet unknown) into which you insert the discs? Hooked on Toxic, anyone?

 

[Mulan15262]

Several of those get Fire moves (Slowpoke line, Remoraid line, Palkia) or Solar Beam (Lotad and Surskit). The only ones that don't make sense are Suicune and Bibarel (if I remember my science correctly, coral are photosynthetic or whatever so it's not a massive stretch for Corsola to get it).

Coral themselves aren't photosynthetic, though they depend on a symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic algae.

 

[dsm77773]

Entei is so selfless it will willingly weaken its own attacks for the sake of its brothers!

...anybody?

Anyway, so do the Legendary Birds. Considering two of them get Hurricane to abuse it, it makes a tad more sense for Moltres. Other Fire-types to learn Rain Dance include Heatmor, Litleo and Pyroar, and the Fennekin line. None of these get Thunder, Hurricane, or any Water move.

Meanwhile, there are Water-types who get Sunny Day! These are: Slowpoke and its evos, Vaporeon (Eevee), Corsola (have fun with that 4x effective Solar Beam), Remoraid and Octillery, Suicune, the Lotad line, Surskit (Bug-type, so I guess it helps), Bibarel (but of course), and Palkia (what 4x resist?). And Volcanion, but that's trading one STAB for another, much in the vein of Moltres in the rain.

Litleo, Pyroar and Bibarel, especially Bibarel, make a bit more sense as they're Normal-types. Also jordanthejq12 your baby (Lapras for those who don't know) gets Thunderbolt for no apparent reason.

Isn't this the case with Protect and Hidden Power as well? I'm thinking TM's modify the Pokemon, teaching them some unique method of synthesizing poison (Toxic), manipulating the environment to generate a protective field (Protect), or unlocking their inner genetic potential (HP), which makes sense if you consider how they look like (educational) CD's.

On the other hand it could also be the TM's, as discs, may be directly modifying the 'data' of the 'mons--perhaps there's some other mechanism( that's as of yet unknown) into which you insert the discs? Hooked on Toxic, anyone?

On Toxic I think I've got a clue. I've recently played Pokémon Red, and when you get the Toxic TM from Koga, he sais Toxic it is an ancient ninja technique, or at least, that it is a very old technique.
As for theories, I'm for the first one.

Also I don't know if this was mentioned, but Mew and Cryogonal are the only genderless Pokémon that get Attract (thus when they use the move, fails). Mew gets everything anyway and Cryogonal... oversight?

 

[SwampySwampert]

I just noticed that Tornadus can't learn Twister.

 

[jordanthejq12]

Litleo, Pyroar and Bibarel, especially Bibarel, make a bit more sense as they're Normal-types. Also jordanthejq12 your baby (Lapras for those who don't know) gets Thunderbolt for no apparent reason.

I'm not complaining, because, well, BoltBeam. (Not that it runs that, typically--neither does Aurorus or Frosslass. Now Rotom-Frost...) Now Regice, a pure Ice-type, does get Thunderbolt, although so do its brothers and master, and Legendaries typically have fairly wide movepools.

Now who doesn't learn Thunderbolt? Delphox, the Mage to Chesnaught's Fighter and Greninja's Thief. Now, this depends on your particular interpretation of a mage, but the ones I'm familiar with tend to be well-versed in elemental powers. But--note this--the only non-Legendary Fire-type with Thunderbolt is a Rotom forme. So for consistency's sake it does make sense, but Delphox's movepool is incredibly shallow for an archetype known for flexibility.

 

[dsm77773]

Groudon gets Thunder Wave.
Godgoat learns Aerial Ace by leveling-up, but does not get Grassy Terrain.