Groudon is based on the lithosphere. Lightning can come from the ground up, alternatively it is a reference to geothermal energy, OR the fact that electrical ash storms occur during volcanic eruptions (spewing out lava, which is associated with Groudon)
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
-
Congrats to the winners of the 2023 Smog Awards!
Pokémon Movepool Oddities & Explanations
- Thread starter Kurona
- Start date
Cryogonal is a snowflake so it's pretty as swag, that's just useless flavour if anything. And I can imagine Gogoat slashing with its horns in an Aerial Ace-y motion (although I admit that's odd).
This I can understand. Garchomp, being basically a shark that operates in the sand, could definitely glide above the sand at supersonic speeds chasing landbound predators. Just look at the way its body bends, it looks like it could jump into jet mode at any moment and rocket forwards. However, that same body type, along with its wings, don't bring to mind any sort of high-altitude soaring or anything. So they probably just mean flying at very low-heights.
Not sure about Dodrio/Doduo (personally it was probably done to give more Pokemon Fly out of the 151 Gen 1 mons), but they may have meant Vullaby still can't fly effectively.
Effectively enough to carry someone, hmm. Well, I always thought Dragonite doesn't look like it can fly with those short wings, until I saw somewhere that it's wings expand. So I guess Vullaby has a secret. Bone propellers? Maybe it has a Bowser Jr.-style Clown Car made out of its eggshell?
It does bother me that out of 14 Bug/Flying types, 0 learn Fly despite some of their Dex entries confirming they could carry at least one human. I'm not too miffed that Skynet's Poke-brainchild gets it, though.
One of the few Psychics that doesn't have access to Electric moves, I think.
I also find it strange how Reuniclus has Thunder, but not Thunderbolt.
Speaking of Electric moves, how does Volcarona use Magnet Rise? Can't it already just Fly anyways?
Magmortar gets Thunderbolt, but its pre-evolutions lack it (which was one of the first things I noted when I evolved Magmar back in Gen 4).
If it's any consolation for Delphox, in ORAS it now gets Shock Wave, a move most Fire-types don't receive. I guess being a "Fire"-type mage limits its range ofelemental mastery, which is a shame because I was hoping for some nice Ice or Water "magic" like Icy Wind in its updated movepool.
...Wait it gets Rain Dance? I guess that's some sort of Water magic for Delphox.
The Pokédex talks of Larvesta rumored to have been born from the sun, which is known to have a magnetic field that extends through space. I think the Larvesta line having Magnet Rise would be a reference to this, but I don't know what they're doing to create a strong enough field for them to be levitating from the ground.
Well personally I think the following Mega Pokemon should get the following moves:
Charizard X: I think they should add in a mechanic where if the Pokemon is holding their Mega Stone they can learn certain moves. I say this because Mega Charizard X is asking to have Outrage but it needs to get it via Egg Move or Tutor. I think they could maybe have the Move Relearner teach it as long as its holding its Mega Stone. Also I think it should be able to learn Draco Meteor while its holding its Mega Stone.
Charizard Y: To take advantage of Drought even more think it should also get Sunny Day and Weather Ball. Just for fun I would also say Growth even though its not a plant (though oddly Growth isn't a Grass-type move, its a Normal)
Blastoise: Think it should be able to get all the Pulse moves easier.
Kanhaskan: Give it Seismic Toss and Assurance, maybe also Night Shade, Drain Punch and Dragon Tail. I'm thinking ways for it to abuse Parental Bond just like it does with Power-Up Punch.
Pinsir & Salamence: EXTREME SPEED!
Gyarados: It just needs more Dark-type attacks. Assurance, Beat Up, Knock Off, and Pursuit would be fine additions; maybe also Sucker Punch.
Mewtwo X: As I said, it should get Close Combat or at the vest least Superpower.
Ampharos & Sceptile: They should be able to learn Draco Meteor, just show it to the person holding their Mega Stone and the tutor should sense they have the potential to learn it.
Heracross: I think Bone Rush wouldn't be out of the question. Maybe Icicle Spear.
Gardevoir: Hmm, it gets Hyper Voice so I guess Uproar, Swift, Trump Card. Maybe Boomburst for for lulz.
Pidgeot: Remember it also gets Heat Wave via Move Tutor. Others I think it should get is Focus Blast, Mud Bomb, Leaf Tornado, Charge Beam, Icy Wind, and Snarl; maybe even Thunder and Blizzard because it has No Guard let's use it.
Sharpedo: It's a Water-type so what? Just give it Fire and Thunder Fang.
Altaria: Guess a mix of what I said for Pinsir, Salamence, and Gardevoir.
Audino: If its meant to be the medic at least give it Recover and Heal Bell so it can heal/cure itself so it can stay out in battle longer for Healer to take effect.
Charizard X: I think they should add in a mechanic where if the Pokemon is holding their Mega Stone they can learn certain moves. I say this because Mega Charizard X is asking to have Outrage but it needs to get it via Egg Move or Tutor. I think they could maybe have the Move Relearner teach it as long as its holding its Mega Stone. Also I think it should be able to learn Draco Meteor while its holding its Mega Stone.
Charizard Y: To take advantage of Drought even more think it should also get Sunny Day and Weather Ball. Just for fun I would also say Growth even though its not a plant (though oddly Growth isn't a Grass-type move, its a Normal)
Blastoise: Think it should be able to get all the Pulse moves easier.
Kanhaskan: Give it Seismic Toss and Assurance, maybe also Night Shade, Drain Punch and Dragon Tail. I'm thinking ways for it to abuse Parental Bond just like it does with Power-Up Punch.
Pinsir & Salamence: EXTREME SPEED!
Gyarados: It just needs more Dark-type attacks. Assurance, Beat Up, Knock Off, and Pursuit would be fine additions; maybe also Sucker Punch.
Mewtwo X: As I said, it should get Close Combat or at the vest least Superpower.
Ampharos & Sceptile: They should be able to learn Draco Meteor, just show it to the person holding their Mega Stone and the tutor should sense they have the potential to learn it.
Heracross: I think Bone Rush wouldn't be out of the question. Maybe Icicle Spear.
Gardevoir: Hmm, it gets Hyper Voice so I guess Uproar, Swift, Trump Card. Maybe Boomburst for for lulz.
Pidgeot: Remember it also gets Heat Wave via Move Tutor. Others I think it should get is Focus Blast, Mud Bomb, Leaf Tornado, Charge Beam, Icy Wind, and Snarl; maybe even Thunder and Blizzard because it has No Guard let's use it.
Sharpedo: It's a Water-type so what? Just give it Fire and Thunder Fang.
Altaria: Guess a mix of what I said for Pinsir, Salamence, and Gardevoir.
Audino: If its meant to be the medic at least give it Recover and Heal Bell so it can heal/cure itself so it can stay out in battle longer for Healer to take effect.
Other odd Rain Dance learners: Rhyhorn family, Moltres, Ho-Oh, Aron family, Baltoy family, Cranidos family, Shieldon family, Golett family, Heatmor, and Litleo family.
There is some defense for Moltres, Entei, and Ho-Oh being they're Legendary Pokemon so manipulating weather is just an example of their power (also its believed the original Entei was a Flareon).
Now it could be for the Fire-types they can just speed up the evaporation process. Baltoy and Golett can use their supernatural powers to manipulate the weather.
But Aron, Cranidos, and Shieldon? I have no clue for them.
I know others have commented but here is my take:
Slowpoke family cause they're slightly based on salamanders.
Vaporeon comes from Eevee which is a family of elemental creatures.
Corsola and Lotad either use photosynthesis or rely on creatures using photosynthesis as Mulan15262 said.
Remoraid family based on weapons and can learn Fire-type attacks.
Suicune, Volcanion, and Palkia are Legendaries. Also like Entei, Suicune is thought to be originally a Vaporeon; Volcanion's gimmick is steam; and Palkia is the lord of space which has all sorts of heat weirdness going on.
Surskit doesn't stat Water-type for long.
Bibarel makes dams out of mud so could use Sunny Day to dry mud faster.
They never were specific on how TMs work. The Special Manga had Pokemon listen to them like they're instructional tapes and FRLG just had them applied to them.
I've heard your theory about the Pokemon learning the moves via taught to them when they're in their "data" form which I guess makes the most sense. Though still I would have thought the TMs were just making it so the Pokemon could use their power in a new way, not adding a poison sac to their biology.
Yeah, Delphox should be learning a few more elemental special attacks. I think we've talked about this somewhere before.
It not getting Grassy Terrain is BS, but it learning Aerial Ace makes sense. Aerial Ace, or Swallow Return going by its original Japanese name, is based on a sword technique called "Turning Swallow Cut". So its actually a slashing move thus can use its horn as brightobject said.
Adding onto brightobject, we do see Garchomp doing some low flying in the anime. One of these instances was the the second XY episode where Sycamore's Garchomp goes nuts and runs off. It as first flies but when it decides to go up Lumiose Tower it flies as high it can get and then starts climbing the rest of the way up.
Doduo family I don't know, they can jump really high so maybe they learned also how to use their feathers to glide and descend slowly to make it look like they can fly? And maybe wild Vullaby can't fly as they're under the constant care of their parent Mandibuzz.
Bothers me due to Sky Battles but those look like they're being phased out anyway. And like Garchomp it was brought up that maybe they don't fly since bugs usually don't fly at high
altitudes but I call BS on that because these are Pokemon besides I don't need or want my Pokemon to carry me that high anyway. I got Latios/Latias Soaring for that.
I personally think Bug-types need their own variation of Magnet Rise to make up to them and any other flying Pokemon that don't get a Ground-type resist. They can call it Flutter or something.
Last edited:
calm down satan
I definitely agree that Charizard, Ampharos and Sceptile (I think that's all the Pokémon that get Dragon by Mega?) should get Draco Meteor by tutor tho. Mega Charizard Y with Draco Meteor also sounds like a fun abusable side effect...
Last edited:
Oh like it matters post Mega Rayquaza, anything goes!
Oh yeah, Sceptile, forgot about it. I added it to the list alongside Ampharos. But yeah, those right now are all the Mega Pokemon that become part Dragon-type, though my idea also goes for future Mega Pokemon who may change to be part Dragon-type. And I'll admit my intention of allowing Charizard X learning Draco Meteor was mainly so that Charizard Y could have access to it (not that MCX can't make use of it, but it probably prefers physical moves like Outrage).
And since it was funny the first two times, here's odd Pokemon who learn the two remaining weather moves:
Sandstorm: Gyarados, SHEDINJA, Groudon, Rayquaza, Helioptile family
Hail: Dratini family, Skrelp family, Goodra
Admittedly it's not a lot since those weather conditions don't increase a type's power and you can make excuses for a lot of Pokemon, but these just stand out (especially Shedinja learning Sandstorm).
Actually Shedinja should be good for a few laughs, let's see:
Harden (I don't think increasing its Defense is going to help much...)
Leech Life (what HP does it need to heal?)
Sandstorm (if you want a funny suicidal lead to set up a sandstorm)
Rest (don't worry, in one hit I think it'll be resting for much longer)
Dream Eater (while it does a nice amount of damage, not only it is Special once again there's no HP to heal)
Substitute (even if it worked not only would Shedija faint, that sub wouldn't even last one hit. Sandstorm would break it)
Confide (lower the opponent's Special Attack all you want, it'll still knock you out by blowing on you)
Final Gambit (OH NO! 1 HP of direct damage, how would the opponent ever survive?)
Giga Drain (... *sigh*)
Here's some moves Shedinja could really use: Endeavor & Pain Split. I can also see it making use of Guard Swap and maybe even Power Swap.
How about just the fact that Groudon gets Thunder itself. Nothing says a good Thunder user than a physical ground type with an ability that lowers the accuracy of Thunder to 50%
Oh I know. I just find it funny. But you would think the VOLCANO Pokemon Entei would learn some electric moves for the same reason.
Well, it does have 150 SpA in Primal forme. So Primal Kyogre decides to switch in on you...surprise!
That's just a crazy enough idea to be a usable gimmick!
Dratini and its line live in the sea, and almost every Water-type learn Hail so I guess it comes from that. Also Dragonair can change the weather to w/e it wants to (Pokédex).
Final Gambit Shedinja it's quite good. It can break Sashes, kill those Sturdy with 1HP left, guarantee a free switch, surprise the opponent... all at such a low cost.
I know, as I said you can make an excuse for most of them. I just listed the ones I found funny:
Gyarados, Dratini family, and Goodra are dragons (or at least dragon-like) and on top of that the Dratini family specifically have weather control power.
Groudon & Rayquaza are Legendaries and on top of that they control weather.
Helioptile family live in the desert.
Skrelp family are, as you said, aquatic life which normally get Hail (and Dragalga is a dragon so there's also that mysticism element to it like the above dragons have).
Though its inaccurate, but then you could either choose Earthquake or Thunder Punch which would probably still hit harder. Too bad it didn't get Wild Charge, that could have really helped.
It makes perfect sense, but still . . .
Abomasnow used Synthesis!
Abomasnow: HAHA! 50% of my HP back! You'll never defe-
*looks up at the flurry of snowstorms around it*
Abomasnow: Oh for Arceus' sake . . .
Abomasnow used Synthesis!
Abomasnow: HAHA! 50% of my HP back! You'll never defe-
*looks up at the flurry of snowstorms around it*
Abomasnow: Oh for Arceus' sake . . .
Also Helioptile has Sand Veil as a possible ability, so its line learning sandstorm isn't that weird. Helioptile also lives in the desert as you said.
Shedinja gets Hone Claws despite having no arms.
Those two brown things are its claws.