Undervalued Moves

[OdioOmnus]

Exactly what it says on the box. Here's my contribution:

Swagger - It's definitely a bit of a gamble, but thanks to confusion damage being based on attack it can easily turn the tides against a physical sweeper. I've managed to swagger some lethal physical sweepers who proceeded to kill themselves in one-to-two hits (had to prevent switching first), for example a Rampardos.

 

[Eternal]

Exactly what it says on the box. Here's my contribution:

Swagger - It's definitely a bit of a gamble, but thanks to confusion damage being based on attack it can easily turn the tides against a physical sweeper. I've managed to swagger some lethal physical sweepers who proceeded to kill themselves in one-to-two hits (had to prevent switching first), for example a Rampardos.

Although that's based on pure luck. While having the other 50% to your demise.

Its not viable.

 

[Raverist]

On this note, here comes my one...

Snatch: It steals the effects of the foe's move, which means it could turn what makes Garchomp so broken against him if some physical sweeper uses it to nuke their attack up and leaving the dragon open, or it can turn a DDer's boosts into a waste.

Haze: I love this move personally. Nothing like watching the foe set up a BP chain only for the last pass to the receiver to be completely wasted by the loss of all boosts and drops.

 

[MetaNite]

Rock Tomb/Ice Wind: Use it on switch, and then you can proceed to outspeed and hopefully kill the foe. Best used on tanks.

 

[-Zer0-]

I used rock tomb on a Kingler, it wasn't bad.

 

[DDyarados]

Psycho Shift:

A really incredibly undurused move..although probably with good reason. The best poke for this imo is noctowl, beacuse it can't be hypnosised, and can psycho shift off any status that way.

 

[Kira]

Me First

Quite a few Pokemon use moves that are SE against themselves. Me First can be used to revenge kill many things with their own move.

 

[Intro1827]

Snore
On Serene Grace Pokémon, it makes Rest a lot more viable, which means that you're not crippled by status

 

[OdioOmnus]

Although that's based on pure luck. While having the other 50% to your demise.

Its not viable.

Certainly it doesn't beat having a reliable counter, but a well-timed Stagger can completely mess up your opponent's stride, causing premature switch-ins and lucky kills.

 

[RaikouLover]

any 100% accuracy move that has a more powerful counterpart. I always use flamethrower over Fire Blast, etc.

 

[Legacy Raider]

Counter and Mirror Coat: They are both amazingly underused. They can give something that has a relatively low damage output such as Swampert the ability to KO quite a few pokemon.
Many good battlers, when facing a Swampert or Blastoise, have the mindset that "this thing has no recovery, so lets chip away at its HP a bit at a time to take it out". Using Counter/Coat with good prediction can instantly take out one of their threatening sweepers, and can be repeated for both attacking spectrums, and then re-used with wish support.

 

[Kira]

Counter and Mirror Coat: They are both amazingly underused. They can give something that has a relatively low damage output such as Swampert the ability to KO quite a few pokemon.
Many good battlers, when facing a Swampert or Blastoise, have the mindset that "this thing has no recovery, so lets chip away at its HP a bit at a time to take it out". Using Counter/Coat with good prediction can instantly take out one of their threatening sweepers, and can be repeated for both attacking spectrums, and then re-used with wish support.

To add on to this I once used a Counter/Coat Gastrodon as he breeds with Wobb. Anyway Stockpile/Counter/Mirror Coat/Recover can be potentially deadly.

 

[Darth Meanie]

I certainly agree with Snatch being a underrated move. Counter and Mirror Coat are especially effective on the right teams as well.

Will o Wisp is also underused, people somehow forget just how beastly of a status burn is, -1 Attack and 12.5% of health a turn is powerful.

Magic Coat is also practically forgotten, but I think it bounces Stealth Rock back at your opponent. I'd say potentially more useful than Psycho Shift.

Also, Knock Off used properly is debilitating. But we know that.

Rain Dance and Sunny Day as well. 2x speed sweepers with boosted STAB moves set up in one turn? Nah...

Me First is very good, but there is no pokemon that can really effectively use it, except a Scarf Lucario. And who uses Scarfcario?

 

[I am Gengar]

I certainly agree with Snatch being a underrated move. Counter and Mirror Coat are especially effective on the right teams as well.

Will o Wisp is also underused, people somehow forget just how beastly of a status burn is, -1 Attack and 12.5% of health a turn is powerful.

Magic Coat is also practically forgotten, but I think it bounces Stealth Rock back at your opponent. I'd say potentially more useful than Psycho Shift.

Also, Knock Off used properly is debilitating. But we know that.

Rain Dance and Sunny Day as well. 2x speed sweepers with boosted STAB moves set up in one turn? Nah...

Me First is very good, but there is no pokemon that can really effectively use it, except a Scarf Lucario. And who uses Scarfcario?

Magic Coat does in fact NOT work on Stealth Rock.

 

[C. Falcon]

Psycho Shift:

A really incredibly undurused move..although probably with good reason. The best poke for this imo is noctowl, beacuse it can't be hypnosised, and can psycho shift off any status that way.

You should see my new Cress set using that.

Toxic them, then Rest Talk Sleep on to them and Repeat. ;) Pure Evil

 

[cim]

C. Falcon, not only is that Cress set not "new", it's consistently been "proven" that it's quite gimmicky and in general sacrifices three moveslots for the ability to Burn. It's not even a surprise as the Flame Orb message is telegraphed to your opponent.

Oh wait, no, you're running Toxic / Rest / Sleep Talk / Psycho Shift so that you can Toxic and sleep your opponent. You know what'd be better though? Probably Uxie, who can Toxic and Yawn. Plus Uxie actually carries an attack not named Charge Beam that Steels don't resist.

Please don't overuse words like "incredible" and "amazing". If people use them a lot, then they'll lose their meaning.

Swagger - Flip a coin. If heads, you gave your opponent a free Swords Dance. If tails, your opponent attacks itself with a 40 base power move with double the damage. Rinse and repeat. Do you really want to risk "heads" ever coming up?

Snatch - Actually a good move, albeit situational. However, Snatching a Recover or Substitute is just so cool.

Psycho Shift - DDayardos, moves aren't used for a reason, and Psycho Shift is no exception. Let's look at the statuses you can bounce back. Thunder Wave is typically used against sweepers who don't have room for Psycho Shift. Regardless, instead of a Shifter you could use a Ground type. Sleep and Freeze are not options (Sleep Talk Rest Psycho Shift is wasting 3 moves in exchange for a Sleep that takes longer than, and is less reliable than, Yawn). Burns are only used on physical attackers, and every Psycho Shifter I can think of uses Special attacks. Toxic is the most viable shift move, but instead you could carry, you know, Toxic, rather than Rest / Sleep Talk / Psycho Shift.

Flame Orb Cresselia suffers from some major problems: 12% damage per turn and 3 moveslots taken. This makes Cresselia much, much easier to 2HKO and basically ensures that it can't wall anything anymore.

Me First - The main problem is that very few Pokémon are (1) Faster than most everything and (2) Have decent Attack stats on both ends of the spectrum. While it's probably a life saver against a Salamence locked into Outrage, it's very situational and can't be relied on.

The rest of the moves are either forgotten due to not being spead around enough (WoW) or are actually awesome (Knock Off).

 

[Slickee]

Disable:

It's accuracy has been increased this gen, and in UU I've ran a Sub/Disable/Return/FP set that's had pretty great results. Sub on the switch, when they try to break the sub Disable them, as it will most likely be a strong STAB attack. A lot of the times the other moves at their disposal won't be able to break Kanga's Subs anymore, and I can Return/FP them to hell. It forces switch outs, which is always good for Stealth Rock damage, and it also offers free switch-ins for counters/set ups that would otherwise had been stopped if the Disabled move had been there.

Unfortunately I'm not 100% if there's any viable for Disable user in OU, I haven't looked into it.

 

[Petope]

Me First is very good, but there is no pokemon that can really effectively use it, except a Scarf Lucario. And who uses Scarfcario?

Slowking or Slowbro can abuse it with either Twave or Trick Room. I have beaten things like Gengar, Starmie and Lucario with that sort of strategy.

 

[cim]

Slowking or Slowbro can abuse it with either Twave or Trick Room. I have beaten things like Gengar, Starmie and Lucario with that sort of strategy.

Gengar could be OHKOd by Psychic, and Lucario be at the very least 2HKOd by Surf (plus it should be hitting you with an attack it resists), so I fail to see how Slowbro could do this for those Pokémon instead of just killing them. Starmie is the only thing there that the move would be beneficial for.

 

[Jibaku]

Fling- In doubles anyways. You can fling a King's Rock for a pseudo Fake Out effect. While it only works once, and doesn't have a priority (so you're forced to be faster than the opponent to get it to work, the move can be used anytime you want (so you are not limited to using it on the first turn), and is learned by more so it's a bt more flexible. Plus, it hits Ghosts.

Psycho Shift Cress is terrible kinda. Not only you have to take the burn damage, you also just telegraphed your move.

 

[Bourbon]

Substitute.

The value of this move can never be underestimated. Yeah, it blocks status. but Substitute is so much more than that. It's the ultimate strategy for aiding prediction. Take Gengar for example; normally you could just try and switch in Weavile or Scarftran on the Shadow Ball and take it out, but no; it uses Substitute instead! Now you either have to sacrifice your pokemon breaking it's Sub, or let something else eat two hits from Gengar. It's totally evil.

Then you've got awesome strategies like Sub + Encore, Sub + Calm Mind, Sub + Salac Berry, Sub + Focus Punch, Sub + Leech Seed... the list goes on. I usually have at least two pokemon with the move on every team I make. It's that important to me.

 

[Kira]

Substitute.

snip.

People actually undervalue Substitute? I am sure that most battlers recognize how potent the move can be.

 

[Playamania]

Revenge

This move was made for Hitmontops with Technician. Here's a quick calculation for you:

60 BP x 1.5 (Technician) = 90
90 x 1.5 (STAB) = 135

That's right, on a Technician Hitmontop, it's more powerful that Close Combat!

Now, you may think, "What about that annoying -3 priority?" Well, remember, Technotops will be carry a variety of Fake Out/Mach Punch/Bullet Punch, so priority is not an issue, as that are alternatives.

But it gets even better, Revenge has a special ability, which doubles it's strength if it takes damage from a direct attack on the same turn. So if you know you can survive an upcoming attack, you can hit the opponent with a 270 Base Power move, now that IS hefty.

 

[Legacy Raider]

Substitute.

The value of this move can never be underestimated. Yeah, it blocks status. but Substitute is so much more than that. It's the ultimate strategy for aiding prediction. Take Gengar for example; normally you could just try and switch in Weavile or Scarftran on the Shadow Ball and take it out, but no; it uses Substitute instead! Now you either have to sacrifice your pokemon breaking it's Sub, or let something else eat two hits from Gengar. It's totally evil.

Then you've got awesome strategies like Sub + Encore, Sub + Calm Mind, Sub + Salac Berry, Sub + Focus Punch, Sub + Leech Seed... the list goes on. I usually have at least two pokemon with the move on every team I make. It's that important to me.

I agree with this completely and wholeheartedly. Substitute is an excellent move on almost any sweeper, allowing it to both defend itself and choose an appropriate offense.

And adding to skiddle's list...

Sub + Boost Berry
Sub + Blaze/Torrent/Overgrow/Swarm
Sub + Flail/Reversal
Sub + Sucker Punch
...

 

[Jibaku]

@Playamania
Close Combat is 120 BP, x STAB, and that gives it 180 BP, which beats Revenge by a mile

Also iirc Technician doesn't boost Revenge when it gets its power boost as it bypasses the 60 BP limit