Making Something Out Of Nothing: Fixing Do-Nothing Additions To The Game
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Art by Zatqer.
Intro
From Choice Band in ADV to Stealth Rock in DPP to Regenerator in BW, each generation has brought in juggernauts that have reshaped the landscape of competitive Pokémon. Some moves have experienced their time in the limelight, other abilities quietly restructure certain matchups, and even more items provide tricks to hide up every trainer's sleeves. However, with every generation bringing in many new moves, abilities, and items, some are certain to not make a Splash in players’ minds as they Hold Hands and Celebrate over each new generation’s releases.
This doesn’t have to be the case, however. Sure, nobody is waiting in Anticipation to explore both sides of the debate, Plus and Minus, of Magician’s competitive relevance, but Game Freak has more than once gone into the fabric of reality in the Pokémon world to adjust things; after all, Granbull went from folding to Fighting-type moves to resisting them over the course of a boat trip to Kalos.
While not every option needs to be to the standards set by Intimidate or Draco Meteor, they can at the very least matter. Although all of these suggestions will be one possibility, that doesn’t mean they’re the only possibility!
The Blueprint (Stench, Pick Up)
In DPP, Galactic Commander Jupiter used a Skuntank as an ace. Even in the cases where your team was woefully underprepared to handle it, players worldwide could rest comfortably knowing that its ability did precisely nothing. Prior to XY, Stench’s use-case was as a half-as-effective Repel but only when the Pokémon was in your first position.
Pickup, depending on how you played RSE, is either burned into your long-term memory of building up cash reserves or that one ability that caused your Zigzagoon to randomly be holding an item you definitely didn’t give to it. It languished in that purgatory until SM, where it was given the overhaul that would launch it into competitive stardom. Well, it didn’t, but it gave it actual use, however hilariously niche.
For Stench, XY brought it a small chance to cause the target to flinch whenever it attacked successfully, a simple yet underwhelming boost to an ability that otherwise did precisely nothing. Pickup’s boon in SM was more complex, however, but arguably even more underwhelming. Should a Pokémon with Pickup not have an item and be on the field when an item is used (think a Sitrus Berry being eaten or a White Herb being consumed), at the end of the turn it will take the item for itself.
While entirely forgettable boosts, they join an ever-growing list of niche additions to the competitive environment, escaping their former allies in purgatory facing down the endless nothingness of being entirely irrelevent. You'll never be using Skuntank for the flinch chance, but you'll never be upset if it ever happens.
The Abilities
Run Away
Run Away might be the easiest to go from current state to competitively viable. While a joy in-game enabling successful escapes anytime, Game Freak for some reason never let that convert to actual battles. Allowing a niche ability to bypass effects such as Shadow Tag and Fire Spin’s trapping cannot possibly be so overpowered as to make it impossible, making this ability an easy fix.
Illuminate
Illuminate serves the arguably detrimental effect of boosting random Pokémon encounters by 100%. No Guard and Arena Trap, two powerful competitive abilities, share this out-of-battle effect with Illuminate, but unfortunately Illuminate comes with no competitive relevance. The idea of the ability, the Pokémon lighting up the space around it, could be paired with the secondary definition of the word, to provide clarity.
Even disregarding the easy solution of Illuminate providing some knowledge on the opposing Pokémon’s set in the style of Frisk, another solution is possible. In line with the way Game Freak buffed Stench and Pickup, allowing Illuminate to clear Evasion boosts on entering the field would be almost the perfect flavor of “this buff does so little” that Game Freak has seemed fond of.
Ball Fetch and Honey Gather
Ball Fetch and Honey Gather are particularly flavorful abilities. Picking up thrown Pokeballs and a chance to pick up Honey are generational evolutions of the original Pickup, but they come with a harder challenge to make them fit the flavor profile when approaching them competitively.
Ball Fetch, when pushed to the limits of what a dog might consider a ball, could act in a similar manner to Bulletproof. Rather than just full immunity as Bulletproof provides, a Pokémon with Ball Fetch could instead take half damage from the attack, returning the "ball" to the attacking Pokémon and "sharing" that damage with them. Alternatively, it could interact with an opposing Pokémon's item, perhaps grabbing the item as the foe switches out if it's not already holding an item.
Honey Gather seems like a fairly limited flavor profile. Sweet, yes, but limiting. Rather than gathering as an act taken by a Pokémon, a build-up of honey as a natural result of the more passive type of gathering could provide competitive effect. Those who've experienced Sticky Traps in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon may see the flavor value of an opposing Pokémon's item nullified, in which the competitive value should be evident. Alternatively, the idea of Sticky Webs being placed automatically on switching in a Honey Gather Pokémon seems well within Game Freak's balancing philosophy.
The Moves
Splash
An unspoken understanding of Pokémon is that Splash can and should do nothing. Even the playground rumors were not that Splash did OHKO under certain conditions, but rather that Magikarp could learn other moves. As a Z-Move, Splash gave the user +3 Attack, the only non-omniboost move to boost past +2.
It’s hard to imagine what Splash could do, even if you break through the mental prison of Splash being allowed to have value at all. A Protect clone is a viable solution, or it could serve as an evasion or Speed (or both!) boost, Splash could provide some negating benefit as the opposing trainer stares on in shock, or a Speed boost as if it's limbering up for a feat of acrobatics.
Celebrate and Hold Hands
Moves born out of Nintendo-run events, Celebrate and Hold Hands have amusing animations but otherwise do nothing. Omniboosts as Z-moves, Celebrate received attention during that era for its use on Pokémon like Victini. Hold Hands, a move that will fail when used in singles, is less distributed as well, limited to just three Pokémon.
Hold Hands does not need to be limited to doubles formats mechanically. While a Helping Hand or Friend Guard clone is a fairly easy implementation, the flavor of that level of connection belies what could be more. Psych Up allows a Pokémon to copy its opponent's stat changes, perhaps Hold Hands could allow a Pokémon to do the opposite, to copy its own stat changes to a target.
Celebrate has a bit of a wider range of interpretations saddled with a unique, limited, yet wide distribution. Perhaps Celebrate would be in a way the opposite of Retaliate, a move that does damage and increases in power if the opposing party just had a Pokémon faint the turn before. Macabre to celebrate the opposing Pokémon's removal from battle, but who hasn't done a fist-pump when a prediction pays off on the ladder?
Happy Hour
Finally, Happy Hour is another event move, but with the notable difference of actually doing something, just not battle-relevant. Using the move in battle will result in doubling the amount of money you receive after the battle. Unlike Pay Day, Happy Hour does no damage and has no other effect.
While there is a lot that can be derived from the name’s origin flavor-wise, it seems unlikely that Game Freak would lean so heavily in that direction. However, the idea of things being cheaper can be applied in a manner to held items - there’s already plenty of ways to mess with held items. Perhaps on using a consumable held item, Happy Hour could restore that item to make it be usable again. After all, it’s Happy Hour, two items for the price of one!
Extending the Concept: The Items
Over the generations, plenty of items have come and gone with varying levels of use. While many have some niche in-game usage, plenty more are designed for other uses. For example, there even are certain generations where TMs can be given to Pokémon to hold, and the OM Broken Record explores the logical conclusion of that mechanic here.
Empty Pokeballs (and variants) are items that can be held by Pokémon, which could perhaps evolve into a Rivalry-style boost, dealing more damage against Pokémon of the same Pokeball type that it is holding. Alternatively, if Game Freak doesn’t want to explore the mind games of Pokeballs being used against each other (who hasn’t used their Master Ball against the box art legendary?), they can provide a defensive boost when the held Pokeball matches the used Pokeball of a Pokémon.
Evolutionary items can also be held, from typing Stones that evolve plenty of Pokémon like the Thunder Stone to the varied specific items like Magmarizer and Whipped Dream. While most of those items provide no use in battle, some uniquely do. Clamperl gains stat increases based on the Deep Sea Scale or Deep Sea Tooth it holds, Metal Coat boosts Steel-type moves, and King's Rock and Razor Claw give a chance to flinch and increase critical hit ratio when held, respectively. Those three areas of the game open a wide variety of potential battle use for an ever-growing list of in-game items that don't ever influence the battle. Perhaps the Thunder Stone acts like a Magnet, or the Upgrade makes Porygon2's Download give a +2 boost. Though perhaps we don't need more effects like King's Rock and Razor Claw.
Conclusion
With nine generations, we’ve gone from 151 Pokémon to over 1,000 and have seen a similar increase in moves, abilities, and items. In a competitive environment with such level of variety, it’s not surprising that a large number of those options are considered less viable than others. However, options that provide absolutely no upside will never see any use, bar situations like Z-Moves that breathe new life into moves like Celebrate.
It’s not hard to imagine a world where Game Freak re-explores the moves, abilities, and items that have been given no battle relevance. They’ve re-explored things before, from things like Stench and Pickup to introducing entirely new types.
While any of the ideas in this article are not legitimate candidates for a future generation, it’s an exploration of what could be done with a little bit of creativity and interpretation.
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