Signature Moves in STABmons

By Fc. Released: 2022/10/08.
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Signature Moves in STABmons art

Art by Shadowshocker.

Introduction

STABmons! In this metagame, any Pokémon can use any non-restricted move that shares a typing with itself, another out-of-battle forme, or a pre-evolution. This leads to an interesting dynamic of previously inaccessible signature moves being widespread. In this Other Metagame, how do the strongest of moves from the strongest of Pokémon like Zygarde and Marshadow fare? Let's find out as we dive into the realm of Pokémon that are mostly OU-legal firing off these powerful attacks without a second thought.

Moves

Thousand Waves / Shore Up

One of Zygarde's four signature moves, Thousand Waves is the most viable one in STABmons, as Thousand Arrows is restricted. Trapping foes is invaluable, and many Ground-types use it to great potential. Shore Up is another Ground-type move, gifted by Palossand, and it improves the viability of many walls in the tier.

Hippowdon

Hippowdon takes full advantage of having an even better Ground-type move to throw off, trapping switch-ins like Ferrothorn and Clefable. Since they can't double switch out of the passive Hippowdon, wallbreaker teammates like Buzzwole and Excadrill get much easier entry on these trapped Pokémon. Shore Up also heals 2/3rds HP in Sand, which is a huge boost compared to Slack Off.

Excadrill

Excadrill is one of STABmons's most dangerous Pokémon, as it can be a utility wallbreaker or a strong setup sweeper. The loss in power from Earthquake to Thousand Waves isn't very noticeable, especially when boosted, so Excadrill is a great user of Thousand Waves's trapping ability. Thousand Waves ensures that its few checks such as Ferrothorn and Buzzwole are forced to stay in as it can switch out, letting teammates such as Clefable set up entry hazards or chip them with Rocky Helmet. It doesn't always use Shore Up, but support Rapid Spin sets become very hard to take down if they constantly heal off chip damage from Stealth Rock setters like Clefable.

Seismitoad

Seismitoad makes its return from the early days of OU as a defensive pivot, and an incredible one at that. It most often runs a moveset comprised entirely of new moves: Spikes, Flip Turn, Shore Up, and Thousand Waves, Seismitoad really appreciates what STABmons has to offer. It's one of the best answers to sand teams with Excadrill and Dracozolt, and all its new tools give Seismitoad what it wishes for in standard play: a pivoting move, recovery, and a way to punish defensive answers in Thousand Waves. It's one of the best glue Pokémon in the metagame, and it will consistently be at the top due to its new moves. Water Absorb stops all the opposing Pokémon with Flip Turn as new movepool additions like Keldeo and Toxapex, which is very important for most teams, as they gain heavy momentum against almost any other Pokémon.

Mudsdale

Normally residing in NU, Mudsdale has emerged as one of the best walls in STABmons. Stamina gives it the ability to blanket check most physical attackers in the tier including Aerodactyl and Fire Lash Cinderace, and it is one of the best answers to the best Pokémon in the tier, Tyranitar. With reliable recovery, it's incredibly hard to take down, and the utility it offers with Spikes, reliable recovery, and great walling potential is irreplaceable on certain teams.

No Retreat

Normally locked onto a mediocre Pokémon in Falinks, No Retreat is a terrifying boosting move on Pokémon with better stats. Being trapped is a small drawback compared to an omni boost, and Fighting-types can take advantage of this with pure wallbreaking power.

Buzzwole

Buzzwole is a terrifying sweeper with No Retreat, getting a boost to every stat on set up and even more Attack boosts as it gets KOs. Its coverage is almost perfect, and it fits on multiple archetypes from bulky offense to Sticky Web hyper offense, or even balance / stall with a more defensive U-turn / Close Combat / Roost / No Retreat set. Overall, Buzzwole's access to new moves makes it one of the scariest physical sweepers in the game.

Urshifu-R

With No Retreat removing its need to choose between a Choice Band Attack boost, Choice Scarf Speed boost, or Protective Pads, Urshifu-R thrives with its access to a new boosting option. It becomes very hard to revenge kill and can clean through teams with some support from teammates wallbreaking earlier. The loss of Final Gambit through its ban definitely nerfed this set, but it can still use Thunder Punch or Taunt to great success to apply pressure on Toxapex, which it would previously trade with using Final Gambit.

Fire Lash

Fire Lash is an incredible move, enabling strong Fire-type wallbreakers to wear down walls much easier. With the ability to attack and effectively set up, Fire-types can break down even defensive Water-types with coverage and pressure. Its lack of users is the main drawback, as very few Fire-types are physical attackers and even less would prefer to use it instead of Sacred Fire or Pyro Ball, but regardless, it finds a place to make Cinderace into one of the most devastating wallbreakers.

Cinderace

From one signature Fire-type move to another, Cinderace typically abandons Pyro Ball for Fire Lash in STABmons. With a Defense drop, almost nothing can reliably take on Cinderace as it pivots around. It eases prediction against bulky Pokémon like Toxapex as well, since Zen Headbutt normally struggles to 2HKO physically defensive sets, and specially defensive sets will be KOed by Fire Lash into Zen Headbutt. The initial lower power may be an issue sometimes, even hilariously failing to OHKO the 4x weak Ferrothorn, but the Defense drop is more than worth for the immense pressure it puts on switch-ins.

Dragon Ascent

Dragon Ascent has a case for being the single best signature move in STABmons due to its distribution and raw power, especially compared to other Flying-type moves. Many physical Flyting-types run the tier as devastating wallbreakers, and Dragon Ascent plays a key role in that as a STAB move with little drawback and high power. Many powerful offensive Pokémon lacking a Flying-type STAB move in standard play, such as Landorus-T, Zapdos-G, and Dragonite, have been banned thanks in large part to Dragon Ascent, showing its influence in the metagame.

Salamence

Equipped with more reliable STAB moves than ever, Salamence is a threatening wallbreaker to almost all balance teams in STABmons. Dragon Ascent is easy to spam, 2HKOing bulky Pokémon like Slowbro after a Dragon Dance or Moxie boost. The Defense drop does make Salamence easier to revenge kill by Pokémon like Tyranitar, but the newfound wallbreaking power to open up for its teammates or outright win games is greatly appreciated and skyrockets Salamence in viability.

Gyarados

Gyarados is almost identical to Salamence in that it's a Dragon Dance user with Intimidate and Moxie that loves having Dragon Ascent. Not having to use Bounce to get a Flying-type STAB move gives Gyarados an easier time threatening Toxapex and Slowbro. It also takes advantage of another new move in Surging Strikes to break boosting Pokémon like Iron Defense Skarmory. Behind a Substitute or with dual screens up, Gyarados becomes near unstoppable after a few boosts as it snowballs with Moxie or sets up more Dragon Dances safely with Intimidate.

Spectral Thief

Spectral Thief is held back by one thing: a lack of good users. With Dragapult and Aegislash banned, physical attacking Ghost-types are scarce outside of a few niche Pokémon. Despite that, Spectral Thief is still an incredible move that benefits a few Pokémon that are still legal in the tier.

Mimikyu

Spectral Thief Mimikyu is great at taking out No Retreat Pokémon other than Surging Strikes Urshifu-R and using them being trapped to its own advantage. On hyper offense teams, Mimikyu loves not having to use the weak Shadow Claw to wallbreak, and it's great insurance against other hyper offense teams if a setup sweeper gets out of hand.

Runerigus

Using an astounding 3 signature moves, Runerigus is able to have some viability due to it inheriting these through its solid typing. With newly acquired reliable recovery, it can actually stick around to fire off attacks, and Spectral Thief is one of the main reasons to use it. Runerigus shuts down Pokémon like Buzzwole trying to use No Retreat and walls Sand Rush users Excadrill and Dracozolt while threatening to steal Swords Dance and Dragon Dance boosts, respectively. It's a niche but potent wall that compresses roles not many Pokémon can.

Accelerock

Rock typing is incredible offensively in STABmons, pressuring metagame staples such as Tornadus-T, Thundurus-T, and Cinderace. Accelerock helps slow Pokémon hit those much faster examples that are weak to Rock-type coverage and gives new ways for Pokémon to shine offensively.

Tyranitar

The king of STABmons, Tyranitar uses Accelerock on most sets, as it gives a great advantage and fixes up its poor Speed. Without Accelerock, Tornadus-T and Rotom-H could simply pivot out on it, but they must be careful of taking massive damage if Tyranitar switches in to put the pressure on. With its massive Attack and a boosting item, almost nothing can switch into Tyranitar if it isn't a bulky Ground-type like Mudsdale. Tyranitar is the most effective user of its new movepool, often dropping everything it can learn normally for 4 new STAB moves, showing just how dominant it can become with some new additions to fix the few weaknesses it has naturally. Knock Off, reliable recovery, and a pivot option make it an incredible utility Pokémon, and Diamond Storm is more reliable STAB move than Stone Edge. It benefits a lot off its pre-evolution Pupitar, gaining Shore Up from that.

Aerodactyl

Aerodactyl stands right behind Tyranitar as the second best Rock-type in STABmons and is one of the biggest offensive threats the tier has to offer in general. With Rock Head negating recoil, Brave Bird and Head Smash are incredibly hard to switch into, and most Steel-types that want to are either neutral to one due to their dual typing or get hit too hard by Earthquake. Accelerock allows Aerodactyl to revenge kill faster threats including other Aerodactyl, something that many teams may actually need due to how hard it is to take down this monstrous wallbreaker. It also threatens the normal Flying-type targets that have boosted their Speed, so even though Aerodactyl may be outsped by Choice Scarf users and Zeraora, it's still very viable revenge killer for some teams with its already fairly high Speed and strong priority.

Terrakion

Terrakion is threatening enough as is with its high Attack and high powered STAB moves, but Accelerock gives it a little more of an edge. It's now a threatening revenge killer, able to pick off weakened Pokémon and force out boosted ones like Volcarona or a chipped Gyarados. Of course, it can just fire off the strongest attacks possible to decimate bulky teams, but Accelerocks gives Terrakion pressure against offensive teams that it previously may have been overwhelmed by, now threatening them with its high damaging priority. Terrakion also uses Diancie's signature move Diamond Storm, a move far more reliable than Stone Edge but with the same power, which is a huge buff.

The Broken and Banned

Certain signature moves outside of the obviously broken ones like Geomancy and Fishious Rend have been tried in STABmons but ultimately ended up too much for the tier to handle. Their wide distribution and no drawback power made going against them incredibly difficult, and they could determine whole matchups based on how many times a Pokémon could use them. With the exception of Baton Pass, STABmons restricts moves instead of banning them, meaning that Pokémon that learn these moves natively are still allowed to use them.

Precipice Blades

With high base power, passible accuracy, and a wide variety of users, Precipice Blades shaped the metagame by making many Ground-types almost impossible to deal with defensively. Excadrill, Garchomp, Landorus-T, and Mamoswine got huge boosts, while current niche threats like Diggersby could make great use of it as well. Life Orb Excadrill could even OHKO Slowbro and Ferrothorn after a Swords Dance, putting into perspective how strong it was when given to any Ground-type and why it was swiftly restricted.

Wicked Blow

Wicked Blow is one of the most over-tuned moves in all of Pokémon, with a solid base power and 100% crit rate, it turns all Dark-types into offensive monsters. Already top tier threats like Tyranitar and Weavile became near unstoppable with Wicked Blow legal, so it's no surprise it got restricted very quickly.

Oblivion Wing

Oblivion Wing heals a monstrous 75% of the damage dealt, and for an 80 Base Power move with as good of a typing as Flying, it's easy to see how it could be too much for the tier. Tornadus-T, Thundurus, and Celesteela, among others, could easily overwhelm teams after a boost, as it became incredibly difficult to take them out as chip damage was negated. Oblivion Wing let Pokémon forgo using a recovery move and gain coverage while still having a powerful healing option, which was too much for the tier given the strength of all the users.

Thunderous Kick

Thunderous Kick took some time to kick off in the tier, but once it gained traction, it was clear how incredible of a move it was. Dropping the Defense of the opponent for no drawback allowed the strongest of Fighting-types like Buzzwole, Urshifu-R, Kommo-o, and Terrakion to steamroll through checks with their coverage or pivoting options. While comparable to Fire Lash, there was a much wider range of powerful Fighting-types that could snowball too easily with just a single Defense drop, leading to its restriction.

Glacial Lance

A 130 Base Power move with no drawback and incredible coverage? While it may seem obvious this is broken like its counterpart Astral Barrage, Glacial Lance lasted for a while in the tier. Ice typing isn't exactly known for its offensive attackers, so the users were limited to mostly Weavile, Kyurem, and Mamoswine, with little variety. Even with this, though, on said Pokémon it was absurd, ripping through checks and being way too easy to repeatedly fire off, so it too was restricted.

Conclusion

When given access to any move from a Pokémon or its pre-evolution's typing, many can thrive that wouldn't have near the same viability without them. In particular, signature moves are some of the most interesting new additions to many Pokémon. Moves restricted to banned or generally bad Pokémon can be in the spotlight, letting some of the coolest moves in the game be free to use. If this metagame interests you, be sure to check out the STABmons resources thread to get a more in depth idea on the metagame, and join the Other Metagames room on PS! for live interaction or battles!

HTML by Ryota Mitarai.
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