When Trace backfires

[Gardevoir]

Under what circumstances would the Trace ability backfire on the user?

I can think of Truant and Slow Start, but are there other abilities that would leave the user in a less than ideal situation?

 

[eveNewie]

Maybe Dry Skin, Klutz, Normalize, Stall~

 

[Toshi0220]

Using it on something with Mold Breaker? It just wouldn't work period, so that probably doesn't count..

Hustle? Most (All?) pokemon to learn Trace use Special Attacks, so boosting Attack and losing accuracy wouldn't be good :|

 

[Hipmonlee]

If you had a pokemon with a beneficial status and you switched into a poke with a trait that removed it? Uhh.. Hustle could make you miss. Huge Power could cause you to hurt yourself more when confused. Static or Poison Point might status a pokemon with guts if they switch? Electric Engine or speed boost might be annoying if you specifically wanted to be slower for some reason (maybe you want to trick room?) or if you were against a poke with psych up maybe.

Basically there are millions of extremely weird situations like these.. Anything could prove costly in some scenarios.

Have a nice day.

 

[Yoshi King]

Using it on something with Mold Breaker? It just wouldn't work period, so that probably doesn't count..

Hustle? Most (All?) pokemon to learn Trace use Special Attacks, so boosting Attack and losing accuracy wouldn't be good :|

Serebii really needs to fix the description of Mold Breaker.

Mold Breaker does not stop abilities outright. It stops any ability that would prevent you from being able to attack that Pokemon with that move (for example, you can hit a Levitator with Earthquake, or a water Absorb pokemon with a water move). That's it. So it's actually useful to Trace... I think.

 

[Masquerain]

Tracing Stall, Color Change, Iron Fist, Plus, Minus, Reckless, Skill Link, Swarm, and Illuminate won't help much either.

 

[Skiks]

Tracing Slow Start. Ouch. But I don't think thats too likely to happen.

 

[Necrochild313]

I'm guessing the Diamond/Pearl Battle Tower is smart enough to give Sableye lagging tail, because when my Scarfevoir traced Stall the Sableye always went first.

 

[TheMantyke]

Tracing Stall, Color Change, Iron Fist, Plus, Minus, Reckless, Skill Link, Swarm, and Illuminate won't help much either.

If a porygon has signal beam, swarm can kinda be useful.

 

[Vine Whip]

Using it on something with Mold Breaker? It just wouldn't work period, so that probably doesn't count..

Hustle? Most (All?) pokemon to learn Trace use Special Attacks, so boosting Attack and losing accuracy wouldn't be good :|

Gallade actually learns Trace.

 

[Mario With Lasers]

Gallade actually learns Trace.

Sadly, only Steadfast. Curse you, Game Freak.