Sylveon is the only one who's vaguely non-terrible because it has another Ability to use instead.
Honestly, Sylveon generally doesn't do anything except spam Pixilate Hyper Voice
anyway, so being denied the
pretension of coverage isn't really that big a change for it. In fact, having Psyshock Pixilated is actually pretty darn good, assuming the -ate Abilities retain the damage boost, since it becomes STAB+gets a 30% increase in power, nearly doubling its effectiveness against neutral targets, not even getting into the fact that Fairy is a much better offensive type than Psychic. (And no, Psyshocking Poison types isn't
at all effective in Standard, because they're heavily weighted toward having good Defense)
I also disagree with Mega Gardevoir being useless. It's not
as bad as Sylveon about "what's coverage?" but generally if you're using it you're using it to spam Hyper Voice -about the only thing it loses is the ability to Hidden Power Ground Heatran, which isn't even as effective as you might think it is. Again, in some ways it's
nice to be able to -ate Psyshock (Even if Mega Gardevoir already has STAB on it), and Gardevoir's movepool includes a lot of cool things like Will O Wisp -it's not at
all unusual for me to have only two attacking moves on Gardevoir (Keeping in mind I trend toward Hyper Offense and Mega Gardevoir is all about murdering things), so it's not a huge hit to it.
But yeah this
seriously screws over all the other -ated Pokemon, whom are only good for the combination of ridiculous power
and actual coverage. (Mega Salamence would be un-ban-worthy, because it wouldn't be able to use Earthquake as coverage) I'd really prefer something like "the first move is -ated" to "all moves are -ated".
We have a tie in the votes for 'Trump Card'! Along with the submissions, which option would you go for and why?
Well, it's probably unsurprising to hear I'm personally inclined toward Fighting, but I'd really rather other people chime in.
I'll tag you guys if I have to. Don't make me tag you.
Take Down
Steel type
Why: Take Down is basically "Double Edge before you're high enough level to learn Double Edge", so... same typing. There's even a decent number of Pokemon that get Take Down but not Double Edge, so it's not
completely redundant.
Thrash
Ghost type
Why: The Japanese is
Violent Struggle, and frankly I'm really struggling to find a good type for it, so I'm going with the interpretation that Thrash is a life-and-death sort of thing (Its name in Japanese is similar to Struggle, except Struggle is in vain vs this is violent) and going with Ghost. Plus it gives Ghost coverage to stuff.
Razor Wind
Flying type
Why: Honestly, I never got why Gust became Flying type in Gen II but not Razor Wind. I know it's a kamataichi reference, I've known it for years, it still doesn't make sense to me. (To be fair, Flying type makes it overlap with Sky Attack, but that's never stopped Game Freak before. I mean, come on, it overlaps with Skull Bash as-is, and Skull Bash is almost decent! Razor Wind is just terrible, whatever type you give it)
Natural Gift
Grass type
Why: You use a Berry to determine power, effect, and actual type. Not only is the listed type meaningless (We're gonna need to figure out what type Chilan Berry produces, by the by) but come on, why isn't it
already Grass type? It's called "Nature's Blessing" in Japanese for crying out loud!
After You
Dragon type
Why: Same regal reasoning as Quash.
Assist
Fairy type
Why: Our trend with cat Pokemon is equally split between Fairy and Dark, and Assist strikes me as a more "cute" move than an underhanded one -flavor-wise, I mean. Competitively, V-Create Contrary Spinda would place it firmly in Dark.
Attract
Fairy type
Why: I'm trying to think of a way of explaining my reasoning that isn't "Duh this is obvious" and I'm failing. I mean, if other people want to produce other entries they're free to do so, but I kinda doubt anybody will.
Focus Energy
Fighting type
Why: Pumping yourself up, found on a number of Fighting types (Plenty of other things too, but once you ignore Normal I think Fighting is the single most common one, eyeballing the list), etc.
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Spike Cannon
Recipients: Heracross, Scizor, Escavalier, Cacturne, Samurott
Why: Heracross should be several layers of obvious (Skill Link Mega, arm-guns, spikiness, albeit it's only an improvement over Earthquake by virtue of being multi-hit), Scizor is a bit more questionable for launching spikes but
could be believable and gets Technician while lacking Earthquake, Escavalier, Cacturne, and Samurott are all other users who lack Earthquake, are plausible as spiky guys (Even if launching is iffy for the non-Cacturne ones), and are Physically oriented. (I originally wanted to give it to Roserade until I checked and saw just how much better at Special than Physical it is)
Extreme Speed
Recipients: Pidgeot, Sharpedo, Ninjask, Rapidash, Beedrill
Why: Hoo boy. This is hard. Most Pokemon that make sense already get it, or are sufficiently good I'm scared to give it to them, such as Garchomp. But as for what I went with... Pidgeot is supposed to be able to fly at Mach speeds, Ninjask is supposed to move so fast you literally
can't see it, Rapidash is a fast Fire type that appreciates it and is low-tier (And it really is supposed to be
very fast), Sharpedo is supposed to be quite fast itself and appreciates the Fire coverage, and Beedrill... well, I covered it for Quick Attack already.
Tail Slap
Recipients: Ambipom, Persian, Dragalge
Why: Frankly, Ambipom is the only Technician and/or Skill Link Pokemon that doesn't get it and makes anything remotely resembling sense to get it. I was originally going to give it to more stuff, until it occurred to me... Return. Not much point, why strain my brain?
EDIT: Then I went back to my previous entry and remembered that yes Dragalge is a cool possibility, albeit gimmicky, and why shouldn't Persian be included in the fun, even if Technician will only occasionally place it above Return?
However, I applaud Ghoul King for his dedication.
/takes a bow
But seriously, other people should post stuff too! You can just focus on spreading around moves if you think your entries on re-typing will be redundant!
