I’d go even further with regards to priority moves and say that they specifically exist because of gameplay implications first and foremost, and that informs the types that receive priority at all.
All of the types that get priority are on the slower side, when the priority move in question was introduced, with probably 1 major exception. Ignoring signature moves since in recent gens they have inexplicably put those on fast Pokémon, besides Rillaboom (let’s be honest Grassy Glide is its signature lol).
The exception to the rule is Normal-Type, which was very much a fast type in earlier Pokémon. However, I think this is also fuelled by gameplay. Quick Attack, Feint, and Extreme Speed don’t exist to buff Normal-Type so much as they exist to be a basic priority option for Pokémon of all types to have. Being that basic option for everything is kind of the whole point of Normal-Type. In particular, Fake Out could easily be an Electric-Type flavour (Shock Jolt or something) but being Normal-Type is better for gameplay because the point is to for sure flinch notwithstanding Protect or faster Fake Out, any typing would just be an add-on.
- Steel is a slow, defensive type
- Water is a tanky type of varying speeds. However, when Aqua Jet was introduced, the only real Water-Type speedsters were the new introduction Floatzel, and special attackers Starmie and Tentacruel. On the bulk, Water-Type had middling speed at best.
- Fighting-Type, nowadays, boasts many fast members. However, when Vacuum Wave was introduced back in Gen 2, they only ever reached fairy middling speeds. The fastest was Primeape, at 95 Speed. I think Mach Punch probably was created just to have a physical version because they decided Vacuum Wave should be special, but even in Gen IV newly introduced Infernape was the only real Fighting-Type speedster.
- While special Ghost-Type Pokémon tended to be fast (Gengar, Mismagius) they would never run Shadow Sneak, a much needed speed control option for the plethora of slow physical Ghost-Type Pokémon.
- Most Ice-Type Pokémon were also considerably slow, with the notable exceptions of new introductions Froslass and Weavile when Ice Shard was introduced, and Sneasel itself had decent speed. Since most Ice-Type Pokémon were specially inclined, this may have actually been introduced to help these two against scarfers, as they finally committed to making glass cannon style Ice-Type Pokémon in Gen IV.
- First Impression is barely a Bug-Type move, since its small distribution has a very wide range of different types. However, every single Pokémon that learns it has pretty low speed, especially compared to contemporary parallels (Falinks and Sirfetch’d lower than many Fighting-Type Pokémon now, Golisopod of course slow, Haxorus slower than many strong Dragon-Type Pokémon. [looking at the learnset they refocused on Bug-Type in gen 9 with Lokix and Slither Wing, 2 similarly slow Bug-Type Pokémon]. The exception is Durant, who’s fast anyway.
- Sucker Punch is very widely distributed and is mainly Dark-Type for flavour IMO. Dark-Type is also a decent neutral type, though, only resisted by Dark- and Steel-Type on introduction, and in many ways I view it as a Normal-Type attack that just dunks on Psychic-Type further lol. Also good to have widely distributed priority that’s strong against Ghost-Type since the other widely distributed priority does nothing to them…
None of the elemental faster types actually get priority moves, because they shouldn’t really need it. Earlier on, the “fast” types were really Electric-, Flying-, and Fire-Type, alongside the previously mentioned Normal-Type. The mentality seems to be “if you outspeed anyway just use Thunderbolt, sorry Ampharos”.
Thinking about it, the whole quick attack being the generic priority move might be why I’ve never been a big on introducing more priority moves of different types.
Priority is extremely good, but it always has a stipulation to it. Not being spammable with Fake out or Sucker punch, being extremely rare with extreme speed, or being really weak and often without STAB via Quick attack. So giving every type it’s own quick attack would undermine the move into a generic one move fits all sets.
Last edited: