Which entries for this week do you agree/disagree with? [Remember: Be to the point and decisive, no hate]
Mostly Flying type Egg Bomb annoys me, because it completely ignores the fact that exactly zero Flying types get Egg Bomb.
Do you think any of last week's retyped Pokemon will get more usage because of these retypes?
Furret is what Dedenne should've been in the first place, and is liable to see a lot more use -Fairy/Electric is a cute combination that actually works well together, since Electric covers up Fairy's Steel weakness, presenting a Pokemon only weak to Ground and Poison. It also retains STAB on Quick Attack, only Quick Attack itself is a much more useful type, though that's a relatively minor point since a number of Standard Electric types get Quick Attack and have overall better stats. Even so, it's a nice type combination.
Noctowl is competing with Xatu, Sigilyph, and Swoobat (Not even getting into Lugia), but that's not so bad since it's overall tankier than all of them and only Sigilyph also gets Tinted Lens. It's also the slowest of them, which is relevant now that it's a Trick Room setter, and its access to Hurricane is notable -only Shiftry, Mewtwo, Volcarona, and Vivillon get Calm Mind or Nasty Plot alongside Hurricane in Standard, so Noctowl has a niche as a surprisingly effective Flying setup sweeper, particularly if supported by something like Gravity. (Albeit that takes away the best defensive advantage of being a Flying type)
Unfezant is now competing with Honchkrow, Mandibuzz, and strictly speaking Yveltal. Ignoring Yveltal, it's the fastest of the three, and its Attack is only slightly lower than Honchkrow's, albeit it's also the most overall fragile of the three. (It has better Physical bulk than Honchkrow, but worse Special bulk due to less Special Defense and HP, while Mandibuzz beats it out handily on both ends) It might prove to not really have a niche -93 Speed is not actually that fast- but it at least has escaped "Hi I'm the latest crappy clone of existing Pokemon", including that no re-typed Pokemon has been re-typed to Dark/Flying before it, so it's not
obviously inferior to anything. (Except Yveltal) It's just too bad its Abilities are nothing special -Super Luck is OK, Rivalry is unreliable, while Big Pecks is pretty useless to such an offensively weighted Pokemon.
Lopunny has lost
perfect coverage as a Mega (It's STABs are both bad against Poison types), but hasn't lost any power (Return is Fairy) and now its primary STAB is actually effective against stuff, so that's pretty sweet overall. It's not a downgrade, but it's not an upgrade -regular Lopunny meanwhile is a little bit more appealing as a Klutz Tricker, since it has a more useful typing, full stop. I don't know if it'll see more use, I don't know if it'll see less use. I'm fine with that.
Which/Do Pokemon gain/lose an advantage from Ice type Present, Fighting type Smelling Salts and Psychic type Secret Power?
Present now offers powerful Physical STAB for Delibird, but nobody cares. More interestingly, it provides Physical BoltBeam to Light Ball Pikachu/Raichu, gives Azumarill a Physical Ice move, and grants several other Fairies powerful (But unreliable) Physical Ice coverage. It's still Present, so it's still unreliable and unappealing overall, but Physical Ice is
so bad all around that it may see use as
one of the better Physical Ice moves.
Smelling Salts is kind of hard to say, since it's a bit gimmicky in the first place, but it at least is a
good type now. Granbull and Aggron do both get Thunder Wave with it, so that's something I guess?
Secret Power provides Physical Psychic coverage to an
enormous list of Pokemon. Seriously, go to Showdown and type "/ds Secret Power, !Zen Headbutt, !Psycho Cut" (Minus the " at each end) and glory in having a list longer than the screen is tall jam itself in. Not that Psychic is that great a type, but there are almost certainly a number of Pokemon that appreciate it regardless.
