All Gens Most Dominant Moves in History

[Ortheore]

Parroting that Spore shouldn't be listed. It's a good move but also way too limited in distribution to have made a huge impact.

Outrage and maybe Draco Meteor should be listed. They defined Dragons in DP and BW.

If we have U-turn on the initial list we might as well have Volt Switch.

Agree that Spore has no place in this discussion, but I don't think having U-turn means VSwitch gets auto-included, primarily because U-turn has simply been around longer but also because it lacks immunities and stuff

 

[Aerodactyl Legend]

ice beam is one of the best offensive moves in every gen except gen 2, where 50%+ of things that gets it for coverage uses it. that's a sign of how great it is, it should absolutely be included in top 10

RBY with Blizzard?

 

[Isa]

blizzard is great in rby yeah but chansey still uses ice beam and it's meta defining and much worse with blizzard than ice beam. i'd also put ice beam on some amnesia snorlax sets, and some funky starmie/slowbro sets use ice beam, but sure i'll concede that blizzard is generally better. that, however, doesn't mean that ice beam is not great in rby, because it is great. it's definitely better than spore...

 

[Aerodactyl Legend]

blizzard is great in rby yeah but chansey still uses ice beam and it's meta defining and much worse with blizzard than ice beam. i'd also put ice beam on some amnesia snorlax sets, and some funky starmie/slowbro sets use ice beam, but sure i'll concede that blizzard is generally better. that, however, doesn't mean that ice beam is not great in rby, because it is great. it's definitely better than spore...

How about Thunderbolt? Would gens 3-5 be enough for Ice Beam to beat it? It's been solid every game, even though, like Blizzard in RBY, Thunder takes a lot of use in GSC.

 

[Heroes and Cons]

I would definitely put Hidden Power in the Top 10, and place Stealth Rock unequivocally at #1.
While Scald is a relatively recent addition, it and U-Turn have both been incredibly influential as well.
Earthquake and Ice Beam have probably been the two most ubiquitous direct damage moves in Pokemon history.

 

[Oglemi]

#1 Stealth Rock
#2 Thunder Wave
#3 Spikes
#4 Rapid Spin
#5 Explosion/Self-Destruct
#6 Recover/Softboiled
#7 Earthquake
#8 U-turn
#9 Hidden Power
#10 Baton Pass


if I could add another 10 it'd be:

#11 Ice Beam
#12 Roar/Whirlwind
#13 Toxic
#14 Substitute
#15 Thunderbolt
#16 Dragon Dance
#17 Surf
#18 Sleep Talk
#19 Scald
#20 Draco Meteor

 

[Karxrida]

#1 Stealth Rock
#2 Thunder Wave
#3 Spikes
#4 Rapid Spin
#5 Explosion/Self-Destruct
#6 Recover/Softboiled
#7 Earthquake
#8 U-turn
#9 Hidden Power
#10 Baton Pass


if I could add another 10 it'd be:

#11 Ice Beam
#12 Roar/Whirlwind
#13 Toxic
#14 Substitute
#15 Thunderbolt
#16 Dragon Dance
#17 Surf
#18 Sleep Talk
#19 Scald
#20 Draco Meteor

I'd swap Rapid Spin and Spikes. Rapid Spin also deals with Stealth Rock and Spikes lost their ubiquity after SR came about.

Explosion and Self-Destruct are too high for my tastes. They were high risk moves at their best when every other listed move has no risk (and some could be argued as more impactful due to consistency) while the nerf in Gen V relegated them solely for utility use by Suicide Leads.

 

[Aerodactyl Legend]

The damage output outweighed any risks for Explosion/SD. The only risk was a ghost switching in, and that mainly got prominent in DPP with the abundance of them. Other than that, (+1) Snorlax is basically an automatic kill in RSE/DPP. Boom is huge in RBY, and one of the things that keeps GSC on its toes in the stall wars. Certainly enough to make the list in my eyes.

As for Rapid Spin, I'd put Spikes above it myself, as it's a reaction to it (and SR later). Especially since some team builds in DPP onwards opt to just prevent hazards from going up in the first play or quick offensive just playing through them. Before SR, Spikes was running the show.

 

[Oglemi]

I'd swap Rapid Spin and Spikes. Rapid Spin also deals with Stealth Rock and Spikes lost their ubiquity after SR came about.

Explosion and Self-Destruct are too high for my tastes. They were high risk moves at their best when every other listed move has no risk (and some could be argued as more impactful due to consistency) while the nerf in Gen V relegated them solely for utility use by Suicide Leads.

The reason I put explosion so high is because the game-swinging potential is so much bigger than basically any other single one-turn move. I bet if you looked at every RBY-DPP SPL game from the past 8 years, more games have been decided by a well-timed explosion than any other move. It's also almost completely ubiquitous on RBY teams, considered by many to be the most powerful team archetype in GSC (albeit considered scumbaggy by some), and extremely potent and relevant in ADV and DPP. It should definitely be high on the list in "most dominant moves" in history.

And I would keep spin after spikes since the reason you'd even use spin in gsc and adv was because of spikes, and they're still prevalent from dpp-oras, considering skarmory and ferro are basically omnipresent in those gens save for dpp

 

[Bughouse]

I strongly considered Protect, which has seen use on various mons in every gen from 2-7. Particularly valid on Wish Protect mons, but also used all over the place in ADV like on Pert and Skarm. Used on some mega evos later to get safe evolution, etc etc... but I ultimately just barely left it out of my top 20.

Calm Mind is definitely a top move, possibly top 10, given how CM sweepers have been able to win in p much any gen ADV on, especially CM Cune and CM Clef, but also Rachi, Arceus, Audino, Bliss, Raikou, Virizion, Celebi, Cress, Reuniclus, Goth, Keld, Latias, etc etc etc in their own metas

Add in Roost next to the other healing moves, probably the most widespread one at this point tbh

I guess I go:
#1 Thunder Wave
#2 Stealth Rock
#3 Rapid Spin
#4 Hidden Power
#5 Spikes
#6 Explosion/Self-Destruct
#7 Calm Mind
#8 Recover/Softboiled/Roost
#9 Earthquake
#10 Roar/Whirlwind

With:
U-turn, Baton Pass, Toxic, Dragon Dance, Rest, Sleep Talk, Ice Beam, Wisp, Knock Off, Scald as my 11-20 in some order