[move] Terrain Moves

[Martin]

The terrain moves (Grassy Terrain, Electric Terrain and Misty Terrain) are... "unique" moves. Taking a leaf out of Safeguard's book, these all have effects which benefit pokemon on the field, except with two key differences: they a: affect all grounded (non Flying-type/levitating/Air Balloon/under the effects of Magnet Rise/under the effects of Telekinisis) Pokémon on the field rather than just your side, and b: they have hidden effects. Here are "complete" the descriptions of the moves:

Grassy Terrain: Grassy Terrain creates terrain that restores the HP of grounded Pokémon by 1/16 of their max HP at the end of each turn and increases the power of Grass-type moves used by grounded Pokémon by 50%. If Grassy Terrain is in effect, Nature Power becomes Energy Ball, Secret Power uses the animation of Vine Whip and may cause sleep, and Camouflage causes the user to become Grass-type. In addition, the power of Earthquake, Bulldoze, and Magnitude is halved, even in a single battle. When Grassy Terrain is active, Pokémon with the ability Grass Pelt have their Defense stat boosted to 1.5x its usual value. It's effects fade after five turns, including the turn in which the move is used.

Electric Terrain: Electric Terrain creates terrain that prevents any Pokémon on the ground from falling asleep and increases the power of Electric-type moves used by grounded Pokémon by 50%. It causes Yawn to fail if used on a grounded Pokémon, and prevents grounded Pokémon already drowsy due to Yawn from falling asleep. Rest will also fail when used by a grounded Pokémon. If Electric Terrain is in effect, Nature Power becomes Thunderbolt, Secret Power uses the animation of Thunder Shock and may cause paralysis, and Camouflage causes the user to become Electric-type. It's effects fade after five turns, including the turn in which the move is used.

Misty Terrain: Misty Terrain creates terrain that prevents non-volatile status conditions (status conditions which don't disappear upon switch-out, i.e. Poison, Bad Poison, Burn, Paralysis, Sleep and Freeze) and halves the damage taken from Dragon-type moves by Pokémon on the ground. It causes Yawn to fail if used on a grounded Pokémon, and prevents grounded Pokémon already drowsy due to Yawn from falling asleep. If Misty Terrain is in effect, Nature Power becomes Moonblast, Secret Power uses the animation of Fairy Wind and may lower its target's Special Attack, and Camouflage causes the user to become Fairy-type. It's effects fade after five turns, including the turn in which the move is used.

I believe that, while their use is limited, they only have use in the doubles format due to the short-term nature of the moves.

And... discuss!

 

[Endo]

It's a shame Lanturn doesn't seem to be able to learn Electric Terrain, it would make it an even greater partner for Manectric.

 

[Temporaryanonymous]

I don't think these moves will have much usage in any form of competitive doubles. They're all situational at best, and not worth a moveslot and turn to set up. Probably going to be used less than even trick room.

 

[klvkboom]

Of all of them I can possibly see Electric Terrain having the best chance of usage. It's the one that can be utilized substantially since Electric is a powerful offensive typing. Grounded Electric attackers are also somewhat uncommon so you shouldn't really worry about opponents abusing your set up. That being said though, to make best use of Electric Terrain it may limit you during team building, such as being obligated to using Pokes like MManec, Lanturn, Heliolisk, MAmph, and potential Tbolt users like Garde and Nidoking. The move also has a very small pool of users and you'll most likely have MManec or Heliolisk as the setter.

The anti-sleep is also a huge asset of Electric Terrain, being able to stop Smeargle as well as Amoonguss and Vivilion from succeeding in their role (not to mention Amoonguss will most often be used to counter Electric-types). Also, since Electric-types can't be Paralyzed anyway, as well as being primarily Special Attackers, your opponent will be hard pressed to use a form of status that could actually cripple you.

Overall, a potentially viable strategy. The effects are quite strong and somewhat uncounterable since your opponent most likely can't utilize its strengths (they can still stall it out though). That being said, it's not that easy to just splash on a team and hope it works.

 

[Chipndip]

I actually made a team that has Grassy Terrain on it, and I can assure you...

...due to the meta, it's INSANELY situational. It's not that terrain moves are bad. It's that the times you can set it up are rather few and far between, and the setters are almost ALWAYS less than ideal. Meowstic would have been perfect, but he sets the WORST field out of the three. Grassy is amazing for Mega Venusaur, with its Giga Drain dealing out OHKOs and 2HKOs, but it's hard to lay it down when the best setter is Florges, who wouldn't mind taking a lump on the head if it weren't for the Steel-types dishing it out (and there's almost always a Steel-type...or a Mega Kanga). Electric probably has the most offensive use for Manectric, Rotom, and Raichu, but why on Earth would you want your Manectric waiting a turn to set it when it's a squishy mega option?

The effects of the terrains are good outside of Misty Terrain (it doesn't boost Fairy...it WEAKENS Dragon, even yours), but setting them in this meta is very hard to do. If you can do it, good on ya.

 

[Test Bot #]

If there was a Doubles Monotype meta, I'm pretty sure Terrains will be used.

 

[Carbonific]

If there was a Doubles Monotype meta, I'm pretty sure Terrains will be used.

Thanks for bumping a 2 year dead thread to tell us that.

 

[Martin]

Damn I forgot this thread existed lmao. This was relevant to the 2014 meta; the terrains all sucked then and still suck now. I tried them and ultimately they worked best with standalone users like Mega Manectric on regular goodstuffs and just happened to utilise their effects for the benefit of their team. Just don't pair misty with status users and don't pair elec with sleep inducers and you're set.

 

[Pyritie]

Terrains won't be good until they get abilities that automatically set them when sent out, like Drizzle. Better distribution and stronger effects would also be kinda nice.

 

[Chaosmage1]

Terrains won't be good until they get abilities that automatically set them when sent out, like Drizzle. Better distribution and stronger effects would also be kinda nice.

well we got the tapu's for that now, so it's a start. anywho i like the idea of the terrains and want to try and find a way to make grassy terrain work(i LOVE how it nerfs ground type moves,especially earthquake). i Was thinking of putting it on a venusaur(mega or otherwise) but not sure if i want to give up leech seed for it.

 

[Test Bot #]

This thread takes me back to when I have barely joined Smogon. In a Doubles point of view, Terrain is definitely influential. Electric and Misty Terrain makes player not want to spam Spore; there is no Sleep Clause in Doubles. Grassy Terrain is neat too cause a lot of mons are weak to EQ; strategically, this makes players opt for Thousand Arrows (Zygarde), Drill Run (Excadrill in Sand), and Earth Power. But out of all these Terrains, Psychic Terrain is definitely the most influential; it not only deterred players from using priority moves, but it significantly raised the viability of Deoxys-A, Hoopa-U, and Mega Metagross as well. (That is where the term Psychic Spam began to spread.) Nevertheless, there is no need for manual terrain; manual terrain does not bring much to the table as a manual weather would.