"USELESS" Moves In Pokemon... 

Hold Hands is the best move in the game

yo, these thumbnails DO NOT need to go this hard

Pokémon should make a competitive game mode in witch all good moves are banned

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="339">5:39</a> Fun little story about Me First. I was recently fighting the Johto Elite 4 for the first time and noticed how Will's first Xatu spammed Me First. Unfortunately for Will, I had a Forretress who knew Spikes (a non damaging move Me First can't use) and Explosion. Watching that bird explode was pretty hilarious.

If I'm being pinned into a corner with no way of recovering from a strong team, I know Tackle has got my back

If you liked this video, I really suggest the video *(Usually) Useless Moves* by Reverend, it's absolutely hilarious if you're into past gens and singles. Things like Mewtwo using Flash to PP stall other mewtwos in gen 1 and Mamoswine using Peck to send Breloom and Heracross to the shadow realm in gen 4. This was a really interesting video to watch as I really like VGC as well! Keep it up!

video starts at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="0">0:00</a>

Leer Roaring Moon in reg B and C was just the predecessor to the genies

“Strong moves. Weak moves. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled trainers should try to win with their favorites.” -Moxie Boosted, 2024

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="270">4:30</a> encore is act very good in singles.. seeing use on iron bundle early on, indeedee, iron valiant, tinkaton, etc. it can be useful to screw over setup sweepers and bulky mons

so what you're saying is: "Moves get better when they effect more than one Pokemon" gotcha.

I know the artist is in the description but I still gotta bring attention to the consistent banger thumbnails.

I think the Hustle + Ariel Ace combo is pretty cool too.

Don't think too much about the Thumbnail I'm out here inventing mandela effects

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="27">00:27</a> who was cooking with Tera fighting water urshifu and thought that’d be the play against Tera psychic expanding force hatterene??

Hittata can't hurt you Hittata:

Moxie is Prof. Kukui confirmed

I love the venn diagram between moves often used in casual games, moves often used on competitive, and moves used in challenge runs of games/nuzlockes. Moves like Close Combat and flamethower are most often used in casual games, but competitive still uses those powerful moves plus the "useless" moves like reflect or howl. Nuzlockes will also use some of the "useless" moves but also uses unique moves very often like charm or stealth rocks, while also deeming the super-powerful moves like hydro-pump useless because of their unreliability that the other styles of play would love to use. That doesn't even cover abilities or the pokemon themselves! A casual might hate "useless" abilities like chlorophyll, competitive users might love it for specific teams, and Nuzlockers might find a niche use for it in difficult matchups. The ability to have multiple ways of playing with certain pokemon is what makes the game so special to me, I love all three+ variations of play.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="340">5:40</a> Hey, Moxie, you do get STAB with any moves copied by Me First. It boosts them by 50%

The thumbnail does indeed go hard

I have a history with String Shot because I ran it with Unburden Slurpuff in Sword and Shield to great success! I realized that when paired with U-Turn Rillaboom I could make Slurpuff (With a Grassy Seed) into a physically bulky support mon that could enable slower Pokémon better than Tailwind could thanks to the fact that I could use it multiple times in a row; then swap in a Base 80 speed behemoth like Chandelure to clean up the game. I even made Top 500 on the ladder with that team once. Was it gimmicky? Yes. Was it fun? Absolutely.

Funny enough, for me, Charm is iconic for how much of an offensive power house it is in Pokemon Go. There were basically no offensive fairy "fast moves" in Go, so they decided to break cannon and make it an attack. Ontop of that it's in a category of moves, like counter, that do the highest amount of damage in the shortest period of time. At the cost of taking longer to use your "charge moves".

So, funny thing about After You. It works with Focus Punch, meaning if your After You user is fast enough, you can spend a turn to ignore the downside of Focus Punch and just delete something.

I still distinctly remember the time in BW2, where I had taught my Skarmory Cut because I needed _someone_ that knew the HM move. Cut was virtually useless in all my battles, _except_ in exactly one situation against a random trainer with an Umbreon, where Cut's high PP enabled my Skarmory to PP stall her opponent. I guess everything has at least one use case...

I love the videos you make like these because it shows how really advanced this game is and how it’s not just a “kids” game. Advanced mechanics like this really made me appreciate the Pokémon games as an adult vs as when I was a kid when my thought process was “my Pokémon is a dinosaur so it’s cool”.

I sometimes wonder about baby doll eyes. It seems kind of like intimidate, but it uses a move to do it.

I critically enjoy these types of videos. Thank you for that!

I know very, very little about competitive Pokémon and how to set up a team outside of casual play. That being said, I really think this video is a good example of being accessible to even someone on my level. I doubt I would dabble in competitive play any time soon, but this gave me some ideas of how to start to rethink the games.

Prankster Encore-ing protect is the best play

I’m still waiting for the bubble urshifu tech to become meta.

the silence regarding persian running growl in rby ou is deafening

Honestly I’m really enjoying this new form of content. Each video feels more alive than just playing vgc in my opinion

There should be a usually useless move format in Showdown

One fun thing about Beat Up move. In Gen II if you had frozen pokemon and use beat up on different pokemon in your team, the frozen pokemon *didnt* count for beat up on your side but on the enemy it *did* . This cause desync on both sides and creates a glitch that is worse and worse the game goes on.

Just found your content last night and you’re severely underrated

I love vids like this. Def have a new fan

A funny interaction between 2 of these moves talked about in this video that wasn't mentioned is with gravity: an effect of the move that wasn't mentioned is that it can prevent certain moves from being used during it's duration. Hilariously enough, one such move that gravity prevented from being used was splash, of all possible things, and the funniest part is that in gen7, due to the +3 attack boost you can get from Z-splash, that might actually make this interaction somewhat useful

Gotta love the dev that thought "You know which move needs a special Z-move? Splash. I'm gonna make that happen."

A good to know fact about gravity's interaction with ground type attacks: it makes any targets that are dropped out of the air take 1× damage from ground type attacks regardless of the pokemon's type. So using gravity to get Thunderus out of the air for a ground type attack to hit it is just going to result in neutral damage. Same would go for like, Tropius or something.

These “useless” moves reminds me of how some moves are “useless” in main series but are actually quite handy in Pokemon Masters due to battles going from turn based with PP to real time strategy using gauge I.E. Leer lowers defence for 1 gauge (all moves being between 0 gauge to 4 gauge, 0 gauge moves usually having caveats like having a requirement or having PP (usually 3 PP or less)) so it provides debuff support whilst leaving gauge for a unit with a high damaging 3 or 4 gauge attack

Big props to whomever put the goggles on the Arcanine in the graphic. Made me giggle a lot

Fun ting about gravity: It also increases the power of Grav Apple from 80 to 120.

Can you do most used or useful one next, I know it’ll be a lot harder but it would be cool to see what are the most common moves in general

such a good video!!! Great!

I like using mousehold's population bomb on annihilape while holding the loaded dice to get around a +7 boost to rage fist

There was a move tutor in HGSS that taught string shot to a bunch of random stuff. I only know this because I brought String Shot Mega Venusaur to like 5 games in a draft league once. It was great

I had a Alolan Persian with Charm as her signature move during my mono Dark run of Scarlet. That alongside Snarl made her the MVP of getting her teammates on the field safely to wreak havoc.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="214">3:34</a> If you tell BKC or Jimothy Cool this, he’ll probably say something like how Beat Up is used sometimes in ADV OU by Dugtrio and Charizard to catch Blissey on the switch and/or ignore Counter. Beat Up is coded as a Dark type move, and all Dark moves were special back in Gen 3. Additionally, Beat Up did damage based on not only the user and its allies base Attack stats, but the opponent’s base Defense stat as well. So even though Blissey always invests heavily in physical bulk, her minuscule 10 Defense leaves her prone to annihilation from Beat Up, especially with healthy teammates.

I have been a fan of a Screech and Metal Sound for decades, even in VGC sometimes. They can be so unexpected, especially when your team has the speed advantage.

Celebrate Vaporeon FTW

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="118">1:58</a> this sound effect made me think someone invaded my home while I was watching it in the middle of the night

I like how they are slowly buffing the old stat based moves like leer and string shot. They’re still early game moves like ember or razor leaf, but they are able to be used in VGC now. Always nice to see more options.

With moves like soak I wanted to get your opinion on the other change Pokémon’s types moves. There’s apparently 13 of these moves so maybe you could make a video on these moves alone if your interested. What I interested in was your opinion on Trick or Treat (turns Pokémon into ghost type Learned by Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist) and Forest Curse (Turns Pokémon into grass type Learned by Phantump and Trevenant). I was wanting to make a team based around forest curse as it’s a very interesting move that could do a lot of damage to certain Pokémon cause grass is weak to a lot of types.

Can't wait for the Water & Mud Sport breakdown

The soak strategy reminds me of when I was fighting Piers, and I wanted to use Pumpkaboo because it had been in my team without much use, so I used trick or treat on Piers' Pokémon so they'd be weak to ghost and then knocked them out with ghost moves lol (Pumpkaboo didn't last long in that fight for obvious reasons, but I was happy my bullcrap strat worked)

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="394">6:34</a> k9 pure gold with that goggles

Sableye gets prankster leer and it’s lowkey really good

I was playing a White 2 randomizer a bit ago and got a Shedinja with Conversion. It was pretty hype.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="216">3:36</a> There is a commonly used sm ou team that relies on Beat Up CB weavile to break certain threats. Beat up is also a viable option in SS ou

This thumbnails go hard

Beat up was a very viable option in gen 3 as a way to deal with blissey. Notable users such as Charizard and Dugtrio. Also in gen 8, Weavile is a good user of Beat-up with choice band in the ubers tier.

String shot is amazing.

I use noble roar on my doubles pyroar set because it’s funny. It also lets me get a +1 spatk while dropping the enemies’ attack stats.

I believe anything different than constrict is a good move in a way or another, even bubble is better just for being early water stab on early game.

Smogon Legend Spammers: "Mostly Useless Moves" Stall Players: "My Bread n Butter Moves"

In generation 4, I used Natural Gift on a few Pokemon to good effect. It's basically a really bad physical alternative to Hidden Power, but Occa Berry Scizor can use the move for the OHKO against opposing Scizor with Natural Gift Fire, which is even boosted from 60 BP to 90 thanks to Technician. I also used it on Salac Berry Leafeon for Natural Gift Fighting to hit Steel types as it has no other options to threaten them with, and Liechi Berry Entei for Natural Gift Grass to hit Water and Rock types hard. In both cases, if I don't have a target to hit them with, I can always just use the pinch boost instead, which can be fallen into naturally with either Double-Edge or Flare Blitz respectively

Moxie, I personally run a burning jealousy sun team with Chi Yu and decorate support. Ive been struggling to make it work and wondering if you can cook something up with its potential as an accurate heat wave

I know this is a vgc video, but in GSC singles Miltank would use growl because it would let it survive attacks from Snorlax.

Finally somebody recognizes my boy charjabug

Moxie out here showing illegal pokemon (shiny ogerpon) it looks dope tho

My first competitive VGC team that I made was a Murkrow/Quaquaval team. My Murkrow had Screech to lower my opponents' phys def allowing Quaquaval to pick off pokemon with Aqua Step giving him a pseudo Dragon Dance with Moxie. I know that Chien-pao essentially is Screech as an ability that affects all pokemon on the field, but when Murkrow was all the rage, I didn't see Screech being utilized in its first meta.

I wish so bad for a prankster tailwhip pokemon. Like leer, it was buffed to lower the stats on both opps. Nice to see a fellow leer user. Trying to find some way to combine it with sword of ruin for some big damage. If only Chien-pao learned glacial lance. lol

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="457">7:37</a> The 2 types where changing the opponent's type to yours are dragon and ghost because they are super effective against themselves

Baby doll eyes has priority and lowers attack by one stage and there are mons with that move that carry intimidate also priority defiant boost.

It would be interesting to see a competitive format with the rules being only usually useless moves to be used. May be aggravating, captivating, or just hilarious to watch

Raku in the thumbnail was dope

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="709">11:49</a> actually it turns you into the type of move you used the previous turn. It defaults to the first move in your move slot if you were not on the field the previous turn.

My guy forgot Z-Happy Hour (I check if it was banned in vgc and it isn’t)

I didn't know rattata was a saiyan. XD

As a Vanilluxe main (when I'm not using mono bug), Showdown puts Hail down as usually useless. I have hail because I use Ice Body Vanilluxe lol. Each move has its own use-case, which is why team-building is very fun!

not sure if its considered usually useless but I adore running whimsicott with fake tears and a blaze infernape with overheat u-turn and whatever filler moves you need

In Gen 4 I remember using Copy Cat to chain Explosion. Basically, one Pokémon would explode and the others would follow the next turn (if the opponent was slow enough).

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="563">9:23</a> Leer has always targeted both Pokemon ever since double battles were introduced

What of Z-Nature Power + Prankster Whimsicott + Misty Terrain?

I could have sworn splash actually worked in rain, I remember it happening at some point, but it’s been years and I might have just not paid enough attention

I will always be curious about whether or not anyone had found a use for wonder room

When i think about useless moves, i think about moves like mud sport, water sport, and powder… But i feel in the new generation they might actually have some use for some reason 🤔. 67% damage reduction sounds pretty good and powder does have some use against eruption users. (Fire moves in general)

I once hit a encore disable on my my friend in a doubles match once so satisfying

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="200">3:20</a> Beat Up can actually be run in Gen 3 OU because it's weird mechanics mean it 2 hit KO's every Blissey set.

minor correction, beat up is actually a viable move in singles. choice band weavile used to run it in gen 8 to nuke right through things early game since it hits harder than knock with all 6 mons healthy. also in gen 3 it's a really weird move that's extremely useful, despite being a dark type special move it does typeless physical damage, which not only is calculated purely on the combined base attack of your party (it doesnt scale with your evs or nature or band), it ignores defense evs, so any special attacker or dugtrio can run it to 2 hit blissey

"Recently" like Leer hasn't hit both opponents since the debut of double battles themselves 😭

Moxie Movested

Encore is so annoying, it’s so common in random battles and you can’t set up on prankster pokemon

I'm a Fell Stinger lover, it's hard to pull off reliably but boy do I love to see it succeed

In gen 8 i used Round on both Scarf Regieleki and Throat Spray Primarina to turn Prim into a terrifying lightning sweeper

OMG, i was the one who started uproar feraferig . It had a second usage. It also broke substitute.

something you missed about Splash: back in early metas, I think gen 4 and up or so, people would very rarely use Splash in a Wobbuffet moveset combined with encore and shadow tag to PP stall certain pokemon who couldn't fight back.

I forgot about Lilligant and after you. I only used it with Lopunny and Aimpom with Kyorge, so I could run modest Life orb or specs water spouts. Useless abilities would be a nice video. Been having fun with Plusle's and MInun's signature abilities. Plusle@ Choice scarf (Fire tera) modest nature 252 Sp Atk/ 100 def / 152 speed - Volt Switch - Tera blast - Alluring voice - thunderbolt MInun@ rocky helmet (Water tera) bold nature 200hp/ 252 Def / 52 SpDef / 4SpAtk - eletroweb - Helping hand - Super fang - nuzzle Fun sets and catches a lot of people off guard and ignore them. Especially when MInun is paired with Urshifu or fluttermane

How about a video on all the good and bad forms of protect? Sorry if its already been done

Two examples of bad moves being used in the same vain which are funny is flyin in gen on choice band sets sometimes running gust to nuke breloom, and more recently mamoswine in gen 7 UU would run peck and Flynium Z to specifically nuke buzzwole