Do you think any of last week's retyped Pokemon will get more usage because of these retypes?
Lickilicky is a unique type combination with some potential niches. Gaining priority also helps make up for its lack of Speed, and gives it more use with Belly Drum. It's conceivable it might see use as a sort of alternate poor man's Azumarill. (It's offense isn't anywhere near as good, but Shadow Sneak is only walled by one type, where Water is walled by Water, Dragon, Grass, and anything with an Ability granting immunity, of which no such thing exists for Ghost) It also is somewhat unpredictable, since it can run Special almost as competently as Physical, and has STAB Shadow Ball. (Though not Power Gem, which is a problem) I'm not confident it will prove to be viable, but I suspect people will at least give it a shot rather than ignoring it. And Explosion being Fire type is actually a good compliment to STAB Rock offense, since no one type walls both of them. Out comes a Steel type? Screw switching, EXPLODE!
Dunsparce's main problem is that it's stats and Abilities are nothing special. On the other hand, I've already seen people use it with Body Slam+Flinch moves running Serene Grace, and now it has an actually useful (Not amazing, but useful) typing. Probably it's biggest flaw is that Flying types hard-wall both its STABs. Slow U-Turn has some benefits, too, so it
might see use for that.
Purugly has a vicious type combination -Fairy is the only type Dark is ineffective against that Fairy isn't super effective against- backed by 112 Speed (Outrun Garchomp, Play Rough it for heavy damage) and acceptable offense. Ursaring shares this type combination with it and has much greater offense, particularly considering it has Guts, but it's also agonizingly slow, so they shouldn't compete too much with each other. Particularly worth noting is that Purugly is completely immune to the Lati's STABs and has access to Bulk Up -a Lati set that's something like Psyshock/Draco Meteor or Dragon Pulse/Calm Mind/Roost is completely helpless against Purugly, and the turn they spend switching is a turn Purugly can spend setting up. And of course Purugly has Defiant to laugh in the face of Intimidators! Since it has STAB Sucker Punch, it can even switch in on a Sticky Web and go to town. It's still got flaws, but actually working it out, I'm realizing it might be quite good -UU material or even OU material, rather than it's current PU. Wasn't expecting that when I started writing this.
Cinccino is going to struggle from the fact that Poison and Steel types alike hard-wall it, and it has literally nothing (Unless you count Dig) to hit either of them super effectively. About the best it can do is Knock Off, really. It's still fast, and now its Skill Link STAB is actually
good, and in fact it has two of them, but it's actually easier to wall than unaltered Cinccino, which is
only overly bothered by Steel types. (Knock Off for those pesky Ghosts, after all) I'm not sure how good it will actually be.
Which/Do Pokemon gain/lose an advantage from Fighting type Facade, Fire type SelfDestruct/Explosion, Flying type Whirlwind, Psychic type Baton Pass and Ghost type Camouflage?
Facade is now the offense of choice if all you want is pure power for Guts Conkeldurr, Flareon, Hariyama, Heracross, Luxray, Machamp, Raticate, Swellow, Throh, and Ursaring, particularly Conkeldurr, Machamp, Heracross, and Ursaring. (Possibly Raticate, depending on how it gets re-typed) Guts Flareon is actually slightly less of a cruel joke -Fire/Fighting coverage is actually very good- and Guts Swellow laughs forever at Staraptor and its silly idea that it has good Fighting coverage for its Flying offense. It's also largely an upgrade for pretty much any other Pokemon you care to name that might run it, but the only example that stands out to me is Gliscor -and it might resent the fact that it's now resisted by Flying more than it appreciates it being a useful type.
Explosion (And OK also
Self-Destruct) is now one of the best types in the game, helping make up for the loss of raw firepower. Azelf, Bronzong, Camerupt, Carbink, Claydol, Cloyster, Corsola, Cryogonal, Diancie, Drifblim, Electrode, Exeggutor, Ferrothorn, Forretress, Garbodor, Genesect, Gengar, Gigalith, Glalie, Golem, Gourgeist, Heatran, Landorus, Lickilicky, Lunatone, Magcargo, Magnezone, Metagross, Mew, Muk, Probopass, Qwilfish, Regice, Regirock, Registeel, Reuniclus, Shiftry, Skuntank, Solrock, Steelix, Sudowoodo, Swalot, Torkoal, Vanilluxe, and Weezing probably all appreciate it in practice, but it particularly stands out to me the several Pokemon that have picked up STAB. One
especially interesting aspect for Doubles/Triples is the ability to Explode adjacent to Heatran to then power up its own later Explosion! In general Flashfire is a
lot more appealing of an Ability for turning random Explosions into a gain rather than a loss. Also worth noting that for Cloyster, Corsola, and Qwilfish they get the ability to combine Fire and Water offense, which is normally difficult and has some value. (The ability to rip up Grass types would normally be part of it, but two of the three can do that with STAB anyway) Oh and Wailord and Mewtwo can get Self-Destruct but not Explosion, so Wailord is a better example of the Water/Fire combination (Water Spout until nearly dead and then Explode!), while Mewtwo going boom amuses me but is probably not
that practical. Then again, Mega Mewtwo X has incredible Attack...
Meanwhile anything with a double weakness to Fire really resents this change. Including two of the users -Ferrothorn and Forretress- amusingly, who both
especially resent it because they're taking 8 times the damage they do in Standard from Explosion!
Whirlwind, Baton Pass, and
Camouflage have extremely limited implications because they're Status moves. There's probably some silliness I'm not thinking of, but overall it doesn't matter.
Which entries for this week do you agree/disagree with? [Remember: Be to the point and decisive, no hate]
Mostly Grass Furfrou bugs me. It's... it's not a plant. It's a dog. A very ordinary dog people like to give silly haircuts.