MOTW: Brick Break

So last week the move that we covered was earthquake. A fairly common move, and is used in large numbers throughout teams, and has been around for all 4 gens so far. A good example of this was episode 13 where the featured team that we covered had it in their team 4 times. A little overkill if you ask me, but, could be used well if implemented with the correct strategy. This week we’re talking fighting moves, and namely one more popular and useful one, Brick Break.

Now, fighting type moves seem to me, at least, to be a very good choice to put on your team. Many opposing Pokemon you’ll come up against will generally have a normal multiplier when it comes to taking fighting damage, if not also have a weakness to fighting type moves. A fighting type move is a good choice when it comes to a team, because even if you come up against a normal type wall like a Blissy, which has an insane amount of HP, most straight up normal types are week against fighting. Normal types aren’t the only types that are week to fighting though. Rock, Steel, Ice, and Dark Pokemon are also weak against it.

Sooo, what about Brick Break specifically? What makes it so special? Let’s start with the basics. Brick Break is a good ‘go to’ move so to say. It’s not the most powerful fighting type move by far, but at 75 power it’s no slouch, especially if you pair it with a Physical type to gain a STAB with it, plus it’s 100% accuracy, it makes it just a good move over all, being that a bunch of types are weak to it. In most cases I would say that probably more than 60% or 70% of the time you want to pair the type of move with the type of Pokemon you’re using, but Brick Break is an interesting case...

Using Brick Break removes two very key moves in competitive battle, Light Screen and Reflect. Light Screen is an extremely widely used move across battle, mainly because it effects an entire team. Light Screen takes any special damage dealt to a Pokemon by half. It also works in team battles too, but in the case of having two Pokemon out it will only take 33% of the damage off. Reflect has the same purpose and effect as Light Screen, but instead of halving special moves it has the same effect towards physical moves.

A move like Brick break takes that defensive advantage and crushes it into a small pulp, not matter what. Even if it’s a type that is immune to physical attacks, like a Gengar, it will still remove Light Screen and Reflect, or even if you miss! PLUS on top of that a lot of really powerful Pokemon are Rock, Steel, Ice, Dark, or Normal, so not only will they not have that special protection anymore, but they’re taking super effective damage as well. In double battles this is HUGE. Not only does a team move not become effective anymore for your opponent, but if you pair a Pokemon that knows Brick Break with a special heavy hitter Pokemon, like an Alakazam with Psychic (just an example), Not only are you pairing a good physical type with a special type, in most cases, you are benefitting each other’s move sets, and weaknesses at the same time. Being a fighting type move you may want to pair it with a move like Foresight or Odor Sleuth, which allows both Normal and Physical moves to effect Ghost type Pokemon.

Now you pretty much only need to have Brick Break on your team once, it’s not one of those you really use over and over again, (unless whoever you’re battling just keeps using Reflect or Light Screen to counteract that, and in that case they’re an idiot and you’re just going to get into a stalemate of them trying to protect and you kicking their @$$). Only 3 out of all current 493 can learn it by leveling up, Hitmonlee, Pinsir, and Heracross, all of which are actually not that bad of a choice for a team, especially Pinsir and Heracross being bug type (I’m partial to bug type, I actually have a Scizor on my own team that knows Brick Break). BUT, TM31 allows 183 Pokemon to learn this move. 183! That probably explains why its on most teams as 37% of all Pokemon can learn it. Which really gives you no excuse to put it on your team. You really should have this move, it’s almost a necessity.

40 of those 183 gain a STAB bonus from using Brick Break based on their Fighting type, so there may be a good couple you could pair it with. Straight Physical type Pokemon are weak against Flying and Psychic types, so pairing the move up with a Pokemon that has a split ability is a great idea. Not only will you gain a STAB bonus, but you also get rid of most of you’re main weaknesses, especially Psychic as there are a lot of special attack heavy Pokemon that are Psychic. Something like a Gallade is a great physical type because it’s secondary type is Psychic, so combined it’s weaknesses are Flying type moves and Ghost moves, of which, there aren’t that many to choose from, and there really aren’t that many of on a team, (although the use of those I’m sure could be argued, one of the only Ghost types I ever come up against in online battle is Gengar).

To kind of give you an example of what move set I use it with I’ll show you my Scizor and it’s moveset.

Scizor

Type: Bug/Steel

Nature: Adamant

Ability: Technician

Item: Metal Coat

Moves: Type: Pwr Acc

U-Turn Bug 70 100%

Bullet Punch Steel 40 100%

Bug Bite Bug 60 100%

Brick Break Fighting 75 100%

So, as you can see, I put a fighting type move along with a Bug/Steel Pokemon. You may have also noticed that I have a pretty week move set on my Scizor in general. You would be right in seeing both those two things. First of all, Brick break plays really well into how I have my Scizor set up because it has been EV trained towards Attack, and it’s has an Adamant nature, which boosts attack, while bumping down special attack, which in Scizor’s case doesn’t matter because it has all physical attacks. This isn’t a problem mainly because I trained it with U-Turn, so It can use it’s STAB powered Bug type move, and then switch to something more suited for the battle.

Also Bullet Punch and Bug Bite seem to be weak moves, BUT they are both STAB powered, AND the ability Technician powers up all moves with power less then 60 by 1.5x. With the added EV training, Metal Coat as it’s item, U-Turn to get out of tight situations, and Brick Break to get rid of possible barriers, Scizor ends up being a super powerful opponent for most teams.

As you can see, I really like Brick Break, I even utilize it in my own team. I got some comments last week saying that people wanted more detail in MOTW so I added what I saw fit. I could probably go into even more detail, BUT as you can see this article is already a lot longer than I anticipated them to be. Tell me what you think! Let me know if you think something could change or whatever. Contact me through twitter or leave a comment below, send an email to pokemonpodcast@me.com, or whatever you feel. Thanks again for reading!

 -Aaron