MOTW: Explosion
/What's! Up! E-very-bo-dy! This is Pierre (aka Politoedable) for your weekly Move of the Week! It's great to be here in the PKMNCAST universe with all of you guys, discussing one of my favourite aspects of the game: moves. I mean yes, abilities are important, and so are items. But when you think of it, it's the moves that drive the battle onward. Imagine God-almighty Arceus with Cut, Defog, Rock Smash, and Whirlpool. Not so tough now huh? Now of course no one gets that extreme to putting four near-useless HMs on the PKMNGOD, but hey, I’m just trying to prove a point.
So let's get our MotW started! I'd like to begin our epic MotW journey with a boom. That's right guys, let's talk about EXPLOSION.
Now, first off, let me just clear things up. No sensible being should ever use Selfdestruct over Explosion. The only difference between Selfdestruct and Explosion is the damage they inflict. Selfdestruct does 200 and Explosion does 250. They both have 100% accuracy and 5 PP. So what does that tell you? NEVER USE SELFDESTRUCT. Why would you want to use a weaker move if you have a more powerful move that differs with the former only in power? Well you may say “But I love my Pokémon I’d never let it explode to death”. Well, self-destruction isn’t any better than letting your Pokémon blow up. So please remember, kids, do not use Selfdestruct. Every Pokémon that learns Selfdestruct can learn explosion anyway. Expect for Wailord in XD Gale of Darkness. But then Gale of Darkness is not a good Pokémon game.
BTW, the thought of a whale exploding…Yeesh.
But I've gone off-topic.
So what does Explosion do? It faints your own Pokémon. I know, silly, right? But the reward is worth it: it emits a HUGE amount of power, apparently by the Pokémon destroying itself by some spontaneous combustion. Such a crazy move requires carefully planned strategies to pull off. Here are 3 explosive scenarios that may help you better understand how you can use Explosion without actually destroying your chance of winning the battle.
Scenario 1: Oops, too hard for me! Send out the defensive BOOMer
Let’s say you love SBJ enough to have a Garbodor in your party and your opponent has this epic sweeping speed-boost Blaziken out. You have absolutely no chance against this creature. The opponent’s Balziken just swept your wanted-to-sweep Arcanine with an Earthquake. What you gonna do?!
No sweat. Send out your Garbodor, IV-EV trained of course in HP. Take whatever damage from Blaziken, and then go BOOM. Blaziken faints.
Bear in mind that in this case, your exploding Pokémon is best to be defensive, not offensive. That calls for Pokémon like Golem, Muk, Weezing, Steelix, Metagross, Ferrothorn… the goal of the defensive BOOMer is to endure a hit, and then go BOOM. That’s all it needs to do. It’s simply a sacrificial lamb. And it’s worth it, trust me.
Scenario 2: Oops, low on HP! Instruct the offensive BOOMer
So this time you got your Swords-Danced Shiftry out, sweeping almost half of your opponent’s team. Your Shiftry hit the red, and you know it’s gonna faint next turn. Better not waste such a cunning creature. Whatever the opponent shifts into next turn, be it a sweeper or a wall or whatever, just go BOOM!
Losing an offensive Pokémon to Explosion is worth it too. Offensive Pokémon usually have higher speed, and thus can pull off moves first. If your offensive Pokémon is low on HP, you can go BOOM so that:
(1) Explosion hopefully removes your opponent’s Pokémon
(2) You can get your other Pokémon out in the field without having to switch.
See it as an explosive pseudo-switching, the effect of which actually better than just switching. Some offensive Pokémon that can pull this off include Gengar, Electrode (aka the 1st gen original BOOMer), Shiftry, Skuntank, Azelf, even Landorus.
Scenario 3: Double Battle! Hit two Pokés with one stone!
You’re in the doubles. You got your Ferrothorn and Togekiss and your opponent has whatever scary powerful Pokémon. You know for a fact that Ferrothorn never gets OHKO (expect when hit by fire-types). You protect with your Togekiss, and go BOOM with your Ferrothorn. Double elimination!
I just love explosion in the doubles. I play a lot of Pokémon Online, and I can basically sweep a guy’s team (or a girl's, nothing is gender-biased here in PKMNCAST) with my exploding Ferrothorn and protecting Togekiss. Be reminded that in double battles, Explosion deals damage to ALL Pokémon in play, except those who have protected, ghost types, or Pokémon with the ability Wonder Guard (because Normal is never Super Effective).
Ay, there's the rub: Ghost types! So how do I get rid of them?
This is why we have Togekiss. Have it do Shadow Ball on your opponent’s ghost Pokémon, and then explode the next turn. With a high special attack on Togekiss, it can OHKO almost any ghost type (save, maybe, Dusknoir.) Remember, double battles is all about two Pokémon cooperating: they are fighting the SAME battle.
So there you have it: these are just 3 of the many ways of using Explosion. Some more variations include:
- Using Endure on one Pokémon and have the other explode, therefore activating the Salac Berry
- Explode with a Ghost type as the partner
- Explode with the partner Pokémon using Substitute
I can go on with the variations, but let me stop here so you can think of more brilliant strategies.
Epilogue
So, what have we learned today?
- NEVER USE SELF DESTRUCT.
- Explosion rocks, only when a good strategy backs it up
- Explosion kicks butts in doubles.
Oh and number 4... when your Pokémon explodes, close your eyes. Because cool guys don't look at explosions.
This has been this week's MotW. See you next week!
politoedable
(Pics courtesy to dsinger, NicoCW, BansaiBoukii and l33t-n from deviantART.)
