AOTW: Infiltrator

Happy Friday, people! Welcome back to Ability class! Don’t you hate it when your opponent plays a Reflect or Light Screen, or both, and halves your damage? What? You have Brick Break on one of your team? Shut up, Catie, nobody asked you. This week we’re talking about a way to pass by your opponent’s defensive moves without so much as a Tail Whip! Watch out for Revolver Oshawott, because we’re Solid Snivying it today! This is Ability of the Week: Infiltrator!

Many a wall pokémon make use of Reflect, to halve damage from physical attacks, Light Screen, to do the same for special attacks, or Safeguard, to negate status ailments like poison and paralysis. Infiltrator, to put it as simply as possible, totally bypasses the effects of these moves on your opponent’s team. Let your friend think they’re building up a great defense with these moves, and watch their face when you lay a Toxic on them right through their Safeguard!

Nine pokémon can have Infiltrator, though most of them aren’t nearly as sweet as Solid Snake. One evolutionary line can have this Ability naturally, while the rest must journey to the Dream World to procure. Whimsicott, and its pre-evolution Cottonee are the two pokémon that can have Infiltrator normally, though to this observer neither of them look incredibly useful with it. Alright, every pokémon under the sun can learn Toxic, and these two can also gain Cotton Guard (which maxes out your Defense in just two uses), but nothing really catches my eye on these guys. Let’s head over to the Dream World Infiltrator-users.

Undermining both Safeguard and Light Screen, Crobat and Seviper both have access to Toxic and a STAB’d Venoshock. With Spiritomb, you can add insult to injury by using something like Calm Mind, boosting your own special stats while ignoring the Light Screen from your opponent. How about Ninjask? This guy has pretty solid attack, and access to Swords Dance. Sling a STAB’d X-Scissor right past your opponent’s Reflect and make quick work of that Reflected Snorlax. Out of these, I’d probably recommend Seviper the most. From a glance at its move set, you can really take advantage of this Ability.

And that’s Infiltrator! Hope you enjoyed the article, and maybe you learned something! Next week, I’m going back to mixing up the Abilities from all the generations, and I’ve got an idea or two floating around for some upcoming articles. Until next time, folks! Later!

-Wil
www.wheretheresawil.com