AOTW: Super Luck

It’s that time again, trainer-faces! Welcome back to Ability of the Week! God knows my favorite Abilities are the ones that allow you to stack as much damage as humanly possible, so I’m pretty excited about this week’s pick. Are you feeling like your team is lacking when it comes to critical hit frequency? Well folks, I’m here to tell you that with the right passive pokémon power, we’ll have your roster hitting weak points for massive damage in no time!

….What? No Photoshopped picture of Bill Ritch trying to fight off Kingler? Huh, thought we had that ready for a cutaway gag. Oh well.

This is Ability of the Week: Super Luck!

This guy was introduced in generation four, wherein three pokémon Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. Also, pooping on nice cars.(Absol, Murkrow, and Honchkrow) had access to it. Nowadays, the list of Super Luck-users has swelled to nine pokémon, including the aforementioned monsters as well as the Unfezant evolutionary family and, via capture in the Dream World, the Togekiss line. Should you find yourself with one of these usually-feathered fighters (seriously, every evolutionary family that gets this Ability except for Absol is a Flying-type. Kind of makes you a little afraid of Bird Keepers, dunnit?) you’ll find yourself able to score a critical hit twice as frequently! Or, to put it in game mechanic-speak, all your moves are automatically elevated to at least stage two of critical hit probability. (For more on critical hit mechanics, see Bulbapedia or my article on Sniper.)

Unlike some of the Abilities I discuss within this article, all of the Super Luck users have the means to take advantage of it in some capacity. Let’s start with the least of them, shall we?

Togekiss
A Togekiss with Super Luck is useful, for one, because most people who see a Togekiss will be expecting a Serene Grace or Hustle-inspired move set, so you have the element of surprise on your side. That said, you’ll want to utilize moves that already have increased critical hit ratios with pokémon that have this Ability, a department in which Togekiss is sorely lacking. You could try outfitting your Togekiss with a Scope Lens or Razor Claw to move up all of its moves to level three of critical hit probability (25%). Despite Togekiss’ pro-Special leanings, you could do worse than a STAB’d Aerial Ace that should score a crit once out of every four uses. One of Serene Grace Togekiss’ signature moves is Air Slash. While the Super Luck cousin won’t have an increased chance to cause the opponent to flinch, it is a 75-damage Special Move with a 25% chance to crit!

Unfezant
Generation five’s obligatory not-Pidgeot has a slightly better outlook on Super Luck than Togekiss, but suffers from the opposite problem. While most of Togekiss’ STAB moves are Physical rather than Special, both of Unfezant’s STAB’d elevated critical hit moves are Special rather than its preferred Physical! That said, the Proud Pokémon has access to both Air Cutter and Razor Wind. Both are STAB’d and both sit at a 33.3% chance to score a crit with a Scope Lens equipped.

Honchkrow
Out of all the aviary-bound battlers we’ve discussed so far, Honchkrow has got to be the best to make use of Super Luck, and it happens to be my favorite of them. …Mainly because it looks like Darkwing Duck.

Bad. Ass.

Unlike Togekiss and Unfezant, Honchkrow has access to a STAB’d move with an increased crit ratio and plays to its strength: Night Slash. This sucker dishes out a base damage of 105 in Honchkrow’s wings, and on the chance you outfit it with a Razor Claw or Scope Lens, you’ll be critting for 210 about every third turn! With Honchkrow, things are getting better, but our last specimen is a buffet of butt-kickatude.

Absol
Absol has a base Attack stat of 130, and by my count, six attacks with elevated critical hit ratios in its potential move pool! Stone Edge, Psycho Cut, Slash, Shadow Claw, Razor Wind and a STAB’d Night Slash are your potential doom-bringers with the Disaster Pokémon in tow. I’m not usually the one to recommend a Choice Item, but a Super Luck-using Absol with Attack-heavy EV training and a Choice Band sounds like a force to be reckoned with to me, particularly with a move set with the best possible type-coverage out of the above moves. Maybe something like Stone Edge, Psycho Cut, Night Slash, and Slash.

Super Luck could be your best friend in an effort to lay waste to opponents quickly and efficiently. Once you start building on it, you’ll be dishing out epic damage on a regular basis. See you next week, folks!

-Wil
www.wheretheresawil.com

...Did I go this whole article without making a Dirty Harry joke? Shoot! ASKYOURSELFONEQUESTION,DOIFEELLU--KKKKSHKSHKKKKKKKSHSHSHSKKK--