Rare Article: 3 Moves You Should Consider

Back in the B.T. era of PKMNcast (I split our history up by "B.T." and "A.T," which stand for "Before Travis" and "Ano Travini," respectively,) SBJ wrote one of this site's most popular articles, Pokémon You Should Consider. I've set out to write a similar spiel but with the focus changed to underrated moves, being someone without any genuinely unique ideas of my own. I suppose in that way I'm like the Avatar of PKMNcast.

BOOM. TAKE THAT, JAMES CAMERON! Just kidding, J.C. Please give me your money and your weird undersea exploratory vessels.

With that out of the way, let's look at some underrated moves, shall we?

Chapter 1: Final Gambit, Or: The Poor Man's Explosion

Final Gambit is, in some ways, completely inferior to a similar move, Explosion. Both deal massive ammounts of damage to your opponent at the expense of K.O.ing the user. For Explosion, the best strategy, usually, is to explode when your Pokémon is low on health anyway, thereby dealing a ton of damage without that much of a penalty.

You don't have that luxury with Final Gambit, however. Final Gambit, a Fighting-Type move, deals damage to your opponent equal to the current, that is, not maximum, HP of the user. In other words, if you use Final Gambit when you've only 1 HP, you're going to do a whopping 1 damage. 

However, at full HP, you'll deal your maximum HP to your opponent. Although the few Pokémon that can access Final Gambit don't have massive HP stats, an Accelgor with 252 EVs in HP and Final Gambit can be great utility. While Explosion is limited by resistances, Final Gambit will always deal your current HP, barring Ghost types. Additionally, if you are in a format where Protect is rampant, i.e. doubles or triples, Explosion is super risky. You could explode and K.O. no one but yourself. Final Gambit "fails" if the opponent uses Protect, giving you a chance for another turn.

In my experience, Final Gambit is best at covering Pokémon or types you don't have much offense on. Let's say you have a problem with both Gastrodon and Grass-types. Instead of switching out multiple moves in order to cover both of these weakspots, thereby most likely giving yourself poor coverage for other threats, you could just change out one move for Final Gambit. My buddy FG doesn't care what kind of Pokémon you are. It'll still punch massive wholes in any team.

Chapter 2: Last Resort, Or: When All Else Fails

Last Resort is a Normal-Type move that has a massive base power of 140. With STAB, that's enough to rip through almost anything. However, to pull off Last Resort, the user must have used each other move it knows at least once. That means you might have to use some situationally disadvantageous moves in preparation to using Last Resort. That's a bit of a bummer.

But it's not all bad. Think about my buddy Ambipom. If his set is just Fake Out and Last Resort, he becomes a 2HKO machine. Sure, he doesn't have much in the way of coverage for Rock, Steel, or Ghost types, but no Pokémon is going to be able to cover everything it is matched up against. A constant 140 base power move, with STAB and some damage from a previous Normal-Gem and Technician-boosted Fake Out, Last Resort is going to wreck almost anything you want it to. In my book, that's pretty cool.

Chapter 3: Torment, Or: Sand-Attack's Even More Annoying Cousin

Torment, a Dark-Type move, prevents your opponent from using the same move twice in a row. The effect only wears off when they switch out.

This is a move with a ton of utility. Slap it on a bulky Pokémon with Substitute and you've got yourself one of the world's hardest subs to break, as your opponent can't use the most effective move twice in a row. Use it against a Choice item user and suddenly they have to use Struggle every turn. Certainly they could just switch out, but that can be helpful too. A nice double switch or super effective hit on the incoming Pokémon can be just as devastating to your opponent as any of the formal effects of Torment. I love this move, if you haven't noticed.

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That'll do for this week folks. I'll be back next week with another Rare Article, and perhaps next time I'll write it with pants on. 

~Travis