Move of the Week - Heal Bell

Hey guys, I'm finally back! Sorry for the lack of MotW articles, but my summer's been kinda hectic. Enough about me tho', let's get to the stuff you're really here for; this week's move is Heal Bell! Woo-hoo, super-exciting, right?

Heal Bell is a Normal-Type Status-Category move with 5 PP (Max 8). Heal Bell removes any of the major status conditions (Burn, Freeze, Paralyze, Poison, and Sleep) from the user. In Double and Triple Battles, it also removes any major status ailment that any of the user's allies may have. 

That's pretty much it for the move, so here's something interesting I found out. In Generations III and IV, Heal Bell did not affect any ally with the Soundproof Ability. It makes sense, seeing as how the "soothing chiming of the bell" is what's supposed to be healing factor. In Generation V however, they removed this, thus allowing Soundproof allies to benefit from it. Kinda neat, huh?

Well, that's it for this edition of Move of the Week. Until next time, stay strong Trainers!

MOTW: Curse

Heeeyyy Trainers! How are all of you guys and gals doing? Training hard for Nationals, I'm sure. Well this week, I'm gonna cover a move that I'm sure a lot of you have seen in your competitive lives. That's right, we're gonna take a look at Curse! 

I'm sure most of you know what Curse does but hey, a refresher course never hurts! Curse is a Ghost-Type Status-Category move with 10 PP (max 16), and no definied Base Power or Accuracy. Yes folks, as of Generation V, Curse actually has a type! No more of those ???-Type shenanigans. Now, let's get onto what the move actually does. Curse is a funny little move. For every type but Ghost, curse ups the user's Attack and Defense by one stage, but drops the user's Speed stat by one stage. This makes it a great move for those who wish to take advantage of the move Gyro Ball. By increasing Attack AND lowering Speed, you're effectively increasing the power of the move twice in one turn!

Curse does something a bit different with Ghost-Types however. True to its name, when a Ghost-Type uses curse, they actually cut their own HP by 1/2 of their maximum HP (maximum, not current, you'd best remember that!) and lays a curse on the opponent! Spooooky, huh? Now, some of you might be asking what a Curse does exactly. A Pokémon afflicted with a Curse loses 1/4 of their MAXIMUM HP. That's right Trainers, a Cursed Pokémon with full HP with faint in four turns! Yikes, talk about a powerful status effect! The Curse status-effect is an "unlisted" status effect, meaning that, similar to status ailments such as Attract and Leech Seed, it goes away when the afflicted Pokémon is withdrawn. So if one of your Pokémon gets Cursed, make sure to switch out!

Well everyone, I really hope that you all succeed at Nationals. Make sure to let eveyone here at PKMNcast know how you did, we'd love to know! Stay strong, Trainers! I know you'll all make us proud!

MOTW: Yawn

Heya guys, Kenny here! Sorry for not having an article up last week, I was busy getting stuff ready with NuzleafGreen. Now that things have settled down however, it's time to look at another move! This week: Yawn!

Yawn is a Normal-Type Status-Category move with 10 PP (max 16 PP). Unless specific conditions are met, Yawn will always succeed. This is different from the move Spore. Although Spore has an accuracy of 100%, it may still miss due to accuracy modifications. Basically, it still needs to pass an accuracy check. Yawn bypasses the check, therefore immediately succeeding (under normal circumstances).

Yawn will take two turns the work. If Yawn succeeds, you will be informed that the foe has "grown drowzy". The drowziness itself does not do anything, rather it is informing you that your opponent will fall asleep next turn. Note that drowziness is not a status condition in any form whatsoever.

Now I did say that there are some ways to counter this move, didn't I? Well, let's get onto those! Abilities that prevent sleep such as Vital Spirit or Insomnia render the move useless. As previously stated, the "drowsiness" from Yawn is not a status effect. This does not mean, however, that Yawn will work if the opponent is affected by another status condition. If your opponent is Paralyzed, Asleep, Burned, Frozen, or Poisoned, Yawn will fail. Yawn is also blocked by moves such as Safeguard, Magic Coat, and Uproar. The easiest way to prevent Pokémon from falling asleep however is to switch out! Like with conditions such as Confusion and Attract, switching out will completely nullify the "drowsiness". 

Well, that's it for this edition of MOTW! Stay strong, Trainers!

MOTW: Dark Void

Woo-hoo, it's time for another MOTW! Sorry about last week, but I'm totally back and ready to talk about a move that is a bit ridiculous due to how good it is: Dark Void! Dark Void is a Status-Category Dark-Type move with 10 PP (16 max) and an accuracy of 80%. This move is also the signature move of none other than the Pokémon that is currently being distributed (that event's still active, right?): Darkrai! Now, I know some of you may be saying "80% isn't that great, Kenny. Why are you saying it's so good?" Well, let's take a closer look.

Although this move doesn't have the accuracy that moves like Spore and Yawn do, it can hit both opponents (unless, of course, the Sleep Clause is active). Imagine winning a Double Battle and then - BAM - both of your Pokémon are put to sleep in the same turn. That's enough to make anyone mad. On top of that, most of you might remember that Darkrai has an Ability called Bad Dreams, which reduces the HP of any sleeping opponent by 1/8th. This Ability can also be paired with the move Nightmare, which reduces the HP of a sleeping opponent by 1/4th! Seriously, anyone in that situation is pretty much a gonner. Even if you take away both Bad Dreams and/or Nightmare, Dark Void is seriously a crippling move (It may be Darkrai's signature move but remember, Smeargle can learn it too via Sketch!). So crippling in fact, that it's been banned from officially sanctioned tournaments. I personally feel that if they took the accuracy down a bit then it might be a fair move. The 80% it's at now however, makes it way too good.

Well, that's it for this edition of Move of the Week. Stay strong, Trainers!

MOTW - Wish

Heya guys, Kenny here with another exciting edition of Move Of The Week. Today we'll be taking a look at the ever-popular Wish! Wish is a Normal Type Status-Category move with a base PP of 10 (max 16). Wish is a unique recovery  move that takes two turns to work. On the turn that the move is actually used, the game will simply state that the user made a wish. On the second turn however, the wish will come true and the Pokémon that is currently out will have their HP restored by 1/2 of the user's maximum HP. Please note that I said "user's". Yes, that means that your Blissey uses Wish and you switch out to your Toxicroak, that the Toxicroak's HP will be restored by 1/2 of the Blissey's maximum HP. I bet you guys are seeing the strategy in this move now, huh?

Alright, well now now that I mentioned strategy we might as well talk about that huh? Well, here we go! As previously stated, Wish heals the amount of HP that is equal to one half of the user's Maximum HP. Yes, Gen V DID change how Wish works. Wish used to heal half of the HP of the active Pokémon, and now (I'll say it one last time just to solidify it) it heals the active Pokémon 1/2 of the maximum HP of the Pokémon that used Wish. This means two things; Pokémon with a lot of HP make great use of passing on the Wish to other Pokémon, and Pokémon with low HP aren't so good at passing it on. This means that if you want use a Wish-passer then you'll most likely want to stick to your bulkier Wish-users such as Blissey, and Wigglytuff. Teams that are based around this strategy that are well-executed can be quite effective, however I would advise having a backup strategy just in case something goes wrong.

Well, that covers this edition of MOTW. I really hope you guys enjoyed it!