Unlike the stationary, turn-based battles of the mainline Pokémon games, the anime isn't limited by game design and can show off some truly creative move counters, particularly when it comes to the Pokémon Contests and some of Ash's tougher gym battles. Although many of these counter-attacks work brilliantly in the anime,🌃 there's no way they could ever work in the games.
The Pokémon series isn't against chang💮ing core battle mechanics, as seen during the special stat split and the addition of abilities. However, until the battle system can incorporate move combinations outside of the few basic ones, such as Defense🍰 Curl and Rollout, it is unlikely that these counter-attacks will work outside of the anime.
10 𒐪 Vine Whip On Projectiles
This move was incredibly popular in the early seasons of the anime when Ash had either 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bulbasaur or Bayleef on his team. The basic idea behind this counter-attack was using the move Vine Whip to knock projectile-based moves out of the air, such as Razor Leaf or Swift. While Ash's Bulbasaur was able to use this quite effectively, it's not something that could ever work in a turn-based RPG unless 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Game Freak decided to add move interactions in generation nine꧟.
9 Rapid Spin On♏ Hydro Pump 🀅
This is also commonly used with Pokémon who know Gyro Ball rather than Rapid Spin, but the idea is essentially the same. In order to counter a move like Flamethrower or Hydro Pump, the target Pokémon will use Rapid Spin or Gyro Ball to disperse the attack around them and prevent them from taking any damage. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ash's Squirtle used this maneuver not only defensively, but also offensively to use Hydro Pump itself, as it doesn't have the shoulder canons that Blas🔯toise has to use Hydro Pump in𒁏 the same way.
8 🐭 Iron Tail Jump
Using Iron Tail to gain height is a move Ash has used pretty frequently ever since he made one of the smartest decisions in his entire journey in making Pikachu learn Iron Tai🐈l. As Pikachu is a fairly light Pokémon with an incredibly strong tail, they are able to combine these aspects to allow Pikachu to escape trapping moves like Rock Tomb.
Variations of this move have been used quite a bit, particularly by Ash, as a way of countering airborne projectiles that can inflict serious damage on his team, though he uses it with Pikachu significantly more 🦹than any other Pokémon.
7 Gust On Po✅wder Moves
This was first shown with Ash's Pidgeotto and Butterfree, but even Bulbasaur got in on the action before Ash caught it, blowing back Butterfree's Powder moves with just its breath. This is a counter attack that is pretty common among the anime trainers, and with good reason, as Powder moves such as Stun Spore and Sleep Powder can be incredibly hard to deal with bot🔴h in the games and the anime.
6 🙈 Washing Off Powder Moves 🦩
This was shown comparatively fewer times than using a Gust-like move to disperse the Powder move, but was just as effective for Misty during𓂃 her gym battle with Ash. After being caught by a Sleep Powder, 🦋Misty instructed her Pokémon to jump into the water to wash off the effects, effectively canceling out the move altogether. While there are some variations of this that work in the games, such as Flame Wheel to cure the Frozen status, this is one that, unfortunately, only works in the anime.
5 🎃 Horn Attack On Fire Blast ♋
Ash's early battles were more about brute-forcing his way through the battle using his Pokémon's innate strength, rather than dividing a good strategy, which is why he lost a fair number of battles he could have otherwise won early on. One of these brute force moments was against Gary's Magmar, where Ash thought it was a good idea to use his Heracross against it, a Pokémon that is weak to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fire-types. Naturally, Ash manages to win anyway by making Heracross use Horn Attack to fly straight through the oncoming Fire Blast without taking any damage. Needless to say, this tac♛tic doesn't work at all in the games and will only result in a fainted Heracross.
4 ꦛ 𝓰 Rest On Focus Punch
During the Battle Frontier filler arc, Ash began showing signs that he was becoming a decent trainer, as well as bringing back some old classics from൲ his Kanto and Johto teams to help win against the Frontier Brains. One of those old Pokémon was his trusty and incredibly powe𝔍rful Snorlax from the Orange Islands.
During his battle against Greta, the Fighting-type specialist, Ash decides to use Snorlax, whose only weakness is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fighting-type moves, to win him the battle. In a huge upset, Snorlax is Frozen by a stray Ice Punch and is immobile, so Ash does what any trainer would do and command his Snorlax to use Rest and sleep 👍it off. Somehow, this strategy works and wins him the battle alongside revealing that his Snorlax knows five moves rather than four.
3 Counte♎r Shield
Ash developed this strategy just so he could defeat Fantina, who is one of the🌠 harder gym leaders in Sinnoh, but would continue to use it in many battles leading up to and including the Sinnoh League. Unlike his other weird strategies, this one isn't species-specific and could be used by anyone on his team with some kind of ranged attack, though was used most often by Pikachu, Monferno, and Buizel. Even Paul, Ash's main rival in Sinnoh, thought it was good enough to warrant copying several times, including against Ash himself.
2 ไ Intercepting One Physical Move With Another
This type of counter-attack is used quite often by Ash's Pikachu with its Iron Tail attack, though was also used often by 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ash's Greninja with either Cut or Aerial Ace. This type of counter-attack can also be extended to simply grabbing a charging Pokémon, which was done quite often by Charizard in the early seasons of the anime. Unlike many ot🌃her anime-exclusive counter-attacks, this is one that could actually be useful in the games and would add a layer of strategy for battles between two physical attack focused Pokémon.
1 🐽 At🎃tack The Horn
Easily Ash's most notorious counter-strategy, simply because of how stupid it is, is to target a Ground-type Pokémon's horn to bypass its Electric-type immunity. Not only does this make no sense outside the anime, it doesn't even make sense within the anime anymore, since most of the Pokémon that Ash would use this counter against now have the ability Lightning Rod. It's probably a good thing that Ash stopped doing this since it allowed ꦕhim to teach Pikach🔜u Iron Tail, one of the better moves in his arsenal.