The list of moves in the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokémon series has grown imm🤡ensely over the past several generations, making for an endlessly complex battle system. From TMs to Egg Move♚s, there are countless attacks that many trainers either won’t see at all in their playthrough, or only in a few rare circumstances.
The list is larger than ever in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokémon Sword & Shield, but there are hardly any moves that are functionally worse than others. Each Pokémon has more options✤ than ever for their movesets, and unexpected attacks can often put you far ahead of yoꦆur opponents. If you want your Pokémon to stand out a little more, these underrated moves can give your team a more unique edge.
10 Amnesia
When boosting one’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Special Defense stat, a very common move for most trainers is Calm Mind, which ups your Special Defense and Special Attack by one stage. This move is certainly effective, but it can 🦄also be quite slow for vulnerable Pokémon that need the boost quickly.
This is why Amnesia is oꦿften overlooked, as it’s a purely defensive move that’ll immediately double your Special Defense. It might not have the offensive boost of Calm Mind, but it can be learned by many fast Pokémon like Drifblim and Comfey and makes them exceptionally resistant to any special attacks before the opponent can even strike.
9 ♉ Breaking Swipe
Another one of Pokémon Sword & Shield’s best moves comes straight𝕴 from Gym Leader Raihan, who gives tꦚrainers the Dragon-type attack Breaking Swipe in return for beating him. This move deals damage to all opponents, and will always decrease their Attack stat by one stage.
This move might seem unexciting, but its utility is significantly more effective than you’d think. Decreasing a stat is often reserved for status moves, so the ability to do it while dealing some damage is surprisingly useful. Additionally, it’ll affect both opponents in Double Battles anꦫd can be learned by a wide variety of Pokémon, making it extremely efficient.
8 ꩵ 💯 Ally Switch
This next move is exclusively for Double Battles, but is one of the hardest moves to counter in this type of fight. Ally Switch will im💜mediately swap the user and its neighboring ally, and on its own, it can easily nullify or waste your opponent’s moves by changing their intended targets.
The real power of this move is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:its speed, however, as this attack is also a priority move that will always move first in battle. This means that even a slow tank can protect a vulnerable🍎 ally in an instant, and in many cases, it can throw their strategy so far off that you’ll have essentially gained a free move.
7 Sm﷽ꩵart Strike
One strategy that many trainers struggle against is a Pokémon that increases its Evasiveness, meaning an opponent's attacks will become 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:far less accurate.💧 This can be especially powerful and many trainers ban it from their circles, but in online battles, it’s just as valid as any other move.
That said, there are many ways to counter 𓄧the strategy, and perhaps the best is to have a Pokémon with Smart Strike. This physical Steel-type move is available as a TM and will always land with perfect accuracy, and while this effect is handy it alsꦬo is learned by Pokémon of several types and deals way more damage than most perfect-accuracy moves.
6 Revenge
There are several intimidating Fighting-type moves, but the strength of a move should rarely be defined by their base power. Attacks like Clos🤪e Combat have an admirable 120 power, but losing defensive stats can make it a grave liඣability for most Pokémon.
This is what makes Revenge a great alternative, as it’s an attack 💯with 60 base power that’s twice as powerful if the user took damage beforehand. This already is strong on slow Fighting-type tanks like Machamp and Sirfetch’d, but Pokémon like Hitmontop can use it even better as its power is increased further by the ability Technician that boosts moves with low base power.
5 🙈Draꦛgon Tail
When Pokémon are increasing their stats over and over, it can become frustrating dealing with them. Some that grow more def🅺ensive can be nearly invincible with some stat bo🍸osts, while certain aggressive Pokémon can take out most foes in one hit.
However, stat changes made in battle can also be removed by the user swapping their Pokémon, so attacks that force your opponents to swap are surprisingly effective. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon Tail is a very common one for Pokémon of various types that happen to have a tail themselves, so it can make for a 💛great deterrent for any Pokém𒁃on that wishes to buff itself.
4 Poison Tail ♐
Speaking of tail-based moves, there’s one more than many trainers forget 🦹about because it can be relatively scarce. This would be the move Poison Tail, which has about 50 base power and can be learned by an odd variety of Pokémon including Druddigon, Goodra, Sandaconda, and Scolipede.
What makes it unique is the wide variety of alternate effects. On top of being a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Poison-type move, it has an unusually high chance of landing as a Critical Hit 🧜and even has a 10% chance of poisoning the target. It’s an odd and inconsistent set of effects, but its diversity can make it a clutch tool for those feeling lucky.
3 Hex
Most trainers who want a Ghost-type move for their Special Attackers will gravitate to Shadow Ball, a very generic damaging move with a slim chance of decreasing the opponent’s Special Defense. It’👍s not a bad move, but because of its vanilla power, it can distract from the wide variety of more powerful moves that the Ghost-type has to offer.
This is where Hex comes in, being a great attack with only 20-less base power than Shadow Ball while dealing double damage to opponents with a status ailment like Burn or Sleep. It can be an annoy𝓰ing condition to put on, but even non-offensive Pokémon can learn it alongside reliable status moves like Thunder Wave and Will-O-Wisp to provide high damage without needing high stats.
2 Ice Shard
Speed priority moves are quite powerful in many situations, but very often they’re quite fast and weak. Ice Shard is one of these, hitting first in battle and dealing a fairly low 40 damage, but this move is surprisingly reliable for many Pokémon as a physically-offensive Ice-type move. Lapras is perhaps the best user, 💎who has nearly as much Physical Attack as it does Special Attack.
When transforming it through Dynamax, this attack will also not be clear as to what type of damage it’s dealing, meaning Ice Shard can provide unexpected physical damage as strong as a typical Ice Beam. As a result, Po🐓kémon like Lapras can secretly be Physical Attackers by relying on Ice Shard, and even lifts the ne🐎ed for the user to have high Speed stats.
1 Curse
The last underrated move is Curse, but most trainers do know that the move is more powerful than it seems. On Pokémon that aren’t Ghost-types, this move can decrease the user’s Speed while making thei😼r Attack and Defense higher, providing a helpful stat boost that also ensures you’ll attack second for moves like Revenge and Avalanche.
However, this move is still quite good on many 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:actual Ghost-types, who sacrifice half their health to provide a temporary status effect th꧃at removes a quarter of the target’s health each turn. When combined with healing items like a Sitrus Berry or healing moves like Strength Sap, defensive Ghost-types can survive this expensive cost of life, as it only takes a few turns for the opponent to faint from such a serious effect.