Pokémon Passimian & Oranguru - Competitive Discussion

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Scattered mind

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New Pokemon are pilling up, as we go closer to the release date of Pokemon Sun & Moon. Almost each Pokemon has a new ability that may change every format of the competitive Pokemon game. Today's Pokemon are no exception.

Passimian - Fighting type

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Ability: Passimian has a new Ability, Receiver..With the Receiver Ability, this Pokemon can inherit the Ability of an ally who faints in battle.

This Pokemon's ability obviously fits double battles. Taking the ability of your fainted ally can come to your aid, and although it seems situational similarly to Trace, it can still be a game changer, no less. Right now, in fact, it seems even better than Trace, since you can control the ability you receive, unlike Trace, in which you rely on your opponent's ability.
Which one is better in your opinion?

The first thing that comes to my mind is Mega Kangaskahn. If Mega Pokemon won't disappear, having Parental Bond gives Passimian the ability to hit twice, one for him and another one in the name of his fainted ally.
What abilities do you think could go well with Passimian?

Looking at Passimian's design, it looks pretty fast, and that Fighting type screams high physical attack. The fact that it is an ability and not a move also helps Passimian to be viable and more versatile.
What do you think Passimian's stats and moves be like?

Next up, we have Oranguru, with the new Normal/Psychic type combo (EDIT:not really, we do have Meloetta)

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Yay, Psychic Pokemon with immunity to Ghost. It's already starting good. Inner Focus is nice, I guess, for double battles in particular when it faces Fake Out. We also have the option to run Telepathy, which is only good for doubles, so you can avoid being hit by your ally's moves, such as Surf and Earthquake.
What ability do you like more to use for a competitive battle?

The really interesting thing about Oranguru is the new move :
Instruct is a move that only Oranguru can learn. It can make the selected target use its most recent move again immediately.
Oranguru basically gives its ally the Parental Bond ability (sorta), by enable it to strike again. And with Telapathy, it lets your ally fire off 2 Earthquakes/Surfs without hitting Oranguru. The only down side is that by this, you practically use one Pokemon. However, imagine that Pokemon is Mega Kangaskhan.. Hitting 4 times.. 4 Power Up Punches.. Hmm..

Oranguru's design makes me feel he will be slow, yet bulky. This can be helpful, both for using Instruct after your ally, and also baring your opponent's attacks. What do you think its other moves might be?

Overall, what do you think of these Pokemon? Oh, and do you think they have any merit regarding single battles? It looks like both of them were designed for Double battles.

Discuss :]



 
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I'm wondering if passimian's ability can also be used in singles, because it says that it inherets the ability of those who faint in battle, but doesn't specify if it's exclusive to doubles/triples only. Either way it's a very strong ability. Let's say for example a ninjask uses final gambit. Now it's got speed boost, so you can focus on maxing out it's attack and boosting defenses. Basculing is another great partner. It learns final gambit and get's adaptability and mold breaker. Choice Scarf Final Gambit and now passimian has adaptability Mach Punch and Close Combat (provided of course he learns these moves).
Chandelure or Jumpluff can also memento into infiltrator and if it works in singles, Chansey/Blissey can Healing wish and passimian could get serene grace. Boosts Rock Slides Chance to Flinch, Boost the elemental punches' chance to cause status effect etc (healing wish could be used in doubles, but it wouldn't be that useful). Anyways just throwing out some ideas. Either way it can basically work with any ability provided passimian doesn't get knocked out first.
Oranguru is pretty straight forward. Make it bulky. Pair it with Garchomp or another sweeper. Earthquake for dayz.
 
Fighter monkey's ability isn't worth it, and it's nothing compared to Trace. Trace is so useful for the ability to get free, or better than usual, switchins from gaining Intimidate, Flash Fire, etc. You can control the ability you get, but it also requires sac'ing a team member so it's not actually good. Not to mention that, if it's anything like Trace, you lose the ability when you switch. If I had to guess stats, I'll guess something like Mienshao.

Psychic monkey isn't good either. You're basically using it's turn to give its teammate another turn (so basically, it's a species clause workaround). You've got to contend with it, likely, being statistically inferior to guys like MZard, Garchomp, Zapdos, etc. It's also got awful typing on the defensive side. I'd be willing to give it a second look if it gets decent bulk, but right now I'm not impressed.

Also, it goes without saying that neither will be bothered with in singles play.
 
Leronne said:
I'm wondering if passimian's ability can also be used in singles, because it says that it inherets the ability of those who faint in battle, but doesn't specify if it's exclusive to doubles/triples only
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Yeah, I was wondering about it too, but I think Professor Palutena is right. Both of these monkey Pokemon were apparently designed specifically for doubles, and it doesn't make sense that Passimian would get the ability of a fainted Pokemon without being on the field (unlike Retaliate).

Oranguru still seems to have great potential, I don't think giving your teammate another turn is something to be overlooked, as in VGC, hitting with double Surf/Earthquake and potentially faint 2 Pokemon, or at least hit their Sub/Protect and then hit again, may be a game changer, given the fact both sides in VGC have only 4 Pokemon to battle with.
 
Oranguru is basically a way to bypass species clause. It's going to be very dependent on it's bulk and speed if it's going to get any use. A slow Instruct is going to be difficult, because it's deadweight if it can't get off the Instruct. If it's slow, both opponent's are going to target it and then you've lost your strategy.

My problem with it is why would I want something that's defensively deadweight when I could have another attacker.

Like I'd rather have MSalamence + Smeargle than M+Salamence + Oranguru or Smeargle + Oranguru. If it lacks the stats, it's really not going to be worth it.
 
Also, I just thought about it, but wouldn't Trick Room be enough to destroy Oranguru's strategy?
 
Depends on Instruct's priority.

If it's negative priority, it won't matter.

It's also possible it'll use Instruct on the attack used last turn.
 
Oranguru's viability in any doubles format diminished the moment its gimmick was revealed to be a move. Now Smeargle gains access to it to add to its growing utility. Unless you really want Telepathy over Smeargle's vast advantages, I don't see any reason for it to take up space on your field.

At least Passimian's niche is safe from Smeargle theft, but it seems highly situational. Situational strategies almost never have positive results.
 
Instruct was shown to be used directly after Wishiwashi's Surf, so we know it doesn't have positive priority.

It could have negative priority, no priority, or special priority that makes it used directly after your partner.

Oranguru could have some use if for some reason Instruct can't be Sketched...?
 
I hadn't even thought about Smeargle!

Missing out on Telepathy may be a big deal (weakens Earthquake and Surf spam due to Smeargle's frailty) but Smeargle has so many other tools that there's bound to be some cool strategy (like Dark Void).
 
Professor Palutena said:
Missing out on Telepathy may be a big deal (weakens Earthquake and Surf spam due to Smeargle's frailty)
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Smeargle can have psuedo-Telepathy if it gets Evasion boosts from Moody. : o

I agree that Telepathy could be an the main driving point for Oranguru to see use, but I think that people are mainly going to use Instruct for things like Mega Mom's PuP. You also have moves like Hyper Voice and Rock Slide which make Telepathy useless but still hit multiple opponents.

If we want to talk about interesting double strategies coming from this gen, I've seen a few people talk about Accelgor + Palossand. The idea is to have Accelgor use Water Shuriken on Palossand to activate Water Compaction multiple times in one turn. Off the minimum number of hits, you're getting +4 Defense, while any hit after will put you at +6. Thanks to Water Shuriken's priority, you will have maxed out Defense before your opponent can even get off a hit. Pair this up with Weakness Policy or Assault Vest and you could have an interesting gimmick.
 
In singles Passimian's success depends ultimately on its stats and movepool, but that ability can put in serious work. It looks like it fits in perfectly with a heavy offense build designed around sacking your team members to wear down similar counters. Partners which spring to mind:

- Azumarril for the obvious Huge Power boost. Belly Drum, hit as much as you can, die, and then bring in Passimian.
- Mega Medicham and Mega Lopunny both have excellent abilities to receive for some serious Fighting type spam.
- Tough Claws boost from DD Mega Charizard X or all out attacker Mega Metagross.
- Crawdaunt's Adaptability.
- Greninja's Protean if it is unbanned in gen 7.
 
Well, you could use Final Gambit Victini/Ninjask, but a "Wild Card" ability Pokemon seems pointless, especially with how it has to activate. I'd rather use my team slots on Pokemon with synergy versus relying on saccing one Pokemon so another can copy it's ability. Losing any Pokemon is also a risk, and one that is meant to be sacrificed means you're going to technically be only really playing with three Pokemon, and even then Passimian better have the stats to stay on the field, because as the only Pokemon on your side, it's going to be taking two attacks.
 
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Do you think Oranguru's Instruct works on Z-moves? I'm not sure, but if so, that potentially makes it a real big threat in doubles, given that Z-moves are something that suppose to be good in a special way.
 
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