Strategy Starters' Signature Moves: - Does Primarina's Move Have Any Merit?

[Scattered mind]

With the TMI latest news, we not only got the starter's final typing, but also their signature move. It seems like GF thought about giving each one of them a move that has a certain strategy for competitive battle. The Grass starter can trap Pokemon, the Fire starter can wallbreak while ignoring stat changes and the Water starter got.. to heal the opponent's burns?

Do you think this move can have any competitive value? I think it might be effective to remove the burn stat of a Guts user that uses Flame Orb, but other than that.. it is quite situational. However, curing your ally from burns is more effective, and thinking about it, that makes Palossand and Primarina a nice core for doubles.

What do you think about these signature moves? Can they hint us about how viable each starter might be in competitive battles?

 

[Professor Palutena]

Robinroot's move is the best, but they're all not good. It's an attacking version of Mean Look. It could work for trapping Water types though.

Luchalitten's is basically Sacred Sword and no one runs that (except for Aegislash because it gets nothing better).

Little Mermaid gets Smelling Salts but for burns. This is useless as it defeats the point of running Scald. No one runs Smelling Salts and no one runs Wake-up Slap. No one will run this.

 

[Celever]

Decidueye's move could be viable depending on its other moves and stats. I could see it being really good as a stallbreaker, but in theory Mean Look should also be good on a stallbreaker. Thanks to 4MSS I don't think it will ever be run. I think it could end up overhyped though -- I remember when people thought Nuzzle would be amazing. This seems like pretty much the same thing.

Primarina has a move, I guess. Burns are probably gonna be more useful than this one time nuke move anyway lol.

Incineroar could have a real weapon with Darkest Lariat, though. Not because ignoring defensive stat changes is at all useful, but because it could well be a physical Dark-Type move with more damage than 80 BP (not counting Hyperspace Fury, which is signature to Hoopa). Even if it's 90 BP that will give it a major edge in competitive play, especially when a lot of Dark-Type Pokémon don't even get Crunch and are stuck using Night Slash, which is 70 BP. It could give Incineroar a useful niche, I think.

 

[Professor Palutena]

Incineroar could have a real weapon with Darkest Lariat, though. Not because ignoring defensive stat changes is at all useful, but because it could well be a physical Dark-Type move with more damage than 80 BP (not counting Hyperspace Fury, which is signature to Hoopa). Even if it's 90 BP that will give it a major edge in competitive play, especially when a lot of Dark-Type Pokémon don't even get Crunch and are stuck using Night Slash, which is 70 BP. It could give Incineroar a useful niche, I think.

I feel like this goes without saying. If Darkest Lariat is the strongest STAB move Tony the Tiger gets, it'll obviously run it. But it's not running it for the effect.

 

[Celever]

I feel like this goes without saying. If Darkest Lariat is the strongest STAB move Tony the Tiger gets, it'll obviously run it. But it's not running it for the effect.

I was moreso speaking in terms of the wider picture, though. If Darkest Lariat is 90BP (which isn't unreasonable), that could be enough to make it viable, or at least give it a strong niche by having two good offensive typings, both with reliable damage output. That's what signature moves are there to do. It has more promise than either of the other two moves.

The effect is probably tacked on because they want everything signature in this generation to have some sort of "groundbreaking" effect.

 

[Secret Agent Seal]

Decidueye - Could be really useful if it also gets U-turn or Baton Pass. Physical Ghost attacks are currently dreadful, so Decidueye might be forced to run it even if the BP is low (I'm assuming the signature move is physical).

Incineroar - In other words, this attack bypasses the Def boosts of the opponent. Def boosts aren't common. When they do appear, they're seen on stuff that already resists Dark (Bulk Up Fighting types).

Primarina - Water has amazing special attacks (Scald, Surf, Hydro Pump) so I doubt the signature move will be enough to see use.

 

[Equinox]

Decidueye - Could be really useful if it also gets U-turn or Baton Pass. Physical Ghost attacks are currently dreadful, so Decidueye might be forced to run it even if the BP is low (I'm assuming the signature move is physical).

Primarina - Water has amazing special attacks (Scald, Surf, Hydro Pump) so I doubt the signature move will be enough to see use.

I think if Decidueye's move is physical there isn't much wrong with that, when it comes down to it it needs to have the stats to back it up, however I bet it's special because of the whole owl archer theme.

If Pirmarina's signature move is just as powerful as hydro Pump with extra PP or an extra effect than it will be pretty useful.

 

[PMJ]

Who cares? Tons of Pokemon have exclusive moves and they are awful. Just because best starter has the worst exclusive move doesn't mean anything.