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Quoted By: >>20178730 >>20178747 >>20178808 >>20178832
>Disclaimer: I am not an avid OU battler, I prefer to play VGC, but I believe I still know enough to be able to put my view forward.
Protect is one of the most widely available moves and is the most effective safety net in the game giving your Pokemon full immunity from whatever your opponent had in store for you the turn you use it.
However in singles it means that all you are doing is effectively stopping a turn from happening. You are stalling.
In issue 22 of 'Smog' there is an article called "Safe Battling: How to use Protection", this article may be a bit outdated now but it is still valid. 14 Pokemon are specifically named in this article, 12 of these were named purely because they utilise Protect for Wish, Toxic, Leftovers, etc. stalling.
The article then goes on to give some down sides to using Protect, all of which amount to basically overdependence on the move.
No one likes to just be sat there watching their Pokemon slowly fainting whilst their opponent uses Wish then Protect followed by another Wish then another Protect and so on and not being able to do enough damage to make a difference in the cycle. It is painful to watch and simply not fun.
A more recent example of Protect abuse is in Baton Pass teams which almost always start with a Scolipede or have a wish user somewhere along the line, either way Protect is a bit part of what allows Baton Pass teams to be what they are.
Protect is one of the most widely available moves and is the most effective safety net in the game giving your Pokemon full immunity from whatever your opponent had in store for you the turn you use it.
However in singles it means that all you are doing is effectively stopping a turn from happening. You are stalling.
In issue 22 of 'Smog' there is an article called "Safe Battling: How to use Protection", this article may be a bit outdated now but it is still valid. 14 Pokemon are specifically named in this article, 12 of these were named purely because they utilise Protect for Wish, Toxic, Leftovers, etc. stalling.
The article then goes on to give some down sides to using Protect, all of which amount to basically overdependence on the move.
No one likes to just be sat there watching their Pokemon slowly fainting whilst their opponent uses Wish then Protect followed by another Wish then another Protect and so on and not being able to do enough damage to make a difference in the cycle. It is painful to watch and simply not fun.
A more recent example of Protect abuse is in Baton Pass teams which almost always start with a Scolipede or have a wish user somewhere along the line, either way Protect is a bit part of what allows Baton Pass teams to be what they are.
