Pokemon's Most Obscure And Useless Moves

Pokemon is a pretty simple game at its surface, and I think its simple diversity is what makes it such a hugely popular franchise for most people, either picking a game up for the first time or revisiting distant childhood bliss once more. And one feature throughout its history that has kept it fresh is the vast assortment of moves different Pokemon can learn. But since new moves are added each generation, there are some that have fallen into complete obscurity, never to be used, or even looked at, again. So let’s take a dive into Pokemon’s most obscure and forgotten moves...

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[Mngalahad]

the ariados spider web is actually a really good way to catch the johto beasts in pokemon firered and leafgreen: you breed an ariados with a ledyba so you get spiderweb on ledian, which is a pokemon with baton pass. so you use spider web, trap entei or raikou with it and then baton pass into a soundproof pokemon like electrode.

[mystikx]

My favorite thing about Spider Web is that, in Gen 9, they made it unusable. Then they decided to introduce a new spider Pokemon and give it Block, a move that's literally the same thing as Spider Web.

[DrachenIvy]

i actually used captivate when i fought cynthia in platinum, i believe her team is all-female so i just threw it on one of my male mons to weaken her special attackers. truly the pinnacle of niche

[deathstinger]

an easier way to describe Miracle Eye is to call it a psychic variant on Odor Sleuth/Foresight. It has the same nullification of evasion improvements, it just removes dark's immunity to psychic instead of Odorsleuth/Foresight's removal of ghost's immunities. It might be interesting to see it return as an ability, akin to Scrappy or Corrosion

[yannickgrignon]

You know, I kind of like that sentiment at the end. I agree that there can be value found in moves who's only real purpose is giving kids a moment to think about if they want to learn them (and then inevitably choose "no")

[thegreatphantus]

I love how atmospheric these videos are. It's such an unorthodox choice but it adds a lot to these videos.

[GamerJrdn]

It's weird that Porygon couldn't learn Reflect Type, Conversion basically did the same thing in Gen 1 so it'd make logical sense for it to be able to do that but maybe it'd make Porygon2 and Z too good

[ariechriswell]

Reflect Type was actually a niche tech move in Gen V OU on Latias. It allowed you to turn the tables on any Tyranitar trying to Pursuit trap you by turning into a Dark Type and resisting the hit

[BryceRogers_]

In Gen. 2, I put Spider Web on all my Smeargle. It's the saucier trapping move. Then you give it Spore, Super Fang/False Swipe, and Fly for the prime pokemon-catching loadout

[sillentgamer]

Miracle Eye is basically the same thing as Foresight, but for the Psychic-Dark relationship instead of the Normal-Ghost relationship. I didn't realize it also resets evasion, so that would make Foresight the worse of the two, especially when most Normal types can learn Dark type moves to counter Ghost like Bite, Feint Attack or Knock Off. And most can learn Shadow Ball too.

[AZV]

3:22
I might be one of the rarest users of Spider Web ever existed lol.
Back in Gen 7, for a Monotype Bug, I ran an Araquanid with Spider Web, Soak, Toxic and Rest to stall and get rid of any other wall/threat to the team. And it's safe to say that set not only worked, but it was way more effective than it may appear.
Sad the move has been deleted from the series, I would love to bring back my Stallaquanid

[nightnday]

Useless Moves

15 year old me: Anything that did not inflict damage.

[InsomniacMatt]

Bite went from physical in Gen 1(normal), to special in Gen 2 when it became a dark type, and regained physical in Gen 4

[NairbNroh]

5:24 small mistake, but Shadow Moves are totally usable by the player while you have Shadow Pokemon.

[magnuspkmn]

The only one I was pretty familiar with was Spider Web, since Koga's team on the Johto Elite Four features an Ariados who loves using it. I'm glad it at least got SOME love from GameFreak there!

[christiancinnabars]

Miracle Eye would go bonkers if it also raised the user's accuracy, even by one stage. Alakazam smiting enemies with a 93% accurate Focus Blast? I'm all for it.

[Celia_Dawn]

Reflect Type was actually really good on Mega Latias in competitive! It basically let it Terastellize versus Pokemon like Tyrantatar or Ferrothorn, two of its most common answers.

[chrisjohnsen]

I actually used Reflect Type in a recent SV run. I had a Gengar on my team and I had it use Reflect Type at the Ghost gym after my Farigiraf became Dark Type with Tera in order to more readily body Rhyme's team.

[TheRubsi]

From my experience of more than 20 years in gaming, the games that contain "useless" and "strictly worse" moves/items/mechanics and allow for some insane abuse and min-maxing usually are the best. There is a reason why the devs included Salami as a Weapon in BG3 ... :-D 😀

[GlorySnowstar]

I have a tradition of watching your videos whenever I’m at a special house by the cape. They’re so cozy :)