How Purrloin Forced Pokemon to Change the Game

Purrloin was part of a strategy so powerful, Pokemon was forced to change the game. Here's how it happened.

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[StickMaster]

Purrloin was such a threat not only because of the Dive Cat strategy but because it was sitting like a normal cat, so they had to make it stand on two legs when Pokémon moved to 3D in X and Y

[Pikatrainer]

"Dark Void is supposed to be Darkrai's signature move. But in VGC it's Smeargle's signature move." Truer words have never been spoken

[cumbrap]

Dude who discovered this had to be some sort of anime supervillain because this is just evil.

[josiahdean-ware]

I'm so angry that this is called "dive cat" when it clearly should've been called cat fishing

[nerdbrain]

I'm still mad about how they nerfed dark void. They made it so no one but darkrai can use it but also nerfed the accuracy. But darkrai has pretty much NEVER been allowed in vgc tournaments. So all this really did was make darkrai in singles ubers incredibly pathetic and use hypnosis instead of his signature move

[ForestCal]

the liepard and houndoom combo was so cool, it truly seems like the real life equivalent of ingo and emmet

[GlitchxCity]

I'm starting to think that Game Feak has a vendetta against cat Pokemon

[lthefifteenth]

As soon as you mentioned the Lagging Tail, it immediately clicked and I thought "Oh God, this is scary"

[lemonadogirl]

Don't forget the singles version, RoarCats. Since hazards see a lot more use in Singles due to the greater frequency of switching, getting Roar in a positive priority state was _insanely_ busted, as you could just rake your opponent's entire team over stealth rocks and spikes while they were rendered entirely unable to act as being forcibly switched _entirely cancels your turn_ if you had not yet moved, this being the reason Roar and related moves are negative priority to begin with.

[cutekittenlady]

I dont play competitive pokemon, but its still a lot of fun to hear about all the little tricks and strategies people have come up with over the years.

[jblen]

I love hearing about strats like this. it's so cool how people come up with this, assist with prankster makes sense, but then to go for an invulnerability move and use lagging tail is genius.

[Patterrz]

If Purrloin with Dive breaks the game then we're lucky that cats hate water, or they'd take over the world

[Qaos]

Strategies like these are always so interesting to me. A simple concept that's extremely easy to counter, 'n' yet is completely unbeatable if you're unprepared.

[timmyreobed]

Prankster Assist is such a devastating combo that they would make Purrloin and Liepard borderline unkillable in gen 9 while taking advantage of Revival Blessing.

[---mriu]

Surf bypasses the semi-invulnerable turn of Dive and deals double damage to boot. Surf is also way more common in doubles for its spread damage compared to the overall dominance of Scald and Hydro Pump in singles. I think there's a high chance you'd run into it using this team, which really hurts its consistency.

[Yeedede]

There’s also an even more gimmicky version in singles with roar over dive, all it needed was one form of permanent passive damage and it could just win

[stephanieowusu-ansah]

Fishious Rend would be extremely broken for the sheer fact that it's second effect doubles the damage if you move first

[CyanicCore]

I only really figured out what Assist did a year ago, and thought "there has to be a crazy was to use this'... Well, Divecats certainly went beyond my expectation! It's also good to know about the nerfs that developed. While they do their job, where else is a change so specific than those made for Assist and Dark Void?

[theangledsaxon]

Damn, I’m hyped that I’ve seen enough competitive Pokémon to see the strat emerge with the reveal of dive. I immediately thought “if only there was a way to guarantee that the dive moved second on the other turn…” and ofc there is, in the form of atrocious items I never knew existed

[SigmaAirplaneBalls]

Liepard and Houndoom are probably my favorite pokemon, warms my heart to see them obliterate opponents