1. "Fly and Dig give you a free turn!"

Wrong. Fly and Dig give the opponent a free switch. Fly and Dig both have low base attack powers (70 for Fly; 60 for Dig).

You fly/dig. Your opponent attacks and misses. That is NOT a free turn. On the turn when you attack, your opponent can simply switch to a Pokemon that is resistant to your attack or attack your Pokemon that has just come down/up from Fly/Dig. While you do to them 60-70 damage per turn, they can do a bigger amount of damage to you. Or, they can just switch out.

An example would be such:
Dugtrio used Dig! Dugtrio went underground!
Enemy Raichu used Surf! The attack missed!
Trainer Joe withdrew with Raichu. Go Articuno!
Dugtrio used Dig! Enemy Articuno is not affected!
Enemy Articuno used Ice Beam! It's super effective! Dugtrio fainted!

2. "All-out offence wins games!"

No, unless you're battling your six-year-old cousin. Attacks like Reflect, Light Screen, Barrier and Amnesia are great for setting up defence. After one turn (two if you're slower than the opponent), Reflect has already paid for itself since it cuts physical damage in half. Same thing for Light Screen except for Special moves. After those 1-2 "wasted" turns, you now have 3-4 turns of free protection, even if you switch. How good is that? Barrier and Amnesia are good but mostly if your Pokemon have good Defence/Special Defence to start with because protection from Barrier and Amnesia are calculated based on your Pokemon's own Defence/Special Defence. Of course, if you use Reflect, your opponent can start using Special attacks. You may think it's not worth it but if you've already thrown your opponent off its original plan, which gives you a considerable advantage.

Next, there's recovery moves like Recover, Moon Light, Morning Sun, Synthesis, Recover and Rest. Any Pokemon that can learn or breed for one of the previously mentioned moves (except Rest) should keep it. It's a blessing from Nintendo. There are a few exceptions though, where a Pokemon could go without one of those moves. Rest, however, is harder to use effectively. Since you sleep for two turns, it gives your opponent time to switch or attack freely. This is where the Mint Berry comes in. Equip your Pokemon with Mint Berry if it has Rest. If you don't, either make your your Pokemon can take the hit or give it Sleep Talk.

Lastly, attacks like Double Team and Minimize are downright abusive. Some trainers have even called it cheap. Ignore them. Evade modifiers are great. Use them only if you think your Pokemon can take the hits. Best if used with a Pokemon with a healing move and/or Baton Pass.

3. "The best attack in the game is Hyper Beam!"

No, it's not. There are many more Normal moves that are better than Hyper Beam. Some people see 150 base attack power and say, "Wow! That must be the highest attack ever!" The truth is, you have to factor in accuracy and recharge. Hyper Beam's actual base attack power is 71.25 (150/2*95%). Not including Explosion and Self Destruct, here are 10 Normal moves that have a higher base attack power:

Body Slam: 85 (85*100%) + 30% paralysis rate
Double-Edge: 90 (120*100%-120/4)
Egg Bomb: 75 (100*75%)
Extremespeed: 80 (80*100%) + first hit
Frustration: 102 (102*100%)
Hyper Fang: 72 (80*90%) + 10% flinch rate
Mega Kick: 90 (120*75%)
Return: 102 (102*100%)
Strength: 80 (80*100%)
Thrash: 90 (90*100%)
Tri Attack: 80 (80*100%) + 10% burn/freeze/paralysis rate

All those moves are better than Hyper Beam. There are a few exceptions in which Hyper Beam would be good but if you have Hyper Beam on every single one of your Pokemon, look at them again and see what other move could be put in Hyper Beam's place.

4. "Fire Blast, Hydro Pump, Thunder and Blizzard are the best attacks of their type!"

Sometimes, but hardly ever. Thunder is crappy without Rain Dance. See #5 for explaination. Nintendo lowered Blizzard's accuracy in GSC so most people have replaced it with the trusty Ice Beam. Hydro Pump and Fire Blast are a bit different since they have accuracies of 80% and 85% respectively. Hydro Pump isn't on any TMs so mainly Water-types use this attack. Being the 5 PP attack it is, Hydro Pump isn't as reliable as Surf. Hydro Pump and Fire Blast should be used on Pokemon that have low Special Attack or do not earn STAB (see #10). Those 5 moves are best used on UU (underused) Pokemon or UU teams.

5. "Rain Dance and Thunder make me invincible!"

Okay, this is at least more reasonable than the previous 4 assumptions. But no, it doesn't make you invincible.
Turn 1: use Rain Dance
Turn 2: attack with Thunder (1/2 or 50%)
Turn 3: attack with Thunder (2/3 or 66.7%)
Turn 4: attack with Thunder (3/4 or 75%)
Turn 5: attack with Thunder (4/5 or 80%)
Now, after 5 turns, assuming that you've used Thunder four times, Thunder has an accuracy of 80% because you used Rain Dance the first turn. The 80% is only if you use Thunder all four turns. Normally, Thunder's accuracy is 70%. Only if your Pokemon also has a Water attack that Rain Dance can boost, the Rain Dance/Thunder combo isn't that great.

6. "You should take advantage of STAB by giving your Charizard four Fire moves!"

That assumption should be changed to "You should abuse your Charizard and destroy it by giving it four Fire moves!" There's plenty of logic here. If your Charizard with the following moves: Ember, Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Fire Spin, happens to run into an Omastar, it's screwed. However, if you had given your Charizard an Earthquake attack, it would have given Charizard a small fighting chance against the opponent Omastar. Something else to consider: Do you think you'll ever use that Ember attack you have on your Charizard??? Especially if you have a Flamethrower at your disposal...

7. "HMs are great! You can use them over and over again!!!"

Yes, you can use them over and over again. No, they are not great. With the exception of Surf, HM moves are pretty much useless:

HM 1 - Cut: 50 base attack power, 95% accuracy. A slightly better version of Tackle...
HM 2 - Fly: See #1.
HM 3 - Surf: 95 base attack power, 100% accuracy. This is the only good HM move.
HM 4 - Strength: 80 base attack power, 100% accuracy. There are plenty of better Normal moves to pick from (see #3). And because Normal moves are not Super Effective against any type, it may not be the best.
HM 5 - Flash: reduces opponent's accuracy, 70% accuracy. Since this is used to reduce opponent accuracy, why it is so inaccurate??? There are better accuracy decreasers like Mud-Slap and evade modifiers like Double Team.
HM 6 - Whirlpool: 15 base attack power, 70% accuracy. This is only good if you want to trap the opponent. Otherwise, it's not recommended.
HM 7 - Waterfall: 80 base attack power, 100% accuracy. Surf is much better than Waterfall. Period. Facts prove it.

8. "Ooh! Hyper Potion recovers 200 HP! I'll equip it to my Blastoise!"

Equipping Hyper Potion does squat for you Pokemon. It's only useful if you (the trainer) use it on the Pokemon. Common equip items are:

Scope Lens - Increases chance of critical hit by one level.
Mint Berry - Used with Rest to instantly awaken a Pokemon using Rest. Also called Minty Rest.
Miracle Berry - Erases any status change.
Leftovers - Heals 1/16 of total HP every round.
Kings Rock - Raises the flinching percentage. Won't increase the flinch percent of moves that already flinch (Bite, Crunch, Low Kick, Headbutt, etc.). Also keep in mind that if your Pokemon attacks second and flinches the opponent, you don't get a free turn. Make sure your Pokemon has the Speed for it.
Bright Powder - Raises your evasion, including moves such as Swift or Faint Attack.
Quick Claw - 10% chance that you will get to attack first.
Focus Band - May leave the Pokemon with 1 HP when it should normally be KOed (around 10%).

9. "My Mewtwo kicks ass!"

Yeah, you know why? Because Nintendo unfairly made certain Pokemon with high stats and large movepools. Pokemon such as Mewtwo, Mew, Lugia and Ho-Oh were created with extremely high stats in all departments, over 60 different moves, several standard sets that work, and recovery moves to back up their high defenses. These Pokemon have been giving the nickname "00ber" and any trainer using such Pokemon are considered cheap. The common defense statement is, "But everyone else uses them!". Obviously, this person's never battled against a team of 6 Mewtwos. It's no fun. Even if your team is well balanced, you'll have trouble against them. It takes the fun and creativity out of the game. Avoid using these Pokemon at all costs.

10. "Starmie gets a x1.25 STAB on Surf!"

This is a common misconception. STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) is ALWAYS x1.5, even for Normal types and dual-types.

But finally, remember, there are ALWAYS exceptions to Pokemon.

Thanks to QuietJoe for this!

Page written by Psythor.

Digg this! | del.icio.us | Reddit | Stumble Upon | Facebook

Tags: None!