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Moves that Pokemon should/should not be able to learn

I’m kinda surprised that Dragon Dance Garchomp and Poltergeist Dragapult aren’t a thing. Though I guess they would’ve been a nightmare to deal with in competitive. Thanks for having mercy here Game Freak.
 
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Replaying Soulsilver, caught a Heracross and beat Bugsy to get the U-Turn TM and thought I could use it to give it a Bug-type move until it learns Megahorn except Heracross can't learn it because why?

Yeah, I've noticed that Heracross has a strange lack of any real Bug moves outside of Megahorn. I think the first "new" Bug move it gets outside of Megahorn is Pin Missile, which it gets starting in Gen 6 because of its Mega form. While Megahorn is fine and dandy for the most part, not being able to learn any other Bug moves outside of it until Gen 6 makes no sense, as it can't learn moves like X-Scissor or, as you found out, U-Turn. I've always found that strange.
 
Typhlosion would be so much better if it got Earth Power and Thunderbolt. The poor boi was robbed. Pure fire, no decent coverage and the exact same stat spread as Charizard.

On a side note, we need more fire starters who are viable as special attackers. Both fire starters for that role are mediocre (Typhlosion and Delphox). Mega Charizard Y was Sun Team viable but we know what happened to it. Infernape can pull off a mixed set but it’s best run with close combat. Incineroar, Blaziken, Emboar and Cinderace are completely physical.

I would argue that Incineroar, Blaziken (who can now use Aura Sphere), and Emboar are mixed attackers with heavy physical preferences rather than completely physical attackers; Cincerace is the complete physical specialist of the bunch.

That aside, I concur that more special attacking Fire Starters would be grand. I was so pumped for Delphox but was dismayed with how limited its initial move-set was; aside from Fire moves, Psychic moves, and Shadow Ball, it had practically nothing else. ORAS gave it Dazzling Gleam (which it should have already had) and that was nice. However, I think it should be able to do more such as with Thunderbolt, Energy Ball, and Dark Pulse (esp. as Hidden Power is no longer a thing). And don't even get me started on its Hidden Ability.

They should give Typhlosion more earth-centric moves, like the Earth Power you mentioned; I think Power Gem could be a possibility too. And then for flavor text, Self-Destruct & Explosion. The good thing is that Scorching Sands seems to be a staple for all the Fire Starters, which gives them a decent special Ground option.
 
SWSH brought a new Ground-type equivalent of Scald in Scorching Sands, which was given to pretty much every Fire-type in the game, and if Typhlosion ever returns to the Gen 8 games, I definitely see it learning at least that. Seriously, though, if Typhlosion doesn't get Scorching Sands I'm gonna rage so hard because even Flareon gets that move, so it'd be downright criminal if Typhlosion didn't.
 
I was so pumped for Delphox but was dismayed with how limited its initial move-set was; aside from Fire moves, Psychic moves, and Shadow Ball, it had practically nothing else. ORAS gave it Dazzling Gleam (which it should have already had) and that was nice. However, I think it should be able to do more such as with Thunderbolt, Energy Ball, and Dark Pulse (esp. as Hidden Power is no longer a thing). And don't even get me started on its Hidden Ability.
Delphox is probably the single most disappointing Pokémon for me. I thought a wizard Pokémon would have way better variety than that.
 
I'm amazed that Regigigas STILL doesn't get any decent recovery options outside of Rest. It should get at least something more useful to compensate for Slow Start, like Recover or Slack Off, but no, all it gets is Rest. While spamming a recovery move for 5 turns is probably not the best strategy, at least giving the Regi something to stall out those five turns would be nice until Slow Start wears off. While I get the reason for Slow Start existing (read: lore) it still doesn't make sense to not give the Regi boss something of worth to bide its time until then. While, yes, it does have Protect to pseudo stall (most likely stall every other turn due to Protect losing potency if used multiple times in a row), giving the big lug at least one other recovery move that doesn't make it a sitting duck (well, MORE of a sitting duck) would be nice. Come on, GF, if you're going to give us more Regis at least give the big boss of them some helpful options to make it actually useful and not overshadowed by its mini-Regis.
 
Why... can Snorlax... learn Harden?

To be fair, it's only in Gen 1, but I'm noticing it now because they decided to keep that for Pokemon Quest as well???
 
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Yeah, Bug/Flying-types not knowing Fly is weird. Maybe GameFreak decided that they were too weak to be able to carry humans, when Fly was still an HM? But now that Fly is just a TM, there's no reason to not let such Pokémon learn it, imo.

(Fun fact: the only Bug-type Pokémon that can learn Fly are Volcarona, Genesect, and Vikavolt, and none of them are Flying-type.)
 
Yeah, Bug/Flying-types not knowing Fly is weird. Maybe GameFreak decided that they were too weak to be able to carry humans, when Fly was still an HM? But now that Fly is just a TM, there's no reason to not let such Pokémon learn it, imo.

(Fun fact: the only Bug-type Pokémon that can learn Fly are Volcarona, Genesect, and Vikavolt, and none of them are Flying-type.)
So a 4'11" tall raptor mantis is too weak to carry a human child but a teeny little 1'00" bird isn't?
 
I'm amazed that Regigigas STILL doesn't get any decent recovery options outside of Rest. It should get at least something more useful to compensate for Slow Start, like Recover or Slack Off, but no, all it gets is Rest. While spamming a recovery move for 5 turns is probably not the best strategy, at least giving the Regi something to stall out those five turns would be nice until Slow Start wears off. While I get the reason for Slow Start existing (read: lore) it still doesn't make sense to not give the Regi boss something of worth to bide its time until then. While, yes, it does have Protect to pseudo stall (most likely stall every other turn due to Protect losing potency if used multiple times in a row), giving the big lug at least one other recovery move that doesn't make it a sitting duck (well, MORE of a sitting duck) would be nice. Come on, GF, if you're going to give us more Regis at least give the big boss of them some helpful options to make it actually useful and not overshadowed by its mini-Regis.
Not only that, but Regigigas wasn’t even able to learn Rest until gen 8.
 
Yeah, Bug/Flying-types not knowing Fly is weird. Maybe GameFreak decided that they were too weak to be able to carry humans, when Fly was still an HM? But now that Fly is just a TM, there's no reason to not let such Pokémon learn it, imo.

(Fun fact: the only Bug-type Pokémon that can learn Fly are Volcarona, Genesect, and Vikavolt, and none of them are Flying-type.)

Yanmega's HeartGold and Alpha Sapphire Pokedex Entries:

"This six-legged Pokémon is easily capable of transporting an adult in flight. The wings on its tail help it stay balanced."

While I love the franchise, the disconnect between Pokedex entries and move-set representation has always frustrated me. It's not that hard, Game Freak.
 
The only reason I can think of why little birds can learn Fly is convenience. The exceptions don't have excuse, really.

While I love the franchise, the disconnect between Pokedex entries and move-set representation has always frustrated me. It's not that hard, Game Freak.
Just give Surf to Raticate already, GF.
 
I would argue that Incineroar, Blaziken (who can now use Aura Sphere), and Emboar are mixed attackers with heavy physical preferences rather than completely physical attackers; Cincerace is the complete physical specialist of the bunc
Well it’s possible, but Emboar is probably the only one who’s running a special move without sacrificing a better physical option.

Incineroar and Blaziken are probably handicapping themselves if they’re running a special move. It’s about time we see a fire starter which is meant to have a really strong special preference, and is extremely good at it.
 
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