6th Gen Favorite Moves and Abilities

We mightn't have gotten much moves or abilities introduced in X and Y, but it still wouldn't hurt to talk about them, right? Anyway, what are some of your favorite traits and attacks from generation six? Me, one of my favorite moves would be Power-Up Punch. It deals damage to your opponent and raises your Attack stat as well, killing two birds with one stone. Another would be Sticky Web. As for ability, I'm a huge fan of Tough Claws. Unfortunately, though, not many Pokémon seems to have access to it, aside from only about four or five. :(

This isn't exactly what you were asking, but there are some really great animations this generation. Brave Bird is one of my favourites.

As for new moves, Nuzzle makes a great alternative for Thunder Wave, and isn't susceptible to Taunt. The Terrain moves are pretty awesome too. Then there are the ones that have different type mechanics, like Freeze-Dry and Flying Press. All in all, it's been a pretty good generation for creativity with moves. I'd say my personal favourite of all those is Flying Press. I hope we get more like it.

There are some neat new Abilities, like Refrigerate, Pixilate and Aerilate which make Normal moves suddenly way more useable in battle, and then there's Protean and Stance Change too, which have added a whole new layer of strategy. I'm not sure which my favourite is... probably Aerilate? I adore Mega Pinsir.

One of my fave new moves this generation is Power-Up Punch. Despite its weak base power, it gives you a free Attack boost, allowing it to hit harder on the next foe that comes. I also love Freeze-Dry for its usefulness at hitting Water-types super-effectively.

As for abilities, Protean is a really cool one and while I haven't tried it out for myself yet, it can really throw opponents off-guard and Greninja managed to become quite a competitive threat with this godly ability. Tough Claws is also pretty cool, since it boosts the power of all contact-based moves, along with the Refrigerate/Aerilate/Pixilate trio which boosts power of Normal-type moves and changes them to a certain type, in this case Ice, Flying and Fairy respectively.

I'm telling you, Gamefreak went ham for Gen VI in terms of competitive battles. There's so many good new moves & abilities that I like.

My favorite new ability of all of course would have to be Protean. I don't follow Smogon rules quite often, but oh man does Greninja hit hard with his exclusive ability.

As for new moves, Freeze Dry has became quite useful for pesky water types.

Favorite Abilities:

Aroma Veil - This is a fantastic ability that makes Aromatisse useful and unique without being overly strong. Having a Trick Room setter that isn't Taunt/Encore bait is really handy.

Competitive - Another fantastic ability given to the right Pokémon. Punishing your opponent for having things like Intimidate, Sticky Web amd Defog really puts the pressure on them.

Symbiosis - It's not incredibly useful but it allows for some crazy strategies - like giving another item to a teammate that consumed a White Herb after using Leaf Storm/Draco Meteor/Overheat for example.


I don't really care for any of the new moves much, but I'd have to go with Mat Block for its nice utility and Boomburst just for being a neat attack.

My favorite Gen VI moves are Geomancy, Oblivion Wing and Moonblast in terms of attacking animations; I like how much detail was put into both moves. In terms of usefulness, i'd say King's Shield and Moonblast.

I like Protean, Aerilate and Pixilate, as they're the abilities that make Greninja, Mega Pinsir and Sylveon useful.