News: New Z-Move for Lycanroc revealed

CoroCoro supplied more info!

I figured that animation of Lycanroc during the reveal trailer was suggesting a special Z-Move, and now we know it's confirmed. Guessing that will mean a special Z-Move for Mimikyu is also going to be canon as well.

Have to admit this new Z-Move might give Lycanroc some competitive viability, since it will negate terrains which are commonly widespread over the OU tier due to the Tapus dominating said tier. And it appears the Rockruff that evolves into Dusk Form Lycanroc has Own Tempo, which I don't think Rockruff gets through any other circumstance.

Also, I figured Dusk Lycanroc had to evolve when that orange tinted sky is in effect. I mean, it made sense.

It is okay but not great news. At least it can put stone edge to some use. Makes sense for it to evolve between 17:00 & 17:59.

I figure the Direct coming up might be revealing the Z-Move's English name too. Either that or a possible trailer could cover both it and the Necrozma fusions with Solgaleo/Lunala.

The amount of news was a little underwhelming to my expectations.
It was kind of predictable that Lycanroc would get a Z-Move, just what it will be/do was the question.

I suppose GF is saving the best for last? :)

Considering that this move negates the effects of terrains, this move might be able to scare the Tapus. However, this depends on how viable Lycanroc-Dusk is in OU play, and whether it's viable to run it over another Z-move. Also, Bulu and Fini have type advantages against Lycanroc, so that should be considered as well.

I was half expecting the new Lycanroc form to get some sort of Z-move, still good to get confirmation though. Now I'm wondering if this, along with what was revealed yesterday will be in a trailer during the Nintendo Direct tonight.

Absolitetion said:

I suppose GF is saving the best for last? :)

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It's looking to be that way, and most likely leaving a lot to surprise us when release day comes.

HeroLinik said:

Considering that this move negates the effects of terrains, this move might be able to scare the Tapus. However, this depends on how viable Lycanroc-Dusk is in OU play, and whether it's viable to run it over another Z-move. Also, Bulu and Fini have type advantages against Lycanroc, so that should be considered as well.

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Your point is strong, though Koko and Lele tend to be the ones that run rampant in the OU tier so they're definitely the ones that could be threatened by this new Z-Move. The issue is Dusk Lycanroc is probably going to have that same shallow movepool treatment as the other two forms.

Having a move that removes terrain sounds nice until you realize that you can only use it once per battle

Not really expecting it to have a significant impact on competitive really

This will mean you'll definitely have to be careful with when to time the use of the Z-Move.

It is good news that the Z move seemingly works with all Lycanroc forms but is disappointing that Dusk Lycanroc is essentially locked behind an event.

With the only "Own Tempo" Rockruffs being able to evolve, hopefully it means we can breed for Rockruffs with that ability so we can have our perfect Dusk form?

Gladion said:

With the only "Own Tempo" Rockruffs being able to evolve, hopefully it means we can breed for Rockruffs with that ability so we can have our perfect Dusk form?

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We don't know for sure if this Rockruff can breed or not.

Hikamaru said:

We don't know for sure if this Rockruff can breed or not.

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Yep, so the "Hopefully".
Tbvh, if it isn't breedable like the Ash-Greninja, I think they should be having a much more uh, "original" new ability instead of one that other Pokemon can learn too, right?
I am pretty much leaning towards being able to breed from them, again, hopefully.

It's phenomenally depressing that this is what qualifies as news in the run-up to the release of these games. I can see why people get depressed as we draw closer and closer and still have nothing really worthy of note to get excited about.

I suspect this Rockruff will be able to breed, but will just give a normal one, rather than another special one. Nintendo don't like people sharing their exclusive time-limited toys, and I don't see why this one would be any different.

Radial Edge Storm, I c wat u did thar, Game Freak.

The event Rockruff's evolution method makes sense, but it's going to be a hassle for Moon players unless they're very early birds. Lycanroc's new Z Move is interesting and this could let the Midday and Dusk forms have some form of niche in the higher tiers.

Meyneth said:

I suspect this Rockruff will be able to breed, but will just give a normal one, rather than another special one. Nintendo don't like people sharing their exclusive time-limited toys, and I don't see why this one would be any different.

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This is my guess regarding the event Rockruff being breedable, and well if you look at the Ash Hat Pikachu events, the international release only allows obtaining one (starts Tuesday fyi) while that wasn't the case in the Japanese version since they were separately-released serial codes.

Yeah. The event rockruff is either unbreedable or only breeds normal rockruff. I can see GF doing that to be honest. Still annoying that a form of a pokemon that is not mythical is restricted to event only.

The new trailer has revealed the Z-Move's English name! It's called Splintered Stormshard.