Poison

[morthen]

I dont know where to post it, so i will post it here. Im not exactly up to date in the competitive aspect, so perhaps this isnt relevant for the new gens. Anyhow, there are still a bunch of people who play relatively old gens, why do so many use toxic? The way i see it, poison is by far the worst status effect, and you could switch out to reset toxic, dont think you can in new gens, so i guess its pretty good there. If you look at older gens, poison will pretty much only do a small amount of damage, no other drawbacks. Personally i will take that small residual damage since it makes you immune to the other status effects, which are much more severe in my opinion. Might as well say "thank you" when the opponent land a toxic.

 

[Hikamaru]

Toxic did get a buff of some sort in 6th Gen when used by a Poison-type Pokemon, in that the move now never misses and can even hit Pokemon during the semi-invulnerable state of moves like Fly and Dig.

 

[illumine]

Generally speaking, Toxic means that the opponent is on a time-limit, and guarantees damage, such that if another creature is causing problems, then it can be taken out. The other status effects might still rely on your Pokémon to take them down after this, and hope that they last long enough, Poison not only isn't healed that easily, but also gets through Recover, at least, which is more than most others. Pokémon that might have been dangerous to a sleeping opponent, could get somewhat neutralised through poison, as they wouldn't have as much time to get in, set up, and so on, while having their HP taken down. If your opponent had something strong which might be otherwise a danger, they can't leave it in for as long, or attack without still losing HP consistently. It means multiple streams of damage, one of which can increase over time. Obviously, Burn could generally not be inflicted with certainty, so instead Toxic may have been used.

 

[noa]

Try having your whole team poisoned and come back and say toxic is a "bad move". Like Illumine said, it puts your opponent on a time limit and forces them to think fast. If you have protect or a healing move, toxic stalling techniques are evil. Toxic should be run on any team, imo.

 

[Sopheria]

Yea, Toxic is pretty nasty when you're on the receiving end, and if you're the one using it on your opponent, it can be really effective if done right. Even when you reset it by switching out, every little bit of damage counts, and poison is essentially free damage each turn the Pokémon is out. Plus it's invariant to HP or stats. It's a fixed percentage HP loss, so for a lot of Pokes like Chansey or Slowbro that can take a lot of hits, poison is a reliable way to take them down.