VG Weekly Poll #29 Do you use sacrificial moves?

I don't think there is a place for sacrificial moves in-game, as experience points are quite valuable, no matter how little. Once that move is used, your Pokemon is out and if no one's sharing the experience, you lose out. However, if the opponent used a sacrificial move, then it's easier to gain experience points, like how a Hiker's Gravelers or Golems might use this move, resulting in easy experience if using a Ghost-type or Steel/Rock-type.

In short, it's not practical to use it in-game. However, it has some use in competitive battling. Explosion was strong so it was great, but now there aren't as many good users (Lickylicky could be a good user). I do like the concept of Healing Wish, though. Memento as well, although I wished it reduced both attack stats by three stages instead of two, now that there are moves that increase the user's stat by three stages.

Thanks for reading.

Healing wish is alright, and so is Explosion.

Memento, though? That one is pretty terrible. Not only you are sacrifying a pokémon for a miserable debuff, the opponent can fix it as easilly as switching.
Even if it lowered ALL stats or something, its usage would still be pretty limited.


Final Gambit is another pretty interesting move, as it deals set damage instead of being affected by defense unlike explosion, and relies on both pokémon fighting. However given that none of the users have particularly high HP...

I never really liked sacrificial moves since in almost all my battles the outcome was decided by my last standing pokémon who was in the red. Yeah, I'm not that good so using them would give me unnessesary risks ^^;;;

I've used Self Destruct and Explosion from my Golem and Gigalith using them therefore I chose "Yes - I use offensive moves". I haven't used support sacrificial moves but I'm interested in using Healing Wish because it is like using a Full Restore without using the item therefore being useful in competitive battles. I haven't used Final Gambit before but it sounds interesting because the power varies.

I'm suprised that nobody has mentioned Perish Song yet or should it be excluded because it doesn't make the user faint in the same turn and the effect can be removed?

Perish Song isn't sacrificial, it just can affect the user. And gives a temporary state that while it does lead to it, it isn't instantly fainting.

It probably doesn't count as move with a negative effect on the user either, as it affects simply everyone in the field. (That isn't immune to it)

No, resorting to those kind of moves just makes your opponent faint easily and there's no challenge into beating them.

Memento is actually pretty good in competitive battles when used correctly, it can give a frail setup sweeper a good chance to set up while keeping momentum on your side. Moreover, it's pretty much the only way to reliably abuse Belly Drum.

In-game, sacrificial moves can be quite nice for levelling up a low level Pokemon, letting it get 100% of the experience points from a fight against a powerful enemy if a stronger Poke makes the sacrifice. Otherwise, they're kind of a waste of good experience.

Sacrifices brings opportunity in the World of Pokemon, or at least a way to go out with a band. Trust me, using sacrificial moves can really change the tide of battle at the right moment. In-game though is very skimpy to use sacrificial moves, especially anything not named Explosion.

Hey, nobody's mentioned Destiny Bond?

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Originally Posted by Destiny Queen

Hey, nobody's mentioned Destiny Bond?

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Destiny bond doesn't make your pokemon faint. So how is it a sacrificial move? Its more like a "You take me down, I'll take you down" revenge-like move.

Memento is a great move for Pokemon who can abuse "dual screens". It is great against offensive teams for offensive teams who need one turn for set-up but is screwed up against defensive teams who hardly bother about the decrease in attack.

The best user of Final Gambit is without doubt Shedinja Victini. The maximum possible hp, Victini can have is 404, which means that anything with less than base 100 hp is getting ko'ed if your victini has max health.

I use them very, very sparingly, if they're the only way I can do damage to an opponent. Otherwise, no thanks.

I only use Healing Wish, and only in the MD games.

No, as I don't sacrifice my Pokemon just to get an edge over the opponent. Over-use of sacrificial moves is one of the reasons I hate physical users- they're mostly a bunch of suicidal brutes who spam moves like thrash or outrage.

I havent used them. I fiond it really difficult to do that so I usually stick to offensive moves. One funny story was I was battling pryce in heart gold we were down to our last pokemon I had a forretress and I decided hey lets use explosion! haha defeated his last guy as well as mine I waas like ya a tie! but then found out I didn't even get the badge and had to do it all over again oh well

To be honest I have never used, or remembered ever using any move that sacrifices my Pokemon. I have seen other trainers using moves like Explosion, Selfdestruct etc. But I personally wouldn't want to use up that move slot for something that may be a risky play. In my experience I haven't seen many win battles with these types of Attacks, but that's just from what I have seen.

As far as the self sacrifice support move-pool again I haven't ever really considered a strategy involving these moves and I also rarely see them used by others.