The new ability Dazzle in VGC

Actually, it doesn't affect ALL moves with priority. It only affects the moves that are targeted at Bruxish. I remember someone posting this earlier somewhere:

"Dazzle - Causes all moves against the target with a higher priority bracket to miss."

So this would basically mean that any Prankster moves like T-Wave, Talonflame's Gale Wing shenanigans, and Sucker Punch would all fail against it. I don't know how much this will affect VGC itself except that Talonflame and Thundurus will become much less common Pokémon to take if people bring Bruxish into the game. However, this will affect singles immensely. Being able to switch in on priority or prevent it cuts a lot of corners on the metagame, and I can easily see Bruxish being put into offensive teams as a defensive (maybe offensive) threat to those that will use priority to take out common offensive threats (Weavile, Alakazam, and anything that can be taken down by Choice Band Espeed) will be less effective in the meta. This allows for teams to build around Bruxish to include offensive threats that were hindered by Prankster or priority users into the meta again.

Bruxish will be a very interesting inclusion, and I definitely want to see what it can bring to the table.

 

Unless Bruxish gets an evolution, I can hardly see it making an impact. Give alomamola a good ability and it still wouldn't be usable. I can't imagine a single evolution Pokémon like this will have good enough stats to make itself viable in the current metagame, especially if... *cough cough* legendaries are staying in the doubles format

 

It seems really broken to me

 

Unless more mons learn the ability it will all be depend on how good bruxish as a Pokémon is. Even if its ability seems really good, if it doesnt have the movepool or weak stats then the payoff wont be that big compared to the liability it might bring.

 

Are you sure this is the ability's description? Coming from serebii:

Dazzling - Prevents moves with an increased Speed Priority from hitting

If we are going off of this description then the ability becomes far more interesting. It seems as if it will be essentially a constant Quick Guard by the wording. This doesn't mean that moves like Protect and Quick Guard will no longer work (as well as some other common priority moves such as Helping Hand, Follow Me/Rage Powder, Wide Guard, Crafty Shield, Ally Switch etc.), but moves that actually target your opponent such as Aqua Jet, Bullet punch etc. This could still however be useful in multiple scenarios in VGC, for example for ensuring a particular form of speed control (such as tailwind or trick room) gets up without worrying about Fake Out or Prankster Taunt. It also really punishes Pokémon that rely on their priority, such as Azumarill and the aforementioned Talonflame. Then again, its viability really depends on what else it brings to the table, since this ability alone is fairly useless if its stats are subpar and doesn't provide any other utility besides this ability. It should also be noted that it doesn't specify that only your opponents priority moves don't hit, meaning you will likely no longer be able to use priority moves, or at least have to switch out before being able to do so. And as mentioned, it also depends on the rules for VGC next year. If restricted legends are allowed again it really ends up being whether or not it has a decent matchup against those legends + common checks/counters to those legends, which if simply looking at this year's metagame it probably doesn't (based solely off of its typing and ability, again it could have some great niches once its stats and movepool are revealed).

If the ability is actually what you've quoted then the ability seems practically useless, at least in a Doubles format and most likely have no effect on the metagame. In singles, again it depends on the stats of the Pokémon and its movepool, since I wouldn't say the fact that it is immune to priority alone would make it viable, especially if it has a low base speed making it vulnerable to a knock out by a non-priority move the next turn.

 

I think what it means is it's stops moves like Priority Leech Seed, Memento, etc from hitting Braxish. I still think that the other Pokémon will still be able to set up Priority Screens, or Priority Sub, etc.

 

I wouldn't say these are the best examples of moves that would/wouldn't work. The only Pokémon with priority leech seed or priority memento is Whimsicott which never runs either of these moves in VGC. Prankster users practically never use Sub since they are usually used in more of a support role and not too many Prankster Pokémon can learn screens and even so there are often better screen users and the moveslot can be better utilised.

Outside of Prankster users, all of these moves have base priority, so they won't be affected by Bruxish's ability.

 

Sorry, when I posted those examples I was talking about Braxish's ability outside of VGC. In VGC I don't know if it will do very much. It really depends on who gets Dazzle, (Assuming other Pokémon will get this ability) and what moves they have, and what stats they have. I can only see Dazzle useful in VGC if you are just really tired of Fake Out, Talonflame's Brave Bird, Sucker Punch ,and maybe things like Rage Powder (Not 100% sure on that).

 

Fair enough, still if you're trying to take on a Whimsicott with Bruxish you're doing something wrong (which is the only time those first two would happen), though it would be pretty hilarious to see Memento fail and Whimsicott just die for no reason, if that's even how the ability works. I can only assume Rage Powder would still work just from the wording of the description since its not a move that you target a Pokémon with. Preventing your partner from being Fake'd Out could be a fairly useful tech to give them a free turn of setup. Something that I just realised that this ability could do that Quick Guard can't is prevent Feint. Feint breaks through Protect and Quick Guard, whereas I would assume while Bruxish is in play it would miss its target. Granted this is a very situational use, but it could come in clutch when Bruxish's partner is your win con and you need to stall out a turn of TW/TR in order to win the game and a Feint + Attack would secure your opponent's victory.

I honestly think the ability will have more uses in doubles than in singles, but then again that's dependent on the Pokémon's stats.

 

Since Serebii is garbage at this stuff, if we turn to the Pokémon official website (at http://www.pokemon-sunmoon.com/en-us/pokemon/bruxish/ ), we get " Bruxish can have the new Ability Dazzling, which no other Pokémon has ever had. The Dazzling Ability prevents opponents from using priority moves that normally strike first." This does imply to some degree that Helping Hand might be off the table, as it does have a target to strike (the ally), but probably leaves Protect and the Guards off the table.

Honestly, the biggest Prankster that has consistently come up over the years as a problem in VGC is Thundurus-Incarnate. This... isn't going to do too much to fix Thundy-I. It's a fish. C'mon, guys.

 

I completely agree here. Dazzling on a similar token as the Fairy type, which was meant to nerf dragons. In VGC alone, dragons are still as common as ever, just with a new weakness. Same as fairies aren't common, Bruxish is the only confirmed Pokémon with this ability. I'm not banking on it being meta-breaking, but I do think it'll be fun to use.

It all depends on the stats and where they're at, I'd say.

 

Basically, this Pokémon is an anti Talonflame, Psychic Terrain from Tapu Lele does the same thing but this is about Bruxish. From it's design it doesn't look all that tanky even though the same could be said about Dunsparce who is a wall. Bruxish is a Pokémon I really hope does get play because Talonflame is indeed returning due to the Pokédex leaks, however this doesn't mean we will get Talonflames Hidden Ability unless there is a mechanic that allows it to do so. Extremespeed? Nope. Fake Out? Nah. Sucker Punch? Fish don't give a shit. Bruxish will be interesting and that's all I gotta say.

 

Preventing Fake Out can be huge in doubles. But yeah honestly I feel like the other Pokémon with these abilities look slightly more promising than Bruxish (Tsareena and Tapu Lele). Obviously totally speculaion, but I imagine Tsareena to have more utility moves than bruxish (Moves that I could see Tsareena getting could be Rage Powder, Sleep Powder/Spore, Helping Hand, Fake Out, Encore etc.) I don't really have much reasoning behind that other than water types seem to get screwed when it comes to these kinds of moves. Tsareena being a 3rd stage evolution suggests it may have a higher base stat total than Bruxish, and the fact that it isn't weak to Electric is a pretty big bonus considering people are already speculating that Alolan Raichu + Tapu Koko will be strong in the VGC17 format. Also, the description for Tsareena (taken from the sun and moon site) sates that its ability prevents the use of priority moves, whilst Bruxish's ability prevent the use of priority moves that attack first. To me this makes me assume that Bruxish will only prevent physical or special priority attacks, while Tsareena will prevent anything with priority? I wouldn't go as far as saying it will prevent things like Helping Hand and Follow Me (and certainly not protect or this thing would be broken), but it could stop prankster Pokémon like Klefki getting off thunder waves, sableye getting off wisps or taunts or whimsicott getting off encores. It also prevents Talonflame from setting up Tailwind which is something that Bruxish couldn't do (though Tsareena would probably eat a Flare Blitz instead).

Tapu Lele seems like it could be a stop to Electric surge spam while also preventing priority and is probably going to be the second best of the four in VGC17, depending on a huuuge number of variables.

To be honest though, looking at the alola dex, it doesn't seem like this ability will be all too useful. There aren't too many Fake Out users (granted I'm not including the s/m mons, obviously since nobody knows what moves they are going to get) and the only ones that really seem notable are Raichu, Weavile and Hariyama. Bruxish fairs well against Talonflame and other than that there doesn't seem to be too many noteworthy things about the abilities. It really just depends on the new mons and what they'll bring to the format.

 

The grass princess Pokémon also has the same Ability, but with a different name. No one seems to have mentioned Feint yet, which was a decently common tech move the last few VGC seasons. To me, it looks like an incredible VGC Ability. However, it all depends on how good fish and grass are as Pokémon and how the meta develops over time. Also, it's possible other Pokémon will get this Ability as an HA too. We'll see >_>

 

Ooh you're right! The issue with Feint is the lack of viable users really. The only ones that come to mind are Weavile, Hitmontop and Scizor. Other mons value their moveslots for such a situational and prediction heavy move, or just aren't particularly viable. Hopefully there are more Feint users introduced, since it allows for some pretty safe plays. And yeah hidden abilities are a thing too, completely forgot about that haha. We'll just have to wait and see I guess