Natural Cure is a very straightforward ability that heals the ability holder of all status problems when they switch out. With how rampant status inflicting moves are in the competitive scene, it is always a huge plus to have an ability or move that allows you to undo some of the damage. Even in casual in-game play where most of the AI opponents aren't running competetive movesets and are out to stall and cripple you, Natural Cure is still useful when you just need to get rid of a status ailment without using a healing item (or sometimes several in the case of gym leaders and Elite 4 members) or immediately rushing over to a Pokecenter.

Altogether, Natural Cure is a great ability to have in casual and competitive gameplay. I rate it an 8/10.

The next ability to rate is Poison Point.

Poison Point is probably one of the most annoying abilities in the game. I know every single person that's played Pokemon has looked at an enemy Nidoran and just prayed to Arceus to please not get poisoned by the scratc- you are now poisoned.

I mean literally all it does is it gives you a 30% chance to poison the opponent when you get hit with a move that makes physical contact. There's nothing more to it and you rarely see it used in competitive play as it's unreliable and the move Toxic exists for a reason.

I'll rate it a 2/10

The next ability is Poison Point's much more talented cousin, Poison Touch

More talented cousin? Lol. The only difference is that Poison Touch activates when the pokemon with the ability uses a contact move whereas Poison Point activates when the pokemon with the ability is hit by a contact move. The chance of either taking effect is 30%

Overall though, if I had to choose between the two, I'd go with Poison Touch because I'd have more control and likely a better chance of activating the ability than just waiting for a computer opponent to hit me instead of using leer or howl 30 times in a row. The same goes for battling against a human opponent even though Poison Point is somewhat more viable. At the end of the day though, it is only a 30% chance and toxic is more reliable.

I rate Poison Touch a 3/10. Nothing special.

Next ability to rate is Battle Armor.

Battle Armor is a very solid ability depending on what you use it for. Preventing crits is always a nice bonus and while they do suck a lot, the reality is that in the majority of battles this ability won't do anything. Something fast and offensive really has no need to ever run this as your goal is to rely on dealing damage rather than taking it.

But then you take something like Mega Slowbro. Who in theory has Shell Armor but they're the exact same so I'll treat them as the exact same. On an already bulky Pokemon like that the ability to not get critted turns very useful. Slowbro can set up calm mind and iron defense to increase its already good defenses to crazy levels, and the ability for crits to bypass those boosts goes away with Shell Armor. Add in recover and you have an unstoppable wall if you don't have anything to either Taunt, Poison or set up on it.

So yeah it really depends on who runs it. I'd like to give it a high rating but the fact that this ability can also hold a Pokemon down makes it a 7/10 for me

Next ability to rate is Pixilate

Whenever I think of Pixilate, I immediately think of Sylveon with Hyper Voice. Pixilate causes normal type moves to have fairy typing and also boosts their power by 20%, so in the example I mentioned, normal type base power 90 Hyper Voice would become about 162 base power after factoring the boost and STAB. Nearly twice as strong as it was before.

Overall, it's a pretty great ability even if only three pokemon have it. I rate it an 8/10.

The next ability to rate is Moody.

Moody is an interesting case. At the end of a turn, it will raise a random stat of yours by two stages, but it will lower another by one. If you get lucky you can get a nice attack boost for the next turn but you could also lower your defenses meaning you won't take the next hit. It's usually been banned from competitive play as it relies too much on RNG and is unhealthy for a metagame. That said the few places it's allowed it can really turn the tide of a battle. With moves like substitute and protect you can stall for a number of turns until you get enough boosts that you like and you can really sweep your opponents from there.

It's a fun ability more than anything. Sometimes I enjoy just sitting there and guessing what boosts or drops I'll get. I'll give it a 2/10 for that.


The next ability to rate will be Frisk