Several new Pokemon Sword and Shield abilities have been revealed today and some of them seem like they’re going to be seriously overpowered. The fine folk behind the creature-catching games have put out a brand-new trailer detailing new abilities, new items, and further explanation on Dynamax mechanics, and it contains some pretty surprising new information.
The trailer bounces around between these new features, opening with “new battle strategies” and showing two opposing trainers each deploying two Pokemon apiece. It then strays into ridiculous territory with the reveal of Galarian Weezing and its new ability: Neutralizing Gas. The Neutralizing Gas just neutralizes all other abilities right out of the gate, making the potential for Galarian Weezing to be a strong defensive pick terribly obvious.
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The trailer then segued into new items. “Room Service” will lower a Pokemon’s speed when used in conjunction with the “Trick Room” attack. Additionally, the “Eject Pack” will cause a Pokemon to automatically switch out if its stats get lowered.
We then went into some more new Pokemon Sword and Shield abilities. Breaking Swipe is a massive slash that can hit multiple enemy targets and lowers the attack stat of all targets that have been hit. The new Pokemon Corviknight is also noted to have a hidden ability called Mirror Armor; this simply reflects any stat-lowering effects.
We then got to see the power of Dynamax made clear with the reveal that Dynamaxed Pokemon will simply shrug off any moves that cause flinching. What’s more, Max Moves will have super-strong secondary effects. As an example, we saw a Machamp using an attack which subsequently also caused its and its partner’s attack to go up. These Max Moves appear to even be able to cancel effects; a tempestuous blast of wind from a Dynamaxed Corviknight completely blew away the opposing team’s Aurora Veil.
These new Pokemon Sword and Shield abilities certainly seem to be bringing a new element to the latest game in this franchise! It will be interesting to see what kind of crazy team compositions and Pokemon builds skilled trainers will come up with when the game goes live worldwide on November 15, 2019. You can see these new moves in action in the trailer below.
