If the Physical / Special Split Never Happened

Introduction

Back in Gen IV, one of the most important changes to Pokémon was introduced: the physical / special split. This caused moves to not be influenced by their type to determine whether they were physical or special, but rather have it as an attribute of their own, so each type could have physical and special moves. Many Pokémon gained or lost viable STAB options, but what if this had never happened? What influence would it have on the OU metagame?

General significant changes

Knock Off

Knock Off (and the Pokémon that use it) become hugely different in this metagame, as it becomes a special Dark-type move (as do all other physical Dark-type moves). This gives special attackers such as Alakazam, Mega Alakazam, and Tornadus-T new uses. Even though Tornadus-T uses Knock Off during regular competitive play as is, now it comes off of Tornadus-T's higher invested attacking stat! It also provides Alakazam and its Mega Evolution with a good coverage move to make up for the loss of Shadow Ball.

Focus Blast

Focus Blast turning into a physical move heavily affects all special attackers that use it. In standard play, many special Pokémon, most notably Ghost- and Psychic-types such as Gengar and Mega Alakazam, rely on it to hit Steel- or Dark-type Pokémon. Now, a lot of special attackers lack coverage against Steel- and Dark-types; as a result, Steel- and Dark-types become more reliable checks to Gengar and Mega Alakazam. In general, this allows Pokémon to wall special attackers more easily, making the metagame a bit more defensive.

Priority moves

With this change, a plethora of Pokémon have many new options. For starters, Aqua Jet is now special, which means that special attackers like Keldeo and Mega Blastoise now have a new viable form of priority. Additionally, Vacuum Wave is now physical, which means that Fighting-types that have access to it but not Mach Punch such as Mega Medicham now have a STAB-boosted form of priority. Finally, Sucker Punch is now special, meaning that special attackers that previously had no form of attacking priority such as Celebi, Latias, and Mew can now hurt faster foes more easily.

Elemental punches

The elemental punches all become special with the reversion of the physical / special split. This allows many special attackers that don't have access to any special Fire-, Electric-, or Ice-type moves such as Mega Alakazam to get good coverage with decent power and hit many more types super effectively as a result. This, in turn, hurts frailer Pokémon weak to these moves, as they're revenge killed way more easily by the Pokémon that can now use them viably. However, because they have a fairly middling Base Power, they can't break most special walls and thus do not hinder defensive play.

Fairy-types

Obviously, Fairy-types were an addition made after the physical / special split, but we won't just let them stay the same! Their STAB type will be special because the type itself leans towards it, with the average Special Attack of Fairy-types being higher than the average Attack. Additionally, the Fairy typing only has one physical move in Play Rough, and because Sylveon is a Fairy-type and all other Eeveelutions are of special types, it fits even better.

Aerilate, Pixilate, and Refrigerate

Even with this change in play, Aerilate still makes all Normal-type moves Flying-type. However, this sadly doesn't have much of an impact, as one of the two Pokémon with Aerilate, Mega Salamance, is Uber, meaning that its special Normal-type moves such as Hyper Voice aren't too affected. Additionally, the other Pokémon with Aerilate, Mega Pinsir, doesn't have any good or viable special Normal-type moves, and the Normal-type moves it already uses are physical to begin with.

With this change, the newest type, Fairy, is special, as stated above. This means that all physical Normal-type moves become special Fairy-type moves when converted with Pixilate! Because of this, the Pixilate users in Mega Gardevoir, Mega Altaria, and Sylveon now have a stronger Pixilate-boosted move in Return. Moreover, Sylveon is the only Pokémon to get access to a special Fairy-type priority move in Quick Attack! However, with this change, Mega Altaria could become less viable, as its main use in standard OU play is as a physical setup sweeper, and this change hinders its ability to sweep.

Now that the physical / special split is reversed, Refrigerate makes all Normal-type moves special as well as Ice-type. This means that Aurorus and Mega Glalie now have access to a special Return, which ultimately gives Mega Glalie a better use for its Special Attack stat in general.

Pokémon that benefit

Serperior

Serperior benefits from this change a lot. Although it's known for its lack of coverage options in standard play, this change fixes that, as nearly all of Serperior's moves become special. Its STAB moves don't change much because, even though they're all special now, Serperior still wants to keep Leaf Storm for boosting its Special Attack while having an offensive presence at the same time. However, now it notably gets a special Knock Off, which provides coverage against Latios, Latias, and Celebi and can be used to remove items early-game. This makes its coverage way better when combined with a Hidden Power such as Hidden Power Fire or Ice or let it still have good utility alongside Glare, Taunt, and Giga Drain. Another way Serperior benefits is that some of its checks and counters will likely have diminished usage. For starters, Talonflame is forced to go mixed if it wants to use its Fire-type STAB moves, and Mega Charizard X can't run a physical set at all. Special Water-types that Serperior can use to set up on such as Keldeo will probably get more common as well, as they're barely affected by Water becoming a special type, which gives Serperior more uses. Sadly, however, Serperior loses access to special Hidden Power Ground, meaning that it can't OHKO specially defensive Heatran at +2 after Stealth Rock damage anymore, and the closest alternative that it can use against Heatran is Aqua Tail, which misses the OHKO at +2; this makes it a less reliable lure for Heatran.

Swellow

Now that the reversion of the physical / special split makes all Normal- and Flying-type moves physical, Swellow's viability increases immensely. Because it has access to the newly physical Boomburst, Swellow now has an attack that is almost as strong as Giga Impact and is boosted by both Guts and Choice Band, which allows it to hit harder regardless of the set that it's using; this strong move allows Swellow to easily KO foes, and now it can KO Hoopa-U even more easily, making it marginally more useful in OU. Not only that, but Boomburst is also a sound move, which allows it to hit through Substitutes and makes its small 8 PP guaranteed to go to use. On the other hand, however, Boomburst being sound-based also means that all Pokémon with Soundproof are now immune to this move; nevertheless, the highest-tiered one is in RU, and the only Pokémon that actually use Soundproof as their ability are PU. Swellow also has a wider physical Flying-type movepool thanks to this change; however, it will probably stick to Brave Bird, as even though Air Slash might seem viable because of its lack of recoil and chance to make the foe flinch, Swellow needs all of the power it can get. Hidden Power Fighting and Hidden Power Ground are also newly viable on Swellow, as even though they might not necessarily KO Tyranitar and Heatran cleanly, they definitely give Swellow a solid, Guts-boosted way of hitting Rock- and Steel-types, which are Swellow's biggest counters in any tier otherwise. Thanks to all of these new changes, Swellow gets better offensively and now has a whole lot more moves, allowing it to hit a wider range of Pokémon.

Nidoking

The reversal of the physical / special split plays a big role for Nidoking. In standard competitive play, Nidoking is normally used as a special attacker because of its wide range of special moves that are boosted by Sheer Force, as it normally does not have many Sheer Force-boosted physical moves. However, several of the normally special moves that it most commonly uses are now physical. Now, thanks to this change, Nidoking's STAB moves are now based off of its (significantly) higher Attack stat! For starters, Nidoking's strongest Poison-type move, Sludge Wave, is Nidoking's strongest viable STAB move to use in conjunction with Sheer Force and Life Orb. Another newly physical STAB move is Earth Power. Earth Power is normally seen as weaker than Earthquake when it comes to physical Ground-type moves; however, Sheer Force-boosted Earth Power has 117 Base Power and is therefore stronger and more viable than Earthquake. Moreover, Nidoking can now use physical Focus Blast, and while Focus Blast is less accurate than the common Superpower, it is also boosted by Sheer Force and is therefore stronger; however, Nidoking is still more viable when running a mixed set with the previously mentioned moves and an Electric-, Ice-, or Fire-type move, such as Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, or Flamethrower. Thanks to this change, Nidoking has a significantly better use in OU.

Alakazam and Mega Alakazam

Alakazam is buffed quite a bit with this change in effect. Its Psychic STAB type becomes special, so it won't experience any problems with that. The big thing is that it gains a lot of coverage. Although it loses Focus Blast, which is a great coverage move for any special attacking Psychic-type, it gains great coverage moves in Ice Punch, Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, and Knock Off, which all become special. In combination with Mega Alakazam's extremely high base 150 Speed, this allows it to become an even more potent revenge killer and cherry pick its targets. It can just choose which Pokémon are a threat to its team and pick coverage based on those, and it is able to beat most Pokémon that are weak to those types. However, Alakazam still suffers from some of its old problems. It is still very frail, allowing most threats that can survive a hit from it, outspeed it, or have access to priority, to KO it. Additionally, it can't get past Dark-types as easily anymore unless it runs Dazzling Gleam, so it is prone to being Pursuit trapped. However, overall, Alakazam still got a lot of new tools and will likely improve!

Latias

With the physical / special split's reversion, Latias's role in OU as a specially defensive tank is further extended, albeit indirectly. Firstly, with 80 / 130 special bulk, Latias can easily shake off the now special Pursuit and Knock Off. However, while Latias no longer needs to worry about being severely weakened by Knock Off, it will still lose its item, which is usually Leftovers, causing it to lose a form of passive recovery, which could affect its use in various games. Besides that, Latias can now easily take the newly special Ice Punch from Pokémon like Alakazam, Mega Alakazam, and Mega Gardevoir.

Heatran

With this change, Heatran probably becomes S-rank in OU. First of all, it's practically necessary now in order to check the even better special attackers in Sylveon and Alakazam, neither of which have a strong Hidden Power Ground or Focus Blast to KO Heatran with anymore. In addition to that, all physical Water-types such as Azumarill, Crawdaunt, and Mega Gyarados have become useless in OU, so Heatran's presence is now even more threatening, as it has even fewer checks and thus has more uses as a bulky Pokémon.

Pokémon that suffer

Azumarill

With the physical / special split reversion, a lot of Pokémon, Azumarill being one of them, are impacted heavily, and not in a good way. To start off, Azumarill has a Water / Fairy typing; however, both Water- and Fairy-type moves are special, and Azumarill is used (most effectively) as a physical attacker in standard competitive play. Besides that, two of Azumarill's three abilities, Huge Power and Sap Sipper, are both physically oriented, as they both boost Azumarill's Attack in some way. If that weren't enough, Azumarill's most common coverage move, Knock Off, is special too, making its main form of setting up in Belly Drum completely useless. At least you can still use those infamous Choice Specs sets to good use now!

Weavile and Bisharp

Bisharp and Weavile both despise this change. Although Weavile is impacted more than Bisharp, both will still certainly drop a few tiers. They both lose their spammable Dark-type STAB moves, which turn special, including the incredible Knock Off for both of them, as well as Bisharp's fearsome Sucker Punch. Additionally, Weavile's Ice-type STAB moves become special as well, limiting its usable physical coverage to Normal- and Fighting-type moves. Bisharp still keeps its physical Steel-type STAB moves, but those are far less spammable than its Dark-type STAB moves, making it much more predictable and easier to handle.

Crawdaunt and Mega Gyarados

After this change, Crawdaunt and Mega Gyarados suck. For starters, both of their STAB types are now special. If that weren't enough, both of their Special Attack stats are quite lackluster at base 90 and base 70, respectively. While base 90 Special Attack might not seem that bad, Crawdaunt normally needs a setup move to attack its foes more easily, and the only move that it has that can even potentially boost its Special Attack is Ancient Power (if you didn't know, this move sucks). Even then, the only viable setup moves they have are Dragon Dance and Swords Dance (Crawdaunt specifically), which boost their Attack stat, but both Pokémon now have little to no viable physical coverage. This change really damages these two; I don't recommend using them.

Mega Pidgeot

Possibly one of the coolest Mega Evolutions introduced in ORAS, Mega Pidgeot is rendered useless by this change. Firstly, even though all Normal-type moves become physical in this change, Mega Pidgeot isn't widely affected by this, as it uses no Normal-type moves in standard competitive play; however, the move that Mega Pidgeot relies most on, Hurricane, is now physical too, meaning that it has no usable options for STAB moves, seeing as they now deal damage off of Mega Pidgeot's meager base 80 Attack stat. This also means that Mega Pidgeot's far-from-lackluster base 135 Special Attack is now basically useless, as the only special move that Mega Pidgeot keeps, Heat Wave, isn't even a STAB move and doesn't do nearly the job that Hurricane did. At least Mega Pidgeot still has Work Up to boost those physical attacks, if you know what I'm saying!

Mega Charizard X

Mega Charizard X interacts quite funnily with the change. It doesn't particularly enjoy or hate it on first sight, but it does change a lot. Although it is normally physical and both of its STAB types become special, they stay contact moves. This means that they are still boosted by Tough Claws, and because Mega Charizard X's Special Attack is equal to its Attack, it will still have very powerful attacks. Sadly, it can't use Dragon Dance to boost its Attack anymore, but special moves are generally more spammable, so it is a pretty much equal trade-off.

Conclusion

To conclude, even though many Pokémon lost coverage and got nerfed because of the physical / special split, there are also Pokémon that would love it if it came back! Either they would get better STAB moves, or they are among the few Pokémon that would like a change in coverage. Many also gain some kind of special utility move, whether it involves priority, trapping, or phazing! There will be many more Pokémon that benefit from the change and many others that don't directly benefit but like the resulting metagame changes. On the other hand, there will also be a lot that will hate the change and some that aren't even affected at all.

« Previous Article

Home