Why don't more pokemon use Taunt?

StarmanXL

StarmanXL

Seriously, the move is awesome, but you only see it on, like, five pokemon (Gyarados, Tyranitar, Floatzel, and the occaisonal Gliscor or Houndoom). Wouldn't you think you'd see it on more sweepers or something? It prevents a pokemon's counter from using any status-inducing, phazing, or healing moves, which really are the bane of the countered pokemon. I mean, is Skarmory really that scary if it can't heal itself or phaze? What about a Blissey that can't heal or status, or a Cressilia that suffers from the same problem (on a side note, I love Taunting Houndoom >_>). And even if your sweeper still can't just kill the wall or may be threatened by attacks from the countering wall, wouldn't the absence of status and such make it easier to switch in a counter of your own or a pokemon that could set up on the wall?


I'm probably missing something, though...
 
Because a lot of pokemon are too fragile and they do not want to be attacked, especially when they cause the opponent to attack. The only thing that it is truly good for is if the user resists the attack and that can be situational. Plus it can be cancelled out by switching.
 
Because there's two ways of countering a Pokemon. For example, Gyarados, Taunt would stop the "traditional" ADV Non-bolting Weezings and Skarmory. However, Taunt isn't going to help shit if people are switching in Starmies and Mesprits.

Taunt on Tyranitar will stop again the same old boring Weezing, Dusknoir as well as Skarmory. But that doesn't stop Hippowdon, Swampert and Garchomp from Earthquaking out the asses.

Floatzel is incredibly fragile, even after a Bulk Up, you're still likely to 2HKO it, so why would it waste a turn Taunting.

Otherwise, other random Taunters, people will catch on after first turn, shoudl it even survive to do it. For example, Crobat, Heatran, Houndoom, use it the first time, but next time it could get predictable and they'll go straight to like a ScarfChomp or a TTar or something else w/e. This will just lead to a pointless debate of 'i'll predict that he'll predict that i'll predict' etc.

And it goes on and on so pretty much, Taunt will only work against noobs, or will only be truly used by noobs cause they think it's a lot better than it really is.
 
I use this Heatran as my Cresselia/Umbreon counter (two most annoying pokemon for my team to handle otherwise)

Heatran @ Life Orb
Modest
252 sp atk, 252 speed, 6 hp
-Fire Blast
-Earth Power
-Toxic
-Taunt

Come in on Umbreons or Cresselia then taunt so they can't baton pass, curse, recover, moonlight, calm mind etc etc then 2HKO with Fire Blast. Or toxic if I predict a switch (if they don't switch that's better so I can start toxistalling them), since steel and poison types hardly ever switch into heatran in fear of earth power or fire blast, they're not a problem. What's also cool is that to my knowledge Heatran can't be poisoned by synchronize since it's steel. Not even Gardevoir can switch in safely at the risk of being poisoned : ) This can also cause major pain to noobs who try to copy Obi's stall team on Shoddy. More HP EVs could be used if you want to survive more attacks.

I also wonder why more pokemon don't use toxic
 
Yea I was thinking about making a taunt team with one half taunters with SR resistance and the other half weak to sr but can pull off sweeps very easily if SR isnt in play. for example, reversal yanmega/ swords dance weavile benefit greatly in these kind of teams. If you prevent SR from the start, a world of opportunites is opened. These teams will decimate stall teams.
 
I use a Taunt Crobat, and I've had some good results. Most people don't really expect it right off the bat (pun intended), so it works well to avoid early Stealth Rocks - and nearly every team attempts to Stealth Rock in the beginning. In addition, Crobat can take a few hits, and it has Roost to work with, too. I've had some sick pleasures against Skarmory that came in trying to wall me. I can't remember how many times I've made that ugly excuse for a bird kill itself or flee because of Brave Bird recoil... Actually, one time I PP stalled a Skarmory so that it ran out of Drill Pecks and killed itself with Struggle. Now that was funny (and time consuming).

But unfortunately, several things can get a free switch in from the Taunt. Heatran completely walls Crobat no matter what and is extremely popular, so I always make sure to have a good Heatran counter when I use it. Still, giving some Pokemon a free switch in every now and then is acceptable when you take into account the devastating effects of Taunt.
 
I think the purpose of Taunt on Floatzel is to prevent stuff like Skarmory or Swampert from phazing you when you try to BP or stuff like Blissey or Cressilia or Weezing trying to status you when you BP.
 
One of the most dominent Pokemon that uses Taunt well(aswell as benifits from it) is Gyarados. Unfortunatly when using it you have 4 very good attacking moves that you want to fit on the moveset. Not forgetting Dragon Dance, there's 3 slots left for 5 decent moves. Taunt loses out alot of the time, and I understand why.

In Adv, Tyranitar also benifited from Taunt. Laughing at Phazing and status in general. However in D/P it is alot harder to sweep with DDTar. With all the Fighting moves out there being used alot, Tyranitar just has no time to Taunt. Also, I'd prefer using Crunch,Rock Slide and Earthquake in a DDTar set anyway, forgetting Taunt completely.

No doubt, it's a good move, just no good enough or just not needed at all.
 
Naive Taunt Heatran. Its quite good actually. I was shocked when I found out Aldaron used one on his team too, lol

Its a great switch in for Dusknoirs if they lack earthquake, which more often than not they do. Blissey also cries if it lacks HP Ground.
 
Lawman said:
Naive Taunt Heatran. Its quite good actually. I was shocked when I found out Aldaron used one on his team too, lol

Its a great switch in for Dusknoirs if they lack earthquake, which more often than not they do. Blissey also cries if it lacks HP Ground.
Click to expand...

It also outspeed's Heracross.
 
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