Evade/Accuracy

Whether using an Evade-increaser or an Accuracy-decreaser, by far the greatest benefit comes from the first two uses of the move. This provides one basis for deciding how many times to use the move before switching to offense. Here are some other considerations:

How many hits can your Pokémon take from the current enemy? Suppose you decide to use Minimize a few times before mounting an attack. Even if you win the initiative, don't forget that your opponent could get lucky, and hit you on every single turn. (As usual, it's a big help to go first: that way even the first of your enemy's attacks has a chance of missing.) Depending on how many HP you lose, it may be wise to turn to offense ASAP.

Can you recover the damage you may suffer while using the Evade/Accuracy modifier? These moves are particularly effective when combined with Recover, Softboiled, or Rest. Armed with one of these moves, your Pokémon can use the Evade/Accuracy modifier until it is in danger of fainting. Then, use the HP-restoring move to get back to full strength (and if desired, use the Evade/Accuracy modifier a few more times, until the maximum of 6 has been reached.) This combination by no means guarantees victory; nevertheless it is so deadly that it behooves all good trainers to have at least one Pokémon on their team that knows either Swift or Haze.

There are some attacks which ignore modifications to Evade and Accuracy. For example, Accuracy-decreasing moves will not prevent a Pokémon from successfully using moves on itself (eg, Recover). Evade-increasers won't help a Pokémon to avoid Swift, Haze, Bide, or Transform.

Evade Increasers VS. Accuracy Decreasers:

There is no clear advantage between Evade-increasers and Accuracy-decreasers. On the one hand, enemy Pokémon who have had their Accuracy decreased are able to switch away (unless their trainer is out of Pokémon), negating the penalty you have imposed on them. However, this is not such a bad thing: you get a free hit on whichever Pokémon replaces them. Also, suppose that you decrease the Accuracy of an enemy who nevertheless defeats your current Pokémon. The next Pokémon you use will still enjoy the advantage of fighting an inaccurate enemy.

The advantages of Evade-increasers are the converse of those described above. Since you're affecting the statistics of your own Pokémon, it doesn't matter if the enemy switches away or faints. This is especially suitable for the combination tactic described above. However, if your Pokémon is defeated, the next one you bring in will have no advantage.

Another consideration is that your Pokémon cannot miss when increasing its own Evade, but it can miss when trying to lower the Accuracy of an opponent, particularly if it is employing Evade/Accuracy modifiers of its own and/or your Pokémon is using Flash or Kinesis.

There may be occasions when you can exploit the fact that 1 Evade-increaser combined with 1 Accuracy-decreaser has about the same effect as 3 uses of either type of move alone. Perhaps you can't decide how to use that last attack slot for your Horsea or Koffing, for example; there would be some value to keeping Smokescreen, but also using a Double Team TM. However, it's a dangerous gamble to devote an entire attack slot to a hit-probability advantage of less than 10%.

Statistics:

Attack	Type	PP	Acc	Effect	TM
Double team	NOR	15	100	Increases attacker's evade	32
Minimize	NOR	20	100	Increases attacker's evade	-----
Flash	NOR	20	69.5	Decreases opponent's accuracy	-----
Kinesis	PSY	15	79.7	Decreases opponent's accuracy	-----
Sand-attack	NOR	15	99.6	Decreases opponent's accuracy	-----
Smokescreen	NOR	20	99.6	Decreases opponent's accuracy	-----

Double team VS. Minimize:

Double Team and Minimize have the same effect. You should therefore choose between them according to preference, or possibly PP (Minimize has 20; Double Team has only 15). However, since it is hard to imagine a Pokémon using more than 15 PP of an Evade-altering move in a single battle, PP is probably not a major consideration.

While you can use both attacks interchangeably, this is not a way around the six-use maximum. Only the first six uses of both attacks combined will have any effect. Since the attacks are functionally identical, the order in which they are used would make no difference.

Flash VS. Kinesis:

All Accuracy-decreasing attacks have the same effect in battle, if they hit successfully.

Flash has more PP than Kinesis, but the latter's higher accuracy is most likely more important for your Kadabra than 5 more PP. For other Pokémon (and for Kadabras/Alakazams not in the Yellow version of the game), Flash is not totally useless, but its inaccuracy is definitely something to consider. If you're not specifically planning on lowering the Accuracy of your opponents, you might be better off with Double Team.

While at least one of your Pokémon should learn Flash for the useful out-of-battle effect, for combat purposes, Flash is definitely an attack you'll want to think hard about before deciding it's right for your Pokémon.

Sand-attack VS. Smoke screen:

Sand-Attack and Smokescreen are the most reliable Accuracy-lowering attacks. Smokescreen has more PP than Sand-Attack, but it's a moot point for comparison purposes, since no Pokémon learns both of these moves, and there is no TM for either of them. Both are fine attacks.

Back