Galarian Rapidash

[NandoCruise]

Here are my first thoughts:


1. Why isn't it possible for Galarian Rapidash to learn TM033 Reflect? It is a Psychic type pokemon. I know not all Psychic-type pokemon can learn Reflect but the other part has a protection move.

For example, Meowstic Male cannot learn reflect but it has 2 stun moves in its moveset, 1 being counter to ghost-types and in addition it has Quick Guard. Gal Rapidash only has 1 stun.
Another example would be Ludicolo, really popular pokemon. It heals itself, it cannot learn reflect nor have protect but it also has 2 stuns in its moveset.

Reuniclus and Starmie are the only 2 Psychic pokemon in PAd which cannot learn reflect nor have a protection move. However, Starmie has Reflect-Type move.
Reuniclus... well this poke is not that popular. I don't know if this pokemon was from event or something, but you really don't see it much and I remember I saw a couple of guys selling it.

Galarian Rapidash doesn't have 2 Stun moves, it cannot learn Reflect and it doesn't have a protection move either. I feel this gives Gal Rapidash a huge disadvantage in comparison with other pokemon.

2.- Magic Bounce move. I actually saw it and thought it was extremely hilarious how Gal Rapidash jumps. The first thing I thought was: It must be like Sky Attack or something... well, I was wrong.

I already died 3 times trying to lvl it up because as soon as Gal Rapidash jumps, all pokemon instantly attack me. For example: At Dragons 180 resp, when an Altaria would use Outrage and I would use Magic Bounce on the second hit of Outrage, as soon as Gal Rapidash disappears, Outrage would hit me. Same with Dragon Storm and ALL other moves. So yeah... already died 3 times.

Is it possible for you to make it like Sky Attack or something, preventing wild pokemon to attack?
If not, then maybe instead of being an AoE, make it a single-target move and add another AoE to Gal Rapidash please. This move should somehow be fixed, because it is in both movesets, psychic and fairy.

Even though I believe the damage is quite good, this move is utterly obsolete for either PvE and PVP. I feel like this move would be easily avoidable in duels, since the jump takes long.
I actually tested it right now with Lord Sqnik, he was using Melmetal and yes... moving his Melmetal he was actually able to dodge the move. The situation would be worse with Dark-type pokes who can use dark portal... super easy to dodge with Blink/Dark portal. So I feel like this move should be somehow rebalance/change or something.

Maybe people would be like "it has Imprison/Aroma Veil", but still... it's not good at all to have a 45 second MAIN AoE move dependent on another move. What if during the duel you already used Imprison/Aroma veil? then GG !Kappa.

3.- Power Swap. Maybe it's nice that Galarian Rapidash can switch between Fairy and Psychic-type moves. I am assuming this is the reason why it doesn't have Reflect/Protect move. But I don't see this ability so very special honestly. Fairy and Psychic type pokes are super effective against Fighting-types, which means it doesn't matter if u have Fairy or Psychic.
Psychic moves are also super effective against Poison types, and thanks to Pastel Veil ability, Gal Rapidash only gets 1x damage from poison moves. HOWEVER...

From a PvE perspective: I don't see anyone hunting poison types with Gal Rapidash because, as I mentioned already a couple of times, it doesn't have Reflect nor Protection. AND because of Heal Pulse move... it doesn't have many HP, which means it dies quite fast.

From a PvP Perspective: Let's say you use Galarian Rapidash with Fairy moveset against whatever pokemon from opponent and you win, then the other guy uses a Poison-type pokemon now. Even if you use Power Swap, cooldown is THE SAME between movesets, which means you will not be able to use any moves until cooldown completely loads... my point here is: Being able to use Power Swap doesn't give Galarian Rapidash a SUPER advantage in duels.
Something similar would apply to Dark-types. If u already used Psychic moves and then switch to Fairy moves, you must wait for cooldown.

Furthermore, if you duel against a Steel-type... any moveset wouldn't matter, since Steel-types resist both types. Same apply to Ghost-types.


Anyway, as I said, these is just my first impression. A lot of people right now are kinda regretting having chosen Galarian Rapidash over Sirfetch'd.

I don't, because I love the sprite and I love fairy pokemon. But it would be nice if rebalance team can check again and try to #MakeGalarianRapidashGreat

Have ya'll a great day.

Nando~

Edit: P.S.: Could you also add TM Fairy Dreams? Thanks

 

[Sting]

1. Not every psychic pokemon have reflect as you mentioned and i dont belive he should have one if he was supposed to have it then we would add it straight away
2. Magic Bounce wise yes you have moves to block opponent move and paralyze them but i never found anyone capable from running away its not like you are just going in a test duel "so i now use that skill u run" cause thats not how it work in normal duel, targetting wise i wrote to jano if he can prevent that
3.Power Swap wise well its a first pokemon with that and no dont treat it like other form its just 1 pokemon with 2 movesets, overall idea was to make him either psychic or fairy moveset wise so that you can use it either on whatever exp u want or to change it in duel (even if you have cds used you would rather change to fairy and have at least targets loaded to deal dmg or you would stay in psychic doing nothing?) and cds have to be shared to avoid any abuse (aka double paral, double imprison like skill,double heal and such) for counters he have secret power or high horsepower which can help you in duel a bit

 

[NandoCruise]

@About Reflect. I find it a bit ironic that a Fire-type Rapidash from Kanto can learn Reflect but a Psychic-type Galarian Rapidash cannot.
I honestly do not see Galarian Rapidash being TOO OP with Reflect. Actually, Reflect would help it more for PvE rather than for PvP. As I mentioned in the original post: Because of Heal Pulse move it doesn't have too many HP, so most likely you only get the chance to use Imprison/Aroma Veil and Psyblast/Fairy Wind and when using the 2 move DEAD. This is what happened to me in Dragons 180, Gal Rapidash being immune to Dragon types.

Reflect would definitely help in PvE by being able to use basically all AoE moves + 1 TM.

@About Magic Bounce: A good dueler is always moving, that's why I mentioned it could be easily avoidable. Also, in Duels against Dark-type pokes with dark portal it would be even easier. As I said, Lord Sqnik and I tested it.

As I said, it was just my first impression. And right now after a couple of hours I have seen several players with the "general feeling" that Galarian Rapidash is not good.

Just saying.