Luxray's natural abilities:
Rivalry: Boosts attacks by 1/4 when attacking foes of the same gender, lowers attacks by 1/4 when battling against foes of the opposite gender.
-I'd like to ask Luxicato if it was possible to take out the lowers attack part, and just have the Pokemon deal more damage towards the same gender, because there isn't really an in-fluff reason why the attack drop takes place.
Intimidate: Lowers the attack of the opposing Pokemon (Luxicato has retooled this to work all the time during battle, not just on Switch in, so it's better than normal.
Guts(Hidden Ability): Boosts attacks by 1/2 when suffering from a status condition.
Possible abilities that Cynthia could help us learn:
Analytic: Boosts attack by 30% when going last. This might be retooled into "can boost attack after taking time to observe the opponent" so that it better fits into the anime style of battles.
Reasoning: Patrat and Watchog can get it for their hidden ability because of their good eyesight (I think Watchog can see in the dark?), so Luxray might be able to get it as well.
Competitive: raises sp.atk sharply when any stat is lowered.
Reasoning: i feel like it could be an offshoot of the ability Rivalry, as both abilities have that spirit of "I want to be better than the other person"
Defiant: Raises attack sharply when any stat is lowered.
Reasoning: Pretty much same as competitive.
Electric Surge: Causes Electric Terrain to form when the user enters battle.
Reasoning: Although this ability
is exclusive to Tapu Koko, I feel like if we trained our Luxray up enough we could get it. In my mind, Electric Surge is a Pokemon having such a strong connection to the electric type that they generate their own electrically field wherever they go, and while Tapu Koko is able to do this naturally because it's just that strong, other electric types could eventually be capable of the same once they hit EX rank. But yeah, if Luxicato okays this I expect I'd come with the condition that Luxray would need to hit EX rank first, before we could even begin trying to gain it.
Flare Boost: Raises Sp.Atk by 50% when burned.
Reasoning: It's pretty much a specialized version of guts that only occurs when burned.
Galvanize: All normal moves become electric moves and are boosted by 20%, in addition to STAB
Reasoning: I dunno, just something about Luxray understanding electric type energy enough to be able to substitute it in for normal energy in normal moves?
Fluffy: Halves damage from physical moves, doubles damage from fire moves.
Reasoning: Luxray has a floofy coat of fur. More seriously, I'd probably involve dedicated brushing time and special fur care products, but it's doable.
Fur Coat: Halves damage from Physical moves.
Reasoning: Same as Fluffy
Illuminate: Attracts wild Pokemon via lighting up a Pokemon's body. I imagine Luxicato would probably retool this into being able to use Flash indefinetly without actually needing the move.
Reasoning: From what I remember, Shinx are capable of lighting up the fur on their bodies.
Keen Eye: Prevents accuracy drops. I imagine Luxicato might also add something in there about being able to see farther away/minute details/etc. better than average,
Reasoning: Luxray have x-ray vision, and I'm not sure but I think I remember a Luxray specifically use that x-ray vision to hone in on a thief in an anime episode?
Lightningrod: Absorbs electric attacks to boost sp.atk
Reasoning: I imagine all veteran electric types could get this with some work, broadly speaking.
Magnet Pull: Attracts steel types, prevents them from switching out.
Reasoning: I imagine most electric types could get this, broadly speaking.
Additional note: This could serve as a prerequisite for gaining Electric Surge, because the Pokemon would be going from having a magnetic field capable of affecting steel types to a magnetic field capable of affecting the field in geneneral.
Mold Breaker: Ignores opponents ability when attacking.
Reasoning: It "feels" kinda similar to Guts and Rivalry, it has that similar hotbloodedness to go "Screw your ability, I'm attacking you anyway"
Motor Drive: Absorbs electric moves to raise speed.
Reasoning: I think I remember seeing something about Luxio using electric charges to boost it's leg muscles, I forget if it was in the DPPT manga or Pokedex though.
Pressure: Causes opponent to get tired more easily
Reasoning: Works off intimidate, same as Maelstrom
Scrappy: Can hit ghosts with normal and fighting moves. I imagine Luxicato would just broaden this a bit to "Can hit ghosts while they're intangible"
Reasoning: If Luxray's x-ray vision lets it see ghosts, then this ability could work off that, allowing Luxray to touch ghosts.
Static: Has a 30% chance to paralyze foe on contact, hopefully Luxicato will make it so who initiates the contact doesn't matter.
Reasoning: Luxray has staticy fur.
Strong Jaw: Boosts all biting moves by 30%
Reasoning: This Shinx specifically has been using a lot of biting moves, and was bred to use all three elemental fangs. I could see it having the potential to earn Strong Jaw.
Tough Claws: Increases the power of moves that make contact by 30%
Reasoning: Luxray's a big kitty with big claws.
Volt Absorb: Absorbs electric attacks to restore HP
Reasoning: I imagine most fully grown electric types could probably work towards this.
Thoughts on how good abilities are/how we might use them/just random other stuff about them:
- Rivalry: If Luxicato rules that only the attack boost part applies, then it becomes pretty good. If not, then it's terrible.
- Intimidate: Lowers the opponents attack, it's pretty good.
- Guts: Boosts attacks when suffering from a status condition. Really good, but only if suffering from a status condition. Granted, Luxicato could broaden it a bit and have exhaustion/low HP count as a status condition, if he does this ability jumps up to REALLY GOOD.
- Analytic: Not really worth it looking at it from both the rules as written and my suggested change. Luxray is a pretty fast Pokemon, so it generally doesn't get outsped, and I don't want to have to waste a round "analyzing" an opponent for the damage boost.
- Competitive & Defiant: Both require either us or our opponent to run something that lowers Luxray's stats. Kinda situational, but if it works we're golden.
- Electric Surge: Electric Terrain boosts all electric type moves by 50% and prevents sleep from occuring. Additionally, I could see Luxicato ruling that spending a turn in Electric Terrain procs Volt Absorb/Motor Drive/Lightningrod, the same as Aqua Jet does for Swift Swim. All in all, if we can't get this ability, I think picking up the move Electric Terrain for Luxray wouldn't go amiss.
- Flare Boost: You're better off taking guts.
- Galvanize: Unless we want an electric-typed hyper-beam for Maximum damage shenanigans, we don't really want this.
- Fluffy: While a 50% reduction on physical attacks is nice, an additional fire weakness is not. Only take if we also plan to take Fur Coat. Additionally, imagine that Fur Coat and Fluffy boost performance in a contest, because they're abilities that better the Pokemon's outward appearance, similar to Marvel and Multiscale. I imagine that Fluffy and Fur Coat working together would result in a 75% physical damage reduction, if that's allowed.
- Fur Coat: A 50% reduction to all physical damage without an added cost? Niiiiiiiice.
- Illuminate: Pretty much totally outclassed by the move flash and the fact we can carry flashlights with us. Pass.
- Keen Eye: Take it if we want to expand on Luxray's whole vision thing.
- Lightningrod, Motor Drive, & Volt Absorb: We could probably proc these by using electric type moves on ourselves, which could lead to shenanigans. Additionally, Lightningrod would allow Luxray to take electric moves for Maelstrom in a double battle, so that's nice. Not sure how often we'll use it, given that all League matches are single battles.
- Magnet Pull: Only take if it's a requirement for Electric Surge, i dunno, it might let us pull funky stuff on opposing steel types.
- Mold Breaker: Let's us hit Shedinja easy and blast through Sturdy mon, but I don't know if this would actually come up that often.
- Pressure: It feels like this ability would work better for an endurance type mon like Maelstrom, who's probably gonna be slugging it out for minutes at a time, instead of a Luxray who would want to beat the opponent asap. Still, tiiring out the opponent quicker is nice, I'll admit.
- Scrappy: Only really worth it if we want to turn Luxray into a dedicated anti-ghost Pokemon. Plus, it can get crunch, which laughs all over ghost types -anyway-.
- Static: A chance to paralyze on contact is great, especially because Luxray primarily uses physical moves. Gotta give this one some serious consideration.
- Strong Jaw: Boosts the elemental fangs and crunch, all of which we'll want to run. Really good.
- Tough Claws: Seeing as we're going more by rules as intended and how things should actually work instead of rules as written, this would probably only apply to attacks made with Luxray's claws. Hard pass.
And here's some moves we might want to think about:
- All three elemental fangs (Already learned): Decent power, great extra effects, great type coverage.
- Crunch: Strong dark move to lower opponents defenses and destroy psychic and ghost types.
- Swift/Shockwave: Undodgable moves to rip apart any dodge tanks we come up against.
- Discharge: Good power, high paralysis chance.
- Nuzzle: Low power but guaranteed paralysis, good for catching Pokemon or stopping criminals.
- Signal Beam: Ranged way to hit grass types, who otherwise resist electric attacks.
- Thunderbolt: High power, pretty much -the- signature electric move if you've seen the anime.
- Volt Tackle: Extraordinary high damage, one of the most powerful electric moves, Ash's Pikachu does work with it in Sinnoh.
- Ice Beam: Applying Shinx's knowledge of Ice Fang into a ranged attack, hits ground types hard.
- Electric Terrain: If we don't get Electric Surge, boosts all electric type moves used while in play.
- Thunder: High damage, high chance to paralyze, works well with a drizzle Maelstrom.
Ultimately, if I had to choose some moves out of that list, I'd be the elemental fangs, crunch, volt tackle, nuzzle, and thunderbolt.
Whew boy, that went on for a while.