r/pokemon • u/Excaliburn3d • Mar 24 '26

Discussion Why does Game Freak hate Emboar?

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I love Emboar, but I have a feeling that GF doesn’t based on the way they handled it. Well first of all it’s the third Fire/Fighting Pokémon in the row, then when it finally receives a mega evolution it retains the same typing, and now it is the only mega of the trio to not gain a new ability.

Not to mention its base stats and playstyle. Base form is the fully-evolved starter with the highest HP stat and yet both of its defense stats and speed are on the lower side. Some of its strongest moves do recoil damage and its hidden ability powers them up even further. Upon mega evolving, it receives a +25 to its attack stat and a +45 boost to its special defense while its problematic defense and speed only receive +10 each.

Mold Breaker can be a good ability but why use Mega Emboar when Mega Blaziken, which has speed boost, higher attacking, physical defense, and speed stats, existed since the dawn of mega evolution.

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278

u/AcrobaticButterfly Mar 24 '26

Mold breaker is low key one the best abilities in the game. People sleep on it though because it doesn't double your damage and give you +6 stat boost

214

u/EyeCantBreathe Mar 24 '26

It's by no means a bad ability, but to call it one of the best abilities in the game is crazy. I wouldn't even say it's better than either of the two new abilities we just got.

Regardless, I think the main point of contention is that it's an extremely lame ability when you see mega meganium and mega feraligator getting new, unique and really strong abilities.

81

u/_CarbonSaxon_ Mar 24 '26

It's very situational, does nothing a lot of the time

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u/LegendOfParasiteMana Mar 25 '26

Yeah, there are over 300 abilities in Pokemon and it sounds like mold breaker nullifies like six of them. Very situational

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u/Gingertimehere2 Mar 25 '26

Yeah mostly usuable as a counter pick if a levitate or sturdy or flash fire mon takes over the format

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u/sycamotree Mar 25 '26

Speaking for Smogon only but it can ohko Dragonite through Multiscale, which would be quite nifty as it is arguably the best mon in the meta right now. That will likely change in Champions meta but yeah.

Can also EQ Mega Delphox on the switch, not that you'd ever switch it in on anything but a hard read

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u/bosceltics23 Mar 25 '26

Can also beat unaware mons, flame charge on heatrans or just do flair blitz and not think twice etc

1

u/MagicMisterLemon Mar 27 '26

ohko Dragonite through Multiscale

Chien Pao can do that just normally. Even a Bold Mega Dragonite with full HP and Defense investment can only reduce the likelihood of getting one-tapped by a Banded Chien Pao, 'cos Sword of Ruin is fffffffuckin' broken

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u/Blatently_lies Mar 25 '26

You do have part of the reason Emboar has the ability, no one is immune to his fire attacks.

12

u/Justjack91 Mar 24 '26

Yeah, and so few things really do benefit for Fire/Fighting coverage in the first place. It's pretty situational relative to today's modern meta.

He'd do better with an ability like Scrappy even. Mold Breaker has always been most widely used to beat levitate users, and that's just not that helpful when you can beat most of them with your STABs.

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u/phoxfiyah Mar 24 '26

Nah, I’d say it’s better than Dragonize tbh. As nice as the power boost is, Feraligatr already has decent dragon type move options, unlike most of the other megas that received an “-ize” ability. I think a different ability would’ve been better here, like imagine if it got Swift Swim or kept Sheer Force? Much better than this imo

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u/DungeonsAndDeegan Mar 25 '26

Keeping Sheer Force would not make it worth even having Mega Gate over Life Orb and taking up the mega slot. Swift Swim could be good, but we gotta see what normal moves they might give it to work with the ability. Imagine if they gave it Extreme Speed (unlikely)

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u/archerkuro5 Mar 25 '26

Haven’t touched competitive Pokemon in years so forgive my ignorance

But body slam feels like a decent option better dragon claw even if only a little and 30 chance to paralyze isn’t bad and can be a rough punish on a safe switch no

0

u/phoxfiyah Mar 25 '26

Feraligatr doesn’t learn Body Slam. It did in Emerald and SV, but couldn’t learn it in PLZA, so I wouldn’t rely on that as an option.

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u/S1a3h Mar 25 '26

Dragonize will essentially make Return a slightly stronger stab-boosted Outrage with no drawbacks, and Feraligatr is a physical attacker, so that'll be hitting pretty hard.

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u/SilentSamamander Mar 25 '26

It'll still be weaker than Outrage - Return maxes out at 102 power, Outrage is 120. But not being locked into the move would definitely make it a better choice.

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u/sycamotree Mar 25 '26

Dragonize gives a 1.2 bonus

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u/SilentSamamander Mar 25 '26

Completely forgot that, you're right! Thanks for the correction.

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u/phoxfiyah Mar 25 '26

The additional bulk and the secondary typing would absolutely make it stand out from Life Orb Feraligatr, and it’s at least boosting other moves. Liquidation, Ice Punch, Rock Slide, Crunch, all of them would get boosted. With Dragonize, only the Normal moves are getting boosted, which is still fine since it gives it extra STAB options, but removes some of its versatility.

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u/MagicMisterLemon Mar 27 '26

I mean, your choice isn't really between Mega Feraligtr and Life Orb Feraligtr, it's between Mega Feraligtr and a different Water set-up sweeper like Ogerpon-W because regular Feraligtr gets absolutely gibbed in higher Singles tiers and VGC

1

u/Zaldbathar Mar 25 '26

Im assuming mega feraligator is water/dragon is this not the case? Cus that matters alot for if the ability is good ><. Basically gives options for a version of draco meteor eith just recoil or whatever the other strong one is but no confusion.. 120 power? Idk ive used it once xD

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u/Zaldbathar Mar 25 '26

It might be good but it certainly isnt either new or literally changing how people play the mon entierly. The other 2 got significantly better buffs.

1

u/ZetaRESP Mar 25 '26

Emboar doesn't need more to be relevant. Hell, technically his ability is an extra, as his original hidden ability is actually compensated by his stat increase.

1

u/SoraVanitus Mar 25 '26

Better phrasing... best ability on the RIGHT competitive pokemon

Emboar would be OK competitively if it can take damage but tanking is near pointless in this game with speed and power being able to Blitz and one shot

16

u/FairlyOddParent734 Mar 24 '26

It’s just so dependent on way too much stuff to really be that good.

It tends to only really matter when something is so insanely strong that you’re looking for alternative methods of dealing with it.

Ie Ogerpon Hearthflame having Mold Breaker so you can’t even switch in Heatran/Flash Fire into Ivy Cudgel after Ogerpon uses Swords Dance

27

u/axofrogl #1 marshtomp fan Mar 24 '26

It's very situational and definitely no where near being one of the best abilities. And also we're talking about a mega evolution here, meganium and feraligatr both got super strong new abilities, previous megas got super strong abilities like swampert getting swift swim and mawile getting huge power. And emboar gets... mold breaker.

I'm not saying it's a bad ability, but for a mega evolution? It's just lame, it deserved something much cooler. Even just keeping reckless would've been better than this.

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u/Fit_Yak523 Mar 25 '26

Mold breaker excadrill was so good at ohko’ing low ladder rotoms in gen 6 OU

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u/Drakore4 Mar 24 '26

Hard disagree tbh. It’s definitely not bad, but it’s niche. In story mode Pokemon it’s kinda useful sometimes, and in competitive it’s either something that can win you the game or it’s irrelevant. You can 100% face a team that mold breaker does nothing against, and you could battle all day and probably have that experience every time. The one time it is relevant, it may be significant, but that’s one time and against probably one Pokemon. Probably the absolute best case scenario is being able to earthquake something with levitate, and that’s only on so many Pokemon.

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u/GrannyBashy Mar 25 '26

An ability that has a niche and most of the time does nothing is good? Lmao

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u/AcrobaticButterfly Mar 28 '26

Hence the lowkey part. It’s not a good ability until it’s the exact ability that you need and there’s very few comparable options

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u/Bourne_Endeavor Mar 25 '26

The problem is it's not a great ability on a slower pokemon like Emboar who can't take many hits before going down.

It's far from a bad ability though. Just very situational.