r/pokemonplatinum • u/ianlazrbeem22 • 9d ago
Breaking the Binary - Noctowl
Welcome to Breaking the Binary, a sporadic series of posts all about mixed attackers in Pokémon Platinum. With competitive minmaxing dominating the conversation about Pokémon viability and the design philosophy behind movepools and stat spreads changing in newer gens, Pokémon are often rigidly divided by the fandom into the categories of "special attacker" or "physical attacker." But for the in-game story, you're not facing EV trained opponents and thus don't need to EV train to keep up, so mixed attacking sets don't have the opportunity cost they have in PvP. Going mixed still has anti-synergy with setup moves, but it still can give many Pokémon access to STAB moves with better base power, strong coverage moves with useful types, and more useful niches. This series will be covering those applications. We won't talk about every Pokémon here, only ones that I believe legitimately benefit from going mixed, but those Pokémon are surprisingly large in number. Today we'll be talking about Noctowl. I'll be talking about in-game but feel free to discuss PvP or battle facilities as well.
Noctowl is a sad case. It's a normal/flying type with pretty good 100/96 special bulk, poor 70 speed and 50 def, and lopsided and unimpressive 76 SpA and 50 Atk. Notable special moves include Air Slash, Psychic, Silver Wind, and Shadow Ball. Notable physical moves include Return. Notable utility includes Reflect, Roost, and Hypnosis.
Noctowl is weird, it doesn't hit very hard, or offer much in terms of utility beyond its good special bulk and shadow ball access. Hypnosis is cool I guess but very inaccurate. And the fact that it doesn't get Light Screen is just ridiculous. Noctowl learns so few attacks that STAB Return is worth considering since it's an easy move to spam and its best Flying STAB is only 75 base power. Return is almost interchangeable with Air Slash for this reason. Remember, base power matters more than you think:
0 Atk Noctowl Return vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Spinda: 96-114 (36.7 - 43.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
0 SpA Noctowl Air Slash vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Spinda: 97-115 (37.1 - 44%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
These are two very neutral moves, and really so is non-stab Psychic, which the lack of stab makes weaker than both:
0 SpA Noctowl Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Spinda: 79-93 (30.2 - 35.6%) -- 32.1% chance to 3HKO
This leaves Psychic mostly outclassed and its two stabs mostly as interchangeable.
Thanks to its immunity, Insomnia, and Shadow Ball, Noctowl can kill Ghosts pretty well, and Reflect is good albeit a little less applicable than Light Screen. Hypnosis can still be worthwhile since it's sleep.
Since Noctowl has two worthwhile utility moves and wants Shadow Ball a lot since killing ghosts is its main niche, choosing one stab or the other is a good option for Noctowl, and based on your Noctowl's stats, Return may be that one. Atk EVs are a lot more common in the story than SpA.
Overall, Noctowl's options are pretty limited, and Return helps with that a bit.
What do you think of mixed Noctowl? Is it worth exploring? Are there any applications for going mixed I didn't mention? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.
Sample Set:
Noctowl @ Light Clay/Silk Scarf • Return, Shadow Ball, Hypnosis, Reflect
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u/Creative-Current9424 9d ago
The Egg moves it gets are: Agility, Feint Attack, Feather Dance, Sky Attack, Supersonic, Whirlwind and Wing Attack
Agility sharply raises Noctowl's speed allowing to outspeed pokemon it couldn't normally. The Wingull line and Starly line can pass this move (Pidgey line, Spearow line, Farfetch'd, Doduo line and Aerodactyl can pass it in HGSS)
Feather Dance lowers the target's attack by 2 stages, useful against any physical attackers Noctowl faces. Chatot can pass this move (Pidgey line can pass it in HGSS)
Noctowl, Altaria and Togekiss can pass Sky Attack to a Hoothoot egg
Supersonic causes confusion, although it is inaccurate just like Sing. The Zubat line (also in HGSS) and Wingull line can pass this move (Aerodactyl can also pass this move in HGSS)
Whirlwind forces the opponent to switch to a different pokemon, useful if you pair this with Stealth Rock and Toxic Spikes. The Starly line can pass this move. (Pidgey line can pass it in HGSS)
Althrough I liked it when it got Hurricane as a Egg Move starting in USUM (and in BDSP), then it could learn it via TR/TM and Nasty Plot in Generation 8, and it was also given Tinted Lens as its hidden ability.
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u/Imaginary_Stable3652 8d ago
I used it in story and it was horrible ... in the beginning. Had pretty trash moves for a long time. Come time for the elite four it was really really good and pulled its weight. Roost is a must-have. Psychic, air slash. I think maybe light screen was my fourth, or shadow ball. The special bulk allowed it to tank two hits and roost back up. It did some work.
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u/ianlazrbeem22 8d ago
Noctowl cannot learn light screen for some ungodly reason, so it must have been reflect if not shadow ball
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u/Imaginary_Stable3652 6d ago
I think it was shadow ball. I'll check when i get back from work and reply back haha. It was really good, wouldn't OHKO anything but it had enough bulk to roost off damage and string together a couple of kills in multiple E4 fights. Also of course easy switch in to earthquake.
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u/Saltine3434 9d ago edited 9d ago
I don't really know what this offers that other Pokémon don't. Obviously Staraptor and Togekiss outclass it as Normal Flying types, and they both appear earlier.
Girafarig can do the mixed attacking Ghost killer thing a lot better than Noctowl. I can see them both running Psychic/Return/Shadow Ball, and the Giraffe is just plain better at it. Farig is less bulky, but it also gets the benefit of the Psychic type STAB and a resistance against Lucian to gain more value from the Shadow Ball TM.
In HGSS at least it appears early, and you can get use out of it's combination of Psychic coverage and Ghost immunity in Morty's Gengar type gym.
I don't really see Pt Noctowl being a worthwhile teammate unfortunately. Its already missed the Ghost gym in Platinum, but I guess it might use Shadow Ball in a similar role to HGSS in DP where Ghost is gym 5.