Feasibility of running Trace Porygon-2 in D/P?

[MaxGoof]

One of the anchors of my teams in R/S/E was always Trace Porygon-2 with Recover, Thunderwave, T-Bolt, and Ice Beam. With his moderately good defenses and ability to Trace, he worked well in many situations and pulled me through quite a few times.

In D/P we get Porygon-Z, but with evolution he loses his Trace ability and his defenses take a noticeable hit. Is it foolish to continue running Porygon-2 on teams? While he's no longer the final evolution of Porygon, he should still be good, shouldn't he...?

 

[Turismo2029]

I use to use the same set, but I had Agility over Thunder Wave.. I think he'd be fine, I prefer him over Porygon-Z since Porygon 2 is more durable, and he was always on my team last time so he definately has a spot on my team..

Porygon-Z is good too, but I prefer the durability, his special attack isn't crap as Porygon 2 anyway so in my opinion, Porygon 2 is more suited to me.

I think he'd do just fine this gen though, he's got Boltbeam for beating things down with.. your dude can at least Thunder Wave any annoying dudes anyway..

 

[Forsety]

Porygon 2 is still fine, for starters its about the only thing which can really abuse Recycle Rest which I had alot of fun with. If anything hes better now since he gets a nice STAB special attack.

 

[MaxGoof]

Porygon 2 is still fine, for starters its about the only thing which can really abuse Recycle Rest which I had alot of fun with. If anything hes better now since he gets a nice STAB special attack.

How does a Recycle/Rest P-2 work?

 

[Wolfheart]

I ran into this Porygon2 in the battle frontier and it has recycle/sitrus berry it was very annoying.

This guy can still be used I just think he will be BL if he already isn't.

 

[Marauder Artemis]

Porygon2 is still quite viable in D/P. With Trace now working on Intimidate, it makes for a solid switch-in (with the right evs, of course) to Gyarados. Toxic can work over TWave if you want, as ground types/Electrivire would love switching in to a twave/tbolt

 

[pooch]

Somebody detail to me the exciting possibilities of Trace. I imagine it can't trace Wonderguard?

 

[Rubberbandman]

Trace copies ANY ability it switches on so it can snatch up wonderguard

 

[pooch]

Oh man. I'm totally rocking a Trade Pozzergon 2 now, just for the lol.

 

[ADH]

Trace copies ANY ability it switches on so it can snatch up wonderguard

You need to carry Shadow Ball to do anything to Shedinja.

 

[pooch]

Or Toxic?

 

[Dan Dan]

Yeah Toxic Porygon2 looks the best option this time around, I'll definately use him since he's my all time fav ^__________^

 

[Starmaru]

It can actually, I remember using Shedinja and a Trace Gardevoir Traced my Shedinja back in Advanced.

Trace can be helpful especially versus attackers who abuse Levitate, Flash Fire, Water Absorb, Heatproof, Volt Absorb, (Motor? lol), Wonder Guard, Thick Fat, Quick Feet, etc.

These especially help when they are going to use the moves they are immune to versus you. Ie: An Arcanine with Flare Drive, a Claydol/Flygon with Earthquake, or a Jolteon with Thunderbolt/Wave.

This can also be helpful Versus Magnezone with Magnet Pull, as now you have a Skarmary Counter, and you have trapped Magnezone/Probopass.

Serene Grace is also nice to Trace (especially with Tri Attack) or Tiinted Lense

Tracing Damp, Filter, Intimidate, Sand Veil, Snow Cloak, Rain Dish, Soundproof, Hard Rock, Natural Cure, Marvel Sclae, Pressure, Dry Skin, and MAGIC GUARD also help you defensively.

If somehow you came in on a Machamp, you could get away with Zap Cannon, Blizzard, etc. But that would only happen if they were both leads.

 

[Zandock]

Man, if this thing learned Earth Power it could have been a perfect Electivire counter.

 

[Megaa]

I'm confused as to why in the world you would want to keep Trace, when P-Z gets Adaptability over it, providing him with a 180 Power Tri-Attack. His special attack hits 405 and he gets Nasty Plot, as well.

 

[Marauder Artemis]

Porygon 2 and Porygon Z are two different pokemon. P2 is more on the defensive while PZ is more offensive.

And yeah, Toxic is better on P2 this time around.

 

[porygon3]

P2 is better for paralysis support and has better defenses.

As much as I love P2, id rather use PZ, because of Adaptability and the sweeping capabilities. P2 was never really a sweeper, the best I ever did with it (sweeping-wise) was kill a Metagross lead that didn't switch out :\ It mostly just stalled with decent defenses, T-Wave, and Recover while Sandstream (from my Tyranitar) would hurt them, and it has BoltBeam

 

[Forsety]

How does a Recycle/Rest P-2 work?

Recycle Rest P-2 was something I used for a while, the Advance version its simply.

Porygon 2@ Lum Berry/Chesto Berry
-Recycle
-Rest
-Thunder Wave
-Return

An ungodly tank, it'd soak up damage, status and barely get hurt while paralyzing your entire team and simply wait for the paralysis before it attacked. I used Return for 2 reasons, STAB + Blissey. Basically as long they were paralyzed, you'd always be able to Recycle your berry and full recover before they could hit you.

For the most part I used it as a Blissey killer since it could more or less force the fat pink thing to switch or kill it outright it was on a primarily special sweeper team I had so I needed something which could soak up status/damage and threaten Blissey.

In D/P it has much better options, for starters Download is a nice ability for boosting its offense when you consider this is mostly a defensive Porygon2. It has increased attack options