Move Analysis: Light Screen / Reflect

[Arcturus]

Light Screen

Type: Psychic
Power: -
Accuracy: -
PP: 30
Description: Creates a wall of light that lowers Special Attack damage

Reflect

Type: Psychic
Power: -
Accuracy: -
PP: 30
Description: Creates a wall of light that weakens physical attacks

Reflect and Light Screen are exactly the same move, except one reduces physical, and the other special damage. Each last for only 5 turns, and then you must re-apply the move. Both these moves cut the damage in half, and are still active even if you switch out, which is a plus for your team.

Seeing the sheer dominance of bulky physicals with high Defensive stats, and the fragileness of the best Special sponge in the game, I feel that Light Screen is more essential to a team. Face it, you have more of a hard time trying to find a good Special wall that can deal some damage and isn't going to get raped by Dugtrio.

NOTE: Now, we all now about the other two pseudo-pass moves: Safeguard and Mist. I feel they don't do enough to be seriously used in today's metagame, therefore I felt no need to try to cover it.

Here are some of my favorite examples of Light Screen / Reflect users:

Jirachi @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / rest split between Def/Sp. Def and Sp. Atk
Nature: Bold (+ Def / - Atk) or Calm (+ Sp. Def / - Atk)
~ Light Screen / Reflect
~ Wish
~ Thunder
~ Psychic

Pretty much, this Jirachi is there support the team with either Light Screen or Reflect and Wish, and deal some decent damage with Psychic and Thunder. Thunder with Serene Grace gives you a great chance of paralyzing the opponent.

Now, what you pick should affect how you distribute your EVs and what nature you pick. If you pick Light Screen, put more EVs on Defense and use Bold nature. This way, you can still cut down Special attacks while taking less damage from things like EQ Gross. If you use Reflect, you can either just reverse everything, or you can put EVs on Sp. Def and use Bold still, in order to protect Jirachi from the oh so common ground moves. It's a great support pokemon that can also help you attack wise.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
EVs: 240 Spd / 172 Sp. Att / 96 HP
Nature: Bold or Modest (+ Sp. Atk / - Atk)
~ Thunderbolt
~ Hidden Power Grass / Ice
~ Light Screen
~ Rest

Zapdos's main weakness is Ice, so Light Screen provides it a big help on the Special Defense side, and can still pack a punch with Tbolt. Obviously, the HP Grass/Ice debate rages on, pick whatever suits your team. Nature-wise, go with what you think is best. If you want Zapdos to deal more damage, go with Modest. If you want more support for pesky Rock Sliding Heras and whatnot, and want to have some sort of chance, Bold is the way to go. You can even load up on more Sp. Defense with Calm, but I don't recommend it, you want to balance out your defenses as much as you can.

I really like Zapdos, because with it's decent speed and great special attack, it can help your team in more than just being a special attacker.

Claydol @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Atk / 56 Def or Sp. Def
Nature: Impish (+ Def / - Sp. Atk) or Careful (+ Sp. Def / - Sp. Atk)
~ Earthquake
~ Reflect / Light Screen
~ Rapid Spin / Ice Beam / Explosion
~ Rest / Explosion

Claydol isn't going to really hurt much with that pisspoor attack, so you can sacrifice some attack for better defensive coverage. You need all 252 on HP, there's no other choice, Claydol has terrible HP, and you need every drop of it in order for it to stay alive. This thing is also a great Rapid Spinner, it doesn't get damage from Spikes you can Spin and set up your Reflect or Screen and then switch to something else. Whatever you pick is up to you, and just like any other pseudo-passing pokemon, keep your defenses balanced, if you use LS, boost up the pokemon's defense, if you use Reflect, boost the special defense.

If you don't need a Rapid Spinner, you can try to put Ice Beam or Explosion on this negro, but you need to use a lot of those precious EVs to do anything worthwhile against Salamence. Explosion is a good idea though, so test it out, it may come in handy against the random weakened Blissey or something.

Other good pseudo-passers: Forretress, Alakazam, Metagross, Ampharos, Meganium, Starmie

Final word: Most good pseudo-passers have Psychic as one of their types, so build accordingly. The dual types may be a better choice to plug in to an existing team. Overall, if your team has defensive problems of some sort, consider adding a pseudo-passer. There's plenty of chances for you to use the move in the Advance metagame by forcing switches. Of course, don't overly rely on this, just like anything else in this game, because everything is counterable.

It's a little bit harder to use this technique because you give up a precious moveslot (and a possible sweeper or other type of support pokemon) for this, so think carefully before you use this. But when used correctly, Light Screen and Reflect and really boost your team's flexibility in terms of staying in against certain pokemon.

 

[Raikou21]

Nice Guide. Btw do ghosts block Brick Break's Side Effect like Rapid Spin or does it keep working?

 

[Arcturus]

Nice Guide. Btw do ghosts block Brick Break's Side Effect like Rapid Spin or does it keep working?

Yes it does. Brick Break has to hit the opposing pokemon in order to break the Light Screen / Reflect / Safeguard. If not, the wall is still active.

 

[Explodus]

nice guide.

lmao I totally forgot about mist. has that ever been used on any poke in any metagame? =/

 

[Arcturus]

nice guide.

lmao I totally forgot about mist. has that ever been used on any poke in any metagame? =/

Not that I know of. It's pretty retarded imo. I have used Safeguard before though, but that was GSC, and a whole nother story. (It was to counter NeoKefka's (BAN ME PLEASE) Toxicstall team, and it worked until Draggy got luckhaxed, then it all went downhill).

 

[Atlas]

how much more defence does a pokmon get while this is in use

 

[Arcturus]

how much more defence does a pokmon get while this is in use

iirc, it's the equivalent of +3 Def or SpDef boost for 5 turns, but I'm not exactly sure of that one. I believe it was +3 in GSC, so that's what I'm going off of.

 

[Mekkah]

Last time I checked it just halved the ammount of damage done.

I wrote a guide on this a while ago, though, with strategies and whatnot. Perhaps both guides should become one?

 

[Arcturus]

Last time I checked it just halved the ammount of damage done.

I wrote a guide on this a while ago, though, with strategies and whatnot. Perhaps both guides should become one?

That would be awesome. Nothing wrong with more information, right? 8)

 

[RicepigeonKKM]

also like to note that Reflect/Lightscreen reduces damage by 1/3 in 2vs2 instead of 1/2. While not exactly the greatest of 2vs2 moves, it is useful in alot of situations (such as keeping your precious Ludicolo alive if theres an Aerodactyl around)

 

[Mekkah]

Here's mine, I'm sure we'll work something out on the end product. Good thing I didn't code it yet.

Screens, meaning the moves Reflect, Light Screen and Safeguard (also Mist but nobody uses that), also called pseudo-passing moves. Moves you saw a lot in GSC (mentioned as fillers everywhere, and I saw one of them on about 60% of the GSC teams I've seen), sometimes in RBY (think Reflect Alakazam). Are they useful in RS?

Mechanics

All moves put up a defensive shield for the user, lasting 5 turns - including the turn it's put up. So if the user of this move is slower than it's opponent, you already wasted one of it's turns.

The shields differ in effect, obviously.

- Reflect and Light Screen half the damage of attacks fired at the bearer - Reflect only does this for physical attacks, while Light Screen takes care of Special attacks. Notable fact is that if the opponent uses Brick Break, both Reflect and Light Screen will break before any damage is done.
- Safeguard protects you from being statused - visible and invisible. Not even 24 Flamethrowers will ever burn you, Thunder Wave will always fail, etcetera. It does not cure yourself: if you are poisoned and you use Safeguard, you stay poisoned.
- Mist keeps your stats untouched by the opponent. Stuff like Intimidate or Screech has no effect anymore on you and Iron Tail will not lower your defense, for example. This doesn't combo with Overheat, Psycho Boost and Superpower - it only goes for harm done by opponents. Swagger/Flatter still work on you. Mist doesn't undo any stat lowering. This isn't used much because A) stat-lowering is rarely used (Charm Umbreon, Intimidate and Metal Sound, sometimes Screech on some UU Pokémon and that's it) and B) you usually can't Mist in time before the move/trait already did it's work.

Strategy

But the other three aren't used much either, though in the case where they are common, they are quite standard. Think Light Screen Zapdos for walling Boah, or any of the numerous Safeguard/Recover users, mainly Lati@s.

They can be quite efficient, however. Some handy strategies...

Note beforehand: it is very wise to keep track of how long your screen will last!

1) Preparing a stat-upperer

I have never tried this myself, but seeing as lots of teams rely on Electrics to beat Suicune and on Choice Band Metagross to counter Curselax, this should work woners sometimes. Even after a Calm Mind, Suicune is still weak to Electric attacks, and it's hard to withstand a lot of these before having to Rest off the damage, and risk a CH or being phazed. Light Screen brings a solution: you start off with a practical 500 Special Defense and about 340 Defense. If they bring in an Electric, good luck hitting through a Calm Mind AND the Light Screen that's already been passed. You can Calm Mind up for about 2 turns, then damage that counter badly or kill it. Remember to perform action before your screen runs out! Same goes for Snorlax - if you're affraid of losing to some physical attacker (not a Cross Chopper or a Breloom that hasn't Spored yet), put up a Reflect and then start Cursing and hitting stuff. Snorlax, however, is very prone to Skarmory/Weezing, and has less serious enemies in the physical department as long as it carries Earthquake, so this is not the greatest idea. It works the other way around too: if you think Suicune with Surf as his only attack won't get past that Choice Band Salamence, get in a Reflect and Calm Mind once. Any damage dealt to Salamence is permanent, and it can't do more than 20% or so per turn to you.

2) Keeping fragile Pokémon from being killed

You know how much you hate it when Dugtrio kills your Blissey, taking away your main Special sponge and nurse. Put up a Reflect and you are guaranteed to be safe as long as you stay on high health and the screen is in - Celebi 2HKOs Dugtrio, Blissey 3HKOs (2HKO if you have Spikes or Ice Beam), while Dugtrio doesn't do more than 50% to you, which can you can Recover/Softboil off.

If you are using Forretress, a HP Fire Magneton will kill you. But if you Light Screen, you will survive. Will Magneton stay in to try for a KO anyway? Earthquake it! Earthquaking is the safe option here...if you're not sure what will come in (it might as well be Salamence), Light Screen is a safe option. Plus, if it isn't Magneton, it's probably a Special attacker.

3) Setting up Counter/Mirror Coat

Again this can work both ways. You can pass a Light Screen to, say, Tyranitar, making a Waters very inefficient for counters. They might bring in their Swampert or some other Earthquaker, which you can Counter for the KO. You can also use Reflect to something with high Special Defense and okay-ish Defense, let's say Hypno. People that try to CH their way through or just outlast it using physical attacks can eat a Counter. Alakazam can do with this too. This strategy does require two moveslots, however...

4) Discouraging hard-hitters

Sometimes your opponent has Pokémon you can't simply switch something in on...but as long as you keep a healthy barrier, something with average defense against it but good killing potential can safely come in against it. Light Screened Metagross takes Raikou on fine, for example. Also, note how people won't like to Explode when Reflect is up.

Opinion

Nice...great in ubers and UU, where hard-hitting is usually preferred over outlasting. In standard, it works fine, but not amazing. It's not something big, just another nice team-friendly strategy that could help you. Try it out sometime.

Btw a counter is BRICK BREAK! WATCH OUT!

 

[MaxGoof]

Now that D/P is out in release, does anyone have any thoughts on these moves? I think that pseudo-passing Light Screen and Reflect with the Light Clay item could be potentially devastating against opponents whose teams lack Brick Break.

Thoughts?

 

[CT20]

Actually I think reflect is useful on Mesprit/Uxie, who can both survive CBT-Tar pursuit once reflect is up.

Reflect also reduces damage a bit more than Charm, about 2-3 damage. Thats probably the reason why Reflect, I think, is better on Mesprit than Charm.

 

[obi]

Brick Break's effect works even if Brick Break misses or hits a Ghost. This is because the screen is broken before damage is dealt, and therefore, before any to-hit checks are made. Netbattle, however, is bugged so that it first hits, then breaks the screen. However, it still breaks the screen if it hits a Ghost.

It doubles Special Defense / Defense.

 

[Great Sage]

Now that D/P is out in release, does anyone have any thoughts on these moves? I think that pseudo-passing Light Screen and Reflect with the Light Clay item could be potentially devastating against opponents whose teams lack Brick Break.

Thoughts?

This reminds me... Does anyone know what happens when a Pokemon with Light Clay uses LS/Reflect and switches out?

 

[AJC]

it still lasts for 8 turns even if the light clay holder switchs out