Why are we doing VRs for an irrelevant type in a metagame less than a week old lmfao
Anyway, want to talk about my new favourite move in SV:
PSYCHIC NOISE
For those who don't know, Psychic Noise is a 75 BP move that inflicts Heal Block on hit. The Heal Block effect is extremely useful for breaking through walls like Toxapex, Corviknight, Articuno, and so on, as for two turns they will be
completely prevented from healing through any means except via Regenerator. This makes Psychic Noise very strong, effectively serving as a pseudo-Knock Off, pseudo-Taunt, and damaging move all in one, as you cut off walls from Leftovers and recovery moves in one move. The positives of Psychic Noise do not end there; being affected by Heal Block also prevents you from using draining moves such as Giga Drain, Draining Kiss, Bitter Blade, Horn Leech, and so on, meaning that Psychic Noise users have the potential to wall foes such as Amoonguss, Hatterene, and the Ogerpon formes. As a sound move, Psychic Noise further has the benefit of hitting foes behind substitutes, which is fantastic in helping to deal with mons like Articuno, Zapdos, and Spectrier. You may think this opens up you to being walled by Soundproof, but the only viable Soundproof user in the metagame is Kommo-o, who is 4x weak to the Fairy coverage most potential Psychic Noise users should be carrying. Just about the only disadvantage of this move is its lower BP compared to Psychic and Psyshock, but 75 BP is still respectable, and ends up not being too much of a hindrance when utilizing Psychic Noise in conjunction with Calm Mind. Below are some sample sets I have created that demonstrates the move's practical strengths; I encourage people to try these out for themselves and get to grips with this powerful new tool.
Hatterene @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic Noise
- Draining Kiss
- Mystical Fire
- Calm Mind
Same old Hatterene set as always for the most part, but now Psychic Noise can let you more easily 1v1 Articuno, opposing Hatterene, Quagsire, Zapdos, Gliscor, and so on.
Primarina @ Leftovers
Ability: Liquid Voice
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic Noise
- Draining Kiss
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
With Liquid Voice, Psychic Noise is changed into a Water-type STAB move. Physically defensive Primarina has a solid niche in this metagame already as an answer to foes like Baxcalibur, Gouging Fire, and Chien-Pao, and Psychic Noise helps further enable this by cutting off Gouging Fire from Morning Sun. It also notably allows Primarina to 1v1 Toxapex, Corviknight, Amoonguss that drop Sludge Bomb, and Gastrodon that use Sticky Hold. One interesting application of Psychic Noise Primarina is that it can actually temporarily wall Ogerpon-H and Ogerpon-C that opt to run Horn Leech as their only Grass STAB if Primarina manages to get a free turn.
Iron Crown @ Leftovers
Ability: Quark Drive
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tachyon Cutter
- Psychic Noise
- Focus Blast
- Calm Mind
Psychic Noise can be used on an offensive CM set with Iron Crown to allow it to 1v1 Corviknight and Gastrodon despite seemingly not having the coverage to allow for this. This set is notably useful as an anti-Flying pick, with none of the usual Flying core of Gliscor + Corviknight + Scarf Enamorus + Articuno being able to effectively deal with Iron Crown after a CM boost. Power-wise, Iron Crown doesn't suffer much from running Psychic Noise over a stronger option like Psychic, crucially still outrunning and OHKOing Urshifu-R with Psychic Noise at neutral.