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AOTW Rapid-Fire!! Truant, Overcoat, and Vital Spirit

Wil Brendel December 20, 2012

AOTW Rapid-Fire!! Truant, Overcoat, and Vital Spirit, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating

The weather outside is frightful, trainers. Come inside, have some cocoa, and finish your holiday shopping online. And then you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy your Christmas vacation! Of course, now that I’m technically an “adult”, Christmas vacation is but a fond memory, as well as possibly the best holiday flick this side of A Christmas Story. But I digress. Let’s look back at some of the best aspects of winter break through the Pokémon prism. This is an Ability of the Week Rapid-Fire!! Truant, Overcoat, and Vital Spirit!

Truant
Two words: No. School. Christmas vacation meant two to three weeks of being free from the shackles of book-learnin’. And copious amounts of lethargy. Well, I guess that much translates into Pokémon, because Truant is one of those adverse Abilities whose effect cripples the Pokémon using it. A monster with Truant will be unable to attack only every other turn. This means that moves that require pre-charging are out, because the turn that they’ll be used on will be the turn in which Truant takes effect. Hyper Beam and Giga Impact however, will work fine, because Truant will be activated during the recharge turn. Slakoth and Slaking are the only Pokémon with Truant naturally, while Durant possesses it as its Hidden Ability. Giga Impact is the super sloth’s bread and butter, due to its massive Attack stat, while Durant may fare better using a Rest/Sleep Talk combo, due to Truant’s ineffectiveness during Sleep.

Overcoat
You could never quite manage to stay out in the snow all day, not if you’re anything like me, that is. And on the rare occasions you managed it, you paid for it with a wicked cold the next day. If only there was some way to protect yourself from elements beyond a Ninja Turtles K-Mart coat? That’s where Overcoat comes in. A Pokémon with Overcoat cannot take damage from hail or sandstorms, and holy cow are there a lot of them. Seventeen Pokémon have access to Overcoat, most of them as a Hidden Ability, and the majority of those are Bug-types. The Reuniclus and Mandibuzz lines also have Overcoat naturally.

Vital Spirit
Of course, the main event of any Christmas vacation is the arrival of the big kahuna, Christmas morning! Every red-blooded child on the planet recalls those Christmas Eves lying in bed, wide awake in anticipation of the hurricane of gift wrap paper that awaited in the morning. Which is also why most of us passed out around 2pm the next day. But a pocket monster could write off the effect as simply having Vital Spirit. Any Pokémon with the Ability will not succumb to Sleep, and cannot use Rest. This Ability is pretty much relegated to scrappier, physical combat types like Primeape and Vigoroth, but you’ll also find the likes of Delibird and Lillipup in there. Also, the Electivire and Magmortar lines have Vital Spirit as their Hidden Abilities!

Well, that about does it guys. Assuming the Earth doesn’t explode in a couple days or anything, merry Christmas, happy Hannukah, happy Kwanzaa, merry Festivus, lucrative Day of Gift-Giving, and a happy Wookie Life Day.