In Cobblemon battles, moves that grant immunity to specific types of attacks or status conditions can completely turn the tide of a battle. These moves not only protect your Cobblemon from damage but also provide strategic advantages, allowing you to avoid dangerous attacks or prevent debilitating status effects. In this guide, we’ll explore the most useful Cobblemon moves that provide immunity, how they work, and when to use them for maximum impact.
1. Protect: Immunity to All Direct Attacks
Effect: Protect shields your Cobblemon from all direct damage for one turn, making it immune to any physical or special attacks aimed at it. However, it can be less effective if used consecutively, with a higher chance of failing each time.
Why It’s Useful:
- Protect is the go-to move for scouting an opponent’s strategy. By blocking an attack, you can gain insight into what move your opponent intends to use without taking damage.
- It’s ideal for stalling out opponents, particularly if you’re waiting for status damage like Poison or Burn to weaken them, or for weather effects like Rain to benefit your team.
Strategic Use:
- Use Protect to block powerful attacks like Earthquake or Hyper Beam and force your opponent to reconsider their strategy.
- Pair Protect with status conditions like Toxic to wear down opponents while your Cobblemon remains unharmed.
2. Substitute: Blocking Status Moves and Damage
Effect: Substitute allows your Cobblemon to create a decoy by sacrificing a portion of its HP (25%). The Substitute absorbs incoming attacks and status conditions until it is broken by damage.
Why It’s Useful:
- Substitute protects your Cobblemon from both damage and harmful status conditions like Paralysis, Sleep, and Burn.
- It’s especially effective against Cobblemon that rely on status moves or unpredictable attacks, giving you a safety net while you set up or scout for dangerous moves.
Strategic Use:
- Use Substitute when you anticipate your opponent using status moves like Thunder Wave or Toxic.
- Combine Substitute with healing moves like Leech Seed or Leftovers to recover the HP spent on creating the decoy.
3. Detect: Similar to Protect but with Specific Immunity Benefits
Effect: Detect works similarly to Protect, blocking all direct damage for one turn. However, Detect is primarily used by Fighting-type Cobblemon and provides a unique tactical advantage in certain battle situations.
Why It’s Useful:
- Like Protect, Detect can be used to scout an opponent’s move, avoid damage, or stall for time. It's particularly useful for countering surprise attacks or high-damage moves.
- Detect is great for predicting priority moves, allowing you to counter fast attackers.
Strategic Use:
- Use Detect in combination with abilities like Speed Boost to protect yourself while gaining a stat boost or to allow for status effects to wear down your opponent.
4. Magic Coat: Reflecting Status Moves
Effect: Magic Coat reflects status moves back at the opponent. This includes moves like Thunder Wave, Leech Seed, Toxic, and more, providing an excellent defense against status-based strategies.
Why It’s Useful:
- Magic Coat is one of the best ways to turn an opponent’s status moves against them. Instead of being paralyzed or poisoned, you can inflict the same status condition on your opponent’s Cobblemon.
- It also works well against entry hazards like Stealth Rock, Spikes, and Sticky Web, preventing them from setting traps on your side of the battlefield.
Strategic Use:
- Use Magic Coat when you predict your opponent will use a status move or set up entry hazards, especially if their strategy relies on disrupting your team with status effects.
5. Spiky Shield: Damage Immunity with a Twist
Effect: Spiky Shield blocks all incoming attacks for one turn, similar to Protect, but has the added benefit of dealing damage to any Cobblemon that makes contact with a physical move.
Why It’s Useful:
- Not only does Spiky Shield provide immunity to attacks, but it also punishes physical attackers by dealing damage if they hit you.
- This is especially effective against Cobblemon that rely on high-contact moves like Close Combat or Extreme Speed.
Strategic Use:
- Use Spiky Shield to protect yourself while also wearing down physically aggressive opponents.
- Pair it with Cobblemon that can further stall or set up defensive moves, maximizing the effectiveness of your protection.
6. Baneful Bunker: Immunity and Poison
Effect: Baneful Bunker functions like Protect, shielding your Cobblemon from damage for one turn. In addition, any opponent that makes contact with a physical move will be poisoned.
Why It’s Useful:
- Baneful Bunker not only protects your Cobblemon but also punishes contact attackers by poisoning them, which wears down their HP over time.
- This move is particularly useful for Cobblemon that focus on defensive tactics, as the poison damage will gradually weaken the opponent, making it easier for your team to secure knockouts.
Strategic Use:
- Use Baneful Bunker against opponents who rely on physical attacks to rack up poison damage and slow them down.
- Combine with moves like Toxic or abilities like Regenerator for a defensive strategy that can outlast your opponent’s offensive pressure.
7. Crafty Shield: Immunity to Status Moves for the Entire Team
Effect: Crafty Shield blocks all status moves aimed at your entire team for one turn. This includes moves like Will-O-Wisp, Toxic, Leech Seed, and Taunt.
Why It’s Useful:
- Crafty Shield is incredibly useful in team battles or when facing opponents who rely on status moves to disrupt your strategy.
- It provides a wide-reaching layer of protection for both you and your teammates, ensuring that status conditions don’t ruin your battle plan.
Strategic Use:
- Use Crafty Shield in double battles to protect both Cobblemon from disruptive status moves.
- It’s particularly helpful against teams that focus on status ailments or entry hazards, allowing you to safely set up your own moves without worrying about being paralyzed or poisoned.
8. King’s Shield: Lowering Attack While Blocking Damage
Effect: King’s Shield functions similarly to Protect, blocking all incoming damage for one turn. However, if a Cobblemon makes contact with a physical attack, their Attack stat is lowered by two stages.
Why It’s Useful:
- King’s Shield not only protects you from damage but also severely weakens physical attackers. After their Attack is lowered, your Cobblemon will take significantly less damage from future hits.
- It’s especially useful against strong physical sweepers that rely on high Attack stats to dominate the battlefield.
Strategic Use:
- Use King’s Shield when you know a physical attack is coming, weakening the opponent and making it easier for your team to deal with them in subsequent turns.
- Pair King’s Shield with a Cobblemon that benefits from stalling, like Aegislash, to extend its longevity in battle.
9. Aurora Veil: Dual Immunity to Physical and Special Attacks
Effect: Aurora Veil reduces the damage taken from both physical and special attacks for five turns, as long as it is set up under hail conditions.
Why It’s Useful:
- Aurora Veil provides your team with a powerful defense boost, allowing them to take reduced damage from all attacks, both physical and special.
- It’s an essential move for stall teams or when you need to buy time to set up powerful sweepers.
Strategic Use:
- Use Aurora Veil in combination with hail-setting moves or Cobblemon, like Alolan Ninetales with Snow Warning, to immediately protect your team from both types of attacks.
- This move is especially effective in longer battles where defensive play is key to outlasting the opponent.
10. Roost: Immunity to Ground-Type Moves
Effect: Roost heals the user for 50% of its maximum HP and temporarily removes its Flying-type for one turn. This provides temporary immunity to Ground-type moves.
Why It’s Useful:
- Roost not only heals your Cobblemon but also removes its Flying-type for one turn, making it immune to Ground-type moves like Earthquake.
- It’s particularly effective when used by Flying-type Cobblemon that are weak to Ground-type moves.
Strategic Use:
- Use Roost to recover HP while also avoiding damage from Ground-type moves, allowing your Flying-type Cobblemon to stay in battle longer.
- Pair Roost with Flying-types like Dragonite or Togekiss to maximize their defensive potential.
Conclusion
Immunity-providing moves in Cobblemon give you incredible defensive options, allowing you to block damage, avoid status conditions, and punish opponents who rely on physical attacks. By strategically using moves like Protect, Substitute, and Spiky Shield, you can create a robust defensive team that’s difficult to break through. Understanding when to use these moves and combining them with the right abilities and strategies will give you a significant edge in battle.
Which immunity moves do you rely on most in Cobblemon battles? Let us know in our Discord!