Pointless Event Moves in Pokemon Go

Unlike the main series games, Pokemon Go has a much, much smaller move pool. Because you can only ever have one fast attack and two charge attacks, you can’t use as many moves and getting the moves you want is tricky. You need to spend time wasting TMs to get the moves you want. Or you have to wait for a community day or other event to get the moves you want. But while the majority of new moves added via events are good, some of them are… weird. Questionable. Pointless even. Here are some of those moves.

Ampharos with Dragon Pulse

I know that Ampharos has a mega evolution. I know it gets a second typing and that typing is dragon. But Ampharos… can’t really use any dragon moves as it stands right now. They’ll add a mega Ampharos eventually, but you have to play the waiting game to get any use out of Dragon Pulse.

Pikachu with Surf

Surf is a great move. It’s an unexpected surprise on a Rhyperior that charges up quickly. Surf works amazingly well on Kyogre, giving it a faster charge attack that it also gets STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) on. The move would be great on Swampert and the like if Swampert didn’t already have Muddy Waters and the community day move Hydro Cannon. But on Pikachu? It’s frankly just a meme move. Mainly because Raichu can’t learn it.

Gengar with Psychic

Psychic just makes no sense on Gengar. Gengar is a Ghost and Poison type with moves like Shadow Ball and Shadow Claw. His other event move, a fast move called Lick, fits Gengar perfectly, being a fast-attacking ghost-type move. But Gengar gets pretty much no benefit from having Psychic in any real way.

Last Resort on most Eeveelutions

Last Resort is a normal type move that, in the main games, you can’t use until you’ve exhausted all your other moves. In Pokemon Go, Last Resort is a normal type charge move that… well, I don’t know. Apparently Last Resort is great on Umbreon for PvP reasons (maybe simply so it can have a different, non-dark-type move?). But everyone else has moves that they get STAB on. Sure, Eevee gets STAB on Last Resort, because it’s a normal type, but Eevee doesn’t level up particularly high and can’t ever make use of it.

Gardevoir with Synchronoise

Whike Synchronoise is a cool name for an ability and is a pretty strong psychic type move, Gardevoir already has Psychic has a psychic move. But Gardevoir is more often used as a fairy type and is currently the best fairy-type attacker around. If you can afford the 75,000 stardust and 75 candy, then giving a Gardevoir both Synchronoise and Dazzling Gleam would be great, but you’re not really missing out on much with just the community day move alone… unless you don’t have a Mewtwo. But even then, Psychic is still a good move and there are other psychic types available.

While Gallade gets some use out of Synchronoise due to the fact that he gets Fighting as his other type, it’s still not that useful because the rest of Gallade’s moves are pretty mediocre.

But the great thing about most of these moves? They’ll all come back eventually if you really, really want them. Either via community days in December or some other means.