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Stat Changing Revealed

Even more that they don't tell you in the instruction manual

Okay stat changing moves are often misunderstood and underused. When I see ratings of all of the moves in the game, stat changing moves are usually listed near the bottom. But that is because few people know their real power.

Stat changing moves can be organized into groups. First we'll cover the obivous ones that are not affected by changing pokemon.

Satus changes that aren't affected by Changing pokemon

You should be pretty familiar with these:

Sleep: Pretty self explanatory. The pokemon can't use any moves at all and is open to attack but every turn it has a 50/50 chance of waking up. As a status move sleep is pretty good but is best weilded by grass pokemon that learn sleep powder. It's an integral part of using a parasect as spore is EXTREMELY accurate. The best moves to cause sleep are spore, sleep powder, lovely kiss and hypnosis The first three are among the best but often a pokemon you want to use can only learn hypnosis. Sing is not very accurate but if you feel you must have a sleep move it's better than nothing.
Paralysis: Probably my favorite status problem becuase it cuts the pokemon's speed is lowered to one quarter of it's normal value and there's always a 25% chance it won't be able to attack at all. Once the opposing pokemon is paralysed your pokemon is almost certainly faster than it is. Attacking first is almost always an advantage. The best moves for paralysis are: thunderwave, stun spore, and glare. Thunderwave is great because it is almost always effective- except on ground pokemon. Also of mention. all electric attacks carry a chance of paralysis and body slam and lick have a 30 percent chance of paralysis.
Poison: A good status problem becuase the opponent is hurt a little every turn even if you can't attack. This saved me once as my last pokemon was frozen solid but the opponent was poisoned so it fainted first. THE best poisoning move is toxic of course. Toxic does more damage than regular poison but it goes to regular poison if the affected pokemon is switched. Toxic is pretty much the only poison I use since it can be learned by any pokemon.
Burn: A random status change caused by any fire attack. Much like poison in that it causes a slow loss of HP. Also cuts the burned pokemon's attack stat in half. This makes burn a VERY powerful status change. Only Ho-Oh's Sacred fire has a reliable(50%) chance of causing it however . . .
Freeze: THE best status change you can hope for but it's purely random. There is a 10 percent chance of a pokemon freezing solid with any ice attack. If you are under sunny day conditions there is around a 10% chance that your pokemon will thaw. Flame Wheel can also be used by a pokemon to thaw itself out. Heal bell also cures Freeze.
Confusion: It's removed by switching pokemon. Confused pokemon have a 50/50 Chance of hitting themselves in their confusion. This damage is calculated from the attack stat being used on the defense stat. So a pokemon with High attack and low defense is at high risk of doing a lot of damage to itself.
Attraction: Removed by switching pokemon but unavoidable by safeguard and substitute. The only way out is to have a genderless pokemon or a pokemon of the wrong gender. Doesn't wear off either.

Status changes that are removed by switching pokemon

Instead of discussing these as stat changes we will discuss the moves that cause them.

Moves that effect your own pokemon

In the art of stat changing, changing the status of your own pokemon is usually far superior to changing that of your opponent. Why? mostly because since these stat changes are removed by changing pokemon, all our oppoenet has to do is change pokemon to undo everything you've done. If you stat change your own pokemon YOU decide when and if to change. However status changing your opponent can be a great way to force them to switch. This is a list of the best stat changing moves for your own pokemon

Swords Dance

Any pokemon that can learn cut can learn swords dance through it's RBY TM. It's a great move! If you use it three times you can quadruple your attack rating. It's signature move for Scyther and Farfetched. If you see an opponent using swords dance multiple times- watch out! Some pokemon can get it through breeding. More can in crystal.

Barrier/Acid Armor

Defense enhancing moves. They can double your defense. They are really great on high special pokemon with low defense like vaporeon or tentacruel. Once a high special pokemon has boosted up it's defense it's much harder to kill.

Reflect

Cuts the damage from attack based moves in half. Lasts for 5 turn but stays in effect if you switch pokemon.

Light screen

Cuts the damage from special based moves in half. Lasts for 5 turn but stays in effect if you switch pokemon.

Agility

increases your pokemon's speed. Great if you really need to attack first.

Amnesia

Increases your pokemon's special defense rating. In R/B/Y special was one stat so amnesia was incredibly powerful because it raised offense and defense at the same time. I'ts still a good move but nothing near what it was in R/B/Y.

Minimize/Double Team

Reduce your opponent's chances of scoring a hit. If you can use the move until it's not effective any more then you have a great chance of winning with just one pokemon because no one will be able to hit you.

Curse

On a ghost pokemon it cuts the users HP in half and the opposing pokemon loses 1/4 of it's HP every turn. but on any other pokemon it increases the users attack and defense at the cost of it's speed.

Heal Bell

A really great move but it can be gotten by precious few pokemon. It removes any status effects such as paralysis, burn and poison from ALL team members. It doesn't remove the effects of sleep however. It's really the answer to status effecting shufflers.

Baton Pass

The pokemon that uses this can pass it's stat changes on to any pokemon you chose. It can also pass on mean look and spider web. Few pokemon can get this move. Only Scyther, Scizor, Ledyba, Leidan, spinarak, Araidos, Girafarig, Apiom, Venonat, Celebi and smeargle can get baton pass.

Focus Energy

It was a really awesome move in stadium1 but it's power has been much reduced. Really only is noticable with already high critical hit moves like razor leaf and slash.

or when used with the scope lens.

Belly Drum

an EVIL move if you can pull it off. Cut's the user's HP in half while maxing their attack. Part of the deadly snorlinglax combo.

Safeguard

Keeps your pokemon from suffering any status effects for 5 rounds

Rapid Spin

Free's your pokemon from wrap fire spin or other holding moves. Also removes leech seed.

Lock on/Mind Reader

The user's next move is 100% accurate but if the opponent switches the effect is gone.

Psych Up

Copies the opponent's stat changes.

Moves that effect the opponent's pokemon

Screech: Greatly lowers the opponent's defense. It has the same net effect as swords dance. Often causes switches and is a good counter for Cursing pokemon.
Scary Face: Greatly lowers the opponent's speed.
Charm: Greatly lowers the opponent's attack. NASTY against cursers. Or other high attack pokemon.
Sand Attack/Smokescreen
Lowers the opponent's accuracy. Also tends to force the opponent to switch pokemon after a few attacks.
Forsight: Ignores the effects of status altering moves like minimize and double team. Also allows Moves that normally could not affect the opponents type to work. IE fighting and normal moves can hit ghost types.
Leech seed: Much like poison. Sucks health from the opposing pokemon. Keeps working if you switch pokemon but stops when your opponent switches.
Sweet Scent: Lowers your opponent's evade. Has the net effect of increasing move accuracy.
Attract: If the opposing pokemon is of the opposite gender to yours it only has a 50% chance of attacking.
Swagger: Greatly increases your opponent's attack but also confuses them can usually be used only 3 times.
Confuse Ray: It's really the only confusing move worth using other than swagger.
Haze: Haze does have one impressive power which is to remove all status changes from both pokemon. This doesn't include poison or paralysis just effects of moves like minimize or swords dance. In stadium however it removes ALL status changes including poison and paralysis etc. Haze is great for an opponent that is acid armored and minimized or swords danced. Haze is learned or can be gotten by breeding by many water and flying types Don't forget the poison types like Muk, Gengar and Weezing.
Roar/whirlwind: Unlike in R/B/Y these moves actually have a function in battle. They randomly switch the opponent's pokemon. Nasty when used with a status altering move- especially paralysis. Also good for removeing any status changes you opponent has made to themselves. As long as your opponent has more than one pokemon remaining these moves can perform the same function as haze. They always go last. They do have an accuracy rating so are almost useless against a fully DTed pokemon.
Sweet Kiss/confuse ray/supersonic: Confuses your opponent.
Mean look/spider web: Keeps your opponent from switching.

Great Stat Changing Combos

All of these stat moves are great by themselves but they are even better in combination! Here are some of the Named Strategies (Most of them weren't discovered by me)

Toxic wrap/clamp/spin/mean look
First toxic then use clamp, fire spin or wrap to hold them until they faint from poison. Holding moves no longer keep your opponent from attacking but they DO keep them from switching. So the strategy is still effective and works better earlier in the match. Great with shuckle and Umbreon.
Parattraction
Basically your opponent in in deep trouble but of course they have to be the right gender.
Parafusion
If you've ever been in pokemon tower you've experienced the frustration of this techinique. If your pokemon isn't hurting itself, it's probably fully paralysed. The basis for Death Starmie. Very annoying.
Toxic/leech seed/spikes
Sheer evil that I learned by watching the computer on stadium. Use toxic then leech seed or vise versa and it'll suck the life out of almost anything. You could make it even worse by heaping confusion on top of it.Or throwing spike
Toxic/Spikes/Sandstorm/whirlwind
Basically whole teams are often made using this with rock ground and steel pokemon used. The idea is toxic causes switches which hurts them with spikes. and they are getting hit by sandstorm. Works pretty well.
Roar/whirlwind/thunderwave
A nasty thing to do to your opponent. It works best with Spikes which can only be learned by Forretress. In Crystal, however, Cloyster and Qwilfish will be able to get spikes.
Screech/ confusion
Another stadium strategy that works pretty well. If you lower the opponent's defense enough they'll REALLY do damage when they hurt themselves. Also evil to use when your oppoent swords dances confuse them and they'll to twice the damage to themselves. Basically this is what swagger does. You can also combine this with swagger and if the oppnent hits themselves They are DEAD! Best in combination with mean look or other trapping move.
Fissure/mind reader/lock on
Problem with this one is when your opponent sees you using mind reader they are likely to switch. Of course if you use whirlpool first you can keep this from happening but whirlpool and other holding moves have low accuracy and you could end up trapping the wrong pokemon.
Swagger/Psych up
Psych up copies your opponent's status changes so raise your oppnent's attack and then copy it.
Psych up/Whirlwind/roar
Only really works against a baton passer or someone else that's powering up. Basically steal their stat changes then switch'em. Best used by something with a lot of staying power.
Curse/Mirror Coat
Amnesia/ Counter
Basically force your opponent to use the move of the proper type and then take them out.
Confusion/Attract/Curse
Basically Keep your opponent occupied while you power up

Evil huh? use them or recognise when your opponent is trying to use them and watch out.