Welcome to Breaking the Binary - HGSS editon, a sporadic series of posts all about physical, Special and mixed attackers in Pokémon Heart Gold & Soul Silver With competitive minmaxing dominating the conversation about Pokémon viability and the design philosophy behind movepools and stat spreads changing in newer gens, Pokémon are often rigidly divided by the fandom into the categories of "special attacker" or "physical attacker." But for the in-game story, you're not facing EV trained opponents (unless on some hacks) and thus you need or not to EV train to keep up, so mixed attacking sets don't have the opportunity cost they have in PvP. Going mixed still has anti-synergy with setup moves, but it still can give many Pokémon access to STAB moves with better base power, strong coverage moves with useful types, move tutor moves, egg moves and more useful niches. This series will be covering those applications. We won't talk about every Pokémon here, only ones that I believe legitimately benefit from going mixed, but those Pokémon are surprisingly large in number. Today we'll be talking about Noctowl. I'll be talking about in-game but feel free to discuss PvP or battle facilities as well.
Noctowl is such of a sad case, just like in Platinum. It's a normal/flying-type with pretty good 100/96 special bulk (100 Base HP, 96 Base Sp. Def), not-so-good 70 Base Speed and 50 Base Defense, and lopsided and unimpressive 76 Base Sp. Atk and 50 Base Attack. Notable special moves include Air Slash, Extrasensory, Psychic, Dream Eater, Hyper Beam, Silver Wind, Hidden Power, Shadow Ball and Heat Wave. Notable physical moves include Return/Frustation, Zen Headbutt, Aerial Ace, Sky Attack, Fly, Steel Wing, Pluck. Notable utility includes Reflect, Roost, Hypnosis, Magic Coat and Tailwind.
Noctowl seems weird, it doesn't hit hard, nor offer much in terms of utility beyond its good special bulk and Shadow Ball access. Hypnosis is cool, but seemingly inaccurate if I recall from its 60% accuracy. And the fact that it unable to learn Light Screen is just ridiculous.
Noctowl learns so few attacks that STAB Return is worth considering since it's an easy move to spam and its best Flying STAB is only 75 base power. Return is almost interchangeable with Air Slash for this reason. Remember, base power matters more than you think (Frustation if it has low friendship). Sky Attack is even stronger, but not quite useful due to taking 2 turns to execute just like Fly, and its mentioned 50 Base Attack, Aerial Ace and Pluck are just worse by their weak pase power (they have 60 base power by the way). Pay no attention to Hyper Beam and Giga Impact, as they leave Noctowl vunerable due to causing the Recharging status:
0 Atk Noctowl Frustration vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Spinda: 96-114 (36.7 - 43.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
0 Atk Noctowl Sky Attack vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Spinda: 132-156 (50.5 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 SpA Noctowl Hyper Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Spinda: 195-229 (74.7 - 87.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 SpA Noctowl Air Slash vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Spinda: 97-115 (37.1 - 44%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
These are very neutral moves, and really so is non-STAB Psychic (& Extrasensory which is 10 less base power than Psychic), which the lack of STAB makes it to be pretty weak than those moves, Zen Headbutt is far weaker because Noctowl's terrible base attack, althrough Dream Eater is the strongest, but requires a sleeping target to be used, not so useful to my knowledge:
0 SpA Noctowl Dream Eater vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Spinda: 87-103 (33.3 - 39.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
This leaves Psychic-type moves mostly outclassed and its STABs mostly as interchangeable.
Thanks to its sleep immunity, Insomnia, and Shadow Ball, Noctowl can kill Ghost-types (which are Gastly, Haunter and Gengar in HGSS) pretty well, and even better as sleep is more common in HGSS than in Platinum. Reflect is good albeit a little less applicable than Light Screen. Hypnosis can still be worthwhile since it's sleep. Heat Wave flames Steel and Ice-types, but its locked in postgame move tutor. Ominous Wind and Silver Wind are pretty useful, but Noctowl may get lucky if it gets the 10% chance to boost its stats (Omnious Wind is a move tutor move).
Some of its other utility moves are Roost which restores Noctowl's HP while also removing its Flying-typing during that turn, Tailwind boosts the party speed, just doubling it, another move tutor move. Noctowl also gets Rain Dance and Sunny Day, but there's no much of a use on those. Magic Coat is used to bounce back certain status moves back at the attacker, yet another move tutor move.
Noctowl seems pretty solid against Morty's Gengar, specially when it has Insomnia, being immune to Hypnosis and Shadow Ball due to its Normal-typing, only being harmed by Sucker Punch which has 5 PP. Deplete its Sucker Punch's PP and Noctowl easily wins againt Morty's Gengar. Or you can have Foresight so Noctowl can Return on Gengar, pretty silly.
Noctowl in HGSS seems pretty different than in Platinum as there moves like Sleep Powder, Hypnosis and Sing being more common and ghosts being less common. And remember that choosing one STAB or the other is a great option for Noctowl, and based on your Noctowl's stats, Return may be the one.
Here's the egg moves it gets: Agility, Feint Attack, Feather Dance, Mirror Move, Night Shade, Sky Attack, Supersonic, Whirlwind and Wing Attack
Agility boosts Noctowl's speed by 2 stages, not quite much of a use. Pidgey line, Spearow line, Farfetch'd and Doduo line can pass this move
Murkrow passes Feint Attack
Feather Dance is excellent for lowering Attack by 2 stages, making easier for its teammates to setup. Pidgey line can pass this move
Mirror Move is really a funny move, it just makes Noctowl use the target's move into it. Pidgey line and Spearow line can pass this move
Night Shade is a alright move that deals damage equal to Noctowl's level. Natu line and Murkrow can pass this move
Despite learning Sky Attack by leveling up, it can also have it as a egg move from another Noctowl (or breeding with a Ditto if it's female)
Supersonic is just terrible 55% accuracy move that confuses. Zubat line can pass this move
Whirlwind forces the opponent's pokemon to switch, works well with entry hazards like Stealth Rock, Spikes and Toxic Spikes. Pidgey line can pass this move
Pidgey line, Zubat line and Murkrow passes Wing Attack
Overall, Noctowl's options are pretty limited, like in Platinum, and Return still helps with that a bit. Quite carried by Insomnia as HGSS likes to spread statuses in your pokemon.
Sample sets
(Ol' realiable owl)
Noctowl @ Silk Scarf • Return, Shadow Ball, Hypnosis, Reflect
Ability: Insomnia
Nature: Lonely, Hasty
EVs: 156 Attack, 100 Sp. Atk, 252 Speed
(Wally Owl)
Noctowl @ Sharp Beak • Air Slash, Roost, Feather Dance, Hypnosis/Reflect
Ability: Insomnia
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Sp. Def, 4 Defense
(Sky Attacking Owl)
Noctowl @ Sharp Beak • Sky Attack, Return, Hypnosis, Feather Dance
Ability: Insomnia
Nature Adamant
EV: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
