"An inconvenient truth: Let's discuss a Ralts CD and Fairy fast moves"

#PokemonGO: It's turning summer again. With that comes the usual: beaches, events, sweat, more free time for most, overheated phones and - curiously - talks of a Ralts Community Day (CD).The same happened last year right about this the same time as now until Niantic threw us a curveball and made Eevee and Beldum (way sooner than anyone was expecting) the CD focuses between the starters. Don't get me wrong Ralts is a prime candidate for CDs. It's a fan-favourite. It's a three stage Pokémon. Its shiny family is dope.But then there's that exclusive move. Now, the prevailing expectation in this community and many others is that Gardevoir will be getting a Fairy fast move. Thus making it the first Pokémon to have an all Fairy moveset, which the game is sorely lacking at this point. Now we know Niantic takes the Pokémon models, moves and their animations from assets from the main-series games (MSG) made by GameFreak. Thus reasonably any potential Fairy move has to be an existing move from the MSG. Let's look at all damaging Fairy moves from time of writing (Generation 7)Dazzling GleamDisarming VoiceDraining KissFairy WindFleur CannonLight of RuinMoonblastNature's MadnessPlay RoughSparkly Swirl(Z-Moves: Guardian of Alola, Let's Snuggle Forever, Twinkle Tackle)Author's note: A Z-move is basically a "limit break"-esque move introduced in G7 with lengthy animations. Very unlikely to get adapted in GO for the time being and definitely not as a regular move.Of those: Fleur Cannon, Light of Ruin, Nature's Madness and Sparkly Swirl are signature moves (respectfully for Magearna, Floette-Eternal, all four Tapu's and Partner Eevee) so those are out. For the rest, the following have already been converted to moves in Pokémon GO:Dazzling Gleam: Charge (2-bar, 100dmg, 2.8s)Disarming Voice: Charge (3-bar, 70dmg, 3.9s)Draining Kiss: Charge (2-bar, 60dmg, 2.6s)Moonblast: Charge (1-bar, 130 dmg, 3.9s)Play Rough: Charge (2-bar, 90 dmg, 2.9s)That leaves us with Fairy Wind as the only damaging Fairy move not yet adapted to GO.On paper, it's an ideal candidate. In the MSG it's a low-level, low-power move which are typically what gets turned into Fast/Quick moves in GO. There's just one cinch:GARDEVOIR DOES NOT LEARN FAIRY WINDIn fact, the only Fairy attacking Gardevoir gets in the MSG are Dazzling Gleam, Disarming Voice, Draining Kiss and Moonblast - all of which are already adapted as Charge moves. This leaves us in a sorry state. So what are our (or Niantic's) options:Option 1: Just no Fairy fast moveWhile Gardevoir would be most interesting (and most meta-relevant) with a Fairy fast move, that doesn't mean it has to get one. Niantic has surprised us before. Most notably Ampharos's CD move being Dragon Pulse over something more useful like Wild Charge.This would make the most sense for Niantic to do. Let's not forget that Gardevoir's only partially Fairy. It can improve as a Psychic type as it has access to Future Sight - which is a marked improvement on its current Psychic charge move Psychic, which is quite lacklustre in GO. Other good possibilities include Moonblast, Psyshock, Thunder Bolt or Energy Ball.If you are a dedicated enough person to look into my post history about posts I made last year about Gardevoir, this was the direction I was expecting. However, with the seeming continuous delay of Ralts's CD and a bevy of posts on various social media discussing a hypothetical 2x Fairy Gardevoir I believe Niantic is deliberately delaying a Ralts CD probably with the intention of delivering on that premise. They're probably keenly aware that Gardevoir as a beefier, but ultimately outclassed, Psychic type isn't going to be wowing people as much as they'd like.Option 2: Decommisioning an existing Charge move and repurpose it as a Fast moveAt the start of this game in 2016, the moves Disarming Voice and Draining Kiss were adapted to serve as charge moves for Jigglypuff and Jynx respectively.Frankly though, they were made as a more jokey/quirky move. Thematically fitting but they deal little damage and were never seen as serious moves.Therefore, you can argue that repurposing these moves from charge to fast is a good idea. No one's going to be losing much sleep over losing these moves with exception of maybe Exploud.In doing so, they can help a few other fairies too. Even if Niantic introduced Fairy Wind today, only three currently fully-evolved Pokémon can actually learn it, namely Jumpluff, Togekiss and Mawile.Whereas Disarming Voice is learned by Altaria, Clefable, Delcatty, Exploud, Gardevoir, Raichu, Rotom and Wigglytuff plus Draining Kiss by Froslass, Gardevoir, Gorebyss, Jynx and Luvdisc.This would be unprecedented and require a lot of shuffling around movesets but we need kinda that unprecedence for a double-Fairy Gardevoir.Option 3: Adapt a NON-attacking move as an 'actual' fast moveAnother suggestion I often see floating around is turning a non-attacking move to a fast move. Charm being the move suggested.Proponents argue that there's actual precedence unlike Option 2. Often citing moves like Counter, Mirror Coat, Night Shade, Splash and Yawn.The thing is, this isn't quite like those. While Counter, Mirror Coat and Night Shade aren't conventional attacking moves, they still are coded as being attacking moves in the MSG, just with static damage (which Charm is not).Splash and Yawn, on the other hand, are 100% non-attacking moves but in GO these deal 0 damage (technically 1 due to combat formula quirks) which I'm assuming is not what people are hoping for."But why couldn't it be done?", you may ask. Well, as previously stated Niantic uses GameFreak's assets and depending on HOW they're used repurposing a non-attack to an attacking move may have related issues. Interaction with the victim springs to mind (i.e. the take-damage animation). This could require modifying the animations. However this is just speculation on my part, so it might not be an issue after all.Option 4: Screw it -- just give Gardevoir Fairy WindWhen Pokémon X/Y (Generation 6) was showcased pre-release along with the new Fairy type, GameFreak actually showed Gardevoir using Fairy Wind in the beta footage, which it couldn't learn in the final release.Arguments could be made to quietly ignore the MSG a smidgen, plug our ears and give Gardevoir Fairy Wind anyway.This sets a worrying precedent though. Niantic has previously removed moves from a good number of Pokémon shortly after release because they had such "illegal" moves. Notable is Rock Throw Omastar which was the best Articuno & Moltres counter at their release, a move it could not actually learn in the MSG.If they go this route, you open the floodgates for the future. If Gardevoir gets Fairy Wind, why can't they reintroduce say Blaziken with Ice Punch? Ho-Oh with Fire Spin? Who says which Pokémon gets preferential treatment? This could spell trouble. It may not even be OK'd by The Pokémon Company International (TPCi), the company that oversees the Pokémon brand.Option 5: Niantic designs and animates a new moveSpeaking of unprecedented, what if Niantic steps in themselves? It's possible, but it's also quite possible that Niantic doesn't have the means to do it -- or even the permission from the aforementioned TPCi.Option 6: Wait it out for Pokémon Sword & ShieldAnother up and coming talking point ever since Nintendo announced the new MSG for the Switch is to just wait out the release of Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, with the hope that GameFreak steps in and makes a new Fairy attacking move that Gardevoir can learn which Niantic could then adapt. Certainly possible and it could explain delays even after Gallade's release. Author's opinion: Does anyone else feel this is kinda... slimy? People are turning to GF to fix a problem Niantic created. In the MSG Gardevoir has no real need for more Fairy moves -- it's quite potent with its staples Moonblast, Draining Kiss and Pixilate Hyper Voice already. GF having to design a new move just to bail out Niantic, with the latter making billions a year off of GF's assets, feels kinda perverse.Option 7: Option 4 + Option 6Who knows? Maybe GameFreak will add Fairy Wind to Gardevoir's learnset anyway and remove all previous issues.But also: Let's not forget our blade-boi While this entire topic is discussing 2x Fairy Gardevoir, a Ralts CD will also mean a Gallade CD.Unlike Gardevoir, Gallade has many options to improve. Its current movesets are Confusion and Low Kick as his fast moves and Psychic, Close Combat and Leaf Blade as his charge moves -- all sub-optimal.Some time ago data traffic mined by Chrales included a slew of reservation for new moves, some of which have been introduced in the past few months like Power-Up Punch and Earth Power. Among the unreleased is Drain Punch, which Gallade can hypothetically learn. If it's anything like Dynamic Punch is now, it could propel Gallade to actual usefulness. Also, Power-Up Punch? It can learn that too. And, like Gardevoir, it has access to Future Sight. For better energy gain, Psycho Cut exists, it was almost literally made for him. EDIT: Rock Smash is also a fast attack option.But that's only moves that are already in GO in some capacity. Other, not-yet-existant, Fighting type moves include Rock Smash, Focus Punch and Vacuum Wave, all of which could get added and potentially improve Gallade's standing.Closing Words So what do you all think? What do you think Niantic thinks? What do you think I think about what Niantic thinks?Have I missed any sensible suggestions? I mean, probably, this discussion has been actively stewing for almost a year now so I'm curious as to what you can think of. Thanks for the read. EditsForgot about Rock Smash being in-game. Thanks to all pointing it out. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://bit.ly/2JFp0fm