What makes Trace more viable than Telepathy on Gardevoir?

Question

Ok so I'm not a competitive genius by any means, I was just trying to figure out why so many sets use Trace instead of Telepathy. Gen 8 RU is doubles right? Telepathy prevents damage from teammates, while Trace can be very useless depending on what Pokemon you are facing. Now, I am probably missing something, but if I'm not, can someone explain why Trace is used?

Answer 1

Gen 8 RU is a singles format. This automatically makes Trace the superior Ability, because Telepathy has no effect.

Even in Doubles, Trace seems to be typically preferred. This obviously isn't true in every scenario, and certainly not in every format, but to quote Smogon's analysis on Gardevoir in Gen 7 Doubles:

Trace is the best ability before Mega Evolving because Gardevoir can potentially copy some useful abilities such as Intimidate and Download.

Source

As shown, Trace is preferred because it can copy helpful Abilities, which can give Trace Gardevoir an advantage over Telepathy Gardevoir. However, Telepathy certainly isn't useless -- to quote the same Smogon analysis:

Telepathy can also be useful if you have a spread move user such as Landorus-T with Earthquake.

Telepathy is just a bit more niche than Trace, and it's completely useless in Single Battles. Trace is generally better because it can copy useful Abilities, but Telepathy is by no means useless.

Comments

Ok thanks that makes sense