TyVulpine posted... I've never understood the point of moves like Protect, it's a waste of a turn.
Protect is for pokemon who have moves that can cause poison, confusion, attraction or some other hinderance, this gyarados in particular's gameplan seems to be to paralyze the opponent, then taunt them so they can't use a recovery move, now the opponent is stuck attacking for 3 or 2 turns while having to fight through Paralysis which could make them unable to attack at all for one turn, so the match could turn out like this
Gyarados uses Thunder Wave
Snorlax is Paralyzed
Snorlax uses Body Slam
Gyarados uses Taunt
Snorlax is paralyzed and can't move
Gyarados uses Waterfall
Snorlax uses Body Slam
The attack missed
Gyarados uses Protect
Snorlax uses Body Slam
Gyarados protected itself and takes no damage
Gyarados uses Waterfall
Critical Hit
Snorlax uses Body Slam
Snorlax is Paralyzed and can't move
Gyarados uses Waterfall
Snorlax fainted
Now that Snorlax could have had likely saved itself by using Rest and Snore or Sleep Talk but thanks to the Taunt and Thunder Wave Snorlax had less chances to inflict damage on Gyarados and thanks to Protect the few times Snorlax managed to get through Thunder Wave Gyarados was shielded from damage that may have taken it out.
That's the possible scenario in a one on one, in a two on two it's even worse because Gyarados's partner could be a pokemon that has moves that can hit the entire field for some major damage but Gyarados would be able to use Protect to not take any damage from that move like day Surf, that move hits the entire field and while Gyarados is a water type taking no damage is better than some damage.
A real nasty combo back in the day was Umberon's that had Mean Look, Toxic and Confuse Ray, get caught in that without a way to get out and you basically had to sit there while Umberon slowly wittled your pokemon down from the confusion and poison damage, even worse in 2 on 2 because it meant Umberon could replace it's one attack move with Attract meaning if you did manage to get through the confusion you still had to deal with the attraction or if they didn't want to gamble on gender they would give Umberon protect and basically make your pokemon kill itself from confusion and poison damage alone never touching it directly