The History of "Pokemon GO" - Ground Quiz

Answer: Mud Shot

Mud Shot seems worthless at first glance, as it does not do any real damage and by extension doesn't help Poliwrath's coverage. However, as a Fast move, it generates energy extremely quickly and can let Poliwrath more frequently fire off its powerful Hydro Pumps, Dynamic Punches, or it can indirectly aid Poliwrath's coverage by letting it spam Ice Punch. Poliwrath's non-legacy Fast moves in Bubble and especially Rock Smash do not help it in this regard, making Mud Shot the clear favorite.

Answer: Earthquake

Earthquake does nothing at all of use for Ho-Oh in PvE. But in PvP, the move is extremely useful at covering Ho-Oh's weakness to Electric and, to a lesser extent, Rock. It's also super helpful at letting Ho-Oh competently do battle with arguably the best Pokemon in all of Master League, Dialga, who is weak to Earthquake.

Answer: One

As a one bar move, Precipice Blades fitfully hits quite hard. Funny enough, it is actually slightly weaker than Earthquake, but it's more than four times faster and is a vastly superior move as a result. It's just what Groudon needed to reassert itself at the top of the Ground type conglomerate.

Answer: Scorching Sands

Scorching Sands is a three-barred move that's both stronger and faster than most three-barred moves. It allows Excadrill to hit hard, dodge swiftly and be incredibly energy efficient, making its performance very consistent. Excadrill was released into the game already having Drill Run and, while Drill Run is a perfectly solid move on its own, it simply comes up short compared to Scorching Sands.

Answer: Sand Attack

Sand Attack is a Fast move that was ultimately never given to a Pokemon who could make noticeably good use of it. Its parameters aren't necessarily bad as much as the fact that the move was mostly given to non-Ground types who have little to no use for it.

Answer: Earth Power

Earth Power is a strong, slightly sluggish two-barred Charged move that is by far the best Ground move available to either of these Pokemon.

Answer: Earth Power

Primal Groudon was released into the game and, shortly thereafter, Heatran was brought to gyms. As Primal Groudon has such a dominating matchup against Heatran, it is probable that Niantic wanted to give Heatran a move to hit P-Don super effectively, to at least keep players somewhat honest.

Answer: High Horsepower

High Horsepower has parameters ultimately very similar to Scorching Sands, possibly explaining the move appearing on less Pokemon. Whatever the name of the move may be, it is quite potent on Mamoswine, especially its Shadow variant, who can crank its DPS up to the tenth power.

Answer: Power Whip

Power Whip is a strong, fast two-barred Charge move that can, at worst, two-shot most Ground types. Some Ground types such as Rhyperior and Swampert are 4x weak to Grass, making them even more susceptible to this move. While Garchomp and Flygon are only neutral to the move, they then must be worried about Dazzling Gleam that hits them super effectively.

Given Xurkitree's huge Attack stat, having these moves in its repertoire makes for a surprisingly more challenging raid than it would seem at first glance.

Answer: Earthquake

At 140 power and being one-barred, Earthquake is sadly an underwhelming move on account of how slow it is, combined with how expensive it is to use. It would take Niantic until 2021 - five years after the game released - to finally introduce Earth Power to the game. Shortly after, Scorching Sands and High Horsepower were given to a lot of Pokemon, making those who only had access to Earthquake fall behind. Even the legendary Groudon itself began to fall from grace in the Ground meta, until 2022's Pokemon Go Fest granted Groudon access to Precipice Blades, the second strongest Ground move which is also blindingly fast, letting Groudon reassert itself in the meta with force.