How are stat change moves useful?

Question

For example I use swords dance or dragon dance or agility or moves like that do they waste a turn like a missed counter or are they useful like a hit counter which does 2x damage ? Are they important or useful I have seen those moves in many move-sets but are they good to use in competitive or non competitive battles ?

Answer 1

Yes they are very useful! Especially it competitive games. For example say you have a Scizor with swords dance. Everytime you use sword dance it boost your next attack so you can use more damage. So if you use it 3 Times you one hit every one of your opponents Pokemon instead of the struggle you might normally have. Moves like tail light (volbeat) and belly drum raise your stats significantly more at certain cost like half your health or the fact that you have to use volbeat xD.
Also if you don't like using status attacks there are abilities like moxie or anger point that raise your stats on certain occasions such as when you make an opponent faint or when you get hit by a critical hit. Keep that in mind when strategizing! Hope this helped!

-LT

Answer 2

Erm..
The fact you get x2 is surely a good thing.
They're useful in both competitive battling and ingame. Even if you lose a turn.
So yeah they're useful.

Answer 3

It is true that you can lose a lot of HP when you are raising your attack/speed stats, but once you have done this a few times, then the fun begins. You usually end-up sweeping an entire team, even Pokemon that are specialised in defensive stats. When you raise your defensive stats, you can become a pain to defeat, this is usually combined with status corrupting moves like toxic, will-o-wisp,...So yeah, stat raising do make a great difference in both competitive and in-game battling.

Hope this helped