When is it okay to have two moves of the same type?

Question

Usually, you wouldn't have two moves of the same type on a Pokemon, such as a fire type having Fire Blast and Ember. However, I run across movesets where a Pokemon has two of the same type of moves. When is it okay for a Pokemon to have two of the same type of moves?

Comments

Mixed sets, or priority are good examples.

Oh, and Water Spout/Eruption with another Water/Fire move (like Kyogre with Water Spout and Surf).

Also Flip Turn Kingdra.

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This is for competitive, right? What format/rules?

Answer 1

I'm going to assume that you mean attacking moves because it's not that surprising to have two moves with the same type but one is attacking and the other is status

In general, either the Pokemon in question has a shallow movepool or both moves have different purposes. A perfect example for this is Ash Greninja where it always has hydro miss/surf and water shuriken. Both of these moves have completely different purposes. The first is a nuke to activate its ability or to just douse something in water and the other is for sweeping or revenge killing

Another example is Kingdra, who usually carries meteor, hydro pump, ice beam and surf. Both of its water moves can be used for different purposes. One is for a powerful early or mid battle wallbreaking and the other is more useful for late game sweeping due to its accuracy

So bottomline, most of the time, it's because the two moves are needed for different purposes that cannot be covered with just one move, or the other move in question has severe drawbacks such in the case of hydro miss

Answer 2

Sometimes when it's a Status move, Its a good thing. Say for instance an Alakazam has Agility AND Psychic. Or if a Salazzle has Toxic AND Sludge Bomb. It really depends.

And if it's for set up. My Sylveon has Moonblast and Hyper beam. It has the Pixilate Ability so Hyper beam is also is a Fairy type move. But It Knows Yawn. So my Sylveon Uses Yawn, puts the foe to sleep and then uses Hyper beam since the foe will be sleeping and Can't attack my "Re-Charging" Sylveon.

Big explanation, but I think you get the point.

Also, my Toxtricity knows Charge, Eerie Impulse, AND Overdrive which are all Electric type moves. To some people, it's bad. But to me, it's A Stat changing Pokemon that helps the whole team out.

Hope I helped! ( ◜‿◝ )♡

Source: Experience

Answer 3

If we aren’t counting status, there is a few examples.
Priority is the most common example, like metagross with bullet punch and meteor mash or accelrock and stone edge on lycanroc. Another example is Pokémon with Eruption or Water Spout. Kyogre will often run Water Spout AND origin pulse/surf.
And finally, moves like Volt Switch, U-Turn, or Flip Turn. Barraskewda might have Liquidation/Waterfall ANF flip turn. Jolteon might have thunderbolt and volt switch. Scyther might have X-Scissor and U-Turn.