Okay, so this may be a little unorthodox putting this first, but my preference is to read a lot of writing, more than I enjoy reading a shopping list of moves. Apologies if this causes any upset, I can change it round if necessary. I've used it to keep my notes written down so I know why I've done what I've done. In order to work out how many moves we have to play around with, I decided to work out how many we have available; 65 is the maximum, but of that, 18 are on the Universal TM list, and 16 (I've selected Feather Dance, rather than Charm, and don't want both because of limited space) are on the Mandatory List, bringing us to 34. However, if I include the Type-Move and Move-Move lists, we must also include a further 9 moves; Retaliate, Rock Smash, Strength, Sludge Bomb, Sunny Day, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, and Rock Tomb.
Of these moves, I'm actually going to be fairly selective, and ignore the Type-Move correlations. Fairy only has one requisite, Sunny Day. While given the Pokemon's theme as a Sleep/Pillow related, and it being the morning, we've already vetoed Moonlight, which is similar to enough to things like Morning Sun and Synthesis that I do not think that it's worthwhile to include as part of the theme, and I do not think of it as a particularly weather related pokemon either, as Fairy has no need to call for Rain Dance to be included either.
In addition to that, I'm vetoing Stone Edge, Rock Slide, and Rock Tomb. Not only is Stone Edge the cause of including Rock Slide and Rock Tomb to be included via Move-Move, but it clashes with the clause on being a restricted physical attacking move not already mandatory. It's also a Pillow Monster, and for it to have exceedingly "solid" themed moves like Stone Edge, I do not feel that they are in any way, shape or form worthwhile additions to the moveset to argue for their bypass of the ban.
I'm happy enough to have the additional space, so, for this purpose, I'm only going to include the Move-Move required moves; Retaliate, Rock Smash, Strength and Sludge Bomb are thus the only moves to include from those two guidelines laid out, and thus brings us to our total of limited moves to be 39, leaving space for a maximum of 27 moves.
Of those 27 moves, there should be a sort of progression, Poke's don't often go from 0-Moonblast, and as such, I'm going to look at including the following moves to show that progression
Moonblast; This is the most powerful non-legendary attacking move in the Fairy Type arsenal. The lower tiers of Dazzling Gleam, Draining Kiss, and Fairy Wind are thus included. Dazzling Gleam feels like the medium level move learned while fighting boss battles, and even though it's not normally involved in a learnset as a level-up move (instead, TM only), I have included it in this instance, as not only a USP (unique selling point) for story mode flavour, but as a go between for a Fairy STAB to account for the huge rise between Draining Kiss and Moonblast, but we also have Flash Cannon as Mandatory, and we have that starburst shaped eye; combined with the fairly horrific feeling of a light being turned on when you're half asleep, it feels very thematic to account for it in this way. Draining Kiss is fairly obvious; not only is Giga Drain a Mandatory Move, but it's a Fairy STAB, and Fairy Wind is part of the theme that I wish to maintain all of the way through that there are several sides to this pokemon; the sleepy, dreamy Fairy side (going to bed after a long day is "heaven", and the scent of fresh sheets is amazing, hence the Aroma Veil ability), the combatant pillow fight side, which I'll come to later, and then the dark prankster-ish side that comes from Snarl and Parting Shot on the Mandatory move set. So, with this thought in mind, the Fairy Wind feels appropriate. A nice smelling waft of perfumed air to hit the nastier elements of pokemon like Dark or Dragon type.
Aura Sphere and Focus Blast; Both of these are fighting special attacks, and I see them as one and the same. If you were playing any other video game which made a differentiation between a quick attack and a strong attack which you get by holding in your power, this would be it. Aura Sphere is the fast homing missile that doesn't do much damage, but Focus Blast is the charge-up attack. However, it still needs some sort of progression prior to that, and given how that we have such a vast difference between our Attack and Special Attack values, with the concept of charging up moves, and never missing being a thing, Vital Throw feels like the perfect segue prior to that. In addition, given the sprite of the pillow-mon, Wake-Up Slap feels like a given. Combined with that there is only Yawn to put opponents to sleep, I feel justified in including it as an ability, and as a flavour move, that it's able to generate a STAB'd 140 Power Attack in the perfect conditions would be rather fantastic, even if it is physical. With very few other special fighting attacks, there isn't much more progression to be included here.
Giga Drain; I'm was not entirely sold on Giga Drain's inclusion at first, (I think trying to argue a reason for its inclusion would be spreading it too thin), but I've come to like it more; the moveset also involves Energy Ball, and I suppose that cotton goes into the creation of a pillow, so it fits reasonably thematically. However, pillow cases can also be made out of Silk. I see Giga Drain and Energy Ball as being included as an Egg Move, and for that purpose, not only is cotton available to create pillows out of, but so is Silk, and hence I'm going to suggest including Leech Life. Although it's a bug move, and can target Psychic types super effectively, it's also a Physical Move, and even when against something like the wet-paper-bag defenses of an Alakazam, it's not even a guaranteed 4HKO when fully invested. Energy Ball, and Grass Knot are included in the theme, but Giga Drain's ability to drain life matches quite well with Leech Life, and the Draining Kiss, as well as a Drain Punch, which I'm going to include (see below). Draining Punch hits hard Dark types like Tyranitar fairly well, especially thanks to its 4x weakness vs Fighting. It's a bit of a shame that Cotton Guard cannot be used to reinforce the theme, but Kerfluffle isn't a set-up defensive pokemon. That argument could be used both ways, but it would allow it to survive two Gunk Shots from a Mega-Crucibelle when combined with Giga Drain's/Drain Punch's healing, so I don't think that it should fit. I'm against Cotton Spore as a move, because despite the Aroma, it doesn't feel like a very "spore" type of pokemon, and it messes with Speed which was something rather vehemently argued against when discussing Gooey as an ability. Lastly, Dream Eater has been okayed; sure, it is a hard to use power, especially with only Yawn, as opposed to something like Spore, but its been okayed and highly thematic. Other Grass type attacks, especially the ones in the "drain chain" of Absorb and Mega Absorb don't fit anywhere as either being too powerful, or as in this case, too weak, and would be wasted space without adding anything to the moveset. While not every move has to do something, we already have 5 Drain type attacks with Dream Eater, Leech Life, Giga Drain, Draining Kiss and Drain Punch, so no more are necessary. However, I will also put a mention out for Ingrain. While Leech Seed may seem more similar to Kerfluffle's draining moves, and Ingrain's description puts it as laying roots, can anyone else see the potential behind including Ingrain on the moveset? Parting Shot would allow us to bypass its limitation on keeping us in, whereas Leech Seed is counter intuitive as we actually want the opposing pokemon to voluntarily switch. I've not included either, but I thought it worth mentioning for further discussion. I see this draining aspect being reminiscent on the desire to stay in bed.
Grass Knot; Slightly mentioned above, but Grass Knot is used to hit heavy pokemon. I'm honestly unsure as how thematically appropriate it is that an animated bedroom furnishing straight out of Beauty and the Beast can command grass to rise up and trip a large opponent. However, with Breeding, anything's possible (Skitty/Wailord, shudders), so I shouldn't question, and it's also a TM so there's that also. That said, I don't think there needs to be a reason for progression for Grass Knot, but if there was, Vine Whip would be the one, but even that's clawing at straws. All other grass moves are either too powerful, or leaf related. If they were petal related (like say a romantic night in), then there could be an argument made for that, but Petal moves are too powerful and hence restricted. I've decided not to include a "progressive move" for this one.
Sludge Wave; Well, Sludge Bomb is already on the Move-Move list. It's a bit of a shame, as Sludge Wave is something which already does the same but better, and if I needed to poison a pokemon, I wouldn't really be using a non-Poison pokemon still weak to Steel type attacks with only a 30% chance of causing that poison, I'd be using Toxic at the very least to do so. However Sludge Bomb is there, for if people want to use it, and as such I thought about looking at our theme. Remember earlier, I said that I wanted to keep the "smelly" side of the CAP to being the Fairy type, there's nothing to say it HAS to be good smelling. The bad smelling stuff is possible, and with the poison type moves available, it's rather fitting. With Aroma Veil, it feels like Misty moves are rather relevant here, so Clear Smog is possibly one of the most appropriate; although I'm not a fan of the description being Mud. However, with Clear Smog, I think that Haze is also relevant as an earlier move to account for its weaponised version. I'd include Mist here, but as it's not a "field effect" move which stays for after our pokemon has left the field, it's hard to justify on a pokemon without a lot of decent set up moves and wants to make use of Parting Shot in any case. However, Safeguard is the closest similar move that, so I've included this also. Along that vein, what Safeguard does for Natural Cure, Refresh does for Aroma Veil (ish; no Sleep or Freeze heal). I raised the point in the competitive discussion over use as a Cleric Set, but it lacked the bulk to make it a worthwhile user, but only Serperior has a comparable speed to use it over much but it really fits the theme, while most other fast Wish users lack the Parting Shot and Speed (although have greater HP) to make it worthwhile. I still think that it's a neat combination however.
Flash Cannon; There are literally no thematically capable Steel Type moves which follow this, however, Flash, and Dazzling Gleam are available, the latter discussed earlier in this overly bloated description/life story.
The chosen moves as such listed above are; Dazzling Gleam, Draining Kiss, Fairy Wind, Vital Throw, Wake-Up Slap, Leech Life, Drain Punch, Clear Smog, Haze, Safeguard, Refresh, Flash. This gives me a total of 12 move moves, reducing my total to 15 others. None of these moves have any additional required moves from the Move-Move tables.
Other Moves. Kerfluffle is a pillow. It's soft and squishy, it's not very hard. It can be frangranced, and friendly, or it can be used as a weapon. As a kid, when you have a pillow fight, they're nothing too dangerous, but as an adult, you can turn them into fairly lethal ones, whether from Suffocation, or from putting something in them, which is where the Dark type comes in, I think, if you don't include hitting them. As it has its wealth in special attack, that feels to me as something it would get as it progressed later in life. It's also an allegory for life; as a child, you never want to go to bed at your bed time, and as an adult, all you want to do is have an early night. Or is that just me? Anyway, as a child, the hyperactivity also comes along with play fighting, but later in life, it can be used for more dangerous things, before realising that you don't even need to be particularly dangerous upclose, and can do it from afar (working remotely), which is when it unlocks its ability as a special attacker.
My image of Kerfluffle's fighting style is one who uses suffocation, and slapping. Going by the nature that it's a pillow, its early moves actually lack a lot of the bonuses like STAB and being physical to suggest its weakness, but later on it gains the STAB of Fighting, and later becomes Special. It also has Claws, that I want to include in the moveset, but I think making a feature out of them too much as it would thin the move pool too much for not much gain. In addition, I also want to encourage some of the Night Time Moves, and its Scent. It doesn't leave me much room, but I think I've been able to root out which moves I want. The Claws have a darker nature to them, (you don't use sharp things in a friendly pillow fight), hence the inclusion of some more Dark moves on that front.
The moves I have chosen to represent this are; Vice Grip, Wrap, Night Shade, Fury Swipes, Nightmare, Smelling Salts, Follow Me, Brick Break, Topsy-Turvy, Night Slash, Hone Claws, Simple Beam, Play Rough, Play Nice. Each one tries to emulate one of the areas to which I see Kerfluffle taking;
Suffocate; Vice Grip, Wrap
Pummel; Fury Swipes, Play Rough, Play Nice
Bedtime/Nightmares/Dreams; Night Shade, Nightmare, Follow Me, Topsy-Turvy, Simple Beam
Getting Older/Fighting; Brick Break, Smelling Salts
Claws; Night Slash, Hone Claws (shared Fury Swipes)
It may seem a little off in taking only Brick Break as a fighting type, but it actually matches the idea of what I'm going with that it's weak earlier on, but gets better when it realises its potential, so swarming the low levels with Fighting Type moves would be against the idea of a pillow. Hopefully the idea would be to turn this pokemon into one which would be worthwhile to level up into a late game powerhouse during story mode. I've also included Topsy-Turvy. I noticed that several other suggestions had gone for Psych Up; now although Topsy-Turvy is unique to Malamar normally, it's not only a Dark Type, which fits the feeling of the Dream abilities, but also one in which we don't especially want to create a pokemon which stays in. Turning a +2/+2 Pokemon into a -2/-2 could be interesting, especially when they are then faced with a Parting Shot, which could turn one of their offensive abilities into a -3. Simple Beam is also there for similar purposes, to mess with an opponent who thinks it can stay in; Parting Shots biggest weakness is that it can only be used to force a -1/-1 rather than stack a -2 on a single stat. With this, it's a -2/-2 straight away.
Hone Claws is there to bring attention to the claws, as is Night Slash. Bulk Up was allowed, so I don't see why Hone Claws wouldn't be, as it doesn't add bulk, and it turns Focus Miss into 100% accuracy without impacting its damage ratio, while it can improve Play Rough. Talking of Play Rough, I can't be the only one to get absurdly happy over the naming quirk of Play Nice/Play Rough, even if they do different things, Playing Nice does have a similar effect to Parting Shot, which is a nice little segue thematically. It goes from being a nice little play fight, to one which gets insults hurled, before suddenly erupting into a high powered STAB'd attack. Combine with Hone Claws, and it's reasonably lethal, also. Vice Grip, although typically used by pincer pokemon, doesn't actually mention them in later titles, and Klinklang Evolutionary family is able to use it, as is Mawile, so I think it fits here.
Smelling Salts is included here; there is not a huge ability to cause Paralysis, and it may often be more helpful to let Paralysis sufferers stay Paralyzed, but it's counterpart to Wake-Up Slap, and while Yawn causes Sleep, Secret Power is what allows Kerfluffle to Paralyze often-ish (30%).
