Bisharp doesn't need Jolly, with Choice Scarf it outspeeds everything it wants to, with the possible exceptions of Starmie and Alakazam (one of which Choice Scarf Tyranitar doesn't outspeed even with Jolly) and can therefore afford to use Adamant, granting it a higher Atk stat than Tyranitar reaches with Jolly, along with a better STAB dark move. Knock Off > Crunch. Weavile might be faster and more powerful with Choice Band or Life Orb but it is frail and therefore suffers against priority, it is also weak to Stealth Rock. Bisharp doesn't suffer from these difficulties, it is resistant to Stealth Rock, it packs a high Def stat and resistances to both Sucker Punch and ExtremeSpeed, the two most powerful priority moves. Not to mention Defiant to give Bisharp a power boost where possible, helping it clean up weakened teams. Bisharp can reliably remove Lati@s, Kyurem-B, Aegislash, Gengar and others, making it useful for the team.
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
-
Congrats to the winners of the 2023 Smog Awards!
Item Choice Scarf (Role in the Meta)
- Thread starter Chou Toshio
- Start date
- Status
Knock Off isn't the greatest move to be choiced into though as it loses a third of its power after the first hit not to mention Bisharp greatly appreciates the extra power of LO/Blackglasses and/or the ability to set up because it forces so many switches.
I can see some merits to the set, the extra speed frees up a moveslot as you don't need sucker punch anymore (in fact it would be really bad to use on a choice set).
I'm guessing you'd run Knock Off, Iron Head, Pursuit, Low Kick with the option to replace either (or both) of the latter 2 with Psycho Cut (Mega Venusaur, Keldeo, Conkeldurr, Breloom, Infernape) or Aerial Ace (Keldeo, Breloom, Chesnaught, Infernape) or Dual Chop (ZardX, Sub Cube) or Stone Edge (both Zards, Mega Pinsir) although all of these moves are rather weak and Bisharp gets OHKO'd by Mach Punch.
Meh now that I've looked at calcs none of its coverage moves except low kick are that useful unless Keldeo or one of the zards gives you a lot of problems and they can be revenge killed a lot easier by something like Garchomp or Deoxys-S.
I can see some merits to the set, the extra speed frees up a moveslot as you don't need sucker punch anymore (in fact it would be really bad to use on a choice set).
I'm guessing you'd run Knock Off, Iron Head, Pursuit, Low Kick with the option to replace either (or both) of the latter 2 with Psycho Cut (Mega Venusaur, Keldeo, Conkeldurr, Breloom, Infernape) or Aerial Ace (Keldeo, Breloom, Chesnaught, Infernape) or Dual Chop (ZardX, Sub Cube) or Stone Edge (both Zards, Mega Pinsir) although all of these moves are rather weak and Bisharp gets OHKO'd by Mach Punch.
Meh now that I've looked at calcs none of its coverage moves except low kick are that useful unless Keldeo or one of the zards gives you a lot of problems and they can be revenge killed a lot easier by something like Garchomp or Deoxys-S.
The Shellder Smuggler
Banned deucer.
This is my exact post in the starmie thread - but since it's now a ghost town, I didn't want to let my set go to waste. It's hard to use, but just read through it:
Starmie is a great pokemon. Its amazing Speed, and respectable base 100 Special Attack. Like most pokemon with this combination, he suffers from four move syndrome. And after suffering this, suffers from having to exchange one of those moves for Rapid Spin. However, Starmie has plenty of different niches in the OU metagame. Of course, starmie does have noticable flaws. Firstly, its defenses are absolutely pathetic. No matter how much one invests in defenses, it will never be worth it. It also suffers from 4, very common weaknesses.
This is a set that I don't believe has been mentioned yet, and I think it is much better as an anti-lead:
Starmie
Item: Choice Scarf
Nature: Timid
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 248 HP, 32 Def, 4 Spa, 220 Spd
- Trick
- Scald
- Recover
- Rapid Spin
This set is basically a varient of the bulky rapid spin - same EVs, and almost same build. However, this set is a lead, especially against skarmory, a big OU lead. Typically, you would want to start by tricking the choice scarf to skarmory/any other OU lead, and then rapid spin whatever hazards they have already set up. This fucks them over for the rest of the match, and making it easier to be clean of hazards. Starmie needs 220 Speed EVs and a Timid nature to outspeed a max speed Latias and max speed gengar. Scald is a great move for this set, as starmie with 4 spatk is 237 SpAtk, and in the scenario the lead wants to switch back in with choice scarf to get a dumb revenge kill, Starmie should usually outlive it and get an analytic boosted scald. Recover is great if starmie gets a burn off with scald, but still is a reliable for recovery.
Here are some calcs to show how you are safe against a leads offensive moves:
0 Atk Skarmory Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 32 Def Starmie: 118-141 (36.5 - 43.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
You can recover that away.
4 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 32 Def Starmie: 132-156 (40.8 - 48.2%) -- 6.3% chance to 2HKO after sandstorm damage
252+ Atk Mold Breaker Excadrill Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 32 Def Starmie: 204-240 (63.1 - 74.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
I think this disproves and proves my points - I mentioned earlier that starmie is much too frail, but I also mentioned that this set would negate potential OHKOs.
Starmie is a great pokemon. Its amazing Speed, and respectable base 100 Special Attack. Like most pokemon with this combination, he suffers from four move syndrome. And after suffering this, suffers from having to exchange one of those moves for Rapid Spin. However, Starmie has plenty of different niches in the OU metagame. Of course, starmie does have noticable flaws. Firstly, its defenses are absolutely pathetic. No matter how much one invests in defenses, it will never be worth it. It also suffers from 4, very common weaknesses.
This is a set that I don't believe has been mentioned yet, and I think it is much better as an anti-lead:
Starmie
Item: Choice Scarf
Nature: Timid
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 248 HP, 32 Def, 4 Spa, 220 Spd
- Trick
- Scald
- Recover
- Rapid Spin
This set is basically a varient of the bulky rapid spin - same EVs, and almost same build. However, this set is a lead, especially against skarmory, a big OU lead. Typically, you would want to start by tricking the choice scarf to skarmory/any other OU lead, and then rapid spin whatever hazards they have already set up. This fucks them over for the rest of the match, and making it easier to be clean of hazards. Starmie needs 220 Speed EVs and a Timid nature to outspeed a max speed Latias and max speed gengar. Scald is a great move for this set, as starmie with 4 spatk is 237 SpAtk, and in the scenario the lead wants to switch back in with choice scarf to get a dumb revenge kill, Starmie should usually outlive it and get an analytic boosted scald. Recover is great if starmie gets a burn off with scald, but still is a reliable for recovery.
Here are some calcs to show how you are safe against a leads offensive moves:
0 Atk Skarmory Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 32 Def Starmie: 118-141 (36.5 - 43.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
You can recover that away.
4 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 32 Def Starmie: 132-156 (40.8 - 48.2%) -- 6.3% chance to 2HKO after sandstorm damage
252+ Atk Mold Breaker Excadrill Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 32 Def Starmie: 204-240 (63.1 - 74.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
I think this disproves and proves my points - I mentioned earlier that starmie is much too frail, but I also mentioned that this set would negate potential OHKOs.
Why would Skarmory stay in on something that commonly runs Thunderbolt? Before you trick you're essentially a much weaker (albeit somewhat bulkier) Scarf Starmie with no coverage moves and after you Trick you're a worse version of the Bulky Rapid Spinner (which was deemed to weak to receive an OU analysis this gen btw) lacking a secondary STAB/coverage move.
I really don't see why you would ever run this set over one of the other two Starmie sets, which aren't that great to begin with.
I really don't see why you would ever run this set over one of the other two Starmie sets, which aren't that great to begin with.
The Shellder Smuggler
Banned deucer.
It's more something creative that I haven't even used yet. It's an anti-lead, not offensive.
If you don't know what anti-lead means, it means it's supposed to fumble pokemon that set up or well, common SR leads.
Leads aren't nearly as common this gen, especially dedicated ones.
Outside of HO or teams with Smeargle/Scolipede (the BP variant) there's hardly any dedicated leads right now and Deoxys-D isnt even all that bothered by a Choice Scarf as it can just switch out after laying SR, and next time it comes on it will be able to lay down spikes at a nice speed tier.
Creative =/= good.
- Status