Pokemon Sets for Battle

[~ Z ~]

BUMP.

Liepard [ Dark ]
252 SPE / 252 ATT / 4 HP
Ability: Prankster / Limber / Unburden / Nature(s): Naughty / Naive
Move 1: Encore
Move 2: Torment
Move 3: Fake Out
Move 4: Aerial Ace / Night Slash
Item(s): Focus Sash / Normal Gem
Set can be used in: Both, but works primarily in Singles.


Why/How you think it works: Liepard is a very frail Pokemon, so I looked through the moveset and its stats and found something a bit devious. Liepard's best stat is its speed, so I decided to take advantage of it. Prankster works in my favor thanks to the large pool of status moves it has, Limber is excellent, so it never gets paralyzed, and Unburden works great with the Fake Out/Normal Gem set, boosting its speed even more. If you cannot get the Prankster ability, your best bet would be to obtain the Unburden ability. So this set took me a while to think through, but I think I found a set that can potentially make a Pokemon struggle to death. 

First of all, Fake Out the most threatening Pokemon to make it Flinch. The Normal Gem will power up the Fake Out and deal more damage. Once you use up your Gem, your Unburden ability is now activated, making you the fastest thing on the field. With this speed, you will, without a doubt, outspeed everything. Use this speed to use the move Torment on the Pokemon you flinched, making it incapable of using the same move twice. If you manage to live a hit (Liepard is very frail), use Encore on the same Pokemon you Tormented. This makes a chain of events that forces a Pokemon to use Struggle.

For those who are not aware, the move Torment does not allow a Pokemon to use the same move twice in a row. (It's great for stopping Pokemon from setting up). Encore is a move that forces the Pokemon to use the last move again for 3 turns. When you put those two together, the Pokemon will begin to Struggle because it cannot use the same move twice (Because of Torment) and is not allowed to use another move that is not the previous one (because of Encore), thus resulting in the Pokemon using Struggle. Struggle is a move that will take down 1/4 of the user's HP and is only 50 Base Power (Not that strong of a move.) So the user will be dealing more damage to itself than to you. It's a great trick to use against Pokemon that are usually huge threats and fun to watch them Struggle to death.

I personally think Focus Sash/Unburden works a lot better because it gives you an extra turn to set up this trick. Fake Out will always be priority and you will be guaranteed a Flinch (Unless they use Protect or Quick Guard or have abilities that nullify priority moves/Flinch) The next move you use is Torment and even if you get hit, you are down to your sash, meaning you're able to take one more hit. Unburden activates and you will be the fastest thing on the field when you unleash Encore on your enemy. You may go down, but in the end, you'll have the last laugh.

Aerial Ace can be used to counter any Fighting/Bug Types and Night Slash can be useful when down to your sash to hit for massive Stab-damage and a chance to Crit your opponent.

The huge counters to this set are obviously ghost types (You can't use Fake Out on them), Liepard's frailty, and Pokemon with the ability to cancel Priority moves. Use this set with caution and make sure to give Liepard the proper support to take out its weaknesses as well as taking advantage of the situation it can perform in battle.

 

[ShineCero]

Good set, but the weakness is that it doesn't have enough moves to efficiently defend itself (assuming this singles, doubles give it a bit more leeway). I think fake-out, while a good idea when combining with normal gem, it would be better off either with sucker punch for the STAB boost. :think:

 

[~ Z ~]

Bump because SW/SH is coming out soon.

M-Banette [Ghost]
252 ATT / 252 SPE / 4 HP
Ability: Prankster(Mega) / Nature: Adamant or Jolly
- Skill Swap
- Shadow Sneak
- Knock Off / Gunk Shot
- Shadow Claw / Throat Chop
Item: Banettite

This Banette set is pretty standard but the trick here is to pair him up with Azumarill.

---

Azumarill [Water/Fairy]
252 HP / 126 (or 200) DEF / 126 (or 200) SPE.DEF
Ability: Huge Power / Nature: Bold or Calm
- Helping Hand
- Tickle (Egg move)
- Soak
- Icy Wind (US/UM Tutor move)
Item: Leftovers / Wiki Berry 

The trick is that since a Belly Drum Azu-set is very predictable, people are more inclined to attack your Azumarill rather than your Banette. When your Banette evolves, you have Priority (Prankster) Skill Swap with Banette. When people are busy attacking your Azu, Skill swap your Prankster Ability for Azu's Huge Power. Now M-Banette's base 165 ATT is doubled to 330. That is more than M-Mawile who has the strongest ATT stat in the current game. Since Azu has prankster, you can spam the move Tickle, which lowers both attack and defense or use Soak for those normal types. You also have Helping Hand which boosts your ally's attack by 50%. Let's just say Banette is going to be the nightmare everyone fears.

 

[ShineCero]

Alright, I been messing around with competitive for a while. I want to see which Pokemon I want to use before I get into the ranking of Sword and Shield. Here's an Cinderace Set I've been using:

Cinderace @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Nature: Jolly [+Spe / - SpA]
EVs: 252 ATK | 4 Spd | 252 Spe
Ability: Blaze
 - U-Turn
 - Pyro Ball
 - Court Change
 - High Jump Kick

Cinderace is a incredible fast move with two exclusive moves under his belt. With the introduction of Heavy-Dity Boots, which allows Pokemon to entered a field without being affected by set ups such as Stealth Rocks, Sticky Webs, etc., it allowed Pokemon that never seen a light of day in competitive finally found some niche. He can come in any time in the battle and Court Change the field: this move allows him to switch sets on the field to the other side. For example, if your opponent starts sending off rocks, spikes, etc to your side, you can come in and used Court Change, tossing everything to their side (and if they have tailwind, reflects, light screens, etc., it will come to your side, newly refreshed). 

Pyro Ball is a must on Cinderace. Not only it's one of the best animation, it's an incredible powerful move to boot. Hits hard. U-Turn is to instantly removed yourself from the battle after using Court Change if the opponent resists your moves. High-Jump Kick for extra measure for foes like Excadrill.

 

[~ Z ~]

Alright, I been messing around with competitive for a while. I want to see which Pokemon I want to use before I get into the ranking of Sword and Shield. Here's an Cinderace Set I've been using:

Cinderace @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Nature: Jolly [+Spe / - SpA]
EVs: 252 ATK | 4 Spd | 252 Spe
Ability: Blaze
 - U-Turn
 - Pyro Ball
 - Court Change
 - High Jump Kick

Cinderace is a incredible fast move with two exclusive moves under his belt. With the introduction of Heavy-Dity Boots, which allows Pokemon to entered a field without being affected by set ups such as Stealth Rocks, Sticky Webs, etc., it allowed Pokemon that never seen a light of day in competitive finally found some niche. He can come in any time in the battle and Court Change the field: this move allows him to switch sets on the field to the other side. For example, if your opponent starts sending off rocks, spikes, etc to your side, you can come in and used Court Change, tossing everything to their side (and if they have tailwind, reflects, light screens, etc., it will come to your side, newly refreshed). 

Pyro Ball is a must on Cinderace. Not only it's one of the best animation, it's an incredible powerful move to boot. Hits hard. U-Turn is to instantly removed yourself from the battle after using Court Change if the opponent resists your moves. High-Jump Kick for extra measure for foes like Excadrill.

This one is amazing. I love it, especially for singles. It can even ruin the threat of Lando (Unless it's a Jolly/scarfed Lando) since he loves to throw up rocks. The fact that Heavy Duty Boots prevents your Pokemon from getting hurt from Stealth Rocks or Spikes/Toxic Spikes is very handy. This would be especially beneficial for Pokemon who hate roks like Charizard or bug-types.

Cinderace is literally the new Greninja because his movepool is so massive and he can hit very hard with his signature move. I think Court Change is one of my favorite moves simply because you can steal the opponent's screens and make them your own, which can really turn the tide of the game. You know I love to troll and annoy people in a battle. Nice set overall! At the time of writing this post, I think the only thing that can counter it is Taunt (no surprise...)

Here's a list of all the moves affected by Court Change in case you were curious.

 

[ShineCero]

You really don't have to worry about taunt since unless they're choice scarf (and most choice scarf users don't carry Taunt in their movepools) or against a prankster Pokemon.

Cinderace being the next Greninja is accurate since his hidden ability is essentially Protean, so he's has a promising future in the metagame. 

It could be a bug but it seems that when you switch screens, everything get refreshed back to 4 turns :thinking: