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Old September 24th, 2004 (5:59 PM). Edited November 10th, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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(In order to search for a certain Pokemon entry within this thread, use the "search" function to search with keywords within this thread. Instead of using Pokemon names though, use their 3 digit Pokedex number according to the National-Pokedex. Example: To look for Venusaur, search with the keyword as "003")

Note: Battledex advance always assume 386 realm, with access to all 3rd generation Pokemon games


Legend- how does the new Battledex Advanced works

(national-pokedex 3 digit number)- (name)- type

Common roles: what role this Pokemon can take in competitive battling

Why?: why use this Pokemon?

Classification: Ubar, OU, BL, UU or NU?

Signature move: famous move for this particular Pokemon (note: signature move is usually useless, but it's there for fun factor)

Overshadowed by: what better Pokemon can possibly replace this Pokemon in competitive battling?

Important Stats: what stats are worth noticing about this Pokemon?

Common item: what are the common attached items for this Pokemon?

Moves: what are the good moves for this Pokemon? (note: this is NOT a moveset, just a list of moves for YOU to choose from.)

Strategy: some general guidelines on how to use this Pokemon in battle, along with some basic information about the Pokemon in terms of battling

Friends: what Pokemon works best with this particular Pokemon? Or what type of Pokemon?

Enemies: what Pokemon has a special edge against this Pokemon? (note: this doesn't mean that it will list every single Pokemon that can defeat this Pokemon, just the ones worth noticing about)

Sample moveset: a moveset created... Note that the sample moveset is clearly not the best nor is it the most efficient, but only the most user friendly moveset. Sample moveset will also include a suggested nature, ability and EV setting (but the exact distribution of EVs will not be suggested.) None of the sample movesets are necessarily the best, but just the easiest to use


So there's your format... as you've noticed, it got more info than the old Battledex as well. This time, due to popular request, every Pokemon will be mentioned instead of just the OU ones. This means that there will be an awful lot of entries... so bear with me if you're waiting for the Deoxys entry as I'll write that 386 days afterward from now, assuming no delays in between XD

All Pokemon included are fully evolved, with the exception of Pikachu, Clamperl, Vigoroth and Scyther.






003- Venusaur- Grass/Poison


Common Roles: physical sweeper, annoyer, tanker, with minor special sweeping ability, pseudohazer

Classifications: BL or UU

Why?: I personally regard Venusaur as the best anti-tankers out there, but some others use it for its ability to sweep and have decent defenses as well

Signature move: Frenzy Plant

Overshadowed by: none. Vensuaur is irreplacible. No other grass/poison types can do what Venusaur can do.

Important stats:
-base 80 hp
-base 82 attack (surprisingly high isn't it)
-base 83 def
-base 80 speed (again, surprisingly fast)
-base 100 sp.atk and sp.def

Common items: leftovers, chesto berry (chesto rest), salac berry (rare)

Moves:

Body Slam
-your physical move if you want Venusaur to be capable of paralyzing the opponents. The damage isn't bad either.

Curse/Swords Dance
-Venusaur's bulk up... and who cares about speed if you can tank majorly after 2 bulk ups or so? Swords Dance has a weaker defensive ability but the attack power just goes up so much faster

Earthquake/Slugdebomb/Return/HP physical, preferably Ghost or Rock
-Vensuaur's physical attacks, which is actually more in variety compare to Venusaur's special attacks

Giga Drain/Magical Leaf/HP special

-Venusaur's special attacks... very limited just like most grass types

Growth
-the only way to boost special attack for Venusaur without baton pass...

Roar
-obviously, pseudohazing ability... but this contradicts with leech seed quite a bit. However, you can pair this up with toxic for toxicshuffling instead.

Toxic
-a move many tankers have, and toxic is always expected from all annoyers/tankers really

Leech Seed
-possibly the best grass move, as it deals good damage along with healing. Very annoying move to face up to.

Rest/Synthesis
-your healing moves if Venusaur is to be an annoyer/tanker. Rest does have the 2 turn sleep punishment, but it can remove will o wisp and any other nasty status. Synthesis is used more often due to the instant healing nature, but 5 PP is definitely a drawback

Light Screen
-a nice psuedo-pass for Venusaur that further buffs its powerful special defense.

Sleep Powder
-definitely usable, and definitely annoying... during the time your opponent is sleeping, you can really do a lot... you can setup leech seed, roar, or buff up to be prepared to sweep.

Protect
-a nice stalling move, and the turn using protect will result in leech seed and leftovers together healing a whole ton lot.

Mimic
-not a popular or common move, but if you think that you know common movesets very well, you can gain plenty out of it

Endure
-with emerald, this new move tutor can help Venusaur activate the salac berry to give it some speed to sweep.


Strategy:

Venusaur finally got some more moves so that it can be used. With the addition to earthquake and sludgebomb, Venusaur can finally gain some much needed offensive moves. This can finally add some variety for this grass Pokemon.

Start out with sleep powder if you're planning to use it, then throw out any possible setup, such as leech seed, light screen, or buff ups. If you are planning to use another status effect, start with leech seed, then use toxic, and/or begin stalling.

For sweepers, you'll want to try to pull off one buff ups immediately, and then try to pull off another buff if you can endure the next hit, or use endure to pull off the berry. Now, just unleash all of your strongest offensive moves and hope for the best ^_^

Venusaur is also a very powerful anti-tanker, at least for me. You got the poison type for toxic immunity. You got leech seed which steadily knocks off the opponent's hp, so even Pokemon like Blissey and Weezing alike will be affected. Against other grass type tankers, you got sludge bomb to be on the advantage, while having great defenses along with poison type neutralizing other sludge bombs too. Self heal never hurts.

Friends: Venusaur benefits greatly from switching into Pokemon who are strong against flying attacks. Having a Pokemon who can take out Armaldo and Forretress is also quite important for Venusaur.

Enemies:

Aggressive Flyers:

With great speed and STAB Aerial Ace on top of brutal attack power, Venusaur's toasted... leech seed won't be fast enough, and synthesis won't be able to overcome the power of aerial ace. Other flying types such as Gyarados and Salamence post just as much threat.

Ludicolo:
It's war, as both side has a super effective attack. Ludicolo has ice beam and Venusaur got sludge bomb. The chance of winning is 50/50, and even if you win, whatever comes out next will surely defeat you.

Forretress/Armaldo:
These 2 Pokemon got rapid spin to yield off leech seed, and some other great moves to nullify Venusaur's attack. Venusaur does have earthquake against them, but then spikes is probably setup in time already, and Armaldo probably danced up enough to finish you off in one blow of HP Bug.

Sample Moveset:

Venusaur- [def or sp.def + / sp.atk-] @ leftovers
EV: hp, def, sp.def
-sleep powder
-leech seed
-sludge bomb
-synthesis or earthquake
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Old September 24th, 2004 (9:56 PM). Edited November 10th, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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006- Charizard: Fire/Flying


Common roles: mixed sweeper

Classifications: BL, formerly mega-OU

Why: With nice stats and a huge movepool to work with, Charizard mix a decent sweeper. The only thing that's preventing it to be a powerful Pokemon is the type matchup which is terrible.

Signature move: Blast Burn

Overshadowed by: Charizard is an irreplacible Pokemon, but sometimes the direct moveset can be carried over to Salamence, and if that happens, Charizard will be overshadowed by Salamence as Salamence is just absolutely better in this context.

Important Stats:
base atk: 84
base speed: 100 (max EV + bonus = 328)
base sp.atk: 109

Common items: salac berry, lum berry, white herb, liechi berry, petaya berry

Moves:

Flamethrower/Fire Blast/Overheat/Dragon Claw/HP Special
-Charizard's entire list of special moves... rather limited in this sense

Aerial Ace/Rock Slide/Ancientpower/return/brick break/earthquake
-Charizard's entire list of physical attacks, all of them are self explanitory

Substitute/Endure
-through the usage of move tutors, Charizard can use these attacks to activate the attached berry for its boost

Swords Dance/Dragon Dance
-both of them are GREAT buff up moves that Charizard can learn easily... Swords dance double attack power while dragon dance increase speed as well. Dragon dance is generally preferred.

Belly Drum
-if used correctly, the maximum boost of attack power will allow charizard to sweep easily. Best to pass on some speed so Charizard can sweep if it succeeds in using Belly drum

Focus Punch
-if you're subbing, might as well consider this move

Sunny Day
-if Charizard belongs to a Sunny Day team, hey then why don't you give Charizard Sunny Day to help the team out?

Seismic Toss
-if you're in need of a set damage attack, here's your pick. However, this is really unnecessary because Charizard can mix sweep very well


Strategy

Charizard was once a proud OU that's used by everyone, while Skarmory was eating the dust. Those were the days when salac berry activates when your hp is at or below 50%, which means drum + salac = ownage. But now salac berry is nerfed and Charizard gets a one way ticket to oblivion. But still Charizard isn't bad, and is built to be a quick mix sweeper. Should it ever fail to knock out the opponent, most likely you'll be knocked out next round. One should always expect Charizard to have both physical and special attacks.

If your Charizard wants to mix sweep with its main power in physical hits, then it is adviced to use overheat as the only special attack. Though the sp.attack drop sounds terrible, but who cares if you're only using it once? You can also activate a white herb to restore the lost sp.atk if you want to use it more than once. Give Charizard a few choiced physical attacks, along with dragon dance or swords dance, and let it sweep away. This is the adviced moveset for trainers new to the metagame as well. This is easy to handle, and easy to use.

If Charizard is special based, then flamethrower is used instead of overheat. Dragon claw is a great choice, as you don't have too much choices anyway. One of the move can be Hidden Power to diversify your elemental attacks. You can either insert in another special attack, or use dragon dance/swords dance in the 3rd slot. The last slot should be a physical attack of your choice.

If you want to use the boost of a berry, ditch one of your moves for either substitute or endure. Keep using substitute until your hp drops down to barely anything, then the berry will activate and you can start sweeping. If sub isn't broken the turn it is casted, use focus punch or any of your other attacks. Use endure when you know that the next hit will OHKO you, then the berry will also activate.

Belly drum runs the most risk yet packs the greatest results (not recommanded for beginning players as belly drum is hard to handle.) Use belly drum only if you have an unbroken sub out ready to take a hit, or if you know that the opponent cannot knock you out after you rid half of your total hp.

Friends: Skarmory/Weezing are great friends as Charizard will need them to block rock slides. With a bad defense, tankers and sponges are preferred so Charizard has something to switch to if it knows that it can't win. Groudon's free sunny day is always helpful for any fire type.

Enemies:

Aerodactyl/Flygon
-They are your ultimate threat. With immunity towards a lot of your attacks (besides Flygon being weak to dragon claw), they pack rock slide which will definitely OHKO Charizard. Flygon also got quick attack to knock you out if you attempt to use endure/substitute to abuse berries.

Few in specific enemies, but the worst part about Charizard is that it got one of the weakest attack power out of all dragon dancers (who got physical attacks to use.) Even fully drummed up Charizard may not take down a Forretress with HP Flying, so don't be too overconfident at times...

Sample Moveset:

General/Mixed Sweeper:
Charizard- [atk + / sp.atk -] @ white herb
EV: Atk, speed
-overheat
-dragon dance
-earthquake
-aerial ace or HP Flying

*note: rock slide can also be added instead of overheat if you don't want to mix sweep. If that is the case, change white herb to lum berry, or liechi berry
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Old September 25th, 2004 (11:41 AM). Edited November 21st, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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009- Blastoise: Water


Common roles: Hazer/Pseudohazer, tanker+annoyer

Classifications: UU

Why: Defense is only average for a tanker, and the hp isn't unexceptionally high either. It's decent for UU competition but in the 386 realm, it's overshadowed.

Signature move: Hydro Cannon

Overshadowed by: Milotic, Lapras, Ludicolo, Vaporeon

Important stats:
base hp: 79
base def: 100
base sp.def: 105

Common items: leftovers, chesto berry, none

Moves:

-Surf/Ice Beam/HP Special
These are the only special attacks Blastoise can learn, but it's enough really. Not an ideal set to be a special sweeper though, so just pick one or 2 to assist you. Don't rely on Blastoise to sweep like this.

-Brick Break/Earthquake/Body Slam/Return/HP Physical
A better asset for physical attacks. Body Slam can serve as paralysis. But you shouldn't focus Blastoise at physical attacks. Just use them to assist you.

-Yawn
A powerful move that acts as pseudo-pseudohaze. Yawn will either force your opponent to sleep, or they must switch out in order to prevent the sleep status. The bad thing about this move being a pseudohazer is that this move is blocked by substitute, is cured by lum berry and doesn't work if sleep clause is on and one of the opponent is already asleep (excluding Pokemon who used rest and switched out)

Counter/Mirror Coat
-Blastoise can learn both of these counterstrike moves. With decent defense and hp, they're certainly worth considering about. It's very likely that Blastoise can survive a thunderbolt (provided that the opponent didn't boost sp.atk) and other super effective moves too.

Rest
-The only way to heal up hp sadly... this is the main reason why it's overshadowed by Milotic and Ludicolo, who can heal themselves very easily.

Dive/Protect
-both of these moves serve the purpose of stalling.

Toxic
-a good offensive move to have for all tankers

Focus Punch
-together with yawn, focus punch will succeed. Use yawn first, and the opponent will switch out. Then you can safely use focus punch this turn. If they stay still and attack, well focus punch will fail but now they're asleep.

Haze
-an important move to have, which is always nice

Mimic
-just like Venusaur, Mimic can give you some nice moves if used already. Nothing better than stealing cosmic power from Claydol with mimic for Blastoise.

Rapid Spin
-one of the last moves that make Blastoise slightly different than the ones who overshadow Blastoise. Rapid spin gets rid of leech seed and spike, which is very nice to have.

Refresh
-you can heal toxic and over status with this... worth considering

Roar
-pseudohazing move... there is a difference between roar and haze. Roar strikes last but gets rid of substitute (better against Ninjask), but Haze doesn't require to be hit by the opponent, and is much better for getting rid of curse.

Seismic Toss
-set damage move that should always be considered for tankers

Attract
-to stall even more, use it.

Withdraw
-if you want to buff defense, this is the only way...

Theif
-leftovers isn't that hard to steal. By stealing leftovers, you did quite a bit of damage in the long run, especially against Blissey and other high hp tankers.

Strategy

Blastoise is overshadowed by quite a bit of Pokemon. If Blastoise is to be a tanker with hazing/pseudohazing ability, then Vaporeon can do it better. If Blastoise is to stall and be annoying, Milotic and Luicolo does it better since they can heal. Lapras can roughly the same stats as Blastoise yet it's much more flexible in the movepool department. The only thing Blastoise got that's unique is using yawn, rapid spin and counter/mirror coat...

Blastoise is nerfed heavily since the introduction of the EV system. Back in GSC it can attack decently with good defense. Now you have to choose one of them and sacrifice the other. Lead off with any status effect that you want to induce to your opponent, such as toxic or yawn (you can follow with focus punch if you used yawn). After that, either stall or keep attacking to make things even tougher. Use haze, pseudohaze and/or rapid spin accordingly. If you got seeded, use rapid spin immediately. Also you may want to use theif if you know that the opponent is also a tanker and got leftovers. Rest/Chesto rest accordinly when your hp is low and you need some more health.

Also remember to use refresh if you got affected by a status, especially toxic. HOWEVER, you may not want to use refresh if you got paralysis, as having a status means that you can't be affected by the other status, such as sleep or toxic. So sometimes you may want to purpose keep a status in order to do some good for the long run...

There's also counter and mirror coat to use. This is very hard to use for beginning battlers as you need to have firm understanding of the common movesets in order for these 2 moves to work. Sometimes you look at a Pokemon and you just know that they can do nothing but directly attack you, and those are the times when you use counter or mirror coat. For example, against an Aerodactyl is a sure indication that counter will work if it decides to attack instead of switching out. Aerodactyl is a Pokemon that does absolutely nothing else but physical sweep, so you can get a very high chance of using counter correctly. When you get a firm understanding of common movesets, the chance of counter and mirror coat succeeding just increases by a lot.

Friends: Blastoise can only regain hp by rest, so a heal beller will work perfect for Blastoise. Jolteon/Lanturn/Blissey are also good partners with Blastoise, as they got volt absorb to resist other Jolteons.

Enemies:

Raikou/Jolteon/Zapdos
-These fast electric attack user got insane special attack. If you plan on using mirror coat against them, it's very iffy if you'll actually survive. Jolteon/Zapdos you may (but won't be by much), but Raikou you got no chance. Raikou will set up sub and start using calm mind to boost thunderbolt to ensure that it can OHKO you next round. If you have full hp and correct EV setup, you can certainly endure an electric attack such as thunderpunch from Gengar or thunderbolt from Manectric, but these ones' sp.atk is just too high.

Banette
-With insomnia, it can block yawn decently, with seismic toss immunity. For certain Blastoise movesets, Banette is a pain.

Gengar
-with toxic/fighting move immunity and thunderpunch, Gengar proves the power of its supremacy. Unless you got mirror coat, your chance is very slim. Also watch out for Gengar's destiny bond.

Ludicolo
-unless you got toxic, Ludicolo will just simply destroy you... If you hurled toxic at it first, then at least you won't die in vain. Even though you got rapid spin to spin off leech seed, there's still giga drain along with leftovers. Blastoise just simply cannot overcome Ludicolo and its healing strategy.

-Shedinja
Unless Blastoise got toxic, you're messed.

Sample Moveset:

Blastoise- [def or sp.def + / atk -] @ leftovers
EV: hp, def, sp.def
-surf
-protect
-haze
-toxic
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Old September 27th, 2004 (3:37 PM). Edited September 28th, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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New Section added to the Battledex Advanced!

Sample moveset: a moveset created that is the most user friendly for beginning trainers. Note that the sample moveset is clearly not the best nor is it the most efficient, but only the most user friendly moveset. Sample moveset will also include a suggested nature, ability and EV setting (but the exact distribution of EVs will not be suggested.)

The previous entries have all been updated with it. Go check it out! ^^;


012- Butterfree- bug/flying

Common roles: annoyer + special sweeper

Classifications: UU

Why: It is completely overshadowed... why not just use the "better versions?"

Signature Move: Sleep Powder

Overshadowed by:
Yanma, Breloom

Important Stats:
-speed always at 262

Common items: quick claw, lum berry, salac berry, none

Moves:

-Sleep Powder
No reason not to have this. You need the protection from sleep, and compound eyes will boost the accuracy to 105%! It's just as good as spore.

-Stun Spore
A neat attack for double powdering purposes. When one of them is asleep already, you'll have to resort to other attacks like stun spore. It doesn't generate the 100% safety like Sleep Powder, but it still gives you a 50% paralysis, and lowering the opponent's speed is beneficial to the entire team.

-Attract/Supersonic
If you want to stall, here are the moves. Throw these on after unleashing a powder.

-Substitute
After using a powder, you can setup a substitute so that if the opponent switches, they'll have to break the sub first before attacking Butterfree directly, which gives you a free turn at unleashing another wave of powders to disable the enemy.

-Giga Drain/Psychic/HP Special, Solarbeam
Sadly, the only offensive moves Butterfree got. If you're using Butterfree within a sunny day themed team, you can consider solarbeam (don't worry about the fire weakness, as Butterfree will die towards a flamethrower with or without the boost), but otherwise it's not a good choice.

-Theif
If you stole a leftovers, it's a heavy damage against tankers in the long run.

-Endure
You can use this move to brace yourself against sweeping moves, to kick in the salac berry to perhaps turn the tide.

Strategy:

There is no strategy, just a "formula" to using Butterfree that works all the time. Follow these steps in order and you'll succeed in using Butterfree at least in the decent rank. These steps work for a good 95% of the time at least...

1) Check if the opponent is faster and is capable of doing damage directly. If it is, switch out or prepare to die trying. But if you have endure, use it to kick in salac berry so you're the one who's faster.

2) Check if the opponent has low enough hp for Butterfree to just finish it off. Rare, but these opportunities do happen sometimes. Should a calculation mistake occur on your behalf, prepare for the worst. If it is low on hp, then attack and finish it.

3) If the opponent cannot be destroyed in one hit and may have a lum or chesto berry, or any ability that prevents sleep. If it does, switch out, or die attacking.

4) If playing with sleep clause, check if a Pokemon on your opponent's team have been put to sleep by one of your attacks already. If a Pokemon is already asleep because of you, then don't use sleep powder, but use another status effect instead, if any. If you don't, then just attack and die trying.

5) Use sleep powder.

6) Use substitute now if you have it.

7) Choose to either attack, or setup with other status attacks such as supersonic and/or attract.

8) Attack with all your might!

So there you go... just follow these easy steps and you'll use Butterfree very well. These steps will gurantee you that Butterfree will survive, unless against sleep talker or if ability healed sleep within the first turn. If switching occurs, then pretty much it's a repeat of all the steps again, with the possible exception that the switched Pokemon got hit by attract or supersonic, so that gives you an opportunity to risk a bit. Setting a sub beforehand also generates one free turn of do whatever you want, unless the opponent got multi-hit attacks like rock blast and icicle spear.

Friends: Anyone half decent that can tank for Butterfree, or destroy all who are faster than Butterfree

Enemies: Basically, anyone faster than Butterfree, or is capable of saving itself from sleep powder through abilities or items...

Sample Moveset:

Butterfree- [speed + / atk -] @ quick claw
EV: speed and sp.atk
-psychic
-sleep powder
-stun spore/supersonic
-HP Water
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Old October 2nd, 2004 (4:55 PM). Edited October 5th, 2004 by Toothache.
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Since frostweaver is no longer with us *sighs*, I'll be taking over the Battledex Advanced project!

015- Beedrill- bug/poison

Common roles: physical sweeper

Why?: It's another bug that's completely overshadowed, there are much better Pokemon that can do the same role

Classification: UU

Signature move: Twineedle

Overshadowed by: Ninjask, Scyther, Pinsir, Heracross... insert most bug types here

Important Stats:
Base Attack: 80
Base Speed: 75
Base Special Defence: 80

Common item: Quick Claw, Salac Berry, Liechi Berry

Moves:

Double-Edge: Meh, Beedrill doesn't have great defences anyway, why not go all out with Double Edge?

Swords Dance: Thank you, Move Tutors. Now that Beedrill has Swords Dance back, he once again can do some decent damage. Although, you'll be lucky to survive a round to use SD without Sub or a switch.

Twineedle: Good for Sub-breaking, not much else

HP Bug/Return/Sludge Bomb/Brick Break/Aerial Ace: The rest of Beedrill's physical attacks. Not many to choose from.

Agility: To give Beedrill some much needed speed, if you're without a Salac Berry

Substitute/Endure: Activate that berry and sweep away

Attract/Swagger: If you want an annoyer Beedrill (and why?), here are moves for that purpose.

Strategy: Beedrill is a very simple Pokemon to use. Sweep and sweep away. Or, it would be easy to use, if it's defences weren't so poor. Simple tactic is to use Salac Berry, either Endure or Substitute down to low HP, activate the berry, then sweep. If anything is faster than Beedrill, switch out, because especially in the case of Psychic moves, or any physical move, it's lights out for Beedrill. If you're lucky, you can get Swords Dance in, which will help the sweeping potential.

Friends: Anything that can tank well for Beedrill, as well as a psychic or dark type to block Psychic attacks. Houndoom works well in this role, covering both of Beedrill's main weaknesses, including getting Flash Fire for any Fire moves.

Enemies: Anything faster than Beedrill, especially physical sweepers which will usually score a OHKO with a non-boosted move. Base Defence 40 is hardly enough to survive many attacks, even Extremespeed will do the job.

Sample moveset:
[email protected] Berry
EV: 252 Speed, 252 Attack, 6 Sp Def
Nature: +Speed, - Sp Att
HP Bug
Return
Swords Dance
Sludge Bomb
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Old October 3rd, 2004 (4:14 PM). Edited October 5th, 2004 by Toothache.
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018- Pidgeot- Normal/Flying

Common roles: Physical sweeper

Why?: A fairly fast and good all round Pokemon.

Classification: BL or UU

Signature move: Featherdance

Overshadowed by: Fearow, Dodrio, Swellow

Important Stats:
Speed base: 91
Attack base: 80

Common item: Quick Claw, Choice Band, Salac Berry

Moves:

Double-Edge: STAB suicidalness with Choice Band. Double-Edge hurts.

Return: If you're not feeling that suicidal, 102 base damage with no recoil and STAB is a good alternative.

Quick Attack: Deals with Flail/Reversal abusers.

Aerial Ace: I'd rather have Drill Peck, but since Pidgeot can't learn it, AA is your flying move of choice.

HP Fighting: If you absolutely have to try and take down those Aggron or Tyranitar. Choice Band, but don't expect Aggron to fall easily, even with 4 x weakness. Also good for dealing with those part Ice types that will try to Ice Beam you down.

Facade: Ok, it lacks Guts, but a STAB Facade still hurts when your Pidgeot is poisoned. More Choice Band fun.

Steel Wing: As an alternative to HP Fighting. Meh, I'd rather stick with the Hidden Power, at least it's 100% accurate.

Featherdance: Pidgeot works well with it's new signature move, causing problems for Rock types out there. Now it can survive 2 rounds instead of 1 from a Rock Slide.

Strategy: Pidgeot is not a difficult Pokemon to use, if you're prepared to be a bit suicidal. It is one of the primary Choice Band users, with above average speed and decent Attack stats. Take advantage of Pidgeot's speed, and prepare to sweep with some heavy damaging attacks thanks to your new Band. Get ready to switch out often, if you want to keep Pidgeot in play for later.

Friends: Something to shield Pidgeot against Rock Slide, and Beam/Bolt. Magneton covers all 3 weaknesses here, and with HP Water can take care of Rock/Ground types. Also, if you're prepared to Baton Pass some Attack and Speed to help with Pidgeot's Choice Band sweeping, he can be a frightful opponent.

Enemies: Any Rock or Steel Type, as they mess over both of Pidgeot's STAB moves. Aggron and Steelix are the worst, totalling 180 and 200 in Defence respectively. Also, anything with a good Defence like Weezing can cause problems, especially with Will-O-Wisp. You may consider giving Pidgeot Substitute to mess over those slow tanks, but I personally think it's a wasted slot, and pointless with Choice Band, since you can't change attacks.

Sample moveset:
[email protected] Band/Quick Claw
EV: 252 Speed, 252 Attack, 6 Def
Nature: + Att/+Speed, - Sp Att
Double-Edge/Return
Aerial Ace
HP Physical
Quick Attack
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Old October 4th, 2004 (11:45 PM). Edited October 5th, 2004 by Toothache.
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020- Raticate- Normal

Common roles: Physical sweeper

Why?: A rather nippy and sometimes underrated Normal type, with a useful signature move.

Classification: UU

Signature move: Super Fang, Hyper Fang

Overshadowed by: Kangaskhan, Tauros, Linoone, and any Normal type with better defences.

Important Stats:
Base Attack: 81
Base Speed: 97
(It's a land based Pidgeot with better stats)

Common item: Choice Band, Quick Claw, Liechi Berry, Salac Berry

Moves:

Super Fang - No Raticate moveset should be without this move, in my opinion. Unless you're a Ghost type, beware Raticate's Super Fang! It takes off half of any Pokemon's HP, even things that normally resist Normal moves like Steel or Rock types.

Double-Edge: As another common Choice Bander, insert more suicidal fun with a STAB Double-Edge.

Return: The non-suicidal alternative to Double-Edge. Return still gets STAB though...

Body Slam: A less damaging move than Return, but it does add a Paralysis chance to your attacks.

Endeavor: Another good way besides Super Fang to really knock down some HP

Quick Attack: STAB Quick Attack can make mince meat for those poor victims of your Super Fang or Endeavor. Also good for taking out Flail/Reversal users

Facade: Raticate can get Guts, so why not take advantage of it and throw in Facade? Choice Band + STAB + Guts + Facade = Pain!

Shadow Ball: If you want a way to hurt those Ghost types which elude your Fangs.

Counter: Raticate is fast, but there are faster physical sweepers out there. Surprise them with Counter.

Strategy: Using Raticate is not much different than using Pidgeot, except that Raticate has slightly better stats where it counts (Attack and Speed). Unless you're facing a Ghost type, you'll want to generally open up the attacks with Super Fang, immediately taking off 50% of the opponent's HP. If you're not Choice Banding, you won't need to switch to choose another move. If you get poisoned, even better, because Guts and Facade is there to save you. When your opponent is at low HP, Quick Attack can finish the job. With Raticate, it's hit hard and hit often, and it's something he can do well. Baton Passing some Speed and Attack really helps Raticate out.

Switch if you need to change attacks when Choice Banding, or if you're facing a Ghost type with no way of damaging them. Otherwise, Raticate can be used either in a somewhat suicidal manner, perhaps moreso than Pidgeot having worse defences.

Friends: Raticate needs someone to destroy Ghost types for him, unless he has Shadow Ball (but don't count on that even with CB). Someone to tank Fighting moves is an asset, but not completely necessary, since Raticate can't take a huge amount of damage anyway.

Enemies: Most faster (and slower!) sweepers. Dugtrio is perhaps the worst, having higher speed and Arena Trap to keep Raticate from escaping. Also, most Ghost types cause a problem for many Raticate movesets.

Sample moveset:
[email protected] Band/Quick Claw
EV: Attack 252, Speed 252, 6 Defence
Nature: +Speed, - Sp Att
Super Fang
Return/Double-Edge
Shadow Ball
Quick Attack
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Old October 5th, 2004 (9:09 PM).
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022- Fearow- Normal/Flying

Common roles: Physical sweeper

Why?: A better choice than Pidgeot and Raticate with better speed and attack, the only thing stopping this Pokemon becoming overused is below average defences.

Classification: UU

Signature move: Drill Peck

Overshadowed by: Dodrio, Swellow

Important Stats:
Base Attack: 90
Base Speed: 100 (equal to Dodrio)

Common item: Liechi Berry, Choice Band, Salac Berry

Moves:

Drill Peck/Aerial Ace: I don't know why you'd want to use Aerial Ace when Drill Peck does the job so much better, at a minor loss in accuracy. If you're paranoid about Double Team, choose Aerial Ace, otherwise, the increased power of Drill Peck is more than enough.

Double-Edge/Return: More STAB suicidalness with Double Edge, or if you're not that risky, Return makes for a good alternative.

Quick Attack: Anything Pidgeot can do, Fearow can do better. If your Drill Peck didn't take them out, Quick Attack can finish the job for you.

Substitute/Endure: The former move is good you're paranoid about status effects, or use either if you want that berry to activate.

Facade: Again, no Guts, but still a good way to bump up damage, especially with STAB.

Strategy: It seems to be a common trend about UU Pokemon that they are treated roughly the same. Pidgeot is a decent all round Pokemon, but Raticate is slightly better for it's stats, and Fearow towers over all 3. The difference here is Fearow's stats are pushing into the region of BL, and would be used more often if it could survive a hit or two. With more Attack it could be even a decent physical sweeper, but with it's Attack being just above average, treat it like a better Pidgeot in terms of attacks and tactics. There really isn't a huge amount of difference, except that Pidgeot lacks Drill Peck, while Fearow lacks Featherdance. I know where my money would go.

Friends: Magneton yet again works well like he does for Pidgeot, protecting against all 3 type weaknesses. Otherwise, any physical tank for Rock Slide, or special tanks for Ice Beam and Thunderbolt.

Enemies: Fearow's extra speed and attack do nothing to help it against certain Pokemon, and has the same enemy list as Pidgeot. I personally see Aggron, Steelix and Weezing to be the top three here, but other physical tanks do a good job.

Sample moveset:
[email protected] Berry
EV: 252 Attack, 252 Speed
Nature:+ Attack/+Speed, - Sp Att
Quick Attack
Drill Peck
Return
HP Physical
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Old October 8th, 2004 (9:24 PM). Edited October 11th, 2004 by Toothache.
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024- Arbok- Poison

Common roles: Hazer/Support, Annoyer, Physical Sweeper

Why?: Finally a diverse UU! Arbok can fit into quite a few roles, and also has a rather useful signature move. Both of it's Characteristics are useful as well

Classification: UU

Signature move: Glare

Overshadowed by: Dunsparce, Crobat, Venomoth, Gengar

Important Stats:
Base Speed: 80

Common item: Quick Claw, Lum Berry

Moves:

Glare - A fairly accurate paralysis move, no reason not to have this for Arbok.

Haze - It's not a very fast haze, but it does the job.

Sludge Bomb - The STAB move of choice for Arbok, decent all round damage and poison chance.

Toxic - Everyone can learn this anyway, and it's so useful, why not give this to Arbok? A nice tank destroying move

Poison Fang - Damage and Toxic chance at the same time? Why not...

Protect - For stalling purposes while Toxic and other status effects kick in.

Rock Slide - After paralysis, you can flinch your opponent. Make good use of Rock Slide

Screech - Soften them up before the big finish

Attract/Swagger - Combine the paralysis fun with Attract or Swagger

Return/Double Edge/HP Physical/Earthquake - The rest of Arbok's attack moves

Strategy: Arbok is a diverse pokemon, capable of fitting in a wide variety of roles. Arbok gets Haze, so he can be a hazer. Arbok can get Intimidate, Glare, Attract and Swagger, making him good for annoyance. Arbok gets a decent selection of physical moves, making him a good physical attacker. In any of these roles, Glare is almost a must. It's a paralysis move that Ground types aren't immediately immune to, unlike the ever-common Thunder Wave, and it helps the rest of the team. It's a risky tactic, since Ground types are going to open up the damage against Arbok with Earthquake. But when facing Dugtrio, it's your only option (unless for some reason Dugtrio doesn't OHKO you, pile on the status effects and have fun)

As a hazer, I personally don't think Arbok is the best for the role, having fairly low to average defences. But if you're looking for a hazer in an Intimidate team, Arbok can do the job quite nicely.

As an annoyer, you got quite a few status effects to pile up. Glare is almost always the first thing to do, slowing them down makes it easier for the rest of the team. Then, just pile on your choice of Attract, Swagger, Screech or Toxic (if you're facing a tank or something Limber, I'd use Toxic instead of Glare). I'd personally lose Attract in favour of Swagger plus Screech, because when they hit themselves, it's really going to hurt, and it's a more universal tactic than the gender-specific Attract.

Of course, Arbok has a good Attack stat, just barely above average (85 base), making it a choice for a physical attacker. STAB moves include Sludge Bomb, or if you'd rather have Toxic type poison, Poison Fang. And, of course, Arbok gets the usual selection of physical moves. Clearly not the best for attacking, I'd say annoyance was the best for Arbok.

If you're paranoid about status effects on Arbok, give him a Lum Berry, and Shed Skin. I'd rather give him Intimidate, cos it helps out the rest of the team against physical sweepers. Otherwise, just choose what you want Arbok to do, and go with it.

Friends: Weezing, having immunity to Earthquake, or any flying type, definately helps for Arbok. Something to destroy Substitute users helps, Double Kick Blaziken works well (since many Subbers are Normal types). Also, have a good Dark or Psychic type for blocking those incoming Psychic attacks.

Enemies: Dugtrio once again does well against Arbok, trapping and ending it's life with Earthquake. Arbok's enemy list is fairly large, including all psychic types, and anything with Earthquake (about 50% of the entire Pokemon list!).

Sample moveset:
[email protected] Berry
EV: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 6 Def
Nature: +Speed, - Sp Att
Glare
Rock Slide
Sludge Bomb
HP Physical
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Old October 12th, 2004 (6:22 PM).
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*cough* too bad for all of you, it's bad to me for the Advanced Battledex again *cough*

025 + 026- Pikachu, Raichu- electric, electric

Common roles (Pikachu): special sweeper
Common roles (Raichu): special sweeper, mix sweeper, annoyer, healer

Classifications: UU for both

Why?: Low stats really scar them badly. Speed isn't exactly that fast either, preventing these two rats to sweep. Defenses? They don't exist for these 2 Pokemon.

Signature Move: Volt Tackle

Overshadowed by: Manectric, Raikou, Zapdos, Lanturn, Gengar

Important Stats (Pikachu):
-Speed always at 306
-Special attack always at 398

Important Stats (Raichu):
-base atk: 90
-base speed: 100
-base sp.atk: 90

Common items (Pikachu): Always light ball
Common items (Raichu): lum berry, leftovers, petaya berry, salac berry

Moves (both):

-Volt Tackle
No reason not to use it if you got Emerald. Not like these rats can survive, so go ahead and blast them apart. If you don't have Emerald or if you're using other specialized egg moves, thunderbolt will have to make do. Using this means you're sacrificing surf though.

-Surf
Another good move to use for a special attack, but using surf means sacrificing Volt Tackle.

-HP Special/Physical
The only other way for them to learn special based moves. HP physical is also used at random times for Raichu.

-thunderwave/toxic/swagger/attract/sweet kiss
All the annoying moves that they can ever learn.

-agility
The only way to boost stats for them... Terribly powerful if Pikachu managed to pull this off in a UU tournament.

-Substitute
A good way to lower stats to activate berries for Raichu, and it can block some attacks too... Works for subpunching Raichu, or reversal.

-Focus Punch/Reversal
For raichu only... if you're using sub, hey you may want to try. Also can work with some luck if you paralyzed/confused them already. Reversal works with continous usage of substitute as well.

-Brick break/body slam/return/HP Physical
All the ohter physical attacks out there...

-Wish
The healing move for Pikachu and Raichu... you may want to make a wish before you go out in a bang, for the benefit of the team.

-Theif
If Raichu is on a way to be annoying... you can consider this move perhaps?

-Rain Dance
Surf and thunder... may work on rain dance themed teams. So consider it if your team is based on this weather effect.

-Quick attack
To finish off reversal/flail users and so on...

-Reflect/Light Screen
yes they can learn both pseudopass... it can prove to be useful at times.

-Encore
Can work very well if substitute blocked a status effect, or if the opponent leads off with a non-damaging move. Needs a lot of work in terms of predicting what's the opponent up so, but it's very powerful once you picked up the skill.

-Seismic Toss
100 steady dmg.. it's always nice.

Strategy (Pikachu):
Generally, check if you strike first, and if you do, attack with all your might. You can't survive a hit at all no matter how hard you try... shock everything, and HP/Surf everything else with your boosted special attacks with light ball. On the verge of death (in cases where you know that you're doomed), unleash a team helping move such as possibly wish, a pseudopass, or an annoying move like thunderwave.

Strategy (Raichu):
Not that much differences, just that you're faster at the cost of no light ball, which is a pity. Pikachu is generally more useful than Raichu too due to Light ball. But, Raichu can actually survive a bit if a pseudopass is setup. Also, you got a few more options to be annoying, with moves like sweet kiss and thunderwave. You can also physical attack now with focus punch, brick break and so on. This can give you a mix sweeping ability... somewhat.

Friends: Just like any other UU, anyone who got the decent stats will be a good friend for these two. Not much to say... In a UU tourney, Kangaskan, Gligar and Tangela are both awesome friends as physical tanks for Pikachu/Raichu, to escape from annoying earthquakers and so on. Clefable, Mr.Mime and all of the alike are all good Pokemon for special sponges.

Enemies:
-Lanturn
Sucks up electricity, and it's resistant to surf... HP Ice is also useless, leaving you with HP Grass only. Lanturn also got rest in standard moveset, so you're helpless.

-Dugtrio/Diglett/Trapinch
Both of them are enough to earthquake you for a OHKO. Trapinch with boosted speed is also terrifying in UU tourneys.

-Anyone faster
Generally, if they can strike Pikachu/Raichu before they can act, it's almost a gurantee OHKO. Raichu got a bit of chance to survive in sp.def though... a little.

-Blissey
It's gg... Raichu can have focus punch, but smart Blisseys will always unleash seismic toss asap so your sub will break immediately, and Raichu's focus punch will never be strong enough to OHKO a Blissey. A smart Blissey will always win regardless of focus punch or not for Raichu, unless it's severely injured already.

-Dodrio
NO! Dodrio is faster than Pikachu... don't even try. There are too many Pikachu dying out there for no good reasons, because they think that they can outspeed Dodrio.

-Endure
For Pikachu who got a easily predictable moveset, endure can easily be abused to activate those salac berries, and if you don't have quick attack...

Sample Moveset (Pikachu):
Pikachu- [speed + / atk -] @ light ball
EV: speed and sp.atk
-volt tackle/thunderbolt
-wish
-quick attack/surf
-HP Grass/Ice

Sample Moveset (Raichu):
Raichu- [atk or sp.atk + / def -] @ leftovers
EV: atk, speed max, sp.atk
-substitute/Hidden Power
-focus punch/reversal
-wish/light screen
-thunderbolt/volt tackle
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Old October 13th, 2004 (6:27 PM).
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028- Sandslash- ground

Common roles: physical attacker, minor utility

Classifications: UU

Why?: Overshadowed by too many other Pokemon...

Signature move: Sandstorm

Overshadowed by: Flygon, Dugtrio, Kangaskan, Donphan, Gligar

Important Stats:
-base 75 hp
-base 100 atk
-base 110 def

Common items: leftovers, brightpowder, quick claw, chesto berry

Moves:

-Earthquake/Rock Slide/Brick Break/Aerial Ace/Return/HP Physical
All of Sandslash's direct attack move

-Sandstorm
If you're using a sandstorm themed team, such as a SST team, then it's worth considering... you also got sand veil so it may not be too bad.

-Double team
If you're going with sandstorm, might as well throw this on with brightpowder and try for some luck.

-Focus Punch/Substitute
With enough skill, you don't necessarily need substitute to use it well. Sandslash isn't that bad at using substitute, because the chance of Sandslash going last is quite often the case.

-Seismic Toss
A nice 100 damage in the bag...

-Counter
Good defense to burn off, so why not try counter?

-Swords Dance
Boosting a powerful attack is always nice...

-Toxic
For an annoying sandslash, it can be pretty helpful.

-Rapid spin
Remove spikes and leech seed... not that bad at all.

-Protect
To gain some protection to stall off for leftovers to heal... also a good weapon against Slaking.

-Flail
Not really recommanded since Sandslash's attack isn't too high for a flail user, and you got no STAB to work on top of it.

-Body slam
Got a nice paralysis rate for it, so give it some consideration.

-Mimic
A nice way to get some unique physical attacks, if you know that they're coming this way.

-Endure
The attack that's always there to help with berry abuse and flail...

-Swagger
If a good defense, swagger may not be too bad... and you are encouraging physical attacks too, so might as well give counter a shot at it. Not really that useful, but it can produce some interesting battles.

-Dynamicpunch
For a good 50% you get a devastating attack. It's actually worth the risk sometimes, and certainly has its use.

-Safeguard
A move that's very useless, yet very specialized in destroying Dusclops and Weezing. Use safeguard to lead off (you're faster than these two tankers), while Weezing/Dusclops follow with the standard will o wisp. With safeguard protecting you, Sandslash can freely enter a setup while Weezing's thunderbolt, flamethrower and sludgebomb attacks are scratching you (and Dusclops will be forced to use night shade/seismic toss, so you can switch into a ghost/normal type accordingly.) Rather powerful and strategical, but completely useless if you aren't against these two Pokemon.

Strategy:
It's rather simple... go up against physical attackers only. Attack with your desired physical attackers to knock out the opponent asap. Use safeguard against weezing and dusclops if you have it. Setup substitute and then focus punch when the situation needs it, such as against Snorlax, Skarmory or Blissey. Use swords dance if you think that you can survive the incoming next 2 attacks, or counter/mimic if you're tanking physical hits. Rapid spin away any leech seed or spike as soon as possible. Use Toxic or Swagger asap if you're planning to be a little bit annoying with Sandslash. Feel free to use rest (with or without chesto, it's up to you) if you're low on hp.

If you're using the evasive Sandslash strategy, be sure that the opponent got no hazer or else your effort is useless. Setup sandstorm if you got it, and use double team. Attack continously if you got all evasions setup. Brightpowder as the item will help out a bit as well. After the setup, either continue on with swords dance or attack directly.

Friends: Sandslash is in need of friends who will take care of the special sweepers. Sandslash cannot withstand any special attacks at all. Milotic, Blissey and Vaporeon are all good special sponges. You may also want to add in a Crobat to the same team to handle Sceptile. Flygon and Claydol are both major threats, so you should plan of some way to handle them too. In my opinion, Vaporeon is still Sandslash's best friend, as it can take care of many of Sandslash's enemy (just not Sceptile), along with a helpful wish attack.

Enemies:
-Flygon/Claydol
With resistance to both earthquake and rock slide, you're really left with very limited material to fight against them. They also share the ground type with Sandslash to be strong against sandstorm in SST. Rather annoying and dangerous opponents...

-mixed sweepers
Really, Sandslash can't stand any special attacks besides thunderbolt and flamethrower. Watch for mixed sweepers like Dragonite.

-special attackers
For obvious reasons...

-Weezing/Skarmory/Physical tankers
They suck up whatever damage Sandslash is doing, and they may have counter up their own sleeves as well...

Sample Moveset:

Sandslash- [atk + / sp.atk -] @ leftovers
EV: hp, atk, def
-earthquake
-rock slide
-brick break
-rapid spin
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Old October 30th, 2004 (2:34 AM).
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031/034- Nidoqueen, Nidoking- Ground/Poison

Common Roles:
Sweeper, counter-user

Classifications: UU

Why?:
It's the nerf-stick from the EV system... both of these Pokemon suffered majorly when EV is introduced, just like any Pokemon with all average stats. Sadly, Nidoking/queen has also become a noob-detector. Should you ever see a Nidoking on netbattle, there's a 90% chance that you're against an ingame-competitive hybrid who's still learning, or just an ingame moron. Don't know what's with these people's obsession with starters and Nidoking, really...

Signature Move:
Megahorn (Nidoking), Superpower (Nidoqueen)

Overshadowed by:
Dugtrio, Flygon, Heracross, Crobat, Wobbuffet

Important Stats:
-everything is average, *absolutely* everything

Common items:
Choice band (Nidoking), lum berry, salac berry, liechi berry, leftovers, white herb (Nidoqueen)

Moves:

-Megahorn (Nidoking)/Superpower(Nidoqueen)/Earthquake/Sludgebomb/Rock Slide/Brick break/Shadow ball/return/body slam/aerial ace
A *huge* physical attack movepool... too bad the stats are so average...

-Thunderbolt/Ice beam/Flamethrower/Crunch (Nidoqueen)
The special department isn't at all that bad either... you got the 3 basics

-taunt/torment/roar/toxic
The annoying category... really only roar is usable though. These attacks are generally useful, but not so sure about toxic and taunt. Torment isn't bad on Nidoqueen too, who's a lot more defensive than Nidoking.

-counter
I can't even try to think of a Nidoqueen moveset without it...

-Seismic toss
A steady good 100 damage, again more for Nidoqueen than Nidoking who's more defensive

-Substitute/Fous punch
Classical combination, but really doesn't work out that well at all because this strategy works if your speed is either slow beyond description, or if you got an awesome tanking ability... and Nidos being in between everything, don't have any of these abilities. However, you can always just focus punch at the right time with skill?

-Protect
More stalling moves if you decide to go the annoying way with toxic...

-Rest
If you're stalling with Nidoqueen, this is just what you need... along with a chesto berry.

-Swords dance (Nidoking)
Of course we think of Nidoking first before Nidoqueen when we're talking about this move, due to Nidoking's naturally more offensive stats. This game can be quite sexist sometimes...

-Endure
A common method to activate some berries, and works very nicely too if there's no quick attackers.

-Charm (Nidoqueen)
Really *really* helps with Nidoqueen and physical tanking... as long as you don't see earthquakers (is that possible?), Charm will really come through. Though a switch will make things go bad, you do get a free turn during the switch.

-Horn Drill (Nidoking)
Ready for some hax scores...? Desperate moments may want you to use some desperate moves.

Strategy:
Not very likable for both of them... with their stats so average that it turns out to be below average... it's the Kingdra disease, and why people uses Omastar instead of Kingdra now. Average everything seriously sucks in the realm of advanced battles.

Nidoking is generally just a sweeper with 3 or even 4 physical attacks, 3 of them you already know that it's going to be earthquake, sludge bomb and megahorn. The last one is either shadow ball or swords dance... Very predictable, and that's not a good thing. Makes a nice choice bander, however. Occassionally Nidoking will revert back to the GSC days of packing fire blast as well, though this doesn't work as well as before of course due to EVs...

As for Nidoqueen, the crowd's idea of Nidoqueen is that Nidoqueen is inferior to Nidoking itself. However, her slightly stronger defensive ability does give her some room to move around. Counter is very useful on Nidoqueen. You got high hp to burn off for it, along with an alluring type to "please quake me so I can counter you in return." Charm can be useful sometimes to really put a dent in the opponent's power just like will o wisp, allowing you to enter setup of toxic or various annoying strategies. Nidoqueen packs superpower for a last resort offensive move sometimes, and it can hurt more than we like to imagine. However, that's one-shot only as the attack power goes away after first usage.

Friends:
-just like any other UU, it makes friends with Pokemon who got higher stats XD Really, their type isn't that good and is weak to quite a bit. The physical department is a lot better though, being weak only to ground.

Enemies:
-Dugtrio
Once again, infamous arena trap does the trick... earthquake and OHKO, and that's guranteed.

-Weezing/Skarmory
Obviously... physical tanks are major threats for Nidoking as this will effect its sweeping power.

-Gengar
Poison/Ground immunity means that things are going bad and are going wrong. It's also immune to counter, and a strong sp.atk with the ability to learn psychic/ice punch is just terrible.

-anyone faster with earthquake
Just like Dugtrio, but at least against these guys you can switch out... Nidoqueen with a heavy defensive setup can survive an earthquake from most Pokemon that's not STAB/no choice band boost though.

-special sweepers
You're weak to so many special attacks that you can't help to wonder why did Flatter land on these 2 Pokemon out of all 386 out there? Weak to water, ice and psychic is no laughing matters, as these attacks are very common. Starmie automatically comes to our minds, and then you get to Calmcune, Slowbro and Porygon2 and the list goes on and on...

Sample Moveset

Nidoking- [speed + / sp.atk -] @ choice band
EV: attack and speed
-megahorn
-shadow ball
-earthquake
-sludgebomb

Nioqueen- [def + / atk -] @ leftovers
EV: hp, def
-counter
-flamethrower/thunderbolt
-protect
-seismic toss
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Old October 30th, 2004 (3:49 AM). Edited November 21st, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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036- Clefable- Normal


Common Roles: Tanker, pseudopasser, team healer, annoyer, special sweeper, and rarely belly drummer

Classifications: BL, slowly becoming even more common

Why?: A tank with just the right stats and movepool to calm mind very well, it's just not as popular as Slowbro only because it wasn't too appealing in the past and people never checked its stats in the advanced world... HUGE movepool to work with.

Signature Move:
Metrenome

Overshadowed By: Suicune, Mewtwo, Mew, Raikou (all legendaries anyway...)

Important Stats:
-base 95 hp
-base 73 def
-base 85 sp.atk
-base 90 sp.def
-base atk 70
-base speed 60

Common items: leftovers

Moves:
-Ice beam/psychic/magical leaf/flamethrower/thunderbolt
A huge movepool for special attacks... HUGE... but it usually ends up using boltbeam anyway XD

-Calm mind/Cosmic Power/Amnesia
Either of them are powerful stat increasing moves that Clefable should definitely consider. Calm mind works well to make Clefable a special staller and the ability to special sweep, while cosmic power gives you heavy stalling power. Both of them are very useful. Amnesia is specially dedicated to anti-Raikou together with seismic toss XD

-Belly drum
Yes Clefable has belly drum, and anything using belly drum is a potential danger. Clefable's speed however isn't helping very much... even with salac it's still very slow

-Brick break/shadow ball/return/meteor mash
Physical attacks... not that bad.

-Wish/Softboil
Both of them are healing moves, and are both very nice as well...

-Sing/Toxic/Seismic toss/Encore/sweet kiss/thunderwave
All of them are good moves to have if you want to be annoying, or is using cosmic power instead of calm mind.

-Counter

With that high hp, it's certainly worth considering for counter...

-reflect/light screen
Pseudopass is also available, which is a blessing... even more moves to choose!

Strategy:
Currently, this pink cutie pie is getting increasingly popular, though I've always used one and never fought one before... but that's the comments I'm getting when my opponents go "oh no another Clefable!" Standard is usually calm mind + softboil + 2 random special attacks, so it's very predictable yet still difficult to manage for your opponent. Use calm mind accordingly on top of the high hit points, and slowly go up in stats. Use heal in between, and then start sweeping after a few calm mind. Clefable is relatively weak in sp.atk compare to all other calm minders, but it is also one of the few calm minders who can tank so well along with self heal. Works just like all othe calm minders, like Slowbro. In fact, its tankability can definitely rival Slowbro. It has a fighting weakness which Slowbro is resistant to, but Clefable got no other weakness while Slowbro got electric/dark/grass/ghost weakness and so on...

You can also go cosmic power, amnesia or the pseudopasses instead. Set those up, and then launch your toxic, seismic toss, thunderwave and various things to annoy your opponent. If you got sing, use it before you enter setup. With a good hp, self healing with wish or softboil, you'll be tough to beat just like a Blissey. Use counter if you can just foresee an incoming physical attack too.

Pseudopasses here doesn't give you as much tanking ability as calm mind or cosmic power, but it allows you to work with wish and keep switching around, while calm mind/cosmic power forces you to stay in battle, as otherwise you'll lose your calm mind or cosmic power.

Friends:
Snorlax, Zangoose and steel types are all good friends of Clefable, as they're all resistant to toxic, something Clefable is terribly afraid of. Physical tanks are always useful to handle Clefable's fighting weakness. Something to counter sublax will definitely be helpful (however, currently no specific Sublax counter is available, as absolutely no one has thought of one yet >>; )

Enemies:
-Toxic
What's the point of calm minding and cosmic powering so much if toxic is just going to waste you over in a few turns? It forces you to either die, or switch out to lose all those buffs...

-Snorlax
A superior special tank who got brick break, and that's bad news... if you're going seismic tossing, it won't work either. Toxic is stopped by immunity as well. You're just messed.

-Medicham
Hi Jump Kick is not something you should try to counter... it's STAB, 85 power and is used by someone with 400+ attack power?

-Vaporeon/Hazers
All hazers are dangerous as they can destroy your setups. Pokemon such as Vaporeon are all possible and potential dangers...

-Blissey
Unless you already got 6 calm minds, you won't be going anywhere against this thing, and your softboil will run out a lot sooner than Blissey's too.

-Shedinja
Wonderguard > Boltbeam

Sample Moveset:

Clefable- [sp.atk or sp.def + / atk -] @ leftovers
EV: hp, sp.atk, sp.def
-softboil
-calm mind
-thunderbolt
-ice beam
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Old October 30th, 2004 (3:50 AM). Edited November 2nd, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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038- Ninetales- Fire

Common Roles: annoyer

Classifications: BL (debatable, as comments say that its popularity ranges from both UU to even OU. I just took BL, which is in-between.)

Why?: With will o wisp and confuse ray as its two useful signature move, Ninetales is definitely one of the best annoyer. High sp.def and decent hp isn't bad either. If it's not a fire type, it WILL be an OU, as an alternative to Dusclops.

Signature Move: Will o Wisp

Overshadowed By: Dusclops

Important Stats:
-speed base 100 (328 maximum with nature bonus)
-sp.def base 100

Common items:
leftovers, starf berry (possibly), lum berry

Moves:
-Will o Wisp
A definite must have for Ninetales, for Ninetales isn't Ninetales without it. It causes a good amount of indirect damage, and dividing the opponent's attack power by 2 isn't bad at all! It's a poison + charm all at once, and it can't be hazed away by switching. A must have!

-Confuse ray/protect/substitute
Both of these moves provide stalling time, making it even more difficult for the opponent to harm Ninetales. Confuse ray promotes switching because it gives the opponent a very hard time. Protect is the safest, but Substitute can block some status attacks.

-Hypnosis
It does have it, though having hypnosis mean no will o wisp... which is rather a bad trade for most situations. But if sleep clause is off, a sleep themed team is always... dangerous.

-Flamethrower/overheat
The only special attacks that Ninetales can learn and are decent. You do get STAB, so it isn't bad. Overheat does a lot more damage, but the drop in sp.atk hurts a lot.

-Fire Spin
Indirect damage which is quite ideal if the accuracy is at 100%. However, it discourages switching so you really can't pyroshuffle. Fire spin is a lot more offensive, as you burnt the opponent along with fire spin for long term damage, and throw out defensive moves to stall.

-Reflect

Even more defences, which is just wonderful! Pseudopass ability along with will o wisp stacking up means death for all physical attackers, unless they got earthquake, rock slide or brick break of course >>; which is common.

-Safeguard
You may want to use it someday... great attack to have against specialized situations. Generally useless, but against certain Pokemon like Breloom, Smeragle, and other status-reliant Pokemon, it's very helpful.

-Quick attack

A quick attacker is there for you if you're desperate for it.

-Mimic
One strategical way for Ninetales to get some moves to help its very limiting movepool. Nothing better than forcing a burn on Blissey to lure it to heal bell, and then take heal bell for yourself.

-Rest

It's nice for any tanks to get some way to recover hp, and for Ninetales, that'll be chesto rest.

Strategy:

Not a difficult Pokemon to use at all, as you only have so many moves to choose from. Will o wisp or hypnosis is a must already, along with various other annoying moves. Your only method to attack is either one of the fire moves (or quick attack if that even counts). Rest is the only way to heal. Your choices are rather limited, so it shouldn't be too hard to make the moveset.

Burn anything you see (as long as they don't have synchronize.) Then setup your annoying or defensive moves, such as substitute, safeguard, reflect, confuse ray or protect to stall for time. Attack with your fire attacks if you have the time to. Use rest to gain lost hp if possible. If the going seems to be rather tough for your opponent, don't be afraid to risk and use will o wisp again even if the opponent's current Pokemon is already burnt, as you maybe able to catch Pokemon on switches.

Balancing Ninetales' EV is by far the most difficult part about using Ninetales. A high speed and sp.def means that you can pull off burnt quickly and can stall a bit in sp.def, but a weak defense and hp won't help you survive physical attacks even if you used will o wisp. Balancing hp and def will result in a slow ninetales, which isn't good at all either. You'll have to take a good balance. Generally, Ninetales get max speed and the rest of the 256 points are to be spread out through hp + def or sp.def (hardly all 3 though.)

DO NOT use roar on Ninetales, regardless of how many peoople recommand so. The chance of roaring something out and then you need to run instead is rather very high, and roaring out Dugtrio isn't helping at all. You don't have the defense to survive the roar really...

Friends: Though Ninetales does seem to have wonderful ability to stall physical moves as the opponent's damage can be as much as divided by 4 (will o wisp and reflect.) Confuse ray or protect makes things hard too. But this can't be done without quite a hideous setup length, so Ninetales still need a good physical tank to run to. Good sp.def isn't too helpful when your hp isn't *that* high enough to be useful.

Enemies:
-Dugtrio
You got no hope. You can't switch either, so gg.

-Anything faster/SE attacks
Really, Ninetales cannot survive something like that. Though it is somewhat tanky, it can't tank anything that's super effective. Even out of the slow ones, Ninetales will have a very difficult time handing incoming super effective moves.

-Jolteon
Jolteon doesn't have any super effective move, but it does have substitute, which is enough to mess over a vast majority of Ninetale's movepool. Fire attacks alone won't be breaking the sub fast enough in comparison to the damage that Jolteon can do to you with thunderbolt (and giving you a TWave will make things even worst.)

-*Exeggutor
If Ninetales isn't full hp and got EVs invested into sp.def, Exeggutor will actually win. Ninetales will go first and generally lead off with a fire attack. Exeggutor will of course use sunny day, but chlorophyll will double Exeggutor's speed, outrunning Ninetales, and a STAB Psychic can OHKO Ninetales if it doesn't have any sp.def. You can win against it, but you won't *always* win against Exeggutor.

-taunt
You lose all of your moves but fire attacks... good luck and good grief

-encore
It's very easy to predict that Ninetales will lead off with a status attack, which the opponent can just encore directly and you'll be stuck using will o wisp 2 to 5 continous turns. During this precious moments... a few setup moves to mess you over please?

-Water Veil
Ninetales is one of the last thing on earth that makes Seaking look good.

Sample Moveset:

Ninetales- [speed + / atk -] @ leftovers
EV: speed, hp, def
-will o wisp
-confuse ray
-reflect
-flamethrower
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Old November 2nd, 2004 (5:27 PM). Edited November 3rd, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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040- Wigglytuff- normal


Common Roles: a bit of everything, but doesn't excel at any of them

Classifications: UU

Why?: Crappy stats in anyway possible but hp... Blissey anyone?

Signature Move: Sing

Overshadowed By:
Blissey, Dunsparce, Wobbuffet, Jynx, Muk, Kangaskan, Clefable, and on and on...

Important Stats:

-Base hp 140 (max hp is 484)

Common items: leftovers

Moves:


-brick break/focus punch/dynamic punch/return/doubel edge/body slam/shadow ball/brick break
Like most non-flying normal types, Wigglytuff can learn almost anything.

-ice beam/flamethrower/thunderbolt/psychic/water pulse/solarbeam (sunny day only)
A huge movepool for special attack as well, and it's always good to have a big movepool.

-Sing/Toxic/Thunderwave/Sweet Kiss
Status attacks can be rather crucial for Wigglytuff, as you really got nothing else to use. These attacks really increase Wigglytuff's survivability or offensive ability (Toxic). You're almost certain to use one of them.

-Seismic Toss
100 damage with no EV cost is always nice... you'll be needed your EVs in HP definitely, and the defences too.

-Counter
If you're reading this battledex from entry 1 to now, you should know that anything with high hp is very likely to have counter, as really high hp to burn off the counter is always nice.

-Light Screen/Reflect
These moves are lifesaving for Wigglytuff, as your defense is so terrible. High hp, along with maxed defence and one of these barriers will always be helpful. However, having fighting weakness along with being highly dependent on pseudopasses will result in asking someone to brick break you =/

-Mimic
If you're lucky, mimic will give you some helpful attacks to use, such as a self healing move, or a status boosting attack.

-Substitute
You can withstand a seismic toss with sub, as the sub has more than 100hp. Together with focus punch, it can damage Blissey quite a bit (hopefully)

-Defense curl
Desperate Pokemon may need some desperate moves...?

-Rest
If you're using this to try to abuse the 480ish high hp, better take a chesto with you then.

-Fake tears
Makes special attacks much more ideal than physical for Wigglytuff if you're planning to sweep with Wigglytuff.

Strategy:
-What can I say... lead off with your status attacks, and then setup any defenses immediately if you got some. Use counter if you forsee an incoming physical attack and you think that you can live from it. Then afterward, use fake tears once if you want (and if you got special attack), then attack as much as you can with hope of some hax. No strategy at all... just a standard Pokemon who can only hope for the best.

-However, it's always a fun thing to do to lure out physical attackers who can't stat boost itself, and counter them in return. A naturally low def will catch many inexperienced players off guard to mistaken things to be an OHKO.

Friends:
-Just like any UU... best friend with tankers so they got someone to run to. A Pokemon with wish and your good judgement/skill is also very helpful for Wigglytuff. If it can get a heal from a teammate through wish, it's certainly a good thing.

Enemies:
-(your standard UU enemies... Gengar, Calm minding legendaries, and various beasts like that... not even going to bother listing them all)

Sample Moveset:

Wigglytuff- [def + / sp.atk -] @ leftovers
EV: hp, def
-light screen
-counter
-thunder wave
-seismic toss
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Old November 2nd, 2004 (11:49 PM). Edited November 21st, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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045/182- Vileplume/Bellosum- grass/poison, grass

Common Roles: heal beller, special sweeper

Classifications: UU/NU

Why?: Vileplume is overshadowed by the other heal bellers, and Bellosum is overshadowed by Vileplume itself

Signature Move: Petal Dance

Overshadowed By: Celebi, Miltank, Blissey, Exeggutor, Granbul, Venusaur, Parasect

Important Stats:
-Vileplume base sp.atk 100
-Bellosum base sp.atk 90
-both's base atk 80

Common items: leftovers, lum berry (sunnybeamer), petaya berry, liechi berry

Moves:
-Sunny Day
Chlorophyll to abuse along with solarbeam... the only thing Bellosum can do. Vileplume can also use it, and not too bad at it too.

-Solarbeam (with sunny day only)/giga drain/magical leaf (Bellosum only)

Like any grass Pokemon, extremely limited movepool

-Sludgebomb/return
The only 2 physical attacks... this means using HP is a must.

-Flail/Endure

It actually has one more! But with such low speed, you'll NEED to have sunny day up with at least one swords dance in order to even attempt a sweep. Kabutops with 360+ attack using flail cannot OHKO everything (even if no resistance), can Vileplume/Bellosum pull this off? Use endure to help if you have room.

-Stun Spore/Sleep Powder/Toxic
Sleep powder is recommanded over the other two unless your entire team is rather theme based on paralyzing/toxic-ing the opponent. You NEED one of these moves, or perhaps even double powder.

-Swords Dance (recommanded for Vileplume only)
Not that Bellosum can't use swords dance, but Bellosum don't have the STAB Vileplume gets from sludge bomb.

-Synthesis/Moonlight/Rest
Powerful moves to have, as they can heal along with receiving a power boost if used together with sunny day. Rest can also be used for healing and even remove toxic for bellosum.

-Aromatherapy (Vileplume only)
Vileplume got a good deal to get aromatherapy as a move, while poor Bellosum got magical leaf, which is inferior to Aromatherapy.

-Charm
If you want to tank slightly, charm isn't too bad as long as you don't get hit by a SE attack, which means bug, flying, poison >>:

Strategy:
-With such a limited movepool, what strategy can you possibly have? Start the battle by your status attacks or charm (watch out for substitute users), or use sunny day to start the speed boost. Then either swords dance up to attack if the opponent is affected by a status attack, or start attacking with solarbeam or hidden power. Vileplume can also use aromatherapy if the team needs the assistance. Besides Armoatherapy, Exeggutor can do the exact same thing, but just a lot better at special sweeping.

The movepool is so limited that HP is a must use for almost anything you do with these two Pokemon. You may not want to even bother if you're playing offline without cheats.

Friends:
-Refer to the list of friends for any UU Pokemon... standard 2 types of tanks to run to, and someone to take care of its enemies (and there's plenty)

Enemies:
-Houndoom/Any fire type
You're just so dead... and giving Houndoom the free sunny day is not going to help your team at all. Any other fire type can also enjoy the sunny day boost and have no fear at all. All they need is a lum berry to fend off the incoming powders, then defeat you the next turn.

-Blissey/Regice/Milotic*/Suicune*
Once again, powerful special tanks can mess you over. Milotic and Suicune with mirror coat is also deadly if you don't play your moves right.

-Tentacruel
High sp.def, with poison type neutralizing the power of solarbeam is a bad thing. Tentacruel also got a STAB sludge bomb, and swords dancing ability too. Mirror coat can hurt a lot as well.

-Shedinja
Wonder guard

Sample Moveset:
Note: Vileplume's moveset listed here is actually not the most user friendly's moveset available. Refer to Bellosum's for the most user friendly moveset. Whatever Bellosum can do, Vileplume can also do it so you can directly transfer the moves over.

Vileplume- [atk + / sp.atk -] @ leftovers
EV: atk, def, hp
-sleep powder
-sludge bomb
-aromatherapy
-HP Rock

Bellosum- [sp.atk + / atk -] @ petaya berry
EV: sp.atk, speed
-sunny day
-solarbeam
-HP Fire
-sleep powder (or aromatherapy for Vileplume)
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Old November 4th, 2004 (12:39 PM). Edited November 21st, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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047- Parasect- bug/grass

Common Roles: heal beller with physical attacking ability

Classifications: UU

Why?: A poor and extreme type combination along with the fact that it's overshadowed... limited movepool doesn't help either.

Signature Move: Spore

Overshadowed By: Breloom, Blissey, Miltank, All bug type physical sweepers

Important Stats:
-base attack 95
-base def 80
-base sp.def 80

Common items: quick claw, leftovers

Moves:
-Spore/Stun Spore {Must have at least 1}
Parasect's all time famous signature move until Breloom stole its copyright. The best sleep incuding move in the game. Why don't you want it? Stun spore can also be used in place of spore, or both if you want to double powder. Either way, Parasect should have at least one of them.

-Armoatherapy {Must have}
As if you got better stuff to do... plus having aromatherapy is quite a rare skill to have too!

-Return/Sludgebomb/Aerial Ace
The only 3 usable offensive damaging moves you can get for Parasect... sad. Really needs signal beam so it doesn't have to rely on HP Bug.

-Swords Dance
Offensive setup move which isn't bad. You do have spore to buy you the time in some occassions.

-Light screen

You can get this through breeding, but not through TM. Light screen can be helpful for the team, and base sp.def isn't too bad at all... right on average. Light screen can really boost that, making Parasect quite powerful against the opponent as long as the opponent cannot SE attack Parasect, which sadly is not hard at all.

-Counter
Not too much hp to burn off counter, but still plausible. Light screen can be used to encourage counter as well.

-Mimic

If you can successfully mimic a good attack, it is VERY helpful for Parasect to help out the poor movepool.

Strategy:
-again, UU got not much strategy. Lead off with one of the powders, and/or light screen. Swords dance up to attack now, or use aromatherapy to heal the team. Afterward (or if you don't have swords dance/the need for aromatherapy), unleash your best physical attack in hopes of some damage done. That's all to Parasect... one pattern, and very predictable one too.

-Weak to poison, fire, ice, rock, bug and flying as the major worries is not a good thing at all. There will be a LOT of switching for using Parasect. You really have to know the common movesets of every Pokemon very well, as Parasect can be either very hagile or very strong if you can abuse its unique yet radical type (it's either weak to something or very resistant against another, which is quite extreme)

-in a UU competition, Parasect is one of the last 4 aromatherapist allowed to use, along with Granbul, Vileplume and Chimecho. Parasect is generally used more often than the others (no idea why Granbul is UU even for a UU competition), due to the rare spore attack.

Friends:
-standard UU friends... tanks to run to, and stuff to take care of its common weakness. Being weak to so many types isn't a good thing, which means that Parasect will need to be running a LOT.

Enemies:
-Primeape, Vigoroth, Banette, Hypno
All 4 of them are quite useful in UU competitions, and all of them got anti-spore ability. Immune to sleep, they will be a great threat to Parasect, especially when Vigoroth got an attractive movepool to use for UU competitions.

-Shedinja
Wonder guard

-lum berry/chesto berry
They're also here to stop your spore, which is worth worrying about.

Sample Moveset:

Parasect- [atk or sp.def + / sp.atk -] @ quick claw
EV: hp, atk, sp.def
-aromatherapy
-spore
-HP Bug
-light screen/swords dance

(note: feel free to take out light screen for either counter or another attack, but if you're doing so, the nature should be either attack or def + instead, and shift all sp.def EV into def EV if using counter)
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Old November 5th, 2004 (11:59 PM).
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049- Venomoth- bug/poison

"Refer to either Butterfree, Beautifly and/or Yanma"

-a very sad Pokemon that's so overshadowed, that it doesn't even need its own entry... Venomoth is a pseudo-Butterfree with a higher speed and sp.atk with signal beam, at the cost of losing compoundeyes. That's all the difference... oh and the stats!

Important stats:
-base sp.atk 90
-base speed 90
-base atk 65

Everything else... it's Butterfree >>;
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Old November 6th, 2004 (12:00 AM). Edited November 14th, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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051- Dugtrio- ground


Common Roles: physical sweeper

Classifications: OU

Why?: Arena trap and superior speed

Signature Move: Dig

Overshadowed By: none

Important Stats:
-372 Speed
-259 attack (without choice band)

Common items: choice band, lum berry

Moves:
-Earthquake/Aerial Ace/Rock Slide/Sludgebomb/Double Edge
All the physical attacks Dugtrio got, and most likely these are the only attacks you'll ever want

-Screech
For Dugtrio without choice band, screech is not all that bad against Pokemon like Blissey who cannot knock you out in one hit regardless of your low defense

-Substitute

Can perhaps buy some time against annoyers

-Toxic
The only annoying move Dugtrio got... and if you can manage to pull it off, the arena trap's assistance can't be too bad... possibly.

Strategy:
Send Dugtrio out against the sick, the weak and the slow, and finish the poor thing off in one blow. Arena trap will force the opponent to stay in battle to die, not able to running for the physical tankers. You just walk in, and pick off the opponent. Definitely, a Pokemon that's meant to be abused easily, and certainly one of the Pokemon that got the most buff from the transition of the GSC system to the advanced system!

To use Dugtrio well, you only need to memorize the opponent's speed. If the opponent is faster than Dugtrio, then you got no chance. If the opponent is slower, then you'll have to make the call if you can OHKO the opponent, because Dugtrio seriously got no defensive abilities at all. It's either he/she/it goes, or you go.

Friends: Pokemon with strong physical defense and ice beam will definitely help Dugtrio in destroying Flygon and Claydol, as these two are resistant to both earthquake and rock slide, Dugtrio's strongest moves. Also, Dugtrio certainly needs tanks to run to, just in case if the opponent is faster/tie in speed.

Wobbuffet is Dugtrio's best friend. Wobbuffet is a good friend of anyone with forcing encore/counter/mirror coat and auto trap, but it's especially well with Dugtrio. Wobuffet after encoring a non-damaging move can switch to Dugtrio, whose Arena Trap ability will also trap the opponent so they keep using their stat increasing move while you finish them off. It's a truly evil combo, and one of the reasons why Wobbuffet gets banned in online tournaments.

Other good friends include Ninjask who can baton pass to Dugtrio for some much appreciated attack power and possbility even speed so it can outspeed some of the faster foes like Sceptile and Swellow to score more OHKOs. Tankers are always good friends so Dugtrio got somewhere to run to if it knows that it'll die that round, especially Cradily/Blissey to block Jolteon's Hidden Powers.

Enemies:

-Anything faster
It's completely essential to know ALL the Pokemon who are faster than Dugtrio. If you don't know who they are, then they'll definitely snipe your Dugtrio down.

-Flygon/Claydol/Weezing
All of them got levitate, and 2 of them are resistant to rock slide as well which is very annoying. Weezing also got will o wisp to greatly reduce Dugtrio's strength, and taking away Dugtrio's strength is as bad as taking its life.

-Physical tankers
All of them will be capable of surviving Dugtrio's attacks, and a counterattack (be it counter, or just a regular attack to strike back) will do Dugtrio in...

-Wobbuffet
Great... both are trapped. If you got screech, you win. If you don't, then prepare for Counter or destiny bond.

-Dunsparce/Other Counter users
lol... Dunsparce does have an edge against Dugtrio. Dugtrio's move is so highly predictable that it's doomed to Counter. It's almost always 4 physical sweeping move, with only screech being the possible non-damaging move. The highly predictable moveset makes Counter almost a gurantee success against Dugtrio.

-Cradily/Milotic
With SE moves up their hand and a powerful defense, you really got no chance unless they've been majorly damaged beforehand.

-Gardevoir/Porygon2
Their defense isn't that high, and you maybe able to OHKO them before they can strike, but if you fail, their special attacks will finish you off, and they just traced your precious Arena Trap ability... your team will be in some trouble/annoyance.

Sample Moveset:

Dugtrio- [speed + / sp.atk -] @ choice band
EV: attack and speed
-earthquake
-rock slide
-sludgebomb
-HP Ghost
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Old November 10th, 2004 (11:50 PM). Edited November 12th, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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053- Persian- normal


Common Roles: annoyer, physical sweeper

Classifications: UU

Why?: speed is good, but that's all about it...

Signature Move: Fake Out (look at the japanese name and you'll see that Fake Out is actually called "Cat's Deceive")

Overshadowed By: Swellow or Jumpluff/none (arguable)

Important Stats:

-Speed always 361
-base attack 70
-base sp.attack 65

Common items: lum berry, liechi berry, sometimes leftovers

Moves:
-Hypnosis
The only move which prevents Persian from the realm of complete overshadow-ness. It is the fastest sleep attack user, but too bad Hypnosis's accuracy is so poor... Some argues that Jumpluff overshadows Persian because sleep powder is much more accurate than Hypnosis, but Persian is faster than Jumpluff...

-Toxic
A damaging annoying move...

-Swagger
Another very luck based risky move... but desperate measures may want to do desperate things.

-Return/Shadow ball/double edge/aerial ace/iron tail

That's all the physical attacks... not too much, but bearable. Desperate situations call for iron tail.

-Endure/Substitute
Used to force activation on berries, and stat boost is something Persian desperately needs

-Fake Out
Poor version of quick attack. But then, sometimes you can abuse the flinch with leftover a little...

-Protect/Torment
Common stalling move... Torment can actually be considered, seeing that you can't do an awful lot. Skill with using torment on brick break/shadowball user along with protect can actually result in forcing the opponent to switch. But then again, that's 2 slots used... nevertheless, a fun thing to do, and a good way to impress your opponents even though you'll most likely lose afterwards.

-Charm
Against some weaker physical attack users, charm can save your life... in the gameboy game, you don't have 9 lives to burn off like a real cat

-Screech

Lowering opponent's defense will certainly help a lot, especially against tankers.

-Snatch/Mimic
You can get some fun stuff this way... worth considering.

-thunder*
Actually, you can use thunder for a few surprises. Your sp.atk isn't that far behind attack anyway, besides return gets STAB. Use it for anti-Skarmory, punishing those evil OU users who are trying to use that evil metallic vulture to overkill a UU team. Besides that however... Bad accuracy but 30% paralysis hopefully compensates. However, in general, Thunder is still useless.

Strategy:
Abuse the fact that you're fast, and try to unleash your supportive moves immediately. You can also fake out the first turn, then continue with the initiative moves. Use hypnosis, swagger or toxic as your offensive supportive move, or substitute to lower your hp/block status. Screech or charm should also be used in this stage. Attack with all your physical attacks afterward. Remember to use endure if you can foresee a move that can knock out Persian in one hit coming.

Also, remember to abuse timber. Send it out against common thunderwave users, such as Blissey, Porygon2 and Dunsparce to block the paralysis. Not to mention, Persian with screech is not bad at all against Dunsparce and Blissey.

Persian is all about abusing the fact that it's a UU, and that the opponent most likely won't know its actual speed of base 115, which is the same as Raikou and Starmie actually, and faster than Gengar. You'll really have to know your speed, and you can easily pick off fast sweepers who are actually slower than you.

Friends:
-your typical UU friends please...

Enemies:

-Anything faster
With low low defense, you know that anything faster is bound to be able to knock you out in one blow... Especially Dugtrio.

-Insomnia/Vital Spirit/Sleep prevention

These Pokemon can stop your hypnosis attacks, and without your status attack, Persian is just a super weak version of Swellow, and Swellow isn't that hot already.

Sample Moveset:

Persian- [speed + / sp.atk -] @ liechi berry
EV: attack and speed
-hypnosis
-screech
-return
-shadow ball
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Old November 12th, 2004 (1:59 AM). Edited November 21st, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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055- Golduck- water (NOT part Psychic)


Common Roles: special sweeper, mixed sweeper

Classifications: UU

Why?: severely nerfed by the EV system instead of GSC's old system

Signature Move: Cloud Nine

Overshadowed By: Slowbro, Houndoom, Lapras, Starmie

Important Stats:
-base hp: 80
-base atk: 82
-base def: 78
-base speed: 85
-base sp.atk: 95
-base sp.def: 80

Common items: leftovers, salac berry, petaya berry

Moves:
-Surf/Psychic/Ice Beam/Icy Wind
Golduck's special moves, which are quite sufficient already... just not sufficient enough compare to the ones who overshadow Golduck. Icy Wind is a poor version of thunderwave.

-Cross Chop/aerial ace/body slam/Return

Cross chop is the physical attack that allows Golduck to mix sweep. Cross Chop is a powerful fighting move, and not too many non-fighting types have it, and such a rare move is definitely worth considering. Also, it works well against special tanks, especially Blissey/Clefable. Aerial ace is there as well if you want more physical power.

-calm mind
With a good sp.atk and sp.def, along with the hp, Golduck isn't bad at calm minding to tank up special attacks and boosting sweeping power at all!

-Hypnosis/Toxic
Golduck's annoying move... But then, unless you have a toxic themed teams, best to leave toxic out of Golduck. Hypnosis got its pros and cons.

-Light Screen
Pseudopasses are always nice, but just watch out for brick break users. Either way, it'll always encourage physical attacks to hit you instead, which leads us to...

-Counter
HP isn't that bad at all, and both of its defensives are right on average. Counter is worth considering. Also, it can make Golduck more versatile.

-Mimic
If it works, you can get some valuable attacks this way. Tricky to use, but Golduck getting valuable moves (such as a stat boosting attack like Agility) is worth the try.

-Psych Up

Golduck's own little way to haze. Use psych up to frustrate your opponent to no end!

-Screech
A move that definitely helps with Cross Chopping Golducks.

-Dive/Protect
Moves that can stall time for Golduck, if you plan to abuse leftovers.

-Endure
Always the best way to activate a berry... hope for no quick attackers?

Strategy:
Golduck is quite severely overshadowed in many different ways... Slowbro overshadows it heavily if it plans to rely on calm mind. As an exeggutor counter (due to Cloud Nine), Houndoom overshadows it. As an ordinary special sweeping water type, Starmie and Lapras are much better at it. If Golduck wants to be unique, you'll just HAVE to take cross chop.

Lead off the battle with your standard setup, such as calm mind, screech, light screen or psych up. Counter when you see a physical attacker. Sweep whenever possible if you can knock out the opponent, or if you've finished setting up already. Use Body slam or icy wind if you do need the speed advantage.

Remember to use Golduck's 2 possible ability. Use Cloud Nine to cancel out weather affects, especially against rain dancers (but still watch out for Thunder). Damp can be used if you forsee a Pokemon using explosion, such as Metagross or Steelix. Send Golduck out to stop explosion, then with your naturally faster speed than the explosion abusers (unless Metagross used agility), finish them off with basically any attack.

Friends:
-standard UU friends..? Need tanks to run to, and definitely need someone to take care of thunderbolt users.

Enemies:
-Vaporeon/Suicune
High in sp.def, and got haze/roar at its disposal. Cross Chop isn't strong enough to damage it heavily, giving it room to use wish. It's a losing war.

-Jolteon/Lapras/Starmie/Raikou
Thunderbolt using freaks who you are either too hurt to strikeback, or you just can't strikeback because they're also water types with good defenses.

-Snorlax/Blissey*
This one is iffy... even if you do have cross chop and/or screech. It can possibly be a sublax, where you only got one chance to hit it, and hope that its remaining hp after the cross chop is lesser than 25% of its hp, before it focus punch you to death next round. However, what is the chance of that happening for Golduck? Unless critical, of course... Same for Blissey. It doesn't take too long for Blissey to realize that it has to use counter next turn, or simply switching out. Just because you got cross chop, don't be too sure about it. Your attack power is only limited.

-Exeggutor*
You may have gotton rid of its sunny day so it is spending time charging up sunny day, but one ice beam from Golduck cannot knock down Exeggutor unless it's damaged already. Plan in advance when you're going to use Golduck to mess up sunny day.

-Shedinja
Wonder Guard

Sample Moveset:


Golduck- [neutral] @ leftovers
EV: hp, sp.atk and/or atk, sp.def
-light screen
-surf
-screech/counter
-cross chop
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Old November 15th, 2004 (7:27 PM). Edited November 16th, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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057- Primeape- fighting


Common Roles: Physical Sweeper

Classifications: UU

Why?: Weak attack power in comparison to other fighting types, and it's not that speedy either compare to other sweepers like Linoone or Flygon.

Signature Move: Thrash

Overshadowed By: Technically none, but in practice, any physical sweeper who are faster than Primeape, along with Heracross and Medicham.

Important Stats:
-base attack 105
-base speed 95

Common items: lum berry, salac berry, choice band

Moves:

-Cross Chop/Earthquake/Rock Slide/Aerial Ace/Return/Double Edge
The only move that's preventing Primeape into absolute Oblivion is Cross Chop. It's the fastest STAB cross chop user alive (Electabuzz can use cross chop and is a lot faster too, but Electabuzz's attack is low in comparison, and lacks STAB.) The new addition of earthquake certainly helps a lot as well. Logic never explains how does a pig/monkey hybrid uses earthquake, but as long as it helps the Pokemon.

-bulk up
If you got good calculations, you can forsee an attack that you can survive, and use bulk up to reduce the damage done down to red, activating a berry at the same time. If it works, it's quite ideal.

-Reversal/Substitute
Classical substitute/reversal combination is available once again.

-Taunt
A great attack to use against tankers, who will almost always unleash a supportive move first before they also get offensive. Also, this stops tankers who are almost dead trying to use healing moves as well.

-screech
Another good attack to use against tankers, who are not too likely to be able to knock you out in one hit. Lower their defenses, then hit them with your best attack.

Strategy:
Primeape relies heavily on speed and attack. Unleash your offensive moves immediately within battle, such as cross chop and earthquake. There's very little supportive moves Primeape can use, and all of them are quite situational. Use taunt against tankers/common annoyers such as Dusclops, Ninetales and Weezing. Substitute works as well if you want to lower your hp to activate reversal with salac berry, or if you want to block an incoming thunderwave/will o wisp/toxic. Screech/Bulk Up against Pokemon that you're certain with not capable of killing you within a turn, then proceed on to sweep.

Do not try to use Overheat as Primeape as an Anti-Skarmory attack. You'll do better with just using cross chop directly. Overheat maybe super effective, but with a low sp.atk like that, without STAB? In fact, anything using cross chop pacts enough physical attack power to give Skarmory a fright. Just don't expect cross chop alone to OHKO Skarmory, unless it's a lucky critical. For Primeape's case though, a smart Skarmory user will just drill peck immediately for a OHKO after taking one cross chop. Against Weezing however, Primeape stands close to no chance, unless you got taunt to stop will o wisp, along with double edge/rock slide.

Be sure to abuse the useful Vital Spirit ability. Send out Primeape against Breloom, Jumpluff, Persian and various Pokemon who heavily relies on sleep status.

Primeape is also quite ideal for a choice bander, seeing how that it cannot do much supportive roles anyway. Decent speed and a nice attack boost is quite a good choice as a Pokemon to be holding the choice band.

Friends:
-standard UU friends

Enemies:
-Anyone faster
Obviously... you got no defense, and they sweep you. Anymore questions?

-Gyarados
Ok... After being hit by intimidate, your attack will drop down to the range of the 200-220s. One rock slide, even though Gyarados is a flying type, will NOT be sufficient enough to knock out Gyarados in one hit. You'll only result in Gyarados dragon dancing once, activating its liechi/salac berry at the same time, and then proceed on to sweep your entire team. Don't underestimate the power of intimidate, and expect an OHKO out of it. Best to let Primeape to rock slide, expecting it to die, and send out your quick attacker next turn to force Gyarados out/finish off Gyarados.

-Metagross
Earthquake again will not knock out Metagross and its high defensive power. Most likely, Metagross is only in yellow health. Metagross agilities this turn, and then finish you off with earthquake. GG

Sample Moveset:

Primeape- [speed + / sp.atk -] @ choice band
EV: attack and speed
-cross chop
-earthquake
-rock slide
-HP Ghost/double edge
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Old November 16th, 2004 (5:01 PM). Edited November 21st, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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059- Arcanine- fire


Common Roles: physical/special/mixed sweepers

Classifications: BL

Why?: Like any other all average stat Pokemon, the EV system blasts it into oblivion. Being a Pokemon that runs on 4 legs mean that it got a poor movepool as well.

Signature Move:
Extremespeed

Overshadowed By: none

Important Stats:
Base hp: 90
Base attack: 100
Base def: 80
Base sp.atk: 100
Base sp.def: 80
Base speed: 95

Common items: lum berry, liechi/salac/petaya berry, white herb, shell bell, choice band (Frosty only ;p)

Moves:
-Flamethrower/Overheat/Fire Blast/Crunch
And that's all the special attacks for a Pokemon with base sp.atk of 100??

-Extremespeed/aerial ace/iron tail
And now we understand the definition of poor movepool. Only 3 usable physical attacks to abuse the high stats, and one of them is not even that usable.

-Howl

The only stat buff up, but it's still nice. Works well with extremespeed.

-safeguard/substitute/endure
Status protection moves. Substitute and endure are used to activate berries.

-sunny day
A decent move to have in order to buff Arcanine's fire power. Works well with chlorophyllers, obviously.

Strategy:

With good stats, a good nature and good everything besides one of the worst movepool in the game (next to those flying creatures who got *the* worst movepools), Arcanine certainly dropped in terms of popularity from the good old days of cursing canines, where they are actually good pseudohazers. With the current EV system, like Kingdra, Arcanine gets hit badly. Bad movepool means that using Arcanine is almost restricted to Netbattle only, being so reliant on hidden power.

Intimidate is by far the much better ability. With intimidate, it gives Arcanine a chance to survive a lot of physical attacks, even Earthquake. Arcanine's naturally good base def definitely helps.

Lead off with either howl, sunny day, substitute or safeguard if you have them. After sunny day, obviously go with your fire attacks afterward. Otherwise, use extremespeed and your other good physical attacks, which is not much of a choice. Crunch against the ghost/slower psychic types. If you're against Alakazam, chances are that you'll be better off using extremespeed if you want to OHKO it compare to using crunch.

If you think that your skill level at damage prediction is good enough, then it's best to abuse your berries. Arcanine's surprisingly high defensive stats and intimidate can easily surprise your opponent. Allow Arcanine to be hit by slow earthquake users to activate a petaya/liechi berry to help with sweeping.

Arcanine is a terribly hard Pokemon to use, mainly because of the difficulty involved with dealing with its EV setups.

Friends:
-Flyers and levitaters (especially Flygon/Dusclops) are all very helpful to block rock slide and earthquake for Arcanine. Shedinja, Blissey and Milotic can take care of the water attacks pretty well too.

Enemies:
-Starmie/Aerodactyl/Dugtrio/Tauros
All of them got the power to OHKO Arcanine while being faster than Arcanine. Raichu/Pikachu got surf as well, but it's not as frightening.

-Linoone*

Don't forget that Linoone is actually faster than Arcanine (just by a little) and that it also got a 1st strike move. Keep that in mind.

-Houndoom
For special sweeping Arcanine, this will be a pain. Houndoom loses most of its moves too, but it still got crunch and/or pursuit, while you got absolutely nothing.

-Milotic
Water types with high sp.def blocking hp grass and good def to block physical attacks as well... very dangerous.

Sample Moveset:

Arcanine- [sp.atk + / atk -] @ white herb/lum berry
EV: sp.atk, speed, hp and/or def
-overheat
-crunch
-flamethrower/HP Ice/HP Grass
-extremespeed/HP Ice/HP Grass

Arcanine- [atk + / sp.atk -] @ lum berry/liechi berry
EV: atk, speed (feel free to add on the defensives)
-aerial ace/HP Physical
-extremespeed
-howl
-overheat/HP Physical
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Old November 21st, 2004 (3:44 PM). Edited December 9th, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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059/186- Poliwrath/Politoed- water/fighting, water


Common Roles: physical attacker for Poliwrath, special attacker for Politoed

Classifications: UU

Why?: There are better water absorbers out there, like Lapras for special sweeping, and Vaporeon for support. Though they are pretty unique in Damp, its usage is pretty limited to be against Steelix and rock-explosion users only (as Metagross will most likely outspeed you with agility and use another attack instead of blowing up, while either Polis aren't especially strong against Metagross). Being round stated means scarred by the EV system.

Signature Move: Submission/Perish Song

Overshadowed By: Vaporeon, Lapras, Charizard, Swampert, Starmie, Slowbro/Slowking

Important Stats:
Poliwrath/Politoed:
-base hp: 90
-base atk: 85/75
-base def: 95/75
-base speed: 70
-base sp.atk: 70/90
-base sp.def: 90/100

Common items: leftovers (both), salac berry (Poliwrath), quick claw (both), chesto berry

Moves:
-hydro pump/surf/ice beam/psychic
Now we see why the 2 frogs are inferior to the other water absorbers. The special attack movepool is very limited, unlike the other thunderbolting water types.

-brick break/focus punch/earthquake/body slam/return
Even though RS is having generous mercy by sticking earthquake on a LOT of stuff (which the Polis benefited from), they're still lacking rock slide unlike most other physical sweepers to hit the flyers. Again, it's not the most diverse setup out there compare to the other OUs. Substitute always work with focus punch.

-hypnosis/toxic/swagger/attract
Hypnosis has a low accuracy but it's a nice move to have at times. Toxic is handy against tankers where you force them out or waste their heal bell. Swagger is rather risky though... but against special sweepers swagger will be useful. Attract is poor version of confuse ray.

-seismic toss
Set 100 damage can't be too bad

-Bulk Up/Belly drum (Poliwrath) / swords dance (both)
A very useful attack to have as Bulk Up can increase Poliwrath's attack power further along with defense, which Poliwrath is also pretty strong with. Belly drum is a lot more risky, but activating salac along with the correct EV setup can still mean a devastating sweepage movement. Swords dance is also there, but it buffs attack only without defense.

-haze
Generally Politoed use haze a lot more than Poliwrath, because Politoed's movepool is even smaller than Poliwrath's. Haze is always helpful to use, and having water absorb means Calmcune-immunity.

-Counter
Good hp and definitely decent defense can also contribute to using counter. Afterall, a maximum of 384 hp is quite a bit to counter with.

-Rest
The only hp-restoration move for the frogs beside a switch in to block water attacks with water absorb.

-perish song (Politoed) / protect
In a way it's own form of pseudohazing, as the opponent either dies sweeping or is forced out to live. Use protect and other status attacks to stall off perish song. Perish song encourages shuffling, so you can possibly use it for toxicshuffling as well.

-mimic
Can always rely on this move to expand movepools

Strategy:
Poliwrath:
The rounded out stats mean a hard time to deal with the proper EV distribution. High attack and defense may lose out on hp, or you may want to take sp.def instead of def, so you'll have to make a lot of decisions. EV setup is very flexible for Poliwrath, so choose it to your own likings. But keep in mind that Poliwrath cannot possibly spare EVs to be good at BOTH defenses AND attack at the same time... this is impossible. Best to take one of the defenses only, and move on, unless Poliwrath is tanking and is ditching attack (or is going to rely solely on buffs to up its attack power back to normal.)

Poliwrath isn't bad at being a mixed sweeper along with your usual brick break/earthquake physical setup. Hydro pump does receive a STAB, and even with no sp.atk EV and modest/jolly, it's still decent. If you don't mind its accuracy so that it gives you something to do against a Pokemon like Skarmory or other physical tankers, Hydro pump is worth considering.

Abuse hypnosis to give you time to use your buff up attacks. Hypnosis's accuracy is once again rather doubtful, but the reward pays off if you got time to use 1 or even 2 swords dance/bulk up, or possibly belly drum and start sweeping.

Politoed
High sp.def and sp.atk pretty much calls you to be a special sweeper with surf and ice beam at least most of the time. Like Poliwrath, distributing EVs can be a pain as well. A smaller movepool than its physical counterpart means lesser options too.

Haze is very recommanded for Politoed, as it will give Politoed a rather vital role to make it much more useful, especially against the almighty Suicune. So perhpas there's more than just Vaporeon who can safely get rid of the calm minds of Calmcune. Though having a electric weakness isn't pretty against all those thunderbolt psychic users like Gardevoir and Alakazam (T-punch), it's still nice to have.

Your opponent underestimating Politoed's hp and physical defense seems to often be the case, which means that you can abuse this to your advantage. It gives you a good time to use rest, or use counter to score an OHKO. Base 75 defense really isn't that bad at all.

Perish song and toxic is quite a powerful combination. Use perish song to lead off and force a switch (especially against Ninjasks, and if you're lucky, you may score a free OHKO as your opponent may mistaken baton pass to be able to get out of Perish song's effect too.) Toxic the Pokemon while they're either forced to die or forced to switch out. Use protect in the meantime to stall as well. However, remember to switch out yourself.

Both Politoed and Poliwrath got 2 traits to choose from. Water absorb is generally used more often, but Damp shouldn't be ditched out immediately. Damp makes Steelix look completely useless in front of Poliwrath if they're relying on Steelix to be the physical tank against Poliwrath, as you got earthquake against it or even hydro pump, while they can't do their standard explosion to take you down as well. Politoed can also use hydro pump to take out Metagross before it explodes (however, not gurantee OHKO there so watch out, and beware of agility too). Though damp is more specialized in terms of usefulness, it does have its use.

A good thing about these 2 Pokemon are that they're quite independent compare to most other UUs. Besides fast thunderbolt/grass/flying attack users, they can withstand everything else very well, and if you got a well planned out EV setup, counter comes in handy against those flyers for Poliwratht oo.

Friends:
-tanks against flying attacks and electric/grass attacks will be nice. Though the 2 frogs got decent defenses, it still can't take a Super effective attack.
-for Poliwrath, it'll also be nice to have someone to switch out to against Tauros and Salamence (if you don't have ice beam), because intimidate really scars Poliwrath even if Tauros is weak to fighting. It's more scary when Tauros got choice band too, and 2 returns/2-edge will definitely knock out Poliwrath. Unless Poliwrath got counter, Poliwrath's quite vulnerable to Tauros. Don't underestimate the effect of intimidate thinking that a brick break will take out Tauros.

Enemies:
-Sceptile/Starmie/Raikou/fast thunderbolt grass attack users
It's super effective... don't try to block it. In fact, most of Politoed/Poliwrath's enemies are these thunderbolt users, and there's just too many of them. Some of them are possible to take out with counter, but that's only if you do have a brilliant EV setup...

-Aerodactyl/Crobat/Salamence/Swellow
Once again, flying attacks are dangerous for Poliwrath... but for Salamence, he may not be able to OHKO you if you got decent defense, and you can safely ice beam it if you can ^^

-Milotic/Tentacruel*
Refresh takes out toxic, and Milotic hurls hypnosis/toxic back at you in return. High defenses really doesn't help too. Tentacruel works the same way, but then you got psychic/earthquake to assist you.

Sample Moveset:

Poliwrath- [atk + / sp.atk -] @ leftovers
EV: hp, atk, def
-bulk up
-earthquake
-brick break
-hydro pump

Politoed- [sp.def or sp.atk + / atk -] @ leftovers
EV: hp, sp.atk, sp.def
-haze
-toxic
-surf
-perish song/ice beam
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Old December 9th, 2004 (11:29 AM). Edited December 13th, 2004 by Frostweaver.
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065- Alakazam- Psychic


Common Roles: Special Sweeper

Classifications: OU

Why?: One of the fastest speed with a strong special attack, along with a huge movepool.

Signature Move: Kinesis

Overshadowed By: none

Important Stats:
-speed: always 372
-sp.atk: 369

Common items: petaya berry, choice band (trick), lum berry, rarely salac berry

Moves:
-Psychic/Fire Punch/Ice Punch/Thunderpunch
It's almost insane to have psychic and the three punches with a 369 sp.atk... Add in Hidden Power to boost your movepool even more.

-Calm mind
The only way to boost sp.atk, but as if that's not enough? It also adds a nice boost to sp.def.

-Trick
Use this along with choice band to mess up your archenemy over and over: Blissey. Blissey is half as frightening if it can't heal and counter and seismic toss you on her free will. Works well for stuff like subbing Jolteon too.

-Substitute/Endure
Various ways to pull off that petaya berry.

-Recover
Recover using Alakazams actually needs more skill to use than you can imagine. Alakazam got no defense, and sp.def is only so-so. You'll need to have good experience in predicting the damage of a special attack if you're going to use recover.

-Psych Up
A new method to destroy Calmcune and Calmkou. You're faster than both of these critters (unless they got a speed boost somehow), so why not psych up to boost your sp.def up to their ranks, and then duke it out? Raikou usually doesn't have crunch, so it'll be all fair game, with the exception that you got recover, Suicune having to use rest if it wants to restore hp, and Raikou just can't heal period. Watch out for roar though.

Strategy:
What strategy is there? Just attack immediately if you can knock out the opponent. Grab Psychic along with one (or more) elemental punches, and use each move accordingly. Use substitute or endure to brace yourself for an incoming physical attack to activate petaya/salac as well. Use trick first turn if you got choice band, or run immediately.

Calm mind can be rather tricky to use at times. You can setup substitute then use calm mind to be safest, or you can use calm mind and rely on the special defense boost to survive the opponent's special attacks. However, you'll need to be careful and experienced with prediction like this. Sometimes, if you don't use calm mind you'll be KOed next round, but using a calm mind will result in Alakazam hanging on with a very low hp (activating berry at the same time). Recover can come in handy afterwards then.

Milotic is a tricky one to handle. You may have thunderpunch to be SE against it, but watch out for mirror coat. Even with SE thunderpunch and a good special attack, Milotic's high hp and equally powerful special defense will be difficult to overcome with recover. It'll be a struggle of skills between both user. Regice is easier to handle, as it can't possibly mirror coat and can't immediatley heal itself, rarely ever equipped with Amnesia.

Be sure to memorize those speed tables, to see who's faster than who. You're always faster than Gengar, but always slower than Deoxys (E, FR, LG, RS), Swellow, Ninjask, Crobat, Electrode and Aerodactyl. Dugtrio got a tie in for speed, so that's a 50/50 regarding who's to win that battle (both will OHKO each other so...)

ALways take sychronize as your ability. At least it gives you a small protection against status attacks.

Last and final reminder that Shadowball is NOT a special attack. Ghost attacks are physical. Indeed that's illogical, but that's how things work.

Friends:
Definitely, a Blissey counter. Alakazam with 6 calm minds still can't knock a full hp Blissey down to red in one shot, but at most low yellow. You'll definitely want something to look after that. Also, physical sweepers that are faster than Alakazam are also dangerous, especially the common Crobat/Aerodactyl.

Enemies:
-Blissey/Milotic*/Regice*
Powerful special sponges that just absorb whatever's heading your way. Milotic and Regice are easier to handle if you got the right punches, but it'll still be a difficult battle. Watch out from some more UU special sponges too.

-Crobat/Ninjask/Swellow/Aerodactyl/Deoxys/Jolteon*/Electrode*

Fast moving critters who are even faster than Alakazam. Definitley they are dangerous enemies, and there's no way Alakazam can win against any of them but Jolteon and Electrode.

-Linoone/Rayquaza/Arcanine
Evil extremespeed users who are life threatening for Alakazam. Linoone got the weakest attack power, but STAB on extremespeed (possibly choice band) makes up for it. Quick attackers also do the same thing, but they're a lot weaker and can't OHKO Alakazam if Alakazam is in full health most of the time.

-Tyranitar/Houndoom
You got no special effective moves against them, and both of them can eliminate you in pretty much one shot. Houndoom can also use pursuit to ensure that you got a painful death. Basically, hopeless unless you got HP Water or already got a few calm minds so thunderpunch will go through.

Sample Moveset:

Alakazam- [speed + / atk -] @ petaya berry {Synchronize}
EV: speed and sp.atk
-psychic
-calm mind
-substitute/elemental punch
-elemental punch
 

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