Battledex Advanced

[Frostweaver]

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

 

[Frostweaver]

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

 

[Frostweaver]

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

 

[Frostweaver]

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

 

[Frostweaver]

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

 

[Frostweaver]

068- Machamp- Fighting


Common Roles: physical sweeper, counter user

Classifications: UU

Why?: that's a very good question... stats all point towards BL at least...

Signature Move: Cross Chop

Overshadowed By: Hariyama I suppose...

Important Stats:
-base hp: 90
-base atk: 130
-base def: 80
-base sp.def: 85

Common items: leftovers, quick claw, chesto berry, scope lens

Moves:
-Cross Chop/Earthquake/Rock Slide
Not too much, but as if you'll be needed more. The infamous Cross Chop is just screaming must have.

-Screech/Bulk Up
Lowering defense and hit it with a high power physical attack pretty much destroys everything... Bulk up increases both attack and defense so that's very handy too.

-Light Screen
Machamp actually got better sp.def than anyone can imagine. Having Light Screen is not all that bad of an idea actually. That doesn't allow you to run your way into Alakazam, but at least it blocks somethings along the Lanturn rank; not too high of a sp.atk and Machamp will be safe.

-Counter
Good hp and decent def... let those Aerodactyl and Crobat take the bait and counter.

-Rest
Restore hp, use a chesto though.

-Focus Energy
Goes with Cross Chop along with scope lens at times to score constant critical hits...

-Facade
With Guts to boost attack power, it's not bad of an idea at all to purposely let Machamp be it by Toxic/Thunderwave, and then start destroying everything using Facade.

Strategy:
-Not much to say, but just attack immediately. You can choose to lead off with light screen, bulk up or screech, and then start attacking. With such a high attack power, you can usually score KOs provided that you don't get switched into something with a resistance against you.

Use counter if you can predict an incoming physical attack (aerial ace is especially easy to predict... any flying types have it unless Skarm who may take the time to spike). Facade if you're affected by a status move. Don't ever try to buff yourself up too much, as Machamp will probably be switching back and forth a lot as the opponents generally try to switch in something with an edge against Machamp.

Rather strange how no one uses Machamp... considering that Hariyama isn't that much better than Machamp (higher hp, but lower attack and defense). If people mind its slow speed, then how come everyone uses Rhydon (without roar) and no one knows Machamp? Makes no sense really...

Friends:
-Anti flyers, Alakazam, no specific certain friends...

Enemies:
-Salamence
Most hateful, because not only does he have aerial ace and dragon dance, but just gotta have intimidate too. You pretty much have to pull out and let him get a free dragon dance...

-Dodrio/Crobat/Aerodactyl/other flyers
Packed with STAB flying moves, they're all deadly enemies for Machamp, and you can only counter once... that is if you even have it.

-Alakazam/Gardevoir/Starmie/Slowbro
They are all psychic attack user, and are either much faster than Machamp, or got a physical defense that even Machamp can't break through without a lot of help...

-Skarmory/Claydol/Weezing/Dusclops
Much harder to beat considering how some of them got resistance to cross chop, and a good defense too

Sample Moveset:

Machamp- [atk + / sp.atk -] @ quick claw
EV: hp, atk, def
-cross chop
-earthquake
-bulk up
-rock slide

 

[Frostweaver]

071- Victreebel- Grass/Poison


Common Roles: Physical Sweeper, mixed sweeper

Classifications: UU

Why?: Poor version of Breloom except more limited movepool but slightly faster speed (and chlorophyll too on top of that)

Signature Move: Acid

Overshadowed By: Breloom, Shiftry

Important Stats:
-base atk 105
-base sp.atk 100
-base speed 70

Common items: lum berry, shell bell, liechi berry

Moves:
-Sleep powder/Stun spore
All grass types just use this move if they ever get it... sleep powder is always handy, and stun spore is a good alternative (or perhaps even double powder.)

-sludge bomb/return/double edge
Sadly, that's all to the physical movepool... >>;

-magical leaf/giga drain/solarbeam (sunny day)
And not like special attacks are that much better either...

-sunny day
Boosts solarbeam to be much more usable, along with giving Victreebel a free agility. It's a ++ sign.

-endure/substitute
Use this to activate berries, or various item abuses.

Strategy:

Not much to say again. Unleash your status attacks and hopefully pull off swords dance and/or sunny day so you can proceed on to sweep with powered up sludge bomb (and STAB too), along with possibly solarbeam or your other attacks. Either you die, or they die... Hey that was short and simple.

Friends:
Any tank is a huge problem, as poison and normal attacks being your only physical moves is not a good thing at all. Having only grass attacks don't help either. Unless you got HP, Weezing pretty much destroys you regardless of whatever you do. And Sunny Day only lasts so long, unless you use Groudon. Best to let someone use sunny day then switch in Victreebel when the time is right.

Enemies:
-insert any tank name here besides Tangela
With such a limited movepool, many tanks can outpower Victreebel, and even getting some assistance from solarbeam it'll be terribly difficult to do much of anything against tanks.

-anyone faster (before sunny day setup)
Victreebel's terribly low defense doesn't help much. Grass/Poison doesn't give it a lot of resistance either. Anyone faster than Victreebel usually gets to score an OHKO against Victreebel too.

Sample Moveset:

Victreebel- [atk + / def or sp.def or sp.atk -] @ liechi berry
EV: atk, speed
-sleep powder
-double edge/HP Physical
-sludge bomb
-swords dance

 

[Frostweaver]

073- Tentacruel- Water/Poison


Common Roles: mixed sweeper, mirror coater, anti-tank

Classifications: UU

Why?: EV system messed it over and back

Signature Move: wrap

Overshadowed By: milotic

Important Stats:
-base attack 70
-base sp.atk 80
-base sp.def 120
-base speed 100

Common items: leftovers, lum berry, salac berry, chesto berry

Moves:
-Hydro Pump/Surf/Ice beam/Blizzard/Giga Drain
Not the best special attack in the world, so you may have to consider hydro/blizzard instead of hte usual surf/ice beam.

-Sludge bomb/return
And that's all for the physical sweeping department

-swords dance
The only reason why Tentacruel is even used, and with physical moves instead of special. Swords dance up, and tank slightly with the good sp.def, and hopefully kick in salac to start sweeping.

-toxic/wrap/protect
Against tankers, these moves aren't too bad actually... and Tentacruel also got toxic immunity so it can stay alive for awhile as an anti-tanker. Wrap can also trap the opponent. Add on protect if you want the extra protection.

-rest
The only way to restore hp... quite preferable if you're going to try out Tentacruel as an anti-tank.

-barrier
A good way to boost defense, so Tentacruel can survive a little bit of both.

-mirror coat
High sp.def gives you the ability to survive plenty of things. Note that Tentacruel has a pretty good chance at surviving thunderbolt/thunderpunch as long as it's not STAB or not boosted by calm mind.

-substitute/endure
always one of the best way to activate a berry

-confuse ray
adds more protection to the annoyer/anti-tanker Tentacruel set

Strategy:

Tentacruel got the huge nerf-stick when it loses its all-round stats. However, it's not impossible to use. Lead off with your standard support moves such as barrier and swords dance, or your status move like toxic. If you see a tank, use wrap immediately so you can trap it (note that baton passers can still baton pass.) Attack afterward with everything you have, ranging from special to physical.

If you got swords dance, then you have to try to predict the damages that the opponent is capable of dealing so you can pull off as much swords dance as you can until you are weakened down to red to activate salac. Usually though, Tentacruel got no chance to do anything more than 1 dance.

Tentacruel absolutely dooms Sceptile and Ludicolo! Send it out to mess them over using their own leech seed. You maybe losing hp, but they're also suffering from leech seed. Tentacruel's type gives you good resistance against the standard Sceptile with either Leaf Blade or HP Ice/Fire, and Ludicolo's grass/ice attacks (beware that both of them will get thunderpunch if you're playing with emerald though.) However, both of these Pokemon don't have a very high sp.atk, so you can mirror coat whatever's coming.

Against a tanker, you will want to try to trap it with wrap, then throw a toxic on it so it'll slowly die off. Tankers will usually attack with seismic toss/night shade, so you can predict the damage and know what to do in advance. Milotic will just refresh, so don't try too hard on the toxic. Wrap Milotic, and start mirror coating in hopes of rebounding a surf attack. When Milotic's hp start dropping, it'll recover, so that's the time to try toxic, or swords dance if you have it. Against Weezing, it's best to just unleash your sp.atk against it (will o wisp will take away a lot of your attack power, and you don't have that much to start with), and hopefully destroy it before it explodes. Skarm is just simple for Tentacruel if you got sp.atk, but otherwise it's best to run. For Blissey, wrap, toxic, and stall. It can't heal off toxic unless it uses aromatherapy. Trap it with wrap so it can't heal with natural cure, and continously trap it down like that. If you got physical attacks, watch out for possible counter. However, a nice thing about BLissey is that unless it's a rare serene grace Blissey, it will only be on the offense with seismic toss, so time your wrap and sword dances that way.

Anti-tank Tentacruels are highly effective at tanking out tanks, but can't do junk against anything that doesn't tank. It's too specialized for its own good. In my opinion though, anti-tank Tentacruels are the most fun to play ^^

Friends:
Something to take care of evil earthquakers, and there's too many of them... Though Tentacruel is an excellent anti-tanker, its downfall to why it's not a good anti-tanker is that it can't self heal. Consider having Pokemon with wish or baton passes to assist it.

Enemies:
-physical sweeper
Low defense, and poison weakness means weak to earthquake, and almost every physical sweeper can learn earthquake.

-Raikou/Zapdos/SE attack users
Though Tentacruel has a good sp.def, it's not good enough against Pokemon who got STAB special attack along with a high sp.atk.

Sample Moveset:

Tentacruel- [sp.def + / atk -] @ leftovers
EV: hp, sp.def
-hydro pump
-confuse ray/mirror coat
-wrap
-toxic

 

[Frostweaver]

076- Golem- Ground/Rock

Common Roles:

Classifications:

Why?:

Signature Move:

Overshadowed By:

Important Stats:

Common items:

Moves:

Strategy:

Friends:

Enemies:

Sample Moveset:

(just setting up for the next dex entry)