This set takes full advantage of Crobat's new toys in DPP and is a solid choice to lead any team. Brave Bird is vital to the set, as it gives Crobat a strong, reliable STAB attack. Taunt is a great move for any lead with blazing Speed, and it allows Crobat to stop other Pokemon from setting up or recovering. In fact, the combination of Taunt and Roost allows Crobat to come out on top against many walls. Roost also helps cope with Brave Bird's recoil and Stealth Rock damage accumulated over the course of the battle and rids him of his Rock, Ice, and Electric weaknesses for the turn. The final slot is useful for scouting; U-turn can get in a counter, and Substitute can buy Crobat an extra turn on predicted switches, as well as stall if Toxic Spikes are on the field. The EVs allow enough Attack to score a likely OHKO on a Max HP Machamp with Stealth Rock. They also grant enough HP to reach a Leftovers threshold, while still retaining an odd HP stat for switching in to Stealth Rock.
With its blazing Speed and ability to sharply boost its Special Attack in a single turn, Crobat can function well as a special sweeper. Sludge Bomb is the main attack here and can do decent damage to most things after a Nasty Plot. Heat Wave complements Sludge Bomb nicely by frying the Steel-type Pokemon who try to absorb your attacks. After a Nasty Plot, Heat Wave will do a minimum of 73% to a max HP / max Special Defense Sassy Bronzong. The final slot depends on what your team has more trouble with. With a single Nasty Plot, Hidden Power Fighting kills Tyranitar with Stealth Rock on the field guaranteed, but fails to OHKO Heatran. A +2 Hidden Power Ground will OHKO all forms of Heatran but will come up short against Tyranitar. Roost is also an option and can be used on switches to recover Life Orb recoil. Life Orb is the preferred item to score some important KOs, but Leftovers and Lum Berry are viable alternatives if using Roost.
With 130 base Speed, it is safe to say that Crobat usually has the fastest sleep in the game. This makes Crobat a fine choice to lead your team, potentially incapacitating an opponent before it gets a chance to respond. Taunt is also a great move on speedy Crobat. Anything this fast that can prevent status, recovery and other assorted goodies can be the bane of many a stall team. It also works very nicely with Hypnosis, as you can Taunt your opponent's Sleep Talker, preventing it from attacking in its sleep. U-turn lets it get out and send in a counter, while getting in a light hit. Crobat's defenses may not be stellar, but Roost is still a good option for recovering as an opponent locked into a Fighting or Bug attack is forced to switch. Beware of Roosting against Choice Band Earthquakes though. In the final slot, you have your choice of Flying STAB. Brave Bird and Hypnosis are illegal together, so you are restricted to the weaker options listed above. Air Slash feeds off the lower of its offensive stats, but has higher base power when compared with Aerial Ace, and comes with a handy 30% flinch rate. The given EVs are designed to OHKO minimum HP Heracross with Air Slash. Max Speed is needed to outspeed Shaymin-S and tie with other Base 130s. If you opt for Aerial Ace, drop the Special Attack EVs, switch to a Jolly nature and put the leftover EVs into HP or Attack.
With a 120 Base Power STAB move in Brave Bird at its disposal, Crobat is just asking for a Choice Band. However, that is about all Choice Band Crobat has going for it because the type coverage is awful. The loss of physical Hidden Power wasn’t great for the speedy bat. Cross Poison isn't much help for type coverage, but it leaves a nice dent in some of the weaker Electric-types, like Electivire and Jolteon. Pursuit is a pretty great move for Crobat as well, and will allow it to function as something of a revenge killer in the same vein as Weavile—just a bit faster with less offense, and better resistances. U-turn rounds out the set allowing you to get in an appropriate counter, when the inevitable Rock- and Steel-types appear. Other OptionsIn terms of physical alternatives, Poison Fang, Steel Wing, Bite, and X-Scissor are options, but none of them really outshine the suggested moves above in any appreciable way. A Choice Specs set is plausible, but not recommended as Crobat barely breaks 360 Special Attack, even with the item boost. Giga Drain can leave a nice dent in Swampert and Rhyperior. In the support category, there is the ever irritating Confuse Ray that Crobat uses supremely well thanks to its Speed as well as Haze or Whirlwind to clear the field of stat boosts. Screech is a less direct approach to phazing an enemy, but it can work nicely with U-turn. Screech as they switch in, then U-turn out, hitting their now lowered Defense on the way. Rain Dance can be used also, as Crobat boasts high speed and gives a scare to the Grass Pokemon that trouble Swift Swimmers. EVsYou should generally maximize Speed on Crobat. The ability to outspeed Adamant Gyarados after a Dragon Dance is too important to pass up. Other than that, use a Timid nature if Crobat is using mostly special attacks, or Jolly for physical versions. If you're using Air Slash, then at least 128 Special Attack EVs are recommended to OHKO minimum HP Heracross. For the Brave Bat set, an alternate EV spread is 168 HP / 88 Def / 252 Spe. This greatly increases Crobat's ability to take physical hits to counter the game's toughest Fighting-type Pokemon. After a Swords Dance, a +2 Adamant Lucario's ExtremeSpeed will never OHKO Crobat after Stealth Rock. Additionally, Crobat will do a minimum 60% back with Brave Bird which can prove fatal if Lucario has suffered any damage. You can also just max Speed and Attack, as Brave Bird coming from a max Attack Crobat has a chance to OHKO Gengar, but it should be noted that the OHKO is guaranteed if you switch Crobat's item to Sharp Beak. OpinionCrobat has some nice new additions that make it quite a bit more versatile than it was in Advance. The addition of Brave Bird, Nasty Plot, and U-turn make it quite unpredictable indeed. Additionally, its 4x resistance to both of Heracross' STABed moves is always welcome. The only thing it misses from Advance is physical Hidden Power and Shadow Ball for its Choice Band set. As before, it seems likely that Crobat will skate that line between OU and UU. Still, Crobat fulfills a very interesting niche on many teams. It's neither a sweeper nor a wall, but it does an excellent job at countering deadly threats such as Breloom and Infernape, and can shut down stall teams with fast Taunts. CountersZapdos is the best counter for Crobat. It resists Crobat's Flying attacks, is immune to its Hidden Power of choice, and will often pack Sleep Talk to render Hypnosis useless. Otherwise, Rock-, Steel-, and Ground-types like Metagross, Tyranitar, Skarmory, Bronzong, Jirachi, Rhyperior, Swampert, etc. slow down most sets, but should be wary of the special sweeper. The fortunate thing is that it can put them to rest with Hypnosis. The others in the base 130 Speed group (Jolteon and Aerodactyl) both make fine counters for it, too. The rest of the more specific counters are determined by the chosen set—for example, Blissey walls the Special Sweeper set, but would struggle with the Choice Bander. |
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