A Gallade with a Swords Dance under his belt is a force to be reckoned with. Close Combat is your main tool for sweeping, but after that you have some tricky choices to make to fill the remaining two moveslots. Ice Punch is highly recommended as it rips Gliscor to pieces, giving Gallade a massive advantage over Heracross and Lucario. It easily OHKOs Salamence too, even when you factor in Intimidate. Psycho Cut means Weezing and Heracross are much easier to take down, and it easily OHKOs Gengar. The potential for a critical hit also helps make up for the rather low base power. Night Slash covers Cresselia, Dusknoir and most other Ghosts and Psychics you will run into. The main reason to use Stone Edge is to take out Gyarados, but it also offers enough power to OHKO Gengar, Azelf, Starmie and assorted other weaker Psychics. It will OHKO Heracross after a Swords Dance too. Night Slash is obviously the more powerful attack against Ghosts and Psychics, but there is a case for Shadow Sneak here. After a Swords Dance, it will OHKO Gengar and Alakazam, preventing them from finishing off Gallade before he gets a chance to attack. However, neither are likely to OHKO a full strength Gallade (Gengar will require Choice Specs or Life Orb, and Alakazam fails to OHKO even with Choice Specs), so Night Slash is generally the superior option. Still, the chance to avoid a near fatal hit can keep Gallade healthy enough to continue his sweep. Shadow Sneak will also OHKO Dugtrio, provided you have a Swords Dance set up and Life Orb. Your choice boils down to which group do you want an easier time with? Slower, bulkier opponents like Cresselia and Dusknoir, or faster, frailer enemies like Gengar and Azelf. Bear in mind that Shadow Sneak is illegal alongside Ice Punch, so you will need to replace the Ice attack with Psycho Cut or Stone Edge.
This is a very solid set that makes use of Gallade's great support movepool and still retains some of that excellent attacking power. Thanks to Gallade's high Special Defense, he will often draw in physical attackers, which can be punished with Will-O-Wisp. Thunder Wave is a good alternative for slowing down enemies trying to take advantage of Gallade's low Speed. Hypnosis is great for incapacitating defensive Pokémon sent in to shut down Gallade, giving your team a much easier time eliminating them. Night Slash provides the best coverage alongside Close Combat, although Heracross can become a problem as he resists Fighting/Dark attacks, and gets a Guts boost from Will-O-Wisp and Thunder Wave. As such, you may want to opt for Psycho Cut.
This doesn't have the immense power of the Choice Bander, but it does make a good "Revenge Killer" against a wide range of enemy sweepers. ThunderPunch is chosen over Psycho Cut, as it gives Gallade the chance to OHKO a Gyarados. Gengar, Salamence, Tyranitar, Garchomp, Infernape...all of these and several others can be brought down before they get a chance to attack. With Choice Scarf, the EVs allow for 384 Speed, enough to outrun all Weavile.
This is the same idea as the previous set, but you sacrifice type coverage in order to take advantage of Gallade's status inducing capabilities. Hypnosis sends a potential counter to sleep, giving Gallade time to set up freely, or send in a team mate to take care of the snoozing opponent. As you only have one spare moveslot for type coverage, you have to choose which opponents you want an easier time killing off. The merits of each attack are mentioned in the previous set.
When using Gallade as a Choice Bander, it is important that he is able to have an advantage over those Pokémon who he will be competing with for a team slot—most notably, Medicham and Heracross. Thankfully, Gallade's large physical movepool allows him to do just that. With Psycho Cut and Ice Punch, he can take down two Pokémon who frequently wall Heracross (Weezing and Gliscor), and with Night Slash, he can hurt Dusknoir and Cresselia, two common switch-ins on his fellow Fighting/Psychic-type, Medicham. Thanks to the impressive type coverage and high Attack this set wields, few Pokémon can afford to switch into this safely. Other OptionsX-Scissor will help out against Celebi, and has a bit more power than Night Slash against most other Psychics. Leaf Blade and Earthquake are both good physical attacks, but have no real use on Gallade because his STAB attacks usually do equal or more damage. Brick Break is available if you don't want like the defense drops from Close Combat, although the massive drop in power from 120 to 75 is off-putting, so you should only consider it if you are also using Bulk Up. Drain Punch provides some healing, but with a paltry 60 BP it is rarely an acceptable option. Trick Room is a reasonable option, but better left to the likes of Bronzong and Dusknoir. Destiny Bond can ensure a KO against a slower enemy. Confuse Ray can annoy opponents, but is rarely worth a moveslot. Bulk Up is a decent option as it can help him sponge attacks, and works nicely with his great Special Defense. Wish can help with Gallade's good Special Defense, but is illegal with Will-O-Wisp, as it is a NYPC move. EVsMax Attack for all the offensive minded sets. 222 is the recommended minimum Speed, as it outspeeds Adamant Tyranitar. 244 beats Jolly versions of Tyranitar, along with max Speed Magnezone and Abomasnow, and Adamant Breloom. 254 outruns Modest Heatran. 270 (Adamant Heracross) and 280 (neutral nature Lucario and Porygon-Z) are the other significant speeds to hit, but they require switching to a Jolly nature. 252 HP / 152 Atk / 104 Spe, Adamant gives Gallade a nice balance between offense and defense. The extra HP EVs let Gallade survives four hits from Seismic Toss (accounting for Leftovers recovery), making repeatedly switching into Blissey a little easier. If you are using Thunder Wave over Will-O-Wisp, then feel free to drop the Speed EVs, and allocate them to Attack or Special Defense. For a bulkier alternative, 252 HP / 88 Atk / 64 SpD / 104 Spe, Adamant allows Gallade to always survive a Choice Specs Draco Meteor from Salamence, and a Life Orb Shadow Ball from Timid Gengar. OpinionGallade is a Pokémon that can take a hit or two, and do a lot of damage in the process. Not only is he a hard Pokémon to counter, he can cripple any counter with one of the many status moves he learns. Although his Speed can be an issue for the more attack minded sets, Gallade is definitely not a Pokémon you want to underestimate. CountersOutpredicting the Choice Band set is the only way to really counter him, since he can hurt pretty much everything. Spiritomb is the best counter, as he is immune to both STAB attacks, and possesses high Defense to take hits from the other attacks. Gyarados is a good option, although a critical hit from Psycho Cut followed by another hit will 2HKO. There's always the chance that Gallade may be carrying ThunderPunch, so be wary of that too. Weezing will also be effective if Gallade doesn't have Psycho Cut. A Sleep Talk Heracross is the best switch-in you can get for the Double Status set (if Psycho Cut is absent). Cresselia will easily wall Gallade if he lacks Night Slash—she often carries Sleep Talk, so Hypnosis isn't really an issue. Gliscor easily switches into Gallade without Ice Punch, stalls it with Roost, and takes an occasional chunk of health with Earthquake or Aerial Ace. Beware of Will-O-Wisp and Hypnosis too. Generally, you should prey on his two weakest stats: Speed and Defense. If you manage to switch them in unscathed, then most fast, physical sweepers will scare him off. |
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