|
-
Sturdy
- OHKO moves will fail.
-
Gluttony
- Consumes pinch berries at 50% HP or less.
|
Statistics
|
Min- |
Min |
Max |
Max+ |
| HP |
20
|
- |
181 |
244 |
- |
| Atk |
10
|
50 |
56 |
119 |
130 |
| Def |
230
|
446 |
496 |
559 |
614 |
| SpA |
10
|
50 |
56 |
119 |
130 |
| SpD |
230
|
446 |
496 |
559 |
614 |
| Spe |
5
|
41 |
46 |
109 |
119 |
Body Slam or Knock Off ensures that Taunting Pokémon do not get off scot-free against Shuckle. Body Slam paralysis is more useful for team support, but Knock Off can get rid of potentially deadly Choice items and can actually hit Gengar. Choose your pick of Toxic or Stealth Rock to slowly whittle down your opponent, but preferably not both. It’s probably best to use Body Slam / Stealth Rock and Knock Off / Toxic in tandem, as at least one move in each set can deal damage to its counters. Body Slam / Knock Off would be a good combo, except it’s illegal because Body Slam is a FRLGE move tutor while Knock Off is a DP bred move.
Either use this on a team with Trick Room, or kill off all your opponent’s physical attackers first so that they can’t take advantage of the Defense drop after using Power Trick. Gyro Ball is another powerful attack, but you may find any of the other options useful.
Wait till the end of the game, when Shuckle can no longer be pseudohazed because there are no other Pokémon to switch out them, then start your Acupressures and pray you don’t get hit by a critical hit. Rock Slide is mentioned because Stone Edge will run you out of PP quickly, especially if they have Pressure. And you don’t want to be caught without PP on your last Pokémon.
Putting this here because it’s one of the most often used sets, and because it happens to be probably one of the worst ones to use. Not only is it really boring to kill opponents with, but it is easily walled by Poison-types, Steel-types, and anything with Rest. At least the Supporting Wall set can still help the team with Encore when this happens, but this? It’s completely useless when walled.
Other Options
Helping Hand and Acupressure can be useful options in Double Battles; however as a Doubles Pokémon Shuckle is not very helpful as an opponent with any brains will always target your other Pokémon while leaving Shuckle flopping helplessly. Some fun can also be had with Rollout – just remember that it’s an Emerald move tutor and cannot be combined with Shuckle’s other really fun move, Acupressure. Gastro Acid can also be useful for getting rid of annoying traits.
Gluttony MIGHT be useful on, say, the Power Trick set to get Liechi Berry to activate faster, but in all other cases Sturdy should be Shuckle's trait of choice.
EVs
ALWAYS, always, always max Shuckle’s HP to give it the best defense potential. Then after that, either put the remaining EVs into the defenses (if it’s the Encore set), or pump Attack with Adamant or Brave nature if it’s the Last Resort set. If it’s the Power Trick set, go for Impish with maximized Defense.
As for the defenses of the Encore set, it’s really hard to go wrong here. But here are some optimal choices. If Shuckle is on a Sand Stream team, maximize Defense with Impish nature. You can also balance them out by putting max EVs in one stat while using a boosting nature in the other. (Note that you can go Careful and swap the Defense and Special Defense EVs in the set above.) Or you can overspecialize one stat, but this is not really recommended.
Opinion
A common misconception about Shuckle is that because of its nonexistent attack power, other Pokémon are free to set up on it to sweep. This is not entirely the case. Shuckle can Encore these stat-up moves, forcing them to switch out or allowing you to bring in another Pokémon to attack. Even if you end up Encoring an attack move, Shuckle still has the godly defenses to take hits, and you can switch out something that resists it. This makes Shuckle very useful to teams that rely on resistances rather than walls. However, make sure that your incoming Pokémon is something that can really resist the move.
Shuckle works best with a certain amount of skill and prediction. For example, determining whether or not your opponent will use Substitute is key to determining whether to use Knock Off / Body Slam or Encore next. This determination is something that comes with experience.
Counters
Pretty much anything can switch in on Shuckle (that is, the Encore set), but not everything can switch in without losing something potentially vital. Gengar switches in on the Body Slams but takes Stealth Rock damages OR gets its item Knocked Off. Steels are also exceptionally great walls but also risk getting paralyzed or losing their item.