Status: All relevant sections added; awaiting grammar checks, critiques etc.
I've had this done for a while now, but I wanted to post it only after I had finished Heracross. Armaldo was really in need of a revamp anyway; judging from the comments it hasn't been touched since it was written.
Initial Changes:
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/armaldo
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[SET]
name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: X-Scissor
move 3: Stone Edge
move 4: Earthquake
item: Leftovers
nature: Adamant
evs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 128 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Armaldo returns for another bout of carnage with little change as far as the basic idea behind it – attempt to sweep, or support, but not both. This set is the most ambiguous of all its potential sets to identify in this context - while Rock Polish constitutes a straightforward sweep and the support variant is so named for obvious reasons, this Armaldo can attempt to sweep slower or weakened teams, as well as punching holes in the walls of the opponent's team, supporting its own team. Thus it can modify its game to suit any opponent, not only making it the most easily adaptable of Armaldo's sets, but often the most profitable when used competitively. Swords Dance is an excellent boosting move and there are very few physical sweepers that fail to make good use of it. Armaldo is no exception; boasting an excellent base 125 Attack stat and excellent type coverage between its two STABs. It is no weakling defensively either, and while its Sp. Def is not truly impressive at first sight, it can pick up a boost from a Sandstorm thanks to its Rock typing, though Sandstorm is not as common in UU as they are in OU. The only real complaint about this set is its total lack of speed, which is almost a necessity on most sweepers; sadly Armaldo just cannot outrun a great proportion of the Metagame at present. Though this makes him a poor choice in the minds of many battlers, even in UU, the Swords Dancer should not be overlooked as a choice for your team, and certainly not overlooked as a threat.</p>
<p>Swords Dance is naturally the most important move on this set, boosting Armaldo’s Attack as far as it can go in preparation for a sweep. After you have set up you can show off your excellent STAB moves. Stone Edge and X-Scissor are both decently powered and both have a wide range of coverage, resisted only by Fighting and Steel-types. Thus, Earthquake is placed in the final slot to deal with Steel-types, as well as Toxicroak and Nidoking, and is your best bet against other Fighting-types such as Primeape and Hitmontop. Between these three moves is a conglomeration of EdgeQuake and Bug STAB that hits every Pokémon in the game for at least neutral damage. The EV spread is designed to allow Armaldo to take some hits while retaining the largest possible amount of attacking power. 128 Speed EVs allow you to outrun Bold Weezing, and leaves you with a HP number indivisible by four, meaning Armaldo can switch into Stealth Rock 5 times maximum without dying, without factoring in Leftovers recovery. Leftovers is chosen as an item on this set to accommodate for the bulk Armaldo is required to carry; Life Orb is a lesser option since its recoil allows an easy demise for Armaldo in certain situations, though the added power can be useful in some situations. Armaldo is often compared to Rhydon when examined in a competitive context, since they both have a pokemon that has no Stealth Rock weakness, higher attack and STAB on Earthquake, while also having a Megahorn with the same power as Armaldo's STAB X-Scissor. Armaldo has its own share of advantages however, namely a lack of quad weaknesses, making it less easily revenge-killed and therefore harder to switch into, as well as being more bulky on the special side, and being slightly faster.</p>
<p>Stealth Rock is always useful support to have, since as powerful as Armaldo is, it simply does not have the power even after a Swords Dance and Stealth Rock to OHKO most bulky Pokémon, which is a great shame as it won’t be out-speeding most of the faster threats. As far as threats from that end go, Armaldo is going to be struggling against many opponents. However, Milotic cannot OHKO Armaldo with Surf without Special Attack investment and Stealth Rock damage combined, and will occasionally fail even with both, as will Jolly Feraligatr with an unboosted Waterfall. In all cases, Armaldo will be glad of some extra speed to work with, which can be gained in three ways: A Baton Passed Agility boost from someone like Floatzel, Paralysis support on faster pokémon, or Trick Room. For the latter, you will want to run a Brave nature and shift all your Speed EVs to HP in order to maximise Trick Room effectiveness. In the way of troublemaking bulky Pokémon, Weezing can survive one Stone Edge, just about, and cripple with Will-O-Wisp, though Flamethrower from 80 Special Attack variants will not even 3HKO Armaldo. Aside from this, Fighting-types are the ones that give Armaldo the most trouble, notably Hitmontop and Hariyama, since Toxicroak, Medicham, and Blaziken can be taken care of with its other moves. Both Hariyama and Hitmontop resist Armaldo’s STAB moves and take little from Earthquake; Hitmontop in particular has Intimidate and Bullet Punch to take care of him with, and both have STAB Close Combat. To combat them both, a sturdy Psychic-type or Spiritomb is worth consideration. Another brief note is that Sandstorm gives a very useful defensive boost to Armaldo's weaker special side, adding to overall bulk, however it can only be set up by Hippopotas in UU and you should make sure you are aware of the potential damage it can do to the rest of your team if they are not immune to it.</p>
[SET]
name: Rock Polish
move 1: Rock Polish
move 2: X-Scissor
move 3: Stone Edge
move 4: Earthquake
item: Life Orb
nature: Adamant
evs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 244 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>A slight deviation from the previous set, this set is far more concentrated upon sweeping, and getting the job done, than simply going for as much power as possible. Rock Polish allows Armaldo to boost its speed to respectable levels at the cost of a moveslot that could have been used for Swords Dance, and thus allowing it to out-speed and hopefully run through the opponent’s team. This set should be played similarly to Rock Polish Rhydon, with the difference that Armaldo has STAB X-Scissor and Stone Edge with Earthquake for coverage, while Rhydon has STAB Earthquake and Stone Edge with Megahorn for coverage. Armaldo also has slightly higher initial speed to compensate for Rhydon’s extra attacking power.</p>
<p>With 244 EVs in speed, a Rock Polish grants you a speed of 374, allowing you to out-speed everything this side of Sceptile and hopefully tear apart a weakened team, while the remaining 14 EVs are allocated to HP to hopefully provide some bulk. Since this set is different to the Swords Dancer in that a sweep is the single greatest objective for it, and not wall-breaking or playing with resistances, this Armaldo should be saved for lategame when most walls are either weakened or gone, and hopefully Swellow and Sceptile will be absent and unable to revenge-kill. The surprise factor for Armaldo is critical – and once the surprise is gone, a sweep becomes a far more difficult task. For all these reasons, as well as the much-needed power it provides, Life Orb is heavily recommended as the item of choice. The rest of the set is more or less identical to the Swords Dance set, and so needs very little explanation. Again, one may want to use Rock Polish Rhydon over this, for reasons similar to those of the Swords Dance set. Armaldo, however, has the benefit of having a tiny bit higher base speed than Rhydon, which can still be significant; Armaldo does not have to run a Jolly nature to reach certain speeds, and can run Adamant to make up for Rhydon's advantage in attack power or else bulk it up with extra HP EVs that may save its life on several occasions.</p>
<p>Stealth Rock is still useful support to have, and is critical in wearing down your opponents to KO range for Armaldo at the time of the sweep. Faster pokémon are now less of an issue – Blaziken will not enjoy eating an Earthquake after attempting to switch in on an X-Scissor or Swords Dance. However, at the same time bulky pokémon become greater threats – Weezing and Spiritomb have no difficulty burning you, while Registeel can ruin your sweep with paralysis while beating you up with STAB Iron Head. Regirock has an even higher defensive stat and a more powerful STAB Stone Edge to use against you, and Steelix has the potential to carry Gyro Ball, which can hurt badly after you Rock Polish, or simply Roar you out. Not far behind are Slowbro and Milotic, both of whom have reliable recovery and can use status moves or simply STAB Surf to end you. Blaziken can make a useful ally, as it is immune to Will-o-wisp and has STAB Fire Blast and Superpower to beat Regirock, Registeel and Steelix, while Weezing and Spiritomb dislike Fire Blast and can do nothing significant back. Bulky Waters also help, since Milotic can deal with such pokémon as Weezing, Steelix and Regirock with ease, provided none of them explode, and Claydol can use STAB Earthquake or Earth Power on Steelix, Regirock and Registeel, as well as ridding Armaldo of entry hazards with Rapid Spin – useful because Armaldo will take heavy damage from Stealth Rock over time – and can also set up its own Stealth Rocks to aid Armaldo’s sweep. In the case of Milotic and Slowbro, Roserade has Natural Cure and bulkier variants take little damage from most Ice Beams, and can threaten with STAB Leaf Storm. There is still also the issue of Hitmontop and Hariyama, who are if anything even more threatening foes than for the Swords Dancer, and the same rules of thumb apply here.</p>
[SET]
name: Support
move 1: Rock Blast
move 2: Stealth Rock
move 3: Rapid Spin / Toxic
move 4: Knock Off / Toxic
item: Leftovers
nature: Impish
evs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>As mentioned previously, Armaldo has serious potential to support its teammates rather than lean on them for a sweeping opportunity, by virtue of its excellent support movepool. One would expect that, with the many ways it can support its team coupled onto its reasonable defensive stats and lack of speed making it a less potent offensive threat than it could be, this would be its most used set, however its typing gives it a mere two resistances, to Normal and Poison, widely accepted as the worst attacking types outside of STAB, while it has weaknesses to Rock, Water and Steel, which is incredibly detrimental. The Rock weakness is really the killer, whereby Armaldo can obtain the infamous ‘Cloyster syndrome’, being a Rapid Spinner weak to Stealth Rock, and this weakness both limits its survivability and also undercuts its utility as a Rapid Spinner, if it is destroyed by the entry hazards it is supposed to remove. However, this should not discourage you from using support Armaldo, as he can be a very useful tool when a lot of jobs need doing.</p>
<p>Armaldo is naturally physically defensive, and so the EVs serve to reinforce that, to allow Armaldo to serve as a makeshift check to physical threats should the need arise. His SDef can be patched up with Sandstorm if you feel it is exposed, but this may harm your other team members, so be sure to take it into account. Rock Blast may seem odd when Stone Edge is available, but it can also be used to support the team in a way Stone Edge cannot. Similarly to Marowak’s Bonemerang, Rock Blast can be used to break Substitutes; for example, against a Substitute + Toxic Moltres, Armaldo can break the Substitute with its first Rock Blast, then follow it up with up to four more 4x effective, STAB hits. Its accuracy is shaky at best, but then again Stone Edge has the same accuracy anyway. Stealth Rock is, naturally, a useful entry hazard to build up damage with, and Armaldo is as good a user of it as any, which can be useful if you have no other pokémon on your team capable of using it themselves, and having it on the field will aid a sweep for any pokémon. Rapid Spin, naturally, removes the opponent’s entry hazards, which is beneficial to those that have to keep switching as well as those weak to it, including Armaldo itself. Knock Off was illegal with Rapid Spin in ADV, which was a shame as they are two excellent moves, however now that Knock Off is a tutor move as well as an egg move, they can legally be used together. Knock Off is best used by removing the item from more specialised pokémon – walls such as Slowbro hate to lose their Leftovers, and sweepers lose the extra kick from Life Orb or Choice items. Lastly, Toxic can go over either of the previous moves, its main use being to cripple walls as well as Spiritomb that attempt to block Rapid Spin attempts.</p>
<p>Armaldo can support a great variety of pokémon with its moves, and so can cater to a great variety of strategies that require adequate support. For example, as a Rapid Spin user it can clear the field of Stealth Rock, which is a great help to pokémon such as Moltres and Scyther who are quite crippled by it, as well as giving more switch-in opportunities for pokémon like Arcanine. One of its notable advantages over its fellow Rapid Spinners is, on offensive teams especially, that unlike Claydol or Cloyster the opponent will not always assume that it is a Rapid Spinner, and so a Ghost will not always converge upon him in masses – even 252/252 Bold Spiritomb takes hefty damage from a +2 Stone Edge, and Mismagius is not exactly the first choice to defeat the Rock Polish set. Thus, Armaldo can often find itself clearing the field of entry hazards set up by Stall teams, though this façade will only work once, and without a trace of the power of the offensive sets it cannot get past Spiritomb, though it will almost always break a Mismagius Substitute with Rock Blast and more often than not can deal damage past it through consecutive hits, and can use Toxic to hamper Spiritomb. In the vein of offensive teams, Toxic, Stealth Rock and Knock Off all hamper the opponent’s walls and can indeed aid in a sweep for any offensive pokémon, yet they also have utility on Stall teams as well, so make sure to choose your Armaldo’s moves not only on personal preference, but what also benefits your team the most. In terms of bulkiness, Armaldo is fairly good physically but a lack of useful resistances as well as recovery hurts him badly, so it is best to relegate him to a simple secondary physical shock absorber. Lastly, a note about Hippopotas – Armaldo certainly benefits from Sandstorm, but be cautious about its impact on the rest of your team – Armaldo can often play its role more readily without Sandstorm than the rest of your team could with Sandstorm.</p>
[SET]
name: Choice
move 1: X-Scissor
move 2: Stone Edge
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Aqua Tail / Superpower
item: Choice Band / Choice Scarf
nature: Adamant
evs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 244 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>There is rarely an offensive pokémon that cannot in theory run a viable Choice set, and Armaldo is no exception to the rule. Choice Band allows Armaldo to hit hard off the bat, which can be handy since the Swords Dancer can often be forced out before it has had the chance to wreak havoc thanks to everything vaguely popular able to out-speed it, and this gives Armaldo the opportunity to hit its switch in with a very painful, boosted attack. The downside of this is, of course, that Armaldo loses the ability to interchange moves, and so a misprediction can be a fatal mistake, as Armaldo has a real potential to get stuck on the wrong move, and its STAB moves do not have a great deal of neutral coverage individually. Even then, if Armaldo uses Stone Edge on the switch and nails Moltres, expecting an X-Scissor, pokémon like Marowak or Torterra essentially get a free turn, which can be terminal to your chances in the battle. Choice Scarf is the other option, boosting Armaldo’s speed to levels which are still pretty pathetic, but reasonable enough to out-speed certain threats.</p>
<p>The first three moves should be explanatory by now: a three slot combination that hits every pokémon in the game for at least neutral coverage. The fourth move is somewhat a filler option, and does not really affect your battle chances should you leave the house with one but not the other. Aqua Tail, as demonstrated by Tyranitar in OU, is a good move to defeat its great counters, Hippowdon and Gliscor, who are indifferent to its other moves and can generally wall the tar out of it. Armaldo would no doubt put this to good use if either Gliscor or Hippowdon were allowed in UU, or else you intend to use this in OU. In a normal UU context, it is only really useful for Hippowdon and Gliscor’s devolutions, Hippopotas and Gligar respectively, as well as the odd Sandslash. All other pokémon mostly take higher damage from its other moves, with the exception of pokémon like Rhydon and Golem, who do not enjoy CB Earthquake. Superpower is a more powerful attack than Earthquake to use against Steel-types, though its coverage is somewhat redundant, but because it is as powerful as STAB X-Scissor it is worth consideration. In reference to that of EVs, 244 are allocated to Speed in order to outrun neutral base 90 pokémon such as Zangoose and Roserade, though 252 EVs extends this to Rotom, and a Jolly nature includes positive natured Rotom as well. For the Choice Bander, 208 EVs allows you to outrun all walls up to and including 4 speed Cloyster, granting you a nice 48 EVs in HP to bulk you up, which also allows you to switch into Stealth Rock a maximum of five times, which is handy as Armaldo will be switching a lot, as is often the case with Choice sets. Again, Rhydon is a competitor for this sort of spot, but it has to be said that Rhydon can use a Choice set slightly better, since it resists Stealth Rock and so is not limited to five switches, and is often a wiser choice. Do not let this discourage you from using Armaldo, though, as he still has the strong points of the Swords Dance and the Rock Polish sets for Band and Scarf respectively.</p>
<p>As previously mentioned, Armaldo has a lifeline of five switches in the presence of Stealth Rock, which does not sound like much, and it isn’t. Therefore, a Rapid Spinner is heavily advised for use with Armaldo, as well as something that can remove Ghosts. As already noted, Claydol makes a good partner, checking Hitmontop and Hariyama while spinning away Rocks, and also being able to set up Rocks of its own in order to aid Armaldo’s episode of chaos. As far as sheer counters go, Choice Scarf variants are running without boosts, and are pretty much walled by a combination of decent walls and decent prediction, as with the Rock Polish set. The same rings true for the Choice Bander, though with less emphasis on walling as revenge-killing, as the Choice Bander can hit hard off the bat, but is also far slower and can be picked off after Stealth Rock damage by a number of faster pokémon, as per the Swords Dance set. In this vein, one can glean adequate support for either variant of Choice Armaldo. Wish support from something like Hypno or Chansey can also be a worthwhile investment by simultaneously healing it and also patching up its weaker defensive side.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>As far as physical options go, Rock Slide is on offer if you want more accuracy than Stone Edge and Rock Blast, Superpower is more powerful than Earthquake initially but has the disadvantageous recoil side-effect, and Cross Poison is completely redundant with X-Scissor. Screech may force switches, and can be useful on a team with Spikes support. Armaldo has a more-or-less decent Special Attack stat of 70, which would make a gimmick mixed sweeper set possible if it weren’t for the absence of nearly any sort of decent special move, the most remarkable of which is Earth Power. Brick Break is also available, more for its utility than its power, as per its ability to break screens.</p>
[EVs]
<p>You should run Adamant and max Attack for every set, barring the Support one where you'll want to focus on HP and defensive stats. first. 244 Speed EVs will hit 374 after a Rock Polish or 280 with a Choice Scarf. You can use 208 Speed EVs on the Choice Band set, thus making him faster than most Cloyster, who sits at base 70 speed. Also, since Armaldo is slow and powerful, he is a good candidate for Trick Room teams, where a Brave nature and a 0 Speed IV gives him a stat of 85.</p>
[Team Options]
<p>Stealth Rock is an important factor to consider when using Armaldo; on the one hand setting it up can greatly aid Armaldo’s sweep, but on the other hand the opponent setting it up ensures that Armaldo’s life will be short-lived, and this is a particular concern for the Choice sets, which have no Leftovers recovery and will be switching in and out repeatedly to accommodate mispredictions. Thus, Rapid Spin and Stealth Rock support is recommended, though Armaldo can perform both roles itself if you want. Screen support can help with setting up, particularly since Armaldo will want all the defensive support it can get, and Swords Dance Armaldo in particular benefits from it greatly. Paralysis support is also nice to make up for Armaldo’s rather lacklustre speed stat. As previously mentioned, other ways of supporting Armaldo via improving its relative speed includes Trick Room and Baton Pass support. A full Trick Room team can make good use of Armaldo’s low speed and high attack, as well as its excellent coverage. Lastly, Sandstorm support from Hippopotas makes Armaldo’s often negligible SDef stat look quite respectable, even with no EV investment, but can hinder the rest of your team if you do not run a full Sandstorm team.</p>
<p>One thing you must remember when using an Armaldo is that what it can and can’t take down often depends on the set – a faster pokémon with a super-effective attack, especially Water-types, are often the first pokémon that spring to mind to take it down, as well as powerful neutral attacks on Armaldo’s weaker side, however in the case of Rock Polish and Choice Scarf, Armaldo will often out-speed and OHKO frailer pokémon, while lacking the power to take down walls. For example, heavily defensive pokémon such as Steelix, Regirock and Weezing can all stop it, and the latter can burn it with Will-o-wisp, and so a powerful wall-breaker like Blaziken is recommended to weaken or kill them. Most Bulky Waters such as Slowbro and Milotic can hit them on their weaker special side with their STAB moves, and in the case of the first two can sometimes OHKO with SAtk investment. In the case of defensive Fighting-types such as Hariyama and Hitmontop, defensive Psychic or Ghost-types may be advisable to stop them – Ghosts such as Spiritomb in particular have the advantage of blocking Rapid Spin attempts as well.</p>
<p>In the case of the support set, one will want to find a secondary use for Armaldo as a defensive buffer. Armaldo’s own resistances stretch to Normal and Poison, the two types that are almost never seen except as STAB moves, and even then are often paired with coverage moves. Its weaknesses are a lot more defining; Rock, Water and Steel, the first two of which are quite common attacking types. The only pokémon in UU that resists all of Armaldo’s weaknesses are Poliwrath, which has decent defensive stats and can use its STAB Fighting and Water-type moves against such foes as Steelix, Registeel and Rhydon, and Water Absorb Quagsire, who is also quite defensive but is also quite disappointing on the special side, which is the one Armaldo needs most watching. On the special side, specially defensive Registeel takes little damage from unboosted neutral Surfs and can shrug off most attacks aimed at Armaldo, except for such things as Fire Blast or Superpower from Blaziken. Bulky Waters too have some decent resistances and they too can take on most of Armaldo’s offensive foes. Lastly, as mentioned above, a defensive Ghost like Spiritomb or Rotom can easily help Armaldo with its ability to take on such foes as Bulky Fighting-types that may cause Armaldo problems.</p>
<p>Hariyama and Hitmontop are quite often found on stall or bulkier offensive teams, as they are valued, in the case of Hariyama, for its important resistances, or for Hitmontop the useful support duties, as well as bulk. Thus, they are often found in the company of slower or bulkier pokémon that they often have defensive synergy with, such as Bulky Waters such as Milotic, Bulky Steel-types such as Registeel, as well as Grass-types like Roserade. These are the sorts of pokémon that non-Swords Dance Armaldo can have trouble with, and even then they have the power to injure through their STAB moves and so Armaldo will require support from such stall-breakers as Blaziken and Toxicroak, who can both cause damage with their STAB moves, and pave the way for a Rock Polish Armaldo to sweep a team. A Swords Dance variant can act as a successful wall-breaker itself should the need arise, through its powerful attacks backed by a solid base Attack stat. In other points, a strong Pursuit-user may be advisable to remove Ghosts that try to block Rapid Spin attempts.</p>
[Opinion]
<p>Armaldo is one of those pokémon that seems to try to do too much with just too little a stat total. It can be defensive or offensive, but not both, with the result that in this Metagame it cannot shine at either end, which leaves it to be all too easily discarded in favour of more specialised options. On the defensive side, it has just two resistances to rarely seen attacking types, weakness to Stealth Rock and no reliable recovery, and on the offensive side, Armaldo’s horrible speed comes back to haunt him with a resounding clang. Even past that, there are many who feel that Rhydon can do everything that Armaldo does better.</p>
<p>However, one should not put down Armaldo all that quickly. It has a fantastic support movepool that can be used in all sorts of situations, and it still has its powerful attack stat, backed up by useful boosting moves, with an excellent offensive STAB combination. And make no mistake, it has its own advantages past Rhydon. All in all, it has to be said that Armaldo is, whatever his shortcomings, a powerful Pokémon with acceptable defensive stats and a good movepool, so don't take him too lightly.</p>
[Counters]
<p>In general, Armaldo's worst enemy is his own poor Speed. Failing to outrun such a wide range of Pokémon hinders his ability to sweep and forces him to switch out on Pokémon he could otherwise KO, like Blaziken. In general, however, finding a semi-solid counter to the set depends largely on discovering the set. After this, it is not too difficult to stop with the appropriate moveset. Hitmontop is probably the best universal counter, having decent defensive stats, resistances to both STAB moves and Intimidate, as well as a range of moves to defeat Armaldo such as Close Combat and Bullet Punch. Hariyama has the same resistances, is also quite defensive and can beat down with STAB Fighting attacks.</p>
<p>For the Swords Dancer, the best option is really to revenge-kill with a faster pokémon. Weezing can take a +2 Stone Edge and burn with Will-o-wisp, while Milotic can attack with STAB super-effective Surfs. For the Rock Polish set, the list of paper counters extends much further, where reasonably defensive pokémon like Steelix and Regirock can counter effectively. The Choice sets follow the same pattern respectively.</p>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post-critique changes:
I've had this done for a while now, but I wanted to post it only after I had finished Heracross. Armaldo was really in need of a revamp anyway; judging from the comments it hasn't been touched since it was written.
Initial Changes:
- Rewrote all set descriptions
- Added Team Options paragraph to every set description
- Reorganised Counters, EVs and Other Options sections
- Rewrote Opinion section
- Added separate Team Options section
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/armaldo
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[SET]
name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: X-Scissor
move 3: Stone Edge
move 4: Earthquake
item: Leftovers
nature: Adamant
evs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 128 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Armaldo returns for another bout of carnage with little change as far as the basic idea behind it – attempt to sweep, or support, but not both. This set is the most ambiguous of all its potential sets to identify in this context - while Rock Polish constitutes a straightforward sweep and the support variant is so named for obvious reasons, this Armaldo can attempt to sweep slower or weakened teams, as well as punching holes in the walls of the opponent's team, supporting its own team. Thus it can modify its game to suit any opponent, not only making it the most easily adaptable of Armaldo's sets, but often the most profitable when used competitively. Swords Dance is an excellent boosting move and there are very few physical sweepers that fail to make good use of it. Armaldo is no exception; boasting an excellent base 125 Attack stat and excellent type coverage between its two STABs. It is no weakling defensively either, and while its Sp. Def is not truly impressive at first sight, it can pick up a boost from a Sandstorm thanks to its Rock typing, though Sandstorm is not as common in UU as they are in OU. The only real complaint about this set is its total lack of speed, which is almost a necessity on most sweepers; sadly Armaldo just cannot outrun a great proportion of the Metagame at present. Though this makes him a poor choice in the minds of many battlers, even in UU, the Swords Dancer should not be overlooked as a choice for your team, and certainly not overlooked as a threat.</p>
<p>Swords Dance is naturally the most important move on this set, boosting Armaldo’s Attack as far as it can go in preparation for a sweep. After you have set up you can show off your excellent STAB moves. Stone Edge and X-Scissor are both decently powered and both have a wide range of coverage, resisted only by Fighting and Steel-types. Thus, Earthquake is placed in the final slot to deal with Steel-types, as well as Toxicroak and Nidoking, and is your best bet against other Fighting-types such as Primeape and Hitmontop. Between these three moves is a conglomeration of EdgeQuake and Bug STAB that hits every Pokémon in the game for at least neutral damage. The EV spread is designed to allow Armaldo to take some hits while retaining the largest possible amount of attacking power. 128 Speed EVs allow you to outrun Bold Weezing, and leaves you with a HP number indivisible by four, meaning Armaldo can switch into Stealth Rock 5 times maximum without dying, without factoring in Leftovers recovery. Leftovers is chosen as an item on this set to accommodate for the bulk Armaldo is required to carry; Life Orb is a lesser option since its recoil allows an easy demise for Armaldo in certain situations, though the added power can be useful in some situations. Armaldo is often compared to Rhydon when examined in a competitive context, since they both have a pokemon that has no Stealth Rock weakness, higher attack and STAB on Earthquake, while also having a Megahorn with the same power as Armaldo's STAB X-Scissor. Armaldo has its own share of advantages however, namely a lack of quad weaknesses, making it less easily revenge-killed and therefore harder to switch into, as well as being more bulky on the special side, and being slightly faster.</p>
<p>Stealth Rock is always useful support to have, since as powerful as Armaldo is, it simply does not have the power even after a Swords Dance and Stealth Rock to OHKO most bulky Pokémon, which is a great shame as it won’t be out-speeding most of the faster threats. As far as threats from that end go, Armaldo is going to be struggling against many opponents. However, Milotic cannot OHKO Armaldo with Surf without Special Attack investment and Stealth Rock damage combined, and will occasionally fail even with both, as will Jolly Feraligatr with an unboosted Waterfall. In all cases, Armaldo will be glad of some extra speed to work with, which can be gained in three ways: A Baton Passed Agility boost from someone like Floatzel, Paralysis support on faster pokémon, or Trick Room. For the latter, you will want to run a Brave nature and shift all your Speed EVs to HP in order to maximise Trick Room effectiveness. In the way of troublemaking bulky Pokémon, Weezing can survive one Stone Edge, just about, and cripple with Will-O-Wisp, though Flamethrower from 80 Special Attack variants will not even 3HKO Armaldo. Aside from this, Fighting-types are the ones that give Armaldo the most trouble, notably Hitmontop and Hariyama, since Toxicroak, Medicham, and Blaziken can be taken care of with its other moves. Both Hariyama and Hitmontop resist Armaldo’s STAB moves and take little from Earthquake; Hitmontop in particular has Intimidate and Bullet Punch to take care of him with, and both have STAB Close Combat. To combat them both, a sturdy Psychic-type or Spiritomb is worth consideration. Another brief note is that Sandstorm gives a very useful defensive boost to Armaldo's weaker special side, adding to overall bulk, however it can only be set up by Hippopotas in UU and you should make sure you are aware of the potential damage it can do to the rest of your team if they are not immune to it.</p>
[SET]
name: Rock Polish
move 1: Rock Polish
move 2: X-Scissor
move 3: Stone Edge
move 4: Earthquake
item: Life Orb
nature: Adamant
evs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 244 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>A slight deviation from the previous set, this set is far more concentrated upon sweeping, and getting the job done, than simply going for as much power as possible. Rock Polish allows Armaldo to boost its speed to respectable levels at the cost of a moveslot that could have been used for Swords Dance, and thus allowing it to out-speed and hopefully run through the opponent’s team. This set should be played similarly to Rock Polish Rhydon, with the difference that Armaldo has STAB X-Scissor and Stone Edge with Earthquake for coverage, while Rhydon has STAB Earthquake and Stone Edge with Megahorn for coverage. Armaldo also has slightly higher initial speed to compensate for Rhydon’s extra attacking power.</p>
<p>With 244 EVs in speed, a Rock Polish grants you a speed of 374, allowing you to out-speed everything this side of Sceptile and hopefully tear apart a weakened team, while the remaining 14 EVs are allocated to HP to hopefully provide some bulk. Since this set is different to the Swords Dancer in that a sweep is the single greatest objective for it, and not wall-breaking or playing with resistances, this Armaldo should be saved for lategame when most walls are either weakened or gone, and hopefully Swellow and Sceptile will be absent and unable to revenge-kill. The surprise factor for Armaldo is critical – and once the surprise is gone, a sweep becomes a far more difficult task. For all these reasons, as well as the much-needed power it provides, Life Orb is heavily recommended as the item of choice. The rest of the set is more or less identical to the Swords Dance set, and so needs very little explanation. Again, one may want to use Rock Polish Rhydon over this, for reasons similar to those of the Swords Dance set. Armaldo, however, has the benefit of having a tiny bit higher base speed than Rhydon, which can still be significant; Armaldo does not have to run a Jolly nature to reach certain speeds, and can run Adamant to make up for Rhydon's advantage in attack power or else bulk it up with extra HP EVs that may save its life on several occasions.</p>
<p>Stealth Rock is still useful support to have, and is critical in wearing down your opponents to KO range for Armaldo at the time of the sweep. Faster pokémon are now less of an issue – Blaziken will not enjoy eating an Earthquake after attempting to switch in on an X-Scissor or Swords Dance. However, at the same time bulky pokémon become greater threats – Weezing and Spiritomb have no difficulty burning you, while Registeel can ruin your sweep with paralysis while beating you up with STAB Iron Head. Regirock has an even higher defensive stat and a more powerful STAB Stone Edge to use against you, and Steelix has the potential to carry Gyro Ball, which can hurt badly after you Rock Polish, or simply Roar you out. Not far behind are Slowbro and Milotic, both of whom have reliable recovery and can use status moves or simply STAB Surf to end you. Blaziken can make a useful ally, as it is immune to Will-o-wisp and has STAB Fire Blast and Superpower to beat Regirock, Registeel and Steelix, while Weezing and Spiritomb dislike Fire Blast and can do nothing significant back. Bulky Waters also help, since Milotic can deal with such pokémon as Weezing, Steelix and Regirock with ease, provided none of them explode, and Claydol can use STAB Earthquake or Earth Power on Steelix, Regirock and Registeel, as well as ridding Armaldo of entry hazards with Rapid Spin – useful because Armaldo will take heavy damage from Stealth Rock over time – and can also set up its own Stealth Rocks to aid Armaldo’s sweep. In the case of Milotic and Slowbro, Roserade has Natural Cure and bulkier variants take little damage from most Ice Beams, and can threaten with STAB Leaf Storm. There is still also the issue of Hitmontop and Hariyama, who are if anything even more threatening foes than for the Swords Dancer, and the same rules of thumb apply here.</p>
[SET]
name: Support
move 1: Rock Blast
move 2: Stealth Rock
move 3: Rapid Spin / Toxic
move 4: Knock Off / Toxic
item: Leftovers
nature: Impish
evs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>As mentioned previously, Armaldo has serious potential to support its teammates rather than lean on them for a sweeping opportunity, by virtue of its excellent support movepool. One would expect that, with the many ways it can support its team coupled onto its reasonable defensive stats and lack of speed making it a less potent offensive threat than it could be, this would be its most used set, however its typing gives it a mere two resistances, to Normal and Poison, widely accepted as the worst attacking types outside of STAB, while it has weaknesses to Rock, Water and Steel, which is incredibly detrimental. The Rock weakness is really the killer, whereby Armaldo can obtain the infamous ‘Cloyster syndrome’, being a Rapid Spinner weak to Stealth Rock, and this weakness both limits its survivability and also undercuts its utility as a Rapid Spinner, if it is destroyed by the entry hazards it is supposed to remove. However, this should not discourage you from using support Armaldo, as he can be a very useful tool when a lot of jobs need doing.</p>
<p>Armaldo is naturally physically defensive, and so the EVs serve to reinforce that, to allow Armaldo to serve as a makeshift check to physical threats should the need arise. His SDef can be patched up with Sandstorm if you feel it is exposed, but this may harm your other team members, so be sure to take it into account. Rock Blast may seem odd when Stone Edge is available, but it can also be used to support the team in a way Stone Edge cannot. Similarly to Marowak’s Bonemerang, Rock Blast can be used to break Substitutes; for example, against a Substitute + Toxic Moltres, Armaldo can break the Substitute with its first Rock Blast, then follow it up with up to four more 4x effective, STAB hits. Its accuracy is shaky at best, but then again Stone Edge has the same accuracy anyway. Stealth Rock is, naturally, a useful entry hazard to build up damage with, and Armaldo is as good a user of it as any, which can be useful if you have no other pokémon on your team capable of using it themselves, and having it on the field will aid a sweep for any pokémon. Rapid Spin, naturally, removes the opponent’s entry hazards, which is beneficial to those that have to keep switching as well as those weak to it, including Armaldo itself. Knock Off was illegal with Rapid Spin in ADV, which was a shame as they are two excellent moves, however now that Knock Off is a tutor move as well as an egg move, they can legally be used together. Knock Off is best used by removing the item from more specialised pokémon – walls such as Slowbro hate to lose their Leftovers, and sweepers lose the extra kick from Life Orb or Choice items. Lastly, Toxic can go over either of the previous moves, its main use being to cripple walls as well as Spiritomb that attempt to block Rapid Spin attempts.</p>
<p>Armaldo can support a great variety of pokémon with its moves, and so can cater to a great variety of strategies that require adequate support. For example, as a Rapid Spin user it can clear the field of Stealth Rock, which is a great help to pokémon such as Moltres and Scyther who are quite crippled by it, as well as giving more switch-in opportunities for pokémon like Arcanine. One of its notable advantages over its fellow Rapid Spinners is, on offensive teams especially, that unlike Claydol or Cloyster the opponent will not always assume that it is a Rapid Spinner, and so a Ghost will not always converge upon him in masses – even 252/252 Bold Spiritomb takes hefty damage from a +2 Stone Edge, and Mismagius is not exactly the first choice to defeat the Rock Polish set. Thus, Armaldo can often find itself clearing the field of entry hazards set up by Stall teams, though this façade will only work once, and without a trace of the power of the offensive sets it cannot get past Spiritomb, though it will almost always break a Mismagius Substitute with Rock Blast and more often than not can deal damage past it through consecutive hits, and can use Toxic to hamper Spiritomb. In the vein of offensive teams, Toxic, Stealth Rock and Knock Off all hamper the opponent’s walls and can indeed aid in a sweep for any offensive pokémon, yet they also have utility on Stall teams as well, so make sure to choose your Armaldo’s moves not only on personal preference, but what also benefits your team the most. In terms of bulkiness, Armaldo is fairly good physically but a lack of useful resistances as well as recovery hurts him badly, so it is best to relegate him to a simple secondary physical shock absorber. Lastly, a note about Hippopotas – Armaldo certainly benefits from Sandstorm, but be cautious about its impact on the rest of your team – Armaldo can often play its role more readily without Sandstorm than the rest of your team could with Sandstorm.</p>
[SET]
name: Choice
move 1: X-Scissor
move 2: Stone Edge
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Aqua Tail / Superpower
item: Choice Band / Choice Scarf
nature: Adamant
evs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 244 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>There is rarely an offensive pokémon that cannot in theory run a viable Choice set, and Armaldo is no exception to the rule. Choice Band allows Armaldo to hit hard off the bat, which can be handy since the Swords Dancer can often be forced out before it has had the chance to wreak havoc thanks to everything vaguely popular able to out-speed it, and this gives Armaldo the opportunity to hit its switch in with a very painful, boosted attack. The downside of this is, of course, that Armaldo loses the ability to interchange moves, and so a misprediction can be a fatal mistake, as Armaldo has a real potential to get stuck on the wrong move, and its STAB moves do not have a great deal of neutral coverage individually. Even then, if Armaldo uses Stone Edge on the switch and nails Moltres, expecting an X-Scissor, pokémon like Marowak or Torterra essentially get a free turn, which can be terminal to your chances in the battle. Choice Scarf is the other option, boosting Armaldo’s speed to levels which are still pretty pathetic, but reasonable enough to out-speed certain threats.</p>
<p>The first three moves should be explanatory by now: a three slot combination that hits every pokémon in the game for at least neutral coverage. The fourth move is somewhat a filler option, and does not really affect your battle chances should you leave the house with one but not the other. Aqua Tail, as demonstrated by Tyranitar in OU, is a good move to defeat its great counters, Hippowdon and Gliscor, who are indifferent to its other moves and can generally wall the tar out of it. Armaldo would no doubt put this to good use if either Gliscor or Hippowdon were allowed in UU, or else you intend to use this in OU. In a normal UU context, it is only really useful for Hippowdon and Gliscor’s devolutions, Hippopotas and Gligar respectively, as well as the odd Sandslash. All other pokémon mostly take higher damage from its other moves, with the exception of pokémon like Rhydon and Golem, who do not enjoy CB Earthquake. Superpower is a more powerful attack than Earthquake to use against Steel-types, though its coverage is somewhat redundant, but because it is as powerful as STAB X-Scissor it is worth consideration. In reference to that of EVs, 244 are allocated to Speed in order to outrun neutral base 90 pokémon such as Zangoose and Roserade, though 252 EVs extends this to Rotom, and a Jolly nature includes positive natured Rotom as well. For the Choice Bander, 208 EVs allows you to outrun all walls up to and including 4 speed Cloyster, granting you a nice 48 EVs in HP to bulk you up, which also allows you to switch into Stealth Rock a maximum of five times, which is handy as Armaldo will be switching a lot, as is often the case with Choice sets. Again, Rhydon is a competitor for this sort of spot, but it has to be said that Rhydon can use a Choice set slightly better, since it resists Stealth Rock and so is not limited to five switches, and is often a wiser choice. Do not let this discourage you from using Armaldo, though, as he still has the strong points of the Swords Dance and the Rock Polish sets for Band and Scarf respectively.</p>
<p>As previously mentioned, Armaldo has a lifeline of five switches in the presence of Stealth Rock, which does not sound like much, and it isn’t. Therefore, a Rapid Spinner is heavily advised for use with Armaldo, as well as something that can remove Ghosts. As already noted, Claydol makes a good partner, checking Hitmontop and Hariyama while spinning away Rocks, and also being able to set up Rocks of its own in order to aid Armaldo’s episode of chaos. As far as sheer counters go, Choice Scarf variants are running without boosts, and are pretty much walled by a combination of decent walls and decent prediction, as with the Rock Polish set. The same rings true for the Choice Bander, though with less emphasis on walling as revenge-killing, as the Choice Bander can hit hard off the bat, but is also far slower and can be picked off after Stealth Rock damage by a number of faster pokémon, as per the Swords Dance set. In this vein, one can glean adequate support for either variant of Choice Armaldo. Wish support from something like Hypno or Chansey can also be a worthwhile investment by simultaneously healing it and also patching up its weaker defensive side.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>As far as physical options go, Rock Slide is on offer if you want more accuracy than Stone Edge and Rock Blast, Superpower is more powerful than Earthquake initially but has the disadvantageous recoil side-effect, and Cross Poison is completely redundant with X-Scissor. Screech may force switches, and can be useful on a team with Spikes support. Armaldo has a more-or-less decent Special Attack stat of 70, which would make a gimmick mixed sweeper set possible if it weren’t for the absence of nearly any sort of decent special move, the most remarkable of which is Earth Power. Brick Break is also available, more for its utility than its power, as per its ability to break screens.</p>
[EVs]
<p>You should run Adamant and max Attack for every set, barring the Support one where you'll want to focus on HP and defensive stats. first. 244 Speed EVs will hit 374 after a Rock Polish or 280 with a Choice Scarf. You can use 208 Speed EVs on the Choice Band set, thus making him faster than most Cloyster, who sits at base 70 speed. Also, since Armaldo is slow and powerful, he is a good candidate for Trick Room teams, where a Brave nature and a 0 Speed IV gives him a stat of 85.</p>
[Team Options]
<p>Stealth Rock is an important factor to consider when using Armaldo; on the one hand setting it up can greatly aid Armaldo’s sweep, but on the other hand the opponent setting it up ensures that Armaldo’s life will be short-lived, and this is a particular concern for the Choice sets, which have no Leftovers recovery and will be switching in and out repeatedly to accommodate mispredictions. Thus, Rapid Spin and Stealth Rock support is recommended, though Armaldo can perform both roles itself if you want. Screen support can help with setting up, particularly since Armaldo will want all the defensive support it can get, and Swords Dance Armaldo in particular benefits from it greatly. Paralysis support is also nice to make up for Armaldo’s rather lacklustre speed stat. As previously mentioned, other ways of supporting Armaldo via improving its relative speed includes Trick Room and Baton Pass support. A full Trick Room team can make good use of Armaldo’s low speed and high attack, as well as its excellent coverage. Lastly, Sandstorm support from Hippopotas makes Armaldo’s often negligible SDef stat look quite respectable, even with no EV investment, but can hinder the rest of your team if you do not run a full Sandstorm team.</p>
<p>One thing you must remember when using an Armaldo is that what it can and can’t take down often depends on the set – a faster pokémon with a super-effective attack, especially Water-types, are often the first pokémon that spring to mind to take it down, as well as powerful neutral attacks on Armaldo’s weaker side, however in the case of Rock Polish and Choice Scarf, Armaldo will often out-speed and OHKO frailer pokémon, while lacking the power to take down walls. For example, heavily defensive pokémon such as Steelix, Regirock and Weezing can all stop it, and the latter can burn it with Will-o-wisp, and so a powerful wall-breaker like Blaziken is recommended to weaken or kill them. Most Bulky Waters such as Slowbro and Milotic can hit them on their weaker special side with their STAB moves, and in the case of the first two can sometimes OHKO with SAtk investment. In the case of defensive Fighting-types such as Hariyama and Hitmontop, defensive Psychic or Ghost-types may be advisable to stop them – Ghosts such as Spiritomb in particular have the advantage of blocking Rapid Spin attempts as well.</p>
<p>In the case of the support set, one will want to find a secondary use for Armaldo as a defensive buffer. Armaldo’s own resistances stretch to Normal and Poison, the two types that are almost never seen except as STAB moves, and even then are often paired with coverage moves. Its weaknesses are a lot more defining; Rock, Water and Steel, the first two of which are quite common attacking types. The only pokémon in UU that resists all of Armaldo’s weaknesses are Poliwrath, which has decent defensive stats and can use its STAB Fighting and Water-type moves against such foes as Steelix, Registeel and Rhydon, and Water Absorb Quagsire, who is also quite defensive but is also quite disappointing on the special side, which is the one Armaldo needs most watching. On the special side, specially defensive Registeel takes little damage from unboosted neutral Surfs and can shrug off most attacks aimed at Armaldo, except for such things as Fire Blast or Superpower from Blaziken. Bulky Waters too have some decent resistances and they too can take on most of Armaldo’s offensive foes. Lastly, as mentioned above, a defensive Ghost like Spiritomb or Rotom can easily help Armaldo with its ability to take on such foes as Bulky Fighting-types that may cause Armaldo problems.</p>
<p>Hariyama and Hitmontop are quite often found on stall or bulkier offensive teams, as they are valued, in the case of Hariyama, for its important resistances, or for Hitmontop the useful support duties, as well as bulk. Thus, they are often found in the company of slower or bulkier pokémon that they often have defensive synergy with, such as Bulky Waters such as Milotic, Bulky Steel-types such as Registeel, as well as Grass-types like Roserade. These are the sorts of pokémon that non-Swords Dance Armaldo can have trouble with, and even then they have the power to injure through their STAB moves and so Armaldo will require support from such stall-breakers as Blaziken and Toxicroak, who can both cause damage with their STAB moves, and pave the way for a Rock Polish Armaldo to sweep a team. A Swords Dance variant can act as a successful wall-breaker itself should the need arise, through its powerful attacks backed by a solid base Attack stat. In other points, a strong Pursuit-user may be advisable to remove Ghosts that try to block Rapid Spin attempts.</p>
[Opinion]
<p>Armaldo is one of those pokémon that seems to try to do too much with just too little a stat total. It can be defensive or offensive, but not both, with the result that in this Metagame it cannot shine at either end, which leaves it to be all too easily discarded in favour of more specialised options. On the defensive side, it has just two resistances to rarely seen attacking types, weakness to Stealth Rock and no reliable recovery, and on the offensive side, Armaldo’s horrible speed comes back to haunt him with a resounding clang. Even past that, there are many who feel that Rhydon can do everything that Armaldo does better.</p>
<p>However, one should not put down Armaldo all that quickly. It has a fantastic support movepool that can be used in all sorts of situations, and it still has its powerful attack stat, backed up by useful boosting moves, with an excellent offensive STAB combination. And make no mistake, it has its own advantages past Rhydon. All in all, it has to be said that Armaldo is, whatever his shortcomings, a powerful Pokémon with acceptable defensive stats and a good movepool, so don't take him too lightly.</p>
[Counters]
<p>In general, Armaldo's worst enemy is his own poor Speed. Failing to outrun such a wide range of Pokémon hinders his ability to sweep and forces him to switch out on Pokémon he could otherwise KO, like Blaziken. In general, however, finding a semi-solid counter to the set depends largely on discovering the set. After this, it is not too difficult to stop with the appropriate moveset. Hitmontop is probably the best universal counter, having decent defensive stats, resistances to both STAB moves and Intimidate, as well as a range of moves to defeat Armaldo such as Close Combat and Bullet Punch. Hariyama has the same resistances, is also quite defensive and can beat down with STAB Fighting attacks.</p>
<p>For the Swords Dancer, the best option is really to revenge-kill with a faster pokémon. Weezing can take a +2 Stone Edge and burn with Will-o-wisp, while Milotic can attack with STAB super-effective Surfs. For the Rock Polish set, the list of paper counters extends much further, where reasonably defensive pokémon like Steelix and Regirock can counter effectively. The Choice sets follow the same pattern respectively.</p>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post-critique changes:
- Grammar check 1, thanks to franky
- Fixed ambiguity on Swords Dance set
- Added references to Rhydon on all sets barring Support
