Sawsbuck (Analysis)

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Sawsbuck

[Overview]

<p>At first glance, Sawsbuck looks underwhelming when compared to the rest of the new threats Black and White have brought; however, Sawsbuck has a few tricks in its fur that some people might not see. First of all, it has a great stat distribution for a physical sweeper, with base 100 Attack and base 95 Speed. In addition, it is blessed with two great abilities, Sap Sipper and Chlorophyll, which can turn it into a complete monster with the proper team support. When you take a look at Sawsbuck, it may seem outclassed by Leafeon, who has the same Speed stat, but also 110 base Attack and much higher Defense. However, Sawsbuck has STAB Return as well as a way to heal itself through its STAB Horn Leech, and access to Nature Power and Jump Kick. Aside from its sweeping capabilities, Sawsbuck has Baton Pass, which allows it to pass boosts from Sap Sipper, Agility, Swords Dance, or Work Up to a partner.</p>

[SET]
name: OU Chlorophyll Sweeper
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Horn Leech
move 3: Return
move 4: Nature Power / Jump Kick
item: Life Orb
ability: Chlorophyll
nature: Adamant
evs: 136 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 116 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>With Chlorophyll boosting its already high Speed to monumental levels, Sawsbuck can become a potent physical sweeper on an offensive sun team. Under the sun, 116 Speed EVs allow Sawsbuck to get the jump on +1 base 105 Speed Pokemon like Mienshao, allowing it to effectively sweep whole teams. After a Swords Dance, Sawsbuck's average Attack stat raises to a great 656, allowing it to take many bulky walls down. Return is the main attacking option, with its high 102 base power Base Power and good coverage. After a Swords Dance, Return will always OHKO Latios, and will almost always KO max HP Celebi even without Stealth Rock or Spikes. Horn Leech is Sawsbuck's secondary STAB option, allowing Sawsbuck to OHKO frailer opponents or anything it hits super effectively and simultaneously restore health.</p>

<p>There are two options for the last slot. In Wi-Fi and simulator battles, Nature Power will always act as Earthquake, allowing Sawsbuck to hit Steel-type Pokemon for super effective damage. Jump Kick is another option to hit Steel-type Pokemon, but its accuracy is a little lower and it has the nasty side effect of damaging Sawsbuck when it misses. Nature Power is usually the better option due to its ability to hit Chandelure, Jirachi, and Metagross; however, Jump Kick can be used to hit Steel-types that hold Balloon, as well as hit Skarmory harder and OHKO Ferrothorn after a Swords Dance boost.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Ninetales is undoubtedly the best partner for Sawsbuck. Apart from bringing sunshine to the battle, Ninetales can switch into Bug-, Ice-, and Fire-type attacks with ease and hit back with Overheat and Hidden Power Ground. Sawsbuck gets multiple opportunities to set up Swords Dance when switching into Ground- and Water-type attacks aimed at Ninetales and scaring foes away with Horn Leech. If you're using Jump Kick, Chandelure will completely wall you. Choice Band Tyranitar with Tension can switch into Chandelure's STAB attacks without taking away your sunshine and OHKO it with Pursuit. Gengar can also be a problem, although a +2 Horn Leech has a 72.5% chance to OHKO 4/0 Gengar after Stealth Rock. Spiritomb can switch into a Focus Blast without a sweat and trap Gengar with Pursuit. If you're running Nature Power, Skarmory and Ferrothorn become problems. Ferrothorn can do heavy damage to you after the Chlorophyll boost with Gyro Ball, and Skarmory can OHKO you with Brave Bird or Whirlwind away your boosts. Bulky Ghost-type Pokemon like Dusclops and Cofagrigus can burn and subsequently wall Sawsbuck. Chandelure's STAB moves can deal with all these problems.</p>

[SET]
name: OU Baton Pass
move 1: Baton Pass
move 2: Agility
move 3: Swords Dance / Work Up
move 4: Horn Leech
item: Leftovers
ability: Sap Sipper
nature: Impish
evs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 116 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>While the limelight is always nice, this set takes a different approach to Sawsbuck, concentrating on its ability to support its team with its immense stat-raising movepool in conjunction with Baton Pass. The first option is Agility. Almost every Pokemon will benefit from having its Speed doubled, as will Sawsbuck itself. The next slot depends solely on what Sawsbuck will pass to. Swords Dance doubles the Attack of any Pokemon that receives the pass. Obviously, the Pokemon who benefit most from this boost are physical sweepers. The next option is Work Up, which raises both Attack and Special Attack by one stage. This is optimally passed to a mixed sweeper.</p>

<p>One might question using Sawsbuck over other Baton Passers like Gliscor, who can pass the same boosts. The main attraction to using Sawsbuck is its ability, Sap Sipper. When switching into a Grass-type attack, Sawsbuck's Attack is raised. The beauty of it is that the Attack boost from Sap Sipper can be Baton Passed, benefiting any physical sweeper. Lastly, Horn Leech is used as your sole STAB move.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>The EVs aim to maximize survivability, while maintaining a high Speed stat. With 116 EVs, Sawsbuck will hit 510 speed after an Agility, allowing it to outspeed +1 base 105 Speed Pokemon such as Mienshao, which can otherwise cause problems. Feel free to move the 140 Defense EVs into Special Defense and change to a Careful nature if you wish to be more specially bulky. If using Sawsbuck as a lead, Focus Sash is viable in place of Leftovers.</p>

<p>If Sawsbuck is passing Swords Dance, the most ideal recipient is Darmanitan. Darmanitan already has an enormous Attack stat and will benefit greatly from Agility, although it's weak to Stealth Rock. Lucario is a great mixed attacker and will benefit from Work Up. Classic Baton Pass recipients, such as Rhyperior and Marowak, can make use of these boosts too. If you fear being phazed or Taunted, you can use Espeon as a middle man. Espeon can reflect Taunt, Whirlwind, Roar, and even hazards with Magic Mirror, which greatly helps because Sawsbuck's best recipients are weak to Stealth Rock. Espeon can then pass the boosts to your recipient.</p>

[Other Options]

<p>Wild Bolt can be used for Skarmory, but it doesn't really do anything else for it as Horn Leech hits bulky Water-types harder while simultaneously recovering health. Double-Edge can be used over Return, but Return still nabs all the KOs needed without the nasty recoil Double-Edge gives. Substitute can be used somewhere on the Baton Pass set but it's hard to find a slot for it. Sawsbuck also gets Aromatherapy and Thunder Wave, but there are many Grass-types that can run a support set more effectively than Sawsbuck.</p>

[Checks and Counters]

<p>On the Swords Dance sets, Gengar and Chandelure resist all of Sawsbuck's attacks and can hit back with Focus Blast and Fire Blast, respectively. Skarmory can easily take a +2 Jump Kick and OHKO with Brave Bird or Whirlwind away your boosts. Bulky Ghost-types like Dusclops with Eviolite or Cofagrigus can easily take a Horn Leech then burn you with Will-O-Wisp. Whirlwind, Roar, and Taunt all ruin the Baton Pass set. Perish Song is the worst because it can't be avoided without switching and losing any boosts, and can be Baton Passed.</p>

[Dream World]

<p>Sawsbuck has Serene Grace as a Dream World ability. The only moves it affects are Shadow Ball, Rock Smash, and Energy Ball. It's inadvisable to use it. Furthermore, the Dream World tier is a more dangerous place to use Sawsbuck, where Pokemon like Technician Breloom and Shadow Tag Chandelure lurk, who can easily put a stop to Sawsbuck's sweep. Thankfully, Drought has been released on Ninetales so it can be used in Wi-Fi.</p>
 
Don't mind me, but this is just a little info plus a moveset you could try posting. (Also, it gets Fake Tears as a breeding move.)

Okay, here's the status.
Weaknesses: Fire, Fighting, Ice, Flying, Bug, and Poison
Resistances:Water, Electric, Grass, Ghost (x0), and Ground

Along with the Swords Dance set, you have the following moves to consider: Wild Bolt, Wood Horn (For recovery), Double-Edge, Light Screen, Thunder Wave, and Sunny Day, for the ability Chlorophyll.
 
In case you need it, here's all the moves you could use for those movesets you were mentioning:

Thunder Wave, Leech Seed, Baton Pass (Breeding Move), Faint Attack, Camouflage, Fake Tears (Breeding Move), Agility (Breeding Move), Grasswhistle (Breeding Move), Charm, Nature Power, Toxic
 
Don't mind me, but this is just a little info plus a moveset you could try posting. (Also, it gets Fake Tears as a breeding move.)

Okay, here's the status.
Weaknesses: Fire, Fighting, Ice, Flying, Bug, and Poison
Resistances:Water, Electric, Grass, Ghost (x0), and Ground

Along with the Swords Dance set, you have the following moves to consider: Wild Bolt, Wood Horn (For recovery), Double-Edge, Light Screen, Thunder Wave, and Sunny Day, for the ability Chlorophyll.
In case you need it, here's all the moves you could use for those movesets you were mentioning:

Thunder Wave, Leech Seed, Baton Pass (Breeding Move), Faint Attack, Camouflage, Fake Tears (Breeding Move), Agility (Breeding Move), Grasswhistle (Breeding Move), Charm, Nature Power, Toxic
Thanks a lot for the info! I appreciate the weakness and resistance chart, but I don't think this is the right place to put it. IIRC it goes in the Uncharted Territory thread, not the analysis, but correct me if I'm wrong and I will add it :)

Wild Bolt is interesting but it won't be that strong. I mentioned Wood Horn in the comments but I don't think it deserves to be on the set for the reasons mentioned in the comments. The support moves don't really fit on a Swords Dancer, but Sunny Day reminded me that I have to mention Ninetales in the comments of the Sunny Day Sweeper set, thanks for reminding me :) Many of the moves you mentioned in your second post can't be used competitively (Nature Power, Camoflouge....) and the others are on the sets. Fake Tears isn't viable because it's special attack is ass (base 60)
 
I'm at a loss as to why Return is the best attacking option on the BP set. I mean sure, it's stronger than Wood Horn, but Ghost-types laugh at you. It's unfortunate, especially since Mebukijika will definitely benefit from switching into Ghost-type attacks like Burungeru or Desukan's Shadow Balls. Wood Horn also helps to increase its relative bulk, which it needs as a Baton Passer.

Max HP before Attack on the Baton Pass set, it's not made to be offensive, but rather a supporter.

Also, make note of how the Baton Passer enjoys switching into Grass-type attacks to gain an attack boost from Herbivore that it can pass.

EDIT: Also, why no Choice Band set? With Herbivore for free switch-in/boosts, Wood Horn for passive healing, and decent physical attack and speed, it's pretty much yelling at you to give it a CB set.
 
I'm at a loss as to why Return is the best attacking option on the BP set. I mean sure, it's stronger than Wood Horn, but Ghost-types laugh at you. It's unfortunate, especially since Mebukijika will definitely benefit from switching into Ghost-type attacks like Burungeru or Desukan's Shadow Balls. Wood Horn also helps to increase its relative bulk, which it needs as a Baton Passer.

Max HP before Attack on the Baton Pass set, it's not made to be offensive, but rather a supporter.

Also, make note of how the Baton Passer enjoys switching into Grass-type attacks to gain an attack boost from Herbivore that it can pass.

EDIT: Also, why no Choice Band set? With Herbivore for free switch-in/boosts, Wood Horn for passive healing, and decent physical attack and speed, it's pretty much yelling at you to give it a CB set.
I was actually testing Wood Horn just a few minutes ago, and I like it more than Return, and I'm sure others will too so I will make that change. Max HP seems like a good idea too so I'll change that. I don't think I'll need to test it because I already have an idea of what it'll be doing. I completely forgot the Herbivore boost can be passed, good catch! Choice Band is kinda meh in my opinion. Mebukijika can be switched into too easily with it's movepool. Return is easily switched into by Ghost and Steels, whcih are both extremely common, as well as Rocks too. Wood Horn is resisted by seven types. Jump Kick is just asking for Shandera to switch in, and Wild Bolt kind of sucks. Baffuron usaully pulls that off with less sweat due to it's higher attack and defenses, as well as much better movepool. Megahorn also has pretty undesired coverage. As I said before, Baffuron has everything this deer has that can be used well on a Choice set except Wood Horn, but it gets Earthquake and Stone Edge. Thanks for that post though, helped a lot of things ^_^
 
^Ah yes, the switch-in possibilities. The CB set can use Baton Pass though, which lets you scout your opponent's team first.

EDIT: Synthesis needs to be mentioned as well. It's a healing move, no matter how crappy, and with Sun now a possibility in OU, it's on the fringe of being barely viable.
 
Synthesis can be used in the last slot but with SandStorm and Rain trolling the metagame it generally doesn't heal enough to keep Mebukijika running much longer
Synthesis is already mentioned on the support set, but no other sets can use it so it's not in AC. I guess Baton Pass can be used for scouting, but I still don't think it deserves a set because of that.
 

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2 things:

1: Take the support set down. It's terrible in comparison to basically every single other defensive Grass-type, and 80/70/70 defenses aren't doing it any favors, especially with its huge pile of weaknesses.

2: No mention of Nature Power anywhere? In WiFi, Nature Power acts as Earthquake 100% of the time. Granted, Jump Kick is probably better much of the time, especially considering Balloon, but Nature Power beats Jirachi and Metagross, and Balloon Rock-types get beat by Wood Horn.
 
Outspeeds +1 Garchomp with only 96 Speed EVs in the sun
I'm not too sure about that speed number. Scarf Kojondo will give you issues, and the elec/flying genie, all of the new fighting legendaries, Zoroark, and maybe Ninjask I guess can all possibly outspeed and dent you badly, if not OHKO. You're talking about a different of a dozen or so HP to outspeed all but Ninjask; why not outspeed the whole metagame instead of Garchomp on down?

Also, this has great speed in the sun, okay-good attack, and a decent movepool. Why no CB set?
 

AccidentalGreed

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A Man In Black said:
Also, this has great speed in the sun, okay-good attack, and a decent movepool. Why no CB set?
As far as Mebukiika's movepool goes, there are a TON of resistances to his primary attacks, and he will need those resistances eliminated if he's going in-and-out with those defenses. Though it's certainly powerful, one would need specific support for a Choice Banded Sun abuser.

Also, Mebujiika needs some defense values to survive random attacks, so it's only natural to outspeed one of the most common Scarfers around.

And yes, please add Nature Power. I myself think it is a primary option in comparison to Jump Kick. Jirachi and Metagross annoys you to no end because of high defenses and ability to cripple (for Jirachi).
 
Ok I never knew nature power mimicked earthquake. I'll slash that in the sweeper sets with jump kick, but the face that skarmory and nattorei totally wall you isn't fun. However, it's a great solution to the shandera problem so that will be the primary slash (I run these sets on wifi where shadow tag shandera isn't released, should I mention that the sweepers are better in wifi?)
Support set will be removed
 
Merge the first two sets. They both have similiar puposes-to set up Swords Dance and sweep. The only niche Mebukijaka has is under the sun with Swords Dance and Chlrophyll . Remove the slash with Baton Pass; you already have an entire set dedicated to it.

Just run max Speed EVs on the Chlorophyll set; unless the 160 HP EVs help you survive some specific attack, it is not doing anything else.

As SDS has suggested, please remove the support set; Mebukijaka's defenses and weaknesses to Fighting-, Bug- and Fire- type attacks do it no good when it runs a ''support'' set.

Otherwise, this is a good analysis. Put the comments in paragraph form, and you will be ready for QC checks. Good luck.
 
I don't know about merging the first two sets. Without 160 HP EVs, Garchomp's Outrage will always kill with Stealth Rock damage and have a chance to kill without it (87 - 102.9%). With the 160 HP EVs, the damage is 76.8 - 90.9%. Then I can set up Swords Dance, all that stuff, and surprisingly, Wood Horn has a chance to kill Garchomp, and will always kill wtih a layer of Stealth Rock and Spikes (plus, due to Garchomp's great HP stat, you will recovery greatly). With the EVs, Choice Scarf Latios' Draco Meteor will usually not OHKO, but without them, it always will. I could go on and on, but sorry, I really think the two sets should be seperate. Also, Herbivore is important on the second set to nab a free boost (which also allows it to freely switch into spore).

Support set is gone
 
I don't know about merging the first two sets. Without 160 HP EVs, Garchomp's Outrage will always kill with Stealth Rock damage and have a chance to kill without it (87 - 102.9%). With the 160 HP EVs, the damage is 76.8 - 90.9%. Then I can set up Swords Dance, all that stuff, and surprisingly, Wood Horn has a chance to kill Garchomp, and will always kill wtih a layer of Stealth Rock and Spikes (plus, due to Garchomp's great HP stat, you will recovery greatly). With the EVs, Choice Scarf Latios' Draco Meteor will usually not OHKO, but without them, it always will. I could go on and on, but sorry, I really think the two sets should be seperate.
Put this in the analysis, that it can take those attacks and set up/counterattack, but that Kojondo or the genies will likely give you trouble. It's not reasonable to expect people to just look at the numbers and know that.
 
Put this in the analysis, that it can take those attacks and set up/counterattack, but that Kojondo or the genies will likely give you trouble. It's not reasonable to expect people to just look at the numbers and know that.
I wasn't expecting anyone to know that, but still. Actually, Mebukijika doesn't have problems with the genies or Kojondo as long as they're not scarfed. However, I will add an addition spread in the comments to outspeed base 105s like Kojondo, and mention the HP evs take away from the ability to survive the mentioned moves.
 
This deer has the Speed to run an effective SubSeed set. Given that decent Attack Stat, I think Mebu has the niche to run an offensive SubSeed set:

Wood Horn, Leech Seed, Substitute, Megahorn

Wood Horn provides additional healing and Megahorn is another niche move to gore any target that resists Leech.
Run with a sweeper EV spread and Life Orb.
 
This deer has the Speed to run an effective SubSeed set. Given that decent Attack Stat, I think Mebu has the niche to run an offensive SubSeed set:

Wood Horn, Leech Seed, Substitute, Megahorn

Wood Horn provides additional healing and Megahorn is another niche move to gore any target that resists Leech.
Run with a sweeper EV spread and Life Orb.
If you do use this set, Jump Kick merits mention as a slash for Megahorn, just because of the ubiquity of Nattorei.
 
Well then, that really doesn't help Mebu's cause against Grass-types in general, especially Grass/Poison.
I suspect if you put all of the Nattorei in one pile and all of the other grass Pokemon (not counting Skymin) in the other pile, the Nattorei pile would be taller. There's also edge cases, like Blaziken, Heatran, Skarmory, and Forretress, but in the main it comes down to whether you'd rather have Nattorei issues or Celebi/Rankurusu/Venusaur troubles.
 

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SAY NO TO SUBSEED

Seriously, no SubSeed. Sceptile does it better, Jaroda does it better, Erufuun does it better, Jumpluff does it better, basically everything is more effective at SubSeeding than Mebukijika.
 

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