Shuckle (Contrary Shell Smashing Tank)

[Omaeka]

This is my first ever setup for a Pokémon, as when I jump into competitive battling I plan to start in the NU tier, so be gentle!

[SET]
name: ContraTank
move 1: Shell Smash
move 2: Encore / Power Split
move 3: Toxic
move 4: Rest
item: Rocky Helmet / Leftovers
ability: Contrary
nature: Impish / Bold
evs: 252 HP / 228 SpD / 30 Def
ivs: 0 Atk / 0 SpA

[SET COMMENTS]

• With a defense boosting nature and the EV spread, Shuckle will have 244 HP, 553 Defense and 553 Special Defense
• With it's Contrary ability Shell Smash will raise both of Shuckle's already preposterous defenses by on stage each turn from 553 (0) > 829 (1) > 1105 (2) all the way to 2212 (6)
• This gives him higher Defense than Regirock and higher Special Defense than Regice, all on one Pokémon
• If you can catch your opponent off guard with an encore you may be able to force them to switch out giving you a free turn for Shell Smash, lock them into a pathetically low damaging attack or force them to keep setting up themselves.
• If you use Power Split, you can burden even the most powerful of sweepers by halving their attack stats
• If you use Power Split, it is advised to use Bold or Impish natures to further hinder physical or special attackers
• It is advised that you use the Bold nature in order to further hinder physical attackers, as they are Shuckles primary threats
• Using Rampardos as a great example (highest attack in the tier), he can have a maximum of 471 attack, powersplit creates an average between both Shuckle's and Rampardos' attack stats which is calculated as 471 + 13 / 2 = 242. That is 87 points lower than an attack hindering natured Rampardos with 0 EVs.
• After six turns you will have the most defensive Pokémon in the game
• The natures specified allow Shuckle to have a large pool of HP whilst bolstering his impressive 230 base Defense & Special Defense stats
• If you choose Rocky Helmet you will stall and recoil any physical attacker in the tier into their graves
• With leftovers you will get some considerable bonus bulk, but well timed Rests can render the item useless when your opponent could be receiving more damage than they can deal through Rocky Helmet recoil ontop of Toxic
• With both defense stats well above 2000 even a Life Orb, +6 Zangoose will struggle to take it down
• With Life Orb, Toxic & Rocky Helmet damage building up each turn it can force even the mightiest of physical attackers to switch out before they kill themselves flailing against Shuckle's massive bulk

Pros:

• Highest defenses in the game
• Ability to fully heal every 3 turns
• Capable of causing a ton of damage-over-time with Toxic/Rocky Helmet to physical attackers
• Frustrating to play against, may fluster and put your opponent off their game
• With Power Split, Shuckle can render any offensive Pokémon completely useless
• Shuckle can force his opponent to attack his 2,000+ strong defenses with halved offense
• A huge underdog story with every battle!

Cons:

• Quite luck based, critical hits/supereffective attacks can destroy the strategy
• Susceptible to being set-up bait
• Less offense against special attackers
• Extremely weak to Rampardos, Kingler, Armaldo, Metang and other common, offensive Rock/Steel/Water Pokémon
• Higher potential meta-power but less reliable than a Eviolite Wynaut
• Unable to setup Toxic on Steel/Poison types, completely incapable of damaging Steel/Poison special attackers
• Completely walled and overpowered by Corsola which is a far inferior tank

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

 

[Governess]

Hello! Welcome to Smogon! You have the gist of the format down; make sure you have the Additional and Other Comments in your analysis as well; followed by this format:
http://www.smogon.com/forums/announcement.php?f=148&a=181
Great set, by the way. :)

 

[Omaeka]

Hey, thanks for the tips! Is the layout not working properly for me or are we supposed to view the <ul class="damage_calculation"> etc?

 

[Governess]

Yes, you are suppose to do that specific layout for your calculations.

 

[Omaeka]

Sweet! Is there any other <> stuff I have to include? Also if you could help, I'm not too clued up yet so I'm not 100% on all of the threats he may face. He's weak to Steel/Water/Rock so do you know of any key Pokémon he should be wary of?

Thanks!

 

[Magcargo]

I must ask, but how exactly will rampardos get to +6? This set is alright, but it is walled by every steel and poison types in the game, which should be mentioned.

 

[Omaeka]

Swords Dance of course! Good point on the Poison/Steel, will add that.

 

[Magcargo]

I didn't even know that it could learn swords dance. I must ask why you are use 30 IVs in defense and special defense. Also mention that pokemon with taunt or a phazing move rob it of its boost.

Apart from that, everything looks fine.

 

[Omaeka]

It can carry Swords Dance & Rock Polish which pretty much turns it into a Dragon Dancer but with only two attacks. The worst part about the Shuckle is that Rampardos normally cannot setup very well with SD/RP due its typing and weak bulk, so if their Ramp carries them and comes in on the Shuckle it's game over.

What is wrong with 30 IV, can it have more? Another great point on taunt, would taunt force him to use Struggle?

 

[tehy]

Before anything else...

252 Hp evs. Unless you are a pokemon like Blissey, 252 HP EVs is always better. There's some mathematical benchmark but 99% of the time, 252 HP evs is good.

31 IVs is the max, we usually don't even mention IVs since there's no reason to go below except Hidden Powers, so that's the only time those are mentioned.

It's kind of unable to do anything to steels/poisons and is setup bait for any kind of hazard but... other than that, I guess?

When does a Rampardos run Swords Dance? You SAID when but it's still probably close to never. Also, you have Toxic and Encore so that. To add on to my point, it's used pretty rarely and is only C-rank in the NU viability rankings, so it's not all that prominent. And as per this month's usage stat it has less than .5% usage.

Rest ALWAYS lasts 2 turns.

Gentle makes no sense at all, given as you could just reduce attack instead of Special Defense

Edit: Well that depends on whether or not you counting the resting turn or not but either way, Rest has a fixed sleep time

 

[jrp]

Quite luck based, critical hits/long sleep periods can destroy the strategy

Rest only lasts for 3 turns

also, don't use gentle, that would defeat the entire purpose of the set.

 

[melvni]

Just a couple things:

1.) Shell Smash boosts Shuckle's defenses by 50% each turn not 100% because Shell Smash normally only lowers defensive stats by one stage, not two. This also means that it will take six turns, not three, to max out Shuckle's defenses.

2.) This should be in outline form like is explained here. Also, since this is just a set, you don't need an overview.

Good luck with this!

 

[Omaeka]

Fantastic support guys :) lots of help, and this is a great community!

Will integrate the changes you have all mentioned now.

Just a couple things:

1.) Shell Smash boosts Shuckle's defenses by 50% each turn not 100% because Shell Smash normally only lowers defensive stats by one stage, not two. This also means that it will take six turns, not three, to max out Shuckle's defenses.

2.) This should be in outline form like is explained here. Also, since this is just a set, you don't need an overview.

Good luck with this!

1.) A huge oversight on my part, thank you for the correction.

2.) Will make those changes too.

Thanks!

My reasons for using Gentle was to keep the Def/SpD spread even and allow the Shuckle to invest less SpDef for the sake of the extra HP, would Shuckle benefit more from 252 HP / 100 Def / 158 SpDef with a +Def -Atk nature?

 

[Agonist]

Keeping its defenses even really isn't a concern compared to investing EVs to survive certain moves and whatnot, especially since the goal of the set it to boost its defenses.

A Bold or Calm nature, along with the EVs, should depend on what you're aiming to survive while boosting up.

 

[Omaeka]

Well this Shuckle is kind of even against both physical and special attackers, as the tier has more physical attackers than special attackers which use Rock/Steel/Water but he inflicts much more damage against physical attackers, he can force them to faint in 6 turns with Rocky Helmet and that is without Toxic damage taken into account.

But he can also destroy any Pokémon's offensive abilities with Power Swap, dropping them quite low.

 

[Not Jacky]

Remove the mention of 31 Def / 31 SpD / 31 Spe EVs. IV's that aren't mentioned are assumed to be 31.

In addition, Relaxed doesn't really serve a purpose... keep it to Impish/Bold.

 

[Omaeka]

Done. >=]

 

[jrp]

maybe slash Wrap on somewhere? Lets you do a bit of damage at least

 

[Magcargo]

Wrap+toxic allows you to damage steel and poison types as well, the only exception being haunter.

 

[Omaeka]

What can be traded for wrap though? You'd have to use leftovers if you dropped Rest, and Toxic will far out damage it. Wrap may open up the ability to damage Steel types but it nullifies Shuckle's ability to do huge damage + hit Ghost.

Shell Smash & Power Swap are vital to completely shutting any team down. I know they aren't common but a +6 Rampardos using Stone Edge after Power Swap can't even 2HKO Shuckle, and nothing in the tier is going to hit Shuckle for that much.

You could trade Toxic for wrap for better coverage, but the damage potential of Toxic especially when Shuckle will be in play for so long is insane, it would eventually build up enough damage to 0HKO anything, and the Rocky Helmet does 16% of a Pokémons life per collision, that'd go if Rest was traded for Wrap.

 

[Magcargo]

Rampardos never run swords dance. You could probably swap it for encore.

 

[WhiteDMist]

I'm sorry but even with Encore/Power Split, what benefit does this have for a team? Besides being Taunt bait to the extreme, Skuntank and Steel-types just destroy this set. Even if you Encore them, Substitute users can set up and block your Toxic and force Shuckle to switch out (if Rocks are up, even +6 to both Defenses won't help against the 25% residual damage upon switching back in). The main set on-site is a mildly decent Stealth Rock setter and does about the same thing to the opponent's team (Encore and Toxic) while still fulfilling a very important purpose to a team. All this set does in the long run is sit there and hope to Toxic an opponent successfully. One can accomplish similar things with a simple Will-O-Wisp user. Also, you are only assuming that the opponent will use physical attacker in what I've read. The tier may still be more inclined towards physical attackers, but you can't ignore the power of Water-types like Gorebyss and Ludicolo.

 

[shrang]

What people fail to realise, is that what Shuckle needs, is not more Defense.

 

[Punchshroom]

That base 20 HP is easily Shuckle's greatest undoing. Mention on that.

 

[ebeast]

Hate to say it, but I don't think this set is viable at all. Even though Contrary Shell Smash does boost Shuckle's already impressive defenses, it does absolutely nothing to fix its problem of generally being unable to do much of anything. This Shuckle set is Taunt bait, which makes it so even Pokemon that should normally lose to this such as Skuntank can beat it by just Taunting and wearing it down slowly.

Since Shuckle has a Stealth Rock weakness and is using Rest without Sleep Talk, wearing it down can be quite easy. Using Rest loses Shuckle so much momentum that going for it can basically be considered a death sentence for Shuckle. I can't Encore or Toxic while asleep, allowing foes to set up on it very easily and if tries to switch out it resets its Sleep turns and has to take Stealth Rock damage the next time it comes back in. Overall this set is very mediocre and I don't think it deserves to be on site.

QC Reject 1/3