Aerodactyl
Ability: Rock Head
Moveset 1: Choice Band
- Brave Bird
- Head Smash
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang/Ice Fang
Moveset 2: Hone Claws @ Life Orb/Focus Sash
- Brave Bird
- Head Smash
- Earthquake
- Hone Claws
Aerodactyl is finally ready to shine, after being bullied by Game Freak in giving it a practically useless ability and no decent Flying move
s. StabMons STABmons can now turns things around for it.
Rock Head is now an invaluable asset to Aerodactyl as the Stab
-God himself
gave gives it Brave Bird AND Head Smash. That's a 120 BP and a 150 BP STAB move for the prehistoric
al Ptero
dactyl. Not only that
, but Flying and Rock have excellent coverage with his 3rd move: Earthquake
. This hitting hits every type for at least normal damage. A speed stat of 130 screams for a Choice Band, although one could prefer Life Orb to be able to switch moves.
The 4th move will be hardly used due to the high base power of his STAB moves and the good coverage they provide with Earthquake. You'll actually need a 4x weakness before it can
do better damage hit harder than Head Smash or Brave Bird. Fire Fang is the best option
vs for Scizor, Ferrothorn & Forretress.
although these 3 will take a LOT from CB Brave Bird or Head Smash anyway (2HKO atleast). Bronzong is the most notable enemy to a set without Fire Fang. Aqua Tail's only purpose is to hit Ground/Rock
mons Pokemon harder
. like Rhyperior and On the same note, Ice Fang is the best option for
things Pokemon 4x weak to Ice
, like such as Garchomp, Gliscor & Landorus
. but these mons will in most cases take a lot from Brave Bird or Head Smash anyway.
The Life Orb set trades some power for the ability to
use something in take advantage of the 4th moveslot: Taunt, Hone Claws, Stealth Rock, Substitute
or and Roost are
all viable options
. that come to mind. But However, with Aerodactyl's new found toys in
Stabmonz STABmons, Hone Claws is
probably considered the best choice; after one Hone Claws boost
, Head Smash
gets recieves perfect accuracy and Aerodactyl
now has an Attack stat
as if it would have a with a power similar to its notorious Choice Band
set.
Another option is to run a Focus Sash with Hone Claws. With Aerodactyl's dazzling speed, recoil negation and immunity to Spikes and Sandstorm damage
means that it can set up a Hone Claws if no SR are up and initiate a sweep. The Focus Sash can also serve to
live survive a Scarf/Priority move.
Calcs vs Aerodactyl Counters:
Aerodactyl setup: Choice Band (or 1 Hone Claws boost), 252 Attack EVs, Speed boosting nature.
Brave Bird vs 252 HP/252 Def+ Hippowdon: 39-47%
Head Smash vs 252 HP/252 Def+ Forretress: 51-61%
Fire Fang vs 252 HP/252 Def+ Bronzong: 35-43%
Brave Bird vs 252 HP/252 Def+ Donphan: 41-49%
Earthquake vs 252 HP/252 Def+ Registeel: 42-50%
Aqua Tail vs 252 HP/252 Def+ Rhyperior (Solid Rock): 53-63%
Earthquake vs 252 HP/252 Def+ Rhyperior (Solid Rock): 29-35%
As you can see even the best Aerodactyl counters are nearing the 2HKO mark. Only priority and scarfers can safely stop it.
Only Bronzong is a reliable switch-in, as it can come in on any move
, doesnt mind hazards and
can OHKO with Gyro Ball.
Although However after doing so
, Bronzong will be
in at a very low health range and a burn or flinch from Fire Fang
can has the potential to mess up
it's its day.
If Aerodactyl is running an attack
-boosting nature
, things get scarier for it can plough through some of it’s its defensive checks
,. However, but it will miss out on outspeeding some
things notably notable Pokemon: Timid Alakazam, Starmie
and, Raikou, +1 Metagross
and, Scizor
, Scarf Politoed and Magnezone. Also
, it shares the same speed stat with Jolteon
,; so a speed tie can be avoided by running a speed boosting nature.
Checks & Counters:
Bronzong is the best defensive counter to it, along
side with Rhyperior (if Aerodactyl
doesn’t isn't run
ning Aqua Tail) but the latter is hardly seen in the meta
game, while Bronzong can OHKO with Gyro Ball. Due to
it’s its frailty
, a lot of attacks can revenge kill it
. but because Due to the low base power of priority moves
, low base power they will need some prior damage
as they wont to OHKO, unless they come from powerhouses
like such as CB Azumarill
or CB and Scizor. For example a
n Ice Shard from LO Weavile
’s Ice Shard will not OHKO and only has a small chance to do so after SR. Revenge killing it with a Scarfer is your best bet and putting up SR can prevent it from switching in and out again to put dents in your team.
Azumarill
Ability: Huge Power
Moveset 1: Belly Drum @ Sitrus Berry/Mystic Water/Life Orb
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- ExtremeSpeed
- Superpower/Ice Punch
Moveset 2: Shell Smash @ White Herb/Life Orb
- Shell Smash
- Waterfall
- ExtremeSpeed/Ice Punch
- Superpower
Moveset 3: Choice Band
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall/Crabhammer
- Extremespeed
- Superpower/Ice Punch
Azumarill
has been spotted in regular is rarely spotted in OU
, yet it steels the limelight in the STABmon metagame. as a guest performer with it's Choice Band equipped but With his newly attained pre-evo STAB moves
, he now
gets gains access to 2 boosting moves and
in an extra priority move
in Extremespeed. Don't let
it's its 50 base Attack stat fool you
; because when considering after Huge Power, it actually has an
attacking stat of 436
. which is the about the same as base 150 mons like Zekrom (yes that's right).
What has drawn itself back from being an OU poke is it's Its weaknesses still exist; poor speed and
it's lack of coverage
prevent Azumarill from becoming an OU threat.
However, in the STABmons metagame, these flaws can now be overcome as
1 a Shell Smash boosts
it's its speed to
400ish 398, assuming an Adamant nature. This making it faster than gives it the ability to outspeed Jolteon while in the meantime boosting that Attack stat even further
; so care less about a lack of perfect coverage
has less significance. Belly Drum
sets are still as slow as a snail and will therefore have to rely on a combination of Aqua Jet & Extremespeed. Shell Smash sets can forego
the priority moves and rely on more powerful equivalents to compensate the lesser Attack boost. After all
, Azumarill can
live quite some survive a few neutral attacks due to
it's its 100 HP
stat, which is good considering it isn’t weak to any form of priority.
Both boosting sets can take advantage of a
sleep-inducing move
that allows the setup like in Lovely Kiss but Azumarill
does not like to lose prefers to maintain a coverage move.
Life Orb seems weird on a BD set but it allows it to 2HKO Defensive Jellicent. It would also be able to 2HKO Leech Seed+Protect Ferrothorn but will die doing so because of LO recoil + Leech Seed + Iron Barbs. Life Orb also ensures a OHKO on fully defensive Gyarados. Still Sitrus Berry or Mystic Water are better choices. Expert Belt is useless on the BD set as anything that’s weak to a +6 move from Azumarill will die anyway.
As a last option Azumarill’s CB Set
got gets a boost
because of due to Extremespeed. It can perform a great role as
a revenge killer this way with its 2 powerful priority moves. The other 2 slots are debatable as Azumarill can choose to go for a 2nd, more powerful
, STAB attack or go for extra coverage by running both Ice Punch & Superpower. The
banded set will have
it’s its flaws
; as it is easily walled by
it’s its counters
as it was before, but it does not need a turn to set up and can get rid of things that would otherwise sweep your team.
Last but not least, Azumarill fares even better in rain with
a handy boost
ed to Aqua Jet
s and Waterfall
s to go around with.
Calculations vs Counters:
Azumarill Setup: 252 Atk EVs, Attack boosting nature, Huge Power:
+6 Ice Punch vs 252 HP/252 Def+ Jellicent: 44-52%
+ 5 Extremespeed vs 252 HP/252 Def+ Gyarados: 78-92%
+ 1 Extremespeed vs 252 HP/252 Def+ Gyarados: 34-40%
Checks & Counters:
The Shell Smash and Belly Drum sets will have a hard time setting up, especially the latter because of
it’s its 50% HP loss. Entry hazards can
really ruin Azumarill’s
day therefore as it can hope to live some attacks due to it’s good HP stat but due to the low defensive stats every HP will count. sweeping potential. Azumarill also does not have room for any move allowing it to setup; if using a move
like such as Lovely Kiss it will be stuck with
the imperfect coverage of Water/Normal
. coverage which cannot OHKO a lot of things even at +6.
Regular OU check Jellicent can only be 2HKOed by a +6 Ice Punch after Rocks (and it’s not even a 100% chance) while being immune to all
it’s its other attacks. The problem for
the Jellyfish Jellicent is that
he it has to run max defense
in order to do so
, otherwise he will get 2HKOed for sure.. A burn from WoW or Scald is a perfect mousetrap but Jellicent only has 1 shot
to do so to do it in.
However, Though the other sets are still easily walled by
mr. Pringles Jellicent.
Defensive Gyarados variants can counter the Shell Smash and CB sets.
Depending on the lack of coverage
, Azumarill’s checks grow bigger. If not running
Superpower
, Ferrothorn can
live survive a +6 Ice Punch
, and
can live another one if it runs Leech Seed + Protect.
