http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/pinsir
[SET]
name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: X-Scissor
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Stone Edge
item: Life Orb / Leftovers
ability: Mold Breaker
nature: Jolly
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>With Swords Dance boosting its Attack stat to an incredible 658, Pinsir is a force to be reckoned with. X-Scissor will be your main STAB sweeping move, while the other two moves are for coverage. Earthquake hits the physically defensive Poison-, Steel-, Psychic-, and Electric-types that may switch in, like Nidoqueen, Steelix, Slowbro, Uxie, and Registeel, as well as Rotom and Weezing thanks to Mold Breaker. This gives it a massive advantage over other Swords Dance sweepers like Toxicroak, who can't touch those Levitating Pokemon. Stone Edge is for hitting the bulky Flying-types that may switch in, and gives perfect neutral coverage with Earthquake in UU.</p>
<p>Swords Dance Pinsir has trouble getting past bulky Fighting-types such as Hariyama, Flying-types, and fast revenge-killers. Entry hazard support, particularly Stealth Rock, will be much appreciated in taking down said Flying-types, while Toxic Spikes is helpful against the others. Having Pokemon that can take on Fighting-types, such as Espeon or Rotom, make good teammates, as the former can OHKO and the latter can burn, so that they can't do much damage and let you set up with Pinsir. Fast revenge-killers that use Fire-, Rock-, or Flying-type moves are a big threat to Pinsir, as it is easily KOed. Pokemon that resist those moves, like Water-types or bulky Electric-types make favorable teammates. Another strategy to handle these Pokemon is by adding paralysis support to your team, which will slow opposing Pokémon down, letting you KO common threats towards Pinsir.
[SET]
name: Choice
move 1: X-Scissor
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Stone Edge
move 4: Close Combat / Quick Attack
item: Choice Band / Choice Scarf
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Pinsir has finally entered a realm where Heracross is happily absent. X-Scissor is your strongest attack, while Earthquake and Stone Edge give great coverage. Close Combat hits Steel-types slightly harder than Earthquake due to the higher base power. It also hits Piloswine and in OU, its brother Mamoswine for super effective damage. However, it isn't really needed at times and can be replaced by Quick Attack to bring down weakened enemies who are faster than Pinsir.</p>
<p>Either of Pinsir's abilities are very useful here. Mold Breaker allows you to 2HKO Rhyperior with Close Combat although you may only meet it in OU. It also lets you hit Weezing, Bronzong, Gengar, and Rotom with Earthquake. Hyper Cutter means any incoming Gyarados, Salamence, or Arcanine will eat a full powered Stone Edge, as their Intimidate fails to sap Pinsir's attack power.</p>
<p>With a Choice Band you can destroy many walls with your Attack stat of 574. When you're holding a Choice Scarf, you make a decent revenge killer as well. Give Pinsir an Adamant nature when holding a Choice Scarf for that boost in power.</p>
<p>Pinsir is a pure Bug-type, leaving it weak to Stealth Rock. A Rapid Spinner is very helpful, allowing Pinsir to switch in repeatedly with its decent Defense. The great coverage this set provides leaves little to be desired. Hariyama resists Pinsir's STAB attack while not being weak to any other, making it a prime counter. Although Pinsir resists Force Palm, the possibility of paralyzing the bug and Close Combat's defense drops will usually make up for it. Most Psychic-types will give Hariyama trouble, especially those with a lot of Defense, such as Mespirit, Uxie, and Slowbro. Be sure to make use of their STAB attack to hit Hariyama super effective. In OU, Skarmory is a perfect counter to Pinsir. It can come in on any attack and lay down Spikes or Stealth Rock. You'll want something to hit it on the special side. Heatran fares very well against it, and Pinsir resists Ground and Fighting, two types that trouble Heatran.</p>
*note: The following set was made for NU, but after trying it in UU I found out it was decent. I'd like some input if the set is still worthy.
[SET]
name: Stealth Rock Lead
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: X-Scissor
move 3: Stone Edge
move 4: Earthquake / Close Combat
item: Focus Sash / Lum Berry
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Pinsir learns Stealth Rock unlike its counterpart Heracross. Pinsir is one of the few UU leads who can lay down Stealth Rock while also combating a majority of the leads out there. X-Scissor is a powerful tool against Uxie, Mespirit, and Claydol, while Earthquake and Hyper Cutter allows you to beat Arcanine and Typhlosion.</p>
<p>The choice between an Adamant or Jolly nature is very important. With Adamant you have a fair chance to 2HKO max HP / Def Uxie with X-Scissor. However, a Jolly nature allows you to outspeed neutral nature Roserade as well as many other Pokemon.</p>
<p>Although Ambipom can't do much damage to you, it can still break your Focus Sash and greatly bring down your health. A hefty Steel-type such as Steelix can almost always switch in on Ambipom and force it out, allowing Pinsir to come in later in the match to set up Stealth Rock. If Pinsir lacks Lum Berry then a faster Roserade will give you problems if Sleep Powder does its job. A healthy sleep absorber such as Hypno or RestTalk Drapion can usually beat Roserade. Drapion has the added advantage of absorbing any Toxic Spikes Roserade sets up.</p>
[SET]
name: Salac Flail
move 1: Substitute / Endure
move 2: Flail
move 3: Swords Dance
move 4: Earthquake
item: Salac Berry
ability: Mold Breaker
nature: Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Substitute down to your Berry, or you can use Endure if you are facing a faster opponent. At <4% health, Flail will reach full power at 200 base power. Swords Dance whenever you get a chance to really bring the hurt to your foes. The drawbacks are that Pinsir lacks both STAB on Flail and something to reliably kill Ghost Pokémon. However thanks to Mold Breaker, Earthquake will easily kill off Rotom and Gengar, while Banette and Froslass both die to it if Pinsir has a Swords Dance under its belt. Drifblim walls you completely
, but thankfully it isn't very common.</p>
<p>The best way to deal with Drifblim is to use a Pursuiter. Spiritomb and Skuntank both work well, but if Drifblim carries Baton Pass it can still get away. Absol is usually a more reliable way to KO Drifblim, but it is incredibly frail and requires Night Slash so it doesn't get screwed when Drifblim decides not to attack. Sandstorm, Hail, and priority attacks are all the things that will bring Pinsir's sweep to an end. Thankfully, the weather affects aren't very common since you must use un-evolved Pokemon to make them permanent. The most common priority users in UU are Honchkrow, Absol, and the notorius Hitmontop. The latter two will be relying on Sucker Punch, which fails if you don't attack. You can get around them simply by predicting and using Swords Dance. If necessary, you can stall Sucker Punch of PP if they are locked to it. Hitmontop is a little trickier to counter, but most Psychic-types are effective. A sweeping Espeon can nearly always guarantee an OHKO with Psychic, but it must be weary of Fake Out and certainly Sucker Punch. Regirock is usually a good Pokemon to use with Pinsir since it can counter Absol, and Honchkrow with little to worry about. It should have Rest though to recover off damage and rid itself of status.</p>
[Team Options]
<p>Pinsir has trouble sweeping a team if bulky Fighting-types, Moltres, Registeel (for non-Swords Dance sets), or Choice Scarfers with Fire-, Flying-, or Rock-type moves are on the opponent's team. You can lure out bulky Fighting-types like Hariyama using a powerful Fire-type that can 2HKO. Hariyama can take on most Fire-types using its Thick Fat ability, but if you're using a max Special Attack Magmortar or Swords Dance Blaziken, you can 2HKO with the former and OHKO with a boosted Superpower using the latter. These Fire-types can also handle Registeel with ease. You could also just pack a Psychic-type like Espeon to OHKO with Psychic. Moltres can be taken down by using Stealth Rock on your team and a Water or Rock-type bulky attacker, like Milotic.</p>
<p>Defensively, Pokemon that resist Fire and Rock make for good teammates. Pokemon like Milotic, Hariyama, who can paralyze the opponent, Azumarill, who can KO with Aqua Jet, Slowbro, Poliwrath who resists both Rock and Fire attacks, Lanturn, who can also paralyze, and Claydol, who can set up Stealth Rock, fit the bill nicely. Bulky Psychic-types also work, as they take little damage from the probable users of those attacks, like Arcanine, Blaziken, and others. Camerupt is an excellent partner. Camerupt resists Fire-type attacks, and takes neutral damage from Grass- and Rock-type attacks. It can dispatch of Pokémon like Moltres with Stone Edge, Registeel with Flamethrower or Earthquake, and Rock-type Pokémon with Earthquake. Just be wary of Rock-types that carry Earthquake as well. Those Psychic-types also draw in Dark and Bug-type attacks, which will let Pinsir switch in easier. Slowbro and Claydol work in the same way, and Lanturn attracts Ground-type moves, which Pinsir resists.</p>
<p>When you switch in your counter for whatever the opponent throws at Pinsir, you have to be wary of whatever the opponent will retaliate with. When you switch in your bulky Water-type into Moltres or Choice Scarf Typhlosion, the opponent will probably have Hitmontop, Shaymin, Steelix, and Uxie on their team. Pinsir can come back in and attack Uxie and Steelix, but Hitmontop will have to be handled by something else. Moltres is a great example, as it handles those Pokemon incredibly well. The bulky Fighting-types frequently have Grass-types and Steel-types, which can also get hurt by Moltres.</p>
<p>An interesting strategy to use is to exploit paralysis. With your team spreading it, Pinsir is faster than everything, making revenge-killers useless, and Pokemon like Moltres that can switch in, outspeed, and OHKO are no longer useful and Pinsir can KO. Pokemon that do this well need to be bulky, as you need to take hits from the Pokemon you're paralyzing. These Pokemon include Chansey and Clefable, who can also pass Wish, Rotom, Lanturn, Slowbro, Uxie, who can also pass screens, Registeel, and others.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>Pinsir's movepool does not give you much to work with, but at least now it can run a full moveset of useful attacks. Faint Attack is Pinsir's only attack to hit Ghosts super effectively, but its rather weak base power makes it a poor option. Besides, most Ghosts can be taken off with repeated hits from Earthquake or Stone Edge. Besides the novelty options of a Thief/Fling combination and Knock Off, every other useful option has been covered.</p>
[EVs]
<p>As with most offensive Pokemon, you should be looking to max Pinsir's Attack stat. Max Speed with either nature works well in the slower environment that is UU for the Choice Band and Swords Dance set. If you want more HP, then you can drop Pinsir's Speed down to 270 (Jolly, 160 EVs) to outrun those in his base Speed group who don't use boosting natures, or 275 (Jolly, 176 EVs) to outrun max Speed Absol. Dump the remaining EVs into HP. The reason the 4 leftover EVs aren't placed in Pinsir's poor HP is so that Pinsir can switch in four times to Stealth Rock without dying, instead of three.</p>
[Opinion]
<p>Pinsir is an often forgotten physical threat. With a great base Attack stat, solid defenses, good Speed, and two stellar abilities, it is indeed a force to be reckoned with. The only problem is that it lies in the shadow of other physical sweepers like Honchkrow, Hitmonlee, and others. These Pokemon can break most physical walls much easier than Pinsir, and have more power to begin with, meaning they don't necessarily need to stat up. In all, though, Pinsir is a great choice for your team if you need a physical powerhouse that can take down most of the metagame's physical walls, like Nidoqueen, Steelix, Slowbro, Uxie, Rotom, Registeel, and more.</p>
[Counters]
<p>Hariyama is the best counter to all forms of Pinsir. It resists X-Scissor and Stone Edge and takes little from Earthquake or Close Combat, and can then paralyze Pinsir with Force Palm, Whirlwind it out, or set up on it with Bulk Up. Hitmontop can work in the same way, especially Hitmontop packing Stone Edge or Bulk Up. Moltres is a good counter to all of the sets except Choice Scarf, as it can switch in (with Stealth Rock off the field) on X-Scissor, Close Combat, or Earthquake, and outpace and OHKO Pinsir before it can Stone Edge Moltres. In general, bulky physical walls like Registeel or Regirock can take Pinsir's hits and hurt back with Iron Head or Rock-type attacks.</p>
<p>Pinsir is also incredibly easily revenge-killed, as it is outsped by a multitude of Pokemon, some even without Choice Scarf. In particular, Fire-type Choice Scarfers make a good choice, as they can OHKO Pinsir nearly always, thanks to its low Special Defense. Arcanine, Houndoom, and Typhlosion come to mind.</p>
