Pokémon Malamar

[El Coqui]

Its weird that because of the power creep from last gen, a lot of pokes from 6th gen are just underrated because they seem underpowered compared to 5th gen. Maybe the last gen has made battlers more lazier in general because there isn't as much super powerful stuff that have obvious sets to use. The power creep got toned down for this gen so in a way you have to get creative in how you make these 6th gen mons function well.



Tested it and well done to you sir. It works like a charm. Oh yeah I would advise running brave nature because it also maxes out your attack but it lowers your speed so you can take more advantage of trick room.

Lol i actually do have brave nature just went on autopilot when i was typing but yeah agrees

 

[deluge]

That could very well be its signature set which might be the reason those bastards at Gamefreak didn't give it Sucker Punch.
It goes with the whole topsy turvy, stat switching, ds flipping, speed inverting theme.

 

[El Coqui]

Of course do not use trick room if your opponent set up the StickyWeb just happily take the +2 in speed and start hentai raping the opposing team.

As an aside, had a guy go for the acid spray after i went for Superpower when StickyWeb was up....all but my spatt got boosted in one turn lol

 

[Always!]

Of course do not use trick room if your opponent set up the StickyWeb just happily take the +2 in speed and start hentai raping the opposing team.

As an aside, had a guy go for the acid spray after i went for Superpower when StickyWeb was up....all but my spatt got boosted in one turn lol

I've used a Trick Room set similar to yours, and my only difference with the set is that I would run Focus Sash so I could take a hit if something I can't one shot comes out that threatens me. Priority kills, but in my experience it manages at least 1 kill or an easily revenged 'mon.

 

[El Coqui]

I've used a Trick Room set similar to yours, and my only difference with the set is that I would run Focus Sash so I could take a hit if something I can't one shot comes out that threatens me. Priority kills, but in my experience it manages at least 1 kill or an easily revenged 'mon.

I think personally that just makes Malamar semi-suicidelead set. You are 4x weak to Bug and 2x to Fairy which in UU(beta) really means just watching out for Moonblast and U-turn. If you do have those covered you really have nothing to worry with lefties. You get more and more health without having to worry about getting taking a big hit you that could only ruin your sweep.

 

[Always!]

I think personally that just makes Malamar semi-suicidelead set. You are 4x weak to Bug and 2x to Fairy which in UU(beta) really means just watching out for Moonblast and U-turn. If you do have those covered you really have nothing to worry with lefties. You get more and more health without having to worry about getting taking a big hit you that could only ruin your sweep.

I agree, that's how Malamar can be used, just without the "lead" part. Its best using this set coming in on a weakened/afraid pokemon, take advantage of the switch with TR, and hit it twice, causing a weakened pokemon/or a fainted one.

 

[moonlit_umbreon]

Name: Malamar
Type: Dark / Psychic
Ability: Contrary / Suction Cups
Estimated Base Stats: 80/100/90/70/60/70

Notable Movepool
Foul Play
Hypnosis
Light Screen
Night Slash
Payback
Psycho Cut
Reflect
Rest
Sleep Talk
Substitute
Superpower
Swagger
Switcharoo
Topsy Turvy
Toxic
Trick Room

With the appearance of a special attacker, one might find it interested that a physical powerhouse stands before you. With subpar stats and what is of now a limited move pool, Gen 6 was not looking to kind to Malamar. Malamar viability skyrocketed with the reveal of her ability Contrary and access to Superpower. This change of events allowed Malamar to Bulk Up attack with its phenomenal coverage.

Possible Moveset:

You Spin Me Right Round
Ability: Contrary
Nature: Adamant / Careful
Evs:
Item: Leftovers
Moveset:
Superpower
Night Slash / Foul Play
Psycho Cut
Toxic / Substitute / Trick Room / Topsy Turvy

The crux of this set rests in the Contrary Superpower. Malamar can boost up while spamming a base 120 move. Malamar's own STABs round out the move pool to yield excellent type coverage. The last move slot is available for a plethora of status moves to aid Malamar in punishing the lower tiers.

The Evs are highly dependent on the Speed tiers that develop. One could opt for 252 Atk with Speed investment to have an offensive presence from the get go. While on the other hand, bulky boosting with High Hp and SpD investment seems plausible on paper.

With the addition of Trick Room Malamar's subpar speed is mitigated allowing it to boost up while attacking first. Topsy Turvy can be utilized to punished pokes attempting to boost along side of you.

Other Options:
Rest / Sleep Talk with Super Power and a coverage move seems possible. Choice Scarf set is far to weak to accomplish very much as Malamar lacks the outright power. Chesto Rest could be utilized for recovery until you have some boosts under your belt. Unfortunately chesto rest would forgo much needed items.

Calcs:


Checks and Counters:
Malamar's speed is a large hindrance. She can easily be outsped before she can set up. Without any form of priority or healing Malamar's strength and durability are greatly compromised. Malamar's typing although interesting yields little in terms of resistances. However due to her amazing coverage faster threats will have trouble switching in.

Interesting Implications:
King's Shield raises Malamar's Attack
Sticky Web raises Malamar's Speed
Switching into Parting Shots Raises both Attack and Special Attack

Wish List: (Hopefully Egg Moves)
Recover
Sucker Punch (will require 5th gen transfer to test)

None of the Pokemon in Malamar's egg group can learn Sucker Punch so I believe that eliminates the chance that Malamar can learn it by breeding.

 

[Kooltrex]

my set:
Name: Malamar
Type: Dark / Psychic
Ability: Contrary
Item: Choice scarf
Nature Jolly
EVS: 252 Attack 252 Speed 4 defense

Moves:
Psycho Cut
Night Slash
Rock Slide
Super Power

Basically spam superpower. Rockslide for volcarona and talonflame. Night slash and psycho cut for stabs. It works surprisingly very well!

 

[Chev]

my set:
Name: Malamar
Type: Dark / Psychic
Ability: Contrary
Item: Choice scarf
Nature Jolly
EVS: 252 Attack 252 Speed 4 defense

Moves:
Psycho Cut
Night Slash
Rock Slide
Super Power

Basically spam superpower. Rockslide for volcarona and talonflame. Night slash and psycho cut for stabs. It works surprisingly very well!

Sounds like a good idea for outspeeding, but his true worth comes form his surprising bulk. I subbed out the scarf for AV. He becomes something ridiculous with special defense being pretty sound and physical stats boosting to terrifying heights. But, thats after Fairy/Bug is gone of course.

 

[all_right_gentlemen]

Hmmmm... I think you're forgetting Rock Slide. With this, after a Superpower boost, it becomes insanely strong on Bug-type Pokémon, and there's a myriad of them!

All-Out Attacker
Item: Leftovers/Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
Nature: Jolly/Careful
EV: 252 Atk/ --- SpD / --- Spe
Moves:
Superpower
Psycho Cut
Night Slash
Rock Slide

Psycho Cut and Night Slash, the main attacks and the STABs. Superpower is spammed first so it gains Atk and Def, and makes it strong and bulky on the physical side. Rock Slide is for -you guessed it!- Bug-types. If you opt to make it Jolly, fully invest SpD EVs on it, but if Careful is chosen (like mine) fully invest on Spe EVs. Both options make it a bit faster and decent on its slightly frailer special side.

 

[WhinoTheRhino]

Pretty much for the past 4 pages the same crappy sets have been posted over and over again, with a few exceptions.

 

[PrimeMinister]

I think Malamar's best option is TR. It needs Rock Slide for coverage, and can't sacrifice Pyscho Cut or Night Slash (and Superpower is the crux of the set), so it wouldn't be a lead. Another team member has to set up trick room. Depending on the tier it ends up in, Reuniculus and Slowking are potential partners. Because it has no recovery Malamar can't serve as a defensive pokemon (and it has no support moves besides), Malamar's only choice is an all out attacker. Rock Slide, Night Slash, and Pyscho Cut for STAB and coverage, with superpower nabbing attack boosts. The defense boosts have to be seen as a bonus, not a calling to become a defensive pokemon. From my experience and the past 14 pages of mostly the same stuff I think we should just focus on a TR set and determine the correct EV investment.

 

[all_right_gentlemen]

I think Malamar's best option is TR. It needs Rock Slide for coverage, and can't sacrifice Pyscho Cut or Night Slash (and Superpower is the crux of the set), so it wouldn't be a lead. Another team member has to set up trick room. Depending on the tier it ends up in, Reuniculus and Slowking are potential partners. Because it has no recovery Malamar can't serve as a defensive pokemon (and it has no support moves besides), Malamar's only choice is an all out attacker. Rock Slide, Night Slash, and Pyscho Cut for STAB and coverage, with superpower nabbing attack boosts. The defense boosts have to be seen as a bonus, not a calling to become a defensive pokemon. From my experience and the past 14 pages of mostly the same stuff I think we should just focus on a TR set and determine the correct EV investment.

Just as I said in my last comment...

Hmmmm... I think you're forgetting Rock Slide. With this, after a Superpower boost, it becomes insanely strong on Bug-type Pokémon, and there's a myriad of them!

All-Out Attacker
Item: Leftovers/Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
Nature: Jolly/Careful
EV: 252 Atk/ --- SpD / --- Spe
Moves:
Superpower
Psycho Cut
Night Slash
Rock Slide

Psycho Cut and Night Slash, the main attacks and the STABs. Superpower is spammed first so it gains Atk and Def, and makes it strong and bulky on the physical side. Rock Slide is for -you guessed it!- Bug-types. If you opt to make it Jolly, fully invest SpD EVs on it, but if Careful is chosen (like mine) fully invest on Spe EVs. Both options make it a bit faster and decent on its slightly frailer special side.

 

[Shadow-Pie]

I might be wrong, but I don't think Malamar will be very useful outside of a trick room team. It doesn't have that much SpDef either.

 

[Shadow-Pie]

Actually if it was in a TR team you could run Brave(-Spd +Atk), and give it an assault vest to fix its low SpDef.

 

[LATIOS_]

While our poor Anti-SkyDoesMC doesn't have Sucker Punch, (Or not yet) we can still make use of his confirmed moves such as Topsy Turvy, Superpower, and Hammer Arm. Topsy Turvy can be used to cripple set up sweepers. Since Malamar is most likely slower and kinda frail, Focus Sashes would do great. However if Sticky Web is set up, taking an offensive direction is recommended.

 

[Mcdoodles]

IMO, i have seen a lot of different places say that Malamar isn't worth it, however i find this little gem to be incredibly hard to deal with. With already bulky defenses, getting up some Superpowers makes it horrible to deal with, on-top of that there are ways to get it recovery, (I.e. foddering a pokemon just after wish to get a free switch in, or even healing wish) the main problem i see is that one must literally rely on stat boost due to mediocre stats. Which is a pretty big problem in Meta game. Since a lot of battles come down to good switches and predictions.

 

[WhinoTheRhino]

While our poor Anti-SkyDoesMC doesn't have Sucker Punch, (Or not yet) we can still make use of his confirmed moves such as Topsy Turvy, Superpower, and Hammer Arm. Topsy Turvy can be used to cripple set up sweepers. Since Malamar is most likely slower and kinda frail, Focus Sashes would do great. However if Sticky Web is set up, taking an offensive direction is recommended.

Unless I've missed something, I'm pretty sure it was confirmed that Malamar does not get Hammer Arm in the first couple pages of this thread.

 

[LATIOS_]

Unless I've missed something, I'm pretty sure it was confirmed that Malamar does not get Hammer Arm in the first couple pages of this thread.

I read this entire thing, one of the people on here said that Hammer Arm was an egg move. I'm probably mistaken, but hey. If he does it helps.

 

[WhinoTheRhino]

According to both Bulbapedia and Serebii, Malamar does not get Hammer Arm. It's a shame, as Hammer Arm would have been quite useful on Malamar.

 

[LuvdiscSushi]

I'm on the fence about this thing. Contrary is obviously awesome and fun to play with, but Malamar has some problems that are kinda hard to ignore. Low special bulk and weakness to fairy is annoying, while low speed and 4x weakness to u-turn is a very nasty combination. However, I love how Malamar can mess with Aegislash, who is a pestilence. For that reason I use this set as a specific counter to the op sword.

Substitute
Payback
Superpower
Hypnosis

Substitute if you predict a swords dance or iron head. Payback while its in attack form because it cant use King's Shield. Superpower because it's awesome, and hypnosis something if you predict a switch. Payback is particularly effective if they run shadow sneak. EVs are mostly defensive, so you can take a +2 shadow sneak if you have to.

 

[DestinyBond385]

Hm? I don't think Topsy Turvy works on the user, just the target. It has no effect on Malamar's stat boosts.

Malamar looks to be incredibly promising especially if Sticky Web is on the field. It does have x4 U-Turn weakness but that is its only weakness. Interesting enough I guess Psychic and Dark really are complete opposites as it has no resistances or weaknesses besides that and its Psychic immunity. Having no resistances is kinda meh but if Blissey can do it!!

Its best sets would seem to be a bulky set hoping for a Sticky Webz boost or a Choice Scarf set w/ Switcheroo. It can clean up with Superpower or cripple an opponents defensive Pokemon, best of both worlds! Sadly enough it doesn't really seem like Topsy Turvy, an amazing move, has a place on Malamar's best sets as its not nearly fast or bulky enough to use it. We shall see.

There's also a weakness to fairy due to its dark typing, but I don't see that as being a huge issue. I'd be more concerned with what a Bug Buzz/Quiver Dance Volcarona could do to her, though I guess with topsy-turvy she could ruin quiver dance...

 

[LuvdiscSushi]

There's also a weakness to fairy due to its dark typing, but I don't see that as being a huge issue. I'd be more concerned with what a Bug Buzz/Quiver Dance Volcarona could do to her, though I guess with topsy-turvy she could ruin quiver dance...

Topsy-turvy isn't going to stop Volcarona, unless you run a focus sash or something weird. Volcarona will always outspeed and OHKO Malamar, so unless your opponent is bold/foolish enough to set up in Malamar's face, Topsy-turvy won't work. If you do run a focus sash, it is a fun move to use against full baton pass teams, or cosmic+stored power abusers, like sigilyph or clefable.

 

[Arctas]

Has anyone used Malamar with HP/SpD/Att EVs like uber-tier Scizor? I think that would be our best bet, since max survive ability, and works great since it's only going to be strong enough to do more than revenge kill after the first Superpower, and no use pouring EVs into Defense since it gets buffed alongside its attack stat. Run it with Trick Room in case of Volcarona and other fast bug-types you might see, and I agree with everyone else with running Rock Slide to help take out Volcarona, Yanmega, Talonflame, and all those other bug and/or flying types out there that could put a damper on Malamars usefulness. The only thing I think will really force a switch is Sylveon, since there's nothing Malamar gets to counter it, even with Trick Room in effect(save if you have like +3/4 attack from consecutive Superpowers).

 

[Superpowerer]

Technically it could if we got a Huntail with it from HGSS and have it breed with Malamar, we can't know until someone does this.

I've tested it with Chinchou and it does not learn Sucker Punch. All we can do now is hope Malamar gets it as a move tutor move in the next game.