[OVERVIEW]
- Skarmory is the most defining counter to Gale Wings users such as staraptor and braviary.
- It can also perform the role as a gale wing user due to its typing while having the ability to control hazards throughout the battle. skarmory performs the role solely because of its steel typing being able to tackle other gale wing user such as braviary and staraptor and overwhelm them.
- Skarmory's most common set, its offensive one, is unable to check Mega Metagross and most Lucario due to outstanding wallbreaking abilities, it is still able to take them on with its defensive sets.
- However,skarmory has several flaws. It possesses relatively low HP and Special Defense, meaning that it is unable to stand up to most special attackers without a significant amount of Special Defense investment. Also its attack stat is relatively low leaving it walled easily.
- Magnet pull is skarmory's worse adversary especially without shed shell, pokemon such as magnzone and heatran can use this ability to its fullest.
name: skarmory (bulky swords dance)
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Brave Bird
move 3: Roost
move 4: Defog/Taunt
item: Sharp Beak/ Shed Shell/ Leftovers
ability: Gale wings
nature: Adamant
evs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
- skamory is able to set up a swords dance on most of its attackers who lack super effective coverage towards it such as regirock.
- Brave Bird is Skarmory's most reliable way of attacking pokemon because it hits very hard and has priority, enabling skarmory to break past offensive teams especially after one swords dance.
- With priority, Roost helps skarmory set up, stops it from going down from Brave Bird recoil, and generally gives it some longevity while giving Skarmory resistances to Rock and Ice and giving weaknesses to Ground and Fighting.
- Taunt is more effective for stallbreaking pokemon that could easily lay entry hazards against Skarmory, such as Ferrothorn or bulky offensive pokemon such as snorlax who can set up on skarmory but thats if your team has an other means of hazard removal.
- Iron head can be used over taunt for regirock and rhyperior.
- With priority defog,you can get rid of hazards and screens without being taunted by faster pokemon on hyper offensive teams
Set Details
========
- Spread maximizes skarmory's attack power and the hp investment enabling it to sword dance on offensive, balanced teams and stall teams easily.
- Sharp beak allows to get important ohkos with brave bird after one sword dance against pokemon such as thundurus.
- shed shell allows skarmory to switch out against teams which has varieties of magnet pull such as heatran and magnezone.
- Leftovers increases skarmory's longevity and to subside the recoil from brave bird.
========
- This Pokemon is mainly a setup sweeper, but it can also act as a revenge killer, forcing out Pokemon that have KOed a member of your team.
- Keeping Skarmory alive is crucial, it is a good idea to scout for super effective coverage by double-switching because with priority defog getting rid of hazards wouldn't be the problem against pokemon such as deoxy-s and varieties of prankster users who can set hazards on your team.
- If running Taunt, try to scout the movesets of your opponent's Pokemon ,so that you know it isn't running an offensive move to hit you with.
- Always find a opportunity to swords dance on your opponent to deal heavy damage towards a pokemon,especially against teams with a magnet pull offensive core which would tend to be difficult for skarmory to always come in and attack since most common pokemon that carry magnet pull usually have the ability to instantly take out skarmory such as heatran, magnezone and other varieties of magnet pull.
Team Options
=======
- A Powerful entry hazard setter such as mold breaker deoxys-s can ensure OHKOs that skarmory needs after or before a swords dance allowing your opponent to be pressured to get rid of rocks allowing skarmory to come in take that chance to swords dance.
- Skarmory has low Special Defense so Specially Defensive Pokemon are good teammates, such as poison heal snolax and regenerator assault vest goodra fills the holes skarmory cant do which are the ability to switch in on most of the potential threats with their outstanding special defense.
- Other teammates that can remove steel types with magnet pull such as infernape,heatran and magnezone allow skarmory to perform its job better.
- An offensive pokemon to pair skarmory with who has the same wallbreaking capabilities would be motor drive Manaphy because granted with the ability motor drive, it can beat or wall most of skarmory's checks and counters that resist skarmory's stab such as zapdos and rotom-W though you have to be vary of status moves such as toxic and will o wisp.
- A defog user such as poison heal latias can be used only when skarmory doesnt have defog in its moveset and needs a user to fill that hole, latias does its role well because it covers skarmory weakest areas from fire type and electric type attacks.
- Tough claws pangoro easily beats every counter there is to skarmory because of pangoro diverse moveset this allows it to hit everything hard neutrally or super effectively such as heatran, magnezone and rotom-w
- The combination of volt switch and u-turn provides momentum for skarmory to come in and dish out some damage, fine examples would be Primordial Sea scizor which pivot around common sun abusers like heatran and victini with your slow u-turns allowing skarmory to have a free switch 100% of the time .An example of a volt switch user would be intimidate zapdos, which helps skarmory gain momentum against fast fighting types such as heracross and infernape due to zapdos' typing and the ability to reduce there attack by one stage, even super effective coverage won't take it down but you must be vary of defiant and competitive users.
[SET]
name: skarmory (bulky passive)
move 1: Roost
move 2: defog/spikes
move 3: Whirlwind/taunt
move 4: brave bird/counter
item: Leftovers/Rocky Helmet/ Shed Shell
ability: Intimidate/Unaware
nature: Impish
evs: 248 HP / 252 Def/ 4 spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
- Roost, the most important move Skarmory carries which allows it instant-recovery to effectively wall opposers.
- Defog can be used to get rid of entry hazards on the field when possible.
- Unless your team already has a means of entry hazard removal, Spikes can be used in the second slot so Skarmory can support its team with entry hazards.
- Taunt is more effective against defensive Pokemon that could easily lay entry hazards against Skarmory, such as flash fire Ferrothorn, Taunt pairs well with unaware and counter because taunts allows your opponent to be forced to attack.
- whirlwind stops set up sweepers who can easily overpower skarmory. Taunt pairs well with unaware and counter because taunts allows your opponent to be forced to attack.
- Counter is a viable option over Brave Bird to fare better against some setup sweepers such as mega metagross and doublade, stopping them in there tracks.
- Brave Bird is Skarmory's most reliable way of checking attackers weak to Flying-type moves, such as heracross and Mega Pinsir.
Set Details
========
- Skarmory runs full HP and Defense EVs to maximize physical bulk, its most valuable statistical trait.
- An Impish nature should be used to maximize Skarmory's Defense without reducing its Speed or the power of Brave Bird.
- Leftovers offers Skarmory longevity.
- Rocky Helmet can inflict damage on users of contact moves such as mega metagross, lucario and other gale wings users such as staraptor and braviary.
- shed shell should be used to prevent itself from being trapped by Pokemon such as Magnezone and other varieties of magnet pull.
- The first listed is intimidate. Intimidate allows for Skarmory to switch in on a lot more physical threats that get boosts from various abilities such as tough claws dragonite and heracross.
- Unaware allows you to deal with a lot of physical set up sweepers such as Swords Dance Sneasel which is walled and beaten it with either counter, brave bird, or whirlwind.
Usage Tips
========
- Skarmory should remove entry hazards, but should be wary of Defiant and Competitive Pokemon.however, the former can usually be walled with Unaware., so it should generally be kept very healthy until either the opponent's entry hazard setter is gone or a last-ditch effort is required to remove entry hazards for an important play.
- It is a good idea to keep Skarmory healthy if the opponent has a physical sweeper that can be stopped by its Whirlwind or Counter even though you have unaware, skarmory's weaknesses is easily exploited to Fire- and Electric-type moves.
- If keeping Skarmory alive is crucial, it is a good idea to scout for these moves by double-switching often.
- Also scout for magic bounce pokemon since they can easily come in on skarmory and prevent it from doing anything specifically when you are about to lay entry hazards on the field.
- It is crucial that you find out whether your opponent is running a magnet pull user or not, this is can be troublesome even with a shed shell because it can be knocked off , making you very vulnerable to that magnet pull user.
========
- Variates of suicune such as unaware and poison heal allows your team to function around rain teams along with ferrothorn.
- Chansey works particularly well with Skarmory, as their respective defensive stats function well together against almost any attacker that is not using a mixed set.
- flash fire Doublade paired with ferrothorn can help Skarmory wall powerful physical opposers that it is unable to wall, such as Rampardos and Heracross due to there typing and huge defense stats.
- regenerator assault vest regirock and diancie can easily take on pokemon who carry Desolate Land such as victini since they can resist there strongest attacks in the sun.
- RegenVest Goodra and Meloetta pairs well with Chansey which allows your team to easily go pass sheer force abusers such as thundurus, gengar and genosect since normally chansey cant withstand all of those boosted attacks especially while gengar is known to be always breaking chansey with taunt.
Other Options
=============
- mold breaker can be used on skarmory for suicide leads with hyper offensive teams.
- iron head can be used to bypass rock counters such as rhyperior and regirock on the gale wings set instead of defog.
- delta stream is also a noticeable set that gets rid of your electric weakness and ice neutrality, as it deals with pokemon who may carry electric type move coverage.
- Primordial sea and flash fire are also really good as they completely discards one of skarmory's weaknesses which is fire but primordial sea is preferred due to its ability to stop weather and being able to stop mold breaker fire types such as entei but flash fire has will o wisp immunity which is the only true difference between the abilities.
- Toxic is used on skarmory mostly with hardcore stall teams which tends to wear down your opponent while being very passive allowing your fellow pokemon a free switch 100% of the time.
===================
- Rock types/steel types and electic types: Due to typing skarmory can't do no damage towards pokemon such as rotom-W, doublade, regirock or even skarmory itself without having the necessary boosts otherwise they can all pivot around and easily overpower skarmory.
- Special Attacks: Strong special attackers, such as heatran, Thundurus and rotom-w, can easily bring down any Skarmory set. Electric-types can simultaneously force Skarmory out and gain momentum by using Volt Switch, making it almost imperative that Skarmory gets paired with a bulky Ground-type. In addition, many physical attackers with fairly high Special Attack stats can carry Fire Blast specifically for luring in and hitting Skarmory for massive damage.
- Taunt: Skarmory has trouble getting past Pokemon with Taunt, as they prevent it from healing, phazing, and removing and setting up entry hazards. Setup sweepers that possess Taunt, such as bulky Gyarados, are especially dangerous, particularly if Skarmory is the team's primary method of dealing with them.
- Magnet pull: Magnezone, heatran, and other rare varieties of magnet pull that are used as lures are particularly troublesome to Skarmory. heatran and Magnezone are capable of easily KOing Skarmory with their powerful special attacks.
- Unaware: Common abusers of unaware are usually Suicune, Manaphy and Hippowdon or even rare varieties of electric types such as zapdos and rotom-W. however, taunt skarmory can easily overpower some unaware users such as clefable, chesnaught and cresselia.
Last edited:
