[OU] Reuniclus (Revamp) [WIP]

[OVERVIEW]
  • Access to one of the best competitive abilities, Magic Guard, in addition to great bulk, impressive Special Attack, and access to Recover, makes Reuniclus one of the most fearsome Calm Mind sweepers in the game.
  • Magic Guard benefits Reuniclus here because it prevents it from being worn down by the common Spikes, sandstorm, and other forms of passive damage, so it tends to outlast its counters throughout a game because of the fact that:
  • Reuniclus's most common counters are very prone to these common passive damage sources, such as Spikes and Rocky Helmet, Iron Barbs, and Rough Skin, making them easy to wear down over the course of a match.
  • Reuniclus can also take advantage of its low Speed and great Special Attack to run a dangerous offensive Trick Room set which can cleave through a lot of offensive teams pretty easily.
  • Very low Speed means that Calm Mind sets will almost always move last; this makes Reuniclus very prone to critical hits as well as certain moves like Taunt and Encore.
  • Having to rely on Focus Blast to beat Dark-types can be a killer because of the miss chance, which can result in lost games.
  • Reuniclus has problems with particular common Pokemon like Jirachi, Scizor, and Tyranitar, and will struggle to beat them without team support.
[SET]
name: Calm Mind
move 1: Calm Mind
move 2: Psyshock / Psychic
move 3: Focus Blast
move 4: Recover
item: Leftovers
ability: Magic Guard
evs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
ivs: 0 Atk
nature: Bold

[SET COMMENTS]
  • Reuniclus's tried-and-true Calm Mind set has remained as one of the most important Pokemon to prepare for in the BW metagame throughout the generation's existence. It is a devastating late-game sweeper that is not easily beaten by anything other than its specific checks, due the advantages provided by Magic Guard and Calm Mind's Special Defense boosts.
  • Calm Mind is the move which defines this set; as Reuniclus boosts its Special Attack and its uninvested defensive stat, it becomes increasingly difficult to take down through offensive force, while also obviously becoming much more powerful.
  • Psyshock is Reuniclus's chosen STAB move, easily muscling through all non-Psychic resists at +6, as well as quickly taking care of specially defensive Pokemon like Blissey, and other Calm Mind boosting sweepers such as Latias and opposing Reuniclus.
  • Psychic has the disadvantage of causing Reuniclus to lose to other Psyshock Reuniclus as well as CM Latias, but it has higher power, allows Reuniclus to beat SD Gliscor, and gets a harder hit on Pokemon like Garchomp.
  • Focus Blast is Reuniclus's only required coverage move for its Calm Mind set, as it is used to KO all relevant Dark-type Pokemon at +6 (barring Sableye), otherwise Reuniclus would have no way of touching common Pokemon such as Tyranitar and Hydreigon. Focus Blast also defeats Steel-types more quickly than Psyshock, examples being Ferrothorn and Skarmory, the latter of which struggles to phaze Reuniclus, even if specially defensive, because it may have to take a +1 Focus Blast (if it hits!) first. Focus Blast also has use in forcing damage on incoming Scizor and making checks such as CB Tyranitar and Hydreigon wary of switching in.
  • Shadow Ball can also be used here though, as many of Reuniclus's Focus Blast targets are vulnerable to being worn down throughout a match, and Shadow Ball allows Reuniclus to easily beat other Reuniclus, as well as Jellicent and Mew.
  • Finally, Recover is an absolute necessity, allowing Reuniclus to heal off amassed damage from foes. Aside from its obvious uses, it allows Reuniclus to scout Scarf Tyranitar's move (Crunch or Pursuit) allowing it to switch or stay in freely. It also has specific use in healing off Draco Meteors, forcing the opposing Pokemon out due to the Special Attack drop, and recovering during the turn of a weak U-turn from a Pokemon attempting to wear Reuniclus down.
[ADDITIONAL SET COMMENTS]
  • The EV spread makes logical sense; maximum investment in HP and Defense makes Reuniclus as sturdy as possible on the defensive side that remains unboosted. There is little to change here EV wise, though Reuniclus can choose to speed creep other Calm Mind Reuniclus, by investing small amounts of EVs into Speed as necessary. This can be a great boon during all too common Calm Mind Reuniclus wars.
  • Leftovers is used as the item to provide passive recovery which makes things slightly easier for Reuniclus. Life Orb is an option to use, again, for the purpose of giving a higher chance to beat opposing Reuniclus in Calm Mind wars, and it should be used with the extra Speed mentioned before.
  • Reuniclus thrives in an environment focused around passive damage. It suffers from none itself due to Magic Guard, but nearly all of its checks and counters do, so the ideal teammates for Reuniclus are ones that can wear down its counters via a number of methods, so Reuniclus can sweep. There are many ways of going about this.
  • Rocky Helmet + Rough Skin Pokemon are some of the most commonly seen partners on teams focused around a Reuniclus sweep. Rocky Helmet Garchomp and Ferrothorn force large amounts of passive damage on Reuniclus's counters, such as Jirachi, Scizor, and Tyranitar, by punishing their Iron Heads, U-turns, Crunches, and other physical moves. Other Pokemon such as Skarmory and Landorus-T can also be seen using Rocky Helmet for the same reason.
  • Another very common partner to Reuniclus is a Pokemon with Spikes; again, Ferrothorn and Skarmory can do this very well. This punishes the grounded Pokemon that have to switch in to beat Reuniclus, such as Jirachi, Scizor, Sableye, Volcarona, and Tyranitar, and it's part of the reason why Magic Guard is so great; it allows Reuniclus to outlast its checks and counters in the endgame.
  • Gengar with Will-O-Wisp is a helpful lure to some of Reuniclus's counters, the same Jirachi, Scizor, and Tyranitar, crippling them with passive damage and making it harder for them to actually beat Reuniclus.
  • Often Reuniclus teams can be overwhelmed with strong Pokemon in Rain, such as Specs Politoed, Keldeo, and Starmie, so bulky Water-immune Pokemon like Jellicent and Gastrodon make very good partners.
  • Heatran is a great Pokemon on Reuniclus teams for a number of reasons: it provides Stealth Rock, a Flying resist (Specs Tornadus in rain can power through Reuniclus if it doesn't have sufficent boosts), but primarily, it checks a ton of Reuniclus's counters, including Jirachi, Scizor, Sableye, and Volcarona.
  • Tyranitar is very common with Reuniclus, mainly because it provides sand as extra passive damage while also helping the matchup against Rain by changing the weather.
[SET]
name: Offensive Trick Room
move 1: Trick Room
move 2: Psychic
move 3: Focus Blast
move 4: Shadow Ball / Hidden Power Fire / Recover
item: Life Orb
ability: Magic Guard
evs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
ivs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
nature: Quiet

[SET COMMENTS]
  • This set plays very differently from the Calm Mind set, using a single turn to setup and completely ravage most offensive teams, which often underestimate the power behind its attacks with investment in Special Attack.
  • Psychic is Reuniclus's STAB move and the one it uses against most common Pokemon, examples include Garchomp, Keldeo, Breloom, Volcarona, Landorus-T, Hippowdon, pretty much anything that isn't hit harder by something else.
  • Focus Blast targets the main Psychic resists (Dark- and Steel-types), examples are Tyranitar, Hydreigon, Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Excadrill.
  • The last slot depends on the needs of your team, but also the type of team you expect to be facing.
  • Shadow Ball hits Psychic-types like Mew, Starmie, Latios, Latias, and Celebi, as well as being stronger than Psychic against Jellicent.
  • Hidden Power Fire is for Scizor, Forretress to a lesser extent, and beats Ferrothorn without missing; it also does decent damage to Celebi and can chip Jirachi.
  • Recover is an option to increase Reuniclus's longevity, and possibly allow it to have more setup opportunities throughout a game. It also can alleviate chip damage from support Pokemon attempting to wear down Reuniclus with weak attacks.
  • Signal Beam can also be used over Shadow Ball for the same Psychic-types, exchanging some power for the stronger hit on Celebi and an accurate move which can take out a slightly weakened Hydreigon, while also giving you a higher than 70% chance to win against say, a 25% Tyranitar.
[ADDITIONAL SET COMMENTS]
  • additional set comments
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]

Other Options
============
  • Signal Beam hits Mew and most Dark-types in the same slot.
  • Colbur Berry gives Reuniclus an easier time against Hydreigon and Tyranitar.
  • Thunder Wave
Checks and Counters (i will mention in the write-up the reliability of these checks and counters / how reuniclus can get around them (so basically it will be really detailed))
============
  • Sableye (hard walls, Taunt + Foul Play / Night Shade / Snarl)
  • Jirachi (Iron Head + Thunder / Body Slam, Wish + CM)
  • Scizor (SpD SD + Bug Bite, CB U-turn less reliably, Offensive SD less reliably)
  • Tyranitar (CB, Chople 88+ Atk less reliably)
  • Volcarona (standard QD set, unreliable due to hazard weakness + difficulty to fit on teams)
  • Gliscor (SD + Roost, Taunt somewhat)
  • Hydreigon (only a check)
  • Victini (pretty much CB)
  • Mew (Taunt + Night Shade)
  • Jellicent (Taunt + Night Shade)
  • Celebi (Perish Song)
  • Specific boosting Psychic-types (NP Shadow Ball Mew, CM Roar Latias)
  • Strong offensive pressure / boosted Pokemon to prevent setup (Politoed, Rain Keldeo, Rain Starmie, Tornadus, CB Dragonite, CB Metagross, CB Garchomp, SD Garchomp, NP Thundurus-T, etc)
  • Trick (Jirachi, Latios)
  • Very inconsistent methods such as Encore (Alakazam, Politoed), or sleep (Breloom, Tangrowth, Politoed)
 
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