Pichu (Analysis)

Pichu

[Overview]

<p>Pichu is a terrible Pokemon and should never be placed on an Little Cup team despite the novelty of using it. Despite its decent, somewhat unique movepool including the powerful Volt Tackle, Pichu still fails to make an impact on the Little Cup metagame. This stems from Pichu's poor overall stats, which prevent it from pulling off the many sets it could run. Pichu is also almost completely outclassed by Elekid. Despite these flaws, if one is determined, there are a few good things about Pichu including 16 Speed, allowing it to outspeed a good portion of the metagame, along with moves such as Encore, Nasty Plot, and the exclusive Volt Tackle.</p>

[SET]
name: Choice Band
move 1: Volt Tackle
move 2: Return
move 3: ThunderPunch
move 4: Iron Tail / Toxic
item: Choice Band
Ability: Lightningrod
nature: Adamant
evs: 116 HP / 196 Atk / 196 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>With a Choice Band equipped, Pichu reaches a decent 24 Attack, allowing it to deal massive damage to things not able to take Volt Tackle. Volt Tackle, with its 180 Base Power after STAB, deals good damage to Pokemon who don't resist it. However, because of its recoil, ThunderPunch is a secondary STAB option, with a noticeable power drop in exchange for lack of recoil. Return is the best possible coverage option available from Pichu's pitiful movepool, hitting Ground-types who are immune to its Electric STAB neutrally. Iron Tail is mostly filler, but hits Lileep and Snover hard on the switch, while Toxic is useful for crippling an incoming Hippopotas.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Lightningrod is the preferred ability due to the immunity it provides, and Static will see little to no use on Pichu because it cannot take a hit. Entry hazard support is recommended to secure some OHKOs and 2HKOs, such as OHKOing Slowpoke with Stealth Rock support. Because Magnemite and Ferroseed completely wall this set, a Magnemite of your own is a useful counter, trapping both of them and hitting them with a super effective Hidden Power Fire. Because Ground-types are natural enemies to Pichu, a Snover can be a useful teammate, killing them all with its powerful Blizzard.</p>

[SET]
name: Utility
move 1: Fake Out
move 2: Volt Tackle
move 3: Encore
move 4: Volt Switch / Light Screen / Toxic
item: Life Orb
Ability: Lightningrod
nature: Adamant
evs: 36 HP / 196 Atk / 76 Def / 196 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Pichu is probably one of the only Pokemon capable of effectively using a set like this due to its diverse movepool. Being the only Electric-type in the tier capable of using Fake Out or Encore allows Pichu to cause residual damage while also supporting the team with Encore, forcing switches or helping a teammate set up. Volt Tackle is an excellent STAB move to use with its high Base Power. Volt Switch is viable for scouting the opponents team, although this would put Pichu at the mercy of Ground-types such as Diglett and Drilbur. Due to that, Pichu can opt to run Light Screen, allowing Pichu to help teammates take special hits more easily, as well as having use after Pichu dies, or Toxic, allowing it to cripple bulky walls such as Hippopotas.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Lightningrod is the preferred ability as the +1 it provides by switching into an Electric-type attack boosts the power of Volt Switch. The EV spread gives Pichu 19 HP, minimizing the amount of Life Orb recoil taken from every attack, while maxing out Speed and Attack. The use of Fake Out + Encore can cause many switches, making Spikes and Stealth Rock support from Pokemon such as Ferroseed and Dwebble an excellent way to take advantage of this. The use of Encore + Volt Switch also helps Pokemon such as Scraggy or Clamperl set up, which can immediately threaten the opponent's team. Because this set is completely destroyed by Ground types, Choice Scarf Snover and other Grass-, Water-, or Ice-types are usable to dispose of said Pokemon.</p>

[SET]
name: Nasty Plot
move 1: Nasty Plot
move 2: Encore
move 3: Thunderbolt
move 4: Hidden Power Grass
item: Life Orb
Ability: Lightningrod
nature: Timid / Modest
evs: 36 HP / 236 SpA / 196 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Being the only Electric-type with Nasty Plot in the tier, Nasty Plot Pichu is somewhat effective. After a turn of set up, Pichu reaches 26 Special Attack if running Timid, while reaching 28 Special Attack running a Modest nature. STAB Thunderbolt is the main attack, hitting everything that does not resist it for great damage. Hidden Power Grass is used to hit Ground-types such as Sandshrew and Hippopotas, while also hitting Chinchou hard. Encore is used in the final slot to help Pichu set up, while also supporting the team.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Lightningrod is obviously the best ability for this set, as it gives Pichu more chances ability to switch in, while also giving Pichu a +1 Special Attack boost. This is useful as a +3 Pichu has a chance to OHKO bulky Chinchou, while +2 Pichu has no chance to do this with Hidden Power Grass. The given EV spread again decreases the amount of Life Orb damage Pichu takes, while also maximizing Special Attack and Speed. This set is extremely easy to counter, as Munchlax, Ferroseed, Snover, and Magnemite can survive Pichu's attacks even at +2 and destroy it. Fighting-type teammates, such as Timburr and Mienfoo, are useful for removing almost all of Pichu's average counters. Diglett gets a special mention as a counter, for trapping and completely destroying Pichu.</p>

[Other Options]

<p>Pichu has a plethora of other options to use. Wish would be a great move to use for recovery, but with such low HP, Wish will hardly heal even half of your teammates' health; Pichu also would not be able to use the Wish itself, as it cannot take a hit. Pichu can also use Thunder Wave to cripple some fast opponents such as Gastly, but because Pichu is not bulky enough to use the move, this is better left to other Pokemon such as Chinchou or Ferroseed. Lastly, a set consisting of Substitute and Encore using an Oran Berry is viable, allowing Pichu to set up Substitute on something that cannot threaten Pichu, and using Encore after that pokemon attacks. </p>

[Checks and Counters]

<p>A lot of Pokemon can check or counter Pichu. Ground-types such as Hippopotas, Drilbur, and most importantly Diglett are the biggest counters, being immune to Pichu's STAB and easily OHKOing it back with Earthquake. Diglett gets a special mention for being able trap Pichu with Arena Trap, effectively completely removing Pichu from the game. Outside of Ground-(add)types, bulky pokemon such as Bronzor, Munchlax, Lileep, and Ferroseed can come in and either significantly damage Pichu or use it as set up

Mention Thunder Wave somewhere, either on the Utility set (slash it in the last slot), or in Other Options. Otherwise looks good.


QC Approved: 1/2

mention nasty plot in other options? Pichu might not get a chance to use it, but if it does, Thunderbolt and Signal Beam would be really strong.

he gets nasty plot at level 18... i was so pissed when i learned that. and thunderwave is already in OO so thanks!

You can get Nasty Plot on Pichu by breeding from a Pikachu that knows the move. It really should get a set, it's the only Electric-type that can do that in the tier.

[SET]
name: Nasty Plot
move 1: Nasty Plot
move 2: Encore
move 3: Thunderbolt
move 4: Hidden Power Ice
item: Life Orb
nature: Timid
evs: 36 HP / 236 SpA / 196 Spe

You're still at 19 HP with the HP EVs. Also change the Hidden Power Ice to Grass if Gligar is banned. If you have to do that, add an extra 4 EVs to Special Attack.

Once you put Gligar in checks/counters...


[QC 2/2]

cool i write this up after the weekend cause im going camping

This can make the changes that were mentioned about if Gligar was banned because it has been banned from Little Cup.

Im finally done writing this. ready for GP checks.

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Okay, some things:
-The spellings are Hippopotas and Drilbur.
-Use regular apostrophes, not the curly ones that MS word likes to insert.
-Pokemon and Base Power are capitalized.
-Just mentioned it, but remove the DW section since it is released already.

Otherwise...



[GP 1/2]

In the first sentence in AC on the Choice Band set, Slowbro is mentioned instead of Slowpoke as a Pokemon that Pichu can KO with the help of entry hazards.

ok added in the gp check. when i wrote the event didnt exactly happen yet, so now i placed mentions of how lightningrod is god compared to static.

and thanks for the slowpoke thing, i always say bro nowadays

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Good writeup, NixHex got most of the other stuff before me, so it was mostly just nitpicking and capitalization errors.

thanks. finished witth this

This has been uploaded!