Shiftry discussion

Bubz

http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-dp/275.shtml

This topic came about from the Battling in the sand thread. Shifty is pretty much the second best weather changer(Tangrowth is the best) for beating Tyranitar/Hippowdon.

Physical Movepool- STAB in bold, notable moves italacized, notable STABs get both.

Explosion
Razor Leaf
Fake Out
Faint Attack
Dig
Brick Break
Rock Slide
X-scissor


Special Movepool-same as physical

Extrasensory
Leaf Storm
Hidden Power
Solarbeam
Shadow Ball
Focus Blast
Energy Ball
Silver Wind
Dark Pulse
Grass Knot
Razor Wind

Support Movepool-Notable moves bold, support moves don't get STAB.
Synthesis
Sunny Day
Harden/Growth-he gets them.
Whirlwind
Nasty Plot
Swords Dance
Leech Seed
Amnesia
Basically, he has okay moves in both stats, and can boost both attack stats w/NP and SD. HE can also Sunny Day+Synthesis if you are so inclined. The main problem is that he's frail. Seriously, even though he resists it, CBTar can 2ko him with Crunch.

Movesets:

Shiftry w/Life Orb
Sunny Day
Dark Pulse
Leaf Storm
Explosion/Nasty Plot

The basic idea is to get in, change the weather, get the speed boost, hit stuff with Dark Pulse, Leaf Storm Hippowdon/Tar, and Explode.

Shiftry w/Scarf or Specs
Leaf Storm
Dark Pulse
Focus Blast
Explosion

Special attacker.

Shiftry w/ Life Orb or Leftovers
Swords Dance
Faint Attack
Razor Leaf
Explosion

Physical Sweeper.

Shiftry w/Leftovers
Leech Seed
Amnesia
Dark Pulse
Energy Ball/Focus Blast

A pitiful attempt to help his defenses. Sunny Day could go on there somewhere.
 
Meh best it can do is probably the old sunny day set.

Sunny Day
HP Fire/Ice
Solar Beam/Leaf storm
Explosion

The thing is Celebi/Eggy/Roserade/Tangrowth and even Sceptile are struggling to get in the OU tier and i would consider them all about a 1000 times better then this thing, this thing is destined for UU.Grass types really got fucked this gen.
 
He needs Leaf Blade and Crunch for a good Physical moveset. His Physical stab moves SUCK. It's better to keep things Mixxed.

Shiftry @Life Orb

-Sunny Day
-Solar Beam/
-Brick Break/
Explosion
Rock Slide
-Hidden Power [Ice/Fire]/
Explosion
 
IMO
Shiftry @ Life Orb
Modest/Mild Nature
EVs: 252 Special Attack, 144, Speed, Rest in HP
-Sunny Day
-Dark Pulse
-Hidden Power [Fighting]/Brick Break/Focus Blast
-Nasty Plot/Explosion
Meh
 
Shiftry is one of the best Pokémon in a 2v2 Sunny Day team. On turn one, it can use Fake Out to flinch your biggest threat while your partner uses Sunny Day. After that, Chlorophyll and Solarbeam are ready. Dark Pulse and Explosion might be my other two choices, although I'd consider Aerial Ace for the physical move. If Chlorophyll is active, you should be faster than a Heracross, not to mention every other Fighting-type.
 
Brick Break is pretty cool for Shiftry considering it can beat up Tyranitar at once. :] Great Speed for Adherance Scarf too. One of these Pokemon that has perfectly workable sets and whatnot, just lacks the defenses.
 
Oh, how I love shiftry whom has always been getting the short end of the stick. I think an AS set will probably get him more milage than anything else.
 
latinoheat said:
Grass types really got fucked this gen.
Click to expand...

Getting excellent new STAB moves (Energy Ball, Grass Knot) that lets even low special attack Pokemon do decent damage, as well as even improving the older ones (10 minimum PP on Giga Drain, the boost in Base Power on Leaf Blade), and even a new item or two that benefits mainly Grass-types (Large Root combined with Leech Seed) are surely signs that Game Freak has made the DP Landscape inhospitable for grass-types.

Oh yes, you are right. Poor, poor grass types.
 
Are they really that predictable?

Grass's primary problem has always been low attack power, so that they weren't able to rely on having, say, one attack to do steady damage.

Grass has a number of resistances, but it's also super effective against some of the mainstays of OU: waters, grounds, rocks.

The trouble with predicting grass types is that even if you have plenty of Pokemon who DO resist grass, you have to deal with what grass has always been best at: Status Platforming.

Yes, you can potentially predict a sleep powder with a sleep talker or something like that, but it's a very reliable way to cover for your own weaknesses.

Flying attacks from the bigger threats have been replaced for the most part by Dragon attacks (or in the case of Gyarados, water). Meanwhile they still resist EQ, the most common physical attack.

I think the problem is the notion that anything that's not a big time awesome killer or super beefy wall is "not good" or "screwed over." I understand that it's easier to figure out the extremes, what are the most obviously powerful Pokemon, but once the dust settles and some of the excitement dies down, I think we'll see that grasses are a solid DP type. Their weaknesses may be tremendous but so are their strengths.

Sorry for derailing this thread slightly, but the main point of all this is that when we discuss a Pokemon, in this case Shiftry, I think it's such a bad idea to just go "BUT IT ISN'T AS GOOD AS X." We can mention it, yes, but this thread is about making Shiftry usable, not about what it can't do.
 
Grass being seen as a crappy attacking type is probably a hangover from RSE, where it was indeed crappy. The best you got was Eggy's Solarbeam, which required a turn of setup. Now you've got a Choice Glasses Leaf Storm coming from Sceptile's 309 Special Attack and 372 Speed, or a slower but powerful hit from Eggy. CB Wood Hammer from Torterra or Seed Bomb from Breloom are nothing to turn your nose up at either.

Back onto Shiftry specifically, I'm agreeing with those who suggested Choice Scarf. I would go with his special options though, mostly because an Adamant Faint Attack will fail to OHKO a minimum HP Azelf (79 - 93%). A Modest Dark Pulse on the other hand will do 98 - 100%. Still not a guaranteed OHKO, but close enough.

Leaf Storm/Dark Pulse/Explosion seems fine to me, with either Focus Blast or a Hidden Power in the last slot.
 
If I'm going to use a Leech Seeder with my Shiftry, I'll want something that can put the hurt on grass types.

In this case, that basically means X-Scissor.

I'd like to take advantage of Shiftry's good offensive stats as well, so...

Leech Seed
X-Scissor
Leaf Storm
Explosion/Fling/Flash
@Leftovers/Large Root/Choice Scarf

X-Scissor and Leech Seed provide a nice combo as stated above. Leaf Storm is to just hit things hard special-wise. The 4th move is variable, and depends largely on item, though the main point with all of them is to take the opponent by surprise.

I think the real benefit of choice scarf (or choice items in general on Shiftry) is that it resists Pursuit, making it relatively safe on the switch out.

Explosion throws a monkey wrench into anyone who expects Shiftry to stick around due to Leech Seed. Combined with Choice Scarf, Explosion is possibly nasty. Leftovers/Large Root are obvious.

Fling I think is a potentially interesting move in combination with Choice Scarf. It's possibly going to be limiting in that you'll only have three moves available, but it's another way to change directions. When the opponent's thinking you're completely predictable with choice scarf, toss it away and now you're no longer locked in.
 
Grass types are worsened now there's an extra sandstream user to prevent Moonlight/Synthesis usage, and their attacks aren't so important since Nintendo whored Grass Rope/Energy Ball to so many things. Shiftry's Speed is quite decent imo, and it could benefit more by using Life Orb/Specs to smack stuff around harder.

@Specs
Leaf Storm/Energy Ball
Dark Pulse
Explosion
Focus Blast
Max out your Speed and hit stuff hard.
Scheme could work well here (without CG obviously), but it's suicide using it with Sunny Day, two turns is all it needs to die. Unless your opponent is stupid he won't give you two turns to set up.
 
I honestly hadn't considered the Choice Item and Fling combo. If the Choice Items do even 60 base power, I'm sold. It'd be funny if they caused Encore the way King's Rock flinches and Flame Orb burns.
 
I was planning on using another pokemon to set up sunny day (possibly with the item that extends its duration) and using a nasty plot/dark pulse/solarbeam/explosion moveset, using the turn it doesn't need for sunny day to NP and then sweep. Would this be viable and if so, what pokemon would be good for setting up sunny day? I was thinking of an arcanine with intimidate.
 
The problem in that last thing is that the Sunny Day wont last long enough to let Shiftry sweep. Also, any Steel type will come in and say sup.
I think I'll stick to the set I'm using in the current era. It is one of those few special hitters that can wave around the fact that it can OHKO Blissey without lowering its Sp. ATK.
 
Lou Cypher said:
The problem in that last thing is that the Sunny Day wont last long enough to let Shiftry sweep. Also, any Steel type will come in and say sup.
Click to expand...

With the sunny day enhancing stone it should have 5 turns left over for sweeping after switching in and NP-ing, so that shouldn't be an issue. Steels, hadn't even thought of that.....perhaps breeding for a hp fire one would make it more plausible?
 
Exeggutor can't kill Blissey with Explosion without sacrificing Sp ATK. Shiftry can. That makes Shiftry a better pick in my opinion, although Eggy packs stuff like Sleep Powder and is more durable.
 
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