Swoobat (GP 2/2)

Oglemi

Borf
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Follow your heart, it nose what to do

Originally held by 3DOstrich, pushing this through GP

QC Checks:
1) shnen
2) Raseri
3) erisia

GP Checks:
1) RitterCat
2) Yonko7
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Overview]

<p>If one were to take only a single look at Swoobat, words such as "unimpressive" and "outclassed" might pop into mind. And indeed, Swoobat does not seem spectacular, as it appears to be just one of many Psychic-types in NU. Even its name and design scream "harmless." Indeed, as far as stats go, Swoobat isn't particularly blessed; while its spectacular base 114 Speed is certainly eye-catching, its second highest stat is a mediocre base 77 Special Attack. So why use it when there are Pokemon such as Gardevoir and Musharna with better bulk and attacking stats? Well, the answer is Simple.</p>

<p>Word play aside, Swoobat was gifted with the ability Simple, which when combined with Calm Mind, allows Swoobat to achieve +2 in both Special Attack and Special Defense with a single boost, elevating its mediocre special stats to threatening levels. The good news doesn't end there, as Swoobat also has access to Stored Power, which after a Simple Calm Mind changes from a measly 20 Base Power to 100 Base Power, with two Calm Minds making it as powerful as V-create. This, in combination with the STAB bonus and Swoobat's boosted Special Attack, makes it a truly threatening Pokemon. Swoobat is also immune to both Spikes and Toxic Spikes, and has a 4x resistance to the common Fighting-type moves of the tier, allowing it to become a truly devastating sweeper.</p>

<p>However, not all is well for our flying friend. Swoobat has horrendous bulk, which can make it difficult for it to find time to set up a Calm Mind. Swoobat is also weak to Stealth Rock that limits its switching severely. Finally, its Psychic typing leaves Swoobat vulnerable to the likes of Skuntank and Absol, as both have the ability to cut its sweep short with a STAB, super effective Sucker Punch, or to simply Pursuit trap it. Despite its flaws, however, if properly supported, Swoobat can sweep through many unprepared teams.</p>

[SET]
name: Calm Mind
move 1: Calm Mind
move 2: Psychic / Stored Power
move 3: Hidden Power Ground
move 4: Substitute / Air Slash
item: Life Orb / Leftovers
ability: Simple
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>What was once considered a mediocre and outclassed sweeper in NU has ascended to the ranks of a potential top tier threat. Simple allows Swoobat to be granted a Nasty Plot and an Amnesia all in one Calm Mind boost. Thanks to Swoobat's typing, it can come in on many Choice-locked Psychic-types, outspeed them, and set up a Calm Mind while taking little damage. Psychic is the main STAB choice for Swoobat, although its Base Power is not affected by the amount of boosts Swoobat achieves, it hits hard right off the bat, something Stored Power cannot achieve. However, Stored Power does have its merits, because if Swoobat manages to accumulate two Calm Minds it can OHKO the majority of the tier with Stored Power alone. Hidden Power Ground hits the most common Steel-types in the tier, such as Probopass and Bastiodon, for super effective damage, while also scoring a super effective hit on its nemesis Skuntank. The final moveslot for the set is a tricky choice. Substitute is the primary slash as it lets Swoobat bypass Sucker Punch and score a free attack, while also letting it score a free boost on a predicted switch. This also means Swoobat can prevent Imposter Ditto from coming in and stealing its boosts. If this is the case, then Leftovers is the preferred item, as Substitute and Life Orb recoil means Swoobat will fall before it can do much damage. However, Air Slash functions as a secondary STAB option that can be used with Life Orb, and can be used to hit bulky Grass-types like Tangela.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>The EVs given are straightforward, as they allow Swoobat to reach maximum Speed for an easier setup while also letting it hit as hard as possible. It should be noted that although Swoobat resists a handful of moves, it should only really come in after a Volt Switch / U-turn or once another teammate has been KOed, as its measly bulk means it can't take many hits, even if they are resisted. In terms of other moves, Swoobat has many options. Taunt can be used in order to shut down the opposition from either phazing or setting up, although it faces severe competition for a moveslot and Swoobat does not have enough bulk to pull it off. Roost is another alternative to keep Swoobat's health up, but again lacks the bulk to pull it off. Psyshock is an alternative STAB that can hit special walls harder, although Stored Power is usually the better option, as it hits quite hard after a few boosts. Swoobat received many new moves, notably Heat Wave, Giga Drain, and Signal Beam, from BW2. Heat Wave can be used to hit Steel-types, although it is outclassed by Hidden Power Ground, which hits the most common Steel-types harder while also slamming Skuntank. Giga Drain can be used to hit bulky Water-types and heal some health, although has little use outside of that. Finally, Signal Beam can score super effective hits on Psychic- and Dark-types that resist or are immune to Swoobat's STAB, respectively.</p>

<p>As far as items go, Swoobat should generally stick to Leftovers to heal Substitute damage or Life Orb to hit harder. However, a Salac Berry is an interesting option, as with Swoobat's bad bulk and Substitutes, it can easily reach activation range. Not only does this allow Swoobat to outspeed all unboosted Pokemon in the tier, but also allows an extra 40 Base Power to be added to Stored Power. Swoobat can also switch to a Modest nature if using the Berry for more power.</p>

<p>Although Swoobat can easily rip through teams if it sets up, it needs the proper support to do so. The most obvious teammate for Swoobat is a spinner, as Swoobat suffers from a crippling Stealth Rock weakness. Armaldo is the best choice for the role, as it can beat opposing Psychics with its Bug-type STAB and set up hazards of its own. However, one must be wary, as both Swoobat and Armaldo share a Rock-type weakness. Speaking of hazards, Garbodor pairs well with Swoobat, as it can set up Spikes and Toxic Spikes to aid in the latter's sweep, which in turn can switch in on any Psychic- or Ground-type attack aimed at the trash bag. Sawk is another Pokemon to pair nicely with Swoobat, because with a Choice Scarf it outspeeds and punishes any unboosted Dark-type or special wall that can take on Swoobat, while Swoobat can come in on Psychic attacks targeted at Sawk. Due to its terrible bulk, Swoobat appreciates a dual screen user that can help cushion blows aimed at Swoobat. Audino is great in this role, as it can not only set up screens, but also pass Wishes and cure any status ailments inflicted on Swoobat, which has a 4x resistance to Fighting-type attacks aimed at Audino.</p>

[Other Options]

<p>Although Swoobat is best suited as a sweeper, it has a fantastic support movepool at its disposal. However, it lacks any sort of bulk to take advantage of it. Swoobat also has a large special movepool consisting of moves such as Shadow Ball, Giga Drain, Heat Wave, and Signal Beam; however, these moves are generally outclassed as they do not hit anything specific. Charge Beam is an interesting option, as with Simple Swoobat can achieve +2 if it gains the Special Attack boost; however, the boost is not guaranteed unlike Calm Mind. Swoobat can use its ability Klutz in conjunction with Trick to pass off harmful items such as Sticky Barb and Iron Ball, although Simple is the main reason Swoobat should be used. Swoobat is the fastest dual screen user in the tier, and can use its Speed to support the team. However, its bulk means it will usually only get up one screen. Finally, a bulkier version of the Calm Mind set can be utilized, consisting of Substitute / Calm Mind / Stored Power / Roost, although it fails to hit hard off the bat if need be, and Swoobat appreciates the coverage provided by Hidden Power Ground.</p>

[Checks and Counters]

<p>Countering Swoobat can be difficult, as once it has a few boosts it can rip entire teams to shreds, especially if it has a Substitute up. Generally, anything that can outspeed Swoobat can exploit its lackluster bulk and KO it. Sawk is a good choice, as it can come in on Swoobat not protected by a Substitute and KO it with either Stone Edge or Ice Punch. Cinccino is a great check to this set, as it can outspeed it and also bypass its Substitutes and KO it with a super effective Rock Blast. Bastiodon can come in and phaze with Roar if Sturdy is intact, although Hidden Power Ground will knock it down to 1 HP after a boost. Finally, for variants that run Air Slash instead of Substitute, Skuntank or Absol can easily come in and cut its sweep short with a Sucker Punch or simply Pursuit trap it.</p>

<p>A good rule of thumb is that anything that can outspeed Swoobat can usually check it. Both Rotom-S and Rotom-F can hit Swoobat with a STAB, super effective Thunderbolt (or a STAB, super effective, yet shaky Blizzard in the case of the latter), although both must be cautious if Swoobat has acquired a few Calm Mind boosts. Golem is another check thanks to Sturdy, as it can take a hit and KO with either Rock Blast or Sucker Punch if Swoobat is not behind a Substitute. If without a Substitute, Choice Scarf Imposter Ditto can come in on Swoobat, steal its boosts, and KO, if it has been weakened. Cacturne is another solid check, as it can take the attacks of all Swoobat that lack Air Slash, as it is immune to its Psychic STAB and resists Hidden Power Ground. It can then proceed to kill Swoobat with Sucker Punch or set up a Swords Dance on the switch. Finally, Timid Life Orb Gardevoir can take one Air Slash at +2 and potentially KO Swoobat with Thunderbolt after Stealth Rock damage.</p>
 
I would probably advise against Heat Wave as a whole, as the most common Steel-types of the tier (Probopass and, to a degree, Bastiodon), are hit only neutrally anyway. Hidden Power Ground would likely be the superior choice there, hitting them for x4 damage, as well as hitting Skuntank. Also, you mention him as a solid Dual Screener in the overview, yet wasn't given a set, and is shunned as a bad Dual Screener in OO :/ I'm under the impressive that while not being great, he does make a fair user of Dual Screens, at least on merit of a quick Taunt and U-Turn to accompany them, and should probably get a full set (after CM, of course).
 

Django

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Substitute should be the first slash in the fourth slot. It gets much more utility since it can dodge Sucker Punch from Absol and Skuntank. Furthermore the set should be Calm Mind / Stored Power / HP Ground / Substitute/Air Slash. This gives it much better coverage and the ability to hit many more threats. Signal Beam and Heat Wave are both pretty useless, and should be moved to OO. Giga Drain would have been a lot more useful with Quagsire around, but should probably be moved to OO as well. Slash in Leftovers as well.

Remove the mention of Wartortle, in AC, replace it with Armaldo. It is a much better spinner, and can beat Psychic types for Swoobat.

You need a [Checks and Counters] section, but I'll leave that to you to put up.
 
Hi 3DOstrich. I would recommend changing the main set to this:

name: Calm Mind
move 1: Calm Mind
move 2: Stored Power / Psychic
move 3: Air Slash
move 4: Substitute
item: Life Orb / Leftovers
ability: Simple
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

I disagree with Dingo about Hidden Power ground, as Air Slash already does a lot of damage at +2, enough to OHKO offensive Skuntank, and the extra STAB is more important then hitting Probopass right now. Substitute is needed with all the ditto around, we can't have Swoobat being ditto fodder. Psychic gets a slash incase you need Swoobat to attack right off the bat, since after 1 boost the difference in power is negligible. Stored power only becomes worth it if you boost twice.
Armaldo > Wartortle for sure as well
 
"Skuntank is by far the best check to this Swoobat, as it can either Sucker Punch or Pursuit trap the bat"

This should be in the checks and counters section once you make it.

Mention some kind of bulky CM set-up Swoobat with Sub / CM / Roost / Stored Power in OO. Yeah, Swoobat is really frail, but at +2, it can survive quite a lot of special attacks.

You don't mention that Swoobat has a brilliant typing for setting up on Psychic-types. Yeah, you don't want to switch in on something like Choice Specs Musharna or Thunderbolt Gardevoir, but if it can come in for free and set up CM, they won't be doing much damage to it.

You should also mention that you really shouldn't be switching Swoobat into anything; you should wait until something dies or use a slow U-turn user or Volt Switch user to get it in. Even resists will do a ton of damage to Swoobat before it sets up a CM (don't even try to switch into CB Sawk's Close Combat. Ever.). Or you could try switching into choice EQ, but that's uncommon other than CB Golurk.
 
Eh, I've found this to be the most effective Swoobat set by far (Molk can back me up)

Swoobat @ Life Orb
Timid / Simple
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Heat Wave / Air Slash
- Giga Drain

Stored power really isn't that great: you NEED to set up a CM for it to be of any use. Psychic on the other hand allows Swoobat to OHKO stuff like Emboar at +0, and the power difference from Stored Power at +2 is negligible, as far as I'm aware you don't gain any KOs. You need a nice powerful STAB attack, as SP is far too reliant on the CM boost. Swoobat is an excellent sweeper even without boosts, due to its blazing speed and great coverage. Air Slash is obviously secondary STAB, but Fighting types are already hit harder by Psychic, and Grass- and Bug-types can also be hit with Heat Wave, which also hits the deadly Klang. Heat Wave can at least hit the Rock/Steels neutrally, which is better than Air Slash in that regard. It also has a similar base power to Air Slash if you factor in the STAB boost. Giga Drain lets Swoobat heal while keeping offensive momentum, unlike Roost. Giga Drain can OHKO Gorebyss, and even Samurott after a little prior damage at +0. Swoobat has no use for either Substitute or Roost, since Cinccino will simply go through the Sub and OHKO, and if Swoobat isn't attacking consantly (talking about Roost here) it's extremely vulnerable. IDK, this is just the set I easily had the most success with.

EDIT: Raseri, Ditto is, to put it bluntly, terrible in NU. There are very, very few sweepers that it can revenge kill: Swoobat falls into this category too. So Ditto steals its boosts: that like striking Swoobat with a +0 Air Slash, due to the CM SpD boost. Swoobat can just boost again and KO. Or simply switch. Ditto is uncommon, and bad enough, not to warrant the need for Swoobat to run Substitute. Ditto is only as good as the tier it's played in.
 
DTC, I have to disagree that Swoobat can run any sort defensive set. Swoobat's defenses are absolutely abysmal, and even with that +2 SpD boost, it's not gonna be walling powerful special attackers such as Samurott (I did 96% to a +2 Swoobat with Ice Beam rofl). Swoobat should stick to attacking only.
 

breh

強いだね
Raseri's set is the right one, but Psychic shouldn't be slashed at all. Swoobat is weak as all hell and it only works well post-boost.
 

Endorfins

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Djangos set is the best imo
When you think about it, the only types that resist Psychic are Dark, Steel and other Psychic-types.
Swoobat can already beat most Psychic-types as it can boost its Special Defense and Attack faster then Gardevoir and Musharna, while Pokemon such as Exeggutor fail to break Swoobats Substitutes after a boost or two. That leaves only Steel-types and Dark-types that Swoobat needs coverage on. Steel-types are easily handled by Hidden Power Ground while Substitute bypasses Sucker Punch from Absol, Skuntank and Cacturne. Hidden Power Ground easily takes down Skuntank while Absol has a chance to be OHKOd after Stealth Rock. The only thing that Air Slash is really useful for is Cacturne, and even then, Heat Wave accomplishes the same thing while having more coverage on Ice and Steel-types.
Psychic should be the STAB move of choice since Stored Power isn't much stronger even after a boost while Psychic can actually do damage if Swoobat has no boosts
 

shnen

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To be honest, I think that the set in the OP at the moment is the best set, Air Slash doesn't hit enough notable targets to justify being hardwalled by Probopass/Bastiodon. Giga Drain seems pretty useless considering it's basically hitting at the same BP as Psychic and the same as +2 +2 Stored Power, and without Quagsire there are no extremely notable Pokemon 4x weak to it (sure carracosta but Stored Power does a shitton to that anyway). Heat Wave doesn't hit much notable, and does shit to Rock/Steel-types. I think that the set should be as it is with all these additional coverage moves in AC, as it currently is, so once C&C is put in I will approve this.
 
Mention Salac Berry as an item in AC. A lot of common threats outspeed +0 Swoobat which Salac Berry helps. Nothing unboosted - and even most boosted Pokemon - outspeeds +2 Swoobat. The Speed boost is also noticeable for increasing Stored Power's BP by 40.
 
Should psychic be the main slash? I'm starting to think it should be, not requiring set up is nice and Swoobat can't set up on much with its pathetic defences.
 

alexwolf

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A kind of useless question, but does Unaware prevent Stored Power from becoming stronger if you have any boosts?
 

AccidentalGreed

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K. Coming from a Swoobat user.

Alexwolf said:
A kind of useless question, but does Unaware prevent Stored Power from becoming stronger if you have any boosts?
Unaware does not affect Stored Power's current base power; rather, it regulates the amount of boosts obtained at +0. Stored Power, however, will still become stronger if Swoobat has boosted at the appropriate levels, enabling it to bypass Unaware users with a high BP move.

Raseri said:
Should psychic be the main slash? I'm starting to think it should be, not requiring set up is nice and Swoobat can't set up on much with its pathetic defences.
Yes. There are times when Swoobat absolutely needs to revenge kill a threat with its strongest move, and Stored Power certainly can't do that without setup. It's a mere sacrifice for 10 BP; however, in some cases, the power difference can be drastically different, as shown by Ice Beam (base 95) vs Judgement (base 100) on CM Arceus-Ice in Ubers. In some instances, both Arceus-Ice and Swoobat miss out on at least a few Koes on quite a few specific targets if they choose to use the weaker move.

Yes, Psychic should be slashed, and the analysis should reflect on the trades.
 
All right, Psychic has been changed to the STAB of choice and moved out of the AC and Salac Berry has now been added to said section.
 
The word "godsend" is used in TOO MANY analyses of Pokemon. Can Roost fit anywhere on this set? Possibly over Substitute?
 

jake

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The word "godsend" is used in TOO MANY analyses of Pokemon. Can Roost fit anywhere on this set? Possibly over Substitute?
what


roost is an ac option at best. in general, swoobat really needs to rely on coverage to offset its lack of power (and substitute bypasses sucker punches). if you're looking for reliability and ease of set-up in a pokemon, you should not be using swoobat.

i'll give this a full look-over later
 

erisia

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Yep, this seems fine. Gardevoir might be a pretty good check if LO Shadow Ball can break through +2 Swoobat, as I'm pretty sure +2 Air Slash doesn't OHKO. If it does, then scratch that. :p

QC APPROVED 3/3
 

erisia

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Hmmm. Having had the opportunity to run the calc, Gardevoir takes the +2 Air Slash fine but can't OHKO +2 Swoobat with Shadow Ball even after SR (63-75%), although the LO recoil makes it possible. Thunderbolt is obviously better. Just some info.
 
DTC, I have to disagree that Swoobat can run any sort defensive set.
Possibly you could run a set with Amnesia, Stored Power, Roost, + coverage move or toxic, with max speed and hp ev's and a timid nature this set could could come on on defensive pokemon with no offensive investment or psychic types (or even defensive grass types tangela for example) and boost up it's special defence while dealing good damage with storted power. The only problem I see with this set is again it's defence is abysmal but after the "counter's" have been KO'd this pokemon may be able to do some stalling (Possibly run U-turn if counters are still in play)
 

erisia

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Just chiming in to say that this thing is legit. It beat my Skuntank 1v1, and I wish I was joking. First, it ran physically defensive EVs and Burned me with Heat Wave. Then it just straight-up tanked through Skuntank with Air Slash. My vulnerability to the stupidest things continues!
 

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