Smogon's First "Create a Pokemon": Reflections, Opinions, and Closing

[eric the espeon]

GGGGOOOOO DOUG!!

alsoone more thing, when you send out a pokemon it sais something like
eric the espeon sent out antinator (LV 100 syclant but here there are some strange symbols, they change depending on what pokemon is sent out)

its not much of a probalm but if its an easy fix you could change it.

also can you give those on the server a warning before restarting the server, and maybe wait for the matches to finish?

is haveing ladder on this a real option? of does it only work for the normal server?

other than that... amazing, great, fantastic work. i look up to your programing ability.
maybe we should make you a "create-a-pokemon contributor badge" for this achivement?

edit: no-one else is on the sever..... can someone come on?

[Time Mage]

Originally Posted by Fat eric the espeon

i am also doing a warstory, expect it up in a few days.

Not my match, I hope. I played like a total newbie. >_<

[eric the espeon]

Originally Posted by Fat Time Mage

Not my match, I hope. I played like a total newbie. >_<

oh... it was your match. you onlymade like one bad move and the close finish was sooo funny.

Edit: reposting this so people can find, use and comment on it

by lord sunday, i edited a bit.

[SET]
name: Mixant
move 1: Blizzard
move 2: Bug buzz
move 3: Brick Break / Superpower
move 4: Substitute / Earth Power / Air slash
item: Life Orb
ability: Compound Eyes
nature: Naive / Rash
evs: 200 Atk/ 56 Satk / 252 Spd

[SET COMMENTS]
Syclant has the ability to tear through many of the most common walls in D/P. Compound Eyes provided Syclant with an extremely high power 91% accurate STAB in the form of Blizzard. Brick Break deals with Blissey and will 2HKO 90% of the time. Bug buzz provides a strong STAB that deals with many opponents. Substitute can be used if you do not want to risk mispredicting, which will often force Syclant to switch out. It is also useful to absorb Thunder Waves from Blissey and Cresselia. If you do use substitute than Superpower becomes an option over Brick Break as it can 2HKO Blissey with less EVs.

If this set does not have sufficient Rapid Spin support, it will soon fall to passive damage. To combat this you can use Mountaineer over Compound Eyes, but only do this if you use an Abomasnow to set up hail or switch to the significantly weaker ice beam.

[SET]
name: Swords Ant
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Ice Shard / Ice Punch
move 3: X-Scissor
move 4: Brick Break / U-Turn
item: Life Orb / Focus sash
ability: Mountaineer
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 4 Def / 252 Atk / 252 Spd

[SET COMMENTS]
This is a full physical version of Syclant. It's attack reaches astronomical levels after a Swords Dance. Ice Shard takes care of anything that thinks it can switch in on the Swords Dance and out speed for a KO. Ice Punch provides a more reliable Ice STAB.

Fire fang, Thunder fang, Stone edge, Night slash or Shadow claw could be used over Brick Break / U-Turn. Fire fang dents Forretress, who would otherwise wall you, after a SD. Thunder fang is your best bet against Gyarados. Stone edge (or Rock slide if you don’t like the poor accuracy and want to take advantage of the flinch chance) has great coverage and can 1HKO some Pokemon you would otherwise have problems with after a Swords Dance. Night slash or Shadow claw can beat down Dusknoir and bulky psychics. Superpower is not an option on this set as the attack drop conflicts with sword dance.


[SET]
name: SpecsSycle
move 1: Ice Beam / Blizzard
move 2: Bug buzz
move 3: Super Power / Focus Blast / Air slash
move 4: Earth Power
item: Choice Specs
ability: Mountaineer / Compound Eyes
nature: +Satk -Def / Timid / Modest
evs: 4 Def / 252 Satk / 252 Spd

[SET COMMENTS]
This set has the ability to do massage damage to most of the OU metagame, provided you predict right. If you run the low accuracy Blizzard and Focus Blast then use the Compound Eyes ability with heavy Rapid Spin support, as Syclant wants to have the ability to switch in and out freely with this set. If you don't want such a high-maintenance Poke than using running Mountaineer, Super Power and Ice beam allows you to still dent Blissey and also be immune to SR. Keep in mind that only Modest Nature and Focus Blast are able to 2HKO without SR.


[Other Options]
Stone Edge is a good option for dealing with the likes of Moltres and Articuno. Superpower is unable to 1HKO Blissey even with max Atk, so isn't of much note other than on the Choice Specs set, or to 2HKO with less EVs. Thunder Fang and Earth Power will 1HKO Gyarados and Heatran respectively, but don't be tempted to use them on anything that isn't 4x weak as unresisted STAB Blizzard or Bug buzz will usually do more. Most of the time its incredibly powereful STABs will cover it better than a single attack that hits Super Effective against a certain Poke. Choice Band is also an option if you don’t want to have to set up your Physical sweeper, but Syclant isn't build for repeated switch ins. Choice Scarf makes it a decent lead.


[EVs]
Neutral Natured Syclant with max Atk and Life Orb is never guaranteed to 2HKO Blissey with Break Break, but 200 EVs Provide a very reasonable chance and a guaranteed KO with SR in play. Any EVs Leftover from your main form of offence should go into Spd. Always make sure that Syclant can survive two switch ins to SR if running Compound Eyes. This means NEVER give it four Hp EVs. Either eight or none.


[Opinion]
Syclant can tear through some of D/P's prestige walls, but is extremely high maintenance. Its typing is a mixed bag. It has two wonderful STABs for an offensive Poke, but is hindered by a horrible SR weakness. Mountaineer takes care of this, but leaves it using a weaker STAB. If you can keep Syclant in good condition then it will be a great asset to your team.


[Counters]
Tentacruel is a good overall counter, but dies if Syclant is carrying Earth Power. Blissey is a good counter to the Spec set. Against the Mixant set, Blissey can come in on anything other than Brick Break and Substitute and can 1HKO Syclant with Flamethrower, or use a status move like Sing or Thunderwave. Priority moves, or Pokes that out speed Syclant can deal very heavy damage once they get in.

In order to survive, Syclant relies on its extremely powerful and accurate STAB moves and its impunity to Stealth Rock. Taking either one of these away will weaken it significantly. If it is running the Compound Eyes ability, an opponent that can use Stealth Rock and prevent them from being spun away will stop Syclant in its tracks. If Syclant is using Abomasnow's hail for 100% Acc Blizzard then your own weather changer will hinder it.


by me
if it keeps tail glow then this set works

Syclant@focus sash/life orb
4HP/252 sp. attack/252 speed
timid
tail glow
blizzard
bug buzz
focus blast/air slash/counter/HP ground/taunt



this is useable but not as good as swords ant
syclant@CB
4 HP/252 attack/252 speed
jolly
move 1: Ice Punch
move 2: X-Scissor
move 3: Brick Break
move 4: U-Turn / Ice Shard / Fire fang / Thunder fang / Stone edge / Night slash / Shadow claw

loads of /itis 8 on the same slot lol.

[Time Mage]

Well, yeah, it was xD

But I don't like to make mistakes, at all, and even less those kind of mistakes that scream "You made this team in 15 minutes to start playing with Syclant ASAP!".

I'm in the process of making an actual team using Syclant, a well thought one, at least.

[eric the espeon]

ok TM, if i have a better battle i will post that insted, but i did like the end.

[darkie]

Syclant's Normal and Shiny sprites are the right color, but have different poses. It's not really a big deal.

Now building new team.

[GengarCrysis92]

This is also not a big deal, but the Syclant sprites in the Team builder are scratchy and somewhat un-defined unlike the other Pokemon sprites, but when in battle they look fine. Don't know if you can change that.

[DougJustDoug**]

Originally Posted by Fat eric the espeon

alsoone more thing, when you send out a pokemon it sais something like
eric the espeon sent out antinator (LV 100 syclant but here there are some strange symbols, they change depending on what pokemon is sent out)

I noticed that during my testing, but thought it was something about the client. Now, that you point it out again -- I just remembered that I created this bug waayyy back when I first loaded the Shoddy source code onto my computer. Those symbols should be the male/female symbols. My IDE had a problem with Colin's technique of specifying the character literals. At that time, I really wanted to get past all the compiler warnings, so I just wrapped the special chars in a string and moved on. That's causing those garbage characters to show up. Now that I have everything working, I'll go back and try to fix the male/female symbols. Worst case, I'll use "M" and "F".

Originally Posted by Fat eric the espeon

also can you give those on the server a warning before restarting the server, and maybe wait for the matches to finish?

Yes, I'll get on chat and tell everyone. I'll also wait for battles to finish. Right now, I'm running the server on my laptop that I use everyday. I plan to move the server to my "always on" desktop machine. It may take an hour or so to get it switched over. Hopefully, the server will be listed when I move it. <crosses fingers> Regardless, it will always be available. Right now, the server will drop when I unplug my laptop and take it somewhere.

Originally Posted by Fat eric the espeon

is haveing ladder on this a real option? of does it only work for the normal server?

The ladder is part of the "official" Shoddy client. Colin controls that and it is realistically impossible to change.

Originally Posted by Fat [.darkie]

Syclant's Normal and Shiny sprites are the right color, but have different poses. It's not really a big deal.

That's intentional. Since Shoddy doesn't show the sprite animation, I didn't want KOA's second pose go to waste. So I used it for the shiny.

Originally Posted by Fat GengarCrysis92

This is also not a big deal, but the Syclant sprites in the Team builder are scratchy and somewhat un-defined like the other Pokemon sprites, but when in battle they look fine. Don't know if you can change that.

KoA did not put "outlines" on his sprites. When displayed on a grey backgound they look ragged. If KoA makes an outlined version of the sprites, I'll be happy to update the sprite jar.

[NatKing]

Have to say, this thing is like a Mixed Garchomp. =P

You'll hate playing it, love using it.

Doug, Great work on this. =D

[GengarCrysis92]

Originally Posted by Fat Melon

Have to say, this thing is like a Mixed Garchomp. =P

You'll hate playing it, love using it.

Doug, Great work on this. =D

Actually tbh, MixAnt is somewhat bad. Straight up Physical Ant and straight up SPecial ant are batter by a landslide.

@DJD: Ok. Just before we send it to Nintendo, I think a touch up is needed.

[DougJustDoug**]

There are roughly 30 registered users for the new server. A lot more battles have occurred than I expected for the first day. I'm also amazed that the server hasn't crashed at all. For a first run, that's surprising.

[Mario With Lasers]

IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!!!!


Gotta test it NOW.

Errm, I wrote the password wrong, can you change it to me, or at least tell me what it is?

[GengarCrysis92]

Originally Posted by Fat DougJustDoug

There are roughly 30 registered users for the new server. A lot more battles have occurred than I expected for the first day. I'm also amazed that the server hasn't crashed at all. For a first run, that's surprising.

It crashed on me twice...<_<; I had a battle, but Syclant doesn't fit on my team at ALL. I also woke up 30 mins before and I couln't think....

[Deck Knight]

Originally Posted by Fat Mario with Lasers

IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!!!!


Gotta test it NOW.

Errm, I wrote the password wrong, can you change it to me, or at least tell me what it is?

Worst case scenario just re-register with something like Mario-with-Lasers or Mario_with_Lasers, assuming DJD can't fix it.

[darkie]

I edited the Syclant Analysis

---
[SET]
name: Tail Glowing Mixed Sweeper
move 1: Blizzard
move 2: Bug buzz
move 3: Brick Break / Superpower
move 4: Tail Glow
item: Life Orb
ability: Compound Eyes
nature: Naive / Rash
evs: 200 Atk/ 56 Satk / 252 Spd

[SET COMMENTS]
Syclant has the ability to tear through many of the most common walls in D/P. Compound Eyes provides Syclant with an extremely high power 91% accurate STABbed attack in the form of Blizzard. Hippowdon, Dragons, and Gliscor are all destroyed by Blizzard. Likewise, Tyranitar is decimated by a swift Brick Break or Superpower to the face. Brick Break deals with Blissey and will 2HKO 90% of the time. Superpower is an option over Brick Break if you want to ensure the 2HKO. In fact, the power difference between Brick Break and the Superpower lets you get away with not investing any Attack EVs. Bug Buzz absolutely ruins Cresselia after a Nasty Plot.

If this set does not have sufficient Rapid Spin support, it will soon fall to passive damage from Life Orb, Sandstorm, and other entry hazards. To combat this, you can use Mountaineer over Compound Eyes, but only do this if you use an Abomasnow to set up hail or switch to the significantly weaker Ice Beam.

[SET]
name: Swords Ant
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Ice Shard / Ice Punch
move 3: X-Scissor
move 4: Brick Break / U-Turn
item: Life Orb / Focus sash
ability: Mountaineer
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 4 Def / 252 Atk / 252 Spd

[SET COMMENTS]
This is a full physical version of Syclant. It's attack reaches astronomical levels after a Swords Dance. Ice Shard takes care of anything that thinks it can switch in on the Swords Dance and out speed for a KO. Ice Punch provides a more powerful Ice STAB.

Fire Fang, Thunder Fang, Stone edge, Night Slash or Shadow Claw could be used over Brick Break / U-Turn. Fire Fang dents Forretress, who would otherwise wall you, after a SD. Thunder Fang is your best bet against Gyarados. Stone Edge (or Rock Slide if you don’t like the poor accuracy and want to take advantage of the flinch chance) has great coverage and can OHKO some Pokemon you would otherwise have problems with after a Swords Dance. Night Slash or Shadow Claw can beat down Dusknoir and bulky Psychics like Cresselia or Uxie. Superpower is not an option on this set as the attack drop conflicts with Sword Dance.


[SET]
name: SpecsSycle
move 1: Ice Beam / Blizzard
move 2: Bug Buzz
move 3: Super Power / Focus Blast
move 4: Earth Power
item: Choice Specs
ability: Mountaineer / Compound Eyes
nature: Rash / Timid / Modest
evs: 4 Def / 252 Satk / 252 Spd

[SET COMMENTS]
This set has the ability to do massage damage to most of the OU metagame, provided you predict right. If you run the low accuracy Blizzard and Focus Blast then use the Compound Eyes ability with heavy Rapid Spin support, as Syclant wants to have the ability to switch in and out freely with this set. If the high maintenance level with Compound Eyes is off-putting, use Ice Beam over Blizzard, and Superpower over Focus Blast to beat Blissey, with Mountaineer to dodge Stealth Rock.

[Other Options]
Stone Edge is a good option for dealing with the likes of Gyarados and Salamence. Thunder Fang and Earth Power will OHKO Gyarados and Heatran respectively, but don't be tempted to use them on anything that isn't 4x weak as unresisted STAB Blizzard or Bug buzz will usually do more. Choice Band is also an option if you don’t want to have to set up your Physical sweeper, but Syclant isn't built for repeated switch ins. Choice Scarf makes it a decent lead.

[EVs]
Neutral Natured Syclant with max Atk and Life Orb is never guaranteed to 2HKO Blissey with Break Break, but 200 EVs provide a very reasonable chance and a guaranteed 2HKO with SR in play. With Superpower, you don't need any Attack investment to guarentee a 2HKO on Blissey. Any EVs leftover from your main form of offense should go into Speed. Always make sure that Syclant can survive two switch ins to SR if running Compound Eyes; it's HP value must always be odd.


[Opinion]
Syclant can tear through some of D/P's prestige walls, but is extremely high maintenance. Its typing is a mixed bag. It has two wonderful STABs for an offensive Poke, but is hindered by a horrible SR weakness. Mountaineer takes care of this, but leaves it using a weaker Ice STAB in the form of Ice Beam. If you can keep Syclant in good condition, it will be a great asset to your team.

In order to survive, Syclant relies on its extremely powerful and accurate STAB moves and its impunity to Stealth Rock. Taking either one of these away will weaken it significantly. If it is running the Compound Eyes ability, an opponent that can use Stealth Rock and prevent them from being spun away will stop Syclant in its tracks. If Syclant is using Abomasnow's hail for 100% Acc Blizzard then your own weather changer will hinder it.


[Counters]
Tentacruel is a good overall counter, but dies if Syclant is carrying Earth Power. Blissey is a good counter to the Spec set. Against the Mixed set, Blissey can come in on anything other than Brick Break and can OHKO Syclant with Flamethrower, or use a status move like Sing or Thunderwave. Priority moves, or Pokemon that out speed Syclant, can deal very heavy damage once they get in. A bulky Gyarados can come in the majority of Syclant's movepool, save for Stone Edge and Thunder Fang. That same Gyarados Intimidates physical Syclants, and can take special hits with it's 95/100 defenses, along with resistances to Fighting, Bug, and Ground, the most common of Syclant's moves.
---


I changed A LOT!

[DougJustDoug**]

Originally Posted by Fat GengarCrysis92

It crashed on me twice...<_<; I had a battle, but Syclant doesn't fit on my team at ALL. I also woke up 30 mins before and I couln't think....

The client crashed. But the server has stayed up all day. I've noticed tons of communications errors in the server log, but they all are related to client disconnects. I think when I move this to a "permanent" server, some of the communications issues will go away. Most importantly -- the issue preventing the server from being "listed".

[eric the espeon]

Originally Posted by Fat [.darkie]

I edited the Syclant Analysis

cool
---
[SET]
name: Tail Glow Sweeper
move 1: Blizzard
move 2: Bug buzz
move 3: Focus blast / Air Slash
move 4: Tail Glow
item: Life Orb / focus sash, it lets you get of a relyable TG
ability: Compound Eyes
nature: Timid
evs: 252 sp. attack / 4 Defence / 252 speed

[SET COMMENTS]
It has been debated if tail glow makes syclant broken, if not it certinly makes it extremely powerful, this set willmost lightly sweep if it gets a TG up, not much can stop it and with 375 speed few can revenge kill it.
blizzard destroys almost everthing.
Bug Buzz absolutely ruins Cresselia and psychics after a tail glow.
focus balst can 2ko blissey after a TG (i think)
air slash is another option that i have seen used


[SET]
name: Mixant
move 1: Blizzard
move 2: Bug buzz
move 3: Brick Break / Superpower
move 4: Substitute / Earth Power / Air slash
item: Life Orb
ability: Compound Eyes
nature: Naive / Rash
evs: 200 Atk/ 56 Satk / 252 Spd or with Superpower less attack more sp. attack (working on evs)

[SET COMMENTS]
Syclant has the ability to tear through many of the most common walls in D/P. Compound Eyes provided Syclant with an extremely high power 91% accurate STAB in the form of Blizzard. Brick Break deals with Blissey and will 2HKO 90% of the time. Bug buzz provides a strong STAB that deals with many opponents. Substitute can be used if you do not want to risk mispredicting, which will often force Syclant to switch out. It is also useful to absorb Thunder Waves from Blissey and Cresselia. If you do use substitute than Superpower becomes an option over Brick Break as it can 2HKO Blissey with less EVs.

If this set does not have sufficient Rapid Spin support, it will soon fall to passive damage. To combat this you can use Mountaineer over Compound Eyes, but only do this if you use an Abomasnow to set up hail or switch to the significantly weaker ice beam.


[SET]
name: Swords Ant
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Ice Shard / Ice Punch
move 3: X-Scissor
move 4: Brick Break / U-Turn
item: Life Orb / Focus sash
ability: Mountaineer
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 4 Def / 252 Atk / 252 Spd

[SET COMMENTS]
This is a full physical version of Syclant. It's attack reaches astronomical levels after a Swords Dance. Ice Shard takes care of anything that thinks it can switch in on the Swords Dance and out speed for a KO, and works well on those few things that outspeed you. Ice Punch provides a more powerful Ice STAB, the diference between 40 and 70 base power will make a big diference and syclant is fast anyway so ice punch is normaly better.

Fire Fang, Thunder Fang, Stone edge, Night Slash or Shadow Claw could be used over Brick Break / U-Turn. Fire Fang dents Forretress, who would otherwise wall you, after a SD. Thunder Fang is your best bet against Gyarados. Stone Edge (or Rock Slide if you don’t like the poor accuracy and want to take advantage of the flinch chance) has great coverage and can OHKO some Pokemon you would otherwise have problems with after a Swords Dance. Night Slash or Shadow Claw can beat down Dusknoir and bulky Psychics like Cresselia or Uxie. Superpower is not an option on this set as the attack drop conflicts with Sword Dance.


[SET]
name: SpecsSycle
move 1: Ice Beam / Blizzard
move 2: Bug Buzz
move 3: Superpower / Focus Blast
move 4: Earth Power
item: Choice Specs
ability: Mountaineer / Compound Eyes
nature: Rash / Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 Satk / 252 Spd

[SET COMMENTS]
This set has the ability to do massage damage to much of the OU metagame, provided you predict right, however it will be easy to wall once you are locked into an attack. If you run the low accuracy Blizzard and Focus Blast then use the Compound Eyes ability with heavy Rapid Spin support, as Syclant wants to have the ability to switch in and out freely with this set. If the high maintenance level with Compound Eyes is off-putting, use Ice Beam over Blizzard, and Superpower over Focus Blast to beat Blissey, with Mountaineer to dodge Stealth Rock.

[Other Options]
Stone Edge is a good option for dealing with the likes of Gyarados and Salamence. Thunder Fang and Earth Power will OHKO Gyarados and Heatran respectively, but don't be tempted to use them on anything that isn't 4x weak as unresisted STAB Blizzard or Bug buzz will usually do more. Choice Band is also an option if you don’t want to have to set up your Physical sweeper, but Syclant isn't built for repeated switch ins. Choice Scarf makes it a decent lead.

[EVs]
Neutral Natured Syclant with max Atk and Life Orb is never guaranteed to 2HKO Blissey with Break Break, but 200 EVs provide a very reasonable chance and a guaranteed 2HKO with SR in play. With Superpower, you don't need any Attack investment to guarentee a 2HKO on Blissey. Any EVs leftover from your main form of offense should go into Speed. Always make sure that Syclant can survive two switch ins to SR if running Compound Eyes; it's HP value must always be odd.


[Opinion]
Syclant can tear through some of D/P's prestige walls, but is extremely high maintenance. Its typing is a mixed bag. It has two wonderful STABs for an offensive Poke, but is hindered by a horrible SR weakness. Mountaineer takes care of this, but leaves it using a weaker Ice STAB in the form of Ice Beam. If you can keep Syclant in good condition, it will be a great asset to your team.

In order to survive, Syclant relies on its extremely powerful and accurate STAB moves and its impunity to Stealth Rock. Taking either one of these away will weaken it significantly. If it is running the Compound Eyes ability, an opponent that can use Stealth Rock and prevent them from being spun away will stop Syclant in its tracks. If Syclant is using Abomasnow's hail for 100% Acc Blizzard then your own weather changer will hinder it.


[Counters]
Tentacruel is a good overall counter, but dies if Syclant is carrying Earth Power. Blissey is a good counter to the Spec set. Against the Mixed set, Blissey can come in on anything other than Brick Break and can OHKO Syclant with Flamethrower, or use a status move like Sing or Thunderwave. Priority moves, or Pokemon that out speed Syclant, can deal very heavy damage once they get in. A bulky Gyarados can come in the majority of Syclant's movepool, save for Stone Edge and Thunder Fang. That same Gyarados Intimidates physical Syclants, and can take special hits with it's 95/100 defenses, along with resistances to Fighting, Bug, Ground, and a nutrality to ice, the most common of Syclant's attacks.
---


I changed A LOT!
so did i. also we/someone needs to write up a bit about iligal sets

[IggyBot]

Originally Posted by Fat [.darkie]

[SET]
name: Swords Ant
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Ice Shard / Ice Punch
move 3: X-Scissor
move 4: Brick Break / U-Turn
item: Life Orb / Focus sash
ability: Mountaineer
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 4 Def / 252 Atk / 252 Spd

[SET COMMENTS]
This is a full physical version of Syclant. It's attack reaches astronomical levels after a Swords Dance. Ice Shard takes care of anything that thinks it can switch in on the Swords Dance and out speed for a KO. Ice Punch provides a more powerful Ice STAB.

Fire Fang, Thunder Fang, Stone edge, Night Slash or Shadow Claw could be used over Brick Break / U-Turn. Fire Fang dents Forretress, who would otherwise wall you, after a SD. Thunder Fang is your best bet against Gyarados. Stone Edge (or Rock Slide if you don’t like the poor accuracy and want to take advantage of the flinch chance) has great coverage and can OHKO some Pokemon you would otherwise have problems with after a Swords Dance. Night Slash or Shadow Claw can beat down Dusknoir and bulky Psychics like Cresselia or Uxie. Superpower is not an option on this set as the attack drop conflicts with Sword Dance.

The set is already running X-Scissor which gets STAB and hits bulky Psychic's SE, so the only reason for Night Slash would be for Dusknoir.

[Deucalion2]

Put Metagross as counter, it's one of the best, especially with Bullet Punch.

[eric the espeon]

Iggybot: ok good point. edited

deucalion: ok.

anything else needs changeing?

---
[SET]
name: Tail Glow Sweeper
move 1: Blizzard
move 2: Bug buzz
move 3: Focus blast / Air Slash
move 4: Tail Glow
item: Life Orb / focus sash, it lets you get of a relyable TG
ability: Compound Eyes
nature: Timid
evs: 252 sp. attack / 4 Defence / 252 speed

[SET COMMENTS]
It has been debated if tail glow makes syclant broken, if not it certinly makes it extremely powerful, this set willmost lightly sweep if it gets a TG up, not much can stop it and with 375 speed few can revenge kill it.
blizzard destroys almost everthing.
Bug Buzz absolutely ruins Cresselia and psychics after a tail glow.
focus balst can 2ko blissey after a TG (i think)
air slash is another option that i have seen used


[SET]
name: Mixant
move 1: Blizzard
move 2: Bug buzz
move 3: Brick Break / Superpower
move 4: Substitute / Earth Power / Air slash
item: Life Orb
ability: Compound Eyes
nature: Naive / Rash
evs: 200 Atk/ 56 Satk / 252 Spd or with Superpower less attack more sp. attack (working on evs)

[SET COMMENTS]
Syclant has the ability to tear through many of the most common walls in D/P. Compound Eyes provided Syclant with an extremely high power 91% accurate STAB in the form of Blizzard. Brick Break deals with Blissey and will 2HKO 90% of the time. Bug buzz provides a strong STAB that deals with many opponents. Substitute can be used if you do not want to risk mispredicting, which will often force Syclant to switch out. It is also useful to absorb Thunder Waves from Blissey and Cresselia. If you do use substitute than Superpower becomes an option over Brick Break as it can 2HKO Blissey with less EVs.

If this set does not have sufficient Rapid Spin support, it will soon fall to passive damage. To combat this you can use Mountaineer over Compound Eyes, but only do this if you use an Abomasnow to set up hail or switch to the significantly weaker ice beam.


[SET]
name: Swords Ant
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Ice Shard / Ice Punch
move 3: X-Scissor
move 4: Brick Break / U-Turn
item: Life Orb / Focus sash
ability: Mountaineer
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 4 Def / 252 Atk / 252 Spd

[SET COMMENTS]
This is a full physical version of Syclant. It's attack reaches astronomical levels after a Swords Dance. Ice Shard takes care of anything that thinks it can switch in on the Swords Dance and out speed for a KO, and works well on those few things that outspeed you. Ice Punch provides a more powerful Ice STAB, the diference between 40 and 70 base power will make a big diference and syclant is fast anyway so ice punch is normaly better.

Fire Fang, Thunder Fang, Stone edge, Night Slash or Shadow Claw could be used over Brick Break / U-Turn. Fire Fang dents Forretress, who would otherwise wall you, after a SD. Thunder Fang is your best bet against Gyarados. Stone Edge (or Rock Slide if you don’t like the poor accuracy and want to take advantage of the flinch chance) has great coverage and can OHKO some Pokemon you would otherwise have problems with after a Swords Dance. Night Slash or Shadow Claw can beat down Dusknoir. Superpower is not an option on this set as the attack drop conflicts with Sword Dance.


[SET]
name: SpecsSycle
move 1: Ice Beam / Blizzard
move 2: Bug Buzz
move 3: Superpower / Focus Blast
move 4: Earth Power
item: Choice Specs
ability: Mountaineer / Compound Eyes
nature: Rash / Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 Satk / 252 Spd

[SET COMMENTS]
This set has the ability to do massage damage to much of the OU metagame, provided you predict right, however it will be easy to wall once you are locked into an attack. If you run the low accuracy Blizzard and Focus Blast then use the Compound Eyes ability with heavy Rapid Spin support, as Syclant wants to have the ability to switch in and out freely with this set. If the high maintenance level with Compound Eyes is off-putting, use Ice Beam over Blizzard, and Superpower over Focus Blast to beat Blissey, with Mountaineer to dodge Stealth Rock.

[Other Options]
Stone Edge is a good option for dealing with the likes of Gyarados and Salamence. Thunder Fang and Earth Power will OHKO Gyarados and Heatran respectively, but don't be tempted to use them on anything that isn't 4x weak as unresisted STAB Blizzard or Bug buzz will usually do more. Choice Band is also an option if you don’t want to have to set up your Physical sweeper, but Syclant isn't built for repeated switch ins. Choice Scarf makes it a decent lead.

[EVs]
Neutral Natured Syclant with max Atk and Life Orb is never guaranteed to 2HKO Blissey with Break Break, but 200 EVs provide a very reasonable chance and a guaranteed 2HKO with SR in play. With Superpower, you don't need any Attack investment to guarentee a 2HKO on Blissey. Any EVs leftover from your main form of offense should go into Speed. Always make sure that Syclant can survive two switch ins to SR if running Compound Eyes; it's HP value must always be odd.


[Opinion]
Syclant can tear through some of D/P's prestige walls, but is extremely high maintenance. Its typing is a mixed bag. It has two wonderful STABs for an offensive Poke, but is hindered by a horrible SR weakness. Mountaineer takes care of this, but leaves it using a weaker Ice STAB in the form of Ice Beam. If you can keep Syclant in good condition, it will be a great asset to your team.

In order to survive, Syclant relies on its extremely powerful and accurate STAB moves and its impunity to Stealth Rock. Taking either one of these away will weaken it significantly. If it is running the Compound Eyes ability, an opponent that can use Stealth Rock and prevent them from being spun away will stop Syclant in its tracks. If Syclant is using Abomasnow's hail for 100% Acc Blizzard then your own weather changer will hinder it.


[Counters]
Tentacruel is a good overall counter, but dies if Syclant is carrying Earth Power.
Blissey is a good counter to the Specs set. Against the Mixed set, Blissey can come in on anything other than Brick Break and can OHKO Syclant with Flamethrower, or use a status move like Sing or Thunderwave.
Priority moves, or Pokemon that out speed Syclant, can deal very heavy damage once they get in.
A bulky Gyarados can come in the majority of Syclant's movepool, save for Stone Edge and Thunder Fang. That same Gyarados Intimidates physical Syclants, and can take special hits with it's 95/100 defenses, along with resistances to Fighting, Bug, Ground, and a nutrality to ice, the most common of Syclant's attacks.
Metagross is one of syclants best counters as it can it with a STAB super efective priority move, and switch in on most attacks. though if it comes in on earth power it will not last long.
---

[GengarCrysis92]

Um, just one: Ban Tail Glow. IIRC, Tail Glow was one of the reasons Manaphy was banned over all the other Hydro-Resters. And we don't want to make Ubers, now do we?

[sanjay120]

VOLBEAT HAS TAIL GLOW TOO CAN WE BAN VOLBEAT

Manaphy is bulky and has great typing. Syclant is not and does not.

[GengarCrysis92]

Ok. I was just saying Tail Glow would probably make this thing too overpowered.

[Sunday]

If you're going to work on the analysis using your experience with Syclant in battle that's fine but please bold everything you change so we can easily identify it.

Did some work on the warstory then lost it in a power Blackout >.<

Still of the opinion this thing freaking rapes everything and would cause major shake up to the metagame if we leave it with Tail Glow.

[Viashino_wizard]

Lucario and Thick Fat Hariyama resists Syclant's STAB and have access to Bullet Punch. Aerodactyl outspeeds and murders it with Stab Rockslide. Bullet Punch should probably get specific mention.