Here is the current Substitute Analysis article:
Substitute Analysis
Substitute General Information
Ever since the release of Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen the move Substitute became a massive hit in the Advance generation. It is very unlikely that you'll play a competitive match on NetBattle without seeing this move used once. However, there are so many different strategies that work with Substitute that it may be quite hard to keep track of for new users. Heck, even some veterans might have trouble. For this reason alone I am writing this guide.
First let's start off with some basic information regarding the move Substitute before we get into exactly what it is used for.
The move information is the following: "Creates a decoy using 1/4 of the user's maximum HP."
That's a bit of an understatement, though. What Substitute truly does is, at the cost of 25% of your HP, is create a decoy that will take damage for you. The decoy has the exact same amount of HP that you used to create it. This also means that if you have less than 25% HP and use Substitute it will fail. If the damage done to a Substitute is over the Substitute's remaining HP, the Substitute will break, but you will not take damage that turn.
In addition to that, Substitutes, when in effect, will block status effects and some other moves. The complete list of what Substitute blocks is as follows:
Substitute can also be grabbed by the move Snatch.
Substitutes do not block the effect of Roar and Whirlwind.
However, you may have already realized that Substitute is great against Pokémon that are about to use Explosion or Selfdestruct as well as any non-damage dealing status effect move. These situations will either warrant a free KO or a free turn. As you can see these reasons alone are a great reasons to use the move Substitute.
This is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to Substitute, however. There are quite a few combos and tactics that work well with Substitute. Some Pokémon use it very well and dominate with it while with others it isn't too useful. But Substitute has some other added bonuses. If you don't want to risk anything with prediction, the use of Substitute to see what your opponent is going to do, given you're faster of course, will allow you to see what is going on. Naturally this is a very great help when going against Choice Band wielding Pokémon. Substitute, when faster, nullifies Slaking.
Substitute Tactics
Substitute + Focus Punch
By now you should realize that there are several possibilities and strategies to choose from when using the move Substitute. Substitute is a very, very, interesting move. As you may have noticed the real devastating Substitute using Pokémon often use a combination of two or more Substitute strategies. Here's some other Pokémon that use two or more strategies:
------------------------------------------------
When editing it, I tried to keep two factors in mind: 1.) Conciseness 2.) Removing idiomatic language, though I wasn't too stringent with this.
Next post has my edit, so please, give me your opinion!
Substitute Analysis
Substitute General Information
Ever since the release of Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen the move Substitute became a massive hit in the Advance generation. It is very unlikely that you'll play a competitive match on NetBattle without seeing this move used once. However, there are so many different strategies that work with Substitute that it may be quite hard to keep track of for new users. Heck, even some veterans might have trouble. For this reason alone I am writing this guide.
First let's start off with some basic information regarding the move Substitute before we get into exactly what it is used for.
The move information is the following: "Creates a decoy using 1/4 of the user's maximum HP."
That's a bit of an understatement, though. What Substitute truly does is, at the cost of 25% of your HP, is create a decoy that will take damage for you. The decoy has the exact same amount of HP that you used to create it. This also means that if you have less than 25% HP and use Substitute it will fail. If the damage done to a Substitute is over the Substitute's remaining HP, the Substitute will break, but you will not take damage that turn.
In addition to that, Substitutes, when in effect, will block status effects and some other moves. The complete list of what Substitute blocks is as follows:
- Status Effects and Status Effect moves such as Thunder Wave, Will-O-Wisp, and Sleep Powder
- Leech Seed
- Mean Look
- Rapid Spin's effect of removing Spikes
- Stat dropping moves such as Metal Sound and Sand Attack
- Knock Off's effect of making your Pokémon lose its item
Substitute can also be grabbed by the move Snatch.
Substitutes do not block the effect of Roar and Whirlwind.
However, you may have already realized that Substitute is great against Pokémon that are about to use Explosion or Selfdestruct as well as any non-damage dealing status effect move. These situations will either warrant a free KO or a free turn. As you can see these reasons alone are a great reasons to use the move Substitute.
This is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to Substitute, however. There are quite a few combos and tactics that work well with Substitute. Some Pokémon use it very well and dominate with it while with others it isn't too useful. But Substitute has some other added bonuses. If you don't want to risk anything with prediction, the use of Substitute to see what your opponent is going to do, given you're faster of course, will allow you to see what is going on. Naturally this is a very great help when going against Choice Band wielding Pokémon. Substitute, when faster, nullifies Slaking.
Substitute Tactics
Substitute + Focus Punch
- Commonly referred to as 'SubPunch'. With a Substitute up you can Focus Punch without fear of being hit during the move given that your opponent is not using Rock Blast, Bone Rush, Bonemerang, Arm Thrust, or Icicle Spear. Some popular examples of this are as follows:
- Gengar
- ~ Substitute
- ~ Focus Punch
- ~ Thunderbolt
- ~ Ice Punch
- Often used to switch in against Blissey or Snorlaxes that lack Shadow Ball. Substitute and then proceed to Focus Punch, Thunderbolt, or Ice Punch as necessary to be a real pain in the ass.
- Tyranitar*
- ~ Substitute
- ~ Crunch
- ~ Thunderbolt
- ~ Focus Punch
- *There will be more on this particular moveset when I explain what the secondary Substitute strategy utilized here is.
- Could possibly be referred to as 'SubSeed', but that is just stupid. Only two Pokémon pull of this combination well. Those two Pokémon are Sceptile and Jumpluff because of their speeds. It is arguable that Exeggutor can do this as well when it has its Chlorophyll activated by Sunny Day, but that is a rare situation (Paired with Groudon, which is banned in standard play) or by having to constant refresh its sunlight every fifth turn with Sunny Day. The goal here is to outstall your opponent and make them switch around while draining their HP. This works well with Spikes. Example:
- Sceptile
- ~ Leech Seed
- ~ Substitute
- ~ Leaf Blade
- ~ Hidden Power [Ice]
- With maximum speed it outspeeds many things and Substitutes before they can do anything. Leech Seeds and then proceeds to use Substitute or Leaf Blade if they get a free turn. Popular against Blissey, Snorlax, Suicune, and other Pokémon with high HP although it can work well against anything it is faster than.
- Quite a simple process to understand. You Substitute and then use Baton Pass to pass the Substitute along to the next Pokémon. This might mainly be used to check and see what Pokémon your opponent is going to switch to. Examples:
- Jolteon
- ~ Thunderbolt
- ~ Hidden Power [Ice]
- ~ Baton Pass
- ~ Substitute
- Suppose this Jolteon is what you lead of with. Your opponent leads with Zapdos. You Substitute on turn #1 just in case your opponent tries to Thunder Wave you and cut down Jolteon's main asset, which would be Speed for those of you who can't put 1 and 1 together, but he switches out to Swampert. Unfortunately your Jolteon has Hidden Power Ice to deal with Salamence and grass types instead so you can't handle Swampert. You Baton Pass your Substitute to your Gyarados, effectively avoiding Swampert's Earthquake as well as handing it an Intimidate. This is also an example of using Substitute to avoid non-damaging status effects (assuming the Zapdos would have Thunder Waved).
- Espeon*
- ~ Calm Mind
- ~ Psychic
- ~ Substitute
- ~ Baton Pass
- This set will not only Baton Pass Substitute, but Calm Minds as well. There is another Substitute oriented strategy at work here as well.
- *There will be more on this particular moveset when I explain what the secondary Substitute strategy utilized here is.
- This is another simplistic, albeit very annoying, combination to understand. By the use of Substitute on a Pokémon with the Pressure trait you can easily wittle down their PP since even attacks against Substitutes will take 2 PP instead of one. This can also be paired with Protect to create an even more annoying strategy. Works best if on a fast Pokémon, however. Examples:
- Aerodactyl
- ~ Substitute
- ~ Protect
- ~ Filler
- ~ Filler
- There isn't too much to this. You alternate Substitute and Protect to wear down all your opponent's PP. Alternately this could work with Absol as well, although Absol isn't as fast as Aerodactyl. Other options include Zapdos and Suicune, albeit neither of of them work as well as Aerodactyl for Substitute Pressure PP stalling.
- This can be a very devastating combination when played correctly. The goal here is to Substitute once while predicting a switch or non-damaging status effect move and then using the move Belly Drum. If your Pokémon's HP is divisible by 4, your Salac Berry will activate and you will have a speed boost as well as Belly Drum. Examples:
- Linoone
- ~ Substitute
- ~ Belly Drum
- ~ Extremespeed
- ~ Shadow Ball
- This is pretty straight forward. Basically you Substitute once and then, hopefully your substitute wasn't broken that turn (this is the key part of this, by the way: keep your substitute alive the first turn via prediction), Belly Drum for a Salac Boost. You may want to go with Liechi Berry over Salac Berry on this particular moveset, though, since the main move is Extremespeed anyways. You could go with Return + Salac instead, though.
- The key thing to remember is that the HP must be divisible by 4 so that the Salac Berry activates directly after one Substitute.
- This was a really popular strategy way back when FireRed and LeafGreen just were released. The basis is here is that your Pokémon is holding a Salac Berry and then simply Substitutes four times and gets the Salac boost. Then you would sweep with Reversal or Flail. Pretty simple concept, but it can be devastating when used correctly. Examples:
- Heracross
- ~ Substitute
- ~ Reversal
- ~ Megahorn
- ~ Focus Punch
- This would hold Salac Berry, obviously. This concept is very simplistic and easy to understand.
- Now we're getting to some slightly more complex Substitute strategies. This didn't come up until Jumpman16 came up with the reasonably well known "EspyJump". Remember that Espeon that I said I'd explain earlier? Well that is EspyJump. Basically the concept here is to Substitute and then proceed to Calm Mind against special attackers such as Starmie, Celebi, and what not. You get the idea, anyways. The Substitutes won't break as you begin to raise your special defense with Calm Mind. You can then proceed to sweep. Examples:
- Jynx
- ~ Lovely Kiss
- ~ Calm Mind
- ~ Ice Beam
- ~ Substitute
- Say hello to Luna. Anyways, I'd Substitute and then proceed to Calm Mind. Whatever I can't kill with Ice Beam or Calm Mind against I'd put to sleep with Lovely Kiss. Eventually the goal here is to keep Jynx from getting a status effect (goal #1) and possibly be able to keep Substitutes from breaking against other special attackers like the ones listed about (goal #2).
- Espeon
- ~ Calm Mind
- ~ Psychic
- ~ Substitute
- ~ Baton Pass
- Now I can finally explain the full power of EspyJump. In addition to Baton Passing Substitutes, Espeon also Baton Passes Calm Minds. That much is obvious, but Espeon can also Calm Mind up in front of special attackers just like Luna the Jynx. The full potential is when you have Calm Minded up against an opponent and then Baton Pass to your sweeper with a Substitute in front of it. That's quite a big boost. In addition, the Substitute also also allows Espeon to keep itself from getting paralyzed or poisoned, though it isn't as harmed by this as Luna is.
- A strategy that is relatively new although it is used quite heavily now in the competitive environment. This strategy is mainly designed to counteract Blissey because it uses the move Seismic Toss. You don't understand yet? Well, it is really quite basic and I'm surprised it took people so long to figure it out. When a Pokémon with 404 or more HP creates a Substitute, the HP of the Substitute would have 101 HP and thus take TWO Seismic Tosses to break. This means that if the Blissey or other Pokémon were to say in your Pokémon would get a free turn so to speak. Examples:
- Tyranitar
- ~ Substitute
- ~ Crunch
- ~ Thunderbolt
- ~ Focus Punch
- I can now explain the mighty TyraniBoah, which was the brainchild of both chaos and Jumpman16. It was designed to utterly annihilate stalling teams and, mainly, the Skarmory + Blissey combination that many newer players utterly dread to face. When Tyranitar Substitutes, Blissey's Seismic Toss cannot break it. This allows Tyranitar to Focus Punch the next turn without fear of being hit. This is a combination of both the Substitute + Focus Punch idea and the Substitute + 404 idea just like EspyJump was a combination of Substitute + Baton Pass and Substitute + Calm Mind. Do you see how this all begins to fit together?
By now you should realize that there are several possibilities and strategies to choose from when using the move Substitute. Substitute is a very, very, interesting move. As you may have noticed the real devastating Substitute using Pokémon often use a combination of two or more Substitute strategies. Here's some other Pokémon that use two or more strategies:
- Celebi
- ~ Substitute
- ~ Calm Mind
- ~ Baton Pass
- ~ Recover/Psychic
- This Celebi combines Substitute + 404 HP, + Calm Mind, and + Baton Pass to form an excellent Baton Passer. Its Substitutes cannot be broken by a single Seismic Toss, it cannot easily be stopped by a special attacker, and what is worse is that it can Baton Pass all the Calm Minds to another Pokémon!
- Jirachi
- ~ Calm Mind
- ~ Substitute
- ~ Psychic
- ~ Thunderbolt
- Combines only two Substitute strategies, but is a very effective Anti-Special attacker Calm Minder. While Luna the Jynx can put a Pokémon to sleep, this special attacker is not dominated by Blissey.
------------------------------------------------
When editing it, I tried to keep two factors in mind: 1.) Conciseness 2.) Removing idiomatic language, though I wasn't too stringent with this.
Next post has my edit, so please, give me your opinion!