sooooooo cute <3
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/cubone
[SET]
name: Thick Club
Move 1: Earthquake
Move 2: Double-Edge
Move 3: Fire Punch
Move 4: Substitute / Ice Beam
Ability: Rock Head
Item: Thick Club
Nature: Brave
Evs: 196 HP / 196 Atk / 76 Def / 36 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>This set is probably the most effective set that a Cubone can run, and is best if you just need a bulky but heavy hitter in your team. It plays like a standard bulky Choice Band user, with massive Attack and reasonable defenses, except it gets to choose between its attacks, thanks to its unique item, Thick Club. Earthquake is a relatively obvious move here, being Cubone's basic STAB; it generally will OHKO anything that is not resistant or immune to it. Double-Edge is effective at hitting almost everything that Earthquake doesn't. There are a few Pokémon that are immune to both Double-Edge and Earthquake, and all of those Pokémon are hit hard by Fire Punch. Fire Punch serves as Cubone's weapon against Grass-type Pokémon and Bronzor, while also allowing Cubone to deal heavy damage on the levitating Ghosts. Substitute can help ease prediction somewhat, as its immense power tends to cause switches. Alternately, Ice Beam can be used over Substitute for a more powerful hit against Gligar. Just remember to swap the EVs from Special Defense to Special Attack. With 36 Special Attack EVs, Gligar gets OHKOed by Ice Beam 77% of the time, and that turns into 100% with Stealth Rock in play.</p>
<p>Gastly, Porygon, and Slowpoke are all effective at starting up the effect Trick Room. This allows Cubone to take advantage of his horrible Speed stat. Otherwise, Ekans, Porygon, and Slowpoke all can inflict paralysis on an opposing Pokémon, allowing Cubone to outrun them, making a sweep that much easier.</p>
[SET]
name: Baton Pass Receiver
Move 1: Earthquake
Move 2: Double-Edge
Move 3: Fire Punch
Move 4: Swords Dance / Substitute
Ability: Rock Head
Item: Thick Club
Nature: Jolly / Adamant
Evs: 36 HP / 196 Atk / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>While the first set is designed to utilize Cubone as a bulky tank, this set focuses on a specific talent of Cubone's: the ability to sweep after receiving Baton Passed Speed boosts.</p>
<p>Swords Dance's purpose is obvious: after a Swords Dance, the attacks listed literally OHKO the entire metagame. Just one Swords Dance gives Cubone a massive attack stat of 56 or 60, depending on nature. Substitute, on the other hand, allows Cubone to take advantage of his ability to cause plenty of switches. Even without a Swords Dance boost, Cubone is still incredibly dangerous, and Substitute just compounds that by giving protection against revenge killers and easing prediction. Substitute is a much more cautious option that might not seal the game, but it will make Cubone survive a little longer throughout the battle. Swords Dance will end the game once it gets online, but Cubone's relatively poor Special Defense means that a wrong prediction could be spell instantaneous doom for Cubone.</p>
<p>Choosing a nature is a matter of personal preference. Jolly is preferred here, as 14 Speed allows it to outpace all non-Choice Scarfed Pokémon after a +1 Speed boost, while +2 Speed gives it enough zip to outpace most Choice Scarfed Pokémon. Adamant, however, is still a good option if you're either relying only on Agility or Rock Polish to be passed, or if you're relying on pure brute force.</p>
<p>Aipom, Gligar, and Venonat all work rather well with this set. They can effectively pass an Agility or two to Cubone, giving it enough Speed to outpace all non-Choice Scarfed Pokémon, as well as many Scarfed Pokémon. Aipom and Venonat work the best of the three, as they don't share any common weaknesses, so there is less of a risk when it's actually time to pass.</p>
[Team Options]
<p>Pokémon who can set up the field effect Trick Room work extremely well with Cubone. The Pokémon who can do this effectively are Gastly, Slowpoke, and Porygon. Porygon and Slowpoke both have access to a recovery move, and can inflict paralysis on opposing Pokémon, giving Cubone a much easier time. Munchlax and Krabby both work extremely well with Cubone as they both can function under Trick Room and resist Ice-type attacks; however Krabby shares a less common Grass-type weakness. Aipom can effectively Agility Pass to Cubone, to give it the Speed to be one hell of a force to take down. Having Stealth Rocks on a team that uses Cubone is also a good idea, Stealth Rocks will make sure that Pokemon holding the item Focus Sash don't stop a sweep abruptly, and they can help turn some 2HKOs into OHKOs.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>Cubone has quite a few options in terms of attacks: Iron Head, Iron Tail, Bonemerang, Focus Punch, Rock Slide, ThunderPunch, and Knock Off. Bonemerang could be useful for breaking Subs, but beyond that these moves are just filler. ThunderPunch isn't terrible, but it doesn't hit anything important that Double-Edge or Fire Punch can't hit just as well, if not better, bar Mantyke. Knock Off is an interesting support option that might be of some use if Cubone had better ability to take hits or a higher Speed. In general, Knock Off's special effect is generally not as viable as outright KOing your opponent or setting up for a sweep.The only really viable special attacks to choose from are Blizzard and Ice Beam, which pose a huge threat to any Gligar that are switching in with hopes of ruining a potential sweep.</p>
<p>Cubone also learns Belly Drum, but it's too slow to stat up and sweep in that method and its Attack doesn't need to be that high to do significant damage Iron Defense is a new stat-up option for Cubone that could in theory be appealing, but Little Cup is too fast and Cubone is too weak to random special attacks to be able to build up his Defense stat and attempt to tank. Cubone has a couple support options in Perish Song and Screech, but its low Speed and somewhat fragile defensive stats don't make it a great choice for packing support.</p>
[EVs]
<p>196 HP / 196 Atk / 76 Def / 36 SpD is the standard EV set for Cubone, giving the best combination of Attack and Defense. If you're running Ice Beam, stick the Special Defense EVs into Special Attack for the increased power against Gligar. If you're planning on passing it some Speed, 36 HP /196 Atk / 236 Spe is the preferred spread, possibly with Jolly to hit the magic number of 14, which outpaces all non-Choice Scarfed Pokémon after a +1 boost.</p>
[Opinion]
<p> If you like slow but powerful Pokémon, then Cubone is the Pokémon for you. It has a good movepool, and the Attack stat to back it up. It has one distinct advantage, Thick Club, which allows it to play as a Choice Banded Pokémon that isn't locked into one move. Unfortunately, Cubone's low Speed prevents it from being able to sweep without some amount of support, like Agility passing, Trick Room, or paralysis. However, its low Speed does make it a prime candidate for all three of them. His shaky defenses are not exactly reliable, so switching him in directly is a risk you may not wish to take. However once in the fight, Cubone can be very useful at clearing out certain key Pokémon for your main offensive weapon to win the match.</p>
[Counters]
<p>Cubone's absolutely massive power means that it's incredibly difficult to switch into. However, the only Pokémon that stand a chance at coming in are those that can avoid its incredibly powerful STAB Earthquake. This limits the counters to Pokémon who have the ability Levitate, and Flying-type Pokémon.</p>
<p>Bronzor may seem good at first, but its incredibly low Speed combined with Cubone often carrying Fire Punch makes Bronzor ineffective at countering Cubone. Bronzor also poses little to no threat to Cubone, with the standard Cubone having great physical defense and next to no Speed. Gligar is also an iffy counter, being OHKOed by Ice Beam after taking SR damage, and being forced to hit Cubone with neutral attacks on his stronger, but still sub-par, defensive stat. Mantyke can come in with its immunity to Earthquake, and KO or scare off Cubone with a STAB Surf.</p>
<p>That brings us to our last ditch effort for a Cubone counter: Levitating Ghosts. Misdreavus gets the job done best—its 60/60 defenses allow it to take a maximum of 75% from an Adamant Cubone using Fire Punch. However, without a super effective attack, it's hard for Misdreavus to finish the job: standard unboosted Timid Shadow Ball does 54.17% - 66.67% max. Still, if she manages to come in on a non-damaging attack, Misdreavus can beat Cubone 100% of the time. Gastly is a far less effective counter. The standard +SpA Energy Ball, its most effective attack against Cubone, only OHKOs 2.56% of the time, while Cubone's Fire Punch OHKOs 100% of the time. If it's running a boosting item like Life Orb or Choice Specs, it can outpace and OHKO with little to no trouble. Duskull can survive Fire Punch handily, but its slow Speed lets Cubone easily outpace it and 2HKO it. However, Duskull can possibly cripple Cubone with Will-O-Wisp. Finally, there is Drifloon. Drifloon loses automatically if Cubone is packing Rock Slide, but if it's using Fire Punch, there's still a chance. Fire Punch OHKOs 100% of the time with Stealth Rock up; however if Stealth Rock isn't up, Fire Punch will do 88% max. That's enough for Drifloon get a Petaya activation, which ups its Special Attack to a level that it OHKOs 100% of the time.</p>
<p>If Cubone pulls off its Swords Dance and Agility combo, it becomes extremely hard to stop. Squirtle can use a combination of Fake Out and Aqua Jet against it, and deal a fair amount of damage. The remaining counters depend on Cubone's nature. Jolly +2 Cubone has 28 Speed, which can only be tied with at best by most Choice Scarfed Pokémon—anything less than 28 Speed dies, and anything more can't switch in. Really, the only counter to a boosted Cubone are priority users, or not letting it happen in the first place.</p>
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/cubone
[SET]
name: Thick Club
Move 1: Earthquake
Move 2: Double-Edge
Move 3: Fire Punch
Move 4: Substitute / Ice Beam
Ability: Rock Head
Item: Thick Club
Nature: Brave
Evs: 196 HP / 196 Atk / 76 Def / 36 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>This set is probably the most effective set that a Cubone can run, and is best if you just need a bulky but heavy hitter in your team. It plays like a standard bulky Choice Band user, with massive Attack and reasonable defenses, except it gets to choose between its attacks, thanks to its unique item, Thick Club. Earthquake is a relatively obvious move here, being Cubone's basic STAB; it generally will OHKO anything that is not resistant or immune to it. Double-Edge is effective at hitting almost everything that Earthquake doesn't. There are a few Pokémon that are immune to both Double-Edge and Earthquake, and all of those Pokémon are hit hard by Fire Punch. Fire Punch serves as Cubone's weapon against Grass-type Pokémon and Bronzor, while also allowing Cubone to deal heavy damage on the levitating Ghosts. Substitute can help ease prediction somewhat, as its immense power tends to cause switches. Alternately, Ice Beam can be used over Substitute for a more powerful hit against Gligar. Just remember to swap the EVs from Special Defense to Special Attack. With 36 Special Attack EVs, Gligar gets OHKOed by Ice Beam 77% of the time, and that turns into 100% with Stealth Rock in play.</p>
<p>Gastly, Porygon, and Slowpoke are all effective at starting up the effect Trick Room. This allows Cubone to take advantage of his horrible Speed stat. Otherwise, Ekans, Porygon, and Slowpoke all can inflict paralysis on an opposing Pokémon, allowing Cubone to outrun them, making a sweep that much easier.</p>
[SET]
name: Baton Pass Receiver
Move 1: Earthquake
Move 2: Double-Edge
Move 3: Fire Punch
Move 4: Swords Dance / Substitute
Ability: Rock Head
Item: Thick Club
Nature: Jolly / Adamant
Evs: 36 HP / 196 Atk / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>While the first set is designed to utilize Cubone as a bulky tank, this set focuses on a specific talent of Cubone's: the ability to sweep after receiving Baton Passed Speed boosts.</p>
<p>Swords Dance's purpose is obvious: after a Swords Dance, the attacks listed literally OHKO the entire metagame. Just one Swords Dance gives Cubone a massive attack stat of 56 or 60, depending on nature. Substitute, on the other hand, allows Cubone to take advantage of his ability to cause plenty of switches. Even without a Swords Dance boost, Cubone is still incredibly dangerous, and Substitute just compounds that by giving protection against revenge killers and easing prediction. Substitute is a much more cautious option that might not seal the game, but it will make Cubone survive a little longer throughout the battle. Swords Dance will end the game once it gets online, but Cubone's relatively poor Special Defense means that a wrong prediction could be spell instantaneous doom for Cubone.</p>
<p>Choosing a nature is a matter of personal preference. Jolly is preferred here, as 14 Speed allows it to outpace all non-Choice Scarfed Pokémon after a +1 Speed boost, while +2 Speed gives it enough zip to outpace most Choice Scarfed Pokémon. Adamant, however, is still a good option if you're either relying only on Agility or Rock Polish to be passed, or if you're relying on pure brute force.</p>
<p>Aipom, Gligar, and Venonat all work rather well with this set. They can effectively pass an Agility or two to Cubone, giving it enough Speed to outpace all non-Choice Scarfed Pokémon, as well as many Scarfed Pokémon. Aipom and Venonat work the best of the three, as they don't share any common weaknesses, so there is less of a risk when it's actually time to pass.</p>
[Team Options]
<p>Pokémon who can set up the field effect Trick Room work extremely well with Cubone. The Pokémon who can do this effectively are Gastly, Slowpoke, and Porygon. Porygon and Slowpoke both have access to a recovery move, and can inflict paralysis on opposing Pokémon, giving Cubone a much easier time. Munchlax and Krabby both work extremely well with Cubone as they both can function under Trick Room and resist Ice-type attacks; however Krabby shares a less common Grass-type weakness. Aipom can effectively Agility Pass to Cubone, to give it the Speed to be one hell of a force to take down. Having Stealth Rocks on a team that uses Cubone is also a good idea, Stealth Rocks will make sure that Pokemon holding the item Focus Sash don't stop a sweep abruptly, and they can help turn some 2HKOs into OHKOs.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>Cubone has quite a few options in terms of attacks: Iron Head, Iron Tail, Bonemerang, Focus Punch, Rock Slide, ThunderPunch, and Knock Off. Bonemerang could be useful for breaking Subs, but beyond that these moves are just filler. ThunderPunch isn't terrible, but it doesn't hit anything important that Double-Edge or Fire Punch can't hit just as well, if not better, bar Mantyke. Knock Off is an interesting support option that might be of some use if Cubone had better ability to take hits or a higher Speed. In general, Knock Off's special effect is generally not as viable as outright KOing your opponent or setting up for a sweep.The only really viable special attacks to choose from are Blizzard and Ice Beam, which pose a huge threat to any Gligar that are switching in with hopes of ruining a potential sweep.</p>
<p>Cubone also learns Belly Drum, but it's too slow to stat up and sweep in that method and its Attack doesn't need to be that high to do significant damage Iron Defense is a new stat-up option for Cubone that could in theory be appealing, but Little Cup is too fast and Cubone is too weak to random special attacks to be able to build up his Defense stat and attempt to tank. Cubone has a couple support options in Perish Song and Screech, but its low Speed and somewhat fragile defensive stats don't make it a great choice for packing support.</p>
[EVs]
<p>196 HP / 196 Atk / 76 Def / 36 SpD is the standard EV set for Cubone, giving the best combination of Attack and Defense. If you're running Ice Beam, stick the Special Defense EVs into Special Attack for the increased power against Gligar. If you're planning on passing it some Speed, 36 HP /196 Atk / 236 Spe is the preferred spread, possibly with Jolly to hit the magic number of 14, which outpaces all non-Choice Scarfed Pokémon after a +1 boost.</p>
[Opinion]
<p> If you like slow but powerful Pokémon, then Cubone is the Pokémon for you. It has a good movepool, and the Attack stat to back it up. It has one distinct advantage, Thick Club, which allows it to play as a Choice Banded Pokémon that isn't locked into one move. Unfortunately, Cubone's low Speed prevents it from being able to sweep without some amount of support, like Agility passing, Trick Room, or paralysis. However, its low Speed does make it a prime candidate for all three of them. His shaky defenses are not exactly reliable, so switching him in directly is a risk you may not wish to take. However once in the fight, Cubone can be very useful at clearing out certain key Pokémon for your main offensive weapon to win the match.</p>
[Counters]
<p>Cubone's absolutely massive power means that it's incredibly difficult to switch into. However, the only Pokémon that stand a chance at coming in are those that can avoid its incredibly powerful STAB Earthquake. This limits the counters to Pokémon who have the ability Levitate, and Flying-type Pokémon.</p>
<p>Bronzor may seem good at first, but its incredibly low Speed combined with Cubone often carrying Fire Punch makes Bronzor ineffective at countering Cubone. Bronzor also poses little to no threat to Cubone, with the standard Cubone having great physical defense and next to no Speed. Gligar is also an iffy counter, being OHKOed by Ice Beam after taking SR damage, and being forced to hit Cubone with neutral attacks on his stronger, but still sub-par, defensive stat. Mantyke can come in with its immunity to Earthquake, and KO or scare off Cubone with a STAB Surf.</p>
<p>That brings us to our last ditch effort for a Cubone counter: Levitating Ghosts. Misdreavus gets the job done best—its 60/60 defenses allow it to take a maximum of 75% from an Adamant Cubone using Fire Punch. However, without a super effective attack, it's hard for Misdreavus to finish the job: standard unboosted Timid Shadow Ball does 54.17% - 66.67% max. Still, if she manages to come in on a non-damaging attack, Misdreavus can beat Cubone 100% of the time. Gastly is a far less effective counter. The standard +SpA Energy Ball, its most effective attack against Cubone, only OHKOs 2.56% of the time, while Cubone's Fire Punch OHKOs 100% of the time. If it's running a boosting item like Life Orb or Choice Specs, it can outpace and OHKO with little to no trouble. Duskull can survive Fire Punch handily, but its slow Speed lets Cubone easily outpace it and 2HKO it. However, Duskull can possibly cripple Cubone with Will-O-Wisp. Finally, there is Drifloon. Drifloon loses automatically if Cubone is packing Rock Slide, but if it's using Fire Punch, there's still a chance. Fire Punch OHKOs 100% of the time with Stealth Rock up; however if Stealth Rock isn't up, Fire Punch will do 88% max. That's enough for Drifloon get a Petaya activation, which ups its Special Attack to a level that it OHKOs 100% of the time.</p>
<p>If Cubone pulls off its Swords Dance and Agility combo, it becomes extremely hard to stop. Squirtle can use a combination of Fake Out and Aqua Jet against it, and deal a fair amount of damage. The remaining counters depend on Cubone's nature. Jolly +2 Cubone has 28 Speed, which can only be tied with at best by most Choice Scarfed Pokémon—anything less than 28 Speed dies, and anything more can't switch in. Really, the only counter to a boosted Cubone are priority users, or not letting it happen in the first place.</p>
