http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/skitty
[Overview]
<p>While Skitty may seem dwarfed by most of the other sweepers in Little Cup in terms of both power and speed, Skitty has one thing going for it: Normalize. Normalize gives Skitty STAB on literally every attacking move it knows while admittedly sacrificing any coverage it would have gotten. But if opposing Pokemon that resist or are immune to Normal-type attacks have been removed, Skitty can be difficult to stop</p>
<p>While Skitty is a fun Pokemon to use, for the most part it is outclassed by other priority users such as Croagunk, Aipom, Meowth, and Glameow. Croagunk has a wide variety of hard-hitting priority attacks so it isn't stuck with horrendous coverage like Skitty. Aipom, Meowth, and Glameow all have harder hitting Fake Out than Skitty and while Aipom and Meowth don't commonly use another priority attack, they have better stats and moves across the board than Skitty. Glameow also has gets Dark-type Sucker Punch, as well as better stats.</p>
[SET]
name: Normalize Attacker
move 1: Fake Out
move 2: Sucker Punch
move 3: Return
move 4: Baton Pass / Thunder Wave
item: Life Orb / Silk Scarf
ability: Normalize
nature: Adamant
evs: 236 Atk / 76 Def / 196 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Priority attacks are one of the most valuable resources in Little Cup ,and Skitty is one of the only Pokemon in the game that has STAB on two of them: Fake Out and Sucker Punch. Fake Out is simply a great move for racking up free damage on the opponent while they can do nothing back. Sucker Punch is another solid option that is very effective due to the fast-paced nature of Little Cup, giving Skitty first hits on Pokemon trying to harm it. Not to mention that with STAB, Sucker Punch's base power is a massive 120. Here are some damage calculations that show the power of the combination of a Life Orb boosted Fake Out and either Sucker Punch or Return:</p>
<ul class="damage_calculation">
<li>Life Orb Fake Out + Sucker Punch vs. 0/0 neutral Gligar 69.6% - 86.9%<li>
<li>Life Orb Fake Out + Sucker Punch vs. 0/0 neutral Houndour 133.3% - 166.7%<li>
<li>Life Orb Fake Out + Return vs. 236/36 neutral Munchlax 75.7% - 97%<li>
<li>Life Orb Fake Out + Sucker Punch vs. 36/36 neutral Machop 95.9% - 120.9%<li>
</ul>
<p>Return is Skitty's most powerful attack and should be used if a priority attack isn't needed. Examples of this would be if your target is slower than you or if a Sucker Punch won't do enough damage. Baton Pass may seem odd at first glance simply because Skitty isn't baton passing any stat boosts. Because of Skitty's massive weakness to Ghost-, Steel-, and Rock-type Pokemon, Baton Pass is used to scout for such Pokemon and either trap or counter them. The best move to do with Skitty when you bring it out is almost always to Baton Pass. Almost all teams will have a solid counter to Skitty, so this gives you the chance to scout as well as get some momentum in your favor. Thunder Wave can be a good option on Skitty because it is the only Pokemon that can paralyze Gligar with a 100% accurate move, who otherwise can be a very threatening menace. It also lets Skitty cripple Rock- or Steel-type switch-ins to Skitty such as Aron, who may Rock Polish and attempt to sweep.</p>
<p>Life Orb is the best option on this set simply because Skitty will not be living very long due to its poor defenses, so it should be trying to get as much damage in as possible. Silk Scarf is also a very viable option because all of Skitty's attacks are Normal-type, so it gives them all a 1.2x boost, and as an added bonus, it doesn't inflict any recoil damage.</p>
[Additional Comments]
<p>Obviously , this is one set that requires a lot of support to make it work due to its non-existant coverage. Pokemon with Pursuit help a great deal because they can trap and kill Ghost-types who are immune to Skitty's attacks. Good users of Pursuit include Munchlax, Stunky, and Houndour. Steel- and Rock-types also pose a big threat to Skitty as they both resist Normal-type attacks. Diglett works alongside Skitty pretty well because of this due to its ability to trap and then kill the aforementioned threatsa
with
[Team Options]
<p>On any team with Skitty, super-effective Earthquake (with the exception of Bronzor).</p> a Pokemon that can cover its glaring weaknesses is an absolute must. So, one must have a counter for Ghost-, Rock-, and Steel-types in order for Skitty to be able to sweep. The Pokemon that is able to cover the most of these threats at once is Munchlax. It has Pursuit to trap and kill Ghosts, it has Earthquake for Rock- and Steel-types, and Fire Punch for Bronzor who is immune to Earthquake. However, if you use Munchlax, that gives you 2 Fighting weaknesses, which can be dangerous. If you want more specialized counters, Stunky is the best Ghostbuster in the metagame and Diglett can trap Rocks and Steels.</p>
[Optional Changes]
<p>Heal Bell can be used over Baton Pass in the last spot to de-status your team, but in most cases, unless your team is very vulnerable to status, Baton Pass is the better option. It also can use Wish , which can be useful to heal and increase the longevity of your team. Skitty has access to Clam Mind and has good special attacks to go along with it, such as Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, and Shadow Ball. But for the most part Skitty is too slow and too weak to be able to set up and sweep effectively.</p>
[Counters]
<p>Any Ghost-type Pokemon is a 100% hard counter to Skitty using Normalize simply because it has no way of touching them. So the likes of Gastly, Duskull, Drifloon, and Shuppet will never be able to be touched by Skitty. Other counters include Rock- or Steel-type Pokemon such as Aron, Bronzor, Onix, and Magnemite.</p>
