Xatu (boosting sweeper)

So I'm going down the NU list as per usual looking at Pokemon and their movepools, and come across lovely Xatu. I looked at the analysis and saw no Calm Mind set (and ffs it's not even in other options <_____<). My first reaction was "wtf how can a Psychic Pokemon not have a CM set," but than I remembered Alakazam didn't even have one until I wrote one up. ;_____;

Anyways I digress. Been testing this for a bit and is my secret weapon (hi Flare!) which I am now sharing with all you lovely people! I'm sure it's gonna be much harder to get this approved than that Screech Aggron I posted because it's been ingrained in most of our heads that Xatu/most NU's = bad, but hopefully we can keep an open mind about this.


http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/xatu

[SET]
name: Boosting Sweeper
move 1: Calm Mind
move 2: Psychic
move 3: Roost / Wish
move 4: Reflect / Heat Wave
item: Leftovers / Life Orb
nature: Timid
evs: 176 HP / 80 Def / 252 Spe

why this set deserves to be on-site:

-can easily defeat the "big 3" special walls in the tier. Registeel is easily handled no matter what (besides lolToxic versions). Chansey suffers the same fate (needs LO to 2HKO, but it can be run out of Softboiled or obtain a special fall). Milotic without Toxic are also defeated (Haze Milotic runs out of recovery and therefore loses).
-unlike most other boosting Psychic types of UU, Xatu has reliable recovery in Roost or Wish (better for overall team support).
-Reflect provides further team support and helps ease set up, but Heat Wave can be used for more coverage and to hit Dark-types
-although he has common weaknesses, an immunity to Ground and x4 Fighting resist allow him to counter Fighting-types exceptionally well (just watch out for Stone Edge).
-ties with the base 95 Speed group which is very useful, makes a decent Venusaur check

additional comments:

-alternative EV spread of max speed/special attack for maximum offensive capabilities
-Hidden Power Ground to KO Houndoom/Drapion
-either ability works fine. Early Bird makes it a great sleep absorber while Synchronize can bounce back status


teammates and counters:

-Houndoom (without HP Ground) and Spiritomb are the biggest threats. A bulky Water like Milotic is useful to sponge hits and defeat Houndoom.
-very susceptible to being paralyzed and especially Toxic'd. A cleric is very useful, particularly Chansey or Clefable as they can pass Wish between each other and make a decent enough core
-susceptible to Encore and Trick. Alakazam, Jumpluff, and Lopunny are all good choices
-Houndoom actually makes a great partner for Xatu as he can easily switch in on Ghost- and Dark-type attacks and set up Nasty Plot. He can also Pursuit bulky-Psychic-types which helps mono-attacking versions, and easily defeats Spiritomb
-Hitmonlee makes a good partner with any offensive Psychic in general as they can eliminate each others counters nicely. Hitmonlee can also get rid of Houndoom with a Mach Punch and can Rapid Spin in a pinch
-has trouble with Mismagius without a boost, as it can take unboosted Psychics easily and KO with Shadow Ball or set up Nasty Plot. Houndoom can Pursuit / Sucker Punch it, Hitmonlee can lure and KO it, and Clefable can Encore.
-Drapion can set up Toxic Spikes and Pursuit Ghost-types.

If I'm looking at it right, you'd probably reflect on turn 1 and then proceed to calm mind? I'd worry greatly about mismagius on this set. Basically any of her sets could cause trouble for this Xatu. She's faster than you, might taunt you and can take psychic or even heat wave pretty decently and reply in kind with shadow ball or perhaps thunderbolt. She's such a common fixture on so many teams, you might need to pair this xatu with something that can crush missy.

Kitten Bukkake said:

If I'm looking at it right, you'd probably reflect on turn 1 and then proceed to calm mind? I'd worry greatly about mismagius on this set. Basically any of her sets could cause trouble for this Xatu. She's faster than you, might taunt you and can take psychic or even heat wave pretty decently and reply in kind with shadow ball or perhaps thunderbolt. She's such a common fixture on so many teams, you might need to pair this xatu with something that can crush missy.

Click to expand...

Yes that's why Houndoom is a good teammate or a Hitmonlee to lure it. Maybe I could mention Spiritomb.

Encore clefable wouldn't be a bad choice either.

Drapion = teammate.

Toxic Spikes = Chansey + Milotic handled.

Psychic on Xatu handles Toxic Spikes absorbers like your aformentioned Vensaur, which is countered.

Drapion can come in on Missy's STAB and threaten it with Dark moves, or use Whirlwind. Especially true if Drapion is Specially Defensive.

Drapion with Toxic Spikes, Whirlwind, Crunch, Earthquake works well. EQ hits Steels that think they are Immune/Resistant to Drapion's other attacks.

Whirlwind works in general against Stat-uppers, and can phaze for some Entry hazard damage.

I like the set, but I question what exactly Wish and Reflect do.

Wish grants recovery to teammates, I guess, but it's not instant and leaves makes Xatu into (essentially) a fast Hypno with poorer defenses... so just run Roost; instant recovery is hard to come by in CM pokemon.

Reflect, on the other hand, seems good but really isn't, considering that you waste the slot in which heat wave goes... being totally unable to damage Spiritomb (not to mention every other Dark type, Drapion and Houndoom are problems) is really, really bad, so is getting pursuited/Sucker Punched/Shadow Sneaked/etc. However, with heat wave you can play around it with good prediction, heat waving while it Pursuits and roosting/cming while it sucker punches.

Otherwise, as others have noted, you have to have a houndoom and mismagius counter. I'd like to add Encore Lopunny (weren't you writing a lopunny analysis? lol)there; if either one uses nasty plot (which they usually do), Lopunny encores it and you get a free turn.

I seemed to overlook Drapion (always do that >____>). I'm always iffy about Toxic Spikes in UU but I guess I can give him a mention.

@Bre-It's quite team specific. If you're using a more offensive set Roost will come in handy, but people like having the option of Wish and it's just as viable. I actually preferred Wish because my team was more balanced and liked the recovery.

Reflect is a great option. It lets you set up on a lot more Pokemon. Even with Heat Wave Xatu shouldn't really be Fighting Spiritomb (or any other Dark-types for that matter). That's why Xatu has teammates; weaken or eliminate the Dark-type than send him in.

Yes I am going to eventually do Lopunny after it gets QC's approval. <____<
I've mentioned in the teammates section counters for both those Pokemon, although Missy shouldn't get too cocky because it can't switch in on Psychic more than twice (and that's with no boosts and no EV's on Xatu; a +1 LO Psychic from offensive variants have a high chance to OHKO). Anyways Hidden Power Ground can go in the last slot if Houndoom is an issue and I mentioned that in AC.

Wait, how does this beat Chansey?? Toxic -> You

shrang said:

Wait, how does this beat Chansey?? Toxic -> You

Click to expand...

"Registeel is easily handled no matter what (besides lolToxic versions). Chansey suffers the same fate" = Chansey loses if it doesn't have Toxic. Scout its set and voila.

though if you do happen to get boned by toxic or twave there's always the solace of synchronize.

Kitten Bukkake said:

though if you do happen to get boned by toxic or twave there's always the solace of synchronize.

Click to expand...

Eh, it's just too bad the added poison doesn't add up through Synchronize. That's why I prefer Early Bird because it acts as a great Sleep Absorber/Venusaur check. I recommended a cleric for teammates though for the "oops" factor and that you can just have Xatu keep getting statused and heal it off until the entire team is paralyzed/poisoned.

This might be stupid but why not use Early Bird and Rest for recovery? Doesn't that essentially remove your weakness to Toxic?

No it's not stupid and I actually tested it. Like other Early Bird + Rest sets I found it too easily exploitable for the opponent. Also, Roost gets rid of your weakness to Rock, Ice, and Electric for one turn while Wish is more useful to the team overall, so I found it to be inferior.

What about Baton Pass (iirc Xatu gets it from Pokemon XD) as an option in the last move slot? I know it's a boosting sweeper set, but this allows you to escape Spiritomb and Houndoom while passing the Calm Mind boost to something useful. Also, unlike Espeon, Xatu has that reliable recovery that allows it to try set up/pass multiple times.

Kitten Bukkake said:

though if you do happen to get boned by toxic or twave there's always the solace of synchronize.

Click to expand...

Too bad Chansey just switches out and laughs due to Natural Cure. So yeah, Thund, I don't think it should say "easily beats the 3 special walls", since Chansey carries Toxic quite often.

Anyway, I think Xatu has slightly more usefulness than this actually. Psychic/Flying makes him a great Fighting type check. I remember posting this in creative sets a while back:

Wannabe Lugia
Xatu @ Leftovers
Ability: Early Bird
EVs: 248 HP / 44 Def / 216 Spe
Nature: Timid
-Reflect
-Roost
-Psychic
-Toxic/Wish/U-Turn/Substitute

After Reflect, Stone Edge won't OHKO you, which means you can just Roost stall it out of PP or just kill the Hitmonlee or whatever with Psychic.

This is supposed to be a sweeper set, so the best I can put Baton Pass in is in AC. Xatu should just have a set dedicated to Baton Pass alone anyway.

So yay with that set Xatu can become a great Fighting-type check when Weezing/Slowbro/Nidoqueen do it 20x better anyway. Xatu already has a wannabe Jirachi set on-site which is pretty identical to that anyway. We're trying to explore Xatu's offensive capabilities here. <___<

And I'll change "easily" beaten to "beaten half the time" on Chansey.

Okay I'm not gonna lie this thing is pretty terrible. I don't know if it's good for Xatu standards or not but for a "UU Sweeper" standard it's just downright horrible. Bad offensive and defensive typing, SR weak, shitty defenses don't add up that well.

QC rejected (1/2)

I have used Xatu in the past and the only Set i found worth using was the Dualscreen-Set with U-Turn. Although that set is outclassed by Uxie, like all sets Xatu is able to run.

There is a reason that Xatu is NU and not UU. Even in NU Xatu's sets should concentrate on exploiting his rather good support movepool.

sorry Thund I tried this set and I tried to make it work I really did but all it was good for was taking Close Combat :(

I mean it was really good at taking Close Combat... but it sucked ass at sweeping.

Rejected 2/2

I guess I'll keep it here for now cause Eo said he was testing? idk blame him or thank him I guess.

I tried Refresh in the last slot, for the record - it was cool because you can switch into status, bounce it back with Synchronize, and then get rid of it. I have a feeling Baton Pass in the fourth slot might prove better than anything, just as Mizuno suggested.

Overall, however, Xatu was decent as far as Xatu goes; however, it's just really situational. The only thing you really have over zam is the ability to survive some Pursuits and a few resistances - but in exchange, you lose a lot of power and gain a really bad Stealth Rock weakness. I might try Baton Pass later, though.

Hrrmmmmmm well now I'm confuzzled. With 2 rejections this should probably be locked...unless EO has veto powers or something??? lol

I do have veto powers! Well, technically everyone does. If there's some controversy about a Pokemon, we don't have to move it right away. It basically comes down to judgment calls.

Anyway, I tested CM / Psychic / Roost / Baton Pass (Houndoom as a recipient) and it worked pretty decently. It solves one of the biggest problems the original set had, namely, being walled by Spiritomb/other Dark-types. You can now play it a bit more openly instead of having to scout / waiting for Tomb to die. I think it's worth looking a bit further into.

I'll go ahead and move this, seeing as there are no further opinions, and it's been rejected twice.