Pokémon Banette

[pectus_Umbra]

^Here's a question though. Why settle for burning ageislash when you could just use prankster destiny bond to KO?
As for sucker punch, it is a matter of preference, but having messed around with mons that had to rely on sucker punch in the past, I vastly prefer the more reliable option of shadow sneak in exchange for the effective 20 BP.
As for sub-set up, that might be effective in lower tiers, but I don't think many OU mons are slower than banette's 65 beyond the ones that are simply slower than everyone, like ferrothorn. Scizor can at best speed tie, but does have bullet punch. If someone does calcs to see how much damage scizor bullet punch does to regular/mega banette, then you have options. but as is, I don't see the value of substitues, even priority ones, on a mon like megabanette.

 

[Haruno]

I love mega banette on stall now

Banette @ banettite
248hp/252SpD/8spd
Calm Nature
- Protect
- Substitute
- destiny bond
- taunt

gg xerneas.

 

[Deoxymoron]

I love mega banette on stall now

Banette @ banettite
248hp/252SpD/8spd
Calm Nature
- Protect
- Substitute
- destiny bond
- taunt

gg xerneas.

That seems like a pretty sweet set, but I'd replace one of the moves with Toxic or Will-o-Wisp so it's not almost useless by itself.

 

[Haruno]

That seems like a pretty sweet set, but I'd replace one of the moves with Toxic or Will-o-Wisp so it's not almost useless by itself.

I'm using it on uber stall with relative success, it does need proper team support and the lack of healing sucks but it functions very well as a xerneas check/stop and it helps stall out burned/toxic'd mons. That and protect is pretty much mandatory to ensure it doesn't get wrecked on the turn it mega evolves.

 

[Luigifan]

*sigh* I actually wrote up a real evolution for Banette back in the Gen IV days, and now Banette Mega Evolves. I'm going to have to write up a Mega Evolution for Dollmise now... great... I just hope there's no such thing as Mega Noctowl...

 

[J.D]

There doesnt seem to be any talk about one of Bannettes most useful prankster moves, Imprison. You could run a set with shadow sneak, shadow ball, imprison and something like WoW and just lock aegislash and gengar out of the moves they would use to kill you; then proceed to either burn or destroy whatever switches in?

 

[Stallion]

There doesnt seem to be any talk about one of Bannettes most useful prankster moves, Imprison. You could run a set with shadow sneak, shadow ball, imprison and something like WoW and just lock aegislash and gengar out of the moves they would use to kill you; then proceed to either burn or destroy whatever switches in?

That's a really cool idea actually

 

[Haruno]

There doesnt seem to be any talk about one of Bannettes most useful prankster moves, Imprison. You could run a set with shadow sneak, shadow ball, imprison and something like WoW and just lock aegislash and gengar out of the moves they would use to kill you; then proceed to either burn or destroy whatever switches in?

That's far too situational for it to be of any practical use imo.

 

[J.D]

Well I suppose you need to think of what common pokemon use those moves, and from limited experience this gen, Gengar, aegislash are everywhere and are somewhat hard to counter (aegislash in particular). the other common pokemon this set annoys is rotom forms who seem keen to just switch in WoW and switch out. Locking them out of that means switching to a ground type to resist the inevitable volt switch is really good at momentum blocking. I realize its situational, however the situations that it really helps are the ones giving me the most trouble.

 

[Bombkirby]

^Here's a question though. Why settle for burning ageislash when you could just use prankster destiny bond to KO?

Aegislash could PP stall easily with King's Shield/Sword Dance though until ur too weak to do anything, and wasted ur D-Bond. :( Burning has a better chance of actually happening.

 

[pectus_Umbra]

I'm not saying you can't burn it. that's completely valid. But I was trying to convey my feelings that the original poster of that was setting their sights too low.

Simply put, and I'm sure I've already written this in this thread, but Megabanette does not do well against ageislash. the best megabanette is going to do is either burn it, or swing a destiny bond on it, best case scenario. In the set I posted, taunt does allow you better advantage against ageislash, preventing it from setting up, making a D. Bond a larger threat to it, but megabanette is hard pressed to punch through it's shield or live through the sword's strike, and will most likely suffer one hit ko. It's a circumstance where you just need another mon to come in that can either abuse the ability to set up, or take advantage of the status or taunt that megaBanette may have gotten to put down to drop ageislash.

 

[toshimelonhead]

The first thing I checked was to see if Banette could learn Assist. After getting wrecked by that shit in NU, I had to smile that GF was actually intelligent this gen.

 

[Bombkirby]

I'm not saying you can't burn it. that's completely valid. But I was trying to convey my feelings that the original poster of that was setting their sights too low.

Simply put, and I'm sure I've already written this in this thread, but Megabanette does not do well against ageislash. the best megabanette is going to do is either burn it, or swing a destiny bond on it, best case scenario. In the set I posted, taunt does allow you better advantage against ageislash, preventing it from setting up, making a D. Bond a larger threat to it, but megabanette is hard pressed to punch through it's shield or live through the sword's strike, and will most likely suffer one hit ko. It's a circumstance where you just need another mon to come in that can either abuse the ability to set up, or take advantage of the status or taunt that megaBanette may have gotten to put down to drop ageislash.

Yeah taunt would easily stop him from stalling. Taunt could be staple since it absolutely ensures D-Bond is going to work. Unless they decide to kill you the turn you taunt.

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I sorta feel like Pain Split has potential, but I don't think its legal yet so can't test it at all.

 

[pectus_Umbra]

Yeah taunt would easily stop him from stalling. Taunt could be staple since it absolutely ensures D-Bond is going to work. Unless they decide to kill you the turn you taunt.

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I sorta feel like Pain Split has potential, but I don't think its legal yet so can't test it at all.

Yes, megaBanette does have options, it just depends on tailoring your moveset to your team's needs.

Pain split does have potential with it's priority, it's just a matter of figuring out what to cut for it. And yeah, we won't have access to it until december with pokemon bank since you need either dream world shuppet or tutoring from another game.

On another note, I believe frisk becomes the ability of choice for any mega evolution sets, as you're probably going to get more mileage out of the item scouting than a turn of sleep immunity or the short-window of disable chance.

 

[lexgamer]

Man, I reeeally want to continue using my Cotton Guard Banette, so I think I'll do something defensive (once Poke Bank comes out) like:

move 1: Cotton Guard
move 2: Shadow Sneak
move 3: Return
move 4: Destiny Bond
item: Banettenite
ability: Prankster
nature: Relaxed
evs: 252 Def / 252 Atk / 4 HP

The idea would be to mega evolve and Cotton Guard on a physical attacker then use Shadow Sneak and Return to do as much damage as possible before having to Destiny Bond. Shadow Sneak and Return seem to be about as good as it gets for physical coverage, plus you'll possibly need Return to give Destiny Bond more time to pay off since your other 3 moves all have priority. And I don't feel the need to have burn/para as options when I'll end up just DBing a couple turns later.

Don't know if that's actually any good, but I like the sound of it, haha.

 

[Shayupi]

I would make a set like this

name: Wall Break Mega Banette
move 1: Shadow Sneak / Knock off / Pain Split
move 2: Sucker Punch
move 3: Taunt
move 4: Will-O-Wisp
item: Banettenite
ability: Frisk / Insomnia
nature: Careful
evs: 252 HP / 176 Special Def / 80 Def

Insomnia can be run if you are fearful of venasaur sleep powders or breloom / smeargle / amoongus spores but other than that I think frisk is good for scouting with Knock Off.

 

[S0L1D G0LD]

I would make a set like this

name: Wall Break Mega Banette
move 1: Shadow Sneak / Knock off / Pain Split
move 2: Sucker Punch
move 3: Taunt
move 4: Will-O-Wisp
item: Banettenite
ability: Frisk / Insomnia
nature: Calm
evs: 252 HP / 176 Special Def / 80 Def

Insomnia can be run if you are fearful of venasaur sleep powders or breloom / smeargle / amoongus spores but other than that I think frisk is good for scouting with Knock Off.

Needs more thunderbolt.

 

[Shayupi]

Needs more thunderbolt.

Why?

Also the calm nature was a mistake i meant careful.

 

[deluge]

I like the idea of Mega Bannette but the way this thing is designed they could have just given regular Banette Prankster.
It doesn't have the movepool to abuse the massive attack boost it got and has no way to boost it to compensate.

 

[Thorhammer]

Why Cotton Guard when you have Will-o-wisp?

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Banette has always had the problem of a bad stat spread, it's both frail and slow and has a barren offensive movepool, which led it to being the worst Ghost-type competitvely (the Dusks are no match). So basically, Mega Banette w/ Prankster was kind of necessary, it gives Banette a better niche and also improves those meh stats.

Prankster Banette should be able to see use anyways though; Banette comes with a really nice support movepool so it can both burn and paralyze, and D-Bond is just icing. Probably not an OU threat, but should finally be able to see decent use this gen.

 

[BomberWasTaken]

Banette has always had the problem of a bad stat spread, it's both frail and slow and has a barren offensive movepool, which led it to being the worst Ghost-type competitvely (the Dusks are no match). So basically, Mega Banette w/ Prankster was kind of necessary, it gives Banette a better niche and also improves those meh stats.

Prankster Banette should be able to see use anyways though; Banette comes with a really nice support movepool so it can both burn and paralyze, and D-Bond is just icing. Probably not an OU threat, but should finally be able to see decent use this gen.

I've seen a few people around these parts harp on Banette's lack of speed, even in mega form(and using that as something that will keep it from OU, or even being usable for that matter other than a match-up specific mon) But at the same time, I'm seeing a lot of praise for Mega Mawile, and a ton of people using it, and talking about using it. So I was looking at the numbers, and Banette gets a speed of 75 in mega form(plus Prankster) while Mawhile has a speed of 50 in Mega.

Is Huge Power that big of a breaking point in this comparison of the two to justify the popularily of Mawile but not Banette? Wouldn't Mawile just be dead after the second turn anyways at best(like Banette) if she were to get an unfavourable match-up. At least with Banette you'll be able to throw down your destiny bond and hope for a 1 for 1.

Sorry if my terms are a little off or my views are a little flawed. I've been trying to take absolutely everything in that I can find and watch the last three days about this stuff(competitive.)

 

[Forsety]

It should really be common sense. Mawile has a 125 base defense further enhanced by Intimidate before it evolves, 95 s.def base and one of the best defensive typings in the entire game, massive offensive movepool and it's attack base of 105 before the Huge Power boost gives Mawile easily 200+ more attack then even the most offensive invested Banette.

Compare that to Banette who has a shitload of wasted stats in S.Atk it can't even use without being outclassed, a pitifully small movepool, an ability which doesn't even take immediate effect, 75/83 defenses and no typing change. There is no competition here.

On a more positive note has anyone tried out a RestTalk attacker? Sleep Talk gets priority so in theory a set of Rest/Sleep Talk/Shadow Claw/Gunk Shot could actually make some use of Prankster if abeit quite randomly as a priority status absorbing attacker.

 

[Lord Jesseus]

Mawile has much better physical bulk, a ton of resistances and its just way stronger. Maxed MegaMawile is packing the equivelant of ~260 base attack. Not to mention a superior movepool and a cool pre-Mega ability.

 

[kpatable]

Mawile has much better physical bulk, a ton of resistances and its just way stronger. Maxed MegaMawile is packing the equivelant of ~260 base attack. Not to mention a superior movepool and a cool pre-Mega ability.

Regretfully to all Banette fans (me included), you are right. Mega Banette can't compete with a doubled base 105 attack stat, plus Steel typing. I think Mega Banette will be good in the lower tiers and maybe have a niche in OU, but not as powerful overall as some of the other Megas. I think the most depressing thing is how frail Mega Banette is, and moreso regular Banette - it can barely switch in to anything. My strategy will be to switch Banette in to revenge kill something with Shadow Sneak, and then start utilizing prankster. But I guess we'll see how this all unfolds eventually.