Cranidos [QC 0/3]

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Goddess Briyella

Banned deucer.
Overview
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  • One of the Fossil Pokemon from Generation IV
  • The absolute highest Attack stat of all Little Cup Pokemon, including Scyther if it were legal
  • Hits the entire tier obscenely hard and Rock-type STAB is incredible in Little Cup
  • Has a lot of weaknesses and doesn't have the best bulk outside of HP
  • Weak to tons of priority attacks
  • Cannot reliably function on its own without both the support of teammates as well as an item, but is well worth it for the power it provides when granted these things
SET NAME
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name: All-Out Attacker
move 1: Rock Slide
move 2: Superpower
move 3: Zen Headbutt / Earthquake
move 4: Crunch / Earthquake / Rock Polish
ability: Sheer Force
item: Life Orb
evs: 60 HP / 236 Atk / 212 Spe
nature: Adamant

Moves
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  • Rock Slide is the obligatory STAB attack
  • Earthquake rounds out the reliable EdgeQuake coverage
  • Zen Headbutt provides additional coverage and gets a hard super effective hit on the Fighting-types that wall Cranidos's STAB, as well as Poison-types like Skrelp, Tentacool, and Koffing (a reasonable switch-in)
  • Crunch is an optional coverage move for hitting Bronzor, which walls the entire set otherwise and also threatens Cranidos with its super effective STAB Flash Cannon
  • Superpower is a very strong attack for hitting a variety of targets for super-effective damage
Set Details
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  • The given natures and EVs give Cranidos a huge raw Attack stat of 24 without items or abilities, and attacks from this set are further boosted by Life Orb and Sheer Force (Earthquake is the only move on the set that doesn't get the Sheer Force boost)
  • Rock Slide is used over Stone Edge for the Sheer Force boost as well as the more tolerable accuracy it has, which well outweighs the high-crit chance of Stone Edge
  • 212 Speed EVs allow Cranidos enough Speed to outspeed mons that have up to 19 Speed after Sticky Web (a good few of the important ones are immune to Sticky Web but it is still effective)
Usage Tips
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  • This set works very well with Sticky Web support, so that Cranidos can outspeed grounded foes and overwhelm them easily with brute force; Cranidos also crushes most users of Defog very easily, making it difficult and risky for Sticky Web to be removed in its presence
  • Don't make the mistake of thinking you can possibly benefit from flinch hax; keep in mind that Rock Slide and Zen Headbutt have their flinch chance removed by Sheer Force and therefore will never get flinches on their targets
  • Bear in mind that Earthquake is the only move on the set that doesn't get the Sheer Force boost and thus is also the only one to result in Life Orb recoil, something to keep in mind when choosing attacks and your opponent has priority users waiting for you to wittle your own health into KO range
  • Bear in mind that Crunch makes contact and therefore triggers recoil from Rough Skin, Iron Barbs, and Rocky Helmet, another seemingly small and often overlooked factor that can honestly make a difference in the long run when faced with priority later in matches
Team Options
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  • Cranidos would like a Sticky Web setter to make this set more effective
  • Cranidos appreciates any teammates who can help deal with Defog users that can render this set mediocre by removing Sticky Web; ideal teammates include Chinchou or Magnemite
  • Physically defensive Slowpoke is a perfect partner, sponging all of the priority attacks that Cranidos is weak to as well as the Fighting-type attacks that destroy it; Slowpoke's Thunder Wave can further assist Cranidos in its Speed advantage against the opponent in addition to Sticky Web
SET NAME
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name: Choice Scarf
move 1: Stone Edge / Rock Slide
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Superpower
move 4: Zen Headbutt
ability: Mold Breaker / Sheer Force
item: Choice Scarf
evs: 140 HP / 236 Atk / 132 Spe
nature: Adamant

Moves
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  • STAB Stone Edge destroys worlds; Rock Slide is an alternative option with less power but more acceptable accuracy
  • Earthquake is a reliable Ground-type attack to complement Cranidos's STAB
  • Superpower is an extremely potent and useful attack that gets hard super effective hits on a ton of important things, mainly Steel types but also things like Munchlax and it hits Tyrunt notably harder than Earthquake
  • Zen Headbutt puts the hurt on Fighting-types that resist Rock
Set Details
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  • 140 EVs in HP allow Cranidos to hit 25 HP, an important number that minimizes Stealth Rock damage if it has to take it, being 1 point above a number divisible by 8
  • 236 EVs in Attack with a boosting nature lets Cranidos hit a huge 24 Attack stat, with its attacks bar Earthquake further boosted by Sheer Force (if Sheer Force is used)
  • 132 EVs in Spe puts Cranidos at 21 Speed with Choice Scarf equipped, which is enough to outspeed the entire unboosted tier
  • Alternatively, Zen Headbutt can be used with Adamant nature and Mold Breaker, to allow not only a super hard hit on the Fighting-types that wall Stone Edge/Rock Slide, but also to allow Cranidos's moves to bypass Sturdy for OHKOs and can be especially helpful against common threats such as Dwebble, Tirtouga, and Magnemite, since the bulk of their sets is compromised by reliance on Berry Juice and lack of Eviolite and can therefore easily be OHKOed by Cranidos's super effective attacks; being able to steamroll past Sturdy + Berry Juice like this is a very coveted thing in the current metagame since the strategy is easily abusable and often difficult to stop
  • Stone Edge should be used with Mold Breaker for the extra power; Rock Slide should be used with Sheer Force since it's more accurate and gets the boost
Usage Tips
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  • This set doesn't rely on Sticky Web support and is therefore more flexible for teams
  • Cranidos can serve as both an all-out attacker and a great revenge killer with a Choice Scarf thanks to its decent Speed and god-like physical offensive power
  • As stated before, Cranidos is very weak to priority and absolutely must be kept away from it; its HP can allow it to take one good super effective priority attack if it has to (as long as Cranidos's health is kept intact), and can often do so better than the above set because there is no Life Orb recoil from using Earthquake here
  • Ice Beam can also be used against random foes that don't take much from Cranidos's other moves and are Ice-weak with low Special Defense, such as Phanpy and Tangela, and if they have taken some previous damage it can KO whereas the other moves cannot
  • Mold Breaker allows Earthquake to hit Koffing, Bronzor, and Gastly for hard super effective damage despite their immunity to Ground offered by Levitate; interestingly, these three are also the only Pokemon in the tier to wall the unresisted Fairy/Ground coverage
Team Options
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  • Physically defensive Slowpoke, for reasons mentioned in previous set
  • Helioptile and Chinchou help against the bulky-Waters that might give Cranidos problems
  • Physically defensive Ferroseed with Leech Seed and Thunder Wave can punish Knock Off users that try to remove Cranidos's needed items, in addition to Iron Barbs recoil upon contact
Other Options
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  • Rock Polish really sticks out, and is awesome to grant Cranidos the Speed it needs to steamroll through teams; unfortunately, the sheer amount of super-effective priority it faces in the relevant metagame will mean it will be either dying often or switching out often (losing stat boost), making Choice Scarf's instant boost more practical to use
  • Swords Dance has a similar issue but could be used with Sticky Web support for maximum unholy assrape destruction if done very carefully
  • Cranidos gets Flamethrower/Fire Blast and Thunder/Thunderbolt, moves that can work well despite being special attacks if Sheer Force + Life Orb is used, but the moves listed in the above sets are generally the best for the current metagame
  • Cranidos has access to Fire Punch and Thunder Punch but the coverage they provide is often overshadowed by that of its other moves; Fire Blast would do more to most things you would want to hit with Fire Punch anyway
  • Iron Head is an option if you hate Fairy-types, but none of the Fairy-types in the tier resist Cranidos's STAB anyway, and Earthquake already hits Rock-types
  • Head Smash is an extreme option that might actually be good late-game if using the Scarf set and you need to eliminate a high-health troublesome threat quickly; however, the sub-par accuracy on this move and the fact that it WILL bring Cranidos into KO range from most priority attacks as well as almost any neutral hit in the game makes this rather impractical in most cases when there's Rock Slide/Stone Edge
Checks & Counters
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  • Focus Sash Diglett/Trapinch can trap Cranidos and kill it in most cases
  • Priority users, especially Croagunk, Timburr, and Carvanha, can really give Cranidos problems
  • Bulky Fighting-types in general are hard for Cranidos to deal with a lot of the time and can deal serious damage back
  • Cranidos does poorly against weather reliant sweepers; Hippopotas can beat just about any Cranidos set one-on-one without much trouble; any Sand sweeper (Sand Rush), Sun sweeper (Chlorophyll), or Rain sweeper (Rain Dance/Swift Swim) can easily get rid of Cranidos as well regardless of Sticky Web or Choice Scarf
  • Other Scarfers with super effective STAB attacks beat both of these sets most of the time
 
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Anthiese

formerly Jac
is a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
lol'd at unholy assrape

i've used cranidos a few times and the power is just unfucking real. scarf head smash literally ohko'd gligar but idk what set or anything. surprising.
 

Goddess Briyella

Banned deucer.
Wow, that's impressive. I never did calculate Head Smash vs anything, though I'm sure it's quite insane. Ice Beam is generally the better option for dealing with Gligar though, with its 100% accuracy and no drawback.
 
I wouldn't have the primary set wholly dependent on a teammate setting up an entry hazard. Change the first set to a Rock Polish set and mention in general that Cranidos likes Sticky Web support.

Also, those Scarf EVs are weird. The HP isn't as important as you think. Shift some of those to Speed to outspeed the 21 tier (a LOT of pokes aim for that number, so one above it outspeeds a lot more) and consider a nature change? I don't know if there are any notable threats to be outsped, but I charge you to look up what threats would be outsped with a nature change to naive or jolly and decide in your best judgment if those are worth it.

Also, slash Head Smash somewhere in the Scarf set with its Rock move. It shouldn't be trying to live any attacks anyway, so a little recoil here and there shouldn't matter too much, and the power is welcome.
 
I would mention that since Cranidos is a somewhat slow wallbreaker, to pair it with plenty of pivots and VoltTurners, which ensures that you can get as many safe switch ins as possible throughout the game for maximum effectiveness. Obviously, one of the most excellent partners to Cranidos is Mienfoo, due to its low speed with the bulky set, ability to knock off things like Slowpoke, and U Turn to Cranidos safely to allow it to wreck shit.
 

Rowan

The professor?
is a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
whilst sticky web is nice support for cranidos, it's not necessary since it hits 15 speed and can outspeed all walls and quite a few slower mons. so yeah, just mention it's not necessary, but still mention it ofcourse

1/3
 

Celestavian

Smooth
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Past SPL Champion
Put Earthquake / Rock Polish over Crunch in the first set since Bronzor has basically vanished from play. You also say that Earthquake's the only move on the set that doesn't benefit from Sheer Force, but Superpower doesn't either, so that incurs LO recoil as well. That said, I'm concerned about the redundancy of Earthquake + Superpower. The only thing in this meta that EQ hits that Superpower does not cover is Croagunk and other Poison-types. Besides Rock Polish, I don't see anything that's better to put there, so I guess it will be fine, seeing as how Poison-types like Trubbish have become more common lately.

The Scarf set's EVs are strange to me. If all the HP EVs are there for is to minimize SR damage, that would actually happen with no HP EVs. You have it backwards: SR damage is minimized by having one HP less than the next number divisible by 8, which is 24 in this case. Cranidos hits 23 HP naturally, which means it takes only 2 HP from SR, for 8.6% of its max HP, whereas 25 HP Cranidos takes 3 HP from SR, for 12% of its max HP. If these HP EVs do have a defensive purpose, then by all means keep them, but if they are only there to lower SR damage, then they would be better put in its Speed or defensive stats.

QC 2/3
 
No slashes on the first set. The only moves should be Rock Slide / Zen Headbutt / Crunch / Superpower. This is actually a monster I have tested--that's all you want and all you need. NO SLASHES. Earthquake is useless with Superpower. You can mention Rock Polish in OO. Also I would personally recommend Jolly, or at least discussing Jolly. I really like outrunning Scraggy and getting the speed tie with Pawniard. You really don't miss the attack that much, it still puts out an insane amount.
 

Bagon

Banned deucer.
This thing is a monster. Rock Slide OHKOs chinchou, and hits so many things hard on the switch. With sticky web it outspeeds everything it needs to, and can still handle things like fletchling and vullaby.

I also agree on jolly.
 
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