Replace Substitute with Earthquake, if Skarm has taken a couple layers of Stealth Rock damage you won't need to Taunt it at all, and you'll be wanting EQ badly for Jirachi, who is on every other team these days. Running the listed Haxorus as a late-game cleaner on a Dragon Spam team would work exceptionally well, I think. Scarf Mence is too obvious to work well anymore, if it's on a team with another Dragon in Team Preview you can essentially guarantee the Scarf.:o
i'm going to try your haxorus gem example out. maybe replace substitute with taunt so that skarm can't ww me.
I think all of you are only backing up my argument that Gems are only situational.Expert Belt is actually reliable on pokemon that hit many pokemon super effective such as Abomasnow (Ice, Grass, Ground, Fire) and Genesect (Bug, Fire, Electric, Ice), but Gems should only be used for a particular occasion. Unburden and Acrobat is one of those, but no pokemon can actually abuse gems.
I was actually thinking about Pursuit+Dark Gem, but there arent really any good users in Ou. Hitmontop may be able to use it in the lower tiers to hit things with a boosted pursuit that like to switch out of Close Combat, but its probably still too weak.I find that a great set in UU is Dark Gem Moxiekrow
Honchkrow @ Dark Gem
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Substitute/Superpower
- Sucker Punch
- Brave Bird
- Roost / Heat Wave / Pursuit / Tailwind
The beauty of this set is that it completely destroys almost every ghost in the game, due to the boosted dark gem, which almost always guarantees you that initial moxie boost. It also works well against other pokemon, dealing some pretty decent damage. Tailwind is also viable, because you can switch in on a pokemon that is sure to switch out, set it up and outspeed many fast threats such as Scarf Heracross etc
Only problem there being that Charizard is bad, any way you look at it.I remember when I was still somewhat active on the ladder, I had Charizard on my team and used the standard set but later on, I swapped out his Choice Scarf for a Fire Gem.
I found it a lot more effective to use since it gave Charizard a nice boost in power while giving him the flexibility to deal with threats like Heatran. I wonder if an Expert Belt would've done just as well though.
I think the CB set is still superior in most cases as Espeed is just for revenging, as Dnite won't want to stay in on what comes out next. The ability to switch moves doesn't quite make up for the power.What do you guys thing about this?
@Normal Gem
Adament Nature
Multiscale
~Dragon Dance
~Extremespeed
~Outrage/Dragon Claw
~Waterfall/Fire Punch/Eq/Whatever
Basically this plays like normal Dragon Dance Dragonite, except its a stronger revenge killer due to a stronger initial Extremespeed. Also, attacking will not break Multiscale, which is an advantage over Life Orb. Here are some calcs.