Hey guys, Tabuu here. Recently, I've been growing quite an interest in Agility Lucario. With PKGaming's permission, I've decided to write an analysis on just how effective it is. I left out the Overview and Checks&Counters section. The original analysis already has it and I don't think I need to rewrite another one. However if it is required let me know. Anyways, onto the Analysis!
-Tabuu
[SET]
Name: Agility Lucario
Move 1: Agility
Move 2: Close Combat
Move 3: Ice Punch
Move 4: Crunch
Item: Life Orb/Expert Belt
Ability: Justified
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk/ 4 Def/ 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>While Swords Dance Lucario focuses on sweeping with brute strength and priority, in the form of ExtremeSpeed and Bullet Punch, Agility Lucario plays a little differently. Thanks to Agility, it can hit a speed stat of 558 with an Adamant Nature, outspeeding practically every OU Scarfer there is. Due to its high speed, it no longer needs to take up a moveslot with ExtremeSpeed. In its place, Lucario can afford the ever so needed coverage to take down various threats that Swords Dance Lucario would struggle to fight against.</p>
<p>Agility defines this set and thus Agility must be used. Agility allows Lucario to reach insane speeds, throwing Lucario into what the OU metagame calls Speed Tier 0, the fastest speed tier in the game. Close Combat is also a no-brainer. With STAB and its high 120 base power, Close Combat is a beautiful move capable of devastating Pokemon and ruining them for good. Ice Punch allows Lucario to break through Gliscor and OHKO all of the genies after Stealth Rock damage, except Landorus-Therian, who still receives a lovely 2HKO. Ice Punch also allows Lucario to OHKO Salamence and OHKO Dragonite if Multiscale is broken. Crunch is the final move and is primarily used to KO Ghost and Psychic types that are able to tank Close Combats and Ice Punch. Crunch achieves an OHKO on Latios after Stealth Rock, while Latias gets 2HKO’d. However, Latias struggles to OHKO Lucario in return and when pitted against Lucario in a 1v1 situation, Lucario will most likely win it out. Gengar and (non-sashed) Alakazam take the OHKO as well.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>As Lucario is a sweeper, he should be running maximum Attack and Speed investments for maximized sweeping potential. Life Orb is pretty mandatory as it grants Lucario additional power to smash through teams. Expert Belt does become an option due to the great coverage that Lucario has access to. Expert Belt allows Lucario to live longer and not take recoil damage from Life Orb. However, note that since Lucario lacks Swords Dance, Lucario will really struggle with certain Pokemon if it forfeits Life Orb. Thus, Expert Belt really is the lesser option. Plus, Lucario isn’t meant to stick around for that long anyway; he has that “Kill everything ASAP” sort of mentality. A Jolly Nature is useless as it doesn’t outspeed any significant Pokemon and only makes Lucario lose more power.
<p>As is with the Swords Dance set, Hi Jump Kick is always an option. Thanks to its stupidly high 130 base power, it is able to OHKO Specs Politoed after Rocks and has a very high chance of OHKOing Keldeo after Rocks as well. CB Scizor also faces a risk of an OHKO after Rocks, from Hi Jump Kick. However, Hi Jump Kick’s flaw is very detrimental. If it misses, Lucario will take a nice 50% of its HP off. Add in Life Orb Recoil and Lucario won’t be sticking around long enough to sweep. Also, Pokemon like Jellicent and Gengar enjoy switching into Lucario; thus Hi Jump Kick is a very high risk, high reward kind of move. Use it with great caution.</p>
<p>Lucario’s ability comes down to preference. Justified is the superior choice as getting a +1 Attack Boost off of a .25 resisted move it always a plus. Inner Focus is decent and may assist in defeating Scarfed Jirachi easier. Steadfast is viable too until one notices that flinches mainly come from Jirachi, who also loves carrying Body Slam, for ParaFlinch haxes.</p>
<p>In terms of teammates, Lucario has some bestfriends. Latias is a big one, being able to tank all of the Fighting, Fire, and Ground moves aimed at Lucario. In return, Lucario is able to nab a +1 off any Dark moves aimed at Latias, and is generally able to set-up on Latias’ checks and counters, such as Tyranitar, Scizor, Blissey, Chansey, Ferrothorn, and so forth. While synergistically speaking, they are terrible, Choice Banded Tyranitar brings in a lot of support for Lucario. Lucario is unable to defeat Jellicent, Slowbro, and Reuniclus reliably 1v1. However, Tyranitar can easily eliminate all of those Pokemon thanks to his mighty STAB Crunch and Pursuit. Rotom-W is another amazing partner for Lucario. Resisting Lucario’s Fire Weakness and being immune to Ground Type moves, Rotom-W can switch into Gliscor with little fear except Toxic. Rotom-W can then proceed to HP Ice or Hydro Pump the poor bat into oblivion. Jellicent and Slowbro are easily worn down by Rotom-W through Volt Switches and Thunderbolts. Once they are weakened, Lucario can easily KO them with Crunch. Finally, Slowbro and Celebi make great partners as they are able to take on Conkeldurr and TechniLoom, respectively. Lucario really loves entry hazard support and cannot be too successful without them. Stealth Rock is mandatory turning numerous 2HKOs into OHKOs. For Lucario, 1 layer of Spikes is all he really needs, as after Stealth Rock and Spike damage, Keldeo and Politoed are easily OHKO’d.</p>
-Tabuu
THIS ANALYSIS IS UNDER WORK. CURRENTLY EVERYTHING IS BEING "SKELETON-IZED"
[SET]
Name: Agility Lucario
Move 1: Agility
Move 2: Close Combat
Move 3: Ice Punch
Move 4: Crunch
Item: Life Orb/Expert Belt
Ability: Justified
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk/ 4 Def/ 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>While Swords Dance Lucario focuses on sweeping with brute strength and priority, in the form of ExtremeSpeed and Bullet Punch, Agility Lucario plays a little differently. Thanks to Agility, it can hit a speed stat of 558 with an Adamant Nature, outspeeding practically every OU Scarfer there is. Due to its high speed, it no longer needs to take up a moveslot with ExtremeSpeed. In its place, Lucario can afford the ever so needed coverage to take down various threats that Swords Dance Lucario would struggle to fight against.</p>
<p>Agility defines this set and thus Agility must be used. Agility allows Lucario to reach insane speeds, throwing Lucario into what the OU metagame calls Speed Tier 0, the fastest speed tier in the game. Close Combat is also a no-brainer. With STAB and its high 120 base power, Close Combat is a beautiful move capable of devastating Pokemon and ruining them for good. Ice Punch allows Lucario to break through Gliscor and OHKO all of the genies after Stealth Rock damage, except Landorus-Therian, who still receives a lovely 2HKO. Ice Punch also allows Lucario to OHKO Salamence and OHKO Dragonite if Multiscale is broken. Crunch is the final move and is primarily used to KO Ghost and Psychic types that are able to tank Close Combats and Ice Punch. Crunch achieves an OHKO on Latios after Stealth Rock, while Latias gets 2HKO’d. However, Latias struggles to OHKO Lucario in return and when pitted against Lucario in a 1v1 situation, Lucario will most likely win it out. Gengar and (non-sashed) Alakazam take the OHKO as well.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>As Lucario is a sweeper, he should be running maximum Attack and Speed investments for maximized sweeping potential. Life Orb is pretty mandatory as it grants Lucario additional power to smash through teams. Expert Belt does become an option due to the great coverage that Lucario has access to. Expert Belt allows Lucario to live longer and not take recoil damage from Life Orb. However, note that since Lucario lacks Swords Dance, Lucario will really struggle with certain Pokemon if it forfeits Life Orb. Thus, Expert Belt really is the lesser option. Plus, Lucario isn’t meant to stick around for that long anyway; he has that “Kill everything ASAP” sort of mentality. A Jolly Nature is useless as it doesn’t outspeed any significant Pokemon and only makes Lucario lose more power.
<p>As is with the Swords Dance set, Hi Jump Kick is always an option. Thanks to its stupidly high 130 base power, it is able to OHKO Specs Politoed after Rocks and has a very high chance of OHKOing Keldeo after Rocks as well. CB Scizor also faces a risk of an OHKO after Rocks, from Hi Jump Kick. However, Hi Jump Kick’s flaw is very detrimental. If it misses, Lucario will take a nice 50% of its HP off. Add in Life Orb Recoil and Lucario won’t be sticking around long enough to sweep. Also, Pokemon like Jellicent and Gengar enjoy switching into Lucario; thus Hi Jump Kick is a very high risk, high reward kind of move. Use it with great caution.</p>
<p>Lucario’s ability comes down to preference. Justified is the superior choice as getting a +1 Attack Boost off of a .25 resisted move it always a plus. Inner Focus is decent and may assist in defeating Scarfed Jirachi easier. Steadfast is viable too until one notices that flinches mainly come from Jirachi, who also loves carrying Body Slam, for ParaFlinch haxes.</p>
<p>In terms of teammates, Lucario has some bestfriends. Latias is a big one, being able to tank all of the Fighting, Fire, and Ground moves aimed at Lucario. In return, Lucario is able to nab a +1 off any Dark moves aimed at Latias, and is generally able to set-up on Latias’ checks and counters, such as Tyranitar, Scizor, Blissey, Chansey, Ferrothorn, and so forth. While synergistically speaking, they are terrible, Choice Banded Tyranitar brings in a lot of support for Lucario. Lucario is unable to defeat Jellicent, Slowbro, and Reuniclus reliably 1v1. However, Tyranitar can easily eliminate all of those Pokemon thanks to his mighty STAB Crunch and Pursuit. Rotom-W is another amazing partner for Lucario. Resisting Lucario’s Fire Weakness and being immune to Ground Type moves, Rotom-W can switch into Gliscor with little fear except Toxic. Rotom-W can then proceed to HP Ice or Hydro Pump the poor bat into oblivion. Jellicent and Slowbro are easily worn down by Rotom-W through Volt Switches and Thunderbolts. Once they are weakened, Lucario can easily KO them with Crunch. Finally, Slowbro and Celebi make great partners as they are able to take on Conkeldurr and TechniLoom, respectively. Lucario really loves entry hazard support and cannot be too successful without them. Stealth Rock is mandatory turning numerous 2HKOs into OHKOs. For Lucario, 1 layer of Spikes is all he really needs, as after Stealth Rock and Spike damage, Keldeo and Politoed are easily OHKO’d.</p>