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Why not just run Nasty Plot lmao? I'd fancy a 100% chance over a 20% chance to boost every single stat - a few you're not using anyway. It's gimmicky as hell, and there really is no point relying on hax to be honest. Aura Sphere is extremely uncommon as Fire Blast outclasses it as a coverage move, as it deals with Mega Metagross, Jirachi, Scizor, while retaining super-effective hits on Ferrothorn, Bisharp, Magnezone etc. Aura Sphere really only hits Heatran, Empoleon, and Tyranitar - Heatran and Tyranitar hate Thunder Wave, and Tyranitar outspeeds Togekiss (Choice Scarf), and KOes with Stone Edge anyway.
Why not just run Nasty Plot lmao? I'd fancy a 100% chance over a 20% chance to boost every single stat - a few you're not using anyway. It's gimmicky as hell, and there really is no point relying on hax to be honest. Aura Sphere is extremely uncommon as Fire Blast outclasses it as a coverage move, as it deals with Mega Metagross, Jirachi, Scizor, while retaining super-effective hits on Ferrothorn, Bisharp, Magnezone etc. Aura Sphere really only hits Heatran, Empoleon, and Tyranitar - Heatran and Tyranitar hate Thunder Wave, and Tyranitar outspeeds Togekiss (Choice Scarf), and KOes with Stone Edge anyway.
Guys, let's keep stuff on track here. Underrated and creative sets are cool, but make sure you test something to see if it's actually worth using. Ancientpower doesn't hit anything significant (unless you really hate ZardY and Talonflame switching into Air Slash?), and fishing for the boosts with a weak unSTABed attack isn't an effective way of using free turns.
Aura Sphere is not unheard of. In fact, Aura Sphere is run over Fairy STAB on two-attack sets such as the stallbreaker one since it hits more stuff, including those pesky Steels. (So three-attack sets with Air Slash/Aura Sphere/Dazzling Gleam are not going to be a thing, never mind the perfect coverage bar Doublade.)
Actually, I have found 3 attacks NP with Dazzling Gleam to be fairly useful. If you're running Air Slash and Fire Blast, Dazzling Gleam is nice to burst through stuff like Tyranitar, and it makes for a good Rotom-W lure as well. It's probably not as good as the standard 2 attacks set for most teams, but it has it's place on offensive teams.
Base Stats: 70 HP / 120 Atk / 65 Def / 45 SpA / 85 SpD / 125 Spe
Abilities: Pressure / Pickpocket FREE SWITCH IN OR RIOT
Weavile has been thrust into the OU Spotlight recently, thanks to it's incredible offensive presence. A blazing fast 125 Speed is enough to outrun a large portion of the unboosted tier, allowing it to hammer away with it's impressive STABs. Ice and Dark are both excellent types to have access to, and Weavile is able to complement them with a small, but practical movepool, including Pursuit, Ice Shard, Swords Dance, and coverage in Low Kick and Poison Jab. On the flip side, Weavile offers little defensive synergy thanks to it's paper thin defenses, making it incapable of switching into most attacks and rendering it prone to being revenge killed. On top of that, it's weak to almost all forms of residual damage and is crippled by status.
Weavile is best used as a revenge killer (small nitpick, it has 120 base attack, not 125), and it's a darn good one too, outspeeding the likes of Lati@s, Tornadus-T, Thundurus, and Serperior, as well as having a super effective STAB against all of them. Ice/Dark is a solid STAB combination, and Low Kick complements them quite nicely, destroying heavy targets. The only thing that resists all three is Azumarill iirc, and Weavile can run Poison Jab to pressure it, although it will likely take an Aqua Jet in the process. Other options include Ice Shard to do some decent damage to Adamant Talonflame and Mega Aerodactyl, or Pursuit to trap things like Latios. You can run Swords Dance if you want, but Weavile is so frail (and its defensive typing is so bad) it probably won't last long enough to set up and attack, plus it tends to switch around a lot anyway. On that topic, hazard control is a must due to being rocks weak and Spikes vulnerable, meanwhile having SR up on the other side can make Weavile's job easier.
Tressed Weavile has 120 Attack, not 125 Attack lol.
That said, Weavile is one of the most underrated threats now. Blazingly fast Speed tier, great offensive typing, and good Attack to back it all up. In such a fast-paced meta, outspeeding the likes of Tornadus-T, Latios, and Starmie is a really important feat, amplified by the fact that Weavile doesn't take up a Mega slot, unlike Mega Lopunny, Mega Aerodactyl, and Mega Alakazam. Weavile does major work against balance and offense, great for cleaning up late-game, and also comes in mid-game to spam Knock Off.
There's a general under-preparedness for Weavile, seen from the teams with just a Keldeo/Azumarill/Clefable slapped on as an 'all-around Dark-type check', which fails quite horribly in practice. All these aforementioned checks hate taking Knock Off, especially Keldeo and Clefable, as the former loses longevity (SubCM), or power (Choice Specs), and the latter loses to ability to blanket check half the metagame, as without Leftovers recovery Clefable fails to avoid 2HKOes from the likes of Latios, Thundurus, Mega Lopunny, etc.. These mons are really pressured to check Weavile, but when you consider that Keldeo will be switching into attacks quite often, without a surefire way of recovering health (Leftovers gets Knocked Off), it gets worn down really quickly by Weavile. Clefable is too - it's really pressured already, as it needs to cover many threats such as Latios and Mega Lopunny, that it will not always be at full health, which means Weavile can break through Clefable. Not to mention Weavile's Swords Dance set, allowing it to break past Keldeo, Azumarill, and Clefable, and terrorize the likes of Heatran, Ferrothorn, and Skarmory without Low Kick, turning it into a fearsome late-game sweeper once the aforementioned Pokemon are weakened, which really isn't that hard.
Weavile is a pretty cool mon. It is among the fastest non-Mega mons in the tier, which allows it to perform well against offensive teams especially during times when Genie spam was at its highest (early XY, Aegi Suspect, early ORAS). It has offensive checks in the form of Scizor and Keldeo mostly, but it actually doesn't give up momentum to a lot of hard to check threats outside of BP Metagross and Mega Gyara if you don't have Low Kick. That's great when it comes to teambuilding because you have to think less about checking certain threats if you don't give them to opportunity to come in. DarkSpam cores are really legit because a lot of teams are underprepared for multiple Dark types, usually only carrying one Dark resist.
Base Stats: 91 HP / 129 Atk / 90 Def / 72 SpA / 90 SpD / 108 Spe
Abilities: Justified Mess with the bull... Terrakion is another Pokemon that has fallen from graces since the transition to ORAS. With the introduction of Fairy types, Terrakion's formerly ridiculous STABs are now a bit less spammable, and the once amazing base 108 Speed tier has become less of an ideal for what defines a fast Pokemon. That said, the former King of OU is nowhere near obsolete. There are still very few switch ins to Terrakion's STABs, its bulk is rather decent for an offensive mon, and a Knock Off heavy meta means that Terrakion has even more opportunities to take advantage of its ability. On top of that, Doublade's disappearance from the meta and Aegislash's failed attempt to reenter OU means that Terrakion lost some of it's best counters.
For one thing, 108 is hardly a bad speed tier. Landorus only has 101, and look where it is right now.
Terrakion is also a decently versatile mon, as it can be used as a rocks-setter alongside its powerful STABs. The combination of Fighting and Rock is insanely good coverage; only Medicham, Toxicroak, and Gallade resist it among OU-viable mons, and all of these three are way too frail to be switching into it (each dying to two CCs anyway). Thus it can 2HKO almost the entire metagame off 129 Attack with just two moves, allowing it to run Swords Dance or Rock Polish and then a fourth move of its choice (Stealth Rock, Substitute, Quick Attack for some cheap priority, etc.). And, of course, having 91/90/90 bulk alongside 108 speed is pretty neat.
Terrakion is amazing and i think his best set right now is salac berry substitute + SD + stabs sweeps so much of the meta after the other fable is dead.
Terrakion actually has a hard time switching into common Knock Off users such as Bisharp and Scizor, as both of these 'mons can just predict the switch and OHKO it with their other attacks. It can't switch into Knock Off Sableye either, for obvious reasons, but moving on.
After testing pretty much every Terrakion set on the ladder, I have to say that it's quite the underrated beast. Life Orb Close Combat is unbelievably spam-able, everything is going to be taking a huge chunk from it. Even things like Clefable can't switch in, as it just dies to Stone Edge on the following turn. Landorus-T and tank Garchomp are both lured in and smacked with Hidden Power Ice, which is hilarious to use on the LO set, as for whatever reason nobody expects it. Honestly, the only thing keeping the Life Orb set back isn't its Speed. Honestly 108 Speed is just fine. The biggest problem is that both of its STAB moves have some sort of downside. Close Combat obviously lowers your defense which leaves you open to revenge killing, and Stone Edge has iffy accuracy at best. But yeah, even with that, the LO set certainly is scary as hell and extremely under-prepared for.
The Focus Sash lead has fallen a bit under the radar as of recently, thanks to Mega Sableye's increase in usage, however, I still think it's a slightly viable set in its own rights. Tank Garchomp does give it a bit of competition as a Stealth Rock lead, however, as Rocky Helmet + Rough Skin is arguable better than Close Combat spam. Terrakion does have Taunt, though, which is nice against Skarm.
Band is, simply put, hell to switch in to, not much to say on this one. (252 Atk Choice Band Terrakion Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 144+ Def Hippowdon: 204-241 (48.5 - 57.3%) -- 94.5% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery. Literally just run Adamant, what exactly switches in to that hehe)
Scarf is an alright option, I guess, however, the set I was most interested in was its Double Dance and Swords Dance sets. Was there any reason to use them at all? I'm glad to say that they preformed exceedingly well. It was generally hard to find a good time to set up, but oh god, if you're running a balance team and Terrakion gets a Swords Dance up, that's pretty much game without some crazy Stone Edge missing. +2 Terrakion literally blows through almost every defensive team, even physically defensive Skarmory is straight up OHKOed by Close Combat after Stealth Rock, and Mega Sableye gets outright destroyed by Stone Edge. Hell even Mega Slowbro is 2HKOed and fails to KO you back.
Against offence, Adamant Life Orb Close Combat hits crazy hard even without +2, meaning all you have to do is set up a Rock Polish and sweep weakened teams (Offensive Altaria takes half from Close Combat after Rocks @_@). Once again, it's hard to do this. Terrakion's so-called "decent bulk" is actually not too fantastic and is brought down by its extremely common weaknesses. Ground-type spam is everywhere, Scald spam is everywhere, Fighting-type spam, so on and so forth. However, even with these flaws, Terrakion is still vastly powerful that so few teams are actually ready for, and is highly worth a team slot.
EDIT:
Oh yeah, SubSalac SD is good too, lol, forgot about that one hehe
Anyways, sets to use:
Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Rock Slide / Iron Head
Terrakion @ Choice Band
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Quick Attack
Terrakion @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly / Adamant Nature
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
Terrakion @ Salac Berry / Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
Terrakion @ Focus Sash
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat
Nigga saying lead terrakion is only slightly viable
Terrakion @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Safeguard
Sets up on mega sableye like no ones business. Basically you eat up the will-o-wisp with lum berry as they mega evolve and get up an SD, set up safeguard next turn as they try to will-o-wisp again, and then either hit something on the switch with a +2 attack, get up another SD if no one on their team outspeeds, or get up rocks on the obvious switch out.
Nigga saying lead terrakion is only slightly viable
Terrakion @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Safeguard
Sets up on mega sableye like no ones business. Basically you eat up the will-o-wisp with lum berry as they mega evolve and get up an SD, set up safeguard next turn as they try to will-o-wisp again, and then either hit something on the switch with a +2 attack, get up another SD if no one on their team outspeeds, or get up rocks on the obvious switch out.
Terrakion @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
Remember the days when lead Garchomp used offensive Swords Dance to scare away Mega Eye and set up Rocks? Well, Terrakion can do the same thing as it can SD as Sable go Mega and Wisp, then 2HKO Mega Eye with Stone Edge after Rocks (or just set up Stealth Rock as Mega Sableye switches). For bonus points, Terrakion isn't screwed over by Foul Play since it gets a Justified boost and isn't OHKOed by it.
Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Rock Slide
It's an alternative to Keldeo as a Choice Scarf user who can revenge Volcarona and Gyarados more reliably. It also has higher base power moves.
Nigga saying lead terrakion is only slightly viable
Terrakion @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Safeguard
Sets up on mega sableye like no ones business. Basically you eat up the will-o-wisp with lum berry as they mega evolve and get up an SD, set up safeguard next turn as they try to will-o-wisp again, and then either hit something on the switch with a +2 attack, get up another SD if no one on their team outspeeds, or get up rocks on the obvious switch out.
Double Dance Terrakion is a pretty sweet set that I've been using a lot recently. I mean it's not something you take and build around because it has noticeable shortfalls especially with the addition of Mega Diancie and Mega Metagross to the fold. However, it is a nice flex piece in that if you find yourself in a situation where you have a free teamslot it can be useful because it can play well against all playstyles fairly well. SD + STABs allow it to lend support against bulkier cores whereas Rock Polish gives it a shot at cleaning offensive teams. Boosting + 3 attacks is alright especially with Earthquake to pick off or dent some bulkier offensive switch-ins (read: Metagross). Band or Scarf Terrakion work in varying capacities although both are rather prediction reliant and can give away a lot of momentum if you predict wrong.
It does survive but who cares when its 2koed
+2 252 Atk Terrakion Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 178+ Def Mega Sableye: 211-250 (69.4 - 82.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Actually Lum SD Terrakion works as a setter against Sableye the same way SD Lum Garchomp does, except it doesn't get beaten by Foul Play Mega Sableye unlike Chomper. If you SD when Sableye switches in (expecting Rocks), and then SD again when Sableye tries to burn you, you end up at +4 at which point Stone Edge OHKOs.
+4 252 Atk Terrakion Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Sableye: 300-354 (98.6 - 116.4%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO <--- That's assuming max def Sableye and most run SDef investment nowadays.
Actually Lum SD Terrakion works as a setter against Sableye the same way SD Lum Garchomp does, except it doesn't get beaten by Foul Play Mega Sableye unlike Chomper. If you SD when Sableye switches in (expecting Rocks), and then SD again when Sableye tries to burn you, you end up at +4 at which point Stone Edge OHKOs.
+4 252 Atk Terrakion Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Sableye: 300-354 (98.6 - 116.4%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO <--- That's assuming max def Sableye and most run SDef investment nowadays.
Wouldn't the situation mostly be Lum Terrakion vs Sableye as both are used as leads? And in my post up there, I mentioned the same thing about Foul Play lol.
Oh, come to think of it, Substitute could be run in place of SD because if Terrakion is faced with Diancie as a lead, it has a 50 % chance to win instead of being forced out 100% (since it can Sub on the Protect as Terrakion outspeeds unevolved Diancie and SR will be bounced back)
Wouldn't the situation mostly be Lum Terakion vs Sableye as both are used as leads? And in my post up there, I mentioned the same thing about Foul Play lol.
Oh, come to think of it, Substitute could be run in place of SD because if Terrakion is faced with Diancie as a lead, it has a 50 % chance to win instead of being forced out 100% (since it can Sub on the Protect as Terrakion outspeeds unevolved Diancie and SR will be bounced back)
I mean I don't see people leading with their Rock setter a lot really. Sure it can be nice to get Rocks up first turn but that's also a very easily telegraphed move, and easy to take advantage of as a result.
Terrakion is pretty awful in this meta. The popularity of bulky Fairy+ground cores, and everything offensive being 110 doesn't help it but this set is cool and is a little more "versitle" than standard scarf rak
Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge - Swords Dance
- Rock Polish
Yea I'm out here. Innovative double dance scarf rak bc all you need is STABs. everything else kills momentum.
This way if you ever need to sponge a knock off and ditch you scarf, switch into landt or bisharp or something you can force out. Now you have a +1 rak and a free turn to boost if you want.
It's not that bad as it sounds even though it is retarded. you never use the other 2 moves anyways
