Cheryl.
Celesteela is Life
[OVERVIEW]
Sceptile is a unique Pokemon in RarelyUsed due to being the fastest Grass-type, with a high base 120 Speed that lets it outpace most of the unboosted metagame. Sceptile also has access to moves such as Leaf Storm and Focus Blast that are backed up by its great base 105 Special Attack, making it a pain for offensive teams to handle. Sadly, Sceptile is very frail and has weaknesses to common attacking types such as Fire, Ice, and Flying. It is also prone to being outsped and revenge killed by Choice Scarf Pokemon like Tyrantrum and Emboar and has trouble breaking through bulky Grass- and Poison-types like Venusaur and Weezing. It faces competition from Virizion as a fast offensive Grass-type due to the latter's secondary Fighting typing and from Accelgor and Aerodactyl as fast offense breakers, since Accelgor can outspeed Choice Scarf Pokemon from the base 80 Speed tier or lower and has access to Spikes, while Aerodactyl is resistant to Fletchinder's priority Acrobatics and has good coverage. Sceptile's only notable niche over these two is in its Grass-type STAB moves.
[SET]
name: Life Orb
move 1: Leaf Storm
move 2: Focus Blast
move 3: Hidden Power Flying / Hidden Power Ice
move 4: Giga Drain
item: Life Orb
ability: Overgrow
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Leaf Storm is Sceptile's most powerful STAB move, dealing huge damage to anything that doesn't resist it, but it has a nasty effect of lowering Sceptile's Special Attack upon use. Focus Blast provides great coverage, hitting Steel-types that could otherwise wall Sceptile like Registeel, as well as Houndoom, super effectively. Hidden Power Flying is Sceptile's best way of hitting Grass-types such as Venusaur and deals huge damage to Virizion, an otherwise decent check to Sceptile. Hidden Power Ice can be used to hit Dragon-types like Druddigon while also hitting Grass-types and Flying-types, but it doesn't hit Virizion very hard, which is the main purpose of using Hidden Power Flying. Giga Drain is a secondary STAB move that has no drawbacks unlike Leaf Storm and helps Sceptile heal damage taken from Life Orb recoil. Rock Slide is also an option over Hidden Power Flying or Giga Drain to OHKO Fletchinder on the switch and do serious damage to Delphox and Sigilyph, but it doesn't have much coverage outside of that, and Sceptile needs to use a Naive or Hasty nature in order to 2HKO Delphox with the combination of Leaf Storm and Rock Slide.
Set Details
========
Life Orb gives Sceptile much-needed power, letting it become a powerful offensive threat. Maximum Special Attack and Speed investment with a Timid nature makes Sceptile as powerful as it can be and lets it outspeed the threats it needs to, like Sigilyph and non-Choice Scarf Delphox, while also Speed tying with Dugtrio. If you run a physical coverage move on Sceptile, a Hasty nature is preferred over Timid to keep the physical moves fairly strong, and Sceptile doesn't care about lowering its Defense stat, since it's already frail. Overgrow gives Sceptile's Grass-type STAB moves a power boost when Sceptile is at low health, and this works greatly in tandem with Giga Drain to heal more of Sceptile's health. Sceptile doesn't need Unburden because of its great Speed stat.
Usage Tips
========
Sceptile has trouble switching into many attacks due to its frailty, so try to bring it in with VoltTurn or after a teammate has fainted. Sceptile should be used as a revenge killer and late-game cleaner, picking off weakened threats with its great Speed. It can also be used as a wallbreaker mid-game with Leaf Storm due to the move's high Base Power. Sceptile is worn down quite easily from entry hazards and Life Orb recoil, so Giga Drain is a great move to use to take advantage of Overgrow and give Sceptile more longevity in a match.
Team Options
========
Generally, entry hazard removers pair well with Sceptile due to its vulnerability to entry hazards and the fact that it gets worn down by Life Orb easily. Therefore, Pokemon like Blastoise and Flygon make for great partners due to their reliability in removing entry hazards and their abilities to take care of some of Sceptile's other weaknesses, such as Fire-types. Flygon can even get Sceptile in safely with U-turn and can break down some of Sceptile's checks and counters with its offensive Life Orb set. Rhyperior is a great partner for Sceptile due to it countering Fletchinder, a huge thorn in Sceptile's side, checking Fire-types, and setting up Stealth Rock. Fire-types such as Houndoom and Emboar make for great partners as well, beating bulky Grass-types that Sceptile can't muscle through, and in return, Houndoom and Emboar benefit from Sceptile's great matchup against offense due to their mediocre Speed. Water-types like Samurott and Blastoise check Fire-types for Sceptile, and Samurott benefits from Sceptile's high Speed and can wallbreak through a lot of Sceptile's checks and counters with its high power and good coverage moves. Volt Switch and U-turn users such as Flygon and Manectric pair well with Sceptile because they bring it in safely. Musharna with its slow Baton Pass can also get Sceptile in safely, and it checks Fighting-types like Medicham that could give Sceptile trouble if they hold a Choice Scarf. Checks to Poison-types such as Sigilyph and Flygon are also useful, as Sceptile has trouble getting past them.
[SET COMMENTS]
Other Options
========
A physically attacking set with Swords Dance and Unburden with a Sitrus Berry can be used, as a +2 Unburden-activated Sceptile outspeeds all relevant Choice Scarf users and is nearly impossible to stop. However, Sceptile has trouble setting up with its poor bulk, and it is mostly outclassed by Virizion, which has a secondary STAB type and defensive stats that let it set up easier. A SubSeed set can be used to wear down defensive Pokemon, but it lacks coverage and relies on forced switches in order to work, making it inferior to Sceptile's other sets. Choice Specs can be used as an alternative to Life Orb for higher damage output and no recoil, but being locked into a move is quite unfavorable for Sceptile in most situations, especially against defensive teams. Protect can be used on the Life Orb set to scout for Choice Scarf Pokemon such as Medicham, which would try to revenge kill Sceptile. Leaf Storm + White Herb with Unburden is an option that lacks the power of Life Orb but allows Sceptile to use Leaf Storm once without drawbacks and, with Unburden activated, can make Sceptile a scary threat late-game. Earthquake is an option to hit Poison-, Steel-, and Fire-types hard within a single moveslot, but it doesn't hit as hard as Focus Blast, and many Poison-types such as Garbodor and Drapion can take an Earthquake and hit Sceptile hard.
Checks and Counters
========
**Faster Pokemon**: Pokemon with higher Speed than Sceptile, such as Accelgor and Aerodactyl, and Choice Scarf users, such as Medicham and Emboar, can revenge kill it due to Sceptile's poor bulk.
**Priority Moves**: Priority moves can KO a weakened Sceptile thanks to Sceptile's low defenses. Fletchinder has super effective priority against Sceptile and can switch in on a Grass-type move. Ice Shard from the more uncommon Piloswine can also be used to revenge kill Sceptile.
**Fire-types**: Fire-types like Emboar and Delphox resist Sceptile's STAB moves, can usually take a Focus Blast, which Delphox resists as well, and can KO Sceptile with their STAB moves. Houndoom has to watch out for Focus Blast, however.
**Flying-types**: Flying-types such as Golbat and Fletchinder are good checks to Sceptile, as they can take its Grass-type STAB moves rather easily, heal up the damage with Roost, and hit Sceptile back hard with their STAB moves. However, some of the less bulky ones, like Fletchinder, have to worry about the occasional Rock Slide or Hidden Power Ice, especially after Stealth Rock.
**Bulky Grass-types**: Bulky Grass-types like Assault Vest Tangrowth and Venusaur resist Sceptile's Grass-type STAB moves, and they can take a Hidden Power Flying or Hidden Power Ice and fight back with Sludge Bomb. They also have recovery moves or abilities, so they make for good checks to Sceptile. However, offensive Venusaur risks getting 2HKOed from Hidden Power Flying on the switch after Stealth Rock, and Virizion does not take a Hidden Power Flying well at all.
**Poison-types**: Poison-types such as Garbodor and Weezing resist both Leaf Storm and Focus Blast, take little from Hidden Power Flying, and can retaliate with their STAB moves, but all of them bar Weezing have to look out for Earthquake variants of Sceptile. They also usually don't have reliable recovery, so they can get worn down by repeatedly switching into Sceptile.
**Specially Defensive Steel-types**: Specially bulky Steel-types such as Registeel and Bronzong can tank any of Sceptile's moves, even Focus Blast, and hit it hard with their STAB moves, or set up Stealth Rock on it. Registeel can cripple it with Thunder Wave or set up Curse on it.
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