Scizor [QC: 2/3] [Write-up in progress]

[skies]

Taken over from boltsandbombers.

QC: Valentine / alexwolf /
GP: /​

Overview
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Scizor's main niche lies in its high Attack stat along with a powerful STAB priority move in Bullet Punch, which is boosted by Scizor's fantastic ability Technician. After Mega Evolving, Scizor's power and bulk is boosted quite a bit, even having more physical bulk than that of Skarmory. Furthermore, Scizor's typing gives it a total of eight resistances and one immunity, with only one weakness. Scizor's movepool is quite diverse as well, with options such as Knock Off, Superpower, and Roost, to utilize. With all these positive perks, Scizor can pull off a variety of roles, ranging from offensive Swords Dance to physically defensive sets. Thanks to Mega Scizor's naturally high physical bulk, it is able to check a plethora of threats, such as Bisharp, Mamoswine, Tyranitar, Mega Gardevoir, Terrakion, Excadrill, Latias, and Latios. However, Scizor has a glaring weakness to the prominent Fire-types in the tier, including Talonflame and Heatran. This is further noticeable because of how many Pokemon run Hidden Power Fire and Fire Punch for coverage options. Strong special attackers give Mega Scizor pain as well, as they can prey off of its lower Special Defense. Scizor's low Speed is somewhat mitigated by Bullet Punch, but faster Pokemon that resist it, such as Water- and Electric-type Pokemon, give it pain as well; Magnezone in particular stands out for its ability to trap Scizor.

Swords Dance
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name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Bullet Punch
move 3: Superpower
move 4: Bug Bite / Roost
ability: Light Metal
item: Scizorite
evs: 116 HP / 252 Atk / 140 Spe
nature: Adamant

Moves
========

• swords dance boosts scizors attack to massive levels
• bullet punch is a strong priority stab move boosted by technician
• superpower is important to smack heatran, skarmory, magnezone and ferrothorn on the switch.
  
• bug bite is another technician boosted stab move, while not having great coverage alongside bullet punch, hits relevant threats such as rotom-w, slowbro, etc
• roost provides reliable recovery giving scizor setup opportunities against offensive threats such as choice scarf landorus-T and azumarill. Not having bug bite means that scizor will have a harder time with the likes of slowbro and mega venusaur, although a +2 superpower will still heavily dent rotom-w.
  
• knock off can be used for general utility and also removing opponents items such as doublades eviolite

Set Details
========

• adamant max attack for obvious reasons
• light metal to switch into attacks such grass knot or low kick before mega evolving, and scizor gains technician upon mega evolving
• 140 speed outpaces defensive rotom-w, mega venusaur, and heatran
• 240 speed can be used to outpseed adamant bisharp to avoid being outprioritized by sucker punch
• A jolly nature outspeed defensive mew, some variants of heatran, adamant diggersby, and jolly bisharp
• rest put into hp to capitalize on its good bulk and typing

Usage Tips
========

• it is important to preserve scizors health to safely set up and be harder to revenge kill from the likes of choice scarf landorus-T and talonflame.
• However, if roost is chosen over bug bite then scizor can switch into pokemon more reliably.
• scout out for hp fire from pokemon such as latios and mega venusaur
• setup with swords dance when its checks and counters have been eliminated, mainly pokemon such as mega manectric and skarmory which are troublesome for scizor
• however, it may be useful to use swords dance early to mid game in order to pressure the opponent

Team Options
========

• hazard setters such as garchomp and greninja to wear down scizors checks and counters, most importantly giving scizor a very high chance to OHKO defensive rotom-w after stealth rock with +2 bug bite
• latios / latias have good synergy and are commonly seen on offensively based teams. latios provides a good switch in to fire type attacks, while in return scizor switches in on ice, dragon, and fairy-type attacks. latias provides healing wish support to give scizor another chance to sweep
• landorus-t is a good partner that provides momentum with u-turn and also has good synergy
• swords dance bisharp is a good teammate to weaken pokemon such as keldeo and other physical walls that trouble scizor.
• Strong physical softeners and wallbreakers that wear down the opposing team are helpful so that scizor can sweep.
• Thunder wave rotom-w can lure in and paralyse charizard X, allowing scizor to outpspeed and KO it with +2 superpower

Bulky Swords Dance
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name: Bulky Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Roost
move 3: Bullet Punch
move 4: Knock Off / Superpower / U-turn
ability: Light Metal
item: Scizorite
evs: 248 HP / 84 Atk / 176 SpD
nature: Impish

Moves
========

• swords dance boosts scizors attack to extremely high levels
• roost provides a reliable form of recovery while boosting, to heal off damage from the likes of excadrill and mamoswine
• bullet punch is a strong priority stab move that is boosted by technician
• knock off has good utility in removing opponents items and has good nuetral coverage with bullet punch
• superpower hits opposing steel types such as heatran, bisharp, and ferrothorn
• u-turn is an interesting choice, as the opponent will often switch after a swords dance boost into a check or counter to scizor, allowing scizor to gain offensive momentum

Set Details
========

• 248 hp for maximum bulk
• light metal to switch into attacks such grass knot or low kick before mega evolving, and scizor gains technician upon mega evolving
  
• 76 spdef evs and a careful nature allow scizor to take 2 modest focus blasts for mega gardevoir
• 112 def avoids the 2hko from non life orb adamant excadrills earthquake
• rest of the evs into attack for obvious reasons

Usage Tips
========

• due to its good bulk, especially with maximum hp investment, scizor is best used as a pivot switch in to resisted hits such as bisharps iron head, azumarills play rough, mega gardevoirs hyper voice, or latias's psyshock
• This set is also a great switch in to Kyurem-b with the exception of the rare hidden power fire
• Knock off is generally good to spam early game, as it wears down or cripples scizors checks and counters such as rotom-w, heatran, and talonflame.
• scizor should not attempt to boost until its checks and counters have been removed, mainly skarmory and mega manectric. However, it may be wise in some situations to boost early on to pressure the opponent
• be sure to scout out for coverage moves such as hidden power fire from lati@s and mega venusaur

Team Options
========

• this set fits much better on balance teams, mainly with partners to cover scizors weaknesses and beat its checks and counters.
• slowbro is a good partner to handle fire types such as talonflame and has good synergy with scizor
• heatran can sponge fire type attacks with flash fire
• Latios and latias are great partners to check keldeo, thundurus, mega manectric, and mega charizard Y, while scizor checks most fairy and ice types.

Roost + 3 Attacks
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name: Roost + 3 Attacks
move 1: Roost
move 2: U-turn
move 3: Bullet Punch
move 4: Superpower / Pursuit / Knock Off
ability: Light Metal
item: Scizorite
evs: 248 HP / 92 Atk / 164 SpD
nature: Adamant

Moves
========

Roost gives Scizor a way to repeatedly check prominent threats such as Bisharp, Latias, Latios, most Fairy-types, and some Dragon-types that offensive sets cannot deal with. U-turn is a good STAB move that Scizor can use to switch into a more favorable match-up, especially against Skarmory; it also provides the team with offensive momentum. Bullet Punch gives Scizor a solid STAB move which is necessary to hit Fairy-and Dragon-types such as Clefable and Kyurem-B. Bullet Punch is also a priority attack that is boosted by Technician, which mitigates Scizor's horrible Speed. Knock Off is a great move to round off Scizor's coverage, neutering walls such as Landorus-T, Hippowdon, and Heatran on the switch while also hitting Pokemon such as Skarmory. Other options on this set include using Pursuit instead of Knock Off to trap Pokemon such as Latios, Latias, and Mega Gardevoir, which can assist Pokemon such as Keldeo in sweeping. It also puts Kyurem-B into the KO range of Bullet Punch. Adding to Scizor's coverage, Superpower hits common switch-ins to Scizor such as Heatran while being able to do a good amount of damage to Skarmory, forcing it to Roost. Superpower is also the only move in Scizor's arsenal that is guaranteed to OHKO Bisharp.


Set Details
========

Scizor's EV spread focuses on HP, Special Defense, and Attack. 248 HP EVs make Scizor as bulky as possible and reduce Stealth Rock damage. 164 Special Defense EVs are used to help Scizor sponge up attacks from the likes of Latios, Latias, and Mega Gardevoir, in particular to avoid the 2HKO fromMega Gardevoir's Focus Blast. An Adamant nature and 96 Attack EVs give Scizor additional damage output. Light Metal is the ability of choice as it reduces the damage of Low Kick and Grass Knot, and Mega Scizor gains Technician upon Mega Evolving anyway.

Usage Tips
========

This Scizor set is a medium between the other sets, being more offensively-oriented than the Defog set but more defensively-oriented than the Swords Dance set. This set is one of the best counters to Bisharp as it carries Superpower to OHKO Bisharp if it chooses to stay in and U-turn to gain momentum if it switches out. Mega Scizor can act as a lure to Pokemon that counter it such as Heatran and Skarmory, then use U-turn to escape the unfavorable match-up. U-turn should also be used to build or keep offensive momentum for the team. Scizor makes for a good switch-in to Fairy-type Pokemon, as it resists their STAB moves and can retaliate with a super effective Bullet Punch. However, watch out for Clefable as it sometimes carries a Fire-type move which often OHKOes Scizor. Volt-turn partners such as Landorus-T, Rotom-W, Raikou, and Talonflame all pair well with Scizor's momentum and have good synergy. Frail attackers such as Gengar and Greninja make for good teammates as they appreciate Scizor's slow U-turn. Another Pokemon to watch out for is Mega Gardevoir, as it occasionally carries Hidden Power Fire or Will-O-Wisp, which are moves that Scizor dislikes.

Team Options
========

Notable teammates of Mega Scizor should be able to counter Keldeo, Thundurus, and Fire- types such as Heatran. Pokemon such as Tyranitar, Rotom-W, Keldeo, Terrakion, and Heatran all make for great partners, as they can beat the Fire-types that Mega Scizor hates. Pokemon that counter or check Thundurus, such as Gastrodon and Hippowdon also make for great teammates as they either wall it or threaten it out. Mega Scizor has no way to really damage Keldeo, and a Hydro Pump from it could be deadly, so teammates that can check Keldeo such as Latias, and Latios make good teammates. As Mega Scizor is a counter to Fairy-types, Pokemon that are weak or are countered by Fairy-types are good teammates to Mega Scizor as well.


Choice Band
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name: Choice Band
move 1: Bullet Punch
move 2: U-turn
move 3: Pursuit / Knock Off
move 4: Superpower
ability: Technician
item: Choice Band
evs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
nature: Adamant

Moves
========

• bullet punch for priority, boosted by stab, allowing it to act as an effective revenge killer
• U-turn to gain momentum and hit stuff that try to take a resisted bp on the switch such as rotom-wash
• pursuit is great to trap gengar, latios (lacking hp fire), latias, mega gardevoir, etc
• knock off is an option remove opponents items on the switch, but the utility of pursuit is generally more useful
• superpower is a great coverage move to hit opposing steel-types such as ferrothorn and heatran, while hitting rotom-w for nuetral damage

Set Details
========

• max attack and adamant for obvious reasons
• maximum hp to be able to pivot out throughout the match
• 248 HP for an odd hp number, therefore taking less damage from entry hazards
• more speed investment can be used to outspeed defensive pokemon such as rotom-w, heatran, and mega venusaur
• choice band amplifies scizors attack to extremely high levels

Usage Tips
========

• U-turn is generally the safest move to go for early on, as it is very powerful and gains offensive momentum
• Bullet punch should be used to revenge kill weakened threats such as latios, terrakion, non-water greninja, and mega gardevoir
• A well planned double switch can be crucial to gain momentum with a strong u-turn or pursuit trap an opposing pokemon.
• Use the appropriate coverage move when necessary to either hit a predicted switch or trap a Pokemon
• Superpower should be used to hit incoming heatran and rotom-w
• Pursuit traps gengar, latios, mega gardevoir, and other offensive pokemon. However, before using pursuit it is important to scout for coverage moves such as hidden power fire or will-o-wisp from the aforementioned Pokemon
• When using pursuit, it is generally not the best move to be locked into as it is fairly weak without the boost and can give free opprotunities to setup sweepers such as mega tyranitar and belly drum azumarill.

Team Options
========

• users of volt switch and u-turn such as rotom-wash and landorus-t form a volt-turn core and have great synergy with scizor.
• heatran is a good teammate to absorb fire-type attacks aimed at scizor as well as set up stealth rock to support scizor.
• wallbreakers such as keldeo are helpful to break or wear down scizor's switch ins, such as skarmory, rotom-w, heatran, and hippowdon. Keldeo also appreciates this sets ability to trap latios and latias, allowing to use its stab moves more freely.
• stealth rock support from the likes of garchomp is helpful, as many of scizors checks such as talonflame and charizard are crippled by stealth rock damage.
• frail attackers such as gengar appreciate the slow u-turn that scizor provides

Defensive Defog
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name: Defensive Defog
move 1: Defog
move 2: Roost
move 3: Bullet Punch
move 4: U-turn / Superpower
ability: Light Metal
item: Scizorite
evs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
nature: Impish

Moves
========

• Defog clears all entry hazards from the field, and scizor gets many opportunities to do so thanks to its great bulk and defensive typing.
• Roost is a reliable form of recovery, allowing scizor to heal off hits taken from physical attackers and allowing it to defog multiple times throughout the battle if necessary
• Bullet punch is a strong priority stab move that is boosted by technician, and hits fairly hard even uninvested
• U-turn is preferred in the last slot to have scizor act as a defensive pivot after it has used defog, gaining useful momentum
• superpower is useful to smack bisharp and heatran, preventing the former from gaining a defiant boost from defog.
• knock off is an option to beat bulkier variants of landorus-T carrying leftovers and cripple scizors common switch ins, such as rotom-w and heatran

Set Details
========

• maximum hp and defense with an impish nature to handle physical attackers such as bisharp and excadrill
• alternately, a specially defensive ev spread can be used to better handle mega gardevoir, latios and latias lacking hidden power fire, and gengar
• 248 hp for an odd hp number to take less damage from entry hazards
• scizorite gives scizor significantly more bulk upon mega evolving
• light metal, while situational, allows scizor to take less damage from low kick and grass knot before mega evolving

Usage Tips
========

• scizor should be sent out against most physical attackers lacking a fire-type move, as it can usually sponge the hit to roost off the damage, defog, or pivot out with u-turn
• as always, it is important to scout for coverage moves such as hidden power fire or fire punch from the likes of latios and latias and dragonite respectively
• bluffing an offensive set by switching into pokemon such as chansey and latios generally give it a free turn to defog
• while defog is the main role of this set, scizor can act as a check to physical attackers such as bisharp and dragon dance tyranitar lacking fire punch
• it is important to note that without attack investment or coverage moves, scizor will not be able to rack up enough damage against boosting physical attackers such as swords dance excadrill and talonflame
• Scizor is a great check or counter to many threatening physical attackers such as mamoswine and terrakion, easily avoiding the 2hko from their stab moves.
• This set should be used mainly on defensive teams that need a good physical wall and pivot that can clear entry hazards.
• However, it is important to note that scizor loses to most common stealth rock users such as landorus-t, fire blast garchomp, and heatran.

Team Options
========

• volt-turn (rotom-w, raikou, landorus-t)
• rotom -w covers scizors weakness to fire-types while scizor can switch into grass and dragon type attacks
• Landorus-t similarly covers fire-types and also provides stealth rock support
• stealth rock users (landorus-t, heatran, rhyperior,)
• heatran is a great teammate to sponge fire-type attacks and can use its good special defense to complement scizors physical bulk
• teammates that benefit from defog support (charizard, talonflame, etc)
• frail attackers such as gengar also appreciate the entry hazard removal and the slow u-turn
• This set is best used on defensive teams, and greatly appreciates teammates to cover its weaknesses. (heatran, gastrodon, rotom-w, landorus-t, spdef dnite)

Other Options
########

• aerial ace / acrobatics lol
• 252 speed can be used on the offensive sd set to outspeed all non-choice scarf magenzone and most defensive heatran variants.
• tailwind
• choice scarf
• substitute (and maybe roost alongside it, dont think thats too viable)
• baton pass (already has its own set, but could be used on any set to dry pass or pass boosts)
• LO
• AV

Checks & Counters
########

• fire types (heatran if lacking superpower, especially faster variants, talonflame, charizard, etc)
• skarmory
• mandibuzz
• hippowdon (takes decent damage from banded or boosted hits, but can phase away boosts)
• taunt (prevents sd, defog and roost)
• faster pokemon that can take a bullet punch (keldeo, mega manectric, etc)
• zapdos
• rotom-w
• magnezone

 

[boltsandbombers]

Reposting this from the previous thread:

For the bulky set, Impish nature gives Mega Scizor 3 more Attack and Defense, while targeting same Special Defense stat. I know this is a bit of nit picking, but always use nature that takes advantage of Pokemon's main stats. The outcome is clear in this case. :3

Bulky Swords Dance
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name: Bulky Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Roost
move 3: Bullet Punch
move 4: Knock Off / Superpower / U-turn
ability: Light Metal
item: Scizorite
evs: 248 HP / 84 Atk / 176 SpD
nature: Impish

EDIT: There's another thing I don't get with the physical EV investment though. Adamant nature with 8 Def EVs is enough to prevent Mega Scizor from getting 2HKO by both non-Life Orb Excadrill and Lanodorus-T. Both the bulky Adamant and Impish nature set will faint in 3HKO regardless. So doesn't that make Adamant nature superior then? Unless there are other unmentioned Pokemon other than Excadrill and Landorus-T that hasn't been brought up.

You should implement this EV spread onto the 2nd set and change the set details accordingly. That spread was actually implemented onto the bulky SD set on site via SMCS iirc, so there is some explanation to the spread there.
If you have any questions about how I worded anything or need explanation on something, let me know :]

 

[Politoad]

I think a spread for the Choice Band set could be 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe. This allows Scizor to get hit by hazards on the switch in for the same amount as the current spread, but the Speed investment allows Scizor to outspeed specially defensive Heatran and OHKO it with Superpower / switch out of with U-turn. Aside from that, this allows Scizor to outspeed physically defensive Rotom-W (with 44 Speed) and switch out of it with U-turn while avoiding a Will-O-Wisp from it. Thoughts?

 

[Shurtugal]

I think a spread for the Choice Band set could be 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe. This allows Scizor to get hit by hazards on the switch in for the same amount as the current spread, but the Speed investment allows Scizor to outspeed specially defensive Heatran and OHKO it with Superpower / switch out of with U-turn. Aside from that, this allows Scizor to outspeed physically defensive Rotom-W (with 44 Speed) and switch out of it with U-turn while avoiding a Will-O-Wisp from it. Thoughts?

Nah. The bulk is what makes Band Scizor amazing - you can trap threats like Lati@s (and even Gengar if you switch into a Sludge and they fear BPunch) and a bunch of other things, too (Slowbro and Amo at low health, for starters). The bulk is needed because Scizor is a repeated switch in to so many attacks (Mooblasts, Draco Meteors, any attack from MMetagros, etc.) so I wouldn't say jumping Tran or Wash is really worth it. Maybe an OO mention.

 

[Karxrida]

I've been using a Jolly set that AM posted in his Volt Turn team, and I gotta say that speed creeping Bisharp and Rotom-W is pretty sweet. I'm on my phone (and should be sleeping) right now so I can't post the spread, but it should definitely be mentioned as an alternative for Offensive SD.

 

[AM]

I've been using a Jolly set that AM posted in his Volt Turn team, and I gotta say that speed creeping Bisharp and Rotom-W is pretty sweet. I'm on my phone (and should be sleeping) right now so I can't post the spread, but it should definitely be mentioned as an alternative for Offensive SD.

All that is mentioned in Set Details already.

 

[Karxrida]

All that is mentioned in Set Details already.

This is why posting super late is bad, kids. It makes you look like a moron.

 

[Jukain]

Locking this as unfixable dropped it; it is now up for reservation.