i wrote the skelly and i like scrafty in general so yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! will write up when i have time
e: also, added super fang and removed crunch in OO but i doubt anyone will object to that
e2: removed crunch completely. knock off is just better.
Overview
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Scrafty is an excellent bulky support Pokemon because of its access to both Intimidate and Fake Out, along with excellent defensive stats. By merit of its typing, it can also deal good damage to big threats such as Mega Kangaskhan, Heatran, Aegislash, and even Bisharp despite Scrafty feeding it Defiant boosts. However, besides Bisharp, it can't directly KO many Pokemon with its average Attack stat and low Base Power moves, so it can sometimes be passive and easy to ignore for the enemy team. Its bulk also suffers because of its unfortunate 4x weakness to Fairy, making it much easier to remove than in previous VGC metagames. However, Scrafty's niche is still uncontested, especially with Hitmontop losing popularity, so its support options make it well worth a teamslot.
Bulky Support
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name: Bulky Support
move 1: Fake Out
move 2: Drain Punch
move 3: Knock Off
move 4: Protect / Ice Punch / Taunt
ability: Intimidate
item: Sitrus Berry / Lum Berry / Assault Vest
evs: 252 HP / 164 Atk / 92 SpD
nature: Careful
Moves
========
Fake Out is great for helping partner Pokemon set up and, in general, is an easy move to apply pressure with. Drain Punch is Scrafty's main STAB option and source of recovery. Knock Off is a secondary STAB move that has great neutral coverage with Drain Punch and can help scout and remove items from your opponent's team. Protect is essentially Scrafty's first and only line of defense against Fairy-types, as well as Flying-types such as Talonflame and Salamence, and helps preserve its Intimidate and Fake Out in general by merit of keeping Scrafty alive. Ice Punch is mainly for coverage against Landorus-T, the most common Intimidate user, along with Dragon-types such as Garchomp and Mega Salamence. Taunt is useful to shut down Trick Room and sleep-inducing moves, along with disabling Protect and Substitute. It also allows Scrafty to become a harder check to Aegislash and Amoonguss, disabling them from using status moves and making them much more vulnerable to attacks from Scrafty and its partner.
Set Details
========
Sitrus Berry is your go-to item for bulky Pokemon, as instantly recovering a fourth of Scrafty's health is incredibly useful. Obviously, don't use Assault Vest with Protect or Taunt, as Assault Vest will disable those moves. Leftovers can be used over Sitrus Berry if it's taken already. Lum Berry is especially helpful with Taunt, as it helps suppress Amoonguss's Spore or Rotom-W's Will-O-Wisp without fear of being hit by one of those moves first.
The given EV spread allows Scrafty to survive Choice Specs Hydreigon's Draco Meteor and maximum Special Attack investment Timid Mega Charizard Y's Overheat in the sun (along with bulkier Modest Charizard's Overheat) without Assault Vest. The rest is dumped into Attack to 2HKO 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan with Drain Punch. Alternatively, Scrafty can run an Adamant nature and maximum Attack investment to 2HKO Mega Kangaskhan that have 252 HP EVs, but this makes Scrafty less bulky. The change in bulk is less noticeable with Assault Vest, however.
When using Scrafty with speed control, use 52 Speed EVs to outspeed Jolly Garchomp with Tailwind, 28 Speed EVs to outspeed Adamant Bisharp with Icy Wind, and a Sassy or Brave nature with 0 Speed IVs with Trick Room. 20 Speed EVs allow Scrafty to outspeed Modest Aegislash and other base 60 Speed Pokemon regardless of speed control and Taunt them before they set up a Substitute or use other annoying moves.
Usage Tips
========
It's generally a good idea to lead with Scrafty because of the utility of Fake Out and Intimidate, though you may want to think twice if you see Milotic or Bisharp in Team Preview. Fake Out is great to create free turns for Scrafty's partner and Intimidate provides great team support, but Scrafty can become a sitting duck rather quickly. Switch it in and out to refresh both of them and be aware of when Scrafty isn't doing much so that you can make more effective switches.
Team Options
========
Fake Out is an amazing move when paired with Substitute or Trick Room. Mega Metagross, Heatran, and Aegislash have great defensive synergy with Scrafty and can easily set up Substitutes when threats such as Landorus-T are preoccupied with Fake Out. The same goes for Trick Room; Jellicent, Cresselia, and Gothitelle all appreciate Scrafty's support options, though you should be careful about being too passive when leading with Cresselia and Scrafty.
Of course, Fake Out and Intimidate are universally appreciated. For example, Tailwind users such as Suicune and Talonflame can set up Tailwind more easily, and physically frail sweepers such as Mega Charizard Y, Mega Gardevoir, and Sylveon enjoy both Intimidate and Fake Out.
You can run another Intimidate user if you're confident that Defiant won't be a problem. Mega Manectric and Landorus-T can switch out with Volt Switch and U-turn, respectively, making it possible to trigger Intimidate three times in one turn. Gyarados can set up Dragon Dances more easily with Fake Out support, as well. Type synergy to reuse Scrafty's Intimidate is important as well, and Pokemon such as Mega Mawile, Mega Gengar, Rotom-W, Thundurus, and Zapdos all make for great options for type synergy.
Other Options
========
Snarl may have obscenely low damage output considering it has roughly 61 Base Power after STAB and spread damage reduction and runs off of Scrafty's base 45 Special Attack, but it lowers the Special Attack of threats such as Heatran and Aegislash and can even hit through Substitutes to further annoy opponents. Quick Guard helps against priority attacks such as Scizor's Bullet Punch, Talonflame's Brave Bird, and Thundurus's Thunder Wave, but it can't guard against most other Fake Out users such as Kangaskhan under normal conditions because of Scrafty's low Speed and the fact that Quick Guard and Fake Out share the same priority. Super Fang keeps Scrafty useful after it gets burned or Intimidated, shaving off half of the foe's health. This can be especially helpful against bulkier Pokemon such as Suicune, but be aware that you may trigger a Sitrus Berry if the foe has an even HP stat. Detect can be used over Protect to avoid Imprison disabling it. However, it has fewer PP and Scrafty likes to hang around for a while, so more PP in most matches is more worthwhile than preparing for the incredibly rare Imprison.
In terms of offense, Scrafty has a lot of options, though in many cases there are other Pokemon that perform the role of bulky attacker better, such as Hariyama. High Jump Kick and Low Kick lack the recovery factor that Drain Punch has, but they help Scrafty KO Kangaskhan more efficiently. However, they suffer from inconsistent damage output otherwise. Stone Edge and Poison Jab are coverage options for Flying-types and Fairy-types, respectively, though their damage outputs are still low and Scrafty might be better off just letting a partner handle such threats.
Checks & Counters
########
**Fairy-types**: Sylveon, (Mega) Gardevoir, Mega Mawile, Togekiss, Clefable, and even Clefairy all threaten Scrafty with their STAB Fairy-type moves. Sylveon and Mega Gardevoir don't even have to worry about redirection, predicting a switch, or attacking into Protect either, making them even more dangerous for Scrafty and its team.
**Flying-types**: Mega Salamence and Talonflame can easily OHKO Scrafty with Double-Edge or Brave Bird provided they haven't been Intimidated multiple times.
**Burns and Intimidate**: Once Scrafty's already decidedly average Attack stat gets cut, it struggles to deal damage or do much of anything outside of Taunt and removing items. Landorus-T, Salamence, Gyarados, and Mawile are all common Intimidate users. Sableye and Rotom-W can stomach Scrafty's attacks even before they burn it. The same goes for Entei and Suicune, though they instead use Sacred Fire or Scald repeatedly until they either burn or KO Scrafty, and there's not much Scrafty can do about it. Even without burn or Intimidate support, bulkier Pokemon should be able to handle Scrafty one-on-one anyway.
e: also, added super fang and removed crunch in OO but i doubt anyone will object to that
e2: removed crunch completely. knock off is just better.
Overview
########
Scrafty is an excellent bulky support Pokemon because of its access to both Intimidate and Fake Out, along with excellent defensive stats. By merit of its typing, it can also deal good damage to big threats such as Mega Kangaskhan, Heatran, Aegislash, and even Bisharp despite Scrafty feeding it Defiant boosts. However, besides Bisharp, it can't directly KO many Pokemon with its average Attack stat and low Base Power moves, so it can sometimes be passive and easy to ignore for the enemy team. Its bulk also suffers because of its unfortunate 4x weakness to Fairy, making it much easier to remove than in previous VGC metagames. However, Scrafty's niche is still uncontested, especially with Hitmontop losing popularity, so its support options make it well worth a teamslot.
Bulky Support
########
name: Bulky Support
move 1: Fake Out
move 2: Drain Punch
move 3: Knock Off
move 4: Protect / Ice Punch / Taunt
ability: Intimidate
item: Sitrus Berry / Lum Berry / Assault Vest
evs: 252 HP / 164 Atk / 92 SpD
nature: Careful
Moves
========
Fake Out is great for helping partner Pokemon set up and, in general, is an easy move to apply pressure with. Drain Punch is Scrafty's main STAB option and source of recovery. Knock Off is a secondary STAB move that has great neutral coverage with Drain Punch and can help scout and remove items from your opponent's team. Protect is essentially Scrafty's first and only line of defense against Fairy-types, as well as Flying-types such as Talonflame and Salamence, and helps preserve its Intimidate and Fake Out in general by merit of keeping Scrafty alive. Ice Punch is mainly for coverage against Landorus-T, the most common Intimidate user, along with Dragon-types such as Garchomp and Mega Salamence. Taunt is useful to shut down Trick Room and sleep-inducing moves, along with disabling Protect and Substitute. It also allows Scrafty to become a harder check to Aegislash and Amoonguss, disabling them from using status moves and making them much more vulnerable to attacks from Scrafty and its partner.
Set Details
========
Sitrus Berry is your go-to item for bulky Pokemon, as instantly recovering a fourth of Scrafty's health is incredibly useful. Obviously, don't use Assault Vest with Protect or Taunt, as Assault Vest will disable those moves. Leftovers can be used over Sitrus Berry if it's taken already. Lum Berry is especially helpful with Taunt, as it helps suppress Amoonguss's Spore or Rotom-W's Will-O-Wisp without fear of being hit by one of those moves first.
The given EV spread allows Scrafty to survive Choice Specs Hydreigon's Draco Meteor and maximum Special Attack investment Timid Mega Charizard Y's Overheat in the sun (along with bulkier Modest Charizard's Overheat) without Assault Vest. The rest is dumped into Attack to 2HKO 4 HP Mega Kangaskhan with Drain Punch. Alternatively, Scrafty can run an Adamant nature and maximum Attack investment to 2HKO Mega Kangaskhan that have 252 HP EVs, but this makes Scrafty less bulky. The change in bulk is less noticeable with Assault Vest, however.
When using Scrafty with speed control, use 52 Speed EVs to outspeed Jolly Garchomp with Tailwind, 28 Speed EVs to outspeed Adamant Bisharp with Icy Wind, and a Sassy or Brave nature with 0 Speed IVs with Trick Room. 20 Speed EVs allow Scrafty to outspeed Modest Aegislash and other base 60 Speed Pokemon regardless of speed control and Taunt them before they set up a Substitute or use other annoying moves.
Usage Tips
========
It's generally a good idea to lead with Scrafty because of the utility of Fake Out and Intimidate, though you may want to think twice if you see Milotic or Bisharp in Team Preview. Fake Out is great to create free turns for Scrafty's partner and Intimidate provides great team support, but Scrafty can become a sitting duck rather quickly. Switch it in and out to refresh both of them and be aware of when Scrafty isn't doing much so that you can make more effective switches.
Team Options
========
Fake Out is an amazing move when paired with Substitute or Trick Room. Mega Metagross, Heatran, and Aegislash have great defensive synergy with Scrafty and can easily set up Substitutes when threats such as Landorus-T are preoccupied with Fake Out. The same goes for Trick Room; Jellicent, Cresselia, and Gothitelle all appreciate Scrafty's support options, though you should be careful about being too passive when leading with Cresselia and Scrafty.
Of course, Fake Out and Intimidate are universally appreciated. For example, Tailwind users such as Suicune and Talonflame can set up Tailwind more easily, and physically frail sweepers such as Mega Charizard Y, Mega Gardevoir, and Sylveon enjoy both Intimidate and Fake Out.
You can run another Intimidate user if you're confident that Defiant won't be a problem. Mega Manectric and Landorus-T can switch out with Volt Switch and U-turn, respectively, making it possible to trigger Intimidate three times in one turn. Gyarados can set up Dragon Dances more easily with Fake Out support, as well. Type synergy to reuse Scrafty's Intimidate is important as well, and Pokemon such as Mega Mawile, Mega Gengar, Rotom-W, Thundurus, and Zapdos all make for great options for type synergy.
Other Options
========
Snarl may have obscenely low damage output considering it has roughly 61 Base Power after STAB and spread damage reduction and runs off of Scrafty's base 45 Special Attack, but it lowers the Special Attack of threats such as Heatran and Aegislash and can even hit through Substitutes to further annoy opponents. Quick Guard helps against priority attacks such as Scizor's Bullet Punch, Talonflame's Brave Bird, and Thundurus's Thunder Wave, but it can't guard against most other Fake Out users such as Kangaskhan under normal conditions because of Scrafty's low Speed and the fact that Quick Guard and Fake Out share the same priority. Super Fang keeps Scrafty useful after it gets burned or Intimidated, shaving off half of the foe's health. This can be especially helpful against bulkier Pokemon such as Suicune, but be aware that you may trigger a Sitrus Berry if the foe has an even HP stat. Detect can be used over Protect to avoid Imprison disabling it. However, it has fewer PP and Scrafty likes to hang around for a while, so more PP in most matches is more worthwhile than preparing for the incredibly rare Imprison.
In terms of offense, Scrafty has a lot of options, though in many cases there are other Pokemon that perform the role of bulky attacker better, such as Hariyama. High Jump Kick and Low Kick lack the recovery factor that Drain Punch has, but they help Scrafty KO Kangaskhan more efficiently. However, they suffer from inconsistent damage output otherwise. Stone Edge and Poison Jab are coverage options for Flying-types and Fairy-types, respectively, though their damage outputs are still low and Scrafty might be better off just letting a partner handle such threats.
Checks & Counters
########
**Fairy-types**: Sylveon, (Mega) Gardevoir, Mega Mawile, Togekiss, Clefable, and even Clefairy all threaten Scrafty with their STAB Fairy-type moves. Sylveon and Mega Gardevoir don't even have to worry about redirection, predicting a switch, or attacking into Protect either, making them even more dangerous for Scrafty and its team.
**Flying-types**: Mega Salamence and Talonflame can easily OHKO Scrafty with Double-Edge or Brave Bird provided they haven't been Intimidated multiple times.
**Burns and Intimidate**: Once Scrafty's already decidedly average Attack stat gets cut, it struggles to deal damage or do much of anything outside of Taunt and removing items. Landorus-T, Salamence, Gyarados, and Mawile are all common Intimidate users. Sableye and Rotom-W can stomach Scrafty's attacks even before they burn it. The same goes for Entei and Suicune, though they instead use Sacred Fire or Scald repeatedly until they either burn or KO Scrafty, and there's not much Scrafty can do about it. Even without burn or Intimidate support, bulkier Pokemon should be able to handle Scrafty one-on-one anyway.
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