Scyther (Analysis) [QC 3/3]

[badabing]

QC: PK Gaming, Fried Rhys, wilson46
GP:

[Overview]

- Great base Speed and Attack
- Versatile user of Swords Dance with the ability to sweep or pass
- 4x SR weak
- Small movepool
- He'll cut you

[SET]
name: Swords Dance Sweeper
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Aerial Ace
move 3: Bug Bite
move 4: Brick Break / Quick Attack
item: Life Orb / Lum Berry
ability: Technician
nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

- SD and Scyther were made for each other.
- Aerial Ace and Bug Bite are potent Technician-boosted STABs.
- Brick Break hits Steelix and Aggron
- Intended to snatch a boost and do as much damage as possible, so Life Orb is the preferred item.
- Arbitrary sweeping spread, take advantage of his speed and max Atk.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

- Lum Berry eases setup and avoids suicidal recoil.
- Quick Attack deserves mention for sniping Scarfers

[SET]
name: Choice Band
move 1: U-turn
move 2: Aerial Ace
move 3: Quick Attack
move 4: Brick Break / Pursuit
item: Choice Band
ability: Technician
nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

- Access to STAB U-turn and high base Atk and Speed make Scyther a good user of CB
- U-turn is the ideal Bug STAB in this case for switch momentum, and also bails him out of being choice-locked.
- Technician-boosted Aerial Ace is the secondary sweeping STAB, complements U-turn coverage nicely.
- Quick Attack is useful for fallback priority
- Brick Break offers coverage on Steelix and Aggron

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

- Pursuit is handy for trapping things that fear U-turn
- Bug Bite for a non switching Bug STAB with more power
- The SR weak is troubling for a poke that’s meant to hit and run, so Rapid Spin support is advised.

[SET]
name: Bulky Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Aerial Ace
move 3: Roost
move 4: Baton Pass / Brick Break
item: Eviolite
ability: Technician
nature: Jolly
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Spe

- Sacrifices immediate sweeping potential to abuse his bulk with Eviolite and accumulate multiple boosts.
- Roost provides clutch 50% recovery as you SD up and it even stalls out some Electric/Ice attacks by temporarily removing his Flying type.
- Since he lacks coverage with Roost, Baton Pass lets him be more of a team player, allowing him to pass out to a poke better suited for the sweep.
- Aerial Ace is a reliable STAB and dispatches of WW Hariyama.
- Always max speed with Scyther, keep the HP odd to survive two SR switchins, and dump the rest into Atk or Def if you just want to pass.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

- Brick Break prevents Steelix from thoughtlessly phazing him.
- Bug Bite could also work as the lone STAB on a passing set depending on team circumstances, but Aerial Ace should go with Brick Break.
- Safeguard can protect him from status (particularly burn against defensive ghosts) at the expense of coverage / bp.

[OTHER OPTIONS]

- SubReversal / Focus Sash + SD + Reversal
- Agility + Baton Pass

[Checks and Counters]

- Rock type moves make quick work of him
- Defensive ghosts with Will-o-Wisp can handle pretty much anything outside of the gimmick bulky SD + Safeguard
- Steelix can impose his will on most sets. However, he is 2HKOed by +2 LO Brick Break and needs Roar to deal with bulky SD.
- Gligar also beats him, easily sponging hits from CB and getting off a Toxic / Aerial Ace on an SD set, maybe even Taunt to surprise halt a pass.
- A stubborn SR cockblocks choice variants

*What do you think should be the first slash on slot 4 of CB?

 

[Honko]

SubReversal is OO at best, especially with Salac unreleased.

 

[Oglemi]

Speed is abbreviated as Spe, Special Defense is abbreviated as SpD, and yes this is important.

Also I can tell aready that you have curly apostrophes, get rid of them. They should look like ' and "

The sets look good though, put in the OO and Checks and Counters section and this should be good to go.

 

[PK Gaming]

Underwhelming attacks? Scyther hits pretty hard, especially with a CB set equipped. (The SD set is really hard to straight up wall too)

Anyway, i'd slash Lum Berry alongside LO on the main set to get the jump on bulky WoW users like Cofagrigus/Dusclops, Sableye and random twave users.

QC APPROVED (1/3)

 

[badabing]

Yeah i had lum in AC but I'm down for the slash. Underwhelming attacks was probably bad wording on my part I'll change that too. I meant like small movepool...

edit: Added above changes and adjusted the set order. I'm also leaning towards Brick Break for the primary slash on CB because it rounds out coverage completely. Pursuit is great but it often seems situational and too team specific.

 

[Mike Legend]

QC APPROVED (2/3)

 

[wilson46]

QC APPROVED (3/3)

Brick Break is fine as a primary slash on CB.

 

[PK Gaming]

locking