Overview
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With its high Attack, decent Speed, and good ability in Speed Boost, Sharpedo is a very dangerous physical threat. With the buff to Dark-type coverage, Sharpedo's STAB Crunch became all the more dangerous, and it has a good movepool and coverage to support it. The main downside to Sharpedo is its overall lack of longevity and bulk, which makes it susceptible to a wide range of priority attacks. While Sharpedo is a phenomenal offensive threat, it lacks the ability to come in multiple times, and thus performs best only as a cleaner.
Cleaner
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name: Cleaner
move 1: Protect / Aqua Jet
move 2: Waterfall
move 3: Crunch
move 4: Destiny Bond / Ice Beam / Earthquake
ability: Speed Boost
item: Life Orb
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
nature: Adamant / Naughty
Moves
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With Speed Boost, Sharpedo can quickly become a devastating sweeper. Protect helps Sharpedo gather Speed boosts as efficiently as possible, but Aqua Jet lets it beat popular priority users such as Talonflame and weakened Scizor. It's important to note, however, that with Aqua Jet, Sharpedo has a much harder time gathering multiple Speed boosts. Waterfall and Crunch serve as STAB moves, attaining good neutral coverage in the metagame. Destiny Bond makes use of Sharpedo's high Speed after a couple boosts, allowing it to take out a worrisome threat as it is defeated. Even though Destiny Bond can support Sharpedo's team more, both Ice Beam and Earthquake can be used to complete Sharpedo's coverage. Ice Beam allows Sharpedo to KO Dragon-types such as Dragonite and Salamence while handling traditional physical checks such as Landorus-T and Garchomp easier. Earthquake allows Sharpedo to avoid mind games against King's Shield Aegislash while getting reliable damage against Keldeo and Toxicroak.
Set Details
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The chosen EV spread maximizes Sharpedo's damage output while making the best use of its ability, Speed Boost. Due to Sharpedo's task as a strong physical cleaner, both an Adamant nature and a Life Orb are chosen to allow it to do as much damage as possible. A Naughty nature can be used to avoid a Special Attack drop if Sharpedo opts for Ice Beam instead of Destiny Bond.
Usage Tips
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Sharpedo serves best as an late-game cleaner, meaning that it is best to not bring it out until it is ready to sweep. With its lack of longevity and general fragility, Sharpedo will not be given many chances to come in, so time its use appropriately. When using Sharpedo, make as much use of Protect as possible. Through stealing free turns with Protect, Sharpedo can outspeed many notable Choice Scarf users, and at times when Sharpedo needs multiple boosts to outspeed the opponent, each Protect will count. As Sharpedo is a late-game cleaner, the more damage the opponent has taken, the better. As a result, Sharpedo pairs very well with a heavy amount of entry hazards, as this not only reliably weakens the opponent but also takes advantage of the many switches that Sharpedo forces.
Team Options
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Politoed makes for an excellent partner, wearing down the opponent's Water-type resistances with STAB Hydro Pumps while also bolstering Sharpedo's Waterfall with Drizzle. Sharpedo also greatly appreciates checks to common priority users such as Dragonite, Talonflame, and Breloom, making Pokemon such as Landorus-T excellent partners. Sharpedo works best on an offensive team, cleaning up after other wallbreakers, such as Mega Mawile and Dragonite, have weakened the opponent's defensive cores.
Other Options
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A pure special set can also be used to take advantage of the typical physical walls that switch into Sharpedo, but due to the abundance of specially defensive Pokemon such as Togekiss and Chansey, this set has a much harder time sweeping. A Focus Energy Scope Lens set can also be used, as after one Focus Energy, Sharpedo's Night Slash has a 100% critical hit rate. However, with the nerf to critical hits this generation and the turn of setup required with its rather low bulk, Sharpedo is better off directly attacking. Zen Headbutt can also be used, primarily for targeting Keldeo, but it is important to note that if you use Zen Headbutt, you are unable to have Destiny Bond on the set due to legalities. Poison Jab can also be used, primarily for hitting Fairy-types, with the main targets being Azumarill and Clefable.
Checks & Counters
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**Physically Defensive Walls**: The likes of Ferrothorn and Skarmory make for excellent counters, as they can take any hit from Sharpedo and possibly set up entry hazards on it. Similarly, physically defensive pivots make for good counters; Rotom-W for example is able to threaten Sharpedo with Will-O-Wisp and STAB Electric-type attacks. Mega Venusaur also takes pittance from every attack except the rare Zen Headbutt, and can reply with Giga Drain.
**Priority Users**: These are often the main hindrance to a Sharpedo sweep. If Sharpedo lacks Aqua Jet, Talonflame and Scizor are able to reliably revenge kill it, while Dragonite and Breloom can revenge every Sharpedo set.
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