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Guzzlord, really ? Lol no way. How could NU don't use it ?
It may be the worst Beast but it still have an excellent movepool and the ability to increase its special attack. Dual stab with Fire blast + sludge bomb is really hard to check.
This is really too huge for us, I can't imagine it drops here, and if so, it will surely get banned.
Yea we had M-Altaria, M-Lopunny... in early ORAS but they left us really quickly. :p
This is taken from the NU speculation, which speculates RU will keep the top 60 mons from UU, and NU will keep the top 70 mons from RU. Some surprising results.
This is taken from the NU speculation, which speculates RU will keep the top 60 mons from UU, and NU will keep the top 70 mons from RU. Some surprising results.
this list is totally meaningless because you cannot predict usage by jumping tiers. The RU alpha metagame is totally separate from the NU alpha metagame, and it may just happen that when the NU alpha comes a ton of pokemon on this list may get a super high usage. Like I can't see pokemon like Yanmega, Meloetta, and Mega Gyarados (lmao) not dominating the tier in usage if they drop
you probably already know this just trying to make sure other people aren't misled
Regular Sharpedo will never be PU in any sense of the word. It'll likely end up NU considering I don't see it much on the RU Alpha ladder, but even then SM NU will just be ORAS RU and Sharpedo was broken as fuck there. Same goes for Houndoom, Kyurem, Medicham, Sigilyph, and a whole lot of others on there.
I feel like it's far too early to do PU related guesses. At least wait until NU Alpha ladder starts up.
Regular Sharpedo will never be PU in any sense of the word. It'll likely end up NU considering I don't see it much on the RU Alpha ladder, but even then SM NU will just be ORAS RU and Sharpedo was broken as fuck there. Same goes for Houndoom, Kyurem, Medicham, Sigilyph, and a whole lot of others on there.
I feel like it's far too early to do PU related guesses. At least wait until NU Alpha ladder starts up.
Shiinotic will probably not drop here, NU will take it because a physically defensive set with strength sap checks the bulk of NU's physical attackers. You're right about gumshoos, lurantis, and pa'u Oricorio (in fact, look at the previous posts). Pyukumuku is an oddball (may drop here but has definite niches over quagsire in higher tiers).
Machoke will definitely drop here, confusion nerf means fewer forced switches.
Arceus-Fighting is 100% without question my favorite Uber/Legendary Pokemon. What sucks is that was not very viable because you couldn't use more than one Arceus-Forme. This situation similarly applies to Silvally-Fighting. PU is undoubtedly receiving several Silvally-Formes, and the Species Clause will likely still apply. So what gives? Why use Silvally-Fighting specifically over other Silvally-Formes? Well, for starters it functions differently from the other 2 fighting-types PU has to offer: Monferno & Combusken. It's absent of Close Combat and Focus Blast in favor of Multi-Attack, which is 100% accurate and doesn't lower it's impressive 95/95/95 bulk. Also, Silvally-Fighting is the best Knock Off absorber in the ENTIRE tier due to it's Fighting Memory being unable to knocked off, as well as resisting the move. It also boasts great coverage in Crunch and Iron Head to threaten those pesky Psychic and Fairy types respectfully, as well as Swords Dance to sweep late game. Lastly, Silvally-Fighting boasts great synergy with many PU Pokemon such as Chatot and Metang. Overall, I think Silvally-Fighting will be an extremely potent Pokemon to play against if it were to drop to PU. Especially potent if it's on sand teams.
SAND BALANCE:
Watch Silvally-Fighting put so much work in this replay against the talented RawMelon: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7pokebankou-516830681 SAND OFFENSE:
Once again, Silvally-Fighting works fairly well against another great looking team. It itself didn't do as much this time around, but it's proven itself over and over to be fantastic glue to a team that needs something to hit hard and take hits as well. Shout outs this time to my boy GenZeon. http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7pokebankou-518143078
I'd like to start with one of my personal favorites: Chimecho!
If you didn't already know, this little guy got a buff in Sun and Moon: +10 to Hp, Def, and Spdef
Now, compare this to it's original stat distribution
65/50/70/95/80/65
75/50/80/95/90/65
This means that Chimecho's Wishes will actually be worth using, and it can be better at utilizing Heal Bell due to it's augmented bulk. However, it's still strongly shut down by Taunt and Dark types.
I feel like it will definitely carve a niche once Mushy leaves, with it's vast movepool and access to moves many Pokemon would kill for.
It's still frail unfortunately, and its typing is not really great for a defensive mon (in this case, a Cleric).
Chimecho can still hold a Colbur Berry to endure Pursuit/Knock Off ; it also has a niche with Healing Wish.
But Audino outclasses it as a cleric without any doubt.
So, I think that Chimecho will still be bad :/
However, as PU should get many mons from NU, FU/ZU might be a thing now, and I think that Chimecho could be cool there.
By the way, its buff are quite similar to the Corsola's ones (+10 HP/DEF/SDEF).
Do you guys think that Corsola might be better ?
It's still frail unfortunately, and its typing is not really great for a defensive mon (in this case, a Cleric).
Chimecho can still hold a Colbur Berry to endure Pursuit/Knock Off ; it also has a niche with Healing Wish.
But Audino outclasses it as a cleric without any doubt.
So, I think that Chimecho will still be bad :/
However, as PU should get many mons from NU, FU/ZU might be a thing now, and I think that Chimecho could be cool there.
By the way, its buff are quite similar to the Corsola's ones (+10 HP/DEF/SDEF).
Do you guys think that Corsola might be better ?
But anyway, the main problem Corsola has is being outclassed by Carracosta, being much more relevant consider that it'll certainly drop unless the NU Alpha meta really favors it and there will likely be enough checks to it that drop so it won't be broken. Carracosta lacks recovery outside of leftovers but has better defenses and Knock Off. It also has Solid Rock to take into consideration.
But anyway, the main problem Corsola has is being outclassed by Carracosta, being much more relevant consider that it'll certainly drop unless the NU Alpha meta really favors it and there will likely be enough checks to it that drop so it won't be broken. Carracosta lacks recovery outside of leftovers but has better defenses and Knock Off. It also has Solid Rock to take into consideration.
Despite already discussing Silvally-Fighting within the last 10 posts, I'd like to post again. This time I have 2 Pokemon to share: One is yet again another Silvally-type, and the other is a Pokemon we have already seen.
Let's start with my 2nd favorite new Silvally-type: Silvally-Dragon!
Silvally-Dragon is yet another Silvally-type that benefits from the tier having a lack of that certain type. This time around, it performs more of a sweeper role, typically running this set.
Eagle Horse Fish (Silvally-Dragon) @ Dragon Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Multi-Attack
- Flame Charge
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
Silvally-Dragon's appreciates PU Alpha commonly running Ferroseed, and other passive Pokemon, in which he can easily set up on. On paper threats such as Comfey are in practice not counters at all.
+2 252 Atk Silvally Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Comfey: 222-262 (72.5 - 85.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+4 252 Atk Silvally Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Comfey: 332-392 (108.4 - 128.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
28 SpA Comfey Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Silvally: 158-188 (47.7 - 56.7%) -- 87.5% chance to 2HKO
28 SpA Comfey Draining Kiss vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Silvally: 102-120 (30.8 - 36.2%) -- 41% chance to 3HKO
28 SpA Comfey Dazzling Gleam+Draining Kiss vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Silvally: 158-188 (78.5 - 92.9%) -- 100% chance to 2HKO
Overall, if you set up 1 SD and 1 Flame Charge, Silvally-Dragon will cut your opponent's team in half like a hot knife through softened butter. Global Voice +Eternally and I experienced that scenario, having played a match where Silvally-Dragon took out 45% total damage of his entire team. However, at his request, I will refrain from showing the replay. Instead, watch this replay against LordSampleTeam himself: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7pokebankou-519587822
The second Pokemon I'd like to mention is one we've seen do well in PU last generation. This Pokemon is Metang.
One of the 2 reasons I'd like to bring this Pokemon up is it's typing in combination with the 2 Silvally-Formes I've mentioned up until this point. Metang already provided great synergy with Pokemon such as Monferno and Politoed, but now with the introduction of the bulky 95/95/95 Silvally-Formes, bulky Fighting/Dark/Psychic cores and bulky Fairy/Dragon/Steel cores are now made more possible. I think it's one of the better SRers right now and one major reason for that is it's fantastic typing and synergy.
The 2nd reason is because it is HANDS DOWN the best Shiinotic Counter. It cannot Strength Sap due to Clear Body, it resists Moonblast and Giga Drain, it's immune to Toxic, it threatens it out with Meteor Mash. The best thing Shiinotic can do is Leech Seed or Spore on the switch. THAT'S IT! In likewise fashion, Comfey cannot 3HKO it with any of it's moves, making it a solid check to one of the Pokémon deemed to be the most broken.
Comfey has established itself in the speculation tour as a prominent threat due to its offensive calm mind set. The ability Triage gives Comfey a +3 priority Draining Kiss which can effectively clean offensive teams at +1 once fairy resists are removed or weakened. In that vein of thinking, Trapinch and Probopass can make great partners as they can both trap troublesome steels that would otherwise stop a Comfey sweep.
Oh yeah there's a thread for discussing the meta. Even if it's fake and probably won't be like this, here's some stuff I like. I just took screenshots from from showdown teambuilder because lazy, ik it looks awful but I don't wanna mess with sprites right now sorry. There's definitely more mons I didn't cover, but this is just to get some discussion going, don't save all of your cool stuff for the tour pls
Really nice offensive mon, walled by a couple of choice mons (mostly things on stall so not so great vs that) but amazing offensive typing, sucker is rly nice, it's the faster, somewhat more reliable electric check we wouldve loved last gen. Zebstrika is weirdly uncommon too from what I'm seeing, although u can revenge w/sucker from a decent amount
I think everybody's realized that bird is awesome by now, but it really is cool. Spinblocking is more relevant, its offensive typing is cool and unique, and its limited movepool isn't all that bad when p much nothing resists Flying+Ghost. I've seen scarf, LO offensive, subCm, I mean there's a lot to mess around with this bird
Probably my favorite new thing, there's just a lot going for this. Its special movepool just lets it put a lot of pressure on balance that can't handle so much raw coverage and SD is looking pretty nice as well. Speed tier is shaping up to be solid as well, and the customizable typing is something I thought wouldn't be that big since the special movepool is good but multi-attack is physical so u dont have a great STAB on some but honestly I've run no STAB attacks and still felt fine. Look forward to see what people come up with with this
Ok so I haven't actually used this one, but watching replays where people like Teddeh have I've been pretty impressed with the raw power. It's like a specs camerupt slow style wallbreaker but that actually had a couple of checks and this has winning a 50/50 at best when trying to switch in. I imagine slightly bulky sets aren't too bad to mess around with either
Gonna join Zard and add my initial impressions on a few our potential drops:
Alola-Sandslash
I thought this would be pretty underwhelming but its been quite the opposite. Most of our defensive mons take a ton from Ice and/or steel coverage and Earthquake covers the steel types that would otherwise switch in. Paired with Snow Warning Vanilluxe and a steel lure/weakener such as Stout helps it clean up late game with ease.
Alola-Raichu
This has easily been my favorite potential drop so far. I've been using Nasty Plot sets with tbolt, psyshock and grass knot and it just nukes everything. Basically a faster, just as strong NP Mime with more relevant coverage. Things that would normally check NP chu such as Muk or Clef get bopped by Psyshock. Grass Knot is to counter team Quag stall or beat ground types such as Golem.
Mudsdale
Maybe I'm using this wrong but I'm not sure what it does. Has a bad movepool, is very slow and the speculation meta has been very grass, water and ice heavy. Lack of reliable recovery means that you don't really want to switch it in on anything and it doesn't have any useful support moves. Someone enlighten me if they've used this successfully.
Comfey & Tsareena
I doubt these will actually make it to PU, but so far they've both been pretty great. Pair comfey with Stout to weaken steel types, eliminate Muk and nothing stops comfey from sweeping after a few Calm Minds. Well actually one mon that doesn't really mind Comfey too much is Tsareena thanks to Queenly Majesty. Tsareena fits nicely in PU thanks to its grass typing, solid stats and useful movepool. However, as Zard mentioned Oricorio-sensu is very common and somewhat limits the usefulness of Tsareenas lacking U-Turn.
My short opinion on those 5 mons (sorry for my poor English):
A-Sandslash: I'd say NU just because there are 3 hail setters in this tier (Obamasnow, Aurorus & Vanilluxe) so I presume it will have appeal there. However, it relies on the hail so I wouldn't be surprised to see it drop.
A-Raichu: It can set the Electric terrain by hitself - which however limits its movepool - to outspeed everything and spam T-Bolt double STAB'd with a LO. Yea, that's scaring.
But it can also just doesn't care about the electric terrain and runs a classic NP set, for example, with T-Bolt + Psyshock + HP Ice/Grass Knot/Focus Blast etc.
However, to be honest, I think that the pure Electric type of classic Raichu is better : not weak to Knock Off, Pursuit, Sucker Punch - especially if Murkrow gets usage thanks Dodrio's leaving - and a still convenient electric immunity. So I'm pretty sure A-Raichu will drop here and that we can manage it.
Mudsdale: Well, I don't imagine this thing could be PU (maybe I overate it ?).
I mean, its ability is awful if you have lost your special attackers, especially if Mudsdale runs a SleepTalk set: it just gains a free +1 defense by taking any hit, whatever it's special or physical.
It has excellent stats in HP, Atk, Def (which increases) and even its S.Def is pretty decent - only its speed is mediocre - coupled with a great Ground typing.
So, it's like you just have to pair with a special defensive mon, like Audino, to check its threatens.
Comfey: Pure fairy typing with its amazing ability and an excellent movepool (Synthesis, Taunt, U-Turn, Leech Seed, Aromatherapy, Calm Mind etc.). That's quite too much for me for the tier. The CM set seems dangerous with a +3 priority Draining Kiss and Synthesis. It won't be PU imo :|
Tsareena: I really like this mon. It's quite solid despite its typing and being able to Spin with an access to U-Turn and Synthesis is really cool. Its signature move, Trop kick, is useful to take physical hits better. But also don't forget it has a very good 120 BST in Atk and nice offensives attacks such as High Jump Kick, Play Rough, or even Acrobatics. Could it be PU ? I'd like to.
Z-moves have clearly been very influential in the speculative metagame and in current SM tiers so I want to make a post about them. From what I've seen there have been two main ways to utility Z-moves, for wallbreaking and for set up sweeping. Support wise they can occasionally be useful, mostly for Memento/Parting Shot, as most defensive Z-moves don't provide enough benefits.
Wallbreakers
Wallbreakers have always been a crucial role for offense in order to beat balance and defensive teams, and Z-moves help this even more. Wallbreaking set up mons like SD Leafeon and NP Mime were very good in the previous generation, though both of them could be stopped by certain Pokemon like Vullaby/Tangela and Bronzor/Metang which limits their use, but an unpredictable Z-move can allow them to blast through common checks. For example, Normalium Z with Double Edge (190 BP) on Leafeon hits like an absolute truck:
+2 252 Atk Leafeon Breakneck Blitz vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Vullaby: 212-250 (61.8 - 72.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (OHKOs if Vullaby has been Knocked Off)
+2 252 Atk Leafeon Breakneck Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tangela: 241-284 (72.1 - 85%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (if been Knocked Off)
+2 252 Atk Leafeon Breakneck Blitz vs. 248 HP / 164+ Def Altaria: 308-363 (87.2 - 102.8%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
Those are just a few examples of a Z move possibly allowing Leafeon to break through its checks, which could allow it to have a much nicer time breaking the rest of the opponents team as not many have multiple answers for Leafeon. Mr Mime can do some similar things:
+2 252 SpA Mr. Mime All-Out Pummeling vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Metang: 277-326 (85.4 - 100.6%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
+2 252 SpA Mr. Mime All-Out Pummeling vs. 252 HP / 112 SpD Eviolite Bronzor: 230-271 (72.3 - 85.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Z Wallbreakers will definitely play a huge part in the tier in keeping defensive playstyles in check, though their unpredictability may make those playstyles more risky and matchup based.
Set Up Sweepers
There are two possible ways to play with Z set up sweepers; either using the Z-move as a tool to set up, or as a tool to help KO the opposing Pokemon. Z set up moves (shown here) could be a pretty nice way to boost the speed of strong Pokemon or attack power of strong priority users which can otherwise not boost those stats. For example, Z-celebrate on Glaceon allows it to boost both its Speed and Special Attack (along with every other stat), allowing to make up for its flaws on its Choice Specs set (locking into moves and low Speed) while keeping appropriate special power. Slar Flar made a post earlier about Z Mirror Move Murkrow (+2 attack boost) allowing it to pretty much OHKO everything faster with Sucker Punch, while wallbreaking with Brave Bird. Unfortunately some of the better Z stat boosting moves have poor distribution, but we have a good amount to play with.
Most Speed boosters would happily throw on a Z-move to help either lure threats (often of certain types) or just allow it to break something random if set up early. Something like Savage Spin Out (Sand Rush) Sandslash (160bp X-scissor) could lure Grass-types like Leafeon in order to help it sweep vs offense, or it could choose to run Continental Crush to destroy fat Water-types like Prinplup and Lumineon. Unfortunately a Z-move on a priority move (like Mach Punch) will not keep its priority, though that shouldn't stop Pokemon like SD Monferno from using a Z move to lure defensive checks like Vullaby.
Overall Z-moves can provide countless possibilities to help your team improve certain matchups, or just providing Pokemon with opportunities they usually don't have. Personally I believe their use in wallbreaking will be the most common choice and will be most influential on the meta. What Z-sets do you guys like?
Here are some Pokemon that I think make great use of the newly introduced Z-moves.
Rapidash
Rapidash @ Firium Z
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Morning Sun
- Wild Charge
- Will-O-Wisp
Z-Will-O-Wisp gives Rapidash +1 attack as well as burning your opponent, this is great for grabbing KO's that you might miss out on otherwise. This can also turn Flare Blitz into a powerful base 190 Inferno Overdrive that serves as a one time nuke that can be useful in some situations.
Rapidash @ Electrium Z
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Morning Sun
- Wild Charge
- Will-O-Wisp
Z-Wild Charge turns into a base 175 Gigavolt Havoc which is really good for luring water types like Lumineon and Prinplup.
252 Atk Rapidash Gigavolt Havoc vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Lumineon: 272-322 (79.7 - 94.4%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Rapidash Gigavolt Havoc vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Prinplup: 194-230 (58.6 - 69.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Rapidash Wild Charge vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Prinplup: 102-120 (30.8 - 36.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
Rapidash @ Groundium Z
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Morning Sun
- Wild Charge
- Drill Run
Groundium Z gives Rapidash a 160 bp Tectonic Rage and in combination with Drill run can take out defensive answers like Golem. (Z-Low kick is also an option to hit Golem a bit harder but then you lose out on hitting fire types)
252 Atk Rapidash Tectonic Rage vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Golem: 232-274 (63.7 - 75.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Rapidash Drill Run vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Golem: 116-138 (31.8 - 37.9%) -- 33.9% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
This has already been mentioned by Anty and as stated it is great for grabbing KO's on Pokemon that would normally be safe switch ins like Vullaby, Tangela and Altaria.
Z-Celebrate turns Leafeon into a threatening late game sweeper and a nightmare for offense that usually relies on revenge killing with scarfers and faster pokemon. This is best used with wallbreakers like Stoutland that can weaken and punch holes in bulkier teams.
Arbok
Arbok @ Waterium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Coil
- Aqua Tail
- Sucker Punch
Arbok can make pretty good use of Z-Aqua Tail allowing Arbok to OHKO Ground types like Stunfisk and Hippopotas at +1 also knocking out Golem without any boosts. (Z-Seed Bomb can also be use to hit Quagsire and Pyukumuku and Z-Sucker Punch can be used to knock out Bronzor at +2)
+1 252+ Atk Arbok Aqua Tail vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Stunfisk: 408-480 (96.6 - 113.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+1 252+ Atk Arbok Aqua Tail vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippopotas: 426-502 (125.2 - 147.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Arbok Sucker Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Bronzor: 284-336 (89.3 - 105.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
Here are some Pokemon that I think make great use of the newly introduced Z-moves.
Rapidash
Rapidash @ Firium Z
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Morning Sun
- Wild Charge
- Will-O-Wisp
Z-Will-O-Wisp gives Rapidash +1 attack as well as burning your opponent, this is great for grabbing KO's that you might miss out on otherwise. This can also turn Flare Blitz into a powerful base 190 Inferno Overdrive that serves as a one time nuke that can be useful in some situations.
Rapidash @ Electrium Z
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Morning Sun
- Wild Charge
- Will-O-Wisp
Z-Wild Charge turns into a base 175 Gigavolt Havoc which is really good for luring water types like Lumineon and Prinplup.
252 Atk Rapidash Gigavolt Havoc vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Lumineon: 272-322 (79.7 - 94.4%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Rapidash Gigavolt Havoc vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Prinplup: 194-230 (58.6 - 69.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Rapidash Wild Charge vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Prinplup: 102-120 (30.8 - 36.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
Rapidash @ Groundium Z
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Morning Sun
- Wild Charge
- Drill Run
Groundium Z gives Rapidash a 160 bp Tectonic Rage and in combination with Drill run can take out defensive answers like Golem. (Z-Low kick is also an option to hit Golem a bit harder but then you lose out on hitting fire types)
252 Atk Rapidash Tectonic Rage vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Golem: 232-274 (63.7 - 75.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Rapidash Drill Run vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Golem: 116-138 (31.8 - 37.9%) -- 33.9% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
This has already been mentioned by Anty and as stated it is great for grabbing KO's on Pokemon that would normally be safe switch ins like Vullaby, Tangela and Altaria.
Z-Celebrate turns Leafeon into a threatening late game sweeper and a nightmare for offense that usually relies on revenge killing with scarfers and faster pokemon. This is best used with wallbreakers like Stoutland that can weaken and punch holes in bulkier teams.
Arbok
Arbok @ Waterium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Coil
- Aqua Tail
- Sucker Punch
Arbok can make pretty good use of Z-Aqua Tail allowing Arbok to OHKO Ground types like Stunfisk and Hippopotas at +1 also knocking out Golem without any boosts. (Z-Seed Bomb can also be use to hit Quagsire and Pyukumuku and Z-Sucker Punch can be used to knock out Bronzor at +2)
+1 252+ Atk Arbok Aqua Tail vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Stunfisk: 408-480 (96.6 - 113.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+1 252+ Atk Arbok Aqua Tail vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippopotas: 426-502 (125.2 - 147.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Arbok Sucker Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Bronzor: 284-336 (89.3 - 105.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
I wanted to add that another Z-move that seems really nice for Rapidash is Z-Solar Beam. Gives you a 190 BP grass move and allows you to blow away 80% of your checks and counters- water, ground, and rock types. This is without even using a bulk-reducing nature.
0- SpA Rapidash Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Sandslash: 328-388 (92.6 - 109.6%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
0- SpA Rapidash Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 224+ SpD Golem: 396-468 (108.7 - 128.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
0- SpA Rapidash Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Lumineon: 232-274 (67.8 - 80.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0- SpA Rapidash Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Palossand: 260-306 (69.5 - 81.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0- SpA Rapidash Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mudsdale: 236-278 (58.4 - 68.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0- SpA Rapidash Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Solrock: 292-344 (76 - 89.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Pretty much everything just dies after switching into Flare Blitz. The downside of course is giving up either Will-o-Wisp and Wild Charge, the former of which helps vs pretty much every slower attacker and the latter being a more consistent move vs water-types.
This needed to be done sooner or later. Below I’ve listed all the viable sets I could come up with for each of the possible Silvally forms, as well as an explanation of each set. Overall, it’s a pokemon that I am really excited to use. Although it is not overpowering in any way it still has a lot of things that make it fun to use- the very solid bulk and knock off “resistance”, the versatility of sets, great momentum generator with Parting Shot, and its unpredictability on Team Preview (you don’t know which form it is).
Silvally-Normal makes a surprisingly good special attacker because of its movepool. Between Tri-Attack, Flamethrower, and Surf you have perfect coverage to hit typical normal resists like Golem and Metang, and dedicated special walls can be simply stunted on with Parting Shot. Darkium Z is a fantastic item for this set because it lets you Healing Wish one of your teammates with parting shot, although it does come with a serious lack of power that could be provided by Life Orb or Specs instead.
Physical Silvally faces a lot of competition from various normal-types, such as Stoutland, Ursaring, and Zangoose. But it can still have a niche on teams due to not only its high bulk, but its access to a powerful U-turn (when equipped with Cb), as well as unpredictability. While it can no means break walls as well as the more common normal-type attackers, it still hits fairly hard and has good coverage to hit a majority of the tier.
Swords Dance Silvally is an interesting although niche set, that differentiates itself from the likes of SD Zangoose and Ursaring with its high bulk (and being free of damage-inducing orbs) and its lure factor. Crunch smacks ghosts and Fire Fang breaks through Ferroseed and Mawile. Iron Head can be used to hit Golem. It also has access to a very powerful tech in Z-Explosion, which basically has the power of explosion but it doesn't die. So overall it just flattens everything.
Overall Silvally-normal is one of the better Silvally forms because it is highly unpredictable and the physical and special sets can lure each others’ counters.
This thing is pretty awful tbh. It has no special-type Bug STAB but as a physical attacker it’s really outclassed by the other physical Silvally forms. The only thing it has going for it is its access to STAB U-turn, but yeah… I wouldn’t use it.
This thing is interesting because of its access to a fast and semi-powerful Pursuit. It also has neat techs in Parting Shot and U-turn, so it’s not that easy to switch into with the good neutral Dark coverage. I would shy away from using SD though, because Ghost and Fighting do it better with much better neutral coverage, and so does Pawniard.
One of my favorite sets to use. Because of access to Draco, Silvally-Dragon is actually reasonably powerful, and it has the coverage to back it up with Flamethrower to hit steels. In addition, Draco works really nicely with Parting Shot to prevent you from losing momentum after dropping one. Flash Cannon can be used to hit Fairies, although it’s weak, and Metal Sound is a really neat Tech because it forces switches which works great with Draco and Parting Shot.
Swords Dance
Silvally-Dragon @ Dragon Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Multi-Attack
- Fire Fang
- Iron Head
Honestly I’m not sure how viable this is because I think Fraxure does it better for the most part. But Dragon is good neutral coverage and typing for setting up, and Silvally does have several niches over Fraxure (Iron Head, bulk, can take knock off).
This is one of the more interesting special attacking Silvallys because of the neat Boltbeam coverage. Unfortunately it is overshadowed by Rotom-F as well as other electrics like A-Raichu because of their superior power, but Parting Shot and high bulk is always neat. Metal Sound is the suggested slash because you already have near perfect coverage and it allows you to break through pokemon like SpD Clefairy and Audino. However, if you are weak to Camerupt or Rotom-F, you can use Surf or Flamethrower respectively.
As far as SD, I would stay away from that because Electric is not the best STAB move for neutral coverage and it struggles heavily vs bulky ground types no matter what you do.
Fairy as usual is an interesting typing defensively because it can check Fighting and Dark-types at the same time. With good mixed coverage, Silvally can check these pokemon while still being relatively threatening to switch into. Flamethrower is its strongest move against Steel-types, and Rock Slide hits Fire-Types hard. Alternately, you could just paralyze switch-ins.
Defensive
Silvally-Fairy @ Fairy Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Multi-Attack
- Flamethrower
- Rest
- Sleep Talk/Parting Shot
Defensive Fairy-Silvally can hard counter a lot of physical attackers due to its typing and bulk, and unlike its cousin Clefairy, it does not care about Knock Off. You can run Rest and Sleep Talk or Parting Shot over Sleep Talk if you are running it with a Heal Bell user. Still probably won’t be a great pokemon due to lack of reliable recovery but can probably come in useful.
SD Silvally-Fairy may not be the most threatening of the SD Silvallys offensively, but it can still hold its own in a battle with appropriate support. Many common steel-types can be taken down by a boosted Fire Fang or a Crunch (Metang/Bronzor), while a boosted Return can do serious damage to the likes of Muk and Rapidash. The main point of SD Silvally-Fairy is it can be a good win-condition while also providing role compression as a Dark/Fighting check.
Swords Dance
Silvally-Fighting @ Fighting Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Multi-Attack
- Crunch
- Rock Slide/Iron Head
Not much to say here. Fighting is always a good typing offensively, and Silvally-Fighting naturally makes one of the best Swords Dance users. It has great coverage with Crunch to hit ghosts, and Rock Slide to hit Flying-types, or Iron Head to hit Fairy-types. It also finds plenty of opportunities to set up due to its high bulk and taking absolute zero from Knock Off.
Silvally-Fire’s an interesting special attacker due to its super neat coverage. Tbolt hits waters and Surf hits opposing Fires and rocks. It still faces a ton of competition from the more powerful Simisear but the nice bulk, coverage, and access to Parting Shot carve it a decent enough niche.
Swords Dance
Silvally-Fire @ Fire Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Multi-Attack
- Rock Slide
- Return
What makes Silvally-Fire stand out as a Swords Dance user is its good speed and immunity to Wisp. Between Multi-Attack, Rock Slide, and Return, it also has very decent coverage (Return is chosen as the strongest neutral hit on waters and dragons). However, it still faces very heavy competition from the stronger and deadlier Monferno, so I would only use it on teams that want its speed tier or its Knock Off “resistance”.
Swords Dance
Silvally-Flying @ Flying Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Multi-Attack
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Fire Fang/Crunch
I skipped a specially based set because even though it does get Air Slash, we are gonna get all sorts of specially attacking birds in the Oricorios and Swanna, which very much outclass it. While Swords Dance sets still are not that good due to the SR weakness, it gets good coverage to hit Flying Resists (Iron Head for Golem, Fire Fang and Crunch for steels), and Flying is always a dangerous STAB type so can still probably have some success.
Swords Dance Silvally-Ghost is really cool as Ghost has fantastic neutral coverage, and complimented with Bug-type coverage, you can hit pretty much all ghost resists hard. It sets up easily due to having essentially only one weakness (opposing ghosts), and can run a free momentum move in Parting Shot in the last slot due to perfect coverage. All around really solid set.
Special Attacking Silvally-Ghost isn’t bad either, it’s sort of like a pivot Misdreavus that isn’t dependant on Eviolite. It’s also quite weak, but that should be okay when you have your resists and good bulk to rely on. Defensive sets are better done by Gourgeist-Super and other ghosts who actually have Will-o-Wisp.
Grass is a weird one, since its not too good at SD (being walled by bulky grasses, poisons, fires, etc), and all its best coverage comes on the special spectrum yet gets a physical STAB. Therefore, a mixed set is the best one to take advantage of its pros over other grasses (Flamethrower, Parting Shot, T-wave, Surf), all of which are unheard of for Grass Types. It still faces heavy competition as an offensive grass though, and defensively it still is nothing compared to the likes of Gourgeist and Tangela.
Ground Silvally is useful, since fast Ground types are always neat for Volt Switch and T-wave immunities. Swords Dance is a very natural fit here since it has access to the fantastic combination of EdgeQuake. Between Edgequake and Crunch for Bronzor, the only real pokemon that wall you are bulky grass-types, which is a shame but can be removed with support.
You can also run a mixed attacking set with Ice Beam/Flamethrower to lure bulky grasses but it really doesn’t hit hard enough to be a good lure (if you invest in SpA your ground STAB turns pathetically weak), and besides I think that the other Specially attacking sets like Electric, Water, and Dragon outclass it.
Silvally is an interesting Ice type because it gets the coverage to lure out typical Ice-type checks. Tbolt gets water types, Surf gets fire-types, Flamethrower hits opposing Ices, and backed by solid bulk and Parting Shot it can be a pain to deal with. With that being said, the ice-typing is also poor defensively and weak to rocks so in many situations another Special-Attacking Silvally would do better.
Swords Dance unfortunately is not so good because being an Ice-type severely limits its setup opportunities compared to other SD Silvallys and its coverage is only mediocre for SD.
Defensive
Silvally-Poison @ Poison Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Multi-Attack
- Flamethrower
- Rest
- Sleep Talk/Parting Shot
Just like fairy, Poison is an interesting defensive typing in many ways as it lets Silvally become a great check to Fighting and Grass types. Therefore, it can pull off a successful defensive set. Flamethrower allows it to not be totally walled by steels, and if you are running Heal Bell support, Parting Shot can be a neat option over Sleep Talk.
Silvally-Poison can also run a mixed offensive set to not only take advantage of its good typing, but also lure typical poison-type checks. Multi-Attack is the strong STAB move, Flamethrower can hit Steel types, Surf can hit Golem, and Ice Beam hits Gabite/Vibrava. Parting Shot as always is a nice momentum move to have, especially when you can force out many pokemon with your good resists and coverage.
I chose not to include a Swords Dance set because I feel it is fairly outclassed by Arbok due to worse coverage and lack of priority (although it does have better bulk and speed). It is also too weak to take care of all the typical poison-type counters with Ice Fang, which a mixed set can deal with better.
Silvally-Psychic is unique because it is one of the few physical Psychic-types. And it makes surprisingly good use of Swords Dance. Between Multi-Attack, Crunch, and bug coverage, it can hit pretty much all common psychic-type checks really hard. In addition, it can function as a check to opposing Psychic types as well as Fighting-types like Monferno, and with the Knock Off “resist” to take care of one of its major weaknesses it is very difficult to take out in one hit.
Paraflinch
Silvally-Rock @ Rock Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Thunder Wave
- Iron Head/Crunch
- Parting Shot
Silvally Rock is kind of mediocre because it lacks good coverage- access to Earthquake would have saved it but it is very difficult for it to hit common rock resists like Steel and Fighting types. As a Swords Dance user it is therefore mainly outclassed by Fighting and Ground form Silvallys. It still has access to the neat combination of Rock Slide and T-wave for flinching though, and it can abuse its Rock Typing to check normal type pokemon to some extent. Iron Head and Crunch are options for coverage to hit Golem and Metang, respectively.
Silvally Steel makes a good defensive pokemon because steel as always is a useful defensive typing. What differentiates Silvally from its Steel-type brethren like Bronzor and Metang is its lack of a Knock Off and dark-type weakness, as well as to Trick. This can be quite useful in many situations. In addition it has high speed and the ability to pivot. This is more of really two different sets, but I’ve slashed things cause I’m lazy. SpD pivot to use on offense and disrupt opponents with T-wave and Parting Shot, and Rest-Talk to use on defensive teams. 16 Spe allows you to outspeed Modest/Adamant Base 65 speed pokemon like Glaceon and Sandslash.
Not surprisingly, Silvally-Steel can also pull off an offensive set. Although this set does not hit very hard, it should still be able to put in work in a lot of battles with its good coverage and utility in checking Psychic, Grass, and Normal type pokemon. Surf is a neat coverage move to hit Fire-types, Metal Sound lets you break through Clefairy and Audino easily, and T-wave is just a great catch-all for anything faster than you.
CroVally
Silvally-Water @ Steel Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 104 SpD / 44 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Iron Head
Swords Dance Rest-Talk Silvally seems like an interesting, although niche, win condition. The reason it (probably) works on Steel is because of its various immunities and resists. This spread has enough speed to outspeed Stoutland, and enough bulk to take on Life Orb Rotom-Frost and Floatzel as well as live a CB Stout’s Superpower from full, among other things. Klang is probably a better choice most of the time but this has the niche of not being weak to Knock Off or Trick.
Swords Dance
Silvally-Steel @ Steel Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Fire Fang
- Crunch
Offensive Swords Dance is also a decent option because Steel-Silvally gets easy setup opportunities. However it cannot break through Ground-types besides Golem all that well, or bulkier Fire/Water types, so it is probably one of the worse of the SD sets. Still, with its bulk and typing it can be a threat to a good number of teams. (and as a bonus its checks are lured and used as setup bait by the previous set).
Silvally-Water is able to pull off a great special set because of its great super-effective coverage. Surf hits grounds, rocks, and fires. Flamethrower hits grasses and steels. Finally, Tbolt covers opposing waters and flying types. Barely any pokemon is untouched by this, and if it is Silvally can always just pivot out with Parting Shot.
Although not amazing, Silvally-Water can also pull off a Swords Dance set. Physical waters have always had a decent niche in lower tier metas and Silvally is able to stand out from Floatzel and Basculin with its access to Swords Dance (over Kingler/Bibarel it has high speed and special bulk). Although this set is still walled by Gourgeist and Tangela, it should do reasonably well against most teams without those pokemon. Water + Normal coverage is decent, and X-Scissor can hit a few grass types like Leafeon and Lurantis. Substitute can be used to lure and setup on Prinplup and Lumineon, while Flamethrower eliminates Ferroseed and deals good chunks to Tangela and Leafeon.
EDIT: Wherever you see Fire Fang on a set you can also replace it with Flame Charge, I forgot Silvally learns the move. It's a question of risk vs reward. (Even a +2 Flame Charge is quite weak for killing Steel types compared to Fire Fang, but if you use it well you can sweep entire teams).
This needed to be done sooner or later. Below I’ve listed all the viable sets I could come up with for each of the possible Silvally forms, as well as an explanation of each set. Overall, it’s a pokemon that I am really excited to use. Although it is not overpowering in any way it still has a lot of things that make it fun to use- the very solid bulk and knock off “resistance”, the versatility of sets, great momentum generator with Parting Shot, and its unpredictability on Team Preview (you don’t know which form it is).
Silvally-Normal makes a surprisingly good special attacker because of its movepool. Between Tri-Attack, Flamethrower, and Surf you have perfect coverage to hit typical normal resists like Golem and Metang, and dedicated special walls can be simply stunted on with Parting Shot. Darkium Z is a fantastic item for this set because it lets you Healing Wish one of your teammates with parting shot, although it does come with a serious lack of power that could be provided by Life Orb or Specs instead.
Physical Silvally faces a lot of competition from various normal-types, such as Stoutland, Ursaring, and Zangoose. But it can still have a niche on teams due to not only its high bulk, but its access to a powerful U-turn (when equipped with Cb), as well as unpredictability. While it can no means break walls as well as the more common normal-type attackers, it still hits fairly hard and has good coverage to hit a majority of the tier.
Swords Dance Silvally is an interesting although niche set, that differentiates itself from the likes of SD Zangoose and Ursaring with its high bulk (and being free of damage-inducing orbs) and its lure factor. Crunch smacks ghosts and Fire Fang breaks through Ferroseed and Mawile. Iron Head can be used to hit Golem. It also has access to a very powerful tech in Z-Explosion, which basically has the power of explosion but it doesn't die. So overall it just flattens everything.
Overall Silvally-normal is one of the better Silvally forms because it is highly unpredictable and the physical and special sets can lure each others’ counters.
This thing is pretty awful tbh. It has no special-type Bug STAB but as a physical attacker it’s really outclassed by the other physical Silvally forms. The only thing it has going for it is its access to STAB U-turn, but yeah… I wouldn’t use it.
This thing is interesting because of its access to a fast and semi-powerful Pursuit. It also has neat techs in Parting Shot and U-turn, so it’s not that easy to switch into with the good neutral Dark coverage. I would shy away from using SD though, because Ghost and Fighting do it better with much better neutral coverage, and so does Pawniard.
One of my favorite sets to use. Because of access to Draco, Silvally-Dragon is actually reasonably powerful, and it has the coverage to back it up with Flamethrower to hit steels. In addition, Draco works really nicely with Parting Shot to prevent you from losing momentum after dropping one. Flash Cannon can be used to hit Fairies, although it’s weak, and Metal Sound is a really neat Tech because it forces switches which works great with Draco and Parting Shot.
Swords Dance
Silvally-Dragon @ Dragon Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Multi-Attack
- Fire Fang
- Iron Head
Honestly I’m not sure how viable this is because I think Fraxure does it better for the most part. But Dragon is good neutral coverage and typing for setting up, and Silvally does have several niches over Fraxure (Iron Head, bulk, can take knock off).
This is one of the more interesting special attacking Silvallys because of the neat Boltbeam coverage. Unfortunately it is overshadowed by Rotom-F as well as other electrics like A-Raichu because of their superior power, but Parting Shot and high bulk is always neat. Metal Sound is the suggested slash because you already have near perfect coverage and it allows you to break through pokemon like SpD Clefairy and Audino. However, if you are weak to Camerupt or Rotom-F, you can use Surf or Flamethrower respectively.
As far as SD, I would stay away from that because Electric is not the best STAB move for neutral coverage and it struggles heavily vs bulky ground types no matter what you do.
Fairy as usual is an interesting typing defensively because it can check Fighting and Dark-types at the same time. With good mixed coverage, Silvally can check these pokemon while still being relatively threatening to switch into. Flamethrower is its strongest move against Steel-types, and Rock Slide hits Fire-Types hard. Alternately, you could just paralyze switch-ins.
Defensive
Silvally-Fairy @ Fairy Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Multi-Attack
- Flamethrower
- Rest
- Sleep Talk/Parting Shot
Defensive Fairy-Silvally can hard counter a lot of physical attackers due to its typing and bulk, and unlike its cousin Clefairy, it does not care about Knock Off. You can run Rest and Sleep Talk or Parting Shot over Sleep Talk if you are running it with a Heal Bell user. Still probably won’t be a great pokemon due to lack of reliable recovery but can probably come in useful.
SD Silvally-Fairy may not be the most threatening of the SD Silvallys offensively, but it can still hold its own in a battle with appropriate support. Many common steel-types can be taken down by a boosted Fire Fang or a Crunch (Metang/Bronzor), while a boosted Return can do serious damage to the likes of Muk and Rapidash. The main point of SD Silvally-Fairy is it can be a good win-condition while also providing role compression as a Dark/Fighting check.
Swords Dance
Silvally-Fighting @ Fighting Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Multi-Attack
- Crunch
- Rock Slide/Iron Head
Not much to say here. Fighting is always a good typing offensively, and Silvally-Fighting naturally makes one of the best Swords Dance users. It has great coverage with Crunch to hit ghosts, and Rock Slide to hit Flying-types, or Iron Head to hit Fairy-types. It also finds plenty of opportunities to set up due to its high bulk and taking absolute zero from Knock Off.
Silvally-Fire’s an interesting special attacker due to its super neat coverage. Tbolt hits waters and Surf hits opposing Fires and rocks. It still faces a ton of competition from the more powerful Simisear but the nice bulk, coverage, and access to Parting Shot carve it a decent enough niche.
Swords Dance
Silvally-Fire @ Fire Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Multi-Attack
- Rock Slide
- Return
What makes Silvally-Fire stand out as a Swords Dance user is its good speed and immunity to Wisp. Between Multi-Attack, Rock Slide, and Return, it also has very decent coverage (Return is chosen as the strongest neutral hit on waters and dragons). However, it still faces very heavy competition from the stronger and deadlier Monferno, so I would only use it on teams that want its speed tier or its Knock Off “resistance”.
Swords Dance
Silvally-Flying @ Flying Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Multi-Attack
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Fire Fang/Crunch
I skipped a specially based set because even though it does get Air Slash, we are gonna get all sorts of specially attacking birds in the Oricorios and Swanna, which very much outclass it. While Swords Dance sets still are not that good due to the SR weakness, it gets good coverage to hit Flying Resists (Iron Head for Golem, Fire Fang and Crunch for steels), and Flying is always a dangerous STAB type so can still probably have some success.
Swords Dance Silvally-Ghost is really cool as Ghost has fantastic neutral coverage, and complimented with Bug-type coverage, you can hit pretty much all ghost resists hard. It sets up easily due to having essentially only one weakness (opposing ghosts), and can run a free momentum move in Parting Shot in the last slot due to perfect coverage. All around really solid set.
Special Attacking Silvally-Ghost isn’t bad either, it’s sort of like a pivot Misdreavus that isn’t dependant on Eviolite. It’s also quite weak, but that should be okay when you have your resists and good bulk to rely on. Defensive sets are better done by Gourgeist-Super and other ghosts who actually have Will-o-Wisp.
Grass is a weird one, since its not too good at SD (being walled by bulky grasses, poisons, fires, etc), and all its best coverage comes on the special spectrum yet gets a physical STAB. Therefore, a mixed set is the best one to take advantage of its pros over other grasses (Flamethrower, Parting Shot, T-wave, Surf), all of which are unheard of for Grass Types. It still faces heavy competition as an offensive grass though, and defensively it still is nothing compared to the likes of Gourgeist and Tangela.
Ground Silvally is useful, since fast Ground types are always neat for Volt Switch and T-wave immunities. Swords Dance is a very natural fit here since it has access to the fantastic combination of EdgeQuake. Between Edgequake and Crunch for Bronzor, the only real pokemon that wall you are bulky grass-types, which is a shame but can be removed with support.
You can also run a mixed attacking set with Ice Beam/Flamethrower to lure bulky grasses but it really doesn’t hit hard enough to be a good lure (if you invest in SpA your ground STAB turns pathetically weak), and besides I think that the other Specially attacking sets like Electric, Water, and Dragon outclass it.
Silvally is an interesting Ice type because it gets the coverage to lure out typical Ice-type checks. Tbolt gets water types, Surf gets fire-types, Flamethrower hits opposing Ices, and backed by solid bulk and Parting Shot it can be a pain to deal with. With that being said, the ice-typing is also poor defensively and weak to rocks so in many situations another Special-Attacking Silvally would do better.
Swords Dance unfortunately is not so good because being an Ice-type severely limits its setup opportunities compared to other SD Silvallys and its coverage is only mediocre for SD.
Defensive
Silvally-Poison @ Poison Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Multi-Attack
- Flamethrower
- Rest
- Sleep Talk/Parting Shot
Just like fairy, Poison is an interesting defensive typing in many ways as it lets Silvally become a great check to Fighting and Grass types. Therefore, it can pull off a successful defensive set. Flamethrower allows it to not be totally walled by steels, and if you are running Heal Bell support, Parting Shot can be a neat option over Sleep Talk.
Silvally-Poison can also run a mixed offensive set to not only take advantage of its good typing, but also lure typical poison-type checks. Multi-Attack is the strong STAB move, Flamethrower can hit Steel types, Surf can hit Golem, and Ice Beam hits Gabite/Vibrava. Parting Shot as always is a nice momentum move to have, especially when you can force out many pokemon with your good resists and coverage.
I chose not to include a Swords Dance set because I feel it is fairly outclassed by Arbok due to worse coverage and lack of priority (although it does have better bulk and speed). It is also too weak to take care of all the typical poison-type counters with Ice Fang, which a mixed set can deal with better.
Silvally-Psychic is unique because it is one of the few physical Psychic-types. And it makes surprisingly good use of Swords Dance. Between Multi-Attack, Crunch, and bug coverage, it can hit pretty much all common psychic-type checks really hard. In addition, it can function as a check to opposing Psychic types as well as Fighting-types like Monferno, and with the Knock Off “resist” to take care of one of its major weaknesses it is very difficult to take out in one hit.
Paraflinch
Silvally-Rock @ Rock Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Thunder Wave
- Iron Head/Crunch
- Parting Shot
Silvally Rock is kind of mediocre because it lacks good coverage- access to Earthquake would have saved it but it is very difficult for it to hit common rock resists like Steel and Fighting types. As a Swords Dance user it is therefore mainly outclassed by Fighting and Ground form Silvallys. It still has access to the neat combination of Rock Slide and T-wave for flinching though, and it can abuse its Rock Typing to check normal type pokemon to some extent. Iron Head and Crunch are options for coverage to hit Golem and Metang, respectively.
Silvally Steel makes a good defensive pokemon because steel as always is a useful defensive typing. What differentiates Silvally from its Steel-type brethren like Bronzor and Metang is its lack of a Knock Off and dark-type weakness, as well as to Trick. This can be quite useful in many situations. In addition it has high speed and the ability to pivot. This is more of really two different sets, but I’ve slashed things cause I’m lazy. SpD pivot to use on offense and disrupt opponents with T-wave and Parting Shot, and Rest-Talk to use on defensive teams. 16 Spe allows you to outspeed Modest/Adamant Base 65 speed pokemon like Glaceon and Sandslash.
Not surprisingly, Silvally-Steel can also pull off an offensive set. Although this set does not hit very hard, it should still be able to put in work in a lot of battles with its good coverage and utility in checking Psychic, Grass, and Normal type pokemon. Surf is a neat coverage move to hit Fire-types, Metal Sound lets you break through Clefairy and Audino easily, and T-wave is just a great catch-all for anything faster than you.
CroVally
Silvally-Water @ Steel Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 104 SpD / 44 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Iron Head
Swords Dance Rest-Talk Silvally seems like an interesting, although niche, win condition. The reason it (probably) works on Steel is because of its various immunities and resists. This spread has enough speed to outspeed Stoutland, and enough bulk to take on Life Orb Rotom-Frost and Floatzel as well as live a CB Stout’s Superpower from full, among other things. Klang is probably a better choice most of the time but this has the niche of not being weak to Knock Off or Trick.
Swords Dance
Silvally-Steel @ Steel Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Fire Fang
- Crunch
Offensive Swords Dance is also a decent option because Steel-Silvally gets easy setup opportunities. However it cannot break through Ground-types besides Golem all that well, or bulkier Fire/Water types, so it is probably one of the worse of the SD sets. Still, with its bulk and typing it can be a threat to a good number of teams. (and as a bonus its checks are lured and used as setup bait by the previous set).
Silvally-Water is able to pull off a great special set because of its great super-effective coverage. Surf hits grounds, rocks, and fires. Flamethrower hits grasses and steels. Finally, Tbolt covers opposing waters and flying types. Barely any pokemon is untouched by this, and if it is Silvally can always just pivot out with Parting Shot.
Although not amazing, Silvally-Water can also pull off a Swords Dance set. Physical waters have always had a decent niche in lower tier metas and Silvally is able to stand out from Floatzel and Basculin with its access to Swords Dance (over Kingler/Bibarel it has high speed and special bulk). Although this set is still walled by Gourgeist and Tangela, it should do reasonably well against most teams without those pokemon. Water + Normal coverage is decent, and X-Scissor can hit a few grass types like Leafeon and Lurantis. Substitute can be used to lure and setup on Prinplup and Lumineon, while Flamethrower eliminates Ferroseed and deals good chunks to Tangela and Leafeon.
EDIT: Wherever you see Fire Fang on a set you can also replace it with Flame Charge, I forgot Silvally learns the move. It's a question of risk vs reward. (Even a +2 Flame Charge is quite weak for killing Steel types compared to Fire Fang, but if you use it well you can sweep entire teams).
This is pretty good for a lot of sets, but I think there's one flaw in your logic that makes some types feel a little awkward. Silvally doesn't actually need STAB. I know that's pretty weird and if you disagree then alright, but some of the types I've messed around with I've gone no-STAB Silvally because they have the bulk and defensive presence I need and I can't bother dropping defenses by going mixed or dropping some of that excellent coverage. I mean it's the fire/ice/electric coverage+parting shot that really makes no-STAB work, you already hit so much that it's not completely unthinkable to be hitting a little weaker.
These are the 2 I've tried out so far, and I think it works. The teams needed the resistances that only a Grass- or Fairy-type could provide and Leafeon didn't really seem to work there (I'm sure it's better in most situations though) so Silvally came on and I just never fit STAB. If you don't want to bite into one defense or the other, I think this set is alright. Niche, maybe not what I'd put in a compendium of sets for new players, but at least worth thinking about since pretty much every type without good special stab is listed as mixed with multi-attack + special coverage and that isn't necessarily required.
A Pokemon that I will be building around in PU early on is Extreme Evoboost Eevee.
Eevee @ Normalium Z
Ability: Adaptability
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Frustration
- Last Resort
- Sing
- Substitute
This set in PU should out-speed a lot of sweepers and 2hko a lot of physical walls.
+2 252 Atk Adaptability Eevee Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Audino: 206-244 (50.2 - 59.5%) -- 80.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252 Atk Adaptability Eevee Return vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Regice: 188-222 (51.7 - 61.1%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252 Atk Adaptability Eevee Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Vullaby: 150-178 (43.6 - 51.7%) -- 10.9% chance to 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Adaptability Eevee Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Clefairy: 192-226 (55.8 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Adaptability Eevee Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Prinplup: 158-188 (47.5 - 56.6%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Adaptability Eevee Last Resort vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Tangela: 156-184 (46.7 - 55%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
This Pokemon would be great paired with Life Orb Pawniard as Eevee will have a lot more freedom as it is unable to break through Pokemon such as Metang, Regirock, Probopass or pretty much any Ghost, Steel or Rock type.
It can also take hits from a Pokemon too. As it gets the +2 to all stats. Here are a couple of examples;
252+ Atk Life Orb Iron Fist Monferno Mach Punch vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Eevee: 94-112 (37.4 - 44.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stoutland Return vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Eevee: 142-168 (56.5 - 66.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Golem Explosion vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Eevee: 164-193 (65.3 - 76.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Mr. Mime Focus Blast vs. +2 0 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Eevee: 104-124 (41.4 - 49.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
I'm going to go less in depth as it's gone 6am. I apologise for any grammatical errors or anything in this post that makes me look dumb.
