Swellow

Vinc2612

The V stands for VGC
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Dedicated Tournament Host Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Hi! Sorry, this is my first analysis so I don't know how to do these. I will copy/paste another analysis and change the words I guess.



[Overview]

  • Really fast, tie with Darkrai.
  • Really frail, almost everything not called Rapid Spin, Earthquake or Earth Power will OHKO it.
  • Scrappy let it hit ghost, that is the main point.
Swellow looks like any ordinary bird: Great speed, great attack, bad defenses. Great attack due to guts and a toxic orb, or at least, that is what your opponent would think. It has a unique niche, being the only Pokemon with a combinaison of Scrappy and Endeavor. With a 125 BS in speed, it means that he will kill at least one pokemon of the opponent, whatever the Pokemon is. The point of using it in Uber is the ease to keep rain or sun on the field.

[SET]
name: I guess Endeavor, but we could get a coolest name for such a cool Pokemon
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Endeavor
move 3: Heat Wave
move 3: Toxic
item: Fire Gem
ability: Scrappy
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
ivs: 3 HP

[SET COMMENTS]
  • Substitute and SR removes 65 HP each, leaving Swellow to 1 HP after 4 Subs/SR
  • Endeavor can kill anything
  • Toxic if your opponent wants to spam Recover in order to avoid the KO
  • Heat Wave + Fire Gem for the Genesect scarf switchin, it also let you beat Ferrothorn without taking Iron Barb

This is a wonderful Stallbreaker, because it can't be stalled. It will everytime kill something in the battle. Also if you manage to get it against a specific target with 1 HP, your opponent can choose between losing the Pokemon and killing Swellow in the process, or switch and losing his switchin and you will keep Swellow for another Endeavor.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
  • Groudon or Kyogre must be the main support.
  • Removing Stealth Rock can let you use Endeavor several times.
  • If you play in rain, you may want to remove Heat Wave, but I still think it is his better option. Maybe Rain Dance itself to support the team, or TailWind.
[Other Options]

  • Not much actually, since it will be outclassed in any other set. The Heat Wave is not mandatory, it can use a support movepool if played in a Rain (Mainly Tailwind and Rain Dance itself, with a Salac Berry / a Damp Rock)

[Checks and Counters]

There is no real counter since no Pokemon can come on Endeavor except Shedinja (which is killed by Heat Wave and Toxic). The best way to limitate the damages to the team is to get the rocks up, prevent ing it to be twice on the field with 1 HP. That way, you can choose which Pokemon losing on endeavor, sending a scarf user / Mewtwo / Deoxys / Priority User and killing the bird.
Another great way to deal with it is Sand Stream (or Snow Warning). Swellow won't be able to reach 1 HP. Be careful since Endeavor with 17 HP still hurts, but you can play around weather to reduce the impact on the battle.

Furai asked for replays so here is one when it is greatly used: http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oriserver-ubers-41512
And here when it is poorly used, and it still kills my biggest threat: http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oriserver-ubers-41515
 
Last edited:
I definitely agree that Swellow deserves his own analysis on smogon, it has a surprise factor and is surprisingly good in Uber. It has a huge burst with endeavor and since there are a lot of rain and sun team in the tier atm. It brings a kill on an important pokemon 90% of the time. :]
 
This should be entirely in outline format for now. Paragraphs get added in when you write it up after/if it gets two QC checks. If you're not sure on formatting and stuff, Treecko has a good thread on what you should be doing here.
 

LouisCyphre

heralds disaster.
is a Forum Moderatoris a Community Contributor
TTar, Hippo, and Aboma should be mentioned as checks, even if they're rather rare. They perform great damage control against a set-up Swellow just by switching in, and the Sand Streamers can help prevent the Swellow menace preemptively by laying down rocks.
 

Mr. Uncompetitive

That was when it all began.
is a Contributor Alumnus
Arceus-Ghost also ought to be mentioned as a check. Yeah, it hates Toxic, but it's immune to Endeavor while Heat Wave does jack, while Ghostceus can just punch through the subs with Brick Break, Focus Blast, or Flamethrower.

The shuffler sets of Gira-A and Gira-O are even better checks (more of counters really) since Endeavor again does nothing, they have Rest so Toxic doesn't mean much, Heat Wave does barely anything, and they can just phaze with Roar (or break your sub with DTail). The same is the case with their Mono-Attacker sets if they're running Dragon Pulse, although these sets are much less common.
 

Vinc2612

The V stands for VGC
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Dedicated Tournament Host Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Congrats, you just lost your ghost, I can spin and win now.

> Scrappy

Roar is indeed better to avoid the sub spam and get the 1 HP, but then it's SR spam, 1 HP, endeavor. Swellow still did the job he was meant to.
 

shrang

General Kenobi
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Okay, I gave this a try, and I did like it. It was fun to use, but really, it's a gimmick at best. You might pull off a couple of surprise tournament wins here and there, but it's nowhere near consistent enough to warrant an analysis. Sorry.

QC REJECTED 1/3
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top