Statistics
|
Stat |
| HP |
90
|
383 |
| Atk |
130
|
358 |
| Def |
80
|
258 |
| SpA |
65
|
228 |
| SpD |
85
|
268 |
| Spe |
55
|
208 |
Vital Throw has negative priority, meaning if you are slower than a Pokémon using Roar / Whirlwind, you will go after them, thus making their phazing attempts fail. If you keep your Speed maxed out, you will be as slow as base 20 Speed Pokémon after a Curse, meaning nothing can switch in and phaze you out.
However, you may encounter things like Steelix that lower their Speed DVs. For this reason, you should consider using a Speed DV of 1 with Rock Slide. If you have Hidden Power Bug, things are a bit trickier. If you use a Speed DV of 1, your Hidden Power only has 65 power as opposed to 70. To keep a 70 power Hidden Power Bug, you'll need to raise your Speed DV to 9. This puts you at 130 Speed after a Curse, which is tied with a Steelix that has a Speed DV of 1. 1 is used over 0 because if your Speed DV is 0, that will also lower your HP. So you have a choice. You can either tie Steelix with Hidden Power Bug 70 and risk being Roared out after hitting Steelix once, or you can guarantee that Steelix will be unable to Roar you out with Hidden Power Bug 65. Note that Steelix has a slightly less than 50% chance to be 2HKOed by a +1 Vital Throw when you factor in Leftovers, so you just need to avoid being Roared once.
Rock Slide hits Fliers like Zapdos, whereas Hidden Power Bug covers Starmie, Exeggutor, and Celebi. Rest lets you Curse up to take some hits, hopefully kill their phazer with Vital Throw, and then Rest off the damage.
This moveset can hit almost everything hard. Fire Blast is not completely necessary, but it does help scare off Skarmory. Even without it, Cross Chop will still hit Skarmory for a lot of damage. Fire Blast is basically novelty if you are really worried about Exeggutor or Forretress. But Pokémon is indeed a team game. You can use something else against them. You could even substitute Rock Slide for Hidden Power Bug if you are really worried about Exeggutor or random Psychic-types. This set works well late in the game when you only need one Curse and can finish everything off with a hard Cross Chop.
Cross Chop's lack of PP is cured by Sleep Talk, and this set can be difficult to take down if you are caught off guard. Skarmory doesn't want to take a Cross Chop anymore than Snorlax does. If it can get a Curse up while you switch to your pseudo-hazer, your pseudo-hazer could very well be crippled. Although, the sacrifice with this set is its complete vulnerability to Ghosts.
Other Options
If you want to try getting rid of Fliers in one fell swoop, you can use Counter and bounce back a Drill Peck for the KO. In addition, you can try out Light Screen to help Machamp and its team battling special attackers. Meditate can raise Machamp's Attack without limiting its Speed (like Curse), which might come handy sometime.
Opinion
Machamp is a really tough Pokémon to use and has seen a lot of fluctuation in its use over the years. However, using it right will reap wonderful benefits in just steamrolling everything it comes across. Machamp is not really a cure-all as far as sweeping goes, but most of the Pokémon that wall Machamp aren't OU, and Machamp has ways around those few OU that do wall it. Machamp's main problem is the fact that the pure Fighting typing grants few resistances for switch-in opportunities, and since Machamp is slow, it can be a easy target to just beat down upon. In addition, while all three of Machamp's defensive stats are actually decent, attacks that are super effective (Flying and Psychic) abound in standard teams. Using Machamp usually involves using other things specifically to help it out (Umbreon is a good example), but once those one or two counters are weak enough, Machamp will more than likely run rampant. If you've got good prediction and a good strategy behind Machamp, it can certainly be worth the trouble.
Counters
Most Psychics with Recover, such as Starmie and Celebi, are counters; Hidden Power Bug might make their job tough, though. Alakazam's Defense is quite weak, but its Psychic will always 2HKO Machamp as opposed to Celebi's 3HKO. Machamp can never get past Misdreavus and Gengar with the Sleep Talk set, as they are immune to Cross Chop. Skarmory and Suicune can Roar Machamp out if it gets some Curses (unless it uses Vital Throw), and the former can use Drill Peck if it just tries to attack. Zapdos has a super effective Drill Peck with which to hit Machamp before it Curses.
