This set is perfectly suited for UU and standard play. Glare will paralyze anything besides a Ghost-types that switches in and will always be a great help; just watch out for that shaky 75% accuracy. Rock Slide can flinch stuff after you've Glared them and hurts Salamence and Gyarados somewhat, and Earthquake should take care of Steels and Rocks to an extent. Hopefully you will paralyze something fast like Gligar or Salamence, but Skarmory, Weezing, and Sandslash don't like to be paralyzed either. These EVs allow you to outspeed every Tyranitar, save those that use a +Speed nature, which is more than enough since Glare should make you faster than anything.
Here is a Choice Banding Arbok. Not really much an explanation is needed. He is decently fast, so he should be able to damage some things before biting the dust. Hidden Power Ghost has an accuracy advantage over Iron Tail, but if you're playing UU you may want to use Iron Tail to hit Solrock and Lunatone really hard. Other OptionsBody Slam is great for paralyzing things with the Choice Band set, but can be used without Choice Band as well if you want to be sure to damage things. Giga Drain comes from below average Special Attack, but it will 2HKO Swampert in standard and Quagsire in UU. Hidden Power Ice can hit Salamence, Flygon and Gligar HARD as well as any other Ground, but if you're into such mixed sets I suggest you check out Seviper instead, since he has much more Special Attack to work with. Haze isn't going to do much since Arbok doesn't have the defenses or resistances for it, but if you're afraid of Baton Passing chains it's an option. Just use Shed Skin instead of Intimidate, then. This also applies to Rest; the only way for Arbok to use it effectively is by attempting to take advantage of Shed Skin's 33% chance to remove your status conditions at the end of each turn. You could also use Sleep Talk; Arbok is actually a pretty good sleep absorber in standard and UU play to switch into Meganium or Breloom. Snatch can get you a Gligar Swords Dance or a Salamence Dragon Dance if your prediction is paying off, but you're highly unlikely to kill them before they kill you with Earthquake. Thief stealing the Leftovers of something like Gligar, Skarmory or Weezing can really win you the game, just don't equip Arbok with anything when using it. EVsAs suggested, Arbok always wants max Attack to hurt as much as possible. If you're using Glare, there is no need to put a lot of Speed EVs. Good amounts of Speed (not EVs, the stat) for standard are 204 (beats most Metagross), 223 (beats Tyranitars without a +Speed nature), or 265 (beats Breloom, nearly all Gyarados, and some Dragon Dancing Salamence). For UU, at least put 200 or so for outspeeding every kind of Meganium. With 240 you will outrun Poliwrath, Lunatone and Solrock that do not use a +Speed nature (which is nearly always), so that's good to stick with. If you still want to go with a speedy Arbok, use 270 to outrun Nidoking without a +Speed nature. On a Choice Banded set, just max Speed and Attack and use Jolly. Killing is more important than surviving random hits. OpinionArbok is decent contender in UU, however a shame it's walled by every Ground available. For standard, the only real use it has is Glaring everything in sight, but the weaknesses to Earthquake and Psychic really hurt. It can work there, but it's too fragile to really shine. CountersArbok is frail, so everything that uses Earthquake or Psychic instantly knocks him out. In standard play, Dugtrio survives Sludge Bomb and kills Arbok in one hit with Earthquake. Safer switch-ins include Rhydon, Donphan and Swampert — they can come in on anything except Giga Drain. Every Steel that doesn't die to Earthquake is a great Arbok counter: Skarmory, Forretress, Scizor, and even Metagross with his great Defense can come in on Arbok quite easily since they're immune to Sludge Bomb. Arbok cannot touch Weezing with anything. Flygon is pretty much a failsafe to switch in on anything since he resists Sludge Bomb and Rock Slide and is immune to Earthquake. However, these Pokémon may be hindered later on due to possible paralysis. Suicune's astronomical HP and defenses let it shrug off everything Arbok throws at it and it can Rest off status, though a Choice Banded Sludge Bomb can wear it down. Same for Slowbro, except he also has access to STAB Psychic to kill Arbok. Milotic makes a decent counter since if it gets paralyzed or poisoned, it gets a 50% Defense boost. Salamence and Gyarados hinder Arbok greatly with Intimidate and the Earthquakes coming off their high Attacks, but if you manage to catch them with Glare on the switch they will be much easier to kill. In UU, there are not many Steels to wall it, but plenty of Rocks and Grounds that just as easily come in on Sludge Bomb and usually Earthquake. Main counters include Solrock, Lunatone, Golem, Sandslash, Quagsire, Omastar, and Gligar, all of which resist Sludge Bomb and take little to no damage at all from its other moves, though all of these except Gligar do not like Giga Drain much, and again Glare may hinder them. Iron Tail hits Solrock and Lunatone hard as well. Poison-types like Muk, Nidoking, and Nidoqueen can come in on Sludge Bomb. Muk can Curse up and beat Arbok one on one, and Nidoking and Nidoqueen can hit hard with STAB Earthquake. However, they fear being Earthquaked themselves. Arbok needs Hidden Power Ghost or Rock Slide to touch Shedinja, so you can bring that in on the Choice Bander, or on the first set if it lacks Rock Slide for some reason. Kangaskhan can hit Arbok hard with Earthquake and will probably beat it one on one, but it's not going to switch into these STABed Sludge Bombs. When facing Meganium using Arbok, always watch out for Counter. |
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