Swellow
Did this pretty quickly so there might be few things I forgot to mention.
Status: skeleton up, ready for comments/critiques
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[Overview]
- No significant changes from the generation transition
- Fantastic Speed and Guts seperate it from other Flying-types and sweepers
- Easily walled by Steel and Rock-types, frail, and there are usually much better alternatives in OU
name: Guts
move 1: Facade
move 2: Brave Bird
move 3: U-turn
move 4: Quick Attack / Protect
item: Toxic Orb / Flame Orb
ability: Guts
nature: Jolly
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
- Standard Guts Swellow returns untouched from DPP
- Facade and Brave Bird main attacking options, hit very hard with the Guts boost
- U-turn is used to scout for counters and gain momentum
- Quick Attack lets Swellow finish off faster, weakened foes; Protect allows free status orb activation
- Toxic Orb preferred since it does less damage than Flame Orb in two turns and tie at three
- Pursuit an option to trap Ghost-types
- Rapid Spin and Wish support helps as SR + status damage makes Swellow faint fast
- (General counters and teammates in below sections)
[SET]
name: Physical Attacker
move 1: Return / Double-edge / Facade
move 2: Brave Bird
move 3: U-turn
move 4: Quick Attack / Roost
item: Life Orb / Choice Band
ability: Guts / Scrappy
nature: Jolly
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
- Takes a different approach than the previous set; instant power and more survivability
- With LO/CB instead of a status orb, Swellow can get both a Guts boost and an item boost
- Facade can be used over Return hoping for a Guts boost, but Return is a more consistent option
- Scrappy can be used instead of Guts to remove the fear of Ghost-types switching in; especially useful for CB
- Double-edge for more power, but is illegal with Scrappy
- Cheer Up and Pursuit options for final slot
- If using Guts, it's best to try and switch Swellow into a status move
- (general counters and teammates in below sections again)
[Team Options]
- Magnezone to trap and remove the Steel-types that wall Swellow
- Other means of removing Steel-types like luring them with strong Dragon-types (also works vice versa)
- Spikes support to wear down its counters, most of which are grounded
- Rapid Spin support is useful since Swellow is weak to SR and is setup fodder for many spikers (Skarm, Forry, etc)
- Wish support can increase survivability
- Pokemon that can sponge priority attacks (Scizor, Roobushin) and Scarfers that can revenge kill Swellow
- Cheer Up, but rarely finds time to use it to due its frailty
- Baton Pass set (Agility, Cheer Up)
- Substitute + Endeavor
- Roost
- Most Steel and Rock-types
- Desukaan and Dusclops do a fair job with immunity to Facade and massive Defense
- Easy to revenge kill with priority and Scarfers
- Stalling it out of residual damage is often the best way to defeat it
- Swellow's Dream World ability, Scrappy, has been released.