[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 4 onwards
**Price Range**: 12-13 points
**Overview**: Blacephalon is a speedy wallbreaker with the potential to snowball that is held back primarily by its typing and defensive stats. While Ghost and Fire make for a powerful offensive combination, it also leaves it vulnerable to a lot of important types, including weaknesses to Stealth Rock and Pursuit. Without meaningful defensive stats, Blacephalon is often limited to trading early-game, or waiting until late-game to sweep. Additionally, a weakness to Pursuit often limits it to only being able to come in once during a game. Blacephalon's ability, Beast Boost, can enable either Speed or Special Attack boosts depending on investment, enabling a snowball sweep or trading up early-game.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Wallbreaker**: Blacephalon can be used early in a battle to deal significant damage to walls, wearing them down for teammates later. Use of a Z-Crystal can also outright eliminate a key foe, opening up a hole for it or other teammates to take advantage of. Wallbreaker sets can become even harder to deal with after a KO secures it a Speed boost.
** Late-game Sweeper**: Once an opposing team has been sufficiently weakened, and any revenge killers have been neutralized, Blacephalon can use its natural Speed and power to finish up a battle. If it can pick off a weakened opponent, a Special Attack boost can allow it to snowball quickly.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Heat Wave, Overheat, Shadow Ball
**Setup Moves**: Calm Mind, Substitute
**Utility Moves**: Knock Off, Light Screen, Taunt, Toxic, Trick, Will-O-Wisp
**Coverage**: Dark Pulse, Hidden Power, Psychic, Psyshock
Niche Moves
========
**Mind Blown**: Blacephalon's strongest move, Mind Blown, can be used as a parting gift to deal significant damage before Blacephalon eliminates itself. If using Firium Z, Mind Blown provides an absurd 200-Base Power Inferno Overdrive, which even Fire-resistant foes will struggle to take.
**Pain Split**: Blacephalon is limited on recovery moves and also rarely finds the space and time to use them. However, against more passive teams that can't easily remove Blacephalon, the ability to heal up can allow it to be effective throughout a battle rather than as a one-time thing.
**Foul Play**: Blacephalon can act as an emergency check to Dragon Dance or Sword Dance sweepers with Foul Play, either by outspeeding or using a Focus Sash to tank a hit and remove a dangerous threat.
Common Items
========
**Z-Crystals**: Blacephalon is a strong choice for a Z-Crystal holder, using either STAB crystals to bully through a check or a Z-Crystal alongside coverage to snipe a potential wall that would otherwise prevent it from making progress.
**Choice Scarf**: Unable to boost its Speed with Beast Boost without a lot of sacrifice, Choice Scarf can allow Blacephalon to act as makeshift speed control and as a revenge killer.
**Choice Specs**: While powerful, Blacephalon can utilize Choice Specs to turn into a demon, obliterating even defensive responses for its teammates to take advantage of later.
Niche Items
========
**Damage-boosting Items**: If Blacephalon needs a bit more power while wanting to switch its move choice, type-boosting damage items like Expert Belt, Charcoal, and Spell Tag can provide boosts to damage in specific circumstances. Blacephalon can also make use of Life Orb, as HP is not a precious commodity for it.
**Salac Berry**: When using Substitute, Blacephalon can easily navigate down to an HP value that activates Salac Berry, enabling EV allocation to give Special Attack boosts by Beast Boost without risking being KOed in return by most Choice Scarf users.
**Leftovers**: On the rare occasion that Blacephalon can run Substitute + Calm Mind, Leftovers provides consistent healing throughout its time in battle, potentially giving it enough health to use Substitute more times.
**Resistance Berries**: With some investment, Blacephalon can potentially survive a super effective hit from a predicted opponent, allowing it to tank the hit unexpectedly and respond back with an attack of its own.
**Focus Sash**: If there are no entry hazards, Blacephalon can survive any hit that would OHKO it, allowing it another turn to reverse the tide of battle.
Draft Strategy
========
Blacephalon is primarily picked up on teams that discover a lack of special offensive pressure in the middle of the draft, either intentionally so and using Blacephalon as a cover for a specific draft strategy or unintentionally as a somewhat cheap and effective special attacker. While Blacephalon should not dictate draft strategy alone, it appreciates being paired with certain archetypes and strategies that allow it to work effectively.
**Entry Hazard Control**: Vulnerable to every hazard and naturally frail, Blacephalon greatly appreciates being on a team that can win the entry hazard war. Even just Stealth Rock or a layer of Spikes can turn 2HKOs into OHKOs, preventing Blacephalon from needing to take unnecessary hits. Pokemon like Zapdos and Blastoise can provide hazard removal, while Garchomp and Ferrothorn can set their own hazards.
**Physical Wallbreakers**: With most counterplay to Blacephalon being specially defensive walls, it benefits from being partnered up with physical attackers like Mega Gallade, Landorus-T, and Zygarde, which can provide pressure on the other side of the attacking binary.
**Slow Pivots**: With how frail Blacephalon is, it appreciates being safely brought in after an opponent's move. Defensive Rotom-W, Uxie, Scizor, and other slow Pokemon with Volt Switch or U-turn can safely bring in Blacephalon to deal damage.
Checks and Counters
========
**Pursuit**: If an opposing team has a Pokemon that can learn Pursuit, Blacephalon often can only KO one Pokemon at maximum. Even a weaker Pursuit will prevent Blacephalon from escaping. Tyranitar especially shuts down Blacephalon by resisting both of its STABs and its coverage, and cleanly removing it with Pursuit. With a Special Defense boost from sand, even Hidden Power Fighting can often struggle to deal significant damage.
**Priority / Choice Scarf**: Without much ability to safely boost its Speed with Beast Boost, anything faster than Blacephalon can potentially remove it before it can accomplish much. Moves like Water Shuriken from Greninja or Sucker Punch from Mega Mawile can KO Blacephalon, and nearly anything with a Choice Scarf can outspeed non-Choice Scarf Blacephalon and prevent it from making progress.
**Specially Defensive Walls**: While Blacephalon may have a high base Attack, a lacking physical movepool limits its ability to do anything about most specially defensive walls. Pokemon like Toxapex and Snorlax resist or are immune to one of Blacephalon's STAB types and can recover off any paltry damage it can do, forcing it out.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/a-fairy.57965/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/odinrm.613514/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/sunny004.197240/
**Draft Order**: Round 4 onwards
**Price Range**: 12-13 points
**Overview**: Blacephalon is a speedy wallbreaker with the potential to snowball that is held back primarily by its typing and defensive stats. While Ghost and Fire make for a powerful offensive combination, it also leaves it vulnerable to a lot of important types, including weaknesses to Stealth Rock and Pursuit. Without meaningful defensive stats, Blacephalon is often limited to trading early-game, or waiting until late-game to sweep. Additionally, a weakness to Pursuit often limits it to only being able to come in once during a game. Blacephalon's ability, Beast Boost, can enable either Speed or Special Attack boosts depending on investment, enabling a snowball sweep or trading up early-game.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Wallbreaker**: Blacephalon can be used early in a battle to deal significant damage to walls, wearing them down for teammates later. Use of a Z-Crystal can also outright eliminate a key foe, opening up a hole for it or other teammates to take advantage of. Wallbreaker sets can become even harder to deal with after a KO secures it a Speed boost.
** Late-game Sweeper**: Once an opposing team has been sufficiently weakened, and any revenge killers have been neutralized, Blacephalon can use its natural Speed and power to finish up a battle. If it can pick off a weakened opponent, a Special Attack boost can allow it to snowball quickly.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Heat Wave, Overheat, Shadow Ball
**Setup Moves**: Calm Mind, Substitute
**Utility Moves**: Knock Off, Light Screen, Taunt, Toxic, Trick, Will-O-Wisp
**Coverage**: Dark Pulse, Hidden Power, Psychic, Psyshock
Niche Moves
========
**Mind Blown**: Blacephalon's strongest move, Mind Blown, can be used as a parting gift to deal significant damage before Blacephalon eliminates itself. If using Firium Z, Mind Blown provides an absurd 200-Base Power Inferno Overdrive, which even Fire-resistant foes will struggle to take.
**Pain Split**: Blacephalon is limited on recovery moves and also rarely finds the space and time to use them. However, against more passive teams that can't easily remove Blacephalon, the ability to heal up can allow it to be effective throughout a battle rather than as a one-time thing.
**Foul Play**: Blacephalon can act as an emergency check to Dragon Dance or Sword Dance sweepers with Foul Play, either by outspeeding or using a Focus Sash to tank a hit and remove a dangerous threat.
Common Items
========
**Z-Crystals**: Blacephalon is a strong choice for a Z-Crystal holder, using either STAB crystals to bully through a check or a Z-Crystal alongside coverage to snipe a potential wall that would otherwise prevent it from making progress.
**Choice Scarf**: Unable to boost its Speed with Beast Boost without a lot of sacrifice, Choice Scarf can allow Blacephalon to act as makeshift speed control and as a revenge killer.
**Choice Specs**: While powerful, Blacephalon can utilize Choice Specs to turn into a demon, obliterating even defensive responses for its teammates to take advantage of later.
Niche Items
========
**Damage-boosting Items**: If Blacephalon needs a bit more power while wanting to switch its move choice, type-boosting damage items like Expert Belt, Charcoal, and Spell Tag can provide boosts to damage in specific circumstances. Blacephalon can also make use of Life Orb, as HP is not a precious commodity for it.
**Salac Berry**: When using Substitute, Blacephalon can easily navigate down to an HP value that activates Salac Berry, enabling EV allocation to give Special Attack boosts by Beast Boost without risking being KOed in return by most Choice Scarf users.
**Leftovers**: On the rare occasion that Blacephalon can run Substitute + Calm Mind, Leftovers provides consistent healing throughout its time in battle, potentially giving it enough health to use Substitute more times.
**Resistance Berries**: With some investment, Blacephalon can potentially survive a super effective hit from a predicted opponent, allowing it to tank the hit unexpectedly and respond back with an attack of its own.
**Focus Sash**: If there are no entry hazards, Blacephalon can survive any hit that would OHKO it, allowing it another turn to reverse the tide of battle.
Draft Strategy
========
Blacephalon is primarily picked up on teams that discover a lack of special offensive pressure in the middle of the draft, either intentionally so and using Blacephalon as a cover for a specific draft strategy or unintentionally as a somewhat cheap and effective special attacker. While Blacephalon should not dictate draft strategy alone, it appreciates being paired with certain archetypes and strategies that allow it to work effectively.
**Entry Hazard Control**: Vulnerable to every hazard and naturally frail, Blacephalon greatly appreciates being on a team that can win the entry hazard war. Even just Stealth Rock or a layer of Spikes can turn 2HKOs into OHKOs, preventing Blacephalon from needing to take unnecessary hits. Pokemon like Zapdos and Blastoise can provide hazard removal, while Garchomp and Ferrothorn can set their own hazards.
**Physical Wallbreakers**: With most counterplay to Blacephalon being specially defensive walls, it benefits from being partnered up with physical attackers like Mega Gallade, Landorus-T, and Zygarde, which can provide pressure on the other side of the attacking binary.
**Slow Pivots**: With how frail Blacephalon is, it appreciates being safely brought in after an opponent's move. Defensive Rotom-W, Uxie, Scizor, and other slow Pokemon with Volt Switch or U-turn can safely bring in Blacephalon to deal damage.
Checks and Counters
========
**Pursuit**: If an opposing team has a Pokemon that can learn Pursuit, Blacephalon often can only KO one Pokemon at maximum. Even a weaker Pursuit will prevent Blacephalon from escaping. Tyranitar especially shuts down Blacephalon by resisting both of its STABs and its coverage, and cleanly removing it with Pursuit. With a Special Defense boost from sand, even Hidden Power Fighting can often struggle to deal significant damage.
**Priority / Choice Scarf**: Without much ability to safely boost its Speed with Beast Boost, anything faster than Blacephalon can potentially remove it before it can accomplish much. Moves like Water Shuriken from Greninja or Sucker Punch from Mega Mawile can KO Blacephalon, and nearly anything with a Choice Scarf can outspeed non-Choice Scarf Blacephalon and prevent it from making progress.
**Specially Defensive Walls**: While Blacephalon may have a high base Attack, a lacking physical movepool limits its ability to do anything about most specially defensive walls. Pokemon like Toxapex and Snorlax resist or are immune to one of Blacephalon's STAB types and can recover off any paltry damage it can do, forcing it out.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/a-fairy.57965/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/odinrm.613514/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/sunny004.197240/
Last edited:
