Cobalion Discussion

Fireburn

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UU looks to be a fun tier this generation so why not discuss the coolest looking musketeer? (Especially since Lucario and Terrakion aren't around owning it up...)


Cobalion
Stats:

91 HP
90 Atk
129 Def
90 SpA
72 SpD
108 Speed

Type: Steel-Fighting

Cobalion's most apparent use in UU atm is checking Hail teams. He walls Abomasnow and can take any of Kyurem's attacks but Focus Blast and put them down with strong Fighting-type attacks. 108 base Speed also means he outspeeds most of UU (except for Chlorophyll sweepers of course), and the most common Priority seems to be Sucker Punch, which he both 4X resists and gains a power boost from thanks to Justified. He also gets a fast Taunt to help screw up those popular ShellPass teams that all the kids are running nowadays, and his typing is quite hard for UU stall to deal with (many resists, immune to being poisoned, Fighting STAB to own Chansey).

So in a nutshell...

Pros:
-Fast Taunt
-Excellent typing grants a ton of resists and useful Fighting STAB.
-Very bulky with 91/129/71 defenses.
-108 Speed outpaces most of the tier.
-Beats up Stall and checks Hail and ShellPass nicely.
-4X resists SR and can't be poisoned

Cons:
-SpD could be better
-Shallow movepool offensively (it has just enough though)
-Fire weakness is bad with all the Drought teams running around

Sets:

Swords Dance
Cobalion @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Taunt

This set will pretty much destroy any Stall team without a Slowbro. Taunt stops Cressy and Celebi from paralyzing you, Deoxys-D from Pressure stalling you, Suicune from Roaring you away, Spiritomb and Mew from Burning you, and it also lets Cobalion nearly single handedly beat ShellPass teams thanks to his very good Speed. Just Taunt the enemy's walls, SD up, and have fun. Close Combat + LO + a SD will deal a ton of damage to pretty much anything, and Stone Edge owns Victini and 2HKOes Mew after an SD while also being useful against random fliers.

X-Scissor is also there for Psychic-types and if you REALLY hate Celebi. Rock Polish might also be cool to screw over Drought teams who rely on Chlorophyll sweepers to revenge stuff. You can also do the whole Double Dance thing with Screens.

Calm Mind
Cobalion @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power Ghost
- Taunt

Same deal as the SD set. Taunt walls and set up Calm Minds to sweep with your other base 120 STAB move. Cobalion's stats are perfect for Calm Mind, too. Its fast, has a ton of resists, has great Defense and doesn't care about priority, and can patch up its decent SDef with CM. (Remember that Cobalion is bulkier than freakin' Metagross and has a lot more useful resists. (Ghost, Dark, Bug) and an arguably better secondary typing.)

This set has an easier time against Suicune and Slowbro in exchange for requiring a bit more effort to beat Chansey. Focus Blast is your main STAB attack, and although inaccurate, it is very powerful. Eviolite Calm Chansey is even 2HKOed by +1 FB after SR damage, and combined with Taunt the famed pink blob really has no chance. HP Ghost is there to beat up Cressy and Celebi (who can't touch you after a Calm Mind and with Taunt at your disposal.) while 2HKOng Victini and Slowbro. (Unboosted HP Ghost 2HKOes the former after SR damage anyway.)

So anyways, I think this thing has a lot of good potential in UU, but what about you? I want to hear your opinions!

Discuss.
 
I've been using Cobalion and he's really quite useful, both as an offensive threat and as glue against hail teams. I've been using Lefties though- I appreciate his natural bulk and it's relatively easy for him to break the game open at +4 or sweep at +2 without it anyway. LO also makes him easier to stall out on hail teams or on stall teams who have no proper counter to him. I've been using SD but CM sounds interesting too, although I don't really like the lack of Giga drain that made Virizion so good and able to function without recovery. SD is good for switching into dark type attacks that Mew and friends attract to get an attack boost, so I personally prefer it.
 
Ha. Ever fought one of the musketeers in a triple battle? I have. And here is what happend.
Position of oppenent's pokemon:
Ambipom Terakion Don't recall


Now, thanks to Justified, every dark type attack raises ATK.
Guess what? Ambipom uses beat up on Terakion, thus maximazing ATK (Beatup hits up to 6 times with full party). I think this would be even cheaper with Cobalion, thanks to 4x resistance to dark, taking very little damage. While many people on Smogon use the single battle format, those trying out the new modes, such as triple battle, while be discouraged by the new cheap tricks in these modes.
 

His Eminence Lord Poppington II

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It's hardly cheap, that's a fairly well known strategy, furthermore this is a UU discussion forum and tiers based on usage don't exist for the VGC really. Cobalion lookin' good though great typing, great speed, a less offensive lucario with considerably more bulk and better speed.
 
This sums up my experiences in UU with Cobalion.

Cobalion Swords Danced on random Chansey!
Dugtrio switched in!
Cobalion used :(

Similarly...

Wobbuffet switched in!
Cobalion used >:O

Surprisingly Celebi is nowhere to be found in this metagame because you need to have some balls of steel to be using one where Hail and Drought is currently dominating making X-Scissor abit of a rarity.
 
Cobalion's moves
Level up

Level Move Type Cat. Pwr. Acc. PP
Start Quick Attack Normal Physical 40 100% 30
Start Leer Normal Status — 100% 30
7 Double Kick Fighting Physical 30 100% 30
13 Metal Claw Steel Physical 50 95% 35
19 Take Down Normal Physical 90 85% 20
25 Helping Hand Normal Status — —% 20
31 Retaliate Normal Physical 70 100% 5
37 Iron Head Steel Physical 80 100% 15
42 Sacred Sword Fighting Physical 90 100% 20
49 Swords Dance Normal Status — —% 30
55 Quick Guard Fighting Status — —% 15
61 Work Up Normal Status — —% 30
67 Metal Burst Steel Physical — 100% 10
73 Close Combat Fighting Physical 120 100% 5

By TM/HM

TM Move Type Cat. Pwr. Acc. PP
TM01 Hone Claws Dark Status — —% 15
TM04 Calm Mind Psychic Status — —% 20
TM05 Roar Normal Status — 100% 20
TM06 Toxic Poison Status — 90% 10
TM10 Hidden Power Normal Special — 100% 15
TM12 Taunt Dark Status — 100% 20
TM15 Hyper Beam Normal Special 150 90% 5
TM17 Protect Normal Status — —% 10
TM20 Safeguard Normal Status — —% 25
TM21 Frustration Normal Physical — 100% 20
TM27 Return Normal Physical — 100% 20
TM32 Double Team Normal Status — —% 15
TM33 Reflect Psychic Status — —% 20
TM37 Sandstorm Rock Status — —% 10
TM40 Aerial Ace Flying Physical 60 —% 20
TM42 Facade Normal Physical 70 100% 20
TM44 Rest Psychic Status — —% 10
TM48 Round Normal Special 60 100% 15
TM52 Focus Blast Fighting Special 120 70% 5
TM54 False Swipe Normal Physical 40 100% 40
TM67 Retaliate Normal Physical 70 100% 5
TM68 Giga Impact Normal Physical 150 90% 5
TM69 Rock Polish Rock Status — —% 20
TM71 Stone Edge Rock Physical 100 80% 5
TM72 Volt Switch Electric Special 70 100% 20
TM73 Thunder Wave Electric Status — —% 20
TM75 Swords Dance Normal Status — —% 30
TM77 Psych Up Normal Status — —% 30
TM81 X-Scissor Bug Physical 80 100% 15
TM83 Work Up Normal Status — —% 30
TM84 Poison Jab Poison Physical 80 100% 20
TM87 Swagger Normal Status — 90% 15
TM90 Substitute Normal Status — —% 10
TM91 Flash Cannon Steel Special 80 100% 10
TM94 Rock Smash Fighting Physical 40 100% 15
HM01 Cut Normal Physical 50 95% 30
HM04 Strength Normal Physical 80 100% 15


I'm gonna use the Sd set with a Rain Dance Kingdra and NP Azelf as core.
 
CM Cobalion is pretty decent, actually. He's not the CM user of the "I'm going to set up and run through your team" sort, more of the "I'm going to cause you some trouble and then Volt Change out at the first sign of danger" type.
 

SJCrew

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Surprisingly Celebi is nowhere to be found in this metagame because you need to have some balls of steel to be using one where Hail and Drought is currently dominating making X-Scissor abit of a rarity.
Have you ever used NP Celebi? Plows right through Hail teams. Or any other slower, defensive team, for that matter. Even offensive teams have trouble with it.
 
Actually, Hail can deal with Celebi to a certain extent. Scarf Typhlosion is my Victini check, and it can easily deal with Celebi. It can also just flat out wreak havoc on a sun-team unless they have a Flash Fire user of their own, at which point I can nail them on the switch with EQ.
 

Conflict

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World Defender
Cobalion @ Choice Band
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
- Iron Head
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Volt Switch

Cobalion @ Leftovers
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
- Toxic / Thunderwave
- Sacred Sword
- Roar/Protect/Substitute/Iron Head/Reflect
- Taunt

both good with Hazards.
 
This sums up my experiences in UU with Cobalion.

Cobalion Swords Danced on random Chansey!
Dugtrio switched in!
Cobalion used :(

Similarly...

Wobbuffet switched in!
Cobalion used >:O

Surprisingly Celebi is nowhere to be found in this metagame because you need to have some balls of steel to be using one where Hail and Drought is currently dominating making X-Scissor abit of a rarity.
Cobalion uses Taunt!
Foe Wobbufett can't use Encore after the Taunt!

Cobalion uses Swords Dance!
Foe Wobbufett uses Struggle!
 
Cobalion used Swords Dance again. And again.
Cobalin uses Iron Head
Wobbuffet used dang, im screwed
 
also cobalion is the arguably the best curselax counter in UU with sacred sword ignoring snorlax's curses

and SDed CC always at least 2 shotting it
 

Texas Cloverleaf

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@the Wobb thing, given that Stone Edge is better than Iron Head the majority of the time, its pretty relevant to note that of the Wobbufetts i've faced they've taken a +6 Stone Edge from Cobalion for about 95% and KO back with counter. So to take on Wobb you need a large complement of hazards or T-Spikes.

Also, oddly enough, a bunch of Dugtrios are running Adamant Choice Band now which allows Cobalion to kill them.
 
No mixed cobalion, with work up it's a possible set (Close Combat/HP/iron head), he can also work as a scouter whit volt swich and great speed
 
No mixed cobalion, with work up it's a possible set (Close Combat/HP/iron head), he can also work as a scouter whit volt swich and great speed
Work Up sets will always be a bit of a joke I'm afraid. Especially for a Pokémon that doesn't have raw offensive prowess. If Cobalion focuses on one side of the offensive spectrum he can break both sides of the defensive spectrum.
 
Cobalion's typing is what's keeping it from mediocrity. Its typing gives it a handful of resistances, and having beastly defenses means that Cobalion should have no problem exploiting them.

I have been using this thing as a bulky set-up sweeper, with a set much similar to yours. Getting a few Calm Minds up is pretty easy until Victini comes in and V-Creates its way to victory.
 
Ghost provides a neutral hit against Spiritomb, while Dark is resisted. I believe every other Pokemon that you wouldn't want to hit with HP Fighting is hit the same by Ghost as Dark.
1.Dark is SE on Ghost
2.Dark is resisted by Dark
3.???????????
4.HP Dark is neutral on Spiritomb also letting you keep 31 in every IV = PROFIT!
 

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