[OVERVIEW]
- Stellar Attack
- Decent Defenses
- Good offensive STAB
- Sufficient offensive movepool including a priority STAB
- Two excellent abilities in Sheer Force and Guts, either boosting it's coverage significantly to make it an effective wallbreaker or making it a status absorber respectively.
- Useful resistances to Dark and Rock
- Crippling weaknesses to Flying, Fairy, and Psychic
- Very low Speed
- Struggles against several metagame defining threats such as Talonflame, Metagross, Diancie, and Sableye.
[Set]
name: Sheer Force Attacker
move 1: Mach Punch
move 2: Drain Punch / Superpower
move 3: Ice Punch
move 4: Thunder Punch
item: Life Orb
ability: Sheer Force
nature: Adamant
EVs: 48 HP / 252 Atk / 208 Spe
[Set Comments]
Moves
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- Mach Punch is mandatory as priority is very useful to Conkeldurr, the other moves are highly dependent on Conkeldurr's teammates.
- Drain Punch is more consistent than Superpower, but Superpower does an enormous amount of damage to bulky neutral targets.
- Ice Punch hits bulky Ground types that it's partners tend to lure out.
- ThunderPunch hits bulky Water types such as Gyarados, Slowbro, and Manaphy.
- Life Orb is used to take advantage of Sheer Force and increase Conkeldurr's power without having to rely on the opponent inflicting status on it.
- If having Fairies lured and eliminated is beneficial to Conkeldurr's team, Poison Jab gets the Sheer Force boost and can be used over one of the typical coverage moves.
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- The EVs are just enough to outspeed defensive Skarmory while maximizing power, however, if Skarmory and normal Scizor are not a concern, an alternative spread of 128 HP / 252 Atk / 128 Spe can be used for Clefable and 84 Spe Azumarill.
- Sheer Force gives a huge boost to Conkeldurr's coverage moves, allowing it to muscle past it's typical checks, and Life Orb is used to further increase Conkeldurr's power and take advantage of Sheer Force nulling the recoil on moves boosted by Sheer Force.
Usage Tips
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- Bring out Conkeldurr early in the game to punch holes in the opponent's team, this Conkeldurr does very well against common hazard leads such as Garchomp, Tyranitar, Landorus-T, and Ferrothorn.
- Conkeldurr should be used to lure out and maim common physical walls for its teammates.
- Life Orb Conkeldurr's Mach Punch is very strong, so even at low health it can be still be useful later as a revenge killer. Otherwise, once Conkeldurr has done it's job in the early game it is mostly death fodder.
- When in doubt, Superpower does solid damage to all but the bulkiest resists (if you choose to use it).
- Most people expect Assault Vest Conkeldurr, so avoid revealing Life Orb unless absolutely necessary for maximum effect. This will also dissuade the opponent from using status on Conkeldurr.
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- Sheer Force Conkeldurr fits in well on physically oriented offense teams that enjoy having physical walls like Hippowdon and Slowbro broken.
- Mega Sableye is a pretty hard counter to this set, so any Fairy type works well with this Conkeldurr. Mega Diancie deserves a special mention since Conkeldurr takes down a lot of its common checks and counters such as Ferrothorn and SDef Skarmory.
- Talonflame is an excellent partner for Conkeldurr, as it holds up against the Fairies that threaten Conkeldurr, while Conkeldurr weakens or eliminates Pokemon in the way of a Talonflame sweep. Excadrill works similarly, while also resisting Psychic.
- This Conkeldurr also struggles greatly against bulky Psychic types that it can't hit super effectively like Cresselia. Therefore, strong Dark and Ghost attackers work well with Conkeldurr.
name: Assault Vest
move 1: Drain Punch
move 2: Mach Punch
move 3: Knock Off
move 4: Ice Punch / Stone Edge
ability: Guts
item: Assault Vest
EVs: 252 Atk / 236 SDef / 20 Spe
nature: Adamant
Moves
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- Drain Punch is the mandatory STAB move on this set to maximize Conkeldurr's longevity.
- Knock Off hits Gengar and Psychic types such as Latios and Starmie that the other moves may not cover.
- Ice Punch is typically the preferred coverage move to hit bulky Grounds such as Landorus-T and Garchomp.
- Stone Edge is mostly to hit Talonflame, Charizard Y, Pinsir, and Volcarona.
- Poison Jab can once again be used in the last slot to hit Fairies such as Clefable and Gardevoir.
- Assault Vest allows Conkeldurr to take hits from powerful special attackers like Landorus and Gengar and retaliate with the appropriate move.
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- Instead of being a wallbreaker like the previous set, this Conkeldurr acts more as an offensive pivot to sponge hits from certain special attackers that offensive teams otherwise have no switch ins to.
- The minimal investment in Speed is mostly to outspeed Hippowdon and hit it with Ice Punch before it can recover or use Stealth Rocks.
- Guts is the best ability for this set to absorb and punish the use of status, and boosted Drain Punches often offset the residual damage from poison and burn.
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- This Conkeldurr can directly switch into more attacks than the previous set, in fact, the whole point of AV Conkeldurr is to avoid having other, more significant teammates take unnecessary damage from powerful special attackers.
- AV Conkeldurr can also act as a status absorber for it's team, since it will then get the Guts boost.
- This Conkeldurr is also the most useful in the early and mid game when the opponent's special attackers are healthy.
- Knock Off is a very safe move to spam when in doubt.
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- Pokemon that enjoy having a sponge for special Electric types, Genies, and Gengar are good partners for Conkeldurr. Pokemon that come to mind include Rotom-W, Slowbro, Landorus-T, and Metagross.
- This particular Conkeldurr enjoys hazard support since it otherwise struggles to attain certain 2HKOes on bulkier offensive threats such as Mega Manectric after Intimidate.
- Pokemon that like having a status absorber pair well with Conkeldurr, again, Landorus-T and Metagross fit this category as well as sweepers that often get cut off by Will-o-Wisp or Thunder Wave, such as Mega Altaria and Mega Gyarados.
- Hazard removal is also quite important to ensure Conkeldurr survives certain hits.
- Mega Sableye walls this set even harder than the last, so Fairy types that can deal with Sableye are good partners for this set as well
Other Options
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- Rock Slide does get boosted by Sheer Force but it isn't recommended on that set as it doesn't actually attain any notable KOes over using it on the Guts AV set. Rock Slide can also be used on the AV set over Stone Edge for more accuracy.
- Fire Punch is an alternative coverage move that can be used to take on Mega Scizor better.
- Iron Fist is Conkeldurr's third ability but is usually inferior to Guts and Sheer Force due to those two giving larger boosts.
Checks and Counters
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- **Mega Sableye**: tanks anything either set can throw at it and just Recovers off the damage.
- **Psychic types**: such as Mega Metagross, Mega Latias, Reuniclus, and Cresselia that can shrug off Knock Off also handle Conkeldurr well.
- **Flying types**: Talonflame and Mega Pinsir almost always force Conkeldurr out.
- **Fairy Types**: Strong Fairy type attackers like Azumarill, Mega Gardevoir, and Mega Altaria threaten Conkeldurr greatly and often force it to switch out.
- **Bulky Ground Types**: The likes of Hippowdon, Quagsire, and Landorus-T can also handle Conkeldurr well with good predictions.
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