Crawdaunt [BW2 Revamp] [QC: 2/3]

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Crawdaunt BW2 Revamp

This is my first analysis and I have used Crawdaunt for all of BW1, and has been one of my favorite pokemon. Well, tell me if I got the formatting wrong or anything, but this is in heavy Work in Progress -- WIP. I will not be able to answer responses until next Tuesday becuase I have yearly exams this week. Next, Crawdaunt is boss.

[SET]
name: Choice Band
move 1: Crabhammer / Waterfall
move 2: Crunch
move 3: Superpower
move 4: Double-Edge
item: Choice Band
ability: Adaptability
nature: Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

  • Strong
  • Two powerful STABs being resisted by very few pokemon
  • Coverage in Superpower + D-Edge, allowing to hit these pokemon like Ferrothorn and Toxicroak
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

  • Politoed
  • Tailwind Tornadus-I
  • Spikes Support discourages switching so pokemon such as Celebi will KOed after it, spikers are ferrothorn and skarmory
  • SD Scizor
  • Waterfall should be used if hitting Rotom-W and Nite for the KO after rocks is unfavorable, otherwise use Crabhammer (note: these are very common)
  • Thunder Wave support from Rotom-W and Ferrothorn is greatly appreciated
  • Physically Defensive Celebi and Lati@s with Psyshock / Psychic is great check for fighting-type moves aimed at crawdaunt and can take thunderbolts, note that both share U-turn weakness and Bug Buzz
  • Toxicroak walls fighting-, grass, and bug-types
[Other Options]

  • Dragon Dance: Too slow to sweep and week to common priority and has rarely time to set-up, needs lots of support to be effective
  • Lol, its STAB and coverage is all it needs to succeed
[Checks and Counters]

  • Toxicroak, notably the Toxic Stall set, outspeeds, walls its STAB and Superpower, and can eliminate it with Drain Punch, however it has to watch out D-Edge
  • Mach Punch if Tailwind is up, and Conkeldurr, Crawdaunt is a slow slug, so almost everything can outspeed it
  • Lucario and Terrakion can switch on Crunch and nab a Justified boost too
  • Crawdaunt is mainly a nuisance for stall teams, so HO teams have little trouble against it as they usually carry only 1 or maybe 2 walls, common threats like Salamence and Scizor can switch in resisted moves, but rain makes this a liability
  • Sun Support negates its ability making it easier to deal with, Venasaur for example can set-up on a Crabhammer, then proceed to sweep the opposition
  • Since most users of Crawdaunt have good prediction, sun support helps more
  • In short, HO and Sun teams give it trouble, as well as priority
  • Gastrodon, Ferrothorn, Kyurem-B, Kyurem, Jellicent, and Celebi can tank a Waterfall and hit back for the KO
  • I forgot Tangrowth (just looked in the original analysis)
  • Slow so like Terrakion easily OHKOes, not really a trouble but note that you shouldn't directly switch in

Code: 
Skeleton [[COLOR=DarkOrchid][B]Check[/B][/COLOR]] -- I'll get the actual one in soon
 
Quality Control Approved 2/3 [[COLOR=DarkOrchid][B]Check[/B][/COLOR]]
 
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Warning: Do not approach in non-sunny weather!

[Overview]

<p>Once outclassed by the numerous offensive water-types such as Azumarill and Gyarados, Crawdaunt is back with a blessing from Dream World, Adaptability. With this gift, Crawdaunt can practically 2HKO the whole tier! However, our fellow crab friend has to deal with its atrocious typing, which are compounded with its bad defenses and slow speed. Crawdaunt is even outclassed by Feraligatr and the aforementioned Gyarados, which have much better defenses and speed. Adaptability makes Crawdaunt much stronger than both of them, however. Do not underestimate Crawdaunt as one misstep can cause it to blow huge holes in your defenses.</p>

[SET]
name: Choice Band
move 1: Crabhammer / Waterfall
move 2: Crunch
move 3: Superpower
move 4: Double-Edge
item: Choice Band
ability: Adaptability
nature: Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>By merging Choice Band and Adapdability together, Crawdaunt turns into one of the strongest physical threats in the tier. Crawdaunt is meant to be a hit and run attcker due to its slow speed, so keep that in mind. Due to the extreme power behind Crawdaunt's STAB coverage moves will rarely be used, especially considering each one of Crawdaunt's coverage has a nasty side effect</p>

<p>Crabhammer is the main move of the set and hits extremely hard (especially in the rain), as almost nothing immune to it can survive the 2HKO. Crunch has excellent neutral coverage with Crabhammer, and can defeat pokemon which are immune or resist Crabhammer, such as Jellicent and Celebi, respectively. The last to moves are meant to hit specific targets which wall Crawdaunt's STAB. Superpower is to deal with Ferrothorn and Empoleon, while Double-Edge is for Keldeo and Toxicroak. Note that these moves have a nasty side-effect that may cause Crawdaunt to switch. The former reduces Crawdaunt's attack and defense, and the latter cause recoil damage upon use. Waterfall is an option over Crabhammer if accuracy is an issue, but it misses the 2HKO on Rotom-W and Dragonite.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Crawdaunr
[Other Options]

[Checks and Counters]
 
agreeing with pk regarding the dd set.

tailwind tornadus is cb crawdaunt's best friend outside of politoed, mention it!
 
Yeah remove the DD set.

Also SD Scizor is another great partner for Crawdaunt, as Crawdaunt lures and weakens the Water-types that prevent Scizor from sweeping.

Waiting for you to complete the skeleton before commenting any further.
 
Remove any mention of Dragon Dance of the Overview as it doesn't have a set anymore. Also make sure not to oversell Crawdaunt when writing the Overview as it is a very niche Pokemon that is very rarely worth using. Strong physical attackers such as SD Toxicroak, CB Breloom, CB Gyarados, and even CB Azumarill are all better choices to wallbreak for rain teams 9 out of the 10 times. This speaks of itself of how viable CB Crwadaunt is, as even Pokemon who mostly outclass it in its role are not the best choices in this meta (CB Gyara and Azu come to mind).

On the set comments make sure to elaborate on what the coverage moves of Crawdaunt allow you to hit. Also mention some examples of Pokemon that are destroyed by Crawdant's STABs and are generally considered to be good checks to it (due to resisting its STABs or being generally bulky), to showcase its power, its only redeeming trait in OU.

On the AC, while Forretress has ok synergy with Crawdaunt it doesn't do the best job at covering its weaknesses. Forre is only a check to Fighting-types, does nothing against Electric-types, and cannot switch in at all to the abundance of special attackers that will attempt to revenge kill Crawdaunt. Finally, Forre is inferior to Tenta and Starmie as a spinner for rain teams, and for this reason is generally not a good option unless it is really needed, which is not the case here. If you thing Spikes support is really important then Skarmory, Ferrothorn, and even Roserade are all much better choices. Physically defensive Celebi with Psychic is probably the best partner to Crawdaunt, as it checks pretty well most Fighting-types, including Toxicroak, Keldeo, Breloom, and Terrakion, while also handling most Electric and Grass-types just fine as well. It also has T-Wave and SR to support the crab. For the same reasons (aside from T-Wave and SR), Lati@s are also good teammates. Lastly, Toxicroak walls or checks any Fighting-type in OU, as well as being able to switch into some Grass-types (the defensive Celebi variant that can threaten Crawdaunt, aka the one with Giga Drain, as well as Breloom and Amoongus after Sleep Clause has been activated) and other Pokemon that trouble Crawdaunt (Gyarados if Toxicroak has Sub to avoid Bounce).

In the checks and counters section:

Extremespeed from the likes of LO Lucario and CB Dragonite
Click to expand...
Why would someone use priority against a Pokemon that is slow as balls and on a Pokemon that can be hit harder by other moves those Pokemon have? Remove this. Remove Mach Punch as well as the only Pokemon that would want to use it against Crwadaunt is Conkeldurr, and if you really want to stress this you should talk about Conk not Mach Punch.

Mention Gastrodon, Ferrothorn, Kyu-B, Jellicent, and Celebi, all Pokemon that can tank one Waterfall or more and OHKO or cripple back.

Other than those Pokemon, almost every offensive Pokemon that can outspeed Crawdaunt can OHKO it, so you don't really need to mention everything in this list, just some examples of the most threatening offensive Pokemon that can do this.

Do those and i will stamp this.
 
Crabhammer deserves the first slash imo. It can 2HKO the standard Nattorei after SR + one layer of Spikes, always 2HKOes Skarm after SR, and can OHKO Nite after rocks, and who knows, maybe the slightly higher crit rate will come in handy. Meanwhile, Waterfall only has an extra 10% acc and a flinch rate that Crawdaunt probably won't ever use; doesn't seem like much of a loss to me.
 
The problem is that Crawdaunt is frail as crap and a miss could be the end for Crawdaunt, but i other people say they think it's worth, I'll change it.

EDIT: Ready for QC Checks
 
QC approved 1/3

I prefer waterfall, since especially for something as powerful as crawdaunt, the extra power is often just wasted as overkill. Keep them slashed like that, though.
 
You didn't remove Forretress as a teammate as i told you and instead mention best suited Spikers for rain teams, such as Skarmory and Ferrothorn.

Also agreeing with Chillarmy, Crabhammer is better. Crawdaunt is supposed to hit things hard on the switch, which he forces against slower Pokemon that he scares and also Waterfall's flinch will almost never be useful as the way to take down Crawdaunt is to revenge kill it with something faster.

Do those and consider this



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QC Approved 2/3
 
Made changes. I did a few test runs on a rain team that used Crawdaunt well, and I got annoyed a load of times because Crawdaunt's Waterfall couldn't KO Rotom-W, so I'm making Crabhammer the main slash, and the crit. comes in handy here and then. I'll get this written when I have time, like maybe next week? I'll see.
 
i'd add sword dance set in trick room in oo, it isn't too bad, for more info give a look here. for the rest it's nice, nice job
 
You might also want to mention non-Choice Band items, since Crawdaunt's Crabhammer in the rain is already powerful as it is, and nabbing a KO against something that resists Crunch and/or Waterfall is pretty good if Crawdaunt has the freedom to switch attacks afterwards. Mentioning something like an all-out non-Choice set with Life Orb or other boosting items should do it.
 
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