DPP Clefable (Toxic Encore)*

[Xia]

Status: Posted

Actually, since the two sets occupy different niches, this set will not be replacing the current Encore set. =]

Although this analysis seems to be very much geared towards defeating Cresselia, it can actually be used with great success against other walls as well, hence the reason I feel it can replace the first set. Should Cresselia be voted BL, all that would need to happen is either change up the set comments to reflect the new metagame.

http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/clefable

[SET]
name: Toxic Encore
move 1: Toxic
move 2: Encore
move 3: Softboiled
move 4: Seismic Toss
item: Leftovers
ability: Magic Guard
nature: Calm
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD

[SET COMMENTS]
<p>This set is used to prevent stat-boosting sweepers from sweeping before they even have a chance to attack. Encore locks them into a non-attacking move, such as Calm Mind or Substitute, while Toxic provides worsening secondary damage that slowly drains your opponent's HP. Although Wish may seem like a better combination with Toxic, Softboiled is the superior choice when Protect cannot be included on a moveset; since many of the sweepers Clefable will encounter will be faster than it, wasting a turn of Encore to Protect is less than favorable. Seismic Toss provides Clefable with a way to directly attack and keeps it from being total Taunt bait (Taunting Ghost-types, like Mismagius, will have no problems, however).</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Toxic and Encore together form a nasty combination that few walls are able to overcome. Clefable can utilize this combination to take down many of the top boosting threats in the metagame, including Raikou, Spiritomb, Registeel, Rotom, and (most notably) Cresselia. Having a way to take down the bulkiest Pokemon in UU is an asset to any team, making Toxic Encore Clefable a very worthwhile Pokémon to add to your team, if only to beat Cresselia.</p>

<p>Clefable easily comes in on stat boosters and locks them into their boosting move with Encore. Toxic adds worsening damage to the combination, leaving your opponent helpless while their sweeper's HP slowly slips away. Softboiled is the superior option over Wish because the one turn delay is very unappealing without Protect. Seismic Toss provides consistent damage against everything but Ghost-types.</p>

<p>The EV spread and nature are designed to help Clefable endure the special attacks carried by the listed walls, as well as serve as a more dedicated wall overall. Clefable can run the EV spread listed in the Wishful Stalling set if you'd rather it have balanced defenses.</p>

<p>Since Clefable causes a lot of switches, entry hazards should be included on any team using this set. A Spin blocker, such as Mismagius or Froslass, will help keep this added damage from going away. Froslass can also add Spikes to your list of entry hazards, making everyone's jobs easier. Weather support from Snover or Hippopotas will make stalling go by even faster with no ill side-effects for Clefable, thanks to Magic Guard.</p>

<p>Clefable will often encounter physical threats that pack Fighting-type attacks, such as Blaziken, and will need teammates that can take these switch-ins down. Blaziken can be handled deftly by the likes of Slowking, Miltoic, Altaria, and Cresselia. Calm Mind Cresselia pairs very well with this set; Encore can score Cresselia a free switch in, after which it can start setting up and sweep. Cresselia's Fighting resistance is another plus for Clefable. Other defensive Pokémon that pair well with Clefable are RestTalk Spiritomb and bulky Drapion (who boasts Toxic Spikes).</p>

 

[Komodo]

<p>The EV spread and nature are designed to help Clefable endure the special attacks carried by the listed walls, while it serves as a dedicated special wall. Clefable can run the EV spread listed in the Wishful Stalling set if you'd rather it have balanced defenses.</p>

Reworded the bold part, its a little awkward.

<p>Item choice comes down to whether you'd like your Clefable to be immune to status or have reliable recovery. Since this set is used primarily to defeat Cresselia and other bulky walls, Flame Orb is listed as the primary option so Clefable can avoid their crippling status moves.</p>

Awkward wording and a typo. Remove "their".

<p>Clefable is also very useful on stall teams that lack the ability to outlast monstrous walls. Although Clefable will have problems beating Natural Cure Pokémon while they have teammates to switch out to, every time they try to avoid mounting Toxic damage they'll have to deal with your entry hazards when sent back into battle. While your opponent tries to switch out, Clefable can provide status and Wish support for the rest of your team. Having a way to isolate and defeat these Pokemon will make Clefable's wall breaking strategy almost unbeatable.</p>

Awkward wording.

I found these right away. Good work overall.

 

[Mike Legend]

SubCharge Rotom becomes a lethal threat in the absence of special walls (especially Chansey) and boasts an immunity to Clefable's Fighting-type weakness.

Didn't see anything else, besides what the above poster mentioned.

 

[whistle]

pretty surprised this isn't already on-site. a few content comments (yes I have used this exact set extensively):

- no wish unless you want clefable to die.
- leftovers makes it live a lot longer than flame orb and it doesn't fear status much especially since it's not trying to counter many pokemon that induce sleep (hypnosis milotic?!).

(to clarify I think wish and flame orb should not be mentioned period)

- more focus on beating bulky stat uppers like resttalk raikou, spiritomb, registeel, and curse umbreon. can also beat non np lo hp fight mismagius as well as subcharge rotom.
- works well on weather teams because of magic guard and its ability to counter and check lots of stuff + stall people out.
- the "offensive teammates" section is honestly pretty silly because if your opponent is letting your clefable kill their chansey, they're doing it wrong. clefable does not automatically take out "walls" and "sweepers" do not automatically win the game when a "wall" dies. plus subcharge rotom already beats chansey ?_?. imo take this out since clefable appreciates team support and defensive partners much more.
- defensive teammates: don't just say something to take fighting attacks. other than stuff like hitmonlee, clefable attracts blaziken (fire stab), donphan (strong eq), swellow (guts), etc. a ghost helps against the fighters but also donphan if it's a levitator (or if it's bulky froslass, to an extent). ghosts also help block spin since this clefable forces lots of switches and can be used effectively with entry hazards. altaria, milotic, slowking, moltres, can counter blaziken due to fire resistance, and cresselia doesn't do too badly either.
- more content in "how it works" would probably be nice. talk about how encore is a sicknasty move, stoss is reliable damage on stuff, toxic + encore is rude, etc... also emphasize its ability to come in ridiculously easy on the majority of defensive pokemon (special attackers) in the tier.

probably some stuff I have forgotten but this was hopefully helpful?

edit: jumpluff reminded me: some of the paragraphs can be combined. maybe something like (1) how the set works + move choice (2) item / ev choice (3) teammates. it's better for logical organization this way plus it looks pretty atrocious right now with two-sentence paragraphs (tbh)...

edit 2: I think it can replace the current set if you write a blurb about how twave is useful against sweepers and twave + encore stops all setup attempts cold. maybe just say "this ev spread and twave helps vs offensive teams a lot more", since the two sets do fulfill different niches.

 

[Xia]

I'll make the changes you guys have mentioned (especially whistle; thank you for all your content input). Expect it done within the next 24 hours.

 

[franky]

Adding to whistles, I used this a lot as well to check so many cm shit.

-taunt mismagius dismantles this set and the entire team if your not prepared. i learned this the hardway and completely forgot about it. pack something reasonable with clefable and stay away from stuff like registeel + chansey. i'd lean towards a strong check outside of registeel, pair it with specially defensive drapion or spiritomb even.

-broaden the team options, cresselia + clefable + encore in conjunction is pretty deadly. free switch in to cresselia, and it can start cming up. cresselia also adds a neat fighting-resist, and it can counter every single fighting-type in the metagame nicely.

-lastly, spikes support with this is deadly. enforces switches, more damage, more damage. prolass (bulky froslass) makes an excellent partner, sets up spikes wit impunity most of the time while spin blocking as well. and hey it adds a pretty neat fighting resist if needed.

 

[Xia]

Ok, I completely rewrote the majority of the set comments. Some more input would be appreciated. =]

 

[Diesel]

Red = Remove
Blue = Add
Purple = Comments

[SET]
name: Toxic Encore
move 1: Toxic
move 2: Encore
move 3: Softboiled
move 4: Seismic Toss
item: Leftovers
ability: Magic Guard
nature: Calm
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD

[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Toxic and Encore together form a nasty combination that few walls are able to overcome. Clefable utilizes this combination to take down many of the top boosting threats in the metagame, including Raikou, Spiritomb, Registeel, Rotom, and (most notably) Cresselia. Having a way to take down the bulkiest Pokemon in UU is an asset to any team hoping to be successful (Aren't all teams hoping to be successful? :P), making Toxic Encore Clefable a very worthwhile Pokémon to add to your team, if only to beat Cresselia.</p>

<p>Clefable easily comes in on stat boosters and locks them into their boosting move with Encore. Toxic damage adds worsening damage to the combination, leaving your opponent helpless while their sweeper's HP slowly slips away. Softboiled is the superior option over Wish, because the one turn delay is very unappealing (Maybe add "without Protect" in this sentence? It's fine as-is though). Seismic Toss provides constant (consistent?) damage against everything but Ghost-types.</p>

<p>The EV spread and nature are designed to help Clefable endure the special attacks carried by the listed walls, as well as serve as a more dedicated wall overall. Clefable can run the EV spread listed in the Wishful Stalling set if you'd rather it have balanced defenses.</p>

<p>Since Clefable causes a lot of switches, entry hazards should be included on any team using this set. A Spin blocker, such as Mismagius or Froslass, will help keep this added damge from going away. Froslass can also add Spikes to your list of entry hazards, making everyone's jobs easier. Weather support from Snover or Hippopotas will make stalling go by even faster with no ill side-effects for Clefable, thanks to Magic Guard.</p>

<p>Clefable will often encounter threats, such as Blaziken, often, (makes the sentence flow better) and will need teammates that can take these switch-ins down. Blaziken can be handled deftly by the likes of Slowbro, Altaria, and Cresselia. Calm Mind Cresselia pairs very well with this set; Encore can score Cresselia a free switch in, after which it can start setting up and sweep. Cresselia's Fighting resistance is another plus for Clefable. Other defensive that pair well with Clefable are RestTalk Spiritomb and bulky Drapion (who boasts Toxic Spikes).</p>

Great job, Xia! Lemme know if you have any problems with my edits, some were "controversial". I was happy to see you included Weather support, I used this set on a sandstorm team and it's vicious to say the least.

 

[Erazor]

Blaziken can be handled deftly by the likes of Slowbro

Uh-oh, be careful. Slowbro is KOed by MixKen's Fire Blast + Hidden Power Grass, and takes a lot from Superpower + HP Grass as well. So i wouldn't say that it was deftly handled. Slowking may be a better choice in this case.

Mention Milotic if you need to check Blaziken.

 

[Xia]

Thank you Diesel and Erazor. OP will be updated momentarily.

 

[Xia]

The OP now has a condensed set comment sectoin to comply with the new format change.

 

[Eo Ut Mortus]

[SET]
name: Toxic Encore
move 1: Toxic
move 2: Encore
move 3: Softboiled
move 4: Seismic Toss
item: Leftovers
ability: Magic Guard
nature: Calm
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD

[SET COMMENTS]
<p>This set is used to prevent stat-boosting sweepers from sweeping before they even have a chance to attack. Encore locks them into a non-attacking move, such as Calm Mind or Substitute, while Toxic provides worsening secondary damage that slowly drains your opponent's HP. Although Wish may seem like a better combination with Toxic, Softboiled is the superior choice when Protect cannot be included on a moveset; since many of the sweepers Clefable will encounter will be faster than it, wasting a turn of Encore to Protect is less than favorable. Seismic Toss provides Clefable with a way to directly attack and keeps it from being total Taunt bait (Taunting Ghost-types, like Mismagius, will have no problems, however).</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Toxic and Encore together form a nasty combination that few walls are able to overcome. Clefable can utilize this combination to take down many of the top boosting threats in the metagame, including Raikou, Spiritomb, Registeel, Rotom, and (most notably) Cresselia. Having a way to take down the bulkiest Pokemon in UU is an asset to any team, making Toxic Encore Clefable a very worthwhile Pokémon to add to your team, if only to beat Cresselia.</p>

<p>Clefable easily comes in on stat boosters and locks them into their boosting move with Encore. Toxic adds worsening damage to the combination, leaving your opponent helpless while their sweeper's HP slowly slips away. Softboiled is the superior option over Wish because the one turn delay is very unappealing without Protect. Seismic Toss provides consistent damage against everything but Ghost-types.</p>

<p>The EV spread and nature are designed to help Clefable endure the special attacks carried by the listed walls, as well as serve as a more dedicated wall overall. Clefable can run the EV spread listed in the Wishful Stalling set if you'd rather it have balanced defenses.</p>

<p>Since Clefable causes a lot of switches, entry hazards should be included on any team using this set. A Spin blocker, such as Mismagius or Froslass, will help keep this added damage from going away. Froslass can also add Spikes to your list of entry hazards, making everyone's jobs easier. Weather support from Snover or Hippopotas will make stalling go by even faster with no ill side-effects for Clefable, thanks to Magic Guard.</p>

<p>Clefable will often encounter threats[could specify what kind of threats], such as Blaziken, and will need teammates that can take these switch-ins down. Blaziken can be deftly handled by the likes of Slowking, Miltoic, Altaria, and Cresselia. Calm Mind Cresselia pairs very well with this set; Encore can score Cresselia a free switch in, after which it can start setting up and sweep. Cresselia's Fighting resistance is another plus for Clefable. Other defensive Pokemon that pair well with Clefable are RestTalk Spiritomb and bulky Drapion (who boasts Toxic Spikes).</p>

 

[Xia]

Added your changes Eo. Thanks for the check.

 

[Eo Ut Mortus]

Uploading.