[OVERVIEW]
- Electivire's good offensive stats plus the ability to utilize powerfull moves like Flamethrower, Earthquake, Cross Chop and Thunderbolt makes him a powerfull wallbreaker, OHKOing or 2HKOing a large portion of the metagame and its quite difficult to predict which moveset Electivire is running.
- Electivire has 95 base in Speed, reaching a maximum of 317 points meaning that it can strike first quite often and speed-tie with opposing 95 base Pokémon like Leafeon and Jynx, making it faster than Magmortar, another strong wallbreaker of the PU Tier
- However, Electivire's Special Attack base is quite lower than its Attack, forcing it to rely on coverage moves to break past bulkier foes like Gastrodon and Gourgeist-XL.
- Lackluster bulk, a few useful resistances, while not bad but mediocre Speed and its dependency on Life Orb to cause more damage, worns Electivire down pretty easily and struggles versus offensive teams, being easily forced out by faster Pokemon such as Archeops and Alolan Dugtrio.
- Electivire also suffers from the 4th slot syndrome, as depending on the chosen coverage moves, Electivire becomes a little bit more easy to deal with.
Name: Mixed Wallbreaker
Move 1: Thunderbolt
Move 2: Flamethrower
Move 3: Earthquake
Move 4: Hidden Power Grass
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Motor Drive / Vital Spirit
Nature: Hasty / Mild
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 Atk
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
- Thunderbolt is a solid and STAB move that can hit most of the Pokemon in the tier that doesn't resist it for decent damage, in particular physically defensive Pokémon like Weezing and Avalugg, two of the most common switch ins for Electivire, presuming that is a physical set.
- Flamethrower has good coverage alongside Thunderbolt, hitting Grass-, Ice- and Steel-types checks such as Torterra, Avalugg and Ferosseed, making very difficult to switch into it and provides a realiable way to deal with Gourgeist-XL, a major check as it resists 3 of 4 moves present on this set.
- Earthquake allows Electivire to deal significant damage to Electric-types such as Lanturn due to a possible Volt Absorb and Fire-types such as Assault Vest Magmortar, setting it apart from Manectric and Eelektross, another specially based Electric-types Pokémon in PU that faces competition with Electivire, as they share very similar coverage.
- Hidden Power Grass rounds up Electivire's coverage by hitting bulky Ground-types and Gastrodon for 4x damage, which otherwise wall this set quite easily and it can cripple Electivire with a Toxic Poison, limiting the time that Electivire stays on the field due to Life Orb recoil plus increasing Toxic damage.
Set Details
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- Maximum Speed EVs plus a Speed-boosting nature turns Electivire into a fast threat that can bypass Pokémon like Lilligant and speed-tie with another 95 Speed base Pokémon like Jynx, but it turns Electivire into a less scary wallbreaker due to the drop in power.
- Maximum Special Attack EVs and a Special Attack-boosting nature are preferable because Pokemon that tend to switch into Electivire has a higher Defense stat, like Avalugg and Weezing while also dealing as much damage as possible on specially bulky Pokémon like Grumpig and Hypno.
- Life Orb is used to give a much needed boost to Electivire's attacks while allowing it to switch between its moves, making Electivire a nightmare for slower teams that can't check it reliably.
- Motor Drive gives Electivire an immunity to Electric-type and +1 in Speed everytime it get hit by an Electric-type move, while Vital Spirit can be used to check Sleep-inducers like Lilligant and Jynx, as well as forcing them to switch out fearing Flamethrower or in case of Jynx to risk a 50%-50% chance to hit first due to the speed-tie if you're running max Speed.
Usage Tips
========
- Electivire appreciates being brought in safely by Volt Switch and U-turn from pivoting teammates, or after a Pokemon has fainted, as the the lack of bulk and useful resistances makes Electivire a very frail Pokémon and should come in on resisted moves only if necessary, because it already loses its health due to Life Orb recoil.
- It can also be brought in on a predicted Electric-type move, such as Rotom's or Lanturn's Volt Switch if it runs Motor Drive, receiving a boost in Speed but it must be played carefully not get overpredicted and switching it on a Scald with a 30% chance of getting burned, crippling and wearing it down even more quickly.
- Another way of getting Electivire in is on a predicted sleep-inducing move if you decide to go with Vital Spirit and again it can be used against Electivire, as most sleep inducers has acess to powerfull moves that can cause Electivire some trouble, such as Jynx's Psyshock or Lilligant's Giga Drain or Bloom Doom.
- Electivire should be used on offensive teams due to its lack of defensive potential outside of its resistances and immunities, as balanced teams appreciates Magmortar for a specially coverage-based wallbreaker due to its higher Special Attack and the ability to reliably run the Assault Vest set better.
Team Options
========
- Entry hazard support is crucial to ensure some KOs, so Spikes users like Ferroseed and Maractus are both good partners, as most of Electivire's checks are grounded, hindering those that rely on high health to tank Electivire's attacks or to ensure some KOs after a few rounds of passive damage.
- Another good partners for Electivire with access to entry hazards like Stealth Rock are Mesprit and Torterra, as these Pokemon are able to switch into Ground-type moves, which threaten Electivire. Mesprit also has access to Healing Wish, which can be useful late-game if you misplayed Electivire early in the match.
- Faster U-turn users susceptible to Electric-type moves like Primeape and Archeops can bring Electivire safetly and with the right predicition, Electivire can absorb moves like Thunder Wave and Volt Switch, getting +1 in Speed and becoming a huge threat mid- to late-game.
- Strong wallbreakers such as Aurorus, Bouffalant and Abomasnow forms a good offensive core with Electivire, as they are able to deal with bulky Ground-types while Electivire deals with their checks by weakning or even KOing them.
- Fast offensive Pokemon such as Lycanroc and Floatzel also benefits from Electivire's ability to block Thunder Wave and further helping against faster foes like Archepos or Ground-types like Palossand and Stunfisk. Swanna, while not the fastest partner, also tends to draw Electric-type moves, pairing well with Motor Drive and also checking Ground-types. Swanna can even setup Rain Dance, giving Thunder 100% accuracy and a significant power increase comparing with Thunderbolt, making Electivire a viable option on Rain Teams.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
- Wild Charge can be used over Thunderbolt on a more physical set due to Electivire higher Attack stat, hitting possible checks like Grumpig for greater damage, but it worns Electivire down faster because of the 33% recoil and is easily walled by Weezing.
- Cross Chop can be used to hit bulky Normal-types like Audino and AV Bouffalant for great damage or replace Earthquake as their coverage are similar, but this makes Electivire innefective against bulky Poison-types like Muk and Swalot.
- Focus Blast is also an option on this set to hit physically defensive Pokémon like Regirock for great damage, but its low accuracy and PP makes it easy to stall out and the its a high risk low reward move.
- Hidden Power Ice is an option to form a pseudo Bolt-Beam combo along with Thunderbolt, but is outclassed by Hidden Power Grass by missing the 2HKO on Gastrodon.
- Thunder is an option solely on Rain Teams, as the low accuracy outside the rain discourages its use over the more reliable and consistent Thunderbolt.
- A full physical set, much like the 4th generation set could be used with Wild Charge, Earthquake, Ice Punch and Cross Chop with an Adamant nature packing Life Orb if your team needs a physical and powerfull Electric-type wallbreaker, but it can be crippled with a burn, hindering Electivire from doing its job effectively.
- Expert Belt could be used over Life Orb, granting Electivire's moves a 20% boost on super effective hits, but is a worst choice due to the fact that its boost is 10% weaker than Life Orb's, which grants a 30% boost on every hit, 2x effective or not.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Priority and Faster Pokemon**: Pokemon that naturally outspeed Electivire such as Lycanroc, Archeops, and Pyroar are all able to revenge killing it, though neither of these Pokemon can safely switch in. Electivire's poor Defense stat allows strong priority to threaten it after some prior damage, such as Skuntank's Sucker Punch and Lycanroc's Accelrock.
**Specially Bulky Pokemon**: Pokemon such as Audino can wall sets lacking Cross Chop due to its high bulk and access to the Wish-Protect combo, wearing Electivire down with Life Orb recoils. Musharna serves as an emergency check because it can be 2HKoed by Thunderbolt after Stealth Rock damage 66% at the time. Regirock takes all of Electivire's attacks very well, avoiding comfortably the 2HKO from Earthquake or Thunderbolt and pose as a threat to Electivire with its own Earthquake, although it still needs to watch out for the extremely rare Focus Blast.
**Ground-types**: Claydol and Stunfisk are some of the best answers for Electivire, as both can survive any two hits and retaliate back with their STAB moves of choice to deal heavy damage. Palossand and Gastrodon are less reliable checks, as both are 2HKOed by Hidden Power Grass, but they can take any other attack plus one Hidden Power Grass and threaten Electivire with a Ground-type STAB move. Alolan Dugtrio is faster and immediately force Electivire to switch out, but gets outsped after a Motor Drive boost and KOed by either Flamthrower or Earthquake.
**Team Preview**: Electivire, once a monster in terms of sweeping teams, was reduced to a mere pure Electric-type Pokémon with great coverage after the 5th Genreation shift, with the introduction of the Team Preview. This new feature made Motor Drive extremely predictable, because at least one of it's teammates suffers from Electric-type moves, and seeing Electivire paired with Pokémon like Lapras and Swanna, before the battle starts, means that it's most likely to be a Motor Drive Electivire.
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