Pokémon Empoleon

[Blizzy]

When empoleon is trapped by magnezone it's dead. Actually almost all steels are dead when trapped by magnezone except for heatran and megagross.

Does Roar work against pokemon with trapping abilities? I mean, they're not the ones who are trapped so I feel like it would...

 

[firehusky]

Yeah, roar always works unless you're against soundproof pokemon, or pokemon with magic bounce. Although roar has negative priority, so I don't think empoleon would survive a thunderbolt before it actually gets to use roar.

 

[Berry Juice]

Yeah, roar always works unless you're against soundproof pokemon, or pokemon with magic bounce. Although roar has negative priority, so I don't think empoleon would survive a thunderbolt before it actually gets to use roar.

Well, assuming it's the specially defensive set in the OP, it can take a hit from Scarf Zone, and actually has a small chance of surviving a Thunderbolt from Specs Zone:
252 SpA Magnezone Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Empoleon: 210-248 (56.4 - 66.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Choice Specs Magnezone Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Empoleon: 344-408 (92.4 - 109.6%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO

 

[firehusky]

Okay empoleon can survive tbolt, but honestly nothing just happened except your empoleon just lost half of it's health. Empoleon can't really do anything back to it, except keep roaring, and it will get worn down really fast.

 

[Blizzy]

Okay empoleon can survive tbolt, but honestly nothing just happened except your empoleon just lost half of it's health. Empoleon can't really do anything back to it, except keep roaring, and it will get worn down really fast.

True. But it's still not quite a death sentence! This means that empoleon can set rocks/defog on the switch in to zone (should be a fairly reliable prediction) and roar next turn without necessarily dying. Perhaps not the best strategy (well, definitely not), but you get rocks/defog out of it so it's a start, right? :P

 

[PsyManiac]

You can always use shed shell but you lose your recovery...
dont know if is really worth to use it instead of leftovers.

 

[blinkie]

>Lose recovery for dodging Zone

You can always use shed shell but you lose your recovery...
dont know if is really worth to use it instead of leftovers.

You might as well run EQ than lose your only recovery.
Not like Empoleon is Ferro or Skarm, Zone's team mates can take care of him good enough by themselves.
Also unlike Skarm Empoleon is shut down without Lefties what is a cleric support
although Empoleon and Sylveon have some ok type synergy except the core is rekt by Exca

 

[56k]

I'm going to second the use of earthquake on Empoleon. It's really useful in a lot more situations than you might expect, getting magnezone on the switch being only one of many. Furthermore, I don't think it's good to use both defog and stealth rock on the same set. Typically you only get one move in before something can force you out and it's quite unlikely you're ever going to be able to defog and then set rocks against a good opponent that keeps the pressure up with electric stabs and strong fighting/ground attacks. Having both SR and defog also means you only have 2 slots for coverage, and with a movepool like empoleon that's quite a sacrifice. Just pair it up with a good SR partner (of which there are so many, getting type synergy with empoleon is really easy to do)

Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 236 HP / 20 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam / Flash Cannon
- Defog

This is "bulky offense" in a nutshell

 

[silversurfer718]

I'm going to second the use of earthquake on Empoleon. It's really useful in a lot more situations than you might expect, getting magnezone on the switch being only one of many. Furthermore, I don't think it's good to use both defog and stealth rock on the same set. Typically you only get one move in before something can force you out and it's quite unlikely you're ever going to be able to defog and then set rocks against a good opponent that keeps the pressure up with electric stabs and strong fighting/ground attacks. Having both SR and defog also means you only have 2 slots for coverage, and with a movepool like empoleon that's quite a sacrifice. Just pair it up with a good SR partner (of which there are so many, getting type synergy with empoleon is really easy to do)

Empoleon @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 236 HP / 20 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam / Flash Cannon
- Defog

This is "bulky offense" in a nutshell

Any reason for that EV spread? I like Empoleon a lot but am finding a hard time figuring out what spec to go with

 

[56k]

Only that 236 HP EVs gets you to the highest leftovers number and from there you have 20 "extra" EVs to put in any slot. Since it's a -speed nature it doesn't make sense to put 20 into speed like you normally would so you can drop it into either def or sp.atk. I'm sure there's some refinements that can be made as far as how much sp.def. is actually necessary but it honestly seems like a situation where you would put 252 into spdef (ignore any theorymonning) to be safe. There surely are more offensive options out there though, with max HP, only a bit of spdef, and much more sp.atk but I've never used such a set so someone with a good set of damage calcs could definitely come in here and give us a Modest set with less bulk but more firepower.