Stats: 95 / 60 / 60 / 101 / 60 / 105 (BST 481)
Typing: Psychic
Abilities: Opportunist (copies the opponent's stat boosts when they use a stat-boosting move) / Frisk / Speed Boost
Notable attacks:
Dazzling Gleam
Energy Ball
Expanding Force
Flash Cannon
Foul Play
Low Kick (but Espathra's attack is so low that it needs investment to reliably 2HKO Kingambit with this, so don't use it)
Lumina Crash - 80 BP, Psychic, lowers opponent's special attack by two stages.
Night Shade
Psychic
Psyshock
Shadow Ball
Stored Power
U-turn
Notable status moves:
Baton Pass (have fun in AG lol)
Calm Mind
Hypnosis (on the off chance sleep gets unbanned due to the nerf)
Light Screen
Protect
Reflect
Roost
Substitute
Trick
Trick Room
Pros:
- Auto Speed Boost, which allows it to snowball more easily with Stored Power and not have to worry too much about Choice Scarf users. Opportunist does cool things in theory too, but realistically it'll only run Speed Boost because it's so good
- It has a good boosting move in Calm Mind, which also helps with bulk against special attackers
- Bulk which, while not great by any means, is workable with investment. At +1 even uninvested it can survive a Mega Greninja Dark Pulse
- A grab bag of support options which can give it a bit of flexibility with its sets.
Cons:
- No tera (yet), so it's going to be a lot shakier vs. Dark types, especially Kingambit. Also no terrain seeds or even setters to provide the extra bulk.
- Little immediate power, especially as it wants to run investment in bulk. Stored Power only needs a Calm Mind and two speed boosts to outdamage Psychic, but it's going to need more boosts to reliably break through bulky Steels like Mega Aggron.
- Being stuck in mono-Psychic gives it a vulnerability to priority like Sucker Punch, Shadow Sneak, and First Impression (currently only usable by Ariados but still), plus chip from common moves like U-turn and Knock Off.
- It is very constrained in terms of move slots, so while there is a lot it could do in theory many of its cooler options just don't fit.
Sets:
>90% of the time, it's going to run some variation of this:
Espathra @ Leftovers / Sitrus Berry / Fairy Feather
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Bold Nature
- Stored Power
- Calm Mind
- Dazzling Gleam
- Substitute / Protect / Roost
The EVs are flexible and will depend on what important Speed/bulk benchmarks are important for Espathra to hit. Stored Power snowballs well with Calm Mind and Speed Boost and Dazzling Gleam is necessary to hit Dark types. Substitute is probably the best option in the fourth slot to play around Sucker Punch and give it a barrier from priority in general as well as setting up against passive Pokémon, but Protect is a free turn (even if the PP has been nerfed) and Roost can give it more longevity if played well. I can see experimentation with more defensive sets that forgo Dazzling Gleam in favor of running two of Protect/Roost/Substitute and depend on external support like Toxic Spikes to handle Dark types, similar to some Reuniclus sets that have been run in the past. However, Reuniclus had Magic Guard, a defense boosting move on top of better overall bulk, and didn't have to deal with Kingambit so that probably won't be the new meta.
Espathra @ Leftovers
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Lumina Crash
- Roost / Substitute / U-turn
Probably outclassed by a bunch of things and not worth running until Light Clay is added to the game but Espathra does have some interesting aspects that may make a support-focused set relatively workable. Access to screens is nice and it has Lumina Crash to wear down any walls that switch in, either making it easier for the teammates to break them or forcing a free switch. It could even have a use for Opportunist to discourage setup, but fast screens are probably the way to go. Still, this is likely depending on Light Clay being added before Grimmsnarl is but hey give the ostrich something else to do.
Good teammates:
Generally, if you are using Espathra you are using it for cheese potential rather than as the centerpiece of your team. But the basics still apply:
- Hazards
Self-Explanatory, for an offensive sweeper you really want hazards in play to weaken the switchins. Especially important for Dark-types like Weavile and (Mega) Greninja as Dazzling Gleam really isn't that strong.- Dark-type checks and switchins
Also self-explanatory, ones that are also good into Steels are especially valued.Checks:
obviously, with other Dark types like 
and 
causing problems, as well as strong priority users in general like 
and bulky steels like 
and 
if it doesn't have enough boosts.Counters: None really, if it has enough boosts and a substitute there isn't currently anything that can reliably shut it down. The counterplay is to not let it get to that point in the first place.
So the question will be answered, is Espathra broken without Tera? It won't be as easy to use without Tera, but there doesn't seem to be much that's super great at standing up to it either. It will probably fly under the radar for a bit as the focus will be on the broken megas, but I don't see it being long until the ostrich starts its reign of terror all over again.
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