It's always important to pick the right Pokemon to build around, but Follow the Leader takes that to the next level. Every Pokemon on your team has access to ALL of the moves and abilities of the first Pokemon in your team, but none of their own. Choose wisely!
Rules:
Mechanic: The first Pokemon provides the moves and abilities for all other Pokemon on the team.
Clauses: OU clauses
Bans: OU Banlist, Shedinja, Slaking, Regigigas, Imposter, and Smeargle, Pure Power, Huge Power
Strategy:
Defensive Leaders:
Toxapex grants the entire team access to the incredible ability regenerator, allowing them to recover every time they pivot out of a bad matchup. It also has a decent movepool with hazards, recovery, status, scald, and some coverage, and even an offensive ability in merciless. It's no slouch itself, either, and can form part of a defensive core or serve as a hazard setter.
Offensive Leaders:
Nidoking allows every Pokemon to use Sheer Force and its excellent offensive movepool; it can support attackers of nearly any kind, and has multiple kinds of hazards. There isn't any specific teammates that benefit, just anything that wants to hit hard right off the bat.
Balanced Leaders:
Clefable is one of the most versatile leaders in the game, with offensive and defensive hazards alike. Defensive Unaware stall is totally an option, while rocks-weak Pokemon such as Volarona get a lot of mileage out of Magic Guard. Thanks to some excellent tutors, it even gets gems like Belly Drum and Stealth Rock for its teammates to use, and is no slouch itself.
Sample Sets:
Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Punch
- Fire Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Outrage
This set follows Nidoking, and gives Kyurem-B powerful STAB moves and coverage with which to hit things very hard. It's mainly a wallbreaker to break down physical walls for Kyurem-B's team, but it can also serve as a late game cleaner
Magearna @ Leftovers
Ability: Shield Dust
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Moonblast
- Roost
- Hidden Power [Ground]
A bulky setup sweeper, this Magearna attempts to gather Quiver Dance boosts and then sweep. While the coverage is lacking, the combination of recovery and speed boosting allows Magearna to take on many teams.
Q&A:
Q: Why are Imposter and Smeargle banned? What about Slaking and Regigigas?
A: They were just too powerful. Imposter Chansey can 1v1 almost any Pokemon, and imposterpoofing is much more difficult here than in metagames such as BH. Other High-Hp imposters could also make a mockery of teambuilding and limited counterplay to some gimmicky options. Smeargle could provide any move, making reliable answers all but impossible, while Slaking and Regigias have the stats to dominate under nearly any leader once stripped of their crippling abilities.
Q: Why is Shedinja banned instead of wonder guard?
A: Shedinja was broken both as a follower and a leader. Wonder Guard to teammates allowed almost anything to be a powerful threat, while as a follower Sturdy Shedinja is also nearly impossible to break.
Q: What about mega evolutions? How do they work?
A: Mega Evolutions start with the moves and ability of the leader, but Mega Evolving changes that to their natural mega ability. They still keep the moves though, so V-create Charizard-X is an option on Victini teams.
Q: Where can I play this?
A: Spandan has generously decided to host this on Dragonheaven
Resources:
Gen 6 thread
Last edited:
large movepool Multiscale, Extreme Speed, Dragon Dance, Roost
