Furret
|Status: Done|
|QC Approved: [bluewind][uragg]|
|GP Checks: [bugmaniacbob][none|
Taking this over from NightShadow with Oglemi's permission. I have written this analysis up and will get it through the GP stage, although it was NightShadow who got it through QC.
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[Overview]
<p>At first glance, Furret looks like a mediocre Pokemon in competitive play due to its mediocre stats and Normal typing, which prevent it from proving to be a 'real' offensive or defensive threat in the UU tier. However, its stats are just sufficient enough to allow the “Long Body” Pokemon to exploit its considerably wide movepool in order to fill a niche as a revenge killer or, to an extent, a late-game wallbreaker, among other things. To clarify, Furret can be classified as an “unpredictable” Pokemon due to the number of options it has, but its lack of firepower is a huge setback, as without high offensive stats, Furret cannot function properly in the roles it has the movepool to play with.</p>
[SET]
name: Choice
move 1: Trick
move 2: Return
move 3: Brick Break
move 4: U-turn / Shadow Claw / Sucker Punch
item: Choice Band / Choice Scarf
ability: Keen Eye
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Due to Furret's lacking base stats, utilizing a Choice item is the best bet it has in playing an offensive role on any UU team, as the boosts granted are absolutely necessary in order to allow Furret to present any kind of offensive threat whatsoever. By using a Choice Scarf, Furret becomes a great scout courtesy of its access to U-Turn; also, by using a Choice Scarf, Furret functions nicely as a revenge killer due to its passable Speed stat and nice coverage among its attacking options. However, with a Choice Band, Furret becomes a decent late-game wallbreaker as it can abuse its respectable base 76 Attack stat and decent attacking options, as well as shutting down defensive cores through Tricking a Choice Band onto a wall such as Chansey.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>The given EVs are quite straightforward. They are designed to maximize Furret's offensive capabilities by maximizing Attack and Speed while chucking the leftovers in HP. Trick is utterly necessary on this set as it allows Furret to shut down defensive Pokemon like Registeel which hate being locked into a single move; Return is a reliable STAB attack, while Brick Break is chosen for coverage purposes. The choice for the last move depends on your personal preference, as although Shadow Claw and Sucker Punch help considerably with Furret's move coverage, U-Turn in combination with a Choice Scarf makes Furret a great scout Pokemon.</p>
[Team Options]
<p>Since it is evident that Furret will struggle against bulky opponents like Uxie and Regirock due to its lackluster base Attack stat even with a Choice Band, Pokemon that can counter or remove them would prove to be excellent partners to Furret. Also, since bulky Psychic-types will be problematic for Furret locked into anything but Shadow Claw (and even that is a 3-4HKO on the standard support Uxie), it may be wise to pack a strong Pursuit user on your team like Absol or Spiritomb. Lastly, set-up sweepers such as Swellow are great offensive partners to Furret as they take advantage of the holes Furret creates in the opposing team as well as the offensive momentum it slowly builds up.</p>
[Optional Changes]
<p>Unfortunately for Furret, outside of using a Choice item, there's really not much else it can hope to accomplish in the UU environment, due to the fact that its lacking base stats and mediocre offensive and defensive prowess hold it back tremendously. Super Fang and Toxic can be used, but they're highly outclassed, as Return is almost always the better option when compared to Super Fang, and it makes minimal sense to be running Toxic on such a frail Pokemon. It should be noted that Furret does have access to Baton Pass, but has basically nothing to Baton Pass other than Amnesia, Defense Curl, and Focus Energy, all of which are basically useless in a competitive environment. Lastly, Furret can run a special attacking set due to the massive special movepool it has but unfortunately, it only has a base 45 Special Attack stat to try to abuse its movepool with.</p>
[Counters]
<p>Due to the lack of firepower Furret has, anything significantly bulky will be able to wall this ferret all day; examples of such Pokemon include Uxie, Rhyperior, Steelix, Registeel, and Regirock as they all are all significantly bulky on the physical side. Also, bulky Water-types like Slowbro and Milotic, along with bulky Grass-type Pokemon like Tangrowth, will be able to wall Furret and even set up on it, although Cloyster must beware of switching into a Brick Break, as offensive variants of Cloyster can be 2HKOed by a Choice Band boosted Brick Break. Registeel also falls into the same vein as Cloyster. Lastly, Pokemon like Hitmontop and Blaziken can easily remove Furret from a battle due to their access to the priority Fighting-type attacks, Mach Punch and Vacuum Wave, respectively; Hitmontop gets a special mention as not only can it defeat Furret through Mach Punch, it can also Intimidate it and since Hitmontop is quite bulky, it can even set up on Furret.</p>
