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Hitmonchan - The 4GotNHero?

Guys, I think you need to consider the moveset in an underused context... nobody will seriously use Hitmonchan in standard play.

In that vein, I would opt for:

Iron Fist/Adamant @black belt
Substitute
Focus punch
Mach Punch
Ice Punch

I prefer mach punch over close combat because Chan is slow (~444.6 base damage without reply from 339 attack punch combo is nothing to be scoffed at). Ice punch has the most coverage as a filler; it is more powerful than stone edge (103.6 expected damage against 100 after accuracy and CH ratio) and has 10% freeze.
 
McGraw said:
Guys, I think you need to consider the moveset in an underused context... nobody will seriously use Hitmonchan in standard play.
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Yeah, no. I fully intend to use Hitmonchan in standard play.

I've heard conflicting information on Iron Fist, and there's still no certainty whether it's a 1.2x boost or a 1.3x boost, unfortunately.

The tricky thing with Hitmonchan in advance was EVing it. Most people decided to make it Hitmonlee Jr. and just 252/252 Attack/Speed it, but I really disagree with that mindset. With any Pokemon whose stats seem to be neither here nor there, I think a more delicate EV balance is required.

I like throwing EVs into Hitmonchan's HP, as it lets Hitmonchan take a Psychic (and its Defense stat isn't awful either).

Probably something like 252 to HP, 208 to Attack, rest in Speed with Adamant personality could work. This results in 304 HP, 327 Attack, 194 Defense, 200 Speed, 95 Special Attack, and 256 Special Defense.

In any case...

Substitute
Focus Punch
Ice Punch/Thunderpunch
Sky Uppercut/Close Combat
@Leftovers

It's basically Misty's set, but with an elemental punch over Stone Edge. While I normally don't mind slightly inaccurate moves, I think the punches give a little more coverage and handle certain threats like Salamence and friends. They can still hurt ghosts too, and are comparable in power to Stone Edge bar critical hits.

An Ice Punch from Hitmonchan with 327 attack does roughly 85%-100% damage to a max defense, max HP Salamence AFTER intimidate. Similarly, a max defense/max HP Garchomp (without intimidate of course), will definitely be OHKO'd. This is assuming a 1.2x boost from Iron Fist. In this vein, Hitmonchan is potentially a good Choice Scarf user with the right EVs, but that's another moveset for another day.

Leftovers is the obvious item, and is useful for just healing off some sub damage. Hitmonchan also resists Stealth Rock, which is nice. Hitmonchan won't stay in very long anyway, and the fairly reasonable Defense and the pursuit resist keep it from getting clobbered by, say, a Pursuit Heracross.
 
But with 50 base HP, hitmonchan isn't going to benefit from leftovers very much, even if they are used primarily to get more subs in. It's not going to stay in very long in most situations, everything nowadays hits far too hard and far too fast (Base speed 76 lol) for Hitmonchan to keep up. I'd go with some attack boosting or speed boosting item, honestly. Hitmonchan is an unfortunate pokemon, really, hindered mostly by its terrible HP (and somewhat by its weird speed, but Mach Punch remedies that a tad).

Mekkah's point about ghosts is yet another setback that Hitmonchan has to deal with, and honestly, it just seems that Hitmonchan has far too many things wrong with it to be overly usable, joining the "70% of all pokemon who are cool but not up to par with the few others" club.
 
Big Bayou said:
But with 50 base HP, hitmonchan isn't going to benefit from leftovers very much, even if they are used primarily to get more subs in. It's not going to stay in very long in most situations, everything nowadays hits far too hard and far too fast (Base speed 76 lol) for Hitmonchan to keep up. I'd go with some attack boosting or speed boosting item, honestly. Hitmonchan is an unfortunate pokemon, really, hindered mostly by its terrible HP (and somewhat by its weird speed, but Mach Punch remedies that a tad).

Mekkah's point about ghosts is yet another setback that Hitmonchan has to deal with, and honestly, it just seems that Hitmonchan has far too many things wrong with it to be overly usable, joining the "70% of all pokemon who are cool but not up to par with the few others" club.
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The thing is, while there are plenty of fast attackers, there are still a bunch who are still pretty slow that Hitmonchan can actually scare off, namely Tyranitar. An attack boosting item isn't bad, nor is a speed booster (I'm partial to Quick Claw myself), but in this instance, I want Hitmonchan to be able to deal enough with Pursuit in order to shrug it off (which is especially vital if you're using Close Combat) and have the opportunity to set up again.

Yes, Hitmonchan can't hurt any ghosts for big damage, but Gengar is frail and Dusknoir and Spiritomb are tanks regardless (and in the latter's case, having a physical HP ghost wouldn't matter much). So it can't handle ghosts as well as others, sure, but you can still at least damage them in a pinch.

I know this is supposed to be an "offensive metagame" and all but we don't necessarily have to 252/252 everything that's not an absolute tank. Base 76 speed is awkward, but it's enough to outspeed certain select folks with only a few EVs necessary. Hitmonchan's HP is terrible but it can still take a few special hits and even a physical one.

Most importantly, I think Hitmonchan should be best played to his unique strengths. He can elemental punch unlike his Hitmon brethren, so I use it. His offense and defense are in between Lee and Top, so he's ev'd accordingly. If I'm going to use a Pokemon in OU, I don't want it to be a lesser clone.
 
SDShamshel said:
Most importantly, I think Hitmonchan should be best played to his unique strengths. He can elemental punch unlike his Hitmon brethren, so I use it. His offense and defense are in between Lee and Top, so he's ev'd accordingly. If I'm going to use a Pokemon in OU, I don't want it to be a lesser clone.
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That's exactly the problem with Hitmonchan. He doesn't really have very many UNIQUE strengths, as his punch-power boosting trait only really helps to compensate for the EV's you have to put elsewhere just to make him survive. So many pokemon can do what he can do so much better, and offer extra utility as well.

Take for instance Machamp. Much better overall defenses, virtually every move Hitmonchan has and more (except, like, rapid spin), 100% accuracy Dynamicpunches and Stone Edges (or Guts), Encore, higher base ATK meaning more versatility in moves, the ability to outspeed Adamant max speed ttar, etc. etc. Why should I use Hitmonchan when I could go with Machamp and gain versatility, staying power, only losing a bit of punch power?

I love Hitmonchan dearly; it was my first level 100 and I just hate to say it, but despite all his coolness, he really just doesn't cut it, and the same can be said about far too many other pokemon.
 
Big Bayou said:
Ah, that card.

Well I guess I can't argue with that then, lol.
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Well, purely in terms of strategy, the reason you would use Hitmonchan is to cover certain groups of Pokemon that don't necessarily tie into the holes in Hitmonchan's offense, i.e. using elemental punches.

Compare Advance Alakazam with DP Alakazam.
 
Well you can't use Machamp in UU, which would certainly be a reason to use Hitmonchan. He has improved a lot since last gen, but his speed is too low to be considered a real threat.
 
I think hitmonchan is great, and I'm trying to making a team revolving around him. I'm not very good at this game as I just started but I really want to find a way to make this guy more than a joke.

Hitmonchan@Expert Belt/Life Orb
Trait: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 ATK; 252 SPD; 6 HP
Adamant Nature
-Sky Uppercut/Drain Punch
-Thunder Punch
-Fire Punch
-Ice Punch

That's the set I'm using right now, hopefully with some agility and sword dance support he can get the job done.
 
Hmm... Hitmonchan isn't really a good type. I think I'll do something similar that I did with my Houndoom set I posted in the Houndoom discussion.

It learns counter. O.o I think we can take advantage of that with Focus Sash. Still... quite unsure (and it dies automatically to a T-Tar switch in. >.<):

Hitmonchan@FocusSash
Counter
Agility
Close Combat
E-Punch

Quite simple really, just use either Agility or Counter. Close Combat helps by lowering your defenses to do more damage with that Counter. Though Counter is more than likely a one time thing. Another problem is that he has to be at full health in order for Focus Sash to work. Ah well, just my two cents I guess. Though I'm kind of liking CounterSash. Sort of... ok... maybe. There are better techniques. >.> Also, Revenge does 180 damage since Hitmonchan's slow. Though I don't know if it's affected by Iron Fist or not. In which case it'd do 234, I think. Only problem I see here is that Hitmonchan's scared of Ghost types. :\ Though the E-punches aide him. Thief can be interesting too I guess, with the focus sash, but no... that's just... no. I'm sure there are better things that can... err... FocusThief... >.> ThiefSash... w/e. Lol.

Once again, just my two cents.
 
A Scarfer set was posted before, but I think it deserves another mention since it can actually cause some problems on OU.

Hitmonchan@ Choice Scarf
Jolly, Max Atk/Spd

Sky Uppercut
Thunder Punch
Ice Punch
Stone Edge/Fire Punch/Pursuit/Drain Punch

This set hurts a lot of commom OU leaders. People will underestimate Chan and try to Draco Meteor with their Salamence, OHKO it with IP. Sky Upercut hurts Weavile/Ttar and every non-resistant switch in. TPunch kills Gyarados and Yanmega.

The last moveslot is just a filler. You don't really need SE, ghosts usually won't switch when facing chan making Pursuit weaker than elemental punchs, Fire Punch gives a better but almost useless coverage and Drain Punch helps to heal SR/Sandstorm damage (as any true damage will OHKO).

Completely destroyed by other Scarfers and outclassed by Electivire. Can cause havock on low-tiers.
 
Hitmonchan @ Choice Scarf
Adamant, 252 Attack, 200 Speed, 58 HP
Iron Fist

Ice Punch
Thunder Punch
Mach Punch
Sky Uppercut



Not 100% on the EVs as of yet, but when I train up a Hitmonchan, I'm going for a Choice Scarfer.
 
I agree with Blackbelt. In fact, Mach Punch is far from a good option on a Scarfer set, but the other options I pointed on my "analysis" are as bad as Mach Punch, so it can actually finish off some other Scarfer.

Again, this is just a filler move, Fire Punch can be a better option to damage Heracross/Forretress/Bronzong, but the other moves deserve a mention.
 
gabriel said:
I agree with Blackbelt. In fact, Mach Punch is far from a good option on a Scarfer set, but the other options I pointed on my "analysis" are as bad as Mach Punch, so it can actually finish off some other Scarfer.

Again, this is just a filler move, Fire Punch can be a better option to damage Heracross/Forretress/Bronzong, but the other moves deserve a mention.
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So the best Hitmonchan we can get is STAB, the physical equivalent of Boltbeaming, and a filler.



Better than most ideas Ive heard.
 
Hitmonchan @ Focus Sash
Adamant, Iron Fist, 252 atk, 252 spd,

-Agility
-Sky Uppercut
-Thunderpunch
-Icepunch

Agil first turn, sweeeep. Or rather just do some damage.

Other than that, the only viable option I see is the Choice Scarf one because Chan is too slow.
 
MiroFTW said:
Hitmonchan @ Focus Sash
Adamant, Iron Fist, 252 atk, 252 spd,

-Agility
-Sky Uppercut
-Thunderpunch
-Icepunch

Agil first turn, sweeeep. Or rather just do some damage.

Other than that, the only viable option I see is the Choice Scarf one because Chan is too slow.
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The thing I don't like about Sky Uppercut is that... sure... it's cool and all, especially with the Iron Fist boost. But it's still not as good as Close Combat. With the Iron Fist boost, Sky Uppercut does... what? About 165? Close Combat still does 180 with STAB.

Basically, people are mostly just using Sky Uppercut on Hitmonchan because it gets a boost from the ability and therefore screams out "Use Me!". Though, just because it gets Iron Fist doesn't mean you shouldn't use Close Combat. It's still stronger than Sky Uppercut even with the ability boost. I see no reason why you shouldn't use Close Combat, unless you prefer to go with something that doesn't lower your Defense and Sp. Defense.

That's why in my last set I chose Close Combat over Sky Uppercut (it does more damage).
 
yea close combat is much better, in fact I like this set more then i do the choice scarf set. i really want to run chan competively and the agility set seems to make it possible.
 
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