Why can't he use Knock Off? He's a crow for goodness' sake!
Name: Honchkrow #430
Type: Dark/Flying
Base stats: 100 HP / 125 Atk / 52 Def / 105 SAtk / 52 SDef / 71 Spd
Abilities:
Insomnia - This Pokemon cannot fall asleep. Gaining this Ability while asleep cures it.
Super Luck - This Pokemon's critical hit ratio is boosted by 1.
Moxie (Hidden) - This Pokemon's Attack is boosted by 1 if it attacks and faints another Pokemon.
Notable Moves:
Analysis:
Flying ever low under the radar is this majestic bird.
Honchkrow is a strong yet underrated physical sweeper with great offensive coverage who can potentially take down entire teams if given the right circumstances. Therefore he works best in the late game, in which he hopefully gets to clean up a damaged/crippled enemy team where none of his biggest threats are still alive (particularly priority users). This is made even better if you use his hidden ability ability Moxie, which after one or two kills can turn him into an unstoppable force.
The big boss may not have changed much at all since Generation V, but his surroundings sure have. He has a new weakness/enemy resistance with the advent of the Fairy-type. On the other hand, he has lost a much more annoying enemy resistance against Steel types, which used to spell trouble for him as they often boasted high defense and took Sucker Punch or other Dark-type moves pretty easily. This means he is not forced to use Superpower anymore when he wants to deal high damage to Steel types.
Potential movesets:
Physical Attacker
Honchkrow @ Life Orb
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Brave Bird
- Superpower
- Pursuit/Night Slash/Roost/Heat Wave
This is the essential Honchkrow set. In a nutshell: strike fear into your opponents, read their minds and snowball to victory but do NOT get hit.
The crow may be a bit slow, but boasts one of the most powerful STAB Sucker Punches in all of OU along with Absol and Bisharp. Adamant nature is therefore preferable over Jolly for raw firepower on Sucker Punch. This will give you guaranteed OHKO's on fast Psychic or Ghost-types like Alakazam and Gengar and deal considerable damage to non-resisting Pokémon. Honchkrow's Brave Bird will generally OHKO or deal huge damage to almost anything that doesn't resist it. Those are his two bread and butter attacks. The rule of thumb is you use Sucker Punch against faster opponents and Brave Bird against slower ones (slower opponents also tend to be bulkier so this is convenient). There are exceptions of course. For example, you want to use Sucker Punch against Aegislash's King's Shield not to take the Attack stat reduction.
The tutor move Superpower is strong against Rock and Steel-types as well as specific threats such as Tyranitar and Mawile (both of which are resistant to Brave Bird and Sucker Punch). It's interesting to note that successfully killing with that move negates the inherent Attack stat reduction with Moxie.
The 4th slot is open to a few different options. Pursuit is quite useful as it is pretty common for opponents to switch out in fear of the Brave Bird or Sucker Punch mindgame (making your set even more mindgame-y!). If you prefer a more straightforward Dark-type STAB, you can also choose Night Slash (70 base power but high critical rate). You can also use Roost to heal yourself when predicting a switch/Protect/Sucker Punch bait or Heat Wave for Ferrothorn.
Honchkrow is at his best in the late game. But in order for him to be successful, it is vital for his team to set the stage for him. First of all, priority users such as Talonflame, Scizor, etc. have to be dealt with beforehand as they will very easily stop his sweep attempt and kill him instantly (by out-prioritizing Sucker Punch). To use this set as efficiently as possible, it is recommended to run a team that provides paralysis support as this will allow him to use Brave Bird or Superpower without any danger of being being too slow. Stealth Rock/Spikes/Toxic/Burn or any form of stray damage on the enemy team is also welcome as it will make Sucker Punch more likely to kill.
Checks/counters:
Been using Honchkrow since Gen IV and overall I feel like he's improved due to the removal of the Steel-type's resistance to Dark-type moves. I think he's underrated so I hope some of you guys will give him a try.
I'll update this thread when I find more info to write about. Make sure to tell me what you think and give me suggestions for other potential movesets!
Name: Honchkrow #430
Type: Dark/Flying
Base stats: 100 HP / 125 Atk / 52 Def / 105 SAtk / 52 SDef / 71 Spd
Abilities:
Insomnia - This Pokemon cannot fall asleep. Gaining this Ability while asleep cures it.
Super Luck - This Pokemon's critical hit ratio is boosted by 1.
Moxie (Hidden) - This Pokemon's Attack is boosted by 1 if it attacks and faints another Pokemon.
Notable Moves:
- Sucker Punch
- Brave Bird
- Superpower
- Pursuit
- Night Slash
- Foul Play
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse
- Heat Wave
- Drill Peck
- Roost
- Whirlwind
- Taunt
+ high attack stat ; one of the most powerful Sucker Punch users in OU
+ excellent offensive coverage with the combination of Sucker Punch, Brave Bird and Superpower
+ dangerous late game sweep potential with Moxie
+/- subpar speed although compensated by Sucker Punch priority
+/- very mindgame heavy (depends on how good you are at those)
- squishy
- weak to priority users such as Talonflame, Scizor and more
- can take heavy recoil when using Brave Bird with a Life Orb
+ excellent offensive coverage with the combination of Sucker Punch, Brave Bird and Superpower
+ dangerous late game sweep potential with Moxie
+/- subpar speed although compensated by Sucker Punch priority
+/- very mindgame heavy (depends on how good you are at those)
- squishy
- weak to priority users such as Talonflame, Scizor and more
- can take heavy recoil when using Brave Bird with a Life Orb
Analysis:
Flying ever low under the radar is this majestic bird.
Honchkrow is a strong yet underrated physical sweeper with great offensive coverage who can potentially take down entire teams if given the right circumstances. Therefore he works best in the late game, in which he hopefully gets to clean up a damaged/crippled enemy team where none of his biggest threats are still alive (particularly priority users). This is made even better if you use his hidden ability ability Moxie, which after one or two kills can turn him into an unstoppable force.
The big boss may not have changed much at all since Generation V, but his surroundings sure have. He has a new weakness/enemy resistance with the advent of the Fairy-type. On the other hand, he has lost a much more annoying enemy resistance against Steel types, which used to spell trouble for him as they often boasted high defense and took Sucker Punch or other Dark-type moves pretty easily. This means he is not forced to use Superpower anymore when he wants to deal high damage to Steel types.
Potential movesets:
Physical Attacker
Honchkrow @ Life Orb
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Brave Bird
- Superpower
- Pursuit/Night Slash/Roost/Heat Wave
This is the essential Honchkrow set. In a nutshell: strike fear into your opponents, read their minds and snowball to victory but do NOT get hit.
The crow may be a bit slow, but boasts one of the most powerful STAB Sucker Punches in all of OU along with Absol and Bisharp. Adamant nature is therefore preferable over Jolly for raw firepower on Sucker Punch. This will give you guaranteed OHKO's on fast Psychic or Ghost-types like Alakazam and Gengar and deal considerable damage to non-resisting Pokémon. Honchkrow's Brave Bird will generally OHKO or deal huge damage to almost anything that doesn't resist it. Those are his two bread and butter attacks. The rule of thumb is you use Sucker Punch against faster opponents and Brave Bird against slower ones (slower opponents also tend to be bulkier so this is convenient). There are exceptions of course. For example, you want to use Sucker Punch against Aegislash's King's Shield not to take the Attack stat reduction.
The tutor move Superpower is strong against Rock and Steel-types as well as specific threats such as Tyranitar and Mawile (both of which are resistant to Brave Bird and Sucker Punch). It's interesting to note that successfully killing with that move negates the inherent Attack stat reduction with Moxie.
The 4th slot is open to a few different options. Pursuit is quite useful as it is pretty common for opponents to switch out in fear of the Brave Bird or Sucker Punch mindgame (making your set even more mindgame-y!). If you prefer a more straightforward Dark-type STAB, you can also choose Night Slash (70 base power but high critical rate). You can also use Roost to heal yourself when predicting a switch/Protect/Sucker Punch bait or Heat Wave for Ferrothorn.
Honchkrow is at his best in the late game. But in order for him to be successful, it is vital for his team to set the stage for him. First of all, priority users such as Talonflame, Scizor, etc. have to be dealt with beforehand as they will very easily stop his sweep attempt and kill him instantly (by out-prioritizing Sucker Punch). To use this set as efficiently as possible, it is recommended to run a team that provides paralysis support as this will allow him to use Brave Bird or Superpower without any danger of being being too slow. Stealth Rock/Spikes/Toxic/Burn or any form of stray damage on the enemy team is also welcome as it will make Sucker Punch more likely to kill.
Checks/counters:
- Any pokemon with a priority move that can kill Honchkrow (in particular the first two examples)
- Any pokemon that can tank Brave Bird or Sucker Punch and retaliate efficiently
- Talonflame - priority Brave Bird OHKO's Honchkrow
- Scizor - Bullet Punch OHKO's Honchkrow
- Zapdos - Bulky enough to take Brave Bird, can annoy then Honchkrow with Roost vs Sucker Punch and can kill him pretty easily
- Terakion - Much faster than Honchkrow and only takes 30-36% from Sucker Punch
- Togekiss - Offensive Togekiss (at least 184 Spd EV's) can outspeed Honchkrow ; Sucker Punch is almost harmless
- A bunch of others... will fill in later.
Been using Honchkrow since Gen IV and overall I feel like he's improved due to the removal of the Steel-type's resistance to Dark-type moves. I think he's underrated so I hope some of you guys will give him a try.
I'll update this thread when I find more info to write about. Make sure to tell me what you think and give me suggestions for other potential movesets!
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