[Overview]
<p>At first glance, this balloon-like creature seems like Cleffa 0.5: it has the same (Max) Attack and Speed Stats while its Defense and Special Defense are 1 point and even 4 points lower, respectively. The thing about Igglybuff though is its HP Stat, only topped by Wailmer, Happiny and Wynaut and the fact that it is the only viable Wish user in LC. When invested in maximally, Iggy's HP reaches a sizeable 28 while not investing in it beats Cleffa's max invested HP, which reaches 24, at 25 Health Points. As ridiculous as it may seem, Iggy's paper-thin defenses help it really well in some cases such as enabling it to perform as an excellent CounterCoat user. Moreover, it has a very wide supportive movepool, allowing Igglybuff to run many different and unpredictable sets, including the move Heal Bell which Cleffa lacks (despite Cleffa learning Aromatherapy, which is illegal with Wish or Softboiled and therefore often not used).</p>
[SET]
name: Right Back Atcha / Focus Sash
move 1: Counter / Magic Coat / Endeavour
move 2: Protect / Magic Coat
move 3: Wish
move 4: Hyper Voice / Flamethrower
item: Focus Sash
ability: Cute Charm
nature: Gentle / Lax
evs: 116 HP / 196 SpA / 196 SpD
ivs: 0 Def
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Igglybuff's poor defenses make it excellent for a Counter or Magic Coat set. The aim of this set is not only to deal a hefty chunk of damage to powerful Pokémon, but this set focuses on knocking out Pokémon that set up or have set up. These Pokémon include but are not limited to: Scraggy, non-Dual Chop Axew, Misdreavus, Clamperl and non-Rock Blast Dwebble. When running a Magic Coat set, however, you should run an EV spread of 116 HP / 236 Def / 116 SpA and 0 SpD EVs to make sure its Special Defense is as low as possible. You might want to move EVs from HP to Speed or Special Attack but this lowers the amount of Health Points that Wish recovers (and the damage that is inflicted on the opposing Pokémon but this is not important since the maximum amount of damage needed to be taken shall be 16 for the highest HP stat in LC peaks at 32).</p>
<p>The choice between Counter and Magic Coat depends on what you struggle the most with: Special or physical attackers. Counter bounces back physical moves with twice the damage and Magic Coat does the same but with special moves. One can also run a CounterCoat set when they struggle with both and to increase Igglybuff's effectiveness but this mightn't be handy because you would have to sacrifice one of the other moves. Also, the EV spread should be changed when using this strategy as seen in the Additional Comments.
The last move mostly depends on whether you run Counter or Magic Coat. As most physically offensive Pokémon that you will want to hit are OHKO'd by Counter, your offensive move when using Counter will most probably be Flamethrower as these are often Ghost Types and thus immune to Hyper Voice. When using Mirror Coat, Flamethrower is recommended to hit Steel-types, 3HKO'ing Bronzor and 2HKO'ing Ferroseed. Hyper Voice gains STAB to hit non-resistant Pokémon a little bit harder.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>116 EVs were put in HP to bring it to 27, maximizing the amount of HP recovered by Wish at 14 while gaining 80 more EVs at the cost of only one HP. On the Counter set, 116 EVs are put into SpA to increase the damage output from the offensive move of choice. When running Counter, 196 EVs are put into SpD to maximize the Special bulk while the Magic Coat set runs 236 EVs in Defense to maximize the Physical bulk. This means that there are only 118 and 78 EVs respectively left which are to be put in Spe because the difference between 116 and 196 EVs in SpA is nearly unnoticeable.
The 76 EVs in Spe make Iggy able to outrun Pokémon with non-invested Base Speed 24 or lower Pokémon, such as Bronzor and Slowpoke, and attack them before dying if Iggy's Sash is broken. One might also run Toxic or Thunder Wave in the fourth slot to cripple these Pokémon. Heal Bell is also an option but all three of these moves leave Iggy defenseless against defensive Steel-types and Substitute Pokémon.
A Gentle Nature with 0 IVs in Defense is used with Counter to increase the Special bulk while lowering the Physical Defense to almost surely ensure a KO to the Sash. A Lax nature with 0 IVs in Special Defense is preferred with in conjunction with Magic Coat to strenghten Iggy's Physical Defense and lower the Special Defense. When running CounterCoat you will want to max out Special Attack, put 116 EVs in HP and put the Leftovers in Speed and put 0 IVs in both Defenses.
Obviously, Cute Charm is the preferred Ability as its only other ability, Friend Guard, is useless in Singles. You might want to think about the gender and therefore there are these facts: there are 3 Male-only and 5 Female-only Pokémon in LC. Moreover, Pokegen generally tosses out a Female gender; therefore you might want to make Iggy Male to increase the chance of its ability activating.
When using the CounterCoat or a possible Endeavour strategy, one should put 196 EVs into HP, 36 EVs in SpA and 236 EVs into Spe and 0 IVs in both Def and SpD to increase the damage dealt to Iggy and retaining the 27 HP for the Wish. An option is maximizing SpA with 196 EVs and Spe but this shall reduce the HP Wish heals by one point.
When using Endeavour, put it in move slot 1 and use Protect on move slot 2. However, Endeavour is utilised much better by Cleffa because it can be used in conjunction with Hail or Sandstorm to which Cleffa is immune due to the Magic Guard ability.<\p>
<p>Things to watch out for are Pokémon that do carry multiple hitting moves such as Shellder or Mincinno. They can easily break Iggy's Sash with one hit and kill it with a second or third hit.
Also, depending on the moves you run, this set is walled fairly easily. When running Counter and no Flamethrower, Iggy is walled by Ghost types because of the immunity to both Counter and Hyper Voice and Pokémon like Misdreavus tend to carry Substitute to block Toxic and CounterCoat while Gastly is immune to Toxic. On top of this, Iggy only has small chances to break Missy's Subs, only gaining certainty when using at least 116 EVs in SpA and the Misdreavus is offensive and carries a Life Orb or Choice Scarf:</p>
<ul class="damage_calculation">
<li>116 SpA Flamethrower vs. 36/80+ Eviolite Misdreavus: 17.39% - 21.74%</li>
<li>196 SpA Flamethrower vs. 36/80+ Eviolite Misdreavus: 17.39% - 21.74%</li>
<li>116 SpA Flamethrower vs. 0/0 Eviolite Misdreavus: 22.73% - 27.27%</li>
<li>196 SpA Flamethrower vs. 0/0 Misdreavus: 22.73% - 27.27%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 0/0 Misdreavus: 18.18% - 22.72%</li>
<li>116 SpA Flamethrower vs. 0/0 Misdreavus: 27.27% - 36.36%</li>
<li>196 SpA Flamethrower vs. 0/0 Misdreavus: 27.27% - 36.36%</li>
</ul>
<p>When running Magic Coat and Flamethrower, physically offensive Pokémon with Flash Fire or with a Dark-Typing wall this set with ease such as Ponyta and Houndour but most notably Shed Skin Scraggy as it shrugs off Flamethrowers easily and doesn't mind a Burn or Toxic status as its ability will remove it anyways.
Regardless of the set, barring Endeavour, mixed attackers will cause a problem for Igglybuff as it's difficult to predict which move they will go for and a misprediction can cost Iggy its life or it gives the opponent a chance to set up on Igglybuff.</p>
<p>As this set relies on holding the Focus Sash intact, a Rapid Spinner is mandatory. Baltoy is a fine partner for Igglybuff not only because of the fact that it is a great user of Rapid Spin, but also because it can take the Fighting type moves aimed at Iggy while Iggy absorbs the Ghost-type moves that Baltoy despises. Kabuto is a fine option too but this does leave your team at 2 Fighting weaknesses already, which is maybe not a smart play in a metagame overrun by Fighting type Pokémon and Fighting type moves. Igglybuff does not need a lot of extra support but Spikes and/or Stealth Rock are always handy to break possible Focus Sashes and Sturdy abilities while also improving the effectiveness of Endeavour. Pineco can set up both and takes Fighting type moves for Igglybuff at the same time.</p>
*Note: Maybe split these sets in a Counter set and a Mirror Coat set and put CounterCoat in the Other Options (the EV explanation is kind of complicated so that might need changing)*
[SET]
name: Dual Screens
move 1: Reflect
move 2: Light Screen
move 3: Wish / Protect
move 4: Seismic Toss / Flamethrower / Heal Bell / Protect
item: Light Clay / Eviolite
ability: Cute Charm
nature: Calm
evs: 116 HP / 156 Def / 36 SpA / 196 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Igglybuff's high base HP and mediocre defenses allow it to quite easily set up Screens to half damage dealt while still being able to fulfill another role after that; will it be offensive or supportive.</p>
<p>The appearance of Reflect and Light Screen on this set speaks for itself. Wish is used to restore Igglybuff's health to enable it to set up more screens when the old ones have expired while also passing a massive 14 HP to a teammate. Flamethrower is the preferred move in the last slot as it hits a lot of things and it breaks or has a chance to break Murkrow's Substitutes, depending on the set. Seismic Toss is a good move to have to deal a consistent 5 HP damage to opponents but it indeed fails to take out a Murkrow's Substitute, regardless of its set. Heal Bell can make Igglybuff's supportive role bigger but leaves Iggy with no offensive moves and thus easily walled. Protect can be used in the third or fourth slot to scout and make HJK users break their knees if used at the right timing.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>As stated above, Iggy's Flamethrower will break Murkrow's Substitutes depending on its set. In the damage calculations below, the sets are MixKrow/Choice Scarf, SubRoost, Calm Mind, Support and Parafusion respectively.
<ul class="damage_calculation">
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 0/0 Murkrow: 40.9% - 50.0%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 36/20 Murkrow: 21.73% - 30.43%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 196/184+ Eviolite Murkrow: 16.0% - 20.0%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 36/180+ Murkrow: 17.39% - 21.73%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 196/100+ Murkrow: 20% - 24%</li>
</ul>
<p>Light Clay is the preferred item as it extends the duration of the screens to 8 turns which is just excellent and gives Iggy's teammates a longer time to hit hard, set up or do anything else that annoys the opponent. Another option for an item is Eviolite to boost Igglybuff's bulk, thus increasing the time it sticks around and enables it to set up more screens, go for and receive the Wish with more probability at the cost of three turns of Screens.
The EVs max out Igglybuff's Special bulk while investing heavily in Physical defense. They leave Iggy's max HP at just under max, 27 to be exact, to be able to increase its other stats but leaving the gained HP from Wish at 14. One can remove 80 EVs from Defense and put 76 of them in Speed to enable Iggy to outrun Base 24 Speed and lower Pokémon. An option is to maximize physical bulk when needed because the stats are the same. The only difficulty with that is that it is maxed out with 236 EVs instead of 196 EVs and so leaves you to change your entire EV spread and less variety.
Obviously, Cute Charm is the preferred Ability as its only other ability, Friend Guard, is useless in Singles. You might want to think about the gender and therefore there are these facts: there are 3 Male-only and 5 Female-only Pokémon in LC. Moreover, Pokegen generally tosses out a Female gender; therefore you might want to make Iggy Male to increase the chance of its ability activating.
Hyper Voice may be an option in the fourth slot to hit with STAB but it leaves Iggy even more vulnerable to the many Ghost-, Rock- and Steel-types in the tier. Toxic can be used to cripple defensive Pokémon that, with 76 Spe EVs, Igglybuff outspeeds and just defensive Pokémon in general. In conjunction with the screens and Wish makes Toxic Igglybuff a somewhat good Toxic Staller. Thunder Wave can be used to severely hinder fast offensive Pokémon. However, both moves again leave Igglybuff very vulnerable to be used as set-up fodder.</p>
<p>In means of help or support, this particular set of Igglybuff does not require any help. Looking at Type synergy, Ghost-, Psychic- and Poison-types are good mates for Iggy, especially the former two because they not only are immune or resistant to Igglybuff's only weakness, namely Fighting, but Igglybuff also is immune to one of their weaknesses: Ghost.
A lot of Pokémon can benefit from Dual Screens, most notably Pokémon that set up. Therefore, the list of possible teammates is extremely long. Notable teammates include but are not limited to Misdreavus, Drifloon, Woobat and ironically Zubat.</p>
[SET]
name: Support
move 1: Heal Bell
move 2: Thunder Wave / Toxic
move 3: Wish / Sweet Kiss
move 4: Flamethrower / Protect
item: Eviolite
ability: Cute Charm
nature: Calm / Bold
evs: 116 HP / 156 Def / 36 SpA / 196 SDef
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Igglybuff has an extremely wide supportive movepool and therefore is a great help to teammates by healing them, crippling opposing Pokémon and more. Thus, this set is a template and can be altered to your wishes. However, this set is the most effective.</p>
<p>Heal Bell is used to remove any unwanted statuses that may have landed on your Pokémon. The second move is a status move of your choice: do you want to slow down opponents and perhaps immobilize them then Thunder Wave is your choice while Toxic helps you to deal with defensive Pokémon that are a pain for your team to face and is not a Steel or Poison type. Because most Defensive Pokémon are immune to Toxic, Thunder Wave is preferred. The third move slot is filled by Wish. Igglybuff is undoubtedly the best, if not the only, viable user of Wish due to its gigantic base 90 HP. Sweet Kiss is an option to form a combo of ParaFusion. The last slot, assuming you run Wish, makes Igglybuff not a complete set-up fodder (barring Flash Fire Pokémon, which generally don't set up) by using Flamethrower. Protect may be used to form a Wish+Protect combo, to scout and to block HJK's from Scraggy and the like.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Eviolite is of course the preferred item as it increases Igglybuff's mediocre Defenses to decent levels. A Calm nature maximizes Iggy's Special Defense while a Bold nature can be used to increase Igglybuff's Defense.</p>
<p>Besides being able to run this effective Support set, Flamethrower with 36 SpA EVs has good chances to break subs and deal decent amounts of damage for a defensive Pokémon. A prime example is Murkrow who would just love to set up a Substitute on Igglybuff. Flamethrower has decent chances of taking out that Substiute, depending on Murkrow's set of course. In the damage calculations below, the sets are MixKrow/Choice Scarf, SubRoost, Calm Mind, Support and Parafusion respectively.</p>
<ul class="damage_calculation">
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 0/0 Murkrow: 40.9% - 50.0%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 36/20 Murkrow: 21.73% - 30.43%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 196/184+ Eviolite Murkrow: 16.0% - 20.0%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 36/180+ Murkrow: 17.39% - 21.73%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 196/100+ Murkrow: 20% - 24%</li>
</ul>
<p>Depending on the status move, Igglybuff's partners can vary. In any case, slow and powerful Pokémon like Trapinch or Snubbull can benefit greatly from the Thunder Wave support while Toxic is more handy as a support to nag the KO's an offensive Pokémon by dealing just that tad of damage it would need or just for Toxic stalling. Physically offensive Pokémon now do not have to mind a Burn as much now but this does not mean you cannot care about it anymore for Igglybuff remains frail and your Physical attacker can be put in the dumpster for the rest of the game if it is burnt and there is no way of curing the Burn. Scraggy and Mienfoo are one of many prime examples. In order to try and keep Igglybuff around you'd need one or two Fighting-type resistant Pokémon. Zubat Quad Resists Fighting but it is kind of frail. Woobat is also Quad Resistant and has far greater Bulk and can threaten Fighting types with its Dual STAB and high Speed. On the switch it can then Simply set up a Simple Calm Mind. Ghost Types like Gastly and Misdreavus also pair up really well with Iggy as they are immune to Igglybuff's only weakness and Igglybuff itself is immune to one of the Ghost's weaknesses.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>For people that want to compensate for Iggy's low Special Attack, it also learns Fire Blast, which can be used on any set over Flamethrower. However, it is often Igglybuff's only attacking move and with its low PP and mediocre accuracy is often a poor choice. A plus to this is that it takes out Substitutes by Misdreavus and Murkrow much more often and 3HKO'ing Bronzor while Flamethrower only has a 61% chance to 3HKO. In conjunction with this, Igglybuff might also run Gravity. Igglybuff has access to more coverage moves besides Flamethrower such as Psychic and Shadow Ball. Igglybuff also learns Rain Dance and Sunny Day. Safeguard may also be a supportive option as well as Perish Song. Pain Split may be used but Igglybuff is not fast and bulky enough to utilize it well. Iggy also learns Work Up but due to its low offensive power and speed, this is not a viable option. Fake Tears and Charm may be used to sharply lower a foe's Special Defense or Attack respectively to revenge kill it more easily or force a switch and thus a free turn to set up.
Covet is an interesting option in conjunction with Focus Sash to steal an opponent's item, mostly an Eviolite or Oran Berry. Incinerate can be used to burn any Berries, such as the not uncommon Oran Berry, but is low in power and shall leave Iggy being walled even more easily. </p>
[Checks and Counters]
<p>Due to Igglybuff being only able to run supportive movesets effectively, users of Taunt cause it a big problem. They can easily shut Igglybuff down and proceed to either use it as set-up fodder or just utterly destroy it. When not running Heal Bell, Toxic is a problem as well for our poor balloon-like Baby Pokémon as it would severely cripple any Defensive Pokémon. Obviously, Igglybuff has got paper-thin defenses and thus, when not carrying a Focus Sash or not behind a Screen, a lot of attacks will KO Igglybuff and therefore Igglybuff needs to be played right and not recklessly.</p>
<p>At first glance, this balloon-like creature seems like Cleffa 0.5: it has the same (Max) Attack and Speed Stats while its Defense and Special Defense are 1 point and even 4 points lower, respectively. The thing about Igglybuff though is its HP Stat, only topped by Wailmer, Happiny and Wynaut and the fact that it is the only viable Wish user in LC. When invested in maximally, Iggy's HP reaches a sizeable 28 while not investing in it beats Cleffa's max invested HP, which reaches 24, at 25 Health Points. As ridiculous as it may seem, Iggy's paper-thin defenses help it really well in some cases such as enabling it to perform as an excellent CounterCoat user. Moreover, it has a very wide supportive movepool, allowing Igglybuff to run many different and unpredictable sets, including the move Heal Bell which Cleffa lacks (despite Cleffa learning Aromatherapy, which is illegal with Wish or Softboiled and therefore often not used).</p>
[SET]
name: Right Back Atcha / Focus Sash
move 1: Counter / Magic Coat / Endeavour
move 2: Protect / Magic Coat
move 3: Wish
move 4: Hyper Voice / Flamethrower
item: Focus Sash
ability: Cute Charm
nature: Gentle / Lax
evs: 116 HP / 196 SpA / 196 SpD
ivs: 0 Def
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Igglybuff's poor defenses make it excellent for a Counter or Magic Coat set. The aim of this set is not only to deal a hefty chunk of damage to powerful Pokémon, but this set focuses on knocking out Pokémon that set up or have set up. These Pokémon include but are not limited to: Scraggy, non-Dual Chop Axew, Misdreavus, Clamperl and non-Rock Blast Dwebble. When running a Magic Coat set, however, you should run an EV spread of 116 HP / 236 Def / 116 SpA and 0 SpD EVs to make sure its Special Defense is as low as possible. You might want to move EVs from HP to Speed or Special Attack but this lowers the amount of Health Points that Wish recovers (and the damage that is inflicted on the opposing Pokémon but this is not important since the maximum amount of damage needed to be taken shall be 16 for the highest HP stat in LC peaks at 32).</p>
<p>The choice between Counter and Magic Coat depends on what you struggle the most with: Special or physical attackers. Counter bounces back physical moves with twice the damage and Magic Coat does the same but with special moves. One can also run a CounterCoat set when they struggle with both and to increase Igglybuff's effectiveness but this mightn't be handy because you would have to sacrifice one of the other moves. Also, the EV spread should be changed when using this strategy as seen in the Additional Comments.
The last move mostly depends on whether you run Counter or Magic Coat. As most physically offensive Pokémon that you will want to hit are OHKO'd by Counter, your offensive move when using Counter will most probably be Flamethrower as these are often Ghost Types and thus immune to Hyper Voice. When using Mirror Coat, Flamethrower is recommended to hit Steel-types, 3HKO'ing Bronzor and 2HKO'ing Ferroseed. Hyper Voice gains STAB to hit non-resistant Pokémon a little bit harder.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>116 EVs were put in HP to bring it to 27, maximizing the amount of HP recovered by Wish at 14 while gaining 80 more EVs at the cost of only one HP. On the Counter set, 116 EVs are put into SpA to increase the damage output from the offensive move of choice. When running Counter, 196 EVs are put into SpD to maximize the Special bulk while the Magic Coat set runs 236 EVs in Defense to maximize the Physical bulk. This means that there are only 118 and 78 EVs respectively left which are to be put in Spe because the difference between 116 and 196 EVs in SpA is nearly unnoticeable.
The 76 EVs in Spe make Iggy able to outrun Pokémon with non-invested Base Speed 24 or lower Pokémon, such as Bronzor and Slowpoke, and attack them before dying if Iggy's Sash is broken. One might also run Toxic or Thunder Wave in the fourth slot to cripple these Pokémon. Heal Bell is also an option but all three of these moves leave Iggy defenseless against defensive Steel-types and Substitute Pokémon.
A Gentle Nature with 0 IVs in Defense is used with Counter to increase the Special bulk while lowering the Physical Defense to almost surely ensure a KO to the Sash. A Lax nature with 0 IVs in Special Defense is preferred with in conjunction with Magic Coat to strenghten Iggy's Physical Defense and lower the Special Defense. When running CounterCoat you will want to max out Special Attack, put 116 EVs in HP and put the Leftovers in Speed and put 0 IVs in both Defenses.
Obviously, Cute Charm is the preferred Ability as its only other ability, Friend Guard, is useless in Singles. You might want to think about the gender and therefore there are these facts: there are 3 Male-only and 5 Female-only Pokémon in LC. Moreover, Pokegen generally tosses out a Female gender; therefore you might want to make Iggy Male to increase the chance of its ability activating.
When using the CounterCoat or a possible Endeavour strategy, one should put 196 EVs into HP, 36 EVs in SpA and 236 EVs into Spe and 0 IVs in both Def and SpD to increase the damage dealt to Iggy and retaining the 27 HP for the Wish. An option is maximizing SpA with 196 EVs and Spe but this shall reduce the HP Wish heals by one point.
When using Endeavour, put it in move slot 1 and use Protect on move slot 2. However, Endeavour is utilised much better by Cleffa because it can be used in conjunction with Hail or Sandstorm to which Cleffa is immune due to the Magic Guard ability.<\p>
<p>Things to watch out for are Pokémon that do carry multiple hitting moves such as Shellder or Mincinno. They can easily break Iggy's Sash with one hit and kill it with a second or third hit.
Also, depending on the moves you run, this set is walled fairly easily. When running Counter and no Flamethrower, Iggy is walled by Ghost types because of the immunity to both Counter and Hyper Voice and Pokémon like Misdreavus tend to carry Substitute to block Toxic and CounterCoat while Gastly is immune to Toxic. On top of this, Iggy only has small chances to break Missy's Subs, only gaining certainty when using at least 116 EVs in SpA and the Misdreavus is offensive and carries a Life Orb or Choice Scarf:</p>
<ul class="damage_calculation">
<li>116 SpA Flamethrower vs. 36/80+ Eviolite Misdreavus: 17.39% - 21.74%</li>
<li>196 SpA Flamethrower vs. 36/80+ Eviolite Misdreavus: 17.39% - 21.74%</li>
<li>116 SpA Flamethrower vs. 0/0 Eviolite Misdreavus: 22.73% - 27.27%</li>
<li>196 SpA Flamethrower vs. 0/0 Misdreavus: 22.73% - 27.27%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 0/0 Misdreavus: 18.18% - 22.72%</li>
<li>116 SpA Flamethrower vs. 0/0 Misdreavus: 27.27% - 36.36%</li>
<li>196 SpA Flamethrower vs. 0/0 Misdreavus: 27.27% - 36.36%</li>
</ul>
<p>When running Magic Coat and Flamethrower, physically offensive Pokémon with Flash Fire or with a Dark-Typing wall this set with ease such as Ponyta and Houndour but most notably Shed Skin Scraggy as it shrugs off Flamethrowers easily and doesn't mind a Burn or Toxic status as its ability will remove it anyways.
Regardless of the set, barring Endeavour, mixed attackers will cause a problem for Igglybuff as it's difficult to predict which move they will go for and a misprediction can cost Iggy its life or it gives the opponent a chance to set up on Igglybuff.</p>
<p>As this set relies on holding the Focus Sash intact, a Rapid Spinner is mandatory. Baltoy is a fine partner for Igglybuff not only because of the fact that it is a great user of Rapid Spin, but also because it can take the Fighting type moves aimed at Iggy while Iggy absorbs the Ghost-type moves that Baltoy despises. Kabuto is a fine option too but this does leave your team at 2 Fighting weaknesses already, which is maybe not a smart play in a metagame overrun by Fighting type Pokémon and Fighting type moves. Igglybuff does not need a lot of extra support but Spikes and/or Stealth Rock are always handy to break possible Focus Sashes and Sturdy abilities while also improving the effectiveness of Endeavour. Pineco can set up both and takes Fighting type moves for Igglybuff at the same time.</p>
*Note: Maybe split these sets in a Counter set and a Mirror Coat set and put CounterCoat in the Other Options (the EV explanation is kind of complicated so that might need changing)*
[SET]
name: Dual Screens
move 1: Reflect
move 2: Light Screen
move 3: Wish / Protect
move 4: Seismic Toss / Flamethrower / Heal Bell / Protect
item: Light Clay / Eviolite
ability: Cute Charm
nature: Calm
evs: 116 HP / 156 Def / 36 SpA / 196 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Igglybuff's high base HP and mediocre defenses allow it to quite easily set up Screens to half damage dealt while still being able to fulfill another role after that; will it be offensive or supportive.</p>
<p>The appearance of Reflect and Light Screen on this set speaks for itself. Wish is used to restore Igglybuff's health to enable it to set up more screens when the old ones have expired while also passing a massive 14 HP to a teammate. Flamethrower is the preferred move in the last slot as it hits a lot of things and it breaks or has a chance to break Murkrow's Substitutes, depending on the set. Seismic Toss is a good move to have to deal a consistent 5 HP damage to opponents but it indeed fails to take out a Murkrow's Substitute, regardless of its set. Heal Bell can make Igglybuff's supportive role bigger but leaves Iggy with no offensive moves and thus easily walled. Protect can be used in the third or fourth slot to scout and make HJK users break their knees if used at the right timing.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>As stated above, Iggy's Flamethrower will break Murkrow's Substitutes depending on its set. In the damage calculations below, the sets are MixKrow/Choice Scarf, SubRoost, Calm Mind, Support and Parafusion respectively.
<ul class="damage_calculation">
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 0/0 Murkrow: 40.9% - 50.0%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 36/20 Murkrow: 21.73% - 30.43%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 196/184+ Eviolite Murkrow: 16.0% - 20.0%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 36/180+ Murkrow: 17.39% - 21.73%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 196/100+ Murkrow: 20% - 24%</li>
</ul>
<p>Light Clay is the preferred item as it extends the duration of the screens to 8 turns which is just excellent and gives Iggy's teammates a longer time to hit hard, set up or do anything else that annoys the opponent. Another option for an item is Eviolite to boost Igglybuff's bulk, thus increasing the time it sticks around and enables it to set up more screens, go for and receive the Wish with more probability at the cost of three turns of Screens.
The EVs max out Igglybuff's Special bulk while investing heavily in Physical defense. They leave Iggy's max HP at just under max, 27 to be exact, to be able to increase its other stats but leaving the gained HP from Wish at 14. One can remove 80 EVs from Defense and put 76 of them in Speed to enable Iggy to outrun Base 24 Speed and lower Pokémon. An option is to maximize physical bulk when needed because the stats are the same. The only difficulty with that is that it is maxed out with 236 EVs instead of 196 EVs and so leaves you to change your entire EV spread and less variety.
Obviously, Cute Charm is the preferred Ability as its only other ability, Friend Guard, is useless in Singles. You might want to think about the gender and therefore there are these facts: there are 3 Male-only and 5 Female-only Pokémon in LC. Moreover, Pokegen generally tosses out a Female gender; therefore you might want to make Iggy Male to increase the chance of its ability activating.
Hyper Voice may be an option in the fourth slot to hit with STAB but it leaves Iggy even more vulnerable to the many Ghost-, Rock- and Steel-types in the tier. Toxic can be used to cripple defensive Pokémon that, with 76 Spe EVs, Igglybuff outspeeds and just defensive Pokémon in general. In conjunction with the screens and Wish makes Toxic Igglybuff a somewhat good Toxic Staller. Thunder Wave can be used to severely hinder fast offensive Pokémon. However, both moves again leave Igglybuff very vulnerable to be used as set-up fodder.</p>
<p>In means of help or support, this particular set of Igglybuff does not require any help. Looking at Type synergy, Ghost-, Psychic- and Poison-types are good mates for Iggy, especially the former two because they not only are immune or resistant to Igglybuff's only weakness, namely Fighting, but Igglybuff also is immune to one of their weaknesses: Ghost.
A lot of Pokémon can benefit from Dual Screens, most notably Pokémon that set up. Therefore, the list of possible teammates is extremely long. Notable teammates include but are not limited to Misdreavus, Drifloon, Woobat and ironically Zubat.</p>
[SET]
name: Support
move 1: Heal Bell
move 2: Thunder Wave / Toxic
move 3: Wish / Sweet Kiss
move 4: Flamethrower / Protect
item: Eviolite
ability: Cute Charm
nature: Calm / Bold
evs: 116 HP / 156 Def / 36 SpA / 196 SDef
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Igglybuff has an extremely wide supportive movepool and therefore is a great help to teammates by healing them, crippling opposing Pokémon and more. Thus, this set is a template and can be altered to your wishes. However, this set is the most effective.</p>
<p>Heal Bell is used to remove any unwanted statuses that may have landed on your Pokémon. The second move is a status move of your choice: do you want to slow down opponents and perhaps immobilize them then Thunder Wave is your choice while Toxic helps you to deal with defensive Pokémon that are a pain for your team to face and is not a Steel or Poison type. Because most Defensive Pokémon are immune to Toxic, Thunder Wave is preferred. The third move slot is filled by Wish. Igglybuff is undoubtedly the best, if not the only, viable user of Wish due to its gigantic base 90 HP. Sweet Kiss is an option to form a combo of ParaFusion. The last slot, assuming you run Wish, makes Igglybuff not a complete set-up fodder (barring Flash Fire Pokémon, which generally don't set up) by using Flamethrower. Protect may be used to form a Wish+Protect combo, to scout and to block HJK's from Scraggy and the like.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Eviolite is of course the preferred item as it increases Igglybuff's mediocre Defenses to decent levels. A Calm nature maximizes Iggy's Special Defense while a Bold nature can be used to increase Igglybuff's Defense.</p>
<p>Besides being able to run this effective Support set, Flamethrower with 36 SpA EVs has good chances to break subs and deal decent amounts of damage for a defensive Pokémon. A prime example is Murkrow who would just love to set up a Substitute on Igglybuff. Flamethrower has decent chances of taking out that Substiute, depending on Murkrow's set of course. In the damage calculations below, the sets are MixKrow/Choice Scarf, SubRoost, Calm Mind, Support and Parafusion respectively.</p>
<ul class="damage_calculation">
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 0/0 Murkrow: 40.9% - 50.0%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 36/20 Murkrow: 21.73% - 30.43%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 196/184+ Eviolite Murkrow: 16.0% - 20.0%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 36/180+ Murkrow: 17.39% - 21.73%</li>
<li>36 SpA Flamethrower vs. 196/100+ Murkrow: 20% - 24%</li>
</ul>
<p>Depending on the status move, Igglybuff's partners can vary. In any case, slow and powerful Pokémon like Trapinch or Snubbull can benefit greatly from the Thunder Wave support while Toxic is more handy as a support to nag the KO's an offensive Pokémon by dealing just that tad of damage it would need or just for Toxic stalling. Physically offensive Pokémon now do not have to mind a Burn as much now but this does not mean you cannot care about it anymore for Igglybuff remains frail and your Physical attacker can be put in the dumpster for the rest of the game if it is burnt and there is no way of curing the Burn. Scraggy and Mienfoo are one of many prime examples. In order to try and keep Igglybuff around you'd need one or two Fighting-type resistant Pokémon. Zubat Quad Resists Fighting but it is kind of frail. Woobat is also Quad Resistant and has far greater Bulk and can threaten Fighting types with its Dual STAB and high Speed. On the switch it can then Simply set up a Simple Calm Mind. Ghost Types like Gastly and Misdreavus also pair up really well with Iggy as they are immune to Igglybuff's only weakness and Igglybuff itself is immune to one of the Ghost's weaknesses.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>For people that want to compensate for Iggy's low Special Attack, it also learns Fire Blast, which can be used on any set over Flamethrower. However, it is often Igglybuff's only attacking move and with its low PP and mediocre accuracy is often a poor choice. A plus to this is that it takes out Substitutes by Misdreavus and Murkrow much more often and 3HKO'ing Bronzor while Flamethrower only has a 61% chance to 3HKO. In conjunction with this, Igglybuff might also run Gravity. Igglybuff has access to more coverage moves besides Flamethrower such as Psychic and Shadow Ball. Igglybuff also learns Rain Dance and Sunny Day. Safeguard may also be a supportive option as well as Perish Song. Pain Split may be used but Igglybuff is not fast and bulky enough to utilize it well. Iggy also learns Work Up but due to its low offensive power and speed, this is not a viable option. Fake Tears and Charm may be used to sharply lower a foe's Special Defense or Attack respectively to revenge kill it more easily or force a switch and thus a free turn to set up.
Covet is an interesting option in conjunction with Focus Sash to steal an opponent's item, mostly an Eviolite or Oran Berry. Incinerate can be used to burn any Berries, such as the not uncommon Oran Berry, but is low in power and shall leave Iggy being walled even more easily. </p>
[Checks and Counters]
<p>Due to Igglybuff being only able to run supportive movesets effectively, users of Taunt cause it a big problem. They can easily shut Igglybuff down and proceed to either use it as set-up fodder or just utterly destroy it. When not running Heal Bell, Toxic is a problem as well for our poor balloon-like Baby Pokémon as it would severely cripple any Defensive Pokémon. Obviously, Igglybuff has got paper-thin defenses and thus, when not carrying a Focus Sash or not behind a Screen, a lot of attacks will KO Igglybuff and therefore Igglybuff needs to be played right and not recklessly.</p>
