[OVERVIEW]
Kabutops is a very dangerous Pokemon and among the best Swords Dance users in OU. First of all, its base 115 Attack stat is very respectable, and it sports the best high critical hit rate move in the game—Slash. While this may seem counterproductive for Swords Dance, since in RBY critical hits ignore stat boosts, it means Kabutops can pose an immediate threat without having to raise its Attack. Slash also gives it wallbreaking potential, mostly because critical hits also ignore Reflect. Because Kabutops can switch in on recovery moves such as Rest and Recover and immediately pose a threat, it commonly forces the opponent to switch in a Pokemon that lacks recovery, like Exeggutor or Tauros, to force it out. This means Kabutops will do permanent damage. Its typing grants it a valuable resistance to Normal and Ice. This means it can freely set up against Pokemon such as Cloyster, sometimes against Chansey without Thunderbolt (depending on circumstance, the threat of Thunder Wave may pose a problem) and on any variant of Snorlax not packing Earthquake—or the very rare Thunderbolt.
However, while Kabutops's typing is certainly one of its key assets, it also leaves it with very unfortunate weaknesses to Electric and Ground. This means it can't switch in as much as it would want against Rhydon despite its Surf and good Defense. Also, Kabutops is easy to force out with Thunderbolt users such as Jolteon, Zapdos, Gengar, Starmie, and Lapras—the first four outspeed it, and Lapras easily survives a +2 Hyper Beam. It gets worse: Kabutops can struggle to discourage them from switching in, giving them great momentum. Surf is weak enough against them to almost give a free switch. A Hyper Beam use can be punished by Gengar, while Swords Dance usually gives free entry to Thunderbolt users. Notice how every move besides Slash is fairly easy to punish—and Gengar even ignores that, countering Kabutops outright. Slash is still a great move and helps deter these threats, but again its critical hits ignore Swords Dance boosts. Therefore, if these threats can pressure Kabutops into using Slash often, they reduce its threat ceiling in practice. Also, Hyper Beam's 10.4% miss chance or Kabutops's 15.6% critical hit rate can just ruin its sweep, a likely scenario if Kabutops is expected to KO several Pokemon consecutively.
[SET]
name: Standard
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Slash
move 3: Hyper Beam
move 4: Surf
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
This set makes Kabutops a very menacing threat in OU, although the reasons why may not be immediately apparent. While Slash does not benefit from Swords Dance boosts, it comes off of a very high 115 base Attack stat, which allows it to immediately threaten a paralyzed Alakazam or Chansey (and Starmie to a lesser extent), as well as Rest Snorlax. If the former two have full paralysis on a recovering turn, or Kabutops comes in on Rest from the latter, the opponent will be forced to switch them out, most likely to a Pokemon such as Exeggutor or Tauros, forcing them to take permanent damage. Remember that Slash is not a 3HKO on Snorlax, but Snorlax cannot just stall Kabutops with Rest because it is too easy to predict the Rest and use Swords Dance. Once Kabutops is at +2, two Slashes and a Hyper Beam KO Snorlax after Rest before it can attack, forcing Snorlax to switch or risk fainting. Even if Snorlax uses Reflect, it offers little protection because Kabutops has plenty of opportunities to boost to +4. Alternatively, Kabutops can fish for a critical hit with Surf while Snorlax is asleep—a viable strategy considering Kabutops's respectable critical hit rate.
The benefits of Slash don't end here, though. Slash with +2 Hyper Beam is enough to KO Zapdos and Tauros 100% of the time, as well as Exeggutor 95.4% of the time. If Chansey is at 88.6% health, Slash + Hyper Beam becomes a guaranteed KO. At 84.4%, Slash becomes a guaranteed 2HKO too, so a little bit of chip damage comes a long way in breaking through Chansey.
Kabutops also packs a big, big punch as a late-game sweeper. +4 Hyper Beam is a guaranteed KO on Exeggutor and anything more frail than it. With a bit of chip damage, +2 Hyper Beam OHKOes Starmie and Chansey. Kabutops is not very hard to find setup opportunities with, either: any sleeping Pokemon such as Rest Cloyster, Snorlax, or Jolteon (provided it comes in on the latter's Rest turn) will do, with sleep fodder your opponent is trying to sack, a Rhydon switching out fearing Surf, and an untimely full paralysis as other possible setup windows.
Kabutops also distinguishes itself from other setup sweepers because paralysis does not end its usability in the game. While its late-game sweeping abilities are hindered, its respectable Speed means it's still very capable of beating several Pokemon such as Chansey, Snorlax, Cloyster and paralyzed Alakazam, using Swords Dance to reapply the latter's paralysis Speed drop and outspeed it. Paralyzed Kabutops also still does significant damage with Slash to potential switch-ins.
Kabutops's typing plays a key role in the Tauros matchup, and typing is perhaps the main asset it has over Sandslash and Kingler.Kabutops's Rock typing means that Tauros will generally resort to Earthquake to beat it, or the much rarer Thunderbolt. Not only does Earthquake have a mere 2.2% chance to 2HKO, it will also never OHKO a full health Kabutops with a critical hit. Sandslash is always 2HKOed by Tauros's Blizzard and OHKOed if it's a critical hit, while Kingler taking on Tauros is likely to find itself paralyzed by a neutral Body Slam, severely hindering its ability to continue the sweep. Earthquake also comes without a freeze or paralysis chance, which gives Kabutops much better odds at late-game sweeping, and unboosted Kabutops can even beat Tauros one-on-one in some situations, usually winning if Tauros is damaged by Slash beforehand or switches in on it. Kabutops also has the most reliable way of disposing of Rhydon and Golem with Surf, since Kingler's Crabhammer has unreliable accuracy and Sandslash must be at +4 to always OHKO with Earthquake, at the expense of being worse against Gengar.
Lastly, Kabutops also has good synergy with Electric-types such as Zapdos. They can seriously threaten each other's counters, and most players will switch Rhydon in without second thought upon sight of Zapdos, allowing for a double switch to Kabutops and subsequent threat of a setup sweep.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Body Slam can be used to paralyze switch-ins, potentially paralyzing a Pokemon such as Starmie or Exeggutor and thus facilitating a sweeper like Rhydon, but it is difficult to drop one of the listed moves. Dropping Surf means losing to Rhydon and not being able to damage Gengar at all. Dropping Slash makes Kabutops's job of wallbreaking much harder, with it unable to reliably get past Reflect Snorlax and Chansey or hit switch-ins hard, and dropping Swords Dance or Hyper Beam severely hinders its sweeping capabilities. Blizzard may also seem a good choice, but missing out on the OHKO on Rhydon is very detrimental, and Slash hits Exeggutor and Zapdos harder.
For a completely different approach, a more defensive set using Rest, Slash, Surf and either Reflect or Body Slam could be used. It makes use of Kabutops's key resistances to Normal and Ice, with Slash allowing it to not forfeit momentum. However, Reflect is generally only useful against Earthquake from Tauros and Snorlax, the former having a very high critical hit rate anyway and the latter often forgoing Earthquake for overall more useful moves, giving Reflect fringe utility at best. However, Body Slam is fringe too: it moves Kabutops away from purer defense towards a sort of offensive support role, a less unique role that other Pokemon such as Snorlax and Rhydon fulfill better. They don't need to sacrifice as much of their offensive presence—remember that this Kabutops set drops Swords Dance and Hyper Beam—to be physical walls or lure in and paralyze certain threats.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Gengar**: Gengar is undoubtedly the best Kabutops counter, since it can easily come in on any of Kabutops's moves and threaten it directly with Thunderbolt. It easily takes Kabutops down, even while paralyzed, since Surf is a 5HKO. If Sleep Clause is not in effect and no statused Pokemon can safely switch in, Gengar can also safely go for Hypnosis to punish the switch-in.
**Electric-types**: Zapdos outspeeds Kabutops and has a 61.5% chance to OHKO with Thunderbolt. If Zapdos is paralyzed, it's a check at best though, because Slash and +2 Hyper Beam is a guaranteed KO. Jolteon only has a 2.4% chance to OHKO with Thunderbolt, but its critical hit rate is very high and should be kept in mind. However, if Jolteon is paralyzed or asleep from Rest, it can no longer switch in either, because both Slash + Hyper Beam and +2 Hyper Beam are almost always a KO.
**Starmie**: Starmie is never OHKOed by Slash + Hyper Beam or +2 Hyper Beam, which means it can easily come in and threaten Kabutops with Thunder Wave, Thunderbolt, or to a lesser extent even Surf and Psychic. However, if it's paralyzed, it has to watch out.
**Exeggutor**: While Exeggutor needs Mega Drain to counter Kabutops, since it is almost always KOed by Slash and +2 Hyper Beam. Otherwise, sets without it can come in once and threaten with a status move—or even heavy damage with Psychic.
**Victreebel**: Razor Leaf OHKOes Kabutops, and Kabutops cannot realistically expect to KO Victreebel even if it switches in, since a +2 Hyper Beam only has a 1 in 39 chance to OHKO. Much like Gengar, it can somewhat safely go for Sleep Powder if circumstances allow for it.
**Lapras**: Lapras checks Kabutops in a similar way to Exeggutor, with the notable difference that it can generally switch in twice instead of once, and Thunderbolt is a guaranteed 2HKO that also packs a 10% paralysis chance. It can also use Sing similarly to Gengar.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Sceptross, 123746]]
- Quality checked by: [[May, 236353]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Adeleine, 517429], [, ]]
Kabutops is a very dangerous Pokemon and among the best Swords Dance users in OU. First of all, its base 115 Attack stat is very respectable, and it sports the best high critical hit rate move in the game—Slash. While this may seem counterproductive for Swords Dance, since in RBY critical hits ignore stat boosts, it means Kabutops can pose an immediate threat without having to raise its Attack. Slash also gives it wallbreaking potential, mostly because critical hits also ignore Reflect. Because Kabutops can switch in on recovery moves such as Rest and Recover and immediately pose a threat, it commonly forces the opponent to switch in a Pokemon that lacks recovery, like Exeggutor or Tauros, to force it out. This means Kabutops will do permanent damage. Its typing grants it a valuable resistance to Normal and Ice. This means it can freely set up against Pokemon such as Cloyster, sometimes against Chansey without Thunderbolt (depending on circumstance, the threat of Thunder Wave may pose a problem) and on any variant of Snorlax not packing Earthquake—or the very rare Thunderbolt.
However, while Kabutops's typing is certainly one of its key assets, it also leaves it with very unfortunate weaknesses to Electric and Ground. This means it can't switch in as much as it would want against Rhydon despite its Surf and good Defense. Also, Kabutops is easy to force out with Thunderbolt users such as Jolteon, Zapdos, Gengar, Starmie, and Lapras—the first four outspeed it, and Lapras easily survives a +2 Hyper Beam. It gets worse: Kabutops can struggle to discourage them from switching in, giving them great momentum. Surf is weak enough against them to almost give a free switch. A Hyper Beam use can be punished by Gengar, while Swords Dance usually gives free entry to Thunderbolt users. Notice how every move besides Slash is fairly easy to punish—and Gengar even ignores that, countering Kabutops outright. Slash is still a great move and helps deter these threats, but again its critical hits ignore Swords Dance boosts. Therefore, if these threats can pressure Kabutops into using Slash often, they reduce its threat ceiling in practice. Also, Hyper Beam's 10.4% miss chance or Kabutops's 15.6% critical hit rate can just ruin its sweep, a likely scenario if Kabutops is expected to KO several Pokemon consecutively.
[SET]
name: Standard
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Slash
move 3: Hyper Beam
move 4: Surf
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
This set makes Kabutops a very menacing threat in OU, although the reasons why may not be immediately apparent. While Slash does not benefit from Swords Dance boosts, it comes off of a very high 115 base Attack stat, which allows it to immediately threaten a paralyzed Alakazam or Chansey (and Starmie to a lesser extent), as well as Rest Snorlax. If the former two have full paralysis on a recovering turn, or Kabutops comes in on Rest from the latter, the opponent will be forced to switch them out, most likely to a Pokemon such as Exeggutor or Tauros, forcing them to take permanent damage. Remember that Slash is not a 3HKO on Snorlax, but Snorlax cannot just stall Kabutops with Rest because it is too easy to predict the Rest and use Swords Dance. Once Kabutops is at +2, two Slashes and a Hyper Beam KO Snorlax after Rest before it can attack, forcing Snorlax to switch or risk fainting. Even if Snorlax uses Reflect, it offers little protection because Kabutops has plenty of opportunities to boost to +4. Alternatively, Kabutops can fish for a critical hit with Surf while Snorlax is asleep—a viable strategy considering Kabutops's respectable critical hit rate.
The benefits of Slash don't end here, though. Slash with +2 Hyper Beam is enough to KO Zapdos and Tauros 100% of the time, as well as Exeggutor 95.4% of the time. If Chansey is at 88.6% health, Slash + Hyper Beam becomes a guaranteed KO. At 84.4%, Slash becomes a guaranteed 2HKO too, so a little bit of chip damage comes a long way in breaking through Chansey.
Kabutops also packs a big, big punch as a late-game sweeper. +4 Hyper Beam is a guaranteed KO on Exeggutor and anything more frail than it. With a bit of chip damage, +2 Hyper Beam OHKOes Starmie and Chansey. Kabutops is not very hard to find setup opportunities with, either: any sleeping Pokemon such as Rest Cloyster, Snorlax, or Jolteon (provided it comes in on the latter's Rest turn) will do, with sleep fodder your opponent is trying to sack, a Rhydon switching out fearing Surf, and an untimely full paralysis as other possible setup windows.
Kabutops also distinguishes itself from other setup sweepers because paralysis does not end its usability in the game. While its late-game sweeping abilities are hindered, its respectable Speed means it's still very capable of beating several Pokemon such as Chansey, Snorlax, Cloyster and paralyzed Alakazam, using Swords Dance to reapply the latter's paralysis Speed drop and outspeed it. Paralyzed Kabutops also still does significant damage with Slash to potential switch-ins.
Kabutops's typing plays a key role in the Tauros matchup, and typing is perhaps the main asset it has over Sandslash and Kingler.Kabutops's Rock typing means that Tauros will generally resort to Earthquake to beat it, or the much rarer Thunderbolt. Not only does Earthquake have a mere 2.2% chance to 2HKO, it will also never OHKO a full health Kabutops with a critical hit. Sandslash is always 2HKOed by Tauros's Blizzard and OHKOed if it's a critical hit, while Kingler taking on Tauros is likely to find itself paralyzed by a neutral Body Slam, severely hindering its ability to continue the sweep. Earthquake also comes without a freeze or paralysis chance, which gives Kabutops much better odds at late-game sweeping, and unboosted Kabutops can even beat Tauros one-on-one in some situations, usually winning if Tauros is damaged by Slash beforehand or switches in on it. Kabutops also has the most reliable way of disposing of Rhydon and Golem with Surf, since Kingler's Crabhammer has unreliable accuracy and Sandslash must be at +4 to always OHKO with Earthquake, at the expense of being worse against Gengar.
Lastly, Kabutops also has good synergy with Electric-types such as Zapdos. They can seriously threaten each other's counters, and most players will switch Rhydon in without second thought upon sight of Zapdos, allowing for a double switch to Kabutops and subsequent threat of a setup sweep.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Body Slam can be used to paralyze switch-ins, potentially paralyzing a Pokemon such as Starmie or Exeggutor and thus facilitating a sweeper like Rhydon, but it is difficult to drop one of the listed moves. Dropping Surf means losing to Rhydon and not being able to damage Gengar at all. Dropping Slash makes Kabutops's job of wallbreaking much harder, with it unable to reliably get past Reflect Snorlax and Chansey or hit switch-ins hard, and dropping Swords Dance or Hyper Beam severely hinders its sweeping capabilities. Blizzard may also seem a good choice, but missing out on the OHKO on Rhydon is very detrimental, and Slash hits Exeggutor and Zapdos harder.
For a completely different approach, a more defensive set using Rest, Slash, Surf and either Reflect or Body Slam could be used. It makes use of Kabutops's key resistances to Normal and Ice, with Slash allowing it to not forfeit momentum. However, Reflect is generally only useful against Earthquake from Tauros and Snorlax, the former having a very high critical hit rate anyway and the latter often forgoing Earthquake for overall more useful moves, giving Reflect fringe utility at best. However, Body Slam is fringe too: it moves Kabutops away from purer defense towards a sort of offensive support role, a less unique role that other Pokemon such as Snorlax and Rhydon fulfill better. They don't need to sacrifice as much of their offensive presence—remember that this Kabutops set drops Swords Dance and Hyper Beam—to be physical walls or lure in and paralyze certain threats.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Gengar**: Gengar is undoubtedly the best Kabutops counter, since it can easily come in on any of Kabutops's moves and threaten it directly with Thunderbolt. It easily takes Kabutops down, even while paralyzed, since Surf is a 5HKO. If Sleep Clause is not in effect and no statused Pokemon can safely switch in, Gengar can also safely go for Hypnosis to punish the switch-in.
**Electric-types**: Zapdos outspeeds Kabutops and has a 61.5% chance to OHKO with Thunderbolt. If Zapdos is paralyzed, it's a check at best though, because Slash and +2 Hyper Beam is a guaranteed KO. Jolteon only has a 2.4% chance to OHKO with Thunderbolt, but its critical hit rate is very high and should be kept in mind. However, if Jolteon is paralyzed or asleep from Rest, it can no longer switch in either, because both Slash + Hyper Beam and +2 Hyper Beam are almost always a KO.
**Starmie**: Starmie is never OHKOed by Slash + Hyper Beam or +2 Hyper Beam, which means it can easily come in and threaten Kabutops with Thunder Wave, Thunderbolt, or to a lesser extent even Surf and Psychic. However, if it's paralyzed, it has to watch out.
**Exeggutor**: While Exeggutor needs Mega Drain to counter Kabutops, since it is almost always KOed by Slash and +2 Hyper Beam. Otherwise, sets without it can come in once and threaten with a status move—or even heavy damage with Psychic.
**Victreebel**: Razor Leaf OHKOes Kabutops, and Kabutops cannot realistically expect to KO Victreebel even if it switches in, since a +2 Hyper Beam only has a 1 in 39 chance to OHKO. Much like Gengar, it can somewhat safely go for Sleep Powder if circumstances allow for it.
**Lapras**: Lapras checks Kabutops in a similar way to Exeggutor, with the notable difference that it can generally switch in twice instead of once, and Thunderbolt is a guaranteed 2HKO that also packs a 10% paralysis chance. It can also use Sing similarly to Gengar.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Sceptross, 123746]]
- Quality checked by: [[May, 236353]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Adeleine, 517429], [, ]]
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