Gen 1 Lickitung Mini (OU) [QC 1/1, GP 1/1]

[NotVeryCake]

[OVERVIEW]

Lickitung has many desirable traits among OU Swords Dance users that make it stand out from the crowd. These include STAB Body Slam, Hyper Beam, and Wrap, all the physical and special coverage it could ever want, and bulk roughly on par with Tauros. Unfortunately, its wide movepool and STAB Hyper Beam are let down by its abysmal base 55 Attack, making its STAB moves no more powerful than any other Swords Dance user's non-STAB attacks, and its awful base 30 Speed ties it for the slowest fully evolved Pokemon in the entire game. Lickitung is very easy to play around once paralyzed, making it extremely risky to stay in on anything that can paralyze it.

Nearly every unique trait Lickitung has is eclipsed by another Pokemon. Its role as a Swords Dance user with Wrap is taken by Victreebel, its Water-type coverage is done better by Kabutops and Kingler, and its ability to hit Gengar with Earthquake is outclassed by Sandslash's STAB Earthquake. Its only redeeming traits are its STAB Hyper Beam and that, unlike other Swords Dance users, it has no blatant defensive weaknesses thanks to its decent bulk and strong Normal typing, which has no common weaknesses and allows it to avoid Body Slam paralysis. Although Lickitung has many positive traits as an OU Swords Dance user, its positives are heavily outweighed by its negatives, making it extremely impractical and difficult to use.

[Set]
name: Swords Dance Sweeper
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Hyper Beam
move 3: Earthquake / Wrap
move 4: Earthquake / Bubble Beam / Surf / Body Slam

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
STAB Hyper Beam, Wrap, and Lickitung's good defensive qualities are the only reasons to consider it over better Swords Dance users, such as Kingler or Sandslash. +6 Hyper Beam reaches such immense power that it even OHKOes Cloyster 82.1% of the time, though +4 Hyper Beam still packs enough power to almost always OHKO threats with more moderate bulk, such as Zapdos and Tauros. Earthquake is essential coverage, as it is Lickitung's only option to hit Gengar for super effective damage, and it deals decent damage to Rock types at +2; +2 Earthquake has a 7.7% chance to OHKO Gengar and a 6.6% chance to 2HKO Rhydon. Wrap is a useful utility move that can be used to pivot out of bad matchups and chip paralyzed foes into Hyper Beam range while keeping Lickitung safe from paralysis. Water-type coverage can be considered; Bubble Beam 2HKOes Rhydon and Golem and has a 33% chance to drop their Speed, which allows Lickitung to outspeed and KO them on the next turn, whereas Surf deals enough damage to prevent Rhydon from using Substitute later. Body Slam is Lickitung's best option for dealing consistent damage, 2HKOing Chansey and having a 95.5% chance to 3HKO Snorlax at +2.

Lickitung's only way to find success is by putting it on a team with heavy paralysis support and statusing nearly the entire enemy team before bringing it out. The best opportunity it has to set up is to switch in when a paralyzed Snorlax uses Rest and boost to +2 while Snorlax switches out. It can then try to choke the paralyzed enemy team with boosted Wrap and Hyper Beam.

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/notverycake.625260/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/enigami.233818/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/amaranth.265630/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/sabelette.583793/

 

[Amaranth]

the grammar is all over the place, this is a severe mistreatment of periods

you also don't give any real justification for why anyone should run this over victreebel which has pretty much the same damage output, wrap, and hyperbeam. you don't actually explain what lickitung does over other options. that's important in a mini like this.

please tweak or rewrite this with more care for the grammar and an eye for explaining the reason to run lickitung rather than any other pokemon. if the quality remains low i will shelve this

 

[NotVeryCake]

Yea, I realise just now I used way too many periods where full stops could have been used to start new sentences. I'll also write some reasons on why Lickitung is not just a worse Victreebell.

 

[Enigami]

NotVeryCake
Got a bit carried away and made a full rewrite that addresses a lot of the problems with the initial draft, going into much greater detail on why you would and would not use Lickitung as well as lengthier usage tips.

[OVERVIEW]

Among OU Swords Dance sweepers, Lickitung has a large number of desirable traits. It possesses a phenomenal movepool, with all the Physical and Special coverage it could want in addition to Swords Dance and Wrap. It has pure Normal-typing, giving it STAB Body Slam, Wrap and Hyper Beam with no common weaknesses. It has enough bulk to survive almost any two non-critical hit attacks in the metagame. And at full power, it possesses the second strongest physical attack in all of RBY.

Why is it not a powerhouse in OU then? Terrible stats. With only 30 base Speed, every Pokemon in the tier can hit Lickitung before it can move limiting Lickitung's partial trapping and sweeping potential. Its mediocre bulk lets it survive a couple hits, but no more than that. Its low Attack stat means that its STAB attacks are no more powerful than other more common OU Swords Dancers' non-STAB Normal attacks. And while this can be corrected with Lickitung's STAB Hyper Beam being able to exceed the power of a non-STAB 999 Attack Hyper Beam, Lickitung requires too many turns to become the monster on paper it wants to be. As a Wrap user, it also finds itself outdone by Arbok as a Wrapper with access to Earthquake due to Arbok's Glare and superior Speed. Even if the combination of Swords Dance and Wrap is desired, Victreebel brings equivalent power with superior Speed, Sleep Powder, Stun Spore and Razor Leaf as options Lickitung can't come close to competing with. In RBY OU, Lickitung is the very definition of awesome, but impractical.

[SET]
name: Swords Dance Sweeper
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Hyper Beam
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Wrap / BubbleBeam / Surf / Body Slam

[SET COMMENTS]

Swords Dance with STAB Hyper Beam is the sole reason to bother with Lickitung in OU at all, with a +6 Hyper Beam reaching such power that even Cloyster will be OHKO'd 82.1% of the time. +4 is still sufficient for scoring KOs against Pokemon with only moderate bulk though, as it will OHKO anything with as much bulk as Tauros or Zapdos almost guaranteed. Earthquake is essential coverage, ensuring that Gengar and grounded Rock-types will not put a stop to Lickitung if it does manage to reach full power. Wrap takes advantage of paralyzed teams, either letting Lickitung pivot away from bad matchups or chipping Pokemon into Hyper Beam range while preventing the opponent from attacking Lickitung. Water coverage is also worth considering, with BubbleBeam providing a 2HKO and a 33% chance to drop Rhydon's and Golem's Speed below Lickitung's, and Surf putting Rhydon below 25% HP preventing it from being able to set up Substitute later. Body Slam can be used to get immediate damage on the opposing Pokemon while having a 30% chance to paralyze non-Normal types, which is particularly useful against Cloyster as its high Defense and access to Clamp makes it a very strong switch in to Lickitung while unparalyzed.

The only decent way to use Lickitung is bringing it on a team with heavy status support, inflicting status on as much of the enemy team as possible, then leveraging its capacity to take a couple hits to try and boost to +4 or +6. With Wrap, the most reliable means to find an opportunity to set up is switching into a Resting Snorlax after it had been paralyzed, using Swords Dance and forcing it out with boosted Wrap. If by luck your Lickitung manages to reach this point without dying while still outspeeding the enemy, then and only then will Lickitung accomplish anything that couldn't be done with superior Pokemon.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[NotVeryCake, 625260], [Enigami, 233818]]
- Quality checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ]]

 

[gamerwave]

Uniquely for a partial trapper, Lickitung will not be paraslammed, narrowing means of recovery for your opponent should you set up, but at that you're also the slowest. +6 stab hyperbeam does sound funny

 

[NotVeryCake]

NotVeryCake
Got a bit carried away and made a full rewrite that addresses a lot of the problems with the initial draft, going into much greater detail on why you would and would not use Lickitung as well as lengthier usage tips.

[OVERVIEW]

Among OU Swords Dance sweepers, Lickitung has a large number of desirable traits. It possesses a phenomenal movepool, with all the Physical and Special coverage it could want in addition to Swords Dance and Wrap. It has pure Normal-typing, giving it STAB Body Slam, Wrap and Hyper Beam with no common weaknesses. It has enough bulk to survive almost any two non-critical hit attacks in the metagame. And at full power, it possesses the second strongest physical attack in all of RBY.

Why is it not a powerhouse in OU then? Terrible stats. With only 30 base Speed, every Pokemon in the tier can hit Lickitung before it can move limiting Lickitung's partial trapping and sweeping potential. Its mediocre bulk lets it survive a couple hits, but no more than that. Its low Attack stat means that its STAB attacks are no more powerful than other more common OU Swords Dancers' non-STAB Normal attacks. And while this can be corrected with Lickitung's STAB Hyper Beam being able to exceed the power of a non-STAB 999 Attack Hyper Beam, Lickitung requires too many turns to become the monster on paper it wants to be. As a Wrap user, it also finds itself outdone by Arbok as a Wrapper with access to Earthquake due to Arbok's Glare and superior Speed. Even if the combination of Swords Dance and Wrap is desired, Victreebel brings equivalent power with superior Speed, Sleep Powder, Stun Spore and Razor Leaf as options Lickitung can't come close to competing with. In RBY OU, Lickitung is the very definition of awesome, but impractical.

[SET]
name: Swords Dance Sweeper
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Hyper Beam
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Wrap / BubbleBeam / Surf / Body Slam

[SET COMMENTS]

Swords Dance with STAB Hyper Beam is the sole reason to bother with Lickitung in OU at all, with a +6 Hyper Beam reaching such power that even Cloyster will be OHKO'd 82.1% of the time. +4 is still sufficient for scoring KOs against Pokemon with only moderate bulk though, as it will OHKO anything with as much bulk as Tauros or Zapdos almost guaranteed. Earthquake is essential coverage, ensuring that Gengar and grounded Rock-types will not put a stop to Lickitung if it does manage to reach full power. Wrap takes advantage of paralyzed teams, either letting Lickitung pivot away from bad matchups or chipping Pokemon into Hyper Beam range while preventing the opponent from attacking Lickitung. Water coverage is also worth considering, with BubbleBeam providing a 2HKO and a 33% chance to drop Rhydon's and Golem's Speed below Lickitung's, and Surf putting Rhydon below 25% HP preventing it from being able to set up Substitute later. Body Slam can be used to get immediate damage on the opposing Pokemon while having a 30% chance to paralyze non-Normal types, which is particularly useful against Cloyster as its high Defense and access to Clamp makes it a very strong switch in to Lickitung while unparalyzed.

The only decent way to use Lickitung is bringing it on a team with heavy status support, inflicting status on as much of the enemy team as possible, then leveraging its capacity to take a couple hits to try and boost to +4 or +6. With Wrap, the most reliable means to find an opportunity to set up is switching into a Resting Snorlax after it had been paralyzed, using Swords Dance and forcing it out with boosted Wrap. If by luck your Lickitung manages to reach this point without dying while still outspeeding the enemy, then and only then will Lickitung accomplish anything that couldn't be done with superior Pokemon.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[NotVeryCake, 625260], [Enigami, 233818]]
- Quality checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ]]

Thank you! I'll take this into consideration when writing the redraft and I will definitely give you the proper credit. Though I won't have my redraft be a 1:1 copy of what you've written. It will take heavy inspiration from this. Thank you very much!

 

[NotVeryCake]

the grammar is all over the place, this is a severe mistreatment of periods

you also don't give any real justification for why anyone should run this over victreebel which has pretty much the same damage output, wrap, and hyperbeam. you don't actually explain what lickitung does over other options. that's important in a mini like this.

please tweak or rewrite this with more care for the grammar and an eye for explaining the reason to run lickitung rather than any other pokemon. if the quality remains low i will shelve this

Oops, accidently read this as "commas" instead of periods. Disregard this comment I made.

 

[Amaranth]

Much improved.

a few notes:

bulk strong enough to survive any two non-Critical hits in the tier.

this is a vague and hard to conceptualize way to illustrate Lickitung's bulk. "roughly as bulky as Tauros" is something that happens to be true and is also very easy to conceptualize for a majority of RBY players, I'd switch to that

If a Pokemon faster than Lickitung threatens paralysis against it, it has to immediately switch out as paralysis renders it nearly unusable, giving up any Swords Dance boosts it may have picked up.

this is true if you want your Lickitung to 6-0 sweep, but more than likely if an Alakazam hard switches into SD I'm taking that HB for TWave trade without a second thought. it's fair to say Lickitung hates paralysis but I think "has to immediately switch out" is a bit too much, it ignores situational circumstances where you're quite happy to take a twave to fire off your last two hyperbeams and take a good trade overall

Swords Dance with STAB Hyper Beam is the sole reason to bother with Lickitung in OU at all

this is kind of a weird thing to say when Kingler's non-STAB Hyper Beam is stronger lol. I think what actually sets him apart from the other swords dancers is that they all have disastrous defensive traits (Kingler/Kabutops electric weak + low spc bulk, Sandslash ice weak, Victreebel ice and psy weak, and so on) - his offense is pretty much on par with Victreebel but he's considerably fatter and has no crippling defensive weaknesses like the plant does. this is something that the analysis doesn't touch on at all which I think is worth mentioning, though it should probably go in the overview, and you can change this one sentence about "sole reason to bother" to something like "the only way for Lickitung to carve out a practical niche for itself", or something to that effect

 

[Amaranth]

QC1/2 since the above tweaks were implemented

 

[Amaranth]

no one from QC has objections so this can move on to gp. GP Team

 

[Sabelette]

GP 1/1 GP Team done

Addition Removal Comment
(AC) (AH) Add Comma/Add Hyphen, (RC) (RH) Remove Comma/Remove Hyphen

Ping me when implemented to double check before upload since I am Checking While Tired (TM)

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[Overview]
[OVERVIEW]

Lickitung has many desirable traits among OU Swords Dancers users that make it stand out from the crowd. (period) , (RC) These include STAB Body Slam, Hyper Beam, and Wrap, all the Physical and Special physical and special coverage it could ever want, and bulk roughly the same as on par with (optional but this flows better since I had to change the sentence fragment earlier) Tauros. Unfortunately, its wide movepool, (RC) and STAB Hyper Beam is are let down by its abysmal base attack 55 Attack stat of 55, making its STAB moves Hyper Beam and Wrap no more powerful than any other OU Swords Dance user's (apostrophe) non-STAB attacks, and its awful base 30 Speed speed stat of 30 tying ties it for the slowest fully evolved Pokemon in the entire game. Lickitung is very easy to play around once paralysed paralyzed, making it extremely risky to stay in on anything that threatens to paralysis can paralyze it.

Nearly every unique trait Lickitung has as an OU Swords Dance user is eclipsed by another Pokemon. (period) , (RC) its Its role as a Swords Dance user with access to Wrap is taken by Victreebell Victreebel, it's its Water-type coverage is done better by Kabutops and Kinglers STAB Water type attacks, and its ability to hit Gengar with Earthquake is outclassed by Sandslash's STAB Earthquake. Its only redeeming traits are its STAB Hyper Beam and that, unlike other Swords Dance users, it has no blatant defensive weaknesses, (RC) thanks to its with decent bulk and a strong mono-Normal typing, (AC) which has that gives it no common weaknesses and allows it to avoid getting paralysed from Body Slam paralysis. All things considered, although Although Lickitung has many positive traits as an OU Swords Dance user, its positives are heavily outweighed by its negatives, making it extremely impractical and difficult to use.

[Set]
name: Swords Dance Sweeper
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Hyper Beam
move 3: Earthquake / Wrap (spaces between slashes)
move 4: Earthquake / Bubblebeam Bubble Beam / Surf / Body Slam

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========

If you do wish to use Lickitung, this is the set you should use on it. STAB Hyper Beam, Wrap, (AC) and its Lickitung's good defensive qualities are (removed an extra space) the only reasons you would ever even consider looking at to consider Lickitung it over better Swords Dance users, (AC) such as Kingler or Sandslash. (period) , (RC) with +6 Hyper Beam reaching reaches such immense power that it even OHKOes Cloyster is OHKO'ed 82.1% of the time, though +4 Hyper Beam still packs enough power to almost always OHKO most threats with more moderate bulk, (AC) such as Zapdos and Tauros. Earthquake is essential coverage, as it is your Lickitung's only option to hit Gengar for supereffective super effective damage, (AC) and it deals decent damage to Rock types at +2; (semicolon) , (RC) with a +2 Earthquake having has a 7.7% chance to OHKO Gengar and a 6.6% chance to 2HKO Rhydon. Wrap is a useful utility move that can be used to pivot out of bad machups matchups, (RC) and chip paralysed paralyzed foes into Hyper Beam range while keeping Lickitung itself safe from paralysis. Water-type coverage can be considered; (semicolon) , (RC) with Bubblebeam 2HKO'ing Bubble Beam 2HKOes Rhydon and Golem along with and has a 33% chance to drop their speed Speed, which allows Lickitung to outspeed and KO them on the next turn, and whereas Surf dealing deals enough damage that Rhydon cannot set up a substitute later in the game to prevent Rhydon from using Substitute later. Body Slam is Lickitung's (apostrophe) best option at for dealing consistent damage, 2HKO'ing 2HKOing Chansey and having a 95.5% chance to 3HKO Snorlax at +2.

Lickitung's (apostrophe) only way to find success on a team is by putting it on a team with heavy paralysis support and statusing nearly the entire enemy team before bringing it out. (period) , (RC) the The best opportunity it has to set up is switching it to switch in when a paralysed paralyzed Snorlax uses Rest, (RC) and boosting to +2 while Snorlax switches out. (period) , (RC) It can then trying to choke the paralysed paralyzed enemy team with boosted STAB Wraps and Hyper Beam. (period) s, (RC) this is the only way Lickitung will do what better Pokemon cannot do easier.

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/notverycake.625260/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/enigami.233818/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/amaranth.265630/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/sabelette.583793/

 

[Sabelette]

Double checked, ready for upload

 

[Amaranth]

Uploaded