Time to vote! Ton of very potent sets this week.
Hello friends,
I'm here today to suggest Babiri Berry Fire Blast Steel Lure Clefable
Clefable @ Babiri Berry
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Fire Blast
- Soft-Boiled
Clefable has surprisingly good defenses, but has a hard time vs the everpresent steel types in the tier. To remedy that, I stole this set from the Monotype community, where Babiri Berry Fairy-types are very common in order to give Fairy a fighting chance vs Steel. The idea behind this set is very simple - use this to lure in 'mons like Mega Scizor who think that their puny +2 Bullet Punch knocks you out, tank the hit, shit talk your opponent a bit in the chat and return the favour with a 4x effective Fire Blast, an all-but-guaranteed KO after Rocks go up.
+2 64+ Atk Technician Scizor-Mega Bullet Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Babiri Berry Clefable: 186-220 (47.2 - 55.8%) -- 78.5% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Clefable Fire Blast vs. 248 HP / 16 SpD Scizor-Mega: 300-356 (87.4 - 103.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
This isn't just useful for the Scizor matchup, however. Clefable can also use this tech against other mons like Ferrothorn, turning a Gyro Ball that does 40%+ to Clefable into naught but a scratch on the pink 'mons health bar, and Celesteela, which turns Heavy Slam from a 2HKO into a 3HKO and allows Clef to retaliate with a couple Fire Blasts of her own. This set is situationally useful if you find your team is exceedingly weak to steel-types or Mega Scizor in general, and you want a 'mon that can both take on Scizor and get up rocks in the same slot I guess. Also beats Smart Strike Kartana, but lets be real here, when was the last time you saw a Smart Strike Kartana?
0 Atk Ferrothorn Gyro Ball (86 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Babiri Berry Clefable: 78-93 (19.7 - 23.6%) -- possible 5HKO
0 Atk Celesteela Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Babiri Berry Clefable: 115-136 (29.1 - 34.5%) -- 6.5% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Kartana Smart Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Babiri Berry Clefable: 129-153 (32.7 - 38.8%) -- 99.1% chance to 3HKO
Reserving Sash Counter Clef
Clefable @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Counter
Clefable has the rare and sort after Magic Guard ability, allowing it to avoid Hazard damage and Status damage. This, combined with Clefables low speed making Soft Boiled usually go last, allows it to keep its Sash intact throughout the match, stopping physical set up sweepers, such as Kartana, M.Pinsir and Zygarde but also dent / remove other hard hitting mons, such as Celesteela, Band Ttar and M.Mawile. The lack of Leftovers does severely hurt it however, so Leftovers is optional, allowing it to dent/remove hard hitting wallbreakers, specifically being able to knock out Celesteela after Rocks, working as an excellent lure.0 Atk Celesteela Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 230-272 (58.3 - 69%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Celsteela will take a minimum of 345 Hp or a max of 402 Hp out of 398 Hp
252+ Atk Choice Band Tyranitar Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 241-285 (61.1 - 72.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Tyranitar will take a minimum of 361 Hp out of 341 Hp
252+ Atk Huge Power Mawile-Mega Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 244-288 (61.9 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
M.Mawile will take a minimum of 366 Hp out of 251 Hp
252 Atk Pure Power Medicham-Mega Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 192-226 (48.7 - 57.3%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO
M.Medicham will take a minimum of 288 Hp out of 261 Hp
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Encore
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Thunder Wave
Encore is a pretty handy tool to deal with standard answers to Clef, by giving you free turns when locking the opponent into moves which you can easily take advantage of. Against most of your standard Clef answers, you can just click Encore for free turns with little concern. Encored Heatran can't really touch you no matter what what you lock him into, and if he Taunts turn 1, you can just switch out because no Magma trap i.e. you actually have the initiative against any unrevealed Heatran set. Encoring Ferro/Tpex into anything just allows you to switch into whatever you want without worrying about the stray status move. Scizor is a bit more complicated, because BP is a 2HKO, but Encore on a predicted Defog/SD/Roost is still really nice. On the topic of set-up, stuff like Volcarona, Mawile, cannot set-up on you anymore, even if they carry Sub like Gyara. All in all, you basically get a free turn to do whatever you like against stuff that normally are good answers to Clef, such as switching out, or hiting the predicted switch with Twave.
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Moonblast
- Thunder Wave
- Soft-Boiled
This is a really neat Clef set that has a ton of utility and is one of my favorite sets to use on bulky offenses with threatening breakers like Medi and Pinsir. I really like this thing with Ash Gren especially because being able to paralyze Pex means that Ash Gren can just flinch through it. Thunder Wave is a super dumb move and has a ton of uses that I don't really think need to be elaborated on. Also, Flamethrower is super nice because it lures in Defog Mega Zor that expects to be able to remove your rocks or Ferro that think they can get free hazards vs you for free, or losing their item at most. This set is also cool for smacking broken ass Kartana, as they don't run Smart Strike as much these days. I think that this is a really neat set overall that you guys should try out because while it doesn't provide the same type of utility as SR Clef or have the threat level of CM Clef, it's still a really solid set overall.
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Cosmic Power
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Calm Mind
Cosmic CM Clef is an interesting variation on CM Clef that abuses offense archetypes well. Given that Clef's reign of terror has (mostly) remained in ORAS, most builders account for Clef as a threat significantly less in the SM metagame, relegating the means of beating Clef to random obscenely strong breaker #3401 and maybe something like AV Magearna. With Cosmic Power, muscling through Clef becomes waaaay harder, leading to some offenses flat-out losing to it. With proper support, stuff like Taunt Tran can be pressured via Spikes or other means, which improves its odds of sweeping even further! Definitely a cool sweeper to toy with.
Stealing the LO Clef reserve ‘cuz Leo is bad and has been sitting on his reserve for >2 days for no real reason
Clefable @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 212 HP / 252 SpA / 44 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Fire Blast
- Soft-Boiled
- Psyshock / Calm Mind / Focus Blast / Stealth Rock
LO Clef hits desceptively hard, taking advantage of the very limited range of Fairy+Fire resists to rlly pose as a menace to a lot of teams. I’m not going to dump a wall of calcs, but a few noteworthy things this achieves include 2HKOing Relaxed Celesteela (and Sassy after SR), 2HKOing AV Magearna at +1, 2HKOing Calm Toxapex after SR with Psyshock, and having a high chance to 2HKO Defog Gliscor with Moonblast through Poison Heal, forcing it to burn Roost PP (and leaving it 1v1’d by CM variants). There are more options for the last slot as it’s mostly filler, but Psyshock is for Toxapex, CM is to bolster offensive presence, Focus Blast dents Tran and SR is SR. The listed EVs outrun uninvested Magearna.
I reckon CM, SR and KOff r worth mentioning in the Flamethrower slot too; CM ‘cuz free turns from para+having a means of (slowly) 1v1ing Taunt Tran is broken; SR/KOff ‘cuz those+T-wave on one set is stupid good utility.
