Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Kecleon @ Darkinium Z / Fightinium Z / Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
This Kecleon can either set up Trick Room for its teammates and switches, or he sweeps by himself. Sucker Punch is still there for priority, as Trick Room isn't always guaranteed to be up while Kecleon is on the field. With this set, Kecleon is able to potentially 2HKO or even OHKO dangerous physical threats, which would normally KO Kecleon outside of Trick Room.
Kecleon @ Assault Vest
Ability: Protean
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 SpA
Lonely Nature
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Shadow Sneak - Grass Knot
Grass Knot is a neat filler for Kecleon that primarily allows it to bypass Mudsdale as a check, with the spread capable to 2HKOing it, and if Mudsdale switches in on rocks, it still gets 2HKO’d even when considering Protect. Grass Knot also hits Quagsire and Gastrodon, and is capable of 3HKOing defensive Poliwrath in conjunction with Knock Off to remove Leftovers. Unfortunately, picking the nature is annoying, as Brave makes it slower than Gastrodon and Quagsire, so Lonely is chosen due to Kecleon’s Defense already being poor.
kek (Kecleon) @ Choice Band
Ability: Protean
EVs: 168 HP / 252 Atk / 88 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Shadow Sneak
- Trick
Kecleon switching between moves is overrated. With this set it is able to bop things with a powerful Drain Punch, Knock Off, or Return or pick off weakened mons with Shadow Sneak. Furthermore, it can still play around mons like Hitmonchan with Shadow Sneak. Finally, it has Trick, which makes choice items good on any mons. So what's its niche over Stoutland, Kangaskhan, and Zangoose? Well while Kecleon might not have Scrappy, Protean can still pull opponents off guard. It's also of course still a great ability in general. Furthermore, Kecleon has solid utility to annoy its switch-ins with Knock Off and Trick. Not a meme set at all.
In a world in which That one Grass-type Pokemon creates havoc amongst the PU tier destroying dreams and expectations, a colorful boi makes his entry attempting to face the threat that we now know as Lilligant. Your Pom Pom keeps missing Hurricane and getting Hyper Beam'd? Your Ape was unable to KO bulky Lilli? Your Drampa missed Fire Blast like 8 times cause of old age? Lemme show you the ultimate answer that probably won't do anything at all in matchups in which Lilli isnt being used by your opponent.
Sobble's long lost uncle (Kecleon) (M) @ Safety Goggles / Normalium Z
Ability: Protean
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 96 SpD / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Ice Punch / Drain Punch /Knock Off
- Recover / Power-Up Punch
- Confide
You might be having a few questions already. Why is this Kecleon male? What does Captivate (RIP) do? Is this overprepping? (This is indeed overprepping) Aren"t you using too many hyperboles on that initial paragraph? (Definitely). First of all, for anyone whos not familiar with the move, Captivate is able to lower the Special Attack of a Pokemon of the opposite gender by 2 stages. As we all know, all Lilligant are female, which means that Sobble's long lost uncle is able to lower its Special Attack always, turning Lilli into a much less threatening Pokemon. In return, Kecleon is able to survive all of its attacks with much more ease. I had no idea what this move did like 6 hours ago and as soon as I found out I was never not gonna come up with a set utilizing it.
The spread used is the same as the one Specs Jigglypuff used for his own set. This was actually a pure coincidence initially, I used the speed recommended by the normal Smogon spread, put all of the points in HP and then made it so Kecleon would be able to KO Lilli with Shadow Sneak into Ice Punch, shoutout to my friend for allowing me to showcase the same spread since its clearly the most effective for this purpose. The rest of the points go into SpD which allows it to survive a +1 Bloom Doom or Breakneck Blitz.
+1 252 SpA Lilligant Bloom Doom (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 96 SpD Kecleon: 240-283 (74 - 87.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252 SpA Lilligant Breakneck Blitz (200 BP) vs. 252 HP / 96 SpD Kecleon: 228-269 (70.3 - 83%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
-1 252 SpA Lilligant Bloom Doom (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 96 SpD Kecleon: 108-127 (33.3 - 39.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
-1 252 SpA Lilligant Breakneck Blitz (200 BP) vs. 252 HP / 96 SpD Kecleon: 102-120 (31.4 - 37%) -- 80.1% chance to 3HKO
Now onto the moves, Shadow Sneak and Ice Punch seemed like the most optimal choices for checking Lilligant. Captivate totally stopping it from spamming Giga Drain or Hyper Beam after it has used its Z-move which allows Kecleon to Recover or attack. Recover is optional but its nice for giving Kecleon a bit of longevity. Must be pointed out that Drain Punch, Recover and Captivate probably helps against other Special Attackers but I dont know this from experience since Ive only ran the calcs for Lilli, should be worth looking into though. Z Captivate grants Kecleon a +2 boost in its Special Defense. Im not sure how useful that might be in some situations, but its a neat feature if Kecleon doesnt fear being statused, but for the purpose of checking Lilli, Safety Goggles or even Lum seem like the most optimal choices. Power-Up Punch alongside Drain Punch gives Kecleon more offensive presence, and functions well alongside Captivate since such move tends to force out special attackers. Equally, Knock Off functions in the same way by forcing out physical attackers that might not want to lose their item such as Gurdurr, but these secondary options might struggle with Lilligant initially, since more Special Attack drops will be necessary in order to wall it. Finally, Confide works similarly to Captivate, since the move lowers the Sp. Attack of all Pokemon by one stage. I'm not sure if this is actually a better option in general, it definitely can be, so if youre still reading this, that might make this set a bit less match dependent than using Captivate.
Thats all, hope yall enjoyed the amount of hyperboles in the first paragraph into the amount of madness that went into showcasing this set in the other paragraphs, thank you for reading.
Well apparently Captivate is illegal with Protean Kecleon which is like incredibly disappointing. Confide is still an option that works well with it for most special attackers, and you're able to still stop Lilli with it. Sad, apologies for not knowing this prior. I'll still leave the post up cause I feel like the concept had a lot of potential, will only remove the mention of Captivate on the initial set, apologies for the misunderstanding. ;-;
Nasty Plot Kecleon is a pretty cool set and it's actually somewhat threatening, even if it has a mediocre SpA of 60 because this thing's movepool is huge and it also has broken Protean. At +2, Grass Knot OHKOes Regirock and Bloom Doom deals with stuff like Lanturn once boosted and it just serves as a nuke for stuff like Audino and Gurdurr once at +2. Flamethrower hits Snowslash (and max speed modest outspeeds Spdef Snowslash by 1 point) and Articuno. Finally, Ice Beam hits stuff like Altaria, Drampa and Oricorio-E harder than anything else, the former two resisting both Grass Knot and Flamethrower.
Submission phase is over ! Thanks to everyone who submitted a set, I really appreciate it !
With a total of 5 votes, this week's winner is UberSkitty's Choice Band Kecleon ! Congrats ! Also thanks to maroon for breaking the tie between Stealth Rock Kecleon and Choice Band Kecleon. The archive and leaderboard will be updated soon !
For the fourth week of Next Best Thing, we'll be covering Lycanroc ! Thanks to its blistering Speed, high Attack and good movepool, Lycanroc is a decent cleaner and Stealth Rock setters. However, its aforementioned good movepool give it many different options ! Have fun and good luck !
Lycanroc @ Choice Band
Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Drill Run
- Accelerock
- Toxic / Zen Headbutt
Choice Band Lycanroc
Choice Band gives Lycanroc the ability to have immediate power without relying on the usual Z move, and gives Lycanroc decently strong priority for revenge killing. Toxic is also a useful lure that assists in wearing down Mudsdale and Quagsire, and while Zen Headbutt is unfortunate to be locked into, it can 3HKO Gurdurr and defensive Poliwrath.
Lycanroc @ Lycanium Z
Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Brick Break
- Accelerock
I'm already voting for jmash bc this mon legit cant do anything else well. break brick retains the same targets as drill run but it can still reliably ohko aggron but also alolaslash at +2 whereas you're forced to preserve your z to muscle past the latter if it's at full. you also have a 100% chance to ohko aurorus instead of an 80% chance lol. I understand if this is way too close to standard but eh /shrug
Lycanroc @ Focus Sash
Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Endeavor
- Accelerock
- Stone Edge
Just gonna submit Sash Endeavor Lycanroc who can play as a suicide lead on HO builds despite them being really whack in the meta atm. You can pretty much get rocks up+claim a fun little kill with the combination of Endeavor and Accelrock by virtue of Lycanroc’s speed.
Lycanroc @ Lansat Berry
Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature IVs: 28 HP
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Accelerock
- Substitute
I also had no idea what Lansat Berry was before this, don't worry.
After hitting 25% or lower health, Lansat Berry will apply a Focus Energy effect and raise your crit chance by two levels. In combination with Stone Edge's naturally high crit chance, this means Stone Edge will always crit. The given IVs ensure Lycanroc reaches 25 after three Substitutes instead of 4.
The crit chance doesn't really help much to be honest, you still aren't breaking any Quagsire, but at least it lets you 2HKO stuff like Mudsdale at +2 without using a Z? If you get two crits, Accelerock at +2 also nabs a kill on Primeape.
Lycanroc @ Lycanium Z / Leftovers
Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Toxic
- Protect
- Stone Edge
Not gonna lie, Lycanroc's role is kinda one dimensional tbh. This bulky variant of Lycanroc can fit on teams that needs a soft check to Flying-types like Oricorio and Dodrio while also being able to outspeed and OHKO with Stone Edge. The combination of Taunt and Toxic is very nice for cripping stuff like Quagsire and prevent it from recovering any lost health. Protect is also wonderful as it punishes stuff like Scarf Dodrio that wants to lock itself into Jump Kick and it instead knocks itself out from recoil damage if it is low enough. Speed is enough for base 110s like Froslass and the HP and Defense investment prevents Quagsire's Earthquake from OHKOing after Stealth Rock. Lack of Drill Run makes this set walled by A-Dugtrio, but hey the normal set does fine against it and like I said, Lycanroc struggles to do much else here.
