Qwilfish
Status: 0/2 QC Approved
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[OVERVIEW]
<p>In 4th gen Qwilfish played a niche role as a Rain sweeper, or Toxic Spiker in the lower tiers. He could boast universally neutral STAB coverage and was able to heavily damage Celebi and deal with other bulky Waters, something many other Rain sweepers lacked. When the Rain was ending Qwilfish could Explode potentially killing another opponent and allowing a free switch in for your Rain setup. But a lot changed for Qwilfish in 5th gen. Politoed's emergence of an OU Drizzler was a boon to the puffer fish, as has the Dream World obtained Intimidate. Unfortunately Explosion's damage being cut in half and the creation of Nattorei and Burungeru (who resist Poison / Water / Normal) put a huge damper on Qwilfish. However in the right conditions it can be used to great effect on both Rain teams, and stall as one of the best Blaziken counters in the game. Qwilfish separates itself from other swift swimmers with its ability to pick up Toxic spikes, a major threat to a rain team's survivability, and also boasts more speed then some of the more popular swimmers, not to mention its the only swift swimmer that has the ability to spike, let alone toxic spike. Qwilfish can also pull off decent defensive sets as well, despite being outclassed, it still has some surprise value and can be quite unpredictable. These give it great diversity to the rest of its rain swimming brethren. </p>
[SET]
name:Poison Fish
move 1:Poison Jab
move 2:Waterfall
move 3:Destiny Bond
move 4:spikes
item: Balloon
nature: Jolly/Adamant
Ev's: 252 Atk/ 252 speed/ 6 def
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>There isn't much to Qwilfish, so you should never really be "surprised" by it. With Rain in effect you have a rather effective STAB move in the form of Waterfall. Poison jab acts as your secondary stab hitting many resists of waterfall. With rain up Qwilfish is essentially the faster spiker in the game, Destiny Bond lets you have a shot at taking down one of the opponents pokemon with you at the end. Balloon is a great item in temporarily removing one of Qwilfish's main weaknesses, letting you safely switch in or spike more efficiently. Using Jolly will allow you to still outpace a fair amount of the slower sweepers in the metagame should Rain Dance be removed from the field, where as you can vouch for Adamant for superior attacking effectiveness. Once rain dance is put up via your setup pokemon(or even an opponent due to the rain rampage currently wreaking havoc in the metagame) You have immediate access to double speed and 1.5x damage onto your water STAB move, this alone gives the fish considerable ability to do damage. Besides for Qwilfish's offensive capabilities, laying down spikes help's considerably for the rest of the Swift swimmers, because pokemon such as kingdra force alot of switches in order to try and weather its attacks, the spikes damage accumulated from switching helps keep immense offensive pressure and turning possbile 2hkos and 3hkos into OHKOs and 2hkos respectively.</p>
[SET]
name: Dancing Fish
move 1: Waterfall
move 2: Swords Dance
move 3: Poison Jab
move 4:explosion / Destiny bond / Taunt
item: Life orb/Balloon
nature: adamant
EV's: 252 Atk/ 252 speed
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>This set isn't much different from the set above, except it's trying to be a little more offensive. Explosions nerf in this gen makes it very unused and there is not many pokemon that can still make effective use of it, although after a Swords Dance, Qwilfish can put quite a dent into anything that takes damage from it, though you can use Destiny Bond, or even Taunt as an option to help you get past Burungeru without being instanstly stopped and stalled from WoW + recover. after a single Swords Dance, combined with LO and rain in effect courtesy of Politoed(or whoever else is a source of rain) plus STAB, Qwilfish is suddenly a threat to most teams. The main pokemon that can stop this set include Storm Drain Gastrodon, Quagsire, and Water Absorb Gamageroge(Dream World) so its good to try and remove these pokemon from the opponents team before attempting an all out sweep, luckily these 3 pokemon aren't horribly common, and Ludicolo can switch in and handle them. Again, the rain boost will mean waterfall will already operate on a 1.5x ratio, so after a Swords Dance, Waterfall will effectively be at triple the offensive power.</p>
[SET]
name:Defensive Puffer
move 1:Thunder Wave
move 2:Spikes / Toxic Spikes
move 3:Waterfall/Boiling Water
move 4:Protect
item:Leftovers
nature: Impish
ability: Intimidate
Ev's: 252 HP/ 252 Defense/ 6 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Qwilfish has an underestimated defensive potential. Its so bulky that Scarf Garchomp fails to 2hko(possibly fails to even 3hko depending on damage roll after the turns of leftovers recovery) with Outrage and Blaziken tops at 35% with Thunder Punch, less with its other moves. Qwilfish works similar to a physically defensive Tentacruel without Rapid Spin and with much, MUCH worse Special Defense. Thunder Wave tears down the the opponent's sweepers, while playing with protect you can pick up leftovers recovery letting you have a lot of control over you're opponents attempts at damaging you physically. Maximum Ev's into its HP and defense stats combined with Impish nature allows you optimal survivability from physical assaults. Leftovers is the best item option here as it lets you gain a considerable amount of hp over the various turns. Latios and Latias make great partner's for this set as they both resist electric attacks and are immune to Ground moves, which then they can take use of the spikes Qwilfish lays out in order to deal lots of damage to the opposing team, Flygon also makes a good partner to Qwilfish, being immune to both of the type weakness, most dragon pokemon in general are good partners for Qwilfish.</p>
[SET]
name:Defensive Pivot
move 1:Spikes / Toxic Spikes
move 2:Boiling Water / Taunt
move 3:Pain Split
move 4:Substitute
item: Leftovers / Black Sludge
nature: Bold
Ev's: 252 HP / 252 Def/ 6 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Switch in Qwilfish on a physical attacker/wall, cause a switch and Substitute. Use the Spikes of your choice as your Substitute takes a hit, then Substitute back up.
Even with Max HP, it only has 334 HP which isn't so high, especially after a few hits, making Pain Split usable. Boiling Water is usable for lowering the foe's attack further through some Burns, and Spikes allows it to take advantage of it's defensive role and cause some entry hazards. Toxic Spikes can be used, but at that point it would be better to just use Tentacruel. Taunt can also be used, but would be better on a faster set.</p>
[Team Options]
<p>Basically put, Qwilfish is a lack luster pokemon, and for any offensive set, the only way to find an effective home would be on a Rain Dance team. The thing about Qwilfish is he has alot of rough competition in the form of the other Swift Swimmers. A key niche is resisting most of the common priority moves giving it better chances at getting a decent sweep. Furthermore it mostly competes for a spot with Kabutops, although Kabutops is usually the preferred pokemon of 4th gen(and possibly 5th gen) Qwilfish does diverge with the ability to pick up toxic spikes, which can whittle down a Rains team lifespan by quite a bit. To have an easier time sweeping with Qwilfish, its recommended to have Stealth Rock and Spikes up. Ludicolo is also one of its best partners, as Swampert and Quagsire are both easily handles by this swift swimming partner.</p>
[Optional Changes]
<p>There really isn't much out there for our little fish friend. You do have access to Aqua Jet as a form of STAB priority. You can attempt to run very gimmicky things like Sash + Counter, although if you wanted to do that, there are many better options then Qwilfish for such a set.
Aqua Jet is definitely usable on Qwilfish though, as once Rain Dance goes down, you can retain high speeds, and also functions as added priority for your team.</p>
[Counters]
<p>Once under the rain, its hard to switch out to something that can take an attack from Qwilfish as it Swords Dances. Nattorei and Burungeru is a good defensive core to attempt to silence the fish's assault.
Slowbro can switch into Swords Dance or even +2 rain boosted Waterfall (assuming no hazards up), take a +2 Poison Jab, and survive to OHKO with Psychic or status it.
Trying to bring in a weather changer into the right attack can also stop it.(like Tyranitar into Poison Jab or Abomasnow into Waterfall)
There are also lesser used pokemon that can stop Qwilfish in its tracks, these include Toxicroak and Quagsire, they both absorb its waterfall, and resist its secondary stab, poison jab. If you don't allow Qwilfish to set up, Swampert can also handily dispose of the puffer. Empoleon can switch into qwilfish easily, but with Roar or Earthquake(both uncommon) it does not have much to retaliate with.</p>
[Dream World]
<p>Qwilfish has been given access to Intimidate making a defensive set interestingly possible, and is generally a good ability to have regardless.</p>
