Pokémon Samurott-Hisui

[Brown4Sides]

Approved by ausma

Base Stats: 90 HP / 108 ATK / 80 DEF / 100 SPA / 65 SPD / 85 SPE (528 BST)
Abilities: Torrent | Sharpness (Hidden)
Notable Moves:

• Aqua Cutter
• Aqua Jet
• Ceaseless Edge
• Drill Run
• Encore
• Knock Off
• Razor Shell
• Sacred Sword
• Swords Dance
• Sucker Punch
• Taunt

Full Movepool

Level Up

• Lv. 1 Megahorn
• Lv. 1 Slash
• Lv. 1 Sucker Punch
• Lv. 1 Tackle
• Lv. 1 Tail Whip
• Lv. 1 Water Gun
• Evolve Ceaseless Edge
• Lv. 13 Focus Energy
• Lv. 18 Razor Shell
• Lv. 21 Fury Cutter
• Lv. 25 Water Pulse
• Lv. 29 Aerial Ace
• Lv. 34 Aqua Jet
• Lv. 39 Encore
• Lv. 46 Aqua Tail
• Lv. 51 Retaliate
• Lv. 58 Swords Dance
• Lv. 63 Hydro Pump

TMs: Take Down, Scary Face, Protect, Water Pulse, Thief, Chilling Water, Facade, Aerial Ace, Bulldoze, Snarl, Swift, Icy Wind, Fling, Avalanche, Endure, Rain Dance, Snowscape, Smart Strike, Dig, False Swipe, Brick Break, Air Slash, Body Slam, Sleep Talk, Waterfall, Grass Knot, Rest, Taunt, Swords Dance, Dark Pulse, Substitute, X-Scissor, Drill Run, Liquidation, Encore, Surf, Helping Hand, Ice Beam, Hydro Pump, Blizzard, Water Pledge, Giga Impact, Hydro Cannon, Hyper Beam, Tera Blast

Egg Moves: Air Slash, Aqua Cutter, Copycat, Detect, Knock Off, Night Slash, Sacred Sword, Screech

Pros
+ Water/Dark is flexible offensively and defensively
+ Many of its attacking moves are boosted by Sharpness, coming off of an already decent Attack stat.
+ Ceaseless Edge allows it to set up Spikes while dealing damage at the same time, which also meants it has Spikes that can't be taunted or magic bounced, and is boosted by Sharpness as well. This makes it incredibly spammable.
+ Has additional good options such as Knock Off and Swords Dance.

Cons
- Dondozo
- Its special bulk is poor, and its physical bulk, while better, still leaves a lot to be desired.
- It would like to be faster in a generation dominated by offense. While it has priority moves, it may not always have room to run them.

Tera Potential
You can Tera Dark to make its Dark moves hit harder I guess, if you want to 3HKO Dondozo. Or could Tera Water to get rid of the U-turn weakness.

Sets
Samurott-Hisui @ Black Glasses
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Water / Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Razor Shell / Aqua Cutter
- Ceaseless Edge
- Sucker Punch / Knock Off / Swords Dance
- Sacred Sword / Swords Dance

A standard offensive hazard setter set. I prefer Razor Shell but you can opt for Aqua Cutter to be 100% accurate. Sucker Punch is slotted first so that isn't dead weight into offense, namely in the Dragapult matchup. Knock Off is a nice cool spammable STAB move but tbf so is Ceaseless Edge. Sacred Sword is so that Roaring Moon and pre-Tera Hydreigon don't counter us. You can also Sucker + SD if you wanna be a bootleg Kingambit.

Samurott-Hisui @ Choice Band
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Razor Shell / Aqua Cutter
- Ceaseless Edge
- Sacred Sword

Samurott's incredibly spammable Ceaseless Edge combined with its already good power can allow it to potentially pull of a Choice Band set, making Ceaseless Edge even more spammable. I think on this set you would want Aqua Jet so that you aren't complete dead weight against offense.

Samurott-Hisui @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Water / Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Razor Shell / Aqua Cutter
- Ceaseless Edge
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword

Samurott's excellent attacking movepool could allow it to pull off an Assault Vest set, as well as patching up its poor special bulk. However, this set does not enjoy hazards, offers no form of recovery, and Samurott loses a good chunk of its power.

Other Options
There is Tera Blast Grass if you want to hit Azumarill/Dondozo, and you could run Life Orb over Black Glasses for more power in all moves, as well as Heavy-Duty Boots on the grounds that it is the best item. You could also run a Hydro Pump or Surf on a mixed set, or even a RestTalk set.

Verdict
I reserved Hisuian Samurott because it is the mon I looking forward to trying the most, but in reality it'll range from mid to niche. Sharpness Ceaseless Edge makes this mon IMO. Otherwise you kinda suffer competition from Kingambit. I'll still be sure to try it out though, it looks fun at the very least. Be sure to let me know if I made any mistakes.

 

[ausma]

Hisuian Samurott is going to be great, imo, and it is far and away the Pokemon I'm most excited to explore the potential of. It has a couple jarring weaknesses that stand out, namely its speed tier and offenses that are Sharpness-reliant, but Sharpness-boosted Ceaseless Edge is an absurd tool that, in tandem with its immensely flexible type combination, gives Hisuian Samurott a genuinely wild niche. So, while we wait for HOME to drop, I want to go over a few ideas I've been messing around with (courtesy of Draft League exploration and friendlies) that explore ways for Hisuian Samurott to use its broken move reliably while taking advantage of its other traits. Thanks to Brown4Sides for getting this discussion started!

RestTalk
Samurott-Hisui @ Leftovers
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Water / Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 236 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Razor Shell
- Ceaseless Edge
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

OP mentions Assault Vest, which Hisuian Samurott is stupid optimized at using between its resistance pool and the sheer utility of its main attacking moves, but I believe there's also a lot of potential in a Primarina-styled RestTalk set as well. RestTalk allows Hisuian Samurott to use its typing throughout the game to check Gholdengo, Greninja, Skeledirge, and Volcarona while giving it resilience into status in general. Razor Shell's defense drops are particularly useful because they allow Hisuian Samurott to pose a natural threat without needing to dedicate an option to Swords Dance or many EVs into Attack. This spread outspeeds uninvested Great Tusk.

_____

Salac Berry
Samurott-Hisui @ Salac Berry
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Water / Fighting
EVs: 52 HP / 252 Atk / 204 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Razor Shell
- Ceaseless Edge
- Sacred Sword / Swords Dance
- Endure

My certified heat set that nearly won me a Draft League game, minus the wacko EVs. Sharpness-boosted STABs and coverage are enough for Hisuian Samurott to pose a natural threat, with Hisuian Samurott being able to lay Spikes easily and eventually clean. This could also be a good tool on Glimmora-style offenses, clicking Ceaseless Edge before using a Salac Berry to either get down another layer and/or force more damage. This speed tier lets it outspeed Dragapult at +1.

_____

Choice Scarf
Samurott-Hisui @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Water / Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Razor Shell / Aqua Cutter
- Ceaseless Edge
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword

Choice Band looks quite good, but I personally also am excited for the potential of Hisuian Samurott as a Choice Scarf user. Its awkward Speed tier is actually quite perfect for a Choice Scarf user, and with Ceaseless Edge, it can create its own progress before sweeping with its amazing STAB combo.
_____

Mixed Encore
Samurott-Hisui @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Ceaseless Edge
- Encore

This set plays to its Special Attack in order to directly pressure the tier's removal in Corviknight and Great Tusk. This set is definitely not great, but Special Attack pressure Great Tusk and Corviknight far harder while Encore can be a nice tool to exploit defensive U-turn users like Landorus-T or Corviknight that would be likely to click an Encore-able move beforehand.

As for the sets posted in OP, I personally really like the look of AV but it would probably want to be more offensively invested to play more into Hisuian Samurott's trading power, and Black Glasses is nice too. I don't really like Swords Dance on it just because it wants to run several offensive moves and its Speed tier is just too unwieldy to make it work reliably imo, so I would be more inclined to slash on Encore since Encore is a nice way for Samurott to get more turns to set up Ceaseless Edge into bulkier, more passive structures. Black Glasses is definitely a sufficient boost to your damage for your purposes. Something like this feels pretty good to me:

Samurott-Hisui @ Black Glasses
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Razor Shell
- Ceaseless Edge
- Sucker Punch
- Encore / Sacred Sword

 

[G-Luke]

Samurott-Hisui @ Black Glasses
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Tera Type: Water
Ability: Sharpness
Naive Nature
- Ceaseless Edge
- Hydro Pump
- Sucker Punch
- Razor Shell / Knock Off

I really like mixed variants, as Hydro Pump allows you to take out a Great Tusk that attempts to spin. Ofc they can just CC and kill you but we pretend to ignore that as we Tera Water.

 

[Dreadfury]

EASILY one of the most exciting threats to come out of HOME. There are a lot of moves that are legitimate contenders for the title of "best move of all time," but Ceaseless Edge easily gives most of them a run for their money.

This thing will be good in OU for a long time, and it's almost exclusively because Sharpness-boosted Ceaseless Edge is the freest button of all time.

 

[thunderbug]

one fun tech option I didn't see listed but could be worth exploring on AV sets is grass knot which can lure in and smash dozo for a teammate after setting spikes with edge
0- SpA Samurott-Hisui Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Dondozo: 218-258 (43.2 - 51.1%)

if you really want to get crazy with it tera grass allows you to 2 shot spdef dozo with small chip (easily done if it switches into your edge) and you could stay in and obliterate some tusk if you a really confident CC isnt coming (or just run tera flying to cover both stabs and KO after the drops). bonus points also hinders garg if its tera water or stays as a rock and can ambush unsuspecting azus who think they can BD on you, water tauros if your a chien pao team and need it to be dropped as fast as possible, aggitates mola more than your other moves (bonus points if you knocks boots off and its taking hazard chip)

if you run a full special set it just gets better and invalidates all switch ins to hydro pump between ice beam and knot and just use edge for utility

 

[Lectrys]

I've actually generally been disappointed by Samurott-H's low power output compared to Kingambit and Spikes mattering surprisingly little in the post-HOME OU tours I've played in (including the games I won), so I suspect Samurott-H's best asset and best chance of staying in OU is being Enamorus's perfect partner. Look at Samurott-H being able to deal with a ton of Enamorus's switch-ins, especially ones Kingambit cannot handle such as Heatran:

While we're on the topic of post-HOME mons, Showdown's Tours Plaza room held a post-HOME-OU-simulating tournament, and I found this mon to be quite underrated in it:


Samurott-Hisui @ Choice Band
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Ceaseless Edge
- Razor Shell
- Sacred Sword

Samurott-H's Water/Dark typing lets it switch into a surprisingly high percentage of the meta. It resists and/or is immune to the STABs of Gholdengo, Skeledirge, Kingambit, Heatran, Greninja, Volcanion, Hoopa-U, Dondozo, Chien-Pao, and more, and it can dish out the hurt to those it switches into and outspeeds while often laying Spikes at the same time:

Calcs

252 SpA Heatran Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Samurott-Hisui: 139-164 (43.3 - 51%) -- 5.5% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Heatran Magma Storm vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Samurott-Hisui: 115-136 (35.8 - 42.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after trapping damage
252 SpA Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Samurott-Hisui: 141-166 (43.9 - 51.7%) -- 10.9% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Samurott-Hisui: 141-166 (43.9 - 51.7%) -- 10.9% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Volcanion Sludge Wave vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Samurott-Hisui: 147-173 (45.7 - 53.8%) -- 45.7% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Volcanion Steam Eruption vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Samurott-Hisui: 127-150 (39.5 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Hoopa-Unbound Drain Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Samurott-Hisui: 230-272 (71.6 - 84.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Samurott-Hisui: 161-190 (50.1 - 59.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0- Atk Protean Greninja U-turn vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Samurott-Hisui: 156-186 (48.5 - 57.9%) -- 92.6% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Sword of Ruin Chien-Pao Sacred Sword vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Samurott-Hisui: 298-352 (92.8 - 109.6%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO

252 Atk Choice Band Sharpness Samurott-Hisui Razor Shell vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 458-542 (118.6 - 140.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Choice Band Samurott-Hisui Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 314-372 (99.6 - 118%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Choice Band Sharpness Samurott-Hisui Ceaseless Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 312-368 (82.5 - 97.3%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO after 1 layer of Spikes
252 Atk Choice Band Sharpness burned Samurott-Hisui Ceaseless Edge vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 208-246 (50.6 - 59.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Sharpness Samurott-Hisui Sacred Sword vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 660-780 (178.8 - 211.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Choice Band Sharpness Samurott-Hisui Razor Shell vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 205-243 (55.5 - 65.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Sharpness Samurott-Hisui Ceaseless Edge vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Volcanion: 178-211 (59.1 - 70%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Sharpness Samurott-Hisui Ceaseless Edge vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Hoopa-Unbound: 315-372 (104.3 - 123.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Samurott-H gets access to Swords Dance, Taunt, and Knock Off for messing with bulkier mons, and it also gets access to Aqua Jet for further harassing offence. Samurott-H has to balance carefully between outspeeding all non-Scarf Gholdengo variants and having enough bulk to get 3HKOed by Specs Greninja Hydro Pump, though.

I misplayed Samurott-H against Dondozo (also missed Ceaseless Edge twice in a row that tour) and it got Body Pressed into oblivion, but Samurott-H partners with Enamorus really well due to switching into a lot if not all of its checks, and I might be able to get away with no Stealth Rock setter in my team! (I want to abuse both Enamorus and Hoopa-U, I need to check opposing Enamorus/etc. with defensive Gholdengo, Great Tusk will still likely be the best hazards remover and now it needs STAB/anti-Enamorus/Knock Off...)

The calcs don't include Slowking-G, so I may as well put them here:

252 Atk Choice Band Sharpness Samurott-Hisui Ceaseless Edge vs. 252 HP / 12 Def Slowking-Galar: 494-584 (125.3 - 148.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
124 SpA Slowking-Galar Sludge Bomb vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Samurott-Hisui: 166-196 (51.7 - 61%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
124 SpA Slowking-Galar Focus Blast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Samurott-Hisui: 296-350 (92.2 - 109%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
124 SpA Slowking-Galar Grass Knot (80 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Samurott-Hisui: 198-234 (61.6 - 72.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

 

[TheTraininator]

Spikes mattering surprisingly little in the post-HOME OU tours I've played in (including the games I won)

Just curious, did those tours allow for transfer moves? I’m just curious because they’re confirmed dead which is going to dramatically limit the number of viable Defoggers.

 

[Lectrys]

Just curious, did those tours allow for transfer moves? I’m just curious because they’re confirmed dead which is going to dramatically limit the number of viable Defoggers.

None of those tours allowed transfer moves (all of them involved naive unbans only; I tried setting up similar challenges against myself for an OM and ran into big difficulties putting on a single transfer move).

 

[Magcargo]

Very first impressions, so things are subject to change, but Ceaseless Edge may just be one of the most broken moves in the game (if not the most broken move). On top of dealing like, 20 - 40% to most switch its, its setting up spikes for free which wears down resist like Urshifu pretty damn quickly. RN, I am thinking there is a high chance this Pokemon could be banworthy though maybe more experience playing will yield new counterplay options that are not apparent now. What I do know is that rn, a lot of slower Pokemon like Kingambit, Gholdengo, Slowking-G, Heatran, etc. are put in extremely bad positions when this Pokemon comes out because Ceaseless Edge is chunking their switch-in for good damage and the spikes that are being set up will wear those aforementioned Pokemon down quite fast when its their turn to fulfill their duties against other threats likes Dragapult, Lilligant-H, etc.

 

[victory falcon]

Love this thing a ton. Have been using it as my lead.

kyoto (Samurott-Hisui) @ Black Glasses
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Razor Shell
- Swords Dance
- Ceaseless Edge
- Sucker Punch


Can blow up a great tusk or kleavor lead on the other side. A little frail and not quite fast enough so it does not switch in well, though. A good offensive water type with good support options. Razor Shell > Aqua Cutter too imo, 95% accuracy is worth living with for the jump in power.

 

[agslash23]

I have been using Scarf H-Samurott on ladder, and I have reached 1800+ with it.

Scarf is an excellent set with plenty of role compression - Spikes with additional free chip and inability to be blocked by Magic Bounce, ability to damage best hazard removers (Great Tusk and Cinderace), Knock off, Kingambit check (watch out for Low Kick though), resists Gholdengo and Chien Pao's STABs, Ghost resist, and most importantly Revenge Kills so many things like Dragapult, Cinderace, Chien Pao, Meowscarada, Iron Moth, and so many more fast breakers.

It's matchup vs offense is insanely good, while its no slouch vs fat as it sets Spikes, Knocks off boots to circumvent its Spikes, fishes for defense drops with Razor Shell.

This is the set that I am running

Samurott-Hisui @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Razor Shell
- Ceaseless Edge
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword

I like Tera Water the most as it can be a great late-game cleaner with Sharpness boosted Razor Shell fishing for drops, and while Tera Dark can be nice, I feel you don't really need much power on the dark moves since they provide utility more than breaking. Another alternate Tera option can be Fighting to have a roll to OHKO Offensive Zamazenta-C

 

[LandorusTBeatsGreatTusk]

Assault Vest Samurott is the TRUTH.

Samurott-Hisui @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Ghost/Dark/Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty/Jolly Nature
- Ceaseless Edge
- Grass Knot / Hydro Pump / Knock Off
- Razor Shell
- Sucker Punch

Tera Ghost + GK to bait then 2hko GTusk and Urshifu.
Tera Water + HP to 2hko Corvenight and ohko Landorus/GTusk.
Tera Dark + KO to become the edgiest Otter in the field.

AV lets you avoid the 3hko by Gholdengo/Skeledirge/etc., the 2hko by Heatran/GSlowking, survive any move by CS Pult, lead Glimmora and many more. And you know what's beautiful? From that new position (tanking the hit) you will ALWAYS make progress.

There needs to be more testing over the EVs distribution. Maybe more Spe.Def in order to deal more confortably with Heatran?
a wish teammate is very well appreciated. HSamurott has incredible synergy with Scream Tail as he beats Glowking and Steel/Ghost types that block ScreamTail

while ST can tank fighting moves for him while healing him in the process.

Anyways, I think HSamurott will have a place in OU mainly thanks to his versatility and how broken CE is.

 

[GONER]

I’ve seen this as the lead in 2/3 of the games I’ve played so far, and the main counter play I have found with dealing with them is the combination of a fast u-turn user (I have been using sneasler or cinderace) and then a rapid spinner with the ability to deal with Sam-h itself.

This is a glowup for this mon for sure, and I look forward to seeing how it adapts as the meta shifts over time.

 

[sims796]

I've been using a combo of U-Turn and Rocky Helmet. Just enough damage to get into self Ko range.

Been keeping Meow busy, since Choice Scarf 1-2 punches every type of set, though I think I need to be Adamant to ensure Ko range. Plus I can Trick the scarf on something else!