Sawk [QC 3/3]

[Scorpio]

<p>One of many fighting-types introduced in the 5th generation, Sawk is a neat fighting-type pokemon, as it has the exact same base Attack and Speed as Heracross, Hitmonlee has slightly lower Attack but slightly outspeeds Sawk. Unfortunately, Sawk is outclassed by the two as a sweeper due to abilities and movepool. It does, however, have several great abilities, especially the boosted Sturdy. It also has passable bulk, at 75/75/75. Overall, Sawk makes for an interesting niche sweeper who, in the right hands, can wreak havoc.</p>

[SET]
name: Choice
move 1: Close Combat
move 2: Stone Edge
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Reversal / Toxic / Retaliate
item: Choice Band / Choice Scarf
nature: Jolly / Adamant
ability: Sturdy
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe


[SET COMMENTS]
<p>This is Sawk's only viable UU set. Sturdy is the best ability barring the currently unavailable Mold Breaker as it can provide a free Focus Sash. Close Combat is for STAB and Stone Edge is for coverage. Earthquake is primarily for Nidoking and Nidoqueen, who are dangerous otherwise. There are three options for the last move slot; Reversal is for when Sawk is low on health or when Sturdy activates, Toxic is for crippling foes before going down, and Retaliate is for revenge killing and is best used with the Scarf. </p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>This set could run Mold Breaker when it is released, but it is risky and loses out on the free Focus Sash Sturdy provides. A Jolly nature is recommended if Choice Band is used, and an Adamant nature is preferred for Choice Scarf variants.</p>

[Other Options]
<p>Gimmick sets with Sturdy, namely Sturdy + Reversal and Sturdy + Counter, can be fun to use, but are highly situational, even with the release of pinch berries. Sawk also functions best when Ghost-types are off the field, so a partner to get rid of them would be appreciated.</p>

[Checks and Counters]

<p>Faster Pokemon with U-turn and a Fighting resist can beat Sawk.
Bulky ghost-types are also great counters for Sawk, especially those that resist Stone Edge or Earthquake, as most can use Will-o-Wisp to cripple Sawk. Bulky Psychic-types, especially physically bulky ones, can wall Sawk to no end and KO Sawk with super-effective STAB Psychic moves.</p>

[Dream World]

<p>Sawk gets Mold Breaker in the Dream World, which would make the Choice set more useful. The use of Pinch berries, however, especially Salac, can make Sturdy + Reversal and Sturdy + Counter more viable.</p>

 

[Wolvren]

Sawk is a very nice Pokemon But there are some pokemon which can destroy Sawk ... Such as Flying/Dragons ...

 

[TM13IceBeam]

Sawk seems rather meh-ish here, IMO you really need Ankle Sweep to distinguish it from Heracross, who has Bug STAB and Guts.

Also, Lum Bulk Up? Was expecting Rest or something.

 

[Moo]

What about a Choice set? Sawk has a brilliant Attack stat and a passable Speed stat. Mold Breaker is cool too:

[SET]
name: Choice
move 1: Close Combat
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Stone Edge
move 4: Payback
item: Choice Band / Choice Scarf
nature: Adamant / Jolly
ability: Mold Breaker
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Nice coverage, powerful attacks, and EQ mold breaker for rotom, not too shabby. Payback sucks this gen, but it's essentially filler.

Get rid of the anti lead set imo, or change the name of it.... There isn't enough dedicated leads for there to be anti leads. And that set looks mediocre at best tbh.

 

[shrang]

Just saying, Sawk has access to pinch berries if everything is released (Dream World), which means something like Sturdy + Reversal can be a lot more usable with Salac Berry. Yeah, you're still going to get revenge killed by priority and such, but you can use it as a suicide lead that kills as many things as possible anyway.

 

[JockeMS]

What about a Choice set? Sawk has a brilliant Attack stat and a passable Speed stat. Mold Breaker is cool too:

[SET]
name: Choice
move 1: Close Combat
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Stone Edge
move 4: Payback
item: Choice Band / Choice Scarf
nature: Adamant / Jolly
ability: Mold Breaker
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Nice coverage, powerful attacks, and EQ mold breaker for rotom, not too shabby. Payback sucks this gen, but it's essentially filler.

Get rid of the anti lead set imo, or change the name of it.... There isn't enough dedicated leads for there to be anti leads. And that set looks mediocre at best tbh.

But Mold Breaker Sawk isn't released yet.

Choice is almost a must though. And should be the main set because, like Moo here said, leads aren't what they used to be.

 

[Scorpio]

Changed stuff.

 

[breh]

none of these sets should have inner focus slashed. there are only three flinch moves in the meta that matter: air slash, iron head, and fake out. air slash OHKOes you if kiss is offensive; you outspeed it if it's not scarfed anyway (if you're both scarfed you outspeed too). iron head comes from registeel, which you should be OHKOing. fake out comes from top and n00b ambipom; if top is using it it's no big deal and if ambi is using it your opponent is an idiot.

sturdy is literally the only reason sawk is not 100% outclassed by heracross and even then it's a pretty shitty distinguishing factor.

 

[NightmareRealm]

Can I suggest looking at a Offensive Lead?
I've made on that works decently. Here it is:
Sawk
Ev's A252/S252/HP4
Nature:Jolly
Close Combat
Earthquake
Stone Edge
Reversal
Ability: Sturdy
Item: Liechi Berry/Salac Berry
Let your Ability take the one hit kill with your boosted stat and spam reversal.

 

[Foxy Grandpa]

Can I suggest looking at a Offensive Lead?
I've made on that works decently. Here it is:
Sawk
Ev's A252/S252/HP4
Nature:Jolly
Close Combat
Earthquake
Stone Edge
Reversal
Ability: Sturdy
Item: Liechi Berry/Salac Berry
Let your Ability take the one hit kill with your boosted stat and spam reversal.

Pinch Berries are unreleased as of now so....

 

[phoenixwright7]

I'm afraid this is gonna sound noobish (have just started playing again after a semi-long hiatus, and even then, I have only been playing off and on ), but life orb seems really weird on the lead set. I mean, if Sturdy goes off and you use an attack, you're dead. Or, you attack first/you're opponent doesn't attack you and you attack and sturdy is used up. I dunno... I just can't help but feel that somethin' else should be used as the item...

Unless I'm missing something...

Anyways, sorry for bumping this since very few of you probably really care 'bout poor Sawk anyways. I just wanted to bring something up that seemed weird to me.

 

[Scorpio]

You actually have a good point. Life Orb with Sturdy does seem suicidal.

Changed it to Lum Berry instead.

 

[R4GEKILL]

I personally run this set in DW UU:
Naive- 252 ATK, 252 SPEED
Sturdy- Salac Berry/Lum Berry
-Reversal
-Work Up
-Stone Edge
-Endure
Now, when you first look at this, you tell yourself WTF IS THIS SHIT???
But it's actually pretty efficient. With spin support it can keep sturdy, but if somehow hit, Endure helps it. Salac boost makes it insanely fast, going from a passable 295 to ~450, making it outspeeding everything not scarfed, but if you want to play standard, Lum berry works as it helps avoid burns and toxic, which will screw you over easily. Work Up is preferred over bulk up, as it lets it gain attack without increasing it's bulk, which is nessisary for it to activate sturdy easily. Reversal for a painful STAB, and Stone Edge for powerful coverage. Naive over jolly to lower bulk.
YES I KNOW PINCH BERRYS ARE UNRELEASED.

 

[AccidentalGreed]

I personally run this set in DW UU:
Naive- 252 ATK, 252 SPEED
Sturdy- Salac Berry/Lum Berry
-Reversal
-Work Up
-Stone Edge
-Endure
Now, when you first look at this, you tell yourself WTF IS THIS SHIT???
But it's actually pretty efficient. With spin support it can keep sturdy, but if somehow hit, Endure helps it. Salac boost makes it insanely fast, going from a passable 295 to ~450, making it outspeeding everything not scarfed, but if you want to play standard, Lum berry works as it helps avoid burns and toxic, which will screw you over easily. Work Up is preferred over bulk up, as it lets it gain attack without increasing it's bulk, which is nessisary for it to activate sturdy easily. Reversal for a painful STAB, and Stone Edge for powerful coverage. Naive over jolly to lower bulk.
YES I KNOW PINCH BERRYS ARE UNRELEASED.

So why bother mentioning it?

 

[NGC-2024]

Personally, I'd mention Rain Dance somewhere. Sawk can single-handedly destroy some unprepared Hail teams. And once Abomasnow is gone, can can drop a Rain Dance and just screw them even more. Using the choice set for quite some time, I never found myself using Earthquake too much, as its kinda redundant coverage with fighting stab. So I'd slash it in next to EQ or put it in the AC or something. Just a thought

 

[Rakan]

Counter could be interesting with Sturdy, you might want to mention that somewhere.

 

[Scorpio]

@R4GEKILL: I'm actually going to wait until the pinch berries are released to bother with that set.

@NGC-2024: I made a new set based off of it.

@chanazn: I have in OO.

 

[Snunch]

Remove the second two sets. The possibility of removing hail from the field is not worth an entire moveslot or teamslot. I'm not sure what the "lead" set is supposed to do either, seeing as how the most common users of spikes (deoxys-d, roserade, froslass) all force Sawk out.

First set gets my approval though.

QC APPROVED 1/3

 

[Pocket]

Sawk can utilize Substitute to its advantage imo:

Sawk
move 1: Close Combat
move 2: Stone Edge
move 3: Substitute
move 4: Payback
item: Life Orb / Expert Belt / Leftovers
nature: Adamant / Jolly
ability: Sturdy
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

It may possibly be able to execute Substitute + Bulk Up as well:

move 1: Low Sweep / Close Combat
move 2: Rock Slide / Stone Edge
move 3: Substitute
move 4: Bulk Up
item: Leftovers
nature: Adamant
ability: Sturdy
evs: Can go full-out offensive or go bulky like Bulk Up Gallade imo.

Low Sweep, because it doesn't lower defenses, and it would let Sawk hit a faster mon twice. Rock Slide can work in conjunction with Low Sweep, flinching the opponent and giving Sawk leftovers recovery. Of course Sawk can be less technical and can just blow up on the opponent with Close Combats and Stone Edges / Paybacks.

EVs can go full-out offensive or go bulky like Bulk Up Gallade imo. Except I'd probably invest in Defense > Special Defense, so that Sawk's Substitute wont break from physical assaults after a few Bulk Ups.


EDIT: Yea, I agree with AccidentalGreed about Payback on the Scarf set. Since Scarfers often serve as revenge killers, Retaliate may also be a good alternative over Payback for a great neutral coverage move that packs a punch. Comes in handy against Psychic and Poison Types (neutral to EQ).

 

[AccidentalGreed]

Yeah, I don't like using Payback when I'm using a Choice Scarf. I think in this case, Reversal (in case Sawk is low on health or Sturdy activates) and Toxic (just for crippling foes before going down, like Heracross does) warrants a mention simply for this.

 

[Scorpio]

@Snunch: In hindsight, having the Hail Stopper set was sort of iffy. Last two sets have been removed.

@Pocket: Added the two sets. Also, put Retaliate in the Choice set.

@AG: Replaced Payback with Reversal and Toxic.

 

[Snunch]

No to the second two sets. Sawk's only advantage over Heracross is sturdy, sub sets are directly outclassed.

 

[Scorpio]

Okay, second two sets deleted (again).

 

[PK Gaming]

QC APPROVED (2/3)

 

[Oglemi]

QC 3/3