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Bagsy.
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[Overview]
<p>Ah, Sceptile, the infamous lord of the forest. Fast, frail, and dangerous. Most Grass-types are often looked down upon competitively, either because of the sheer number of common weaknesses, or due to competition with Ferrothorn, Breloom, and others. Sceptile, though, stands out from the crowd thanks not only to its impressive Speed stat, but also its very diverse movepool in both offense and support. Now that Shaymin-S has been declared Uber, Sceptile is once again the fastest user of Substitute + Leech Seed in OU, and unlike Whimsicott, who admittedly has the advantage in this area with its Prankster ability and larger support movepool, Sceptile actually has the stats to present a coherent offensive threat. This makes it more useful for situations where one cannot simply annoy the opponent to death.</p>
<p>However, in competitive terms the competition from Whimsicott and other fast Grass-types is the least of Sceptile's worries. While Sceptile's base 120 Speed stat still allows it to outpace just about the entirety of the unboosted OU metagame, its base 105 Special Attack stat is suddenly underwhelming, and its base 85 Attack stat is more or less useless. Hence, it is a much less threatening presence than it was even in DPP, and thus is relegated to the sad and lonely realms of the niche and the gimmick once more. Still, if you want a fast, powerful special attacker and revenge killer, or an annoyer who can actually hit back, Sceptile is always there to be used.</p>
[SET]
name: Life Orb
move 1: Leaf Storm
move 2: Focus Blast / Earthquake
move 3: Hidden Power Ice / Hidden Power Fire
move 4: Dragon Pulse / Earthquake
item: Life Orb
nature: Timid / Hasty
evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>This is Sceptile's most powerful attacking set, which takes full advantage of both its special attacking prowess and large offensive movepool. Leaf Storm is Sceptile's most powerful STAB attack, and powerful it is indeed—for reference, it does 44% minimum to Choice Scarf Hydreigon. However, there are a grand total of seven types resistant to Grass, so you will need plenty of coverage options in your other moveslots. For your first coverage move, you will want a way to stop Steel-types. Focus Blast is the strongest option here, easily OHKOing Magnezone, Hydreigon, and Heatran with Stealth Rock, as well as getting the 2HKO on Ferrothorn. However, it is very unreliable due to its 70% accuracy. On the other hand, Earthquake is a reliable attack that deals good damage, especially to Heatran, and also helps against Fire- and Poison-types. However, it runs into difficulties especially against those carrying Air Balloon as their item, and the lower power can be fatal at times. It also leaves you much more vulnerable to Ferrothorn, Scizor, and Skarmory.</p>
<p>If you choose to use Focus Blast, an option to get rid of the Flying-types that resist Grass-, Fighting-, and Ground-type attacks is recommended in the third moveslot. Sceptile's best option here is Hidden Power Ice, which is particularly helpful as it lets Sceptile outspeed and OHKO both Thundurus and Tornadus with Stealth Rock. This makes it a useful revenge killer should the situation arise. It is also useful if you want to hit Dragonite and Salamence harder. However, particularly if you have chosen Earthquake, Hidden Power Fire is also worth consideration, if only for the necessity of reliably beating Ferrothorn, Scizor, and Skarmory. The last slot is more up to personal preference than anything else, as Sceptile has a multitude of potential targets. Dragon Pulse is more or less necessary if you are using Hidden Power Fire, in order to defeat Dragon-types. Even if you are using Hidden Power Ice, you can still use Dragon Pulse for Hydreigon, Latias, and Latios. However, in this situation you may want to look at some alternatives. Rather than running one or the other of Focus Blast and Earthquake, you can elect to run both and drop Dragon Pulse, solving quite a few coverage issues. Rock Slide is also an option, preventing Quiver Dance Volcarona from using Sceptile as set-up fodder, and also hitting other Bug-, Fire-, and Flying-types super effectively.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Because Sceptile is a frail hit-and-run attacker, the only two stats that will really matter are Speed and Special Attack, and thus both should be maximized. The remaining EVs can be shoved into HP or Attack, should you be running a physical attack as a coverage move. In the same way, a Hasty nature should be used over Timid if you are using a physical attack. If you wish, you could run a 29 HP IV in order to minimize Life Orb recoil, but this means you slightly weaken the power of Hidden Power, and also have less survivability due to the lower HP, though the difference in both cases is usually negligible. In terms of other options, most of Sceptile's best options have already been covered, though you could have Giga Drain as your main STAB attack. This helps offset Life Orb recoil, but this gives you a massive, massive reduction in power.</p>
<p>As a Grass-type, Sceptile is weak to Ice-, Fire-, Bug-, Flying-, and Poison-type attacks. The first four of these are all weak to Stealth Rock, so you can get some rather helpful damage on all of them, making them easier to take down. Sceptile also has a knack for forcing switches, thanks to its ability to threaten almost anything slower than it. Unfortunately, Sceptile's biggest threat comes from its STAB Leaf Storm, and with seven types resistant to it, considerable offensive synergy with its partners is required to pull out Sceptile's best. On that note, Fire-types are a good idea in order to scare off Ferrothorn and Scizor, as well as other Bug-, Grass-, and Steel-types, while Rock-types are also a good idea to beat such threats as Volcarona and Zapdos. Thus, Heatran and Terrakion make good partners. In order to guarantee the removal of Steel-types, Magnezone support can be useful as well. And, of course, a way to beat common special walls such as Blissey, Chansey, and Porygon2 is always nice, as, despite Sceptile's access to Focus Blast, a Conkeldurr in tow can really help to keep the fat nasties in check. Sceptile itself can break bulky Ground- and Water-types and can lure out and weaken Steel-types with smart prediction, making it a good partner to sweepers who dislike having to deal with these Pokemon, such as Tyranitar and Salamence.</p>
[SET]
name: SubSeed
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Leech Seed
move 3: Giga Drain
move 4: Hidden Power Fire
item: Leftovers
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 28 SpD / 228 Spe
ivs: 7 HP
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>With the removal of Shaymin-S from OU, Sceptile returns to the 5th generation still holding its crown as the fastest natural user of Substitute + Leech Seed in the game, despite the best attempts of Whimsicott, and to a lesser extent Cottonee, to ruin everything. Unlike the cotton balls, Sceptile actually has some kind of offensive prowess to go along with it, which allows it to muscle through most conventional responses to this strategy.</p>
<p>Substitute and Leech Seed make up the core combination on this set, where the idea behind the strategy is to first set up Leech Seed on an unsuspecting enemy, and then to create a never-ending chain of Substitutes to stall out the opponent, with healing provided by Leftovers and Leech Seed to negate the HP loss. For your STAB move, Giga Drain is generally the best choice as it boasts both reliable power and the potential to get back HP lost from Substitute. The coverage move is important to deal with those who are immune to Leech Seed. Hidden Power Fire can easily 2HKO the standard Ferrothorn while having a chance to OHKO Scizor and non-bulky Breloom as well after Stealth Rock.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Maximum Special Attack is a must in order to make the most of its biggest advantage over Whimsicott: its significantly higher offensive power and ability to hit hard. After this, 228 Speed EVs gives just enough Speed to outrun Jolly Scarftar, as nothing else is really worth aiming for. An HP IV of 7 gives the maximum possible Leech Seed recovery, and the remaining EVs are dumped into Special Defense. In terms of other options, Hidden Power Ice is an alternative coverage move, but the Fire-type attack is really necessary to deal with your biggest threat—Ferrothorn—so it is not recommended. Leaf Storm could be used over Giga Drain, but is generally a lesser option due to its undesirable side-effect, especially as Sceptile does not intend to be switching often.</p>
<p>As with the Life Orb set, Sceptile will be forcing switches pretty often, not only because of the threat it presents but also because of opponents attempting to negate Leech Seed. Hence, entry hazard support is immensely helpful with this set, as it has a real potential to accumulate a lot of damage. Deoxys-S, Ferrothorn, and Skarmory can set up both Stealth Rock and Spikes, while Forretress has access to all three entry hazards, so you can pick and choose what you want. As for what Sceptile can set up on, generally the easiest way of setting up early-game is to bluff an attacking set and set up Leech Seed while your opponent has their guard down. If this is too unreliable an option, Sceptile can generally set up fairly easily on bulky Water-types. Just watch out for Jellicent, who can Taunt you before you can get your strategy going. Ground-types such as Hippowdon (without Roar) are also notable. In order to lure them in, you could use a Fire-type such as Chandelure or Heatran. As for specific threats, Sceptile may have difficulties with Conkeldurr, who can use Drain Punch to break its Substitute and then Mach Punch away. Be sure to find some way to deal with it, such as by using Gliscor or Tentacruel.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>Sceptile has a pretty impressive physical movepool, most importantly containing Leaf Blade, Earthquake, Rock Slide, X-Scissor, Crunch, Dragon Claw, Bullet Seed, Acrobatics, Brick Break, Drain Punch, ThunderPunch, Low Kick, Pursuit, and Quick Attack, and it also has Swords Dance to set up. However, its low base 85 Attack stat means that it can rarely do enough damage to be considered viable. Most special options have already been discussed in the Life Orb set. Sceptile also gets Endeavor, so it can abuse a strategy with Focus Sash and Quick Attack to take down at least one Pokemon. Sceptile has about a million gimmick sets it could potentially run, with various items or moves, but for the most part these are inferior to the sets given, and as they rely almost solely on surprise factor, listing them here would remove their effectiveness. Don't be afraid to experiment, though.</p>
[Checks and Counters]
<p>Special walls, such as Blissey, Chansey, and specially defensive Porygon2 can easily take a Leaf Storm and recover off the damage. All three can also use Thunder Wave to make Sceptile useless while Porygon2 can attack back with Ice Beam. Bronzong and Skarmory can take just about any attack should Sceptile lack Hidden Power Fire, and Skarmory can OHKO back with Brave Bird, while Bronzong can do whatever the hell it likes. To a lesser extent, Ferrothorn and Scizor also fall under this label, though neither enjoy taking a Focus Blast.</p>
<p>Defensive Flying-types such as Dragonite and Zapdos can take on and defeat Sceptile as well, although if they don't invest in their defensive stats, Hidden Power Ice will sting. Dragonite's Multiscale ability does allow it to take Hidden Power Ice with relative ease, though. As far as Poison-types go, Roserade can easily take a Leaf Storm but dislikes either Hidden Power, while most other specially defensive Poison-types also do relatively well. As far as Grass-types go, Celebi has impressive defensive stats and can wall Sceptile reasonably well. Lastly, for Fire-types, both Heatran and Volcarona have 4x resistances to Grass and, although Heatran is weak to Earthquake and Volcarona to Rock Slide, both can OHKO with their STAB Fire-type moves.</p>
[Dream World]
<p>Sceptile gets the impressive ability Unburden from the Dream World, which would be a blessing for almost any other Pokemon, but is a bit wasted on Sceptile. Essentially, the way it works is that, when Sceptile loses an item, its Speed doubles, so if Sceptile were to consume a Petaya Berry, Focus Sash, or Grass Jewel, it would become faster than just about anything. Unfortunately, Sceptile's already immense Speed stat means that Unburden is more often than not a waste of time. Even when running a pinch Berry set (which are illegal in OU since these Berries are unobtainable in the 5th generation), Overgrow is usually the better option thanks to the boost to Sceptile's STAB attacks.</p>
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Post-critique changes:
- Removed SubSeed and Swords Dance
- Added mentions of different Hidden Powers to Life Orb
- Removed Uber Pokemon
- English names + new format
- Re-added SubSeed
- Wrote the analysis
- Grammar check 1, thanks to elDino
- GP Grammar-Prose Check #1, thanks to TelamonianAjax
- GP Grammar-Prose Check #2, thanks to wekhter
- Removed Garchomp
