Pokémon Sceptile

[Imperator Romanum]

Sceptile


Type:l (Mega form only)
Ability: Overgrown, Unburden l Lighting rod
Stats: 70/85/65/105/85/120 l 70/110/75/145/85/145
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Level up moves
1 Night Slash
1 Pound
1 Quick Attack
1 Absorb
1 Leer
1 Leaf Storm
11 Quick Attack
16 X-Scissor
17 Pursuit
23 Screech
29 Leaf blade
35 Agility
43 Slam
51 Detect
59 False Swipe
67 Leaf Storm

Egg moves

Bullet Seed
Crunch
Crush Claw
Double Kick
Dragon Breath
Endeavor
Grass Whistle
Grassy Terrain
Leaf Storm
Leech Seed
Magical Leaf
Mud Sport
Razor Wind
Synthesis
Worry seed

Move Tutor

Frenzy Plant
Grass Pledge
Moves learnt by HM
Cut
Strength

Moves learnt by TM

Hone Claws
Dragon Claw
Roar
Toxic
Hidden Power
Sunny Day
Hyper Beam
Protect
Safeguard
Frustration
Solar Beam
Earthquake
Return
Dig
Brick Break
Double Team
Rock Tomb
Aerial Ace
Facade
Rest
Attract
Low Sweep
Round
Focus Blast
Energy Ball
False Swipe
Fling
Acrobatics
Giga Impact
Flash
Swords Dance
Bulldoze
Rock Slide
X-Scissor
Grass Knot
Swagger
Sleep Talk
Substitute
Rock Smash
Nature Power
Confide

Transfer only Moves

Body Slam
Captivate
Counter
Double-Edge
Dragon Pulse
Drain Punch
Dynamic Punch
Endure
Focus Blast
Endure
Focus Punch
Headbutt
Iron tail
Low Kick
Mega Kick
Mega Punch
Mimic
Mud-Slap
Outrage
Rock Climb
Secret Power
Seed Bomb
Seismic Toss
Snore
Swift
Thunder Punch

Notable Moves (Stab in Italic)
Thunder Punch
Seed Bomb
Outrage
Low Kick
Focus Blast
Dragon Pulse
Swords Dance
Substitute
Endure
Rock Slide
Energy Ball
Giga Drain
Acrobatics
Earthquake
Solar Beam
Hidden Power
Dragon Claw
Roar
Toxic
Hone Claws
Crunch
Leaf Storm
Leech Seed
Synthesis
Leaf Blade

Analysis
Sceptile is an excellent Unburden sweep that has decimated NU for generations. It's diverse move pool, massive speed stat and an excellent ability in Unburden. However it stayed in NU due to a mediocre 85 attack stat and lacking boosting moves on it's special side why not Nasty plot?! But it does have some bossting moves on it's physical side, in Hone Claws and Swords Dance. It's Mega Evolution gives it's a great boost in Special attack and speed, and a mediocre buff in Defence and Attack. It get's the ability Lighting Rod making it an excellent counter to Rotom-Wash and Rotom-Mow. It's immense Special Attack and Speed allows it to be an immense threat to Offense and if given an opportunity for a free sub will wreck havoc on most teams. Sceptile is also an interesting option to use on a Rain team, electric and grass counters are nice.

Possible sets


Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Energy Ball/Giga Drain
- Focus Blast
- Dragon Pulse
- Substitute

In my opinion this is probably the best set for Mega Sceptile. Grass/Dragon/Fighting is great coverage, I believe only Mega Altaria resists it. Mega Sceptile get a surprising amount of switch ins with a plethora of very common resists including Grass, water and an electric immunity. With the combination of insane coverage, speed and special attack nothing besides the blobs appreciate taking a hit. Energy ball for obligatory stab and a go-to move if you're behind a sub, Giga Drain can be used but Energy is preferred for power. Dragon pulse for the other stab, although not so obligatory is a great answer to bulky dragon types, mainly Lati@s and Salamence who roam the skies. Focus Blast to round up the coverage and to hit the Blobs reasonably hard, although even with a modest nature shies of a 3HKO.

Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Earthquake/Focus Blast
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fire]/[Ice]
The all out attacker set. The EVs are pretty standar, nothing special there. This set aims to be a hit and run giving out nukes left and right. This set works well on HO teams aswell as Volt-turn teams, aslong as you can get it safely in Mega Sceptile will do work. Leaf Storm for an extremely powerful stab, though it will prevent you from getting of another hit is extremely nice for nuking something. 2HKOing Slowbro at +2. Earthquake to hit Magnezone and Heatran for good damage. Dragon pulse for the second stab hitting dragons for good damage and in general being a more reliable stab move. HP fire and ICE depending on what your team is weak to Focus blast basically does this better, but if you really want to handle one of these specific threats I'd advice on using the move options listed above. But honestly, Sceptile has so much coverage that he doesn't really to pick anything specific.

Counters and checks

One of the weaknesses to Sceptile is stall, the special set can do nothing to Chansey and Physical set is stopped by Skarmory. Even the Mixed set struggles to get past Chansey, however. Besides this there's not a lot that successfully counters Sceptile. The only sure fire thing is Chansey, but with a SD up Leaf Blade 2HKO's.
+2 252+ Atk Sceptile Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 381-448 (54.1 - 63.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
However Sceptile does have some checks, especially bird spam. Talonflame completely shuts it down, Mamoswine and Wavile can ice shard it for a quick OHKO. Overall Sceptile is a very, very dangerous pokemon and I believe it will have a sure fire staple as an OU pokemon


Teammates

Bulky water types are excellent team mates for Sceptile, since they can switch into all too powerful Ice attacks. Alomomola and Rotom-W is especially recommended. Aswell as Gothitelle for trapping and killing the 1# Counter to Sceptile, Chansey.
This is my first pokemon post thingy. Please let me know if this is in the wrong place, I have spent a good 4 hours on it :)

​

 

[Gloating]

I don't think we can do this just yet considering OR/AS is still a month away. I'd save the OP for then though.

 

[Sanger Zonvolt]

Personally, I'd leave out the Sash set. Even you admit that its Sash set is unviable in OU, something that everyone agrees on, so it probably shouldn't be mention lest it spark unnecessary arguments.

 

[boltsandbombers]

Personally, I'd leave out the Sash set. Even you admit that its Sash set is unviable in OU, something that everyone agrees on, so it probably shouldn't be mention lest it spark unnecessary arguments.

Sash isn't viable in any tier lol.
But yeah, I feel bad since the op put a lot of work into this, but we will probably wait until ORAS to do something like this.

 

[master_marshmallow]

It's mega form has a lot of potential. Imo it is like combining Char X and Char Y into the same pokemon, and it can run a lot of different and mixed sets which gives it a very versatile and unpredictable role.

Typing is unique, unfortunately it's ability is kinda trash.

Without Timid/Jolly nature, it has 389 speed which makes it unbeatable outside of Scarf users, which puts it in a very good position to invest its nature elsewhere.

Physical Sceptile (Sceptile-Mega) @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant/Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake

Special Sceptile (Sceptile-Mega) @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Energy Ball
- Dragon Pulse
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power

Mixed Sceptile (Sceptile-Mega) @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Swords Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Low Kick
- Leaf Storm

Sustain Sceptile @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Focus Blast
- Synthesis


Naturally, a lot of these moves are interchangeable. Modest Nature on a Special Attack build makes his stats superior to Char Y, with the exception of STAB Drought Fire Blast/Heat Wave/Flamethrower. Jolly Nature on a physical Sceptile yields 638 attack and 427 speed after Swords Dance where adamant Char X has 591 attack and 448 speed after DD. Depending on what you consider most important, a boosting SD physical set with jolly nature, or a Modest special set can be directly compared to Charizard on the same pokemon, which is an interesting phenomenon.

 

[Imperator Romanum]

Alright, so what then? Is there anywhere I should post this?

 

[master_marshmallow]

Alright, so what then? Is there anywhere I should post this?

Thraed will most likely get locked until next month when the game is out and this can actually be used and discussed. The mon will most likely be OU so you don't have too much to worry about.

 

[heritage]

Well since we already know the stats, movepool and typing and ability of the mega forme, is it really too much of a problem to leave this open?
If it's not a problem I call mega Altaria

 

[Imperator Romanum]

Well since we already know the stats, movepool and typing and ability of the mega forme, is it really too much of a problem to leave this open?
If it's not a problem I call mega Altaria

Yeah, that's what I though. There's no real harm, and unless anybody have any objections Mega Sceptile will probably be OU.

 

[Karxrida]

Tagging alexwolf so he can decide what to do with this thread (and because he's online). Personally I think it could stay open for theorymon purposes, especially since we already have the stats.

 

[MilkyWay]

I agree that this should stay open as well, especially considering we already have forums for Volcanion and Hoopa and they're technically unreleased too

 

[Godgers]

A fantastic aspect about Mega Sceptile besides his immediate speed and power is that he is a full stop to volt switch and he is immune to prankster twave.

I wanted to make a set that not only does its usual job (strong dragon pulse and grass stab) but also, particularly important, ohko's thundurus-t after rocks. Even though sceptile is strong, and can't be paralyzed, offensive thundy can still survive any hit and ohko back with HP ice. I wanted a set that could deal 75% minimum to thundy. But he also needs to maintain investment in speed and spatk to do his regular job. Furthermore, making mixed sets is always a challenge and I wanted to give it a try on something with 110/145/145 offenses.

I found that the only way to always ohko thundy-t after rocks is with 208 atk EVs outrage (with neutral nature) so I started there.

Then I needed to choose a speed tier. I decided on a + speed nature and 216 speed EVs, which is faster than timid scarf heatran and likewise faster than lopunny, noivern, greninja, jolteon, mega salamence, and so on. I chose Hasty over Naive because I think absorbing water, grass, and some fire attacks is more important than switching in on earthquakes and other physical moves.

This leaves only 84 EVs for SpAtk and without modest this is significantly weaker. I had to run the calcs and make sure that Sceptile is still doing his job and killing the main threats he's supposed to take care of. However, he will obviously be doing significantly less damage to random neutral targets like leaf storm vs steelix or dragon pulse vs breloom.

I have to stress that stealth rock is extremely crucial to this set's viability, because an absolutely enormous amount of threats are only taken out after rocks.



Sceptile @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 208 Atk / 84 SpA / 216 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Outrage
- Earthquake



208 Atk Sceptile Outrage vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Thundurus: 225-265 (75.25 - 88.62%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

208 Atk Sceptile Outrage vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 354-416 (98.88 - 116.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
84 SpA Sceptile Dragon Pulse vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 308-366 (86.03 - 102.23%) -- 56.25% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

84 SpA Sceptile Leaf Storm vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Slowbro: 534-630 (135.87 - 160.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

84 SpA Sceptile Dragon Pulse vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Salamence: 324-384 (82.44 - 97.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

84 SpA Sceptile Dragon Pulse vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Dragonite: 270-318 (83.33 - 98.14%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

84 SpA Sceptile Leaf Storm vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Gliscor: 195-231 (55.08 - 65.25%)
84 SpA Sceptile Dragon Pulse vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Gliscor: 127-151 (35.87 - 42.65%)
208 Atk Sceptile Outrage vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Gliscor: 139-165 (39.26 - 46.61%)



I think those calcs demonstrate that he's still getting the kills he's supposed to, and he otherwise has to switch out to a teammate for stuff like ferrothorn, conkeldurr, talonflame, and other stuff he doesn't stand a chance against. I'm going to try it on the ladder and see how it performs.

 

[Imperator Romanum]

Godgers, you want me to add that set to the main post? It's a more indepth, well though of MixedSceptile

 

[Rosen]

Godgers, you want me to add that set to the main post? It's a more indepth, well though of MixedSceptile

since that is a terrible set i would advise against it. if you're going to add a mixed set, make it this one:

Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 136 Atk / 192 SAtk / 180 Spe
Naive/Hasty Nature
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SAtk / 30 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Fire]

evs outspeed latios before you mega, mega mane after, ohkoing both after sr with dragon pulse and leaf storm, respectively. 136 atk evs allow you to ohko sdef heatran after sr and magnezone regardless. hp fire 2hkos skarmory and ferrothorn. i can go more in-depth but i'd rather not as this covers why the evs be like they do and we all know leaf storm ohkos shit like quagsire and slowbro.

dun guffed the evs, thank u Seth Vilo

 

[Seth Vilo]

since that is a terrible set i would advise against it. if you're going to add a mixed set, make it this one:

Sceptile-Mega @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 136 Atk / 192 SDef / 180 Spe
Naive Nature
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SAtk / 30 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Fire]

evs outspeed latios before you mega, mega mane after, ohkoing both after sr with dragon pulse and leaf storm, respectively. 136 atk evs allow you to ohko sdef heatran after sr and magnezone regardless. hp fire 2hkos skarmory and ferrothorn. i can go more in-depth but i'd rather not as this covers why the evs be like they do and we all know leaf storm ohkos shit like quagsire and slowbro.

I believe the SDef EVs should be SpA, correct? All fixed.
Seconding that this set is freaking awesome for Sceptile. And that Rosen is beautiful, as usual.

 

[Pyritie]

A fantastic aspect about Mega Sceptile besides his immediate speed and power is that he is a full stop to volt switch and he is immune to prankster twave.

One thing to note though is that a lot of things with volt switch also carry HP ice which m-sceptile obviously doesn't want anything to do with. I think Lanturn does the "stops volt switch spam" thing better

 

[Godgers]

I don't think the set that I made is terrible <_< they have different uses lol, and they're all walled by the same things anyway, like altaria, sylveon, and chansey. If breaking through ferrothorn and skarmory is important to you then I definitely can see why you'd use HP Fire over outrage, but since leafstorm and dragon pulse already ohko things like slowbro and azumarill and latios without much investment, having a pretty strong physical stab and a stronger earthquake has it's own merits against pokemon that have unpredictable defenses like Mew, Venusaur, and Zapdos. And that set was made literally only with thundurus-t in mind and it's been working out for me. Mew in particular, with just a tiny amount of prior damage on it has been dying to leaf storm outrage combo. And I -did- run into a scarf heatran on the ladder (it's good) and the extra speed helped.

He's honestly just a faster greninja with different coverage, and any arguments based around mixed offenses or using a physical move instead of special are going to come down to preference and the same tired arguments for/against are going to be thrown around. I think your set is good too, because it has a stronger dragon pulse and HP Fire for steels. But I like my set for a few reasons too, and when ferrothorn/skarmory come in I switch to a teammate that takes advantage of their presence and sets up a sub or hazards or something.

 

[Gevvaldro]

I don't think the set that I made is terrible <_< they have different uses lol, and they're all walled by the same things anyway, like altaria, sylveon, and chansey. If breaking through ferrothorn and skarmory is important to you then I definitely can see why you'd use HP Fire over outrage, but since leafstorm and dragon pulse already ohko things like slowbro and azumarill and latios without much investment, having a pretty strong physical stab and a stronger earthquake has it's own merits against pokemon that have unpredictable defenses like Mew, Venusaur, and Zapdos. And that set was made literally only with thundurus-t in mind and it's been working out for me. Mew in particular, with just a tiny amount of prior damage on it has been dying to leaf storm outrage combo. And I -did- run into a scarf heatran on the ladder (it's good) and the extra speed helped.

He's honestly just a faster greninja with different coverage, and any arguments based around mixed offenses or using a physical move instead of special are going to come down to preference and the same tired arguments for/against are going to be thrown around. I think your set is good too, because it has a stronger dragon pulse and HP Fire for steels. But I like my set for a few reasons too, and when ferrothorn/skarmory come in I switch to a teammate that takes advantage of their presence and sets up a sub or hazards or something.

The thing is, beeing able to kill or weaken Ferro and Skarmory as they switch in is a great thing for Sceptile as both are very annoying 'mons. Getting a surprise kill on Ferro can be pretty huge too, way more than KOing Thundurus, as you'll stop your opponent from setting up hazards and leech seeding you. Thundurus is worn off pretty easily, so you shouldn't worry about it as much as Ferro or Skarmory.

 

[master_marshmallow]

Greninja doesn't eat up the mega slot. The truly best sets on this guy will be team dependent, it has a lot of options, and good ones. Fearing HP ice is just part of running a dragon, DNite, Garchomp, Flygon, Mence, they all share that 4x weakness that megaScept has.

I really am more of a fan of the physical set just for coverage, and also because I don't like Focus Blast.

 

[Flare Blitzle]

On a purely special set is Sceptile better using max Speed or just enough Speed to beat MegaMan/MegaLop with the rest in HP?

 

[master_marshmallow]

Purely special sets should go max SpA because he has no means of boosting other than bad predictions on your opponents part.

 

[Gevvaldro]

On a purely special set is Sceptile better using max Speed or just enough Speed to beat MegaMan/MegaLop with the rest in HP?

Max Speed so you can outspeed other Sceptiles and speed tie with Beedril. Add substitute if you can and you are golden.

 

[escarlata]

1 thing I like to mention is how this thing walls any Ferrothorn lacking Gyro Ball aka Power Whip + TWave version, which is really handy imo. And just saying Focus Blast has the same power as HP Fire on Ferro and Skarm, so if someone really doesn't mind the accuracy, or lack thereof, you can run Focus Blast and a different HP, like Flying for Chesnaught, or Rock to hit TF on the switch, or Fighting for hitting Ice types on the switch.

 

[M BLADE]

1 thing I like to mention is how this thing walls any Ferrothorn lacking Gyro Ball aka Power Whip + TWave version, which is really handy imo. And just saying Focus Blast has the same power as HP Fire on Ferro and Skarm, so if someone really doesn't mind the accuracy, or lack thereof, you can run Focus Blast and a different HP, like Flying for Chesnaught, or Rock to hit TF on the switch, or Fighting for hitting Ice types on the switch.

uh, running Focus Blast and HP Fighting?

 

[Klobb]

1 thing I like to mention is how this thing walls any Ferrothorn lacking Gyro Ball aka Power Whip + TWave version, which is really handy imo. And just saying Focus Blast has the same power as HP Fire on Ferro and Skarm, so if someone really doesn't mind the accuracy, or lack thereof, you can run Focus Blast and a different HP, like Flying for Chesnaught, or Rock to hit TF on the switch, or Fighting for hitting Ice types on the switch.

You have to land multiple focus blasts though so hidden power fire is definitely preferable.