Status: In Progress
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/steelix
Changes:
[SET]
name: The Iron Curtain
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Gyro Ball / Stone Edge / Explosion
move 4: Roar / Toxic / Explosion
item: Leftovers
ability: Rock Head
nature: Careful / Sassy
evs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>The standard walling set. Use your 9 resistances and 2 immunities to get in, then set up for your team. Getting Stealth Rock up is your main objective, the rest of the set is what Steelix can do better than the Regis.</p>
<p>STAB Earthquake hurts most frail sweepers and anything that takes super effective damage from it. Explosion is there to take out a bulky Water/Flyer, while Roar and Toxic give you options to hurt set up pokemon or counters without killing yourself. Gyro Ball is always a possibility to hurt fast pokemon. If you run Gyro Ball, use a Sassy nature and drop the Speed IV to 0. Stone Edge's main purpose is to hit Moltres on the switch, as everything else is out done by other moves, however, Moltres is the bane of all Steelix, so it is a viable option.</p>
<p>The main pokemon Steelix has to worry about are Bulky Waters and strong specially based Fire pokemon. Altaria does well against both of them, provided it can avoid Ice Beam or Ice Punch. Toxicroak and Ludicolo both do well against Bulky Waters, while a Bulky Water of your own, like Milotic or Poliwrath, should be able to handle Fire types. the Stealth Rock you provide helps to scare off Moltres</p>
<p>The EVs help to extend Steelix's life as long as possible, even though he is a physical wall, his defense is so high that defensive investments are unnecessary. HP and Special Defense allow him to take a hit on the special side as well, especially if you're abusing his many resistances. It is also extremely helpful against mixed attackers like Nidoking, who could otherwise threaten with both STAB Earth Power and a Super Effective Superpower</p>
[SET]
name: Sleeping Giant
move 1: Rest
move 2: Sleep Talk
move 3: Gyro Ball / Earthquake
move 4: Curse / Stone Edge / Roar
item: Leftovers
ability: Rock Head
nature: Sassy / Careful
evs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
ivs: 0 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Come in on something that can't hurt you, and set up your camping tent, because you're not moving for a while. Gyro Ball and Curse pack a huge punch, but you're limited to Steel as your only attacking move and have limited PP. This set works very similarly to Curse Registeel, but gives up some Special Defense in order to hit much harder. However, if you feel you would rather have raw damage, Earthquake and Stone Edge do ok damage, though you won't really hurt anything that isn't hit for Super Effective damage. Roar is an option with either STAB attack, and gives the set a much different feel, as you will be doing most of your damage with entry hazards. If you</p>
<p> A great part of this set is that you can curse in the face of several pokemon that you wouldn't expect. Defensive Arcanines, Hitmontop, and anything with a weak Earthquake is effectively a free Curse, just rest up when you're below 40%.</p>
<p>This set is one of the best status absorbers outside of Guts pokemon. It is immune to poison and Twave, and does not mind sleep at all, on top of that, it can rest off burns. As such, it is very good paired with bulky sweepers, as they all hate being statused. If you are running Roar, you need Stealth Rock and Spikes support, with Toxic Spikes being a plus, so this set loves Froslass, who can Spin Block while setting up Spikes. If you don't have Roar, the support is still helpful, as 25-50% gone from a potential counter is always very useful, especially since Steelix doesn't hit very hard.</p>
<p>EVs are the same as the wall set, as you will be doing effectively the same thing, just staying alive a lot longer in return for not setting anything up.</p>
*side note: should I split this into a mono attacker set and a Rest set, or just leave it as is? they aren't very different, but there is enough of a different that I could split it into two separate sets.
[SET]
name: Choice Bander
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Gyro Ball
move 3: Stone Edge / Payback
move 4: Explosion / Double Edge
item: Choice Band
ability: Rock Head
nature: Brave
evs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
ivs: 0 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Choice Band resolves some of the issues with Steelix's below average Attack stat, turning it into a decent (albeit limited) physical tank. The Physical Wall sets tend to create a glaring vulnerability whenever the need arises to lay down Stealth Rock, but this set turns that weakness into its biggest strength. Plenty of pokemon want to take advantage of Steelix as it tries to support the team, and a good number of them can be OHKO'd on the switch by this set, especially Fire types like Magmortar and Blaziken. As always with Choice sets, prediction is key, but Steelix is in a good position to make a few mistakes thanks to its great resistances.</p>
<p>The dual STAB of Earthquake and Gyro Ball are its main attacking options and show the finer points of this set. Earthquake packs reliable damage output and delivers punishment to a large number of targets - a little more than 3/4ths of the entire tier. Gyro Ball clears out the remaining selection of threats nicely, and reaches its peak potential (150 Base Power) when fighting opponents with at least 348 speed, increasing its value against fast but frail sweepers such as Espeon, Mismagius, and Swellow. It outright OHKOs a lot of them, leaving you with some valuable HP to spare so Steelix can continue to come in with its resistances and take shots at incoming counters.</p>
<p>Charizard and Moltres still pose a considerable threat, since they resist both STAB attacks, so Stone Edge is an option to provide further coverage. It's pretty much overkill on them, and gives you an okay attack move to throw out when you're not sure what's going to come in on you. If you need to hit Claydol, Slowbro, Uxie, and Mesprit harder in particular, then you can replace Stone Edge with Payback, as it will hit all of them hard enough to scare them off. It goes without saying that Explosion is at its strongest here; when you know it can't go on much longer, or your teamates have every other threat covered for you, use Explosion to take one for the team, bringing Steelix's counter down with it. Double Edge is also an option in the last slot, it will do only half the damage of Explosion, but it won't kill you, especially with Rock Head removing the recoil</p>
<p>With its defensive capabilities reduced and Choice Band limiting its attack choices, this Steelix is more hit-and-run than the others and is forced out very easily, although it usually takes a chunk of the opponent's health with it on the way out. It can use assistance from largely the same teamates as mentioned in the other sets. A lot of floating threats will come in expecting an Earthquake, should your opponent guess right (or guess wrong and send a flying in afterwards) you're going to need something to minimize the damage. Altaria is a beautiful Moltres counter, as Moltres will be giving you headaches should it come in on either STAB. A good Bulky Water packing Ice Beam or HP Electric, like Slowbro or Milotic, is also useful for stopping any Flying set up sweeper who tries to set up on your choiced Earthquakes.</p>
space reserved for Lead set
space reserved for Curse set
[Team Options]
<p>Anything that can take out a Bulky Water is a friend to Steelix. This means Ludicolo, Raikou, Toxicroak, or a Bulky Water of your own are always welcome. Pokemon meant to bait water types, then kill them, like Mixed Nidoking/Blaziken, or CB Arcanine, are also very useful, particularly if you're running a more offensive team and don't want to keep switching. Venusaur is also useful for taking them out, as it can threaten with both sleep and strong STAB Grass attacks from both ends of the spectrum.</p>
<p>You will also want someone to take on Fire types, so a defensive Arcanine, DD Altaria, or strong Bulky Water is also good. It is recommended that you don't use the same pokemon to counter both Waters and Fires though, as it will be worn down fairly quickly.</p>
<p>Steelix appreciates entry hazards, and thus also appreciates spin blockers. Froslass, Spiritomb, Rotom and Mismagius all work, and they can also help by taking Fighting moves aimed at Steelix (as well as Ground in the case of the latter two). Steelix also gets taunted a lot, so a good Mixed Attacker or Choiced pokemon will definitely appreciate the free switch from predictable taunts.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>Iron Head can be used over Gyro Ball if you don't like dropping your speed, but it only has half the power, and with the added speed you still tie Slowbro for slowest in UU. Thunder and Ice Fang can be used for more coverage, but they won't really hit harder than anything else you could do.</p>
<p>You can run a Type-resist berry set to explode on Milotic and Arcanine, clearing the way for another sweeper, but unless your team has no other options for killing them, it usually isn't worth it, as other pokemon can run bait sets that don't kill them.</p>
<p>Steelix is too slow/weak to use Rock Polish or Screech, so don't try it.</p>
<p>Rock Slide can be used in place of Stone Edge if you want more accuracy, but it is only useful for killing Moltres, as it doesn't hit anything else without STAB behind it.</p>
[EVs]
<p>Always max HP, no exceptions. On Defensive and Curse sets, max out Special Defense as well, since Steelix doesn't need to boost his ridiculously high defense. Offensive sets should just focus on HP and Attack, as any speed investment is lost on his terrible base 30 Speed. set your Speed IVs to 0 on any set using Gyro Ball, a Speed reducing nature helps as well.</p>
[Opinion]
<p>Steelix is one of the few steel types allowed in UU, so he will always be compared to his fellow Steels when it comes to his role. Due to fortunate typing, he is one of the two usable defensive Steels, the other being Registeel. So, whenever you try to make a Steelix set, you should try to make it based around what Steelix does better than Registeel, namely his higher physical stats, better offensive movepool, Immuity to Electric, Roar and Gyro Ball. Leave the Special Defense to Regi and work off of your strengths. If you can do that you have a very powerful, very hard kill pokemon on your hands.</p>
[Counters]
<p>Moltres is the enemy. It can come in on anything other than Stone Edge or CB Double Edge (w/SR) and threaten to kill you with STAB Fire Blast. Most specially based Water and Fire pokemon that can take a hit also work, as Steelix has pretty low SpD, and won't be packing enough speed to hit twice outside of Trick Room. The rest depends on the set. Floating Psychics, Claydol especially, won't mind any attack from an Earthquake / Stone Edge set, though they have to be wary of Payback and Curse sets. Sets without Sleep Talk won't like Venusaur coming in and putting them to sleep, especially boosting variants, as Steelix still takes very little from unboosted Earthquakes/Energy Balls. Against Walling sets, Rhyperior, especially CB or SD versions, can come in and hit with Earthquake.</p>
I will have the other two sets up soon
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/steelix
Changes:
- Dropped the Baitlix set
Edited the Physical Wall, Choice Band and Curse movesets
Added a Rest-talk moveset
Will add a Lead set and updated Curse set tomorrow
[SET]
name: The Iron Curtain
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Gyro Ball / Stone Edge / Explosion
move 4: Roar / Toxic / Explosion
item: Leftovers
ability: Rock Head
nature: Careful / Sassy
evs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>The standard walling set. Use your 9 resistances and 2 immunities to get in, then set up for your team. Getting Stealth Rock up is your main objective, the rest of the set is what Steelix can do better than the Regis.</p>
<p>STAB Earthquake hurts most frail sweepers and anything that takes super effective damage from it. Explosion is there to take out a bulky Water/Flyer, while Roar and Toxic give you options to hurt set up pokemon or counters without killing yourself. Gyro Ball is always a possibility to hurt fast pokemon. If you run Gyro Ball, use a Sassy nature and drop the Speed IV to 0. Stone Edge's main purpose is to hit Moltres on the switch, as everything else is out done by other moves, however, Moltres is the bane of all Steelix, so it is a viable option.</p>
<p>The main pokemon Steelix has to worry about are Bulky Waters and strong specially based Fire pokemon. Altaria does well against both of them, provided it can avoid Ice Beam or Ice Punch. Toxicroak and Ludicolo both do well against Bulky Waters, while a Bulky Water of your own, like Milotic or Poliwrath, should be able to handle Fire types. the Stealth Rock you provide helps to scare off Moltres</p>
<p>The EVs help to extend Steelix's life as long as possible, even though he is a physical wall, his defense is so high that defensive investments are unnecessary. HP and Special Defense allow him to take a hit on the special side as well, especially if you're abusing his many resistances. It is also extremely helpful against mixed attackers like Nidoking, who could otherwise threaten with both STAB Earth Power and a Super Effective Superpower</p>
[SET]
name: Sleeping Giant
move 1: Rest
move 2: Sleep Talk
move 3: Gyro Ball / Earthquake
move 4: Curse / Stone Edge / Roar
item: Leftovers
ability: Rock Head
nature: Sassy / Careful
evs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
ivs: 0 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Come in on something that can't hurt you, and set up your camping tent, because you're not moving for a while. Gyro Ball and Curse pack a huge punch, but you're limited to Steel as your only attacking move and have limited PP. This set works very similarly to Curse Registeel, but gives up some Special Defense in order to hit much harder. However, if you feel you would rather have raw damage, Earthquake and Stone Edge do ok damage, though you won't really hurt anything that isn't hit for Super Effective damage. Roar is an option with either STAB attack, and gives the set a much different feel, as you will be doing most of your damage with entry hazards. If you</p>
<p> A great part of this set is that you can curse in the face of several pokemon that you wouldn't expect. Defensive Arcanines, Hitmontop, and anything with a weak Earthquake is effectively a free Curse, just rest up when you're below 40%.</p>
<p>This set is one of the best status absorbers outside of Guts pokemon. It is immune to poison and Twave, and does not mind sleep at all, on top of that, it can rest off burns. As such, it is very good paired with bulky sweepers, as they all hate being statused. If you are running Roar, you need Stealth Rock and Spikes support, with Toxic Spikes being a plus, so this set loves Froslass, who can Spin Block while setting up Spikes. If you don't have Roar, the support is still helpful, as 25-50% gone from a potential counter is always very useful, especially since Steelix doesn't hit very hard.</p>
<p>EVs are the same as the wall set, as you will be doing effectively the same thing, just staying alive a lot longer in return for not setting anything up.</p>
*side note: should I split this into a mono attacker set and a Rest set, or just leave it as is? they aren't very different, but there is enough of a different that I could split it into two separate sets.
[SET]
name: Choice Bander
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Gyro Ball
move 3: Stone Edge / Payback
move 4: Explosion / Double Edge
item: Choice Band
ability: Rock Head
nature: Brave
evs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
ivs: 0 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Choice Band resolves some of the issues with Steelix's below average Attack stat, turning it into a decent (albeit limited) physical tank. The Physical Wall sets tend to create a glaring vulnerability whenever the need arises to lay down Stealth Rock, but this set turns that weakness into its biggest strength. Plenty of pokemon want to take advantage of Steelix as it tries to support the team, and a good number of them can be OHKO'd on the switch by this set, especially Fire types like Magmortar and Blaziken. As always with Choice sets, prediction is key, but Steelix is in a good position to make a few mistakes thanks to its great resistances.</p>
<p>The dual STAB of Earthquake and Gyro Ball are its main attacking options and show the finer points of this set. Earthquake packs reliable damage output and delivers punishment to a large number of targets - a little more than 3/4ths of the entire tier. Gyro Ball clears out the remaining selection of threats nicely, and reaches its peak potential (150 Base Power) when fighting opponents with at least 348 speed, increasing its value against fast but frail sweepers such as Espeon, Mismagius, and Swellow. It outright OHKOs a lot of them, leaving you with some valuable HP to spare so Steelix can continue to come in with its resistances and take shots at incoming counters.</p>
<p>Charizard and Moltres still pose a considerable threat, since they resist both STAB attacks, so Stone Edge is an option to provide further coverage. It's pretty much overkill on them, and gives you an okay attack move to throw out when you're not sure what's going to come in on you. If you need to hit Claydol, Slowbro, Uxie, and Mesprit harder in particular, then you can replace Stone Edge with Payback, as it will hit all of them hard enough to scare them off. It goes without saying that Explosion is at its strongest here; when you know it can't go on much longer, or your teamates have every other threat covered for you, use Explosion to take one for the team, bringing Steelix's counter down with it. Double Edge is also an option in the last slot, it will do only half the damage of Explosion, but it won't kill you, especially with Rock Head removing the recoil</p>
<p>With its defensive capabilities reduced and Choice Band limiting its attack choices, this Steelix is more hit-and-run than the others and is forced out very easily, although it usually takes a chunk of the opponent's health with it on the way out. It can use assistance from largely the same teamates as mentioned in the other sets. A lot of floating threats will come in expecting an Earthquake, should your opponent guess right (or guess wrong and send a flying in afterwards) you're going to need something to minimize the damage. Altaria is a beautiful Moltres counter, as Moltres will be giving you headaches should it come in on either STAB. A good Bulky Water packing Ice Beam or HP Electric, like Slowbro or Milotic, is also useful for stopping any Flying set up sweeper who tries to set up on your choiced Earthquakes.</p>
space reserved for Lead set
space reserved for Curse set
[Team Options]
<p>Anything that can take out a Bulky Water is a friend to Steelix. This means Ludicolo, Raikou, Toxicroak, or a Bulky Water of your own are always welcome. Pokemon meant to bait water types, then kill them, like Mixed Nidoking/Blaziken, or CB Arcanine, are also very useful, particularly if you're running a more offensive team and don't want to keep switching. Venusaur is also useful for taking them out, as it can threaten with both sleep and strong STAB Grass attacks from both ends of the spectrum.</p>
<p>You will also want someone to take on Fire types, so a defensive Arcanine, DD Altaria, or strong Bulky Water is also good. It is recommended that you don't use the same pokemon to counter both Waters and Fires though, as it will be worn down fairly quickly.</p>
<p>Steelix appreciates entry hazards, and thus also appreciates spin blockers. Froslass, Spiritomb, Rotom and Mismagius all work, and they can also help by taking Fighting moves aimed at Steelix (as well as Ground in the case of the latter two). Steelix also gets taunted a lot, so a good Mixed Attacker or Choiced pokemon will definitely appreciate the free switch from predictable taunts.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>Iron Head can be used over Gyro Ball if you don't like dropping your speed, but it only has half the power, and with the added speed you still tie Slowbro for slowest in UU. Thunder and Ice Fang can be used for more coverage, but they won't really hit harder than anything else you could do.</p>
<p>You can run a Type-resist berry set to explode on Milotic and Arcanine, clearing the way for another sweeper, but unless your team has no other options for killing them, it usually isn't worth it, as other pokemon can run bait sets that don't kill them.</p>
<p>Steelix is too slow/weak to use Rock Polish or Screech, so don't try it.</p>
<p>Rock Slide can be used in place of Stone Edge if you want more accuracy, but it is only useful for killing Moltres, as it doesn't hit anything else without STAB behind it.</p>
[EVs]
<p>Always max HP, no exceptions. On Defensive and Curse sets, max out Special Defense as well, since Steelix doesn't need to boost his ridiculously high defense. Offensive sets should just focus on HP and Attack, as any speed investment is lost on his terrible base 30 Speed. set your Speed IVs to 0 on any set using Gyro Ball, a Speed reducing nature helps as well.</p>
[Opinion]
<p>Steelix is one of the few steel types allowed in UU, so he will always be compared to his fellow Steels when it comes to his role. Due to fortunate typing, he is one of the two usable defensive Steels, the other being Registeel. So, whenever you try to make a Steelix set, you should try to make it based around what Steelix does better than Registeel, namely his higher physical stats, better offensive movepool, Immuity to Electric, Roar and Gyro Ball. Leave the Special Defense to Regi and work off of your strengths. If you can do that you have a very powerful, very hard kill pokemon on your hands.</p>
[Counters]
<p>Moltres is the enemy. It can come in on anything other than Stone Edge or CB Double Edge (w/SR) and threaten to kill you with STAB Fire Blast. Most specially based Water and Fire pokemon that can take a hit also work, as Steelix has pretty low SpD, and won't be packing enough speed to hit twice outside of Trick Room. The rest depends on the set. Floating Psychics, Claydol especially, won't mind any attack from an Earthquake / Stone Edge set, though they have to be wary of Payback and Curse sets. Sets without Sleep Talk won't like Venusaur coming in and putting them to sleep, especially boosting variants, as Steelix still takes very little from unboosted Earthquakes/Energy Balls. Against Walling sets, Rhyperior, especially CB or SD versions, can come in and hit with Earthquake.</p>
I will have the other two sets up soon
