Metagame SV OU Metagame Discussion

[Cheryl.]

Rain's always been decent this gen, but some of the recent innovations made to Rain teams like the use of Iron Jugulis as a breaker has really helped them improve in consistency and against typically poor matchups (like any reasonably sturdy Water resist for Floatzel). Specs Juggy under Rain is a monster to deal with due to 100% accurate Hurricanes and a good speed tier, also has the option to go Tera Water with Hydro Pump for a new STAB that's even boosted by the Rain. Pretty sleeper mon atm

 

[1LDK]

Rain is a fun novelty because people though it was dead on arrival this gen, let's look at how to build a rain team (this is paper based cookie cutter and not the absolute standard, there are more ways to built rain, and I have absolute no idea of what I'm doing)

Step 1:
use
Whether is specs or damp rock, it's a must-have, if you're using specs, you probably want 2 physical mons instead of 1 and 1, and while fun, I personally like the support more, but specs is so fun
Step 2:
Rain Abuser 1
This is where we get a bit funky, for guideline reasons let's say you want a physical one and a special one, from the physical abusers you have
(with the famous choice band set that makes it number 1 choice 99% of the time)
(That lost flip turn but still hits hard, and it has some more coverage)
(who has reliable recovery and needs some set-up but can work)
(Who is a water immunity not water, and brings some utility like priority, and good stab, but it's way more rain dependent that the rest)
Step 3:
Rain Abuser 2
For the sake of the cookie cutter chapter, let's say you want a special mon, you here have 2 options instead of 1
with fast speed, insane power, spikes, u-turn, protean and grass knot
Who has Swift Swim and Nasty Plot
that can spam hurricanes forever alongside hydros
Step 4:
Support mons
Here you will need stuff that can support your team and benefit from it
makes the team S U S with spore, status, toxic/toxic spikes absorber and benefits from rain on his fire type matchups, also a good fairy resist
Who is an overall glue mon with rocks, ruination, Whirlwind and being fucking unkillable, provides a HUGE electric immunity, it also pairs well with either amoonguss or rotom wash for its complementary resistances
Who likes weakened fire attacks, is immune to electric, has volt switch and fits better than tusk here because better spedef and its an overall good steel type to fit in
Because Water/Electric I think I don't need to say more (its also a ground immunity not weak to rock)
BIG STALL, provides insane overall utility by virtue of being FUCKING PEX, AND has a little bit more power on his attacks to boot, making it
even more stressing to break
Who has water absorb and can set up rocks, toxic and has recover, making it a great special wall and basically hard counter non trick rotom thanks to both its water and electric inmunity
Step 5:
Optional mons
These are just optional but have proved to work
specs thunder is so fun, and dragapult is an overall good wallbreaker
Who REALLY appreciates being better prepared against fire types and can put its offensive/defensive utility to good use, it also has defog making it good when you don't really wanna use iron treads
Specs Hydro and Hurricane, frail but has fun coverage

EDIT:

I decided to add this
https://pokepast.es/6fbe63691d0f0471
this is the single most basic and standard rain possible, made by following this fun but not fully detailed guide
as setter
as one rain abuser
as second rain abuser
as rocker
as a bulky grass type with spore
has rapid spin support and volt-turn with pelipper
How this team can be improved?
Well, for one, the offensive line is VERY frail, meaning 1 mistake, and you end up with no firepower
2) it has no strong water resist outside of amoongus who is weak to flying, meaning opposing rain can potentially give you problems

This is where you, the reader, come and put your own magic spin into it
While not having as powerful options as sun, rain has more creativity, which lets it take on more opponents thanks to its surprise factor, instead of the usual koko/ferro/torn-t/ cores of old

If there's somebody that I forgot that should be included, please tell us, and remember to always experiment and be creative, no matter how dumb the idea sounds

 

[viivian]

View attachment 492217
Fellas, the perfect love card to send to your sweetheart.

bros do i try asking garg out again i think i'll win him over with this

also to add something to this discussion, i agree with rain being super good in the current meta, with greninja being a fantastic abuser of it and floatzel being able to kill the entire game with banded wave crash. and i think the playstyle will only get better over time as well, with HOME bringing urshifu-RS and basculegion into the meta, the playstyle will be extremely good with those two around breaking resists such as toxapex and dondozo with their STABs, and that's to say nothing of what old rain staples DLC will bring us soon. rain is just in a really good spot now and i don't see how it'll ever fall off in this generation

 

[Athyestic]

bros do i try asking garg out again i think i'll win him over with this

also to add something to this discussion, i agree with rain being super good in the current meta, with greninja being a fantastic abuser of it and floatzel being able to kill the entire game with banded wave crash. and i think the playstyle will only get better over time as well, with HOME bringing urshifu-RS and basculegion into the meta, the playstyle will be extremely good with those two around breaking resists such as toxapex and dondozo with their STABs, and that's to say nothing of what old rain staples DLC will bring us soon. rain is just in a really good spot now and i don't see how it'll ever fall off in this generation

I’m not sure how he’d feel about Gholdengo though. Maybe he’ll be offended, maybe it’ll give you two something to bond over. I don’t know what to say other than good luck girl! You got this!

 

[UnusualBoy]

Love that rain is gaining more traction because that means more Gren usage, we love to see it! Oh

 

[Morkal]

Spidops

"Spidops is a covert ambush predator that utilizes its sticky and resilient silk threads to cling upon any surface and move without making a sound. It spins a silk thread from the spinneret on its abdomen, which it uses to hang upside-down from tall places. It then spins a net between its top four legs which it uses to smother its prey, striking before the prey has time to react." - Bulbapedia

"Hehe, mustache spider assassin's Choice Band Stakeout STAB First Impression go brrrrrrr" - Morkal​

BASE STAT	LEVEL 100 STAT RANGE
HP: 60	230 - 324​
Attack: 79​	146 - 282​
Defense: 92	170 - 311​
Sp. Atk: 52	98 - 223​
Sp. Def: 86	159 - 298​
Speed: 35	67 - 185​

Notable Moves

Physical Moves:
Brick Break, Circle Throw, First Impression, Leech Life, Low Kick, Lunge, Poison Jab, Rock Tomb, Shadow Claw, Skitter Smack, Sucker Punch, Tera Blast, Thief, Throat Chop, Trailblaze, U-Turn, X-Scissor

Utility Moves:
Memento, Protect, Rest, Silk Trap, Spikes, Sticky Web, Substitute, Taunt, Toxic Spikes

Introduction​

Spidops evolves from Tarountula, an early game bug. Being an early-game bug usually spells "competitive career death" for most Pokemon, and for a while, it was looking the same for Spidops. However, Spidops has numerous qualities that, with proper support, can leave a sizeable impact on your team composition. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Spidops is now one of my favorite Pokemon to use in OU, and is actually easier than you might think to slip into specific team compositions! So without further ado, let's dive into this post (that is somehow longer than my college world history dissertation last semester) to talk about one of the most stylish Bug-type Pokemon to ever grace the competitive metagame!

Disclaimer: While Spidops has a lot of utility and flexibility, it can be played around if you're not knowledgeable about specific damage and speed tier benchmarks (the latter of which I'll link here). I highly recommend careful team building and looking into speed tiers, running practice calculations, testing Spidops on your various teams, and practicing prediction for switches. I would like to double-stress that understanding switch prediction is key for move choice. If you work Spidops properly and work to increase your contemporary metagame knowledge, he can provide exceptional utility, scary offensive pressure, and even situational defensive prowess for your teams!

Spidops Summarized Advantages
This is a "too long, didn't read" section for people who want a quick summary of Spidops's advantages without reading the essay-length post.​

• Spidops has a surprisingly useful defensive profile with HP investment; 60/92/86 with resistances to Fighting, Ground, and Grass means that it resists moves like both of Great Tusk's STABs, Garchomp and Ting-Lu's Earthquake, and more.
• Spidops's Stakeout-boosted STAB First Impression is the single strongest priority move available in the OU meta, and thanks to a bevy of impressive coverage options, it can hit a lot harder than you think with proper investment and item distribution. With Choice Band + Stakeout, STAB First Impression OHKOs Swords Dance Garchomp, has a chance to OHKO Bulky Garchomp, and can 2HKO almost every variant of Garganacl; those are just a few quick examples to show how mind-numbingly dumb Spidops's power can be, (more calculations are in the main post).
• Spidop's Stakeout First Impression also discourages your opponent from switching by punishing players who have lost their double resists and heavily physically defensive single-resist Pokemon, leaving your opponent with the difficult choice of sacrificing frail powerful sweepers like Greninja and Meowscarada or risking taking nuclear levels of damage from the Stakeout boost.
• Spidops's Stakeout additionally boosts all of its coverage moves, meaning that, given the right prediction, not much can reliably switch into Spidops at all.
• Spidops's wide movepool means it can fit a variety of roles suited to your team, meaning that the two movesets I will be talking about below can be tailored to your team's specific needs based on your teammates.
• Spidops can utilize Tera to turn the tables on would-be checks and counters like Skeledirge, Ceruledge, Garganacl, and more!
• Spidops's role compression is very flexible, and its low speed actually works in its favor thanks to slow STAB U-Turn (which can additionally be boosted with Stakeout on switch-ins).

Priority Band Stakeout (One Variant - Tera Dark)

Spidops @ Choice Band
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Throat Chop
- U-Turn
- Sticky Web / Brick Break / Circle Throw

Offensive Capabilities​

Spidops Priority Band Stakeout is meant to be an early-mid game menace that weaves in and out of combat by playing mind games with insanely powerful STAB Priority, fantastic coverage in Throat Chop and Brick Break, and a powerful STAB boosted slow U-Turn to keep up the momentum, all complimented by Stakeout's ability to punish switching aggressively. In the late game, First Impression essentially becomes a one-button cleaner nuke that decimates damaged Pokemon. Let's talk about Stakeout and what it does; Stakeout is an ability that doubles the power of Spidops's moves when used against a Pokemon switching in. Now you might be thinking, "why not just switch to a resist" or "wouldn't the opponent just stay in because of Stakeout or because of Spidops's lackluster base stats?" To answer these questions, let's start by demonstrating just how powerful Band STAB Stakeout First Impression is against even double-resisted hits.

Banded STAB Stakeout First Impression Damage Calculations

Super Effective Hits (Not really relevant for Stakeout, but I'm still noting because the damage is just kinda hilarious):

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 962-1134 (336.3 - 396.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (talk about overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 758-894 (233.2 - 275%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 1860-2188 (634.8 - 746.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (okay, I take the Greninja comment back, THIS is overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 918-1082 (261.5 - 308.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 570-672 (110.8 - 130.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Imagine OHKO'ing Ting-Lu on the physical side)

Neutral Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 340-402 (78.7 - 93%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 372-438 (100.2 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 417-492 (159.7 - 188.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 228-268 (45.2 - 53.1%) -- 31.6% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Dondozo: 306-361 (60.7 - 71.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (101.1 - 119.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (85.9 - 101.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 276-325 (68.3 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 211-249 (52.2 - 61.6%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 489-576 (124.1 - 146.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 204+ Def Hatterene: 270-318 (84.9 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 292-345 (92.1 - 108.8%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 297-349 (80.4 - 94.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 237-280 (77.9 - 92.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 116 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (56.2 - 66.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (51.4 - 60.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cinderace: 219-258 (72.7 - 85.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (OHKO with Chip)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Clodsire: 258-304 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 219-258 (69 - 81.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (27.8 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-212 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (25 - 29.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-213 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Glimmora: 188-222 (61.2 - 72.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 136-161 (36.6 - 43.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (46.1 - 54.2%) -- 54.7% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (38.5 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 96-113 (27.9 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Pelipper: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Quaquaval: 207-244 (66.5 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 200 HP / 180+ Def Quaquaval: 154-182 (42.6 - 50.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 236 HP / 0 Def Scizor: 174-204 (51.1 - 60%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex: 96-114 (31.5 - 37.5%) -- 0% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 108 Def Volcarona: 212-249 (56.8 - 66.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Double Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (35.7 - 42.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (29.3 - 34.7%) -- 8.3% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Moth: 130-154 (43.1 - 51.1%) -- 5.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Iron Valiant: 94-111 (32.5 - 38.4%) -- 97.9% chance to 3HKO​

To give you an idea, those calculations were for 32 of 35 OU and OU BL Pokemon. 10 of those 32 listed OU Pokemon are either OHKO'd or have a solid chance to be OHKO'd. 15 of those 32 listed are either 2HKO'd or have a solid chance to be 2HKO'd. This means that 25 of 35 OU Pokemon, roughly a whopping 71% of the entire OU Meta, cannot reliably switch into Banded Stakeout STAB First Impression at full health without being OHKO'd or 2HKO'd or having a very high chance to be OHKO'd or 2HKO'd (100% assured OHKO/2HKO's with chip damage). If you factor in the previously mentioned chip damage, that number becomes somewhere closer to 80%+ and turns some of those 3HKOs into 2HKOs. The numbers are relatively similar for Band Stakeout STAB U-Turn, so I won't post those calculations here. Those who know about Spidops's nuclear power don't want to switch - those who don't know are generally decimated; regular resists are mostly 2HKO'd or 3HKO'd.

So what about First Impression without Stakeout's boost? Well, it's not as impressive for obvious reasons, but still hits some notable OHKO and 2HKO benchmarks which is all that it needs to do to threaten specific targets from your opponent's team. It also hits many neutral threats for a solid 3HKO that can turn into a 2HKO with chip damage.

Banded STAB First Impression Damage Calculations (No Stakeout)

OHKOs and 2HKOS:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 186-220 (50.1 - 59.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 210-247 (80.4 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (50.7 - 59.9%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 482-570 (168.5 - 199.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 246-289 (62.4 - 73.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 147-174 (46.3 - 54.8%) -- 60.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 380-450 (116.9 - 138.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 928-1096 (316.7 - 374%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 458-542 (130.4 - 154.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 288-338 (56 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

3HKOs (that can become 2HKOs with chip damage):

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 171-202 (39.5 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 110-129 (34.7 - 40.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (43 - 50.9%) -- 4.3% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 148-175 (40.1 - 47.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 118-141 (38.8 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery​

All of this mayhem and chaos is just from one move - so what about Spidop's coverage moves? Let's start with Throat Chop; If you're not clicking First Impression or U-Turn, you will likely be clicking Throat Chop. So what can Throat Chop do? Well, Throat Chop is specifically meant to handle Pokemon such as Skeledirge, Ceruledge, and others that like to switch in on Spidops. With Tera-Dark, Spidops additionally gets rid of the problems of its mono-Bug defensive profile and replaces it with mono-Dark that grants nifty resistances to Dark and Ghost and a Psychic immunity while changing the Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses to neutralities. For Throat Chop, we're going to look at calculations both with and without Terastallizing for emphasis here.

Throat Chop (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Calculations (Pre-Tera and Post-Tera)

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 248-294 (70 - 83%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 372-440 (105 - 124.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 108-127 (27 - 31.8%) -- 41.8% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 260-308 (82 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 390-462 (123 - 145.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 214-254 (67.9 - 80.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 320-380 (101.5 - 120.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 154-182 (40.7 - 48.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 230-272 (60.8 - 71.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 206-244 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 308-366 (74.9 - 89%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 496-584 (140.1 - 164.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 744-876 (210.1 - 247.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 214-253 (53.6 - 63.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 520-614 (164 - 193.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 780-920 (246 - 290.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 430-506 (136.5 - 160.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 644-758 (204.4 - 240.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 306-362 (80.9 - 95.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 458-542 (121.1 - 143.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 410-484 (99.7 - 117.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 614-726 (149.3 - 176.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO​

The last slot after U-Turn is a toss-up depending on your team's specific needs. I vastly prefer to run Sticky Web for additional speed control and team utility. Hatterene and any other Magic Bounce users will either (A. Be cautious about switching in due to First Impression or B. Switch in because they know Spidops has Sticky Web and don't understand just how hard First Impression can hit). You'll likely want to wait to click Sticky Web until Magic Bounce users are dealt with - otherwise, click First Impression, Throat Chop, or U-Turn if you expect a switch. The second option you could choose is to run additional coverage with Brick Break to nail annoying Rock, Steel, Ice, Normal, and Dark type switch-ins. The reason I prefer Sticky Web over Brick Break is that, without Stakeout, Brick Break's damage output can be a bit lackluster. Let's take a look at some calculations for Brick Break with and without Stakeout so that you can see if these damage benchmarks are right for you.

Brick Break (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Damage Calculations

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 154-182 (38.1 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 118-140 (29.2 - 34.6%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 166-196 (51.7 - 61%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 332-392 (89.9 - 106.2%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 108-128 (31.3 - 37.2%) -- 81% chance to 3HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 306-362 (75.7 - 89.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 236-278 (58.4 - 68.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 330-390 (102.8 - 121.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 660-780 (178.8 - 211.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 214-252 (62.2 - 73.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
​

Lastly, you could run Circle Throw - you wouldn't be running this for damage (although Stakeout Circle Throw can still hit quite hard); you would be running this for its phasing capabilities. However, the choice is up to you!

Defensive Capabilities​

So now you're likely thinking, "Okay, I get it; Spidops hits like a truck, but what about its defenses?" Well, with near-max HP investment and just a little bit of Special Defense investment, Spidops is capable of some surprising defensive feats courtesy of its 92/86 Defense and Special Defense. With this EV investment, Spidops's defensive profile is HP - 320, Defense - 220, and Special Defense - 210. Let's take a look at some calculations to see just how much Spidops can live through with the allotted 252 HP, 0 Def, 8 SpD EVs.

Spidops Physical Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)

252+ Atk Amoonguss Foul Play vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 127-151 (39.3 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Bullet Seed (3 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 147-174 (45.5 - 53.8%) -- approx. 37.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Breloom Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 157-186 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Mach Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 79-93 (24.4 - 28.7%) -- 99.7% chance to 4HKO

0 Atk Clodsire Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 46-54 (14.2 - 16.7%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 248-294 (76.7 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Def Dondozo Body Press vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 47-56 (14.5 - 17.3%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Dondozo Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 46.9% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 128-151 (39.6 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
76 Atk Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 146-174 (45.2 - 53.8%) -- approx. 28.1% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 106-125 (32.8 - 38.6%) -- 99.4% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 65-77 (20.1 - 23.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Fire Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 198-234 (61.3 - 72.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 72-86 (22.2 - 26.6%) -- 21.9% chance to 4HKO
0 Atk Garchomp Dragon Tail vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 87-103 (26.9 - 31.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 141-166 (43.6 - 51.3%) -- 6.6% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 114-135 (35.2 - 41.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Protean Meowscarada U-turn vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Flower Trick vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops on a critical hit: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Quaquaval Aqua Step vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 133-157 (41.1 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Quaquaval Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 58.2% chance to 3HKO

252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 192-226 (59.4 - 69.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 80-94 (24.7 - 29.1%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 243-286 (75.2 - 88.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 101-119 (31.2 - 36.8%) -- 77.1% chance to 3HKO

0 Atk Ting-Lu Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 63-74 (19.5 - 22.9%) -- possible 5HKO

Spidops Special Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 184-217 (56.9 - 67.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
180 SpA Dragapult Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 94-112 (29.1 - 34.6%) -- 8.7% chance to 3HKO

0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 102-120 (31.5 - 37.1%) -- 78.9% chance to 3HKO
0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (130 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 202-238 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 150-177 (46.4 - 54.7%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 211-249 (65.3 - 77%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 258-304 (79.8 - 94.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 231-273 (71.5 - 84.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 282-333 (87.3 - 103%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

0 SpA Rotom-Wash Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 139-165 (43 - 51%) -- 3.1% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Rotom-Wash Volt Switch vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 88-105 (27.2 - 32.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
​

So now we've established that there are some definite switch-in opportunities for Spidops with this defensive profile; what about once it terastallizes into a Dark type? Without those pesky Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses, Spidops can suddenly take attacks from a host of threats it really would not like to have switched into before! Let's take a look at some hits that it couldn't take before but can handle now.

Spidops Defensive Calculations (Terastallized)

0 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 127-150 (39.3 - 46.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 153-181 (47.3 - 56%) -- 80.9% chance to 2HKO
0 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 28-33 (8.6 - 10.2%) -- possibly the worst move ever
252 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 34-41 (10.5 - 12.6%) -- possible 8HKO

252 Atk Cinderace Pyro Ball vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 195-229 (60.3 - 70.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 92-108 (28.4 - 33.4%) -- 0.1% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Phantom Force vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 64-75 (19.8 - 23.2%) -- possible 5HKO

252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 75-88 (23.2 - 27.2%) -- 59.1% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 112-132 (34.6 - 40.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252+ Atk Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 84-99 (26 - 30.6%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 69-82 (21.3 - 25.3%) -- 0.2% chance to 4HKO

252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 237-280 (73.3 - 86.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 104-123 (32.1 - 38%) -- 95.1% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 121-143 (37.4 - 44.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 106-126 (32.8 - 39%) -- 99.7% chance to 3HKO
+1 8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Volcarona Fiery Dance vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Team Support + Other Set Option

Spidops may be strong, but it does require some solid support to function properly. Let's take a look at some options that will help Spidops successfully function! In addition, we'll look at an additional Spidops set very briefly to explain how it works; while I don't like the following set as much as the Choice Band set, I've had enough success with it that I found it noteworthy enough to mention!

Hazard + Mortal Spin or Rapid Spin

Recommended Partner: Glimmora

Not only is Glimmora one of the best leads (arguably one of the best OU Pokemon in general), but it compresses spinning and setting into a single team slot. Glimmora's ability Toxic Debris auto sets Toxic Spikes, its signature move Mortal Spin poisons + clears hazards, and it has access to both Spikes and Stealth Rock! Whenever I use Spidops, I almost always have Glimmora as its partner.

Wish Passing

Recommended Partner: Alomomola

Alomomola has been my favorite Gen 9 OU wish passer since the earliest stages of the metagame. It has tremendous bulk, fantastic mono-Water defensive typing, and access to invaluable utility and trapping moves such as Chilling Water and Whirlpool. Alomomola is a Pokemon that I would recommend for most team compositions in general, but especially as a great partner for Spidops!

Spidops Alternative Set Option

Anti-Lead Steel Stakeout Bug Utility

Spidops @ Leftovers
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Taunt
- Silk Trap
- U-turn

Set Explanation:
This is a role compression utility set that relies on Spidop's access to its unique move Silk Trap, a variant of Protect for damaging moves that slows a Pokemon's speed by one stage if it hits the Silk Trap with a contact move. Taunt is meant to stop hazard/status/phasing, while First Impression and U-Turn function similarly. The reason we're using Steel as a Tera-type is for its defensive prowess + immunity to Toxic. The 100 Speed EVs are to outspeed Ting-Lu and Hippowdon (allowing you to Taunt them). While I have had quite a bit of success with this set, I feel that the issues with vulnerability and having to sacrifice HP and Special Defense EVs is a really tough call to make.

Conclusion

Spidops is one of my new favorite Pokemon to use in OU - it's powerful and varied, and has plenty of other options besides the Choice Band set and the Anti-Lead Utility set that I listed. It has its flaws (having the lowest BST total of all Pokemon introduced in Gen 9 is a bummer), but I've found that it's a valuable team member with a great niche that compliments multiple build styles. So, give Spidops a try today; I promise you won't be disappointed - however, when your opponent's Garchomp goes down in a single hit to an early-game Bug type, they definitely will be disappointed.​

 

[YNM]

Spidops

View attachment 492173
"Spidops is a covert ambush predator that utilizes its sticky and resilient silk threads to cling upon any surface and move without making a sound. It spins a silk thread from the spinneret on its abdomen, which it uses to hang upside-down from tall places. It then spins a net between its top four legs which it uses to smother its prey, striking before the prey has time to react." - Bulbapedia

"Hehe, mustache spider assassin's Choice Band Stakeout STAB First Impression go brrrrrrr" - Morkal​

BASE STAT	LEVEL 100 STAT RANGE
HP: 60	230 - 324​
Attack: 79​	146 - 282​
Defense: 92	170 - 311​
Sp. Atk: 52	98 - 223​
Sp. Def: 86	159 - 298​
Speed: 35	67 - 185​

Notable Moves​

Physical Moves: Brick Break, Circle Throw, First Impression, Leech Life, Low Kick, Lunge, Poison Jab, Rock Tomb, Shadow Claw, Skitter Smack, Sucker Punch, Tera Blast, Thief, Throat Chop, Trailblaze, U-Turn, X-Scissor

Utility Moves: Memento, Protect, Rest, Silk Trap, Spikes, Sticky Web, Substitute, Taunt, Toxic Spikes

Introduction​

Spidops evolves from Tarountula, an early game bug. Being an early-game bug usually spells "competitive career death" for most Pokemon, and for a while, it was looking the same for Spidops. However, Spidops has numerous qualities that, with proper support, can leave a sizeable impact on your team composition. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Spidops is now one of my favorite Pokemon to use in OU, and is actually easier than you might think to slip into specific team compositions! So without further ado, let's dive into this post (that is somehow longer than my college world history dissertation last semester) to talk about one of the most stylish Bug-type Pokemon to ever grace the competitive metagame!

Disclaimer: While Spidops has a lot of utility and flexibility, it can be played around if you're not knowledgeable about specific damage and speed tier benchmarks (the latter of which I'll link here). I highly recommend careful team building and looking into speed tiers, running practice calculations, testing Spidops on your various teams, and practicing prediction for switches. I would like to double-stress that understanding switch prediction is key for move choice. If you work Spidops properly and work to increase your contemporary metagame knowledge, he can provide exceptional utility, scary offensive pressure, and even situational defensive prowess for your teams!

View attachment 492184
Spidops Summarized Advantages
This is a "too long, didn't read" section for people who want a quick summary of Spidops's advantages without reading the essay-length post.​

• Spidops has a surprisingly useful defensive profile with HP investment; 60/92/86 with resistances to Fighting, Ground, and Grass means that it resists moves like both of Great Tusk's STABs, Garchomp and Ting-Lu's Earthquake, and more.
• Spidops's Stakeout-boosted STAB First Impression is the single strongest priority move available in the OU meta, and thanks to a bevy of impressive coverage options, it can hit a lot harder than you think with proper investment and item distribution. With Choice Band + Stakeout, STAB First Impression OHKOs Swords Dance Garchomp, has a chance to OHKO Bulky Garchomp, and can 2HKO almost every variant of Garganacl; those are just a few quick examples to show how mind-numbingly dumb Spidops's power can be, (more calculations are in the main post).
• Spidop's Stakeout First Impression also discourages your opponent from switching by punishing players who have lost their double resists and heavily physically defensive single-resist Pokemon, leaving your opponent with the difficult choice of sacrificing frail powerful sweepers like Greninja and Meowscarada or risking taking nuclear levels of damage from the Stakeout boost.
• Spidops's Stakeout additionally boosts all of its coverage moves, meaning that, given the right prediction, not much can reliably switch into Spidops at all.
• Spidops's wide movepool means it can fit a variety of roles suited to your team, meaning that the two movesets I will be talking about below can be tailored to your team's specific needs based on your teammates.
• Spidops can utilize Tera to turn the tables on would-be checks and counters like Skeledirge, Ceruledge, Garganacl, and more!
• Spidops's role compression is very flexible, and its low speed actually works in its favor thanks to slow STAB U-Turn (which can additionally be boosted with Stakeout on switch-ins).

View attachment 492183
Priority Band Stakeout (One Variant - Tera Dark)

View attachment 492239
Spidops @ Choice Band
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Throat Chop
- U-Turn
- Sticky Web / Brick Break / Circle Throw

Offensive Capabilities​

Spidops Priority Band Stakeout is meant to be an early-mid game menace that weaves in and out of combat by playing mind games with insanely powerful STAB Priority, fantastic coverage in Throat Chop and Brick Break, and a powerful STAB boosted slow U-Turn to keep up the momentum, all complimented by Stakeout's ability to punish switching aggressively. In the late game, First Impression essentially becomes a one-button cleaner nuke that decimates damaged Pokemon. Let's talk about Stakeout and what it does; Stakeout is an ability that doubles the power of Spidops's moves when used against a Pokemon switching in. Now you might be thinking, "why not just switch to a resist" or "wouldn't the opponent just stay in because of Stakeout or because of Spidops's lackluster base stats?" To answer these questions, let's start by demonstrating just how powerful Band STAB Stakeout First Impression is against even double-resisted hits.

Banded STAB Stakeout First Impression Damage Calculations
View attachment 492228

Super Effective Hits (Not really relevant for Stakeout, but I'm still noting because the damage is just kinda hilarious):

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 962-1134 (336.3 - 396.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (talk about overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 758-894 (233.2 - 275%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 1860-2188 (634.8 - 746.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (okay, I take the Greninja comment back, THIS is overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 918-1082 (261.5 - 308.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 570-672 (110.8 - 130.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Imagine OHKO'ing Ting-Lu on the physical side)

Neutral Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 340-402 (78.7 - 93%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 372-438 (100.2 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 417-492 (159.7 - 188.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 228-268 (45.2 - 53.1%) -- 31.6% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Dondozo: 306-361 (60.7 - 71.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (101.1 - 119.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (85.9 - 101.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 276-325 (68.3 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 211-249 (52.2 - 61.6%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 489-576 (124.1 - 146.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 204+ Def Hatterene: 270-318 (84.9 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 292-345 (92.1 - 108.8%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 297-349 (80.4 - 94.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 237-280 (77.9 - 92.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 116 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (56.2 - 66.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (51.4 - 60.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cinderace: 219-258 (72.7 - 85.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (OHKO with Chip)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Clodsire: 258-304 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 219-258 (69 - 81.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (27.8 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-212 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (25 - 29.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-213 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Glimmora: 188-222 (61.2 - 72.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 136-161 (36.6 - 43.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (46.1 - 54.2%) -- 54.7% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (38.5 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 96-113 (27.9 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Pelipper: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Quaquaval: 207-244 (66.5 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 200 HP / 180+ Def Quaquaval: 154-182 (42.6 - 50.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 236 HP / 0 Def Scizor: 174-204 (51.1 - 60%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex: 96-114 (31.5 - 37.5%) -- 0% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 108 Def Volcarona: 212-249 (56.8 - 66.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Double Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (35.7 - 42.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (29.3 - 34.7%) -- 8.3% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Moth: 130-154 (43.1 - 51.1%) -- 5.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Iron Valiant: 94-111 (32.5 - 38.4%) -- 97.9% chance to 3HKO​

To give you an idea, those calculations were for 32 of 35 OU and OU BL Pokemon. 10 of those 32 listed OU Pokemon are either OHKO'd or have a solid chance to be OHKO'd. 15 of those 32 listed are either 2HKO'd or have a solid chance to be 2HKO'd. This means that 25 of 35 OU Pokemon, roughly a whopping 71% of the entire OU Meta, cannot reliably switch into Banded Stakeout STAB First Impression at full health without being OHKO'd or 2HKO'd or having a very high chance to be OHKO'd or 2HKO'd (100% assured OHKO/2HKO's with chip damage). If you factor in the previously mentioned chip damage, that number becomes somewhere closer to 80%+ and turns some of those 3HKOs into 2HKOs. The numbers are relatively similar for Band Stakeout STAB U-Turn, so I won't post those calculations here. Those who know about Spidops's nuclear power don't want to switch - those who don't know are generally decimated; regular resists are mostly 2HKO'd or 3HKO'd.

So what about First Impression without Stakeout's boost? Well, it's not as impressive for obvious reasons, but still hits some notable OHKO and 2HKO benchmarks which is all that it needs to do to threaten specific targets from your opponent's team. It also hits many neutral threats for a solid 3HKO that can turn into a 2HKO with chip damage.

Banded STAB First Impression Damage Calculations (No Stakeout)
View attachment 492228

OHKOs and 2HKOS:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 186-220 (50.1 - 59.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 210-247 (80.4 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (50.7 - 59.9%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 482-570 (168.5 - 199.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 246-289 (62.4 - 73.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 147-174 (46.3 - 54.8%) -- 60.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 380-450 (116.9 - 138.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 928-1096 (316.7 - 374%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 458-542 (130.4 - 154.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 288-338 (56 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

3HKOs (that can become 2HKOs with chip damage):

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 171-202 (39.5 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 110-129 (34.7 - 40.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (43 - 50.9%) -- 4.3% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 148-175 (40.1 - 47.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 118-141 (38.8 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery​

All of this mayhem and chaos is just from one move - so what about Spidop's coverage moves? Let's start with Throat Chop; If you're not clicking First Impression or U-Turn, you will likely be clicking Throat Chop. So what can Throat Chop do? Well, Throat Chop is specifically meant to handle Pokemon such as Skeledirge, Ceruledge, and others that like to switch in on Spidops. With Tera-Dark, Spidops additionally gets rid of the problems of its mono-Bug defensive profile and replaces it with mono-Dark that grants nifty resistances to Dark and Ghost and a Psychic immunity while changing the Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses to neutralities. For Throat Chop, we're going to look at calculations both with and without Terastallizing for emphasis here.

Throat Chop (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Calculations (Pre-Tera and Post-Tera)
View attachment 492229

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 248-294 (70 - 83%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 372-440 (105 - 124.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 108-127 (27 - 31.8%) -- 41.8% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 260-308 (82 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 390-462 (123 - 145.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 214-254 (67.9 - 80.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 320-380 (101.5 - 120.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 154-182 (40.7 - 48.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 230-272 (60.8 - 71.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 206-244 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 308-366 (74.9 - 89%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 496-584 (140.1 - 164.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 744-876 (210.1 - 247.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 214-253 (53.6 - 63.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 520-614 (164 - 193.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 780-920 (246 - 290.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 430-506 (136.5 - 160.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 644-758 (204.4 - 240.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 306-362 (80.9 - 95.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 458-542 (121.1 - 143.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 410-484 (99.7 - 117.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 614-726 (149.3 - 176.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO​

The last slot after U-Turn is a toss-up depending on your team's specific needs. I vastly prefer to run Sticky Web for additional speed control and team utility. Hatterene and any other Magic Bounce users will either (A. Be cautious about switching in due to First Impression or B. Switch in because they know Spidops has Sticky Web and don't understand just how hard First Impression can hit). You'll likely want to wait to click Sticky Web until Magic Bounce users are dealt with - otherwise, click First Impression, Throat Chop, or U-Turn if you expect a switch. The second option you could choose is to run additional coverage with Brick Break to nail annoying Rock, Steel, Ice, Normal, and Dark type switch-ins. The reason I prefer Sticky Web over Brick Break is that, without Stakeout, Brick Break's damage output can be a bit lackluster. Let's take a look at some calculations for Brick Break with and without Stakeout so that you can see if these damage benchmarks are right for you.

Brick Break (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Damage Calculations
View attachment 492238

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 154-182 (38.1 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 118-140 (29.2 - 34.6%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 166-196 (51.7 - 61%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 332-392 (89.9 - 106.2%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 108-128 (31.3 - 37.2%) -- 81% chance to 3HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 306-362 (75.7 - 89.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 236-278 (58.4 - 68.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 330-390 (102.8 - 121.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 660-780 (178.8 - 211.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 214-252 (62.2 - 73.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
​

Lastly, you could run Circle Throw - you wouldn't be running this for damage (although Stakeout Circle Throw can still hit quite hard); you would be running this for its phasing capabilities. However, the choice is up to you!

Defensive Capabilities​

So now you're likely thinking, "Okay, I get it; Spidops hits like a truck, but what about its defenses?" Well, with near-max HP investment and just a little bit of Special Defense investment, Spidops is capable of some surprising defensive feats courtesy of its 92/86 Defense and Special Defense. With this EV investment, Spidops's defensive profile is HP - 320, Defense - 220, and Special Defense - 210. Let's take a look at some calculations to see just how much Spidops can live through with the allotted 252 HP, 0 Def, 8 SpD EVs.

Spidops Physical Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492228

252+ Atk Amoonguss Foul Play vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 127-151 (39.3 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Bullet Seed (3 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 147-174 (45.5 - 53.8%) -- approx. 37.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Breloom Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 157-186 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Mach Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 79-93 (24.4 - 28.7%) -- 99.7% chance to 4HKO

0 Atk Clodsire Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 46-54 (14.2 - 16.7%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 248-294 (76.7 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Def Dondozo Body Press vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 47-56 (14.5 - 17.3%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Dondozo Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 46.9% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 128-151 (39.6 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
76 Atk Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 146-174 (45.2 - 53.8%) -- approx. 28.1% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 106-125 (32.8 - 38.6%) -- 99.4% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 65-77 (20.1 - 23.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Fire Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 198-234 (61.3 - 72.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 72-86 (22.2 - 26.6%) -- 21.9% chance to 4HKO
0 Atk Garchomp Dragon Tail vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 87-103 (26.9 - 31.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 141-166 (43.6 - 51.3%) -- 6.6% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 114-135 (35.2 - 41.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Protean Meowscarada U-turn vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Flower Trick vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops on a critical hit: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Quaquaval Aqua Step vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 133-157 (41.1 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Quaquaval Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 58.2% chance to 3HKO

252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 192-226 (59.4 - 69.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 80-94 (24.7 - 29.1%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 243-286 (75.2 - 88.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 101-119 (31.2 - 36.8%) -- 77.1% chance to 3HKO

0 Atk Ting-Lu Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 63-74 (19.5 - 22.9%) -- possible 5HKO

Spidops Special Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492248

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 184-217 (56.9 - 67.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
180 SpA Dragapult Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 94-112 (29.1 - 34.6%) -- 8.7% chance to 3HKO

0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 102-120 (31.5 - 37.1%) -- 78.9% chance to 3HKO
0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (130 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 202-238 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 150-177 (46.4 - 54.7%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 211-249 (65.3 - 77%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 258-304 (79.8 - 94.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 231-273 (71.5 - 84.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 282-333 (87.3 - 103%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

0 SpA Rotom-Wash Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 139-165 (43 - 51%) -- 3.1% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Rotom-Wash Volt Switch vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 88-105 (27.2 - 32.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
​

So now we've established that there are some definite switch-in opportunities for Spidops with this defensive profile; what about once it terastallizes into a Dark type? Without those pesky Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses, Spidops can suddenly take attacks from a host of threats it really would not like to have switched into before! Let's take a look at some hits that it couldn't take before but can handle now.

Spidops Defensive Calculations (Terastallized)
View attachment 492229

0 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 127-150 (39.3 - 46.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 153-181 (47.3 - 56%) -- 80.9% chance to 2HKO
0 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 28-33 (8.6 - 10.2%) -- possibly the worst move ever
252 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 34-41 (10.5 - 12.6%) -- possible 8HKO

252 Atk Cinderace Pyro Ball vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 195-229 (60.3 - 70.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 92-108 (28.4 - 33.4%) -- 0.1% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Phantom Force vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 64-75 (19.8 - 23.2%) -- possible 5HKO

252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 75-88 (23.2 - 27.2%) -- 59.1% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 112-132 (34.6 - 40.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252+ Atk Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 84-99 (26 - 30.6%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 69-82 (21.3 - 25.3%) -- 0.2% chance to 4HKO

252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 237-280 (73.3 - 86.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 104-123 (32.1 - 38%) -- 95.1% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 121-143 (37.4 - 44.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 106-126 (32.8 - 39%) -- 99.7% chance to 3HKO
+1 8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Volcarona Fiery Dance vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Team Support + Other Set Option
View attachment 492184
Spidops may be strong, but it does require some solid support to function properly. Let's take a look at some options that will help Spidops successfully function! In addition, we'll look at an additional Spidops set very briefly to explain how it works; while I don't like the following set as much as the Choice Band set, I've had enough success with it that I found it noteworthy enough to mention!

Hazard + Mortal Spin or Rapid Spin

Recommended Partner: Glimmora
View attachment 492250
Not only is Glimmora one of the best leads (arguably one of the best OU Pokemon in general), but it compresses spinning and setting into a single team slot. Glimmora's ability Toxic Debris auto sets Toxic Spikes, its signature move Mortal Spin poisons + clears hazards, and it has access to both Spikes and Stealth Rock! Whenever I use Spidops, I almost always have Glimmora as its partner.

Wish Passing

Recommended Partner: Alomomola

View attachment 492252

Alomomola has been my favorite Gen 9 OU wish passer since the earliest stages of the metagame. It has tremendous bulk, fantastic mono-Water defensive typing, and access to invaluable utility and trapping moves such as Chilling Water and Whirlpool. Alomomola is a Pokemon that I would recommend for most team compositions in general, but especially as a great partner for Spidops!

Spidops Alternative Set Option
View attachment 492173
Anti-Lead Steel Stakeout Bug Utility
View attachment 492254
Spidops @ Leftovers
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Taunt
- Silk Trap
- U-turn

Set Explanation:
This is a role compression utility set that relies on Spidop's access to its unique move Silk Trap, a variant of Protect for damaging moves that slows a Pokemon's speed by one stage if it hits the Silk Trap with a contact move. Taunt is meant to stop hazard/status/phasing, while First Impression and U-Turn function similarly. The reason we're using Steel as a Tera-type is for its defensive prowess + immunity to Toxic. The 100 Speed EVs are to outspeed Ting-Lu and Hippowdon (allowing you to Taunt them). While I have had quite a bit of success with this set, I feel that the issues with vulnerability and having to sacrifice HP and Special Defense EVs is a really tough call to make.

Conclusion
View attachment 492253

Spidops is one of my new favorite Pokemon to use in OU - it's powerful and varied, and has plenty of other options besides the Choice Band set and the Anti-Lead Utility set that I listed. It has its flaws (having the lowest BST total of all Pokemon introduced in Gen 9 is a bummer), but I've found that it's a valuable team member with a great niche that compliments multiple build styles. So, give Spidops a try today; I promise you won't be disappointed - however, when your opponent's Garchomp goes down in a single hit to an early-game Bug type, they definitely will be disappointed.​

Goddamn this man always delivers, thank you for another gem of a post

 

[Triple777 Vinny]

Spidops

View attachment 492173
"Spidops is a covert ambush predator that utilizes its sticky and resilient silk threads to cling upon any surface and move without making a sound. It spins a silk thread from the spinneret on its abdomen, which it uses to hang upside-down from tall places. It then spins a net between its top four legs which it uses to smother its prey, striking before the prey has time to react." - Bulbapedia

"Hehe, mustache spider assassin's Choice Band Stakeout STAB First Impression go brrrrrrr" - Morkal​

BASE STAT	LEVEL 100 STAT RANGE
HP: 60	230 - 324​
Attack: 79​	146 - 282​
Defense: 92	170 - 311​
Sp. Atk: 52	98 - 223​
Sp. Def: 86	159 - 298​
Speed: 35	67 - 185​

Notable Moves

Physical Moves:
Brick Break, Circle Throw, First Impression, Leech Life, Low Kick, Lunge, Poison Jab, Rock Tomb, Shadow Claw, Skitter Smack, Sucker Punch, Tera Blast, Thief, Throat Chop, Trailblaze, U-Turn, X-Scissor

Utility Moves:
Memento, Protect, Rest, Silk Trap, Spikes, Sticky Web, Substitute, Taunt, Toxic Spikes

Introduction​

Spidops evolves from Tarountula, an early game bug. Being an early-game bug usually spells "competitive career death" for most Pokemon, and for a while, it was looking the same for Spidops. However, Spidops has numerous qualities that, with proper support, can leave a sizeable impact on your team composition. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Spidops is now one of my favorite Pokemon to use in OU, and is actually easier than you might think to slip into specific team compositions! So without further ado, let's dive into this post (that is somehow longer than my college world history dissertation last semester) to talk about one of the most stylish Bug-type Pokemon to ever grace the competitive metagame!

Disclaimer: While Spidops has a lot of utility and flexibility, it can be played around if you're not knowledgeable about specific damage and speed tier benchmarks (the latter of which I'll link here). I highly recommend careful team building and looking into speed tiers, running practice calculations, testing Spidops on your various teams, and practicing prediction for switches. I would like to double-stress that understanding switch prediction is key for move choice. If you work Spidops properly and work to increase your contemporary metagame knowledge, he can provide exceptional utility, scary offensive pressure, and even situational defensive prowess for your teams!

View attachment 492184
Spidops Summarized Advantages
This is a "too long, didn't read" section for people who want a quick summary of Spidops's advantages without reading the essay-length post.​

• Spidops has a surprisingly useful defensive profile with HP investment; 60/92/86 with resistances to Fighting, Ground, and Grass means that it resists moves like both of Great Tusk's STABs, Garchomp and Ting-Lu's Earthquake, and more.
• Spidops's Stakeout-boosted STAB First Impression is the single strongest priority move available in the OU meta, and thanks to a bevy of impressive coverage options, it can hit a lot harder than you think with proper investment and item distribution. With Choice Band + Stakeout, STAB First Impression OHKOs Swords Dance Garchomp, has a chance to OHKO Bulky Garchomp, and can 2HKO almost every variant of Garganacl; those are just a few quick examples to show how mind-numbingly dumb Spidops's power can be, (more calculations are in the main post).
• Spidop's Stakeout First Impression also discourages your opponent from switching by punishing players who have lost their double resists and heavily physically defensive single-resist Pokemon, leaving your opponent with the difficult choice of sacrificing frail powerful sweepers like Greninja and Meowscarada or risking taking nuclear levels of damage from the Stakeout boost.
• Spidops's Stakeout additionally boosts all of its coverage moves, meaning that, given the right prediction, not much can reliably switch into Spidops at all.
• Spidops's wide movepool means it can fit a variety of roles suited to your team, meaning that the two movesets I will be talking about below can be tailored to your team's specific needs based on your teammates.
• Spidops can utilize Tera to turn the tables on would-be checks and counters like Skeledirge, Ceruledge, Garganacl, and more!
• Spidops's role compression is very flexible, and its low speed actually works in its favor thanks to slow STAB U-Turn (which can additionally be boosted with Stakeout on switch-ins).

View attachment 492183
Priority Band Stakeout (One Variant - Tera Dark)

View attachment 492239
Spidops @ Choice Band
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Throat Chop
- U-Turn
- Sticky Web / Brick Break / Circle Throw

Offensive Capabilities​

Spidops Priority Band Stakeout is meant to be an early-mid game menace that weaves in and out of combat by playing mind games with insanely powerful STAB Priority, fantastic coverage in Throat Chop and Brick Break, and a powerful STAB boosted slow U-Turn to keep up the momentum, all complimented by Stakeout's ability to punish switching aggressively. In the late game, First Impression essentially becomes a one-button cleaner nuke that decimates damaged Pokemon. Let's talk about Stakeout and what it does; Stakeout is an ability that doubles the power of Spidops's moves when used against a Pokemon switching in. Now you might be thinking, "why not just switch to a resist" or "wouldn't the opponent just stay in because of Stakeout or because of Spidops's lackluster base stats?" To answer these questions, let's start by demonstrating just how powerful Band STAB Stakeout First Impression is against even double-resisted hits.

Banded STAB Stakeout First Impression Damage Calculations
View attachment 492228

Super Effective Hits (Not really relevant for Stakeout, but I'm still noting because the damage is just kinda hilarious):

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 962-1134 (336.3 - 396.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (talk about overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 758-894 (233.2 - 275%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 1860-2188 (634.8 - 746.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (okay, I take the Greninja comment back, THIS is overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 918-1082 (261.5 - 308.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 570-672 (110.8 - 130.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Imagine OHKO'ing Ting-Lu on the physical side)

Neutral Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 340-402 (78.7 - 93%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 372-438 (100.2 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 417-492 (159.7 - 188.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 228-268 (45.2 - 53.1%) -- 31.6% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Dondozo: 306-361 (60.7 - 71.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (101.1 - 119.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (85.9 - 101.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 276-325 (68.3 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 211-249 (52.2 - 61.6%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 489-576 (124.1 - 146.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 204+ Def Hatterene: 270-318 (84.9 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 292-345 (92.1 - 108.8%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 297-349 (80.4 - 94.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 237-280 (77.9 - 92.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 116 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (56.2 - 66.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (51.4 - 60.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cinderace: 219-258 (72.7 - 85.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (OHKO with Chip)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Clodsire: 258-304 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 219-258 (69 - 81.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (27.8 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-212 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (25 - 29.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-213 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Glimmora: 188-222 (61.2 - 72.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 136-161 (36.6 - 43.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (46.1 - 54.2%) -- 54.7% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (38.5 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 96-113 (27.9 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Pelipper: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Quaquaval: 207-244 (66.5 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 200 HP / 180+ Def Quaquaval: 154-182 (42.6 - 50.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 236 HP / 0 Def Scizor: 174-204 (51.1 - 60%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex: 96-114 (31.5 - 37.5%) -- 0% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 108 Def Volcarona: 212-249 (56.8 - 66.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Double Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (35.7 - 42.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (29.3 - 34.7%) -- 8.3% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Moth: 130-154 (43.1 - 51.1%) -- 5.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Iron Valiant: 94-111 (32.5 - 38.4%) -- 97.9% chance to 3HKO​

To give you an idea, those calculations were for 32 of 35 OU and OU BL Pokemon. 10 of those 32 listed OU Pokemon are either OHKO'd or have a solid chance to be OHKO'd. 15 of those 32 listed are either 2HKO'd or have a solid chance to be 2HKO'd. This means that 25 of 35 OU Pokemon, roughly a whopping 71% of the entire OU Meta, cannot reliably switch into Banded Stakeout STAB First Impression at full health without being OHKO'd or 2HKO'd or having a very high chance to be OHKO'd or 2HKO'd (100% assured OHKO/2HKO's with chip damage). If you factor in the previously mentioned chip damage, that number becomes somewhere closer to 80%+ and turns some of those 3HKOs into 2HKOs. The numbers are relatively similar for Band Stakeout STAB U-Turn, so I won't post those calculations here. Those who know about Spidops's nuclear power don't want to switch - those who don't know are generally decimated; regular resists are mostly 2HKO'd or 3HKO'd.

So what about First Impression without Stakeout's boost? Well, it's not as impressive for obvious reasons, but still hits some notable OHKO and 2HKO benchmarks which is all that it needs to do to threaten specific targets from your opponent's team. It also hits many neutral threats for a solid 3HKO that can turn into a 2HKO with chip damage.

Banded STAB First Impression Damage Calculations (No Stakeout)
View attachment 492228

OHKOs and 2HKOS:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 186-220 (50.1 - 59.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 210-247 (80.4 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (50.7 - 59.9%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 482-570 (168.5 - 199.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 246-289 (62.4 - 73.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 147-174 (46.3 - 54.8%) -- 60.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 380-450 (116.9 - 138.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 928-1096 (316.7 - 374%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 458-542 (130.4 - 154.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 288-338 (56 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

3HKOs (that can become 2HKOs with chip damage):

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 171-202 (39.5 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 110-129 (34.7 - 40.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (43 - 50.9%) -- 4.3% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 148-175 (40.1 - 47.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 118-141 (38.8 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery​

All of this mayhem and chaos is just from one move - so what about Spidop's coverage moves? Let's start with Throat Chop; If you're not clicking First Impression or U-Turn, you will likely be clicking Throat Chop. So what can Throat Chop do? Well, Throat Chop is specifically meant to handle Pokemon such as Skeledirge, Ceruledge, and others that like to switch in on Spidops. With Tera-Dark, Spidops additionally gets rid of the problems of its mono-Bug defensive profile and replaces it with mono-Dark that grants nifty resistances to Dark and Ghost and a Psychic immunity while changing the Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses to neutralities. For Throat Chop, we're going to look at calculations both with and without Terastallizing for emphasis here.

Throat Chop (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Calculations (Pre-Tera and Post-Tera)
View attachment 492229

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 248-294 (70 - 83%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 372-440 (105 - 124.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 108-127 (27 - 31.8%) -- 41.8% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 260-308 (82 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 390-462 (123 - 145.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 214-254 (67.9 - 80.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 320-380 (101.5 - 120.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 154-182 (40.7 - 48.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 230-272 (60.8 - 71.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 206-244 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 308-366 (74.9 - 89%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 496-584 (140.1 - 164.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 744-876 (210.1 - 247.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 214-253 (53.6 - 63.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 520-614 (164 - 193.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 780-920 (246 - 290.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 430-506 (136.5 - 160.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 644-758 (204.4 - 240.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 306-362 (80.9 - 95.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 458-542 (121.1 - 143.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 410-484 (99.7 - 117.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 614-726 (149.3 - 176.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO​

The last slot after U-Turn is a toss-up depending on your team's specific needs. I vastly prefer to run Sticky Web for additional speed control and team utility. Hatterene and any other Magic Bounce users will either (A. Be cautious about switching in due to First Impression or B. Switch in because they know Spidops has Sticky Web and don't understand just how hard First Impression can hit). You'll likely want to wait to click Sticky Web until Magic Bounce users are dealt with - otherwise, click First Impression, Throat Chop, or U-Turn if you expect a switch. The second option you could choose is to run additional coverage with Brick Break to nail annoying Rock, Steel, Ice, Normal, and Dark type switch-ins. The reason I prefer Sticky Web over Brick Break is that, without Stakeout, Brick Break's damage output can be a bit lackluster. Let's take a look at some calculations for Brick Break with and without Stakeout so that you can see if these damage benchmarks are right for you.

Brick Break (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Damage Calculations
View attachment 492238

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 154-182 (38.1 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 118-140 (29.2 - 34.6%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 166-196 (51.7 - 61%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 332-392 (89.9 - 106.2%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 108-128 (31.3 - 37.2%) -- 81% chance to 3HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 306-362 (75.7 - 89.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 236-278 (58.4 - 68.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 330-390 (102.8 - 121.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 660-780 (178.8 - 211.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 214-252 (62.2 - 73.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
​

Lastly, you could run Circle Throw - you wouldn't be running this for damage (although Stakeout Circle Throw can still hit quite hard); you would be running this for its phasing capabilities. However, the choice is up to you!

Defensive Capabilities​

So now you're likely thinking, "Okay, I get it; Spidops hits like a truck, but what about its defenses?" Well, with near-max HP investment and just a little bit of Special Defense investment, Spidops is capable of some surprising defensive feats courtesy of its 92/86 Defense and Special Defense. With this EV investment, Spidops's defensive profile is HP - 320, Defense - 220, and Special Defense - 210. Let's take a look at some calculations to see just how much Spidops can live through with the allotted 252 HP, 0 Def, 8 SpD EVs.

Spidops Physical Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492228

252+ Atk Amoonguss Foul Play vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 127-151 (39.3 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Bullet Seed (3 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 147-174 (45.5 - 53.8%) -- approx. 37.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Breloom Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 157-186 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Mach Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 79-93 (24.4 - 28.7%) -- 99.7% chance to 4HKO

0 Atk Clodsire Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 46-54 (14.2 - 16.7%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 248-294 (76.7 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Def Dondozo Body Press vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 47-56 (14.5 - 17.3%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Dondozo Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 46.9% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 128-151 (39.6 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
76 Atk Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 146-174 (45.2 - 53.8%) -- approx. 28.1% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 106-125 (32.8 - 38.6%) -- 99.4% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 65-77 (20.1 - 23.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Fire Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 198-234 (61.3 - 72.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 72-86 (22.2 - 26.6%) -- 21.9% chance to 4HKO
0 Atk Garchomp Dragon Tail vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 87-103 (26.9 - 31.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 141-166 (43.6 - 51.3%) -- 6.6% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 114-135 (35.2 - 41.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Protean Meowscarada U-turn vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Flower Trick vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops on a critical hit: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Quaquaval Aqua Step vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 133-157 (41.1 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Quaquaval Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 58.2% chance to 3HKO

252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 192-226 (59.4 - 69.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 80-94 (24.7 - 29.1%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 243-286 (75.2 - 88.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 101-119 (31.2 - 36.8%) -- 77.1% chance to 3HKO

0 Atk Ting-Lu Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 63-74 (19.5 - 22.9%) -- possible 5HKO

Spidops Special Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492248

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 184-217 (56.9 - 67.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
180 SpA Dragapult Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 94-112 (29.1 - 34.6%) -- 8.7% chance to 3HKO

0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 102-120 (31.5 - 37.1%) -- 78.9% chance to 3HKO
0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (130 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 202-238 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 150-177 (46.4 - 54.7%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 211-249 (65.3 - 77%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 258-304 (79.8 - 94.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 231-273 (71.5 - 84.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 282-333 (87.3 - 103%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

0 SpA Rotom-Wash Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 139-165 (43 - 51%) -- 3.1% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Rotom-Wash Volt Switch vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 88-105 (27.2 - 32.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
​

So now we've established that there are some definite switch-in opportunities for Spidops with this defensive profile; what about once it terastallizes into a Dark type? Without those pesky Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses, Spidops can suddenly take attacks from a host of threats it really would not like to have switched into before! Let's take a look at some hits that it couldn't take before but can handle now.

Spidops Defensive Calculations (Terastallized)
View attachment 492229

0 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 127-150 (39.3 - 46.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 153-181 (47.3 - 56%) -- 80.9% chance to 2HKO
0 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 28-33 (8.6 - 10.2%) -- possibly the worst move ever
252 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 34-41 (10.5 - 12.6%) -- possible 8HKO

252 Atk Cinderace Pyro Ball vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 195-229 (60.3 - 70.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 92-108 (28.4 - 33.4%) -- 0.1% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Phantom Force vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 64-75 (19.8 - 23.2%) -- possible 5HKO

252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 75-88 (23.2 - 27.2%) -- 59.1% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 112-132 (34.6 - 40.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252+ Atk Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 84-99 (26 - 30.6%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 69-82 (21.3 - 25.3%) -- 0.2% chance to 4HKO

252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 237-280 (73.3 - 86.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 104-123 (32.1 - 38%) -- 95.1% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 121-143 (37.4 - 44.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 106-126 (32.8 - 39%) -- 99.7% chance to 3HKO
+1 8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Volcarona Fiery Dance vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Team Support + Other Set Option
View attachment 492184
Spidops may be strong, but it does require some solid support to function properly. Let's take a look at some options that will help Spidops successfully function! In addition, we'll look at an additional Spidops set very briefly to explain how it works; while I don't like the following set as much as the Choice Band set, I've had enough success with it that I found it noteworthy enough to mention!

Hazard + Mortal Spin or Rapid Spin

Recommended Partner: Glimmora
View attachment 492250
Not only is Glimmora one of the best leads (arguably one of the best OU Pokemon in general), but it compresses spinning and setting into a single team slot. Glimmora's ability Toxic Debris auto sets Toxic Spikes, its signature move Mortal Spin poisons + clears hazards, and it has access to both Spikes and Stealth Rock! Whenever I use Spidops, I almost always have Glimmora as its partner.

Wish Passing

Recommended Partner: Alomomola

View attachment 492252

Alomomola has been my favorite Gen 9 OU wish passer since the earliest stages of the metagame. It has tremendous bulk, fantastic mono-Water defensive typing, and access to invaluable utility and trapping moves such as Chilling Water and Whirlpool. Alomomola is a Pokemon that I would recommend for most team compositions in general, but especially as a great partner for Spidops!

Spidops Alternative Set Option
View attachment 492173
Anti-Lead Steel Stakeout Bug Utility
View attachment 492254
Spidops @ Leftovers
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Taunt
- Silk Trap
- U-turn

Set Explanation:
This is a role compression utility set that relies on Spidop's access to its unique move Silk Trap, a variant of Protect for damaging moves that slows a Pokemon's speed by one stage if it hits the Silk Trap with a contact move. Taunt is meant to stop hazard/status/phasing, while First Impression and U-Turn function similarly. The reason we're using Steel as a Tera-type is for its defensive prowess + immunity to Toxic. The 100 Speed EVs are to outspeed Ting-Lu and Hippowdon (allowing you to Taunt them). While I have had quite a bit of success with this set, I feel that the issues with vulnerability and having to sacrifice HP and Special Defense EVs is a really tough call to make.

Conclusion
View attachment 492253

Spidops is one of my new favorite Pokemon to use in OU - it's powerful and varied, and has plenty of other options besides the Choice Band set and the Anti-Lead Utility set that I listed. It has its flaws (having the lowest BST total of all Pokemon introduced in Gen 9 is a bummer), but I've found that it's a valuable team member with a great niche that compliments multiple build styles. So, give Spidops a try today; I promise you won't be disappointed - however, when your opponent's Garchomp goes down in a single hit to an early-game Bug type, they definitely will be disappointed.​

this is my favorite novel.

 

[DaddyBuzzwole]

Spidops

View attachment 492173
"Spidops is a covert ambush predator that utilizes its sticky and resilient silk threads to cling upon any surface and move without making a sound. It spins a silk thread from the spinneret on its abdomen, which it uses to hang upside-down from tall places. It then spins a net between its top four legs which it uses to smother its prey, striking before the prey has time to react." - Bulbapedia

"Hehe, mustache spider assassin's Choice Band Stakeout STAB First Impression go brrrrrrr" - Morkal​

BASE STAT	LEVEL 100 STAT RANGE
HP: 60	230 - 324​
Attack: 79​	146 - 282​
Defense: 92	170 - 311​
Sp. Atk: 52	98 - 223​
Sp. Def: 86	159 - 298​
Speed: 35	67 - 185​

Notable Moves

Physical Moves:
Brick Break, Circle Throw, First Impression, Leech Life, Low Kick, Lunge, Poison Jab, Rock Tomb, Shadow Claw, Skitter Smack, Sucker Punch, Tera Blast, Thief, Throat Chop, Trailblaze, U-Turn, X-Scissor

Utility Moves:
Memento, Protect, Rest, Silk Trap, Spikes, Sticky Web, Substitute, Taunt, Toxic Spikes

Introduction​

Spidops evolves from Tarountula, an early game bug. Being an early-game bug usually spells "competitive career death" for most Pokemon, and for a while, it was looking the same for Spidops. However, Spidops has numerous qualities that, with proper support, can leave a sizeable impact on your team composition. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Spidops is now one of my favorite Pokemon to use in OU, and is actually easier than you might think to slip into specific team compositions! So without further ado, let's dive into this post (that is somehow longer than my college world history dissertation last semester) to talk about one of the most stylish Bug-type Pokemon to ever grace the competitive metagame!

Disclaimer: While Spidops has a lot of utility and flexibility, it can be played around if you're not knowledgeable about specific damage and speed tier benchmarks (the latter of which I'll link here). I highly recommend careful team building and looking into speed tiers, running practice calculations, testing Spidops on your various teams, and practicing prediction for switches. I would like to double-stress that understanding switch prediction is key for move choice. If you work Spidops properly and work to increase your contemporary metagame knowledge, he can provide exceptional utility, scary offensive pressure, and even situational defensive prowess for your teams!

View attachment 492184
Spidops Summarized Advantages
This is a "too long, didn't read" section for people who want a quick summary of Spidops's advantages without reading the essay-length post.​

• Spidops has a surprisingly useful defensive profile with HP investment; 60/92/86 with resistances to Fighting, Ground, and Grass means that it resists moves like both of Great Tusk's STABs, Garchomp and Ting-Lu's Earthquake, and more.
• Spidops's Stakeout-boosted STAB First Impression is the single strongest priority move available in the OU meta, and thanks to a bevy of impressive coverage options, it can hit a lot harder than you think with proper investment and item distribution. With Choice Band + Stakeout, STAB First Impression OHKOs Swords Dance Garchomp, has a chance to OHKO Bulky Garchomp, and can 2HKO almost every variant of Garganacl; those are just a few quick examples to show how mind-numbingly dumb Spidops's power can be, (more calculations are in the main post).
• Spidop's Stakeout First Impression also discourages your opponent from switching by punishing players who have lost their double resists and heavily physically defensive single-resist Pokemon, leaving your opponent with the difficult choice of sacrificing frail powerful sweepers like Greninja and Meowscarada or risking taking nuclear levels of damage from the Stakeout boost.
• Spidops's Stakeout additionally boosts all of its coverage moves, meaning that, given the right prediction, not much can reliably switch into Spidops at all.
• Spidops's wide movepool means it can fit a variety of roles suited to your team, meaning that the two movesets I will be talking about below can be tailored to your team's specific needs based on your teammates.
• Spidops can utilize Tera to turn the tables on would-be checks and counters like Skeledirge, Ceruledge, Garganacl, and more!
• Spidops's role compression is very flexible, and its low speed actually works in its favor thanks to slow STAB U-Turn (which can additionally be boosted with Stakeout on switch-ins).

View attachment 492183
Priority Band Stakeout (One Variant - Tera Dark)

View attachment 492239
Spidops @ Choice Band
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Throat Chop
- U-Turn
- Sticky Web / Brick Break / Circle Throw

Offensive Capabilities​

Spidops Priority Band Stakeout is meant to be an early-mid game menace that weaves in and out of combat by playing mind games with insanely powerful STAB Priority, fantastic coverage in Throat Chop and Brick Break, and a powerful STAB boosted slow U-Turn to keep up the momentum, all complimented by Stakeout's ability to punish switching aggressively. In the late game, First Impression essentially becomes a one-button cleaner nuke that decimates damaged Pokemon. Let's talk about Stakeout and what it does; Stakeout is an ability that doubles the power of Spidops's moves when used against a Pokemon switching in. Now you might be thinking, "why not just switch to a resist" or "wouldn't the opponent just stay in because of Stakeout or because of Spidops's lackluster base stats?" To answer these questions, let's start by demonstrating just how powerful Band STAB Stakeout First Impression is against even double-resisted hits.

Banded STAB Stakeout First Impression Damage Calculations
View attachment 492228

Super Effective Hits (Not really relevant for Stakeout, but I'm still noting because the damage is just kinda hilarious):

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 962-1134 (336.3 - 396.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (talk about overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 758-894 (233.2 - 275%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 1860-2188 (634.8 - 746.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (okay, I take the Greninja comment back, THIS is overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 918-1082 (261.5 - 308.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 570-672 (110.8 - 130.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Imagine OHKO'ing Ting-Lu on the physical side)

Neutral Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 340-402 (78.7 - 93%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 372-438 (100.2 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 417-492 (159.7 - 188.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 228-268 (45.2 - 53.1%) -- 31.6% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Dondozo: 306-361 (60.7 - 71.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (101.1 - 119.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (85.9 - 101.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 276-325 (68.3 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 211-249 (52.2 - 61.6%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 489-576 (124.1 - 146.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 204+ Def Hatterene: 270-318 (84.9 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 292-345 (92.1 - 108.8%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 297-349 (80.4 - 94.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 237-280 (77.9 - 92.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 116 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (56.2 - 66.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (51.4 - 60.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cinderace: 219-258 (72.7 - 85.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (OHKO with Chip)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Clodsire: 258-304 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 219-258 (69 - 81.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (27.8 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-212 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (25 - 29.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-213 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Glimmora: 188-222 (61.2 - 72.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 136-161 (36.6 - 43.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (46.1 - 54.2%) -- 54.7% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (38.5 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 96-113 (27.9 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Pelipper: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Quaquaval: 207-244 (66.5 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 200 HP / 180+ Def Quaquaval: 154-182 (42.6 - 50.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 236 HP / 0 Def Scizor: 174-204 (51.1 - 60%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex: 96-114 (31.5 - 37.5%) -- 0% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 108 Def Volcarona: 212-249 (56.8 - 66.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Double Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (35.7 - 42.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (29.3 - 34.7%) -- 8.3% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Moth: 130-154 (43.1 - 51.1%) -- 5.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Iron Valiant: 94-111 (32.5 - 38.4%) -- 97.9% chance to 3HKO​

To give you an idea, those calculations were for 32 of 35 OU and OU BL Pokemon. 10 of those 32 listed OU Pokemon are either OHKO'd or have a solid chance to be OHKO'd. 15 of those 32 listed are either 2HKO'd or have a solid chance to be 2HKO'd. This means that 25 of 35 OU Pokemon, roughly a whopping 71% of the entire OU Meta, cannot reliably switch into Banded Stakeout STAB First Impression at full health without being OHKO'd or 2HKO'd or having a very high chance to be OHKO'd or 2HKO'd (100% assured OHKO/2HKO's with chip damage). If you factor in the previously mentioned chip damage, that number becomes somewhere closer to 80%+ and turns some of those 3HKOs into 2HKOs. The numbers are relatively similar for Band Stakeout STAB U-Turn, so I won't post those calculations here. Those who know about Spidops's nuclear power don't want to switch - those who don't know are generally decimated; regular resists are mostly 2HKO'd or 3HKO'd.

So what about First Impression without Stakeout's boost? Well, it's not as impressive for obvious reasons, but still hits some notable OHKO and 2HKO benchmarks which is all that it needs to do to threaten specific targets from your opponent's team. It also hits many neutral threats for a solid 3HKO that can turn into a 2HKO with chip damage.

Banded STAB First Impression Damage Calculations (No Stakeout)
View attachment 492228

OHKOs and 2HKOS:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 186-220 (50.1 - 59.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 210-247 (80.4 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (50.7 - 59.9%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 482-570 (168.5 - 199.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 246-289 (62.4 - 73.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 147-174 (46.3 - 54.8%) -- 60.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 380-450 (116.9 - 138.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 928-1096 (316.7 - 374%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 458-542 (130.4 - 154.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 288-338 (56 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

3HKOs (that can become 2HKOs with chip damage):

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 171-202 (39.5 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 110-129 (34.7 - 40.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (43 - 50.9%) -- 4.3% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 148-175 (40.1 - 47.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 118-141 (38.8 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery​

All of this mayhem and chaos is just from one move - so what about Spidop's coverage moves? Let's start with Throat Chop; If you're not clicking First Impression or U-Turn, you will likely be clicking Throat Chop. So what can Throat Chop do? Well, Throat Chop is specifically meant to handle Pokemon such as Skeledirge, Ceruledge, and others that like to switch in on Spidops. With Tera-Dark, Spidops additionally gets rid of the problems of its mono-Bug defensive profile and replaces it with mono-Dark that grants nifty resistances to Dark and Ghost and a Psychic immunity while changing the Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses to neutralities. For Throat Chop, we're going to look at calculations both with and without Terastallizing for emphasis here.

Throat Chop (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Calculations (Pre-Tera and Post-Tera)
View attachment 492229

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 248-294 (70 - 83%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 372-440 (105 - 124.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 108-127 (27 - 31.8%) -- 41.8% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 260-308 (82 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 390-462 (123 - 145.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 214-254 (67.9 - 80.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 320-380 (101.5 - 120.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 154-182 (40.7 - 48.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 230-272 (60.8 - 71.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 206-244 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 308-366 (74.9 - 89%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 496-584 (140.1 - 164.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 744-876 (210.1 - 247.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 214-253 (53.6 - 63.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 520-614 (164 - 193.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 780-920 (246 - 290.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 430-506 (136.5 - 160.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 644-758 (204.4 - 240.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 306-362 (80.9 - 95.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 458-542 (121.1 - 143.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 410-484 (99.7 - 117.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 614-726 (149.3 - 176.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO​

The last slot after U-Turn is a toss-up depending on your team's specific needs. I vastly prefer to run Sticky Web for additional speed control and team utility. Hatterene and any other Magic Bounce users will either (A. Be cautious about switching in due to First Impression or B. Switch in because they know Spidops has Sticky Web and don't understand just how hard First Impression can hit). You'll likely want to wait to click Sticky Web until Magic Bounce users are dealt with - otherwise, click First Impression, Throat Chop, or U-Turn if you expect a switch. The second option you could choose is to run additional coverage with Brick Break to nail annoying Rock, Steel, Ice, Normal, and Dark type switch-ins. The reason I prefer Sticky Web over Brick Break is that, without Stakeout, Brick Break's damage output can be a bit lackluster. Let's take a look at some calculations for Brick Break with and without Stakeout so that you can see if these damage benchmarks are right for you.

Brick Break (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Damage Calculations
View attachment 492238

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 154-182 (38.1 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 118-140 (29.2 - 34.6%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 166-196 (51.7 - 61%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 332-392 (89.9 - 106.2%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 108-128 (31.3 - 37.2%) -- 81% chance to 3HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 306-362 (75.7 - 89.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 236-278 (58.4 - 68.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 330-390 (102.8 - 121.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 660-780 (178.8 - 211.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 214-252 (62.2 - 73.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
​

Lastly, you could run Circle Throw - you wouldn't be running this for damage (although Stakeout Circle Throw can still hit quite hard); you would be running this for its phasing capabilities. However, the choice is up to you!

Defensive Capabilities​

So now you're likely thinking, "Okay, I get it; Spidops hits like a truck, but what about its defenses?" Well, with near-max HP investment and just a little bit of Special Defense investment, Spidops is capable of some surprising defensive feats courtesy of its 92/86 Defense and Special Defense. With this EV investment, Spidops's defensive profile is HP - 320, Defense - 220, and Special Defense - 210. Let's take a look at some calculations to see just how much Spidops can live through with the allotted 252 HP, 0 Def, 8 SpD EVs.

Spidops Physical Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492228

252+ Atk Amoonguss Foul Play vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 127-151 (39.3 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Bullet Seed (3 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 147-174 (45.5 - 53.8%) -- approx. 37.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Breloom Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 157-186 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Mach Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 79-93 (24.4 - 28.7%) -- 99.7% chance to 4HKO

0 Atk Clodsire Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 46-54 (14.2 - 16.7%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 248-294 (76.7 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Def Dondozo Body Press vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 47-56 (14.5 - 17.3%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Dondozo Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 46.9% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 128-151 (39.6 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
76 Atk Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 146-174 (45.2 - 53.8%) -- approx. 28.1% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 106-125 (32.8 - 38.6%) -- 99.4% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 65-77 (20.1 - 23.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Fire Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 198-234 (61.3 - 72.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 72-86 (22.2 - 26.6%) -- 21.9% chance to 4HKO
0 Atk Garchomp Dragon Tail vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 87-103 (26.9 - 31.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 141-166 (43.6 - 51.3%) -- 6.6% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 114-135 (35.2 - 41.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Protean Meowscarada U-turn vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Flower Trick vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops on a critical hit: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Quaquaval Aqua Step vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 133-157 (41.1 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Quaquaval Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 58.2% chance to 3HKO

252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 192-226 (59.4 - 69.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 80-94 (24.7 - 29.1%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 243-286 (75.2 - 88.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 101-119 (31.2 - 36.8%) -- 77.1% chance to 3HKO

0 Atk Ting-Lu Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 63-74 (19.5 - 22.9%) -- possible 5HKO

Spidops Special Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492248

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 184-217 (56.9 - 67.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
180 SpA Dragapult Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 94-112 (29.1 - 34.6%) -- 8.7% chance to 3HKO

0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 102-120 (31.5 - 37.1%) -- 78.9% chance to 3HKO
0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (130 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 202-238 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 150-177 (46.4 - 54.7%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 211-249 (65.3 - 77%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 258-304 (79.8 - 94.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 231-273 (71.5 - 84.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 282-333 (87.3 - 103%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

0 SpA Rotom-Wash Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 139-165 (43 - 51%) -- 3.1% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Rotom-Wash Volt Switch vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 88-105 (27.2 - 32.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
​

So now we've established that there are some definite switch-in opportunities for Spidops with this defensive profile; what about once it terastallizes into a Dark type? Without those pesky Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses, Spidops can suddenly take attacks from a host of threats it really would not like to have switched into before! Let's take a look at some hits that it couldn't take before but can handle now.

Spidops Defensive Calculations (Terastallized)
View attachment 492229

0 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 127-150 (39.3 - 46.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 153-181 (47.3 - 56%) -- 80.9% chance to 2HKO
0 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 28-33 (8.6 - 10.2%) -- possibly the worst move ever
252 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 34-41 (10.5 - 12.6%) -- possible 8HKO

252 Atk Cinderace Pyro Ball vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 195-229 (60.3 - 70.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 92-108 (28.4 - 33.4%) -- 0.1% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Phantom Force vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 64-75 (19.8 - 23.2%) -- possible 5HKO

252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 75-88 (23.2 - 27.2%) -- 59.1% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 112-132 (34.6 - 40.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252+ Atk Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 84-99 (26 - 30.6%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 69-82 (21.3 - 25.3%) -- 0.2% chance to 4HKO

252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 237-280 (73.3 - 86.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 104-123 (32.1 - 38%) -- 95.1% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 121-143 (37.4 - 44.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 106-126 (32.8 - 39%) -- 99.7% chance to 3HKO
+1 8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Volcarona Fiery Dance vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Team Support + Other Set Option
View attachment 492184
Spidops may be strong, but it does require some solid support to function properly. Let's take a look at some options that will help Spidops successfully function! In addition, we'll look at an additional Spidops set very briefly to explain how it works; while I don't like the following set as much as the Choice Band set, I've had enough success with it that I found it noteworthy enough to mention!

Hazard + Mortal Spin or Rapid Spin

Recommended Partner: Glimmora
View attachment 492250
Not only is Glimmora one of the best leads (arguably one of the best OU Pokemon in general), but it compresses spinning and setting into a single team slot. Glimmora's ability Toxic Debris auto sets Toxic Spikes, its signature move Mortal Spin poisons + clears hazards, and it has access to both Spikes and Stealth Rock! Whenever I use Spidops, I almost always have Glimmora as its partner.

Wish Passing

Recommended Partner: Alomomola

View attachment 492252

Alomomola has been my favorite Gen 9 OU wish passer since the earliest stages of the metagame. It has tremendous bulk, fantastic mono-Water defensive typing, and access to invaluable utility and trapping moves such as Chilling Water and Whirlpool. Alomomola is a Pokemon that I would recommend for most team compositions in general, but especially as a great partner for Spidops!

Spidops Alternative Set Option
View attachment 492173
Anti-Lead Steel Stakeout Bug Utility
View attachment 492254
Spidops @ Leftovers
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Taunt
- Silk Trap
- U-turn

Set Explanation:
This is a role compression utility set that relies on Spidop's access to its unique move Silk Trap, a variant of Protect for damaging moves that slows a Pokemon's speed by one stage if it hits the Silk Trap with a contact move. Taunt is meant to stop hazard/status/phasing, while First Impression and U-Turn function similarly. The reason we're using Steel as a Tera-type is for its defensive prowess + immunity to Toxic. The 100 Speed EVs are to outspeed Ting-Lu and Hippowdon (allowing you to Taunt them). While I have had quite a bit of success with this set, I feel that the issues with vulnerability and having to sacrifice HP and Special Defense EVs is a really tough call to make.

Conclusion
View attachment 492253

Spidops is one of my new favorite Pokemon to use in OU - it's powerful and varied, and has plenty of other options besides the Choice Band set and the Anti-Lead Utility set that I listed. It has its flaws (having the lowest BST total of all Pokemon introduced in Gen 9 is a bummer), but I've found that it's a valuable team member with a great niche that compliments multiple build styles. So, give Spidops a try today; I promise you won't be disappointed - however, when your opponent's Garchomp goes down in a single hit to an early-game Bug type, they definitely will be disappointed.​

and yet all the randbats people could think of was hazards + memento. you should start submitting some of your sets to them, these are solid

 

[Athyestic]

Spidops

View attachment 492173
"Spidops is a covert ambush predator that utilizes its sticky and resilient silk threads to cling upon any surface and move without making a sound. It spins a silk thread from the spinneret on its abdomen, which it uses to hang upside-down from tall places. It then spins a net between its top four legs which it uses to smother its prey, striking before the prey has time to react." - Bulbapedia

"Hehe, mustache spider assassin's Choice Band Stakeout STAB First Impression go brrrrrrr" - Morkal​

BASE STAT	LEVEL 100 STAT RANGE
HP: 60	230 - 324​
Attack: 79​	146 - 282​
Defense: 92	170 - 311​
Sp. Atk: 52	98 - 223​
Sp. Def: 86	159 - 298​
Speed: 35	67 - 185​

Notable Moves

Physical Moves:
Brick Break, Circle Throw, First Impression, Leech Life, Low Kick, Lunge, Poison Jab, Rock Tomb, Shadow Claw, Skitter Smack, Sucker Punch, Tera Blast, Thief, Throat Chop, Trailblaze, U-Turn, X-Scissor

Utility Moves:
Memento, Protect, Rest, Silk Trap, Spikes, Sticky Web, Substitute, Taunt, Toxic Spikes

Introduction​

Spidops evolves from Tarountula, an early game bug. Being an early-game bug usually spells "competitive career death" for most Pokemon, and for a while, it was looking the same for Spidops. However, Spidops has numerous qualities that, with proper support, can leave a sizeable impact on your team composition. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Spidops is now one of my favorite Pokemon to use in OU, and is actually easier than you might think to slip into specific team compositions! So without further ado, let's dive into this post (that is somehow longer than my college world history dissertation last semester) to talk about one of the most stylish Bug-type Pokemon to ever grace the competitive metagame!

Disclaimer: While Spidops has a lot of utility and flexibility, it can be played around if you're not knowledgeable about specific damage and speed tier benchmarks (the latter of which I'll link here). I highly recommend careful team building and looking into speed tiers, running practice calculations, testing Spidops on your various teams, and practicing prediction for switches. I would like to double-stress that understanding switch prediction is key for move choice. If you work Spidops properly and work to increase your contemporary metagame knowledge, he can provide exceptional utility, scary offensive pressure, and even situational defensive prowess for your teams!

View attachment 492184
Spidops Summarized Advantages
This is a "too long, didn't read" section for people who want a quick summary of Spidops's advantages without reading the essay-length post.​

• Spidops has a surprisingly useful defensive profile with HP investment; 60/92/86 with resistances to Fighting, Ground, and Grass means that it resists moves like both of Great Tusk's STABs, Garchomp and Ting-Lu's Earthquake, and more.
• Spidops's Stakeout-boosted STAB First Impression is the single strongest priority move available in the OU meta, and thanks to a bevy of impressive coverage options, it can hit a lot harder than you think with proper investment and item distribution. With Choice Band + Stakeout, STAB First Impression OHKOs Swords Dance Garchomp, has a chance to OHKO Bulky Garchomp, and can 2HKO almost every variant of Garganacl; those are just a few quick examples to show how mind-numbingly dumb Spidops's power can be, (more calculations are in the main post).
• Spidop's Stakeout First Impression also discourages your opponent from switching by punishing players who have lost their double resists and heavily physically defensive single-resist Pokemon, leaving your opponent with the difficult choice of sacrificing frail powerful sweepers like Greninja and Meowscarada or risking taking nuclear levels of damage from the Stakeout boost.
• Spidops's Stakeout additionally boosts all of its coverage moves, meaning that, given the right prediction, not much can reliably switch into Spidops at all.
• Spidops's wide movepool means it can fit a variety of roles suited to your team, meaning that the two movesets I will be talking about below can be tailored to your team's specific needs based on your teammates.
• Spidops can utilize Tera to turn the tables on would-be checks and counters like Skeledirge, Ceruledge, Garganacl, and more!
• Spidops's role compression is very flexible, and its low speed actually works in its favor thanks to slow STAB U-Turn (which can additionally be boosted with Stakeout on switch-ins).

View attachment 492183
Priority Band Stakeout (One Variant - Tera Dark)

View attachment 492239
Spidops @ Choice Band
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Throat Chop
- U-Turn
- Sticky Web / Brick Break / Circle Throw

Offensive Capabilities​

Spidops Priority Band Stakeout is meant to be an early-mid game menace that weaves in and out of combat by playing mind games with insanely powerful STAB Priority, fantastic coverage in Throat Chop and Brick Break, and a powerful STAB boosted slow U-Turn to keep up the momentum, all complimented by Stakeout's ability to punish switching aggressively. In the late game, First Impression essentially becomes a one-button cleaner nuke that decimates damaged Pokemon. Let's talk about Stakeout and what it does; Stakeout is an ability that doubles the power of Spidops's moves when used against a Pokemon switching in. Now you might be thinking, "why not just switch to a resist" or "wouldn't the opponent just stay in because of Stakeout or because of Spidops's lackluster base stats?" To answer these questions, let's start by demonstrating just how powerful Band STAB Stakeout First Impression is against even double-resisted hits.

Banded STAB Stakeout First Impression Damage Calculations
View attachment 492228

Super Effective Hits (Not really relevant for Stakeout, but I'm still noting because the damage is just kinda hilarious):

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 962-1134 (336.3 - 396.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (talk about overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 758-894 (233.2 - 275%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 1860-2188 (634.8 - 746.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (okay, I take the Greninja comment back, THIS is overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 918-1082 (261.5 - 308.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 570-672 (110.8 - 130.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Imagine OHKO'ing Ting-Lu on the physical side)

Neutral Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 340-402 (78.7 - 93%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 372-438 (100.2 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 417-492 (159.7 - 188.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 228-268 (45.2 - 53.1%) -- 31.6% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Dondozo: 306-361 (60.7 - 71.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (101.1 - 119.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (85.9 - 101.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 276-325 (68.3 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 211-249 (52.2 - 61.6%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 489-576 (124.1 - 146.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 204+ Def Hatterene: 270-318 (84.9 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 292-345 (92.1 - 108.8%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 297-349 (80.4 - 94.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 237-280 (77.9 - 92.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 116 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (56.2 - 66.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (51.4 - 60.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cinderace: 219-258 (72.7 - 85.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (OHKO with Chip)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Clodsire: 258-304 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 219-258 (69 - 81.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (27.8 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-212 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (25 - 29.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-213 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Glimmora: 188-222 (61.2 - 72.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 136-161 (36.6 - 43.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (46.1 - 54.2%) -- 54.7% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (38.5 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 96-113 (27.9 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Pelipper: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Quaquaval: 207-244 (66.5 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 200 HP / 180+ Def Quaquaval: 154-182 (42.6 - 50.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 236 HP / 0 Def Scizor: 174-204 (51.1 - 60%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex: 96-114 (31.5 - 37.5%) -- 0% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 108 Def Volcarona: 212-249 (56.8 - 66.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Double Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (35.7 - 42.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (29.3 - 34.7%) -- 8.3% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Moth: 130-154 (43.1 - 51.1%) -- 5.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Iron Valiant: 94-111 (32.5 - 38.4%) -- 97.9% chance to 3HKO​

To give you an idea, those calculations were for 32 of 35 OU and OU BL Pokemon. 10 of those 32 listed OU Pokemon are either OHKO'd or have a solid chance to be OHKO'd. 15 of those 32 listed are either 2HKO'd or have a solid chance to be 2HKO'd. This means that 25 of 35 OU Pokemon, roughly a whopping 71% of the entire OU Meta, cannot reliably switch into Banded Stakeout STAB First Impression at full health without being OHKO'd or 2HKO'd or having a very high chance to be OHKO'd or 2HKO'd (100% assured OHKO/2HKO's with chip damage). If you factor in the previously mentioned chip damage, that number becomes somewhere closer to 80%+ and turns some of those 3HKOs into 2HKOs. The numbers are relatively similar for Band Stakeout STAB U-Turn, so I won't post those calculations here. Those who know about Spidops's nuclear power don't want to switch - those who don't know are generally decimated; regular resists are mostly 2HKO'd or 3HKO'd.

So what about First Impression without Stakeout's boost? Well, it's not as impressive for obvious reasons, but still hits some notable OHKO and 2HKO benchmarks which is all that it needs to do to threaten specific targets from your opponent's team. It also hits many neutral threats for a solid 3HKO that can turn into a 2HKO with chip damage.

Banded STAB First Impression Damage Calculations (No Stakeout)
View attachment 492228

OHKOs and 2HKOS:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 186-220 (50.1 - 59.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 210-247 (80.4 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (50.7 - 59.9%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 482-570 (168.5 - 199.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 246-289 (62.4 - 73.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 147-174 (46.3 - 54.8%) -- 60.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 380-450 (116.9 - 138.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 928-1096 (316.7 - 374%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 458-542 (130.4 - 154.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 288-338 (56 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

3HKOs (that can become 2HKOs with chip damage):

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 171-202 (39.5 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 110-129 (34.7 - 40.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (43 - 50.9%) -- 4.3% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 148-175 (40.1 - 47.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 118-141 (38.8 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery​

All of this mayhem and chaos is just from one move - so what about Spidop's coverage moves? Let's start with Throat Chop; If you're not clicking First Impression or U-Turn, you will likely be clicking Throat Chop. So what can Throat Chop do? Well, Throat Chop is specifically meant to handle Pokemon such as Skeledirge, Ceruledge, and others that like to switch in on Spidops. With Tera-Dark, Spidops additionally gets rid of the problems of its mono-Bug defensive profile and replaces it with mono-Dark that grants nifty resistances to Dark and Ghost and a Psychic immunity while changing the Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses to neutralities. For Throat Chop, we're going to look at calculations both with and without Terastallizing for emphasis here.

Throat Chop (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Calculations (Pre-Tera and Post-Tera)
View attachment 492229

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 248-294 (70 - 83%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 372-440 (105 - 124.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 108-127 (27 - 31.8%) -- 41.8% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 260-308 (82 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 390-462 (123 - 145.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 214-254 (67.9 - 80.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 320-380 (101.5 - 120.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 154-182 (40.7 - 48.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 230-272 (60.8 - 71.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 206-244 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 308-366 (74.9 - 89%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 496-584 (140.1 - 164.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 744-876 (210.1 - 247.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 214-253 (53.6 - 63.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 520-614 (164 - 193.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 780-920 (246 - 290.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 430-506 (136.5 - 160.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 644-758 (204.4 - 240.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 306-362 (80.9 - 95.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 458-542 (121.1 - 143.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 410-484 (99.7 - 117.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 614-726 (149.3 - 176.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO​

The last slot after U-Turn is a toss-up depending on your team's specific needs. I vastly prefer to run Sticky Web for additional speed control and team utility. Hatterene and any other Magic Bounce users will either (A. Be cautious about switching in due to First Impression or B. Switch in because they know Spidops has Sticky Web and don't understand just how hard First Impression can hit). You'll likely want to wait to click Sticky Web until Magic Bounce users are dealt with - otherwise, click First Impression, Throat Chop, or U-Turn if you expect a switch. The second option you could choose is to run additional coverage with Brick Break to nail annoying Rock, Steel, Ice, Normal, and Dark type switch-ins. The reason I prefer Sticky Web over Brick Break is that, without Stakeout, Brick Break's damage output can be a bit lackluster. Let's take a look at some calculations for Brick Break with and without Stakeout so that you can see if these damage benchmarks are right for you.

Brick Break (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Damage Calculations
View attachment 492238

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 154-182 (38.1 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 118-140 (29.2 - 34.6%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 166-196 (51.7 - 61%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 332-392 (89.9 - 106.2%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 108-128 (31.3 - 37.2%) -- 81% chance to 3HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 306-362 (75.7 - 89.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 236-278 (58.4 - 68.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 330-390 (102.8 - 121.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 660-780 (178.8 - 211.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 214-252 (62.2 - 73.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
​

Lastly, you could run Circle Throw - you wouldn't be running this for damage (although Stakeout Circle Throw can still hit quite hard); you would be running this for its phasing capabilities. However, the choice is up to you!

Defensive Capabilities​

So now you're likely thinking, "Okay, I get it; Spidops hits like a truck, but what about its defenses?" Well, with near-max HP investment and just a little bit of Special Defense investment, Spidops is capable of some surprising defensive feats courtesy of its 92/86 Defense and Special Defense. With this EV investment, Spidops's defensive profile is HP - 320, Defense - 220, and Special Defense - 210. Let's take a look at some calculations to see just how much Spidops can live through with the allotted 252 HP, 0 Def, 8 SpD EVs.

Spidops Physical Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492228

252+ Atk Amoonguss Foul Play vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 127-151 (39.3 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Bullet Seed (3 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 147-174 (45.5 - 53.8%) -- approx. 37.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Breloom Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 157-186 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Mach Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 79-93 (24.4 - 28.7%) -- 99.7% chance to 4HKO

0 Atk Clodsire Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 46-54 (14.2 - 16.7%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 248-294 (76.7 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Def Dondozo Body Press vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 47-56 (14.5 - 17.3%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Dondozo Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 46.9% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 128-151 (39.6 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
76 Atk Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 146-174 (45.2 - 53.8%) -- approx. 28.1% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 106-125 (32.8 - 38.6%) -- 99.4% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 65-77 (20.1 - 23.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Fire Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 198-234 (61.3 - 72.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 72-86 (22.2 - 26.6%) -- 21.9% chance to 4HKO
0 Atk Garchomp Dragon Tail vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 87-103 (26.9 - 31.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 141-166 (43.6 - 51.3%) -- 6.6% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 114-135 (35.2 - 41.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Protean Meowscarada U-turn vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Flower Trick vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops on a critical hit: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Quaquaval Aqua Step vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 133-157 (41.1 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Quaquaval Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 58.2% chance to 3HKO

252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 192-226 (59.4 - 69.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 80-94 (24.7 - 29.1%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 243-286 (75.2 - 88.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 101-119 (31.2 - 36.8%) -- 77.1% chance to 3HKO

0 Atk Ting-Lu Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 63-74 (19.5 - 22.9%) -- possible 5HKO

Spidops Special Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492248

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 184-217 (56.9 - 67.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
180 SpA Dragapult Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 94-112 (29.1 - 34.6%) -- 8.7% chance to 3HKO

0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 102-120 (31.5 - 37.1%) -- 78.9% chance to 3HKO
0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (130 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 202-238 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 150-177 (46.4 - 54.7%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 211-249 (65.3 - 77%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 258-304 (79.8 - 94.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 231-273 (71.5 - 84.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 282-333 (87.3 - 103%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

0 SpA Rotom-Wash Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 139-165 (43 - 51%) -- 3.1% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Rotom-Wash Volt Switch vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 88-105 (27.2 - 32.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
​

So now we've established that there are some definite switch-in opportunities for Spidops with this defensive profile; what about once it terastallizes into a Dark type? Without those pesky Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses, Spidops can suddenly take attacks from a host of threats it really would not like to have switched into before! Let's take a look at some hits that it couldn't take before but can handle now.

Spidops Defensive Calculations (Terastallized)
View attachment 492229

0 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 127-150 (39.3 - 46.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 153-181 (47.3 - 56%) -- 80.9% chance to 2HKO
0 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 28-33 (8.6 - 10.2%) -- possibly the worst move ever
252 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 34-41 (10.5 - 12.6%) -- possible 8HKO

252 Atk Cinderace Pyro Ball vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 195-229 (60.3 - 70.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 92-108 (28.4 - 33.4%) -- 0.1% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Phantom Force vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 64-75 (19.8 - 23.2%) -- possible 5HKO

252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 75-88 (23.2 - 27.2%) -- 59.1% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 112-132 (34.6 - 40.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252+ Atk Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 84-99 (26 - 30.6%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 69-82 (21.3 - 25.3%) -- 0.2% chance to 4HKO

252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 237-280 (73.3 - 86.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 104-123 (32.1 - 38%) -- 95.1% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 121-143 (37.4 - 44.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 106-126 (32.8 - 39%) -- 99.7% chance to 3HKO
+1 8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Volcarona Fiery Dance vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Team Support + Other Set Option
View attachment 492184
Spidops may be strong, but it does require some solid support to function properly. Let's take a look at some options that will help Spidops successfully function! In addition, we'll look at an additional Spidops set very briefly to explain how it works; while I don't like the following set as much as the Choice Band set, I've had enough success with it that I found it noteworthy enough to mention!

Hazard + Mortal Spin or Rapid Spin

Recommended Partner: Glimmora
View attachment 492250
Not only is Glimmora one of the best leads (arguably one of the best OU Pokemon in general), but it compresses spinning and setting into a single team slot. Glimmora's ability Toxic Debris auto sets Toxic Spikes, its signature move Mortal Spin poisons + clears hazards, and it has access to both Spikes and Stealth Rock! Whenever I use Spidops, I almost always have Glimmora as its partner.

Wish Passing

Recommended Partner: Alomomola

View attachment 492252

Alomomola has been my favorite Gen 9 OU wish passer since the earliest stages of the metagame. It has tremendous bulk, fantastic mono-Water defensive typing, and access to invaluable utility and trapping moves such as Chilling Water and Whirlpool. Alomomola is a Pokemon that I would recommend for most team compositions in general, but especially as a great partner for Spidops!

Spidops Alternative Set Option
View attachment 492173
Anti-Lead Steel Stakeout Bug Utility
View attachment 492254
Spidops @ Leftovers
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Taunt
- Silk Trap
- U-turn

Set Explanation:
This is a role compression utility set that relies on Spidop's access to its unique move Silk Trap, a variant of Protect for damaging moves that slows a Pokemon's speed by one stage if it hits the Silk Trap with a contact move. Taunt is meant to stop hazard/status/phasing, while First Impression and U-Turn function similarly. The reason we're using Steel as a Tera-type is for its defensive prowess + immunity to Toxic. The 100 Speed EVs are to outspeed Ting-Lu and Hippowdon (allowing you to Taunt them). While I have had quite a bit of success with this set, I feel that the issues with vulnerability and having to sacrifice HP and Special Defense EVs is a really tough call to make.

Conclusion
View attachment 492253

Spidops is one of my new favorite Pokemon to use in OU - it's powerful and varied, and has plenty of other options besides the Choice Band set and the Anti-Lead Utility set that I listed. It has its flaws (having the lowest BST total of all Pokemon introduced in Gen 9 is a bummer), but I've found that it's a valuable team member with a great niche that compliments multiple build styles. So, give Spidops a try today; I promise you won't be disappointed - however, when your opponent's Garchomp goes down in a single hit to an early-game Bug type, they definitely will be disappointed.​

Holy mother of shit this man just got me to sit down and read walls of Choice Band Stakeout Spidops calcs my head is spinning my mind is blown and you sir, are a genius. You could talk about any pokemon--hell, you could write an entire essay on a pokemon not even in the game--and you'd have my rapt attention. I cannot thank you enough for your contributions to this forum.

 

[UnusualBoy]

Spidops

View attachment 492173
"Spidops is a covert ambush predator that utilizes its sticky and resilient silk threads to cling upon any surface and move without making a sound. It spins a silk thread from the spinneret on its abdomen, which it uses to hang upside-down from tall places. It then spins a net between its top four legs which it uses to smother its prey, striking before the prey has time to react." - Bulbapedia

"Hehe, mustache spider assassin's Choice Band Stakeout STAB First Impression go brrrrrrr" - Morkal​

BASE STAT	LEVEL 100 STAT RANGE
HP: 60	230 - 324​
Attack: 79​	146 - 282​
Defense: 92	170 - 311​
Sp. Atk: 52	98 - 223​
Sp. Def: 86	159 - 298​
Speed: 35	67 - 185​

Notable Moves

Physical Moves:
Brick Break, Circle Throw, First Impression, Leech Life, Low Kick, Lunge, Poison Jab, Rock Tomb, Shadow Claw, Skitter Smack, Sucker Punch, Tera Blast, Thief, Throat Chop, Trailblaze, U-Turn, X-Scissor

Utility Moves:
Memento, Protect, Rest, Silk Trap, Spikes, Sticky Web, Substitute, Taunt, Toxic Spikes

Introduction​

Spidops evolves from Tarountula, an early game bug. Being an early-game bug usually spells "competitive career death" for most Pokemon, and for a while, it was looking the same for Spidops. However, Spidops has numerous qualities that, with proper support, can leave a sizeable impact on your team composition. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Spidops is now one of my favorite Pokemon to use in OU, and is actually easier than you might think to slip into specific team compositions! So without further ado, let's dive into this post (that is somehow longer than my college world history dissertation last semester) to talk about one of the most stylish Bug-type Pokemon to ever grace the competitive metagame!

Disclaimer: While Spidops has a lot of utility and flexibility, it can be played around if you're not knowledgeable about specific damage and speed tier benchmarks (the latter of which I'll link here). I highly recommend careful team building and looking into speed tiers, running practice calculations, testing Spidops on your various teams, and practicing prediction for switches. I would like to double-stress that understanding switch prediction is key for move choice. If you work Spidops properly and work to increase your contemporary metagame knowledge, he can provide exceptional utility, scary offensive pressure, and even situational defensive prowess for your teams!

View attachment 492184
Spidops Summarized Advantages
This is a "too long, didn't read" section for people who want a quick summary of Spidops's advantages without reading the essay-length post.​

• Spidops has a surprisingly useful defensive profile with HP investment; 60/92/86 with resistances to Fighting, Ground, and Grass means that it resists moves like both of Great Tusk's STABs, Garchomp and Ting-Lu's Earthquake, and more.
• Spidops's Stakeout-boosted STAB First Impression is the single strongest priority move available in the OU meta, and thanks to a bevy of impressive coverage options, it can hit a lot harder than you think with proper investment and item distribution. With Choice Band + Stakeout, STAB First Impression OHKOs Swords Dance Garchomp, has a chance to OHKO Bulky Garchomp, and can 2HKO almost every variant of Garganacl; those are just a few quick examples to show how mind-numbingly dumb Spidops's power can be, (more calculations are in the main post).
• Spidop's Stakeout First Impression also discourages your opponent from switching by punishing players who have lost their double resists and heavily physically defensive single-resist Pokemon, leaving your opponent with the difficult choice of sacrificing frail powerful sweepers like Greninja and Meowscarada or risking taking nuclear levels of damage from the Stakeout boost.
• Spidops's Stakeout additionally boosts all of its coverage moves, meaning that, given the right prediction, not much can reliably switch into Spidops at all.
• Spidops's wide movepool means it can fit a variety of roles suited to your team, meaning that the two movesets I will be talking about below can be tailored to your team's specific needs based on your teammates.
• Spidops can utilize Tera to turn the tables on would-be checks and counters like Skeledirge, Ceruledge, Garganacl, and more!
• Spidops's role compression is very flexible, and its low speed actually works in its favor thanks to slow STAB U-Turn (which can additionally be boosted with Stakeout on switch-ins).

View attachment 492183
Priority Band Stakeout (One Variant - Tera Dark)

View attachment 492239
Spidops @ Choice Band
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Throat Chop
- U-Turn
- Sticky Web / Brick Break / Circle Throw

Offensive Capabilities​

Spidops Priority Band Stakeout is meant to be an early-mid game menace that weaves in and out of combat by playing mind games with insanely powerful STAB Priority, fantastic coverage in Throat Chop and Brick Break, and a powerful STAB boosted slow U-Turn to keep up the momentum, all complimented by Stakeout's ability to punish switching aggressively. In the late game, First Impression essentially becomes a one-button cleaner nuke that decimates damaged Pokemon. Let's talk about Stakeout and what it does; Stakeout is an ability that doubles the power of Spidops's moves when used against a Pokemon switching in. Now you might be thinking, "why not just switch to a resist" or "wouldn't the opponent just stay in because of Stakeout or because of Spidops's lackluster base stats?" To answer these questions, let's start by demonstrating just how powerful Band STAB Stakeout First Impression is against even double-resisted hits.

Banded STAB Stakeout First Impression Damage Calculations
View attachment 492228

Super Effective Hits (Not really relevant for Stakeout, but I'm still noting because the damage is just kinda hilarious):

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 962-1134 (336.3 - 396.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (talk about overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 758-894 (233.2 - 275%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 1860-2188 (634.8 - 746.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (okay, I take the Greninja comment back, THIS is overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 918-1082 (261.5 - 308.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 570-672 (110.8 - 130.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Imagine OHKO'ing Ting-Lu on the physical side)

Neutral Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 340-402 (78.7 - 93%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 372-438 (100.2 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 417-492 (159.7 - 188.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 228-268 (45.2 - 53.1%) -- 31.6% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Dondozo: 306-361 (60.7 - 71.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (101.1 - 119.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (85.9 - 101.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 276-325 (68.3 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 211-249 (52.2 - 61.6%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 489-576 (124.1 - 146.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 204+ Def Hatterene: 270-318 (84.9 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 292-345 (92.1 - 108.8%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 297-349 (80.4 - 94.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 237-280 (77.9 - 92.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 116 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (56.2 - 66.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (51.4 - 60.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cinderace: 219-258 (72.7 - 85.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (OHKO with Chip)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Clodsire: 258-304 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 219-258 (69 - 81.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (27.8 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-212 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (25 - 29.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-213 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Glimmora: 188-222 (61.2 - 72.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 136-161 (36.6 - 43.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (46.1 - 54.2%) -- 54.7% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (38.5 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 96-113 (27.9 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Pelipper: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Quaquaval: 207-244 (66.5 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 200 HP / 180+ Def Quaquaval: 154-182 (42.6 - 50.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 236 HP / 0 Def Scizor: 174-204 (51.1 - 60%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex: 96-114 (31.5 - 37.5%) -- 0% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 108 Def Volcarona: 212-249 (56.8 - 66.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Double Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (35.7 - 42.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (29.3 - 34.7%) -- 8.3% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Moth: 130-154 (43.1 - 51.1%) -- 5.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Iron Valiant: 94-111 (32.5 - 38.4%) -- 97.9% chance to 3HKO​

To give you an idea, those calculations were for 32 of 35 OU and OU BL Pokemon. 10 of those 32 listed OU Pokemon are either OHKO'd or have a solid chance to be OHKO'd. 15 of those 32 listed are either 2HKO'd or have a solid chance to be 2HKO'd. This means that 25 of 35 OU Pokemon, roughly a whopping 71% of the entire OU Meta, cannot reliably switch into Banded Stakeout STAB First Impression at full health without being OHKO'd or 2HKO'd or having a very high chance to be OHKO'd or 2HKO'd (100% assured OHKO/2HKO's with chip damage). If you factor in the previously mentioned chip damage, that number becomes somewhere closer to 80%+ and turns some of those 3HKOs into 2HKOs. The numbers are relatively similar for Band Stakeout STAB U-Turn, so I won't post those calculations here. Those who know about Spidops's nuclear power don't want to switch - those who don't know are generally decimated; regular resists are mostly 2HKO'd or 3HKO'd.

So what about First Impression without Stakeout's boost? Well, it's not as impressive for obvious reasons, but still hits some notable OHKO and 2HKO benchmarks which is all that it needs to do to threaten specific targets from your opponent's team. It also hits many neutral threats for a solid 3HKO that can turn into a 2HKO with chip damage.

Banded STAB First Impression Damage Calculations (No Stakeout)
View attachment 492228

OHKOs and 2HKOS:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 186-220 (50.1 - 59.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 210-247 (80.4 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (50.7 - 59.9%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 482-570 (168.5 - 199.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 246-289 (62.4 - 73.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 147-174 (46.3 - 54.8%) -- 60.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 380-450 (116.9 - 138.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 928-1096 (316.7 - 374%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 458-542 (130.4 - 154.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 288-338 (56 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

3HKOs (that can become 2HKOs with chip damage):

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 171-202 (39.5 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 110-129 (34.7 - 40.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (43 - 50.9%) -- 4.3% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 148-175 (40.1 - 47.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 118-141 (38.8 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery​

All of this mayhem and chaos is just from one move - so what about Spidop's coverage moves? Let's start with Throat Chop; If you're not clicking First Impression or U-Turn, you will likely be clicking Throat Chop. So what can Throat Chop do? Well, Throat Chop is specifically meant to handle Pokemon such as Skeledirge, Ceruledge, and others that like to switch in on Spidops. With Tera-Dark, Spidops additionally gets rid of the problems of its mono-Bug defensive profile and replaces it with mono-Dark that grants nifty resistances to Dark and Ghost and a Psychic immunity while changing the Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses to neutralities. For Throat Chop, we're going to look at calculations both with and without Terastallizing for emphasis here.

Throat Chop (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Calculations (Pre-Tera and Post-Tera)
View attachment 492229

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 248-294 (70 - 83%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 372-440 (105 - 124.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 108-127 (27 - 31.8%) -- 41.8% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 260-308 (82 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 390-462 (123 - 145.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 214-254 (67.9 - 80.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 320-380 (101.5 - 120.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 154-182 (40.7 - 48.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 230-272 (60.8 - 71.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 206-244 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 308-366 (74.9 - 89%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 496-584 (140.1 - 164.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 744-876 (210.1 - 247.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 214-253 (53.6 - 63.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 520-614 (164 - 193.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 780-920 (246 - 290.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 430-506 (136.5 - 160.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 644-758 (204.4 - 240.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 306-362 (80.9 - 95.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 458-542 (121.1 - 143.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 410-484 (99.7 - 117.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 614-726 (149.3 - 176.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO​

The last slot after U-Turn is a toss-up depending on your team's specific needs. I vastly prefer to run Sticky Web for additional speed control and team utility. Hatterene and any other Magic Bounce users will either (A. Be cautious about switching in due to First Impression or B. Switch in because they know Spidops has Sticky Web and don't understand just how hard First Impression can hit). You'll likely want to wait to click Sticky Web until Magic Bounce users are dealt with - otherwise, click First Impression, Throat Chop, or U-Turn if you expect a switch. The second option you could choose is to run additional coverage with Brick Break to nail annoying Rock, Steel, Ice, Normal, and Dark type switch-ins. The reason I prefer Sticky Web over Brick Break is that, without Stakeout, Brick Break's damage output can be a bit lackluster. Let's take a look at some calculations for Brick Break with and without Stakeout so that you can see if these damage benchmarks are right for you.

Brick Break (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Damage Calculations
View attachment 492238

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 154-182 (38.1 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 118-140 (29.2 - 34.6%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 166-196 (51.7 - 61%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 332-392 (89.9 - 106.2%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 108-128 (31.3 - 37.2%) -- 81% chance to 3HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 306-362 (75.7 - 89.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 236-278 (58.4 - 68.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 330-390 (102.8 - 121.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 660-780 (178.8 - 211.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 214-252 (62.2 - 73.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
​

Lastly, you could run Circle Throw - you wouldn't be running this for damage (although Stakeout Circle Throw can still hit quite hard); you would be running this for its phasing capabilities. However, the choice is up to you!

Defensive Capabilities​

So now you're likely thinking, "Okay, I get it; Spidops hits like a truck, but what about its defenses?" Well, with near-max HP investment and just a little bit of Special Defense investment, Spidops is capable of some surprising defensive feats courtesy of its 92/86 Defense and Special Defense. With this EV investment, Spidops's defensive profile is HP - 320, Defense - 220, and Special Defense - 210. Let's take a look at some calculations to see just how much Spidops can live through with the allotted 252 HP, 0 Def, 8 SpD EVs.

Spidops Physical Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492228

252+ Atk Amoonguss Foul Play vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 127-151 (39.3 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Bullet Seed (3 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 147-174 (45.5 - 53.8%) -- approx. 37.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Breloom Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 157-186 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Mach Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 79-93 (24.4 - 28.7%) -- 99.7% chance to 4HKO

0 Atk Clodsire Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 46-54 (14.2 - 16.7%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 248-294 (76.7 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Def Dondozo Body Press vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 47-56 (14.5 - 17.3%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Dondozo Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 46.9% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 128-151 (39.6 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
76 Atk Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 146-174 (45.2 - 53.8%) -- approx. 28.1% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 106-125 (32.8 - 38.6%) -- 99.4% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 65-77 (20.1 - 23.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Fire Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 198-234 (61.3 - 72.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 72-86 (22.2 - 26.6%) -- 21.9% chance to 4HKO
0 Atk Garchomp Dragon Tail vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 87-103 (26.9 - 31.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 141-166 (43.6 - 51.3%) -- 6.6% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 114-135 (35.2 - 41.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Protean Meowscarada U-turn vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Flower Trick vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops on a critical hit: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Quaquaval Aqua Step vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 133-157 (41.1 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Quaquaval Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 58.2% chance to 3HKO

252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 192-226 (59.4 - 69.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 80-94 (24.7 - 29.1%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 243-286 (75.2 - 88.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 101-119 (31.2 - 36.8%) -- 77.1% chance to 3HKO

0 Atk Ting-Lu Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 63-74 (19.5 - 22.9%) -- possible 5HKO

Spidops Special Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492248

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 184-217 (56.9 - 67.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
180 SpA Dragapult Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 94-112 (29.1 - 34.6%) -- 8.7% chance to 3HKO

0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 102-120 (31.5 - 37.1%) -- 78.9% chance to 3HKO
0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (130 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 202-238 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 150-177 (46.4 - 54.7%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 211-249 (65.3 - 77%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 258-304 (79.8 - 94.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 231-273 (71.5 - 84.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 282-333 (87.3 - 103%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

0 SpA Rotom-Wash Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 139-165 (43 - 51%) -- 3.1% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Rotom-Wash Volt Switch vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 88-105 (27.2 - 32.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
​

So now we've established that there are some definite switch-in opportunities for Spidops with this defensive profile; what about once it terastallizes into a Dark type? Without those pesky Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses, Spidops can suddenly take attacks from a host of threats it really would not like to have switched into before! Let's take a look at some hits that it couldn't take before but can handle now.

Spidops Defensive Calculations (Terastallized)
View attachment 492229

0 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 127-150 (39.3 - 46.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 153-181 (47.3 - 56%) -- 80.9% chance to 2HKO
0 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 28-33 (8.6 - 10.2%) -- possibly the worst move ever
252 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 34-41 (10.5 - 12.6%) -- possible 8HKO

252 Atk Cinderace Pyro Ball vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 195-229 (60.3 - 70.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 92-108 (28.4 - 33.4%) -- 0.1% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Phantom Force vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 64-75 (19.8 - 23.2%) -- possible 5HKO

252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 75-88 (23.2 - 27.2%) -- 59.1% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 112-132 (34.6 - 40.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252+ Atk Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 84-99 (26 - 30.6%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 69-82 (21.3 - 25.3%) -- 0.2% chance to 4HKO

252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 237-280 (73.3 - 86.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 104-123 (32.1 - 38%) -- 95.1% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 121-143 (37.4 - 44.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 106-126 (32.8 - 39%) -- 99.7% chance to 3HKO
+1 8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Volcarona Fiery Dance vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Team Support + Other Set Option
View attachment 492184
Spidops may be strong, but it does require some solid support to function properly. Let's take a look at some options that will help Spidops successfully function! In addition, we'll look at an additional Spidops set very briefly to explain how it works; while I don't like the following set as much as the Choice Band set, I've had enough success with it that I found it noteworthy enough to mention!

Hazard + Mortal Spin or Rapid Spin

Recommended Partner: Glimmora
View attachment 492250
Not only is Glimmora one of the best leads (arguably one of the best OU Pokemon in general), but it compresses spinning and setting into a single team slot. Glimmora's ability Toxic Debris auto sets Toxic Spikes, its signature move Mortal Spin poisons + clears hazards, and it has access to both Spikes and Stealth Rock! Whenever I use Spidops, I almost always have Glimmora as its partner.

Wish Passing

Recommended Partner: Alomomola

View attachment 492252

Alomomola has been my favorite Gen 9 OU wish passer since the earliest stages of the metagame. It has tremendous bulk, fantastic mono-Water defensive typing, and access to invaluable utility and trapping moves such as Chilling Water and Whirlpool. Alomomola is a Pokemon that I would recommend for most team compositions in general, but especially as a great partner for Spidops!

Spidops Alternative Set Option
View attachment 492173
Anti-Lead Steel Stakeout Bug Utility
View attachment 492254
Spidops @ Leftovers
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Taunt
- Silk Trap
- U-turn

Set Explanation:
This is a role compression utility set that relies on Spidop's access to its unique move Silk Trap, a variant of Protect for damaging moves that slows a Pokemon's speed by one stage if it hits the Silk Trap with a contact move. Taunt is meant to stop hazard/status/phasing, while First Impression and U-Turn function similarly. The reason we're using Steel as a Tera-type is for its defensive prowess + immunity to Toxic. The 100 Speed EVs are to outspeed Ting-Lu and Hippowdon (allowing you to Taunt them). While I have had quite a bit of success with this set, I feel that the issues with vulnerability and having to sacrifice HP and Special Defense EVs is a really tough call to make.

Conclusion
View attachment 492253

Spidops is one of my new favorite Pokemon to use in OU - it's powerful and varied, and has plenty of other options besides the Choice Band set and the Anti-Lead Utility set that I listed. It has its flaws (having the lowest BST total of all Pokemon introduced in Gen 9 is a bummer), but I've found that it's a valuable team member with a great niche that compliments multiple build styles. So, give Spidops a try today; I promise you won't be disappointed - however, when your opponent's Garchomp goes down in a single hit to an early-game Bug type, they definitely will be disappointed.​

Wait, this is very informative! Let me give a good read.

 

[viivian]

Spidops

View attachment 492173
"Spidops is a covert ambush predator that utilizes its sticky and resilient silk threads to cling upon any surface and move without making a sound. It spins a silk thread from the spinneret on its abdomen, which it uses to hang upside-down from tall places. It then spins a net between its top four legs which it uses to smother its prey, striking before the prey has time to react." - Bulbapedia

"Hehe, mustache spider assassin's Choice Band Stakeout STAB First Impression go brrrrrrr" - Morkal​

BASE STAT	LEVEL 100 STAT RANGE
HP: 60	230 - 324​
Attack: 79​	146 - 282​
Defense: 92	170 - 311​
Sp. Atk: 52	98 - 223​
Sp. Def: 86	159 - 298​
Speed: 35	67 - 185​

Notable Moves

Physical Moves:
Brick Break, Circle Throw, First Impression, Leech Life, Low Kick, Lunge, Poison Jab, Rock Tomb, Shadow Claw, Skitter Smack, Sucker Punch, Tera Blast, Thief, Throat Chop, Trailblaze, U-Turn, X-Scissor

Utility Moves:
Memento, Protect, Rest, Silk Trap, Spikes, Sticky Web, Substitute, Taunt, Toxic Spikes

Introduction​

Spidops evolves from Tarountula, an early game bug. Being an early-game bug usually spells "competitive career death" for most Pokemon, and for a while, it was looking the same for Spidops. However, Spidops has numerous qualities that, with proper support, can leave a sizeable impact on your team composition. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Spidops is now one of my favorite Pokemon to use in OU, and is actually easier than you might think to slip into specific team compositions! So without further ado, let's dive into this post (that is somehow longer than my college world history dissertation last semester) to talk about one of the most stylish Bug-type Pokemon to ever grace the competitive metagame!

Disclaimer: While Spidops has a lot of utility and flexibility, it can be played around if you're not knowledgeable about specific damage and speed tier benchmarks (the latter of which I'll link here). I highly recommend careful team building and looking into speed tiers, running practice calculations, testing Spidops on your various teams, and practicing prediction for switches. I would like to double-stress that understanding switch prediction is key for move choice. If you work Spidops properly and work to increase your contemporary metagame knowledge, he can provide exceptional utility, scary offensive pressure, and even situational defensive prowess for your teams!

View attachment 492184
Spidops Summarized Advantages
This is a "too long, didn't read" section for people who want a quick summary of Spidops's advantages without reading the essay-length post.​

• Spidops has a surprisingly useful defensive profile with HP investment; 60/92/86 with resistances to Fighting, Ground, and Grass means that it resists moves like both of Great Tusk's STABs, Garchomp and Ting-Lu's Earthquake, and more.
• Spidops's Stakeout-boosted STAB First Impression is the single strongest priority move available in the OU meta, and thanks to a bevy of impressive coverage options, it can hit a lot harder than you think with proper investment and item distribution. With Choice Band + Stakeout, STAB First Impression OHKOs Swords Dance Garchomp, has a chance to OHKO Bulky Garchomp, and can 2HKO almost every variant of Garganacl; those are just a few quick examples to show how mind-numbingly dumb Spidops's power can be, (more calculations are in the main post).
• Spidop's Stakeout First Impression also discourages your opponent from switching by punishing players who have lost their double resists and heavily physically defensive single-resist Pokemon, leaving your opponent with the difficult choice of sacrificing frail powerful sweepers like Greninja and Meowscarada or risking taking nuclear levels of damage from the Stakeout boost.
• Spidops's Stakeout additionally boosts all of its coverage moves, meaning that, given the right prediction, not much can reliably switch into Spidops at all.
• Spidops's wide movepool means it can fit a variety of roles suited to your team, meaning that the two movesets I will be talking about below can be tailored to your team's specific needs based on your teammates.
• Spidops can utilize Tera to turn the tables on would-be checks and counters like Skeledirge, Ceruledge, Garganacl, and more!
• Spidops's role compression is very flexible, and its low speed actually works in its favor thanks to slow STAB U-Turn (which can additionally be boosted with Stakeout on switch-ins).

View attachment 492183
Priority Band Stakeout (One Variant - Tera Dark)

View attachment 492239
Spidops @ Choice Band
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Throat Chop
- U-Turn
- Sticky Web / Brick Break / Circle Throw

Offensive Capabilities​

Spidops Priority Band Stakeout is meant to be an early-mid game menace that weaves in and out of combat by playing mind games with insanely powerful STAB Priority, fantastic coverage in Throat Chop and Brick Break, and a powerful STAB boosted slow U-Turn to keep up the momentum, all complimented by Stakeout's ability to punish switching aggressively. In the late game, First Impression essentially becomes a one-button cleaner nuke that decimates damaged Pokemon. Let's talk about Stakeout and what it does; Stakeout is an ability that doubles the power of Spidops's moves when used against a Pokemon switching in. Now you might be thinking, "why not just switch to a resist" or "wouldn't the opponent just stay in because of Stakeout or because of Spidops's lackluster base stats?" To answer these questions, let's start by demonstrating just how powerful Band STAB Stakeout First Impression is against even double-resisted hits.

Banded STAB Stakeout First Impression Damage Calculations
View attachment 492228

Super Effective Hits (Not really relevant for Stakeout, but I'm still noting because the damage is just kinda hilarious):

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 962-1134 (336.3 - 396.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (talk about overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 758-894 (233.2 - 275%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 1860-2188 (634.8 - 746.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (okay, I take the Greninja comment back, THIS is overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 918-1082 (261.5 - 308.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 570-672 (110.8 - 130.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Imagine OHKO'ing Ting-Lu on the physical side)

Neutral Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 340-402 (78.7 - 93%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 372-438 (100.2 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 417-492 (159.7 - 188.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 228-268 (45.2 - 53.1%) -- 31.6% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Dondozo: 306-361 (60.7 - 71.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (101.1 - 119.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (85.9 - 101.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 276-325 (68.3 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 211-249 (52.2 - 61.6%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 489-576 (124.1 - 146.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 204+ Def Hatterene: 270-318 (84.9 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 292-345 (92.1 - 108.8%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 297-349 (80.4 - 94.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 237-280 (77.9 - 92.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 116 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (56.2 - 66.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (51.4 - 60.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cinderace: 219-258 (72.7 - 85.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (OHKO with Chip)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Clodsire: 258-304 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 219-258 (69 - 81.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (27.8 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-212 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (25 - 29.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-213 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Glimmora: 188-222 (61.2 - 72.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 136-161 (36.6 - 43.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (46.1 - 54.2%) -- 54.7% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (38.5 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 96-113 (27.9 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Pelipper: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Quaquaval: 207-244 (66.5 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 200 HP / 180+ Def Quaquaval: 154-182 (42.6 - 50.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 236 HP / 0 Def Scizor: 174-204 (51.1 - 60%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex: 96-114 (31.5 - 37.5%) -- 0% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 108 Def Volcarona: 212-249 (56.8 - 66.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Double Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (35.7 - 42.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (29.3 - 34.7%) -- 8.3% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Moth: 130-154 (43.1 - 51.1%) -- 5.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Iron Valiant: 94-111 (32.5 - 38.4%) -- 97.9% chance to 3HKO​

To give you an idea, those calculations were for 32 of 35 OU and OU BL Pokemon. 10 of those 32 listed OU Pokemon are either OHKO'd or have a solid chance to be OHKO'd. 15 of those 32 listed are either 2HKO'd or have a solid chance to be 2HKO'd. This means that 25 of 35 OU Pokemon, roughly a whopping 71% of the entire OU Meta, cannot reliably switch into Banded Stakeout STAB First Impression at full health without being OHKO'd or 2HKO'd or having a very high chance to be OHKO'd or 2HKO'd (100% assured OHKO/2HKO's with chip damage). If you factor in the previously mentioned chip damage, that number becomes somewhere closer to 80%+ and turns some of those 3HKOs into 2HKOs. The numbers are relatively similar for Band Stakeout STAB U-Turn, so I won't post those calculations here. Those who know about Spidops's nuclear power don't want to switch - those who don't know are generally decimated; regular resists are mostly 2HKO'd or 3HKO'd.

So what about First Impression without Stakeout's boost? Well, it's not as impressive for obvious reasons, but still hits some notable OHKO and 2HKO benchmarks which is all that it needs to do to threaten specific targets from your opponent's team. It also hits many neutral threats for a solid 3HKO that can turn into a 2HKO with chip damage.

Banded STAB First Impression Damage Calculations (No Stakeout)
View attachment 492228

OHKOs and 2HKOS:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 186-220 (50.1 - 59.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 210-247 (80.4 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (50.7 - 59.9%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 482-570 (168.5 - 199.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 246-289 (62.4 - 73.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 147-174 (46.3 - 54.8%) -- 60.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 380-450 (116.9 - 138.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 928-1096 (316.7 - 374%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 458-542 (130.4 - 154.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 288-338 (56 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

3HKOs (that can become 2HKOs with chip damage):

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 171-202 (39.5 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 110-129 (34.7 - 40.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (43 - 50.9%) -- 4.3% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 148-175 (40.1 - 47.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 118-141 (38.8 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery​

All of this mayhem and chaos is just from one move - so what about Spidop's coverage moves? Let's start with Throat Chop; If you're not clicking First Impression or U-Turn, you will likely be clicking Throat Chop. So what can Throat Chop do? Well, Throat Chop is specifically meant to handle Pokemon such as Skeledirge, Ceruledge, and others that like to switch in on Spidops. With Tera-Dark, Spidops additionally gets rid of the problems of its mono-Bug defensive profile and replaces it with mono-Dark that grants nifty resistances to Dark and Ghost and a Psychic immunity while changing the Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses to neutralities. For Throat Chop, we're going to look at calculations both with and without Terastallizing for emphasis here.

Throat Chop (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Calculations (Pre-Tera and Post-Tera)
View attachment 492229

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 248-294 (70 - 83%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 372-440 (105 - 124.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 108-127 (27 - 31.8%) -- 41.8% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 260-308 (82 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 390-462 (123 - 145.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 214-254 (67.9 - 80.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 320-380 (101.5 - 120.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 154-182 (40.7 - 48.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 230-272 (60.8 - 71.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 206-244 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 308-366 (74.9 - 89%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 496-584 (140.1 - 164.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 744-876 (210.1 - 247.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 214-253 (53.6 - 63.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 520-614 (164 - 193.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 780-920 (246 - 290.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 430-506 (136.5 - 160.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 644-758 (204.4 - 240.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 306-362 (80.9 - 95.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 458-542 (121.1 - 143.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 410-484 (99.7 - 117.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 614-726 (149.3 - 176.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO​

The last slot after U-Turn is a toss-up depending on your team's specific needs. I vastly prefer to run Sticky Web for additional speed control and team utility. Hatterene and any other Magic Bounce users will either (A. Be cautious about switching in due to First Impression or B. Switch in because they know Spidops has Sticky Web and don't understand just how hard First Impression can hit). You'll likely want to wait to click Sticky Web until Magic Bounce users are dealt with - otherwise, click First Impression, Throat Chop, or U-Turn if you expect a switch. The second option you could choose is to run additional coverage with Brick Break to nail annoying Rock, Steel, Ice, Normal, and Dark type switch-ins. The reason I prefer Sticky Web over Brick Break is that, without Stakeout, Brick Break's damage output can be a bit lackluster. Let's take a look at some calculations for Brick Break with and without Stakeout so that you can see if these damage benchmarks are right for you.

Brick Break (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Damage Calculations
View attachment 492238

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 154-182 (38.1 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 118-140 (29.2 - 34.6%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 166-196 (51.7 - 61%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 332-392 (89.9 - 106.2%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 108-128 (31.3 - 37.2%) -- 81% chance to 3HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 306-362 (75.7 - 89.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 236-278 (58.4 - 68.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 330-390 (102.8 - 121.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 660-780 (178.8 - 211.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 214-252 (62.2 - 73.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
​

Lastly, you could run Circle Throw - you wouldn't be running this for damage (although Stakeout Circle Throw can still hit quite hard); you would be running this for its phasing capabilities. However, the choice is up to you!

Defensive Capabilities​

So now you're likely thinking, "Okay, I get it; Spidops hits like a truck, but what about its defenses?" Well, with near-max HP investment and just a little bit of Special Defense investment, Spidops is capable of some surprising defensive feats courtesy of its 92/86 Defense and Special Defense. With this EV investment, Spidops's defensive profile is HP - 320, Defense - 220, and Special Defense - 210. Let's take a look at some calculations to see just how much Spidops can live through with the allotted 252 HP, 0 Def, 8 SpD EVs.

Spidops Physical Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492228

252+ Atk Amoonguss Foul Play vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 127-151 (39.3 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Bullet Seed (3 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 147-174 (45.5 - 53.8%) -- approx. 37.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Breloom Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 157-186 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Mach Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 79-93 (24.4 - 28.7%) -- 99.7% chance to 4HKO

0 Atk Clodsire Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 46-54 (14.2 - 16.7%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 248-294 (76.7 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Def Dondozo Body Press vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 47-56 (14.5 - 17.3%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Dondozo Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 46.9% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 128-151 (39.6 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
76 Atk Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 146-174 (45.2 - 53.8%) -- approx. 28.1% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 106-125 (32.8 - 38.6%) -- 99.4% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 65-77 (20.1 - 23.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Fire Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 198-234 (61.3 - 72.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 72-86 (22.2 - 26.6%) -- 21.9% chance to 4HKO
0 Atk Garchomp Dragon Tail vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 87-103 (26.9 - 31.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 141-166 (43.6 - 51.3%) -- 6.6% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 114-135 (35.2 - 41.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Protean Meowscarada U-turn vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Flower Trick vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops on a critical hit: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Quaquaval Aqua Step vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 133-157 (41.1 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Quaquaval Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 58.2% chance to 3HKO

252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 192-226 (59.4 - 69.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 80-94 (24.7 - 29.1%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 243-286 (75.2 - 88.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 101-119 (31.2 - 36.8%) -- 77.1% chance to 3HKO

0 Atk Ting-Lu Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 63-74 (19.5 - 22.9%) -- possible 5HKO

Spidops Special Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492248

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 184-217 (56.9 - 67.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
180 SpA Dragapult Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 94-112 (29.1 - 34.6%) -- 8.7% chance to 3HKO

0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 102-120 (31.5 - 37.1%) -- 78.9% chance to 3HKO
0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (130 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 202-238 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 150-177 (46.4 - 54.7%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 211-249 (65.3 - 77%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 258-304 (79.8 - 94.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 231-273 (71.5 - 84.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 282-333 (87.3 - 103%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

0 SpA Rotom-Wash Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 139-165 (43 - 51%) -- 3.1% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Rotom-Wash Volt Switch vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 88-105 (27.2 - 32.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
​

So now we've established that there are some definite switch-in opportunities for Spidops with this defensive profile; what about once it terastallizes into a Dark type? Without those pesky Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses, Spidops can suddenly take attacks from a host of threats it really would not like to have switched into before! Let's take a look at some hits that it couldn't take before but can handle now.

Spidops Defensive Calculations (Terastallized)
View attachment 492229

0 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 127-150 (39.3 - 46.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 153-181 (47.3 - 56%) -- 80.9% chance to 2HKO
0 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 28-33 (8.6 - 10.2%) -- possibly the worst move ever
252 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 34-41 (10.5 - 12.6%) -- possible 8HKO

252 Atk Cinderace Pyro Ball vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 195-229 (60.3 - 70.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 92-108 (28.4 - 33.4%) -- 0.1% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Phantom Force vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 64-75 (19.8 - 23.2%) -- possible 5HKO

252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 75-88 (23.2 - 27.2%) -- 59.1% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 112-132 (34.6 - 40.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252+ Atk Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 84-99 (26 - 30.6%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 69-82 (21.3 - 25.3%) -- 0.2% chance to 4HKO

252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 237-280 (73.3 - 86.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 104-123 (32.1 - 38%) -- 95.1% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 121-143 (37.4 - 44.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 106-126 (32.8 - 39%) -- 99.7% chance to 3HKO
+1 8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Volcarona Fiery Dance vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Team Support + Other Set Option
View attachment 492184
Spidops may be strong, but it does require some solid support to function properly. Let's take a look at some options that will help Spidops successfully function! In addition, we'll look at an additional Spidops set very briefly to explain how it works; while I don't like the following set as much as the Choice Band set, I've had enough success with it that I found it noteworthy enough to mention!

Hazard + Mortal Spin or Rapid Spin

Recommended Partner: Glimmora
View attachment 492250
Not only is Glimmora one of the best leads (arguably one of the best OU Pokemon in general), but it compresses spinning and setting into a single team slot. Glimmora's ability Toxic Debris auto sets Toxic Spikes, its signature move Mortal Spin poisons + clears hazards, and it has access to both Spikes and Stealth Rock! Whenever I use Spidops, I almost always have Glimmora as its partner.

Wish Passing

Recommended Partner: Alomomola

View attachment 492252

Alomomola has been my favorite Gen 9 OU wish passer since the earliest stages of the metagame. It has tremendous bulk, fantastic mono-Water defensive typing, and access to invaluable utility and trapping moves such as Chilling Water and Whirlpool. Alomomola is a Pokemon that I would recommend for most team compositions in general, but especially as a great partner for Spidops!

Spidops Alternative Set Option
View attachment 492173
Anti-Lead Steel Stakeout Bug Utility
View attachment 492254
Spidops @ Leftovers
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Taunt
- Silk Trap
- U-turn

Set Explanation:
This is a role compression utility set that relies on Spidop's access to its unique move Silk Trap, a variant of Protect for damaging moves that slows a Pokemon's speed by one stage if it hits the Silk Trap with a contact move. Taunt is meant to stop hazard/status/phasing, while First Impression and U-Turn function similarly. The reason we're using Steel as a Tera-type is for its defensive prowess + immunity to Toxic. The 100 Speed EVs are to outspeed Ting-Lu and Hippowdon (allowing you to Taunt them). While I have had quite a bit of success with this set, I feel that the issues with vulnerability and having to sacrifice HP and Special Defense EVs is a really tough call to make.

Conclusion
View attachment 492253

Spidops is one of my new favorite Pokemon to use in OU - it's powerful and varied, and has plenty of other options besides the Choice Band set and the Anti-Lead Utility set that I listed. It has its flaws (having the lowest BST total of all Pokemon introduced in Gen 9 is a bummer), but I've found that it's a valuable team member with a great niche that compliments multiple build styles. So, give Spidops a try today; I promise you won't be disappointed - however, when your opponent's Garchomp goes down in a single hit to an early-game Bug type, they definitely will be disappointed.​

incredibly common morkoal W this post is actually amazing

 

[1LDK]

Spidops

ANOTHER ONE
I repeat
ANOTHER
Certified
Hood Clasic
from new Smogon Council member and future OST, SPL and World Cup champion
Morkal

How does he do it?

 

[Sorrica]

Appreciate this and the explanations are fantastic!!! Great job here.

But also want to note that an official thread on the Tera Type Index coming (and will cover even more Pokemon) after the SPL Power Rankings are done this weekend, so probably sometime next week. I will likely keep it synced up with the VR as the generation continues, too, so each Pokemon deemed viable will have a listing and it will remain updated with the metagame's development as well.

Is there any news on that Tera Type Index or maybe even Terastallization type usage stats per Pokemon? Pikalytics originally had some stats, but they seem to only have them now for the Pokemon with incredibly low usage rates. It'd be interesting to see just how much of a guess you're making with each Pokemon you're battling.

 

[Finchinator]

Is there any news on that Tera Type Index or maybe even Terastallization type usage stats per Pokemon? Pikalytics originally had some stats, but they seem to only have them now for the Pokemon with incredibly low usage rates. It'd be interesting to see just how much of a guess you're making with each Pokemon you're battling.

I plan on posting a Tera type index update soon. There’s one in the initial Tera suspect thread, but I’m updating it later

 

[DaddyBuzzwole]

It'd be interesting to see just how much of a guess you're making with each Pokemon you're battling.

it's interesting how different it is for the varied pokemon in the meta. it ranges from "flip a coin" (azumarill) to "roll d10" (iron valiant)

 

[RoiDadadou]

Rain is a fun novelty because people though it was dead on arrival this gen, let's look at how to build a rain team (this is paper based cookie cutter and not the absolute standard, there are more ways to built rain, and I have absolute no idea of what I'm doing)

Step 1:
use
Whether is specs or damp rock, it's a must-have, if you're using specs, you probably want 2 physical mons instead of 1 and 1, and while fun, I personally like the support more, but specs is so fun
Step 2:
Rain Abuser 1
This is where we get a bit funky, for guideline reasons let's say you want a physical one and a special one, from the physical abusers you have
(with the famous choice band set that makes it number 1 choice 99% of the time)
(That lost flip turn but still hits hard, and it has some more coverage)
(who has reliable recovery and needs some set-up but can work)
(Who is a water immunity not water, and brings some utility like priority, and good stab, but it's way more rain dependent that the rest)
Step 3:
Rain Abuser 2
For the sake of the cookie cutter chapter, let's say you want a special mon, you here have 2 options instead of 1
with fast speed, insane power, spikes, u-turn, protean and grass knot
Who has Swift Swim and Nasty Plot
that can spam hurricanes forever alongside hydros
Step 4:
Support mons
Here you will need stuff that can support your team and benefit from it
makes the team S U S with spore, status, toxic/toxic spikes absorber and benefits from rain on his fire type matchups, also a good fairy resist
Who is an overall glue mon with rocks, ruination, Whirlwind and being fucking unkillable, provides a HUGE electric immunity, it also pairs well with either amoonguss or rotom wash for its complementary resistances
Who likes weakened fire attacks, is immune to electric, has volt switch and fits better than tusk here because better spedef and its an overall good steel type to fit in
Because Water/Electric I think I don't need to say more (its also a ground immunity not weak to rock)
BIG STALL, provides insane overall utility by virtue of being FUCKING PEX, AND has a little bit more power on his attacks to boot, making it
even more stressing to break
Who has water absorb and can set up rocks, toxic and has recover, making it a great special wall and basically hard counter non trick rotom thanks to both its water and electric inmunity
Step 5:
Optional mons
These are just optional but have proved to work
specs thunder is so fun, and dragapult is an overall good wallbreaker
Who REALLY appreciates being better prepared against fire types and can put its offensive/defensive utility to good use, it also has defog making it good when you don't really wanna use iron treads

EDIT:

I decided to add this
https://pokepast.es/6fbe63691d0f0471
this is the single most basic and standard rain possible, made by following this fun but not fully detailed guide
as setter
as one rain abuser
as second rain abuser
as rocker
as a bulky grass type with spore
has rapid spin support and volt-turn with pelipper
How this team can be improved?
Well, for one, the offensive line is VERY frail, meaning 1 mistake, and you end up with no firepower
2) it has no strong water resist outside of amoongus who is weak to flying, meaning opposing rain can potentially give you problems

This is where you, the reader, come and put your own magic spin into it
While not having as powerful options as sun, rain has more creativity, which lets it take on more opponents thanks to its surprise factor, instead of the usual koko/ferro/torn-t/ cores of old

If there's somebody that I forgot that should be included, please tell us, and remember to always experiment and be creative, no matter how dumb the idea sounds

I'm gonna be honest. This explains very well how to build and play decent rain teams, except for one thing. Rain fucking sucks and loses to mid to high decent players if they're not playing Teddiursa using their feets.
I'm deeply sorry for that, but I can't see any form of rain in the current metagame be any kind of threat to your team if it's built correctly, and you're playing in your right mind.

(Wait until a fucking SPL replay makes me swallow my words, but until then, I'll stand where I am.)

More seriously tho, sure, it can win you games, but neither in tours or on ladder is it a reliable type of team to play.

 

[Dhrabb]

Spidops

View attachment 492173
"Spidops is a covert ambush predator that utilizes its sticky and resilient silk threads to cling upon any surface and move without making a sound. It spins a silk thread from the spinneret on its abdomen, which it uses to hang upside-down from tall places. It then spins a net between its top four legs which it uses to smother its prey, striking before the prey has time to react." - Bulbapedia

"Hehe, mustache spider assassin's Choice Band Stakeout STAB First Impression go brrrrrrr" - Morkal​

BASE STAT	LEVEL 100 STAT RANGE
HP: 60	230 - 324​
Attack: 79​	146 - 282​
Defense: 92	170 - 311​
Sp. Atk: 52	98 - 223​
Sp. Def: 86	159 - 298​
Speed: 35	67 - 185​

Notable Moves

Physical Moves:
Brick Break, Circle Throw, First Impression, Leech Life, Low Kick, Lunge, Poison Jab, Rock Tomb, Shadow Claw, Skitter Smack, Sucker Punch, Tera Blast, Thief, Throat Chop, Trailblaze, U-Turn, X-Scissor

Utility Moves:
Memento, Protect, Rest, Silk Trap, Spikes, Sticky Web, Substitute, Taunt, Toxic Spikes

Introduction​

Spidops evolves from Tarountula, an early game bug. Being an early-game bug usually spells "competitive career death" for most Pokemon, and for a while, it was looking the same for Spidops. However, Spidops has numerous qualities that, with proper support, can leave a sizeable impact on your team composition. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Spidops is now one of my favorite Pokemon to use in OU, and is actually easier than you might think to slip into specific team compositions! So without further ado, let's dive into this post (that is somehow longer than my college world history dissertation last semester) to talk about one of the most stylish Bug-type Pokemon to ever grace the competitive metagame!

Disclaimer: While Spidops has a lot of utility and flexibility, it can be played around if you're not knowledgeable about specific damage and speed tier benchmarks (the latter of which I'll link here). I highly recommend careful team building and looking into speed tiers, running practice calculations, testing Spidops on your various teams, and practicing prediction for switches. I would like to double-stress that understanding switch prediction is key for move choice. If you work Spidops properly and work to increase your contemporary metagame knowledge, he can provide exceptional utility, scary offensive pressure, and even situational defensive prowess for your teams!

View attachment 492184
Spidops Summarized Advantages
This is a "too long, didn't read" section for people who want a quick summary of Spidops's advantages without reading the essay-length post.​

• Spidops has a surprisingly useful defensive profile with HP investment; 60/92/86 with resistances to Fighting, Ground, and Grass means that it resists moves like both of Great Tusk's STABs, Garchomp and Ting-Lu's Earthquake, and more.
• Spidops's Stakeout-boosted STAB First Impression is the single strongest priority move available in the OU meta, and thanks to a bevy of impressive coverage options, it can hit a lot harder than you think with proper investment and item distribution. With Choice Band + Stakeout, STAB First Impression OHKOs Swords Dance Garchomp, has a chance to OHKO Bulky Garchomp, and can 2HKO almost every variant of Garganacl; those are just a few quick examples to show how mind-numbingly dumb Spidops's power can be, (more calculations are in the main post).
• Spidop's Stakeout First Impression also discourages your opponent from switching by punishing players who have lost their double resists and heavily physically defensive single-resist Pokemon, leaving your opponent with the difficult choice of sacrificing frail powerful sweepers like Greninja and Meowscarada or risking taking nuclear levels of damage from the Stakeout boost.
• Spidops's Stakeout additionally boosts all of its coverage moves, meaning that, given the right prediction, not much can reliably switch into Spidops at all.
• Spidops's wide movepool means it can fit a variety of roles suited to your team, meaning that the two movesets I will be talking about below can be tailored to your team's specific needs based on your teammates.
• Spidops can utilize Tera to turn the tables on would-be checks and counters like Skeledirge, Ceruledge, Garganacl, and more!
• Spidops's role compression is very flexible, and its low speed actually works in its favor thanks to slow STAB U-Turn (which can additionally be boosted with Stakeout on switch-ins).

View attachment 492183
Priority Band Stakeout (One Variant - Tera Dark)

View attachment 492239
Spidops @ Choice Band
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Throat Chop
- U-Turn
- Sticky Web / Brick Break / Circle Throw

Offensive Capabilities​

Spidops Priority Band Stakeout is meant to be an early-mid game menace that weaves in and out of combat by playing mind games with insanely powerful STAB Priority, fantastic coverage in Throat Chop and Brick Break, and a powerful STAB boosted slow U-Turn to keep up the momentum, all complimented by Stakeout's ability to punish switching aggressively. In the late game, First Impression essentially becomes a one-button cleaner nuke that decimates damaged Pokemon. Let's talk about Stakeout and what it does; Stakeout is an ability that doubles the power of Spidops's moves when used against a Pokemon switching in. Now you might be thinking, "why not just switch to a resist" or "wouldn't the opponent just stay in because of Stakeout or because of Spidops's lackluster base stats?" To answer these questions, let's start by demonstrating just how powerful Band STAB Stakeout First Impression is against even double-resisted hits.

Banded STAB Stakeout First Impression Damage Calculations
View attachment 492228

Super Effective Hits (Not really relevant for Stakeout, but I'm still noting because the damage is just kinda hilarious):

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 962-1134 (336.3 - 396.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (talk about overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 758-894 (233.2 - 275%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 1860-2188 (634.8 - 746.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (okay, I take the Greninja comment back, THIS is overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 918-1082 (261.5 - 308.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 570-672 (110.8 - 130.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Imagine OHKO'ing Ting-Lu on the physical side)

Neutral Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 340-402 (78.7 - 93%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 372-438 (100.2 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 417-492 (159.7 - 188.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 228-268 (45.2 - 53.1%) -- 31.6% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Dondozo: 306-361 (60.7 - 71.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (101.1 - 119.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (85.9 - 101.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 276-325 (68.3 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 211-249 (52.2 - 61.6%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 489-576 (124.1 - 146.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 204+ Def Hatterene: 270-318 (84.9 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 292-345 (92.1 - 108.8%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 297-349 (80.4 - 94.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 237-280 (77.9 - 92.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 116 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (56.2 - 66.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (51.4 - 60.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cinderace: 219-258 (72.7 - 85.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (OHKO with Chip)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Clodsire: 258-304 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 219-258 (69 - 81.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (27.8 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-212 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (25 - 29.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-213 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Glimmora: 188-222 (61.2 - 72.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 136-161 (36.6 - 43.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (46.1 - 54.2%) -- 54.7% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (38.5 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 96-113 (27.9 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Pelipper: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Quaquaval: 207-244 (66.5 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 200 HP / 180+ Def Quaquaval: 154-182 (42.6 - 50.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 236 HP / 0 Def Scizor: 174-204 (51.1 - 60%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex: 96-114 (31.5 - 37.5%) -- 0% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 108 Def Volcarona: 212-249 (56.8 - 66.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Double Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (35.7 - 42.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (29.3 - 34.7%) -- 8.3% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Moth: 130-154 (43.1 - 51.1%) -- 5.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Iron Valiant: 94-111 (32.5 - 38.4%) -- 97.9% chance to 3HKO​

To give you an idea, those calculations were for 32 of 35 OU and OU BL Pokemon. 10 of those 32 listed OU Pokemon are either OHKO'd or have a solid chance to be OHKO'd. 15 of those 32 listed are either 2HKO'd or have a solid chance to be 2HKO'd. This means that 25 of 35 OU Pokemon, roughly a whopping 71% of the entire OU Meta, cannot reliably switch into Banded Stakeout STAB First Impression at full health without being OHKO'd or 2HKO'd or having a very high chance to be OHKO'd or 2HKO'd (100% assured OHKO/2HKO's with chip damage). If you factor in the previously mentioned chip damage, that number becomes somewhere closer to 80%+ and turns some of those 3HKOs into 2HKOs. The numbers are relatively similar for Band Stakeout STAB U-Turn, so I won't post those calculations here. Those who know about Spidops's nuclear power don't want to switch - those who don't know are generally decimated; regular resists are mostly 2HKO'd or 3HKO'd.

So what about First Impression without Stakeout's boost? Well, it's not as impressive for obvious reasons, but still hits some notable OHKO and 2HKO benchmarks which is all that it needs to do to threaten specific targets from your opponent's team. It also hits many neutral threats for a solid 3HKO that can turn into a 2HKO with chip damage.

Banded STAB First Impression Damage Calculations (No Stakeout)
View attachment 492228

OHKOs and 2HKOS:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 186-220 (50.1 - 59.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 210-247 (80.4 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (50.7 - 59.9%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 482-570 (168.5 - 199.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 246-289 (62.4 - 73.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 147-174 (46.3 - 54.8%) -- 60.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 380-450 (116.9 - 138.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 928-1096 (316.7 - 374%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 458-542 (130.4 - 154.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 288-338 (56 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

3HKOs (that can become 2HKOs with chip damage):

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 171-202 (39.5 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 110-129 (34.7 - 40.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (43 - 50.9%) -- 4.3% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 148-175 (40.1 - 47.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 118-141 (38.8 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery​

All of this mayhem and chaos is just from one move - so what about Spidop's coverage moves? Let's start with Throat Chop; If you're not clicking First Impression or U-Turn, you will likely be clicking Throat Chop. So what can Throat Chop do? Well, Throat Chop is specifically meant to handle Pokemon such as Skeledirge, Ceruledge, and others that like to switch in on Spidops. With Tera-Dark, Spidops additionally gets rid of the problems of its mono-Bug defensive profile and replaces it with mono-Dark that grants nifty resistances to Dark and Ghost and a Psychic immunity while changing the Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses to neutralities. For Throat Chop, we're going to look at calculations both with and without Terastallizing for emphasis here.

Throat Chop (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Calculations (Pre-Tera and Post-Tera)
View attachment 492229

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 248-294 (70 - 83%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 372-440 (105 - 124.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 108-127 (27 - 31.8%) -- 41.8% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 260-308 (82 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 390-462 (123 - 145.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 214-254 (67.9 - 80.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 320-380 (101.5 - 120.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 154-182 (40.7 - 48.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 230-272 (60.8 - 71.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 206-244 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 308-366 (74.9 - 89%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 496-584 (140.1 - 164.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 744-876 (210.1 - 247.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 214-253 (53.6 - 63.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 520-614 (164 - 193.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 780-920 (246 - 290.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 430-506 (136.5 - 160.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 644-758 (204.4 - 240.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 306-362 (80.9 - 95.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 458-542 (121.1 - 143.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 410-484 (99.7 - 117.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 614-726 (149.3 - 176.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO​

The last slot after U-Turn is a toss-up depending on your team's specific needs. I vastly prefer to run Sticky Web for additional speed control and team utility. Hatterene and any other Magic Bounce users will either (A. Be cautious about switching in due to First Impression or B. Switch in because they know Spidops has Sticky Web and don't understand just how hard First Impression can hit). You'll likely want to wait to click Sticky Web until Magic Bounce users are dealt with - otherwise, click First Impression, Throat Chop, or U-Turn if you expect a switch. The second option you could choose is to run additional coverage with Brick Break to nail annoying Rock, Steel, Ice, Normal, and Dark type switch-ins. The reason I prefer Sticky Web over Brick Break is that, without Stakeout, Brick Break's damage output can be a bit lackluster. Let's take a look at some calculations for Brick Break with and without Stakeout so that you can see if these damage benchmarks are right for you.

Brick Break (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Damage Calculations
View attachment 492238

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 154-182 (38.1 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 118-140 (29.2 - 34.6%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 166-196 (51.7 - 61%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 332-392 (89.9 - 106.2%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 108-128 (31.3 - 37.2%) -- 81% chance to 3HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 306-362 (75.7 - 89.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 236-278 (58.4 - 68.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 330-390 (102.8 - 121.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 660-780 (178.8 - 211.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 214-252 (62.2 - 73.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
​

Lastly, you could run Circle Throw - you wouldn't be running this for damage (although Stakeout Circle Throw can still hit quite hard); you would be running this for its phasing capabilities. However, the choice is up to you!

Defensive Capabilities​

So now you're likely thinking, "Okay, I get it; Spidops hits like a truck, but what about its defenses?" Well, with near-max HP investment and just a little bit of Special Defense investment, Spidops is capable of some surprising defensive feats courtesy of its 92/86 Defense and Special Defense. With this EV investment, Spidops's defensive profile is HP - 320, Defense - 220, and Special Defense - 210. Let's take a look at some calculations to see just how much Spidops can live through with the allotted 252 HP, 0 Def, 8 SpD EVs.

Spidops Physical Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492228

252+ Atk Amoonguss Foul Play vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 127-151 (39.3 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Bullet Seed (3 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 147-174 (45.5 - 53.8%) -- approx. 37.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Breloom Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 157-186 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Mach Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 79-93 (24.4 - 28.7%) -- 99.7% chance to 4HKO

0 Atk Clodsire Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 46-54 (14.2 - 16.7%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 248-294 (76.7 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Def Dondozo Body Press vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 47-56 (14.5 - 17.3%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Dondozo Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 46.9% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 128-151 (39.6 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
76 Atk Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 146-174 (45.2 - 53.8%) -- approx. 28.1% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 106-125 (32.8 - 38.6%) -- 99.4% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 65-77 (20.1 - 23.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Fire Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 198-234 (61.3 - 72.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 72-86 (22.2 - 26.6%) -- 21.9% chance to 4HKO
0 Atk Garchomp Dragon Tail vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 87-103 (26.9 - 31.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 141-166 (43.6 - 51.3%) -- 6.6% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 114-135 (35.2 - 41.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Protean Meowscarada U-turn vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Flower Trick vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops on a critical hit: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Quaquaval Aqua Step vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 133-157 (41.1 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Quaquaval Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 58.2% chance to 3HKO

252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 192-226 (59.4 - 69.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 80-94 (24.7 - 29.1%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 243-286 (75.2 - 88.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 101-119 (31.2 - 36.8%) -- 77.1% chance to 3HKO

0 Atk Ting-Lu Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 63-74 (19.5 - 22.9%) -- possible 5HKO

Spidops Special Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492248

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 184-217 (56.9 - 67.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
180 SpA Dragapult Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 94-112 (29.1 - 34.6%) -- 8.7% chance to 3HKO

0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 102-120 (31.5 - 37.1%) -- 78.9% chance to 3HKO
0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (130 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 202-238 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 150-177 (46.4 - 54.7%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 211-249 (65.3 - 77%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 258-304 (79.8 - 94.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 231-273 (71.5 - 84.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 282-333 (87.3 - 103%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

0 SpA Rotom-Wash Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 139-165 (43 - 51%) -- 3.1% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Rotom-Wash Volt Switch vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 88-105 (27.2 - 32.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
​

So now we've established that there are some definite switch-in opportunities for Spidops with this defensive profile; what about once it terastallizes into a Dark type? Without those pesky Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses, Spidops can suddenly take attacks from a host of threats it really would not like to have switched into before! Let's take a look at some hits that it couldn't take before but can handle now.

Spidops Defensive Calculations (Terastallized)
View attachment 492229

0 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 127-150 (39.3 - 46.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 153-181 (47.3 - 56%) -- 80.9% chance to 2HKO
0 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 28-33 (8.6 - 10.2%) -- possibly the worst move ever
252 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 34-41 (10.5 - 12.6%) -- possible 8HKO

252 Atk Cinderace Pyro Ball vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 195-229 (60.3 - 70.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 92-108 (28.4 - 33.4%) -- 0.1% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Phantom Force vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 64-75 (19.8 - 23.2%) -- possible 5HKO

252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 75-88 (23.2 - 27.2%) -- 59.1% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 112-132 (34.6 - 40.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252+ Atk Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 84-99 (26 - 30.6%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 69-82 (21.3 - 25.3%) -- 0.2% chance to 4HKO

252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 237-280 (73.3 - 86.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 104-123 (32.1 - 38%) -- 95.1% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 121-143 (37.4 - 44.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 106-126 (32.8 - 39%) -- 99.7% chance to 3HKO
+1 8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Volcarona Fiery Dance vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Team Support + Other Set Option
View attachment 492184
Spidops may be strong, but it does require some solid support to function properly. Let's take a look at some options that will help Spidops successfully function! In addition, we'll look at an additional Spidops set very briefly to explain how it works; while I don't like the following set as much as the Choice Band set, I've had enough success with it that I found it noteworthy enough to mention!

Hazard + Mortal Spin or Rapid Spin

Recommended Partner: Glimmora
View attachment 492250
Not only is Glimmora one of the best leads (arguably one of the best OU Pokemon in general), but it compresses spinning and setting into a single team slot. Glimmora's ability Toxic Debris auto sets Toxic Spikes, its signature move Mortal Spin poisons + clears hazards, and it has access to both Spikes and Stealth Rock! Whenever I use Spidops, I almost always have Glimmora as its partner.

Wish Passing

Recommended Partner: Alomomola

View attachment 492252

Alomomola has been my favorite Gen 9 OU wish passer since the earliest stages of the metagame. It has tremendous bulk, fantastic mono-Water defensive typing, and access to invaluable utility and trapping moves such as Chilling Water and Whirlpool. Alomomola is a Pokemon that I would recommend for most team compositions in general, but especially as a great partner for Spidops!

Spidops Alternative Set Option
View attachment 492173
Anti-Lead Steel Stakeout Bug Utility
View attachment 492254
Spidops @ Leftovers
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Taunt
- Silk Trap
- U-turn

Set Explanation:
This is a role compression utility set that relies on Spidop's access to its unique move Silk Trap, a variant of Protect for damaging moves that slows a Pokemon's speed by one stage if it hits the Silk Trap with a contact move. Taunt is meant to stop hazard/status/phasing, while First Impression and U-Turn function similarly. The reason we're using Steel as a Tera-type is for its defensive prowess + immunity to Toxic. The 100 Speed EVs are to outspeed Ting-Lu and Hippowdon (allowing you to Taunt them). While I have had quite a bit of success with this set, I feel that the issues with vulnerability and having to sacrifice HP and Special Defense EVs is a really tough call to make.

Conclusion
View attachment 492253

Spidops is one of my new favorite Pokemon to use in OU - it's powerful and varied, and has plenty of other options besides the Choice Band set and the Anti-Lead Utility set that I listed. It has its flaws (having the lowest BST total of all Pokemon introduced in Gen 9 is a bummer), but I've found that it's a valuable team member with a great niche that compliments multiple build styles. So, give Spidops a try today; I promise you won't be disappointed - however, when your opponent's Garchomp goes down in a single hit to an early-game Bug type, they definitely will be disappointed.​

How does he keep cooking folks

 

[awyp]

Spidops

View attachment 492173
"Spidops is a covert ambush predator that utilizes its sticky and resilient silk threads to cling upon any surface and move without making a sound. It spins a silk thread from the spinneret on its abdomen, which it uses to hang upside-down from tall places. It then spins a net between its top four legs which it uses to smother its prey, striking before the prey has time to react." - Bulbapedia

"Hehe, mustache spider assassin's Choice Band Stakeout STAB First Impression go brrrrrrr" - Morkal​

BASE STAT	LEVEL 100 STAT RANGE
HP: 60	230 - 324​
Attack: 79​	146 - 282​
Defense: 92	170 - 311​
Sp. Atk: 52	98 - 223​
Sp. Def: 86	159 - 298​
Speed: 35	67 - 185​

Notable Moves

Physical Moves:
Brick Break, Circle Throw, First Impression, Leech Life, Low Kick, Lunge, Poison Jab, Rock Tomb, Shadow Claw, Skitter Smack, Sucker Punch, Tera Blast, Thief, Throat Chop, Trailblaze, U-Turn, X-Scissor

Utility Moves:
Memento, Protect, Rest, Silk Trap, Spikes, Sticky Web, Substitute, Taunt, Toxic Spikes

Introduction​

Spidops evolves from Tarountula, an early game bug. Being an early-game bug usually spells "competitive career death" for most Pokemon, and for a while, it was looking the same for Spidops. However, Spidops has numerous qualities that, with proper support, can leave a sizeable impact on your team composition. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Spidops is now one of my favorite Pokemon to use in OU, and is actually easier than you might think to slip into specific team compositions! So without further ado, let's dive into this post (that is somehow longer than my college world history dissertation last semester) to talk about one of the most stylish Bug-type Pokemon to ever grace the competitive metagame!

Disclaimer: While Spidops has a lot of utility and flexibility, it can be played around if you're not knowledgeable about specific damage and speed tier benchmarks (the latter of which I'll link here). I highly recommend careful team building and looking into speed tiers, running practice calculations, testing Spidops on your various teams, and practicing prediction for switches. I would like to double-stress that understanding switch prediction is key for move choice. If you work Spidops properly and work to increase your contemporary metagame knowledge, he can provide exceptional utility, scary offensive pressure, and even situational defensive prowess for your teams!

View attachment 492184
Spidops Summarized Advantages
This is a "too long, didn't read" section for people who want a quick summary of Spidops's advantages without reading the essay-length post.​

• Spidops has a surprisingly useful defensive profile with HP investment; 60/92/86 with resistances to Fighting, Ground, and Grass means that it resists moves like both of Great Tusk's STABs, Garchomp and Ting-Lu's Earthquake, and more.
• Spidops's Stakeout-boosted STAB First Impression is the single strongest priority move available in the OU meta, and thanks to a bevy of impressive coverage options, it can hit a lot harder than you think with proper investment and item distribution. With Choice Band + Stakeout, STAB First Impression OHKOs Swords Dance Garchomp, has a chance to OHKO Bulky Garchomp, and can 2HKO almost every variant of Garganacl; those are just a few quick examples to show how mind-numbingly dumb Spidops's power can be, (more calculations are in the main post).
• Spidop's Stakeout First Impression also discourages your opponent from switching by punishing players who have lost their double resists and heavily physically defensive single-resist Pokemon, leaving your opponent with the difficult choice of sacrificing frail powerful sweepers like Greninja and Meowscarada or risking taking nuclear levels of damage from the Stakeout boost.
• Spidops's Stakeout additionally boosts all of its coverage moves, meaning that, given the right prediction, not much can reliably switch into Spidops at all.
• Spidops's wide movepool means it can fit a variety of roles suited to your team, meaning that the two movesets I will be talking about below can be tailored to your team's specific needs based on your teammates.
• Spidops can utilize Tera to turn the tables on would-be checks and counters like Skeledirge, Ceruledge, Garganacl, and more!
• Spidops's role compression is very flexible, and its low speed actually works in its favor thanks to slow STAB U-Turn (which can additionally be boosted with Stakeout on switch-ins).

View attachment 492183
Priority Band Stakeout (One Variant - Tera Dark)

View attachment 492239
Spidops @ Choice Band
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Throat Chop
- U-Turn
- Sticky Web / Brick Break / Circle Throw

Offensive Capabilities​

Spidops Priority Band Stakeout is meant to be an early-mid game menace that weaves in and out of combat by playing mind games with insanely powerful STAB Priority, fantastic coverage in Throat Chop and Brick Break, and a powerful STAB boosted slow U-Turn to keep up the momentum, all complimented by Stakeout's ability to punish switching aggressively. In the late game, First Impression essentially becomes a one-button cleaner nuke that decimates damaged Pokemon. Let's talk about Stakeout and what it does; Stakeout is an ability that doubles the power of Spidops's moves when used against a Pokemon switching in. Now you might be thinking, "why not just switch to a resist" or "wouldn't the opponent just stay in because of Stakeout or because of Spidops's lackluster base stats?" To answer these questions, let's start by demonstrating just how powerful Band STAB Stakeout First Impression is against even double-resisted hits.

Banded STAB Stakeout First Impression Damage Calculations
View attachment 492228

Super Effective Hits (Not really relevant for Stakeout, but I'm still noting because the damage is just kinda hilarious):

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 962-1134 (336.3 - 396.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (talk about overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 758-894 (233.2 - 275%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 1860-2188 (634.8 - 746.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (okay, I take the Greninja comment back, THIS is overkill)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 918-1082 (261.5 - 308.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 570-672 (110.8 - 130.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Imagine OHKO'ing Ting-Lu on the physical side)

Neutral Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 340-402 (78.7 - 93%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 372-438 (100.2 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 417-492 (159.7 - 188.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 228-268 (45.2 - 53.1%) -- 31.6% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Dondozo: 306-361 (60.7 - 71.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (101.1 - 119.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 361-426 (85.9 - 101.4%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 276-325 (68.3 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 211-249 (52.2 - 61.6%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 489-576 (124.1 - 146.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 204+ Def Hatterene: 270-318 (84.9 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 292-345 (92.1 - 108.8%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 297-349 (80.4 - 94.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 237-280 (77.9 - 92.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 116 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (56.2 - 66.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 208-246 (51.4 - 60.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cinderace: 219-258 (72.7 - 85.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (OHKO with Chip)
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Clodsire: 258-304 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 219-258 (69 - 81.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (27.8 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-212 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 90-106 (25 - 29.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 144 HP / 0 Def (Multiscale Broken) Dragonite: 180-213 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Glimmora: 188-222 (61.2 - 72.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 136-161 (36.6 - 43.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (46.1 - 54.2%) -- 54.7% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 148-174 (38.5 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 96-113 (27.9 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Pelipper: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Quaquaval: 207-244 (66.5 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 200 HP / 180+ Def Quaquaval: 154-182 (42.6 - 50.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 236 HP / 0 Def Scizor: 174-204 (51.1 - 60%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex: 96-114 (31.5 - 37.5%) -- 0% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 108 Def Volcarona: 212-249 (56.8 - 66.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Double Resisted Hits:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (35.7 - 42.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 104-123 (29.3 - 34.7%) -- 8.3% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Moth: 130-154 (43.1 - 51.1%) -- 5.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Iron Valiant: 94-111 (32.5 - 38.4%) -- 97.9% chance to 3HKO​

To give you an idea, those calculations were for 32 of 35 OU and OU BL Pokemon. 10 of those 32 listed OU Pokemon are either OHKO'd or have a solid chance to be OHKO'd. 15 of those 32 listed are either 2HKO'd or have a solid chance to be 2HKO'd. This means that 25 of 35 OU Pokemon, roughly a whopping 71% of the entire OU Meta, cannot reliably switch into Banded Stakeout STAB First Impression at full health without being OHKO'd or 2HKO'd or having a very high chance to be OHKO'd or 2HKO'd (100% assured OHKO/2HKO's with chip damage). If you factor in the previously mentioned chip damage, that number becomes somewhere closer to 80%+ and turns some of those 3HKOs into 2HKOs. The numbers are relatively similar for Band Stakeout STAB U-Turn, so I won't post those calculations here. Those who know about Spidops's nuclear power don't want to switch - those who don't know are generally decimated; regular resists are mostly 2HKO'd or 3HKO'd.

So what about First Impression without Stakeout's boost? Well, it's not as impressive for obvious reasons, but still hits some notable OHKO and 2HKO benchmarks which is all that it needs to do to threaten specific targets from your opponent's team. It also hits many neutral threats for a solid 3HKO that can turn into a 2HKO with chip damage.

Banded STAB First Impression Damage Calculations (No Stakeout)
View attachment 492228

OHKOs and 2HKOS:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 186-220 (50.1 - 59.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Breloom: 210-247 (80.4 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (50.7 - 59.9%) -- 85.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 482-570 (168.5 - 199.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Grimmsnarl: 246-289 (62.4 - 73.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 248 HP / 116+ Def Hatterene: 147-174 (46.3 - 54.8%) -- 60.5% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 380-450 (116.9 - 138.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 928-1096 (316.7 - 374%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 458-542 (130.4 - 154.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 288-338 (56 - 65.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

3HKOs (that can become 2HKOs with chip damage):

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 171-202 (39.5 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 110-129 (34.7 - 40.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 181-214 (43 - 50.9%) -- 4.3% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 148-175 (40.1 - 47.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 118-141 (38.8 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery​

All of this mayhem and chaos is just from one move - so what about Spidop's coverage moves? Let's start with Throat Chop; If you're not clicking First Impression or U-Turn, you will likely be clicking Throat Chop. So what can Throat Chop do? Well, Throat Chop is specifically meant to handle Pokemon such as Skeledirge, Ceruledge, and others that like to switch in on Spidops. With Tera-Dark, Spidops additionally gets rid of the problems of its mono-Bug defensive profile and replaces it with mono-Dark that grants nifty resistances to Dark and Ghost and a Psychic immunity while changing the Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses to neutralities. For Throat Chop, we're going to look at calculations both with and without Terastallizing for emphasis here.

Throat Chop (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Calculations (Pre-Tera and Post-Tera)
View attachment 492229

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 248-294 (70 - 83%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 372-440 (105 - 124.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 108-127 (27 - 31.8%) -- 41.8% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 260-308 (82 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 390-462 (123 - 145.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 214-254 (67.9 - 80.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 320-380 (101.5 - 120.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 154-182 (40.7 - 48.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 230-272 (60.8 - 71.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 206-244 (50.1 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 308-366 (74.9 - 89%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 496-584 (140.1 - 164.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Ceruledge: 744-876 (210.1 - 247.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 214-253 (53.6 - 63.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 520-614 (164 - 193.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 780-920 (246 - 290.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 430-506 (136.5 - 160.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 644-758 (204.4 - 240.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 306-362 (80.9 - 95.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 458-542 (121.1 - 143.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 410-484 (99.7 - 117.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Tera Dark Spidops Throat Chop vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 614-726 (149.3 - 176.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO​

The last slot after U-Turn is a toss-up depending on your team's specific needs. I vastly prefer to run Sticky Web for additional speed control and team utility. Hatterene and any other Magic Bounce users will either (A. Be cautious about switching in due to First Impression or B. Switch in because they know Spidops has Sticky Web and don't understand just how hard First Impression can hit). You'll likely want to wait to click Sticky Web until Magic Bounce users are dealt with - otherwise, click First Impression, Throat Chop, or U-Turn if you expect a switch. The second option you could choose is to run additional coverage with Brick Break to nail annoying Rock, Steel, Ice, Normal, and Dark type switch-ins. The reason I prefer Sticky Web over Brick Break is that, without Stakeout, Brick Break's damage output can be a bit lackluster. Let's take a look at some calculations for Brick Break with and without Stakeout so that you can see if these damage benchmarks are right for you.

Brick Break (No Stakeout and Stakeout) Damage Calculations
View attachment 492238

No Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 154-182 (38.1 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 118-140 (29.2 - 34.6%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 166-196 (51.7 - 61%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 332-392 (89.9 - 106.2%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 108-128 (31.3 - 37.2%) -- 81% chance to 3HKO

Stakeout Damage Buff:

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garganacl: 306-362 (75.7 - 89.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 236-278 (58.4 - 68.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 330-390 (102.8 - 121.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 660-780 (178.8 - 211.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Stakeout Spidops Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Orthworm: 214-252 (62.2 - 73.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
​

Lastly, you could run Circle Throw - you wouldn't be running this for damage (although Stakeout Circle Throw can still hit quite hard); you would be running this for its phasing capabilities. However, the choice is up to you!

Defensive Capabilities​

So now you're likely thinking, "Okay, I get it; Spidops hits like a truck, but what about its defenses?" Well, with near-max HP investment and just a little bit of Special Defense investment, Spidops is capable of some surprising defensive feats courtesy of its 92/86 Defense and Special Defense. With this EV investment, Spidops's defensive profile is HP - 320, Defense - 220, and Special Defense - 210. Let's take a look at some calculations to see just how much Spidops can live through with the allotted 252 HP, 0 Def, 8 SpD EVs.

Spidops Physical Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492228

252+ Atk Amoonguss Foul Play vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Aqua Jet vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 127-151 (39.3 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Bullet Seed (3 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 147-174 (45.5 - 53.8%) -- approx. 37.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Breloom Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 157-186 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Technician Breloom Mach Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 79-93 (24.4 - 28.7%) -- 99.7% chance to 4HKO

0 Atk Clodsire Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 46-54 (14.2 - 16.7%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 248-294 (76.7 - 91%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Def Dondozo Body Press vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 47-56 (14.5 - 17.3%) -- possible 6HKO
0 Atk Dondozo Liquidation vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 46.9% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 128-151 (39.6 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
76 Atk Dragapult Dragon Darts (2 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 146-174 (45.2 - 53.8%) -- approx. 28.1% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 106-125 (32.8 - 38.6%) -- 99.4% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 65-77 (20.1 - 23.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
252+ Atk Dragonite Fire Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 198-234 (61.3 - 72.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 72-86 (22.2 - 26.6%) -- 21.9% chance to 4HKO
0 Atk Garchomp Dragon Tail vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 87-103 (26.9 - 31.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 88-104 (27.2 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 141-166 (43.6 - 51.3%) -- 6.6% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Great Tusk Headlong Rush vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 114-135 (35.2 - 41.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Protean Meowscarada U-turn vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 163-193 (50.4 - 59.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Flower Trick vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops on a critical hit: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 Atk Quaquaval Aqua Step vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 133-157 (41.1 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Quaquaval Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 58.2% chance to 3HKO

252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 192-226 (59.4 - 69.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 80-94 (24.7 - 29.1%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 243-286 (75.2 - 88.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 101-119 (31.2 - 36.8%) -- 77.1% chance to 3HKO

0 Atk Ting-Lu Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Spidops: 63-74 (19.5 - 22.9%) -- possible 5HKO

Spidops Special Defense Calculations (Pre-Tera)
View attachment 492248

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 184-217 (56.9 - 67.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
180 SpA Dragapult Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 94-112 (29.1 - 34.6%) -- 8.7% chance to 3HKO

0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (65 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 102-120 (31.5 - 37.1%) -- 78.9% chance to 3HKO
0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (130 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 202-238 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 150-177 (46.4 - 54.7%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 211-249 (65.3 - 77%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 258-304 (79.8 - 94.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Surf vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 231-273 (71.5 - 84.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 282-333 (87.3 - 103%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

0 SpA Rotom-Wash Hydro Pump vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 139-165 (43 - 51%) -- 3.1% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Rotom-Wash Volt Switch vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Spidops: 88-105 (27.2 - 32.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
​

So now we've established that there are some definite switch-in opportunities for Spidops with this defensive profile; what about once it terastallizes into a Dark type? Without those pesky Fire, Flying, and Rock weaknesses, Spidops can suddenly take attacks from a host of threats it really would not like to have switched into before! Let's take a look at some hits that it couldn't take before but can handle now.

Spidops Defensive Calculations (Terastallized)
View attachment 492229

0 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 127-150 (39.3 - 46.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Ceruledge Bitter Blade vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 153-181 (47.3 - 56%) -- 80.9% chance to 2HKO
0 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 28-33 (8.6 - 10.2%) -- possibly the worst move ever
252 Atk Ceruledge Shadow Sneak vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 34-41 (10.5 - 12.6%) -- possible 8HKO

252 Atk Cinderace Pyro Ball vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 195-229 (60.3 - 70.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 124-147 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 92-108 (28.4 - 33.4%) -- 0.1% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Phantom Force vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 123-144 (38 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dragapult Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 64-75 (19.8 - 23.2%) -- possible 5HKO

252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 75-88 (23.2 - 27.2%) -- 59.1% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 112-132 (34.6 - 40.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

252+ Atk Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 84-99 (26 - 30.6%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ Atk Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 69-82 (21.3 - 25.3%) -- 0.2% chance to 4HKO

252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 237-280 (73.3 - 86.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 104-123 (32.1 - 38%) -- 95.1% chance to 3HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Roaring Moon Crunch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tera Dark Spidops: 121-143 (37.4 - 44.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 106-126 (32.8 - 39%) -- 99.7% chance to 3HKO
+1 8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 159-187 (49.2 - 57.8%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Volcarona Fiery Dance vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tera Dark Spidops: 126-148 (39 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Team Support + Other Set Option
View attachment 492184
Spidops may be strong, but it does require some solid support to function properly. Let's take a look at some options that will help Spidops successfully function! In addition, we'll look at an additional Spidops set very briefly to explain how it works; while I don't like the following set as much as the Choice Band set, I've had enough success with it that I found it noteworthy enough to mention!

Hazard + Mortal Spin or Rapid Spin

Recommended Partner: Glimmora
View attachment 492250
Not only is Glimmora one of the best leads (arguably one of the best OU Pokemon in general), but it compresses spinning and setting into a single team slot. Glimmora's ability Toxic Debris auto sets Toxic Spikes, its signature move Mortal Spin poisons + clears hazards, and it has access to both Spikes and Stealth Rock! Whenever I use Spidops, I almost always have Glimmora as its partner.

Wish Passing

Recommended Partner: Alomomola

View attachment 492252

Alomomola has been my favorite Gen 9 OU wish passer since the earliest stages of the metagame. It has tremendous bulk, fantastic mono-Water defensive typing, and access to invaluable utility and trapping moves such as Chilling Water and Whirlpool. Alomomola is a Pokemon that I would recommend for most team compositions in general, but especially as a great partner for Spidops!

Spidops Alternative Set Option
View attachment 492173
Anti-Lead Steel Stakeout Bug Utility
View attachment 492254
Spidops @ Leftovers
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Taunt
- Silk Trap
- U-turn

Set Explanation:
This is a role compression utility set that relies on Spidop's access to its unique move Silk Trap, a variant of Protect for damaging moves that slows a Pokemon's speed by one stage if it hits the Silk Trap with a contact move. Taunt is meant to stop hazard/status/phasing, while First Impression and U-Turn function similarly. The reason we're using Steel as a Tera-type is for its defensive prowess + immunity to Toxic. The 100 Speed EVs are to outspeed Ting-Lu and Hippowdon (allowing you to Taunt them). While I have had quite a bit of success with this set, I feel that the issues with vulnerability and having to sacrifice HP and Special Defense EVs is a really tough call to make.

Conclusion
View attachment 492253

Spidops is one of my new favorite Pokemon to use in OU - it's powerful and varied, and has plenty of other options besides the Choice Band set and the Anti-Lead Utility set that I listed. It has its flaws (having the lowest BST total of all Pokemon introduced in Gen 9 is a bummer), but I've found that it's a valuable team member with a great niche that compliments multiple build styles. So, give Spidops a try today; I promise you won't be disappointed - however, when your opponent's Garchomp goes down in a single hit to an early-game Bug type, they definitely will be disappointed.​

Wow you deserve an award great job, Spidops is litty

 

[Lobby Eeveee]

Rain is a fun novelty because people though it was dead on arrival this gen, let's look at how to build a rain team (this is paper based cookie cutter and not the absolute standard, there are more ways to built rain, and I have absolute no idea of what I'm doing)

Step 1:
use
Whether is specs or damp rock, it's a must-have, if you're using specs, you probably want 2 physical mons instead of 1 and 1, and while fun, I personally like the support more, but specs is so fun
Step 2:
Rain Abuser 1
This is where we get a bit funky, for guideline reasons let's say you want a physical one and a special one, from the physical abusers you have
(with the famous choice band set that makes it number 1 choice 99% of the time)
(That lost flip turn but still hits hard, and it has some more coverage)
(who has reliable recovery and needs some set-up but can work)
(Who is a water immunity not water, and brings some utility like priority, and good stab, but it's way more rain dependent that the rest)
Step 3:
Rain Abuser 2
For the sake of the cookie cutter chapter, let's say you want a special mon, you here have 2 options instead of 1
with fast speed, insane power, spikes, u-turn, protean and grass knot
Who has Swift Swim and Nasty Plot
that can spam hurricanes forever alongside hydros
Step 4:
Support mons
Here you will need stuff that can support your team and benefit from it
makes the team S U S with spore, status, toxic/toxic spikes absorber and benefits from rain on his fire type matchups, also a good fairy resist
Who is an overall glue mon with rocks, ruination, Whirlwind and being fucking unkillable, provides a HUGE electric immunity, it also pairs well with either amoonguss or rotom wash for its complementary resistances
Who likes weakened fire attacks, is immune to electric, has volt switch and fits better than tusk here because better spedef and its an overall good steel type to fit in
Because Water/Electric I think I don't need to say more (its also a ground immunity not weak to rock)
BIG STALL, provides insane overall utility by virtue of being FUCKING PEX, AND has a little bit more power on his attacks to boot, making it
even more stressing to break
Who has water absorb and can set up rocks, toxic and has recover, making it a great special wall and basically hard counter non trick rotom thanks to both its water and electric inmunity
Step 5:
Optional mons
These are just optional but have proved to work
specs thunder is so fun, and dragapult is an overall good wallbreaker
Who REALLY appreciates being better prepared against fire types and can put its offensive/defensive utility to good use, it also has defog making it good when you don't really wanna use iron treads

EDIT:

I decided to add this
https://pokepast.es/6fbe63691d0f0471
this is the single most basic and standard rain possible, made by following this fun but not fully detailed guide
as setter
as one rain abuser
as second rain abuser
as rocker
as a bulky grass type with spore
has rapid spin support and volt-turn with pelipper
How this team can be improved?
Well, for one, the offensive line is VERY frail, meaning 1 mistake, and you end up with no firepower
2) it has no strong water resist outside of amoongus who is weak to flying, meaning opposing rain can potentially give you problems

This is where you, the reader, come and put your own magic spin into it
While not having as powerful options as sun, rain has more creativity, which lets it take on more opponents thanks to its surprise factor, instead of the usual koko/ferro/torn-t/ cores of old

If there's somebody that I forgot that should be included, please tell us, and remember to always experiment and be creative, no matter how dumb the idea sounds

Salamence can be used on rain (specs hurricane + hydro pump)

 

[Lobby Eeveee]

Brave bird corv is amazing. It has saves my ass from defeat so many times and hits hard despite being uninvested.

 

[Ctann]

I'm gonna be honest. This explains very well how to build and play decent rain teams, except for one thing. Rain fucking sucks and loses to mid to high decent players if they're not playing Teddiursa using their feets.
I'm deeply sorry for that, but I can't see any form of rain in the current metagame be any kind of threat to your team if it's built correctly, and you're playing in your right mind.

(Wait until a fucking SPL replay makes me swallow my words, but until then, I'll stand where I am.)

More seriously tho, sure, it can win you games, but neither in tours or on ladder is it a reliable type of team to play.

rain is good, it’s just that there’s some teams that pack 1-2 viable Pokémon that basically shutdown The entire play style unless your double switch game is on point

for example clodsire + kingambit, or Slowking + anything that hits hard, or tusk/hatterene doing a reverse sweep with their clutch Tera water, maybe you steamroll it with well positioned choice banded outrages from a baxcali.

wanna completely shut down rain? Slowking can position in on a minimum of 2 threats - including the most essential pelipper - and immediately change the weather before going to a breaker/fast hitter. Suddenly your rain team is 5-6 because you had to sack something.

rains best selling point rn is the choice specs Hurricanes due to the dearth of strong flying resists in the meta right now. Choice water attacks are amazing on paper, but have the game turned on their head against those clodsires where you’re suddenly making 50/50 predictions on whether it’s switching in or not, or the slowkings that force you to try and bring Peli back in, or the well positioned dondozos, etc.

I’ve seen ejection amoonguss as a great addition because against a lot of teams, you can force them into a losing matchup and then get a 6-5 with your rain team. But the tradeoff it becomes very readable and you don’t get consistent results against experienced players

 

[Eeveeto]

Rain is decent, except vs teams that pack Water immunities. The addition of Greninja and the bans of Chien Pao (priority user that also made Paldean Water Tauros, who checks Floatzel pretty well, more common) and Espathra (both Protect and Sub can stall Rain turns) improved the style a lot.

On the topic of Greninja, in my personal opinion, this Mon is very slept on and potentially might end up being more broken than Chien Pao. Since it's outsped by Meowscarada anyway, Modest Specs Tera Water (with even Water Shuriken to bypass Kingambit and Cinderace) has obscene power (at work, so won't be doing calcs right now, the rest of you can do them in my place) and 2HKOs even most Water Resists (immunities get eaten by coverage). The only things still holding back this frog is being extremely frail and prediction reliant, which is the main reason no one has complained about it yet.

Edit: Forgot to mention it, despite considering Chien Pao broken, I didn't really mind just slapping Water Tauros in most of my teams. It's the addition of Greninja what really made me vote ban on the cat in order to free the bulky water slot for something that checks Greninja, like Sdef Rotom-W.

 

[UnusualBoy]

Rain is decent, except vs teams that pack Water immunities. The addition of Greninja and the bans of Chien Pao (priority user that also made Paldean Water Tauros, who checks Floatzel pretty well, more common) and Espathra (both Protect and Sub can stall Rain turns) improved the style a lot.

On the topic of Greninja, in my personal opinion, this Mon is very slept on and potentially might end up being more broken than Chien Pao. Since it's outsped by Meowscarada anyway, Modest Specs Tera Water (with even Water Shuriken to bypass Kingambit and Cinderace) has obscene power (at work, so won't be doing calcs right now, the rest of you can do them in my place) and 2HKOs even most Water Resists (immunities get eaten by coverage). The only things still holding back this frog is being extremely frail and prediction reliant, which is the main reason no one has complained about it yet.

Edit: Forgot to mention it, despite considering Chien Pao broken, I didn't really mind just slapping Water Tauros in most of my teams. It's the addition of Greninja what really made me vote ban on the cat in order to free the bulky water slot for something that checks Greninja, like Sdef Rotom-W.

While I don’t think Gren is broken by any means, he’s deffo slept on, yeah it was nerfed but specs ninja remains the same since its movepool remained almost untouched. He’s an amazing check to annoying things like Dondozo, Great Tusk and Garganacci and those tera hydro pump hit really really hard on most of the meta so hopefully we’ll see it more often.

 

[Bice]

[sound of spidops not sugarcoating it]

The fact that you managed to find a niche for the lowest BST mon in Paldea that wasn't a suicide lead is super impressive and kind of eye opening. It may not change the fact that Spidops is as ugly as sin, but your writeup has changed my competitive view of the mon