http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-bw/628.shtml
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[Overview]
- Meet Wargle, the yankee bird. An interesting Pokemon that sadly pretty much failed to live up to the speculation surrounding it.
- A very good 123 base Attack stat and defences of 100/75/75 make it a potent offensive threat.
- Sadly, a low base Speed stat, mediocre movepool, and two nigh-on useless abilities means that it is pretty much outclassed by Staraptor, who has Close Combat, Double-Edge, higher Speed, and Intimidate.
- However, higher Attack + overall defensive stats + a slightly bigger movepool makes Wargle worth using.
name: Life Orb
move1: Return / Crush Claw
move2: Brave Bird
move3: Superpower
move4: U-turn
item: Life Orb
nature: Jolly / Adamant
ability: Keen Eye / Encourage
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Set Comments:
- Return is a nice, reliable STAB attack that gets plenty of neutral coverage.
- Brave Bird is a more powerful but more dangerous STAB attack with enormous power behind it - for reference, Adamant Life Orb Wargle can 2HKO physically defensive Forretress with Brave Bird after Stealth Rock damage.
- Superpower is a necessary coverage move to defeat Rock- and Steel-types that you cannot touch with your STAB moves, such as Tyranitar and Doryuuzu.
- Lastly, U-turn can be used to scout a switch-in, but is essentially filler.
- Classic sweeper build - maximum Attack and Speed, remaining EVs in HP, and Life Orb for power.
- Jolly nets you the Speed to outrun Timid Life Orb Heatran, though Adamant can also be used for the extra power.
- Although it seems a travesty to use a rubbish ability like Keen Eye over a great ability like Encourage, Wargle has almost zero moves that can take advantage of it. It's a real waste, but the fact of the matter is, Keen Eye actually has more use competitively.
- Shadow Claw and Rock Slide for other options - Shadow Claw hits Rotom, which Staraptor cannot do, and Rock Slide hits Zapdos, and is also boosted by Encourage, making it a better Stone Edge.
- An interesting combination comes from the combination of Crush Claw and Encourage - even with the Encourage boost, Crush Claw turns into a slightly less powerful and slightly less accurate version of Return. However, when Crush Claw is used alongside Encourage, the Life Orb recoil does not occur, and the boost is still given. This can greatly improve Wargle's survivability, but the loss of the more reliable Return can be annoying at times, especially if Crush Claw misses at a crucial moment. This effect also does not apply to any of Wargle's other moves.
- Stealth Rock and other entry hazard support is useful to weaken the opposing team.
- Principally, Wargle's biggest failing is its Speed, as it can 1-2HKO nigh on everything in the game with its coverage. Hence, you have to watch out for faster revenge killers such as Infernape, Garchomp, Randorosu...
- Magnezone support can be helpful to get rid of Skarmory, Bronzong, and Doryuuzu, who can all be troublesome.
- Wargle can break apart Fire/Water/Grass cores with the power of its STAB moves, as well as breaking down other generic stall cores, so having a setup sweeper to take advantage of this can be rewarding. Swords Dance Garchomp and Tail Glow Manaphy are both useful in this regard, especially as neither is concerned with the Steel- and Rock-types that plague Wargle.
- Warubiaru is worth mentioning for its offensive synergy with Wargle; specifically, its ability to take out Ghost-, Rock-, and Steel-types, all of whom plague Wargle.
name: Choice
move1: Return
move2: Brave Bird
move3: Superpower
move4: U-turn
item: Choice Scarf / Choice Band
nature: Adamant / Jolly
ability: Keen Eye
evs: 20 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spe
Set Comments:
- Choice sets either boost Wargle's ailing Speed or its impressive Attack stat to act in two different scouting roles.
- Same moves as Life Orb for same reasons.
- Choice Band functions more as a bulky wallbreaker, while Choice Scarf is more of a revenge killer and offensive pivot.
- With these EVs, Jolly Choice Scarf Wargle reaches 418 Speed, sufficient to outrun Naive Choice Scarf Heatran.
- However, if you don't care about Heatran and base 130+, Adamant should be used with Choice Scarf for the additional power. Adamant Choice Scarf Wargle reaches 388 Speed, sufficient to tie with Timid Shaymin-S.
- Heatran is also an ideal benchmark to aim for for the Choice Band set as well.
- Again, Rock Slide and Shadow Claw are viable alternative options.
- Rapid Spin support is essential in order to stop Wargle taking heavy damage every time it switches in. Good candidates for this are Forretress and Donphan, the former of whom resists Ice and the latter of whom resists Electric, and both can take Rock-type attacks. Starmie is another good choice as it is more offensive than the other two, enabling it to support Wargle on the attack and also take out spinblockers with its powerful STAB moves.
- Again, Choice Band is a useful wallbreaker that can heavily damage switch-ins, so you should bring in powerful lategame sweepers to take full advantage. Manaphy and Garchomp are excellent thanks to their offensive synergy.
- Choice Scarf as a pivot can lure in and U-turn away from switch-ins that resist its STAB moves, mainly Steel- and Rock-types such as Tyranitar and Doryuuzu, enabling you to switch in a counter or trapper such as Magnezone or Dugtrio.
- Removing these Pokemon in this way is very beneficial to Pokemon who have trouble with them, such as Drapion and Borutorosu, both of whom also benefit from Wargle breaking down the opponent's team.
- Support: Rapid Spin is essential to make the most of Wargle's increased bulk, and can be used effectively by such Pokemon as Donphan and Forretress. Both of these Pokemon are also useful for Stealth Rock or entry hazard support. Starmie is another effective spinner that also provides offensive support. Paralysis support could be useful from something like Celebi.
- Offensive Complements: Wargle can lure in and break down or weaken bulky Steel- and Rock-types - Latios, Latias, and Alakazam among others value the weakening of Tyranitar, Scizor, and Metagross greatly. Also great value as a wallbreaker - Fire/Water/Grass and other common stall cores can be worn down with reasonable ease, meaning that Pokemon such as Dragon Dance Tyranitar and Gyarados can have an easier time against the opponent. Lastly, Pokemon such as Groudon and Machamp who are strong against Rock- and Steel-types are helpful.
- Defensive complements: Wargle's three weaknesses are Electric, Rock, and Ice. Pokemon who can usually take all three of these include Nattorei, Swampert, and Magnezone, the latter of whom can also trap and OHKO Steel-types. It resists Bug and Grass and is immune to Earthquake, so can make a good partner to those likely to draw in these attacks, such as Celebi, Swampert, and Heatran respectively.
- A number of useful setup moves - Bulk Up, Claw Sharpen, Cheer Up (the former is almost always the best choice).
- Shadow Claw for Rotom and other nasty Ghost-types.
- Rock Slide for Zapdos and an Encourage boost.
- Tailwind for team support.
- Thrash/Vengeance if you don't like Return.
- Rotom.
- Skarmory, Metagross, Bronzong, Steelix.
- Rhyperior, Regirock.
- Hippowdon, Donphan, Gliscor.
- Revenge killers: Aakeosu, Weavile, Jolteon, Starmie... pretty much everything with a super effective move really.
- Wargle actually gets an ability of any use from the Dream World: Competitive Spirit, which raises its Attack when its stats are lowered.
- Unfortunately, yet again we are let down by empty promises from the ability description - the boost applies only to external stat-lowering, and not self-inflicted stat lowering, so the use of Superpower does not activate the boost.
- However, this does mean that Wargle is not only effectively immune to Intimidate, which is very useful by itself, it in fact benefits from it enormously. Firstly its Attack drops to -1 from Intimidate, but is then boosted two stages to +1 by Competitive Spirit, making it all the more powerful. If nothing else, this is a much more useful ability than Keen Eye at least.
