OU Spotlight: Weavile

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Back in the XY OU metagame, Weavile was little more than a niche Pokémon; it was not exactly bad, but it was still uncommon and had little to no impact on the tier. However, the release of ORAS opened up a lot of doors for it; first of all, Icicle Crash became compatible with Knock Off, giving it a more powerful STAB attack that, while lacking in accuracy, has a much better secondary effect than its previous best option, Ice Punch (a 30% chance to cause flinching as opposed to a 10% chance to freeze), and is not affected by Iron Barbs, Rough Skin and Rocky Helmet, enabling it to hit Ferrothorn and Garchomp safely.

Shortly thereafter, Greninja was banned, which not only led to people using Weavile as an obvious substitute, but also caused a chain of events leading to Weavile's skyrocket in usage and viability. The usage of Grass-types such as Celebi and Serperior and Psychic-types such as Starmie, Alakazam, Slowking and Reuniclus went up, with the latter group being particularly important because it caused a demand for a fast Pursuit trapper to go up as well. The increased usage of Grass- and Psychic-types also led to a slight decline in the usage of Keldeo, one of Weavile's greatest checks.

Finally, Garchomp emerged as an universal check to fast physical attackers, Tornadus-T jumped to OU, and Dragon Dance Mega Altaria gained a big boost in popularity. All three of these Pokémon are big threats for offensive teams, many of which turned to Weavile as a way to check, revenge kill, or just bypass these threats. In short, multiple favorable metagame trends led Weavile to go from just another BL Pokémon to one of the biggest threats in the OU tier.

Weavile's Qualities

Weavile's greatest quality is undoubtedly its incredible base 125 Speed, enabling it to outspeed every single relevant unboosted OU threat besides Talonflame, Mega Lopunny, Mega Manectric, Mega Aerodactyl, and Mega Alakazam, with the latter two taking massive damage from Ice Shard. Weavile's access to priority is also a very good trait, helping it avoid being revenge killed by most priority moves, faster attackers, and Choice Scarf users. In short, Weavile functions as a fantastic anti-offense tool that can deal significant damage to almost any offensive threat. And while Weavile's base 120 Attack may not be stellar, it's still solid, enabling it to hit quite hard when backed up by a Life Orb.

Like most Dark-types, Weavile benefitted hugely from the shift to Gen VI — what used to be its best Dark-type STAB attack, the weak Night Slash, was replaced for the far better Knock Off, not only giving it a powerful STAB move, but also a way to cripple Pokémon resistant to Dark by removing their items. Having the fastest STAB Knock Off in the game is definitely a great selling point for Weavile, with most users being rather slow, such as Bisharp and Crawdaunt. And while Dark/Ice coverage used to be completely walled by Steel types, it's quite good now, only resisted by a handful of Pokémon, the most relevant ones being Keldeo, Azumarill, and Bisharp.

Playing with Weavile

Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Low Kick / Pursuit / Swords Dance

Weavile is a very straightforward Pokémon that only really runs one set in OU. Knock Off and Icicle Crash act as its main STAB attacks on this set, with Knock Off being particularly spammable. Ice Shard is very useful to revenge kill a range of threats such as +1 Altaria, Choice Scarf Landorus-T, Choice Scarf Garchomp, weakened +1 Mega Charizard X, and weakened Mega Lopunny. The final move is mostly team-dependent — Low Kick hits Steel-types such as Heatran, Bisharp, and Ferrothorn, as well as Dark types such as Mega Gyarados, Tyranitar, and opposing Weavile. Pursuit is very useful on teams that are weak to Latios, Starmie, and other Psychic-types, as it enables Weavile to trap them and pave the way for a teammate such as Keldeo or Mega Alakazam to sweep. Swords Dance is a very risky move due to Weavile's paper-thin bulk and bad defensive typing, but if it forces a switch and sets up, it can be extremely threatening and can OHKO Pokémon with Knock Off that it would otherwise not have been able to 2HKO, such as Heatran and Manaphy. Finally, Poison Jab is also a decent move on Weavile, as it can lure Fairy-types such as Azumarill and Clefable, but it is generally overshadowed by other options.

Weavile is mostly used as an anti-offense tool that can use its fast Speed to threaten a huge amount of offensive threats; however, it has a hard time functioning when its checks are still active, as it easily gets worn down and hates being forced out. That being said, it is able to severely weaken checks such as Keldeo and Azumarill thanks to Knock Off, especially if said checks lack reliable recovery.

Weavile should never attempt to switch in directly on anything because it takes massive damage from even defensive Pokémon, which, especially when paired with chip damage from Stealth Rock, can lead it to be KOed prematurely by its own Life Orb recoil. Instead, it should rely on either a teammate's slow Volt Switch or U-turn, double switches, or coming in after another member of your team is KOed. These same methods should be used to trap Psychic-types if running Pursuit, and although Weavile can switch in on a predicted Psychic move, most players will avoid using Psychic-type moves or keeping their Psychic-types in too long so as to not give a free turn for Weavile to trap them.

When facing teams that are weak to Weavile, focus on weakening their Weavile checks to the point where it can easily clean. However, when Weavile is facing a team particularly resistant to it, it's better off used to remove its checks' items early on in the battle.

Playing against Weavile

Weavile is quite frail, especially physically, and vulnerable to most attacking types, so faster attackers such as Mega Manectric and Mega Lopunny and priority users such as Talonflame, Conkeldurr, Mega Metagross, or Choice Band Dragonite can check it, as long as they do not fear Ice Shard too much or simply outspeed or out-prioritize Weavile.

Water-types such as Manaphy, Gyarados, Quagsire, Suicune, Alomomola, and to a lesser extent Rotom-W are usually good Weavile checks, but they tend to be crippled by Knock Off (with the exception of Mega Gyarados). However, those with reliable recovery can wall it quite convincingly after taking a Knock Off, as the next one will be much weaker, but they must be wary of Swords Dance, which enables Knock Off to deal massive initial damage.

Fairies such as Azumarill and Clefable resist Weavile's best move, Knock Off, and can therefore deal with it quite well, as long as they aren't hit too hard by Icicle Crash.

Mega Scizor is the best Weavile counter there is, and other Steel-types such as Skarmory or Ferrothorn act as decent checks, but most of them fear Low Kick.

Fighting-types such as Keldeo, Mega Heracross, Infernape, and Cobalion can also deal with it relatively easily for much the same reasons. However, they usually lack reliable recovery and are rather easy to wear down, with the exception of Infernape.

Simply preventing Weavile from being sent in isn't too hard given that it takes a lot of damage from most attacks; this is achieved even more easily if Stealth Rock is up. Generally speaking, Weavile hates being forced out given that it has very few opportunities to come in and it is very easy to wear down, so sending a check against it a couple of times is usually enough to permanently deal with it.

Fitting Weavile on your team

Weavile fits very well on offensive teams, as well as bulky offense teams with VoltTurn support, which enables Weavile to get free opportunities to come in without taking damage.

It also appreciates the support of an entry hazard remover for obvious reasons, not just to remove Stealth Rocks but also Spikes and Toxic Spikes, which heavily cripple it.

Weavile also enjoys a teammate that can check Water-types such as Keldeo and Azumarill, so a Grass-type such as Celebi or Serperior or an Electric-type such as Rotom-W or Mega Manectric works decently. Electric-types are particularly good partners because they handle Steel-types quite well and are often able to provide VoltTurn support.

Pursuit works well in conjunction with Pokémon that are weak to Psychic-types such as Keldeo or Venusaur. Swords Dance, on the other hand, works quite well with a teammate that enjoys the removal of Pokémon that are used as Weavile checks but cannot switch into a Swords Dance-boosted attack, such as Clefable or Manaphy.

Magnezone is a particularly good partner because it gets rid of Scizor, Skarmory and Ferrothorn, checks Water- and Fairy-types quite well, and provides Volt Switch support.

Because it's strong against offensive teams but weaker against bulkier teams, Weavile works very well when paired up with a wallbreaker, preferably one that can weaken checks to it. Crawdaunt, for instance, can deal huge damage to Keldeo, Ferrothorn and Azumarill, all of which are often used to take hits from Weavile; his gives it the ability to weaken them and forms an effective Dark spam core with it. However, this core needs to be backed up with a very good check to Fighting- and Fairy- types.

Get out there!

Weavile, while not an excellent Pokémon in and of itself, has been greatly blessed by recent metagame trends. And, like most Pokémon that gain huge popularity for their anti-metagame qualities and officially become part of the metagame, it will undoubtedly see the rest of metagame adapt to it in return. In fact, this is already happening—Pokémon such as Mega Scizor, Mega Venusaur, and Infernape are also seeing increased usage partly for their ability to handle Weavile. That's not to say that Weavile hasn't cemented itself as a top threat in OU; however, I highly recommend you use it right now, when it's at its peak of effectiveness. You will not be disappointed.