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Community POTW #014

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Serebii

And, as if by magic, the webmaster appeared...
Staff member
Admin
Time for the next Pokémon of the Week and we have another Mega Evolved Pokémon

319.png
sharpedo.png


http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-sm/319.shtml

Go nuts
 

Sceptile Leaf Blade

Nighttime Guardian
Sharpedo @ Sharpedonite
Adamant nature
Ability: Speed Boost
252 Atk, 252 Speed, 4 HP
-Crunch
-Waterfall
-Psychic Fangs
-Protect

Simple sweeper set. Use Protect to get a speed boost, then mega evolve and try to sweep. Crunch and Psychic Fangs get a Strong Jaws boost while mega evolved, and Psychic Fangs also hits Fighting types and Mega Venusaur well and removes screens. I don't think Sharpedo can do much else well, it doesn't have much bulk and its stats aren't the best even after mega evolution. You might want to get Ice Fang in there somewhere as a coverage move though, it hits Grass types fairly hard and also gets a Strong Jaws boost. Poison Fang can be used as well, but it lacks in base power, although it does hit fairy types like Tapu Fini.

I think Sharpedo suffers from a lot of competition from Mega Gyarados, who has Dragon Dance and much better bulk. Gyarados can also use Intimidate prior to mega evolving to ease its setup. After a Dragon Dance Mega Gyarados also hits harder than Mega Sharpedo, although Gyarados is slower and doesn't get Psychic Fangs.
 
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BlackKyurem3DS

Active Member
One of my Hoenn favorites.
Abilities:
Rough Skin: Opponent takes 1/16th of max hp as damage when attacking with a physical contact move. Interesting ability, but not what I'ld use on the Shark nowadays.
Hidden Ability:
Speed Boost: Raises speed by 1 stage at the end of every turn. What's worse than a base 95 speed stat? Adding more speed onto it. Pretty much can allow you to outspeed for days if you can set it up properly.

And in the Mega Corner....
Ability:
Strong Jaw: Biting moves have their power boosted by 50%. The moves of note that are boosted by this are Crunch, Bite, Poison Fang, and Ice Fang. 160 BP Crunch and 120 BP Bite. Pretty good if you ask me.
 

Sceptile Leaf Blade

Nighttime Guardian
Mega Evolutions now get the speed boost upon going Mega, so for instance if a Sableye goes mega, it won't use a priority Status move if it had the ability Prankster previously. This is a change added in Gen 7.

Speed boost ability kicks in at the end of the turn. If you mega evolve immediately you don't get to +1 speed. If you first stall a turn with Protect, you then go to +1 speed by the end of that turn due to your ability, and that stat change carries over through mega evolution. Base 105 speed simply isn't enough to sweep with such low bulk, it's not fast enough anymore, you need to get that +1 boost on top of that.
 

BorrelnootjeNL

Active Member
Mega Evolutions now get the speed boost upon going Mega, so for instance if a Sableye goes mega, it won't use a priority Status move if it had the ability Prankster previously. This is a change added in Gen 7.

That's not what was meant. Non Mega Sharpedo get's Speed Boost as HA, meaning you protect one turn to get at +1, thén mega evolve to have your mega at +1 speed (based indeed, on the speed of Mega Sharpedo. Edit: Ah, was just in time haha.
 

Archstaraptor

Team Builder / RMT
Sharpedo @ Sharpedonite
Adamant nature
Ability: Speed Boost
252 Atk, 252 Speed, 4 HP
-Crunch
-Waterfall
-Psychic Fangs
-Protect

Simple sweeper set. Use Protect to get a speed boost, then Mega Evolve and try to sweep. Crunch and Psychic Fangs get a Strong Jaws boost while mega evolved, and Psychic Fangs also hits Fighting types well and removes screens. I don't think Sharpedo can do much else well, it doesn't have much bulk and its stats aren't the best even after mega evolution. You might want to get Ice Fang in there somewhere as a coverage move though, it hits Grass types fairly hard and also gets a Strong Jaws boost. Poison Fang can be used as well, but it lacks in base power, although it does hit fairy types.

Since mega speed boosts in Sun & Moon now occur on the very same turn as mega evolving, sharpedo is less prone to things outspeeding it,and could use the protect slot to carry an additional coverage move. Max speed jolly sets take advantage of this more, but there's the power drop on all of its moves to consider by not running adamant.
Ice fang hurts Garchomp and Landorus-T more than waterfall,
Poison fang is better at OHKOing a healthy Tapu Bulu than Ice fang,
Psychic Fangs notably 2HKOs Max def Toxapex and Mega Venusaur (Jolly and Adamant sets),
Destiny Bond is a catch-all option to remove something bulky and/or annoying such as Porygon2

It's a choice between ensuring you outspeed the faster end of the metagame (max speed base 91 mons speed tie with max speed Adamant M-Sharpedo ), or having the coverage to break through the walls at the slower end.
 
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Sceptile Leaf Blade

Nighttime Guardian
I guess four attacks also works even with grabbing a Speed Boost in some cases. But it requires good prediction. If you attack on the first turn prior to mega evolving while your opponent sets up or switches, because he expects Protect, then you can still get away with grabbing that +1 speed even without Protect.
 

Karxrida

Lost in the Waves
If you are running Posion coverage, never run Poison Fang over Poison Jab. Fang might have a higher Poison chance, but Jab does more damage and Sharpedo doesn't have the luxury of trying to stall stuff out when it's so frail. It needs its opponents dead ASAP and consistently.

Plus two Poison targets (Tapu Fini and Clefable) are immune to Poison anyway due to their abilities.
 

Locormus

Can we please get the older, old forum back?
If you are running Posion coverage, never run Poison Fang over Poison Jab. Fang might have a higher Poison chance, but Jab does more damage and Sharpedo doesn't have the luxury of trying to stall stuff out when it's so frail. It needs its opponents dead ASAP and consistently.

Plus two Poison targets (Tapu Fini and Clefable) are immune to Poison anyway due to their abilities.

Honestly, no. Poison Fang gets the Strong Jaw boost, meaning the difference is 75 to 80. Sure, weaker, but minimal. But I'd rather have 5 points less on damage and a 50/50 odd on putting a Toxic on an opponent, then 5 points more damage and a 30% chance on a rather crappy regular poison-status..

And yes, you should always try to think of the pokemon first, so yes, M-Sharpedo on its own doesn't stall anything, but if you've got a bulky critter left, you would most certainly enjoy the free turn for which you don't have to click Toxic.

It's good damage, with a good chance on Toxic. Even if Fini and Clefable don't take Toxic damage, it's still a good last resort if all else won't work.
 

Karxrida

Lost in the Waves
Honestly, no. Poison Fang gets the Strong Jaw boost, meaning the difference is 75 to 80. Sure, weaker, but minimal. But I'd rather have 5 points less on damage and a 50/50 odd on putting a Toxic on an opponent, then 5 points more damage and a 30% chance on a rather crappy regular poison-status..

And yes, you should always try to think of the pokemon first, so yes, M-Sharpedo on its own doesn't stall anything, but if you've got a bulky critter left, you would most certainly enjoy the free turn for which you don't have to click Toxic.

It's good damage, with a good chance on Toxic. Even if Fini and Clefable don't take Toxic damage, it's still a good last resort if all else won't work.
Mega Sharpedo's job is to clean lategame, and to do that it needs all the immediate damage it can get. Winning that coinflip to get the Toxic Posion off means little when it results in Sharpedo failing at its job because you decided you wanted to rely on hax that can't even affect one of the Posion coverage move's most important targets. (BTW Jab has a way better chance of 2HKOing Fini after Rocks (it's like 80% against Fang's 20%) so that 5 BP is super important.)

Neither of the Smogon analyses mention Poison Fang for those reasons and we shouldn't either. Jab is better.
 
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Archstaraptor

Team Builder / RMT
Fang might have a higher Poison chance, but Jab does more damage and Sharpedo doesn't have the luxury of trying to stall stuff out when it's so frail. It needs its opponents dead ASAP and consistently.
Plus two Poison targets (Tapu Fini and Clefable) are immune to Poison anyway due to their abilities.

It's true that Sharpedo should be trying to maximise its damage output to minimise the amounts of hits it takes, and poison jab does have the potential to hit slightly harder than poison fang .
However, running fang over jab is not about using Sharpedo solely to spread the poison status and stall, but to leave a lasting mark on certain walls (since toxic is far more threatening to them than both the standard poison and additional damage,and has better odds of landing the secondary effect).

Poison Fang and Poison jab are effectively as reliable as each other in bringing down tapu fini:
252+ Atk Mega Sharpedo Poison Jab vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Tapu Fini: 88-104 (49.7 - 58.7%) -- 67.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Strong Jaw Mega Sharpedo Poison Fang vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Tapu Fini: 82-98 (46.3 - 55.3%) -- 16% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
There are certainly better odds in 2HKOing this particular defensive fini set,but this isn't even max defensive. Up against more defensive sets it's a 3HKO regardless of which move you run.
It's definitely one of the mons that sharpedo should have its team prepared to deal with instead,with the poison coverage move to be used as a last resort to break away that last 40% or so.
Bottom line: Sharpedo has poison coverage,which is useful, but should not be running the coverage to break down fairies/walls all by itself.
 
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Lord Fighting

Bank Ball Collector
I still say ice fang is your best 4th move.

Sharpedo @ Sharpedonite
Adamant nature
Ability: Speed Boost
252 Atk, 252 Speed, 4 HP
-Crunch
-Waterfall
-Ice Fang
-Protect

It gets walled by a type regardless of what coverage move you run unless you're opting to drop protect and run 4 attacking moves but I don't recommend that.

You run ice fang you're walled by fighting and fairies, you run psychic fangs you're walled by grass and flying types so its pick your poison. Its more depedent on what your team needs but even if you run psychic fangs you die to Conkelldurrs mach punch and probably cant ohko anyway, Bewear is bulky enough to survive to a hit and ko back.

Where as if you run ice fang you at least have a chance to kill common threats as well as the nice option of hitting dragons and landorus.
 

Sceptile Leaf Blade

Nighttime Guardian
I think either one works. Psychic Fangs also has some utility, it's stronger than Waterfall against Alolan Ninetails for example, and it breaks its Aurora Veil. But yeah, you shouldn't be leaving Sharpedo in against Bewear or Conkeldurr. Especially Bewear should just be eliminated by a special attacker instead.
 

bookiebigbrain

New Member
I never really used Sharpedo in any game,not even PKM Showdown.I only started using it recently and it's actually pretty good.I gave it a Ganlon Berry on my first try then a Focus Slash on my second.Sharpedo has a good typing:Water/Dark,it's design is awesome and it's mega evolution is even better.Also the name:Sharpedo,shark and torpedo.Well played Gamefreak,well played.
 

MetalSonic

Orderan' Defendan'
Sharpedo works best on offensive teams with moves that ensure it gets the most power out of its immediate turns IMO. Poison Fang gets a boost, yes, but 50% to Toxic a mon instead of outright 2HKO'ing is not as affordable for a mon as frail and suited for late game sweeps as Sharpedo-Mega.

Psychic Fangs is an awesome new move for it as well! Especially where Toxapex/Keldeo has been introduced and the fact that its oddly stronger then its STAB Waterfall in regards to neutral hits.
It's moveset should reflect what the rest of the team is prepped to deal with.

If anythings hard about Sharp, it's the choice of nature. Adamant hits SO much harder, it's ridiculous, but then you're going to need that extra boost turn to outspeed key scarfers. I can never quite decide. >.<

Or maybe a mixed Naughty set w/Hydro Pump to give its oft slightly weak Water STAB a shot at better breaking more physically defensive mons? I'm pretty sure that's a thing.
 

Karxrida

Lost in the Waves
Mixed with Hydro Pump is more of an OO since Hydro's targets are pretty limited. Like the only thing in OU it hits Skarmory (maybe Defensive Lando-T too, but I don't know the calcs and it's not hard to wear down anyway) while I'm not sure what you want to use it against in UU.
 

StreetFlare

Master of Flame
I'm not going to weigh in on the Poison Fang vs. Poison Jab debate. Whichever gets listed gets listed, the other should be there as an OO. As a point to note, Poison Fang should ONLY be used on Mega Sharp; it's simply too weak to compare to Poison Jab without Strong Jaw.

Anyway, Mega Sharp is a rather fun Pokemon to play around with, though it's got its counters. It's not the kind of thing you can splash onto every team, but it's got it's places.

Despite what people are saying about the Mega speed boost; you still want to keep Protect on there. Mega Sharp loses Speed Boost for Strong Jaw on the turn it megas, so instamega isn't all that practical if you want maximum speed. Which, if you're running Sharpedo, you want maximum speed. Protect still safely nets you the +1 from Speed Boost before you mega. It just amplifies that to work of Mega Sharp's speed instead of regular Sharky.

Personally, I run Adamant with Waterfall, Crunch and Psychic Fangs; so the same set people here have already listed.

Anyway; as far as counters go; you've got the full gamut. Priority is one of the key ones - no matter how fast you are; being revenge-killed by the fighting type with Mach Punch is always a threat. Scizor is an especially prominent frustration for Sharp, since it resists most of the shark's stabs while carrying Technician priority and SE STAB. But, in essence, anything that can take a hit and punch back harder is a problem. Conkeldurr comes to mind; since I'm fairly sure that Psychic Fangs doesn't get the OHKO against Conk, and M-Sharp doesn't have the defense to survive a Drain Punch.
 

Karxrida

Lost in the Waves
Scizor doesn't resist either of Sharpedo's STABs.
 
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StreetFlare

Master of Flame
Oh... Well; I feel like an idiot; I haven't actually had to fight a Scizor with my Sharpedo; and I kinda had a brainfart. Sorry about that. My point still stands about Scizor carrying Technician priority though, and priority is the one thing that Sharpedo can't really deal with outside of those rare Aqua Jet sets.

It's a great wallbreaker, but it's not like we're talking about Victini here. Sharpedo has a decent movepool; not a stellar one, and most of 'em are going to run variations on the Waterfall/Crunch/Protect/Filler set, unless they replace Protect with a second coverage move. Not something you want to switch in on, sure; but it's something you can play with.
 
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