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Community POTW #018

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Serebii

Serebii

And, as if by magic, the webmaster appeared...
Staff member
Admin
Time for the next Pokémon of the Week and we're going back to Galar!

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It's Falinks!

https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-swsh/falinks/
 
Mr.Munchlax

Mr.Munchlax

Great Ball Rank Trainer
I’m actually in the middle of working in a speedy Falinks strategy right now. I’ve been trying it out in the Extremespeed Tournament & it works for the most part, though it needs a little tweaking.

Sweeper Brigade:
Ability: Battle Armor
Nature: Jolly
Item: Focus Sash/Focus Band
Moves: Swords Dance, Close Combat, First Impression, Smart Strike
EVs: 252 Speed, 252 Attack, 4 Defense

While Defiant would make it more powerful, I prefer Battle Armor since it’s easier to obtain and prevents a faster opponent from landing a critical hit. Swords Dance and Close Combat work great for strong stab moves, though you need to make sure you have enough power or bulk to prevent a counter attack, which is where the Focus Sash & Focus Band come in handy. First Impression & Smart Strike would then be used for speedy type coverage attacks, though I haven’t had the best luck with them since none of the opponents my Falinks faced have been Psychic or Fairy types. A few alternative moves I’ve been thinking of are Rock Tomb, Rock Slide, Iron Head, & Poison Jab.



I also have another moveset that’s more geared towards power & bulk.

Mighty Warriors
Ability: Battle Armor/Defiant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Expert Belt/Safety Goggles
Moves: No Retreat, Close Combat, Rock Slide, Megahorn
EVs: 252 Attack/ 252 Defense

I used this in the Battle Tower & it won a good number of matches. Either abilities can work if want to make the effort to get an HA Falinks. No Retreat boosts all of its stats & Close Combat is it’s main type coverage. Rock Slide & Megahorn are more suited to this moveset since they’re more powerful so your Falinks can act like a heavy hitter. This moveset’s also good for a Dynamax strategy since Max Guard blocks powerful attacks while Max Butterfly can weaken opponents who use Special Attacks, though I suggest giving Falinks Safety Goggles if you go this route so it doesn’t get buffeted by the sandstorm Max Rockfall causes.
 
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Mestorn

Mestorn

Wandering Battler
Falinks is an interesting pokémon. When I first saw it, I was like, what type could that be? Bug? Kirby? And to my surprise it was Fighting, with decent Physical attack and defense as opposed to its other stats. But now digging deeper, even it's great ATK and DEF fall by the wayside. Base 100 DEF is nice but Base 65 HP means you are only moderately bulky. Base 100 ATK is scraping the barest realms of usability outside of abilities for generations now and Base 75 SPE along with questionable defenses (65/100/60) means Falinks is hard pressed to attack or defend.

That is where No Retreat comes in. As Z-Conversion and Z-Celebrate have proven in the previous generation, a +1 to all stats is rather significant, enabling the user to become significantly more bulky on top of gaining increases in Power and Speed. However, this comes at a cost -the ability to switch. While this may not seem so bad, if you pop a No Retreat too early, Falinks may become setup fodder, as No Retreat is a one time use (unless the user is forced out) and when running No Retreat, Falinks suffers heavily from 4-MSS, unable to hit everything it wants to.

Jolly Falinks with Max Investment is frighteningly fast after a No Retreat, outspeeding Positive nature Base 130s like Jolteon (409 vs 394), but will be outsped by anything faster with a Scarf/Speed Boost (Galarian Mr. Mime, Haunter, and Rotom-Frost come to mind as likely candidates).

Close Combat being Falink's STAB of choice is a double edged sword. While the power is incredible, it ruins the DEF buff given by No Retreat and makes Falinks that much more vulnerable to being KOd by priority. Additionally there is the matter of finding a moment to use No Retreat, as Falinks is not especially fast and is prone to being dented/KOd or taunted before even getting the No Retreat up.

However, this is what makes Falinks great for late game where its checks and counters are gone, so it can come in, setup and sweep.
 
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