Crawdaunt is one of those pokemon that has a ability, great movepool and great stats for those moves, but terrible everything else. He has been screwed over with terrible Speed and Hp and some of the worst typing in the game, Water and Dark, giving him weaknesses to two of the most common types in the entire freaking metagame, those being Fighting and Electric. (Please note: I'm saying two weaknesses that are extremely common, among the top five in move-type usage (See: Thunderbolt, Thunder, Volt Switch)) He's also weak to Grass and Bug, which are a lot more common in the lower tiers. All of these, combined with the fact that he's blessed with one of the best abilities in the game and a great move-pool to boot, really annoys me. On to the abilities.
Hyper Cutter: Prevents other pokemon from lowering your Attack. Meh, and utterly useless compared to his finally ability.
Shell Armor: Prevents crits. Not that great either. But then we have...
Adaptability(DW): Some say Wonder Guard is the best ability. Others will argue it's Multiscale. Some even say abilities like Mold Breaker. But me, I think Adaptability is the most powerful ability any pokemon can ever have in the game. Rather than having just a 1.5 boost for your STAB attacks, every move of your type is times 2. This means all of your attacks are automatically Super-Effective. So moves like Crabhammer have a base power of 180, and in the rain, 270. That's insane. Unfortunately, only five pokemon get this move: Eevee, who's too weak and is generally used to evolve into one of its various Eeveelutions; Basculin, who's pathetic; Feebas, who's also pathetic; Porygon-Z, who has lackluster typing; and finally, Crawdaunt (and Corphish). So out of these five, only Crawdaunt is really worth using for Adaptability. Regardless, his Speed kills him, as no Dark type can really hope to survive with such poor Speed and bulk. Adaptability really is the only factor that makes Crawdaunt worth using.
I will adapt to my environment!
-Crabhammer
-Superpower
-Crunch
-Return/X-Scissor/Rock Slide
Item: Choice Scarf/Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability
EVs and Nature: Jolly (+Spd, -Sp. Atk)
252 Atk/252 Spd
Remember when I said Crawdaunt has a great movepool? I meant in terms of power, not coverage. Adaptability makes Crabhammer and Crunch do an outrageous amount of damage, basically allowing you to break through any pokemon, even if they resist your attacks. The last move is filler, so take your pick. Superpower is there to fill in any gaps that might appear in coverage between Water and Dark, and serves as a high-power move. The EVs are to maximize sweeping potential. Now, this set should generally be used with the Choice Scarf (Peaks at 315 Speed with Scarf, almost as fast as a a non-scarfed Timid Celebi!). However, if you just want to force a switch and dent a massive whole in the opponent's "counter" to Crawdaunt, Choice Band (and Adamant, for that matter) would be the way to go.
Apparently, Crabs are Dragons, too
-Dragon Dance
-Crabhammer
-Crunch
-Superpower
Item: Life Orb/Focus Sash
Ability: Adaptability
EVs and Nature: Jolly (+Spd, -Sp. Atk)
252 Atk/252 Spd
Gamefreak really just went up to Crawdaunt and said, "Eff it, let's make him good, because we're Gamefreak, so screw you". So they gave him Dragon Dance. Then they decided to give him Adaptability this gen. And here we are. A crab. Dancing. Like a dragon.
Anyway, Dragon Dance is sort of a god-send to Crawdaunt. After one boost, it has normal Speed. After two, it can actually sweep. Not only that, but it will have immense Attack, making it unstoppable. And I mean unstoppable. His moves are self-explanatory, and the Life Orb is for the extra power. However, you can also use Focus Sash. Let me explain: You send Crawdaunt in after your pokemon has died. Turn one, your opponent sends out a counter while you use DD once. Turn two, you use Dragon Dance again, while your opponent attacks you, thinking you will die. But no! You hold on with the Sash. And thus, with over 450 Speed and 700 Attack, you strike with super-STAB Crabhammer, utterly annihilating your opponent and any other pokemon he has (unless he has a priority move, but that's another matter). So you see, it could work well.
Other Options
Swords Dance can boost your Attack stat to outrageous heights, but chances are, you won't survive long enough to actually do anything with that Attack.
Partners
Priority is a complete pain for Crawdaunt, so you want to get rid of that. This way, you may at least survive one hit (you know, maybe Luvdisc won't OHKO you with Tackle) to hit back like a truck. If you decide to test your luck in OU, Politoed is a great choice for the best results with Crabhammer. No more resistances, period. In RU, Medicham is hard for Crawdaunt to deal with. Actually, any Fighting type is hard to deal with. So someone to deal with that. I understand this is rather vague, but there you have it. I'm lazy.
Countering Crawdaunt
Mach Punch Mach Punch Mach Punch Mach Punch Mach Punch. Two Mach Punches by any Fighting type and he's down. Scizor also happens to be his worst nightmare, with typing that Crawdaunt has a hard time dealing with. Most Special Attackers ruin Crawdaunt with one SE blow. Even NVE hits will be a guaranteed 3 hit KO. So Crawdaunt isn't too hard to deal with. However, if it somehow manages to get even one Dragon Dance in (two is impossible to beat with priority or luck), it becomes a legitimate problem. Don't let that happen and you should be fine. The worst it can do is smash your wall's face in, really.
