Community POTW #113

[Serebii]

Time for the next Pokémon of the Week and this week we're starting our Pokémon Legends Arceus tie-in

This week we are covering Silvally, a Pokémon created based on Arceus

Silvally #773 - Serebii.net Pokédex

Silvally Pokémon Serebii.net Pokédex providing all details on moves, stats, abilities, evolution data and locations for Pokémon Sword & Shield

www.serebii.net

 

[XaelOstigian]

Ran this set in Sun/Moon (Requires a transfer to get Flame Charge)

Ability: RKS System
Item: Life Orb
Nature: Jolly
EVs: (HP 4) (Attack 252) (Speed 252)

Swords Dance
Flame Charge
Multi-Attack
Crunch

A double dance sweeper set. Boost attack with Swords Dance, boost speed with Flame Charge, Multi-Attack is your main STAB, and Crunch provides the best neutral coverage.

 

[Mestorn]

Silvally has been one of my favorite Pokémon in terms of background lore, a lab experiment able to shed its mask thanks to the kindness of the trainer who rescued it, who in turn named it based on what a great friend that was. Also the lap experiment was copying freaking Arceus in order to combat aliens from another dimension. And while Silvally may not have had the same competitive success as the Ultra Beasts, its ability to change type, enabling it to prey on the many 4 times weaknesses the UB's have means that it is somewhat successful at that mark.

Sadly Base 95 stats across the board remain merely viable, with only a few types seeing widespread play. Multiattack being buffed to massive Base 120 Power move with no downsides is not enough for Silvally remain competitive in a game where everything is growing faster, stronger, and bulkier. Silvally's wide movepool means that it can run a few different sets, but thanks to how overwhelming Multiattack his, a large portion of Silvally will be physical.

Operation: Fey Saboteur
Silvally
Ability: RKS System
Item: Fair Memory
-Multi-Attack
-Parting Shot
-Thunder Wave
-Flamethrower
Nature: Jolly/Timid
EVs: 252 HP / 4 ATK / 252 SPE

This set capitalizes on Silvally's good defenses and speed to be a menace to the opposing team, pivoting into Knock Off, Fighting and Dragon moves, crippling them with Thunder Wave and getting the heck out of dodge with Parting Shot. Leaving the paralyzed and attack dropped target perfect setup fodder for Silvally's teammates. Multiattacks laurels have been sung and even without investment can hit significantly hard. Flamethrower is great coverage, punishing Steel types that think they can wall Silvally Fairy.

Other Options
Toxic/Defog - Silvally has several very good transfer only moves that can used to further sabotage the enemy team.
Other Memories -This set makes good use of the Fairy typing to excel. Other Memories that have good defensive typing can also use this set to a degree of effectiveness. Silvally Steel and Silvally Fire stand out with the large number of natural resistances they have (Silvally Fire can swap out either Multiattack or Flamethrower for Surf).

 

[BillyBobJoe]

Normally, I try to do my whole “Good Coverage Moves” thing with each POTW. However, that doesn’t really work for a Pokémon that can change its type. Instead, here is a list of types that Silvally lacks a good move for.

• Fighting- only option is Reversal
• Ground- has none
• Fairy- has none, outside of Misty Terrain Pulse

In addition, Sivally only has special moves for Grass & Water; and only physical moves for Bug, Poison, Rock & Psychic (outside of Psychic Terrain Pulse)

 

[Divine Retribution]

Even though, at a first glance, one would assume Silvally is a direct equivalent to Arceus for the lower tiers, it lacks several key things that allow Arceus to succeed. The important one is stats: while Arceus is also a jack-of-all-trades and its base 120 stats might not seem impressive when you put them next to the base 150s-180s other legendaries are sporting, it's still above average all around. Silvally has to make do with only base 95s, which is frustratingly just below average all around. Another key thing Silvally lacks is recovery. It frustrates me to no end that they didn't give him Recover, which is a staple on many Arceus sets for a reason. Without reliable recovery, he can't leverage his passable bulk to successfully pull off many support sets. Finally, his movepool just falls significantly short of Arceus, and he's a bit strapped both for support options and for coverage moves to compliment whatever typed memory he chooses to carry. What we're left with is a pale shadow of Arceus that lurks in the lowest tiers and struggles to really pull its weight in more inclusive formats.

Silvally @ Choice Scarf
Jolly - RKS System
252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 Sp. Def
-Multi-Attack
-Parting Shot
-Explosion / Defog
-Crunch / Defog


This Choice Scarf support set is just about the most useful iteration of Silvally I've ever tried, and frankly it isn't all that great, especially in Sw/Sh. Parting Shot is an amazing pivoting move that opens up a ton of opportunities for set-up sweepers to get going, and in US/UM it was a fairly rare move, but Sw/Sh opened its distribution up quite a lot, and a lot of the Pokemon who now get it are frankly better users of it than Silvally. Outside of Parting Shot Silvally really brings nothing to the table that a whole host of other Pokemon don't do better. It can try to act as a revengekiller, but with its mediocre Attack stat any healthy and reasonably bulky Pokemon is probably going to survive a hit from it, and with its medicore Speed, many boosted Pokemon will outrun even Scarf Silvally after a single boost. That's unfortunately Silvally's whole situation in Sw/Sh; at least in the more inclusive formats, it's outclassed in pretty much any role it tries to do, and its movepool just isn't wide enough for it to carve itself any specific niches unlike Pokemon like Smeargle or Mew.​