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Community POTW #115

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Serebii

And, as if by magic, the webmaster appeared...
Staff member
Admin
Time for the next Pokémon and this week we have a much beloved Kalos Pokémon

701.png


It's Hawlucha, the cool Fighting/Flying Pokémon. It is surprisingly useful.


http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-xy/701.shtml

Go nuts
 

esquilo09

Well-Known Member
Hawlucha has excellent physical attack and became one of the most popular Pokémons....I think.
 

Chinonso

Therians
Hawlucha only really has one thing going for it, which is Speed, as otherwise, there's usually going to be another Fighting-type or Flying-type that can do what Hawlucha does, but better.

Positives:
+ Base 118 Speed is fast on its own, but combined with Unburden, it's able to outspeed every unboosted Pokemon in OU, giving you the "edge" every turn.
+ It's able to learn a surprising array of moves including High Jump Kick, Acrobatics, Fire/Thunder Punch, Drain Punch, U-Turn and Low Kick for specific threats.
+ The Swords Dance + Unburden combo destroys teams that aren't prepared for it.

Negatives:
- Base 92 Attack is subpar, by OU and Fighting-type standards, so it can't really do much on its own.
- Two of your moves are used up by Swords Dance and Substitute (normally), leaving not much room for coverage moves.
- Doublade, Mega Slowbro and Unaware Clefable wall it, even at +2.
- Priority moves are a problem for Hawlucha, such as from Mega Pinsir and Talonflame.
- 78 / 75 / 63 bulk is poor too, meaning it's usually OHKO'd by super-effective moves.
- Doesn't learn Belly Drum. I think Slurpuff if better at the whole Unburden ordeal.

Abilities:
Limber: This Pokemon cannot be paralysed. This ability is nice considering that paralysis will shut down Hawlucha, but it is often overshadowed by its next ability.
Unburden: Once your held item is consumed, your Speed doubles. Like I said, this allows Hawlucha to outspeed every single Pokemon in OU, so it's worth using alongside a Gem or a Sitrus Berry.
Hidden Ability:
Mold Breaker: Moves can be used regardless of the foe's abilities. Hawlucha doesn't have too much use for this ability, as it doesn't not prevent it from hitting Ghosts or whatever.

Moveset:
Mucha Lucha!
Swords Dance
Substitute
High Jump Kick
Acrobatics

Ability: Unburden
Item: Sitrus Berry / Fighting Gem / Flying Gem
EV's: 12 HP, 244 Atk, 252 Spe (if Sitrus Berry is being used OR) 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP (if a gem is being used).

So you have to use up your item before you get the Unburden boost, right? So why not use an Attack, get the boost from the gem, then get the Unburden boost?
Substitute would probably have to be used first, followed by SD or an attacking move, if you are using a gem, followed by SD. Just be careful about the 90% accuracy of HJK: if you miss, you lose half of your HP.
 

Mega Altaria

☆~Shiny hunter▢~
Hawlucha has excellent physical attack and became one of the most popular Pokémons....I think.

Eerm... its Attack isn't that great compared to other physical attackers at base 92, which requires a Swords Dance boost. But it has excellent Speed, at base 118, which combined with Unburden boost, allows it to outspeed many Pokémon.

Here's the OU set of Hawlucha brought from Smogon:

Sub Swords Dance
Hawlucha @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 12 HP/244 Attack/ 252 Speed

-Substitute
-Swords Dance
-High Jump Kick
-Acrobatics

Substitute allows it to not get hit by a couple of Attacks and the Unburden boost from consuming the Sitrus Berry allows it to outspeed virtually all unboosted Pokémon. And Acrobatics gets a boost from consuming the Sitrus Berry.
 
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Mestorn

Wandering Battler
Clotheslining Hawlucha

Hawlucha is another typical speedy attacker, with fantastic speed, meh attack and slipshod defenses. Base 118 speed is fantastic, outspeeding threats such as Latios, Gengar, Mega Absol, Tornadus and Thunderus and is ramped up to 11 with Unburden, giving Hawlucha the means to outspeed almost all of OU (even Base 150s are outsped at +1). Unfortunately using Unburden prevents Hawlucha from using items like Choice Band or Life Orb to patch up its rather poor ATK, forcing it to rely on Swords Dance to give it some killing power. That is a shaky proposition to find the proper setup opportunities considering Hawlucha's poor bulk.

So how to ring out Hawlucha? Priority. Barring Mach Punch, priority moves do horrific amounts of damage to Hawlucha easily 2HKOing (or OHKOing it if you are using Talonflame's Brave Bird or Mega Pinsir's Quick Attack) regardless of its speed. Prankster Will-o-Wisp turns Hawlucha into setup fodder, while Prankster Thunderwave turns Hawlucha into a near nonissue. I mention Prankster as Hawlucha often carries Substitute to stymie such tactics and can throw up a Sub bloody quick. The occasional Limber Hawlucha no sells Paralysis attempts as well, so beware of that. Hawlucha isn't that powerful offensively without getting some boosts, so defensive tanks such as Slowbro, Unaware Clefable, Skarmory, Mega Sableye, all utterly wall Hawlucha and can take it out faster than Hawlucha can take them out. Mega Manectric gets special mention, having Intimidate, outspeeding before Unburden and possessing STAB Electric attacks for completely obliterating Hawlucha. Thunderus and Zapdos resist both of Hawlucha's STABs and can take it on, provided Hawlucha isn't carrying Stone Edge.
 

Azulart

Shiny Hunter
Hawlucha is cool, despite its 50/50 love and hate for its design, I think its looks great. ( I am really in favor of its shiny form too..)
Anyway.. onwards to the competitive side of Hawlucha, I will post a VGC15 set and a VGC16 one.

Back in the VGC15 days it has a nice speed tier as a quick guard user, because with its 118 speed it outspeeds the quickest fake out users like Ambipom with its 115 speed.
The other fake out don't reach this high speed barring M-loppunny, but on the first turn it still outspeeds regular loppuny. So thats a cool niche already, aside from this it has other support moves like
encore, entraînement, tailwind, endeavor, sky drop and helping hand, making him a solid offensive/support kind of mon.

VGC15
Hawlucha @ focus sash
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Mold breaker
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Attack, 252 Speed
- Sky Drop
- Hi Jump kick / Drain punch / Rock slide
- Entrainment / Encore
- Quick guard

Due focus sash there is no need to invest in bulk so a 252 speed and attack sounds logical.
Entrainment Mold breaker is wonderful with Ground type partners like Mamoswine, Garchomp or Landorus since they fear Rotom-W and Hawlucnha can surprise the opponent by using
Entrainment on them ( the ground partners ) so they can hit Rotom-W and potentially OHhitko it. It is also a great anti-move for the meta where the ability is important, take Parental bond, Huge power and pixelate in account. With this simple move they can get Mold breaker instead which in most cases are useless to have on pokemon. The Mold Breaker + entrainment support is also great with Charizard Y so he is able to pass by Heatran's flash fire and kill it in the sun. If your not much an ability swap fan, or already have a skill swap user then encore should be your choice for locking pokemon in protect and such.

Skydrop is a support move and can be nice to use when you want your partner to set up, like a dragon dance. Plus the stab damage is never wrong, although it is not that great.
The second move is rather dependable how your team looks like, do you want something for Kan? go with a fighting move. Does your team hate CharY then go for Rock slide.
Quick guard speaks for itself because in this meta, with its speed tier of 118 it outspeeds every potential fake out user.

VGC16
Hawlucha @ focus sash
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Mold breaker
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Attack, 252 Speed
- Hi Jump kick / Drain punch / Brick break
- Tailwind / Helping Hand
- Entrainment / Encore
- Quick guard

Same concept really but Sky Drop is useless in this metagame where most pokemon are Heavy pokemons so instead another moveslot appears for a support kind of move
which hawlucha has tons of. Entrainment works somehow alike as in VGC15 but this time it can cancel the Primal weathers which can be excellent for Kyorge teams that face Groudon teams for example,
and mold breaker Kyorge.. if it so happens it can be nice against Storm Drain users. A Fighting move is present to deal with Dialga, Kang and Liepard (Hawlucnha is like the anti Liepard) and just general damage.
Its good to consider Hi-jump-kick but be aware that if the opponent uses protect you will just kill yourself by recoil, therefore Drain punch or even better in my opinion Brick break. To break through screens which can be very annoying in this metagame. The rest speaks for itself, tailwind gives a speedboost to the team and helping hand is excellent for Earthquake users or spread moves in general, its a matter of preference.
 
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Locormus

Can we please get the older, old forum back?
Eerm... its Attack isn't that great compared to other physical attackers at base 92, which requires a Swords Dance boost. But it has excellent Speed, at base 118, which combined with Unburden boost, allows it to outspeed many Pokémon.

Here's the OU set of Hawlucha brought from Smogon:

What's the point copy/pasting the Smogon-set, while linking to Smogon, when the exact same set (down to the EV's) has been posted half an hour earlier?
 
YEEESS!! HAWLUCHA! This lil' fella is one of my favourite Pokes! I used one during my playthrough of X, and it has served me well competitively since.

+Incredible Speed at 118. You outspeed Gengar, Infernape, Scarf Magnezone and even 172 Speed Crobat to name just a few.
+Flying/Fighting is an incredible offensive typing, even better than last week's Rock/Ground. Only a tiny, tiny pool of Pokemon like Zapdos resist both.
+It has a very nice all-around movepool, with Acrobatics, High Jump Kick, Fire Punch, Swords Dance, Taunt and even Baton Pass (trust me, it's hilarious when it works!)
+It has two great abilities in Limber and Unburden.
+92 Base attack is certainly decent enough to work.

-Whilst it may be quite offensively potent, it's.. pretty bad defensively. 78/77/63 means that it really cant take many hits at all.
-Likewise, Flying/Fighting isn't exactly brilliant defensively. Not awful, but you are left with a few very annoying weaknesses to Electric and Fairy.
-Despite its great offensive typing and coverage, you are still walled by some threats like (Mega)Slowbro, Doublade and Zapdos (though the issue of Zapdos is somewhat remedied by Stone Edge.)
-Whilst 92 base Attack is good, it doesn't exactly hit like a truck when compared to stuff like Breloom or MegaZard X. You need SD to effectively sweep.



Is it a plane?
-Swords Dance
-Baton Pass
-Taunt/High Jump Kick
-Acrobatics
Item:Focus Sash
Ability: Unburden
252 Atk/ 252 Spe
Hasty Nature

Ok, first of all, as a disclaimer, this set is a huge gimmick, as well as being incredibly convoluted to explain. It doesn't always work, but when it does, it's utterly hilarious, and can easily win games. Basically, the idea is that you lead off with it, then look at what your foe leads off with. If it's something like Forretress, Skarmory or Garchomp that basically always carries an entry hazard in a lead position, then you Taunt them (if you have it.) If not, you just go for Swords Dance- once you've Taunted them, you should also Swords Dance. You endure at least one hit due to the Focus Sash, which hopefully breaks the Sash and activates your Unburden for a huge Speed boost, then you can try to damage their team with either HJK or Acrobatics, but preferably, you try to get a safe opportunity to Baton Pass off you Swords Dance boosts to something really scary like Infernape of Terrakion. Once you have an SD boost onto a Terrakion, Infernape or something like that, your opponent has basically lost. Another perk to this set is that if you lead off, your opponent switches in Talonflame or Crobat, and you SD on the switch, then you actually beat them- they Brave Bird you, bringing you down to your Sash, but that discards your item and brings Acrobatics up to 110 Base Power, meaning that you can then thwack them with a +2 Acrobatics for an OHKO! The EVs make you as fast and strong as you can be, whilst a Hasty nature helps with this whilst also making your defenses lower so that it is more likely that a hit brings you down to your Sash. The Ability was already covered. I'll say again- this is not, I repeat, NOT its best set, nor is it very reliable. Really, if you use it, you are taking a huge gamble, but one which can pay off enormously, and makes for an enormously fun and enjoyable set to use.
 
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Kraleck

Well-Known Member
Hawlucha. I love the concept and design of this thing so much. The Abilities. The Move options. The cool signature Move. The unique Dual Type. The analysis...

Stats:
-HP - Above Average - Hawlucha's Base 78 HP is a nice start for a Flying Type and a decent one for a Fighting Type.
-Attack - Good - Base 92 Attack is also a nice start for a Flying Type, but a little less decent for a Fighting Type.
-Defense - Below Average-bordering-Average - Base 75 is not so bad for a Flying Type or a Fighting Type, despite not being so good.
-Sp.Atk - Below Average-bordering-Average - All of those other Stats they could beef up and GameFreak chooses this Stat to get above 40 on a Physical Attacker. Seriously - you only get Hidden Power, Snore, Round, Focus Blast, and Grass Knot as Special options.
-Sp.Def - Mediocre - Base 63 Sp.Def is just "meh" all over. With 4 of your 5 Weaknesses carrying mostly Special Moves, you're going to have a bad time.
-Speed - Great-bordering-Godly (non-Trick Room) - Base 118 means so much to a Fighting Type, but a little less to a Flying Type. Paired with Unburden, you've got a train of pain coming your way without Priority to stop it.

Abilities:
-Limber - Status Immunities are always good to have, especially to Paralysis. However, there are better options...
-Unburden - ...like this. Use your Item and double your already-high Speed. Why not?
-Mold Breaker (Hidden, Available) - Again, why not? Mold Breaker is a fun Ability to ignore things like Sturdy. That's about it, though. You can't guarantee Crits with Hawlucha, so ignoring Battle Armor/Shell Armor is not ideal and you don't really have time to debuff with such mediocre durability, so ignoring White Smoke/Clear Body is also pretty meh.

Overall, Hawlucha is really fun to use, cool to look at, hard to predict, and easy to KO. You can't escape Priority without Quick Guard, but your Movepool being so Type-diverse makes it hard to justify the Moveslot. On top of that, you have a severe case of Fourmoveslotitis. While fun to use, your signature Flying Press is underwhelming when you have to deal with Dual Types that often Resist half of it (and Ghost Types that are outright Immune) and when you consider its middling Base Power compared to HJK and Item-less Acrobatics.
 

Missingno. Master

Poison-type Trainer
And This Is Where I'd Put A Flying Gem... IF I HAD ONE!!!
Hawlucha@Power Herb
Jolly nature
Unburden
252 Attack/252 Speed/4 HP
~Sky Attack
~Swords Dance
~High Jump Kick
~Acrobatics

Hawlucha is one of the more popular new Pokémon, and not without reason. Sky Attack consumes the Power Herb, giving Hawlucha a powerful, one-turn move that also serves to activate Unburden. Swords Dance is for boosting Hawlucha's Attack, should you have an opening. High Jump Kick and Acrobatics are your STAB options, the latter only to be used once the Power Herb is out of the picture.

Item and Ability work together to increase Hawlucha's already formidable Speed.


Other options:
*Hawlucha can run a Life Orb and a number of coverage moves like Fire Punch and Stone Edge, accompanied by Mold Breaker, but... yeah, you're probably gonna miss having Unburden and Acrobatics.
*Another option for activating Unburden is Substitute and a Sitrus Berry, and it's not a bad option by any means.
*Me First is a fun option, if you can find room for it.
*The Flying Gem is an obvious choice for an Acrobatics/Unburden setup... if only it was actually available! Get with the program, TrollFreak!
*Hawlucha's signature move, Flying Press, is a fun concept, but in practice, there's not that much merit to a Fighting/Flying-type move.

Abilities:
*Unburden: When Hawlucha uses up its held item, its Speed doubles. Does not activate if Hawlucha isn't holding an item when sent out, even if Unburden was activated earlier in the fight. The ideal Ability for Hawlucha, taking its great Speed and making it even better.
*Limber: Hawlucha cannot be paralyzed. A useful Ability, no doubt about that, except... Unburden is just better.
*Mold Breaker: Hawlucha's Hidden Ability. Hawlucha's attacks cannot be prevented or have their effectiveness reduced in any way by the target's Ability. A great Ability in and of itself, except... kinda loses its appeal once you realize Hawlucha lacks Earthquake. The knowledge that your Fire Punch can't activate Flash Fire, and that your Thunder Punch won't activate Lightning Rod or Motor Drive is undoubtedly a comforting notion, but again, Unburden is what you want to go with here. If you really, really don't want to use Unburden for some reason, though, I will say this is probably your next best option.

Partners:
Physical walls will pose a problem for Hawlucha, so you might want a means of dealing with those.

Counters:
Prankster Trick is a big one to watch out for. Not only could it saddle Hawlucha with an unfavorable item like the Flame Orb, but it also screws with your ability to activate Unburden. Oh, and Aegislash resists one of Hawlucha's STABs and is outright immune to the other one. The one that gives the crash damage. Yeah. Keep Hawlucha the hell away from Aegislash unless for some strange reason you're packing Fire Punch or something. And even then, exercise extreme caution.

Opinion:
Hawlucha may not have a lot of options, but the options it's got are good. I like it, too- very cool design.

Prediction for next week:
Watchog.
 

Karxrida

Lost in the Waves
Hawlucha only really has one thing going for it, which is Speed, as otherwise, there's usually going to be another Fighting-type or Flying-type that can do what Hawlucha does, but better.

Positives:
+ Base 118 Speed is fast on its own, but combined with Unburden, it's able to outspeed every unboosted Pokemon in OU, giving you the "edge" every turn.
+ It's able to learn a surprising array of moves including High Jump Kick, Acrobatics, Fire/Thunder Punch, Drain Punch, U-Turn and Low Kick for specific threats.
+ The Swords Dance + Unburden combo destroys teams that aren't prepared for it.

Negatives:
- Base 92 Attack is subpar, by OU and Fighting-type standards, so it can't really do much on its own.
- Two of your moves are used up by Swords Dance and Substitute (normally), leaving not much room for coverage moves.
- Doublade, Mega Slowbro and Unaware Clefable wall it, even at +2.
- Priority moves are a problem for Hawlucha, such as from Mega Pinsir and Talonflame.
- 78 / 75 / 63 bulk is poor too, meaning it's usually OHKO'd by super-effective moves.
- Doesn't learn Belly Drum. I think Slurpuff if better at the whole Unburden ordeal.

Abilities:
Limber: This Pokemon cannot be paralysed. This ability is nice considering that paralysis will shut down Hawlucha, but it is often overshadowed by its next ability.
Unburden: Once your held item is consumed, your Speed doubles. Like I said, this allows Hawlucha to outspeed every single Pokemon in OU, so it's worth using alongside a Gem or a Sitrus Berry.
Hidden Ability:
Mold Breaker: Moves can be used regardless of the foe's abilities. Hawlucha doesn't have too much use for this ability, as it doesn't not prevent it from hitting Ghosts or whatever.

Moveset:
Mucha Lucha!
Swords Dance
Substitute
High Jump Kick
Acrobatics

Ability: Unburden
Item: Sitrus Berry / Fighting Gem / Flying Gem
EV's: 12 HP, 244 Atk, 252 Spe (if Sitrus Berry is being used OR) 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP (if a gem is being used).

So you have to use up your item before you get the Unburden boost, right? So why not use an Attack, get the boost from the gem, then get the Unburden boost?
Substitute would probably have to be used first, followed by SD or an attacking move, if you are using a gem, followed by SD. Just be careful about the 90% accuracy of HJK: if you miss, you lose half of your HP.
Gems are illegal in Gen VI.
 

Karxrida

Lost in the Waves
They can only be used in Cutsom Battles, RandBats, and some OMs. They're still illegal in standard rulesets.

I know Normal Gem is legal, but nobody cares about that one.
 

Karxrida

Lost in the Waves
If you're going to waste a moveslot, at least Power Herb Sky Attack will dent something and doesn't get stopped by Ghosts.
 

Rocxidi

The Jim Reaper
If only Hawlucha got Fake Out.

You use Fake Out and then get forced out and lose your boosts, wheras you can use Swords Dance first and then Sky Attack for the Unburden boost. If you get forced out you would have already dealt damage or at least kept your item.

Don't get carried away with Unburden, Hawlucha has a high Speed stat already.
 

Karxrida

Lost in the Waves
Unburden is really the only thing it's good at in OU (though SubSitrus is usually the better variant), plus it lets Hawlucha run Adamant. Outside of that I guess there's SD Pass, but Celebi is probably better because it has bulk to work with.
 

esquilo09

Well-Known Member
Hawlucha having excellent speed combined with Unburden boost, it can even outspeed a Weavile and a Rapidash and any Pokémon who are known to be the fastest.
 

Black Murder Heavangelon

Ow! Ow! Harder! Ow!
Believe it or not, Hawlucha has a defensive option!

El Gallo Astuto
Hawlucha@Lum Berry/Leftovers
252 HP/252 Spe/4 Def
Jolly Nature
Mold Breaker
-Roost
-Encore
-FeatherDance
-U-turn


This is a defensive pivot set that allows Hawlucha to mess up the opponent and make things easy for the next pokemon incoming. Mold Breaker is the meat of this set as it allows Encore to bypass Magic Guard and Aroma Veil (i think), while allowing FeatherDance to wear down Clear Body and Hyper Cutter pokes. Oh, and U-Turn for the rare Wonder Guard. Hawlucha is meant to come in on certain physical pokes, commonly Ground types who are trigger happy with their Earthquakes, then either Encore them into submission, or Featherdance to soften them or the switchin up. Most people won't expect a defensive set like this so if the opponent is bulky enough they might stay in and take a stab at you. Once you've shown your hand, they'll likely switch into an answer, in which case U-Turn helps keep your momentum. Roost is for obvious healing but pure Fighting is an underrated defensive type, resisting Bug, Dark, and Rock, compounded further by your natural resistances to Fighting and Grass and a Ground immunity. In addition, you are immune to Spikes and Toxic Spikes and you only take neutral damage from Stealth Rock, so it's very easy to switch Hawlucha in and out. Lum Berry is to help you absorb one status, usually from sets you wouldn't expect them to have status moves, but Leftovers is always nice to have.

Keep in mind that despite knowing Encore you shouldn't keep Hawlucha in on status boosters, because without an attack other than U-Turn to punish, you'll be biting off more than you can chew. An Unaware partner can help like Quagsire or Clefable. Don't forget to have a special tank as well, because you'll be U-turning out at the sight of one soon enough.
 

KillerDraco

Well-Known Member
Hawlucha having excellent speed combined with Unburden boost, it can even outspeed a Weavile and a Rapidash and any Pokémon who are known to be the fastest.

Um... Rapidash isn't even remotely close to being "the fastest". It's only got a base 105 Speed Tier... Heck, Hawlucha outspeeds it even without Unburden! Unless it's running Adamant of course. That said, Rapidash isn't even the slightest bit viable so outspeeding it is not really a factor.
 
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