Ah, Bisharp, a personal favorite of the 5th Generation. Good typing (2 immunities, 7 X2 resistances, and 2 X4 resistances in exchange for 2 X2 weaknesses and a very painful X4 weakness to Fighting), good abilities, okay stats (well, good Attack and Defense anyways), a solid movepool, and a cool design (a friend of mine once said, shortly after Black and White came out, that it looked like it could be from a Megaman game), this is not a Pokemon to take lightly.
Midnight Raider
- Night Slash
- Iron Head
- Psycho Cut
- Brick Break
Item Attached: Choice Band/Choice Scarf
Ability: Defiant/Pressure
EVs and Nature: 252 Attack/4 Defense/252 Speed
Adamant (+ Attack, - Special Attack) or Jolly (+ Speed, - Special Attack)
As stated above, Bisharp has an impressive number of attacks it can switch in to, making it a viable Choice-item abuser. Night Slash gets STAB and has a high Crit. Hit chance. Very good, and one of Bisharp's better attacks. Iron Head also gets STAB and comes with a (rarely used given its Speed) chance to flinch. It also is Bisharp's strongest reliable attack. Psycho Cut gives Bisharp what many Dark types wish they had; a reliable way to handle most Fighting types. The heightened chance of a Critical Hit also makes this attack a must-have on Bisharp, but not as big a reason as it's the only thing Bisharp has that makes its X4 weakness somewhat containable. Brick Break is admittedly low on power as far as sweeping moves go (how many times has the POTW said, "pass up Brick Break for Close Combat" by now?) but does come with some good advantages. First, it shatters Dual Screens; given the number of Pokemon who can run Light Screen and Reflect in the same moveset, you should have something run this in your team. (As an afterthought, Bisharp is one of a handful, perhaps the only, who can break Dual Screens and can take on Latios and Espeon easily; both of which are probably the best at that strategy for reasons described in their POTW entries.) Second, you have near-perfect coverage when combined with Night Slash; last I checked, only Heracross and Toxicroak resist both moves...and they both fear Psycho Cut. Finally, it is Bisharp's best move for hitting fellow Steel types, who resist everything else (except for Metal Burst) you can throw at them.
Bisharp has 3 good Abilities but only two of them are, in my opinion, usable. Inner Focus is nice, preventing random flinches but it pales in comparison to what else Bisharp has. Defiant is arguably the best Ability it gets; turns random stat-drops into Attack-boosts and gives it a de-facto immunity to Intimidate. Any physical sweeper would love to have this Ability. Pressure, on the other hand, is why I HATE low-PP moves like Fire Blast, Close Combat, and Stone Edge; takes off 2 PP each time an attack hits instead of 1, seriously is that power worth it for that price? Better on Defensive Pokemon than something with Bisharp's overall stats, but it will make your opponent pay dearly for taking you out with Close Combat (and if they are reliant on Fire Blast for their core sweeping move, you could Pressure-drain it out of existence as it misses: commence the laughter).
For EVs, standard physical sweeper spread works without need for explanation. The leftovers are in Defense because it is Bisharp's second best stat; you don't have enough HP for the investment to be any good and your other stats just...it's probably the best place to put them.
Other Options: Sucker Punch for priority...and because I've been around long enough to know that despite the critical flaws of this attack (low PP and fails if the opponent doesn't use an offensive move) it's going to be given as a core attack in Bisharp's POTW file; might be better on a Life Orb or Swords Dance set, but too risky for a Choice set. Stone Edge has low-PP and miss-when-you-must-hit accuracy but gives you coverage on Flying and Fire types. Oddly enough, Bisharp gets Dig; Earthquake would have been better and Brick Break is a tad more useful overall but if you want to try it, go ahead: gimmicky but there are worse moves you could use. X-Scissor is probably the best attack it gets that hasn't already been mentioned: it'll hit fellow Dark types harder than Brick Break (except for Tyranitar, if that situation occurs) and has good power. From the Move Tutor you can also add Dual Chop, a Dragon type attack: destroy Substitutes and damage whatever was hiding behind it, while knowing that only Steels (most of which fall to Brick Break) will resist it.