Community POTW #127

[Serebii]

Time for the next Pokémon of the Week and this week we go to Kalos!

It's Noivern!

Noivern #715 - Serebii.net Pokédex

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

www.serebii.net

 

[Divine Retribution]

Noivern is a bit of an oddity among Dragon-types. It's quite fast, but unlike most other Dragon-types it doesn't boast a huge Attack or Special Attack stat. It's Sp. Atk is a very mediocre base 97, while its Attack is an even less usable base 70. It does somewhat make up for this with access to high base power moves, and 97 base Sp. Atk isn't totally unusable (after all, Kingdra gets away with base 95), but it does mean that it struggles to pull its weight in higher tiers compared to other fast special attackers.

Noivern @ Choice Specs
Timid - Infiltrator
252 Sp. Atk, 252 Speed, 4 Defence
-Boomburst / Hurricane
-Draco Meteor
-Flamethrower
-U-Turn / Switcheroo

Despite not gaining STAB, Boomburst is among Noivern's strongest, most reliable moves. In Singles it's basically a 140 base power move with no drawbacks that naturally bypasses Substitute (although Noivern bypasses Substitute anyways thanks to Infiltrator). This outdamages his lower-powered STABs like Air Slash and Dragon Pulse. You can opt to run Hurricane instead; it does more damage thanks to STAB but has unreliable accuracy outside of the rain and leaves him without a reliable, high damage move to toss out. Draco Meteor does even more damage, letting him revengekill decently healthy opponents, but obviously nukes your already mediocre Sp. Atk stat. Flamethrower hits Steel-type opponents who wall his STABs. U-Turn is a fantastic move on any choice-locked Pokemon, letting you scout your opponent's switches and pivot into a Pokemon who can threaten them. Alternatively, Switcheroo can be used to cripple opposing walls by switching your Choice Specs onto them, making Noivern slightly less dead weight against opposing stall teams that he will struggle to do any real meaningful damage to otherwise.​

 

[Mestorn]

Noivern always felt as a counterpart to Crobat, being a similar fragile speedster Bat pokémon. The even have similar Base Stats, with Noivern sacrificing 7 Speed for 7 higher in its main offensive stat. However, Noivern is by far the more offensive of the two, having great spammable STABs and an absurd coverage move in Boomburst, in addition to just wide coverage in general. Sadly, Noivern really wishes it had access to Nasty Plot to boost its offenses, instead being reliant on Choice Specs for extra damage. Additionally Noivern's typing thrusts it into competition with numerous Dragon types who offer similar defensive niches and shortcomings while often offering far better bulk and power.

Other Options
Super Fang -always valuable for cleaving past walls with more defense than sense, but Noivern excels as a revenge killer, not as a wall breaker.
Taunt -shuts down setup attempts, and synergizes well with Super Fang for weakening walls by preventing them from recovering.

Checks and Counters
Noivern is comparable with other Dragon types for having similar achilles heels. STAB Ice moves will drop Noivern quickly and it doesn't have Intimidate, Multiscale or the bulk like Garchomp to tank an Ice move. Ice Shard from the likes of Weavile or Mamoswine quickly ends Noivern's threat before it can begin.

Weavile in general is a huge headache for Noivern, being a naturally faster Ice type, though obviously Weavile can't switch into Noivern safely. Other faster threats like Dragapult, Regieleki, and Ribombee all naturally outspeed and threaten to OHKO Noivern.

Otherwise, taking advantage of Noivern's middling special offense works wonders. Blissey and Chansey just sit on Noivern, but must be wary of sets with Super Fang and Taunt. Specially defensive Celesteela works well against sets lacking Choice Specs and Flamethrower/Thunderbolt. Umbreon is another hard wall, but again hates Taunt. Snorlax, Porygon2, Stakataka, Bronzong all have the special Bulk required to take a few hits from Noivern and threaten it back hard, though Choice Specs sets will begin to strain this.

 

[Boris Muller]

It's worth noting that as of Gen 8 Noivern no longer gets Switcheroo as an egg move. A real shame, as Specseroo was a fun way to use it.

 

[Divine Retribution]

It's worth noting that as of Gen 8 Noivern no longer gets Switcheroo as an egg move. A real shame, as Specseroo was a fun way to use it.

You can still transfer a Noibat/Noivern with Switcheroo from a previous game and then breed it with a Noibat that originated in Sw/Sh, resulting in a Galar origin-marked Noibat with Switcheroo.

 

[Boris Muller]

You can still transfer a Noibat/Noivern with Switcheroo from a previous game and then breed it with a Noibat that originated in Sw/Sh, resulting in a Galar origin-marked Noibat with Switcheroo.

Really? I didn’t realise they changed that. Can it have the Battle Ready mark if it has an egg move like that?