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Community POTW #128

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Miror

De-le-le wooooooooooop
Staff member
Moderator
Cursed Body w/ Life Orb
Brave/Quiet w/ 252 Attack, 252 Sp Attack, 6 HP [Note: The other stats are too low for any good use]
Shadow Sneak/Shadow Claw
Thunderbolt
Will-o-wisp
Night Shade

Countering:
High Defense pokemon with Ghost/Dark-type moves.
Official NU Counters: Shadow Ball Weezing/Gorebyss/Glaceon, Crunch Huntail/Torterra/Stoutland
Unofficial additions: Will-o-wisp & Hex Ninetails/Heat Rotom, Gachomp, Druddigon, Tyranitar, Bisharp, Feraligatr, Payback Scrafty/Ferrothorn/Bouffalant, Crunch Arcanine, Dark Pulse Hydregion, Night Slash Scizor/Drapion
If you're going to give a Banette set that obviously is going to need to be used on a trick room team, it would help to say so in a description (I mean, you have -Speed abilities and everything), and a description would help us better understand what you expect this set to do. Moving on, Shadow Sneak isn't that great to run on Banette, especially when it has a better priority option in Sucker Punch. Shadow Claw is obviously the better option for that slot, as it provides reliable damage as well as get a STAB boost. Thunderbolt literally has no reason to be used, outside of hitting Wartortle harder; everything else is better taken care of by Shadow Claw or Sucker Punch. The best option for that slot would either be Trick Room, which would enable Banette to "outslow" things, or Sucker Punch for priority and better coverage. THe removal of Thunderbolt also means that the Special Attack EVs are not necessary, which can be better invested in HP, as it will allow Banette to survive at least one move from a not too powerful Pokemon rather than being KO'd immediately. Will-O-Wisp is a good option as it allows Banette to cripple physical attackers hat otherwise could cause Banette problems. Night Shade is another move with no viable use, as anything it would need to hit would be better taken care of by another member of Banette's team (basically anything physically bulky), as Banette can't afford to not do serious damage to something as it generally will be KO'd after it hits.

Moving onto your counters list, once again, just because something has a coverage move that is super effective does not make it a counter. Weezing is a decent counter in its own right, but not because of Shadow Ball, and Shadow Ball should not be run as it limits what Weezing can use for coverage that actually helps. Gorebyss is 2HKO'd by Banette and can OHKO in return, so is at best a check as it can't switch in. Glaceon is an OK counter, but is not seen at all in NU particularly as sits in the same speed tier as Banette and is Stealth Rock weak. Huntail has the same problem as Gorebyss of being 2HKO'd, meaning it can't switch in, and most NU Huntail sets run Crunch anyhow so no need to list it specifically, though Huntail has to watch out for being Will-O-Wisped. Torterra is bulky enough to take anything Banette throws at it, but also has to worry about getting burnt. Stoutland is a good check or counter as Intimidate lowers Banette's Attack and it OHKOs with Crunch. I don't see why you have a "unofficial additions" section at all as none of them will even be considered for the POTW and this is a solely POTW related thread, and even for those I have to say again that random super effective coverage moves =/= counters.

During the month that the PU ladder was up, I was usually running variants of an offensive team that utilized Custap Pineco to lay down hazards as quickly as possible before running over the opponent with my sweepers. I tossed Banette on there as sort of an emergency offensive spinblocker, and although I didn't see many spinners besides (lol) Sandshrew, Banette never left the team. It actually turned out to be one of the best Pokemon I tried in the tier.

Banette @ Life Orb
Trait: Cursed Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
-Sucker Punch
-Will-O-Wisp
-Destiny Bond
-Thunder Wave / Taunt / Shadow Claw

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what Banette did on my team. I guess the best title would have to be "Disruption Pokemon." Banette just caused so many problems whenever he came in on a slower opponent. I almost always was able to get at least one burn and a kill, possibly even two kills. So many people forget about Destiny Bond, and so they'll just attack to their heart's content with slowpokes like Gigalith and such, letting Banette take an opponent down with him. Sucker Punch was also a very useful priority attack, helping to keep dangerous but frail Pokemon like Simipour and Beheeyem in check. The last slot was pretty flexible, and I tried a number of different options. Thunder Wave was the most recent that I tried before the DDoS attack occured and Pokemon Showdown! went offline, just before PU's ladder month was over and the ladder was removed. It was awesome for giving me a secondary status to inflict on Pokemon that didn't mind Will-O-Wisp much (namely opposing special sweepers), and it also helped against cocky Combuskens who thought they could set up on me with impunity due to their immunity to Will-O-Wisp and resistance to Sucker Punch. Taunt helped wear down slower Pokemon that might try to heal up on Banette, and it synergized very well with Destiny Bond and Sucker Punch. Shadow Claw was the first option I ever tried, and it was alright. It provided Banette with a decently powerful STAB move for killing off anything slower and weak enough, but I didn't use it often.

Obviously, there are plenty of Pokemon in NU and above that do this sort of thing better (Drifblim immediately comes to mind), but Banette turned out really good in PU.

I like the way this set works (I used it on PU ladder as well for a while), and yes the extra status was nice :p I found it interesting how many Pokemon came in on Banette (I used Focus Sash over Life Orb though, to take advantage of Destiny Bond more), as well as this set not needing Trick Room support.
 
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