blue harvest is not sexy + specs escavelier is pro
I must say, I wholeheartedly support this specs escavelier set, and deem it one of if not the most viable set for Escavelier in the entire OU metagame, unlike the silly specially defensive and physical sets, which are either totally outclassed by Scizor (who is also significantly sexier) and the physically offensive Trick Room sets, which are also outclassed by Scizor, along with every other offensive mon that performs will in Trick Room. However, with Choice Specs, Escavelier truly has its chance to shine. Nothing outclasses it, and it is capable of abusing its downright massive base 60 Special Attack (which is comparable to that of other OU behemoths, such as Gyarados and Gliscor, as well as being significantly higher than the base SpA of its other main competitor for the role of a specs bug type; Heracross. **** Yanmega everybody hates it).
First off, here are some damage calculations against some top OU threats:
252 SpA Modest Specs Escavelier Bug Buzz vs...
0 HP / 0 SpDef
Rash (-SpDef) Latios =
67.77% - 79.73%
0 HP / 0 SpDef
Rash (-SpDef) Latias =
58.47% - 69.10%
0 HP / 0 SpDef
Rash (-SpDef) Tyranitar (in Rain) =
64.52% - 76.25%
0 HP / 0 SpDef
Rash (-SpDef) Celebi =
129.03% - 152.49% (OHKO!)
252 HP / 252 SpDef
Calm (+SpDef) Celebi =
70.30% - 83.17%
0 HP / 0 SpDef Blue Harvest =
94.03% - 99.92%
As one can see, Specs Escavelier possesses tremendous power, always 2HKOing -SpDef nature Latios, Latias, and Tyranitar, and even OHKOing some Celebi with Bug Buzz! The failure to OHKO standard Blue Harvests is a bit of a downer, but thankfully, Stealth Rocks can be placed on many many many useful mons, so it's ok, since with Rocks, this Escavelier is OHKOing a huge portion of the metagame! Because of this, it definitely deserves a spot on basically any team, and synergizes extremely well with other strong special attackers who can break down walls for it, such as Taurus, who OHKOs most Gliscor with Ice Beam, and Ferroseed, who takes a fair amount of damage from Taurus Fire Blast!
As JF mentioned, this set sweeps incredibly well under Trick Room, but Escavelier is such a ****ing baller that it really doesn't need it. In fact, despite what I mentioned earlier about Specs Taurus opening holes for Escavelier to sweep, Escavelier really doesn't need any team support at all. For example, you could go into a battle with
just specs Escavelier agianst all six of your opponent's mons, and likely come out victorious (although other Escavelier sets would be unable to pull off such a feat). Because of this, I really don't want to go into team support that much, since if you're using Specs Escavelier, you're using a mon so broken that it's only fair to play Escavelier against the world (kind of like a Scott Pilgrim remake).
Finally, counters. Its extremely hard to find a hard counter to Specs Escavelier, since nearly everything in the tier is OHKO'd or 2HKO'd by it. Even defensive behemoths such as Lucario and Infernape who resist your main STAB and are likely common switch ins take hefty damage from Focus Blast. In addition, with 6 consecutive SpDef drops with Focus Blast, this Escavelier can even beat down Blissey and Chansey, which is incredible for any special attacker!
tl;dr, Reno, when you put this set in the analysis, absolutely do
not make it look like a gimmick, for it is significantly more viable than any other escavelier set out there.