• Hi all. We have had reports of member's signatures being edited to include malicious content. You can rest assured this wasn't done by staff and we can find no indication that the forums themselves have been compromised.

    However, remember to keep your passwords secure. If you use similar logins on multiple sites, people and even bots may be able to access your account.

    We always recommend using unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication if possible. Make sure you are secure.
  • Be sure to join the discussion on our discord at: Discord.gg/serebii
  • If you're still waiting for the e-mail, be sure to check your junk/spam e-mail folders

Community POTW #46

Status
Not open for further replies.

zerocielX

Togekiss Trainer
Trick Room Sweeper
Escavalier @ Lum Berry
Trait:Swarm/Shell Armor
Nature: Brave
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/ 4 Sp.Def

Swords Dance
Megahorn/X-Scissor
Iron Head
Aerial Ace/Return/Reversal


This guy hits ridiculously hard after a Swords Dance boost. Megahorn is your primary STAB attack of choice, sacrificing accuracy for raw power. But if reliability is what you want, X-Scissor is the weaker alternative. Iron Head is your secondary STAB and it comes with a nice 30% flinch rate, which may come in handy. The next two moves are more of a filler. Aerial Ace hits hard after a boost and helps cover Fighting-types, I guess. Reversal is for Steel-types that resist your STAB, but its not ideal unless your HP is low. Return is another good move to consider.

Its too bad it doesn't get Gyro Ball :(
 

Crusina

Your In Bad Company
I can't believe you guys are ignoring the sheer number of freakouts this pokemon causes most people expect an offensive one, but a defensive one with pursuit and a careful nature takes about 35 percent from a Latios Draco Meteor, and can beat Haxorus one on one.

(Though you have to watch out for Haxorus with Incinerate, deals a massive amount of damage rendering him useless ;)



Escavalier@Leftovers
Nature: Careful
Ability: Shell Armor

EV's: 252 hp / 176 spdf / 82 atk

(with the speed IV's you can either go max to tie, or be faster then pokemon like slowbro, but then you may lose to them under trick room conditions)

~Megahorn
~Pursuit
~Return/Swords Dance
~Toxic/Screech


Can take on Ferrothorn, Latios, Latias, Gyarados, vaporeon, Scizor, and has a field day against Gengar, laughs at any varient of Reuniclus.

An absolutely amazing counter to almost any trick room team, probably the best Reuniclus counter avaliable, and guaranteed to scare of most dragons, specially the lati twins. (of course you have to worry about say, HP fire, but that doesn't even OHKO him, while he can KO them with a megahorn)

Return is for waters like Swampert (well, not much anymore) but especially Gyarados, and other types like Zapdos, or if you just want a strong neutral attack. I've also run Swords Dance, which has allowed me to simply smash past pretty much everything even resisted types.

Does well against Scizor if it doesn't switch's into him, especially baton pass variants, megahorn then pursuit when the realize the amount of damage.

You can use screech, but the utility of toxic I find generally more useful, though for Psychics, screech forces them to switch out fearing megahorn only to get pursuit-ed nearly 100% of the time I've used it.

To put it into perspective, it took a fire blast from a Dragonite with about 40% health remaining and did about 46 percent damage with with resisted Megahorn. (If you want the log I'll try to find it, I don't want it to seem like I'm pulling numbers out of nowhere)
 
Last edited:
(Way to completely underestimate how common Ferrothorn is in Ubers Reno -,-)

Not just Ferrothorn.

Spikes / Stealth Rock are everywhere. Most Ubers also hit Shedinja Super effective..

Kyogre: walled
Ferrothorn: Leech Seed / Toxic / Spikes to kill Shedinja. Iron Barbs OHKOs Shedinja just by switching in.
Mewtwo: Shadow Ball / Flamethrower. Survives an X-scissor.
Groudon: Stealth Rocks / Roar. Many run Stone Edge / Fire Punch. +2 X-Scissor 4HKOs defensive sets.
Arceus: All of them run one of the following: Shadow Ball / Shadow Claw / Will-O-Wisp / Toxic.
Palkia: Often runs Fire Blast.
Dialga: Mixed sets run Fire Blast. Bulk Up PP stalls SD Shedinja.
Darkrai: OHKOs with SLEEP moves and STAB.
Rayquaza: Most run Fire Blast.
Zekrom: Its ability nullifies Wonderguard.
Tyranitar: lol
Giratina: Virtually always runs Shadow Claw / Shadow Ball / Will-O-Wisp / Toxic.
Forretress: Payback KOs but not before it Spikes all over the ghost bug.
Giratina-O: Shadow Sneak / HP Fire.
Excadrill: Rock Slide

So of top 15 Ubers you are able to beat or successfully wall a grand total of Kyogre and that's only if Stealth Rocks aren't down. Thank you Reno for another accurate statement about a metagame you don't play.
 

Crusina

Your In Bad Company
Nice post Blue Harvest, I'm going to assume that post of yours involving the angry rant actually this has a lot to do with Escavalier, and definitely not Shedinja?
 

ClefairyRox

Nintendo Fan
Escavalier, a new Bug/Steel type made for 5th gen. My sister named hers after a knight named Sir Ryasis from our local Renaissance Festival. Goofy nicknames aside, Escavalier has quite a bit going for it. It has a sick design resembling a Trojan helmet, a typing shared with only a few other Pokemon, and a fantastic Attack stat that can be further boosted with Swords Dance or a Choice Band. It's defenses are also great; base 70 HP is less than ideal, but base 105 in each defense is great and gels wonderfully with Escavalier's wonderful defensive typing. Unfortunately, there are some major things setting it back. As a sweeper, it is severely hindered by its sluggish Speed, although this can be remedied with Trick Room. As a defensive wall, it lacks reliable recovery. Nonetheless, Escavalier can make a great offensive/defensive Pokemon in the lower tiers. You can use it in OU too, but it is generally overshadowed by Scizor.

Swarm is the ability to go for. It boosts the power of Escavalier's Bug-type moves by 50% when its HP is at 1/3 or less. Escavalier is too slow to usually take advantage of this outside of Trick Room, but a Megahorn boosted by Swords Dance and Swarm behind that huge attack stat will be tearing holes in almost everything.

Shell Armor is an okay ability, but you can never know when its working because crits are so unpredictable. I suppose its some nice added insurance, however.

Overcoat is pretty useless. As a Steel type, Escavalier is already immune to Sandstorm, and Abomasnow isn't exactly the most common Pokemon out there. Even when it is there, Swarm is usually the better choice.

Escavalier's movepool is unfortunately very shallow, but it does get most of the tools it needs. You will always want Megahorn. It's Escavalier's strongest attack, and one of the things that sets it apart from Scizor. Its Megahorn is stronger than Technician Scizor's Bug Bite, and made even more terrifying by the possibility of Swarm and Swords Dance. You could go with X-Scissor if you prefer reliability, but you lose out on a lot of power. Without a Swarm boost, Escavalier's X-Scissor is weaker than Technician Scizor's Bug Bite.

You will also want Iron Head. Although Steel has horrendous supereffective coverage, it does get good neutral coverage, and Iron Head is one of the best physical Steel attacks out there.

Swords Dance is highly recommended for sweeping Escavalier. Due to its natural bulk, Escavalier usually can set up with ease on anything that lacks a Fire attack. For more defensive variants, you could go with Knock Off, as removing an opponent's item is always beneficial.

Pursuit is a great choice on this Pokemon. Many Pokemon, particularly Psychic types, will flee in fear at the possibility of Megahorn, and Pursuit will hit them hard.

Reversal is the only way Escavalier can really damage opposing Steel types. Although Reversal isn't a bad move, Escavalier is too slow to make good use of it outside of Trick Room.

Aerial Ace, Return, and Poison Jab are filler moves that could be used on a Choice Band set. Unfortunately, they have lackluster coverage at best, and pathetic coverage at worst.

Screech will force a lot a switches, and also works wonderfully with Pursuit. It also helps rack of damage from entry hazards.

If you use Escavalier in OU, keep in mind that it is not Scizor. Escavalier has a bit more base Attack than its fellow Bug/Steel, but it has a much shallower movepool, its horrendously slow, and it lacks priority. On the other hand, Escavalier's Megahorn is one of the strongest Bug attacks in the metagame. Also, its Special Defense is much higher, enabling it to always survive two successive Draco Meteors from Latios even after Stealth Rocks and if Latios scores max damage both times. It is also never 2HKO'd by Gengar's Focus Blast, always survives a LO Kingdra's Surf in rain, and can even survive Timid Magnezone's HP Fire 92% of the time. All of this data was taken from Smogon, and I don't believe it takes hax like stat drops and crits into account.

Partners: A Pokemon with Flash Fire is highly recommended, as Escavalier is a magnet for Fire attacks. Fellow UUs Arcanine and Chandelure are great choices. In OU, there aren't any Flash Fire Pokemon, but there are plenty of Pokemon with Fire resistances. Politoad is worth choosing, as its Drizzle reduces Escavalier's Fire type weakness. The frog Pokemon in general works great alongside Steel types. A Pokemon that can set up Trick Room is great, as it bypasses Escavalier's awful Speed.

Countering Escavalier: Fire attacks. Even with high defenses, any decent Fire attack will heavily damage if not outright OHKO Escavalier outside of rain. If your opponent has a Pokemon with Flash Fire, however, use caution. Will-O-Wisp also cripples it, as is the case with most physical attackers.

Finding a Pokemon that can actually switch into Escavalier, however, is very difficult. Almost nothing out there will want to take a Megahorn unless they resist it and have insanely high physical defense. Steelix is one such Pokemon, but it is RU. In UU, Chandelure is probably the best counter. It 4X resists Megahorn, resists Iron Head, and shakes off everything else except Pursuit. And it can easily OHKO Escavalier with its STAB Fire-type moves. In OU, Skarmory fills in that role best. It resists all of Escavalier's core moves and Roosts off the damage. It can't do much to Escavalier in return, and it'll hate loosing its Leftovers to Knock Off, but it can Whirlwind any Swords Dances the Bug has picked up. Heatran also walls Escavalier, and destroys it with Fire Blast. Magnezone can trap it and then KO with HP Fire, but Megahorn will hurt quite a bit.

Overall, despite its inferiority to Scizor, Escavalier can still be a deadly Pokemon. Its base Attack rivals that of Metagross, and its difficult to OHKO unless you use a Fire attack. And its design kicks ***. I think its a worthy addition to 5th gen competitive battling.
 
Last edited:

Crusina

Your In Bad Company
I don't think it has an inferiority to Scizor since the way they are played is different. Its sort of a dragonite/salamence relationship, one's faster, one's bulkier, etc, and they have overlap on many sets, but they never quite play the same way.


I did forget to mention that He does extremely well on rain teams as you mentioned.
 

ClefairyRox

Nintendo Fan
I guess you have a point about that, Crusina. It even says on Smogon: "Escavalier's main goal is to punch massive holes into your opponent's front line rather than sweep or scout."
 

Porgon-XYZ

Wut are you saying?
Here's a gimmicky set that can work with proper support:

Trick Room Endure Set?
Escavalier@Lum Berry
Ability: Overcoat/Swarm
EVs: 252HP/252atk/4sdef
Moveset:
-Endure
-Reversal
-Megahorn/X-Scissor
-Swords Dance/Iron Head

Get him in Trick Room, get to 1Hp, sweep with Reversal.(remove priority first for clean sweep until TR runs out) Megahorn is perfered for power over X-Scissor, and Swords Dance or Iron Head for what seems best for you. Gimmicky set most of the time.:/
 

Haru Glory

Rave Master
Escavalier. Pretty good looking Pokèmon, awesome typing (only x4 Fire weakness, which can be lowered in Rain), has gargantuan Attack and quite good Defenses. Its Speed is horrible, but we don't care about that. The real problem is in its movepool: has Swords Dance, X-Scissor, Megahorn, Iron Head, Slash, Reversal, Pursuit and Poison Jab. That's all for its valuable moves. You can run a SD set, with dual STAB moves and both Pursuit or Poison Jab for coverage, or a Choice Band set.
 

Meowmeow

selfproclaimed guru
From crappy bug to awesome bug. Escavelier has a lot of things in its favor: Type, STAB Megahorn, and stats. Abilities? Swarm works with Megahorn's kickass power. Movepool? That is a major problem. Outside of Megahorn, Escavalier's movepool is junk.

The one thing Escavelier is going to do:
EVs: 252 Attack, the rest go anywhere but speed and special attack really.
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Swarm
@: Choice Band|Life Orb

Megahorn
Pursuit
Iron Head
Aerial Ace|Swords Dance

This is the Escavelier standard. If not, you waste this guy's awesome stats.

Other Options: Not much, but let's look anyway

Screech works great with Pursuit
An Endure-Reversal set is usable, but remember there are priority moves and Escavalier is very slow.
Counter can catch some enemies by surprise.

That is the Cavalry insect for you. One effective method. The strongest Megahorn, and a great type and stats.
 

WeatherEffectRain

Arm Wrestle?
Yay Escavalier! Honestly the most awesome bug I've seen, and with enough power to lol at walls, and that awesome design, it's gotta be good, right?

Yehno. Despite all that, lol 2 reasons, it's got a suckish movepool - Competitively consisting of Iron Head, Pursuit, Megahorn, Swords Dance, Return Knock Off and freaking Rock Smash. Seriously, smogon lists Rock Smash. It's also got a beef with Scizor, what with them being generally the same, only this guy doesn't get anywhere as much...

But yeah. Two sets. That's all.

Choice Knight (CB)
Ability: Shell Armor
Item: Choice Band
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Atk, 4 SDef
-Megahorn
-Iron Head
-Pursuit/Rock Smash/Return
-Pursuit/Rock Smash/Return

This is his entire competitive Movepool when not using SD and Knock Off. Oh gosh. I think it explains itself, but obvious or not: Megahorn is his general STAB, coming off at STAB'd 180 BP. Iron Head hits Ice and Rock-types a bit harder than Megahorn, and it's also STAB'd. Then there's Pursuit, which hurts stuff well enough when they switch out, Rock Smash for that covering of Steels(Seriously, this is his best Steel-Hitting Option), and finaly Return for good Neutral Coverage.

Iron Clad Dancing Bug
Ability: Shell Armor
Item: Leftovers/Life Orb
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Atk, 4 SDef
-Swords Dance
-Iron Head
-Megahorn
-Rock Smash/Pursuit/Knock Off

This is the general set to be used, and works a hefty well amount. First off, he has great bulk: Leftovers is a great item for longevity, but Life Orb helps net some KOs... IIRC, at least. SD, Iron Head and Megahorns are already explained, and after an SD that's easy to get up, Rock Smash hurts steels well enough. Pursuit is a bit more useful on this set than last, because some people don't like geting hit by a bug in shining armor that just swung it's Sword-arm-things around. Lol. Knock Off is really for the lulz, but you have really nothing better to run. Lol.

And before I go: Lol you guys, never run Aerial Ace or Slash. The moves I listed are his only good options. lok @ smogon n00bz1!1
 
Not really much to go on. people are gonna put up movesets involving it being Adamant or Brave either knowing Sword Dance or holding a choice band. 2 moves it will most likely know are Iron Head and either X-Scissor or Megahorn. Its movepool itself is small meaning other moves to add are either pusuit for switchers(duh!), Faint Attack a more reliable Dark move either way they both dont cover much(just ghost as X-Scissor/Megahorn cover Psychics). Reversal is good as it covers Steels and with its low speed most likely lose some HP before use. Return or Slash to increase coverage. Anyway thats all i can think for it right now.

Good Partners will be those who can use Trick Room. To a lesser extent those who can hit the types that resist his moves
 
Last edited:

Diaglio

Well-Known Member
Counters:

Heatran can wall and kill Escavalier any time of the day or night so watch out for him and make sure that you have a Heatran counter.

Not just Heatran, but basically any Fire-type. Chandelure works great, because it's fast enough (as if it needs to be any faster) and strong enough to destroy it in one blow.
 

Fast_shoesXx

Well-Known Member
Iron Maiden @Leftovers [Shell Armour]
(Sassy)
252 HP/252 Def/6 Sp. Def
Iron Defense
Toxic
Rest
Struggle Bug/Megahorn/Reversal/X-Scissor

Knight in Shining Armour @Leftovers [Swarm]
(Adamant)
252 Att/252 HP/6 Def
Swords Dance
Reversal
Megahorn/X-Scissor
Rest/Iron Head/Toxic
 

SwordsDanceStruggle

I need to...DANCE
This is silly, but all the obvious offensive sets have been taken.

Toxic Staller
With his resistances and defensive stats, Escavalier could make an unlikely...toxic staller. I already said that.
Wacka Stix @ Leftovers
Impish or Relaxed
252 HP 252 Def 4 Atk/SpDef
Toxic
X-Scissor
Substitute / Protect / Iron Defense
Protect / Iron Defense / Substitute

If you're actually going to use this set, and use Iron Defense, you could pour some EV's into Special Defense.
 
Last edited:

Crusina

Your In Bad Company
Why would you have a defensive nature then stick on Iron Defense, if you're playing defensively, you should always use a spdf nature like Careful, unless you specifically need him for a physical wall.

Regardless, if you are rasing your defense by two stages, don't use a defensive nature like imprish. It's the same reason Curse sets never run max attack or defense and instead focus on spdf, because you're boosting those stats anyways.
 

Ilan

Well-Known Member
pokedex:can fly on high speeds huh? high speed= 20 base speed? regional proffessors should stop giving 10 years old children the job of writing pokedex entries!

Lives in Scizors shadow never use it in OU you have scizor MUCH better choice.

Well abilities: swarm,shell armor,DW over coat
overcoat- useless good only on pokemons who don't resist sand storm or hail and don't have any other ability.

shell armor: MEH crits are absol's doing absol can't hurt you that much so better pass on this one, (or if you hate hax then go for it).

Swarm- the better ability as you are bulky you can life a none effective hit on 25% but MEH there is not leechi berry yet...

Your worst enemy is burn you are really slow so everything with will o wisp just cripple you, his stats are really good except crappy speed and it get a defensive typing (in rain work the best but he is UU), 135 attack means that when you hit you hit hard.
If it had a recovery move then it would be awesome.

his move pool is very limited it have access to mega horn,sword dance,iron head,iron defence,X-Scissors,reversal,counter,toxic

here is a set I came up with works better on trick room kind of gimmick

Hit me with fire (gimmick trick room set)
@Focus sash
ability: swarm
nature: brave/Naugty
EV: 252 attack (no need for something else as you want to take a fatal hit)
Reversal
megahorn
pursuit
swords dance

A gimmick set revenge killer of trick room switch on something that use fire attacks get a swords dance

and use your moves for sweeping priority kills you,end of trick room kills you but you can be fine your main purpuse is to get to a low level of HP preferely 1HP and then attemp to sweep

the only rason I mention this set is because of reversal and swarm you can use a more standard set too:

@life orb
nature: adamant
ability: swarm
EV 252 HP, 252 attack. 4 defense
Megahorn
Iron head/counter
Pursuit
Swords dance

Megahorn for STAB bug type stronger than X-Scissors and have acceptable accuracy, Iron head for secundary STAB.
counter to hit steel types (all steel types are physical except heatran and most lucarios both are OU so you won't see them and heatran just kills you anyway). pursuit is for ghosts that otherwise you can't hit, swords dance is your boosting move.

Physical Wall
@Leftovers
nature: Careful/impish
Abillity: Shell Armor (personally I hate hax)/swarm
EV: 252 HP, 252 Defense, 4 Special Defense
Subtitute/Protect/Iron defense
Toxic
Counter
Megahorn

he is meant to switch of physical attackers and toxic stall them/counter them , megahorn is there so taunt won't ruin you.
Subtitute is for predicrion and also can be used with swarm and megahorn for a good attack from this wall... Protect stalls toxic and leftovers, Iron defense to raise your defence to annoying levels..

he partners well with snorlax cause each cover others weaknesses snorlax is a good special sponge and with thick fat it can resist fire attacks aimed at excavalier, miltank have the same qualities.
 
Last edited:

Serpentine

Pokemon Breeder
Escavalier has such a horrible speed that even with a Speed IV of 31 and 252 EVs it's not even worth it since pretty mcuh everything can out run it. It should be used on a Trick Room team. More than likely there should be a Pokemon that can help with Fire types since it has a x4 weakness.

Escavalier's nature should be one that increases whatever's needed and decrease either Speed or Sp Atk.

It's a mega powerhouse with a great Attack stat and great defenses with OK HP. Not only does it has great stats, it has only one weakness.
 

TrollFreak

Pit is Awesome :P
^ what EE said

also, toxic stall and reversal sets suck, why are we posting them?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top