Community POTW #71

[StreetFlare]

Sorry... It was when I read your comment that I relized my mistake... I meant choice scarf!!

...Choice Scarf does the same move-locking as Choice Band, dude.

 

[Zachmac]

Doubles and Triples are slightly more suited to Pidgeot's liking. Heat Wave hitting in a spread, Flying Type's immunity to Earthquake, Flying Type Moves hitting anywhere in Triples, Featherdance being slightly more useful, plus access to Tailwind, Rain Dance, Sunny Day, Whirlwind, and Uproar mean you're more likely to see usage in Multi over Singles. Whirlwind can really help Stealth Rock chip off damage while forcing switches to erase any buffs your opponent may have used. Sunny Day, Rain Dance, and Tailwind are more team support. Uproar? Preventing anyone from falling asleep is a huge asset if your main damage-dealer is being put into Sleep Status constantly.

I agree with all of this, except that part about whirlwind. Phazing and stealth rock in doubles are both very bad ideas for reasons that I don't feel like explaining right now.

 

[Kraleck]

I agree with all of this, except that part about whirlwind. Phazing and stealth rock in doubles are both very bad ideas for reasons that I don't feel like explaining right now.

Agreed, but what else is Pidgeot going to do that another bird can't do better, especially in Multi? Fearow, Dodrio, Swellow, Staraptor, and a few other Normal/Flying Types have it horribly outclassed. I just mentioned an option that it could do - one used mostly to screw with the opponent's patience (mind games and such).

 

[tomjames1966]

Pidgeot, oh how unlucky it is. I actually used one in my Platinum playthrough.

Abiltiesidgeot has the worst combanation of bird abilites ever.
Big Pecks! OMG another Pokemon to get this rubbish abilty!
Tangled Feet! Depends on what situation you're in and nobody will be using Confuse ray on Pidgeot as it is a Ghost type attack.
Keen eye! Stops your accuracy from being lowered. Who would lower Pidgeot's accuracy anyway? The only time your accuracy will be lowered is when something uses an attack on you which has a chance of lowering your accuracy.

Custub Berry
-Hurricane
-Hyper Beam
-HP Ground
-Heat Wave
252 Sp.Atk/252 Spd/4 HP
Nature:Modest
Item: Custab Berry
Okey the main goal in this set is to take down as many Pkemon as possible. If you take down 2 you are fine, 3 execlent, 1 Pidgeot then was a wast of a Pokemon slot, 0 unlucky. You basicly use the best attack against the other Pokemon and survive for as long as you can. When the Custub Berry activates use Hyper Beam. HP ground is there to block rock types and kill Heatran. Heat Wave is there to kill Steels.

 

[ClefairyRox]

Tangled Feet! Depends on what situation you're in and nobody will be using Confuse ray on Pidgeot as it is a Ghost type attack.

Actually, I'm pretty sure Confuse Ray ignores the Normal immunity, like Sand Attack ignores the immunities given by Flying and Levitate. It's still a rarely-used attack, though.

 

[philzone]

Pidgeot, oh how unlucky it is. I actually used one in my Platinum playthrough.

Abiltiesidgeot has the worst combanation of bird abilites ever.
Big Pecks! OMG another Pokemon to get this rubbish abilty!
Tangled Feet! Depends on what situation you're in and nobody will be using Confuse ray on Pidgeot as it is a Ghost type attack.
Keen eye! Stops your accuracy from being lowered. Who would lower Pidgeot's accuracy anyway? The only time your accuracy will be lowered is when something uses an attack on you which has a chance of lowering your accuracy.

Custub Berry
-Hurricane
-Hyper Beam
-HP Ground
-Heat Wave
252 Sp.Atk/252 Spd/4 HP
Nature:Modest
Item: Custab Berry
Okey the main goal in this set is to take down as many Pkemon as possible. If you take down 2 you are fine, 3 execlent, 1 Pidgeot then was a wast of a Pokemon slot, 0 unlucky. You basicly use the best attack against the other Pokemon and survive for as long as you can. When the Custub Berry activates use Hyper Beam. HP ground is there to block rock types and kill Heatran. Heat Wave is there to kill Steels.

This is an OK set, but is only useful if pidgeot has a high def,sp def or hp, but it doesn't. A better item might be a life orb or wise specs.
Here is a good set:
All out.
Ability tangled feet.
Sky attack/brave bird
U-turn
Steel wing
Heat wave/giga impact/secret power
Nature adamant/jolly
Ev 252 att 252 spd 4 hp
Item choice band/life orb/power herb
Nice set. Flying STAB moves. These are very strong moves. U-turn for scouting, steel wing for rocks and ice. Heat wave for steels,giga impact for STAB power strike, and secret power for an effect.

 

[Dragalge]

Please don't use recharge moves, they suck. Sure they have high power, but let your opponent switch his/her pokemon to Probopass? Speaking of that, Probobass and Bastiodon both take a pittance from any of Pidgeot's moves. @tomjames1966 Hyper Beam? lol. Oh and dont use fly either when Thunder and Hurricane will just hurt you
t

 

[Mav-san]

I've been thinking, Pidgeot can ACTUALLY be better than... Farfetch'd. Yay? Except Farfetch'd actually has better movepool and setup. And is much cooler. Hmm... poor Pidgeot.

 

[Ophie]

Agreed, but what else is Pidgeot going to do that another bird can't do better, especially in Multi? Fearow, Dodrio, Swellow, Staraptor, and a few other Normal/Flying Types have it horribly outclassed. I just mentioned an option that it could do - one used mostly to screw with the opponent's patience (mind games and such).

Considering its largely middle-of-the-road stats in everything (much of Generation 1 was like this though), it's best used in these environments as a disruptive support Pokémon. I would bet that Pidgeot's generally low stats was originally because Pidgey was a Pokémon you could get at the beginning of the game, and they purposely kept it relatively weak to limit yourself early on. (Didn't explain why the starters were a lot more powerful though.) In any case...

Double Battles
Unlike something like Staraptor or Braviary, Pidgeot is not meant to be in the front lines dealing damage to your opponent. Well, not under normal circumstances anyway. In a double battle, a good Pidgeot supports its partner while hindering the opponent.

• Tailwind doubles the Speed of Pidgeot and anyone else on your team for the next 2 to 3 turns, not including the turn it was used. This would be the main reason Pidgeot would be on your team--it was Pidgeot's signature move, and while other Pokémon now know the move, they all have stats better suited for direct attacking than Pidgeot. If you build your team around Tailwind, or maybe just another Pokémon, you'll be given the edge in a battling format where going first is a huge advantage. (Theoretically, Slowbro can outrun Infernape under Tailwind, though only with a Speed-enhancing Nature and full IVs and EVs in Speed.)

• Featherdance can effectively neutralize a physical attacker. Pidgeot has a base Speed of 91, which is just barely above threats like Lucario or Excadrill. If Pidgeot is partnered with a Pokémon with low Defense, or you're just up against a troublesome physical attacker, Featherdance will slow them down enough to get the edge. If the physical attacker is faster than Pidgeot, then you should have Protect on Pidgeot's partner as your opponent will likely go after the partner instead. Featherdance will hit both of the opponent's Pokémon (unless one of them has Protect or something), so if they're reliant on physical attacking, you can tear through them with even one Featherdance.

• As a lot of double battling teams have Reflect and Light Screen up, Defog would be good on Pidgeot--just target either of the opponent's Pokémon, and all of their barriers will go away. If, on the rare case someone tries a Spikes-type move on you (Spikes, Toxic Spikes, or Stealth Rock), target your partner to rid your team of them.

• And, of course, Pidgeot can learn Rain Dance, in case your Drizzle Pokémon has been knocked out. Or you don't want to use Drizzle.

Since Taunt is also pretty common in double-battling, Pidgeot should have at least one attacking move to keep itself relevant. You don't want to be forced into switching, since your opponent will likely concentrate both of his or her attackers on the Pokémon you'll switch out, and it's likely that Pokémon will faint before it can do anything. Pidgeot's not particularly strong offensively, but you should have something like Brave Bird to finish off a weakened Pokémon or Heat Wave as a general spread attack that Steel-types dislike.

As Pidgeot will only attack as a last resort, your EVs should reflect that. You don't need points in Attack or Special Attack, but rather, concentrate them on Defense, Special Defense, and Speed. If you're using Featherdance, focus on Speed and distribute the rest among the defenses. If you're using Tailwind, place a moderate amount on Speed, enough to outrun base 130 Pokémon like Crobat. If you're using both Tailwind and Featherdance, allocate them somewhere in between (but I'd recommed you use Tailwind in battle before you use Featherdance).

However, if you're going to have a regular Attack/Speed EV spread, you'll need a Focus Sash to make sure Pidgeot can at least survive the turn needed to use Tailwind. Watch out for Fake Out users if this is the case. Otherwise, a Flying Gem should give Pidgeot the little oomph needed to KO something, even without any points in Attack.

Triple Battles
In a triple battle, Pidgeot is still best used as a support Pokémon. However, because there is now the threat of triple-teaming, support alone won't cut it. Pidgeot will have to get its wings dirty with direct attacking and disruption.

You will generally want to place Pidgeot to the side. Pidgeot can't take three attacks consecutively, even when EVed in the defenses. This is where a Pokémon whose primary purpose is support should go anyway, as they're supposed to stick around as long as possible, and they're not going to attack across the stage anyway.

• When you do need to attack, however, Quick Attack is quite useful as Focus Sash is common in triple battling teams. (This is due to how super-effective attacks hit all the time.)

• Tailwind is even more useful in a triple battle than a double battle, as it means you'll benefit from doubled Speed for 6 to 9 moves instead of just 4 to 6 moves. This is perfect for ganging up on your opponent's central Pokémon (or side Pokémon, if you have moves that can strike from an opposite corner).

• However, Featherdance must be used with great caution, as it will affect your allies as well in a triple battle. You should have a Pokémon who will not need their Attack stat (such as a special attacker) next to Pidgeot, or if Pidgeot is in the middle, on both sides, if you're going to use it.

• Defog is useful here too, as you'll also see a lot of Light Screen and Reflect being put up.

• Roost can give your opponent an unexpected curveball--usually, healing moves are not too useful in a triple battle, but if you feel Pidgeot will get targeted by a Rock or Electric attack, and Pidgeot has taken damage, use Roost to halve the damage taken from that attack for this next turn while your partners finish off that Pokémon.

• Sky Attack with a Power Herb may be more useful than Brave Bird, since in a triple battle, you want to get the damage going as quickly as possible and as much as possible.

While Pidgeot could get triple-teamed, as long as you keep it on the sides, it'll be exceedingly uncommon for it to take three attacks in one turn. Usually, your opponent will deem Pidgeot as low-priority and will not attack it with all of his or her forces, so you'll often find Pidgeot surviving turns unscathed. A super-effective attack, on the other hand, will usually go straight to Pidgeot, so you should have either a Yache Berry, a Wacan Berry, or a Charti Berry, depending on which type of attack you expect to see most often. You can also equip a Focus Sash, since Pidgeot will most often only get attacked once per turn, if that.

Because Pidgeot sits on the sides and assists its partners, you should go for a defensive EV spread. In a triple battle, your opponent is likely to have both physical and special attackers at once, so you should be prepared to take them both on simultaneously. Pidgeot's Special Defense is slightly lower than its physical Defense, and Featherdance can cover physical threats, so you should put more points in Special Defense.

Rotation Battles
Rotation Battles don't have as much room for support Pokémon, so if you're going to use Pidgeot, you need to know what your opponent has and have a good idea of what your opponent will do. Here, Pidgeot is best used as a hybrid attacker and supporter.

• Again, Featherdance will be great on Pidgeot. Switching out almost never happens in a Rotation Battle, but if you can drop an opposing Pokémon's Attack and remember which one(s) you've done Featherdance to, you can safely rotate in to a Pokémon who would normally be a bad matchup against it. Featherdance is at its most useful here, if you ask me, because you can wither the opponent's Pokémon down enough to ravage the ones out, which will give you a huge early advantage.

• Even without the Spikes family, Whirlwind is good in a Rotation Battle as it forces one Pokémon out for another. Your opponent is going to pick three Pokémon who go well with each other. The moment you switch one out with another, the type balance will be disrupted for your opponent, giving them holes in their defense you can pick on.

• Roost will heal Pidgeot and remove its Flying-type. In a Rotation Battle, this effect applies until you rotate Pidgeot back out again, meaning you can treat Pidgeot as if it were a pure Normal-type and thus reduce weaknesses in your trio.

• Pokémon with type immunities are common in Rotation Battles. Use Foresight to remove them from Ghost-types you may encounter if you have anoher Pokémon out who specializes in Fighting-types.

• As for attacking, moves like Brave Bird and Hurricane can deal unexpected big damage while Return is more of an all-purpose low-risk, low-reward move. Be sure to have at least one on Pidgeot--not because of Taunt, but because your opponent will try to make Pidgeot your last Pokémon out, and you don't want to be stuck unable to attack if that is ever the situation.

Essentially, Pidgeot, in Rotation Battles, is about creating weaknesses in your opponent's Pokémon in play while reducing weaknesses in yours. Be sure to switch to Pokémon it has a type advantage against, though this is easier said than done.

In all of these battling environments, defense-lowering stats will sometimes pop up (they are rare but not nonexistent unlike in single battles), so you will have some use for Big Pecks. Occasionally, perhaps more often, you will also come across Pokémon who will try to inflict Confusion--this is not normally used in VGCs but will sometimes pop up in more casual play, particularly from Crobat or Gengar (and sometimes Starmie). I would thus recommend Tangled Feet when battling outside of VGCs, as that evasion boost may be enough for you to mess your opponent up that bit more to get them over the edge. These abilities are why you would pick Pidgeot over, say, Unfezant or Mandibuzz, both of whom know most (but not all) of the above moves. Unfezant also has stats closer to a sweeper and Mandibuzz's closer to a wall. Pidgeot's middle-of-the-road stats make it excel at nothing in particular, so it has to make the opponent weaker for its partner.

 

[zerocielX]

My brother's random set. It's quite the troll, working as a shuffling Toxic spreader.

Pidgeot@Leftovers
Ability: Tangled Feet/ Keen Eye
252 HP/ 4 Atk/ 252 Def
Impish Nature

Toxic
Roost
Whirlwind
Brave Bird

Pretty much a poor man's Mandibuzz. Toxic something, and either stall it out, or phaze it out to Toxic something else. Roost to stall and recover HP, and Brave Bird to make the stalling go faster and whatnot

 

[Vandslaux]

Pidgeot should be put in the DUE tier (Don't Use EVER). If you want to use Pidgeot even in NU, it's severely outclassed by Braviary and even Fearow. FEAROW.

The only niche Pidgeot has is SubRoost, and that's not even much of a niche with Articuno having better defenses and Pressure.

 

[Blue Harvest]

Pidgeot gets a decent 76 base Special Attack (decent compared to all other normal / flyers) and Work Up with Heat Wave so it is potentially the only Normal / Flying bird that can muscle through Skarmory while still hitting with a powerful Physical STAB.

 

[BlackYinZekrom]

Ah Pidgeot, the original bird. Severely outclassed in most of its traditional roles, you'd be surprised to hear that Pidgeot can actually pull a Rain Team role.

Flying in the Rain
EV: 126 Atk, 126 Sp Atk, 252 Spd
Nature: Something to increase Sp Atack
Item:
-Damp Rock: Rain support, so whaddya expect? sides, does Pidgeot have much else?
Ability: Basically depends on what you want to deal with. Keen Eye prevents accuracy loss, Big Pecks prevents Defense loss, and Tangled Feet speeds up when confused.
Moves:
-Rain Dance: At first glance it's an odd move, but Pidgeot can learn it and use it for rain team support. Plus, it doesn't really have much else to put in its place.
-Hurricane: Pidgeot isn't a special sweeper (in either sense of the phrase) by any means, but it has what it takes to make use of this move. With rain support, you basically have a flying-type Thunder with a chance of confusion. Given Pidgeots limited moveset, this'll be your bread and butter. Use it to wipe out common enemies, and if you're lucky even a Volcarona or two.
-Brave Bird: Pidgeots strength (however little that is) lies primarily in Attack, so make use of that. Brave Bird grants a physical attack STAB move that deals nasty damage, but deals a portion of that back to Pidgeot. With such a fragile Pokemon, that can be very dangerous.
-Steel Wing/U-Turn: Pretty much based on what you wanna do with Pidgeot. Keep hitting and die, or run away and live to die another time. Steel Wing gives Pidgeot something to use against Rock and Ice types for a nasty surprise. U-turn serves as a quick getaway from Pokemon you don't want Pidgeot facing, while still dealing some damage.

Other Options:
-Twister: A unique little niche for Pidgeot to use against weak Dragons. One of the only Normal-types to learn it period, Dragons probably won't see it coming.
-Agility: Makes Pidgeot a faster little birdie. Good luck if you think you can survive long enough to use it.

Counters:
Rock. Ice. Steel. That is all.

 

[Rayofquazar]

...Choice Scarf does the same move-locking as Choice Band, dude.

You don't say??!!! Have you read my moveset?

 

[Kraleck]

Featherdance can effectively neutralize a physical attacker. Pidgeot has a base Speed of 91, which is just barely above threats like Lucario or Excadrill. If Pidgeot is partnered with a Pokémon with low Defense, or you're just up against a troublesome physical attacker, Featherdance will slow them down enough to get the edge. If the physical attacker is faster than Pidgeot, then you should have Protect on Pidgeot's partner as your opponent will likely go after the partner instead. Featherdance will hit both of the opponent's Pokémon (unless one of them has Protect or something), so if they're reliant on physical attacking, you can tear through them with even one Featherdance.

Last I checked, Featherdance only affected the chosen target.

http://www.serebii.net/attackdex-bw/featherdance.shtml

 

[Missingno. Master]

Probably the worst normal / flying type in the game though.

No, I believe that "honor" would go to Farfetch'd.

 

[Ophie]

Last I checked, Featherdance only affected the chosen target.

http://www.serebii.net/attackdex-bw/featherdance.shtml

Really? I looked on Bulbapedia and it said that it affects all opponents in double battles and all adjacent Pokémon in triple battles.

 

[philzone]

Counters-lots. Dusknoir first. Immune to most attacks from pidgeot and fights with a ice punch. Also,frostlass with ice beam to destroy it.

 

[Zodiac Meteor]

Ophie, FeatherDance can TARGET adjacent Pokemon. If it could hit all opposing Pokemon that would be so beast!

Unfortunately even Pidgeot is easily outclassed in Triple Battles. Braviery can offer the same support but with vastly better damage and better damaging movepool. I would even suggest Mantine over Pidgeot for support as only a handful of Pokemon can use Wide Guard.

Look on the bright side of it's stats, they are not like Swoobats... Until Swoobat gets it's Dream World and abuses the !@#$ out of Calm Mind, Roost and Stored Power.

 

[Kraleck]

Really? I looked on Bulbapedia and it said that it affects all opponents in double battles and all adjacent Pokémon in triple battles.

I think you may have a different Move in mind. I just checked Featherdance on Bulbapedia. You may have its target area confused with Teeter Dance, which affects all surrounding Pokemon.