Swellow (analysis)

premboy95 said:

Swellow

[Overview]

<p>Swellow is an extremely fast, hard hitting attacker in UU. With a unique Speed tier shared only by Weavile in UU, it can outspeed almost the whole tier. While its 85 Base Attack might seem underwhelming, Guts remedies this by boosting its Attack to an amazing 403 Attack. Along with guts comes a 140 Base Power STAB move in Façade, allowing Swellow to easily destroy unprepared teams. Despite these pros, Swellow has many flaws, including its frailty, weakness to the omnipresent Stealth Rock, and its inability to even dent Rock- or Steel-type Pokemon.</p>

[SET]
name: Guts
move 1: Facade
move 2: Brave Bird
move 3: U-Turn / Pursuit
move 4: Quick Attack / Protect
item: Toxic Orb / Flame Orb
ability: Guts
nature: Jolly
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>With high Speed, an attack boost from Guts, and two STAB attacks of 120 Base Power or more, Swellow makes a great end game clean-up sweeper. The first two attacks are obvious, as Facade is the main attack of the set, completely decimating Pokemon who do not resist it, while Brave Bird is a secondary STAB useful for hitting those Ghost-types immune to Facade. The final two moves are questionable. U-turn is incredible for scouting the opponent's switches and switching to the correct counter. Pursuit, however, is useful for trapping and killing frail Ghost-types, such as Mismagius, without taking recoil from Brave Bird. Quick Attack is useful in the final slot, hitting quicker or faster enemies—including Choice Scarfed Pokemon—although Protect is usable to activate the item and scout Choice attackers.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

<p>Toxic Orb is the item of choice, as only after 4 turns will Toxic damage out damage the burn damage. Entry hazard support is also appreciated to secure specific 2HKOs, such as Stealth Rock to ensure a 2HKO on Slowbro. Because of how well Steel- and Rock-type Pokemon counter Swellow, teammates to that can counter them—such as bulky Water-types, Ground-, and Fighting-types Pokemon—are appreciated. Hitmontop makes a great teammate, being able to Rapid Spin away the Stealth Rocks that plagues Swellow, while also being able to easily remove Steel- and Rock-type Pokemon. A bulky Water-type such as Suicune is also easily capable of taking any hits from Pokemon such as Rhyperior and easily hurt back with STAB Water attacks can deal with attacks from Rhyperior and take it down with STAB Water Attacks. They can also help check foes such as Cobalion and Escavalier. In a last ditch effort to remove Rhyperior and other Rock-types, Toxic can be used over U-turn to badly poison and slowly weaken them, drastically cutting away at their ability to check Swellow in the long term.</p>

[Other Options]

<p>With a small limited movepool, there is not much else Swellow can do. Moves such as Roost, Substitute, Rain Dance, and Sunny Day can be used on Swellow, but are all put to much better use on bulkier Pokemon such as Zapdos. Tailwind is a usable field effect, although Swellow is fast enough as it is. A Choice Band or Choice Scarf set is somewhat viable using Scappy, however without Guts, Brave Bird would be the primary STAB attack, losing the purpose of Scrappy. Work Up is usable on Swellow, taking used against a predicted switch to give Swellow a +1 Guts Boosted STAB Facade, which will murder everything that does not resist it, but Swellow will hardly ever find time to set up a Work Up. Furthermore, a +1 boost will be meaningless if the opponent switches to one of Swellow's very solid counters.</p>

[Checks and Counters]

<p>Although Swellow hits incredibly hard, it has no real way to get past Steel- and Rock-type Pokemon. Rhyperior and Aggron get special mentions as the biggest Swellow counters in the game, taking pitiful damage from everything Swellow can throw dish out, and can either OHKO it back with STAB Stone Edge for the Former or STAB Head Smash for the ladder, or use Swellow to set up a effortlessly OHKO Swellow with their STAB Rock-type attacks, or leisurely set up using Substitute, Rock Polish, or Swords Dance. Other than Outside Rhyperior and Aggron, Rotom is immune to Facade, resists Brave Bird, and can handle any and all of Swellow's attacks when using a bulky EV spread. Its STAB Electric-type attacks will easily bring Swellow down. Furthermore, a Jolteon and Aerodactyl, while not bulky lacking bulk, can easily outspeed and OHKO Swellow with their STAB Electric and Rock attacks respectively, and have resistances to Swellow's STAB moves (though Jolteon cannot take a Facade).</p>

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