Tier Shift Catfish

I am here to present the awesomeness of the catfish in Tier Shift. Lately, I have been floating right below 1950 with this team and I think it might be improvable with advice. I've gotten used to playing it this way though, so I'll leave the changes up to raters.


Whiscash @ Life Orb
Trait: Hydration
EVs: 244 Spd / 252 Atk / 12 HP
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Waterfall
- Rest

Whiscash is what the team was built around and is undeniably the start of the team. A lot of people don't realize how effective Whiscash can be. It tanks neutral hits very easily to acquire lots of Dragon Dances. 244 Speed is because the last 8 speed only allows it to speed tie its own speed tier, which isn't important imo. Whiscash pairs extremely well with Moltres who 4x resists grass and lures electric and rocks attacks. The status immunity, bulky, nice typing and recovery allow me to play with it early game to wear down the opponent before its sweep.


Politoed @ Zoom Lens
Trait: Drizzle
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spd
- Encore
- Hypnosis
- Perish Song
- Hydro Pump

This set is my fun invention. Hypnosis gets 72% accuracy and Hydro Pump gets 96% accuracy. The most important element of this set is Hypnosis+Perish Song tends to phaze out mons to reset the sleep counter. This allows you to spam Hydro Pump, Perish Song a switch in or predict a Politoed counter for the double switch. It also allows you to switch in Whiscash while their mon is sleeping or before a predicted switch due to Perish Song to nab a DD. Plus, the forced switches rack up hazard damage. The lack of speed and longevity on Politoed bothers me sometimes, but hey I need a rain inducer to abuse it.


Forretress @ Custap Berry
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 4 Def / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Explosion

Forretress's set is what turned this team to Hyper Offense. SR+Spikes/Explosion leading is fun to start the momentum rolling. My team really takes advantage of hazards, however two of my Pokemon are heavily weak to SR, so sometimes Forretress has a lot on its plate. It is also quite obnoxious when SR breaks my Sturdy since I didn't lead with Forretress and the set becomes pointless.


Kyurem-Black @ Choice Band
Trait: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Fusion Bolt
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Tail

Kyurem-Black bashes all kinds of things. It serves as my water resist and a spare grass+electric resist. Basically it functions like this: press outrage, something dies. I'm pretty sure even Scizor takes like 70% from Outrage while resisting it with a decent defense stat. Dragon Claw if you aim to switch out, Dragon Tail for predicted checks switching in.


Moltres @ Choice Specs
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Hurricane
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Overheat

Moltres sweeps the times that Whiscash doesn't. Either Fire Blast or Hurricane, depending on the weather, spammed will provide results. I chose bulky because of Moltres's great natural bulk and because the bulk makes the difference more often than speed would have. For example, Moltres can tank Wild Charge from Stoutland. Overheat is for early-game so that you don't have to worry about mispredicting, just press the 140 BP STAB. It also has better accuracy than Fire Blast for crucial KOs that you just need to make sure they happen. HP Fighting makes Tyranitar cry. It occasionally sees other use on things like Heatran or Empoleon, but it is mainly for Tyranitar.


Sableye @ Lagging Tail
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Def
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Trick
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp

Mr. Safety Net is here. Basically, I put a bunch of ways to protect myself from being swept in one Pokemon that can also spinblock. Taunt+WoW prevents losing to stall, Trick+Lagging Tail prevents me from dying to anything that boosted up on Forretress as well as other speedy threats that are looking to do a lot of damage.


Major Threats:
LO/Expert Belt Galvantula: I basically have to Lagging Tail it or tank a hit with Kyurem-Black. I can play around the Specs version, but it has too great of coverage when it can switch moves.



Replays:
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/tiershift-39485849
Here Politoed's Hypnosis shines early. Whiscash makes a difference early-game and survives to have a little bit of impact late-game. Forretress, Kyurem-Black and Moltres do their job exactly how they are supposed to. There were some misplays on both sides, but we both had decent rankings and it showed off the team pretty well imo.

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/tiershift-39488446
Here is a replay of catfish in his ultimate form against a good opponent. The match was played straight Heavy Offense. Set up hazards, sleep opponent, set up and sweep. Had it not been for Tentacruel's zero turns of sleep, the match would have went even smoother.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top