Alternative Items

sce4

Usually on smogon, if there isn't a more useful alternative, the item recommended on most pokemon is leftovers. In fact I'd wager that every team in the current metagame has at least one poke with leftovers. But what if you don't care about leftovers? For example if you have a reliable recovery option and don't want to waste an item. Or if you are trying to bluff a choice item and don't want to have the recovery ruin that scheme.

The two obvious ones are Lum Berry or, for offensive pokemon, life orb, if they're not bluffing a choice item, or expert belt if they are. Not to mention berries such as Petaya, Salac, Leichi, Yache, Wacan, Babiri and Occa berries (to name a few). But I tried using Bright Powder on a Defensive Zapdos with U-Turn to some relatively effective results. Given that the move most likely to be used against Zapdos (in my experience) is Stone Edge, with Bright Powder that off putting accuracy is made even wore and can be extremely beneficial. Not to mention Ice Beam missing is quite enjoyable. It doesn't make a pokemon rely on chance but it does give it an easier time in doing its job.

Obviously this isn't the only unusual item and I'd like to know what other unusual items others have been used to success and how viable non-conventional items are.
 
Custap Berry!

Very situational, but also extremely fun if you've got a slowish Pokemon that loves getting that one extra hit off. Also great for overly specific strategies, when you need to be sure you will get to use a move and can't rely on Focus Sash for whatever reason. Sadly, afaik, it's not implemented on Shoddy1, so you have to look elsewhere if you want to use it competitively.
 
I've always wanted to try using power herb for an Arcanine lead set utilizing solarbeam. Unfortunately, Shoddy Battle doesn't allow for the use of power herb (does anyone know why this is?). I feel like power herb could be a somewhat useful item for some pokes to get a surprise KO using solarbeam, sky attack, or skull bash (100 BP move with a 1 stage increase in defense...yes please).

Another item I sometimes use is wide lens. I found it somewhat helpful on a Gallade set using hypnosis and stone edge. Other than this though, I usually stick to the common items.
 
The most common item replacement I do is with bulky sets on standard sweepers. A life orb is usually recommended for extra power, but some can't afford to take a turn to roost or are more easily revenge killed after a few turns of LO damage+Sandstorm and entry hazards, and since the extra damage is usually redundant if using a SD'er or entry hazards are in play, I usually run leftovers or Lum berry.
 
The set up turn on Skull Bash is the turn that defense is boosted. Not sure about this but if you use the Herb to go strait to the attack wouldn't you miss out on the boost? At that point the move would suck.

-Other items pokes might hold are the plates which are decent on Mono-Attackers.
 
The closest thing to unusual items in certain times is a agiligross with occa berry. This allows it to switch into heatran after one of ur pokemon died set up, and kill it off and hopefully the rest of their team
 
Sometimes if I want to help one of my Pokémon set up, usually in lower tier environments, I will use Trick with an item like Iron Ball because it makes it much easier on some occasions to set up on a Pokémon hindered by an item like Iron Ball, while if you Trick a Choice item, your opponent will almost always switch out unless they are benefitted from the Choice item, which could be the downfall of your setup.
 
eric the espeon said:
Custap Berry!

Very situational, but also extremely fun if you've got a slowish Pokemon that loves getting that one extra hit off. Also great for overly specific strategies, when you need to be sure you will get to use a move and can't rely on Focus Sash for whatever reason. Sadly, afaik, it's not implemented on Shoddy1, so you have to look elsewhere if you want to use it competitively.
Click to expand...

Endure and Endeavor with the Custap Berry is really useful if your team is very Blissey-weak or Latias-weak, etc. After that, sending a Pokemon with a priority move finishes it off easily.
 
It's also worth considering Mail; arguably useful on Blissey, and quite possibly the best item to put on a Wobbuffet. Mail can't be Tricked, so if someone tries to Trick a Choice Item onto your Blissey or Wobbuffet, they'll get locked into Trick, forcing them to switch out and giving you a free turn. This is extra fun on Wobbuffet, as the opponent will be forced to uselessly Trick against you, and then Trick the Pokémon you switch to; switch to someone who's choiced anyway and you get a free turn with the opponent being forced out, or just switch to someone who could use the item. (Tricking a Wobbuffet is a common strategy to defeat it, so it'll be quite a bit better with the Trick immunity anyway.)

I've also tried running Sitrus Berry on Pokémon designed as single-use counters (i.e. that can stop a particular Pokémon once, but not repeatedly); it gives more healing than Leftovers if you don't expect to be in for many turns, and can sometimes stop a 2HKO where Leftovers wouldn't.
 
last I checked tricking a wobbufett isnt too great because he just encores trick and switxhes to another scarf'ed (or spec'd or whatever'd) pokemon. However, I do use stritus berry occasionally, usually on a slow bulky pokemon with recovery.
 
Hmm, some really good ideas here.

Another one I forgot to mention was SD Scizor with Metronome. As you'll likely be spamming BP it will keep increasing in power, not to mention it becomes easy to bluff a choice item if you use U-Turn over Roost. I'm sure someone has probably thought of this before though.

Also I'd like to suggest a Superluck Absol @ Scope Lens with Night Slash, Stone Edge, SD and Focus Energy (It's a shame it doesn't get Cross Chop for excellent coverage instead of SD). This one is really just for a laugh and I've never actually used it and it's probably rubbish.
 
It's been said several times that Metronome gives less of a boost than a type-boosting item until you use the move like 5 turns in a row. Unless there is a Pokemon where you reckon you'll spam move A, or move B, without ever wanting to change moves or switch out after you start spamming, Metronome is inferior.

In the case of Scizor, Iron Plate (or its other equivalent) isn't too bad - Bullet Punch only suffers a small power drop compared to Life Orb (not sure what nHKOes you lose out on), and there's no recoil. Scizor's other moves don't get boosted though.
 
Pokemon with reliable recovery moves typically want even more recovery.

With the few exceptions using shed shell or the similar.
 
The most common items are Leftovers, Life Orb, or some kind of Choice items. I think Type-Resist berries can be a great surprise, usually they're seen on leads like Occa Metagross or Shuca Heatran but they can be ran on sweepers to good success, especially in the case of bluffing a Choice item. Berries like Liechi and such are rare but a good example of those working would be with SubPetaya Empoleon.

Awhile ago in the Ubers metagame there was a fad or gimmick, whatever you want to call it, of Chople Berry Darkrai which had been ran and tested to a good amount of success. Another item bluffing sweeper I remember is Metal Coat/Iron Plate Scizor(which I think was in a popular RMT at some point) gives Scizor's Bullet Punch the power to bluff the Choice Band while allowing it to set up a Swords Dance on your opponent expecting you to be locked into a Steel attack.

Type-Resist berries and things like Metal Coat can work but standard sets are standard for a reason. While sometimes it will be better for your team to run a set like this but trying to stick something like Air Mail(or whatever it's called) on Blissey for each team that has Blissey on it will probably hurt more than help.
 
I think we should destiny knot.
How about:

Female Banette @ Destiny knot
252 HP/252 Def/ Impish
-Trick
-Attract
-Protect
-Toxic/Confuse Ray

The first turn you trick your destiny knot onto the opponent, and they will most likely not switch out as this is not a threatening item for them to hold. Next turn use attract, and you will both be attracted to each other. Toxic spikes support is preferable so you can start attempting to use protect to stall out banette's victim, or poison it on your own.

Well, that's my sarcasm for the day.
 
TheFourthChaser beat me to type resist berries, but some of that is pretty interesting, like the Chople Berry Darkrai. Mail is also not implemented on Shoddy, sadly. There are a lot of options that are gimmicky at best, but not really bad, like a Kings Rock on something fast that doesn't get much help from leftovers. White Herb could be devastating with Draco Meteor, of course that means no specs or life orb to boost damage output. I believe only Jirachi has access to both Draco Meteor and recycle and with no STAB, only 4 moveslots and only 100 special attack (that won't be boosted) it isn't scary.
 
Focus Band Can prove to be quite a surprise sometimes, Imagine you survive a certain ko with focus band and your oponent keeps attacking and you keep surviving it can help you turn the tide of the battle and make your opponent extremely annoyed.
Then again chances of focus band activating are little to none
 
Zoom Lens might be good on Exeggutor trying to use Sleep Powder. The accuracy would be boosted to 90%. It would have to be a speed hindering nature to hit last as much as possible, and Exeggutor's defenses are pretty solid so he should stick around. The lens would also ensure Leech Seed and Leaf Storm always hit.

To a lesser extent Bronzong could try it with Hypnosis although it only boosts to 72%.
 
Mail can negate Trick so its a worthwhile item on Softboiled Blissey (Wish Bliss REALLY likes Leftovers particularly in sand but also to stall out Protect better). Mail lets Blissey fuck up all forms of Latias besides the Refresh variants.

Chesto Rest is fairly effectie on some tanks like TTar who don't really want to waste a moveslot with Sleep Talk but also like to hang around a while.
 
I have used Careful 252/252 Wacan Bibarel with Wish support. First Thunderbolt from LOGar does 36.7% - 43.4% (Wacan is activated), and after an Amnesia it does a mere 18.8% - 22.1%, giving you a free Curse as Gengar switches out as well. It can handle things like CB Scizor Bullet Punch (33.4% - 39.5%), ScarfTran Fire Blast (26.5% - 31.5%), Rotom-A and Zapdos too, so it's a pretty cool Pokemon. Wish support is totally essential though.
 
I'm planning on running a Zoom Lens Gardevoir for a UU Doubles team. It'll have Charge Beam and be paired with a Volt Absorb Lanturn.

Although I'm pretty sure Charge Beam has 100% accuracy against a Volt Absorber, and I'm pretty sure you don't get the SpA boosts in that case either.

Still, the Charge Beam is there for other reasons...
 
sce4 said:
Also I'd like to suggest a Superluck Absol @ Scope Lens with Night Slash, Stone Edge, SD and Focus Energy (It's a shame it doesn't get Cross Chop for excellent coverage instead of SD). This one is really just for a laugh and I've never actually used it and it's probably rubbish.
Click to expand...
I actually used this before. I passed it a agility, and it crited every single one of my opponents pokemon. I didn't have focus energy on it though.
 
Proboscidea said:
Endure and Endeavor with the Custap Berry is really useful if your team is very Blissey-weak or Latias-weak, etc. After that, sending a Pokemon with a priority move finishes it off easily.
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im so happy someone mentioned my favorite item lol!! now that thats out of the way, custap berry can be REALLY deadly if you have a good imagination. its perfect for bulky pokemon that wants to get in a quick explosion to either ko or heavily damage your oponent. but my personal favorite is in ubers with wabbufet. after KOing your oponents pokemon with counter/coat, wabuffet is usally in the range for custap berry to activate. then when they send in their poke to finish wabbufet off, "... custap berry activated!... wabuffet used DESTINY BOND..." must i say anymore.
 
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