Banette

[Otter Power]

~

Banette!
Stats:
64/115/65/83/63/65
Mega:
64/165/75/93/83/75

Abilities: Insomnia/frisk/cursed body
Mega Ability: Prankster

Notable moves - Offence ([E] for egg moves)
Knock off
Night shade
Shadow sneak
Sucker punch
Shadow Claw
Payback
Infestation
Gunk Shot [E]
Phantom Force [E]
Pursuit [E]

Notable moves - Status
Curse
Spite
Will-o-wisp
Snatch
Grudge
Trick
Taunt
Torment
Thunder Wave
Substitute
Trick room
Destiny Bond [E]
Disable [E]

Banette is one of a select number of Pokemon to get a *dun dun duuuun* Mega Evolution! The other day, I faced a Mega Banette in a multi battle, and it was not pretty. Her huge array of status moves synergises well with her prankster ability; With will-o-wisp, she can decimate physical attackers before they can make a move; and thunder wave is equally frustrating -- combined with phantom force, you'll have little chance to land a hit on Banette. Prankster destiny bond and/or curse are wonderful "last resort" moves on Banette. Low on health? Leave them with a curse or death!

Banette doesn't have too much type coverage when it comes to offence, which is a shame because her attack stat is through the roof. Phantom force is a really, Really annoying move in double battles, letting you avoid enemy moves and play some mind games. Not only that, but it breaks through Protect, which everyone in doubles seems to have. Other interesting moves in her set include Knock off, which can apparently knock away mega-stones, and infestation, which lets you trap your opponents into their deaths!

Movesets:
I would add something here, but I am terrible at making move sets. If you guys have any move sets for Banette, I'll add them here to make a nice, fancy list. Be sure to add an explanation as to how to use your move sets!

Baldafor's set by Baldafor

Banette @ Banettite
Trait: Frisk / Prankster (Mega-evolved)
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD (more or less, adjust for bonus points)
Brave Nature
- Shadow Sneak/Sucker Punch
- Destiny Bond
- Will-o-wisp/Thunder Wave/Disable/Trick Room
- Protect/Substitute

This is the set I plan to use as soon as I get done breeding one. Shadow Sneak or Sucker Punch are to take full advantage of that base 165 attack. Any set without an attack would probably be better off used by Sableye since it doesn't have to wait until the second turn to use Prankster like Banette (priorities are chosen at the start of a turn, before the mega evolution).

For taking full advantage of Prankster, I think two Prankster moves should be chosen, the ones in bold are unique to Banette. Destiny Bond gives a very high chance of taking down at least one pokemon with you, so that should be on most sets.

Discussion:
What do you guys think of doubles Banette? She definitely has potential with prankster and status moves, not to mention her insanely high attack stat. Since I suck at move set making, I want to see what you guys can come up with!

 

[Baldafor]

Banette @ Banettite
Trait: Frisk / Prankster (Mega-evolved)
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD (more or less, adjust for bonus points)
Brave Nature
- Shadow Sneak/Sucker Punch
- Destiny Bond
- Will-o-wisp/Thunder Wave/Disable/Trick Room
- Protect/Substitute

This is the set I plan to use as soon as I get done breeding one. Shadow Sneak or Sucker Punch are to take full advantage of that base 165 attack. Any set without an attack would probably be better off used by Sableye since it doesn't have to wait until the second turn to use Prankster like Banette (priorities are chosen at the start of a turn, before the mega evolution).

For taking full advantage of Prankster, I think two Prankster moves should be chosen, the ones in bold are unique to Banette. Destiny Bond gives a very high chance of taking down at least one pokemon with you, so that should be on most sets.

Other Prankster moves:
Will-o-wisp disables bulky physical attackers that Banette can't kill
Thunder Wave disables faster opponents that can't be beat with Destiny Bond or Sucker Punch
Disable in combination with Frisk allows you to force a switch on a Choice-locked pokemon or force an opponent to use an inferior coverage move, which can be highly advantageous
Trick Room, while only -6 priority, cannot be phazed by Roar or Whirlwind and ties priority with Dragon Tail and Storm Throw, plus allows Banette to set up and sweep with a Trick room partner

Protect vs. Substitute is probably an easy choice, but in case you decide to attack or set up on the first turn you are out, you have the potential to set up priority subs, which force double target attacking by your opponent and can lead to free turns if predicted correctly.

I personally believe this is the best set, but it is lacking in attack coverage and power with only Shadow Sneak or Sucker Punch. One Prankster move can be subbed out for Phantom Force, which would hit through Protect and be an excellent attack with Trick Room or Thunder Wave set up to make it fast or to allow Will-o-wisp damage to secure a KO since it stalls a turn, but then I feel that Prankster isn't being fully taken advantage of. Is there a solution to this 4MSS problem?

 

[sarysa]

I've been on the other side of Mega Banette a few times on PSS...priority Destiny Bond seems to be really nice to have...but no one ever uses it, and it's fragile enough to be OHKO'd by any number of non-STAB moves.

It looks great for singles as a sweeper eliminator, but it will take a lot of practice and experience for someone to know what's going to OHKO it.

Also, what are people trying to accomplish when they put Substitute on a fragile mon in doubles? With so much flying around, multi-target moves in particular, I'm happy most of the time people put up a substitute. I see it as "yay, less crap flying in my direction!" and "25% hp closer to victory!"

 

[youngjake93]

I've been on the other side of Mega Banette a few times on PSS...priority Destiny Bond seems to be really nice to have...but no one ever uses it, and it's fragile enough to be OHKO'd by any number of non-STAB moves.

It looks great for singles as a sweeper eliminator, but it will take a lot of practice and experience for someone to know what's going to OHKO it.

Also, what are people trying to accomplish when they put Substitute on a fragile mon in doubles? With so much flying around, multi-target moves in particular, I'm happy most of the time people put up a substitute. I see it as "yay, less crap flying in my direction!" and "25% hp closer to victory!"

Substitute is a definite threat in Doubles. The big trick to it is support and/or offensive pressure from your partner. Banette has two immunities to play with and priority Destiny Bond to deter people from attacking it. This gen even gave access to mat block which is essentially a guaranteed sub. Hitmontop was good for helping you set up a sub last gen due to forcing switches with Intimidate, Fake Out neutralizing something that thinks it can ohko you, being a threat in its own right to make people want to attack it and even Wide Guard helped against those multi-target moves.

Tl;dr: in doubles you can easily build around sub to make it amazing even though slapping it on random pokemon looks like a bad idea

 

[sarysa]

Hitmontop was good for helping you set up a sub last gen due to forcing switches with Intimidate, Fake Out neutralizing something that thinks it can ohko you, being a threat in its own right to make people want to attack it and even Wide Guard helped against those multi-target moves.

Tl;dr: in doubles you can easily build around sub to make it amazing even though slapping it on random pokemon looks like a bad idea

Fair enough. I tend to have only Specials out when Hitmontop shows up (usage has declined greatly in the last couple weeks on PSS) so I guess it's serendipitous. That said, NPC/Battle Maison usage of Substitute is atrocious, but human players seem to misuse it a bit as well. I've just never seen it work well in doubles in a couple hundred PSS/GenV battles.

I'm actually kind of curious what a good substitute in Gen VI doubles looks like. Got a link? :D

 

[youngjake93]

Fair enough. I tend to have only Specials out when Hitmontop shows up (usage has declined greatly in the last couple weeks on PSS) so I guess it's serendipitous. That said, NPC/Battle Maison usage of Substitute is atrocious, but human players seem to misuse it a bit as well. I've just never seen it work well in doubles in a couple hundred PSS/GenV battles.

I'm actually kind of curious what a good substitute in Gen VI doubles looks like. Got a link? :D

Kingdra and Heatran were the premier users in gen 5. I'll try them later in pokebank and edit this with a replay.

 

[Forsety]

You haven't known true terror in doubles till you see a Helping Hand'd Phantom Force from Banette charge up, it becomes a 50/50 guess game to which of your Pokemon are about to get nuked to kingdom come.

And I'm going to sound like a broken record at this point but the most important thing to keep in mind when building a Mega Banette is whether or not Sableye can do the job too. If Sableye can't do it, you have a good Banette, if Sableye can copy it than you have a redundant Banette. It's the main argument against WoW on Banette I use is that Sableye is more reliable and all round.

I'm actually kind of curious what a good substitute in Gen VI doubles looks like. Got a link? :D

Thundurus-I and Bisharp come to mind as good users, former because of Prankster and being a huge threat in general and the latter because of Defiant and Amoonguss or Toge being great for re-directing attacks (short of EQ or Heat Wave) from it.

 

[Kattixan]

Banette @ Banettite
Trait: Frisk / Prankster (Mega-evolved)
EVs: 148 HP / 186 Atk / 174 Def
Adament Nature
- Shadow Sneak/Shadow Claw/Phantom force.
- Destiny Bond
- Will-o-wisp/Thunder Wave
- Protect

Banette has always found a spot on my team. and for a good reason! No one uses taunt anymore. No one uses banette. And they dont know what to do about it!

its massive attack stat, and prankster was the boost banette needed badly.

I Like to use it as a suicide lead to dish out some damage and Destiny bonding something i cant handle. Since most teams are Psychical attackers, Will o wisp and 174 Defense EVs lets it take some pretty powerful hits (Such as 252 attack Tyranitar burned).

Thunder wave is an equal substitute if you need to gain momentum. I personally think banette is a great pokemon with hidden potential.

Protect Should be chosen over Sub most of the time In my opinion. You usually don't want Banette to stick around the whole game. It won't survive many hits anyways.

 

[BlankZero]

Protect Should be chosen over Sub most of the time In my opinion. You usually don't want Banette to stick around the whole game. It won't survive many hits anyways.

why wouldn't you want your Banette around all game? I would think you'd want as many mons around as long as possible, especially if you're devoting your Mega slot for it?

 

[Pocket]

I would probably only use Mega Bannette to Skill Swap its Prankster to something else. Prankster Amoonguss with priority on Spore and After You is ridiculous. Otherwise it seems like a waste of a Mega slot, especially when there is Thundurus available for your Prankster needs or a Mega Gengar if you need a Ghost-type that can pull off a fast Disable / Will-O-Wisp / Taunt.