Pokémon Bisharp

[CaptainDaimyo]

Base Stats: 65 HP / 125 Attack / 100 Defense / 60 Special Attack / 70 Special Defense / 70 Speed
Abilities: Defiant | Inner Focus | Pressure (H)
Notable Moves (STAB moves are Bold):
- Foul Play
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Stone Edge

Movepool

Learned Moves:
Scratch @ Lv. 1
Leer @ Lv. 1
Fury Cutter @ Lv. 1
Metal Claw @ Lv. 1
Metal Burst @ Lv. 1
Torment @ Lv. 15
Scary Face @ Lv. 20
Assurance @ Lv. 25
Metal Sound @ Lv. 30
Slash @ Lv. 35
Night Slash @ Lv. 40
Iron Defense @ Lv. 45
Retaliate @ Lv. 50
Iron Head @ Lv. 57
Swords Dance @ Lv. 64
Guillotine @ Lv. 71

TM Moves:
Swords Dance, Take Down, Hyper Beam, Low Kick, Thunder Wave, Dig, Rest, Substitute, Thief, Reversal, Protect, Scary Face, Sandstorm, Endure, False Swipe, Sleep Talk, Metal Claw, Rain Dance, Facade, Taunt, Brick Break, Rock Tomb, Aerial Ace, Iron Defense, Fling, Poison Jab, Dark Pulse, Air Slash, X-Scissor, Focus Blast, Giga Impact, Shadow Claw, Flash Cannon, Iron Head, Stone Edge, Stealth Rock, Grass Knot, Low Sweep, Foul Play, Snarl, Steel Beam, Tera Blast

Pros:
- Bisharp, with already decent physical bulk and mediocre special bulk, gets a big boost in terms of bulk thanks to its newfound powerful utilization of Eviolite.
- With an Attack stat of 125, Bisharp makes for a very decent wallbreaker and revenge killer.
- Dark/Steel is a scary offensive typing, and combined with its movepool and attacking stats, make it not only a good wallbreaker and revenge killer, but it also gives Bisharp sweeping potential.
- Dark/Steel is also a very good defensive typing, being able to resist many types common in the current metagame, such as Dragon, and Ice, while also possessing an immunity to both Poison and Psychic types.
- Bisharp has a niche over its evolution Kingambit; it has a faster Speed stat, making it useful in some situations where its evolution is not.
- Bisharp’s access to Defiant makes it a good deterrent against Defog, although there are a few decent Defoggers left in this generation

Cons:
- Bisharp lacks decent longevity due to a lack of reliable recovery options, meaning it has to often rely on Wish support.
- Bisharp, with a limited amount of useful moves, is one-dimensional, meaning it is easily predictable based on the set it is running.
- Bisharp, with its 70 Speed stat, gives it a big struggle in a metagame with speedy Pokémon, although this is slightly alleviated by its priority Sucker Punch. However, Sucker Punch succeeding only if the opposing Pokémon would attack makes it exploitable.
- Although slower, Kingambit is better to use in most situations due to its Supreme Overlord ability, scarier wallbreaking potential due to a bigger movepool, and a better bulk than non-Eviolite Bisharp.

Terastal Potential:
- Bisharp would want to Terastalize into its Dark Terastal because it makes it’s already scary revenge killing potential much more dangerous.

- In order to alleviate its weaknesses, Bisharp can utilize Tera-Water to help against Fire- and Ground-types like Chi-Yu and Iron Treads, while Tera-Flying alleviates the 4x Fighting-type weakness, while also turning its weakness to Ground-types into an immunity.

Potential Set:
Swords Dance
Bisharp @ Black Glasses
Ability: Defiant
Tera Type: Dark / Water / Flying
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Tera Blast
- Iron Head


This Bisharp set utilizes its role as a bulky sweeper that takes advantage of its better Speed tier compated to its evolution. The Tera Type of Bisharp really depends on what a team needs, although most of the time, a Tera-Flying could be useful to provide teams some sort of switch in to Ground-types.

To summarize, Bisharp, despite now having an evolution, is still a potentially decent wallbreaker, given its scary Attack stat and Terastal potential. Coupled with Swords Dance, this gives Bisharp some potential as a sweeper.

How do you think Bisharp will perform in Gen 9 OU? Will it lose its place in OU due to the existence of Kingambit, or will it find its place in the tier once more thanks to Eviolite? Finally, how would Bisharp losing Knock Off, one of its staple moves in past generations, affect its viability? Finally, when is Bisharp worth using more over Kingambit? Feel free to discuss.

 

[escarlata]

Eviolite Bisharp honestly feels like a meme, it is at best 2% bulkier than Kingambit on both sides but effectively loses an item while doing it.

The biggest reason to be using Bisharp over its evolution is not Eviolite, but rather the ability to run Jolly 252 Spe on a typical Black Glasses set, which outruns Adamant Nite, Scizor and Slither Wing amongst others. It can also viably run a Scarf set, to allow it to out speed the likes or Chomp, Chiyu and most notably Gholdengo.

As for losing Knock Off, the next best thing is probably just Assurance because of how hard Rocks is to remove currently. Low Kick, Taunt and Thunder Wave feels to be the only other viable options in the last slot

 

[Winddragon48]

One thing I've noted is using this alongside its King works alot like Double Dragon (IE very well), sending this thing in let's you wear down and eventually dispatch their answers to your later and at that point overlord powered kinggambit making it much harder to them to stop it

To that end I run it similarly using its still damn high attack to threaten things, but replace one move with thunder wave

Bring bisharp in on things bisharps like to beat up, then either hit thunder wave or your strongest attack to chunk the expected switch in

By the time bisharp is down and its the kings turn its counters are dead or crippled allowing it to do its job unimpeded

 

[Magcargo]

Eviolite Bisharp honestly feels like a meme, it is at best 2% bulkier than Kingambit on both sides but effectively loses an item while doing it.

The biggest reason to be using Bisharp over its evolution is not Eviolite, but rather the ability to run Jolly 252 Spe on a typical Black Glasses set, which outruns Adamant Nite, Scizor and Slither Wing amongst others. It can also viably run a Scarf set, to allow it to out speed the likes or Chomp, Chiyu and most notably Gholdengo.

As for losing Knock Off, the next best thing is probably just Assurance because of how hard Rocks is to remove currently. Low Kick, Taunt and Thunder Wave feels to be the only other viable options in the last slot

Idk, is the 1.2x boost on Black Glasses really worth losing the 1.5x boost on both defenses? One of my biggest gripes with Sharp in gen 8 was that it was a steel-type that could not pivot into much due to its fragility and the extra bulk will let it set up Swords Dance more safely. You'll still be leveraging the speed advantage over Kingsgambit w/ Jolly 252 as well on an eviolite set.

That being said, I don't think Bisharp (or Weavile for that matter) are worth running in OU currently. Being outclassed by Kingsgambit and Chien-Pao certainly does them no favors, but both Pokemon lost their strongest Dark-type STAB moves, Knock Off and Throat Chop, so their general threat level as Dark-types is far weaker than in Gen 8.

 

[bogglywoods]

I'd say perhaps in a vacuum Kingambit outclasses Bisharp, but they both fill different roles in a team due to Bisharp being faster and all. Then again 70 speed still isn't ideal so maybe there is just no place for Bisharp in SV OU, I don't think I'm all too qualified to say.

 

[Jaetheho]

The best item for Bisharp to hold is Leader's Crest so it can evolve into kingambit

 

[escarlata]

Idk, is the 1.2x boost on Black Glasses really worth losing the 1.5x boost on both defenses? One of my biggest gripes with Sharp in gen 8 was that it was a steel-type that could not pivot into much due to its fragility and the extra bulk will let it set up Swords Dance more safely. You'll still be leveraging the speed advantage over Kingsgambit w/ Jolly 252 as well on an eviolite set.

That being said, I don't think Bisharp (or Weavile for that matter) are worth running in OU currently. Being outclassed by Kingsgambit and Chien-Pao certainly does them no favors, but both Pokemon lost their strongest Dark-type STAB moves, Knock Off and Throat Chop, so their general threat level as Dark-types is far weaker than in Gen 8.

While the Black Glasses boost may seem insignificant, it is often important if it helps you secure a kill you otherwise would miss like Dragapult (and more importantly Bundle who was running rampant at the time I wrote my original comment).

Tbh, I wasn’t really try to imply that Black Glasses is the best item on Bisharp, especially after losing Knock Off. Black Glasses, LO, Eviolite, Choice Scarf can all be valid options if they allow you to reach damage (taking) thresholds or speed tier that the others don’t. I was mainly just prompting the experimentation of other items instead of immediately looking at Eviolite just because it got an evolution. I used Black Glasses as an example because I’m just a big fan of the 20% boosting items as a whole.

 

[STEELDRAGON]

I have been using Choice Scarf Bisharp with Fairy Tera typing and it catches a lot of pokemon off guard. The flinch rate of Iron Head is nice to but it is mostly outclassed by Chien-Pao. I don't see much of a future for Bisharp in OU due to Kinggambit though

 

[zferolie]

I was wondering about bisharp and made a questiom in the simple questions page, but missed completely there was already a thread here on it. Thats my bad, i should have looked but on mobile at work.

I do like the idea of evolite bisharp a lot, especially if you can give it some sort of healing support. The lack of movepool does hurt a bit but steel/fighting/dark is a solid set up. Get 1 swordsance plus a defiant boost should be enough to sweep most things thanks to your extra bulk.

Probably not OU teir but this guy may dominate UU or BL

 

[furyofyuriy]

As much as a meme the eviolite set is, I have to admit that I have been finding a bulky variant with Metal Burst and Sucker punch promising as a gimmick. Outside of fighting moves, this thing can take some powerful hits and dish it right back. At 252 HP with no other defensive investment, scarf garchomp as an example 2hko's it after rocks with earthquake.
Typical strategies that used metal burst or counter/mirror coat rely on a focus sash, but with eviolite it free's a sash for a teammate if you want it, offers stab priority sucker punch to pick off weakened opponents. I don't think this is it's best set, but it is a set that should not be underestimated.

 

[STEELDRAGON]

As much as a meme the eviolite set is, I have to admit that I have been finding a bulky variant with Metal Burst and Sucker punch promising as a gimmick. Outside of fighting moves, this thing can take some powerful hits and dish it right back. At 252 HP with no other defensive investment, scarf garchomp as an example 2hko's it after rocks with earthquake.
Typical strategies that used metal burst or counter/mirror coat rely on a focus sash, but with eviolite it free's a sash for a teammate if you want it, offers stab priority sucker punch to pick off weakened opponents. I don't think this is it's best set, but it is a set that should not be underestimated.

You could argue Kingambit is a better user of Metal Burst due to its much higher HP and lower speed. The only thing bisharp has over Kinggambit is being a little bit faster.