Pokémon Gallade

[Novax]

Gallade
Type:

Ability: Steadfast / Sharpness / Justified(HA)
Base Stats: 68 / 125 / 65 / 65 / 115 / 80 (Total - 518)

New Ability : Sharpness - The pokemon's slicing attacks have 1.5x power.

Notable Moves

.Leaf Blade
.Psycho Cut
.Sacred Sword
.Swords Dance
.Knock off

Complete Movepool

• Agility
  
  
• Air Slash
  
  
• Aura Sphere
  
  
• Body Slam
  
  
• Brick Break
  
  
• Bulk Up
  
  
• Calm Mind
  
  
• Close Combat
  
  
  .
• Dazzling Gleam
  
  
  
  
• Destiny Bond
  
  
• Disable
  
  
• Drain Punch
  
  
• Earthquake
  
  
• Encore
  
  
• Energy Ball
  
  
• Facade
  
  
• Fire Punch
  
  
• Focus Blast
  
  
• Grass Knot
  
  
  .
• Hex
  
  
• Hyper Voice
  
  
• Ice Punch
  
  
• Knock Off
  
  
• Leaf Blade
  
  
• Light Screen
  
  
• Low Kick
  
  
• Memento
  
  
• Mystical Fire
  
  
• Night Shade
  
  
• Poison Jab
  
  
• Protect
  
  
• Psychic
  
  
• Psycho Cut
  
  
• Psyshock
  
  
• Reflect
  
  
• Rest
  
  
• Rock Slide
  
  
• Sacred Sword
  
  
• Shadow Ball
  
  
• Shadow Claw
  
  
  
  
• Shadow Sneak
  
  
• Sleep Talk
  
  
• Stone Edge
  
  
• Stored Power
  
  
• Substitute
  
  
• Swords Dance
  
  
• Taunt
  
  
• Teleport
  
  
• Tera Blast
  
  
• Thunderbolt
  
  
• Thunder Punch
  
  
• Thunder Wave
  
  
• Trick
  
  
• Trick Room
  
  
• Will-O-Wisp
  
  
• X-Scissor
  
  
• Zen Headbutt
  
  
• Aerial Ace
  
  
• Aqua Cutter
  
  
• Bulldoze
  
  
• Charge Beam
  
  
• Charm
  
  
• Confuse Ray
  
  
• Confusion
  
  
• Disarming Voice
  
  
• Double Team
  
  
• Draining Kiss
  
  
• Dream Eater
  
  
• Endure
  
  
• False Swipe
  
  
• Feint
  
  
• Fling
  
  
• Fury Cutter
  
  
• Future Sight
  
  
• Giga Impact
  
  
• Growl
  
  
• Heal Pulse
  
  
• Helping Hand
  
  
• Hyper Beam
  
  
• Hypnosis
  
  
• Icy Wind
  
  
• Imprison
  
  
• Leer
  
  
• Life Dew
  
  
• Low Sweep
  
  
• Magical Leaf
  
  
• Mean Look
  
  
• Metronome
  
  
• Misty Terrain
  
  
• Night Slash
  
  
• Psybeam
  
  
• Psychic Terrain
  
  
• Quick Guard
  
  
• Rain Dance
  
  
• Reversal
  
  
• Rock Tomb
  
  
• Skill Swap
  
  
• Slash
  
  
• Sunny Day
  
  
• Swift
  
  
• Take Down
  
  
• Thief
  
  
• Wide Guard
  
  

Terastallize Potential:
With a pretty strong base attack of 115 and access to moves like leaf blade and sacred sword which get boosted by sharpness , along with stat boosting moves like swords dance , make gallade a potential candidate for terastallize . Gallade appreciates the extra power to its moves like sacred sword and psycho cut which tera fighting and tera psychic provide respectively . Also it can try running something like tera rock with stab stone edge to hit flying types as well .
Pros :
.Base 125 attack stat is pretty strong , paired with sharpness which boosts the power of certain moves.
.Pretty good sp def of base 115 for a offensive mon.
. Access to stat boosting moves like swords dance and bulk up , along with coverage moves like leaf blade , knock off etc .

Cons:
.The base speed is not too good for a offensive pokemon.
.The physical builk and hp are not too high either , to cover up the lack of speed.

Potential Sets :
.Gallade @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sharpness
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Psychic / Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Psycho Cut
- Sacred Sword
- X-Scissor/Knock off

.Gallade @ Choice Band
Ability: Sharpness
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Psychic / Fighting/Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Psycho Cut
- Sacred Sword
- X-Scissor/Knock off/Stone edge

Both the above sets are pretty similar with the only difference being the held item . Choice scarf can be used to somewhat negate the effect of its low speed stat , and choice band can be used to hit harder. Leaf blade can hit stuffs like palafin for supereffective damage . Psycho cut and sacred sword for STAB and the last slot can be something like knock off for coverage.

.Gallade @ Life orb
Ability: Sharpness
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Psychic / Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade / Shadow Sneak
- Psycho Cut
- Sacred Sword
- Swords Dance

This set runs swords dance as a boosting move . Psycho cut and sacred sword provide for important STAB . Shadow sneak can be used for priority over leaf blade , though leaf blade gets sharpness boost . Shadow sneak can help to deal with the likes of gholdengo. Finally life orb to boost the damage output.

Overall:
Gallade is a potent wallbreaker for this gen . Sharpness further boosts its wallbreaking capabilities . The only obstacle in gallade's path is its low speed stat . Gallade also faces tough competition from physical mons like Roaring Moon which has a much base speed and attack stat , and a equally strong ability in protosynthesis. It will be interesting to see if gallade is able to make its mark in this gen , inspite of the presence of mons like palafin , great tusk , roaring moon , etc.

 

[pika pal]

Real talk, I don't see Gallade making OU because of his iffy speed and the Power Creep for offensive competition he gained in OU both from new faces and old ones being unshackled by the shift.

That said, in terms of buff increases he made out like an absolute bandit with Sharpness buffing most of his movepool, plus being one of the lucky Mons allowed to keep Knock Off, allowing him to hit pretty decently hard or disrupt switch-ins he can't hurt much. Agility doesn't hurt as he could take advantage of his higher natural power to pull off a lategame cleaner set that patches up his speed, and his wide coverage means he has a few options to play with Terastalizing.

Again, doubt he's OU, but very strongly improved for eventual RU or UU compared to where he'd been sitting up until now.

 

[Prometheus II]

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert, but I think he might be able to pull off some surprisingly powerful shit. Sharpness Sacred Sword ignores defense boosts and is stronger than CC with no drawback, off a respectable base 125 Atk - that's pretty good as neutral coverage. Plus, Psychic and Fighting dual STAB are remarkably good at dealing with some of the nastier mons this gen - Fighting covers Baxcalibur, Roaring Moon, Iron Bundle, Iron Treads, Chien-Pao, and Chi-You, while Psychic covers Great Tusk, Iron Hands, Iron Valiant, and Clodsire. The latter are pretty bulky, but a Tera-Psychic Gallade with a base 105 Tera-boosted STAB move can cut right through them. Fortunately for everyone but especially Gallade, Flutter Moon's already been banned, so we don't have to worry about that. Coverage-wise, Gallade can run Leaf Blade for Palafin, and Knock Off/Night Slash for Gholdengo or anything that tries to go Tera-Ghost to dodge Sacred Sword or other threats like ESpeed Dragonite, Maushold, or Iron Hands. (Or just running Knock Off for general utility.) Shadow Sneak is an option for priority if you really want.

On the downside...there's the speed. Choice Scarf can only do so much with base 85 in a meta where Garchomp feels slow, and Gallade lacks the bulk to set up an Agility. It's still too fast for Trick Room, though, so you can't pull that old gambit. You're going to need two of Tailwind, Sticky Webs, or a Choice Scarf just to survive. You might be able to get somewhere with a Shed Tail Cyclizar into Agility, or just dual screens, but that's going to be sketchy and unreliable with the abundance of powerful hitters this gen. Still worth experimenting with on the ladder, I'd say.

 

[Sonikgav]

Could Sharpness Gallade work more in Doubles alongside a fast Tailwind user like say, Talonflame?

 

[Gladio]

I honestly think Agility + 3 attacks or Double Dance Gallade will be the gold standard for him once a lower tier is created.
The former pretty much follows the footsteps of Metagross and Lucario of old but trades a worse defensive type and bulk for much higher power than both of them, on top of having a much more colorful coverage spectrum; the latter has to choose its coverage but is overall more versatile , like a mini MegaChar-X. Tera will definitely help making the chosen coverage move stand out, assuming the gimmick passes the test of time.

Agility solves one of Gallade's biggest weaknesses in that it's hard to sweep with due to its low speed, Sharpness makes it so you are basically a Medicham with more bulk and better coverage (Jolly SS hits 6-8% less hard than Medicham's CC, while Psycho Cut outdamages Medicham's Zen Headbutt by more than 2% factoring perfect accuracy and the crit ratio), which means that you can use Muscle Band or some other item as opposed to LO for added survivability and/or ease of setup (although LO could still be ideal because why hit hard when you can hit harder). +2 speed Adamant also outspeeds any scarfer shy of 516 speed and there are not very many of those.

Looking forward to see what the little green-and-white man can do. Definitely one of the biggest winners of Gen 9.

 

[Magcargo]

I honestly think Agility + 3 attacks or Double Dance Gallade will be the gold standard for him once a lower tier is created.
The former pretty much follows the footsteps of Metagross and Lucario of old but trades a worse defensive type and bulk for much higher power than both of them, on top of having a much more colorful coverage spectrum; the latter has to choose its coverage but is overall more versatile , like a mini MegaChar-X. Tera will definitely help making the chosen coverage move stand out, assuming the gimmick passes the test of time.

Agility solves one of Gallade's biggest weaknesses in that it's hard to sweep with due to its low speed, Sharpness makes it so you are basically a Medicham with more bulk and better coverage (Jolly SS hits 6-8% less hard than Medicham's CC, while Psycho Cut outdamages Medicham's Zen Headbutt by more than 2% factoring perfect accuracy and the crit ratio), which means that you can use Muscle Band or some other item as opposed to LO for added survivability and/or ease of setup (although LO could still be ideal because why hit hard when you can hit harder). +2 speed Adamant also outspeeds any scarfer shy of 516 speed and there are not very many of those.

Looking forward to see what the little green-and-white man can do. Definitely one of the biggest winners of Gen 9.

Double Dance will be hard because Gallade's defensive profile is a bit weak. 3 weaknesses and 2 resistances + bad physical bulk makes it hard to setup both. However, Thunder Wave + SD could be good.

Doubt it's viable, but I like running Scope Lens on this guy. Most of his moves like Night Slash and Psycho Cut will have 50% crit rate, which translates to around a 1.2 boost on average for most of his attacks. Unfortunately, his main move, Sacred Sword, doesn't have high crit rate, making this more of a niche option than something truly great.

But yeah, Sharpness was an extremely good buff to Gallade and puts his power more in line with other Fighting-types like Heracross and Urshifu. His main issue is his Speed and Defense, which are relatively poor in OU. However, I definitely think he can work as a stall breaker due to his position match-ups against Pex and Clodsire

 

[Gladio]

Double Dance will be hard because Gallade's defensive profile is a bit weak. 3 weaknesses and 2 resistances + bad physical bulk makes it hard to setup both. However, Thunder Wave + SD could be good.

Agreed, although my idea is more that Gallade can choose what setup move to use depending on the scenario (SD vs slower teams or to wallbreak, Agility vs faster teams and/or to lategame sweep), while of course only really setting up vs things that it forces out or are naturally passive (defensive mons that favor special offenses and such); setting up both is a pipe dream and if you can safely do that, it means you've most likely already won.

 

[Hiddenfreezer]

I run a Jolly Scarf Set with Destiny Bond Sacred Sword Psycho Cut and Leaf Blade with Grass Terra.

Honestly, it is better than I expected, you have surprisingly enough no weakness to Priority Moves and you can really feel the Sharpness boost.

Also you guys are bad if you dont run Destiny Bond on it - nah I am overreacting but hopefully I rile someone up to See how good it is

 

[STEELDRAGON]

Gallade is really mediocre. It is pretty vulnerable to priority moves and usually only gets one may be two attacks in if that. Sharpness is a really nice boost to it but it's still pretty underwhelming. Running Assault Vest is the way to go since it can beat many of the special attackers.

 

[Sonikgav]

Gallade is one of those options for a Doubles killer paired with Tailwind Murkrow. It has enough moveset coverage to have a reliable shot into alot of things with Leaf Blade, Sacred Sword & Psycho Cut. I've taken to putting Night Slash in the last spot for Goldengo since its so common.

 

[godjoseph]

When Home is there we will be able to transfer Gallade from PLA with focus energy. With focus energy, night slash, aqua cutter, leaf blade and psycho cut will always crit while also being boosted by sharpness so Gallade will be so strong under tailwind or with a follow me/rage powder pokemon

 

[furyofyuriy]

When Home is there we will be able to transfer Gallade from PLA with focus energy. With focus energy, night slash, aqua cutter, leaf blade and psycho cut will always crit while also being boosted by sharpness so Gallade will be so strong under tailwind or with a follow me/rage powder pokemon

We do not know how HOME is being implemented, but it is likely to be similar to how BDSP handled transfers due to the fact that there is no NPC that can convert your pokemon to a legal pokemon for competitive play, it is likely that all pokemons moves get reset on transfers to their highest level up moves. This is unconfirmed, but would make sense.

 

[STEELDRAGON]

I have been using a team with both Gallade and Iron Valliant and they compliment each other well. Gallade can take on many of the Pokémon that Iron Valliant has problems with like the poison types and hit them really hard with Psycho Cut. Gallade also has a lot of interesting moves like Destiny Bond which can potentially take out a key threat put only really works on a Choice Scarf set. Leaf Blade should be replaced with Knock off on most of the sets due to its utility and it hits Gholdengo and Skeledirge for good damage.

 

[Soiramio3000]

I want to talk here about the set that I am almost always using on gallade and analyze why I am using it:
Gallade @ Choice Band
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Steel/Grass/Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 196 Def / 60 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Sword
- Psycho Cut
- Leaf Blade
- Ice Punch

let's start with the elephant in the room: the 60 speed EVs and the 196 defence EVs.

gallade is a wall breaker, it only needs speed in order to outrun the walls that it is suppossed to destroy.

most defensive pokemon in the metagame either have 0 speed investment or have maxed out speed, and the ones with maxed out speed (like rotom electric) are fast enough to outrun gallade, so it is better not to waste more speed EVs than it needs.
the 60 speed EVs let it outrun a Great Tusk with 0 speed investment.

as for the 196 def, it kinda needs it because although it has decent special bulk its physical bulk is very dissapointing.
it also needs physical defence in order OHKO garchomp.

now let's move on the tera type:
although gallade's typying is decent offensively, defensively it is pretty bad.
it only has 2 resistances and 3 weaknesses. it is neutral to the rest 13 types. this combination is slightly less bad than mono-ice.

the steel and ghost type can let it deal with dragonite's extreem speed.
the grass type is meant more offensively rather than defensively so it can boost the leaf blade's power even further. but gaining a resistance to water and ground can still come in handy occationaly.

now let's move to the moveset:
sacred sword and psycho cut are its main STAB moves, they don't need an explanation.
unfortunately these stab moves have a downside each: there are pokemon immune to both of them. ghost types are immune to sacred sword and dark types are immune to psycho cut and since choice band locks you to one move you have to predict what your opponent will predict.

leaf blade is meant to deal with dondozo and rotom wash, it can also hit ting lu super effectively in case you are afraid that your opponent will predict your psycho cut.

the last moveslot is ice punch so you can deal with dragonite and garchomp.

there are people telling me to run knock off instead, and I have actually attempted it, but any time I am using it I meet a garchomp or dragonite and I am feeling sad that there is no icepunch there.

 

[MrHands]

I want to talk her about the set that I am almost always using on gallade and analyze why I am using it:
Gallade @ Choice Band
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Steel/Grass/Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 196 Def / 60 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Sword
- Psycho Cut
- Leaf Blade
- Ice Punch

let's start with the elephant in the room: the 60 speed EVs and the 196 defence EVs.

gallade is a wall breaker, it only needs speed in order to outrun the walls that it is suppossed to destroy.

most defensive pokemon in the metagame either have 0 speed investment or have maxed out speed, and the ones with maxed out speed (like rotom electric) are fast enough to outrun gallade, so it is better not to waste more speed EVs than it needs.
the 60 speed EVs let it outrun a Great Tusk with 0 speed investment.

as for the 196 def, it kinda needs it because although it has decent special bulk its physical bulk is very dissapointing.
it also needs physical defence in order OHKO garchomp.

now let's move on the tera type:
although gallade's typying is decent offensively, defensively it is pretty bad.
it only has 2 resistances and 3 weaknesses. it is neutral to the rest 13 types. this combination is slightly less bad than mono-ice.

the steel and ghost type can let it deal with dragonite's extreem speed.
the grass type is meant more offensively rather than defensively so it can boost the leaf blade's power even further. but gaining a resistance to water and ground can still come in handy occationaly.

now let's move to the moveset:
sacred sword and psycho cut are its main STAB moves, they don't need an explanation.
unfortunately these stab moves have a downside each: there are pokemon immune to both of them. ghost types are immune to sacred sword and dark types are immune to psycho cut and since choice band locks you to one move you have to predict what your opponent will predict.

leaf blade is meant to deal with dondozo and rotom wash, it can also hit ting lu super effectively in case you are afraid that your opponent will predict your psycho cut.

the last moveslot is ice punch so you can deal with dragonite and garchomp.

there are people telling me to run knock off instead, and I have actually attempted it, but any time I am using it I meet a garchomp or dragonite and I am feeling sad that there is no icepunch there.

Your EVs guarantee survival against LO Garchomp EQ. Do you think it might be better to just invest in HP instead? Still survives LO Garchomp EQ half the time (and non-LO all of the time) but gives you a ~20% bonus to special bulk as well so you can do things like survive Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball or a boosted Fire Blast from Volcarona.

 

[Soiramio3000]

Your EVs guarantee survival against LO Garchomp EQ. Do you think it might be better to just invest in HP instead? Still survives LO Garchomp EQ half the time (and non-LO all of the time) but gives you a ~20% bonus to special bulk as well so you can do things like survive Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball or a boosted Fire Blast from Volcarona.

I don't know, maybe.

 

[Soiramio3000]

Your EVs guarantee survival against LO Garchomp EQ. Do you think it might be better to just invest in HP instead? Still survives LO Garchomp EQ half the time (and non-LO all of the time) but gives you a ~20% bonus to special bulk as well so you can do things like survive Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball or a boosted Fire Blast from Volcarona.

the defense EVs let it survive a bravebird from a corviknight, if you invest those EVs in HP it is going to die.

 

[MrHands]

the defense EVs let it survive a bravebird from a corviknight, if you invest those EVs in HP it is going to die.

I feel like if you're in a position where you're eating LO Garchomp EQs and Corviknight Brave Birds you're positioning Gallade badly. If Corviknight slurps a Banded Sacred Sword then KOs with Brave Bird Corv will have ~10% HP remaining after recoil. Garchomp fails to KO HP invested Gallade with anything besides LO Earthquake and even then it only does half the time. HP EVs gives Gallade much more special bulk so you can sit in front of things like Specs Dragapult or Gholdengo Shadow Balls and survive to kill them. HP EVs also allows survival from Specs Tera Water Greninja Hydro Pump, avoid the 2HKO from Dirge Hex, take significantly less from Walking Wake and generally just act fat in front of Volcarona, Armarouge, Glimmora, Hydreigon, Hatterne, Iron Moth, Iron Valiant, Zoroark-H, Torkoal, Rotom-W, Pelipper, and even eat hits from stuff like Dragonite Hurricane.

I get that phys def EVs are nice for a lot of things but you're abandoning that 115 base Sp Def to sort of take hits from things you aren't good at taking hits from. I don't think phys def EVs are bad but in terms of raw stats you get more from HP than you do from Def. The real answer of course depends on the team needs but imo just acting as sp def fat is better than barely surviving specific physical hits that you aren't meant to be.

 

[Soiramio3000]

If Corviknight slurps a Banded Sacred Sword then KOs with Brave Bird Corv will have ~10% HP remaining after recoil.

yes,and?
they both need 2 stikes to beat each other, therefore gallade is guaranteed to win this fight due to its higher speed.
without the defense EVS corviknight can get a OHKO on you.

Garchomp fails to KO HP invested Gallade with anything besides LO Earthquake and even then it only does half the time. HP EVs gives Gallade much more special bulk so you can sit in front of things like Specs Dragapult or Gholdengo Shadow Balls and survive to kill them. HP EVs also allows survival from Specs Tera Water Greninja Hydro Pump, avoid the 2HKO from Dirge Hex, take significantly less from Walking Wake and generally just act fat in front of Volcarona, Armarouge, Glimmora, Hydreigon, Hatterne, Iron Moth, Iron Valiant, Zoroark-H, Torkoal, Rotom-W, Pelipper, and even eat hits from stuff like Dragonite Hurricane.

okay I see your point, I guess the HP EVs are more important most of the time.
(although you are wrong about skeledigre's hex,because it relies on will o wisp, and gallade isn't very good when burned.).