[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 6 onwards
**Price Range**: 7-8 points
**Overview**: A great ability in Sharpness and a fantastic pool of coverage moves allow Gallade to offensively threaten most foes. Unfortunately, it's generally unable to blow through opposing teams due to its middling Speed and poor physical bulk. Gallade is able to alleviate some of these problems through its solid setup and utility options, but it often wants to run more than four moves, which makes it difficult to fit on a team along with its other shortcomings.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Setup Sweeper**: Gallade has multiple threatening setup options including Swords Dance, Agility, and Bulk Up. It can also utilize its solid utility moves to disrupt opposing walls, giving itself more opportunities to set up.
**Wallbreaker**: Gallade's strong STAB moves and coverage allows it to offensively threaten most Pokemon. Foes attempting to wall it must not only be wary of its coverage but also its disruptive utility moves like Taunt, Encore, and Trick.
**Revenge Killer**: With a Choice Scarf and great coverage options, Gallade can revenge kill most Pokemon or use Trick to disrupt an opposing wall. However, its middling Speed unfortunately means it cannot outspeed most foes that have boosted their own Speed.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Sacred Sword, Psycho Cut
**Setup Moves**: Swords Dance, Agility, Bulk Up
**Utility Moves**: Trick, Taunt, Encore, Substitute, Destiny Bond, Brick Break, Will-O-Wisp, Thunder Wave
**Coverage**: Triple Axel, Knock Off, Night Slash, Leaf Blade, Aqua Cutter, Earthquake, X-Scissor, Poison Jab, Shadow Sneak, Thunder Punch, Fire Punch, Aerial Ace, Stone Edge, Shadow Claw
Niche Moves
========
**Teleport**: Teleport can be used to slow pivot, working well on sets with Choice Scarf or Choice Band.
**Light Screen / Reflect**: When Gallade is unable to achieve much offensively, dual screens can be used to help support its partners.
Common Items
========
**Damage-boosting Items**: The damage boost and ability to change moves from damage-boosting items like Life Orb, Expert Belt, and Black Belt are all greatly appreciated on most Gallade sets.
**Choice Scarf**: To get around its middling Speed, Gallade can use Choice Scarf and its great coverage moves to become a solid revenge killer. Trick can also be used to cripple opposing walls.
Niche Items
========
**Lum Berry**: Lum Berry can give Gallade an opportunity to set up against foes with otherwise devastating status moves.
**Assault Vest**: Combined with its solid Special Defense, Assault Vest provides Gallade with respectable special bulk while allowing it to utilize its plethora of coverage moves.
**Choice Band**: If immediate power is needed, Choice Band is a solid choice to break down defensive walls. This can also be paired with Trick to cripple opposing walls.
**Scope Lens**: Scope Lens combined with Sharpness-boosted high-critical hit ratio moves including Psycho Cut, Leaf Blade, and Night Slash gives Gallade the opportunity to land a critical hit 50% of the time.
**Focus Sash**: To get around its frailty, Focus Sash can be used to guarantee damage or cripple a particularly threatening foe with a status effect.
**Resistance Berries**: Roseli Berry, Coba Berry, and Kasib Berry can let Gallade survive super effective hits, allowing it to set up or throw off a strong attack.
Tera
========
Gallade is not a great option as a secondary Tera Captain compared to other Pokemon at a similar price, since it already has great coverage and does not get much value out of defensive types because of its frailty. If it is a Tera Captain, Tera Fighting and Psychic can be used to boost its STAB types, and it can boost one of its strong coverage options with types such as Tera Ice, Grass, and Dark.
Draft Strategy
========
Gallade is in an awkward position of not providing defensive utility while not bringing much to the table offensively in certain matchups. This means that it should generally only be on teams that already have strong role compression and other offensive pressure.
**Role Compression**: Due to only providing offensive pressure, Gallade's partners should are able to work in many roles, especially the utility and defensive roles that it cannot. Partners that can fulfill multiple roles in a draft like Garchomp, Terapagos, and Landorus-T can allow a more one-dimensional Pokemon like Gallade to work.
**Strong Offensive Teammates**: Although generally threatening, Gallade often doesn't place much pressure on opposing teams. Strong Pokemon like Zarude, Roaring Moon, and Enamorus should be the focal point of a draft's offense.
**Faster Partners**: Gallade's middling Speed holds it back from achieving much, even with a Choice Scarf or Agility boost. Speedy Pokemon such as Tornadus-T, Meowscarada, and Greninja are able to deal with faster threats that it is unable to handle.
**Pivots**: Gallade is quite frail, especially on the physical side. By pairing it with partners that can pivot like Scizor, Rotom-W, and Zapdos, it can be the most threatening by switching in safely.
Checks and Counters
========
**Psychic-types**: Psychic-types resist both of Gallade's STAB types making them difficult for it to break. Even with strong coverage moves, foes like Latias, Uxie, and Necrozma can often shut it down.
**Faster Pokemon**: Without a Choice Scarf or Agility boost, Gallade can be easily be taken advantage of by faster foes such as Palafin. Many Pokemon can also outspeed Choice Scarf sets, including Booster Energy users such as Iron Valiant and Roaring Moon and Choice Scarf users.
**Fairy-types**: Although Fairy-types do not resist Psycho Cut, Gallade still struggles to break through them due to having worse coverage moves for them. Foes like Tinkaton, Scream Tail, and Hatterene can take a hit and threaten it back with super effective STAB move or status effects.
**Status Effects**: Gallade absolutely hates being statused. Burn greatly hinders its damage, paralysis allows most foes to outspeed and threaten it, and being poisoned puts it on a timer, which can prevent a sweep.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/e-man.617175/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/theuncultured.629845/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/drizzle.313217/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
**Draft Order**: Round 6 onwards
**Price Range**: 7-8 points
**Overview**: A great ability in Sharpness and a fantastic pool of coverage moves allow Gallade to offensively threaten most foes. Unfortunately, it's generally unable to blow through opposing teams due to its middling Speed and poor physical bulk. Gallade is able to alleviate some of these problems through its solid setup and utility options, but it often wants to run more than four moves, which makes it difficult to fit on a team along with its other shortcomings.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Setup Sweeper**: Gallade has multiple threatening setup options including Swords Dance, Agility, and Bulk Up. It can also utilize its solid utility moves to disrupt opposing walls, giving itself more opportunities to set up.
**Wallbreaker**: Gallade's strong STAB moves and coverage allows it to offensively threaten most Pokemon. Foes attempting to wall it must not only be wary of its coverage but also its disruptive utility moves like Taunt, Encore, and Trick.
**Revenge Killer**: With a Choice Scarf and great coverage options, Gallade can revenge kill most Pokemon or use Trick to disrupt an opposing wall. However, its middling Speed unfortunately means it cannot outspeed most foes that have boosted their own Speed.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Sacred Sword, Psycho Cut
**Setup Moves**: Swords Dance, Agility, Bulk Up
**Utility Moves**: Trick, Taunt, Encore, Substitute, Destiny Bond, Brick Break, Will-O-Wisp, Thunder Wave
**Coverage**: Triple Axel, Knock Off, Night Slash, Leaf Blade, Aqua Cutter, Earthquake, X-Scissor, Poison Jab, Shadow Sneak, Thunder Punch, Fire Punch, Aerial Ace, Stone Edge, Shadow Claw
Niche Moves
========
**Teleport**: Teleport can be used to slow pivot, working well on sets with Choice Scarf or Choice Band.
**Light Screen / Reflect**: When Gallade is unable to achieve much offensively, dual screens can be used to help support its partners.
Common Items
========
**Damage-boosting Items**: The damage boost and ability to change moves from damage-boosting items like Life Orb, Expert Belt, and Black Belt are all greatly appreciated on most Gallade sets.
**Choice Scarf**: To get around its middling Speed, Gallade can use Choice Scarf and its great coverage moves to become a solid revenge killer. Trick can also be used to cripple opposing walls.
Niche Items
========
**Lum Berry**: Lum Berry can give Gallade an opportunity to set up against foes with otherwise devastating status moves.
**Assault Vest**: Combined with its solid Special Defense, Assault Vest provides Gallade with respectable special bulk while allowing it to utilize its plethora of coverage moves.
**Choice Band**: If immediate power is needed, Choice Band is a solid choice to break down defensive walls. This can also be paired with Trick to cripple opposing walls.
**Scope Lens**: Scope Lens combined with Sharpness-boosted high-critical hit ratio moves including Psycho Cut, Leaf Blade, and Night Slash gives Gallade the opportunity to land a critical hit 50% of the time.
**Focus Sash**: To get around its frailty, Focus Sash can be used to guarantee damage or cripple a particularly threatening foe with a status effect.
**Resistance Berries**: Roseli Berry, Coba Berry, and Kasib Berry can let Gallade survive super effective hits, allowing it to set up or throw off a strong attack.
Tera
========
Gallade is not a great option as a secondary Tera Captain compared to other Pokemon at a similar price, since it already has great coverage and does not get much value out of defensive types because of its frailty. If it is a Tera Captain, Tera Fighting and Psychic can be used to boost its STAB types, and it can boost one of its strong coverage options with types such as Tera Ice, Grass, and Dark.
Draft Strategy
========
Gallade is in an awkward position of not providing defensive utility while not bringing much to the table offensively in certain matchups. This means that it should generally only be on teams that already have strong role compression and other offensive pressure.
**Role Compression**: Due to only providing offensive pressure, Gallade's partners should are able to work in many roles, especially the utility and defensive roles that it cannot. Partners that can fulfill multiple roles in a draft like Garchomp, Terapagos, and Landorus-T can allow a more one-dimensional Pokemon like Gallade to work.
**Strong Offensive Teammates**: Although generally threatening, Gallade often doesn't place much pressure on opposing teams. Strong Pokemon like Zarude, Roaring Moon, and Enamorus should be the focal point of a draft's offense.
**Faster Partners**: Gallade's middling Speed holds it back from achieving much, even with a Choice Scarf or Agility boost. Speedy Pokemon such as Tornadus-T, Meowscarada, and Greninja are able to deal with faster threats that it is unable to handle.
**Pivots**: Gallade is quite frail, especially on the physical side. By pairing it with partners that can pivot like Scizor, Rotom-W, and Zapdos, it can be the most threatening by switching in safely.
Checks and Counters
========
**Psychic-types**: Psychic-types resist both of Gallade's STAB types making them difficult for it to break. Even with strong coverage moves, foes like Latias, Uxie, and Necrozma can often shut it down.
**Faster Pokemon**: Without a Choice Scarf or Agility boost, Gallade can be easily be taken advantage of by faster foes such as Palafin. Many Pokemon can also outspeed Choice Scarf sets, including Booster Energy users such as Iron Valiant and Roaring Moon and Choice Scarf users.
**Fairy-types**: Although Fairy-types do not resist Psycho Cut, Gallade still struggles to break through them due to having worse coverage moves for them. Foes like Tinkaton, Scream Tail, and Hatterene can take a hit and threaten it back with super effective STAB move or status effects.
**Status Effects**: Gallade absolutely hates being statused. Burn greatly hinders its damage, paralysis allows most foes to outspeed and threaten it, and being poisoned puts it on a timer, which can prevent a sweep.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/e-man.617175/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/theuncultured.629845/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/drizzle.313217/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Last edited:
