Lopunny: UU and OU discussion

Dragontamer

Why both UU and OU? There are many niches in OU that UU pokemon can still fill, and Lopunny seems to be one of them with its unique ability Klutz.

Current Analysis
Serebii Pokedex Entry

Base Stats:
HP 65
Atk 76
Def 84
SAtk 54
SDef 96
Speed 105

Speed Tier analysis:
Against UU pokemon, Lopunny is one of the top. It ties with Manetric, but loses to Scyther and Swellow (if allowed in UU). It loses however to Purugly and Persian. Because the speed tier topic is for OUs, that is all I can think off the top of my head. I will edit in more if others are noted.

For OU battles, Lopunny ties with Mismagius in speed, however Infernape narrowly beats it by 3 base points. You might be able to gamble on your IVs if you bred well in Wifi battles, but if using a simulator or against a decent breeder (31 Speed ivs are _critical), assume Lopunny is slower than +Spd Infernape.

+Spd Lopunny outruns some notable OU pokemon, including Garchomp, Modest/Adamant Alakazam, Sceptile and Dugtrio. Pretty speedy indeed. It is slower than Starmie and Ambipom however.

Defense Tier Stats: 114.58 115.74
For a UU pokemon, these are pretty decent numbers. Lopunny is only 3 tiers below Grumpig and only 5/4 below Probopass, and considering that Lopunny is going to be either a speedy support or sweeper in UU, thats pretty nice. More or less, these stats are comparable to Hitmontop without intimidate.

In OU, Lopunny is at best, an above average sweeper as far as defenses go. Its defenses beat starmie, PorygonZ and Infernape in both Sp. Def and Defense, but they fail to beat more bulky guys like Scizor, Machamp and Arcanine.

Notable Physical Movepool:
Strangely enough, this is quite a decent list. Very notable attacks are bolded.

Return
Quick attack
Jump kick
Dizzy Punch
Bounce
Iron Tail
Facade
Fling
Drain Punch
Giga Impact
Fake Out
Low Kick
Sky Uppercut
Thunderpunch
Ice Punch
Fire Punch

In UU, this is a great movepool, and base 76 attack is ... well... it sucks even in UU >_> But at least it sucks less, so you might get away with it. Return is by far the most powerful attack here. Low Kick hits T-Tar for massive damage, but in the much lighter UU metagame, Lopunny's best bet is Jump Kick or Sky Uppercut. Jump Kick has accuracy, Sky Uppercut makes it so you don't hit yourself.

Fake-Out / Return immediately makes you think Ambipom for UU, however, two pokemon, Persian and Purugly already pull that off better than Lopunny. Purugly has higher attack as well as speed, and Persian has technician and even higher speed to work with. In OU, obviously Ambipom pulls off that set plenty well enough.

Fling is noted because Lopunny has Klutz, and equiped with Iron Ball Lopunny can fling for maximum damage. (IIRC, 140 BP, but I don't know where to look it up :-( )

Special Movepool
Pretty nice, but like Gyarados's Special Movepool, Lopunny should never touch it.

Support/Other Movepool
This is where Lopunny shines most. Bolded ones are the ones I think stick out.

Mirror Coat
Magic Coat
Splash
Foresight
Endure
Baton Pass
Agility
Charm
Healing Wish
Toxic
Sunny Day
Protect
Rain Dance
Double Team
Rest
Attract
Thunder Wave
Captivate
Swagger
Substitute
Fake Tears
Encore
Sweet Kiss
Switcheroo

No one in all of pokemon can pull off Switcheroo/Trick + Klutz, making Lopunny the only pokemon to switch on Lagging Tail potentially before the opponent can move (and thus, even if OHKOed, at least you got a lagging tail on it)

Lopunny also makes a fine Agility + Baton Pass pokemon. It won't pull of this set like Ninjask, but unlike Ninjask, Lopunny can probably survive 2 hits without a focus sash. In UU, Scyther seems to be the only other agilipasser worth mentioning and he has 4x weak to Stealth Rocks.

Strangely enough, Ledian has a higher Sp. Def tier than Lopunny, and also has agility + baton pass. (granted, Ledian's physical defense tier is abysmal)

The best you can probably do in OU as far as Agili-passing is to make use of Swagger. If a phazer comes in on your agility, you can Swagger it and have a 25% chance of actually BPing it sucessfully to the next pokemon. (50% chance that opponent hits himself the first turn, 25% chance it happens twice in a row). I doubt this would be effective in practice however, given that Skarm and Swampert will benefit from the x2 attack, and are bulky enough to survive their own hits.

Encore seems especially interesting. First, Lopunny has enough speed to outspeed BulkyGyara after a DD and then manage to get the Encore to force Gyara to either switch, or for you to set up with Sunny Day, Rain Dance, agili-pass or just simply switch to your set-up pokemon.
 
Notable Speed Tier analysis:
Against UU pokemon, Lopunny is one of the top. It ties with Manetric, but loses to Scyther and Swellow (if allowed in UU). It loses however to Purugly and Persian. Because the speed tier topic is for OUs, that is all I can think off the top of my head. I will edit in more if others are noted
Click to expand...

Scyther ties with Lopunny on speed, so it doesn't necessarily beat it in that regard. You wouldn't want to switch in to it, but neither would Scyther into you. Froslass is another Pokemon that comes to mind that outruns Lopunny, however, fast Pokemon generally aren't that big a deal for Lopunny as they risk losing their greatest asset when switching in to it.

The problem I see with Lopunny is that it can only really shine by using its high speed and support options. It struggles to sweep with 76 base Attack, low powered moves and no way whatsoever to boost it, and also struggles defensively with no decent recovery (no Lefties either unless you use Cute Charm) besides Rest and Drain Punch lol. Having said that, Lopunny's unpredictability with Switcheroo is something completely unique to it like you said that nothing besides maybe Gastrodon, Muk and Swalot are safe from being completely crippled by the item it is holding. The Agility passing set you mentioned can also make use of Switcheroo as it can trick a Choice Scarf onto any slow PHazer trying to prevent the pass. The opponent might be successful first time, but not without the severe cost of becoming next to useless for the rest of the match.

Those are my thoughts on Lopunny. An odd niche Pokemon with the strange property of being both predictable and unpredictable at the same time. You know what few things it can do well, just not how it goes about doing it.
 
-.-'
God, this may be cause SOMEONE I know is obsessed with the little bugga, but I can't stand Lopunny!
That said, it can be useful in OU, I've myself used a Focus Sashed one WITHOUT Switcheroo(and had Cute Charm) as a starter: Thunderpunch, Return, Agility, and Encore. Yanmega sarters didn't stand a chance, I'd just agility while they protect, then I would Encore. Thunderpunch and Return created a type combo not resisted by a lot of things. It was mainly an annoyer, but would allow me to get in a lot of things, so as Infernape and Ramparados(though I wouldn't use both on the same team!).
 
Articanus said:
-.-'
God, this may be cause SOMEONE I know is obsessed with the little bugga, but I can't stand Lopunny!
That said, it can be useful in OU, I've myself used a Focus Sashed one WITHOUT Switcheroo(and had Cute Charm) as a starter: Thunderpunch, Return, Agility, and Encore. Yanmega sarters didn't stand a chance, I'd just agility while they protect, then I would Encore. Thunderpunch and Return created a type combo not resisted by a lot of things. It was mainly an annoyer, but would allow me to get in a lot of things, so as Infernape and Ramparados(though I wouldn't use both on the same team!).
Click to expand...
Steelix. Rhyperior. The list goes on and on, but if you're using UU in OU, you kick ass, and I have nothing more to say.
 
Age of Kings said:
Steelix. Rhyperior. The list goes on and on, but if you're using UU in OU, you kick ass, and I have nothing more to say.
Click to expand...

lol
How often do you see those two in OU? Rhy-inferior is completley(SP?) useless, IMO, and Steelix.... well, Steelix is OK, but isn't used as much.
Anyway, you can't COMPLETELY discredit Lopunny's special movepool: I'd rather use Thunderbolt(HP Fire/ Electric, if it doesn't get it) and deal some damage as Skarmory phazes me out rather than hope for the 23.5% chance(including accuracy) that swagger hits and stops them from attacking twice.
 
Heh, I use Lopunny on my current team, although Klutz is very screwed up on Shoddy since it seems to choose when it wants to work.

I use a super-prediction set, here is mine that I use in OU:

Lopunny @Sticky Barb/Choice Band
EVs: 196 hp/48 atk/84 def/180 spd
Ability: Klutz
Jolly Nature (+spd, -satk)

~ Encore
~ Focus Punch
~ Switcheroo
~ Return

Yeah, so that's my set. I suppose I should explain it.

Since Klutz is screwed up, I just chose Choice Band normally so that I could switcheroo special sweepers, or just Encore a Garchomp Swords Dance and then switch my Choice Band on it and then kill it with someone else on my team or just beat it up with Return.

Sticky Barb works great with this moveset as well for the switcheroo on Stallers such as Walrein or annoyances such as Breloom by taking away 12.5% of their HP every turn when they have this or hit me with a contact move, while taking away no HP of mine when it is equipped on me...if Klutz works that is. Until Klutz works 100% of the time, I just use Choice Band.

Return is there for STAB, but Focus Punch can really hurt stuff even with 200 attack. Things such as Lucario that hope to come in and Aura Sphere/Close Combat me get OHKOed on the switch-in by it, and same with other Steels expecting a Return. Focus Punch requires a ton of prediction though, although prediction is fun.

I gave it 320 speed so it could outspeed neutral base 110s and all base 95s. This allows me to Encore a lot of the popular sweepers as they try to set-up, or I can just come in and Encore a Stealth Rock, and other support move. I gave Lopunny enough for about 220ish defense and 320 HP so if it gets a leftovers from a switcheroo (most of the time) it'll have good leftovers recovery, and then also allow it to take hits quite well. I didn't put any in special defense because that's already high enough and I needed to save lots for speed. Yeah, so it takes hits very well.

It can outspeed Modest Gengar and Encore their Shadow Ball, then switch off to another team member to finish him off, quite nice. Or it can also outspeed Breloom and Encore its damn subs so I can easily set-up on it with another team member.

I quite like this bunny in OU, and it works really well. I personally just love Encorers and Lopunny is the second fastest one in the game being beaten only by Jumpluff. :]

My EVs work fine, but give me some criticism on them, because I don't really know what advantages and such I could get if I gave Lopunny enough speed to beat all base 100s or such, or even a max +speed nature Garchomp. It hasn't really been much of a factor in my team yet, but I suppose it might come in handy though, gimme some thoughts on that, since Lopunny CAN do that.
 
Hmm. Good point. I'll probably change the EVs to compensate for that when Klutz gets fixed, but for now, Leftovers give recovery still. I suppose just max HP is better.
 
Lopunny is just a very novelty Pokemon that can catch some things by surprise, but overall doesn't provide much power or support. Its stats as a whole are rather lackluster except Speed, so it's sandwiched between a bunch of roles. It doesn't have enough HP to be an adequate defensive player, its Attack is too low for a sweeper... Also, Lopunny ties in speed with Adamant/Modest Alakazam/Dugtrio/Sceptile, and it's unlikely that they would eschew outrunning the masses of Pokemon between 339 and 372 for some Attack or Special Attack.

Off topic: I've always hated Switcheroo; it has a gay name, and it does the exact same thing as Trick. Why couldn't Game Freak have made a different attack in that wasted slot?
 
Burn Orb / Facade could work in your favor with Lopunny too (even if the attack stat isn't amaaazing), but with Thunder Wave / Agility & Healing Wish, it could help make a hitter.

Not sure if this is correct, so if I'm wrong, sorry:
If Burn Orb works after every turn, Rest on the BurnOrb/Facade would be smart. When you're low on health, rest up, sleep talk facade? Then when you wake up, get burned again + Facade. When you know Lopunny's almost finished, or Facade is low on PP, Switcheroo to give them a Burn. :o
^ Once again, not sure if that's how Burn Orb works.
 
I doubt it. No pokemon does the toxic orb thing better than Swellow. Further, burn halves the attack of your pokemon, so Facade will only be 70 base power. (x2 from the Facade boost, x.5 from the burn penelty).

Unless I'm throwing a burn orb onto the opponent using switcharoo and klutz... there is no reason to have burn orb on lopunny.
 
Oh, really? >.>

Then I guess I've had it wrong in my mind the whole time. I guess Toxic Orb is what Swellow/Heracross use?

So why not use Toxic orb w/ Lopunny + Facade/Switcheroo/Rest/Sleep Talk?
 
TaiwaneseDude said:
^ Burn orb doesn't half your attack, iirc..
Click to expand...

Only if you use GUTS pokemon like Swellow and Heracross. Thus, why Swellow and Heracross like using Burn Orb.

Granted, U-Turn Swellow is far better with a Toxic Orb. If you come in, facade, then U-Turn on the counter, you take less damage with a Toxic Orb than you would with a burn orb...
 
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