Project National Dex UU Next Best Thing: Cycle 18 - Crobat (Voting)

Ending the vote a bit earlier since we already have a clear winner. Congratz to Ryuji-Sempai and his SubRoost set! Your victory will be added to the Hall of Fame shortly.

Cycle 3
:bw/skarmory:

While often regarded as a one trick pony, Skarmory has a pretty big movepool. With a wide range of Physical and Status moves, maybe Skarmory's true nature lies further beyond the never ending stacking of Spikes? That's up for you guys to discover!

Deadline is March 18th
Banned Sets
 
Introducing the greatest lure set of all time:
:ss/skarmory: :choice band:
Skarmory @ Choice Band
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Body Press
- Iron Head/Rock Slide
- Night Slash
- Brave Bird

252+ Atk Choice Band Skarmory Night Slash vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Aegislash-Shield: 136-162 (52.1 - 62%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Specs aegi dropped
252+ Atk Choice Band Skarmory Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 200+ Def Altaria-Mega: 218-260 (61.5 - 73.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
there goes the urshifu/zeraora counter
4 Def Choice Band Skarmory Body Press vs. 40 HP / 0 Def Melmetal: 170-202 (40.3 - 47.9%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and 1 layer of Spikes
who needs ID when you can just 2hko one of the most physically bulky mons in the tier?
252+ Atk Choice Band Skarmory Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tangrowth: 384-452 (95 - 111.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Choice Band Skarmory Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 168+ Def Amoonguss: 458-542 (106 - 125.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Grasses that think they can wall the standard bpress set get dropped
252+ Atk Choice Band Skarmory Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Hippowdon: 202-238 (48 - 56.6%) -- 88.3% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
Another fat mon getting bopped
252+ Atk Choice Band Skarmory Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 40 Def Rotom-Wash: 105-125 (34.5 - 41.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
Yes that does 40 to rotom
252+ Atk Choice Band Skarmory Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hatterene: 234-276 (73.5 - 86.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
Free hazards for teammates
4 Def Choice Band Skarmory Body Press vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Manectric-Mega: 139-164 (49.4 - 58.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
4 Def Choice Band Skarmory Body Press vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Zeraora: 147-173 (46.3 - 54.5%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO
electrics don't stand a chance either
If you're a real chad:
252+ Atk Choice Band Skarmory Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Moltres: 428-504 (111.4 - 131.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
as brave bird 2hkos the iron head targets anyways
252+ Atk Choice Band Skarmory Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 200+ Def Altaria-Mega: 163-193 (46 - 54.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Choice Band Skarmory Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hatterene: 174-205 (54.7 - 64.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
 
Would be a shame if your Rotom-W/Aegislash/Zeraora/Moltres/etc. lost its item while attempting to switch into Skarmory, right? Especially if Skarmory manages to get spikes up, or if rocks are already set on your side of the field. Well, this is now possible:

:skarmory:
Skarmory
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Body Press
- Thief
- Roost

Honestly it's not even hard to justify it over toxic, as it allows you to cripple targets that otherwise don't really care about Toxic such as leftovers Aegislash, defensive Celesteela, Refresh Swampert, Hatterene, etc while still annoying most Toxic targets such as the Rotoms, Moltres, or Zeraora.
 
:sm/skarmory:

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Roost
- Body Press
- Iron Defense / Spikes

With Substitute you can counter Melmetal quite easily, avoiding Thunder Wave and using Iron Defense + Body Press to force out Melmetal. Subs also avoids Spore / Sleep Powder from Amoonguss and Tang and proceed to set up Spikes.
 
Last edited:
Sorry for the delay, but here we are! Third voting cycle has begun!

:ss/skarmory:
Choice Band by R1C3M4N
choiceband.png

Thief Skarm by R8
tm46.png

SubRoost by Pubo
leftovers.png


Voting ends on March 21st​
 
Last edited:
We have a tie between Thief and SubRoost, so I'll break that tie by voting for Thief myself. Congratulations to R8 for winning this week's Next Best Thing! Your victory shall be added shortly.

Cycle 4
:ss/zarude:

Even with every single Psychic type ever being banned, Zarude still remains one of the most important Pokémon to the tier. Between its typing, bulk and large movepool, it's able to differentiate itself from literally every other metagame staple. Are you able to find some secrets Zarude's been hiding from us?

Deadline is March 25th
Banned Sets
 
reserving band nasty plot dada :zarude: (np is good trust me)

Dada SpA is terrible but Nasty Plot can bypass this!

:ss/zarude:

Zarude @ Darkinium Z
Ability: Leaf Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse
- Energy Ball
- Jungle Healing


With this set, Zarude can still break things like the physical version, however; this version can break past more easily Pokemon like Skarmory, physically defensive Tangrowth, Moltres, Salamence, and Melmetal!

Moltres calc: +2 252 SpA Zarude Black Hole Eclipse (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Moltres: 399-469 (103.9 - 122.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Skarmory calc: +2 252 SpA Zarude Black Hole Eclipse (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Skarmory: 463-546 (138.6 - 163.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Tang calc: +2 252 SpA Zarude Black Hole Eclipse (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Tangrowth: 598-705 (148 - 174.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Salamence : +2 252 SpA Zarude Black Hole Eclipse (160 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Salamence: 417-492 (125.9 - 148.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Melmetal : +2 252 SpA Zarude Black Hole Eclipse (160 BP) vs. 44 HP / 0 SpD Melmetal: 495-583 (117.2 - 138.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
 
Last edited:
S️teelium ️z zarude

:ss/zarude:

Zarude @ Steelium Z
Ability: Leaf Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Darkest Lariat
- Iron Tail
- Bulk Up
- Jungle Healing / Power Whip

As great as zarude is, mega altaria remains one of its best checks; able to take any attack and threaten zarude out. With iron tail and a steelium z, zarude can not only lure one of the best pokemon in the tier but threaten to sweep/break much easier after altaria is gone.

Easy usage, you bulk up as your opponent switches to altaria, then kill with z-iron tail. The opponent has know way to no this is z steel and zarude can ohko even the bulkiest altarias: +1 252 Atk Zarude Corkscrew Crash (180 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Altaria-Mega: 374-442 (105.6 - 124.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO.
Jungle healing lets zarude keep doing its job in checking aegislash and whatnot. Power whip lets zarude attempt to sweep late game after removing altaria, which can be especially effective since of all the viable pokemon only 3(bisharp, infernape, and cobalion) resist grass, dark, and steel.

I wrote this Monday so I'll probably update with replays later on
 
Last edited:
:ss/zarude-dada:

What have I done? (Zarude-Dada) @ Binding Band
Ability: Leaf Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Spe / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Bind
- Taunt
- Throat Chop
- Jungle Healing/Encore

Clearly superior to z iron tail as a malt lure. Basically you bind malt on the switch, throat chop it as it tries to hyper voice you, and then taunt it so it can't roost (encore unfortunately fails on hyper voice if malt is throat chopped, which is dumb). Binding band allows you to kill malt faster so that zarude can live as a sack or scald switch in. The perfectly optimized ev spread allows zarude to live 2 max spatk fire blasts (basically guaranteed). This set can also bait other unsuspecting walls such as amoonguss, tangrowth, salamence, skarmory, and celesteela, which z iron tail zarude can't do, so it has a legitimate niche in the nduu metagame, giving zarude another level of undiscovered depth in its gameplay that permanently cements it as an S tier mon rivaling the likes of melmetal and malt before it gets banned.

252+ SpA Altaria-Mega Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Zarude: 176-208 (42.5 - 50.2%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO

 
Last edited:
Back
Top