http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/relicanth
Ok, I'm just posting what I have done so far, since I've only got one set done right now. This analysis needed a major revamp, as the Polish Sweeper, the most used set was at the bottom, had a 2 sentence write-up. The other sets were rather incomplete too.
Also, if you're an avid player in UU, I urge you to give me some input in this thread. I mostly played with Relicanth in OU, because as far as I'm concerned, he does a MUCH better job there than in UU, and therefore this analysis is a bit more OU-centric.* I did try UU a bit so I could get some kind of results for these sets, but I'm an awful UU player, so I need some good input from actual UU players, particularly for the Team Options section since you guys know the threats a lot better than I do.
*There are a few big reasons why Relicanth does way better in OU than in UU.
1) In OU, Energy Ball is rarely used, as Grass Knot is the main Grass attack there. Grass Knot only hits Relicanth for 40 BP (160) since he's so light, which means that all he needs is the Sandstorm boost and he can take them easily. In UU, Energy Ball is thrown around everywhere, and is often backed up by STAB, which is very dangerous to Relicanth's survival and adds another big weakness.
2) A vast majority of Relicanth's counters are in the UU tier, such as Poliwrath, Quagsire, and Tangrowth. This means that his bigger counters, bar Swampert, are not going to be that common. Also, in OU, Relicanth's STABs are only resisted by Breloom and Empoleon. Relicanth can still muscle through Breloom with Head Smash for a 2HKO, and Empoleon is annihilated by the Polish Sweeper. There are a few more resistances to Relicanth's STAB in UU though, some of which he can only hit neutral at best.
3) Hippopotas can be a liability to run in UU, meaning that it's much harder for Relicanth to take special hits there, and therefore take advantage of his mainly special resistances. In addition, there's a lot of weather changing from Rain teams in UU, as that's where many of the swift swimmers reside. In OU, however, there is Tyranitar and Hippowdon, both of which are great choices to run on a team. Weather changing is also not nearly as common in OU.
4) Thanks to the large amount of Dragons and Steels in OU, Fire and Ice attacks are thrown around quite a bit there. Relicanth resists Fire 4x and Ice 2x, making it much easier to take advantage of this and set up. In UU, these aren't thrown around as much due to the lack of Dragons or Steels (though admittedly there are a lot of Grass-types that take super effective damage from these in UU).
I'm posting all of the sets which I think deserve an analysis. SubYawn is the only new set which I have included, and it's worked very well as a tank for me in OU. Keep in mind that RestTalk and SubYawn are basically tailored for OU play only, because they rely on the Sandstorm boost to be effective.
Also, I still need to figure out a good EV spread for the RestTalk set. I'm thinking it should be the same EV spread as SubYawn, which OHKOs Gengar with Stealth Rock while still taking <25% from his Shadow Balls. However, I'm not sure.
Lastly, the EV spread on CBCanth has changed. It has just enough Speed to outspeed the standard Skarmory so it can get an easy 2HKO with Head Smash, and prevents it from being stalled out by Roost. The rest of the EVs are dumped into HP.
Anyways, here's what I have so far:
----------------------------------
[SET]
name: Polish Sweep
move 1: Rock Polish
move 2: Head Smash
move 3: Waterfall
move 4: Earthquake
item: Life Orb
ability: Rock Head
nature: Adamant
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Out of all the sets Relicanth can run, this is perhaps the most destructive, tearing up teams in all tiers but Uber. First things first, to pull off the Rock Polish, it's a good idea to switch Relicanth into one of his resistances. Fire and Ice attacks are very common in both OU and UU, while Normal and Poison attacks aren't difficult to find in UU. Switching in after a Choice-locked Pursuit is a good idea as well, as even without investment Relicanth's high Defense and HP result in a low damage output from Pursuit allowing for easy setup.</p>
<p>Head Smash is by far the most important attack on this set. With Rock Head, recoil damage is nulled allowing for a 150 BP STAB attack with no drawbacks, although the accuracy issue can still be a gamble at times. It should be noted that this set's Head Smash hits with only 1% less power than a max Attack Choice Band Tyranitar's Stone Edge, which is very deadly considering Relicanth can switch attacks. In addition, Head Smash can 2HKO the standard 252 HP/176 Def Impish Skarmory even without Stealth Rock, which is very impressive for a physical sweeper with no Attack boost besides Life Orb.</p>
<p>Waterfall and Earthquake allow for very good coverage on this set. The only thing that resists the combination of Rock/Water/Ground in OU is Breloom, who is still 2HKOed by Head Smash. Nothing resists the combination in UU. If there's something you can hit for neutral with Head Smash but super effectively with Earthquake, you should do whatever is needed more. A neutral STAB Head Smash still hits harder than a super effective Earthquake, but Earthquake has 100% accuracy, so it may be more desirable to use that if you don't want to risk the miss.</p>
<p>The EV spread is a simple sweeper spread, but these EVs actually work perfectly with Relicanth's base 55 Speed in both UU and OU. In OU, with Adamant and 252 Speed EVs, Relicanth can outspeed a +Speed Choice Scarf Heatran after one Rock Polish, outspeeding him by 1 point. In UU, with the same spread Relicanth outspeeds max Speed, positively natured Electrode by 2 points after one Rock Polish, who is the fastest non-Choice Scarf user in the tier.</p>
<p>As a Life Orb sweeper, Relicanth unfortunately has a lot of problems with Toxic Spikes ruining his sweep too early. Therefore, a good partner for Polish Sweeping Relicanth is either a grounded Poison or a Rapid Spinner. In terms of grounded Poison-types, ones that are also part Grass-type are very good choices. Apart from their Psychic weakness and Relicanth's Ground weakness, they cover each other's backs perfectly. These are plentiful in UU, but one that really stands out is Roserade, who is a good partner in both OU and UU. He stands out for being able to not only absorb Toxic Spikes but also for the ability to lay down his own Spikes, which help Relicanth immensely in his sweep. In addition to this, Roserade helps take down Relicanth's biggest counters such as the Water/Ground family and Poliwrath by decimating them with STAB Grass attacks. In terms of Rapid Spinners, Forretress has near-perfect synergy with Relicanth in OU and once again, lays hazards that aid Relicanth in his sweep. In UU, Claydol would have to be the best Spinner to pair with Relicanth as he takes the Fighting and Ground attacks that Relicanth hates so much and won't get himself crippled while spinning away the Toxic Spikes.</p>
<p>Sandstorm support from Hippowdon or Tyranitar in OU, or Hippopotas in UU can help Relicanth's sweep go much smoother. The reason is that Relicanth gets a 50% boost due to being a Rock-type, giving his sub-par 166 Special Defense stat a boost up to 249. This makes Relicanth into a very bulky sweeper, making it a lot easier to come in and set up a Rock Polish.</p>
<p>Scizor is a particularly good teammate in OU, because he not only kills off some very threatening Choice Scarf users such as Gengar, but his slower U-turn can give Relicanth a free turn to set up Rock Polish. In addition, they support each other's weaknesses very well. Scizor can also take care of Cresselia, one of the few Pokemon who can stomach a non-resisted Head Smash for under 50%. Latias is a very good teammate as well. She supports Relicanth's weaknesses very well, and she can easily cripple a lot of Relicanth's counters. Swampert can be taken down by Grass Knot, Hippowdon by Surf, and a wall can be crippled by Trick if she's of the Choice Scarf variation. Magneton is a particularly good teammate in UU for getting rid of Registeel and Steelix, both of whom can cripple Relicanth's sweep. Magneton can also kill Poliwrath, Relicanth's nemesis, with a STAB Thunderbolt.</p>
[SET]
name: CBCanth
move 1: Head Smash
move 2: Waterfall / Aqua Tail
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Double-Edge
item: Choice Band
ability: Rock Head
nature: Adamant
evs: 116 HP / 252 Atk / 140 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>While the preceding set was designed for sweeping, this set is designed for punching massive holes in the opponent's team. Once again, this set works very well both in OU and UU. This works like a regular bulky Choice Bander; bring it out against a Pokemon it can scare off and fire an attack off to hit the incoming switch in hard.</p>
<p>Head Smash, once again, is the main attack here. The Head Smash from this set is 97.4% as powerful as a max Attack Choice Band Rampardos Stone Edge - the most powerful Stone Edge in the game. Any wall that doesn't have a resistance to Rock is facing a 2HKO at minimum with Stealth Rock up, and most walls that have a resistance to Rock are weak to Waterfall or Earthquake, especially in OU. Aqua Tail can work in place of Waterfall if you want power over accuracy, though a mere 10 base power difference may not be worth it. Double-Edge is mostly a filler attack, but it can hurt Breloom a bit more than Head Smash and has perfect accuracy too.</p>
<p>The EVs on this set allow Relicanth to outspeed the standard Skarmory so it can't stall out Head Smash with Roost. In fact, even with max HP and max Defense EVs it still faces a guaranteed 2HKO without Stealth Rock if it switches in. The remaining EVs were dumped into HP after maxing Attack for a combination of strength and bulkiness. In UU, a better spread would be 44 HP/252 Atk/212 Spe with an Adamant nature. This allows Relicanth to outspeed everything up to the standard Milotic, which is 2HKOed on the switch in.</p>
<p>Once again, Sandstorm support works very well with CBCanth. This lets him not only come in on many more attacks, but it also lets him stay in on special attackers instead of having to switch out at the sight of them, which he most certainly can't do very well without the Sand support. Although absorption of Toxic Spikes isn't as important on this set, Roserade is still a very good partner for taking down Relicanth's main counters in Swampert, Quagsire, and Poliwrath, in addition to being resistant to a large amount of Relicanth's weaknesses.</p>
<p>U-turn support for this set is a great idea, since it helps Relicanth come in on things it has a much bigger advantage on, therefore scaring them away and landing a big hit to whatever switches in. Scizor is by far the best choice for this in OU, since it attracts Pokemon with Fire attacks like a vaccum, which happens to be Relicanth's 4x resistance. Scizor can easily come in and do it again if something tries to attack Relicanth with Grass attacks, since Scizor 4x resists that. His U-turn also does a very good job at softening the switch in for Relicanth, which can easily change that 2HKO into a OHKO. Scyther (with Rapid Spin support), does the job very well in UU. He not only has the second most powerful U-turn in the game but also resists 3 of Relicanth's major weaknesses, working in a similar way to Scizor. If there doesn't happen to be Rapid Spin support, Uxie and Mesprit can do the U-turning. They both resist Relicanth's weaknesses pretty well, although they don't resist Grass and therefore still take boatloads from Leaf Storm. They can also provide the Stealth Rock support which CBCanth needs to guarantee most of its OHKOs and 2HKOs.</p>
[SET]
name: RestTalk
move 1: Rest
move 2: Sleep Talk
move 3: Head Smash
move 4: Waterfall / Earthquake
item: Leftovers
ability: Rock Head
nature: Adamant
evs:
[SET COMMENTS]
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
[SET]
name: SubYawn
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Yawn
move 3: Head Smash
move 4: Waterfall
item: Leftovers
ability: Rock Head
nature: Careful
evs: 252 HP / 32 Atk / 224 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
[Team Options]
<p></p>
[Other Options]
<p></p>
[EVs]
<p></p>
[Opinion]
<p></p>
[Counters]
<p></p>
-----------------------------------------
Thanks guys.
Ok, I'm just posting what I have done so far, since I've only got one set done right now. This analysis needed a major revamp, as the Polish Sweeper, the most used set was at the bottom, had a 2 sentence write-up. The other sets were rather incomplete too.
Also, if you're an avid player in UU, I urge you to give me some input in this thread. I mostly played with Relicanth in OU, because as far as I'm concerned, he does a MUCH better job there than in UU, and therefore this analysis is a bit more OU-centric.* I did try UU a bit so I could get some kind of results for these sets, but I'm an awful UU player, so I need some good input from actual UU players, particularly for the Team Options section since you guys know the threats a lot better than I do.
*There are a few big reasons why Relicanth does way better in OU than in UU.
1) In OU, Energy Ball is rarely used, as Grass Knot is the main Grass attack there. Grass Knot only hits Relicanth for 40 BP (160) since he's so light, which means that all he needs is the Sandstorm boost and he can take them easily. In UU, Energy Ball is thrown around everywhere, and is often backed up by STAB, which is very dangerous to Relicanth's survival and adds another big weakness.
2) A vast majority of Relicanth's counters are in the UU tier, such as Poliwrath, Quagsire, and Tangrowth. This means that his bigger counters, bar Swampert, are not going to be that common. Also, in OU, Relicanth's STABs are only resisted by Breloom and Empoleon. Relicanth can still muscle through Breloom with Head Smash for a 2HKO, and Empoleon is annihilated by the Polish Sweeper. There are a few more resistances to Relicanth's STAB in UU though, some of which he can only hit neutral at best.
3) Hippopotas can be a liability to run in UU, meaning that it's much harder for Relicanth to take special hits there, and therefore take advantage of his mainly special resistances. In addition, there's a lot of weather changing from Rain teams in UU, as that's where many of the swift swimmers reside. In OU, however, there is Tyranitar and Hippowdon, both of which are great choices to run on a team. Weather changing is also not nearly as common in OU.
4) Thanks to the large amount of Dragons and Steels in OU, Fire and Ice attacks are thrown around quite a bit there. Relicanth resists Fire 4x and Ice 2x, making it much easier to take advantage of this and set up. In UU, these aren't thrown around as much due to the lack of Dragons or Steels (though admittedly there are a lot of Grass-types that take super effective damage from these in UU).
I'm posting all of the sets which I think deserve an analysis. SubYawn is the only new set which I have included, and it's worked very well as a tank for me in OU. Keep in mind that RestTalk and SubYawn are basically tailored for OU play only, because they rely on the Sandstorm boost to be effective.
Also, I still need to figure out a good EV spread for the RestTalk set. I'm thinking it should be the same EV spread as SubYawn, which OHKOs Gengar with Stealth Rock while still taking <25% from his Shadow Balls. However, I'm not sure.
Lastly, the EV spread on CBCanth has changed. It has just enough Speed to outspeed the standard Skarmory so it can get an easy 2HKO with Head Smash, and prevents it from being stalled out by Roost. The rest of the EVs are dumped into HP.
Anyways, here's what I have so far:
----------------------------------
[SET]
name: Polish Sweep
move 1: Rock Polish
move 2: Head Smash
move 3: Waterfall
move 4: Earthquake
item: Life Orb
ability: Rock Head
nature: Adamant
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Out of all the sets Relicanth can run, this is perhaps the most destructive, tearing up teams in all tiers but Uber. First things first, to pull off the Rock Polish, it's a good idea to switch Relicanth into one of his resistances. Fire and Ice attacks are very common in both OU and UU, while Normal and Poison attacks aren't difficult to find in UU. Switching in after a Choice-locked Pursuit is a good idea as well, as even without investment Relicanth's high Defense and HP result in a low damage output from Pursuit allowing for easy setup.</p>
<p>Head Smash is by far the most important attack on this set. With Rock Head, recoil damage is nulled allowing for a 150 BP STAB attack with no drawbacks, although the accuracy issue can still be a gamble at times. It should be noted that this set's Head Smash hits with only 1% less power than a max Attack Choice Band Tyranitar's Stone Edge, which is very deadly considering Relicanth can switch attacks. In addition, Head Smash can 2HKO the standard 252 HP/176 Def Impish Skarmory even without Stealth Rock, which is very impressive for a physical sweeper with no Attack boost besides Life Orb.</p>
<p>Waterfall and Earthquake allow for very good coverage on this set. The only thing that resists the combination of Rock/Water/Ground in OU is Breloom, who is still 2HKOed by Head Smash. Nothing resists the combination in UU. If there's something you can hit for neutral with Head Smash but super effectively with Earthquake, you should do whatever is needed more. A neutral STAB Head Smash still hits harder than a super effective Earthquake, but Earthquake has 100% accuracy, so it may be more desirable to use that if you don't want to risk the miss.</p>
<p>The EV spread is a simple sweeper spread, but these EVs actually work perfectly with Relicanth's base 55 Speed in both UU and OU. In OU, with Adamant and 252 Speed EVs, Relicanth can outspeed a +Speed Choice Scarf Heatran after one Rock Polish, outspeeding him by 1 point. In UU, with the same spread Relicanth outspeeds max Speed, positively natured Electrode by 2 points after one Rock Polish, who is the fastest non-Choice Scarf user in the tier.</p>
<p>As a Life Orb sweeper, Relicanth unfortunately has a lot of problems with Toxic Spikes ruining his sweep too early. Therefore, a good partner for Polish Sweeping Relicanth is either a grounded Poison or a Rapid Spinner. In terms of grounded Poison-types, ones that are also part Grass-type are very good choices. Apart from their Psychic weakness and Relicanth's Ground weakness, they cover each other's backs perfectly. These are plentiful in UU, but one that really stands out is Roserade, who is a good partner in both OU and UU. He stands out for being able to not only absorb Toxic Spikes but also for the ability to lay down his own Spikes, which help Relicanth immensely in his sweep. In addition to this, Roserade helps take down Relicanth's biggest counters such as the Water/Ground family and Poliwrath by decimating them with STAB Grass attacks. In terms of Rapid Spinners, Forretress has near-perfect synergy with Relicanth in OU and once again, lays hazards that aid Relicanth in his sweep. In UU, Claydol would have to be the best Spinner to pair with Relicanth as he takes the Fighting and Ground attacks that Relicanth hates so much and won't get himself crippled while spinning away the Toxic Spikes.</p>
<p>Sandstorm support from Hippowdon or Tyranitar in OU, or Hippopotas in UU can help Relicanth's sweep go much smoother. The reason is that Relicanth gets a 50% boost due to being a Rock-type, giving his sub-par 166 Special Defense stat a boost up to 249. This makes Relicanth into a very bulky sweeper, making it a lot easier to come in and set up a Rock Polish.</p>
<p>Scizor is a particularly good teammate in OU, because he not only kills off some very threatening Choice Scarf users such as Gengar, but his slower U-turn can give Relicanth a free turn to set up Rock Polish. In addition, they support each other's weaknesses very well. Scizor can also take care of Cresselia, one of the few Pokemon who can stomach a non-resisted Head Smash for under 50%. Latias is a very good teammate as well. She supports Relicanth's weaknesses very well, and she can easily cripple a lot of Relicanth's counters. Swampert can be taken down by Grass Knot, Hippowdon by Surf, and a wall can be crippled by Trick if she's of the Choice Scarf variation. Magneton is a particularly good teammate in UU for getting rid of Registeel and Steelix, both of whom can cripple Relicanth's sweep. Magneton can also kill Poliwrath, Relicanth's nemesis, with a STAB Thunderbolt.</p>
[SET]
name: CBCanth
move 1: Head Smash
move 2: Waterfall / Aqua Tail
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Double-Edge
item: Choice Band
ability: Rock Head
nature: Adamant
evs: 116 HP / 252 Atk / 140 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>While the preceding set was designed for sweeping, this set is designed for punching massive holes in the opponent's team. Once again, this set works very well both in OU and UU. This works like a regular bulky Choice Bander; bring it out against a Pokemon it can scare off and fire an attack off to hit the incoming switch in hard.</p>
<p>Head Smash, once again, is the main attack here. The Head Smash from this set is 97.4% as powerful as a max Attack Choice Band Rampardos Stone Edge - the most powerful Stone Edge in the game. Any wall that doesn't have a resistance to Rock is facing a 2HKO at minimum with Stealth Rock up, and most walls that have a resistance to Rock are weak to Waterfall or Earthquake, especially in OU. Aqua Tail can work in place of Waterfall if you want power over accuracy, though a mere 10 base power difference may not be worth it. Double-Edge is mostly a filler attack, but it can hurt Breloom a bit more than Head Smash and has perfect accuracy too.</p>
<p>The EVs on this set allow Relicanth to outspeed the standard Skarmory so it can't stall out Head Smash with Roost. In fact, even with max HP and max Defense EVs it still faces a guaranteed 2HKO without Stealth Rock if it switches in. The remaining EVs were dumped into HP after maxing Attack for a combination of strength and bulkiness. In UU, a better spread would be 44 HP/252 Atk/212 Spe with an Adamant nature. This allows Relicanth to outspeed everything up to the standard Milotic, which is 2HKOed on the switch in.</p>
<p>Once again, Sandstorm support works very well with CBCanth. This lets him not only come in on many more attacks, but it also lets him stay in on special attackers instead of having to switch out at the sight of them, which he most certainly can't do very well without the Sand support. Although absorption of Toxic Spikes isn't as important on this set, Roserade is still a very good partner for taking down Relicanth's main counters in Swampert, Quagsire, and Poliwrath, in addition to being resistant to a large amount of Relicanth's weaknesses.</p>
<p>U-turn support for this set is a great idea, since it helps Relicanth come in on things it has a much bigger advantage on, therefore scaring them away and landing a big hit to whatever switches in. Scizor is by far the best choice for this in OU, since it attracts Pokemon with Fire attacks like a vaccum, which happens to be Relicanth's 4x resistance. Scizor can easily come in and do it again if something tries to attack Relicanth with Grass attacks, since Scizor 4x resists that. His U-turn also does a very good job at softening the switch in for Relicanth, which can easily change that 2HKO into a OHKO. Scyther (with Rapid Spin support), does the job very well in UU. He not only has the second most powerful U-turn in the game but also resists 3 of Relicanth's major weaknesses, working in a similar way to Scizor. If there doesn't happen to be Rapid Spin support, Uxie and Mesprit can do the U-turning. They both resist Relicanth's weaknesses pretty well, although they don't resist Grass and therefore still take boatloads from Leaf Storm. They can also provide the Stealth Rock support which CBCanth needs to guarantee most of its OHKOs and 2HKOs.</p>
[SET]
name: RestTalk
move 1: Rest
move 2: Sleep Talk
move 3: Head Smash
move 4: Waterfall / Earthquake
item: Leftovers
ability: Rock Head
nature: Adamant
evs:
[SET COMMENTS]
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
[SET]
name: SubYawn
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Yawn
move 3: Head Smash
move 4: Waterfall
item: Leftovers
ability: Rock Head
nature: Careful
evs: 252 HP / 32 Atk / 224 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
[Team Options]
<p></p>
[Other Options]
<p></p>
[EVs]
<p></p>
[Opinion]
<p></p>
[Counters]
<p></p>
-----------------------------------------
Thanks guys.