Swords Dance Chien Pao [QC 0/2] [GP 0/1]

[LeBarBURR]

[SET]
name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Icicle Crash
move 3: Crunch / Sacred Sword
move 4: Ice Shard / Sucker Punch
item: Heavy-Duty Boots / Life Orb / Focus Sash
ability: Sword of Ruin
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
tera type: Dark / Ice

[SET COMMENTS]

• Swords Dance makes Chien-Pao immensely threatening, letting it break through common bulky threats such as Ting-Lu, Great Tusk, and Corviknight.
• Icicle Crash threatens Ground-types such as Great Tusk and Ting-Lu, and provides a chance to flinch the opponent.
• Crunch is a strong STAB which can cripple defensive walls with a Defense drop. Sacred Sword is an alternative that deals with targets that may resist both Dark and Ice attacks, such as Kingambit.
• Ice Shard is an invaluable priority move which deal with weakened faster threats such as Choice Scarf Koraidon and Miraidon. Sucker Punch provides a stronger alternative that threatens Iron Bundle and Flutter Mane, but it is more prediction reliant.
• Heavy-Duty Boots is the preferred option, allowing Chien-Pao to switch in all along the game. Life Orb is an option to boosts its offense even further, letting it OHKO physically defensive Corviknight and Toxapex after a Swords Dance and Terastralizing Dark. Focus Sash should only be used on hyper offensive teams, which can keep the hazards out of the field to let Chien-Pao uses Swords Dance safely.
• Tera Dark Chien Pao's Dark-type STABs, allowing it to break through neutral targets such as Garganacl, Corviknight, and Toxapex
• Tera Ice can be used instead to boost Chien Pao's Ice attacks and makes Ice Shard an even better revenge killing option.
• This Chien Pao set could be used in early game to heavily dent the opposition, or late-game setup to clean weakened teams.
• Great Tusk provides Chien Pao a backbone to temporarily check opposing Miraidons & Koraidon, while providing Rapid Spin support if Chien Pao decides to not use Heavy-Duty Boots. In return, Chien Pao threatens Corviknight.
• Skeledirge is also an alternative option if Chien Pao is used on balanced teams, being able to handle most physical threats, especially Scarf Koraidon.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[LeBarBURR, 473574]]
- Quality checked by: [[Eledyr, 415367], [username2, userid2]]
- Grammar checked by: [[username1, userid1]]

 

[ox04]

Never-Melt Ice isn't a real option on Chien Pao from my experience and I strongly recommend against it because if you don't want to take recoil HDB is almost always better. And while I'm at it, HDB is the premiere option in my opinion because it gives you longevity to pivot into weaker attacks like resisted Shadow Balls and it allows you to set up more than once.

I think Miraidon isn't a recommendable teammate for Chien Pao since Miraidon already doesn't have much defensive utility and adding Chien to your team defensive capabilities because having 2 pokemon with barely any defensive utility only makes this problem worse. That's why I would recommend against pairing Chien Pao and Miraidon especially for less experienced team builders, even though it is true that they can be good offensive partners. If you are pairing those 2 I believe that HDB 4 attacks would be better for that role.

I think that depending on your team you can also slot in Sacred Sword over a Dark STAB and run Sucker Punch for priority to fix the weakness to opposing Chien Pao or Kingambit. Throat Chop is mainly quite useless as even if you block Torch Song, you are still getting neutralized by burn so I don't see why you would ever use it over Crunch which can provide a crucial defense drop.

I agree that tera Dark is generally better than tera Ice but for other reasons as well. Primarily the ability to hit so many defensive pokemon for neutral damage and the ability to threaten a lot of faster revenge killers with a OHKO without a power boost from LO like tera Ice would need for Ice Shard.

Another thing to add is that you are going to be very weak to Koraidon that has tera available since not only does it speed tie you, it resists your Dark STAB not terastilized. Tera Fire obviously allows it to resist Ice moves given that you even win the coinflip. As such teammates that can neutralize Koraidon are necessary like Armarouge and Great Tusk for offensive teams and Skeledirge or/and Dondozo for defensive teams. Same goes for tera Fairy Agility and Scarf Miraidon, for that I like AV Iron Treads as it also provides hazard control and a very useful Moonblast switch in for Sub Flutter Mane or if your Chien Pao simply lacks Sucker Punch.

There are some other things to add such as other good partners but this isn't my analysis and I think I helped enough.

 

[Trade]

AMQC:

Throat Chop's uses severely outweigh the sheer lack of power it has in comparison to Crunch, since you need to take into account STAB and Sword of Ruin. I'm not sure how important it is to highlight, but Sword of Ruin is a big part of what makes Chien Pao so terrifying. Due to this, it serves as a good physical wall softener for the team. Therefore, good teammates involve Pokemon that make use of Chien Pao's ability to weaken opposing physical walls. An example of this is Great Tusk, who appreciates Corviknight and opposing Great Tusks being weakened, while also being able to spin hazards and set hazards for Chien Pao. Choice Scarf Koraidon is also a good partner in the same respect.

I agree with Ox that Sacred Sword can be a slash somewhere, and that Nevermelt Ice is inferior to LO/HDB. I also think double priority with Adamant might be something to consider, but as a baseline, the above moveset looks good.

 

[Eledyr]

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QC

[SET]
name: Swords Dance Sweeper
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Icicle Crash / Ice Spinner
move 3: Crunch / Sacred Sword
move 4: Ice Shard / Sucker Punch / Sacred Sword
item: Never-Melt Ice / Heavy-Duty Boots / Life Orb Heavy-Duty Boots / Life Orb / Focus Sash
ability: Sword of Ruin
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
tera type: Dark / Ice

[SET COMMENTS]

• Swords Dance makes Chien-Pao immensely threatening, letting it break through common bulky threats such as Ting-Lu, Great Tusk, and Corviknight.
• Never-Melt Ice allows Chien Pao's Ice attacks to become stronger without any recoil, whereas Life Orb boost any of its attacks for a fierce damage output in exchange for taking 10% chip damage of its own health.
• Heavy-Duty Boots provides Chien Pao more longevity and prevents hazards from exacerbating its frailty.
• Icicle Crash threatens Ground-types such as Great Tusk and Ting-Lu, and provides a chance to flinch the opponent. while not being a contact move makes it a better option, but due to its accuracy, Ice Spinner serves as the sole option of having a perfectly accurate Ice STAB. (the QC team insist that Icicle Crash should be the only Ice STAB slashed.) Crunch is a strong STAB which can cripple defensive walls with a Defense drop. Sacred Sword, instead, deals with targets that may resist both Dark and Ice attacks, such as Kingambit.
• Crunch is the preferred option , having a chance to drop the opposition's defense.
• Ice Shard tends to be a desired option due to being a consistent priority move in finishing weakened opponents. is a useful priority move which deal with weakened faster threats such as Choice Scarf Koraidon and Miraidon. Sucker Punch provides a stronger alternative that threatens Iron Bundle and Flutter Mane, but it is more prediction reliant.
• Heavy-Duty Boots is the preferred option, allowing Chien-Pao to switch in all along the game. Life Orb is an option to boosts its offense even further, letting it OHKO physically defensive Corviknight and Toxapex after a Swords Dance and Terastralizing Dark. Focus Sash should only be used on hyper offensive teams, which can keep the hazards out of the field to let Chien-Pao uses Swords Dance safely.
• Sucker Punch provides a stronger alternative in exchange for being heavily prediction reliant
• Sacred Sword gives it a safety precaution to deal with targets that may resist both Dark and Ice attacks, such as Kingambit. The lack of priority however, means Chien Pao is susceptible to being outsped by other faster threats and opposing priority moves.
• Tera Dark provides Chien Pao a complimentary boosts Chien Pao's Dark-type STABs, allowing it to break through neutral targets such as Garganacl, Corviknight, and Toxapex. that would breakthrough threats that otherwise Ice attacks would not be able to, mainly Dondozo and Palafin. Tera Ice can be used instead to boost Chien Pao's Ice attacks and makes Ice Shard an even better revenge killing option.
• This Chien Pao set could should be used quite early in early game to massively dent dents to the opposition, or lategame as a late-game setup clean up sweeper to clean a weakened team. anything surviving a heavy onslaught from Chien Pao's teammates and its in need of its massive speed and power to finish them off. (reworded + removed the fluff)
• Great Tusk provides Chien Pao a backbone to check temporarily prevent certain types of opposing Miraidon and Koraidon Miraidons & Koraidons from causing devastating damage, while providing providng anti-hazard support through Rapid Spin if Chien Pao decides to not use Heavy-Duty Boots. In return, Chien Pao threatens Corviknight.
• Skeledirge is also an alternative option if Chien Pao is used on balanced defensive teams, being able to handle most physical threats, especially Scarf Koraidon.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[LeBarBURR, 473574]]
- Quality checked by: [[Eledyr, 415367], [username2, userid2]]
- Grammar checked by: [[username1, userid1]]

Implement this carefully. Not giving QC for the moment, tag me once it's done, so I can be sure everything is implemented.

 

[Lasen]

I am gonna re-assign this. Eledyr would have to be credited as the sole writer for this analysis as every sentence besides has at least 1 major correction, if not straight up removed. Two AM checks have been given which were not properly implemented and the work needed to get two full checks would be too much. I've spoken to Fc about this and we agree this is the best way forward.