Underrated Movesets In OU

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Introduction

Many players tend to use standard sets on Pokémon because they're, well, standard. As such, many players begin to prepare for the ordinary sets that they are used to seeing every day when battling, thus leading to a cycle. To break this cycle, some players choose to use underused and innovative sets that turn most common answers to a Pokémon into targets. Sets like these are also able to function differently and provide different roles on a team. These sets also induce a surprise factor in that the opponent, most of the time, will not be prepared for such sets, as they are usually prepared for the standard sets that the Pokémon carries. A good example of this would be Solar Beam Heatran. Many players rely on Water-types such as Azumarill and Rotom-W to act as a Heatran check. However, Power Herb on Heatran allows it to use Solar Beam in one turn and strike both these Pokémon for great damage. In this article, I will be listing many different sets that are underrated in OU. Without further ado, let's get into it.

Stallbreaker Mega Pidgeot

Pidgeot @ Pidgeotite
Ability: Big Pecks
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Hurricane
-Work Up
-Refresh
-Roost

Mega Pidgeot has been often resigned to one role: an offensive special attacker that can freely spam perfectly accurate STAB Hurricane and Heat Wave and be one of the biggest threats to offensive teams. However, this is not the case with stall and bulkier teams. Pidgeot often finds itself stopped by almost all special walls found on stall teams, namely Cresselia and Chansey, as they can stomach a Hurricane and status Pidgeot or inflict damage on it. However, this set has the twist of turning stall into complete bait while still being rather good against offense. The idea of the set is that Pidgeot comes in and begins to continuously set up Work Up to boost its Special Attack and deal great damage with Hurricane. Any attempt of the opposing team to status Pidgeot is completely invalidated by Refresh, which cures the status and allows Pidgeot to set up Work Up much more safely. Damage from stall isn't a problem at all, as stall teams rarely have any offensive presence in the first place; because of this, Roost is an excellent move on this set, allowing Pidgeot to continuously set up Work Up to eventually sweep the opposing team with ridiculously powerful Hurricanes. In summary, the set is meant to ignore both status and damage from stall teams and to eventually destroy the opposing team with Hurricane.

Mixed Defensive Slowking

Slowking @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 184 Def / 76 SpD
Calm Nature
-Scald
-Psyshock / Fire Blast
-Toxic / Thunder Wave / Dragon Tail
-Slack Off

Slowking at first might not seem to have much over Slowbro apart from significantly higher special bulk. They share the same typing, amazing ability in Regenerator, and exact same stats only with the defenses being swapped; Slowbro's defensive stats are 110 Defense / 80 Special Defense while Slowking's are 80 Defense / 110 Special Defense. Due to the fact that Slowbro's typing allows it to check and counter a significantly higher number of physical attackers, Slowking has found itself left in the dust as the inferior of the royal hermits, resorting to being a special tank equipped with Assault Vest—and an amazing one at that.

Because of this, mixed defensive Slowking may come off to be a sketchy set that seems better done by Slowbro. However, this is most certainly not the case. Slowking's excellent typing shared with Slowbro and decent 95 / 80 physical bulk coupled with top-notch 110 Special Defense allow it to check a plethora of both physical and special attackers in one teamslot. With mixed defensive EVs, Slowking takes many physical and special attacks extremely well. For example, Slowking completely counters one of the top-tier physical attackers in OU, Mega Metagross, due to being resistant to both of its STAB types and taking nearly nothing from Grass Knot, no questions asked. The EVs allow Slowking to check many physical and special attackers. They let it avoid the 2HKO from Mega Lopunny's Return after Stealth Rock damage, Mega Metagross's Meteor Mash even if it gets an Attack boost from Meteor Mash, Timid Mega Diancie's Moonblast, and Timid Mega Gardevoir's Hyper Voice; the EVs also always let it survive one Thunderbolt from Life Orb Thundurus after Stealth Rock damage. In return, Slowking can stall out the damage with Slack Off, attack, or cripple the foe with Thunder Wave. These are all Pokémon that Slowking can beat over Slowbro, making it a very viable candidate for teams that require its utility.

Belly Drum Chesnaught

Chesaught @ Salac Berry
Ability: Overgrow / Bulletproof
EVs: 12 HP / 244 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Substitute
-Belly Drum
-Seed Bomb
-Drain Punch

Chesnaught is often looked at as one of the best physical Spikes setters and physical checks in the tier; the fact that it can counter many physical attackers and most rain teams coupled with an amazing ability that gives it immunity to many crucial attacks such as Shadow Ball and Focus Blast makes it an exceptional addition to most stall and bulky teams.

However, what most people tend to overlook is Chesnaught's meaty base 107 Attack stat, which leaves it as one of the only of two physical Grass-types in OU. Furthermore, Chesnaught's access to Bully Drum allows it to bolster its physical Attack to monstrous levels. With some innovation, Belly Drum Chesnaught was created. The combination of Substitute + Belly Drum + Salac Berry allows Chesnaught to potentially have +6 Attack and +1 Speed behind a Substitute. The general way of setting this up is by using Substitute on a Pokémon that Chesnaught usually checks, such as Rotom-W, and then using Belly Drum, which, thanks to the 12 HP EVs, will activate Salac Berry. From there, Chesnaught can begin sweeping with the combination of Seed Bomb and Drain Punch, with the latter recovering its health throughout its sweep.

Mixed Victini

Victini @ Life Orb / Expert Belt
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest / Naughty Nature
-Blue Flare / V-create
-Thunder
-Glaciate
-Focus Blast

Victini's solid base 100 stats across the board let it potentially perform a multitude of roles. However, Victini usually finds itself running a physical set that utilizes its best STAB and insanely powerful attack: V-create. This set lures in many Pokémon such as Suicune, Slowbro, defensive Garchomp, defensive Landorus-T, Mega Charizard X, and Heatran.

Due to the multitude of special attacks and great coverage Victini receives, a special set is completely viable. This set aims to lure in the checks and counters to the physical set and hit them with the appropriate special move. It's not uncommon for an opposing player to overconfidently send in their Garchomp, aiming to eat up a V-create, only to have it get OHKOed by a Glaciate. This set also fills many roles apart from luring in typical checks; it packs a good offensive presence for a special Fire-type and sets itself apart from other special attackers in that it has much better coverage and hits literally every Pokémon for neutral damage, making it a good candidate on teams that can use a special Fire-type.

Rock Polish Metagross

Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Rock Polish
-Meteor Mash
-Zen Headbutt
-Hammer Arm

Mega Metagross is known for one and only one role: being a ridiculously powerful physical attacker that deals heavy damage to almost everything, bar Pokémon found on stall teams such as Slowbro and Bronzong. As a fast wallbreaker, Mega Metagross has an amazing combination of intense physical bulk, ridiculously high Attack coupled with Tough Claws, and high Speed that is almost unmatched. However, while Mega Metagross is a very one-dimensional Pokémon, it still can run a viable Rock Polish set as a late-game sweeper. Rock Polish Mega Metagross sets itself apart from other physical sweepers in that it hits just hard enough with an Adamant nature and Tough Claws to finish off most weakened Pokémon on offense easily. A very straightfoward set, Rock Polish Metagross finds merit on teams that require a win condition and don't have a Mega Pokémon.

Offensive Solar Beam Heatran

Heatran @ Power Herb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 12 HP / 244 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Stealth Rock
-Lava Plume
-Solar Beam
-Taunt / Earth Power

While this set might be a bit more of a lure than an underrated set in its entirety, Power Herb is a criminally underused and underrated set that has significant use. The basic idea of the set is that some of the best switch-ins to Heatran are Water-types, most notably Azumarill and Keldeo. After Stealth Rock is set, Heatran can function as one of the best Grass-type switch-ins in the tier. Because of this, Heatran will usually a Grass-type to switch to a Water-type. Given that the user predicts correctly, the Water-type will come in only to be OHKOed or severely weakened by a super effective 120 Base Power Solar Beam, making it no more than a bad switch-in.

Relevant calcs of Solar Beam:

244 SpA Heatran Solar Beam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Keldeo: 282-334 (87.3 - 103.4%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
244 SpA Heatran Solar Beam vs. 88 HP / 0 SpD Azumarill: 314-370 (86.5 - 101.9%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
244 SpA Heatran Solar Beam vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Rotom-W: 246-290 (81.1 - 95.7%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
244 SpA Heatran Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Slowbro: 314-370 (79.6 - 93.9%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

Because of Solar Beam, Heatran overcomes its biggest checks and counters and simply turns them into targets.

Conclusion

One of the worst misconceptions about underrated sets is that they are inherently worse than regular standard sets—this is not true at all. Underrated sets, in fact, might perform better than standard sets due to the fact that they're much less prepared for; however, all sets perform their best under certain circumstances, and these sets are no different.

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