Blaziken
02-17-2008, 04:41 AM
Darkrai
Darkrai is unfortunately sitting behind Mewtwo in every one of its stats. Nevertheless Darkrai is an uber and one that can hold its own against the genetic mutant and other ubers. Its stats are nothing less than impressive, backed up by a wonderful movepool. However unlike Mewtwo, Darkrai has the ability to play more than one role, being more than a sweeper. It’s just sad to see such a wonderful pokemon like Darkrai having to follow behind an abomination like Mewtwo. Darkrai though is still a wonderful pokemon but do remember, Darkrai is for fun use only. Many people will decline a battle from Darkrai uses, mainly because it’s an uber.
Choice Specs
Item: Choice Specs/ Expert Belt
Nature: Timid/ Modest
Attacks:
Dark Pulse
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Psychic/ Focus Blast/ Spatial Rend
A very basic way to use Darkrai really. Dark Pulse is 120 power with the STAB. Thunderbolt and Ice Beam will be there for coverage, taking down popular pokemon like Salamence and Gyarados with basically no problems. With its last move, Psychic will cover for one of Darkrai’s weaknesses, fighting while Focus Blast provides more coverage but because of its low accuracy, its not really favored. Spatial Rend here is more of a showoff move than a move designed for damage being that not many people in the world will ever own a Darkrai that knows the move. There’s nothing much to explain here except take out you opponent’s weaknesses with this very special pokemon.
Rating: 9.5/10
Physical Sweeper
Item: Life Orb/ Leftovers
Nature: Jolly
Attacks:
Swords Dance
Taunt/ Dark Void
Return/ Aerial Ace/ X-Scissor/ Brick Break/ Shadow Claw/ Pursuit/ Rock Slide/ Pursuit
Return/ Aerial Ace/ X-Scissor/ Brick Break/ Shadow Claw/ Pursuit/ Rock Slide/ Pursuit
Darkrai doesn’t make a bad physical sweeper with its attack stat peaking at just over 300 with a favorable nature but here, it won’t go past 279. That’s still okay though, especially when you’ve got Swords Dance to double it. However the disappointing thing about Darkrai is that it doesn’t have access to Earthquake, reducing its physical sweeping potential. Return is basically a must, becoming 120 power at most, which is very handy. Aerial Ace takes care of fighting pokemon; one of its weaknesses and X-Scissor breaks down other dark types. Brick Break takes care of rock and normal pokemon who are quite common now. Shadow Claw probably isn’t too necessary but its an option. Pursuit is to catch fleeing opponents, especially when they see and uber like Darkrai. Taunt might be a risky option but many people would want to disable Darkrai’s sweeping abilities and inflict it with status problems. Taunt cancels out those moves as well as giving it an extra turn to raise its power with Swords Dance. Basically a Gyarados type of sweeper and a very useful one.
Rating: 8/10
Supporter
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Modest
Attacks:
Thunder Wave/ Willo-Wisp/ Dark Void
Thunder Wave/ Willo-Wisp/ Dark Void
Haze
Dark Pulse
This version of Darkrai is probably the weakest, boasting the most risk. The weird thing here is that I’ve got two slots with status inflicting moves. The point here is even though for example you use Dark Void and put one of you opponent’s pokemon to sleep, you can still inflict another one of their pokemon with another status problem, which can be very handy when the switch in another. Darkrai isn’t the best of Hazers but with its speed, it might be able to do well. Dark Pulse is just an attack move if Darkrai become your last pokemon. Not the best of Darkrai this but it okay. It though can annoy your opponent bad.
Rating: 6.5/10
Sleeper
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Hasty
Attacks:
Dark Void
Nightmare
Pursuit
Dark Pulse
It’s actually quite hard to ignore Darkrai’s special ability; inflicting your opponent with damage every turn they sleep. Dark Void is the best move to activate this plus Nightmare will inflict your foe with even more damage, about ¼ I think. Most of the time your opponent would want to switch out immediately so that’s where Pursuit comes in handy. Dark Pulse again becomes your main attacking move once you’ve put your foe to sleep.
Rating: 8/10
Special Sweeper
Item: Life Orb
Nature: Timid
Attacks:
Dark Void
Calm Mind
Dark Pulse/ Thunderbolt/ Substitute
Dark Pulse/ Ice Beam/ Substitute
A basic special sweeper of Darkrai. Again Dark Void is a must, giving you a least 1 free turn to set up a Calm Mind if your opponent falls asleep. Calm Mind boosts Darkrai’s special attack power to something far better than impressive. The next part I’ve really liked, having Substitute on Darkrai as it protect Darkrai against many attacks to set up a Calm Mind. Its not an absolutely necessary to have it but it could make your life a lot easier. However be aware that it does limit the amount of coverage Darkrai can have. You can have an effective boltbeamer in there but it’s power won’t be a good as its coverage. Dark Pulse is Darkrai’s best damaging move, packing 120 power. If you want, Calm Mind can also be dropped for something but that means that Substitute will become basically almost useless. Darkrai has plenty of options as a special sweeper, having such a diverse movepool but it sometimes does get hard in choosing moves for Darkrai.
Contests
Contest Type: Cool
Rock Climb
Dark Pulse
Protect
Fling
Yes, you can do the reliable Swords Dance combo if you want but if you want to take a risk, use this set. It could get you more points than the Swords Dance combo but again, its very risky. For this set, you’re trying to earn a lot of points by not just going first. Rock Climb will get you at least 4 points if you go last in a turn which is quite good considering you can get 7 at most. This works the same for Dark Pulse but you have to go first. However earning such a high score means that you’ll most likely perform later in the turn, meaning that if you’ve used Rock Climb in the previous turn, you can’t use it again. Protect is another possible option but if the voltage of all three judges are too high or you want to try something else, use Fling. Fling also gets you a potential of 7 points if you move gets the lowest amount of points in the turn. You earn one point firstly from Fling but the score you get from the judges after all the performances also gets added, meaning that you could have 4 points which is quite high, especially when you’re trying to get the absolute lowest. Also something else that might ruin you is that when you use this move in the Master Rank contest, almost everyone will perform to someone else, giving you the highest score possible without the little boost at the end. That’s why this set is so risky; you might run out of options and be forced to use something else, which might run against you.
Rating: 7.5/10
Type and Strategy:
Being a pure dark type pokemon, Darkrai has the ability to switch into battle quite easily if you can predict when your opponent is going to use a psychic type attack. There’s not much else to explain about its typing, pure dark, no hidden surprises waiting, type wise of course. The best way to take down Darkrai without using an uber is to try and inflict it with status problems. Very few pokemon can outrun Darkrai meaning that very few can effectively battle against it. Jolteon with Substitute might help and also Ninjask. The key thing to watch for in Darkrai is its Dark Void attack, having a 90% chance of putting you to sleep. Even with pokemon that resist sleep inflicting moves are going to have trouble with Darkrai due to the fact that they won’t be able to outrun it and are exposed to Darkrai’s high special attack power. Even pokemon that Sleep Talk can have problems with unreliability with the selection of moves. Darkrai though does have around average defenses meaning that you should be able to take it out within a few shots but again, Dark Void is blocking you from doing so. There is however a weakness on Darkrai. Without a good speed, Darkrai is open to many other powerful pokemon such as Gengar, Weavile and even Heracross. The best way to take out Darkrai is to use a pokemon that can quickly paralyze it, Choice Scarf or have a Trick Room team. To sum all this up, Darkrai is a pokemon that has very few weaknesses and might take 2 or 3 pokemon to bring it down when there’s a Dark Void attack standing in your way.
Ability: Bad Dreams
Darkrai’s ability fits in with its trademark move well. Dark Void has a high chance of putting your opponent to sleep and with its Bad Dreams ability, the foe will lose an eighth of their HP every turn its asleep. But if you don’t have Dark Void, this ability is still quite useful, especially against Sleep Talkers using Rest. One of the only recovery moves for some pokemon is basically less useful and sort of suicidal. Darkrai’s ability overall is a nice touch to this uber style pokemon.
Overall Rating for Darkrai: 9.5/10
Stats
Gender: Genderless
Type: Dark
Species: Pitch-Black Pokemon
Height: 4’11”
Weight: 1113lbs
Weaknesses: Fighting (x2) Bug (x2)
Resistances: Dark (0.5) Ghost (0.5)
Immunities: Psychic
Pokedex Entries:
Diamond- It can lull people to sleep and make them dream. It is active during nights of the new moon.
Pearl- Folklore has it that on moonless nights, this pokemon will make people see horrific nightmares.
Evolution: Does not evolve
Location: New Moon Island (One)
Abilities: Bad Dreams- Foe loses health as they sleep
National Dex No.: 491
Popularity: Mixed (Depending on how people view an uber like Darkrai)
Generation Introduced: 4th
Anime Appearances: 1
Skarmory
3rd Generation
Skarmory is one of the best physical walls out there. Skarmory’s main role in a battle is to really be a Spiker, damaging foes with Spikes related moves. Skarmory also has a quite a decent sweeping movepool but its main role and most popular role in teams is to be a physical wall. Skarmory can cause many problems for a side so its best if you watch out for this steel bird and come prepared to blow away those Spikes.
3rd Generation
Physical Wall
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Impish
Ability: Keen Eye
Attacks:
Whirlwind/ Roar
Spikes
Substitute/ Taunt/ Rest
Drill Peck
A very standard set for Skarmory. Spikes is your main move here, the move that gave Skarmory a reputation of being one of the best physical walls. Having good defense is one thing but when you can also cause large amounts of damage, that’s another. If you’re able to get 3 Spikes attacks away without getting them spun away, every time your opponent sends out a new pokemon that’s not a flying type or has the Levitate ability, they’ll lose ¼ of their health. Considering how many times people need to switch in a battle, that’s fairly dramatic damage. After laying down Spikes, blow your opponent away with Whirlwind for more damage with Spikes. Substitute gives Skarmory some time to actually set up the Spikes routine as well as block any attempt made by special sweepers to take it down. However Taunt is a nice option to prevent opponents from setting up their own Spikes and inflicting status problems but Rest does become Skarmory’s recovery move. Drill Peck is just there for Skarmory to cause some more damage. Sets like this are common for Skarmory but besides this, there’s not much else Skarmory can offer in the 3rd generation. Nevertheless Skarmory is still a powerful pokemon.
Rating: 8.5/10
3rd Generation Contests
Contest Type: Cool
Moves:
Swift
Steel Wing
Counter/ Leer/ Peck
Metal Sound/ Facade
Skarmory was basically built for the cool type contests. Instead of going with the boring Agility and Swift combo people like to use all the time, I’ve comprised something more risky but it’s worth it. As always, if you do manage to go first, Swift would be your move here, giving you at least 6 points. Steel Wing works perfectly if you’re able to predict your opponent’s next move. You’ll gain 6 points if you use Steel Wing directly after someone has used a cool attack. The best pokemon to use this attack after is Ursaring in the Master Rank. This set has been designed to earn you quite a few points and obviously you’d want to keep the points so that’s where Counter comes in handy, to avoid getting jammed once. Leer though is very interesting because if you always go first, stopping your opponents from getting the crowd’s attention might be destructive for them, I know because its been for me. Finally I’m always someone who doesn’t like others gaining the crowd’s attention so either Façade or Metal Sound is good here. These 2 moves work best if you go last, Metal Sound as a jamming move and Façade giving you 6 points if you go last. As said before, Skarmory was built for cool contests but there’s some weaknesses in this set are bad prediction and a lack of useful moves.
Rating: 8/10
Rating for Skarmory in 3rd Generation: 8.5/10
4th Generation
Skarmory in the 4th generation hasn’t changed much. It still plays the role of a physical wall and Spiker but it can do it now with a bit of ease and a higher rate of success. Basically Skarmory is still as lethal and awesome as it was in the 3rd generation if not better.
Physical Wall
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Impish
Ability: Keen Eye
Attacks:
Drill Peck/ Brave
Spikes/ Stealth Rock
Roost
Whirlwind
Again, Skarmory is one of the best physical walls and with a few new toys to play with; Skarmory will be a lot more harder to take down. Firstly, Drill Peck or Brave Bird or is simply there to cause some damage. This is the tricky part, choosing which of these to use, Spikes or Stealth Rock. Stealth Rock has the same effect as Spikes but inflicts damage on your opponent depending how exposed they are to rock attacks. Instead of Rest, Skarmory has obtained a “real” recovery move in Roost, the flying version of Recover. Whirlwind here blows away almost all pokemon and is preferred over Roar because it can hit pokemon who are using Fly. Even though Skarmory has a few new moves, it’s role and how it executes it is no different to the 3rd generation. Still as dangerous as ever.
Rating: 9/10
Physical Sweeper
Item: Like Orb/ Leftovers
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Keen Eye
Attacks:
Brave Bird/ Drill Peck
Swords Dance
Agility/ Taunt/ X-Scissor/ Night Slash/ Steel Wing/ Roost/ Rock Slide
Agility/ Taunt/ X-Scissor/ Night Slash/ Steel Wing/ Roost/ Rock Slide
Many people do overlook Skarmory’s abilities as a sweeper not knowing that Skarmory can actually sweep quite well. With a new addition of Swords Dance, Skarmory can become quite decent, especially against physical sweepers. Brave Bird is your main sweeping move, having 180 power with STAB. The recoil damage though shouldn’t be worried too much but if you want to take the fun out, Drill Peck will be your option. With its 3rd move, Agility might make Skarmory’s sweeping job easier, outrunning pokemon like Salamence. Taunt is to prevent Haze but it does take away a vital move slot for Skarmory. Roost gives Skarmory a bit more durability in battle but again it does take away a vital spot for one of Skarmory’s moves. Make sure though that you have at least 2 attacking moves or else Skarmory wouldn’t really be called a sweeper. Skarmory does have a few good moves it can use to sweep and it does make a rather decent sweeper much there are way better ones out there.
Rating: 7/10
4th Generation Contests
Contest Type: Beauty
Moves:
Swords Dance
Swift
Protect
Assurance
Here we go again with the usual Swords Dance combination. By now everything should be clear to you by now but if it isn’t, Swords Dance doubles your next round score and most likely you’ll end up going first. If you do, Swift gives at least an 8-heart appeal. If you go second, Protect could also get you an 8-heart appeal, depending on the voltage of the judge you’re performing to. Assurance here is something new, doubling your score if you perform last. This gets you at least 4 points if you do perform last. Very basic and very effective is this combination.
Rating: 9/10
Rating of Skarmory in 4th Generation: 9/10
Types:
Skarmory is very well typed, being of steel and flying types. Like most steel pokemon, Skarmory has a good defence. With this type combination, Skarmory only has 2 type weaknesses and resists many other types. It also has 2 immunities making its type combination one of the best in the game. It’s quite hard to bring down a well-trained Skarmory with even special sweepers. Usually if a Skarmory is used on a team, there will be a special wall to block your special attacks from taking down Skarmory. Nor only that but Skarmory can also set up Spikes and Stealth rock effectively as a physical wall, making your job at not only taking it down, but also the rest of your opponent’s side even harder. Even if you do manage to blow away Skarmory’s efforts at Spiking with Rapid Spin, that’s not going to stop Skarmory itself. Even the very best physical sweepers have problems dealing with Skarmory. However Skarmory does have one big weakness, being a steel type pokemon. Magnezone is Skarmory’s biggest threat, carrying Magnet Pull. This ability prevents steel type pokemon from escaping in battle so against the powerful electric type Magnezone, Skarmory is basically screwed. Not only can’t Skarmory survive a powerful Thunderbolt against Magnezone, it can’t real fight back either. The only way for Skarmory to get out of this is for it to hold Shed Shell but that would take away the ever-helpful Leftovers but against Magnezone with such a useful pokemon like Skarmory, it might be worth it. The key thing to remember is that many pokemon can stand up to Skarmory but very few can actually take it down. A Gyarados and Tyranitar with Taunt prevents Skarmory from using Roar or setting up Spikes is also a good option. Beware of many physical sweepers such as Garchomp or Salamence who carry around a Fire Fang or Fire Blast attack to try and neutralize Skarmory. Mixed sweepers can also become a nuisance for Skarmory.
Abilities
Sturdy: Sturdy protects your pokemon from OHKO moves like Horn Drill and Sheer Cold. However this ability won’t be too helpful because many people despise using those moves for 2 reasons. 1. They’re cheap and 2; they have the worst accuracy in the game. But if you do want protection from them and hate to be cheaped, Sturdy would be your ability.
Keen Eye:
Keen Eye isn’t really going to help you out much, preventing your opponents from lowering your accuracy. It is a bit better than Sturdy but again, it isn’t particularly helpful.
Overall Rating for Skarmory: 9/10
Stats
Gender: 50% ♀ / 50% ♂
Type: Steel/ Flying
Species: Armor Bird Pokemon
Height: 5’07”
Weight: 112lbs
Weaknesses: Fire (x2) Electric (x2)
Resistances: Normal, Flying, Psychic, Ghost, Dark, Steel, Dragon (0.5)
Grass, Bug (0.25)
Immunities: Ground, Poison
Pokedex Entries:
Diamond/Pearl – Despite begin clad entirely in hard armor, it flies at speeds over 180mph.
Evolution: Does not evolve
Location: Route 227, Stark Mountain (Uncommon)
Abilities: Sturdy- 1 OHKO moves like Horn Drill Fail
Keen Eye- Foe cannot lower accuracy
National Dex No.: 227
Popularity: Very High
Generation Introduced: 2nd
Anime Appearances: Around 11
Darkrai is unfortunately sitting behind Mewtwo in every one of its stats. Nevertheless Darkrai is an uber and one that can hold its own against the genetic mutant and other ubers. Its stats are nothing less than impressive, backed up by a wonderful movepool. However unlike Mewtwo, Darkrai has the ability to play more than one role, being more than a sweeper. It’s just sad to see such a wonderful pokemon like Darkrai having to follow behind an abomination like Mewtwo. Darkrai though is still a wonderful pokemon but do remember, Darkrai is for fun use only. Many people will decline a battle from Darkrai uses, mainly because it’s an uber.
Choice Specs
Item: Choice Specs/ Expert Belt
Nature: Timid/ Modest
Attacks:
Dark Pulse
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Psychic/ Focus Blast/ Spatial Rend
A very basic way to use Darkrai really. Dark Pulse is 120 power with the STAB. Thunderbolt and Ice Beam will be there for coverage, taking down popular pokemon like Salamence and Gyarados with basically no problems. With its last move, Psychic will cover for one of Darkrai’s weaknesses, fighting while Focus Blast provides more coverage but because of its low accuracy, its not really favored. Spatial Rend here is more of a showoff move than a move designed for damage being that not many people in the world will ever own a Darkrai that knows the move. There’s nothing much to explain here except take out you opponent’s weaknesses with this very special pokemon.
Rating: 9.5/10
Physical Sweeper
Item: Life Orb/ Leftovers
Nature: Jolly
Attacks:
Swords Dance
Taunt/ Dark Void
Return/ Aerial Ace/ X-Scissor/ Brick Break/ Shadow Claw/ Pursuit/ Rock Slide/ Pursuit
Return/ Aerial Ace/ X-Scissor/ Brick Break/ Shadow Claw/ Pursuit/ Rock Slide/ Pursuit
Darkrai doesn’t make a bad physical sweeper with its attack stat peaking at just over 300 with a favorable nature but here, it won’t go past 279. That’s still okay though, especially when you’ve got Swords Dance to double it. However the disappointing thing about Darkrai is that it doesn’t have access to Earthquake, reducing its physical sweeping potential. Return is basically a must, becoming 120 power at most, which is very handy. Aerial Ace takes care of fighting pokemon; one of its weaknesses and X-Scissor breaks down other dark types. Brick Break takes care of rock and normal pokemon who are quite common now. Shadow Claw probably isn’t too necessary but its an option. Pursuit is to catch fleeing opponents, especially when they see and uber like Darkrai. Taunt might be a risky option but many people would want to disable Darkrai’s sweeping abilities and inflict it with status problems. Taunt cancels out those moves as well as giving it an extra turn to raise its power with Swords Dance. Basically a Gyarados type of sweeper and a very useful one.
Rating: 8/10
Supporter
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Modest
Attacks:
Thunder Wave/ Willo-Wisp/ Dark Void
Thunder Wave/ Willo-Wisp/ Dark Void
Haze
Dark Pulse
This version of Darkrai is probably the weakest, boasting the most risk. The weird thing here is that I’ve got two slots with status inflicting moves. The point here is even though for example you use Dark Void and put one of you opponent’s pokemon to sleep, you can still inflict another one of their pokemon with another status problem, which can be very handy when the switch in another. Darkrai isn’t the best of Hazers but with its speed, it might be able to do well. Dark Pulse is just an attack move if Darkrai become your last pokemon. Not the best of Darkrai this but it okay. It though can annoy your opponent bad.
Rating: 6.5/10
Sleeper
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Hasty
Attacks:
Dark Void
Nightmare
Pursuit
Dark Pulse
It’s actually quite hard to ignore Darkrai’s special ability; inflicting your opponent with damage every turn they sleep. Dark Void is the best move to activate this plus Nightmare will inflict your foe with even more damage, about ¼ I think. Most of the time your opponent would want to switch out immediately so that’s where Pursuit comes in handy. Dark Pulse again becomes your main attacking move once you’ve put your foe to sleep.
Rating: 8/10
Special Sweeper
Item: Life Orb
Nature: Timid
Attacks:
Dark Void
Calm Mind
Dark Pulse/ Thunderbolt/ Substitute
Dark Pulse/ Ice Beam/ Substitute
A basic special sweeper of Darkrai. Again Dark Void is a must, giving you a least 1 free turn to set up a Calm Mind if your opponent falls asleep. Calm Mind boosts Darkrai’s special attack power to something far better than impressive. The next part I’ve really liked, having Substitute on Darkrai as it protect Darkrai against many attacks to set up a Calm Mind. Its not an absolutely necessary to have it but it could make your life a lot easier. However be aware that it does limit the amount of coverage Darkrai can have. You can have an effective boltbeamer in there but it’s power won’t be a good as its coverage. Dark Pulse is Darkrai’s best damaging move, packing 120 power. If you want, Calm Mind can also be dropped for something but that means that Substitute will become basically almost useless. Darkrai has plenty of options as a special sweeper, having such a diverse movepool but it sometimes does get hard in choosing moves for Darkrai.
Contests
Contest Type: Cool
Rock Climb
Dark Pulse
Protect
Fling
Yes, you can do the reliable Swords Dance combo if you want but if you want to take a risk, use this set. It could get you more points than the Swords Dance combo but again, its very risky. For this set, you’re trying to earn a lot of points by not just going first. Rock Climb will get you at least 4 points if you go last in a turn which is quite good considering you can get 7 at most. This works the same for Dark Pulse but you have to go first. However earning such a high score means that you’ll most likely perform later in the turn, meaning that if you’ve used Rock Climb in the previous turn, you can’t use it again. Protect is another possible option but if the voltage of all three judges are too high or you want to try something else, use Fling. Fling also gets you a potential of 7 points if you move gets the lowest amount of points in the turn. You earn one point firstly from Fling but the score you get from the judges after all the performances also gets added, meaning that you could have 4 points which is quite high, especially when you’re trying to get the absolute lowest. Also something else that might ruin you is that when you use this move in the Master Rank contest, almost everyone will perform to someone else, giving you the highest score possible without the little boost at the end. That’s why this set is so risky; you might run out of options and be forced to use something else, which might run against you.
Rating: 7.5/10
Type and Strategy:
Being a pure dark type pokemon, Darkrai has the ability to switch into battle quite easily if you can predict when your opponent is going to use a psychic type attack. There’s not much else to explain about its typing, pure dark, no hidden surprises waiting, type wise of course. The best way to take down Darkrai without using an uber is to try and inflict it with status problems. Very few pokemon can outrun Darkrai meaning that very few can effectively battle against it. Jolteon with Substitute might help and also Ninjask. The key thing to watch for in Darkrai is its Dark Void attack, having a 90% chance of putting you to sleep. Even with pokemon that resist sleep inflicting moves are going to have trouble with Darkrai due to the fact that they won’t be able to outrun it and are exposed to Darkrai’s high special attack power. Even pokemon that Sleep Talk can have problems with unreliability with the selection of moves. Darkrai though does have around average defenses meaning that you should be able to take it out within a few shots but again, Dark Void is blocking you from doing so. There is however a weakness on Darkrai. Without a good speed, Darkrai is open to many other powerful pokemon such as Gengar, Weavile and even Heracross. The best way to take out Darkrai is to use a pokemon that can quickly paralyze it, Choice Scarf or have a Trick Room team. To sum all this up, Darkrai is a pokemon that has very few weaknesses and might take 2 or 3 pokemon to bring it down when there’s a Dark Void attack standing in your way.
Ability: Bad Dreams
Darkrai’s ability fits in with its trademark move well. Dark Void has a high chance of putting your opponent to sleep and with its Bad Dreams ability, the foe will lose an eighth of their HP every turn its asleep. But if you don’t have Dark Void, this ability is still quite useful, especially against Sleep Talkers using Rest. One of the only recovery moves for some pokemon is basically less useful and sort of suicidal. Darkrai’s ability overall is a nice touch to this uber style pokemon.
Overall Rating for Darkrai: 9.5/10
Stats
Gender: Genderless
Type: Dark
Species: Pitch-Black Pokemon
Height: 4’11”
Weight: 1113lbs
Weaknesses: Fighting (x2) Bug (x2)
Resistances: Dark (0.5) Ghost (0.5)
Immunities: Psychic
Pokedex Entries:
Diamond- It can lull people to sleep and make them dream. It is active during nights of the new moon.
Pearl- Folklore has it that on moonless nights, this pokemon will make people see horrific nightmares.
Evolution: Does not evolve
Location: New Moon Island (One)
Abilities: Bad Dreams- Foe loses health as they sleep
National Dex No.: 491
Popularity: Mixed (Depending on how people view an uber like Darkrai)
Generation Introduced: 4th
Anime Appearances: 1
Skarmory
3rd Generation
Skarmory is one of the best physical walls out there. Skarmory’s main role in a battle is to really be a Spiker, damaging foes with Spikes related moves. Skarmory also has a quite a decent sweeping movepool but its main role and most popular role in teams is to be a physical wall. Skarmory can cause many problems for a side so its best if you watch out for this steel bird and come prepared to blow away those Spikes.
3rd Generation
Physical Wall
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Impish
Ability: Keen Eye
Attacks:
Whirlwind/ Roar
Spikes
Substitute/ Taunt/ Rest
Drill Peck
A very standard set for Skarmory. Spikes is your main move here, the move that gave Skarmory a reputation of being one of the best physical walls. Having good defense is one thing but when you can also cause large amounts of damage, that’s another. If you’re able to get 3 Spikes attacks away without getting them spun away, every time your opponent sends out a new pokemon that’s not a flying type or has the Levitate ability, they’ll lose ¼ of their health. Considering how many times people need to switch in a battle, that’s fairly dramatic damage. After laying down Spikes, blow your opponent away with Whirlwind for more damage with Spikes. Substitute gives Skarmory some time to actually set up the Spikes routine as well as block any attempt made by special sweepers to take it down. However Taunt is a nice option to prevent opponents from setting up their own Spikes and inflicting status problems but Rest does become Skarmory’s recovery move. Drill Peck is just there for Skarmory to cause some more damage. Sets like this are common for Skarmory but besides this, there’s not much else Skarmory can offer in the 3rd generation. Nevertheless Skarmory is still a powerful pokemon.
Rating: 8.5/10
3rd Generation Contests
Contest Type: Cool
Moves:
Swift
Steel Wing
Counter/ Leer/ Peck
Metal Sound/ Facade
Skarmory was basically built for the cool type contests. Instead of going with the boring Agility and Swift combo people like to use all the time, I’ve comprised something more risky but it’s worth it. As always, if you do manage to go first, Swift would be your move here, giving you at least 6 points. Steel Wing works perfectly if you’re able to predict your opponent’s next move. You’ll gain 6 points if you use Steel Wing directly after someone has used a cool attack. The best pokemon to use this attack after is Ursaring in the Master Rank. This set has been designed to earn you quite a few points and obviously you’d want to keep the points so that’s where Counter comes in handy, to avoid getting jammed once. Leer though is very interesting because if you always go first, stopping your opponents from getting the crowd’s attention might be destructive for them, I know because its been for me. Finally I’m always someone who doesn’t like others gaining the crowd’s attention so either Façade or Metal Sound is good here. These 2 moves work best if you go last, Metal Sound as a jamming move and Façade giving you 6 points if you go last. As said before, Skarmory was built for cool contests but there’s some weaknesses in this set are bad prediction and a lack of useful moves.
Rating: 8/10
Rating for Skarmory in 3rd Generation: 8.5/10
4th Generation
Skarmory in the 4th generation hasn’t changed much. It still plays the role of a physical wall and Spiker but it can do it now with a bit of ease and a higher rate of success. Basically Skarmory is still as lethal and awesome as it was in the 3rd generation if not better.
Physical Wall
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Impish
Ability: Keen Eye
Attacks:
Drill Peck/ Brave
Spikes/ Stealth Rock
Roost
Whirlwind
Again, Skarmory is one of the best physical walls and with a few new toys to play with; Skarmory will be a lot more harder to take down. Firstly, Drill Peck or Brave Bird or is simply there to cause some damage. This is the tricky part, choosing which of these to use, Spikes or Stealth Rock. Stealth Rock has the same effect as Spikes but inflicts damage on your opponent depending how exposed they are to rock attacks. Instead of Rest, Skarmory has obtained a “real” recovery move in Roost, the flying version of Recover. Whirlwind here blows away almost all pokemon and is preferred over Roar because it can hit pokemon who are using Fly. Even though Skarmory has a few new moves, it’s role and how it executes it is no different to the 3rd generation. Still as dangerous as ever.
Rating: 9/10
Physical Sweeper
Item: Like Orb/ Leftovers
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Keen Eye
Attacks:
Brave Bird/ Drill Peck
Swords Dance
Agility/ Taunt/ X-Scissor/ Night Slash/ Steel Wing/ Roost/ Rock Slide
Agility/ Taunt/ X-Scissor/ Night Slash/ Steel Wing/ Roost/ Rock Slide
Many people do overlook Skarmory’s abilities as a sweeper not knowing that Skarmory can actually sweep quite well. With a new addition of Swords Dance, Skarmory can become quite decent, especially against physical sweepers. Brave Bird is your main sweeping move, having 180 power with STAB. The recoil damage though shouldn’t be worried too much but if you want to take the fun out, Drill Peck will be your option. With its 3rd move, Agility might make Skarmory’s sweeping job easier, outrunning pokemon like Salamence. Taunt is to prevent Haze but it does take away a vital move slot for Skarmory. Roost gives Skarmory a bit more durability in battle but again it does take away a vital spot for one of Skarmory’s moves. Make sure though that you have at least 2 attacking moves or else Skarmory wouldn’t really be called a sweeper. Skarmory does have a few good moves it can use to sweep and it does make a rather decent sweeper much there are way better ones out there.
Rating: 7/10
4th Generation Contests
Contest Type: Beauty
Moves:
Swords Dance
Swift
Protect
Assurance
Here we go again with the usual Swords Dance combination. By now everything should be clear to you by now but if it isn’t, Swords Dance doubles your next round score and most likely you’ll end up going first. If you do, Swift gives at least an 8-heart appeal. If you go second, Protect could also get you an 8-heart appeal, depending on the voltage of the judge you’re performing to. Assurance here is something new, doubling your score if you perform last. This gets you at least 4 points if you do perform last. Very basic and very effective is this combination.
Rating: 9/10
Rating of Skarmory in 4th Generation: 9/10
Types:
Skarmory is very well typed, being of steel and flying types. Like most steel pokemon, Skarmory has a good defence. With this type combination, Skarmory only has 2 type weaknesses and resists many other types. It also has 2 immunities making its type combination one of the best in the game. It’s quite hard to bring down a well-trained Skarmory with even special sweepers. Usually if a Skarmory is used on a team, there will be a special wall to block your special attacks from taking down Skarmory. Nor only that but Skarmory can also set up Spikes and Stealth rock effectively as a physical wall, making your job at not only taking it down, but also the rest of your opponent’s side even harder. Even if you do manage to blow away Skarmory’s efforts at Spiking with Rapid Spin, that’s not going to stop Skarmory itself. Even the very best physical sweepers have problems dealing with Skarmory. However Skarmory does have one big weakness, being a steel type pokemon. Magnezone is Skarmory’s biggest threat, carrying Magnet Pull. This ability prevents steel type pokemon from escaping in battle so against the powerful electric type Magnezone, Skarmory is basically screwed. Not only can’t Skarmory survive a powerful Thunderbolt against Magnezone, it can’t real fight back either. The only way for Skarmory to get out of this is for it to hold Shed Shell but that would take away the ever-helpful Leftovers but against Magnezone with such a useful pokemon like Skarmory, it might be worth it. The key thing to remember is that many pokemon can stand up to Skarmory but very few can actually take it down. A Gyarados and Tyranitar with Taunt prevents Skarmory from using Roar or setting up Spikes is also a good option. Beware of many physical sweepers such as Garchomp or Salamence who carry around a Fire Fang or Fire Blast attack to try and neutralize Skarmory. Mixed sweepers can also become a nuisance for Skarmory.
Abilities
Sturdy: Sturdy protects your pokemon from OHKO moves like Horn Drill and Sheer Cold. However this ability won’t be too helpful because many people despise using those moves for 2 reasons. 1. They’re cheap and 2; they have the worst accuracy in the game. But if you do want protection from them and hate to be cheaped, Sturdy would be your ability.
Keen Eye:
Keen Eye isn’t really going to help you out much, preventing your opponents from lowering your accuracy. It is a bit better than Sturdy but again, it isn’t particularly helpful.
Overall Rating for Skarmory: 9/10
Stats
Gender: 50% ♀ / 50% ♂
Type: Steel/ Flying
Species: Armor Bird Pokemon
Height: 5’07”
Weight: 112lbs
Weaknesses: Fire (x2) Electric (x2)
Resistances: Normal, Flying, Psychic, Ghost, Dark, Steel, Dragon (0.5)
Grass, Bug (0.25)
Immunities: Ground, Poison
Pokedex Entries:
Diamond/Pearl – Despite begin clad entirely in hard armor, it flies at speeds over 180mph.
Evolution: Does not evolve
Location: Route 227, Stark Mountain (Uncommon)
Abilities: Sturdy- 1 OHKO moves like Horn Drill Fail
Keen Eye- Foe cannot lower accuracy
National Dex No.: 227
Popularity: Very High
Generation Introduced: 2nd
Anime Appearances: Around 11