Claw Sharpen
Type: Dark
Category: Other
PP: 15
Accuracy: --
Base Power: --
Effect: Raises the user's Attack and Accuracy one stage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As boosting moves go, Claw Sharpen is pretty mediocre. Accuracy boosting/reducing moves have been proven by every previous generation to be insubstantial for the most part, and Claw Sharpen is pretty much outclassed by every other move that boosts Attack plus something else. So even though there are a lot of things that learn it, very few Pokemon can make good use of it... however, there ARE a few very niche users of the move that can yield quite impressive results.
So, here are some sets highlighting some of the better Claw Sharpen users:
Durant
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Hustle
Nature: Adamant / Jolly
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Claw Sharpen
- X-Scissor
- Iron Head / Stone Edge
- Baton Pass / Thunder Fang
A single Claw Sharpen boost provides a combination of power and accuracy that results in 106% of attacks' regular accuracy, and 2.25x as much Attack, *(Thanks to Jayceja for these calcs)* mitigating Hustle's accuracy problem and providing it with a boost better than Swords Dance in a single turn. Its STAB Attacks will tear some serious holes at this point, but due to Aianto's poor offensive type coverage, it may be forced to Baton Pass the boost when it comes across something it can't damage, like, say... any Steel-type. Thunder Fang is an option in the last slot if you want to attempt to hit Steels, and Stone Edge can be used over Iron Head for extra coverage if you feel like (Stone Edge's notoriously poor accuracy is also fixed slightly as well).
Aerodactyl (suggested by KokoaKiwi)
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Pressure / Tension
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Claw Sharpen
- Stone Edge
- Aqua Tail / Earthquake
- Fire Fang / Ice Fang
With good Attack to be boosted and blazing Speed to abuse it with, Aerodactyl has the perfect offensive stats for a Claw Sharpen sweeper set, all it needs is to find some Choiced Earthquake-using sucker to set up on. Stone Edge's shoddy accuracy is thankfully mitigated as a result of the move, and Aerodactyl has plenty of other high-power and/or low-accuracy attacks that can be further benefitted from the move. Aqua Tail and Fire Fang are among the top choices, as they have excellent coverage with Stone Edge... however, classis Edge-Quake coverage is not to be overlooked, with Fire Fang hitting the only things that resist it. And Ice Fang is always an option for the likes of Garchomp, Landlos, and the many other things that are dreadfully weak to it. The weaknesses of the set are that Aerodactyl is frail and has few immunities or resistances outside of Ground to reliably set up on, and the ever-present weakness of all Aerodactyl sets in its weakness to many common forms of priority. As such, Aerodactyl is another excellent Claw Sharpen reciever for Aianto to pass to, especially since it resists the iron ant's Fire weakness; simply run a fourth attack over Claw Sharpen and let it take Aianto's boosts.
Metagross (suggested by Grammarian)
With the effectiveness of the age-old Agiligross set coming into question, Claw Sharpen Metagross cautiously pokes his head out. It's no Swords Dance, to be sure, but Metragross's natural bulk as a result of his excellent stat spread and typing make it usable as an option to boost this iron titan's reportoire.
Metagross @ Leftovers / Lum Berry / (resistanceBerry)
Ability: Clear Body
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
- Claw Sharpen
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake / Bullet Punch
- Zen Headbutt / Thunderpunch / Bullet Punch
Both of Metagross's STAB moves boast imperfect accuracy, which is mitigated by Claw Sharpen's accuracy boost. With Meteor Mash in particular, this is incredibly useful, as it gives the move a higher chance to hit, and thus a higher chance to boost Gross's Attack-- resulting in a potential Swords Dance-equivalent boost. The other moves mentioned obtain good neutral coverage with Meteor Mash, but it's good to set aside a slot for a boosted Bullet Punch if possible as well, even if it comes at the cost of a little extra coverage over bulky Waters and Skarmory (Thunderpunch) or the Rotom-forme family (Zen Headbutt).
Meloetta (suggested by SJCrew)
Meloetta might seem like an extremely peculiar user of the move. For one thing... it has nothing remotely resembling claws. Furthermore, Meloetta is a specially-inclined attacker-- and using Special attacks on a physically-oriented Claw Sharpen set is a questionable tactic in most cases... But not this one.
Persian
Persian @ Life Orb
Ability: Limber
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Claw Sharpen
- Hypnosis
- Return
- U-Turn
The effects of Claw Sharpen raise Persian's mediocre Attack to impressive levels, making Return really sting like a bitch. The real attraction with using Claw Sharpen on Persian, though, is the 93%-accurate Hypnosis that comes with it-- the most accurate Sleep move in the game outside of Spore. The idea behind this set is to set up Claw Sharpen when possible, then to hit as many non-resistant things with that powerful STAB Return... when something comes in to cockblock it, BAM! Hypnotize them into oblivion, then U-Turn to scout the switch and send in an appropriate counter. It's an excellent strategy for stopping an opponent's momentum while keeping your own. After it has put something to sleep and the element of surprise is lost, however, the it becomes notably less useful. It could be a good Pokemon to use in UU when the tiers stabilize.
Togekiss (suggested by Chameleon)
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Hustle
Nature: Naughty
EVs: 252 Atk / 248 SpA / 8 Spe
- Extremespeed
- Drain Punch
- Shadow Ball
- Flamethrower / Roost
An obvious lacking element on this set is the move this thread is about: Claw Sharpen. This set is listed because it is an excellent recipient for the above user, Aianto. The crux of this set is an Extremespeed that is more than doubled by a combination of Hustle, Claw Sharpen, and Normal STAB- most things that don't resist it are going to go down hard without another say in the matter, and those that do resist it are hit hard by Togekiss' other moves: Drain Punch will hit any Steel or Rock-type Pokemon hoping to wall Extremespeed, and the fact that it is boosted by Claw Sharpen/Hustle and also provides recovery makes it an excellent asset. Shadow Ball, then, is the attack of choice for opposing Ghosts. Fire Blast or Flamethrower is handy to have for extra coverage on Steels, since Togekiss will otherwise have trouble taking down tough Steels such as Skarmory, Forretress, and Scizor. Roost is another option that can be used on the set, prolonging Kiss's survivability by mitigating Life Orb damage and extending its sweep, but utilizing it forces you to sacrifice a coverage move.
Feel free to continue suggesting Claw Sharpen sets; the useful ones will gain a spot in this post to showcase the potential of the move.
Type: Dark
Category: Other
PP: 15
Accuracy: --
Base Power: --
Effect: Raises the user's Attack and Accuracy one stage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As boosting moves go, Claw Sharpen is pretty mediocre. Accuracy boosting/reducing moves have been proven by every previous generation to be insubstantial for the most part, and Claw Sharpen is pretty much outclassed by every other move that boosts Attack plus something else. So even though there are a lot of things that learn it, very few Pokemon can make good use of it... however, there ARE a few very niche users of the move that can yield quite impressive results.
So, here are some sets highlighting some of the better Claw Sharpen users:
Durant
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Hustle
Nature: Adamant / Jolly
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Claw Sharpen
- X-Scissor
- Iron Head / Stone Edge
- Baton Pass / Thunder Fang
A single Claw Sharpen boost provides a combination of power and accuracy that results in 106% of attacks' regular accuracy, and 2.25x as much Attack, *(Thanks to Jayceja for these calcs)* mitigating Hustle's accuracy problem and providing it with a boost better than Swords Dance in a single turn. Its STAB Attacks will tear some serious holes at this point, but due to Aianto's poor offensive type coverage, it may be forced to Baton Pass the boost when it comes across something it can't damage, like, say... any Steel-type. Thunder Fang is an option in the last slot if you want to attempt to hit Steels, and Stone Edge can be used over Iron Head for extra coverage if you feel like (Stone Edge's notoriously poor accuracy is also fixed slightly as well).
Aerodactyl (suggested by KokoaKiwi)
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Pressure / Tension
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Claw Sharpen
- Stone Edge
- Aqua Tail / Earthquake
- Fire Fang / Ice Fang
With good Attack to be boosted and blazing Speed to abuse it with, Aerodactyl has the perfect offensive stats for a Claw Sharpen sweeper set, all it needs is to find some Choiced Earthquake-using sucker to set up on. Stone Edge's shoddy accuracy is thankfully mitigated as a result of the move, and Aerodactyl has plenty of other high-power and/or low-accuracy attacks that can be further benefitted from the move. Aqua Tail and Fire Fang are among the top choices, as they have excellent coverage with Stone Edge... however, classis Edge-Quake coverage is not to be overlooked, with Fire Fang hitting the only things that resist it. And Ice Fang is always an option for the likes of Garchomp, Landlos, and the many other things that are dreadfully weak to it. The weaknesses of the set are that Aerodactyl is frail and has few immunities or resistances outside of Ground to reliably set up on, and the ever-present weakness of all Aerodactyl sets in its weakness to many common forms of priority. As such, Aerodactyl is another excellent Claw Sharpen reciever for Aianto to pass to, especially since it resists the iron ant's Fire weakness; simply run a fourth attack over Claw Sharpen and let it take Aianto's boosts.
Metagross (suggested by Grammarian)
With the effectiveness of the age-old Agiligross set coming into question, Claw Sharpen Metagross cautiously pokes his head out. It's no Swords Dance, to be sure, but Metragross's natural bulk as a result of his excellent stat spread and typing make it usable as an option to boost this iron titan's reportoire.
Metagross @ Leftovers / Lum Berry / (resistanceBerry)
Ability: Clear Body
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
- Claw Sharpen
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake / Bullet Punch
- Zen Headbutt / Thunderpunch / Bullet Punch
Both of Metagross's STAB moves boast imperfect accuracy, which is mitigated by Claw Sharpen's accuracy boost. With Meteor Mash in particular, this is incredibly useful, as it gives the move a higher chance to hit, and thus a higher chance to boost Gross's Attack-- resulting in a potential Swords Dance-equivalent boost. The other moves mentioned obtain good neutral coverage with Meteor Mash, but it's good to set aside a slot for a boosted Bullet Punch if possible as well, even if it comes at the cost of a little extra coverage over bulky Waters and Skarmory (Thunderpunch) or the Rotom-forme family (Zen Headbutt).
Meloetta (suggested by SJCrew)
Meloetta might seem like an extremely peculiar user of the move. For one thing... it has nothing remotely resembling claws. Furthermore, Meloetta is a specially-inclined attacker-- and using Special attacks on a physically-oriented Claw Sharpen set is a questionable tactic in most cases... But not this one.
Persian
Persian @ Life Orb
Ability: Limber
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Claw Sharpen
- Hypnosis
- Return
- U-Turn
The effects of Claw Sharpen raise Persian's mediocre Attack to impressive levels, making Return really sting like a bitch. The real attraction with using Claw Sharpen on Persian, though, is the 93%-accurate Hypnosis that comes with it-- the most accurate Sleep move in the game outside of Spore. The idea behind this set is to set up Claw Sharpen when possible, then to hit as many non-resistant things with that powerful STAB Return... when something comes in to cockblock it, BAM! Hypnotize them into oblivion, then U-Turn to scout the switch and send in an appropriate counter. It's an excellent strategy for stopping an opponent's momentum while keeping your own. After it has put something to sleep and the element of surprise is lost, however, the it becomes notably less useful. It could be a good Pokemon to use in UU when the tiers stabilize.
Togekiss (suggested by Chameleon)
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Hustle
Nature: Naughty
EVs: 252 Atk / 248 SpA / 8 Spe
- Extremespeed
- Drain Punch
- Shadow Ball
- Flamethrower / Roost
An obvious lacking element on this set is the move this thread is about: Claw Sharpen. This set is listed because it is an excellent recipient for the above user, Aianto. The crux of this set is an Extremespeed that is more than doubled by a combination of Hustle, Claw Sharpen, and Normal STAB- most things that don't resist it are going to go down hard without another say in the matter, and those that do resist it are hit hard by Togekiss' other moves: Drain Punch will hit any Steel or Rock-type Pokemon hoping to wall Extremespeed, and the fact that it is boosted by Claw Sharpen/Hustle and also provides recovery makes it an excellent asset. Shadow Ball, then, is the attack of choice for opposing Ghosts. Fire Blast or Flamethrower is handy to have for extra coverage on Steels, since Togekiss will otherwise have trouble taking down tough Steels such as Skarmory, Forretress, and Scizor. Roost is another option that can be used on the set, prolonging Kiss's survivability by mitigating Life Orb damage and extending its sweep, but utilizing it forces you to sacrifice a coverage move.
Feel free to continue suggesting Claw Sharpen sets; the useful ones will gain a spot in this post to showcase the potential of the move.
