Guard Split Accelgor

[JackBNimble]

Hello Smogon Community,

I've been taking advice on competitive battling from Smogon for a while now but finally registered because I'm honestly irritated that nobody has commented on the move Guard Split and how certain Pokemon use it so well, namely Accelgor.

Accelgor's 80/40/60 Defenses when averaged with a hefty tank can become very passable. When stealing Shuckle's defense, Accelgor can be a godlike terror despite his low HP (Which is still higher than Shuckle's.)

In conjunction with this move it also gets Acid Armor, or Curse (not that you'd use it.) Fill in its other moves with Bug Buzz and Focus Blast/Giga-Drain/BP and then you have a shiny new Accelgor with BUFF defenses!

For mine, I didn't invest in defenses, because my goal was to get my opponent's defense as low as possible. I'd like to discuss this. Could Accelgor become the tank-slayer we've been waiting for?

 

[DittoCrow]

This set isn't viable in the RU metagame for a few reasons. Guard Split isn't even that good of a move, especially on Accelgor. Accelgor functions best as a fast special sweeper or spiker, and if you want to run Guard Split + Recover + Acid Armor, you only have one moveslot left which will make Accelgor useless. The Bug typing is also not very good and Accelgor would not do well vs things like Aggron, Moltres or Entei. Also, Shuckle is rarely seen (check the usage stats: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3461635 ). Overall, Guard Split is a non-competitive move and shouldn't be used on an offensive beast such as Accelgor. If you're looking for a "tank-slayer" use something like TR + NP Cofagrigus which is bulky enough to take hits and hit hard after a Nasty Plot. Try testing sets on the ladder before you post stuff so you can provide evidence of something doing well; and welcome to Smogon!