Hawlucha (Fighting) [QC 1/3] [GP 0/2]

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Namranan

:)))))))))))
[Overview]

Fighting

========

* Hawlucha has a solid niche on fighting teams as it helps pressure Grass and Bug types like Mega-Venusaur and Armaldo respectively with its powerful STAB combination.
* With its impressive 118 Speed stat paired with Unburden, Hawlucha outspeeds a large portion of the metagame including most Choice Scarfed revenge killers like Terrakion, Gengar, and Sand Rush Excadrill after Unburden activates.
* Outside of Unburden, Hawlucha can still outspeed and threaten Pokemon like Scolipede and Gallade-Mega.
* With access to powerful dual stab moves in High Jump Kick and Acrobatics, it can serve as a powerful cleaner in some of Fighting's matchups like Dark, Grass, Bug and even Steel.
* On top of this, Hawlucha utilizes Substitute and Swords Dance in order to set up in front of walls and double its power in order to become a huge threat.
* Its Flying typing also allows Fighting to not only have an immunity to ground attacks, but it also gives fighting an immunity to most hazards like Toxic Spikes and Sticky Web, which can be immensely useful when dealing with types that utilize hazards such as Poison and Bug as Fighting lacks any reliable hazard removal.
* Hawlucha sports a horrendous 78 / 75 / 63 bulk which does not allow it to survive many attacks, however because of its typing it is able to resist some moves used against Fighting like Grass.
* It can also survive most weak filler moves such as Toxapex’s scald and and Klefki’s foul play (so long as you don’t have too many Swords Dance Boosts).
* Despite these perks, Hawlucha fights for a teamslot on fighting with Heracross due to Heracross being a more reliable revenge killer with no setup and assisting with the Psychic matchup better than Hawlucha.

[Set]
name: Sub + SD
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Acrobatics
move 3: High Jump Kick
move 4: Swords Dance
item: Sitrus Berry
ability: Unburden
nature: Jolly
evs: 244 Atk / 12 HP / 252 Spe

[Set Comments]

Moves
========


* Substitute is used to help lower Hawlucha’s HP so that the Sitrus berry can be consumed and therefore activate Unburden and boost Acrobatics’ power. This can also be used to avoid status moves like Will-o-Wisp and Thunder Wave.
* Acrobatics is Hawlucha’s main flying type STAB and once boosted by the consumption of its Sitrus Berry it immediately doubles in power allowing Hawlucha to OHKO most Grass and Bug Pokemon like Tapu Bulu and Volcarona.
* High Jump Kick is Hawlucha’s secondary STAB move that also packs a punch against Pokemon like Nihilego and Greninja.
* If Hawlucha adds a Swords Dance to either of its moves they become a very threatening STAB combo that can OHKO the likes of Mega-Venusaur and Muk-Alola.

Set Details
========

*12 HP evs are used to maximize the durability of Hawlucha's Substitute against weak moves.
* Its EV spread is used to maximize power and speed and always runs a Jolly nature due to how crucial its speed tier is when revenge killing Pokemon like Keldeo and Mega-gallade without Unburden.
* Sitrus Berry is the preferred berry of choice to minimize the amount of turns needed to set up and provide a beneficial increase to Hawlucha's health. This early consumption also helps double Acrobatics' power and activate Unburden.


Usage Tips
=======

* Hawlucha works best as a late-game sweeper, aiming to clean up teams once defensive threats such as Landorus-T, and Toxapex have been eliminated or sufficiently weakened.
* It is necessary to preserve Hawlucha's Sitrus Berry until this time because otherwise, as Hawlucha will not be able to tap into its Unburden ability after switching out when it has activated. Without it Hawlucha is not able to outspeed certain threats to fighting like Sand Rush Excadrill and Choice Scarf Gengar.
* The small health boost from the Sitrus Berry allows Hawlucha to be able to potentially set up Substitute again or to live a weak attack in order to get a kill in return.
* Sending in Hawlucha against defensively passive Pokemon like Cradily, Utility Mew, and Gliscor allows Hawlucha to get a free Swords Dance as they either switch out or continue to try and break the Substitute.
* Refrain from sending Hawlucha into strong attacks as it cannot take good hits due to its lackluster bulk, instead reserve it for revenge killing.
* Also refrain from sending Hawlucha into status users or scald users as any status ailment can cripple Hawlucha severely.
* Be wary of Pokemon that use Protect when you need to use High Jump Kick, as the crash damage will severely dent Hawlucha.



Team Options
=======

* Cobalion is a staple on fighting teams and helps Hawlucha immensely by slowing down threats with Thunder Wave and weakening them with Stealth Rock. This is notably helpful in the bug matchup as Hawlucha will be able to OHKO most bug types like Galvantula after Stealth Rock without a Swords Dance boost.

* Mega-Gallade helps eliminate Pokemon like Toxapex that would otherwise generally make Hawlucha's job harder to pull off.

* Keldeo can assist with getting rid of physical walls that would give Hawlucha a hard time such as Avalugg, Skarmory, and Sableye-Mega. It also helps serve as a way of dealing with Mega-Scizor.

* Choice Scarfed Terrakion outspeeds common threats to Hawlucha such as Choice Scarfed Togekiss, Life Orb Greninja, and Choice Scarfed Victini. Terrakion also has the coverage to help KO Zapdos, Tapu Koko, and Mega-Diancie, who otherwise give Hawlucha a hard time.

* Breloom can put Pokemon to sleep, giving Hawlucha an opportunity to set up. It can also eliminate some problematic Pokemon like Hippowdon and Slowbro with its Grass coverage. Breloom's access to Mach Punch allows it to OHKO threats to Hawlucha like Choice Band Diggersby and Choice Scarfed Greninja without needing to worry about speed because of its priority.

* Choice Band Infernape can help poke holes through teams by eliminating defensive Pokemon like Celesteela and Chansey, which allows Hawlucha to sweep with less risk.

* Despite fighting for a teamslot, Choice Scarfed Heracross can be used with Hawlucha as it can help ease the Psychic matchup by eliminating threats like Mewnium Z Mew and Life Orb Latios with its powerful Bug type STAB.

[Strategy Comments]

Other Options
=======

Fighting
---------

* Drain punch is an option over High Jump Kick for more consistent accuracy. However by doing this Hawlucha will miss out on some crucial KO’s such as eliminating Excadrill and Mamoswine without a Swords Dance boost.

Checks and Counters
===============

Fighting
---------

**Priority Users**: Pokemon like Mega-Scizor and Dragonite threaten Hawlucha with their powerful priority moves as Hawlucha lacks in the bulk department, especially if Hawlucha has already set up.


**Physically Defensive Pokemon**: Pokemon like Clefable, Mandibuzz, and Zapdos can take hits from Hawlucha and wear it down with super effective STAB attacks as well as recover their lost health with recovery moves.

**Haze and Phase**: Pokemon like Hippowdon, Skarmory, and Toxapex can deal with Hawlucha's STAB combo even after a Swords Dance. On top of that, these Pokemon can also choose to use Haze away Hawlucha's Swords Dance boosts, Roar/Whirlwind Hawlucha out of the fight and negate Unburden if activated, or use Recover to continue to take hits from Hawlucha.

**Offensive Pokemon**: Many revenge killers can eliminate Hawlucha if it has not yet activated Unburden or have a Substitute up due to its lack of bulk. Pokemon like Sand Rush Excadrill, Choice Scarfed Nihilego, Choice Scarfed Togekiss and Life Orb Greninja can OHKO Hawlucha when there is no Substitute present.
 
Last edited:

Moosical

big yikes
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[Overview]

Fighting

========

* Hawlucha has a solid niche on fighting teams as it helps pressure Grass- and Bug-types teams by pressuring Pokemon like Mega-Venusaur and Armaldo respectively with its powerful STAB combination.
* With its impressive 118 speed stat paired with Unburden, Hawlucha outspeeds a large portion of the metagame including most scarfed revenge killers like Terrakion, Gengar, and Sand Rush Excadrill after Unburden activates. Also talk about what it outspeeds and threatens before unburden activates.
* With access to powerful dual stab moves in High Jump Kick and Acrobatics, it can serve as a powerful cleaner in some of Fightings matchups like Dark, Grass, Bug and even Steel.
* On top of this, Hawlucha utilizes Substitute and Swords Dance in order to set up in front of walls and double its power in order to become a huge threat.
* Its Flying typing also allows Fighting to have an immunity to most hazards like Toxic Spikes and Sticky Web, which can be immensely useful when dealing with types that utilize hazards such as Poison and Bug as Fighting lacks any reliable hazard removal. Immunity to ground type attacks
* Hawlucha sports a horrendous 78 / 75 / 63 bulk which does not allow it to survive many attacks, however because of its typing it is able to resist some moves used against Fighting like Grass.
* It can also survive most weak filler moves such as Toxapex’s scald and and Klefki’s foul play (so long as you don’t have too many Swords Dance Boosts).
* Despite these perks, Hawlucha fights for a teamslot on fighting with Heracross due to Heracross being a more reliable revenge killer with no setup and assisting with the Psychic matchup better than Hawlucha.
* However, Heracross does not help outspeed other scarfed threats to fighting like Scarfed Excadrill on Steel, which is why Hawlucha is run over it sometimes as it relieves pressure on Terrakion in certain Matchups. Remove this

[Set]
name: Sub + SD
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Acrobatics
move 3: High Jump Kick
move 4: Swords Dance
item: Sitrus Berry
ability: Unburden
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
ivs : 30 HP

Change this to the 12 hp / 244 att / 252 spe with 31 hp ivs set, unless you can give examples of what 252 attack KOs consistently that 244 attack doesn't - in general the higher HP sub can be more useful. Change this in set details as well.

[Set Comments]

Moves
========


* Substitute is used to help lower Hawlucha’s HP so that the Sitrus berry can be consumed and therefore activate Unburden and boost Acrobatics’ power. Also dodging status moves like Will-o-Wisp and Thunder wave.
* Acrobatics is Hawlucha’s main flying type STAB and once boosted by the consumption of its Sitrus Berry it immediately doubles in power allowing Hawlucha to OHKO most grass and bug mons like Whimsicott and Volcarona. Change whimsicott to something else.
* High Jump Kick is Hawlucha’s secondary STAB move that also packs a punch against Pokemon like Nihilego and Greninja.
* If Hawlucha adds a Swords Dance to either of its moves they become a very threatening STAB combo that can OHKO the likes of Mega-Venusaur and Muk-Alola and outspeed and OHKO Pokemon like Choice Scarfed Victini, Choice Scarfed Greninja, and Choice Scarfed Gengar with Unburden.

Set Details
========

* 12 HP
* Its EV spread is used to maximize power and speed and always runs a Jolly nature due to how crucial its speed tier is when revenge killing Pokemon like Keldeo and Mega-gallade without Unburden.
* Sitrus Berry is the preferred berry of choice to minimize the amount of turns needed to set up and provide a beneficial increase to Hawlucha's health. Talk about activating unburden.
* 30 IV's in HP allows Hawlucha to minimize the amount of turns it takes to set up from 3 to 2. Remove


Usage Tips
=======

* Hawlucha works best as a late-game sweeper, aiming to clean up teams once defensive threats such as Landorus-T, and Toxapex have been eliminated or sufficiently weakened.
* It is necessary to preserve Hawlucha's Sitrus Berry until this time because otherwise, Hawlucha will not be able to tap into its Unburden ability and be able to outspeed certain threats to fighting like Sand Rush Excadrill and Scarfed Heracross. Reword to say switching out after Unburden activates, makes you unable to activity it for the rest of the battle, also change Heracross to something else.
* The small health boost from the Sitrus Berry allows Hawlucha to be able to potentially set up Substitute again or to live a weak attack in order to get a kill in return.
* Sending in Hawlucha against passive Pokemon like cradily, utility Mew, and Torkoal allows Hawlucha to get a free Swords Dance as they either switch out or countinue to try and break the sub. Remove torkoal from this list - you can't OHKO it even at +2 and it can 2hko with lava plume. Also, change this to talk about looking for opportunities to set up on defensive Pokemon that don't threaten Hawlucha
*Avoiding switching in to strong attacks because it's frail, and should be preserved to revenge kill / revenge set up.
*Priority
*Not hard switching into pokemon with status/scald


Team Options
=======

* Cobalion is a staple on fighting teams and helps Hawlucha immensely by slowing down threats with Thunder Wave and weakening them with Stealth Rock. This is notably helpful in the bug matchup as Hawlucha will be able to OHKO most bug types like Galvantula after Stealth Rock without a Swords Dance boost.

* Mega-Gallade helps eliminate Pokemon like Toxapex that would otherwise generally make Hawlucha's job harder to pull off.

* Keldeo can assist with getting rid of physical walls that would give Hawlucha a hard time such as Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Sableye-Mega. It also helps serve as a way of dealing with Mega-Scizor. Remove Ferrothorn from this list, add something else.

* Hawlucha can work together with a Choice Scarfed Terrakion to outspeed and eliminate most speedy threats together as Terrakion has some coverage options that Hawlucha cannot afford to run such as Stone Edge for Pokemon like Zapdos and Iron head for Mega-Diancie. Break this up into two sentences, first choice scarf terrak outspeeds common choice scarfed pokemon that threaten hawlucha such as ___, ___, ___. Second, terrakion can provide coverage to help eliminate threats to hawlucha such as Zapdos, Tapu Koko, ___.

* Breloom can Spore down threats put Pokemon to sleep, giving Hawlucha and force them to switch allowing Hawlucha an opportunity to set up easier. It can also eliminate some problematic Pokemon like Hippowdon and Slowbro with its moveset. Grass coverage.
Also talk about mach punch priority.


* Infernape is also an alternate stealth rocker that can support Hawlucha with rocks and weakening major threats with its Focus Sash and Endeavor combo. Choice Band

*Heracross

[Strategy Comments]

Other Options
=======

Fighting
---------

* Drain punch is an option over High Jump Kick for more consistent accuracy. However by doing this Hawlucha will miss out on many crucial KO’s such as eliminating the Normal Eviolite core after a Swords Dance. Give some examples of what you can't KO with drain punch that you can with HJK besides Porygon2 and Chansey - as that would be more relevant to Hawlucha on Flying than on Fighting - as Fighting can beat the core easily.

* 12 evs can be put in Hp by removing 12 evs from Atk in order to give Hawlucha a small amount of extra bulk to make its sub a tiny but more sturdy for weaker hits like Utility Mew's Knock Off and Breloom's unboosted Mach Punch. Remove this, it's the main set. You don't need to mention the 30 hp ivs one unless you can list specific examples of what 252 att beats that 244 doesn't.

Checks and Counters
===============

Fighting
---------

**Priority Users**: Pokemon like Mega-Scizor and Weavile threaten Hawlucha with their powerful STAB priority moves as Hawlucha lacks in the bulk department, especially if Hawlucha has already set up. Change Weavile to Dragonite as it's more relevant.


**Physical Walls**: Pokemon like Clefable, Hippowdon, and Toxapex can take hits from Hawlucha and wear it down with status moves, such as Will-O-Wisp, super effective STAB attacks, Whirlwind/Roar. I would completely remove this point, as the reason those Pokemon may beat Hawlucha are separate from each other. Clefable is the only real one that fits the bill of "living 1 attack and KOing back if Hawlucha doesn't have substitute". If you can think of another example like Clefable, then you can keep this point. If you keep the point, remove status moves as Hawlucha can always sub prior to Will-O-Wisp or Thunder Wave, except vs Prankster Pokemon which is not this point. Also, remove whirlwind/roar as we're making that a separate point.

**Haze and Phase**: Pokemon like Hippowdon, Skarmory, and Toxapex that live +2 attacks and either force Hawlucha away with roar/whirlwind or remove its boost with haze and then recover the lost health. (Obv reword this to more detail)


**Offensive Pokemon**: Many of the revenge killers Hawlucha can eliminate (Excadrill, Nihilego, Heracross to name a few) can also eliminate it if Hawlucha has not yet activated unburden, as it is very frail. This is situational, but if you're going to keep it, you need to reword it - remove the first half, then talk about faster Pokemon that threaten to OHKO Hawlucha prior to unburden such as (4 examples here). (Scarf Heracross can't OHKO Hawlucha from full / after SR damage, which is what this point is making, even at +1).


**Cloyster**: If the Cloyster has a Focus Sash, icicle spear will kill Hawlucha every time even through substitute unless rocks are down and Hawlucha has already set up. Remove this, situational checks (aka sash + skill link) don't need to be listed.

**Crobat**: Crobat can eliminate Hawlucha through its Substitute thanks to Infiltrator if it has not yet set up Unburden. Crobat can also take both of Hawlucha's STAB moves when they are not boosted by Swords Dance and Roost the damage away. Remove this, same as above, it's a situational check that only works if the hawlucha hasn't first used SD.
QC 1/3
 
Last edited:

Namranan

:)))))))))))
Implemented and we discussed the priority situation already so that's fine. I believe this is now ready for QC 2/3.
 
Hawlucha would likely need a pretty large update for USUM, so I'm going to lock this for now. Feel free to reserve it again if you want when we start up again.
 
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