gen 4 kricketune can pull sd/x-sci/brickbreak/return, this set literally gets walled by any ghost type, i wouldnt say having return benefits it by having neutral coverage much since having night slash means you can hit almost anything with dark/fighting/bug, especially when fairy doesnt exist
literally 2 pokemon in gen 4resist d/f/b coverage in toxicroak and heracross, compared to norm/bug/fight coverage being resisted by 11 (and can't hit shedinja)
even without a ghost type normal provides only neutral coverage, no super effective
15 pokemon resist bug/normal/dark,
11 pokemon resist bug/normal/fight,
2 pokemon resist bug/fight/dark.
normal is consistently the worst performing move in terms of coverage, and this checks out for me in battle where i find myself rarely clicking return over x-scissor when the other move (nslash or bb) usually does the job to the bug resist
there is no need for "strong neutral coverage" when having night slash and brick break means x-scissor hits everything else neutrally harder than return, and can be boosted by swarm when kricketune gets low from LO recoil
having dark as a PT would be nice, but that would mean 3/4 of kricketune's moves would be guarenteed. IMO kricketune is quite linear in what it does, perhaps a banded set would be nice, making sd not forced? lvl100 banded probably hurts, and would be nice as some variation to the sd sweeper with a very mediocre speed tier.
removing return to get the fighting/dark coverage every time would also be nice, but leaves kricketune even more linear which could be solved by giving it the second set so its not always the same 3 attacks + sd
a new role could be nice for it, perhaps Fast Attacker to get either band or scarf?
scarf probably feels lackluster with base 85 Attack, so maybe wallbreaker to force band could be nice
also i may be missing that kricketune cant pull band or something because if its base stats? im tired af if its that sorry
also not really a suggestion but just a thought, having an extra HP type that unown could pull would be nice so you dont mindlessly switch into the psychic type that you have and actually thing twice about how to scout it, especially given you dont immediately know between HP fight and the other HP because neutrally they would do the same amount of damage.
dark/fighting/psychic is an unresisted type combo by any pokemon too, and neither is ghost/fight/psy so both of those might be nice to have
apologies for bad structure as usual
literally 2 pokemon in gen 4resist d/f/b coverage in toxicroak and heracross, compared to norm/bug/fight coverage being resisted by 11 (and can't hit shedinja)
even without a ghost type normal provides only neutral coverage, no super effective
15 pokemon resist bug/normal/dark,
11 pokemon resist bug/normal/fight,
2 pokemon resist bug/fight/dark.
normal is consistently the worst performing move in terms of coverage, and this checks out for me in battle where i find myself rarely clicking return over x-scissor when the other move (nslash or bb) usually does the job to the bug resist
there is no need for "strong neutral coverage" when having night slash and brick break means x-scissor hits everything else neutrally harder than return, and can be boosted by swarm when kricketune gets low from LO recoil
having dark as a PT would be nice, but that would mean 3/4 of kricketune's moves would be guarenteed. IMO kricketune is quite linear in what it does, perhaps a banded set would be nice, making sd not forced? lvl100 banded probably hurts, and would be nice as some variation to the sd sweeper with a very mediocre speed tier.
removing return to get the fighting/dark coverage every time would also be nice, but leaves kricketune even more linear which could be solved by giving it the second set so its not always the same 3 attacks + sd
a new role could be nice for it, perhaps Fast Attacker to get either band or scarf?
scarf probably feels lackluster with base 85 Attack, so maybe wallbreaker to force band could be nice
also i may be missing that kricketune cant pull band or something because if its base stats? im tired af if its that sorry
also not really a suggestion but just a thought, having an extra HP type that unown could pull would be nice so you dont mindlessly switch into the psychic type that you have and actually thing twice about how to scout it, especially given you dont immediately know between HP fight and the other HP because neutrally they would do the same amount of damage.
dark/fighting/psychic is an unresisted type combo by any pokemon too, and neither is ghost/fight/psy so both of those might be nice to have
apologies for bad structure as usual