Underrated ADV OU Movesets

Introduction

Despite its age, the modern ADV OU metagame is far from being stale and boring. Many players consider it to be one of the best metagames Smogon has to offer thanks to its diversity and balance of power amongst playstyles. These are just a few of the dozens amongst dozens of interesting, uncommon, and underrated movesets that are still viable to this day.

Wish Salamence

Salamence @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 Spe
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Wish
- Protect
- Toxic
- Flamethrower / Dragon Claw

Most players know Salamence as one of the best sweepers in ADV. It has good typing, a great ability, a diverse movepool, and excellent stats. However, instead of using Intimidate to gain more sweeping opportunities, Wish Salamence is using Intimidate to find more opportunities to support its team with Wish. With maximum HP and a ton of Defense investment, Wish Salamence is an excellent check to a myriad of physical attackers in the metagame such as Gyarados and Salamence. Choice Band Heracross is a Pokémon that is incredibly hard to deal with for most teams, but Wish Salamence completely shuts it down thanks to Intimidate, Wish, and Flamethrower. Generally, Fighting-types are very difficult to deal with, a resistance to Fighting-type moves and Intimidate makes Wish Salamence arguably the best answer to Fighting-types out there. If necessary, Salamence can Intimidate a Choice Band Aerodactyl or a +1 Attack Dragon Dance Tyranitar in order to poison it.

SubSeed Celebi

Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spe
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Baton Pass
- Recover

It's not hard to see why Celebi started off banned in ADV. It's bulky, has a handful of useful resistances, and a movepool that lets it do whatever it wants. Most players opt for the offensive Calm Mind set on more offensive teams, a more defensive Leech Seed variant on more defensive teams, a Calm Mind passing set, or a Swords Dance passing set on Magneton offense teams. Most users overlook SubSeed Celebi. In my humble opinion, SubSeed Celebi is the superior Celebi variant on most offensive Magneton teams.

SubSeed Celebi does a ton of things that offensive teams need in order to thrive in a metagame where Spikes dominates. It's very bulky, thus serving as an offensive team's defensive backbone, checks a plethora of Pokémon, and sets up opportunities for you to win the game. As reyscarface demonstrated in his battle versus Earthworm, SubSeed Celebi not only stalled Earthworm's team for a few turns, but it gave Snorlax a free chance to setup some Curses, which lead to Earthworm having to Explode his Cloyster and bring in Dugtrio to deal with the Snorlax. This proved to be very important, as Cloyster was reyscarface's main obstacle that needed to be removed in order for Dragon Dance Salamence to sweep. With Magneton support, this Celebi not only gives offensive teams a solid check to a ton of troublesome Pokémon, but it also provides plenty of opportunities for its teammates to sweep by passing Substitutes or just "dry passing."

Explosion Regice

Regice @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpA
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Explosion
- Hidden Power Fire / Thunder Wave

Regice faces a lot of competition from Blissey and Snorlax in ADV. Blissey has an incredible movepool, an unparalleled HP stat, a great Special Defense, and reliable recovery. Snorlax is similar to Blissey but has an immediate offensive presence in exchange for a great movepool. Regice generally has problems finding a spot on a team because it checks significantly fewer threats than Blissey and Snorlax, and it has a bad case of four moveslot syndrome. Although more commonly seen as RestTalker or a Psych Up user, Regice makes for an excellent Blissey and Snorlax lure due to Explosion.

It may seem stupid to use Explosion on a Pokémon with low base Attack, but Regice is probably the best at luring and defeating special walls. If you just look at Regice's most common switch-ins, it's not hard to figure out why Regice is such an effective lure. Other than Blissey and Snorlax, Regice's most common switch-ins are Tyranitar, Forretress, and Metagross. Standard Tyranitar takes about 30% from Ice Beam, thus making it an unreliable check over time. Tyranitar also doesn't like being paralyzed, especially if it's the very common Dragon Dance variant. Specially defensive Forretress can switch into Regice with ease, but it must be weary of Hidden Power Fire. In addition to Snorlax and Regice, Metagross is the best switch-in to Regice since it doesn't take an inordinate amount of damage from any of Regice's attacks, and it can threaten an OHKO with Meteor Mash.

Out of the Pokémon just discussed, Regice is able to lure and OHKO two out of three of its best counters. It just so happens that both Snorlax and Blissey play similar roles as specially defensive sponges. Therefore, Regice is an excellent lure on offensive Calm Mind teams that need a defensive pivot that can also deal with the walls most troublesome to the aforementioned archetype. If you're building an offensive Calm Mind team, definitely keep Explosion Regice in mind.

Calm Mind + Reflect Jirachi

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 48 SpA / 32 Spe
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Wish
- Psychic
- Reflect

Jirachi is very versatile in ADV. Bulky Wish variants with two attacks and purely offensive variants are the types of Jirachi most commonly used today. However, with Reflect, Jirachi is one of the best team players, Snorlax answers, and defensive pivots around. Forgoing an additional attacking move has very significant benefits. For example, the ubiquitous Dugtrio is going to have an incredibly hard time beating this Jirachi, especially since the given Special Attack EVs give Jirachi a good chance to OHKO the mole after a Calm Mind boost, as well as guaranteeing an OHKO on even the most defensive Gengar at +1. Not only does Dugtrio have a hard time beating Calm Mind + Reflect Jirachi, but the grossly overused MagTrio teams are going to have a difficult time too. For instance, the typical MagTrio team consists of Magneton, Dugtrio, Salamence, Snorlax, and two fillers, one of which is usually Celebi, and the other is usually a Water-type. The given Jirachi set defeats everything on that team, with the exception of Celebi, with ease.

Calm Mind + Reflect Jirachi is far from perfect and only using one attacking move has significant drawbacks. Firstly, Skarmory and Forretress, to a lesser extent, are free to use Spikes without any real consequences. Also, Metagross, Tyranitar, Celebi, and Jirachi are all common Pokémon that wall this set. Luckily for you, all of those Pokémon have one thing in common: they're all weak to Dugtrio. Consequently, Dugtrio is the best partner for this Jirachi. This set has significant flaws, but you'd be foolish not to consider using Calm Mind + Reflect Jirachi, especially if you have Dugtrio support.

Dragon Dance Dragonite

Dragonite @ Liechi Berry
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 224 Atk / 180 SpD / 104 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Hidden Power Flying
- Earthquake
- Double-Edge

Yeah, this isn't DPP or BW2. Despite the status quo, Dragon Dance Dragonite is not completely outclassed by Salamence. Sure, Salamence is faster, stronger, and possesses a far superior ability. However, Dragonite has several advantages, such as a far superior movepool and a Special Defense stat capable of tanking an Ice Beam from a bulky Water-type or an Ice Punch from a defensive Gengar. These advantages are the main reasons why Dragonite should be used over Salamence.

Here's how the set works: get Dragonite in for free somehow and Dragon Dance as your opponent switches into their bulky Water-type. Attack the bulky Water and survive the incoming Ice Beam with enough HP to activate your Liechi Berry. Then, KO the Water-type with the appropriate move. The given Speed EVs enable Dragonite to outspeed max Speed Adamant Tyranitar, while the Special Defense EVs give Dragonite enough bulk to survive the Ice-type moves way more comfortably than Salamence. This set obviously has problems with Skarmory, so Magneton is a great partner. Dragon Dance Dragonite really shines on primarily physically offensive teams. Dragonite is able to defeat bulky Water-types, and even sweep, thus making it a great wallbreaker. Dragonite may not be the greatest Pokémon in ADV, but certainly consider this set on your physically offensive team.

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