Community POTW #19

[BuizelBeatsEverything]

Ok, here is my Leavanny.

The Bug the that was on Broadway:

Nature:
Jolly.

Ev's:
252Atk/Spd 4Def

Item:
Choice Scarf/Focus Sash

Ability
Swarm

Moveset:

Entertainment
Me First/Leaf Blade/Payback/Ariel Ace/Shadow Claw
X-Scissors
Sword Dance/Leaf Blade/Payback/Ariel Ace/ Shadow Claw


Alright, I decided to use a Leavanny with Entertainment because it was something new and unique. Basically, when a Pokemon that you're sure is holding no "Bug" moves switched in, you hit them with Entertainment and either force them to switch, or force them to fight with a useless ability. Me First is an option for when slower Pokemon switch in, and you think you can accurately predict their next move. X-Scissors is Leavanny's best STAB attack, IMO. Sword Dance is kinda risky to run, due to Leavanny's frailness, so instead of running Sword Dance (or Me First) you can choose from a list of other attacking moves. Leaf Blade is a great STAB, and can destroy Bulky Water/Ground Pokemon. Payback has weak BP, but can hit Psychics/Ghost for a lot of damage. Ariel Ace can do chunks of damage to Volcarona, or any other Bug/Grass Pokemon. Shadow Claw can take-out Ghost/Psychics with ease.

[gyarados151]

Leavanny suffers a curse: it has typing that makes it 4x weak to both fire and flying types, both of which are commonly used, and some 2X weaknesses to rock, ice and bug. Combined with its not too good in general speed and its mediocre at best defenses, and you have a pokemon that will often not live even a turn to hit the opponent, especially if it gets damaged by stealth rock. Its best stat is definitely his attack, which has an ok 103, but there is also better out there.

also, not to mention, only 1 of the abilities it has really turns anything around for leavanny:

Swarm: while it boosts bug type moves when leavanny is less than 1/3 of health, generally leavanny will faint in one hit without focus sash aid, and it still may not get in a boosted hit after that of the opponent is faster or has priority moves.

Overcoat: Where Leavanny's going, it will never have to worryabout weather, so forget this aility entirely.

Chlorophyll: NOW we're talking. Although this ability triggers only in the sun, it boosts its speed, meaning it might actually have a better chance at outrunning what it needs to, giving it a fighting chance in any team that likes to abuse the benefits of sunny day.

Given its stats and nature, one thing is clear: leavanny isn't meant to be the deadly one, but the supportive one.

Choice Scarf Leavanny
Nature that raises speed and lowers either defense or special defense (not sure what its called).
Ev's: 252 attack, 252 speed, 4 wherever else
Moveset:
Leaf Blade
X-scissor
Shadow Claw/Aerial Ace/Solarbeam
Shadow Claw/Aerial Ace/Solarbeam

This is best used with a sunny day team for the best effect in speed: scarfed and in the sun with chlorophyll, Not much is outrunning leavanny without some speed boosts. Obviously, X scissor and Leaf Blade are your 2 staples, granting stab and coverage to ground, water, grass, psychic and dark types.

The lasts 2 slots depend on how you like to play: if you're in the sun, and want a special attacking alternative to hit physical walls, you can go with Solarbeam. If you'd like to get that super effecrive hit on ghosts types, go with Shadow Claw (also with extra crit rating), and if you wanna hit opposing bug types that would normally cripples you, go with aerial ace.

This moveset works great in a double battle with ninetails, because ninetails starts the drought, boosting Leavanny's speed immediately, while hitting those steel types that stay out of leavanny's reach. In the same way, Leavanny will help Niunetails by hitting the ground and water types that would hurt ninetails.

Hope this set is useful enough .

[PhearWalker]

I could see this working well in a sun team

SunSupport
Leavanny @ Leftovers or Heat Rock(the one that extends Sun)/Chesto Berry
Evs and Nature:
Evs: 252 Hp/ 4ATk/ 252DEF
Nature: Adamant
Moveset:
-Sunny Day
-Toxic/Leaf Blade
-Swords Dance/Rest
-Hidden Power Ground

A basic Sun Team supporter, Sunny Day sets up the weather, Toxic is to spread support, Leaf Blade to avoid Taunt and for STAB damage Swords Dance fi you're using Leaf Blade to aid It's average attack, Rest + Chesto for a free heal, And Finally HP Ground, as It will lure out fire types, and will hopefully catch them off guard.

[TheAwesomeOne]

IMO, the worst typing in the game.
EDIT:OMFG, DID SOMEONE SUGGEST GIGA IMPACT AND SLASH!?!?!?!?!?!?

[Dakress]

...

Swords Dancer Leavanny

-Swords Dance
-X -scissor
-Leaf Blade
-Aerial Ace/Substitute

Item:Focus Sash/Life Orb
Ability:Swarm/Chlorophyll
EVs:252 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SP.Atk)

Sword Dancer are common, and leavanny is one of them.Sword Dance boost your Power in a crazy way, X-scissor beats anything weak to bugs, Leaf Blade
is the other STAB move, and it gets such an awesome critical-hit ratio. Aerial Ace gets coverage with bugs , or instead you could use Substitute and boost your attack.

EVs and Nature:

Generic 252 EVs in each stats. But with Chlorophyll a lot of speed can be useless, so, you can bulk Leavanny a bit without losing too much speed.

Adamant (+Atk, -SP.Atk)
EVs:102 Hp/212 Atk/196 Spd

If you want a Jolly nature, then it can be something like this:

Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SP.Atk)
EVs:106 Hp/252 Atk/154 Spd

With both sets and Chlorophyll, you should be able to outrun most of the Choice Scarf pokemons.

Other Options:Flail, Grasswhistle, Me First, Agility, Shadow Claw

Flail+Focus Sash combo can hurt the oponent a lot, but beware of sandstorm, hail and the other entry hazads
.
Me First is a gimmick move which can hurt the oponent a lot, but it depens of prediction, so it isn't good at all.

Grasswhistle can sleep the oponent, but it has such a bad accuracy that it will rarely work.

Agility can boost your speed, but is useless compared with Chlorophyll.

Shadow Claw is there to hit those ghosts that can't outrun Leavanny(without Chlorophyll, only Dusknoir family, Banette, Cofagricus and Golurk, which can also be killed by Leaf Blade)

[Meowmeow]

I had a hunch this Pokemon would show up soon.

Decent-ish stats, small movepool, solid abilities in Chlorophyll and Overcoat, and type that is decent offensively and horrendous defensively.

Pump my Stats
Nature: Adamant/Jolly
Ability: Swarm/Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 attack and speed, 4 HP
@: Life Orb/Leftovers

Swords Dance/Agility
Leaf Blade
X-Scissor
Aerial Ace/Shadow Claw

Very Simple. Boost and attack. By the way, Poison Jab is useless. Grass types wouldn't switch in in the first place and X-Scissor handles them anyway. Poison Jab is a big no-no.

Choice (or lack there of)
Nature: Adamant/Jolly
Ability: Swarm/Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 attack and speed, 4 HP
@: Choice Band/Scarf

X-Scissor
Leaf Blade
Aerial Ace
Shadow Claw

If Aerial Ace is becoming standard, you know you have a crappy movepool. The concept of the set is again simple.

And now for the out of the ordinary sets:

Dual Screens
Ability: Overcoat
Nature: Careful/Impish
EVs: 200 defense and special defense, 104 HP, 4 attack or speed.
@: Light Clay

Reflect
Light Screen
Protect/Toxic
Leaf Blade/X-Scissor

I think everyone can figure this out.

Twin Stats
Nature: Adamant/Jolly
Ability: Swarm/Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 attack and speed, 4 HP
@: Life Orb/Leftovers

Swords Dance
Agility
X-Scissor
Leaf Blade

Tough to pull off. If it is pulled off, you will have quite a simple life.

Baton Pass
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Overcoat/Chlorophyll
EVs: 200 defense and special defense, 4 HP, 52 attack and speed.
@: Leftovers/Focus Sash

Baton Pass
Swords Dance/Hone Claws
Agility
Leaf Blade/X-Scissor/Substitute

You do not need me to explain.

Partners:
If it can switch into Fire and Flying, it's a partner

[poke fire master]

endure/subsitute
flail
shadow claw
leaf blade
item: salac berry
ability: overcoat
EV's: 4 HP / 252 ATT / 252 SPE
nature: lonly(+att -def) / hasty (+spe -def)
with overcoat levanny is imune to both sandstorm and hail
if your using endure u should use lonly or hasty with 0 def and sp def iv's to make sure u get 1 HP if ur using subsitute go with adamant or jolly. shadow claw and leaf blade are for hitting ghost and rock types that try to resit flail unfortuantly steel types block all of leavannys moves

[Tbird]

Leadvanny

Leavanny (F) @ Light Clay / Leftovers
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Leaf Blade
- Return

This is a double screening lead that can give a team mate the chance to start an early sweep, or allow for another pokemon to start setting up Entry Hazards quite easily. The choice of item is down to preference, considering that leavanny has screen support, longevity isn't much of an issue so light clay is generally better, however if you chose to run leftovers, the HP stat is at 353, which is a leftover number, allowing for more healing per turn. Leaf blade is basic stab, and return provides a little coverage, however X-scissor is workable for dual STAB.

En Garde!

Leavanny (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- X-Scissor / Shadow Claw / Baton Pass
- Leaf Blade
- Return / Baton Pass

This is a sweeping set for Leavanny, abusing its Ability and workable offencive stats. It's best to be run with the new Ninetales, as to abuse the Chlorophyl nature. The Evs are that stardard for any frail sweeper. The 4 EVs in Defence over HP, is to put Leavanny at Life Orb number of HP, which is 291, meaning Leavanny can sweep for 11 turns of life orb recoil. The moves are the best Leavanny can get for coverage, so it's worth putting baton pass on set to pass the swords dance boost to someone like Venusaur that can take out problem pokemon like Heatran. However, Leaf Blade is your Basic STAB option, Return is for coverage and X-scissor is used to milk whatever Leavanny can from its lacking movepool. Shadow Claw can be used as a scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel move for coverage over the likes of Gengar, who resists pretty much every other move Leavanny packs.

[pika250]

Leavanny is going to NU for certain... just like the Swalot of last week... Which reminds me Leafeon should probably be BL, if not OU. If Umbreon and Glaceon are counted as at least BL, that leaves Flareon as the only Eeveelution that remains UU/NU. Speaking of Flareon, Fire Pokémon in general are bad news to Leavanny. Same thing goes to Staraptor and company, mainly because of their shared Flying type. Also Steels. *cough*Durant*cough*

[Loreni333]

Name:

Leading Mantis

Movset:

Reflect
Light screen
Sunny day
Toxic/Leaf Blade/Solar Beam

Abilities: Clorophyll

Item: Heat Rock
Natures: Jolly or Timid
Evs: 252 Speed, 124 defense, 124 Sp defense, 8 health

Strategy: A different set then those dancers... Everywhere. Sunny Day activates your ability, and supports a sun team. Double screens? Well, alakazam is better but, what are you going to do? Bam, defenses are up. Toxic is a cool status, but leaf blade stops taunt bait. Solor beam tricks the other team, Expecting a physical sweeper.

[PhilosophicalPsychologica]

Honestly, I wish Reno would stop dissing the Pokemon itself (Swalot article) and be more professionally. The friendliness of Serebii is what makes me like it over Smogon, but a little professionalism would be nice.

I'm pressed for time (again), so I'll just list Leavanny's positive attributes:
Swords Dance with nice stats and offensive options, not to mention Chlorophyll
Can use Agility in conjunction with Swarm or possibly SubPinch, like a Physical version of the infamous SubPetaya Empoleon (and it even gets access to Flail)
Can Baton Pass virtually anything*
Can go for gimmicky Calm Mind Special set
Other support options include DualScreens (including Safeguard) and Grasswhistle

*Quite a number of Gen V Pokemon can Baton Pass a lot of stuff. For Leavanny specifically, here are its boosting options:
Agility
Calm Mind
Hone Claws
Mind Reader

Pre-Evo Corner
Sewaddle is a beast in LC. Swadloon has actually more defensive prowess than Leavanny (except for HP) and, of course, is able to use Eviolite. It doesn't get Synthesis, though, or any other heal move apart from Rest.

[KrookodilePwner]

Movesets

Lucky Annoying Bug

Leavanny @ Light Clay
Trait: Swarm
EVs: 252 HP / 126 Def / 130 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Light Screen/Reflect
- Toxic
- Leaf Blade
- Flash/Protect/X-Scissor

Light Screen for the bad SDef.Reflect if want more defense.Toxic for damaging.Leaf Blade for steel types and other stuff plus it's STAB.Flash to make them miss.Protect for protecting yourself.X-Scissor if you don't want a lot of defenses.

Attacking Bug

Leavannny @ Flame Orb
Trait: Swarm
EVs:133 HP / 252 Atk / 63 Def / 60 SDef
Lonely Nature (+Atk, -Def)
-Poison Jab/Toxic
-Leaf Blade/Swords Dance
-X-Scissor/Swords Dance
-Facade/Swords Dance
Poison Jab for damaging but if you're lucky they get poisoned.Toxicc for badly poisoned but no damage.Leaf Blade and X-Scissor for standard STAB moves.Swords Dance freely gives more attack.Facade for doubled damage.

Speedy Bug

Leavanny @ Leftovers
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Sunny Day
Agility
Poison Jab/X-Scissor/Leaf Blade
Poison Jab/X-Scissor/Leaf Blade

Sunny Day for brilliant speed and Agility makes your speed stupendous!Poison Jab, X-Scissor, and Leaf Blade delivers damage.

Partners

Anything that is a Special Attacker and can learn Sunny Day will be a partner.Why?Some pokemon have better defense than special defense and if you don't want to use Sunny Day use the partner to use Sunny Day only if Leavanny has Chlorophyll.

[PMSandStormSBBZ]

Leavanny? Wow, NOW we're getting random. Anyway, with below-average offense, slightly above average Speed, and two near-crippling 4x weaknesses, Leavanny is an ideal competitor in UU or even BL if you want it to be there.

Abilities:

Chlorophyll
Doubles your Speed in sunlight. With a Swords Dance boost, an Adamant nature, and sun under your belt, you can revenge-kill a fair few Pokémon in UU.
Swarm
Kinda useful, as it increases Bug-type moves power by 1.5. You could run a SubSalac set with it with Swords Dance and X-Scissor, but sadly, Chlorophyll is just better, with so many priority moves in UU to wipe out your remaining HP.
Overcoat
Prevents damage from weather affects. This stops hail damage from Abomasnow and sandstorm damage from Hippopotas in UU, but this ability is generally a waste of space.

Movesets:

Dancing Leaf... Bug... Thing

-Swords Dance
-X-Scissor
-Leaf Blade
-Shadow Claw / Aerial Ace / Poison Jab / Return / Substitute
Item Attached: Life Orb / Liechi Berry / Salac Berry
Ability: Swarm / Chlorophyll
EVs and Nature: 4 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spd
Adamant (+Atk, -SAtk)

If saved for late-game, Leavanny can actually be pretty good. With 335 Attack with Swords Dance and possibly a pinch berry, Leavanny can actually put a dent on some walls in UU.
Leaf Blade and X-Scissor are good STAB attacks.
The final move is sadly a filler. Shadow Claw can be used to destroy the Ghosts of UU. Aerial Ace can wipe out the Fighting and Bug types out of existence. Return is for neutral coverage. Substitute can synergize with Swarm and a pinch berry (even though the pinch berry haven’t been released to 5th Gen yet) and block status moves.
Life Orb is for a consistent boost for all of Leavanny’s moves, but at the cost of 10% HP per turn. Considering Leavanny’s semi-fragility and weaknesses, Life Orb may end up KOing it, but it’s worth a mention. Liechi/Salac Berry can be used with Swarm and/or Substitute to get a better boost to help sweeping if all of the priority users are gone.

Other Options

Choice Band/Scarf is worth a mention, but not suited for Leavanny.
Calm Mind can be used with Hidden Power, Energy Ball/Grass Knot, Bug Buzz, and Air Slash, but is inferior to Swords Dance.
Grasswhistle has only 60% accuracy, but putting someone to sleep is very rewarding if it hits.

Double/Triple Battles
Weak to Lava Plume and Flame Burst… yep, that means disaster for Leavanny. He can’t set up, he can’t put someone to sleep (if he’s carrying Grasswhistle). If anyone can tell me how to use Leavanny effectively for Multi Battles, tell me.

Counters
Fire, Steel, and Flying types are Leavanny’s bane. They can take a hit and fire off a strong move.

Conclusion
Good in UU, but needs a better movepool to hit Steel types.

[WeatherEffectRain]

I didn't bother reading most of what was posted previously. I'll state what's probably been said before. Leavanny is UU, and will be. It has two good stats for Physical Sweeping, but that's the only thing going for it. x4Fire/Flying Weaknesses combined with x2Rock/Ice/Bug/Poison means it is a lonely little one. I was actually hoping for Scolipede, but its alternate is OK for a go this time. I'll try out a couple simple sets here:


[ EDIT: Sorry I keep forgetting about natures. I'll put them in these now: ]

Scarvanny
Nature: Jolly
Item: Choice Scarf
Ability: Swarm/Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 HP
-X-Scissor
-Leaf Blade
-Shadow Claw
-Return

Not much is needed to be said here. Hit fast and hard. X-Scissor and Leaf Blade provide the pretty strong STAB moves. Shadow Claw and Return are there for fillers more than anything. Swarm is if you happen to have your health low, or you could run Chlorophyll in Sun.

Sub-Swarm-Flail-X-Scissor
Nature: Jolly
Item: Salac(?) Berry
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 Def
-X-Scissor
-Substitute
-Flail
-Aerial Ace/Return/Leaf Blade/Shadow Claw

Gimmick set. Maybe. Sub up until you have low health. Then, when the Berry and Swarm kick in, use X-Scissor to take full advantage. Flail is good with low health, too, so use it. Then, you have to pick from four other choices, usually depending on your team. Aerial Ace... Has such low power, But its still usable, I guess. Return is a Normal move. Leaf Blade provides another STAB move, and so is very usable. Shadow Claw is to take care of Psychics and Ghosts.


And I think I'll put something for Swadloon:

SWalloon
Nature: Calm
Ability: Leaf Guard
Item: Eviolite
EVs: 252 Def, 252 SDef, 4 HP
-Sunny Day
-Rest
-Toxic/SolarBeam
-Protect

An OK walling set by my opinion. Rest without the sleep makes it awesome. ProtecToxic is used to prolong your existence and cause damage, but SolarBeam pairs nicely with Sunlight and keeps you from being Taunt-bait. This set is ruined by Fire-type attacks, though, so be careful if you use it.

Thats what I gotta say. Yeah. I think thats it...

[TheAwesomeOne]

Leavanny@Choice Specs
Modest
4 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
-Leaf Storm
-Bug Buzz
-Hidden Power[Rock]
-HYPER BEAM
I was bored.

[grantholomew]

When I first saw Sewaddle, I thought, wow, he’s cool. If his final evolution is cool, I may have him, assuming I didn’t choose Snivy (because at this point almost everyone wanted Snivy). When I first saw Leavanny, I thought Leavanny was pretty cool. Okay, he has 6 weaknesses, two of them are double weaknesses. That’s fine, seeing as four of his weaknesses can be taken out by a Rock-type move and the other two by a Ground-type move. Sounds good, right? Except Game Freak decided not to do that, same with a whole bunch of other Grass-types that could be better if they could learn Rock and Ground-type moves. That was my problem with Serperior. With both Serperior and Leavanny, they basically just get STAB moves and a few Normal TMs. Not that Leavanny isn’t bad, just that it has a whole bunch of weaknesses and can’t really do anything about it. I think this or something similar has probably been said, but I think I good Leavanny would be:


Leavanny @ Muscle Band
Adamant/Jolly: Swarm/Overcoat
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
- Leaf Blade
- X-Scissor
- Shadow Claw/Poison Jab/Baton Pass
- Return/Swords Dance

Okay, Leaf Blade and X-Scissor are for STAB, and they’re really good. Shadow Claw and Poison Jab are just for filling in moves, but Return may work because you need high friendship to get Leavanny. Baton Pass may be used if you want to Sword Dance Leavanny just to pass him. Otherwise don’t use Swords Dance just to raise his Attack as Leavanny won’t survive many hits. Both his abilities are useful, although Swarm is basically going to work once, and that’s assuming Leavanny will go first (which it probably will). Notice I didn’t put Chlorophyll as sunny weather will boost Fire-type moves, which will already kill Leavanny.

[Spacial Rend]

Bulky Substitutes Sun Baton Passer
Swadloon@Eviolite
Ability: Leaf Guard
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 HP 152 Def 104 SpDef
Rest
Substitute
Agility
Baton Pass

The definition of Taunt bait. With Leaf Guard, it can use Rest and wake up immidiately, which is always helpful, but it can't do it behind a Sub. Substitutes are for Baton Passing, and so is Agility. This might work with Swadloon's bulk, but the terrible defensive typing cripples Swadloon.

Sewaddle@Choice Specs (Sun LC)
Ability: Chlorophyll
Nature: Modest/Timid
EVs: 252 SpAtk 252 Spd
Solarbeam
Silver Wind
Air Slash
Energy Ball

This set is made to be a Sun sweeper. After Vulpix or another sets up Sunlight, Solarbeam away with a nice SpAtk and an awesome speed in the Sun. Silver Wind is another STAB and if lucky can boost all of Sewaddle's stats. Air Slash can hurt stuff and Energy Ball is there if the Sun ever stops. Not too great in LC, but might prove to be a threat with Drought Vulpix.

[Del Mundo]

Well, i suppose that there's no purpose with me putting another sd set. I'd just like to point out the great beast this guy can be with chlorophyll+swords dance. I'd put a focus sash on this guy just because of all of those weaknesses. I think Leavanny will make an excellent if Ninetales is gonna be in UU. I'm not sure about OU potential though.

[Pichu47]

Please don't blame me if somebody has posted this. I don't feel like scrolling through the page looking at each and every set.

Swadloon@Evolite
Ability:Leaf Guard
EV's: 252 Hp 150 Defense 105 Sp. Defense
Nature: Gentle

Moves:
1. Calm Mind
2. Toxic
3. Protect
4. Bug Buzz

Basic idea is to stall until opponent dies. He actually gets Defenses like Porygon 2 with evolite. Not much to say... except that i don't like the random number generater

[Tbird]

Sub-Swarm-Flail-X-Scissor
Item: Liechi Berry
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 HP
-X-Scissor
-Substitute
-Flail
-Aerial Ace/Return/Leaf Blade/Shadow Claw

Gimmick set. Maybe. Sub up until you have low health. Then, when the Berry and Swarm kick in, use X-Scissor to take full advantage. Flail is good with low health, too, so use it. Then, you have to pick from four other choices, usually depending on your team. Aerial Ace... Has such low power, But its still usable, I guess. Return is a Normal move. Leaf Blade provides another STAB move, and so is very usable. Shadow Claw is to take care of Psychics and Ghosts.

Just to note, the leftover EV wants to be in Def if you wanted to activate the berry via subs. But also, Liechi berry is currently banned as far as I'm aware.