Community POTW #68

[philzone]

One huge reason why Special-based Smeargle and Liepard Sets benefit greatly from Foul Play. Timid, Modest, Calm, and, especially, Bold are the biggest Natures to aid Swagger + Foul Play, but Shiftry has Sucker Punch (4th Gen Tutor), Fling, Payback, or Faint Attack with plenty of Attack of its own to not need Foul Play.

Fling can pair well with Pickpocket, especially with Flame Orb or any other Status Inflicting Fling Item. Flame Orb is the one to come to mind first because Pickpocket requires Physical Contact - something Burn can soften the impact from, short of a Physical Fire Type.

Counters
-Heracross has, by far, the best chance among non-Steel Types. Since Shiftry is weak to both of 'cross's STAB Types, quad weak to Bug (i.e. Megahorn), and 'cross resists both of Shiftry's STAB Types, 'cross is a definite pain in Shiftry's trunk. However, 'cross must beware of HP (Fire) during Sunny Day/Drought conditions.
-Steel Types - See Heracross's entry. Also beware of HP (Fire) in Strong Sunlight.
-Dark Dual-Types of the Fire, Poison, Steel, and Grass variety also resist both of Shiftry's STAB Types, but must beware of Brick Break, Low Sweep, Low Kick, and Focus Blast.

heracross maybe the ' ideal counter' but has a 4x flying weakness, so a well aimed air cutter/aerial ace/bounce would ohko herra befor it has time to counter. Better counters are infernape and blaziken. Both have access to fire,fighting, flying,u-turn for infernape, its unbelievable. Also, staraptor is a beast at countering. U-turn,brave bird, closet... too many countering. Heatran walls shiftry, but needs to watch for fighting type moves. Salamence and dragonite need mentioning,due to 4x resistance to grass, and salamence can intimidate it down,if physical

[Sadu-Hem]

OK, here we go.

Sunny Day Mixed Sweeper
-Chlorophyll
-252 Spe, 128 Sp. Atk, 128, Atk
-Hasty
-Life Orb
-Moveset
*Dark Pulse
*Brick Break
*SolarBeam/Energy Ball
*Growth

OK, so Shiftry has Life Orb and Growth to cover its mediocre Atk and Sp. Atk. Sun support cannot be overstated: if you want this to win, you have to have sun out. Energy Ball is an option over SolarBeam if you don't want to be too reliant on sun, but SolarBeam is usually the superior option. Dark Pulse is its other STAB attack, and gets nice coverage with Brick Break.

[Kraleck]

heracross maybe the ' ideal counter' but has a 4x flying weakness, so a well aimed air cutter/aerial ace/bounce would ohko herra befor it has time to counter. Better counters are infernape and blaziken. Both have access to fire,fighting, flying,u-turn for infernape, its unbelievable. Also, staraptor is a beast at countering. U-turn,brave bird, closet... too many countering. Heatran walls shiftry, but needs to watch for fighting type moves. Salamence and dragonite need mentioning,due to 4x resistance to grass, and salamence can intimidate it down,if physical

Keep forgetting about the access to those Moves...I'll have to look into why my brain lapses like that.

For Physical/Mixed Shiftry, 'cross must beware of Flying, but Sun opens up the Special Movepool to HP (Fire). Either way, Shiftry can easily handle most counters, but must make sure it has the proper Speed and Move-Type advantages to do so.

Durability is a weighty issue for Shiftry with Base 90 HP (which will barely see EVs due to its role as a Sweeper), Base 60 defenses, and 2 Types that don't help each other too well (plus, 5 common weaknesses and 1 uncommon weakness hurt far more than the resistances help). So many offense-oriented Pokemon carry a way to check, if not outright stop, Shiftry.

The crucial point is Speed with using and fighting Shiftry. Base 80 Speed is average, but Chlorophyll jacks that way up past 11. Potential for 568 Speed with max Speed EVs and IV under a +Speed Nature means that not even Speed Deoxys can outrun you, but other Chlorophyll users could. Jumpluff, Lilligant, DW Leafeon, and Leavanny can, but are outclassed on power. DW Venusaur ties, but has STAB Poison. Sawsbuck, however, can outspeed either way and fight back with Megahorn, but has weaknesses to Fighting, Fire, and Flying Moves. DW Whimsicott outruns Shiftry either way, too, but is less ideal than Prankster-cott.

However, Unburden-lee can also wreck Shiftry. Fake Out + Normal Gem will negate a Focus Sash that Shiftry may have and instantly give 'lee the Speed advantage, despite Strong Sunlight.

[PhilosophicalPsychologica]

Ok, well uh, Shiftry is renowned for being able to Nasty Plot or Swords Dance. Growth also got better, and Chlorophyll is a damn good Ability; both are great in the revived Sun team. Early Bird has some niche now that Sleep is broken. Pickpocket won't see use often, but Shiftry can use an effective Sash set. Otherwise, Shiftry already saw poor usage (sadly) last Gen and with Explosion gone daft now, it doesn't bode well. What I really like, however, is that Shiftry has significantly more Atk than Venusaur, only slightly less SpAtk, same Speed, and arguably better movepool compared to Venusaur. And Shiftry's net total of Atk + SpAtk exceeds that of Venu's. Sure, Shiftry doesn't have Power Whip (or even Leaf Blade), and Sucker Punch is sorta irrelevant with Chlorophyll...eh...

Defensive Shiftry was a fun little niche back in the day but the environment is too offensive now for this to be even remotely plausible anymore.

Oh yeah, and the increased usage of Psychic attacks in Ubers may increase Shiftry's popularity in Ubers Xd

[philzone]

Another great counter is abomnasnow. Changes weather to hail and then it has 100%accuracy with blizzard to OHKO shiftry
Volcarona does well if there isn't sun,scizor beats it quick, blissley soaks its special hits with ease

[your boss]

Just use Skarmory, it walls Shiftry hell and back

[Ana_Julía]

Shiftry@Life Orb
Jolly Nature
EV's: 252 Atk| 252 Speed| 4 Hp
~Sucker Punch
~Seed Bomb
~Rock Slide
~Swords Dance/Brick Break

I don't are sure about setting up with him. He have 6 weakness, but only 3 really counts, Fight/Ice/Bug.
With Fighting Types running wild, Ice moves being rather common, and Heracross being OU, Shiftry would have a hard time in the play. But with appropiate team support, he can be very dangerous, since he packs a 100 Atk and a useable 80 Speed.
Counters:
Skarmory is one of the best options. He resists his STAB, and take neutral damage from Rock Slide. Skarmory have acess, and make great use of, Roost and Brave Bird, that render Shiftry useless, since he can't do enough damage to KO a Skarmory. Also, Steels and Abomasnow usually wall Shiftry badly!

[Cosmic Potato]

Swords Dance
Shiftry@ Life Orb
adamant nature: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Spe
-Swords Dance
-Sucker Punch
-Seed Bomb
-Nature Power/Low kick

Nasty plot
Shiftry@ life orb
modest nature: 4 Hp, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
-Nasty Plot
_Giga Drain
-Dark pulse
-Focus Blast/ HP fire
god you guys are noobs- WHY would you use solarbeam? ttar switches in, takes it like nothing, superpower. giga drain...

[Sadu-Hem]

Sunny Day Mixed Sweeper
-Chlorophyll
-252 Spe, 128 Sp. Atk, 128, Atk
-Hasty
-Life Orb
-Moveset
*Dark Pulse
*Brick Break
*SolarBeam/Energy Ball
*Growth

COUNTERS AND TEAMMATE OPTIONS:

Heracross resists Brick Break, SolarBeam and Dark Pulse and can OHKO with a 4x Megahorn or a 2x Close Combat. To alleviate this, one can partner Shiftry up with a Fire-type such as Magmortar.

[MetalCrow]

Shiftry has a 4xlong weakness to one of my favorite types to spam... bug isnt that uncommon of an attacking type due to things like U-Turn and Megahorn being so awesome for their utility / power respectively...
Personally, i dont see how solarbeam would work (we kinda put a nail in that cofffin last week) due to all the different weather starters running amuk... with all things considered, this is the set i've decided is best:

Full Sun Abuse
———————
Shiftry +Chlorophyll +Focus Sash/Life Orb
Hasty + 252Att/252Sp.Att
-Growth
-Bullet Seed
-Hidden Power Fire
-Dark Pulse/Focus Blast/Brick Break /Toxic

Ok, here's a little explanation of some of my wacky choices...I don't trust Shiftry's paper thin defenses, so i thouht the best choice would be a focus sash (life orb is still viable tho)...I like the power that Bullet Seed has to offer after the Growth boost and that it can break thru subs...Hidden Power is a big duh in there because shiftry naturally attracts things like Scizor and Ferrothorn as well as being a nifty fire type attack...now, you could go for Dark Pulse for a reliable STAB attack with darn swell coverage, or you go for the added coverage that Fighting presents...or you could take a completely different route to give non steel type walls a big middle finger by spamming Toxic on them...Blissey getting trolled by shiftry = priceless

[Cosmic Potato]

Another great counter is abomnasnow. Changes weather to hail and then it has 100%accuracy with blizzard to OHKO shiftry
Volcarona does well if there isn't sun,scizor beats it quick, blissley soaks its special hits with ease

No! Abomasnow will get raped by HP fire or low kick! not at all!

[philzone]

No! Abomasnow will get raped by HP fire or low kick! not at all!

Yes, but it is slowed down by hail, so no speed boost, so a choice scarf abomnasnow would destroy shiftry. Also, how common is low kick. You would expect brick break or focus blast. Hp fire is unreliable out of sunny teams, and also, bronzong is a good counter,bringing out trick room or rain dance. Hp fire is outclassed by focus blast

[Ilan]

To above abomasno is *4 weak to fire HP fire from almost everything KOes him..

I wonder why I forgot shiftrys' existance never considered him indtead of venusaur but... he is actually decent even for OU decent attacking stats with a boosting good move with a good ability the bad side is the weaknesses and the defenses but hey it is a sweeper.

Shift the shiftry
@life orb
Chlorophyll
252 attack, 252 speed, 4 special attack (it can be balanced between sp.attack and speed as long as it have more than 530 speed in the sun it is ok (you want to outrun scarf terrakion)) if you are using more special attacks then 252 sp.attack
Naive or something that boost sp.attack or attack for a random defense stat
-Leaf Storm/Giga Drain
-Sucker punch/rock slide/dark pulse/HP fire
-Brick Break
-Growth

A sun sweeper set, leaf storm is great to beat something really bulky but weak to grass like hippowdon Giga drain regains the life orb damage and doesn't have a sp.attack drop, sucker punch works against weak priority users like infernape although resisting it can get lots of damage of a +2 sucker punch it is also a back up if you lose a weather war, rock slide... IDK it have good coverage it beat volcarona and other dangerous stuff,dark pulse is a special STAB should be used with giga drain, brick break wreak tyranitar and chansey
Growth boost offenses in the sun.

Every Grass type set
@leftovers
Chlorophyll
252 HP, 252 speed, 4 sp.attack
Modest/timid

-Giga Drain/Leaf Storm
-HP fire
-Subtitute
-Leech Seed

shiftry got the speed in the sun for a sub seed set not as good as whimsicott but not as whimsicott shiftry got offensive precense and he is one of the fastest subseed users in the sun tied with venusaur (who mainly outclass shiftry in OU with lot's of stuff)
I hope I don't need to explain.

partners: NINETALES shiftry needs sun to work well on OU Volcarona resist most of shiftrys' weaknesses (all except flying) and work well on the sun.
in other ters you should use shiftrt on a sunny day team

counters: bug attacks or in general super effective attacks get shiftry KOed.
Volcarona is a great shiftry counter it resist almost all of shiftrys' attacks and it KOes with bug buzz except if shiftry have the rare rock slide.
Chansey is Bulky enough to take most of shiftrys' attacks and toxic/paralyze him and so ruining him.
If not mixed then you can use skarmbliss for physical/special sets leech seed can be shut down with a taunter.

[Ana_Julía]

No! Abomasnow will get raped by HP fire or low kick! not at all!

???
Abomasnow aren't a Counter? For what reason? It summons permanent Hail, and if the trainer is a wise guy, he gonna give Abomasnow a Choice Scarf and OHKO Shiftry with a STABed Blizzard. Abomasnow only fail when the oponent have Sun Support. Also, people are suggesting Solarbeam to Shiftry 'cause he need team support, and since he needs support, Sunny Day is The Best option!

[Ilan]

???
Abomasnow aren't a Counter? For what reason? It summons permanent Hail, and if the trainer is a wise guy, he gonna give Abomasnow a Choice Scarf and OHKO Shiftry with a STABed Blizzard. Abomasnow only fail when the oponent have Sun Support. Also, people are suggesting Solarbeam to Shiftry 'cause he need team support, and since he needs support, Sunny Day is The Best option!

counter= switch in to most attacks safety and KO abomasno fails to switch to the common hidden power fire or brick break also most abomasn are not scarfen= no counter

[Ana_Julía]

counter= switch in to most attacks safety and KO abomasno fails to switch to the common hidden power fire or brick break also most abomasn are not scarfen= no counter

Huh? I know what is counter. But i don't are sure if someone would use Hidden Power Fire on Shiftry. Aren't Brick break or Focus Fail Blast a better option?

[Ilan]

Huh? I know what is counter. But i don't are sure if someone would use Hidden Power Fire on Shiftry. Aren't Brick break or Focus Fail Blast a better option?

HP fire gives good coverage on ferrothorn,scizor and forretress,jirachi,metagross,sarmory (most OU steels) and get a nice boost from the sun why not use it?

[philzone]

HP fire gives good coverage on ferrothorn,scizor and forretress,jirachi,metagross,sarmory (most OU steels) and get a nice boost from the sun why not use it?

quite hard to get, and focus blast and brick break are stronger, and can be used in rain(if against water types) and focus blast is great against steels

[Cosmic Potato]

rain can't switch into shiftry. Also, +2 sucker punch, brick break and focus blast will also OHKo abomasnow. Sunnt day support is the olny that makes shifrty usab;le in standard. A good counter would be toxicroak?conkeldurr for revenge killing or resistances to most moves. Aslo SubSeed is better left to pokemon that are bulkier with better defensvie typing

[jesusfreak94]

A few things:

1) Low Kick is usually a better option than Brick Break for a physical Fighting attack, since most of the Pokemon in OU that it would be useful against are heavy enough to take 80 or more damage from it.

2) In the Sun (which is honestly the only time Shiftry should ever be used in OU), HP Fire gets pseudo-STAB, bring it to 105 base power. This leaves it only 15 base points weaker than Focus Blast, while also being far more reliable. This makes it a better option than Focus Blast most of the time, unless you're just really scared of Hydreigon and Heatran.

3) Abomasnow is not a counter to Shiftry since it is greatly threatened by HP Fire and Low Kick/Focus Blast. A Scarf set can handle Shiftry once it's in, but since it cannot switch in safely, it's only a check.

4) The problem with Toxicroak is that it can only safely switch in on those sets lacking both Nature Power (which becomes Earthquake) and HP Fire, since the damage of a Sun-boosted HP Fire is only magnified by Toxicroak's Dry Skin.