Community POTW #108

[Serebii]

Time for the next Pokémon. This time, it's a classic 2nd Gen one!



It's everyone's favourite Steel-type, Skarmory. Skarmory is about as amazing as it has always been.

http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-bw/227.shtml

Go nuts

[Dancing Togekiss]

This pokemon is quite reliable with defense and can make a good attacker. Its only decent ability is sturdy and thanks to this you don't have to worry about one hit kills and you are almost guaranteed at lest one hit with it. Roost can provide a good back for healing when the time is right too.
Ability: Sturdy
Nature: any one that boosts attack/defense
Moves:
Night slash
Steel wing
sky attack
roost

[SkyDriver]

'Skarmory @ Leftovers
Jolly
Weak Armor
252 Atk/252 Spe/4Def
-SD
-Brave Bird
-Steel Wing
-Rock Slide

Sweeper Skarm. SD boost atk, BB is STAB. Steel wing is STAB that may restore the Def loss and Rock Slide is coverage.

classic Skarm
Skarm @ leftovers/Shed Shell
Sturdy
Impish
252 Hp/252 (SP)Def/4 Atk
-SR/Spikes
-Brave Bird/Drill Peck
-Roost
-WhirlWind

we all know how this works

[Lucario Fan]

Ability: Sturdy
Item: Leftovers
Moves: Steel Wing, Rock Slide, Aerial Ace, Stealth Rock

[EonDragonFTW]

ah one of the greatesest physical walls. well here's my set for it:
EVs: 152 HP 4 SpD 252 Def 104 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Item: Leftovers
Moves: Stealth Rock, Spikes, Whirlwind, Roost.

The point of this set is to set up Hazards on all of the things and then just keep whirlwinding away. Roost is there to just recover any damage to ensure your prolonged phazing

[sbktdreed]

Weak Armor/Keen Eye w/ Focus Sash/Life Orb/Muscle Band
If Weak Armor, Adamant/Jolly w/ 252 Attack, 130 Speed, 128 Defense
If Keen Eye, Adamant w/ 252 Attack, 252 Defense, 6 Speed
Pluck/Drill Peck/Brave Bird/Aerial Ace
Iron Head/Steel Wing
Autotomize/Tailwind/Rock Smash
Spikes/Stealth Rock/Autotomize/Tailwind/Sandstorm

Note: I don't see a lot of good moves to choose from. I done all I can.

Partners (for Double/Triple battles):
Shuckle if Guard Swap is added.
Tailwind-users if not already added.
Sandstorm-users
Earthquake-users

Countering:
High Defense and Sp Attack with special Fire/Electric-type moves like Heat/Wash/Fan Rotom, Torkoal, Weezing, Magnezone, Togekiss, Hydregion.
Static/Thunder Wave-users
Flame Body/Will-o-wisp-users like Cofagrigus, Magcargo, Chandelure.

[YourPermanentRecord631]

Counters: Heatran, Heatran, Heatran! This is Skarmory's worse enemy in OU. One simple Fire Blast will roast the bird. Actually any strong Fire STAB can hurt it like Ninetales and others. Scarf Magnezone gets a mention as it can outspeed Skarmory, trap it with Magnet Pull and destroy it with ThunderBolt.

[Star Champion AJ]

Sorry to disappoint everybody, but...

those are my favourite Steel-type Pokémon.

Ability Compendium:
Keen Eye: Opponent cannot lower this Pokémon’s accuracy.
I know useless abilities as soon as I see them.
Unless you are using Skarmory in-game (and the Steel Bird has better abilities) don't use this ability, well, you can stop Sand-attack with that...
Sturdy: The Pokémon is unaffected by One Hit Knock Out moves and in Generation V, the Pokémon cannot be knocked out when it has full Hit Points.
By far one of the most annoying and useful abilities for Skarmory.
It's a free Focus Sash and stops you from being killed mainly by Special Attacks (be careful of Stealth Rock).
Weak Armor: When hit by an attack, the Pokémon's Defense is lowered by one stage but Speed is increased by one stage.
Well, if you have some sort of offensive-minded set which doesn't mind sacrificing some defense... nope, too situational too be useful. Sturdy is better.

Pros:
Gigantic Defense (140) stat
Decent Attack (80)
A crapload of resistances counting seven normal (Dark, Dragon, Flying, Ghost, Normal, Psychic and Steel), two double (Bug and Grass) and two immunities (Ground and Poison)
Immunity to Spikes and Toxic Spikes
Immunity to Sandstorm

Cons:
Lower than average defenses besides Defense (65/140/70) and Speed (70)
Forgettable Sp. Atk (40)
Two common weaknesses to Fire and Electric and most of those attacks are special
Sunny weather exposes its Fire weakness
Lack of a super ugly evolution, that would be the perfect excuse to slap Eviolite

@Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
Nature:
Careful/Impish
EVs:
252 Sp. Def, the rest can be invested in HP and Def
Atk EVs are optional (if you have an offensive-minded set)

About the moves, Skarmory has lots of options...
Agility increases Skarmory's lower than average Speed and has sinergy with Iron Head
Assurance is super useful if your opponent switches, however that requires some prediction skills to use it effectively
Autotomize is a buffed up version of Agility which also reduces damage taken by Heat Crash and Low Kick (which nobody uses anyway), useful with Iron Head and Weak Armor
Brave Bird hits hard but there's the recoil meaning Weak Armor is the best option in that case
Curse if you don't mind trading Speed for extra Attack and bulk.
Entry Hazards such as Spikes and everybody's favorite Steath Rock. Skarmory has the defenses to pull out entry hazards
Eviolite if Game Freak is nice enough to give an evolution to Skarmory in Gen VI... but until then DON'T use Eviolite
Iron Defense raises your Defense to obscene levels but doesn't stop you from being hit by Flamethrower or Thunderbolt.
Iron Head gets STAB and flinches opponents if Skarmory is faster than them (flinching is nice, you know), has good sinergy with Agility/Autotomize and/or Weak Armor
Night Slash is for coverage
Payback if you are using a Curse set
Phazer moves like Roar and Whirlwind, perfect if you have enery hazards, which Skarmory can use itself, but be careful of their negative priority.
Pursuit if you are facing Psychics and Ghosts
Return is another coverage move
Roost heals Skarmory and helps him regaining Sturdy if it's lost due to battle or passive damage, good with Leftovers
Slash if you for some reason are using Night Slash and Scope Lens
Swords Dance if you are focusing on an offensive set
Tailwind supports your slower partners
Taunt to basically avoiding being a Taunt bait and avoiding the enemies' set-ups (unless you are facing Prankster Taunters)
Toxic to slowing crippling non-Poison and Steel-types

Pun examples:
Sky Armored Dancer (Swords Dance set)
Sky Armored Rooster (Roost set)
Sky Armored Slasher (Offensive set)
Sky Armored Spiker (Spikes/Stealth Rock set)
Skyward Sword
Steel Swords falling from the Sky

[DizzyCobraMew]

I'm going standard
Impish
Evs 252 HP, 252 Defense, 4 Sp.def or 4 speed
Sturdy
Item @ leftovers
Stealth rock / Spikes
Brave Bird / Drill Peck / Steel Wing / Aerial Ace
Roost
Whirlwind

Adamant or Jolly
Evs 252 attack, 252 speed, 4 HP
Steel Wing / Iron Head
Brave Bird / Drill Peck
Swords Dance
Pursuit / Night Slash

If adamant do steel wing, if jolly iron head

[Mav-san]

You can go Specially Defensive as well.

Look at me, I'm Specially Defensive
Careful
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Sp. Def, 4 Def
Sturdy
Item @ Leftovers
Spikes/Stealth Rock
Brave Bird/Taunt
Roost
Whirlwind

You can also just trade Brave Bird for another one of the entry hazards. Skarmory won't be able to wall physical hits so effectively, but with this spread it can now resist some special moves. Besides Heatran, which was already mentioned on the thread, Skarmory's biggest nemesis is Magnezone. It will trap Skarmory with Magnet Pull and destroy it with its electric moves, and Skarmory can only whirlwind it away. Or you can trade Leftovers for Shed Shell, but it's not recommended.

[Kraleck]

Kraleck's Poke-Analysis
Stats:
-HP - Slightly-Below Average - Base 65 isn't good, but it's not bad either.
-Attack - Average - Base 80 is nothing special (I use Base 80 as my Average for non-HP stats), but it's a lot better than that Base 40 Sp.Atk.
-Defense - Incredible - Base 140 is amazing, but consider how many Electric- and Fire-Type Moves are actually Physical...
-Sp.Atk - Bad - Base 40 is worthless compared to that Base 80 Attack.
-Sp.Def - Below Average - The Base 70 combined with the Base 65 HP gets you slaughtered by Special Moves, especially when you consider how many Electric- and Fire-Type Moves are Special.
-Speed - Second Place Finisher - Base 70 falls into what I call the "Second Place Zone": A range of Mediocre Base Speeds between 51 and 79 that are reliable for neither Trick Room Speed nor standard Speed. In either case, you're usually coming in "Second Place" on Speed.

Abilities:
-Keen Eye - Better than Sturdy...but only if you're in Gen 3 or 4...
-Sturdy - Gen 5 blessed this with a Focus Sash Effect, but you must beware of a lucky Burn-Hax from Fire-Type Moves or Scald.
-Weak Armor - At least you have a way to boost your Speed, but I wouldn't recommend losing your Defense to do so with Skarmory...

Usable Moves:
-STAB - Steel Wing, Iron Head, Aerial Ace, Pluck, Drill Peck, Brave Bird, Sky Attack (with a Power Herb)
-Non-STAB - Slash, Night Slash, Return, Secret Power, Double-Edge, Facade (Paralysis seems to be the only reliable method for boosting it, though), Rock Slide, X-Scissor, Rock Tomb (more for the Speed aspect), Payback, Pursuit, Assurance (Skarmory loves laying out traps, after all)
-Status - Roar, Whirlwind, Spikes, Stealth Rock, Agility, Autotomize, Curse, Roost, Tailwind, Defog (mostly for taking down Dual Screens and blowing away traps).

[Meowmeow]

From one defensive Pokemon to another. Only this one is all about defense.
For what it does, Skarmory is close to unmatched. It's a defensive behemoth.

Caution: Metal Bird Xing
Nature: Impish/Careful
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP, 232 defense or special defense, 24 speed or defense or special defense
@: Rocky Helmet/Leftovers

Spikes
Roost
Whirlwind
Brave Bird/Drill Peck/Taunt

If Skarmory is doing something else, Skarmory is not being used correctly. Simple as that. Spikes is entry hazard, Roost heals, Whirlwind phazes. Brave Bird is Skarmory's heaviest hitting attack, but Drill Peck is a fine option if recoil on a defensive Pokemon turns you off. Taunt stops anything that will want to set up on you.

Other options:
Stealth Rock can be used over Spikes for more immediate hazard dropping. Toxic lets Skarmory act as a good status platform, but there are better things at that (Whimsicott anyone?). Shed Shell helps escape from Magnezone. Want to stat boost? Bad idea. Skarmory is begging for Taunt as it is.

[Sala-imence]

Item: Leftovers
Nature: Impish
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Spe
Ability: Sturdy
Moveset:
- Toxic
- Protect
- Brave Bird
- Roost

[SwordsDanceStruggle]

Skarmory's Plight

Poor Skarmory. People must rely on him more and more with physical sweepers like Terrakion around, but his job is just getting harder because finding a check is getting so much easier. Stop it with pretty much anyone with Thunder/bolt, including Zapdos, Jirachi, Rotom, and especially Magnezone/ton, while Forretress, Tentacruel, and kind of Ferrothorn set up hazards all over Skarm. A lot of boosters and walls with Taunt can muzzle the bird. These include Gyrados, Jellicent and Gliscor. Still, it is a fantastic check to new new dragons like Garchomp and Kyurem, but when Chandelure receives Shadow Tag, the armored bird may have met its match.

Also, on Duosion's analysis, it says "countering Sneasel." Just saying.

[Zachmac]

Use to be amazing? Used to be? You've got to be kidding me, Serebii. Skarmory is still one of the best physical walls there is. Spikes, whirlwind, 140 base defense, roost...Skarmory is one of the best walls to exist.

Counters: Heatran, Heatran, Heatran! This is Skarmory's worse enemy in OU. One simple Fire Blast will roast the bird. Actually any strong Fire STAB can hurt it like Ninetales and others. Scarf Magnezone gets a mention as it can outspeed Skarmory, trap it with Magnet Pull and destroy it with ThunderBolt.

Nope, Magnezone is Skarmory's worst foe, and it doesn't even need a scarf. It has a x4 resistance to brave bird, and whirlwind has negative priority. The bird also only runs 24 speed EVs most of the time, so Magnezone is perfectly capable of outrunning it without a scarf.

Zoroark is my favorite check for it, and makes an excellent pseudo-trapper. Generally, when Skarmory users see Magnezone, they get extremely catious, and play Skarmory very, very carefully. Surprisingly, with Zoroark, if you save it for later in the game, they seem to forget about the fox and let their guard down, pretty much giving you a free win, if you manage to get Zoroark in on it disguised as a physical attacker.

Rotom-W, or any of the Rotom forms, really, are immune to spikes, resist brave bird, and carry STAB volt switch, forcing it out and giving you offensive momentum.

Skarm really doesn't like rain boosted, STABed Hydro Pumps and Surf either.

And while this doesn't handle Skarm as well as it handles Forretress, you can't forget good old rapid spin to help remove the spikes.

Adamant or Jolly
Evs 252 attack, 252 speed, 4 HP
Steel Wing / Iron Head
Brave Bird / Drill Peck
Swords Dance
Pursuit / Night Slash

If adamant do steel wing, if jolly iron head

Poor speed, poor attack, no priority...this thing is a gimmick at best. Tell me, is there any any real reason to use this over SD Scizor? I guess weak armor could help boost it's speed...but honestly? Honestly?

Please, for the love of Arceus, no offensive Skarmories. If I even see one in other options, I'm going to cry. Sure, it's "creative" and "surprising", but that doesn't exactly mean it's good.

Poor Skarmory. People must rely on him more and more with physical sweepers like Terrakion around, but his job is just getting harder because finding a check is getting so much easier. Stop it with pretty much anyone with Thunder/bolt, including Zapdos, Jirachi, Rotom, and especially Magnezone/ton, while Forretress, Tentacruel, and kind of Ferrothorn set up hazards all over Skarm. A lot of boosters and walls with Taunt can muzzle the bird. These include Gyrados, Jellicent and Gliscor. Still, it is a fantastic check to new new dragons like Garchomp and Kyurem, but when Chandelure receives Shadow Tag, the armored bird may have met its match.

Forretress and Ferrothorn can't set up on it at all if it runs taunt. And sure, Gliscor can learn taunt, but what can it do against Skarmory besides that? Toxic? Earthquake? Good luck. Ice Fang? Sure, but don't expect to get much done.

well, you can stop Sand-attack with that...

I'm pretty sure it's immune to sand attack anyway.

[Star Champion AJ]

I'm pretty sure it's immune to sand attack anyway.

Sand-attack affects Flying-types and Levitators, seriously. The only Pokémon immune to that have the Keen Eye ability.
Anyway, nobody uses Sand-attack!

[mcdanger]

Not much to say here, skarmory is really one side in the way its just defensive. Seeing as its defensive sets have been post already, not really a point of reposting them. Skarmory has one of the highest defensive stats in OU, but with the power shift in BW, skarmory has trouble doing its job, plus he faces competition with gliscor who has superior recovery, and ferrothorn who has some more resistances and better sp defense. That being said, skarmory still has a few niches in the for, of sturdy, allowing his to survive a hit at full health, and his flying-steel type gives him resistances to ground moves, which where espcially common BW 1 with sand domination. With the release of BW2, skarmory has fallen in grace due to the commonness of hydro pump and thunder, evern hurricane iirc, plus with the increase of special sweepers like landorus i and the overall offensive tempo of the current metagame, skarmory has trouble doing its job, but is still usable

[Ghosts of the Forums]

Skarmory @Leftovers
Sturdy (duh.)
Impish
252Hp 96Def 160Sp.Def
-Whirlwind
-Brave Bird
-Spikes/Stealth Rock
-Roost

i use this set. i only included stealth rock as an option, because i prefer my bulky pokemon to have spikes, so they have something to do while stalling. plus, i prefer faster rockers.

[Buuz]

Sorry to dissapoint everyone, but my number 1 favourite steel type is Steelix. Anyway, here's my set if i ever use the steel bird:

Impish Skarmory
@ Leftovers
Ability: sturdy
- stealth rock
- roost
- drill peck
- steel wing

[Rayofquazar]

When thinking of pure physical walls, 3 pokemon comes to my mind. Forretress, Weezing and skarmory! These 3 pokemon can take any physical attack even super effective ones and retaliates with a crippling status or set up entry hazards. It is really very hard to stop them using physical moves and for that they force a lot of switches without the need of phazing. While weezing dropped to NU for the lack of recovery and hazards, skarmory and forretress are still playing with the big guys and they are the only ones that they can brag on their ability to stop a +2 ATT haxorus using outrage. While forretress is a little better in it's job taking advantage of a better typing and access to rapid spin, skarmory can differentiate itself with it's access to a more reliable recovery move in roost and a better speed, attack and the move whirlwind that puts an end to baton pass chains teams and rack up residual damage. Skarmory is amazing in it's job, but nothing comes without it's flaws. Skarmory's speed is an issue as it is not reliable in any sort of play style. Base 70 speed means that it is outsped by a lot of pokemon under normal circumstances and under trick room. Skarmory's special defense is not good, combined with it's low HP means that skarmoy would fall to any special hit especially Super effective ones and the fact that it is weak to fire and electric, mostly special moves, do not help in this regard.

Nevertheless, skarmory has the right stats to do it's job well. Now that sturdy is buffed up, it is become better in supporting your team. However the rise of new pokemon and counter every gen is making it's job harder and harder to pull off! Support skarmory well and it will support you right! Keep it away from it's counters_that are not that many_and you'll be fine!