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198 votes
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I breed Pokemon in the game and am pretty good at IVs and EVs and such. I have thought of a few good tactics, such as

  • Safe Guard and Outrage/Petal Dance/Thrash (avoids confusion ailment)
  • Mimic and Imprison (permanent Disables last move)
  • Swagger/Flatter and Psych Up/Haze (either gives you upped stats or resets theirs)
  • Defense Curl followed by Roll Out (makes roll out stronger)
  • Rain Dance and Thunder (Thunder never misses)
  • Belly Drum and Rest (works best with a chesto berry. Maximizes attack)
  • Sunny Day and Solar Beam (solar beam no longer needs to charge)
  • Endure and Flail/Reversal (makes the attack moves really strong compared to normal)

What are some of the best move combos that you have found so far? :D
Explain your choices, and why they make good combos.

Please read all the answers before posting, to avoid duplicate answers. Yes, all 200+ of them.

And no full on movesets either, there are separate questions for that :-)

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209 Answers

8 votes

"Sturdy Shedinja Sweeping"

In a triple battle, lead with a Shedinja. It would be a good idea to give him a Focus sash or Lum berry for this.

Lead with:

  • A Pokemon with the ability sturdy. It would be good for them to have support moves or Rapid Spin for Shedinja. [Pokemon 1]
  • A Pokemon with the ability Cloud Nine (ex. Golduck, Altaria)[Pokemon 2]
  • A Pokemon capable of learning Safeguard and Skill Swap (ex. Gardevoir) [Pokemon 3]

Turn 1:

  • Have Pokemon 3 use Skill Swap on your Sturdy Pokemon, giving them the ability.
  • Have Pokemon 1 set up something for you to help out your team. It's not important what. as said before, you could give them Rapid Spin to help out Shedinja.
  • Have Pokemon 2 use Protect or something to keep them safe. You need them around to prevent hail and sand for Shedinja, so don't be reckless with them. If this one also has safeguard, you can just save time this turn and protect Shedinja.

Turn 2:

  • Have Pokemon 1 switch out, and send out Shedinja.
  • Have Pokemon 2 use Worry Seed on him, cancelling out his Wonder Guard ability. Since he would have a Focus Sash, he can last this turn without it. If you had your Cloud Nine Pokemon use Safeguard, this works just fine for him. Make sure the pokemon using Worry Seed is faster than the one with Skill Swap, so this can be pulled off in a single turn.
  • Have pokemon 3 use Skill swap on Shedinja to give him Sturdy.

Turn 3:

  • Have pokemon 3 use Safeguard if you didn't already have your other Pokemon do it the last turn.
  • Have Shedinja set up or attack whatever you want.
  • Do what you can to keep your Cloud Niner safe. You can also give him Taunt so that he can force opponents into attacking, instead of tricky moves that might screw Shedinja over.

Shedinja can't be hurt by direct attacks now, and most status based attacking is blocked off by his teammates. Consider something like heal pulse to support your other pokemon.

Notes:

  • When Safeguard wears off, you can use protect with Shedinja while setting it back up, since your opponent will likely take advantage of it and try to hit him again.
  • Shedinja is still prone to Mold Breaker, so Pinsir, rampardos, Haxorus, Excadrill, Throh, Sawk, Basculin, and Druddigon can break through him. (He doesn't have Wonder Guard now, so any type can hurt him)
  • Pokemon with the ability Magic Bounce, or Magic Guard can block off some attacks. This means Clefable, Sigilyph, Reuniclus, and Alakazam, as well as Xatu and Espeon can potentially screw you. Luckly, he has the type advantage against most of them, so he isn't completely defenseless against them.
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not pratical but this should be up near the top :D
Wow, just like you to find a way to inviniciblize Shedinja. Everyone else looks at Wonder Guard, but you look at 1 HP :D
You CANNOT skill swap wonder guard!
That's the beauty though. Wonder Guard has nothing to do with the plan...the instructions are right there. You use worry Seed to cancel his Wonder Guard so that you can give him Sturdy. I know you can't skill swap wonder Guard.
Cool, must test this
7 votes

I found out this really works for me in doubles!(Almost always works!^^) I get a slow pokemon with levitate like bronzong and have it use trick room. Then I use something like a power switch on shuckle, with trick room, shuckle is a BEAST on the field. I am able to almost OHKO anything that gets in the way with e-quake, stone edge, and gyro ball, toxic just adds up to the fun! ;)

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*uses priority move*
6 votes

The Absolute best combo (I love this one) is Aggron with Taunt and Metal Burst. If you give it a Focus Sash or Band It will give you a good chance of hanging on, and giving it Evs in Special Defense (like me) combined with its already strong defense makes for almost certain survival.
The best is when they THINK Aggron will fall to a 4x s.e. earthquake or water attack, and then..... BAM No move can escape metal burst, and not everyone expects it. After Taunt it's DEADLY!

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I kill everyone with it!
It's a really nice set, just watch out since most people will predict a sash on him when they see he's not holding an Air Balloon.
wouldn't aggron have sturdy?
A fair amount of tanking Aggron have rock head for sweeping.
Seeing as Aggron has Head Smash as a move, along with Double-Edge. This is a decent enough strategy. Just watch out for the OHKO from Ground and Fighting.
*Uses Fake Out*
6 votes

Swagger + Foul Play Can be quite deadly at times,

Fake Out + Normal Gem is annoying

Fake Out + Sucker Punch + Dark Gem is also annoying.

Protect + Toxic Who can't resist this stalling classic.

Bronzong in the Rain is also a large threat.

Normal Type Arceus with Extreme Speed + Swords Dance + Sucker Punch

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Bronzong, in the rain, is a pain.
6 votes

Don't you hate Blissey's insanely low defense? Or an eviolite Chansey; it's Defense is still pretty low. Well, there is a way to improve that!

Have Blissey with Shuckle in a Double Battle. Same type of Shuckle as before, but this time, Shuckle should use Guard Split on Blissey/Chansey. Blissey should get around a 300 Defense, and 400 Special Defense. That's not that bad. Eviolite Chansey will get a 450 Defense and 600 Special Defense!

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Guard Swap does not work that way. It only copies the defense BOOSTS.
Woops.
Untrue
http://pokemondb.net/move/guard-swap
>User and Opponent swap Defense and Special Defense
Mew, i think you Guard SPLIT
6 votes

Ninjask @ Focus Sash
Trait: Speed Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Baton Pass
- Swords Dance
- Protect
- U-turn

Regigigas @ Muscle Band
Trait: Slow Start
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dizzy Punch
- ThunderPunch
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake

Pass swords dance and speed boosts to regigigas, so it will have normal spd and atk, but after 5 turns it will have doubled spd and atk

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I like this strat and upvoted because of that
But after five turns doesnt it's stats return to normal if it survives 5 turns so would the stats stay the same
after 5 turns, the stats would return to normal,plus the 2x boosts
Not bad atk becomes base 320 :) my bad
and also 200 hundred base spd with a 110/110/110 bulk that ensures priority won't take it down. Epic bulky sweeper!
5 votes

Umm... Hail to improve accuracy of Blizzard? Also, some move combos I see working are Charge Beam/Leaf Storm (to power up/restore Sp. Atk and do extra damage), Bestow/Recycle (you hold bad item, they hold a good berry, and you switch items and use yours continuously. This works really good with Gluttony.), Overheat/Haze (to restore Sp. Atk), Smack Down/Earthquake (to prepare Flying types and destroy them with Earthquake) Stealth Rock/Dragon Tail(to weaken the foe's entire team),and for Double Battles, I would suggest Heal Pulse/Water Spout, Swagger/Flatter on Own Tempo Pokemon, or Charge Beam on an Electric-type absorber.

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I like the bestow and recycle one, but what Pokemon can learn that?
The Porygons can use Trick and Recycle.
So can the Mimes.
5 votes

Acupressure + Stored power
Even if your pokemon is special sweeper and Attack is boosted, stored power's damage is increased. Also acupressure is the only way to make stored power reach the ultimate 860 base damage.

EDIT: Oooops, there's no pokemon that can learn acupressure and stored power, so maybe batton pass acupressure with an Eeeve, or an Eevelution.

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"EDIT: Oooops, there's no pokemon that can learn acupressure and stored power, so maybe batton pass acupressure with an Eeeve, or an Eevelution."

There's Smeargle.
Yeah, but using Smeargle for that wouldn't end well, thanks to poor stats.
put them to sleep with spore then start acupressure might work
Why not calm mind + stored power?
Acupressure raises a stat by 2 (boni) but calm mind raises two stats with 1 bonus. So that means calm mind has the same effect on stored power, no? Also the sp. atk is raised.
Because Acupressure is the only way you can Max out all stats.
And while you set it up you get killed. Thumbsup.png!
5 votes

take a raichu that can learn charge beam and another pokemon with lightningrod manectric
and use charge beam on the pokemon which would raise manectric and possibly raichu

also politoad drizzle and a pokemon with rain dish blastoise
glacion with snow cloak and leftovers ( it helps )
or ice body and leftovers mmmmmm
ooo this is cool one gliscor with fling holding a toxic orb or poison barb with poison heal
1 heals yourself deals damage and either poisons opponent or does nothing

your welcooooome ':)

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I reccommend using an electivire that has motor drive so it can up its speed stat.
5 votes

Heavy Metal and Heavy Slam

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This is my favorite strategy so far (sarcasm)
5 votes

Pretty obvious one... have a Pokemon hold a Flame Orb or Toxic Orb and use Trick. Use Hex they take the item and get a status so that way Hex is doubled in power.

Now someone might ask why not Will-o-isp over Trick. Its all a gamble. Also you might ruin their strategy of the item.

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5 votes

echoed voice+choice scarf/choice specs/metronome (the item)

stronger and stronger!

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LOL Nice! I really like this one!
5 votes

Try Gliscor with toxic orb and poison heal, use facade, then use fling. start using agility.

lots of fun/annoyance!

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5 votes

Swift Swim+Rain+Swords Dance+Focus Sash=Sweep
For example:
Kabutops (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Swords Dance
- Waterfall
(J98)

Sand Rush+Sand+Swords Dance+Focus Sash=Sweep
For Example:
Sandslash (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Lonely Nature (+Atk, -Def)
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
- Shadow Claw
- Swords Dance
(Fear Itself)

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5 votes

Torment+Encore

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Opponent will use Struggle!
Awesome
Ghost type would be even better
5 votes

a pokemon with trick
gallade is best metagross can work as well
gallade uses trick swaps lagging tail
now foe has -7 priority on every move
gallade use focus punch seen as focus punch hits on -5 or -6 you can easy ko the foe with stab fpunch

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Trick Room...
trick rooms not so common why was this downvoted it was upvoted the other day
5 votes

Try this set it will trap your opponent completely!
Ok so have a Poke'mon with this moveset:

  • Roost
  • Feather Dance
  • Sucker Punch
  • Taunt

And this set:

  • Mean Look
  • Psychic (Your Choice.)
  • Heal Pulse
  • Earthquake

Set one Strategy:

Here is how you use it Start up with a use Taunt Attack to Make the opponent use offensive moves for sure, Then, use a Feather Dance to lower it's Attack, After that, use a Sucker Punch that is sure to hit, (With alot of Power!). Roost is to heal all the damage it's taken while doing this. Keep doing this for Ultimate power! Try out an Metronome or a Leftovers as an item.

Set two Strategy:

Heal Pulse Just in-case team-mate needs help.
Mean Look Keeps the opponent from switching out & ruining this combo.
Earthquake Covers The Electric Weakness the Flying Poke'mon Team-Mate
has. Psychic is STAB to Gallade.

Needed Poke'mon:
(Set 1.)
Murkrow Honchkrow
Murkrow or Honchkrow

Needed Poke'mon:
(Set 2.)
Gallade
Gallade


Hope I Helped! ^_^

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I can switch out, then all that wears off.
Oh,
well for double battle maybe a poke'mon with mean look...
xD
5 votes

One of my favorite troll techniques, the following works very well for sweeping teams, and will almost always make your opponent feel stupid.

Zoroark/Life Orb

EVs: 252 special attack, 252 speed, 4 HP
Nature: timid
Ability: illusion
Moves:
Nasty plot (boosts for sweeping)
Dark pulse (STAB, more reliable than night daze)
Focus blast
Hidden power ice (coverage)

The trick here is that you set up your team so that zoroark will be disguised as a Toxicroak, which is pretty much the perfect pokemon for zoroark to look like. With toxicroak's 4X weakness to psychic, and zoroark's immunity to it, you are often able to set up with nasty plot and use dark pulse to belt the fool who switched in with a psychic type. Also, HP ice covers all of toxicroak's non-psychic weaknesses, effectively murdering anything that switches in on zoroark for what they believe is a type advantage. One more thing that makes this strategy ruthless is that Toxicroak can learn all of the moves in this set, leaving less suspicion as to whether it is an actual Toxicroak.

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Dude, that's a Toxicroak.......
You already have one person fooled it seems. XD
4 votes

this one only works for a limited amount of pokemon but is very deadly.

meanlook + hypnosis + nightmare + punishment (punishment is to finish them. it is even better with darkrai!)

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Why Punishment?
4 votes

Reflect Type + Syncronoise (Use Smeargle)

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Or you can just use a move with higher base power that doesn't require so much set up (or require having to attack with Smeargle).