How viable is Encore, and how is it used?

Question

I have always viewed Encore as a move whose success relies heavily on the predictive skills of the player, so I usually don't use it. I do know that it is often used to lock an opponent into a setup move or Protect to leave them vulnerable, but are there any other situations in which it can be useful?

Comments

It's not that good in singles, but it's apparently very viable in doubles. I don't play doubles, so I'm not exactly sure what it's used for.

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I know it's quite viable on Wobbuffet due to how its moveset is

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I was in this battle a little while ago where Encore was a huge factor of the late game.  I feel like it's appropriate:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7randombattle-643936923

Encore can be used to lock an opponent into a set-up move or one with little or no effectiveness to allow you time to set up yourself or to just simply KO them.  But yes, it requires a lot of prediction to pull off properly, and even then, usually your opponent will just switch out if they can, which only gives you one free turn, rather than three.  So yeah, it's pretty meh overall.

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Encore is only really used by Prankster users in singles since it's guaranteed to go first. It can lock opponents into moves they don't want to be in and force switches.

Answer 1

The main role for this move is the one you already know, to lock the foe with an move who is not very good to be using all time. Both in single, double, triple, and rotation formats.

But sometimes, if you find the right situation, you can improvise. For example, if your Pokemon has the ability Sap Sipper and you make it use Encore on a Pokemon who just used a Grass type move, it will give a large amount of support, especially if it's the last Pokemon of that player. And everybody knows by experience that some players usually use the wrong moves a bunch of times, and are not able to predict most abilities. So you can take advantage of their inexperience.