Shiftry -- Beat Up vs Night Slash vs Throat Chop?

Question

Spit-balling for a Physical Shiftry for a team, and I'm looking at the options for Dark STAB. My initial thought was to just pick Throat Chop for the dependable base power and the bonus utility of nullifying "voice" moves for 2 turns. While looking at other move options, I saw that Seedot has Night Slash as an egg move, with that inherent crit rate. Then somehow I got looking at Beat Up, and looking at the damage calculation behind it, and now I'm not sure what would be most beneficial.

The team overall looks to lean slightly Physical, which would bump the damage potential of Beat Up a bit.

Comments

What game are you playing? What do you want to do with this Shiftry? Do you want to battle other people or in-game trainers?

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Sorry, forgot the game tag.  It's planning for Sword/Shield.  I'm getting it for Christmas.  This would be for vs people, but not strictly competitive.  I have several friends that also have the games.

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In that case, I think throat chop is better because it's more reliable.

Answer 1

Always go for reliable power over secondary effects, especially for sweepers.
This means Throat Chop is the move of choice.

Shiftry is too slow to be anything but a Sun sweeper.

Shiftry @ Focus Sash
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Solar Blade/ Leaf Blade
- Throat Chop
- Low Kick/ Rock Slide/ Bounce

Bounce is only there because Max Airstream gives you a reliable speed boost which would benefit you after the Sun goes down.

Despite you mentioning that you wanted to go physical, I'd just like to suggest that this generation the special Shiftry seems more powerful, mainly because it gets Heat Wave to help sweeping under the sun, and allowing it to set the sun up by itself through Dynamax.

Shiftry @ Focus Sash
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Solar Beam
- Heat Wave
- Dark Pulse

Never choose Beat Up for competitive, it's such a gimmick.