When you should run a mixed set?

Question

When you should have both physical and special set on a Pokemon? Apart from Priority moves like Extreme Speed to break Pokemon that hung on Sash/Sturdy.

Answer 1

When the Pokemon in question has strong stabs in both attacking sides, great offensive stats, a movepool that uses both sides and isn't Black Kyurem. Most of the time, you're not gonna want to use a mixed set because it cuts your firepower because of ev spread since you're gonna want to max out your speed but there are some cases where it's beneficial. Mega Garchomp is a perfect example. It has the movepool to abuse its attacking stats and it really only needs four moves to get a near perfect coverage anyway

So, in general, you'll only want to run a mixed set when the conditions mentioned are met and you're team really needs a mixed attacker. In this game, you're never gonna want to recklessly build a Pokemon set without assessing what the rest of your team needs. If you're team doesn't need a mixed attacker, why bother to use one? If it needs and there are Pokemon that is a decent mixed attacker and fits well with the rest of the team, use it. It'll plug the hole in your team

This goes not just to whether or not you should go for a mixed set but for a physical or special set. The important thing is, always check what your team needs, if it's a physical, special or mixed. You don't want to end up in a scenario where you have three special attackers because Blissey is just gonna sit on your face all day long and annoy you to death with that stupid smile on its face as it sways from side to side

Comments

I just want to add. This also includes in which defensive pokemon you need, whether you need a special, physical or mixed wall. Obviously the criteria would be different but the bottomline is, it will always depend on what the rest of your team needs

Answer 2

If a Pokemon has good stats in both offences and a good move pool in both (Salamence and Rayquaza are good examples) then you'll sometimes want to be running mixed. You might run mixed because a Pokemon has a higher offence than the other but the other is also decent and the move pool in the higher stat is limited to STAB for good coverage, whilst it has a decent move pool for coverage in the other side (Mega Absol). If a Pokemon has higher offence on a side and lower but decent on the other and needs to hit a certain Pokemon, (like running Earth Power Rayquaza in VGC 2019 to hit Groudon and Tapu Koko) that's another example. If a Pokemon doesn't have a good STAB move on their higher offence side and runs mixed for STAB, that's another time.

Hope I helped!!!

Comments

Oof, got hit by a Snipe Shot

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Hahahahahaha

Answer 3

When both of the SpA and Atk is good, decent or sky-high, like those of Rayquaza and Salamence. Another example might be Diancie along with its powerful mega evolution, as both of its SpA and Atk stats are exactly the same. Also, another reason is for type coverage and for the sake of covering weaknesses. One example is Zeraora, as it also has a decent SpA stat and usually equipped with grass knot, to cover its main weakness, ground types. Magnezone is another reason, as Steel Beam can OHKO Hippowdon for the sake of loss of half your HP. Another reason might be to stop the opponent from switching into other mons, lets say, you pit Rillaboom against a Hippowdon. It's obvious the opponent's going to switch to another mon because he or she knows it's at a big disadvantage, but if you run Steel Beam Magnezone, like I do, the opponent will not know that Steel Beam will not OHKO it, and thus, doesn't switch in order to score off an earthquake or Stealth Rock. Magnezone can also run Body Press at the same time, because it uses its defense stat in damage calculation, which means it can also stall physical mons out with its high defense equipped with Iron Defense. Its SpA is also very high, so you equip t with a Discharge or Thunderbolt. And also when the attack is already high enough to make your opponents tremble in fear, so you focus on making that SpA stat to the max and vice versa. Let's say, Dragapult's Atk stat and SpA stat are both high. Specs Dragapult can be equipped with 252 SpA/252 Spe/4 Atk because it also has U-turn in its movepool in order to pivot in to checks. It can also be equipped in Will-o-wisp+Hex Dragapult, as it also has U-turn in its movepool in order to cripple the opponent with a burn then switching into checks. I know this because I've played OU for ages. Honestly, its only 4 months I've been playing OU. Some examples for both good SpA and Atk stats would be Mega-Absol, Mega Metagross and the ones that have the exact same EVs for each stat, such as Jirachi, Manaphy, and Arceus and some more. In conclusion, it depends on what role you want that specific Pokemon to have and what EVs it will hold in its very hands. Exception for those Pokemon who doesn't have hands. Sorry Ferrothorn.

Hope this helps :)

Comments

Don't advertise that!! This is an answer, for hell's sake!!

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Why exactly are you announcing that on an answer?