Ubers Kyurem-W

Fireflame

Silksong when
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[OVERVIEW]

Kyurem-W is one of the most powerful wallbreakers in the tier, as base 170 Special Attack bosted by Life Orb or Choice Specs OHKOes or 2HKOes almost everything in the metagame. Powerful Ice- and Dragon-type STAB moves in Ice Beam and Draco Meteor and solid coverage options such as Fusion Flare provide Kyurem-W with excellent coverage, leaving Chansey, Blissey, and bulky Water-types as its only safe switch-ins in the entire metagame. While Kyurem-W is fairly slow at base 95 Speed, with full investment it can outspeed base 90 Pokemon such as Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, and Giratina-O, and it can outspeed prominent sets on more offensive Pokemon such as Geomancy Xerneas and neutral-natured Yveltal.

However, Kyurem-W has several weaknesses that restrict how well it can act as a wallbreaker. Kyurem-W has a terrible defensive typing and must preserve its health if it is to check faster Pokemon, so it lends almost no defensive utility to any team and is hard to bring in without dedicating it precious free switches. Its mediocre Speed and typing also make it incredibly vulnerable to fast revenge killers, notably Deoxys-A, Mega Lucario, Pheromosa, Lunala, Mega Salamence, and Mega Gengar, each of which commonly carries moves that can OHKO Kyurem-W after Stealth Rock. Since Kyurem-W is so easily forced out, it is extremely prediction reliant, so its incredible power and coverage achieve results very inconsistently. A Stealth Rock weakness and possible Life Orb recoil means Kyurem-W is very easily worn down throughout a match and requires Defog support to be effective. Finally, its reliance on Draco Meteor leaves teams with Kyurem-W extremely weak to the popular Geomancy Xerneas and restricts teambuilding by practically mandating the use of one of its more defensive checks. Overall, Kyurem-W is very seldom used due to the ridiculous amount of team support it requires to be effective. On teams that can provide that support, however, its sheer power is almost unparalleled in the tier.

[SET]
name: Wallbreaker
move 1: Ice Beam
move 2: Draco Meteor
move 3: Fusion Flare
move 4: Earth Power / Focus Blast
item: Choice Specs / Life Orb
ability: Turboblaze
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 Def (EVs need to be in order of stat)


[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

Ice Beam is a powerful STAB move and has one of the most effective attacking types in the tier. Draco Meteor is an even more powerful STAB option that inflicts massive damage on anything that doesn’t resist it, although its use causes a sharp drop in Special Attack. Fusion Flare provides essential coverage against the Steel-types that resist Kyurem-W's STAB moves and 2HKOes every relevant Steel-type. Earth Power hits Primal Groudon harder than Ice Beam while being hard for Steel-types to switch into, which greatly eases prediction, especially for Choice Specs sets. Life Orb sets that find Earth Power's coverage to be redundant can opt to run Focus Blast, which significantly improves Kyurem-W's matchup against Arceus-Dark and Extreme Killer Arceus.

Set Details
========

Kyurem-W is only used as a wallbreaker, so maximum Speed and Special Attack investment help it perform this role effectively. A Timid nature allows Kyurem-W to outspeed prominent Pokemon such as Giratina-O, Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, Geomancy Xerneas, and neutral-natured Yveltal, which can all potentially outspeed Kyurem-W otherwise. While a Modest nature provides a significant boost in power, these matchups are common enough that it should not be used except in on teams that can very confidently switch into these threats. The decision between Life Orb and Choice Specs presents a significant trade-off. Since Kyurem-W is so easy to revenge kill and is forced out anyway when using Draco Meteor, the Choice-lock effect of Choice Specs is oftentimes not a significant issue with Kyurem-W. Life Orb does enable the use of Roost, which is helpful against hazard-stacking teams and makes it significantly harder for certain Pokemon such as Xerneas to take advantage of Kyurem-W, so it depends on what your team needs to be strong against. Turboblaze is Kyurem-W's mandatory ability,(RC) (dependent clause) and is situationally useful against Lugia, which is OHKO’ed OHKOed by Choice Specs Kyurem-W, as well as Levitate users such as Bronzong.

Usage Tips
========

Kyurem-W should be brought in on almost every free switch against most teams, since its massive power makes it incredibly difficult to switch into, and it can be hard to bring in otherwise. Making risky predictions can be very tempting early-game, but a play that risks losing Kyurem-W is usually only a wise choice if Kyurem-W has a bad matchup or the match is going badly. Kyurem-W is incredibly easy to take advantage of after using Draco Meteor, so it should generally be used only to break more annoying walls such as a weakened Arceus-Water. Kyurem-W can only check faster Pokemon such as special Arceus-Ground if it is kept healthy, so play carefully,(AC) and avoid Stealth Rock damage if such Pokemon are in on the opposing team.

Team Options
========

Kyurem-W's great power is kept in check largely by its several defensive weaknesses, so it requires extensive team support to be able to work effectively. Kyurem-W invites a large weakness to Xerneas and to a lesser extent other Fairy-types, so offensive checks such as Primal Groudon and Ho-Oh are generally insufficient. A solid switch-in for these Pokemon such as Aegislash, Mega Scizor, Magearna, or Wacan Berry Toxapex is essential to stop potential sweeps. Mega Scizor and Magearna deserve a particular mention for their ability to respectively provide slow U-turns and Volt Switches for Kyurem-W, which can take advantage of them more than almost anything else in the tier. Kyurem-W needs hazard control to be effective against most teams, a role that support Arceus formes and Giratina-O can generally handle effectively. Stealth Rock support is essential for Kyurem-W to stand a chance against the likes of Ho-Oh and Arceus-Water, so reliable setters such as Primal Groudon and Dialga are good partners. Kyurem-W also appreciates being paired with sweepers such as Mega Lucario, Mega Salamence, and Xerneas,(RC) that appreciate value (repetition) its ability to weaken shared checks such as Magearna, Arceus-Water, and Ho-Oh. Alternatively, offensive teams built around Sticky Web can try to rely on momentum to prevent the opponent from effectively taking advantage of Kyurem-W's weaknesses. Timid Kyurem-W outspeeds almost the entire tier under Sticky Web, including the likes of Deoxys-A and Pheromosa, making it extremely difficult to revenge kill. As such, Kyurem-W appreciates being partner partnered with Sticky Web setters such as Shuckle and Smeargle. Sticky Web teams are usually at an advantage against offense archetypes but struggle greatly with defensive teams, so a powerful wallbreaker like Kyurem-W goes a long way to improving this matchup.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Most of Kyurem-W's effective options provide it with a bit more coverage to handle specific threats that a team might be weak to. Although it is useless against anything else, Stone Edge can be used to OHKO Ho-Oh, which can otherwise switch into Kyurem-W comfortably. If Stone Edge is used with Choice Specs, a Naive nature should be used to maximize the move's damage; Life Orb sets will land an OHKO even when running a Timid nature. Roost significantly improves Life Orb Kyurem-W’s utility against hazard-stacking teams by providing sustainability against passive Pokemon, although it is almost useless against offensive teams. Few other justifiable options exist for Kyurem-W. A Substitute set can be used to ease prediction, but it is worn down even faster than the other sets. Sleep Talk can be used for a sleep absorber, but that is gimmicky outside of a surprise factor. Toxic can be used to cripple a wall that switches in, but the only relevant target is Arceus-Water. Icium Z can be used to OHKO bulky threats such as Xerneas and Primal Groudon with a 200-Base Power attack, but Kyurem-W can be quite underwhelming without a boosting item, so this set just makes it into deadweight for the sake of luring things it doesn't need to. Finally, while Kyurem-W's mediocre speed and significant power make it seem like an effective user of Choice Scarf, it checks nothing that Choice Scarf Lunala does not and possesses far less bulk and utility.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Fairy-types**: All relevant Fairy-types can check Kyurem-W when healthy. While Xerneas cannot switch into Ice Beam, the potential use of Draco Meteor makes it very easy to set up with GeoXern Geomancy Xerneas at full HP against Kyurem-W. Arceus-Fairy can outspeed Kyurem-W and threaten Kyurem-W it (STAB Judgment doesn't let Arceus-Fairy outspeed Kyurem-W) with STAB Judgment, while Clefable gets free turns from a Choice-locked Draco Meteor, although they are less common than Xerneas.

**Faster Attackers**: Pokemon such as Choice Scarf Lunala, Mega Gengar, Mega Lucario, Mega Salamence, Pheromosa, Deoxys-A, and Mewtwo formes can all outspeed Kyurem-W and revenge kill it easily.

**Arceus**: Most Arceus formes can check Kyurem-W if they are healthy. Offensive Arceus formes such as Extreme Killer and Arceus-Dark have the advantage over Kyurem-W after one boost. Many support Arceus formes can either stall out Kyurem with Toxic like Arceus-Water or threaten it with a STAB Judgment like Arceus-Dragon or Arceus-Fairy. However, none of these can switch into a neutral STAB move from Kyurem-W, with the sole and very notable exception of Arceus-Water.

**Bulky Water-types**: Bulky Water-types such as Arceus-Water, RestTalk Primal Kyogre, and Toxapex are among the few Pokemon that can reliably counter Kyurem-W by switching in. The only attack that can hit these meaningfully is Draco Meteor, which they can just heal off and force Kyurem-W to switch. If these Pokemon are still healthy, it is generally a good idea to not send out Kyurem-W.

**Chansey and Blissey**: Kyurem-W can achieve nothing against Chansey and Blissey to the point that sending it out will just give the opponent free turns with them.

**Ho-Oh**: Unless Stone Edge is run or Stealth Rock is up, Ho-Oh can repeatedly switch into any of Kyurem-W’s attacks and force it out while healing with Regenerator.

**Steel-types**: Defensive Steel-types such as Aegislash, Mega Scizor, Ferrothorn, Bronzong, and Magearna threaten to OHKO or 2HKO Kyurem-W with super effective STAB moves. While none of these will beat Kyurem-W if they switch into Fusion Flare, they can easily take advantage of Kyurem-(AH)W if its Choice-locked into one of its STAB moves, and Kyurem-W is reluctant to lock itself into the otherwise lackluster Fusion Flare. Offensive Steel-types such as Mega Lucario, Mega Metagross, and Solgaleo effectively check Kyurem-W by threatening to outspeed and OHKO it with their STAB moves.
GP 2/2
 

Nixon73

Scuttlebug Jamboree
Implemented, thanks for the check! With that I'll flag this as done! Kinda funny how many posts ended up here, its far longer than the other threads...
Anyhow, thanks again to all QC.
 

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