[RU] Gardevoir (BW2 Update) [QC 0/3]

[EonX]

[Overview]

• Struggles to standout from other Psychic-types in the tier
• Great Special Attack and Special Defense alongside Trace are Gardevoir's biggest perks
• Solid movepool on both the support and offensive side
• Pure Psychic-typing leaves it weak to Bug-, Dark-, and Ghost-type moves, which is quite unfortunate for any support-based set
• Base 80 Speed lets Gardevoir outpace most walls, but leaves her outsped by most offensive Pokemon such as Durant, Scolipede, and Accelgor
• Has notable strengths, but you must utilize those effectively to avoid it being outclassed

[SET]
name: Special Attacker
move 1: Psychic
move 2: Focus Blast
move 3: Thunderbolt
move 4: Destiny Bond
item: Life Orb
ability: Trace
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

• this set's appeal lies in its unique blend of offensive support, allowing gardevoir to take full advantage of her powerful offensive presence and unique support movepool
• differentiates itself from mesprit and other offensive psychic-types with a significantly higher special attack, trace, slightly better movepool, and destiny bond
• psychic destroys common physical walls such as tangrowth and poliwrath and in general, is gardevoir's most powerful stab move
• Focus Blast is primarily for steel-types such as aggron and magneton, while inaccurate, the power allows it to OHKO both of those two threats on the switch
• Thunderbolt provides gardevoir with perfect coverage along its other two moves; thunderbolt is mainly for slowking, which is swiftly 2hko'd on the switch
• destiny bond is used as a last resort to take down troublesome threats that gardevoir can't ko (i.e. escavalier)

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

• Healing Wish to bring back a crippled sweeper if Gardevoir can't sweep or has done what is needed for the team.
• hidden power fire can be used in place of focus blast work to destroy escavalier, it also hits all steel-types bar aggron for super effective damage and posses good accuracy, but is generally much weaker. make sure to change the ivs to use 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe if you opt for this move, however
• psyshock over psychic to break past special walls like clefable and cryogonal more easily, as having to rely on focus blast to deal with them won't always work out as planned
• generally doesn't need much support, stealth rock is all that's "recommended" because it allows gardevoir to get a clean 2hko on slowking with thunderbolt and ohko moltres and typhlosion with psychic
• smeargle in particular can set up stealth rock and many other entry hazards, it can also put something to sleep with spore.
• Steelix and Rhydon can both set Stealth Rock and synergize well with Gardevoir. Steelix can wall Escavalier and check Durant while Rhydon can wall physical Fire-types such as Entei.
• teammates that can deal with spiritomb and Escavalier will generally suffice. Fire-types such as Entei, Moltres, and Emboar can roast spiritomb and Escavalier
• So long as you use Destiny Bond, Gardevoir can maneuver past Absol through the use of Destiny Bond as it always outspeeds Absol.
• alternatively, you can simply count on Gardevoir to remove them with Destiny Bond and use something like Roselia, Slowking, or Mesprit to lure them in
• Emboar works great as well given its excellent synergy with gardevoir. gardevoir can take out alomomola and poliwrath while emboar can deal with absol and durant
• Gardevoir can also benefit these teammates by disposing of physical walls such as qwilfish, poliwrath, and tangrowth, this gives it good offensive synergy with the above pokemon

[SET]
name: Utility
move 1: Will-O-Wisp
move 2: Psychic
move 3: Protect
move 4: Wish
item: Leftovers
ability: Trace
nature: Calm
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD

[SET COMMENTS]

• best use on full stall / semi-stall, as it lacks the ability to maintain momentum to function on any sort of offense team
• Trace is just a phenomenal ability, as it allows it to come in on manectric and lanturn and absorb their Electric-type stabs, it's also excellent for taking advantage of intimidate from qwilfish and regenerator from slowking, amoongus, and alomomola
• Will-O-Wisp is needed to patch up Gardevoir's horrid physical defense and does well in crippling many incoming physical attackers such as absol and durant
• Psychic is needed so that Gardevoir isn't complete taunt bait even uninvested, it still does a good chunk against the like of qwilfish, tangrowth, and alomomola
• Protect + Wish is useful, allowing Gardevoir to effectively counter choice specs slowking and check other offensive psychic-types such as uxie and mesprit.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

• Must be noted that this set faces stiff competition from Gallade, a Pokemon with extra resistances and STAB Drain Punch to stay healthy without Wish. Trace is the big draw over Gallade as it allows Gardevoir to check stuff like Manectric much more easily.
• Heal Bell for cleric support
• Toxic and Thunder Wave are good options to consider. Toxic works quite well with Protect + Wish, this allows gardevoir to outstall Psychic-types such as Uxie and Mesprit. Thunder Wave on the other hand can work even with will-o-wisp to cripple a fast sweeper and then an incoming physcial attackers, this helps slower and frail offensive Pokemon, such as Crawdaunt to sweep much easier
• works quite well with steelix, as it can take on the likes of durant while gardevoir can stomach fighting-type moves and burn opponents with WoW and provide steelix with wish support
• Alomomola can sponge physical attacks from Emboar and Arceops and provide extra wish support.
• Poliwrath is also an excellent partner by being able to effectively counter durant and escavalier while gardevoir can take on manectric and rotom-c and provide heal bell support if needed
• Qwilfish can work for similar reasons as Poliwrath, Qwilfish, however, can absorb and lay toxic spikes, which can allow Gardevoir to Wish stall bulky Water-types such as Alomomola and Slowking
• Regirock can also work by providing entry hazard support, take physical fire-type moves, and even serve as a good check/counter to the likes of accelgor and galvantula

[Other Options]

• Taunt prevents slower entry hazard users, such as steelix and ferroseed from setting up on you, together with will-o-wisp, Gardevoir can function as an effective stall breaker
  
• If Gardevoir is not using Protect + Wish, it can take advantage of its low HP stat with the use of pain split
  
• memento can work with dual screens by providing a set up sweeper with plenty of opportunities to wreak havoc, despite gardevoir's access to taunt, this job is generally done better by uxie who boasts superior bulk, speed, and the all-important stealth rock
• encore / disable and shadow ball / signal beam are all other cute options, though gardevoir generally doesn't have the room to make use of shadow ball / signal beam or the resistances to abuse encore and disable
• with trace and a choice scarf, gardevoir can effectively revenge kill swift swim and chlorophyll users, though this option is too specific to warrant its own set
• Choice Specs

[Checks and Counters]

• Spiritomb is enemy number one, as it can pursuit trap gardevoir or destroy it with its priority moves, though offensive versions of spiritomb will be 2hko'd with thunderbolt after stealth rock or crippled with will-o-wisp on the switch
• Escavalier can also pursuit trap gardevoir, though it needs to invest heavily in special defense in order to take it on, it also won't enjoy a burn either
• Uxie can cripple the offensive set with Thunder Wave. SubCM sets make the Utility set complete setup fodder
• Mandibuzz / Drapion can beat gardevoir pretty easily should it lack thunderbolt for mandibuzz and focus blast / will-o-wisp for drapion, unfortunately, drapion is hard to fit on most good teams
• Entei can blast the Utility set with Flare Blitz and use ExtremeSpeed to easily pick off the offensive set
• Druddigon is hard to deal with as well, but Destiny Bond and Will-O-Wisp make Druddigon's life a bit difficult
• due to gardevoir's insane damage output and ability to cripple physical attackers and have enough bulk to take on special attackers, there are very few pokemon that can reliably switch into it, the best way to beat it is with heavy offensive pressure and fast physical attackers
• archeops, scolipede, galvantula, and durant are all pokemon that come to mind that can do this well, while none of them can directly switch in, they can all ohko gardevoir with ease
• any check or counter faces the difficult task of navigating around Destiny Bond. If Gardevoir can outpredict the opponent, it can effectively eliminate its counter with itself through the use of Destiny Bond.

 

[EonX]

Ok, going to put this through QC again. Last major update this got was back around November, so this is mainly to ensure that metagame shifts haven't affected the viability of the sets (and moves within them) Fixed up the overview a little, but the rest is a direct c/p from the work Icecream did on this.

 

[Swamp-Rocket]

I really feel like the Special Attacker is better than utility. Gardevoir has issues dealing with being used over Clefable (more versatile) or Gallade (which has Drain Punch and a Fighting-typing for extra resistances) most of the time. Its still viable, but Special Attacker has more merit overall imo

 

[EonX]

Well, if nobody else has any objections, I'll switch the set order around this time tomorrow.

 

[Hot N Cold]

Removing Healing Wish on the Special Attacker set imo

Destiny Bond is so far a better option, Gardevoir is frail and is used usually in early game, luring Spiritomb, Escavalier, Golurk or Absol is pretty big.

teammates that can deal with spiritomb, escavalier, and absol will generally suffice.

Probably you would change this, just to temmates which can take advantage of luring these mons because you're supposed to kill them with Destiny Bond (well, die both really).

Mention offensive spikers in the first set like good temmates specially because with Destiny Bond a lot of mons are force to switch + good coverage with LO hurts.

 

[Celever]

I would slash Choice Scarf on the first set, as Gardevoir is still one of the best Psychic-Types to scarf in the tier (behind Jynx of course) as it can switch into quite a few things and then revenge kill, rather than Jynx's revenge-kill-only strategy. Also Healing Wish is very nice to have on the Choice Scarf set.

 

[EonX]

I don't feel that slashing Choice Scarf is very good on the Special Attacker set since Gardevoir would play a good bit differently with Life Orb than it would a Choice Scarf. (Scarf is more of a revenge killer and LO is more of a wallbreaker)

Also, implemented changes HnC suggested. (kept Healing Wish in AC of the first set though)

 

[Swamp-Rocket]

You have a lot of out of place Substitute mentions in the first set that I'm assuming are leftover, please fix them accordingly. Now onto the other stuff...

Regarding Absol and Durant mentions, there are a few things I want to point out that may be worth revision. Absol vs Gardevoir seems like an awkward situation for Absol, given that it is slower than Gardevoir and will therefore rely on Sucker Punch to actually kill it. Here is the thing - I literally cannot see Absol being safe vs an offensive variant of Gardevoir because of Destiny Bond. If you use Destiny Bond and Absol uses Night Slash, you both faint. If Absol uses Sucker Punch, you use Destiny Bond, and then it Sucker Punches again, you both faint. This is important as that means Gardevoir is one of the only Dark weak Pokemon that is generally going to take it down, even if it doesn't live itself which can really help offensive teams. As for Durant you could also mention Psychic > Psyshock or something is good to dissuade Durant from coming in safely, as I assume that it hurts Durant badly despite the resistance. However, for Utility, Durant isn't exactly always afraid to switch into Will-O-Wisp as most Durant are Lum variants nowadays, and Durant won't usually switch into Gardevoir anyway since its so frail and vulnerable to the offensive set - after being caught by a Lum Berry it will probably be more cautious but it will not be burned. I feel like both of these should be at least somewhat elaborated on.

In regards to hazards on set 1, you mention Smeargle, Crustle, and Omastar but you also say that only Stealth Rock is needed and you don't mention why these guys synergize well with Gardevoir (Spore is no longer as important) Steelix is actually probably a better SR setter than the others for Gardevoir as it can wall Spiritomb and Durant really well - even though its not exactly offensive it can work well on balance. Rhydon can help too, given Bug-types, priority moves, and strong physical attacks (like, I don't know, Entei's moves?) are going to be aimed at Gardevoir and Rhydon can do well against these attacks. Unless you can mention why Spikes is needed for any set I would rather not see the generic offensive hazard setters mentioned. I know HnC mention Gardevoir forces switches which can help with Spikes but I don't see how Spikes help it more than anything else.

In set 2, hazards are once again a "why are they here" sort of thing. I know stuff like Ferroseed likes Wish but even then I don't see why Gardevoir likes hazards. I'd also mention that Gardevoir has competition from Gallade since it has some extra resistances and Drain Punch, and another issue is that compared to the likes of Alomomola or even Clefable it has some pretty small Wishes due to that low HP stat. I'd go as far to say Trace is the only draw of a defensive Gardevoir since it helps it check a bunch of stuff to be honest, I don't see it beating much otherwise. Also in this part, what is the Pokemon that takes hits from Emboar and Archeops while providing Wish? And when would Gardevoir not be using Wish? Add Heal Bell to AC as well, you seem to mention it here but not explicitly.

In Checks and Counters I'd mention Uxie can set up on it or use Thunder Wave on it to cripple it. It kind of owns both sets but Utility in particular is complete setup fodder to SubCM. Mention Entei too, as Extreemespeed mauls the offensive sets while Flare Blitz smashes the defensive ones. Druddigon isn't a bad option either, given it can hit it hard and use Sucker Punch on Gardevoir if it happens to carry the attack, although Destiny Bond and Will-O-Wisp can cause issues. On that note, mention that Destiny Bond makes countering Gardevoir directly is a little challenging as it can attempt to outpredict you to also take you down.

 

[EonX]

Ok, got most, if not all of Swamp-Rocket 's changes. Hopefully I didn't miss anything.