Kabuto (QC 0/3)

[Merritt]

Overview
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• Good attack and defense
• Good support movepool with knock off, rapid spin, and stealth rock
• Can also go offensive with access to either rock polish or utilizing swift swim
• Typing is a mixed blessing, on one hand it's the only thing with knock off, spin, and rocks not weak to water, on other hand common weaknesses to electric, fighting, ground, and 4x to grass
• Largely outclassed by faster or bulkier or all around stronger things
• Despite physical bulkiness, specially defense is low

Support
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name: Support
move 1: Knock Off
move 2: Stealth Rock
move 3: Rapid Spin
move 4: Aqua Jet/Waterfall
ability: Battle Armor
item: Eviolite/Focus Sash
evs: 116 HP / 196 Atk / 196 Def
nature: Adamant
Moves
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• Knock Off is to help the rest of the team remove threats, while also hitting Misdreavus and Honedge harder
• Stealth Rock and Rapid Spin are good for getting your hazards up and theirs down
• Aqua Jet vs Waterfall, while waterfall hits twice as hard, aqua jet makes up for kabuto's low speed and allows it to hit faster things twice

Set Details
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• The given EVs allow Kabuto to avoid being OHKOed by anything aside from a grass type attack
• Eviolite is far preferred, although Kabuto can choose to run focus sash as a hazard lead
• With Eviolite, Kabuto can survive a 236+ Drilbur Earthquake and 2HKO with aqua jet, or survive a 232+ Chinchou Volt Switch
• Adamant nature allows Kabuto to deal a little extra damage to spinblockers with Knock Off or Aqua Jet
• Battle Armor is chosen so that a lucky critical hit cannot happen

Usage Tips
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• Typically get hazards up as fast as possible or take down the opponent's hazards, whichever is more important
• Taunt users, especially fighting type taunt users, are dangerous to allowing Kabuto to do its job
• Kabuto can be used to take fire type attacks extremely well, due to its 4x resistance
• Avoid sacking Kabuto for as long as possible, especially if the opponent has their hazards setter or remover still alive
• Knock Off is the move of choice, especially in earlygame, as it allows sweepers on the team to do their jobs more successfully

Team Options
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• Flying types either resist or are immune to three of Kabuto's weaknesses, and especially can remove troublesome grass types and the problematic Mienfoo
• Kabuto also pairs extremely well with other grass types, as it resists four of the types they're weak to, and they are able to take three of Kabuto's weaknesses as well. Cottonee, especially, resists everything Kabuto is weak to
• Spinblockers, especially Misdreavus, are extremely useful for easing Kabuto's burden while Pawniard is good for absorbing defogs

Offensive Swift Swim
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name: Swift Swim
move 1: Rain Dance/Aqua Jet
move 2: Rock Slide
move 3: Waterfall/Aqua Jet
move 4: Knock Off
ability: Swift Swim
item: Eviolite/Damp Rock
evs: 116 HP / 196 Atk / 36 Def / 156 Spd
nature: Adamant

Moves
========

• Rain Dance is the best speed boosting move Kabuto can use, while also boosting the power of waterfall, but only if another teammate has Rain Dance, Aqua Jet can be used instead.
• Rock Slide is STAB and also Kabuto's best move for grass or opposing water types
• Waterfall is the move of choice, doing a fantastic amount of damage under the rain, although Aqua Jet can be chosen in order to hit things outside of rain
• Knock Off does good damage to slowpoke and possibly baited spinblockers, while also aiding the team

Set Details
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• The EVs give Kabuto 28 speed under the rain, which outspeeds most scarfers, including Pawniard, while speed tying scarf 19 speeds.
• Adamant nature is chosen for obvious reasons
• With Eviolite, Kabuto has 21/24/16 bulk, allowing it to comfortable take neutral physical attacks
• Damp Rock is a possibility if the rest of the team is helped by rain, but Kabuto will typically not be sweeping teams anyways
• Life Orb should not be used, as it fails to add any notable OHKOs and eviolite helps Kabuto survive opposing priority

Usage Tips
========

• Rain Dance should almost always be the first move used, so that Kabuto can actually outspeed and kill most opponents
• Bulky Water Types that resist rock slide are difficult to deal with, and so should be dealt with before using Kabuto
• Kabuto can switch in on flying types and fire types lacking electric or grass coverage easily
• Knock Off is the best move to use if your opponent is switching, as it allows Kabuto to possibly do more damage the next turn if they hold an Eviolite
• Waterfall is the move to spam in all other situations, as in the rain it has essentially 180 base power
• Using Kabuto in lategame is preferable, as Kabuto can sweep through a weakened team

Team Options
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• Teammates that either set up rain or benefit from rain are highly advisable, as Kabuto enjoys being able to switch in and immediately wreak havoc, but is also unlikely to remain in for long periods of time
• Flying type teammates are extremely helpful for dealing with Croagunk
• Fighting types, especially Mienfoo, are very useful for dealing with Lileep, Ferroseed, and defensive Tirtouga
• Something to deal with Chinchou is also helpful, as Kabuto is unable to 2HKO Eviolite Chinchou

Other Options
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• Kabuto can run rock polish, but it is largely inferior to rain dance, considering that rain also boosts Kabuto's water type moves
• Kabuto has a decent special movepool, but poor special attack makes them nothing more than poor coverage options
• Kabuto can run a Berry Juice and Thief set fairly effectively, due to decent bulk even without eviolite, but it plays similarly to the other sets
• Weak Armor is a possibility, but is overall inferior to Rain Dance, as Kabuto either prefers a defensive ability, or doesn't need any more speed
• Hone Claws is Kabuto's only boosting move, and while it also allows Rock Slide to be more accurate, it usually doesn't find its way onto Kabuto sets

Checks & Counters
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***Water Absorb, Storm Drain, and Dry Skin*** With their immunity to water STAB, they can usually switch in on a predicted aqua jet/waterfall and often KO Kabuto

***Fighting Types*** Mienfoo and Timburr both can do a lot of damage with Drain Punch, removing Kabuto quickly

***Grass Types*** Especially Cottonee, Foongus, Lileep, and Ferroseed. Cottonee can come in and force Kabuto out if it has giga drain, and Foongus can either giga drain to remove Kabuto or Spore to make the switch in weight. Ferroseed walls the offensive Kabuto completely, and can also beat Utility Kabuto with Bullet Seed, while Lileep also has the dreaded Storm Drain

***Chinchou*** Chinchou can take all of Kabutos moves and 2HKO with electric STAB

***Diglett*** exclusively on Swift Swim sets lacking aqua jet when rain is down. With Life Orb and Earthquake, it has a 93.8% chance to OHKO with Earthquake, and Kabuto cannot switch out

***Abra*** With Life Orb it has a fairly good chance to OHKO with psychic, and aqua jet cannot OHKO. Energy ball, in addition, is always an OHKO.

 

[Merritt]

Quick bump. If nobody has anything to add or suggest (either because you never used Kabuto in which case you should feel bad or because you think my sets are perfect so bad that you don't want to bother), then I'll move it to QC.

 

[Lord Alphose]

Team Options - For the first set, Defog is much more common for removing hazards than spinners. A great way to discourage Defog is to have a Defiant Pawniard on your team.
- On the second set, it is advisable to have another Pokemon set up the Rain, allowing Kabuto to have four attacking moves in it's slots. Maybe slash another move in front of rain dance, and enter Pokemon into the Team Options that is good at setting up rain.

On the first set, I suggest moving EVs more into Defenses instead of having maxed out Attack. Since it is truly a utility set, it wants to survive more than deal damage.

Usage Tips - On the first set, specify that Knock Off is best utilized in the beginning stages of the game, when it can have the most effect.

Edit: I know nothing about Kabutops. Nobody knows anything about Kabuto.

 

[Good_Luck!]

Is weak armor usable? It can have 14 Spe which means 21 after a boost, it also has Hone Claws which is its only attacking boosting move (sadly). It deserves a mention in OO, I think.

Ferroseed is also a good Counter as it resists every move except Knock Off and Kabuto takes damage from Iron Barbs from Waterfall, Aqua Jet, Knock Off and even Rapid Spin; that chip Damaga is enough. It can also set up Spikes and keep adding passive Damage. The Rain Set also benefits Ferroseed by weakening Fire moves and resisting both STABS. Not to mention the threat of Bullet Seed breaking the Sash and KOing the first set.

On the second set you should mention how it's better to have Kabuto as a late game sweeper once all its counters (Croagunk, Lileep, Ferroseed and/or Chinchou) are defeated and the team should ideally be severely weakened bc is not powerful enough to OHKO a lot of things like Mienfoo, Trubbish and Pawniard, Spikes are enough to defeat them 1on1. Maybe mention how LO is not a good item as it won't turn any 2HKO into OHKO even if it hits naturally the 19 HP numer and Eviolite lets it take hits like Pawniard's Sucker Punch much better.

Bulky Water-types like Wooper, Wailmer, Defensive Tirouga can survive hits and stall out Rain turns with Recover (Wooper's case) or hit it hard on its Special lame bulk (Wailmer or Tirtouga).

196+ Atk Kabuto Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 236 HP / 156+ Def Eviolite Wooper: 6-8 (24 - 32%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO
196+ Atk Kabuto Waterfall vs. 92 HP / 252 Def Eviolite Tirtouga in Rain: 7-10 (30.4 - 43.4%) -- 100% chance to 3HKO

(Slowpoke, Frillish and Tentacool are hit hard by Knock Off and Rock Slide, so they're not checks)

Dry Skin Helipotile is like a Chinchou-meets-Croagunk-counter as it can switch into a predicted Waterfall/Aqua Jet and throw off a Thunderbolt/Volt Switch.

Mienfoo and other FO users can also stall turns.

Really, Kabuto is good now that Knock Off got buffed.

 

[Merritt]

Team Options - For the first set, Defog is much more common for removing hazards than spinners. A great way to discourage Defog is to have a Defiant Pawniard on your team.
- On the second set, it is advisable to have another Pokemon set up the Rain, allowing Kabuto to have four attacking moves in it's slots. Maybe slash another move in front of rain dance, and enter Pokemon into the Team Options that is good at setting up rain.

On the first set, I suggest moving EVs more into Defenses instead of having maxed out Attack. Since it is truly a utility set, it wants to survive more than deal damage.

Usage Tips - On the first set, specify that Knock Off is best utilized in the beginning stages of the game, when it can have the most effect.

Edit: I know nothing about Kabutops. Nobody knows anything about Kabuto.

Pawniard has a mention on the utility set along with Spinblockers. However, due to the prevalence of Pawniard, defog isn't really more common than rapid spin (only really having two viable users in Archen and Vullaby, while Rapid Spin has more).

In the same vein, having a mon to set up rain is mentioned, however a slash after rain dance has been added, with the note that you must have another teammate to set up rain dance if rain dance isn't on Kabuto. Rain Dance is first because it allows Kabuto to both make use of the maximum rain turns and also doesn't have to worry about switching in/preserving your rain setter.

Kabuto uses the attack EVs to allow it to beat opposing hazard lead Dwebble and Drilbur, while the defense EVs are used simply to survive a few major hits. Without recovery, Kabuto doesn't need quite as many defensive EVs, and appreciates doing the slightly larger amount of damage with its three damaging moves.

While Knock Off isn't always the best move to use (although it usually is), a mention has been added.

Is weak armor usable? It can have 14 Spe which means 21 after a boost, it also has Hone Claws which is its only attacking boosting move (sadly). It deserves a mention in OO, I think.

Ferroseed is also a good Counter as it resists every move except Knock Off and Kabuto takes damage from Iron Barbs from Waterfall, Aqua Jet, Knock Off and even Rapid Spin; that chip Damaga is enough. It can also set up Spikes and keep adding passive Damage. The Rain Set also benefits Ferroseed by weakening Fire moves and resisting both STABS. Not to mention the threat of Bullet Seed breaking the Sash and KOing the first set.

On the second set you should mention how it's better to have Kabuto as a late game sweeper once all its counters (Croagunk, Lileep, Ferroseed and/or Chinchou) are defeated and the team should ideally be severely weakened bc is not powerful enough to OHKO a lot of things like Mienfoo, Trubbish and Pawniard, Spikes are enough to defeat them 1on1. Maybe mention how LO is not a good item as it won't turn any 2HKO into OHKO even if it hits naturally the 19 HP numer and Eviolite lets it take hits like Pawniard's Sucker Punch much better.

Bulky Water-types like Wooper, Wailmer, Defensive Tirouga can survive hits and stall out Rain turns with Recover (Wooper's case) or hit it hard on its Special lame bulk (Wailmer or Tirtouga).

196+ Atk Kabuto Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 236 HP / 156+ Def Eviolite Wooper: 6-8 (24 - 32%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO
196+ Atk Kabuto Waterfall vs. 92 HP / 252 Def Eviolite Tirtouga in Rain: 7-10 (30.4 - 43.4%) -- 100% chance to 3HKO

(Slowpoke, Frillish and Tentacool are hit hard by Knock Off and Rock Slide, so they're not checks)

Dry Skin Helipotile is like a Chinchou-meets-Croagunk-counter as it can switch into a predicted Waterfall/Aqua Jet and throw off a Thunderbolt/Volt Switch.

Mienfoo and other FO users can also stall turns.

Really, Kabuto is good now that Knock Off got buffed.

Mention of Weak Armor has been added to Other Options, as it is usually an inferior option, as Kabuto will be outspeeding virtually everyone under rain, or prefers a defensive ability for utility sets. In addition, Hone Claws has been added as a possible option in OO.

Ferroseed has been added under Grass Types with a special note that also can break sash on the utility set and that it walls the offensive set.

Added brief LO note under set details, and mentioned that Kabuto works better if it comes in lategame.

Added a note that Bulky water types including Water Absorb Wooper (lol) and defensive Tirtouga can prevent Kabuto from doing its job in the offensive set.

Expanded counters to include all dry skin, storm drain, and water absorb mons.

While Mienfoo and other Fake Out users can stall turns, that has little difference from any other rain users, and is a relatively poor strategy, as it means that something else takes two hits from rain boosted waterfall instead of one.

Thank you both for your help!

 

[Mienfoo]

name: Choice Scarf
move 1: Waterfall
move 2: Rock Slide
move 3: Knock Off
move 4: Aqua Jet / Double-Edge / Rapid Spin / Stealth Rock
ability: Battle Armor / Swift Swim
item: Choice Scarf
evs: 236 Spd / 196 Atk / 76 Def
nature: Adamant/Jolly

 

[Rowan]

change move order in support set: knock off as move 4, move everything else up

why would i ever use rain dance kabuto isntead of tirtouga? (who incidentally can also run the exact same set - except it doens't cos it might as well use shell smash)
i'd move it to Other options, with a mention of how it's outclassed by Tirt
outspeeding scarf pawniard isn't enough to give it a niche

other than that 1/3