Nobody expects the butterfly: Butterfree in NU

[Jajub123]

This is the last thing I'm going to say about this topic. Butterfree is obviously not as good as Jynx but they assume the same role to a certain extent. What I'm trying to say is that Butterfree can still "pull weight" despite it being weaker than Jynx. And of course Jynx has a lot of initial power; that's why Jynx can viably run a Choice set. The reason why I'm comparing them is because they have similar roles so you can see that Jynx CAN still do something and Butterfree can as well.

If you're still too biased off of the fact that everything in Pokemon is "all or nothing" and that you aim to accomplish a specific task you're wrong. Viable Pokemon have multiple usages (obviously Tree's viable otherwise we wouldn't be discussing it). Pokemon can act as death fodders or support or revenge killing or chipping away at a prominent threat.

If you get one thring from what I just said it is that Pokemon is very tactical and not very direct. Butterfree can still accomplish a lot even without a boost. But with a boost what it does it just "improved".

 

[Robust Raichu]

If you're still too biased off of the fact that everything in Pokemon is "all or nothing" and that you aim to accomplish a specific task you're wrong. Viable Pokemon have multiple usages (obviously Tree's viable otherwise we wouldn't be discussing it). Pokemon can act as death fodders or support or revenge killing or chipping away at a prominent threat.

If you get one thring from what I just said it is that Pokemon is very tactical and not very direct. Butterfree can still accomplish a lot even without a boost. But with a boost what it does it just "improved".

This is the last thing I'll say too. We're on the same page but different wavelengths. First of all I'm not biased off the fact in thinking that everything in Pokemon is all or nothing. I was arguing specifically that BBfree was a very limited Pokemon to providing those additional roles like support or revenge killing. Lower power and/or lower speed limits her additional support to your team outside of sweeping especially compared to other set-up sweepers. Thus if it's a game you can't set up, BBfree is usually pretty much fodder though perhaps it gets one enemy to sleep.

I will put one more thing opinion out there: Butterfree has one of the most elegant set-ups for sweepers. By this I mean even though I think BBfree needs to set up to be valuable to the team, it has one of the best set-up maneuvers out there.

 

[Jajub123]

I do agree that BFree is fairly weak without a boost, it's just that I was trying to be general with the concept I'm applying, so that may seem why I'm giving Free too much credit. But...

The name of the game is speed, coverage, and power.

This in and of itself led me to thinking you were biased around that concept, as well as how practically you talked about how risky Free was. That was a misunderstanding on my part. Anyway, I'm glad we're on the same page.

 

[Nyara]

It all comes whatever you use Tinted Lens or Coumpdeyes.

With Coumpdeyes, unless your opponent does have a faster Rock Blast user or a specific sleep counter (like Miltank), you'll gonna make the game a 5vs5 or better always. If you happen to start the sweep, you'll sorry a bit Tinted Lens, but you can still sweep a lot of times without it. Slow Risk/Mid Reward.

With Tinted Lens, the 25% of time you'll not gonna do nothing, while the 75% remain you'll either make a game 5vs5 or better. The difference is, when you pull the sweep, you have more chance to autowin with Tinted Lens or at least make more harm. Mid Risk/High Reward.

So, you can play it safetly or risky, whatever you prefer most. Whatever you choosed, Butterfree will perfom from very-good to great as an anti-lead, unless your opponent hard counter it on the lead or team.

Hard-Counters: Leads with anti-sleep berries. Faster Rock-Blasters. Insomnia/Vital Spirit users. Stealth Rock if you're also forced to switch and you can't spin it. Luck with the sleep or evade. Faster sleepers/paralyzers with luck.

Anti-Counters: Have other sleeper or counter to the main leads and lead with it against Butterfree's counters (or possible counters) and have a spinner if you can't prevent Stealth Rock. Have a strong enough Pokémon to defeat Miltank and Insomnia/Vital Spirit pals, it's not that hard. Always consider Substitute Butterfree; it will reduce the number of leads that Butter's pal will have to counter for the butterfly. Strong Bullet Seeders are maybe the best Butter's pal as they can stop Golem and some other Butter's counters without any major problem.

 

[InsaneDragoniteHD]

Tinted Lens Butterfree is pretty good,because it doubles your unresisted hits, meaning that you are still going to be doing normal damage to pokemon that even resist that bug typing. While it goes well with Quiver Dance, it really requires you to play well, because of Butterfree's really bad defenses, which often prevent it to live a hit. That pretty much forces you to run a Sash on Butterfree and if your opponent has rocks up, Butterfree's days are pretty much over from that second they set rocks on the field. Also, pretty much anything with a super effective hit can KO butterfree easily because of those bad defenses, making pokemon like Jynx a huge to Butterfree if it happens to get hit by an ice beam . Sawk and Primeape are also a huge problem for the butterfly, because they are not only faster, but cal also KO with Stone Edge because of Butterfree's 4x weakness to rock. Then Butterfree also has the Compoundeyes set, which raises its accuracy by like 20 % and allows it to hit 100% accurate Sleep Powders, giving you the guarantee that they will have to at least put on thing to sleep on their team. Butterfree does this set pretty effectively, putting a lot of things to sleep because of that base 70 speed, which there are a lot of slow mons in NU, so having a decent speed means Butterfree is guaranteed to get at least one Sleep Powder in during the match.

While having all these positive traits, Butterfree does also have some more flaws than the one I mentioned. Its typing is a huge problem for the little butterfly, because it is quad weak to rock, meaning that any rock type move will pretty much destroy him before he even gets that first Quiver Dance up, especially if they are running the Focus Sash. Multi hit rock moves like Rock Blast are also a problem for Butterfree, as they will pretty much break its Sash, killing it if it gets 5 hits on the little fly. This makes any rock type in the tier a threat to Butterfree, meaning you have to avoid them. Even a defensive Regirock with like no attack investment could kill Butterfree pretty easily. Also, Butterfree is weak to fire, making it even more hindered than it already was, because it has to again avoid any fire type moves, because those defenses are not going to keep it alive, meaning you have to play around Charizard,who is a main threat in the tier.

I would recommend running a spinner if you are going to use Butterfree, because Butterfree is already frail as it is and you don't want that Sash being broken.
(:D I did it again xD)