[Set]
Xatu@ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Bounce
EVs: 248 HP, 216 Def, 44 SDef, Calm Nature
- U-Turn
- Heat wave
- Roost/ Wish
- Toxic/ Thunder Wave
What it does: One of the most underrated pokemon in the ubers tier, xatu’s niche as a supporter is to utterly troll all hazard users bar mold breaker excadrill and offensive dialga with its incredibly ability, magic bounce. Reflecting all support moves allows xatu to make the job of handling a stall team much easier because it renders passive damage ineffective and heal off direct damage with roost or even wish. It puts a full stop to ferrothorn, Deoxys-S, Deoxys-D, support dialga, jirachi, forretress provided you avoid volt switch on the switch, and more. The EVs allow it to always survive a draco meteor from support dialga so it can outspeed it the next turn and roost. Note that using wish means that dialga can safely achieve a 2HKO. Xatu also has a nice base 95 speed that allows it to outspeed common defensive pokemon.
What Counters it: Xatu’s purpose in life is to block entry hazards, so hazard users that can break xatu will prevent it from doing its duty and most likely limit it to serving as death fodder. Examples of these are mold breaker excadrill, offensive dialga, support arceus-ghost, tyranitar, and the occasional deoxys-a are good examples of these. A pursuit user like scizor or, again, tyranitar can trap and kill xatu as well, though scizor fears heat wave if rain is not up.
Good Teammates: Pokemon that can take advantage of xatu’s uncanny hazard-preventing abilities, like ho-oh, lugia, and reshiram, are mandatory because they justify xatu’s use. Ho-oh can also take on SRers like deoxys-A, offensive groudon, and life orb dialga that xatu has trouble with. Kyogre appreciates its water spout staying at full power. Groudon and the aforementioned lugia are both good teammates as they can fend off sweepers like lum berry DD rayquaza that may try to set up on xatu. Note that neither one has particularly good type synergy with xatu except for groudon’s rock resist. Typewise, jirachi is a good partner because it has good type synergy, can set up stealth rock, and also has u-turn to continue a chain of momentum that xatu can start with its u-turn. The giratinas are also helpful because they’re spinblocking capabilities can help keep hazards xatu may have reflected on the other side of the field.
Additional Comments: Toxic is usually more useful than thunder wave since support pokemon, which xatu usually switches into, but thunder wave works too. Likewise, roost is generally superior to wish as the instant recovery is useful an Xatu’s HP stat isn’t the greatest. Heat wave nails ferrothorn, forretress, and skarmory outside of rain, while also making it significantly harder for scizor to use xatu as setup bait. U-Turn maintains momentum agaist the defensive pokemon that will often switch out from xatu(though forretress can still screw xatu with its slower volt switch). 124 speed EVs allows xatu to outspeed standard lugia, but that does sacrifice a lot of bulk.
I will be posting sets for zekrom and wobbuffet soon as well.
EDIT: Mixed zekrom--
[Set]
Zekrom@ Life Orb
Trait: Terravolt
EVs: 252 Att, 92 SpA, 164 Spd, Naughty or Lonely Nature
- Bolt Strike
- Draco Meteor
- Focus Blast/ Volt Switch
- Dragon Claw/ Outrage
Role: Wallbreaker
What it Does: Zekrom is a devastating mixed attacker, as it can tear apart common walls like lugia, giratina, groudon and kyogre as well as less common threats like skarmory. This EV spread lets it outspeed standard lugia, which is the fastest common wall except arceus forms (which usually run too much speed for zekrom to outpace them anyways) while hitting as hard as possible. Bolt strike mauls the vast majority of pokemon that don’t resist it while draco meteor takes out unsuspecting physical walls like groudon and giratina. Focus blast is mainly for ferrothorn and excadrill, but keep in mind that speedy variants of excadrill can outspeed zekrom, so focus blast should be used mainly to hit excadrill on the switch. Dragon claw and outrage are additional STAB moves that see little use but are helpful once in a while.
What Counters it: Zekrom’s raw power and STAB coverage makes it very difficult to counter. However, various arceus forms, most notably grass and ground, fare well against it. Another approach is to use a wall such as groudon to force zekrom to use draco meteor, switch to a steel type or pink blob to sponge it, then use the original wall to take on zekrom, which is much easier after a special attack drop. However, keep in mind that a good player may predict a switch and turn blissey/ chansey/ jirachi into a smoldering crater with bolt strike. More often than not, though, the best approach is to simply prey on zekrom’s low speed, average defenses, and common weaknesses to revenge kill it. Pokemon like rayquaza, palkia, and lati@s are ideal for this.
Good Teammates: Teammates should be able to take advantage of zekrom’s ability to shatter walls. Swords dance scizor is therefore a good teammate because not only does it have good type synergy with zekrom, but it can take advantage of a ruined giratina/ lugia/ groudon to sweep as well as fending off the revenge killers zekrom attracts with bullet punch. Another option is to use volt switch on zekrom in conjunction with banded scizor or scarf genesect to form a voltturn chain. Swords dance arceus forms are also good teammates because their excellent speed compliments zekroms destructive power nicely and they can sweep late game with ease.
Additional Comments: Volt switch should mainly be used to A) Form a voltturn chain or B) Break Shaymin-S’s subseed cycle. In any other case focus blast is superior.