"You dont devour the cake, the cake devours you"-Delta crustle probably
Sup guys. Finally got a break from exams, and what better way to spend it than to make an analysis. Now, im nowhere near as good as @PeterHolmes74 but i really wanted to make this soooo yeah. Today we’ll be looking a d.crustle. Now at first glance, it doesnt look that impressive. Its highest stat is its def which is 125. Its not bad, its just meh. But once you look at its ability and a certain move everything f__ing changes. Its got simple+shell smash. HOLY SH*T. If you dont know what simple does, it basically double all stat changes. So for example, intimidate lowers your atk by 2 stages, and SD increases your attack by 4 stages Now, yes d escavalier also gets this, but its horrible speec of only base 20 makes it far more susceptible to taunt. It also doesnt get stab on AH, which is another thing which i’ll touch on. Now without further ado, lets dive in to the memes
P.S: Also i should probably mention this now, there is pretty much no way for me to accurately predict the meta and this is all speculation until online battling come back, if it comes back
The OHKO'er
Delta Crustle @ White Herb
Ability:Simple
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Shell Smash
-Achilees Heel
-Play Rough
-Custom Fire/HP Fire
Now before you say anything, I know custom moves are banned. But, since there is no real online battling as of rn, theres no reason to not use it. Tho if you absolutely despise using it, you can always use hp fire, tho its significantly harder to get.
Anyways, all the moves are pretty self explanatory. Play rough, AH and custom fire provide pretty much perfect coverage. Shell smash is the most important move as it allows this whole set to work. White herb is used to get rid of the Def drop so that it can live 1 unboosted bullet punch from scizor. This (unfortunately) makes d.crustle extremely hit or miss, sorta like power herb geomancy xerneas.
You might be confused as to why I decided to use AH instead of something like return or double edge. This is because (according to the damage calc) it does more damage then return or double edge. It also doesn’t do resisted damage against steel or rock types. Also, this thing can f__ing OHKO MEGA. MILOTIC. WTF? At +4 Atk (WITH A NEUTRAL NATURE MIND YOU) it can guarantee ohko it. This allows Pokémon like d arcanine, mega feraligatr, mega typhlosion to sweep.
+4 252 Atk Delta Crustle (Cake) Achilles Heel vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Milotic: 400-472 (101.5 - 119.7%) – guaranteed OHKO
Other options
You could opt for a swords dance lifeorb set, but that means you mont outspeed Pokémon like +2 zard X. You could also use wild charge for coverage, but since it has recoil AND the fact that AH does more damage, makes it redundant imo
Focus sash could also be used, but then it can’t deal with scizor. But without focus sash it can’t switch out freely from intimidate soo that kinda stinks
Good teammates
-Rocks setters like ferrothorn, excadrill help d crustle to nab a few KOs, most notably being able to ohko bulky swords dance scizor (this is important as after on sd, it can ohko d.crustle with bullet punch)
-Defiant/competitive users like d. bisharp and milotic make the opponent think twice before bring in their intimidater , or defogging away the rocks
-D.crustle really hates sticky webs, so hazard removers like like skarmory and rotom-w are good teammates. Skarmory in particular as it can also set up rocks, if needed
-Pokemon that can check bulky steel types are useful as hp fire doesn’t always cut it, some examples being lando-t, heatran and magnezone . Magnezone is especially good as it can trap them and ko pkmn like scizor without superpower, skarmory and ferro
Checks and counters
-Intimidate users like lando-t are a huge pain in its a$$. Simple doubles all stat changes, whether good or bad. It doesn’t get nearly as many Kos at +2. It also wastes its white herb
-Prankster taunt users like sableye or any fast taunt user make d.crustle complete setup fodder
-Haze/clear smog users like amoongus for obv. reasons, tho it need to be scared of hp fire
-Sticky webs are a huge nuiciance, ruining preventing d.crustle.from doing anything.
-Priority users like d.arcanine, d.blaziken and talonflame all punch a huge hole in d.crustle, most notably d.arcanine as it can guarantee ohko after SR
-Mega scizor is by far the best counter to d.crustle, being able to 2hko it with unboosted bullet punch.
So thats it. How good is d.crustle actually? Well it totally loses to taunt, but if it manages to get one shell smash of, let’s just say you better forfeit.
Final verdict=OU, and maybe a suspect test into UU, but then quick banned to BL lol
EDIT: Achilees heel is outdated, you’re better off using return or double edge instead