" I swear to you, if you even try to weaken me, that will be your very last mistake. "
-Bisharp
Hi guys, girls, samurai made out of blades and everything in-between! I didn’t see that coming, a triple tie between Bisharp and its Mega, Delta Roserade and Mega Venusaur. Well, as 100% divided by 3 is 3,33 peridodic (there is a never ending number of decimals), the forum rounds up one of those to 34% while leaving the others to 33%. So, as dicted by RNJeasus, I’ll be using Bisharp. I actually quite like that Pokémon. Defiant is a very usefull ability in hazards centric teams like Sticky Web and general stacking, so having a way to discourage Defog is a good thing to keep the hazards pressure to the maximum. I remember using it a lot at first. Then, New Moon became a thing and I learned how monstrous a STAB Sucker Punch under New Moon coming from a base 125 Attack is. Then it got a Mega, and for a time, I though it was Uber worthy. After that, I saw what was in OU and I just said : " Yeah, may be not as broken. kof kof Delta Arcanine kof kof "
Be warned, since there is no competitive usage stats avaliable, I do not have any reliable ways to accurately predict the metagame. This analysis is theoretical and does not entirely reflect a Pokémon’s viability.
Typing, Stats, Ability & Movepool
Dark/Steel
Ability: Moxie (Defiant/Inner Focus/Pressure (DW))
Hp: 65
Atk: 145 (125)
Def: 130 (100)
SpA: 60
SpD: 85 (70)
Spe: 105 (70)
Just like last time, Bisharp is viable in both forms in Ins.OU!
Bisharp is an increadible counter to a lot of New Moon abusers like Delta Charizard, Mega Delta Milotic (although you are clearly better off using something else), Mega Delta Typhlosion, Gengar and the myriad of Pursuit weak Pokémon such as the Latis Twins, Starmie, Mew and non-Focus Blast Gengar. Its best selling point is Defiant, which give it a Swords Dance boost when one of its stats are lowered. This means that in case the opponent use Defog, you get big buff and it is one of the few Physical attackers thriving against Landorus-T and Mega Manectric because Defiant outmatch Intimidate. It suffers from a low speed and tends to rely almost solo on Sucker Punch against more offensive teams and the role of Pursuit trapper is ofter better filled by other Pokémon like TTar and Weavile. Plus, on top of being setup baith for many Mega evolution, it has this nasty 4x Dark weakness. Its role is also disputed with Mega Delta Lucario who has an outstanding speed tier and also has the Dark type and Defiant. Its main argument is that it has better physical bulk and does not take the Mega Slot.
Mega Bisharp on the other hand is a quite interesting case. As the loss of Defiant in favor of Moxie, Bisharp’s role change completely. Now, instead of being a blaket check to Landorus-T and to Defog, Mega Bisharp becomes a dangerous sweeper. Increase bulk is very much appreciated, especially on its Special side, and it now gets a very interesting speed tier of 105. Now, Mega Bisharp does not have to rely on Sucher Punch to deal with a lot of the offensive Metagame such as the very crowed 100 speed tier of Mega Gardevoir, Mega Delta Charizard and Mega Delta Medicham while also getting the jump over Mega Feraligatr and Garchomp. This now means it is less reliant on Sucher Punch, althoug it would still prefer to keep it in its moveset for the 110 speed and the Choice Scarf users. Moxie makes Mega Bisharp progrssibely more difficult to handle once it get going. Still, the Mega Evolution competition is rougher than ever and it keeps that 4x weakness to Fighting.
Bisharp has a shallow movepool. It has access to the Dark toolbox, but outside of Iron Head as STAB and Brick Break, Stone Edge as coverage, the attacks ends up pretty much here. On the status move, Rock Polish, Swords Dance, the EXTREMELY NICHE Stealth Rock and maybe Substitute are all that’s left. As you can see, with the general lack of options, Bisharp is very predictable outside of mind games.
Sets Suggestions
Standard
Bisharp @ Life Orb / Black Glasses / Lum Berry
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
-Knock Off
-Swords Dance
-Iron Head
-Sucker Punch
This is the non-Mega set. Knock Off is a good general STAB for Dark Type for the great power and Item removal effect, but becomes weak on itemless and Mega Pokémon. Swords Dance allows setup and but heavy pressure on a lot of offensive teams. Iron Head cover Fairy types and is the best option against Mega Evolution like Mega Venusaur. Sucker Punch is mendatory here so it is not outright destroied by offense. Pursuit can also be run, but is hard to fit here and often better do by other Dark type as explained before.
Jolly allows to outspeed Adamant Mega altaria and Diggersby, but Adamant increase its attack even further. In modern ORAS OU, Adamand has become rarer. Life Orb is often the prefered Item, although Black Glasses does not have recoil. On the other hand, Lum Berry can heal a Burn and allows Setup against Will-o-Wisp users. That turn can be an absolute game changer.
Mega Sweeper
Bisharp @ Bisharpite
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Knock Off
-Rock Polish / Swords Dance
-Iron Head
-Stone Edge / Sucker Punch
The set don’t differ much, but is quite different in usage.
Here, Rock Polish is arguably better than Swords Dance to outspeed blazing fast Pokémon like Excadrill under Sand and Choice Scarf Delta Meloetta and it already gets attack boost from Moxie. This makes it less reliant on Sucker Punch and can afford to hit Zapdos harder with Stone Edge and avoid Statik. In the case Swords Dance is used, always use Sucker Punch as last move.
Other options
Taunt can be used in order to stall break and Low Kick can be used to beat opposing Bisharp and break past Ferrothorn.
Good Teammates
Bisharp
- Bisharp struggle immensely against fighting types, so Pokémon that deal with Mega (Delta) Lopunny, Mega Delta Blastoise and Keldeo are vey much appreciated. Celebi, Clefable and Mega Metagross are prime examples.
- Choice Band Azumarill is a good teammate as it checks some Pokémon that can usually take a Sucker Punch, like Garchomp or Mega Charizard X.
- Spikes users, although many of them shares weaknesses, appreciate Bisharp’s ability to dissuade Defog. Those included Klefki, Ferrothorn, Skarmory, Delta Roserade and Mega Delta Spidergross.
- Suicide Lead such as Azelf like Bisharp for the same reason. As such, it is a staple on Hyper Offense.
- Spiritomb can provide New Moon to jack up Sucker Punch’s damage output to disgusting level and provide a good Fighting switch-in.
- Fairy Weak Pokémon like how Bisharp can beat most of them. Keep in mind Bisharp is not quite a switch-in to them.
Mega Bisharp
- Wallbreakers like Kyurem-B, Garchomp, Gengar or Thundurus can pave the way for Mega Bisharp to sweep.
- Hazards setters can provide additional pressure and be less risky on rolls. Pre-Mega, Bisharp can dissuade Defog. Notable ones includes support Celebi and Landorus-T.
- New Moon teams provides incredible support and generally like how it can deal with Fairy types that are usually quite annoying.
- Also, as Mega Bisharp is the best New Moon counter, New Moon weak teammates enjoy how they can turn the tables on the matchup. Be careful about Earth Power Delta Roserade.
- Psychic types like how Bisharp can Pursuit trap Ghosts and opposing psychics. In return, they provide much needed Fighting checks.
- Ghost types are immune to fighting. Gengar in particular is good as it can beat Stall with its SubSplit set or be generally tricky to fight with its Life Orb variant and provide both Ground and Fighting immunity.
Checks & Counters
- Fighting types such as Keldeo and Terrakium are pretty obvious.
- Opposing Fighting types can often take few Iron Heads and resist Knock Off. Notable ones includes Mandubizz or Mega Bisharp.
- Burns and Substitute ruin Bisharp in their own ways. Burns drastically lowers Bisharp’s damage and Substitute prevent Bisharp from revenge killing.
- Physically bulky Pokémon such as Gliscor, Hippodown, Skarmory and Ferrothorn can beat Bisharp lacking Swords Dance.
- Mega Delta Blastoise take VERY minimal damage from Sucker Punch and Knock Off while also resisting Iron Head. Plus, it han just use Mach Punch to OHKO or use regular Bisharp as setup fodder.
Overall
Regular Bisharp might not be a top tier anymore as Delta Lucario kinda exists nowadays, but can still be effective nonetheless. Its Mega Evolution is also a decent sweeper and the fastes Moxie user avaliable. Overall, they are pretty solid in the OU metagame.
- Delta Roserade
- Mega Venusaur
- Mega Delta Lucario
- Mega Flygon
- Clefable
- Others