Sceptile

[Zook]

#254 Sceptile
Typing: Grass
Ability: Overgrow- Increases the power of Grass-type moves when HP falls below 1/3 of maximum.
70/85/65/105/85/120

Swordstile
Sceptile @ Lum Berry/Focus Sash/Life Orb
Overgrow: Jolly
6 Hp/252 Atk/252 Spd
Swords Dance
Leaf Blade
Earthquake/Brick Break
Crunch/Thunderpunch/Dragon Claw

Basic, but really effective. I find this set makes an excellent lead.

Sceptile is an overlooked, excellent physical sweepr. After a single SD, Sceptile reaches 538 Atk, and he has the base Speed to back him up. This set can, depending on your move and item choice, OHKO Heatran, Azelf, Gengar, Dugtrio, Salamence, Gyarados, Swampert, Infernape, Mamoswine, and Ttar, among other things.

Leaf Blade has a great power of 135 due to STAB, so that move should alway be there. Earthquake should be on there, too, but Brick Break is useable because of Ttar and Bliss. The final move slot is purely up to choice. Crunch can get Azelf and the ghosts better than a Leaf Blade could, TPunch gets Gyarados and scratches Skarm, Dragon Claw slays Salamence.

Focus Sash makes LB truely fearsome, but is only really usable if you use Sceptile as a lead and/or you know the opponent doesn't have any weather conditions/traps. Lum lets Sceptile take Will-O-Wisps and Thunder Waves up the butt, and get a free SD at the same time. Life Orb increases power, but Sceptile is kinda fragile.

EVs are completely focused at sweeping. You won't need anything else.

Mixtile
Sceptile @ Life Orb/Leftovers
Overgrow: Mild
76 Hp/102 Atk/180 Spd/152 SpAtk
Substitute
HP [Fire]
Focus Punch/Earthquake
Leaf Storm/Energy Ball/Dragon Pulse/Crunch/Leech Seed

Mixed sweeping Sceptile, and also designed to be a Sciztran counter. After a Substitute, Sceptile fears no Scisor (unless he decides to Bullet Punch, which he won't- why do that when he could just SD instead, because of course Sceptile will switch out...) or Scarftran, and kills them both with HP Fire and Earthquake (2HKO with Focus Punch) respectively. HP Fire also 2HKOs Skarmory and OHKOs Forretress.

For the final move, I would recommend Energy Ball or Leaf Storm, both having excellent power and able to OHKO Swampert. EB is more reliable and more PP, but LS is stronger. Dragon Pulse is worth looking at, because without it, Salamence completely walls him. Leech Seed is a good stall option. Crunch gets ghosts.

Depending on whether you want to be more of of a staller or a sweeper, you could pump some of the SpAtk stats into HP, or vice versa. Atk and SpAtk EVs can be reversed.

Leech Seed Staller
Sceptile @ Leftovers
Impish: Overgrow
6 Hp/126 Def/252 Spd/126 SpDef
Leech Seed
Substitute
Toxic
Aerial Ace/Drain Punch/Giga Drain/Focus Punch

My own take on the old Leech Seed staller. Simple trategy: Seed, sub, stall. If they switch out, repeat.

After landing a Seed, Sceptile should be pretty close to reviving all of it's HP. Toxic helps the withering away of their HP. Even Skarm doesn't like getting Leech Seed.

For the attacking move, Aerial Ace or Drain Punch are okay. Aerial Ace catches Breloom (a rival Subseeder) off guard but is otherwise bad. Giga Drain and Drain Punch sap HP from the opponent, but DP has better coverage and GD gets STAB, but isn't good against other grasses that can't get seeded. Focus Punch is powerful.

The EVs may look wonky, but they're desinged to get maximum usage from Leech Seed.

Extra Options

X-Scissor is a good option over Crunch for Celebi, but nothing else, really.

Focus Blast can be used on Mixedtile, but is unreliable, and Punch is better, anyways.

Outrage is a powerful option for Swordstile, but normally just gets set up on.

Leech Seed is a great move, and can be added on to any set.

EVs

For SD sets, maxed out Speed and Attack is good. You won't need anything else. On Mixedtile, EVs can be mixed up a bit, depenging on whether you want to be more Physical or Special. Subseeder, I suppose you could go with Max Hp/Speed, but I wouldn't reccomend it. With less HP, you'll have a better chance of gaining back your Subs each turn.

Troublesome Pokemon

Skarmory, Heracross and Scizor all wall the SD set. Tyranitar, Abomasnow, and Hippowdon set up annoying weather conditions that render FS useless and makes stalling harder. Ghosts give the Mixtile set trouble if it lacks Crunch. Anything with a Sub up or is Grass ruins the SubSeeder.

Sceptile is very fast, but isfragile and Scarfers can beat it. Look out for Scarftran, Scarfswine, Scarfcross, Scarfgar, and the likes if you don't have a Focus Sash.

Priority moves cause him trouble, too. Look out for Ice Shards.

Made by Zook