Shenanigans!!!!!

This week’s special Pokémon is Crobat—the third evolution of our beloved Zubat, who we happen to see a lot in caves during our awesome adventures throughout any region. Crobat is one of the fastest sleep inducers in the game, outrunning Darkrai, Persian, and Gengar. Most notable is Crobat’s unique typing (excluding Zubat and Golbat of course), giving it immunity to ground-type attacks that are super effective against poison-types, excluding levitators like Gengar and Weezing. Crobat fits as the fastest poison-type in the game, as well as the fastest hazer. Let’s take a break, like usual. I’d like to go over the importance of the haze attack.

Haze is a good move and is a staple on every team that doesn’t already have a (p)hazer. With Haze, you’re able to take away any stat boosts that Pokémon abuse to sweep through teams, and really helps against BP teams. You can also use Phazing moves like Roar and Whirlwind (whirlwind’s better if you can get it, since Roar doesn’t work on Soundproof enemies or during a Pokémon’s Uproar). By making the opponent switch out, you’re eliminating any stat boosts and scouting through the team’s available Pokémon. The only problem is that phazing depends on accuracy, so if your opponent has increased his / her evasion level you’re going to have a hard time phazing them. In addition, it is a last turn priority while Haze depends on your speed, so by Hazing with something fast like Crobat, you can get rid of a threat sweeping your team and gets a better chance at winning. Stat boost usually occurs when the opponent predicts a switch out, and usually makes the opponent’s Pokémon much stronger than it is. If your team doesn’t have good type coverage and gets kill easily by a specific Pokémon with good moves, its best that you use a hazer / pseudo hazer (phazer).

Base Stats:
HP: 85
Attack: 90
Defense: 80
Special Attack: 70
Special Defense: 80
Speed: 130

Weaknesses (2x): Electric, Ice, Psychic, Rock
Resistances (2x): Poison
Resistances (4x): Grass, Bug, Fighting
Immunities: Ground

Not bad all for resistances. By analyzing Crobat’s base stats, you can tell right off that its Speed is ubertastic, and defenses are decent in comparison to other rather frail sweepers. Just a little less bulky than Starmie in terms of defense (but has a better HP anyway), which some people put Defense EVs into every once in a while (or maybe a lot nowadays). The OU environment provides Crobat with a new threat, and that’s Stealth Rock. Using Crobat as a wall isn’t wise at all, with its lacking defenses, HP, and diversity of movepool. An attack stat of 90 is not bad, but is lacking nonetheless. Crobat is neither defensive nor defensive enough to be in the OU environment, especially with a regular moveset opposed to such an ubertastic one. I’m not going to say that Crobat’s movepool is not diverse, but its not good enough to be an uber. Crobat’s only ability is Inner Focus as well, which isn’t much of a help since Crobat is one heck of a fast bat. Against Ambipom leads is probably Inner Focus’ best uses for Crobat, or against an agility passed Togekiss. Scarfed Togekiss doesn’t outspeed Crobat, so you won’t have to worry anyway, even if you were earlier Skill Swapped or something (random).

Crobat @ Choice Band [Inner Focus]
Jolly: 252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
- Brave Bird
- Cross Poison
- Zen Headbutt / Pursuit
-U-turn

One of the Crobat’s most usable sets, I guess. It is practical to be putting Crobat on a Choice Band on a +Speed Nature, since his Speed is high and needs some improvement on his attack. A 418 Attack stat isn’t too bad anyway, for something with 394 Speed at level 100. Another good thing about Crobat is that he was actually given some powerful STAB moves, giving him the boost in damage for a sweep. Brave Bird has the base power of 180 after STAB, which is pretty monstrous, even for something with a low attack stat. Although you won’t be using Cross Poison so much, with the prevalence of steels and its scarce usage over Brave Bird’s higher Base power and super effectiveness over Grass types anyway. Maybe it will be useful in the future, where Brave Bird happens to be neutral one of the new dual type pairs while Cross Poison is not. Maybe if you don’t like the recoil, you can use Cross Poison instead. Zen Headbutt is useful for its 20% chance of flinching, and with Crobat’s extremely high speed, is actually very useful if you want to rely on a bit of hax. It helps against other Poisons as well, if you don’t want to take recoil from the Brave bird, again. Pursuit is another option for the third slot in the Choice Band moveset, although I like it more in the Choice Scarf moveset. With Crobat’s ridiculous speed, he can switch in to revenge kill and trap some Psychics and Ghosts like Alakazam, Azelf, Gengar, and somewhat Starmie, who are pretty fast sweepers in the OU environment (barring Alakazam). The only thing with Pursuit is that it is weak. Despite the super effectiveness and Choice band boost, Pursuit doesn’t usually kill unless the opponent switches out, so unless the enemy has low HP, then it is more usable. Also, you should be aware that you’re putting Crobat on a Choice item, so by switching in and revenge killing, there’s a good chance that you’re going to have to switch out the next turn because Pursuit’s most likely going to do little damage on the revenge sweeper. As a result, you’re risking a Lucario doing a Swords Dance, which may rip the rest of your team if you aren’t prepared. As a lead, Crobat is good for scouting and hitting fast with a U-turn, then switching to an appropriate counter. With Choice Band equipped, Crobat’s U-turn delivers a decent amount of damage, and is always better than doing none at all.
For the EVs, which I happened to skip over, Crobat is most suitable for focusing on attack and speed on a Choice Band set. Every move in its set relies on the attack stat, while none rely on any of the other stats. Speed is Crobat’s best stat, and to sweep well, should also have half of its available EVs spent on. As explained earlier, Jolly over Adamant, or +Speed > +Attack, since Crobat will need the speed to outpace Weavile anyway. With a higher Speed base stat than attack base stat, a +Speed nature yields more stat points in general in comparison to a lesser increase in the attack stat when Crobat runs on a +Attack Nature.
The following calculations below are based on the set above. I’m trying to demonstrate that Crobat’s Pursuit cannot kill for its uses, but can still deal a lot of damage if the Pokémon is already injured. Also, it should be stressed that Pursuit is super effective against the Pokémon…

Crobat Pursuit vs. Gengar (0 Def EVs, 0 HP EVs, Neutral Nature): 60.15% - 70.50%
Crobat Pursuit vs. Alakazam (0 Def EVs, 0 HP EVs, Neutral Nature): 76.89% - 90.44%
Crobat Pursuit vs. Azelf (0 Def EVs, 0 HP EVs, Neutral Nature): 47.77% - 56.36%
Crobat Pursuit vs. Starmie (0 Def EVs, 0 HP EVs, Neutral Nature): 45.59% - 54.02%

Okay, so maybe it does more than I thought, but still, it doesn’t kill. I doubt any of them would switch out on Crobat anyway, since they can all OHKO the thing with STAB moves or Thunderbolt, for Gengar.

Crobat @ Choice Scarf [Inner Focus]
Adamant: 252 Attack / 100 Speed / 156 HP
- Hypnosis
- Pursuit
- Brave Bird
- U-turn

You might think equipping Crobat with a Scarf is insane, since Crobat’s Speed is the third highest in the OU meta game. With a Choice Scarf and 100 EVs in Speed, Crobat is able to outpace Scarf Gengar and Scarf Alakazam, who is only usually scarved to outspeed Scarf Gengar This really puts Crobat as the fastest Hypnosis-user in the game. All you have to do is put him as a lead, and then pray to God that Hypnosis hits on target. Pursuit is good for the set, since Scarf Gengar and Scarf Alakazam have no way in out-speeding Crobat, unlike they previously were able to do in the Choice Band set. Brave Bird provides Crobat with a good STAB move to work off of, and U-turn is to hit something with a little damage before switching in a suitable counter (if you’re going to use it as a lead).

Crobat @ Life Orb [Inner Focus]
Timid: 252 Special Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
- Nasty Plot
- Air Slash
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Dark Pulse

Crobat’s Special attack stinks, but the bat can’t learn Swords Dance, so we can give it a Special Sweeping set with Nasty Plot in its movepool. After getting in a few Nasty Plots, you can then start semi-flinch sweeping. Hidden Power Fighting and Dark Pulse hit every Pokémon for at least neutral damage with the exception of Heracross, who dies from Air Slash. Some other worthy Special moves of note are Giga Drain and Shadow Ball. Although Shadow Ball and Hidden Power fighting hit every Pokémon in the game for neutral damage, Dark-Fighting combos hit more for super effective damage. Plus, filling the last slot with Roost would give Crobat in danger of ground attacks, and if you decide not to listen to me, you might as well bulk Crobat in its HP and Speed rather than Special Attack and Speed. You’re definitely going to need the speed for the flinching, but no necessarily the Special attack if you’re going to plan on Nasty Plotting a bunch of times. However, since Crobat’s Special attack is rather low, you’re definitely going to want to give it a lot more Special attack EVs in order to get the biggest boost possible from Nasty Plot. Air Slash is there for STAB, obviously.

Crobat @ Black Sludge [Inner Focus]
Jolly: 252 Speed / 252 Attack / 4 HP
- Mean Look
- Hypnosis
- Taunt
- U-turn

Kind of out of the ordinary, but works well with Crobat’s fast speed. This is basically the anti-Restalker set. Use Hypnosis quickly; putting your opponent to sleep, then use Taunt to make sure that it doesn’t Sleep Talk. You can even use Mean Look on a switch in, to make sure that the opponent doesn’t switch out. Use U-Turn to hit the enemy before switching into a Pokémon that can stat boost, like SD Lucario or DD Salamence. The least you can get is one stat boost, and even if the opponent switches to an appropriate counter, you still have the advantage by putting one of your opponent’s Pokémon to sleep. Black Sludge is an option, and probably the best for a set that doesn’t deal much damage anyway. It’ll help heal off any residual damage from Stealth Rock or Sandstorms / Hailstorms, if not something as random as Rough Skin damage if you’re going to U-Turn a dying Sharpedo for a revenge kill.

Crobat isn’t good enough for OU. Although Crobat resists fighting very well, Crobat isn’t offensive enough to get rid of many Pokémon in the OU environment. Thus, it may be best to use Crobat for his Speed rather than in an offensive way. Here are some ways to deal with Crobat.

• Well, looking at Crobat’s moves, you’ll probably notice that you’re going to see something like U-turn, Brave Bird, Cross Poison, Pursuit, and Zen Headbutt. Well, looking specifically at the Choice Band set. Steels are resistant to every single one of Crobat’s attacks, and something with even a decent defense is able to easily get rid of Crobat. Even Dark Pulse on Crobat’s Special set does well. According to some people, Zapdos appears to be one of the best counters for Crobat. Although STAB Thunderbolt and a high Special attack stat aren’t completely necessary, Zapdos resists both of Crobat’s STAB attacks and most of its moves. In addition, the bulky Zapdos can Restalk, which makes Hypnosis a mess: the majority of them carry thunderbolt and Hidden Power [Ice]. Good thing the last set can do Taunt . Anyway, Crobat does decent damage to Neutral Natured Zapdos with 252 HP EVs after a Nasty Plot on the second set. With Dark Pulse, Crobat delivers 43.49% - 51.04% damage to Zapdos, and with a 20% chance of a flinch, can 2HKO without being touched if Zapdos doesn’t carry Leftovers (hmm, maybe I shouldn’t think about that to convince people that Crobat isn’t too bad of a Pokémon).
• Rock-types are also very useful in walling Crobat as well, except the Special set of course. Blissey, of course, the best Special Wall in the game, walls the special set the best though. Putting Crobat under the paralysis status is something you’re going to definitely hate about Blissey, and there’s not much damage that Crobat can actually do to the pink whore. Then again, the Choice Band set does decently well on Blissey, considering it doesn’t have Counter. Crobat deals 60.47% - 71.22% with Brave Bird on the Choice Band set if Blissey has 252 Defense HP, 148 HP EVs, and on a Bold Nature. However, Blissey can still paralyze Crobat and Softboil the next turn, hoping that you get that 25% immobile state that turn (so that it can softboil again the next turn, then let you Brave Bird again and kill yourself).
• Like Breloom and any other sleep inducer, Crobat has to watch out for a few Pokémon and strategies. First of all, Crobat has to be wary of Insomniacs, or Pokémon that are immune to the Sleep Status. In addition, Crobat has to be careful with Chesto Berry / Lum Berry holders, since they ruin his ability to put Pokémon to sleep. With Hypnosis running at a 70% accuracy, there’s a 49% chance that you’re going to be hitting two Hypnosis’ consecutively. Furthermore, Crobat needs to be aware of Natural Cure Pokémon like Starmie and Blissey, and Sleep Talkers.