SCIZOR STRATEGY IN COMPETITIVE POKÉMON

It’s been a while since I made any Competitive Pokémon strategy , so the truth is that I really want to bring you one; today we will talk about a Pokémon that has always shone a lot in the Competitive and that for some reason had not made a post about it until today (they are Pokémon fabric, it is what it is). This is Scizor .

And it is that we are probably facing one of the few Bug-Type Pokémon that are very worthwhile, a type that, as you well know, is a bit cursed and is not usually very viable. However, Scizor is above that and manages to be a tremendous Pokémon (something similar to what happens, for example, with Volcarona , another awesome bug).

In this post, as always, we will see everything that Scizor has to offer and its best strategies. Let’s go there!

? SCIZOR STATS

Its stats add up to a total of 500 points , which is just the amount I consider ideal for a Pokémon, so we’re off to a good start.

• Health: 70.
• Attack: 130.
• Defense: 100.
• Special Attack: 55.
• Special Defense: 80.
• Speed: 65.

From the outset we must highlight that tremendous Attack, 130 is outrageous and this is largely what makes it an incredible Pokémon. He has an Attack on the same level as the almighty Garchomp , so go figure.

Defensively, the truth is that it is also very good, especially considering that Scizor is an offensive Pokémon. Come on, it’s offensive, but it’s not paper. 100 Defense is fine and 80 Special Defense isn’t too much either, but since it’s an offensive it’s frankly fine. Life is true that a little meh… but as I always say, you can’t have everything in this life (except Arceus, obviously).

Where something does go wrong (quite a lot actually) is in Speed, being an offensive player he needs much more because practically all the other offensive players will surpass him; luckily we have little things to alleviate this that we will see in this post.

TYPE, RESISTANCES AND WEAKNESSES

Scizor is a Steel Bug Type , a somewhat strange combination, but brutal, that’s for sure. These are its weaknesses and resistances:

• It is immune to Poison and Poisoning.
• It is very resistant to Plant.
• It is resistant to Dragon, Fairy, Ice, Psychic, Bug, Steel and Normal.
• It is very weak to Fire.

It’s a crazy combination, you see. We have tons of resistances and even immunity to Poison and Poison which is really appreciated. It’s true that some resistance to more common types like Water or Ground would be nice, but we can’t complain at all.

But the best thing about Scizor, or the Steel Bug combination, is that it only has one weakness : Fire. That it is true that it is a x4 weakness (as it happens with my beloved Ferrothorn ) and that Fire is not a type you want to have a weakness to because it has very cheap offensive Pokémon ( Cinderace , Infernape , Volcarona …); but it is that it is the only weakness of him and that is true madness. Keep him away from Fire at all costs, that will be your biggest fear.

SCIZOR’S ABILITIES

Let’s now see his abilities and which ones could become interesting:

SWARM

You will deal 50% more damage with Bug-Type attacks when Scizor’s HP is below 33.33%. The bonus is fine, but relying on that condition makes me not like it very much.

EXPERT

This is the good. Increases the power of attacks with 60 power or less by 50% . Come on, if you have a 60 power attack, it goes to 90 with this. It will come in handy to boost some of his attacks quite a bit.

LIGHT METAL

It’s his Hidden Ability and it’s pretty meh. It reduces the weight of Scizor by 50%, which is good since some moves do more damage depending on the weight of the Pokémon, but come on, they are very rare and therefore this ability is not very useful.

IVS, EVS AND NATURE

The perfect Iv’s, seldom will it be like that… let’s get to the interesting thing, which are the EV’s and Nature:

• EV’s : We want it to be as fast and lethal as possible, so all in Attack and Speed, the rest in Defense.
• Nature : One that lowers our Special Attack (which we don’t care about) and improves Attack or Speed, which is what we really want to boost. Steady (+Attack -Special Attack) or Cheerful (+Speed ​​-Special Attack). It will depend on the Strategy, below you will see.

RECOMMENDED ITEM

These are the items I recommend for Scizor:

• Choice Ribbon : Increases physical damage by 50% but when we use a movement we will be forced to continue using it until we return the Pokémon to its Poké Ball. Of course, be careful because with this object we will not be able to use Sword Dance, a movement that will come in handy.
• Election Scarf : Same as the tape but increases the Speed ​​by 50%, it will be great to compensate for the lack of speed. But it happens like with the Ribbon, if we use a movement we will be forced to repeat it until it changes.
• Lifesphere : My favorite for offensive, it increases damage by 30% but we will lose 10% of our total health when making offensive attacks. The good thing is that it doesn’t have the drawback that the previous 2 have and we can use movements at will.

BEST MOVES FOR SCIZOR

The movements that I recommend the most for Scizor:

• Sword Dance : Increases Attack by 2 levels.
• Bullet Punch: STAB Steel, Physical, 40 power and 100% accuracy. Com Expert will have 60 power and on top of that it is a priority move, so our speed will not matter (unless they throw another priority move). Alongside Stab, the high attack of Scizor and Expert, we have a very powerful priority move. Steel is useful against Fairy, Ice and Rock.
• Round Trip : STAB Bug, Physical, 70 power, 100% accuracy and after doing it we will have to change our Pokémon. Bug is effective against Grass, Dark, and Psychic.
• Disarm : Dark, Physical, 65 power, 100% accuracy and if the opponent is carrying an object (99% of the time it is like that) we will disable it and on top of that we will double the power of the attack (130); in my opinion one of the best Pokémon moves. Sinister is effective against Psychic and Ghost.
• Brute Force : Fighting, Physical, 120 power and 100% accuracy. Awesome blow with tremendous coverage with the drawback that it will reduce our Attack and Defense by one level when using it. Fighting is effective against Steel, Ice, Normal, Rock, and Dark.
• Sting : STAB Bug, Physical, 60 power, 100% accuracy and if the opponent has a berry we will take it and eat it (F for Snorlax ). With Expert he has 90 power.

SCIZOR STRATEGIES

I’ll leave you with a couple of strategies here, one more based on pure offense and another on speed.

SCIZOR LIFESPHERE WALL BREAKER AND ULTRA OFFENSIVE

• IVs: Perfect.
• EVs: All in Attack and Speed, remaining in Defense.
• Nature: Firm.
• Item: Lifesphere.
• Ability: Expert.
• Movements:
  • Sword dance.
  • Bullet fist.
  • Brute force.
  • Disarm.

The idea is simple. We enter the field being safe (in a clean turn or at the beginning), we throw ourselves Sword Dance to boost ourselves and from here we will be able to destroy practically everything that is thrown at us since we will have an exorbitant power and some tremendous movements and with good coverage. We even have Bullet Fist, which is a priority move in case we’re afraid of being killed (because we killed him first).

Be careful because in these circumstances Bullet Fist bursts like a charm, yes, if some rival Pokémon withstands the blow and responds with Fire, we will be lost. We must stay away from Fire Pokémon and watch out for other Pokémon faster than us that can hit us hard and can withstand a Bullet Fist (those weak to Steel are no joke, and Pokémon with low Defense probably won’t hold up after Sword Dance either).

Against slower Pokémon, typical walls and others, they will have a very difficult time resisting us.

SCIZOR SWEEPER/AVENGER ELECTION SCARF

• IVs: Perfect.
• EVs: All in Attack and Speed, remaining in Defense.
• Nature: Cheerful.
• Item: Election Handkerchief.
• Ability: Expert.
• Movements:
  • Bullet fist.
  • Disarm.
  • Brute force.
  • Round trip.

Similar strategy, but in this one we will surely be the fastest Pokémon on the battlefield (unless we face exaggeratedly fast Pokémon or others with Choice Scarves that outperform us). Speed ​​will allow us to better perform the role of Sweeper / Avenger and proceed to sweep teams or weakened Pokémon through our movements. Bullet Punch helps a lot because of its priority.

If you don’t know what all this about Sweeper, Avenger, Wall Breaker and such… take a look at this: Roles in Competitive Pokémon

Obviously we will not be as powerful as in the previous one, but Speed ​​is always appreciated. That does not mean that we will continue to hit quite hard and against any Pokémon that we can hit with weakness (which with the coverage we have is easy) it will be relatively easy to send it to the ground.

HOW TO DEFEAT SCIZOR AND COUNTERS

In the case of Scizor it is very simple to make this list:

• Pokémon and Fire Attacks : That x4 weakness to Fire is its biggest weakness, and since it’s not very fast (unless it’s in its Bandana strategy) Fire-Type Pokémon will be able to take it down easily. Not even Fire-type Pokémon, any Pokémon that is faster than it and has a powerful Fire move, will kill it.
• Burn : If you burn him, he will cause 50% less damage and therefore it will be much easier to deal with him.
• Psychic Field : Quite key against Scizor since it will prevent it from having priority with Bullet Fist, which is one of the great dangers that this Pokémon has.