Carvanha

[SCIENCE!!!]

Dex:318

Type: Water and Dark

Stats: 45/90/20/65/20/65

Abilities:Rough Skin/Speed Boost

Notable Moves:
Ice Fang
Crunch
Aqua Jet
Zen Headbutt
Waterfall
Return
Destiny Bond
Protect
Substitute
Hydro Pump

I don't know why there is no thread for carvanha. It is one of the best sweepers in the LC metagame. His defenses are extremely low, but his dream world ability, speed boost, is one of the many things it has going for it. That combined with his 90 base attack, and decent special attack makes Carvanha a real threat. Unfortunately, its not all roses for our friend carvanha. He has extremely low defenses, and will die when poked lightly.

Set 1: Physical sweeper
Carvanha @ Life Orb
Trait: Speed Boost
EVs: 196 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SDef / 236 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Protect
- Aqua Jet

This rocks, as one protect gives you the ability to outspeed the non boosted metagame. It has a great attack stat to sweep with. Waterfall is its powerful physical STAB move and with life orb factored in, waterfall will HURT. Crunch is the dark STAB, and will also wreak havoc. Aqua jet is STAB priority to allow Carvanha to beat other priority users.
Counters and Checks: Ferroseed, Croagunk, Cottonee, Eviolite Meditite, Timburr, Hippopotas, Gligar, Slowpoke, Priority, Bulky Pokemon that are undamaged like Spritzee and Porygon.

Set 2 :WHAT!
Carvanha@focus sash
Trait: Speed Boost
EVs: 196 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SDef/ 236 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd -SpA)
-Destiny Bond
-Protect
-Waterfall
-Crunch

This set is..... interesting. Waterfall and Crunch are STAB and do great damage even without Life Orb, and Protect gives you a speed boost. Now, item, nature, and Destiny Bond are all weird, but let me explain. Jolly allows Carvanha to outspeed some Choice Scarf users, Focus Sash keeps Carvanha alive, and destiny bond works off of Protect, Speed Boost, Jolly, and the EVs. If Carvanha can 2HKO, Focus Sash saves his life allowing Carvanha to kill off his opponent. The next foe will KO Carvanha and themselves after a quick destiny bond. Taking down 2 opponents consistently= pulling your weight in battle
Checks and Counters: The opponent will not be expecting it. NO COUNTERS. Pokemon can bring it down, but they lose 1+ pokes. Only hazards and fake out. If you predict that they have a priority move, use destiny bond at full HP.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[Darkamber8828]

the standard LO carvanha set is

waterfall
crunch
protect
destiny bond / aqua jet

substitute isn't useful because you need the guaranteed turn of protection to get +1 speed
destiny bond + speed boost + protect = free kill
aqua jet = priority
zhb doesn't matter because almost all bulky gunk have vacuum wave
ice fang doesn't matter because waterfall OHKOs 0/0 gligar with life orb anyway

 

[Ssin]

no mention of focus sash+thief? disappointing

 

[DTC]

carvanha is one of the most annoying in the current metagame. how do you guys usually deal with it? not only is it strong, but it outspeeds pretty much everything after a boost, and can take down whatever it cant kill with destiny bond for another pokemon to sweep, unless they have some method of avoiding destiny bond like status.

some of the best answers i've found:

croagunk - doesn't care about any carvanha's attacks aside from zen headbutt, and has priority that ohko's carvanha which allows it to play around destiny bond.
timburr - takes quite a bit from waterfall, but priority that ohko's.
porygon / spritzee - both really bulky and avoid the 2hko as long as SR isn't up.
ferroseed - 2hko'd by crunch but takes waterfall well, iron barbs, and plays around destiny bond with leech seed.

those are some of the more obvious ones, but are there any other good carvanha checks that are also good in general (aka not cottonee).

also dbond carvanha + smash tirtouga is a great combination. the same things that check tirtouga check carvanha so carvanha can wear tirtouga checks down/suicide with destiny bond for tirtouga to sweep.

 

[Kavatika]

but yeah, carvanha is a really threatening lategame sweeper, and it's power is incredible. it, like many other previously borked pokemon, will probably stay unbanned now that the metagame has adapted to them. it also shits on gligar so that's a plus.

 

[Wobbyble]

How to counter Carvanha:

• Lol you don't, something is gonna die no matter what

 

[Kavatika]

How to counter Carvanha:

• Lol you don't, something is gonna die no matter what

If you're prepared for Carvanha, (which you should be), you will have something that can kill it. Any bulky fighting type can take a hit and ohko with a STAB move.

 

[Wobbyble]

Uhh Destiny Bond? The only things that prevent trading 1 for 1 are Mach Punch, Vacuum Wave, and maybe like Thunder Wave.

And bedsides, it was a joke, don't take it 100% literally. Maybe 90%.

 

[Corporal Levi]

I've found that thanks to decent base speed and access to Aqua Jet, Protect isn't always needed. I guess Protect is still the superior option in most scenarios, but perhaps slash Destiny Bond in next to Protect for the first set?

 

[Amp Pharaohs]

I don't really see reason for aqua jet on a set, your main checks are usually going to be bulky fighting types and protect will (usually) buy you the time you need for the speed boost. Maybe as it gets more use aqua jet priority may become more important when people start to play around the predictable protect.

Edit: After a few battles I had a change of heart, aqua jet allows it to receive a speed boost off a revenge kill, which i have found particularly useful.

 

[InsaneDragoniteHD]

Most teams have something to at least deal with Carvanha, I was swept by Trace Porygon one time, which makes Trace Porygon a major threat for Carvanah, if you don't have a boost up yet. Also, Cravanha loses to anything that can hit it super effectively, with mons like Swirlix and Pawniard. Swirlix can pretty much knock it out with Dazzling Gleam or if you are running belly drum, play rough and Pawniard can just take it out with a brick break. Not to mention,Scarf Mienfoo can destroy it too. However once all the counters/checks to Carvanah are taken out, you can pretty much destroy the opposing team, if you have enough boosts up.

Also, I run ice beam on my Carvanha, it always throws people off because they expect you to go for ice fang, and then something takes a big hit from an ice beam versus a Ice Fang. Someone on #littlecup told me to use it, so I did, and it worked wonders. Too bad this team had Yanma on it, who I can't find something to replace.

I'm new to LC, so I might have made some mistakes DX

 

[Goddess Briyella]

It should be noted that using damaging entry hazards and maintaining them on the battlefield makes the Sash + Destiny Bond set a lot easier to deal with via priority. Any priority user that also runs Fake Out can also get around it without any problems, especially Croagunk. It's also worth a mention that Carvanha gets absolutely steamrolled by VoltTurn; they don't even have to try to able to get past it.

those are some of the more obvious ones, but are there any other good carvanha checks that are also good in general (aka not cottonee).

Cottonee is actually great. Prankster ability allows it priority on important moves such as Taunt and Encore, which block status moves and screw setup sweepers (being able to stop these is important in the current metagame), respectively. Against Carvanha, Cottonee walls both of its STABs, can switch in comfortably, easily kill Carvanha with Giga Drain or Dazzling Gleam, and also block Destiny Bond with Taunt or get around it with Leech Seed. If Carvanha opts to flee out of fear, it gives Cottonee a free turn to cripple the incoming foe.

I'd say Cottonee is definitely a relevant answer to Carvanha, and deserves more use, not solely for countering Carvanha of course, but it is an important feat that few Pokemon can pull off and is thus certainly a contributing factor to its usefulness.