Pokémon Corviknight

[CaptainDaimyo]

Base Stats: 98 HP / 87 Attack / 105 Defense / 53 Special Attack / 85 Special Defense / 67 Speed
Abilities: Pressure | Unnerve | Mirror Armor (H)
Notable Moves:
- Body Press
- Brave Bird
- Bulk Up
- Defog
- Iron Defense
- Iron Head
- Power Trip
- Roost
- U-Turn
- Taunt

Movepool

Learned Moves:
Steel Wing @ Evolution
Leer @ Lv. 1
Peck @ Lv. 1
Screech @ Lv. 1
Metal Sound @ Lv. 1
Iron Defense @ Lv. 1
Hone Claws @ Lv. 1
Power Trip @ Lv. 1
Fury Attack @ Lv. 12
Pluck @ Lv. 16
Taunt @ Lv. 22
Scary Face @ Lv. 28
Drill Peck @ Lv. 34
Swagger @ Lv. 42
Brave Bird @ Lv. 50

TM Moves:
Fly, Body Slam, Take Down, Hyper Beam, Agility, Light Screen, Reflect, Swift, Rest, Substitute, Thief, Reversal, Protect, Scary Face, Endure, Sleep Talk, Metal Claw, Rain Dance, Sunny Day, Facade, Taunt, Fake Tears, Air Cutter, Aerial Ace, Iron Defense, Bulk Up, Tailwind, U-turn, Air Slash, Brave Bird, Giga Impact, Nasty Plot, Flash Cannon, Iron Head, Heavy Slam, Hurricane, Body Press, Steel Beam, Tera Blast

Pros:
- Steel/Flying is an amazing type defensively, granting Corviknight immunity against abundant types in the metagame such as Ground- and Poison-types.
- 98/105/85 bulk makes Corviknight a very good defensive Pokémon and a safe switch-in against most physically offensive threats such as Physical Dragapult and Iron Treads.
- Corviknight offers great utilty thanks to its access to Defog and U-Turn. The former allows hazards to be cleared without fear of spinblockers, although it still has to be wary of Defiant users such as Kingambit, while the latter allows Corviknight to bring in teammates safely.
- Corviknight also has great longevity thanks to its access to Roost, allowing it to provide utility even as the game progresses.

Cons:
- Due to a below average offensive prowess and mostly defensive playstyle, Corviknight can often be used as setup fodder by sweepers such as Volcarona, Iron Moth, etc.
- Due to the abundance of Fire- and Electric-types that check it such as Chi-Yu and Magnezone, Corviknight is often forced out, losing momentum. In the case of the latter, it certainly loses due to Magnet Pull and a powerful Thunderbolt.

Terastal Potential:
- Due to its defensive nature, Corviknight isn't really a good Terastal user, although Fighting-type Terastal may be used in order to make Body Press more threatening.

Potential Set:
Utility
Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost

I think the set from Sword/Shield will still remain as Corviknight's best set, although it has been tweaked a little to give it a slightly stronger offensive presence in a very offensive-oriented metagame. Corviknight has been given max investment in Defense and a small investment in Physical Attack in order to utilize Body Press's potential to threaten common Pokémon such as Iron Treads and Chien-Pao, as well as other scary offensive threats like Kingambit.

Overall, Corviknight hasn't really changed much from the previous generation, so it will still remain a viable option due to the utility it offers for teams. What do you think of Corviknight this generation? Feel free to discuss!

 

[DiscoDucky]

Between a plethora of good spinners and overall offensiveness of the metagame, I think Defog Corv isn't the most effective way to use it. Taking advantage of its good defensive typing, I've found Iron Defense or even Bulk Up Corviknight to be a really nice set.

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Bulk Up / Iron Defense
- Brave Bird / U-Turn
- Roost
- Body Press​

The EVs are as generic as I can come up with, but you can certainly fiddle around with the EVs to outspeed certain Pokemon (notably Kingambit) or outlive certain hits. I personally think that Corviknight's typing is still very valuable in this metagame, but it can be too passive at time when it's using a utility-oriented set. I've had moderate success with this, so I'm open to hearing what other people's experiences have been with building with or around Corv.

 

[Lectrys]

Probably the biggest threat to Corviknight is Gholdengo (speaking as a Gholdengo player), who either sets up/attacks/heals in Corviknight's face or makes Corviknight spam U-turn instead of heal, all while denying Defog and not caring about nearly all of Corviknight's attacks. Even the Power Trip Corviknight set is too easily hosed by Scarf(/Specs) Gholdengo's Trick.

On the other hand, Corviknight spamming U-turn (into a breaker) is a pretty good way to continually get Gholdengo forced out. It even breaks Gholdengo's Air Balloon!

 

[LuckyTux]

Ive been playing around with a different kind of Corviknight on OU and BSS1 (primarily in-game) and have found that what’s more threatening to Corviknight are the bulky physical walls and, yes, Gholengo. However, Gholengo can be played around quite reliably. Here’s what I think would be the best option for sets in our current meta:

Corviknight @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Mirror Armor
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- U-turn
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Roost

While not the usual pressure, I’ve found mirror armor to be a reliable option against the threats that Corviknight faces— primarily, Gholengo. If Ghol goes for a shadow ball, lowering Corviknight’s defense, while it is u-turning out, the SpD drop goes to our lovely friend, bypassing GaG. Against the ruin quartet, tera normal Dragonite, and several other OU threats, Iron Defense + STAB Body Press is a reliable answer to what the current metagame is throwing out

 

[STEELDRAGON]

I have been seeing more and more Corviknight with Bulk Up+Power Trip/Tera Blast+Roost+Defog in order for it handle Annilape and Gholdengo a lot more effectively since the standard set isn't really useful against them. Corviknight's great typing, reistance to hazards, recovery help it tremendously in the current environment. It still has a lot of utility and I expect it to stand the test of time.

 

[Kevbot034]

I'm trying to find a good use for Mirror Armor but there just really isn't enough of a reason to run it over Pressure, huh?

 

[STEELDRAGON]

I'm trying to find a good use for Mirror Armor but there just really isn't enough of a reason to run it over Pressure, huh?

Possibly for Chilling Water users. Pressure is a lot better most of the time.

 

[Magcargo]

I'm trying to find a good use for Mirror Armor but there just really isn't enough of a reason to run it over Pressure, huh?

Mirror Armor is pretty good from my exp. Blocks Shadow Ball spdef drops, Memento from suicide leads, random Crunch def drops, and Parting Shot from Grimmsnarl. Honestly, not a bad ability at all, esp since Roost being nerfed makes pressure stalling kinda hard.

 

[Soiramio3000]

One underrated corviknight set is this one
Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Mirror Armor
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Roost
- Agility
- Bulk Up
- Power Trip

You can try using weakness lolicy instead of leftovers but this is very risky since fire and electric moves may kill you instead of giving you a boost.

 

[McGrrr]

Corviknight seems like the ideal candidate for Covert Cloak. It avoids Shadow Ball/Crunch stat drops and (attached to the standard Defog set) entirely shuts down Stealth Rock/Protect Garganacl, while Pressure limits Salt Cure progress from all other variants.

 

[turd2]

Corviknight seems like the ideal candidate for Covert Cloak. It avoids Shadow Ball/Crunch stat drops and (attached to the standard Defog set) entirely shuts down Stealth Rock/Protect Garganacl, while Pressure limits Salt Cure progress from all other variants.

Gholdengo does it better... Corv will still lose to body press on Garganacl, even with the item.

 

[McGrrr]

Gholdengo does it better... Corv will still lose to body press on Garganacl, even with the item.

The point is that Cloak turns standard Corviknight from Garg food to Garg troll, and it's arguably much lower opportunity cost than using Cloak on Gholdengo.

 

[turd2]

The point is that Cloak turns standard Corviknight from Garg food to Garg troll, and it's arguably much lower opportunity cost than using Cloak on Gholdengo.

You're still Garg food if it has body press.

 

[McGrrr]

You're still Garg food if it has body press.

I never claimed one set to be a counter for every Garg variant, dunno why you're responding to a strawman argument. Corv simply can't do the bolded text without Cloak.

... and (attached to the standard Defog set) entirely shuts down Stealth Rock/Protect Garganacl, while Pressure limits Salt Cure progress from all other variants.

 

[Magcargo]

Corviknight seems like the ideal candidate for Covert Cloak. It avoids Shadow Ball/Crunch stat drops and (attached to the standard Defog set) entirely shuts down Stealth Rock/Protect Garganacl, while Pressure limits Salt Cure progress from all other variants.

Idk, I don't really like Cloak on Corv since I use it as a switch in for Great Tusk, Treads, Meow, etc, which will just Knock it off. Rocky Helmet also feels too important to give up since it lets the bird make good progress vs Chien-Pao even if it loses the 1v1. Ignoring Crunch and Shadow Ball drops is nice, but I like Mirror Armor for that purpose.