Defining Lures:
Lures are Pokemon that use sets to draw in their usual counters and expose of them with surprise. This can also mean either KO'ing, weakening, or crippling them for a teammate to take them on more effectively. Lures are a tad uncommon, and some people just use flat out bad lures. A lure may be good for one thing, but sacrificing a key component is not a good lure. For example, running Magic Coat on Klinklang seems good in theory, bouncing back Taunts, Thunder Waves, and Will-O-Wisps; however, this means Klinklang can only use it once, effectively making it somewhat useless and easy to predict around. You end up being prone to being outplayed, making it more detrimental than beneficial. Lures should be able to consistently be as / more effective than their normal counterparts.
Bad Examples of Lures:
Bad examples of lures are Pokemon that 'over-specialize' in what they do to try desperately to beat their checks / counters, bad lures' functions are better left to teammates, for the most part.
Zangoose @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Toxic Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Facade
- Knock Off
- Close Combat
- Thunderbolt
(set recommended by Raseri)
Thunderbolt Zangoose does appear gimmicky, but upon looking further one can see that Thunderbolt could be used to nail Qwilfish switch ins. One average ladder player might think: "Hmm, sounds cool. I'll be innovative and use this!" However, when looking closer, you realize that Thunderbolt is never worth it:
- 0 SpA Zangoose Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Qwilfish: 138-164 (41.3 - 49.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
- -1 252 Atk Toxic Boost Zangoose Facade (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Qwilfish: 181-214 (54.1 - 64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
This is pretty much a great summary of bad lures.A bad lure is one that is either overly specialized and / or lessens the amount of targets it can hit effectively in exchange for hitting a single target effectively. If you specialize your lure too much, it becomes a non threat to a larger amount of pokemon and only to the pokemon you are targeting. It will only be effective if the pokemon you are targeting is in the match, which is less likely to happen when you consider you might be going into a single battle for a tournament. Here is an example of a bad lure:
Gyarados (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naughty Nature (+Atk, -SDef)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Fire Blast
Gyarados with Fire Blast sounds pretty swell, since it now has the ability to 2HKO Skarmory and Ferrothorn, two of its biggest counters. On closer inspection, however, you can see that Fire Blast Gyarados has severe problems. First, just about any Water-type in OU can easily check or counter Gyarados without a more reliable STAB in Bounce or a more consistent Earthquke. The same situation occurs with grass-types that are not overtly weak to Fire Blast (ex. Trevnant, Celebi) or Dragons not weak to Stone Edge (Latios, Latias, Hydreigon). Second, you can achieve a 2HKO on Ferrothorn with Bounce with some prior damage and Skarmory with Waterfall with some prior damage at +1.
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Gyarados Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 153-183 (45.8 - 54.79%) -- 98.05% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Gyarados Bounce vs. 252 HP / 48+ Def Ferrothorn: 200-238 (56.81 - 67.61%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
*needs Spikes for Ferrothorn accounting for Lefties on two turns attack but you get the point
The only way to OHKO either with Fire Blast with SR is to have max special attack with a positive nature. But at that point, you compromised the effectiveness of your physical moves to sweep with DD way too much. Overall your "power output" for Fire Blast of your physical moves will be too small.
Here, you sacrificed too much overall effectiveness for the sake of hitting two targets while specialized. In addition, your "lure" could have worn down the same counters just as well without a luring move in Fire Blast. You also lost some bulk in the process by choosing to go with a nature that decreases sp. def in order to preserve Fire Blast's power. To sum up, you just have a less effective Pokemon.
Good Examples of Lures:
Pyroar @ Life Orb
Ability: Unnerve
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hyper Voice
- Hidden Power [Grass]
This Pyroar set is one I have a lot of experience with. The basis of this set is Will-O-Wisp, a move that is somewhat left out of the dust because people believe Pyroar should focus merely on attacking. However, Will-O-Wisp serves two important purposes: avoiding Sucker Punch and patching up its Defense. The latter is just an added benefit, but the former is extremely useful. Weakened Pyroar's tend to draw in priority, and Shiftry is very common. Attempting to revenge kill, they'll use Sucker Punch, only to find themselves burned by Will-O-Wisp, thus, crippling them. Hidden Power Grass is also very useful, as it nails Seismitoad:
- 252 SpA Life Orb Pyroar Hidden Power Grass vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Seismitoad: 265-312 (64 - 75.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
Posting Format:
Here are also some things to keep in mind:
- Does this Pokemon have to sacrifice anything important?
- Does this Pokemon consistently perform its role?
- Does this Pokemon gain anything important when using this moveset?
- Could this method be better aided through teammates?
- Can this Pokemon be as generally effective as standard counterparts?
Conundrum of Effective Lures:
Now get out there and test some lures![/quote]
