I wanted to take some time to talk about a pokemon who is quickly becoming one of the premier offensive threats in the RU metagame: Zoroark. I have no love for this pokemon because it looks like it was designed by an edgy 12-year old on Deviantart, but even I have to acknowledge that it's really good at the moment. Zoro is one of the fastest Knock Off users in the tier, which alone gives it a niche, and it is fairly powerful as well. It also is able to provide invaluable utility with Pursuit and strong priority, and is extremely versatile due to its ability to run physical/special/mixed sets and Illusion.
I won't talk too much about Illusion because we know how that works, and needless to say it can give Zoroark free kills and setup opportunities. I'm also not the best player so usually when I tried to trick the opponent with illusion it fell flat on my face instead..
Anyway, here are two of the Zoroark sets I've been using.
Zoroark @ Life Orb
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit/Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Low Kick/Return
Standard Zoroark. You'll notice right away that it doesn't have the best coverage. But it fares fine, because Dark-resists other than Fairies are rare and you can get kills just by bluffing. Pursuit Zoroark is particularly good right now because of Zoro's fantastic speed tier for using the move, and it can get rid of annoying pokemon like Bronzor/Reuniclus/Slowking without too much trouble. SD is great with Sucker Punch for obvious reasons.
Zoroark @ Life Orb
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Night Daze
- Flamethrower
- Sludge Bomb
- Nasty Plot
Special Zoroark. You can run Specs over Life Orb, and run Sucker Punch in the last slot instead of Nasty Plot if that suits you. The great thing about special Zoroark is that it completely lures the physical sets counters. Florges? Good luck switching into Sludge Bomb. Max defense Donphan or Rhyperior? Smacked by Night Daze. Overall just a really cool set that most teams are completely unprepared for.
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I also wanted to bring attention to Roserade, a pokemon I feel definitely isn't being used to its full potential. Yeah there are a lot of Tspikes + Sleep Powder Rose running around, and SpD sets too, and that's fine. But where Roserade gets really impressive is when you go all out offensive with it. Slap a Life Orb on it and use Technician, you become almost impossible to wall. It's like Venusaur in ORAS RU, except you have 125 SpA instead of 100, and Flamethrower (Technician) instead of HP fire. Between Leaf Storm, Sludge Bomb, and HP Fire, the only relevant pokemon that switch in are Cresselia and Porygon2, and those can be sleep powdered. It also makes for a surprisingly solid Scarf user with its dual STAB combination, power, and usable speed tier.