Pok�mon of the Week

Smeargle, The Painter Pok�mon. It marks its territory by using its tail like a paintbrush. There are more than 5,000 different marks. A special fluid oozes from the tip of its tail. It paints the fluid everywhere to mark its territory. Once it becomes an adult, it has a tendency to let its comrades plant footprints on its back.

Ah Smeargle. The Pokemon that can learn every move. At first glance you might imagine it can do everything. Sadly this is not true. Smeargle's stats are so horrible it is incapable of taking any hits, nor can it manage an offensive set well at all. Smeargle is rivaled by Mew, who can do almost everything it can do better. While Mew may not have the same infinite movepool Smeargle has it still comes pretty close, but actually has useful stats to back it up. Still Smeargle can carve out a niche for itself with a few moves combinations it gets that nothing else does.

Own Tempo: Prevents Confusion. Smeargle's most used ability as it keeps the odd Confuse Ray Ninetales, Hurricane Tornadus or Dynamic Punch Machamp from ruining your day. It won't be useful very often, but it's better than nothing I guess.
Technician: Boosts the power of moves with 60 base power or less by 1.5x. A great ability... if it was on anything else. Smeargle can not run offense, so don't try it unless you're crazy.
Moody: Each turn one of your stats randomly drops by one level, and another stat increases by two levels. This ability is so insanely, heartlessly powerful that Smogon, Serebii, Pokemon Online and most other major competitive sites and tournaments have Moody banned. While technically the best ability for Smeargle you will rarely find a place that allows you to use it.

- Spore
- Shell Smash / Shift Gear / Quiver Dance
- Baton Pass
- Magic Coat / Substitute / Taunt
Item Attached: White Herb / Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

Here is the #1 most terrifying Smeargle set. The goal is simple. Spore against something slower than you, Shell Smash (how Smeargle even uses Shell Smash is a mystery) and then Baton Pass to something and proceed to lay waste to your opponent's team. Shell Smash with White Herb is the primary choice as the boosts gained are pretty massive. If you want you can use Gear Shift or Quiver Dance with Focus Sash. This allows a safer setup and more reliable pass but overall is far less dangerous. The final move is mostly filler but they each can have their uses. Magic Coat bounces back opposing Taunt, Spikes, Stealth Rocks, Spore or whatever. You can use Taunt to prevent this entirely with less prediction, but Magic Coat has higher priority, meaning if a faster Pokemon tries to Taunt you Smeargle will still go first. Substitute can block status from things like Thunder Wave or Toxic while blocking Dragon Tail but also if by some miracle you manage to Baton Pass an intact Substitute after using Shell Smash your opponent might as well just quit because they are going to lose. Speed EVs outrun Jolly Breloom, Cloyster, Adamant Dragonite and Gyarados. Speed allows you to outrun Choice Scarf Terrakion after a Shell Smash or Shift Gear which is probably the fastest thing you will ever see. Max Defense with the rest of the EVs are placed in HP to give you a very high chance of surviving a Choice Band Scizor Bullet Punch, and guarantees survival against even Breloom Mach Punch.

- Spore
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Magic Coat / Taunt / Rapid Spin
Item Attached: Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

On the other hand if you think your Pokemon are strong enough you can focus Smeargle's efforts on hurting your opponent. Simple enough. Spore, then use Stealth Rocks. If you're still alive use Spikes as much as possible. With luck by the time Smeargle falls your opponent will have a sleeping Pokemon and Stealth Rocks / Spikes all over their end of the field. Great position for you to be in! This set is somewhat competing with other Spikers like Skarmory, Forretress, Deoxys Defense and Ferrothorn for a team slot. Smeargle sets itself apart with Spore.. and that's pretty much it. Spore is an amazing move though. It's basically a free kill as Black / White's new sleep mechanics makes the sleep counter reset every time you switch out... So once asleep, most Pokemon aren't going to wake up. The final slot is filler but Magic Coat / Taunt can beat opposing Taunters. Rapid Spin is a utility move to beat Spikers but keep in mind Focus Sash + Rapid Spin doesn't work well, as if you are at one HP and try to switch in to use Rapid Spin the entry hazards will kill you beforehand.

- Endeavor
- Spore
- Trick Room
- Dragon Rage
Level: 1
Item Attached: Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs and Nature:
EVs: None
Any Nature

Want to see Smeargle bring half a team to it's knees on it's own? Try this weird level 1 set. First use Trick Room. At level one you will probably always go second, taking a hit and surviving due to Focus Sash. Next use Spore pretty much no matter what they do. Endeavor as long as they don't have a Ghost. If they don't wake up you can KO with Dragon Rage! After that you can use the final turn of Trick Room to cripple a third Pokemon. So your level 1 Smeargle effectively put one Pokemon to sleep, knocked out a second poke and brought a third to one HP. Sadly in the real world your opponent probably isn't going to fall for this all the time. Ghosts hard counter this Smeargle. Priority users can get around Trick Room's speed reversing effect too. If you can work around these problems though, Smeargle can be a one Pokemon wrecking machine.

- Spore
- Belly Drum
- ExtremeSpeed
- Mach Punch / Flame Wheel
Item Attached: Silk Scarf
Ability: Technician
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

Ok so maybe you don't want to use Shell Smash, Spikes or Endeavor to have Smeargle do damage. Want Smeargle itself to sweep by completely smashing faces? It probably won't happen. Though Smeargle's Attack stat caps at a pathetic 152 it reaches well over 600 after a Belly Drum allowing Smeargle's Extremespeed to have more power than a Choice Band Terrakion Stone Edge! Belly Drummed Extremespeed will OHKO Rotom Wash, Latios, Dragonite, Alakazam, Virizion and others after a hit from Stealth Rocks. Mach Punch gets a boost from Technician and can blow away Terrakion and Tyranitar. Flame Wheel is another option to slice through Skarmory, Ferrothorn, Forretress and Jirachi. A large number of things can survive a hit and retaliate though. This is a set for the brave, who are playing for fun. Don't expect to win much with this set.

- Spore
- Sheer Cold
- Lock-On
- Worry Seed
Item Attached: Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

OHKO moves are almost always banned, but you can still use them in the Battle Tower and Nintendo Wifi! The idea here, as with all Smeargle sets ever, is to start off with Spore. Next use Lock On. This will make sure the next move you use will always hit. That move? Sheer Cold. Focus Sash will help guarantee a chance to use Sheer Cold. Worry Seed is to be used against random Sturdy Pokemon like Forretress that otherwise would laugh at you. This is of course a joke set that as with the Belly Drum set you should never use unless its for fun.

- Substitute
- Protect
- Spore
- Baton Pass
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Moody
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

Let me tell you a story. A story of the ability "Moody". Moody has a strange effect that boosts one stat by two stages (like Swords Dance) and lowers another stat by one stage (like Tail Whip) each turn. While not initially a problem over several turns this could give you incredibly high stats. Worse, each turn you have about a 14% chance of having your evasion skyrocket. Every tried hitting that Double Teaming Dusknoir in the Battle Tower? Now imagine that every turn that you miss Dusknoir doubles a random stat. Sure one stat is lowered, but if you can stall for time long enough those stat drops are meaningless. That's pretty much what facing Moody was like back in the day. Moody was a problem because an Octillery or Glalie or... God forbid, a Bibarel that uses Protect and gets an Evasion boost (or Defense boost) could use Sub + Protect until it sweeps. Sure you could use Aerial Ace or Aura Sphere to hit through the Evasion boosts but this doesn't matter once the Special Defense gets a boost. If you could Baton Pass them an Ingrain or Aqua Ring the game was basically over as they could Sub + Protect until they reached +6 in every stat. Anyhow the competitive community decided that this was taking away from the fun of the game and just banned the ability as a whole.

... oh, yeah about Smeargle. Most Moody Pokemon were self supporting sweepers but what made Smeargle so scary what it could pass those Moody boosts to ANYTHING. Spore against something, then use Substitute. From that point just alternate between Protect and Substitute until you rack up a ton of boosts. With luck you will get the right boosts in the right stats (Protect + Sub stall long enough and you WILL get those boosts) and can Baton Pass to whatever seems best. Of course Moody IS banned from standard play now so your best bet of actually being able to use this set is playing casually with friends and Nintendo Wifi.

Smeargle
216 Speed EVs with a Timid nature hits a bonus point and outruns all the important targets in standard. The rest of the EVs go into bulk. Smeargle's HP isn't THAT bad but it's 35 base Defense is horrendous. Best focus on that before HP. Though HP improves both defenses overall maxing physical Defense may give you a better chance of surviving a random Lucario Extremespeed or Scizor Bullet Punch.

It learns every move in the game besides Chatter but it still manages very few other options. Tailwind, Encore, Heal Bell, Toxic Spikes, Tail Glow / Coil, Ingrain, Counter / Mirror Coat and Thunder Wave.
Tailwind doubles the speed of your team for four turns, allowing you to have a slight advantage for a while. This isn't THAT useful at least compared to just Baton Passing a Shell Smash or Shift Gear to something.
Encore can lock something into a status or setup move so you can Baton Pass or cover their team in Spikes.
Heal Bell recovers the status of every Pokemon on the team. Not really good in the long run as Smeargle faints so easily that it probably won't be around late game when Heal Bell is actually useful.
If you love entry hazards Toxic Spikes is worth mentioning. Smeargle is generally used on offensive teams though, and they benefit more from the immediate damage of Spikes and Stealth Rocks than a slow burn of Poison. Toxic Spikes also don't hit as many Pokemon and are more easily removed than Spikes.
Tail Glow and Coil are lesser Baton Pass options. Tail Glow gives a +3 boost to Special Attack while Coil gives a +1 boost in Attack, Defense, and Accuracy.
Ingrain is commonly used on full Baton Pass teams to prevent Whirlwind and Roar from beating them.
Counter / Mirror Coat + Focus Sash can get a surprise KO on something but that turn will probably have been better spent using Spore.
Thunder Wave can work by Sporing your opponent, then Thunder Waving when they switch out. Still, you might as well just use Spikes or Baton Pass.

A decent amount. Dark Void can put both opposing Pokemon to sleep though it is banned from Official Nintendo Tournaments. Fake Out + Trick Room can support decently. You can use Trick Room + Spore to sleep your opponents, one by one.

As Smeargle is a pure support Pokemon he doesn't have many traditional partners. For the Baton Passer sets powerful yet bulky mixed sweepers such as Salamence, Jirachi, Latios and Infernape are all capable of demolishing a team on their own when Baton Passed some boosts. The Spiking Smeargle helps with offensive teams that run Choice Banded or Choice Speced attackers like Terrakion and Latios as Spikes can quickly wear down their counters. The other sets are mostly used to weaken the opponent's team and don't really require any support to work. The Moody Baton Passer can Baton Pass to almost literally anything and with enough luck, win.

aunt shuts down any Smeargle that can't Magic Coat. The problem is that you can't really "counter" Smeargle this way as the Baton Passer will just Baton Pass and the Taunting the Spiker won't undo the traps it already laid. Donphan can Rapid Spin entry hazards and Roar away problems when Smeargle tries to Baton Pass. Haze Politoed can instantly screw up the Baton Passer but is helpless against the Spiker. A big problem with countering Smeargle is taking on Spore. Luckily most offensive Pokemon can bring it to one HP before it Spores, then switch to something with a Priority move such as Scizor or Lucario and KO it before it gets a safe Baton Pass or uses Spikes too much. Probably the "perfect" counter to Smeargle is Haze Magic Mirror Xatu. Xatu reflects Spore, Spikes, Stealth Rocks, Taunt and pretty much everything Smeargle can do back at it. Haze ends any threat of Baton Pass and Xatu can KO Smeargle with Psychic or Toxic.

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Artisan's Cave Floors 1 & 2, Altering Cave (Emerald)
Trade from Emerald/Colosseum (Ruby/Sapphire).

FireRed/LeafGreen:
Altering Cave.

Colosseum/XD:
Snagged from Chaser Liaks in The Under Subway (Colosseum)
Trade from Emerald (XD)

Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Route 212-North (Diamond/Pearl)
Route 208, Route 212 North (Platinum).

HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Ruins of Alph, Safari Zone.

Black/White:
Route 5 Swarm