Pok�mon of the Week

Shiftry, The Wicked Pok�mon. By flapping its leafy fan, it can whip up gusts of 100 ft/second that can level houses. It lives quietly in the deep forest. It is said to create chilly winter winds with the fans it holds. It was feared as a forest guardian. It can read the foe's mind and take preemptive action. It is a mysterious Pok�mon that is said to live atop towering trees dating back over a thousand years. It creates terrific windstorms with the fans it holds.

Shiftry is one of those weird offensive Pokemon that.. uhh, one I can't easily make puns of. It's based off the Tengu from Japanese folklore. No don't worry I'm not cultured, I just managed to get to the final boss of Dead or Alive 2. Man that boss was annoying. Get close and the Tengu just demolishes you with hard hits. Its deceptively fast too. A lot like Shiftry. While Shiftry is by no means a bad Pokemon, it does lack the pure stats required to be a top tier Pokemon. It's pretty cool looking and with the right team support it can beat almost anything in it's path.

Chlorophyll: Doubles Shiftry's speed in the sunlight. Incredible ability that changes Shiftry from an average grass type to a lightning warrior that virtually nothing can outrun.
Early Bird: Makes you wake up in half the time. Kind of cool but if you aren't enjoying the speed boost from Chlorophyll you might as well use a different Pokemon.
Pickpocket: If you aren't holding an item and the opponent contacts you.. you can steal their item? Useless. If you REALLY want to mess with the opponent's items Shiftry learns Knock Off.

- Growth
- Dark Pulse
- Giga Drain / SolarBeam
- Low Kick
Item Attached: Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 44 Atk / 252 SAtk / 212 Spd
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)

So the concept is pretty simple here. Use Growth in the sun to get a +2 boost in both offenses. Then plow the road as very little can survive the boosted hits. Dark Pulse crushes Latios and Latias after a boost while Giga Drain breaks Water and Ground types. Giga Drain keeps you healthy over long games and after a few boosts it can even wear down Blissey. SolarBeam however has a lot more power against bulky things like Tentacruel. Low Kick is used in the last slot to beat Heatran, Ferrothorn and Blissey with one move. Speed EVs outrun Choice Scarf Landorus which is pretty much the fastest common thing you will see in OU besides Scarf Terrakion. You can run Naive nature to outrun Terrakion too but the power loss is pretty large. Oh, please make sure you are using this in the sunlight. If you don't have Drought Ninetales on your team just avoid using Shiftry all together.

- Swords Dance
- Seed Bomb
- Sucker Punch
- Low Kick / Brick Break
Item Attached: Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk / 212 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

Swords Dancing with a Physical set lets you take advantage of Shiftry's higher attack. It also allows you to use Sucker Punch which cuts down Scarf Latios and makes you somewhat useful even if the sun stops shining. Basically plays the same as the previous set. One key difference is due to the greater focus on Physical Attack Low Kick can OHKO Ferrothorn and Brick Break can OHKO Blissey (after a Swords Dance). Both moves OHKO virtually anything else weak to it so your choice depends on if you hate Blissey or Ferrothorn more. Keep in mind Blissey takes about 90% from +2 Seed Bomb so Low Kick is the superior option most of the time. As with the Growth set 212 Speed outruns as much as you can without going Jolly.. and you don't want to lose the power just to outrun the occasional Scarf Terrakion.

- Nasty Plot
- Giga Drain / SolarBeam
- Dark Pulse
- Focus Blast / Hidden Power Fire
Item Attached: Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 44 HP / 252 SAtk / 212 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

Of course a Nasty Plot set is worth mentioning. Nasty Plot and sweep. While this set can not get around Blissey as easily it instead can destroy Skarmory and Ferrothorn. Giga Drain is the reliable STAB of choice but SolarBeam has sickening power. It's useless outside of sunlight though. Focus Blast beats Heatran and puts some pressure on Blissey. Hidden Power Fire is a good option as well to fry Skarmory, Ferrothorn, Bronzong and Virizion. None of them take a +2 Sun boosted hit and walk away to tell the tale. If you use Hidden Power Fire move 4 HP EVs into Speed to make up for the 30 IVs in speed you need.

- Leaf Storm
- Dark Pulse
- Low Kick / Brick Break
- Hidden Power Ice / Hidden Power Fire
Item Attached: Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 44 Atk / 252 SAtk / 212 Spd
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)

Last but not least is the 4 attack Shiftry set. Dropping a stat boosting moves turns Shiftry into a powerful hit and run attacker. A Life Orb Leaf Storm gets a clear OHKO on Gyarados after rocks. It OHKOs pretty much everything in standard play that doesn't resist it not named Blissey or Chansey. Dark Pulse gives you a chance against Reuniclus and Latios. Low Kick vs Brick Break is power vs reliability. Low Kick beats Heatran easier but Brick Break does more to Blissey. Hidden Power Ice OHKOs Landorus, Gliscor and Salamence but Hidden Power Fire has 105 base power in sunlight which burns through many common Steel types (besides Heatran).

Shiftry
212 Speed with a neutral nature outruns Scarf Landorus provided sun is up. If you run a speed boosting nature like Timid or Naive and 176 Speed EVs you will be so fast you outrun Scarf Latios, the fastest thing in standard play. Place 252 EVs in the offense of choice while you put the remaining EVs in either HP, or another offensive stat. If you use Hidden Power Fire remember your speed will drop by one point so make sure to add an extra 4 EVs to speed to compensate.

Faint Attack, Explosion, Rock Slide, Leech Seed / Substitute, Choice Specs, Nature Power.
If Sucker Punch's inability to strike a Thunder Wave Celebi makes you mad you can try Faint Attack. Sucker Punch hits about 33% harder than Faint Attack so it is very weak.
Explosion can be used on the Swords Dance or Assassin sets to go out with a bang. 250 base power is pretty strong, stronger than a super effective Seed Bomb. If you need a little extra power or just like Exploding it's a worthwhile option.
Rock Slide OHKOs Volcarona and takes down Salamence and Gyarados after a Swords Dance. +2 Rock Slide even 2HKOs Heatran! Its overall weak though so most of the time you're better off just KOing with boosted Grass / Dark STAB moves with the help of Stealth Rocks.
Leech Seed can be paired with Substitute to form the annoying "SubSeed" combination. Substitute / Leech Seed / Hidden Power Fire / Giga Drain has the potential to cause fury in strong Sunlight.
Choice Specs is awesome due to Chlorophyll boosting your speed. Fire off devastating Leaf Storms into anything that dares cross your path. Its generally inferior to other Shiftry sets. Also besides the speed Specs Shiftry has very little on other high tier Special Attackers like Latios, Heatran and Magnezone.
Nature Power is the final option as in Wifi Battles and online simulators it becomes Earthquake. Besides an easy OHKO on Heatran and Tentacruel it doesn't hit very much Low Kick doesn't.

Decent amount. Fake Out is always awesome and with Chlorophyll boosting it's speed it is free to Explode or just throw around high powered Grass, Dark, Fire or Fighting attacks.

Ninetales. It's less a partnership and more a dependency. Shiftry NEEDS Ninetales. Without sun boosting it's speed Shiftry is just a bad, slow grass type. Ninetales also shrugs off bug and ice moves while Shiftry takes on water and ground hits. Other partners are anything that works well offensively in a Sun team. Volcarona, Dragonite, Espeon, etc.

Pretty difficult as it has the movepool and the ability to boost any of its stats. Scizor can switch in on anything and usually OHKO it with Bullet Punch after a turn of Life Orb recoil. Dragonite will survive anything Shiftry can do as long as multiscale is intact, and either OHKO with Fire Punch or pick it off with Extremespeed if it's at about 70-80% health. Ninetales, Infernape and Volcarona will live through any hit and OHKO back. Infernape can blow Shiftry away with a Choice Band Mach Punch. Hitmontop and Conkledurr can do the same but don't last very long against repeated SolarBeams. Chansey and Blissey take heavy damage from +2 Brick Break but will usually survive one unboosted and can smash Shiftry with game ending Paralysis. Breloom and Virizion survive both Shiftry's STAB moves and will take a few Brick Breaks though neither can live through a Nasty Plotted Hidden power Fire. Breloom can put it in it's place with a Mach Punch. Politoed with Drizzle, ironically enough, counters any set with Solarbeam by forcing it into a two turn charge and halving the power. The frog can then dispatch Shiftry with a swift Ice Beam to the face. Toxicroak resists every common move Shiftry runs besides Hidden Power Fire and can beat it with Drain Punch. It takes a lot of damage from Dry Skin in the sunlight unfortunately. If you can remove the sunlight Shiftry becomes completely useless. Speed is his main advantage, without that he becomes incapable of surviving very long against fast powerful Pokemon such as Terrakion or Haxorus.

Pre-Evolution Corner

I could post a set here showing Seedot's abilities as a Chlorophyll sweeper and make acorn-y pun or two but to be honest Seedot is completely useless in all tiers. Its stats are awful and unlike its evolution it isn't even a Dark type (it doesn't even learn any good Dark type moves). You can pick literally any other Chlorophyll Pokemon besides Sunkern and you will probably have more success.

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Evolve Nuzleaf (Ruby/Emerald)
Trade from Ruby/Emerald/XD (Sapphire) .

FireRed/LeafGreen:
Trade from Ruby/Emerald/XD .

Colosseum/XD:
Evolve Nuzleaf (XD)
Trade from Ruby/Emerald (Colosseum)

Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Evolve Nuzleaf

HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Evolve Nuzleaf

Black/White:
Evolve Nuzleaf (White)
Trade from White/Transfer from Generation IV (Black)