Head Honchkrow

[King Eriandor]

#3 in my original strategies series. As were all the previous ones, this one has only been tested in doubles.


Head Honchkrow

I like this one almost as much as I liked my Accelgor/Porygon-Z duo because of the sheer effectiveness of it. As the name suggests the main pokemon in this is Honchkrow. Here's the general setup which can be altered slightly to fit it's team:

Honchkrow @ Power Herb/Life orb/choice band/dark gem/flying gem
A: Moxie
Moves:
Sucker Punch
Sky Attack/Brave Bird
Taunt/Featherdance/perish song/protect
Roost/Foul play

As I mentioned, Honchkrow is very flexible but It's the constants that make him epic. Honckrow's sucker punch ranks fourth in most powerful priority damage (after technoloom, Conkeldurr and Absol). The reason I prefer Honchkrow is his DW ability: Moxie. A power herb-sky attack or gemmed/life orbed brave bird can buy Honchkrow a free moxie boost with a supereffective hit and he can then suckerpunch sweep from there. He works well with pretty much anything especially in doubles. Foul Play (XD pun) is good at taking care of the increasingly common Swagger boosting Metagross in doubles.

I have a battle video where a Honchkrow and a Whimsicott Annihilate a trick room team but I haven't uploaded it yet, I'll give the battle video number when I do though

Next up in the series is 'Heat Rave': a semi-predictable but still effective Heatran/Whimsicott combo.

 

[Takaki]

This doesn't do particularly well against any lead match ups. It can't hurt steels, it loses to Thunderus, gets pulverized by weather and doesn't have the ability to tank hits from anything. The only thing it beats well is Hitmontop who will usually Fake Out, Protect and switch. Sucker punch is a goood move but it isn;t hittong much for super effective damage. It isn't consistent enough to hit Cresselia because Cresselia barely attacks and anything it hits neutrally won't take much damage (It his Latios and Latias but they still beat it). This does annihilate Trick Room but so do all the other priority taunters.

 

[King Eriandor]

It seems fragile at first, yes, but it makes up for its "lackluster" defenses in speed an attack. It is fully capable of 1hkoing most major doubles threats, namely: Meinshao, Latios, Emboar (Although I don't know why this one is a threat, he is oddly common in doubles), and after 2 moxieboosts I DID one-hit a Cresselia with SuckerPunch.

I also understand the problem with predicting offensive moves, a good way to make this easier is a Whimsicott with taunt and/or encore.

I normally pair mine with Whimsicott, Typhlosion (Eruption), or a speed sweeper. I already explained whimsicott, and the reason for the speed sweeper or typhlosion is honchkrow's ability to finish off anything left from the eruption or whatever else I used, and his skill at taking out quicker or intimidating foes like latios.

Hitting for super effective isn't the main goal of suckerpunch, (that's sky attack's job) but, rather, for finishing off opponents quickly. At 252 Atk EVs and 2 moxie boosts Honchkrow can 1-hit nearly anything that doesn't resist dark.

Okay, I admit it. I neglected to mention his biggest weakness... Ground types.
I know what you're thinking: "WTF? How are ground types a problem for a flying type like honchkrow???" Well I'll tell you; most of the most common ground types in doubles have speed and defence superior to that of Honchkrow's and are able to land powerful rock slides or stone edges before the small bird has an opportunity to attack. If an opponent uses an excadrill, landorus or Garchomp before honchkrow can get a moxie boost or two, your only chance is to switch it out.

 

[Thundagere]

I'm going to close this thread for now, as it's already been a month. In future, please post such threads in the Official Rate My One Pokémon thread. Thank you!