LC Abra

Xayah

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QC: OP / Hilomilo
GP: GMars

For something that sleeps all the time, Abra is a pretty terrifying sight on Team Preview. With an absolutely incredible combination of Special Attack, Speed, and movepool, the original LC Psychic-type has been tearing through teams from RBY to SM. Thanks to Magic Guard, Abra can be either one of the best revenge killers in the tier with a Focus Sash or one of the scariest wallbreakers with a recoil-free Life Orb.

Abra @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 36 Atk / 240 SpA / 200 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Counter / Hidden Power Fighting
- Energy Ball / Shadow Ball / Knock Off

With Counter, Abra can stay in against Pursuit trappers like Alolan Grimer and Choice Scarf Pawniard, which would otherwise be able to break Abra's Focus Sash with minimal risk. Counter also allows Abra to revenge kill some physical setup sweepers that its other moves fail to KO, like Corphish and Zigzagoon. Hidden Power Fighting can be used over Counter to take out Steel-types like Pawniard and Ferroseed, though it leaves Abra very vulnerable to Alolan Grimer. Energy Ball hits common Pokemon like Staryu and Onix while threatening Slowpoke, which takes any other hit from Abra with ease; Shadow Ball is useful for Slowpoke, Pumpkaboo-XL, and Frillish; and Knock Off cripples defensive switch-ins like Spritzee and Ferroseed.

Abra @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 240 SpA / 200 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power Ground / Hidden Power Fighting / Energy Ball
- Substitute

While this set's frailty leaves it vulnerable to faster Pokemon like Diglett and Choice Scarf users, Life Orb Abra is most commonly found on Sticky Web teams, eliminating this weakness and allowing Abra to clean up against many teams. Even without Sticky Web, this set is an excellent wallbreaker that usually manages to pick up a KO whenever it switches in. Hidden Power Ground 2HKOes most Alolan Grimer variants and hits most Steel-types like Magnemite and Pawniard. Abra can set up a Substitute on a Pokemon it forces out in order to guarantee that it gets two hits on whatever switches in, thus usually taking it out. In addition, it allows Abra to avoid Sucker Punch from the likes of Pawniard, after which it can safely fire off a Hidden Power Ground or Fighting.

While Abra is certainly a threatening offensive Pokemon, it offers no defensive utility whatsoever for its team. Abra can only ever switch in after a teammate has fainted or via a slow Volt Switch or U-turn, and it is very vulnerable to priority users, such as Pawniard and Zigzagoon, as well as Choice Scarf users, such as Doduo and Mienfoo, if its Focus Sash has been broken. Focus Sash Abra especially struggles to break through specially bulky Pokemon, such as Slowpoke, Ferroseed, and Munchlax, and fails to revenge kill some specific sweepers that have multi-hit moves, like Shell Smash Shellder and Dwebble. Lastly, Abra is vulnerable to being trapped by the very common Diglett, though Diglett struggles to do so if Sticky Web is up and needs Beat Up for Focus Sash Abra.
 
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Xayah

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I'd say this is QC ready

EDIT: Gimme a bit longer actually

EDIT again: Now I'm really done I think
 
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Focus Sash:
- It's not obvious what you should be using Knock Off against, listing some examples like Ferroseed, Spritzee, etc. would be helpful.
- Shadow Ball lets Abra 2HKO Pump-XL and Eviolite Frillish after rocks which is more relevant than hitting Honedge/Bronzor

Life Orb:
- A big aspect of Substitute is avoiding Sucker Punch, it should be mentioned somewhere
- Tag on something about HP Ground still hitting Steel-types like Mag and Pawn if you can

Downsides: Bronzor probably isn't worth mentioning here, especially when other examples like Ferro would work.

qc 1/2
 

Xayah

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Focus Sash:
- It's not obvious what you should be using Knock Off against, listing some examples like Ferroseed, Spritzee, etc. would be helpful.
- Shadow Ball lets Abra 2HKO Pump-XL and Eviolite Frillish after rocks which is more relevant than hitting Honedge/Bronzor

Life Orb:
- A big aspect of Substitute is avoiding Sucker Punch, it should be mentioned somewhere
- Tag on something about HP Ground still hitting Steel-types like Mag and Pawn if you can

Downsides: Bronzor probably isn't worth mentioning here, especially when other examples like Ferro would work.

qc 1/2
I brainfarted and forgot Ghost-types and Ferroseed existed (I didn't sleep well okay), ready for 2/2
 

Hilomilo

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Focus Sash
* I'd expand a little more on Counter's use. Its takes care of Alolan Grimer and Choice Scarf Pawniard, definitely, though I also think you should bring up the utility that comes with potentially functioning as an emergency check to a few really threatening physical sweepers. It can stop things like Zigzagoon, Timburr, and Corphish, which can otherwise steamroll offensive teams if set up, so having Counter Sashbra in the back is really useful in case these Pokemon get out of hand.

Life Orb
* I wouldn't really say that this set is more threatening than Focus Sash, they're about even imo. Just say that they're equally threatening, since it seems odd to put the set you say is more threatening than Sash below it in the first place.
* Give more examples of Sucker Punch users than Pawniard.

Shortcomings
* "is very vulnerable to many priority users if its Focus Sash has been broken" - examples here.
* Here you should mention that due to its frailty, Abra is heavily threatened by Choice Scarf users (make sure to give some examples).
* I don't know that breaking past bulkier teams is really something you need to bring up as a shortcoming. Bulkier teams are fairly nonexistent in LC, so I'd instead say that Abra can struggle to break past a few Pokemon that have notable special bulk since that's a more relevant issue that it struggles with. Go ahead and use Ferro and Slowpoke as your examples like you did before, though I'd also use Spritzee as one.
* While we're still on the topic of struggling to break past bulkier foes, I'd go ahead and elaborate as to why this is the case for particularly the sash set (the lack of Life Orb takes away from Abra's damage output, while Pokemon like Spritzee can even boost their Special Defense as they continue to sponge Abra's attacks).

Overall really nice work! Most of these were just minor nitpicks, let me know if you disagree with something. QC 2/2 after this is implemented.
 

Xayah

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Focus Sash
* I'd expand a little more on Counter's use. Its takes care of Alolan Grimer and Choice Scarf Pawniard, definitely, though I also think you should bring up the utility that comes with potentially functioning as an emergency check to a few really threatening physical sweepers. It can stop things like Zigzagoon, Timburr, and Corphish, which can otherwise steamroll offensive teams if set up, so having Counter Sashbra in the back is really useful in case these Pokemon get out of hand.

Life Orb
* I wouldn't really say that this set is more threatening than Focus Sash, they're about even imo. Just say that they're equally threatening, since it seems odd to put the set you say is more threatening than Sash below it in the first place.
* Give more examples of Sucker Punch users than Pawniard.

Shortcomings
* "is very vulnerable to many priority users if its Focus Sash has been broken" - examples here.
* Here you should mention that due to its frailty, Abra is heavily threatened by Choice Scarf users (make sure to give some examples).
* I don't know that breaking past bulkier teams is really something you need to bring up as a shortcoming. Bulkier teams are fairly nonexistent in LC, so I'd instead say that Abra can struggle to break past a few Pokemon that have notable special bulk since that's a more relevant issue that it struggles with. Go ahead and use Ferro and Slowpoke as your examples like you did before, though I'd also use Spritzee as one.
* While we're still on the topic of struggling to break past bulkier foes, I'd go ahead and elaborate as to why this is the case for particularly the sash set (the lack of Life Orb takes away from Abra's damage output, while Pokemon like Spritzee can even boost their Special Defense as they continue to sponge Abra's attacks).

Overall really nice work! Most of these were just minor nitpicks, let me know if you disagree with something. QC 2/2 after this is implemented.
Did this, except for the explanation as to why Focus Sash specifically struggles to break through foes; this is obvious information that would only add to the already-too-high word count. Moving to GP
 

GMars

It's ya boy GEEEEEEEEMARS
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Great work Xayah
For something that sleeps all the time, Abra is a pretty terrifying sight on Team Preview. With an absolutely incredible combination of great Special Attack, amazing Speed, and a very solid movepool, the original LC Psychic-type [no love for Drowzee, Slowpoke, or Exeggcute? :(] has been tearing through teams from RBY to SM. Thanks to its ability Magic Guard, itsAbra is capable of somewhat making up for its complete lack of defensive utility by holding a near-nearly unbreakable Focus Sash, becoming one of the best revenge killers in the tier, or boosting its damage to sky-high levels with a recoil-free Life Orb, making it one of the scariest wallbreakers LC has ever seen.

Abra @ Focus Sash
Level: 5
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 36 Atk / 240 SpA / 200 Spe
Timid Nature [If you're running attack EVs, why are you running a Timid nature instead of a Hasty nature?]
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Counter / Hidden Power Fighting
- Energy Ball / Shadow Ball / Knock Off

The Focus Sash set has historically been Abra's majorprimary [optional, but major seems like a bit of an odd word here] set, and it has stayed this way in SM. Even at the very start of the new meta, this set showed its face on many offensive teams that wanted a powerful yet reliable revenge killer. But, and (Remove Period, Add Comma) it received a huge buff when the RBY remakes became compatible with PokeBank; Counter became usable with Magic Guard, allowing Abra to suddenly take out some of its major annoyances. Specifically, Abra could now simply stay in and clickuse Counter when facing off withagainst Pursuit trappers like Alolan Grimer and Choice Scarf Pawniard, which would otherwise be able to break Abra's Focus Sash with minimal risk (though the latter already feared Hidden Power Fighting). In addition, Counter allowed Abra to revenge kill some physical setup sweepers that its other moves fail to KO, like Corphish and Zigzagoon. The moveset is tailored to maximize Abra's power and coverage; Psychic and Dazzling Gleam offer incredible coverage together; Hidden Power Fighting can be used over Counter to take out Steel-types like Pawniard and Ferroseed, though it leaves Abra very vulnerable to Alolan Grimer; Energy Ball hits common Pokemon like Staryu and Onix while threatening Slowpoke, which takes any other hit from Abra with ease; Shadow Ball still threatens Slowpoke while also hitting some other Pokemon that can otherwise take on Abra, like Pumpkaboo-XL and Frillish; and [ending conjunctions are still necessary with semicolon-separated lists] finally, (AC) Knock Off cripples defensive switch-ins like Spritzee and Ferroseed by removing their ever-important Eviolites.

Abra @ Life Orb
Level: 5
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 240 SpA / 200 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power Ground / Hidden Power Fighting / Energy Ball
- Substitute

Abra's Life Orb set, while less common than the Focus Sash one, is at least as threatening; thanks to Abra's sky-high Special Attack, Life Orb-boosted hits are incredibly strong, and its ability Magic Guard means it doesn't even take recoil. While this set is very vulnerable to faster Pokemon, especially like Diglett and Choice Scarf users like Pawniard and Mienfoo, (RC) [breaking up the amount of commas in the sentence to improve its flow] due to the lack of Focus Sash and Abra's very low bulk, Life Orb Abra will be most commonly found on teams centered around Sticky Web, thus eliminating this weakness and allowing Abra to clean up against many teams. Even outside of Sticky Web teams, this set is capable of functioning as an excellent wallbreaker that usually manages to pick up a KO whenever it switches in, (RC) simply because very few Pokemon can take two hits. Most moves on this set are used for the same reason as on the Focus Sash set, with obviously Counter not seeing use, (AC) as Abra usually won't be able to actually take a hit to utilize it. In addition, this set often runs Hidden Power Ground to 2HKO most Alolan Grimer variants, thus breaking through its hardest stop, (RC) while also hitting most Steel-types like Magnemite and Pawniard. Life Orb Abra also commonly runs Substitute; though it will be broken by almost any attack, Abra can set up a Substitute on a Pokemon it forces out in order to all but guarantee that it gets two hits on whatever switches in, thus usually taking it out. In addition, it allows Abra to avoid Sucker Punch from the likes of Pawniard, allowing it to fire off a Hidden Power Ground or Fighting from behind its Substitute.

Now this all may make it sound like Abra is absolutely perfect, but sadly, it's not. While it is certainly a threatening offensive Pokemon, it offers no defensive utility whatsoever for its team, as it has pitiful 25/15/55 bulk. This means that its team suffers from being effectively 5v6 defensively. In addition, Abra can only ever switch in after a teammate has fainted or via a slow Volt Switch or U-turn, resulting in it struggling to get into play, and it is very vulnerable to many priority users, such as Pawniard and Zigzagoon, and [consider using "as well as" here to improve the flow of the sentence] Choice Scarf users, such as Doduo and Mienfoo, if its Focus Sash has been broken. Furthermore, Abra, especially the Focus Sash variant, can struggle to break through Pokemon with good Special Defense, such as Slowpoke, Ferroseed, and Munchlax. Focus Sash Abra also fails to revenge kill some specific sweepers that have multi-hit moves, like Shell Smash Shellder and Dwebble. Lastly, Abra is vulnerable to being trapped by the very common Diglett, though itDiglett struggles to do so if Sticky Web is up or otherwise [if this is incorrect, change "or" to "and"] needs Beat Up for Focus Sash Abra.

Overall though, Abra's amazing Speed and Special Attack in combination with a solid movepool and great ability make it an incredible offensive powerhouse in Little Cup.

GP 1/1
 

Xayah

San Bwanna
is a Community Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Great work Xayah
For something that sleeps all the time, Abra is a pretty terrifying sight on Team Preview. With an absolutely incredible combination of great Special Attack, amazing Speed, and a very solid movepool, the original LC Psychic-type [no love for Drowzee, Slowpoke, or Exeggcute? :(] has been tearing through teams from RBY to SM. Thanks to its ability Magic Guard, itsAbra is capable of somewhat making up for its complete lack of defensive utility by holding a near-nearly unbreakable Focus Sash, becoming one of the best revenge killers in the tier, or boosting its damage to sky-high levels with a recoil-free Life Orb, making it one of the scariest wallbreakers LC has ever seen.

Abra @ Focus Sash
Level: 5
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 36 Atk / 240 SpA / 200 Spe
Timid Nature [If you're running attack EVs, why are you running a Timid nature instead of a Hasty nature?]
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Counter / Hidden Power Fighting
- Energy Ball / Shadow Ball / Knock Off

The Focus Sash set has historically been Abra's majorprimary [optional, but major seems like a bit of an odd word here] set, and it has stayed this way in SM. Even at the very start of the new meta, this set showed its face on many offensive teams that wanted a powerful yet reliable revenge killer. But, and (Remove Period, Add Comma) it received a huge buff when the RBY remakes became compatible with PokeBank; Counter became usable with Magic Guard, allowing Abra to suddenly take out some of its major annoyances. Specifically, Abra could now simply stay in and clickuse Counter when facing off withagainst Pursuit trappers like Alolan Grimer and Choice Scarf Pawniard, which would otherwise be able to break Abra's Focus Sash with minimal risk (though the latter already feared Hidden Power Fighting). In addition, Counter allowed Abra to revenge kill some physical setup sweepers that its other moves fail to KO, like Corphish and Zigzagoon. The moveset is tailored to maximize Abra's power and coverage; Psychic and Dazzling Gleam offer incredible coverage together; Hidden Power Fighting can be used over Counter to take out Steel-types like Pawniard and Ferroseed, though it leaves Abra very vulnerable to Alolan Grimer; Energy Ball hits common Pokemon like Staryu and Onix while threatening Slowpoke, which takes any other hit from Abra with ease; Shadow Ball still threatens Slowpoke while also hitting some other Pokemon that can otherwise take on Abra, like Pumpkaboo-XL and Frillish; and [ending conjunctions are still necessary with semicolon-separated lists] finally, (AC) Knock Off cripples defensive switch-ins like Spritzee and Ferroseed by removing their ever-important Eviolites.

Abra @ Life Orb
Level: 5
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 240 SpA / 200 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power Ground / Hidden Power Fighting / Energy Ball
- Substitute

Abra's Life Orb set, while less common than the Focus Sash one, is at least as threatening; thanks to Abra's sky-high Special Attack, Life Orb-boosted hits are incredibly strong, and its ability Magic Guard means it doesn't even take recoil. While this set is very vulnerable to faster Pokemon, especially like Diglett and Choice Scarf users like Pawniard and Mienfoo, (RC) [breaking up the amount of commas in the sentence to improve its flow] due to the lack of Focus Sash and Abra's very low bulk, Life Orb Abra will be most commonly found on teams centered around Sticky Web, thus eliminating this weakness and allowing Abra to clean up against many teams. Even outside of Sticky Web teams, this set is capable of functioning as an excellent wallbreaker that usually manages to pick up a KO whenever it switches in, (RC) simply because very few Pokemon can take two hits. Most moves on this set are used for the same reason as on the Focus Sash set, with obviously Counter not seeing use, (AC) as Abra usually won't be able to actually take a hit to utilize it. In addition, this set often runs Hidden Power Ground to 2HKO most Alolan Grimer variants, thus breaking through its hardest stop, (RC) while also hitting most Steel-types like Magnemite and Pawniard. Life Orb Abra also commonly runs Substitute; though it will be broken by almost any attack, Abra can set up a Substitute on a Pokemon it forces out in order to all but guarantee that it gets two hits on whatever switches in, thus usually taking it out. In addition, it allows Abra to avoid Sucker Punch from the likes of Pawniard, allowing it to fire off a Hidden Power Ground or Fighting from behind its Substitute.

Now this all may make it sound like Abra is absolutely perfect, but sadly, it's not. While it is certainly a threatening offensive Pokemon, it offers no defensive utility whatsoever for its team, as it has pitiful 25/15/55 bulk. This means that its team suffers from being effectively 5v6 defensively. In addition, Abra can only ever switch in after a teammate has fainted or via a slow Volt Switch or U-turn, resulting in it struggling to get into play, and it is very vulnerable to many priority users, such as Pawniard and Zigzagoon, and [consider using "as well as" here to improve the flow of the sentence] Choice Scarf users, such as Doduo and Mienfoo, if its Focus Sash has been broken. Furthermore, Abra, especially the Focus Sash variant, can struggle to break through Pokemon with good Special Defense, such as Slowpoke, Ferroseed, and Munchlax. Focus Sash Abra also fails to revenge kill some specific sweepers that have multi-hit moves, like Shell Smash Shellder and Dwebble. Lastly, Abra is vulnerable to being trapped by the very common Diglett, though itDiglett struggles to do so if Sticky Web is up or otherwise [if this is incorrect, change "or" to "and"] needs Beat Up for Focus Sash Abra.

Overall though, Abra's amazing Speed and Special Attack in combination with a solid movepool and great ability make it an incredible offensive powerhouse in Little Cup.

GP 1/1
Thanks, this is now done (I wish analyses went this fast)
 

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