QC Checks: 1/3 Chou Toshio, 2/3 Oglemi, 3/3 PKGaming
GP Checks: 1/2 sirndpt, 2/2 NixHex (SuperJOCKE)
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[Overview]<p>Gallade is truly an awesome Pokemon, both in appearance and in its competitive value. STAB Fighting-type attacks Close Combat and Drain Punch provide it with excellent coverage and allow it to effectively annihilate a huge number of Pokemon. One of Gallade's best traits is its ability to utterly destroy Chansey, the specially defensive behemoth seen everywhere in today's metagame. Gallade also boasts an expansive movepool, which includes Swords Dance and Bulk Up for setup, and coverage moves such as Ice Punch, Shadow Sneak, Night Slash, and Stone Edge. To top it off, Gallade receives the Justified ability from the Dream World, allowing it to gain an Attack boost by switching into a Dark-type attack.</p>
<p>Although Gallade is ridiculously strong after setting up, its Defense is paper-thin, meaning that it can be easily revenge killed, especially after a stat drop from Close Combat. Gallade is also relatively slow; it spends so much time showing off its sleek blades, that it is easily outsped by Pokemon such as Flygon, Crobat, and Rotom-A, which can easily revenge kill it. Still, Gallade is a huge threat to watch out for.</p>
[SET]
name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Close Combat
move 3: Ice Punch / Stone Edge
move 4: Shadow Sneak / Night Slash
item: Life Orb
ability: Justified
nature: Adamant
evs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 188 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Reaching a maximum of 766 after a Swords Dance, Gallade's huge attacking power enables it to wreak havoc upon the UU tier. Its extremely powerful STAB Close Combat tears apart many teams—even standard Donphan is OHKed, and defensive variants may too fall after Stealth Rock damage. Ice Punch lets Gallade smash Flying-types into the ground while fast, frail Psychic- and Ghost-types such as Azelf and Mismagius are taken care of by Shadow Sneak.</p>
<p>Each of the moves listed above has a purpose: Stone Edge can be used over Ice Punch to do more damage to Moltres, and also hits Arcanine super effectively. However, all things considered, Ice Punch is the more reliable move. Night Slash can be used over Shadow Sneak to deal greater damage to bulky Psychic-types, such as Slowbro and Deoxys-D, which otherwise completely wall Gallade.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Gallade's excellent movepool includes moves for almost any situation, and for any Pokemon. Zen Headbutt helps it beat Weezing, the bane of most Fighting-types, while it also offers a great flinch chance and may be of use in a clutch situation. Drain Punch allows Gallade to heal off any residual damage taken, and unlike Close Combat, doesn't saddle Gallade with defense drops. However, Drain Punch is illegal with Justified, so Gallade must run Steadfast instead. Other move options it can utilize include Leaf Blade, Psycho Cut, Fire Punch, and Headbutt, but the ones listed will usually suffice, unless your team desperately needs to surprise and eliminate specific threats.</p>
<p>The EVs listed are optimal, but they can be changed to meet your needs. The only reason one would choose to run max Speed is to tie with Adamant Heracross (basically Choice Band variants), but most tend to use a Choice Scarf. This is nonetheless a viable option, as the HP EVs do not provide Gallade with much significant bulk. Maximizing Speed and giving Gallade a Jolly nature also comes with the benefit of Speed tying with max Speed Mamoswine and the rare Altaria. Gallade's other ability, Steadfast, might come in handy against Pokemon that use flinching moves, such as Durant, but this gimmick loses its luster when one realizes Gallade doesn't survive Togekiss's Air Slash. Finally, Gallade can choose to run Leftovers over Life Orb for added recovery, but this isn't recommended considering Gallade's bulk—or lack thereof—and the offensive nature of this set.</p>
<p>Physical walls are the bane of this set, and almost every other Gallade set, too. Donphan and Milotic pose almost complete hard stops to Gallade. Their attacking moves hit Gallade hard through its paper-thin defenses, and Gallade can't do much in return even after a Swords Dance boost.</p>
[SET]
name: Choice
move 1: Close Combat
move 2: Ice Punch / Stone Edge
move 3: Zen Headbutt / Night Slash
move 4: Trick
item: Choice Scarf / Choice Band
ability: Justified
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Choice Scarf Gallade can act as a speedy revenge killer or a late game sweeper, while Choice Band Gallade can dent almost anything it faces with STAB Close Combat. Frailer Pokemon attempting to come in on a resisted Close Combat, such as Roserade, will be promptly 2HKOed, demonstrating just how powerful Gallade is with a Choice Band. The crux of this set, though, is arguably Trick, which allows Gallade to severely cripple an opposing wall, such as Slowbro, Dusclops, Deoxys-D, or Gligar. This grants Gallade a much easier time against the crippled wall, and also gives it the ability to switch moves. Ice Punch allows it to hit Flying-types expecting a resisted Close Combat; Zen Headbutt, on the other hand, is another strong STAB move with a neat flinch chance.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Night Slash allows Gallade to destroy Psychic- and Ghost-types, such as Mew, Dusclops, and Mismagius, which may attempt to switch into a Close Combat and either set up or try to burn Gallade with Will-O-Wisp. Furthermore, the combination of Night Slash and Close Combat have excellent neutral coverage resisted by only a few Pokemon, such as Heracross. Stone Edge is a good alternative to Ice Punch, but sacrifices reliability for power. A Jolly nature can be used to let Gallade outspeed Adamant Heracross and Modest Nidoking. As Choice Scarf Gallade often lacks the power to destroy dedicated walls such as Slowbro, wallbreakers such as Nidoking are good teammates. Another strong physical attacker, such as Guts Heracross, is a good partner to Gallade. As they share common counters, they can work in tandem to weaken the opponent's physical walls, allowing one of them to easily sweep the devastated team. Bug- and Dark-type teammates can smash Psychic- and Ghost-types attempting to wall Gallade, while Grass-, Water-, and Ice-types can make short work of bulky Ground-types, such as Donphan, that trouble Choice Scarf Gallade.</p>
[SET]
name: Bulk Up
move 1: Bulk Up
move 2: Drain Punch
move 3: Ice Punch / Stone Edge
move 4: Night Slash / X-Scissor
item: Leftovers
ability: Steadfast
nature: Adamant
evs: 252 HP / 68 Atk / 188 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Gallade already has a high base 115 Special Defense, which makes it difficult to take down with neutral special attacks. However, a reasonably strong physical attack can easily break through Gallade's pathetic base 65 Defense. Bulk Up boosts Gallade's low Defense to a level comparable to its Special Defense, and also powers up his already good Attack to astronomical heights. Drain Punch provides Gallade with a fairly reliable method of recovery, and more importantly, functions as a fantastic STAB move that does great amounts of damage after a Bulk Up. Drain Punch also provides Gallade with some longevity, especially after a few Bulk Ups, making it extremely hard to take down. Ice Punch gives Gallade handy super effective coverage against Ground- and Flying-types, while Night Slash slices apart Ghost- and Psychic-types that take little to no damage from Drain Punch.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>X-Scissor is more powerful than Night Slash, and is hence a better option to deal with Psychic-types; however, it leaves Gallade helpless against Ghost-types. Stone Edge is an alternative to Ice Punch, with higher Base Power but lower accuracy. The given EV spread allows Gallade to outpace neutral base 100 Speed Pokemons without Speed investment. HP EVs are maximized to provide the bulk that Gallade needs to take hits more comfortably. The leftover EVs are put into Attack and an Adamant nature is used to provide additional power, but the EVs can instead be placed in Special Defense to give Gallade an easier time setting up against special attackers. Gallade absolutely abhors status, especially burn and poison. A burn essentially shuts down Gallade and takes away any chance it might have at sweeping, while bad poison from Toxic will put Gallade on a timer, significantly decreasing the number of turns Gallade can be left on the field. Eviolite Dusclops is arguably the best counter to this set. It is immune to Gallade's STAB Drain Punch, takes pittance from even a boosted Night Slash, and can follow up with Will-O-Wisp. Slowbro and Deoxys-D are in the same boat, as their immense Defense lets them take Night Slashes comfortably.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>As previously mentioned, Gallade's tremendously wide movepool gives it many options to choose from. Leaf Blade lets Gallade pick off bulky Ground- and Water-types, but has poor coverage alongside its Fighting-type STAB. With access to all three elemental punches, Gallade can opt for a physical BoltBeam combination, but its other coverage moves provide stronger and better coverage. Earthquake hits Nidoking and Nidoqueen super effectively, but so do STAB Psycho Cut and Ice Punch. Gallade has nifty support options such as Taunt, Will-O-Wisp, Disable, Encore, and Hypnosis; alternatively, it can attempt to run a SubDisable or SubPunch set. With so many interesting options to choose from, there are many ways you can surprise your opponent and nab a few KOs. However, keep in mind that the standard sets are generally better, as they can deal with a wider array of threats. Lastly, Gallade can utilize Trick Room with some success as it isn't too fast to begin with</p>
[Checks and Counters]
<p>Though Gallade has outstanding Special Defense, it is extremely frail physically. Furthermore, Gallade isn't very fast to begin with, so faster Pokemon can take advantage of Gallade's low Speed and miserable Defense to revenge kill it. Flygon, Heracross, and Aerodactyl all come to mind, but thanks to Gallade's excellent coverage, they have to be wary when switching in. Physical walls often have no trouble stopping Gallade; for instance, Donphan, Rhyperior, Eviolite Gligar, and other bulky Ground-types can handle Gallade with ease. However, Donphan and Rhyperior must watch out as +2 Close Combat OHKOes them, while Gligar's 4x weakness to Ice-type attacks may prove fatal. Bulky Psychic- and Ghost-types that can take a Night Slash are also excellent checks to Gallade; Slowbro, Deoxys-D, and Dusclops are great examples of these. Physical attackers that outspeed Gallade are great checks to it, as a reasonably strong physical attack will easily send Gallade home pronto. So long as Gallade hasn't had a Bulk Up under its belt, this is the way to go. Status will cripple Gallade and strip it off any chance to sweep.</p>
