Sableye (ADV NU Analysis)

Disaster Area

formerly Piexplode
[Overview]
Sableye's typing is fantastic in ADV NU, where the competition allows its bulk to be sufficient. Normal, Fighting, and Psychic immunities help it answer many top threats, whilst additionally its Poison Resistance makes it a fantastic Arbok and Swalot counter too. It stops a huge number of threats cold, and thus is a huge concern in teambuilding to take care of - breaking Sableye balance/stall is an important feature of any team's strategy.

[SET]
name: Physically Defensive
move 1: Recover
move 2: Shadow Ball
move 3: Toxic
move 4: Psych Up / Protect / Knock Off
item: Leftovers
evs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 SpD
nature: Impish

[SET COMMENTS]
- Recover is mandatory as it's a fantastic form of recovery, allowing it to prevent a multitude of threats from breaking through.
- Shadow Ball is your main STAB, using Sableye's passable base 75 attack. It does hefty damage to Haunter and Chimecho, although Will-o-Wisp and Reflect may trouble it.
- Toxic is pretty much your main way of dealing damage versus most opponents, i.e. those other than Haunter and Chimecho.
- The last slot is more customised to what you want to achieve. Seismic Toss and Psych Up can both help with bulk up Vigoroth, although Psych Up also helps with Bulk Up Hitmonchan and CM Chimecho. Protect can help preserve Sableye versus threats even when Spikes are up, as it doesn't consistently take CB Hitmonchan's Earthquake even with one layer of Spikes up. Knock Off is a great disruptor, but can be difficult to fit and doesn't help with anything specific. Taunt could even be considered, but it's a bit slow and can't afford to invest in speed to remedy it, so generally it remains set-up bait for Spikers, and Pokemon such as Mawile. Fire Punch, if you use a Sassy Nature instead, allows you to prevent yourself from being huge Mawile-bait though.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
- The EVs allow it to avoid the 2HKO by CB Hitmonchan's Earthquake factoring Leftovers, with the remainder dumped into Special Defense to help with CM Chimecho, although it can be returned to Defense to help deal with Hitmonchan after Spikes damage.
- Other walls tend to be the best option to pair with it, as it's a very stally Pokemon, so Pokemon such as Lickitung, Roselia, Flareon, Relicanth, and a handful of others are great examples of partners.

[SET]
name: CroFable
move 1: Calm Mind
move 2: Hidden Power Dark
move 3: Rest
move 4: Sleep Talk
item: Leftovers
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
nature: Modest

[SET COMMENTS]
- Calm Mind is the purpose of the set. It both allows it to act as a win condition for very Stallish teams, and as a more improved Chimecho answer than its Physically Defensive counterpart, at the cost of beating fewer physical threats head-on.
- RestTalk giving it an effective status immunity is the main draw of it; the inability to check Normal/Fighting types so easily is the cost for stall-breaking, but it beats Chimecho much easier than any other variant - most run away from it though anyway.
- Recover can be run in the last slot, at the cost of being somewhat vulnerable whilst asleep, but this permits you to run extra Defense EVs to check various threats that you can't beat when just using Rest, since they typically 3HKO, and lets you vary the set game by game.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
- With Rest, there's nothing that it checks meaningfully on the Physical side now, as everything relevant has a way of 3HKOing it even with maximum Defense and HP and a Bold nature, so you're best just maximising Special Attack, but EVs can be siphoned off into Special Defense and Speed as seen fit - greater Special Attack helps it stallbreak more easily however.
- Defensive Pokemon work nicely with this, but it's challenging to find additional CB Hitmonchan checks that can pair well with it. It has less requirement of Spikes support than the physically defensive Sableye, since it is there to break Stall on its own.

[SET]
name: Offensive Calm Mind
move 1: Calm Mind
move 2: Hidden Power Dark
move 3: Recover
move 4: Taunt / Fire Punch
item: Leftovers
evs: 252 HP / 28 Def / 104 SpA / 124 Spe or 252 HP / 104 Def / 28 SpA / 124 Spe or 252 HP / 228 Def / 32 Spe
nature: Bold

[SET COMMENTS]
- This set forgoes Rest and the subsequent status immunity of it, for a more offensive set-up. Calm Mind and HP Dark are nessecary for obvious reasons, helping it destroy Sableye and Haunter.
- Recover allows it to beat stuff that can only 3HKO it.
- Taunt helps it prevent itself from being set-up bait for opposing Pokemon, such as Mawile, Cacturne, and Roselia, which otherwise enjoy Sableye as a free opportunity to set up. Fire Punch is an alternative as it hits all of those super-effectively, but avoiding status is key to its success as a stallbreaker.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
- The first EV spread allows it to outspeed pokemon with base 65 speed and no investment, most importantly including Roselia, and it means it usually outspeeds Mawile too. It allows it to avoid the 2HKO from Jolly CB Arbok's Earthquake, but more EVs can be taken from SpA to avoid the KO after x layers of Spikes, etc.
- The second EV spread is effectively the same as the first, but sacrifices the power in order to beat Adamant CB Arbok too.
- The third EV spread is a less effective stall-breaker, due to the reduced speed investment, but it can handle CB Hitmonchan unlike the previous spread, although admittedly without any Spikes on the field.
- Partners that fit well with it are similar to the other sets, although more offensive partners probably could work nicely with this set, since it's less focussed on stalling than the others.

[Other Options]
- Psychic smacks Hitmonchan, Arbok, and Swalot harder in particular, whist Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, and Water Pulse can all hit various miscellanious targets.
- Rain Dance and Sunny Day are options to support the team, but it tends to prefer to support itself usually with its available moveslots.
- Snatch is an option, but too tricky to use usually to be worth it.
- SubPunch is a fairly serious, but untested option. Its great immunities let it set up a lot, but its base 75 Attack and no boosting moves make it seem quite average, especially as it has to extoll a lot of EVs into its Defensive stats in order to do its job properly.

[Checks and Counters]
- Status: Sableye hates being (Badly) Poisoned or even Burnt, as it prevents it from beating a lot of threats it should otherwise be able to handle. SubWisp (or even Toxic!) Haunter is a great lure to status Sableye, allowing CB Hitmonchan to start making dents. Spikes support can be similarly effective, but Sableye is often paired with Rapid Spin Hitmonchan, making it important to carry a Spinblocker that stands up to it if you want to be really safe versus Sableye.
- Strong Special attackers, such as Huntail, Tangela, and Plusle (basically anything not named Haunter, Chimecho, or Abra) are usually unbothered by Sableye, but may have issues with certain Calm Mind variants if it's permitted to set up.
- Diglett can revenge it consistently if you manage to weaken it as you lose a Pokemon to it.
- Mawile and Spikers such as Roselia can use it as set-up bait unless it runs a rare faster TauntCM set.
 
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Piexplode , Recover should be slashed in the last slot for CroSableye beside Sleep Talk,and the Evs should be 252 Hp/252 Def/4 SpD or something,with a Bold Nature,because this thing is just meant to stick around as a win con versus teams that can't force it out or anything. Also Did I emntion that having Rest+Recover is pretty nice? It lets you choose when to set up,and also please mention how this totally hard counters Chimecho imo :D, I love that set o3o
 

Disaster Area

formerly Piexplode
there's no point in running max hp/max def on that unless you run recover in the 4th slot over sleep talk as you've suggested, as stuff like cb hitmonchan and whatever can break you in 3 hits, you literally don't counter anything else with 252+ Def than with 0.
 
there's no point in running max hp/max def on that unless you run recover in the 4th slot over sleep talk as you've suggested, as stuff like cb hitmonchan and whatever can break you in 3 hits, you literally don't counter anything else with 252+ Def than with 0.
As an OO then perhaps? IT's quite an effective set tbh,but doesn't play differently enough from CroSableye that it should be it's own set I guess. Rest+Recover is pretty nice though,it means that status is something that doesn't REALLY bother you,which means that you can spinblock Hitmonchan EXTREMELY effectively,even if you happen to get status'd,while Recover aids you with setup in general :D
 

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