PoTW- Octillery
Ah, good old Octillery! This kid's one of my favorite pokemon of all time. In the good old GSC days, he was a must-have on ANY team I put together. The red octopus has one of the largest movepools in the game and halfway decent stats, but he's not quite up to snuff to today's metagame.
Receiver Octillery
@Expert Belt / Life Orb
Suction Cups
Timid
24 HP / 252 SpAtk / 232 Speed
Surf
Energy Ball / Hidden Power Ground
Flamethrower
Ice Beam
The name of this set may leave you scratching your head, but 'Reciever' basically means it's the best choice for Baton Pass'd stat boosed (I.E. Nasty Plot, etc.) since it can't be forcibly switched out by a Skarmory or other Roarer (not that this thing should be up against a skarmory anyway). All of the moves in this set cover each type, leaving no blind spot uncovered. I myself prefer Energy Ball over HP Ground since it's much more easy to come by, and you need not go through that entire fiasco with IV breeding and battling random Kecleons. :P The EVs give him 404 speed after two Ninjask Speed Boosts, but dont go thinking you can use it in OU. If you absolutely must, make sure you take out your opponent's special wall- it'll put Octillery into a dead halt.
Special Sweeper
@Choice Specs / Choice Scarf
Sniper
Modest / Timid
4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed
Surf
Ice Beam
Energy Ball / Hidden Power Ground
Fire Blast
Somewhat different than the Reciever Octillery, it sacrifices its non-Roar-ability to be deadly as a special sweeper. Choice Specs also increases its damage output and is probably best used on the little octopus, since he's the very essence of a glass cannon- one shot and it's done. In contrast, you can use the Choice Scarf to let the normally slow poke outspeed things with a base speed of 91- the major threats in UU being Venomoth and company.
Physical Sweeper
Choice Band
Sniper
Brave
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpAtk
Waterfall
Return
Rock Blast / Gunk Shot
Hidden Power Ground
Octillery's ATK stat is somewhat workable for UU (Notice I said workable, ha-ha) but has a pretty limited movepool for a Physical sweeper. Not much resists both Water and Normal besides Empoleon; use HP Ground to take him out (or, maybe Thunderbolt since you have all that spare SATK.)
Other Options:
Octazooka is a wonderful move, and despite its low power it has what I like to call a mud-slap effect, reducing the opponent's accuracy 50% of the time. Octillery can also learn other fun special moves, like Sludge Bomb, Wring Out, Psychic, Brine, Flash Cannon and Charge Beam (which is particularly fun to use on Recievers and SpSweepers).
Coming next week: Whats covered in slime, blue, and has a monstrous attack stat? No, it's not your mom...
Keep it doublethink,
Psycho
