PotW: The Dark Knight Rises (Bisharp)

[UB-01 Kenobi]

Bisharp, like its fellow Dark types Absol, Mandibuzz, Crawdaunt, etc, has improved vastly in the generation shift due to the buff to Knock Off and the Steel nerf, and Bisharp’s Ability, Defiant, was indirectly buffed when Defog was buffed. All these boosts were more than enough to push Bisharp to the top of the OU tier, as it was already a solid UU Pokémon with its great offensive/above average defensive typing (notably being the only Steel type to resist both Ghost and Dark after the nerf), beefy Attack, usable Defense and Speed, and strong priority in the form of Sucker Punch. You really can’t say enough good things about Bisharp - it’s not one of those “wow” Pokémon that can do everything extraordinarily like Mega Charizard X, Aegislash, Thundurus-I and Landorus-I, but it can do a couple things extraordinarily well and that’s enough to make it the metagame-defining threat that it is.

Sweeper

Bisharp @ Life Orb
Defiant
Adamant/Naughty
252 Atk/4 SDef/252 Speed
~Knock Off
~Sucker Punch
~Iron Head
~Swords Dance/Grass Knot/Substitute

Forming the other half of the incredibly popular DeoSharp core, Bisharp utterly shuts down most hazard removers when paired with an Excadrill counter. Defog hands Bisharp a free Swords Dance, which can be akin to giving away the game if you don’t carry a strong physical wall, and even then, a +2 Knock Off or Iron Head does massive damage to anything that doesn’t resist it, especially in conjunction with the hazard support that Deoxys-D provides.

+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 232+ Def Skarmory: 253-298 (75.7 - 89.2%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 282-333 (67.1 - 79.2%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and 3 layers of Spikes

+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Iron Head vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Mandibuzz: 253-298 (59.8 - 70.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

0 SpA Life Orb Bisharp Grass Knot (80 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Quagsire: 286-338 (72.5 - 85.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock and 3 layers of Spikes (this is also extremely relevant considering Quag shuts down any Bisharp lacking Grass Knot with Unaware)

Sucker Punch gives you the ability to clean up or even flat-out sweep teams, packing more punch than even Extreme Killer Arceus’s Extreme Speed (by 5 base attack points). This Bisharp is best paired with Deoxys-D and an Excadrill counter, as previously mentioned, and then a strong special attacker to punch through physical walls and a revenge killer to clean up after it. Partners that can take on Ground, Fire, and Fighting Pokémon such as Extrasensory Greninja, Landorus-I, or HP Flying Keldeo work extremely well with Bisharp. The choice between Swords Dance, Substitute, and Grass Knot comes down to preference - your main goal is to get a +2 from Defog and you can also fish for Intimidate, Icy Wind from Choiced Keldeo, or random hax (Shadow Ball’s SpD drop, for instance), but Swords Dance lets you punch through physical walls without losing your hazards (the Hippowdon calc above, for instance, requires both the +2 and hazards to have a decent OHKO chance, which is not possible without SD or you getting unlucky with hax from the opponent. If you’re comfortable relying on Defog and hax for your boosts or you rely on Bisharp solely for Defog insurance as opposed to being your primary Physical Sweeper, Grass Knot is the move of choice to wreck Quagsire, but it forces a Naughty nature to guarantee the OHKO after hazards. If you’re not good at predictions, you can use Substitute to force the opponent to attack you and make Sucker Punch more reliable, but if you aren’t the prediction sort you honestly shouldn’t be using sweeper Bisharp as it requires at least some degree of prediction to come in on Defogs, plus Substitute blocks Intimidate, which allows stuff like Landorus-Therian to come in on you without giving you a +1 boost. The best counter to sweeper Bisharp is Jolly Breloom, who outspeeds and kills with Mach Punch and can also go for a Spore to catch switch-ins and bypass Sucker Punch should the Bisharp for some reason be Jolly to specifically force a Speed tie with Breloom (I wouldn’t recommend Jolly Bisharp, for the record, but if you’re the #YOLO type, go for it).

Pursuit Trapper

Bisharp @ Assault Vest
Defiant
Adamant
92 HP/252 Atk/164 SDef
~Knock Off
~Sucker Punch
~Pursuit
~Iron Head

This is the Bisharp to use if predictions aren’t your thing, as it reliably beats all Latios and Latias that lack HP Fighting - you can just click Pursuit twice and not worry about them outpredicting your Pursuit-Sucker Punch mindgame, as Life Orb Timid Latios has only a miniscule 1.2% chance to OHKO you while Timid Life Orb Latias simply cannot kill you in 2 turns without Hidden Power Fighting. If you do know/suspect that they have Hidden Power Fighting, you can go for Knock Off in safety knowing that Latios (again, Timid Life Orb) has only a 6.3% chance to OHKO and Timid LO Latias cannot OHKO, giving you either a kill or a strong hit + item removal on the switch-in (although, if you know they have HP Fighting, Sucker Punch is usually a better play. But since this Bisharp is for those who dislike or are bad at predictions, Knock Off is indeed more reliable). Like the last Bisharp, this one is best paired with hazard stackers and Excadrill counters, but it lacks the Speed and power that Life Orb sweeper Bisharp has and thus should never be relied upon to sweep teams - in addition to the special sweeper + revenge killer that should still be teamed up with this Bisharp build, you’ll also want a more reliable physical sweeper as this ‘Sharp pretty much just deters Defog and wallbreaks. It is also much easier to counter with Fighting types, as its lower Speed makes it easier to play around as it will be forced to rely on Sucker Punch, which most Fighters resist.

 

[Rainami]

Is it considered viable to run the first set with a lot of HP investment? Rather than speed, I mean.

 

[DCM]

To be honest, I'm not sure if he's still as viable in the current meta. DEO are on their way out, and most teams have a response for Bisharp / are smart enough to know how to avoid defiant.

 

[UB-01 Kenobi]

Is it considered viable to run the first set with a lot of HP investment? Rather than speed, I mean.

I wouldn't recommend it, as 70 invested lets you outrun a lot of things (like Rotom-W) that you want to hit with Knock Off before they burn/kill you.

To be honest, I'm not sure if he's still as viable in the current meta. DEO are on their way out, and most teams have a response for Bisharp / are smart enough to know how to avoid defiant.

I would say Bisharp is here to stay. He is definitely the better Defog blocker between him and Thundurus-I and the other Defiant/Competitive users border on unusuable. He's also one of the best Aegislash checks (he can't switch in in Sacred Sword so he's not a counter), as he can come in on Shadow Sneak/Ball, Toxic, Iron Head, HP Ice, Head Smash, or Flash Cannon and KO with Knock Off as Defiant avoids the KS drop. He also has ridiculously strong priority in STAB Sucker Punch as very few common Pokémon resist Dark after the Steel nerf, and Knock Off is literally the most spam maple move in the game and iirc Bisharp has the strongest knock Off of any OU-viable Pokémon barring Crawdaunt, who is slow and frail compared to Bisharp, who has decent Def, a good defensive typing, and can effectively abuse Sticky Web thanks to the Defog-deterring nature of Defiant. It's true that Deoxys is on the way out, but Bisharp can be just as effective with Web+Rocks Shuckle or Smeargle, and hazards will remain extremely prevalent even after the Deos leave simply because of how they break Sashes, turn 2HKOes into OHKOes, and cripple some extremely threatening mons like TFlame and MCharX. Thus, it will always be helpful to slap Bisharp on any team that is TFlame, MPinsir, or MCharX (or any Ice, Fire, Bug, or Flying Pokémon, or SashLoom and his Sash/Sturdy pals) weak just so you can get that 50% or 25% or broken sash/sturdy reliably. Rapid Spin can be blocked by a number of things, but Bisharp is one of only 2 legit answers to Defog, and Thundy has better things to do.

 

[DCM]

alright, poor wording on my part. He has a valuable niche in the metagame, I'm just not sure he's an essential member when it comes to team building. Team Preview gives away his switch in and he's easy to play around, he only really has one viable set and his priority depends entirely on your opponent attacking.