RBY 6U Pidgeot [WIP]

[Enigami]

Pidgeot

Type: Normal / Flying
Stats: 83 | 80 | 75 | 70 | 91

Introduction

Pidgeot has the only STAB Hyper Beam of the tier and also the 3rd highest Speed stat of 6U, but suffers from the high viability of Rock-types in 6U that wall its attacks with ease. Despite this, it is still a very strong revenge killer and cleaner, posing a massive threat in the late game if the opponents Rock-types are eliminated or heavily weakened, and if one wishes to use Pidgeot in the early to mid game, Pidgeot can utilize Toxic and attempt to stall out Rock-types. Its combination of speed, power and ability to check threats including most sleep inducers and other revenge killers can make it a worthwhile choice on a team.

Sets

SubToxic

Pidgeot
-Hyper Beam
-Double-Edge
-Toxic
-Substitute

Set Details

STAB Hyper Beam is the biggest draw of Pidgeot, and Double-Edge is Pidgeot's strongest reliable attack. Toxic is Pidgeot's best means of wearing down the Rock-types that wall it. Substitute can be used to exploit paralysis or switches, however its primary purpose is to stall against Rock-types while letting Toxic wear them down.

Other Options

Sky Attack lacks recoil, tears apart Flying-weak Pokemon, exploits switches, and can be comfortably used when behind a Substitute. Quick Attack is weaker than Swift and its priority isn't often needed as Pidgeot is already the 2nd fasted Pokemon in the tier, though it does provide an additional option to deal with AgiliWrap Dratini. Agility lets it outspeed Voltorb and remove the speed drop of paralysis, though it's hard to fit without dropping SubToxic. Mirror Move can let Pidgeot inflict decent damage when switching into Earthquake from Onix or Geodude, or throw a missed status move back at its user, but is very situational. Swift and Wing Attack are much weaker STAB options, however they are Pidgeot's strongest one turn STAB attacks without recoil which may be desired to preserve HP for Substitute.

Checks and Counters

[Rock-type Pokemon][Magneton, Voltorb][Other Paralyzers]

 

[Enigami]

Reasoning for SubToxic Pidgeot:

End result of full HP Tops vs. SubToxic Pidgeot:
Tops switches into Toxic or uses SD: Pidgeot survives with 1 HP, Tops dies to Hyper Beam after being worn down with Toxic stalling.
Fresh 1v1 Tops uses Slash/Hydro Pump: Tops ends at about 40% (or 20% if hit with crit Hyper Beam) with 3 turns of Toxic buildup and does not have an opening to boost.

Without SubToxic, Pidgeot has no way to keep Kabutops from using Pidgeot as easy setup fodder. With SubToxic, Pidgeot can beat Rock-types that switch into it. With Gastly gone, there's not much else to run besides Double Edge + Hyper Beam anyways, except if you want a non-recoil attack to preserve HP for subs.

 

[Disaster Area]

I'm not yet convinced that A it's viable B that's its best set. Played a couple test games w/ someone whose username I can't spell, and once Kabutops was weakened an ordinary set could go ham and I mean it forces kabutops in which is something you can abuse anyway. I don't know if you really need a specialised set like that, although at the same time it's not like it has much else to do. But I think we should have more than a day of testing before we start writing analyses maybe write some 5U analyses since that's more or less done and this is too fresh: if you want to share your thoughts on Pidgeot, for now the discussion thread is the best place

 

[Enigami]

Viability doesn't matter, besides altering text a bit to describe it as a less than optimal choice if it turns out that way. It's not like we analyze C and above only. I'm pretty sure SubToxic is its best set because it doesn't have anything better to do (except maybe Sky Attack, but that has its own problems) since all it usually needs is Double Edge + Hyper Beam.

A big reason I wrote this up is because there's little regarding Pidgeot would change regardless of testing, and wanted to get SubToxic written up while it was still fresh in my mind. It can easily be adjusted based on whatever meta shifts happen.

 

[Ch01W0n5h1n]

Any opinion about this set in combination with Dratini? I mean Pidgeot could set up the path for Dratini to Wrap easier, what likes to stay in vs Pidgeot likes to stall out Dratini too, so spreading Toxic to set up Dratini could actually viable, on top of that Dratini carries moves that threaten sleepers, Kabutops, Waters like Shellder and Omanite and it resists Electrics plus Flareon (though possible paralysis and burn hurt it for the rest of the game, and Quick attack enable it to move before Dratini gets to wrap).

 

[Ortheore]

Wow, was it really march that this was posted? Anyway, time for some thoughts.

Intro is bothering me because it's not structured the way I like. This isn't really a significant criticism because the points that are made are absolutely fine so it's probably just my personal preferences in play here.

As far as the set goes, I think Rest deserves a mention somewhere. I've seen it run and although I don't think it's optimal I do think it's viable, as Pidgeot's bulk is actually kinda decent, and it has a decent chance of waking vs anything that can't hit it super effectively. I was thinking either slash it with HB but point out in details that HB is better, or mention it favourably at the top of OO

I'm just going to go ahead and write up C&C:

Although Pidgeot's attacks are powerful, it's at the mercy of the type chart. Rock types, namely Kabutops, Onix and the much less viable Omanyte, all comfortably weather Pidgeot's assault, only fearing Pidgeot's SubToxic stall, and so it's often best not to get too brazen with predictions or in the case of Kabutops, try to set up, instead simply attacking Pidgeot. Magneton has great physical bulk and STAB Electric attacks to cause immense damage or Thunder Wave to bypass Pidgeot's Substitutes. Muk is notable as it has good bulk, is immune to Toxic and can use Acid Armor to further augment its defenses. Other pokemon with good physical bulk that can hit Pidgeot super effectively include Machamp, Marowak, Machoke, Weezing and Sandshrew, though they span a broad spectrum of viability.

 

[peach_nair]

Mention something about being a decent sleep absorber (probably the best in the tier?) and outspeeding and having a 6.6% chance to 2HKO opposing lead Butterfree with Double-Edge, and a guaranteed 2HKO with Double-Edge + Hyper Beam.

Rest + Toxic is surprisingly viable for wearing down Kabutops. I've seen Rest + Toxic + Substitute to really wear down Kabutops, I think it deserves mentioning at least.

 

[Ortheore]

oh before I forget, it's worth mentioning that Pidgeot is a viable lead thanks to beating Pika and hitting Butt/Bell hard while being a great sleep absorber