Sets
The Surprise Way
- Item Held
- Focus Sash
- Nature
- Hasty (+Speed, -Defense) / Naive (+Speed, -Sp. Defense)
- Effort Points
- 252 Speed – 128 Attack – 128 Sp.Attack
Yes, it’s Butterfree and yes, there is a way to use it in the OU environment although most of the people consider Butterfree a NU Pokemon. But fist, let’s face the truth. Butterfree is not the Pokemon with gigantic stats like Salamense and his friends. In fact, its stats really suck. Butterfree is not a great Sweeper, neither a great Tank. So, you may ask, “why should I use Butterfree at all?”. The first answer, is “Because you may like Butterfree as a Pokemon and you will use it no matter what.” Fortunately for those who would give the first answer, there is a second one: “Butterfree has a great ability that allows it to use Sleep Powder and Stun Spore without fearing that they will miss and Butterfree will surprise a lot of people.” As you may already know, the surprise factor is one of my favorites and I am going to analyse it a lot this year. But let’s take a look at the moveset and how to use it. First of all, you are going to put Butterfree first on the team. You will mostly start with Sleep Powder in order to put your opponent’s first Pokemon to sleep. If it is immute to sleep or you suspect a berry, go with Stun Spore. Buttrefree can potentially reach 262 Speed. It’s not great but it’s not bad either. You will be able to outrun some Pokemon, but if you don’t, Focus Sash will help you survive in order to use your Sleep Powder. So most of the times the battle is going to start with one of your opponent’s Pokemon asleep. Now, here is the part that needs a lot of prediction: Your opponent has two choices, he can change his Pokemon, or he can wait until it wakes up. For example, if your opponent starts with a Fire type he has nothing to fear so he will possibly keep his Pokemon in battle. In this case, use U-Turn and choose a Pokemon that needs to set up. You can send out Gyarados and do some Dragon Dances. If you suspect that your opponent is going to change his Pokemon, use Stun Spore and paralyze on the switch. After that use U-Turn and put an apropriate counter. You are going to put EPs on both Attack and Special Attack because Bug Buzz is a Special move and U-Turn is a Physical. You will propably use U-turn most of the times, but there will be times that you will need to stay in battle. Your opponent will be surprised when he will understand that you can actually defeat his Alakazam or Weavile with your STAB Bug Buzz!
Sets
The Surprise Way Round Two!
- Item Held
- CHoice Scarf
- Nature
- Hasty (+Speed, -Defense) / Naive (+Speed, -Sp. Defense)
- Effort Points
- 252 Speed – 252 Sp.Attack
This Butterfree was tested by me today (27/9/2009) and it fits the current metagame way better than the previous set does. The main concept here is to sleep the opposing lead. You outran every lead excpet Aerodactyl and Scarf Jirachi. The main problem is Aerodactyl because it can taunt you and then set up Stealth Rock, so a good rapid spinner is suggested (I used Starmie). Against Jirachi I used Dragonite because it can never flinch (Inner Focus) and it only fears Ice Punch which is not so common. As for Butterfree, you will find the last attack, Whirlwind, especially strange. It IS a strange attack but it helps in two very important situations. First of all it stops opposing Ninjasks from setting up dangerous situations. The second case is a trickier one. I usually had problems with Calm Minding Suicunes. The logic is this: You see a Suicune. You change to Butterfree. It Calm Minds. Simple untill here. now comes the tricky part. Usually the only thing tha you can do is to put Suicune asleep. Your opponent knows that, but he also has a Suicune with either a Lum/Chesto Berry or Sleep Talk. Considering that, he will try another calm mind most of the times. OOPs wrong move 😛 Whirlwind it and prepare your team to destroy it. Bug Buzz and U-Turn seem like fillers but the actually have their uses. U-Turn can be used to send in your counter. Bug Buzz on the other hand can 2HKO Celebi and Latias (providing that Latias has no defensive EPs).
Other Possible Options
Hidden Power Electric can be used against the leading Aerodactyl but I don’t think it can do much.
Counters
Stealth Rock will cut Butterfree’s HP to half. Pokemon that are immute to sleep or can benefit from Stun Spore (Like Pokemon with Guts) can easilly defeat Butterfree. Sandstorm can stop Butterfrees that use Focus Sash.
Opinion & Notes
I like Butterfree a lot and that’s why I tried a lot in order to find a moveset that actually works. To be honest, I wouldn’t recomend it in a serious competition except if you are a prediction freak. It is a pleasure though to defeat a guy with Pokemon like Gyarados and Salamense with the help of a little butterfly. Most people will underestimate Butterfree and that’s their fault. So, if you are bored with all those commonly seen Pokemon, try out this set!