Pok�mon of the Week

Gallade, The Blade Pok�mon. A master of courtesy and swordsmanship, it fights using extending swords on its elbows. When trying to protect someone, it extends its elbows as if they were swords and fights savagely. Because it can sense what its foe is thinking, its attacks burst out first, fast, and fierce.

Gallade is a pretty cool Pok�mon. As it gains Fighting-type from evolution, it loses a lot of Psychic's weaknesses and only gains a weakness to Flying-type. As such, it almost harkens back to the days when Psychic ruled over all. It has got a majorly decent Attack, decent Special Defense and a passable Speed which allows it to hit hard and fast and still even be very bulky. It's definitely not to be underestimated.

Steadfast: a decent ability. It increases your Speed if Gallade flinches. It's a bit useless now there's a better ability, but always good to have in case of Fake Out users or Fang users.
Justified: Anything that increases Gallade's Attack is awesome and this one gives Gallade an increase of one stage whenever it is hit by a Dark-type move. Even more handy in Double and Triple Battles

- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Shadow Sneak
- Stone Edge / Psycho Cut / Ice Punch
Item Attached: Life Orb
Ability: Steadfast / Justified
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) / Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

If you manage to get Gallade to use Swords Dance, its Attack raises to massive proportions meaning it'll be able to one hit most Pok�mon. Close Combat gives decent STAB and is a massively powerful which will give many opponents a headache. Shadow Sneak is a priority move which will hit and be Super Effective on Ghost-types, one of the only types that are still super effective on Gallade and the last move is all up to you. Stone Edge can take out Flying-type Pok�mon easily enough, Psycho Cut has STAB boosts and is more likely to land a Critical Hit and Ice Punch, while only usable on Steadfast Gallade at the moment, will also aid in taking out the Flying-types that may cause hassles

- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Shadow Sneak
- Stone Edge / Psycho Cut / Ice Punch
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Steadfast
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 240 HP / 220 SpDf / 48 Speed
Careful Nature (+SpDf, -SpAtk) / Naive (+SpDf, -SpAtk)

This set is currently only workable with Gallade that have come from Generation IV and so it has the ability Steadfast. Here, you use Bulk Up to increase Gallade's Attack to higher levels and to shore up its physical Defense, the one place where Gallade is lacking. Drain Punch will do decent damage, with STAB, after this, and will allow you to build any health lost while using Bulk Up. The rest of the moves work the same as in the other set, providing decent coverage so that Gallade can take out any who oppose him

- Close Combat
- Ice Punch / Psycho Cut
- Shadow Sneak
- Night Slash
Item Attached: Choice Band
Ability: Steadfast / Justified
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Atk / 208 HP / 48 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpAtk)

This set runs similar to the previous sets, with Choice Band becoming the main focus. Choice Band locks you into a single move, but gives you a decent attack boost. This set can be used to sweep and has the ability to 1 or 2 hit KO any Pok�mon

- Close Combat
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge / Night Slash
- Trick
Item Attached: Choice Scarf
Ability: Steadfast
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SpAtk)

This set runs similar to the previous sets, with Choice Scarf allowing you to get an increased speed and will help you in revenge killing many of the opponents. Trick is handy in locking the opponent into getting the Choice Scarf, locking them into a move that they may not wish to use

- Psycho Cut
- Stone Edge
- Night Slash
- Leaf Blade / Slash
Item Attached: Scope Lens
Ability: Steadfast / Justified
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SpAtk)

This set, somewhat of a gimmick, monopolises on the fact that Gallade gets a lot of moves which have higher rates of causing Critical Hits. Add the Scope Lens, and the chances are even higher at 25%. It has Psycho Cut, which is a decent STAB move, Stone Edge which can take out Flying-type foes, Night Slash which can take Ghost-types and Leaf Blade to give it that extra kick which may be useful against the plethora of Water-types out there or Slash which has very few resistances

Gallade
Gallade's EVs and Natures change drastically depending on what you wish to do with it. Bulk it up and you need to focus on Defenses and Hit Points in order to let it last. Swords Dance and you've got the Attack focus.

Confuse Ray. Stored Power, Thunder Wave, Thunderpunch, Will-o-Wisp
Confuse Ray can prevent the opponent from attacking and does damage if so
Stored Power is a bit of a gimmick, but if you attack it to a Bulk Up set or a Swords Dance set, then it can get pretty brutal after a few uses of that move, and if Justified is in effect and has been used, it can be even moreso Thunderpunch is a handy move from Generation IV which can take out Water Pok�mon including Gyarados who would otherwise resist Gallade
Thunder Wave allows you to paralyse the opponents, halving their speed and potentially preventing them from attacking, always handy to have
Will-o-Wisp damages the opponent each turn and halves their Attack. This is very useful considering Defense is Gallade's weakest stat

Gallade really isn't much of a Double/Triple battle Pok�mon, with the majority of its moves being focused for Single Battles. However, you can use the classic Beat Up method on ones with Justified, which will boost its Attack up by 4 stages in Doubles or 6 stages in Triples, allowing Gallade to take out very many Pok�mon without much trouble at all.

A good thing to include is a Pok�mon that knows a move such as Tailwind, boosting your side's Speed. A Baton Passer such as Ninjask with its Speed Boost, or even Gorebyss with Shell Smash would do wonders for Gallade, increasing the Speed and, in the case of Gorebyss, raising Attack and Speed, albeit while sacrificing some defenses

While Gallade lacks many weaknesses, it also lacks resistances, with most type moves doing 1* damage on it. As such, if you hit it with powerful Physical moves, it will go down. An example of this would be a priority Technician, Choice Banded Bullet Punch from Scizor As well as this, if you can hit it with a burn such as from Will-o-Wisp, Gallade severely gets neutered and is much less of a threat than normal.

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Not in game

FireRed/LeafGreen:
Not in game.

Colosseum/XD:

Not in game

Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Evolve Kirlia .

HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Evolve Kirlia .

Black/White:
Evolve Kirlia (White)
Transfer from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum/HeartGold/SoulSilver or Trade from White (Black)
Evolve Kirlia from Dream World