Pok�mon of the Week

Bisharp, The Sword Blade Pok�mon. It leads a group of Pawniard. It battles to become the boss, but will be driven from the group if it loses. Bisharp pursues prey in the company of a large group of Pawniard. Then Bisharp finishes off the prey.This pitiless Pok�mon commands a group of Pawniard to hound prey into immobility. It then moves in to finish the prey off.

Bisharp is one of those Pokemon that looks utterly amazing and also has good stats to match its looks. With base 125 Attack and decent Defenses, as well as a strong STAB priority move to make up for its average Speed, Bisharp can handle many of the UnderUsed tier quite well. Unfortunately, with the influx of Fighting types such as Mienshao and Scrafty into UU, Bisharp has fallen in usage and viability, but it still can deal with most everything else. The only major disadvantages to Bisharp are its Speed, as while base 70 isn't awful, it isn't good enough to keep up with many of the top UU threats, though it makes up for this somewhat with Sucker Punch. Its other disadvantage is its small movepool, which inhibits the options it can utilize. So in essentials, Bisharp has excellent Attack as decent Defensive stats, but its movepool, 4x weakness to Fighting, and Speed can hinder its usability. .

Defiant: Boosts Attack by two stages when any other stat is dropped, a very good ability as it allows Bisharp to be one of the few Attackers to be able to switch into Intimidate Pokemon, and get a free Attack boost out of it.
Inner Focus: Prevents Bisharp from flinching, a decent ability if you're worried about Togekiss, Ambipom, and others, but otherwise the ability isn't really worth it.
Pressure: Attacks that hit Bisharp use up 2 PP instead of 1, the worst of Bisharp's abilities as it really is only used to PP stall the opponent, which Bisharp doesn't do very well as it has low PP itself (as well as no recovery).

-Swords Dance
-Sucker Punch
-Iron Head / Low Kick
-Substitute / Night Slash
Item Attached: Life Orb / Leftovers
Ability: Defiant
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 52 HP / 252 Atk / 204 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

Bisharp is one of the better physical attackers of the UU tier, and has excellent stats and moves to take advantage of. Swords Dance boosts Bisharp's already high Attack to enormous levels, allowing it to OHKO many Pokemon in UU. Sucker Punch is an excellent STAB move as well as having priority, which can easily KO even more bulky threats, it just has to worry about the opponent using a non-attacking move. The option for the third slot is between Iron Head and Low Kick, with Iron Head providing strong STAB that hits quite a few Pokemon for reliable, neutral damage, while Low Kick deals with other Steel types. The last slot also depends on what you need, with Substitute providing a shield to get a Swords Dance boost up as well as avoid Will-O-Wisps, while Night Slash provides a more reliable Dark type STAB although slightly less powerful. The choice between the items is the same as it usually when considering Life Orb and Leftovers, as Life Orb boosts power with a little recoil and Leftovers provides steady recovery.

Assurance, Brick Break, Dual Chop, Hone Claws, Low Sweep, Payback, Poison Jab, Psycho Cut, Rock Polish, Shadow Claw, Stealth Rock, Stone Edge, X-Scissor
Assurance is a strong STAB move that depends on Bisharp being hit earlier that turn (and with that Speed stat, it's pretty likely to happen).
Brick Break is an alternative to Low Kick as it provides consistent damage while Low Kick is based off of weight.
Dual Chop is useful for breaking Substitutes as well as hitting Dragon types super effectively.
Hone Claws is an alternative boosting move, although it is outclassed by Swords Dance as Bisharp has no need for an accuracy boost.
Low Sweep is another alternative to Low Kick, and can be very useful as it lowers the Speed of the opponent, making it easier for Bisharp to deal with them.
Payback is similar to Assurance, though it depends on whether the opponent has made a move rather than having hit Bisharp, making it more viable.
Poison Jab gives decent neutral coverage, although it doesn't help to solve Bisharp's Steel type problems any.
Psycho Cut is also a good neutral coverage move, but again Steel types just laugh it off, though it does hit Fighting types pretty hard.
Rock Polish is Bisharp's only way to boost its Speed, and thus deserves to be mentioned as it allows Bisharp to set up and then use its base 125 Attack to sweep on its own.
Shadow Claw is the same as Poison Jab and Psycho Cut, although it provides redundant coverage that's less powerful than Bisharp's Dark STAB.
Stealth Rock can be run on Bisharp if you don't want to run other Pokemon better suited for it, but it can be used as an effective surprise tactic.
Stone Edge is a good coverage move, although the accuracy is shaky as well as it not hitting anything particularly useful for super effective damage.
X-Scissor is another decent coverage move, although it suffers the same fate as the rest in the fact that it doesn't really hit anything useful.

Defiant is the main advantage Bisharp has (as well as Swords Dance, Sucker Punch, typical Bisharp stuff), as it allows Bisharp to get free Attack boosts from the multitude of Intimidate users there are in this format. Sucker Punch is also an excellent move as the fast pace of this format lends nicely to constantly attacking.

Anything that deals with Fighting types, so Cofagrigus, Sableye, Bronzong (sort of), Tornadus-I, and others can all help Bisharp deal with its 4x weakness.

Cobalion. Even at +2, Bisharp does relatively little to Cobalion with anything but Low Kick, and it obviously OHKOs Bisharp in return. It resists both Bisharp's STAB moves as well as getting a boost from any stray Dark move, as well as drastically outspeeding Bisharp. Any other Fighting type also does well, so Mienshao, Scrafty, Heracross, Technician Hitmontop, Machamp, and others all can generally handle Bisharp. Bulky Water types such as Milotic and Swampert resist one of his STABs and can generally OHKO or burn it in return, or just phaze Bisharp out. Also if Bisharp does not run Leftovers, just hitting it hard can generally get the job done as it cant take too many hits with recoil added in before it goes down.

Pre-Evolution Corner - Pawniard

The Other Pawn Star

-Swords Dance
-Sucker Punch
-Brick Break / Pursuit
-Night Slash / Iron Head
Item Attached: Life Orb / Eviolite
Ability: Defiant
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 236 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

Pawniard can be one of the most threatening Pokemon in Little Cup, but can also be one of the least threatening Pokemon on the enemy team. Pawniard is the definition of �glass cannon.� It has very high Attack, decent speed, but horrible defenses and a slew of exploitable weaknesses. The niche it has though, is access to Swords Dance and Sucker Punch, with relatively decent coverage. Swords Dance is essential to accomplishing a sweep. Sucker Punch is Pawniard�s most important move. It�s good base damage, the STAB, and the priority is very useful. Brick Break is a good move to damage annoying Steel-Types. Pursuit is a very good move, since Pawniard has a tendency to force people out into other Pokemon. Night Slash is a more...reliable STAB move, and Iron Head gives Pawniard a Steel STAB. Life Orb dramatically increases Pawniard�s damage, for it�s short life, but you could run Eviolite if you want more bulk. If so, trying using less Attack EVs and put them into Special Defense. Jolly Nature is important, since it�s not that fast on its own, and you�re already going to be doing tons of damage, so you don�t want to lose a speed tie because you took Adamant. There are other options that you can use like Thunder Wave, but besides it�s already present coverage, there�s not much else. Pawniard takes a lot of skill to use effectively, since many opponents will use non-attacking moves to mess you up. It�s the job of the player to out-predict. This is one main drawback to Pawniard, but also the fact that anything faster than it can usually kill it, and it�s very susceptible to priority moves. Timburr is a great example, since it has priority, beefiness, and the ability to heal all the damage it would've taken. Though, when used correctly, Pawniard will kill you before you can forfeit.

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Not in game

FireRed/LeafGreen:
Not in game

Colosseum/XD:
Not in game

Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Not in game

HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Not in game

Black/White:
Route 11

Black 2/White 2:
Evolve Pawniard