Pok�mon of the Week

Banette, The Marionette Pok�mon. A doll that became a Pok�mon over its grudge of being thrown away. It seeks the child who disowned it.This Pok�mon developed from an abandoned doll that amassed a grudge. It is seen in dark alleys. If it opens its mouth, its cursed energy escapes. It generates energy for laying strong curses by sticking pins into its own body.

Banette holds the unique position of being one of the few physical attacking Ghost types, but unfortunately isn't that good. It's base 115 Attack is its best stat, but is its only particularly good one. The rest of Banette's stats are subpar at best, with Defenses and Speed being particularly abysmal. The only real way Banette has a chance of working is under Trick Room, but is still pretty much outclassed by fellow NU Pokemon Golurk. Overall, Banette is a more gimmicky Pokemon that should only be used for a surprise factor.

Insomnia: Prevents Banette from being put to Sleep, a good ability but very situational, especially with the lack of Pokemon using sleep-inducing moves, as well as Banette being pretty good Sleep fodder anyhow.
Frisk: Reveals the foe's item, also kind of useful but it's generally obvious what the opponent's item is in NU.
Cursed Body: Any move that hits Banette has a 30% chance of being disabled, a good ability as well and the one most commonly seen on Banette mainly for the annoyance factor as well as keeping Banette alive (possibly).

-Trick Room / Sucker Punch
-Will-O-Wisp
-Destiny Bond
-Shadow Claw / Taunt / Thunder Wave
Item Attached: Focus Sash / Life Orb
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Atk IVs: 0 HP / 0 Def / 0 SDef / 0 Spe OR 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Def) or Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)

This set basically covers all the things that Banette is able to do. The first slot either goes to Trick Room or Sucker Punch, with Trick Room being paired with the first set of EVs and the IVs as well as only using the item Focus Sash, as it helps Destiny Bond to be more effective. SUcker Punch provides physical priority that Banette can use to help make up for its low Speed. Will-O-Wisp is a very useful status move as it allows Banette to cripple other physical attackers and manage to be of some use before it gets blown off of the map. Destiny Bond is very good on Banette as it is so frail, and paried with Focus Sash makes it a very deadly strategy, but even with Life Orb as long as you predict something will hit you hard enough to KO you (not too hard), then you're free to abuse Destiny Bond. The last slot as usual depends on what you want Banette to do. Shadow Claw provides powerful physical STAB and is one of the few moves that Banette actually does decent damage with. Taunt allows Banette to stop set up sweepers and more wall oriented Pokemon, and then either hit the wall with status or damage, or do the same to an incoming Pokemon. Thunder Wave provides another status move that allows Banette to cripple faster sweepers. The item depends on what you want Banette to do as well, Focus Sash helping out with Destiny Bond, and Life Orb boosting power of Sucker Punch and Shadow Claw. EV set 1 and the IV set should be used for any Trick Room variation of Banette, as it helps minimize Defenses and Speed, making Trick Room more effective as well as letting Destiny Bond be more effective as well. Brave Nature is also for the Trick Room sets as it lowers Speed. The other set works for anything without Trick Room, and Adamant nature should be used.

Calm Mind, Charge Beam, Confuse Ray, Gunk Shot, Payback, Pursuit, Shadow Ball, Shadow Sneak, Thunderbolt, Toxic
Calm Mind is a boosting move that allows Banette to gain boosts in SAtk and SDef. This is useful for raising Banette�s frail SDef, but also can increase its Special Attacking potential.
Charge Beam allows Banette to attack while possibly gaining a possible +1 boost in SAtk, but generally Banette does not live long enough or be out on the field long enough at one time to take advantage of the boosts.
Confuse Ray allows Banette to confuse its opponent, which can be extremely useful on a parafusion set.
Gunk Shot is a powerful physical attack that provides some neutral coverage, although not hitting much super effectively or that often.
Payback is an alternative for a slower Banette set that expects to get hit, as it does quite a bit of damage if that happens.
Pursuit gives Banette the chance to damage an opponent while switching out, which is good for catching Psychic or Ghost types while they switch to avoid a STAB move.
Shadow Ball is a strong STAB move for any specially based Banette, possibly a Calm Mind set.
Shadow Sneak is alternative more reliable priority that receives a STAB boost, although being less powerful than Sucker Punch.
Thunderbolt is another option for a Calm Mind set or special Banette for coverage on Pokemon that resist Shadow Ball.
Toxic allows Banette to take down more bulky Pokemon without having to uselessly hamemr away with one of its attacks.

Golurk is more useful; only use Banette if you want a few good chuckles before it gets wiped off of the map.

Trick Room setters can help support Banette so it does not have to set it up itself, so Pokemon like Musharna can be useful.

Hit it. Heck, just have a light breeze pass by and its defenses crumple. Hitting it with any super effective move pretty much is an instant OHKO. Taunt users also shut down Banette's only hopes of doing too much to anyone, so basically combine all three and you get Skuntank, which can also Pursuit trap Banette in addition to the rest. Anything that uses multihit moves like Golem, Golurk (occasionally), and Piloswine all can break through Banette's Focus Sash and kill it. Any other priority user, Skuntank, Muk, etc. can all deal with Banette as well.

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Sky Pillar Floors 1, 3 & 5 (Sapphire/Emerald)
Evolve Shuppet (Ruby)

FireRed/LeafGreen:
Trade from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/XD

Colosseum/XD:
Snagged from Cipher Peon Litnar in Citadark Isle (XD)
Trade from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald (Colosseum)

Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Routes 225, 226 & 227, Stark Mountain (Diamond & Pearl)
Route 225, Route 226 (Platinum

HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Evolve Shuppet

Black/White:
Evolve Shuppet

Black 2/White 2:
Strange House, Victory Road