Hawlucha, The Wrestling Pokémon. It drives its opponents to exhaustion with its agile maneuvers, then ends the fight with a flashy finishing move. It drives its opponents to exhaustion with its agile maneuvers, then ends the fight with a flashy finishing move.
Overview
The masked wrestler bird, Hawlucha rises up again as an interesting Pokemon. With a great ability and offensive stats, Hawlucha is an excellent late game cleaner. It also gained more reliable STAB options this gen in the form of Close Combat and Brave Bird, which makes it much more consistent than before. However, Hawlucha falls in the same area as sweepers such as Volcarona, a potent threat but can be dead weight in some situations. In Hawlucha's case, it's fairly weak without a boost due to its average Attack stat, so it's often dependent on setting up to get things done. This can make it less favorable than Pokemon such as Dragpault or Hydreigon that can just decimate teams that lack an answer, and don't necessarily need much setup to do it. However, Hawlucha is still a decent pick for a sweeper, especially with two solid abilities to choose from.
Positives
-Hawlucha has great offensive stats to allow it clean up late game with relative ease, most notably is its great base 118 Speed.Mbr .<
-Hawlucha has excellent typing as Fighting/Flying grants it great offensive coverage, while also not giving it too many weaknesses so that it can actually set up with its mediocre bulk.
Negatives
-Hawlucha is more on the frail side and the Pokedex cut hurt as it can't use terrian seeds easily without the Tapus. This hinders its bulk more as the seeds helped bolster its bulk making it harder to revenge kill, and also made Unburden a reliable ability to set up with.
-Hawlucha has trouble with coverage, since while Flying/Fighting is good, Halwlucha lacks the moves to break walls such as Toxapex.
Movesets
Unburden Sweeper
-Close Combat
-Brave Bird
-Swords Dance
-Substitute / Roost
Item Attached: White Herb
Ability: Unburden
EVs and Nature:
252 Atk /4 Def / 252 Speed
Adamant Nature
Close Combat is a key move here as it allows the use of White Herb, which activates Unburden allowing Hawlucha to sweep. Brave Bird is nice coverage and STAB but shortens Hawlucha's lifespan so be mindful of the recoil. Swords Dance takes Hawlucha from a threat to a straight up game-ender if it can manage to snag a boost. Finally Roost allows to heal off Brave Bird while Substitute lets Hawlucha secure a boost either with Unburden or Swords Dance. Hawlucha can also choose to opt for coverage options such as Thunder Punch in the last slot, which is useful when Dynamaxing for use as Max Lightning as an option to threaten Toxapex.
Hawlucha desperately needs all the offensive investment it can get due to its average Attack, it's not bulky enough to benefit much from investment in those stats. Adamant nature gives it as much of a power boost as possible since Unburden gives more than enough Speed anyway. It is worth noting that on Battle Stadium, Mold Breaker becomes the preferred ability choice with a Life Orb, due to Mimikyu being so prevalent, though the set functions the same otherwise.
Other Options
-Power Herb/Sky Attack is another option to activate the Unburden. However, much like Clos Combat it has its own drawback as, once used, if you use again it will leave you open for a turn. This is devastating in Singles but more manageable in Doubles
Partners
Terrakion - With similar walls, Terrakion is great partner as it can break walls with a Choice Band set and tear holes for Hawlucha later. Note that Terrakion is not legal on Battle Stadium though, so this is only an option in 6v6 metas.
Dragapult - Spreading Will-O-Wisp helps Hawlucha get in easier and Dragapult can act as a secondary win condition with Hex or just a Dragon Dance set.
Countering Hawlucha
-Toxapex - Without Swords Dance, Toxapex can give Hawlucha a hard time, especially if it lacks Thunder Punch for coverage. Toxapex can simply Haze away its boosts all day otherwise.
-Togekiss - Dynamax Togekiss puts immense pressure on anything weak to it, and Hawlucha is no exception. Unless Hawlucha has big boosts and other support, Togekiss is a major threat to it.
-Mimikyu - This alone forces many Hawlucha to run Mold Breaker instead in Battle Stadium, since Mimikyu is a hard stone to Hawlucha otherwise. Mold Breaker Hawlucha still muscles past Mimikyu with a boost, though if it hasn't boosted then Dynamax Mimikyu can still beat that too.
Locations in Games
Red/Blue/Yellow:
Not in game
Gold/Silver/Crystal:
Not in game
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:
Not in game
Black 2/White 2:
Not in game
X/Y:
Route 10,Friend Safari
Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:
Trade from XY
Sun/Moon:
Trade from Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon
Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon:
Route 3
Let's Go, Pikachu!/Let's Go, Eevee!:
Not in game.
Sword/Shield:
Route 6, Hammerlocke Hills
Max Raid Battles: Dusty Bowl, East Lake Axewell, Giant's Cap, Hammerlocke Hills, North Lake Miloch, Stony Wilderness (Sword)
Max Raid Battles: Dusty Bowl, East Lake Axewell, Giant's Cap, Hammerlocke Hills, North Lake Miloch, Rolling Fields (Shield)
Animé Appearences
