[ORAS] Week 1 Spotlight - Murkrow

[Marcusube]

Credit to all0412.deviantart.com

Overview

Since the introduction of the ORAS/XY metagame, Murkrow had found itself dominating the LC tier, residing in the LC Ubers. There's no surprise here as Murkrow possess traits that even some fully evolved Pokemon carry such as: hard hitting STABs complemented by its decent base 85 Attack and Special Attack, a good speed stat of 91, priority in Sucker Punch and the ability to utilize status moves effectively with its Hidden Ability, Prankster. In the current day, Murkrow is listed as a B+ threat in the viability PU rankings (for those of you who don't know, PU is a recent tier which basically carries less viable NU Pokemon alongside a few NFE and LC Pokemon). Commonly used as a wallbreaker and a revenge killer, Murkrow is able to outspeed a huge chunk of the tier as well as pick off Pokemon with its priority move. Pokemon such as Stoutland, Mr. Mime, Roselia, Gogoat and many more are threatened by Murkrow's stellar base 91 Speed stat

The Smogon Way



Murkrow @ Life Orb
Ability: Super Luck/Prankster
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Brave Bird
- Sucker Punch
- Hidden Power Fighting/Grass
- Pursuit/Thunder Wave

Analysis on this set can be found here - Credit to Smogon

This set pretty much capitalizes fully on Murkrow's potential as a wallbreaker and revenge killer in the tier. Brave Bird is it's strongest STAB attack bar Sky Attack (which is unviable anyways), Sucker Punch is it's strongest Dark STAB and is also a +1 priority attack, Hidden Power Fighting is to hit those Steel, Rock and Ice types such as Aurorus (currently NU), Probopass, Bastiodon, Lairon etc. Pursuit is to trap Pokemon that want to switch out when Murkrow is on the field of course

Two Cents

Running Murkrow like this is effective, but not really efficient. First of all, Hidden Power Fighting will struggle to OHKO or possibly 2HKO the listed mons, the same for Hidden Power Grass, Pursuit is playing a 50/50 game with Murkrow seeing as how if the trap doesn't work, Murkrow gets 2HKOd by Roselia or any other mon it wishes to trap PLUS Pursuit has mediocre damage output. Another thing is that Murkrow is pretty frail meaning that it itself is susceptible to getting revenge killed.

Is there a way to make Murkrow more viable in Singles by changing the set? Yes!

SubKrow/TailKrow



Murkrow @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Sucker Punch
- Roost
- Substitute/Tailwind

The idea of this set is to punish faster Pokemon who generally revenge kill Murkrow by outspeed as well as to take advantage of passive Pokemon such as Volbeat, Grumpig, Roselia (to an extent) etc. What people generally do is when they have a Pokemon out and Murkrow can revenge kill them with Sucker Punch, they either switch or use a status move. Substitute takes advantage of this by basically allowing Murkrow to take a free hit from any incoming attacker and can safety use Sucker Punch without worrying about a status move or a Pokemon setting up while stalling out Sucker Punch's PP. Tailwind is for late game or mid game cases where with the speed boost, it allows either Murkrow or another Pokemon to sweep or wallbreak more effectively. What's interesting about Tailwind is that when Murkrow sets it up, it's most likely going to get KOd by the incoming attack or knock itself out with the enormous recoil Brave Bird gives (due to its low HP stat) meaning that your team mates will also get usage out of the move.

Murkrow is frail and has a weakness to Stealth Rock so wouldn't it make more sense to run a bit of utility alongside its main attacks?

SpecsKrow



Murkrow @ Choice Specs
Ability: Super Luck
Level: 50
EVs: 12 Atk / 248 SpA / 248 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Air Cutter
- Dark Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Sucker Punch/Icy Wind

Choice Specs Murkrow may even be one of the hardest things to switch into possessing base 85 Special Attack and the Super Luck ability which increases the chance of a move to crit. Specs Murkrow should be used more as a wallbreaker and works best when brought in on a Pokemon that will 9 out of 10 times switch out. Air Cutter is Murkrow's strongest special Flying STAB. What's also good about this is that Murkrow's Super Luck ability gives it a 50% chance to land a critical hit which can be game changing. Dark Pulse for STAB, Hidden Power Fighting to KO Probopass, Bastiodon among other Pokemon on the switch and Sucker Punch to pick off weakened mons though if choicing yourself into this move isn't ideal, Icy Wind can be ran to hit Altaria harder

Doubles Corner



Murkrow @ Eviolite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Foul Play
- Quash/Tailwind/Thunder Wave
- Taunt/Snarl
- Protect

Murkrow serves as a decent support in Doubles. With Eviolite, it's defenses get boosted to respectable levels allow it to survive a few hits, none of which are notable however especially in VGC 16. Murkrow is ran with Max Speed as base 91 speed allows it to outpace all the base 90 legendaries by one point. Foul Play is to make Murkrow less passive as well as deal a huge chunk of damage to Pokemon such as Landorus, Kangaskhan, Groudon, Garchomp, Talonflame, etc. Quash is interesting as it forces the opponent to move last which can make 50/50 speed tiers less of a bother plus Quash ignores speed boosts and speed drops. Tailwind and Thunder Wave are notable alternatives for speed control. Taunt is for stopping set up sweepers like Calm Mind Kyogre and Geomancy Xerneas as well as eliminating Protect alongside other status moves such as Tailwind, Trick Room, etc. Snarl is an alternative if reducing the opponent's Special Attack is necessary to achieve a certain benchmark!

OUTRO

And that's it for my post! Thank you all so much for reading all of this if you did. Don't be afraid to ask any questions or leave a comment below and I look forward to your participating in choosing the next Pokemon for the Weekly Spotlight :]