From This Perspective: Notes on Malamar!

[Pokeventurer]

Hi guys i am back with another post and i am doing something i love to do. this time i will be introducing you guys with a creature that lives and breathes in the world of pokemon, it was officially released with the kalos region, but we did forgot about it soon after. as already known from the title of the post though it would be Malamar. this guy i think deserves to be revealed the most due to what can it bring, let's get started!


*i do not own the art*

Malamar:

I don’t know why am I doing this but still, malamar can be a beast in VGC specially. I have given it a try as a beginner I used it alot of times with surely tons of different variants. Sometimes it is fast it is slow or medium too. Malamar only has to care about very little things in the meta despite the fairy and the 4x bug weakness. There are many many things it can take advantages of from itself. Malamar for me is considered a pokemon that needs no support but often lends some to the teammates. I have played around a lot with this malicious squid like alien creature or something and it finally is the time to uncover it’s many dark, powerful secrets from the depths of the pokemon world.

Stats:

HP 86 / Atk 92 / Def 88 / Sp.atk 68 / Sp.def 75 / Spe 72

Right after looking at this pokemon’s stats there are some really good points you can pick off of it. First thing that comes to my mind is that there is no necessity of the item choice of focus sash as ithas decent natural defensive an HP stat. next up we will be observing the good attack stat, looking at this pokemon reminds me of the popularly used scrafty with the base 90 attack stat. malamar can also put this stat to good use. Next and the last one would be the base “72” speed stat that shows that with max investments and jolly nature it can also outspeed things like breloom and bisharp which can threat and are a great deal of annoyance.

Why should you care about this? :
You still may want some good proof and aren’t yet convinced on my point for it. This thing has the power to change the meta world. I have one word to say for it, and it is the ability “contrary” contrary is quite a rare ability to achieve for some pokemons and only some have spinda and serperior that we often see nowadays. There is too much in the current mea for this ability to be put to use. Tose intimidaters, them icy winds, them troll meowstic/liepards with charm, tickle gothitelle and much much more that it can handle with the ability. Alongside this it can also say goodbye to things like aegislash and poison types  it also gets a wide variety of moves to be honest and can catch opponents offguard. It’s signature move isn’t yet gone to waste yes topsy turvey has potential for the teams who run often moves like overheat/ superpower/close combat/ hammer arm and draco meteor, turning tables is what I call that. If not comfy with that go for the skill swap to make yourself unbeatable in many cases during the battle.

Moves:

- Trick room ( speed control is yet another trait of malamar especially trick room support is good t have on special themed teams)
- Psycho cut (psychic type stab can cover many things)
- Knock off (a dark type stab attack with an information revealing trait )
- Night slash (another dark type STAB attack If you really want consistency In the damage you deal)
- Superpower ( no.1 bae for a contrary user especially malamar fighting coverage too
- Rock slide (why not? Char-y is a pretty big thing nowadays and yet well… always was)
- Protect (after superpowers, becomes an attack magnet, since it is a good choice)
- Topsy turvey (bye bye stat reductions due to overheats, draco or some very close combats, and opposing stat boosts too)
- Sunny day (shift it up, ultimate weather disruption)
- Rain dance ( same as above )

Item choices:
As it can work multi-purposely some of the item choices that come to my mind are the following:

- Assault vest: (malamar sets up physical defenses well up, AV sets can cover up the lack of sp.def in some cases)
- Sitrus berry: (malamar serves as a decent support, bulky sitrus berry sets won’t be a waste)
- Safety goggles: (it can counter well the pokemons with powder and be safe from rage/sleep powder or even their spores)
- Expert belt: (in cases you wanna do some damage)
- Life orb: ( same as above)
- Choice band: (same as above)
- Choice scarf: (if you wanna be faster than some specific options)

Threats:
The only very real threats I can see on this thing are the bug type moves not as commn though but, bug bite from scizor , lando’s popular magnet u-turn now and also don’t mind the haxy swagger the only thing that can shut it down pretty easily hence e say  number of threats for this specific pokemon are: scizor, thundurus, sableye, landorus, talonflame, and so on:
, , , ,

What it can threat:
Ok let’s get started :
Mega venusaur: (safety goggles set)
Ammongus : (-)
Breloom : (-)
Kangaskhan : (superpower + set ups, shutting down the one’s aiming for P-u-P.)
Tyranitar : (4x fighting weakness)
Bisharp : (4x fighting weaknesses and it outspeeds in certain cases)
Heatran : (superpower)
Aegislash : (advantage to king’s shield, + dark stabs)
Bulky psychics : (cress and goth specially with moves like icy wind and tickle)
Set up sweepers: ( topsy turvey)
Weather wars: (utilizing the moves sunny day and rain dance it can shift momentum during the battles)
Charizard- Y : (rock slides)
Talonflame: (-)
Volcarona: (-)

Calculations:
These calculations are for some of the sets I built.

Defensive:
252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 12 HP / 4 Def Malamar: 105-125 (64.4 - 76.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Mega Venusaur Sludge Bomb vs. 12 HP / 4 SpD Malamar: 102-120 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 12 HP / 4 Def Malamar: 139-166 (85.2 - 101.8%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 108 Def Malamar: 162-190 (83.9 - 98.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Aerilate Mega Salamence Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 108 Def Malamar: 156-184 (80.8 - 95.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Offensive:
252+ Atk Malamar Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Aegislash-Shield: 102-122 (61 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovers
252+ Atk Malamar Psycho Cut vs. 252 HP / 180 Def Amoonguss: 114-134 (51.5 - 60.6%) -- 93.8% chance to 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252+ Atk Malamar Superpower vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 120-142 (66.2 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Malamar Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Aegislash-Shield: 152-182 (91 - 108.9%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Malamar Superpower vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 180-212 (99.4 - 117.1%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Malamar Psycho Cut vs. 232 HP / 0 Def Mega Venusaur: 134-158 (72.8 - 85.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Malamar Superpower vs. 104 HP / 80 Def Hydreigon: 180-212 (100 - 117.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Malamar Superpower vs. 12 HP / 28 Def Heatran: 166-196 (98.8 - 116.6%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO

Sample sets:


Malamar @ Lum Berry
Ability: Contrary
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Psycho Cut
- Knock Off
- Superpower
- Topsy-Turvy

This sadly would be the only good spread i developed for a team i recently built, it's milestones are as following:
. Outspeeds adamant Bisharps by 1 point.
. 2HKO's Kangaskhan, Aegislash and medium Amoongus.
. Counters status shenanigans with lum berry.
. Luckily survives jolly 252 kang's return by the OHKO chance of 12.5% or so.
. Topsy turvey greatly helps shutting down opposing set-ups and status lowering moves and abilities.

Conclusion:
Hope this was a good post and probably kept you hanging around for a while, more importantly i should say was worth your time (hopefully). if you guys liked the overall idea/concept of this guy tobe used or well anything in the post please leave feedback telling me what are your thoughts on it. Bye for now

[Slec]

I like this! Malamar is one of those pokemon that has potential but is outclassed by other powerhouses. Alas Malamar gets outshined because its 4x weakness to Bug is dreadful. Now I know what youre thinking; every dragon has a 4x weakness to the most common move in the VGC meta game, ice. I guess dragons are good because of their stats . Anyways back to Malamar, Id spread out the evs a little bit and run assault vest instead of lum berry.

Malamar: @Assault Vest
Ability: Contrary
Nature: Adamant
Evs: 252 HP/ 68 Atk/ 92 Def/ 60 SpDef/ 36 Speed
- SuperPower
- Knock Off
- Psycho Cut
- Foul Play

Malamar is a problem because of its lack of a move pool. However with contrary super power gets +1 each turn instead of -1. That being said Attack and Defense dont really need to be invested greatly in. Scizor serves to be a big threat because of the 4x weakness. It is also easier to sweep with it in Singles because there is no double targeting. Malamar can be fun to use but you gotta be careful with it.

[Marcusube]

The EV spread for your sample set seems a bit flawed to be honest. You don't need to fully invest into attack since there are no Pokemon that you can OHKO with these investments at 0 attack. I'd go for an EV spread that takes into account the boost from Superpower or Intimidate (if you so happen to be intimidated) and spread the rest of EVs into bulk. By the way, you forgot to mention that Malamar is also weak to Fairy Pokemon such Sylveon, Mega-Altaria, Cresselia (Moonblast variants), Clefairy, Clefable, Togekiss and Gardevoir all threaten it as their moves either OHKO or 2HKO Malamar.

Is there really only one way to run Malamar in VGC? Sure you must have other sets

[Pokeventurer]

(Jul 20, 2015, 07:44 PM)Marcusube Wrote: The EV spread for your sample set seems a bit flawed to be honest. You don't need to fully invest into attack since there are no Pokemon that you can OHKO with these investments at 0 attack. I'd go for an EV spread that takes into account the boost from Superpower or Intimidate (if you so happen to be intimidated) and spread the rest of EVs into bulk. By the way, you forgot to mention that Malamar is also weak to Fairy Pokemon such Sylveon, Mega-Altaria, Cresselia (Moonblast variants), Clefairy, Clefable, Togekiss and Gardevoir all threaten it as their moves either OHKO or 2HKO Malamar.

Is there really only one way to run Malamar in VGC? Sure you must have other sets

you do make a good point i am working on an RMT, in which malamar is the glue to the team. my team is very well prepared for threats to malamar so i do run it efficiently and effectively with the set i posted above.

[Pokeventurer]

(Jul 20, 2015, 03:44 PM)MudkipLegend Wrote: I like this! Malamar is one of those pokemon that has potential but is outclassed by other powerhouses. Alas Malamar gets outshined because its 4x weakness to Bug is dreadful. Now I know what youre thinking; every dragon has a 4x weakness to the most common move in the VGC meta game, ice. I guess dragons are good because of their stats . Anyways back to Malamar, Id spread out the evs a little bit and run assault vest instead of lum berry.

Malamar: @Assault Vest
Ability: Contrary
Nature: Adamant
Evs: 252 HP/ 68 Atk/ 92 Def/ 60 SpDef/ 36 Speed
- SuperPower
- Knock Off
- Psycho Cut
- Foul Play

Malamar is a problem because of its lack of a move pool. However with contrary super power gets +1 each turn instead of -1. That being said Attack and Defense dont really need to be invested greatly in. Scizor serves to be a big threat because of the 4x weakness. It is also easier to sweep with it in Singles because there is no double targeting.  Malamar can be fun to use but you gotta be careful with it.

your set also looks good. the set i gave was 'team specific'. it's move pool isn't that bad too right? i mean it gets some fairly good moves. Bug moves aren't really the most common one's we see but a team well prepared for it can make it shine in many scenario's

[GiMYz]

Malamar got 2nd place in the Italian VGC Nationals with this set (more or less, as the EV spread hasn't been revealed but the damage calcs may suggest this - from an Italian source)

Malamar @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 244 HP / 148 Atk / 116 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Superpower
- Knock Off
- Trick Room
- Protect

TR setter with Inner Focus M-Kang (pre-Mega ability) as its partner to force a Fake Out on any other opposing Fake Out user.

I've not run any damage calc in particular. I only know that it can take a Double-Edge from M-Kang thanks to the Sitrus Barry and KO it back with Superpower or setup Trick Room and KO it the following turn.

A +1 Knock Off has a 6,3% chance to OHKO a 252HP Aegislash and a 4 HP LO Thundurus (in particular, the chip damage from Fake Out or any other attack can help to get the OHKO)