Held Items

Using the proper held items is essential to competitive pokemon battling. As was seen in my battle videos from my last post a held item can determine the outcome of a battle. Items are also going to play a role in how we set up our teams because in most forms of competitive play you can't have multiple pokemon using the same item. This will force us to have a little more variety in our pokemon's strategies. For this post we will take a look at the competitive applications of many different items.

First up are the original hold items, berries! Most berries are not super useful, but there are a few that can be used competitively. First of all is the Lum Berry which cures any status ailment. Lum Berry can be used on pokemon who need the protection from status, pokemon who would be crippled by paralysis, burn, or poison could all conceivably use Lum Berry. Lum Berry mostly outclasses all other status cure berries since it protects against all status ailments, but there are a few exceptions. Mainly Chesto Berry could be used over Lum Berry on a pokemon that uses Rest because that would guarantee the berry wasn't used up by some random status condition. You could also maybe use a Prism Berry over Lum Berry with a pokemon that uses Outrage since t would guarantee the pokemon to snap out of confusion, but it is questionable if this would ever merit its usage. The other type of Berry that could be used competitively is a Berry that halves damage from a super effective hit. There is a berry of this type for every type of attack, but the most commonly used are the Shuca and Yache Berries for the resistance they give to Ground and Ice moves respectively (the Shuca berry falling in use thanks to the Air Baloon). These berries can be used on pokemon with 4x weaknesses to a certain type of attack, most notably the Yache Berry can be used on Garchomp and other Dragons who are otherwise devastated by a doubly super effective Ice attack. Other than those, the Sitrus Berry is almost always outclassed by Leftovers and the Oran Berry only has a use in Little Cup.    The berries that I didn't otherwise talk about are pretty much useless and so shouldn't be used.

Next we have Leftovers which is an incredibly useful held item for most any pokemon whose focus is on longevity such as a wall. Leftovers restores 1/16 of a pokemon's max HP every turn which can have a big effect on pokemon like Blissey. Leftovers is often used with pokemon who also use moves like Toxic that cause residual damage to the opponent. Along with the usage of Protect a bulky pokemon can stall an opponent until they faint. Basically any pokemon that is planning on a long battle can make good use of Leftovers.

In the same way that Leftovers is a standard for Defensive Pokemon the Life Orb is a standard among offensive pokemon. Life Orb increases the power of all damaging moves by 30% making it more powerful than any other power boosting item (excluding Choice items). The only downside to using it is that it takes away 10% of the users HP every time they hit an opponent with a damaging move. But most offensive pokemon will not mind the 10% hit in exchange for the damage with the only exception being for bulky sweepers. A Life Orb is almost always a fine choice for a sweeper if you do not have other plans.

Another option for offensive pokemon is either the Choice Band or the Choice Specs, Choice Band for physical attackers and Choice Specs for special attackers. These Items give a 50% boost to their respective attack stats but lock the holder into using the first move they use. Choice Items can be used on pokemon with powerful coverage moves. But a pokemon with a choice item needs to be ready to switch out often since being locked into one move can be a major pain. Another option for a choice item is that it can be tricked onto an opponent's pokemon to cripple them by trapping them into only one move, this is especially deadly to pokemon who need to set-up.

The third Choice item is the Choice Scarf. The Choice Scarf is the most used Choice Item giving a 50% boost to the all-important Speed stat. The Choice Scarf can be used on powerful, but slow pokemon to allow them to out-speed usually faster threats. It can also be used to make a fast pokemon nearly impossible to out run. It can be used effectively on many sweepers as well as for tricking onto opponents. Regardless it still carries the same weaknesses of the other Choice items.

The Expert Belt and Type Boosting Items are another, usually less preferred, option for attacking pokemon. These items give a 20% boost to the power of attacks without drawback except for that they only work in certain conditions. The Expert Belt only gives the 20% boost when an attack is super effective and the type boosting items only give a 20% boost when using a specific type of attack. Of these two the Expert Belt is more often preferred but they are only useful if the Life Orb is not an option.

Gems (sorry no picture) are yet another option for attackers. Gems come in every pokemon type and boost the power of a move of that type by 50%, but only once. Gems have the benefit of being as powerful as a Choice boost with out locking you into a single move. The downside of course is that they are only good for one use and for this reason they tend to be used more in doubles/triples where matches tend to be shorter.

Focus Sash is a great item to be used by any frail pokemon. A Focus Sash guarantees that a pokemon with full health will survive any attack with at least 1 HP. This means a pokemon can use it to ensure they get a chance to set-up or a pokemon could use it to take down a pokemon that could usually out-speed and OHKO them. The one concern about the Focus Sash is that if it is not used early on then there is an increasing chance of it being broken by entry hazards such as Stealth Rocks.

Eviolite (sorry again no picture) is an item that has made many not fully evolved pokemon viable options in competitive battling. It grants its holder a 50% boost to both of their defenses so long as they can still evolve. This has made pokemon like Chansey and Porygon2 as useful as their evolved forms. The biggest drawback to the item is that the pokemon cannot use another item which can be a painful loss,

Air Balloon (another item I couldn't find a picture of) is a great item for many Fire, Steel, and Rock pokemon. The Air balloon grants immunity to Ground moves but pops when the pokemon is hit by another move. This allows pokemon like Heatran to switch in on pokemon they otherwise couldn't and forces the opponent to spend a turn popping the Air Balloon. Like Eviolite, Air Balloon's biggest weakness is not allowing you to use a more conventional item, but still it can be very useful on pokemon usually destroyed by Ground moves.

The Flame Orb and Toxic Orb may seem like horrible items since they burn and badly poison you, but they have uses. For one they can be used to boost the power of pokemon with the ability Guts and/or the attack Facade, things that get stronger when the pokemon has a status ailment. They also serve as protection from other status ailments though they should never be used for that purpose alone. Toxic Orb is particularly useful on pokemon with the ability Poison Heal. For them not only does Toxic Orb restore twice the HP as Leftovers but it also prevents any status ailments.

Two more items that seem terrible at first look are the Iron Ball and Lagging Tail. The Iron ball halves speed and negates any immunity to Ground moves a pokemon might have while the Lagging Tail makes the pokemon move last no matter what. These items have basically two uses, for one they can be tricked onto a foe crippling their speed. For two, Iron Ball can be used with the move Fling to create a massively powerful Dark type attack (that doesn't work with Lagging Tail). That's all they are good for.

Light Clay serves only 1 purpose, but is useful for that purpose. Light Clay extends the duration of Reflect and Light Screen to 8 turns instead of 5. Light clay can and often is used on pokemon that set-up dual screens, but there is obviously no other use.

   

The Heat, Icy, Damp, and Smooth Rocks can all be used on weather teams though they are generally made obsolete by pokemon who automatically induce weather. There is a Rock for each type of weather and they each increase the duration of that weather to 8 turns. They can sometimes be used on weather teams by pokemon who set-up weather, but again they aren't that useful if you can use a pokemon that automatically sets-up eternal weather.

Bright Powder can be used by evasive pokemon, but it is banned under Smogon's rules. Bright Powder decreases the opponent's accuracy to 90% which by itself is not terrible but when added with other evasive boosts becomes quite obnoxious. Pokemon with Sand Veil, pokemon with Minimize, or any other pokemon that abuses evasion could hold Bright Powder. If you want to use it I say go for it, but you will probably get many rage quits.

Okay well there are a few other items that could maybe under some specific circumstances be used, but for the most part I think I covered the main items you will see and use in competitive battles. here is a link to a complete list of items: http://veekun.com/dex/items/misc

Sorry no video this time, I didn't think it was necessary. If you want though take another look at my videos from the last post and pay attention to how the items come into play.

Next post I'm thinking I tie things together with an explanation on battling. I'm not sure how much there is to say about it though and I have already mentioned a lot, so I guess we will see.