Legendary Pokémon

Pokemon of the Week DP: Spinda

Sets

Baton Passer

Item Held

Leftovers / Salac Berry

Ability

Own Tempo

Nature

Bold (+Defense, -Attack) / Impish (+Defense, -Special Attack)

Effort Points

252 HP - 200 Defense - 58 Special Defense

• Calm Mind
• Baton Pass
• Hypnosis
• Wish

Spinda's only purpose is to Baton Pass a Calm Mind or two to a Pokémon that has the ability to sweep, unlike itself. Hypnosis on the first Pokémon, Calm Mind as they switch out, and Baton Pass away. Wish can be used to heal yourself if you think that Spinda can take two hits and survive (which is highly unlikely), or to heal your next Pokémon. Leftovers is just a generic item, but you can go with Salac Berry. If you are lucky and survive their hit, you may pass a Speed boost to your sweeper as well. A good set in theory that gets ruined by Spinda's terrible stats.

Endure + F(l)ail

Item Held

Salac Berry

Ability

Own Tempo

Nature

Adamant (+Attack, -Special Attack) / Jolly (+Speed, -Special Attack)

Effort Points

252 Attack - 252 Speed - 6 HP

• Endure
• Flail
• Sucker Punch
• Baton Pass

Spinda's surprising offensive potential becomes reality through this set. Use Endure to stay alive with 1 HP, laughing at your opponent for not being able to OHKO your Pokémon. Then, start using Flail until everything is taken down by Spinda's supernatural power. Sucker Punch takes care of the Ghost-type Pokémon that want to stop your mighty rampage. When you are finally done, Baton Pass the Speed boost of the Salac Berry to a sweeper that needs it.

Just as happens with any other Flail user, Sandstorm and Hail stop your sweep and render your Pokémon useless. So, if you want to add that "L" to "Fail", be sure to clear the skies before sending Spinda in.

Trick or Treat?

Item Held

Choice Scarf / Choice Band

Ability

Own Tempo

Nature

Adamant (+Attack, -Special Attack) / Jolly (+Speed, -Special Attack)

Effort Points

252 Attack - 252 Speed - 6 HP

• Trick
• Hypnosis
• Return
• Sucker Punch

And for our next trick, we will need a volunteer. Preferably a Wall. Trick your Choice Scarf/Band to a Pokémon that will hate Spinda after that. Hypnosis to the incoming Pokémon. Return for STAB and Sucker Punch for hitting the Ghosts.

As the name of the set suggests, it may trick your opponent with an unwanted Choice Scarf on their Wall but it may also treat them with a great Choice Band on their Physical Sweeper. So, if you are not good at prediction, better leave this set.

Other Possible Options

Spinda's movepool isn't what one would call awful, but its stats are not helping it. Regarding offensive options, Focus Punch, Psycho Cut, Rock Slide and Fake Out are its Physical options while Shadow Ball and Psychic (boosted by Calm Mind of course) are its Special ones.

Of course, the Focus Sash + Counter combo is worth mentioning. Finally, it has access to moves like Snatch, Disable and Psych Up if you feel like using them, but they won't prove too helpful.

Counters

In UnderUsed, most Rock-types and Steel-types have no problem countering Spinda, especially those who don't care having a Choice Band tricked to them, like Relicanth. Steelix can stop the Baton Pass set using its Roar and if Spinda happens to Trick a Choice Band to it, a STABed, Choice Band boosted Earthquake is a real threat. And certainly, many other sweepers can KO Spinda easily, some of them are Scyther and Crawdaunt. However, don't forget that Spinda can put an incoming counter to sleep with its Hypnosis.

If you are planning to use Spinda in OverUsed, be prepared as almost anything can counter it. And by anything I mean that even Pokémon with below average Defense can switch in on Spinda without trouble.

Opinion & Notes

Spinda is one of my favorite Pokémon to use. In the Pokémon TCG that is. In competitive battling, the best that Spinda can do is pull off a Calm Mind and Baton Pass it to a sweeper. We've got just a generic Normal-type here like Aipom and Lickitung, apart from the fact that they got their respective evolved forms during the generation jump. If Spinda doesn't get its evolution soon, it will remain stuck forever in the NeverUsed tier, and its quite wide movepool will remain unexploited. Although I'm sure I will miss its retarded face if it gets an evolution…

Note that Baton Pass, Wish and Trick are all egg moves.

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