Every week or two, I'll feature a certain Pokémon in this Topic. This will give an in-depth look at the Pokémon featured, giving it's basic info, good moves and strategies it can use in battle, and a list of links to other websites which contain info on this Pokémon.

And apart from me Nem will be covering things up too.

Todays Featured Pokemon.

Articuno



Moves

1) Ice Beam
2) Toxic
3)Reflect
4)Rest

Strategy

Articuno is the most defensive of the three legendary birds. Take advantage of this by teaching it defensive moves that wear the opponent down. Toxic anything that can be poisoned and use Rest to keep yourself alive while the opponent takes poison damage. Its Pressure trait will also help by gradually depleting the opponent's PP until they can't attack anymore.

Articuno's 4x weakness to Rock attacks is one of its major flaws. With Reflect, you can survive longer against Rock moves as well as other physical attacks, especially while you sleep.

For EVs, maximize its HP and put plenty into Special Defense. That combined with a Calm Nature means special attacks won't be doing much to it. Even Electric and Fire moves can't take Articuno out in one hit (not that you should leave Articuno in against an Electric or Fire type, of course). Those Defense EVs gives Articuno a chance against Ground types that use Rock Slide (like Dugtrio, Donphan, or any Ground that isn't part Rock). Even if they are faster, they can't kill you in one hit while you can knock them out with a supereffective Ice Beam.

Moves

1)Ice Beam
2)Rest
3)Sleep Talk
4)Roar Heal Bell

Strategy

This set focuses on the Rest+Sleep Talk combo. Articuno can pull this strategy off very well with its high defenses, allowing it to attack even while it sleeps. Ice Beam is its sole attacking move as usual. Its other move can be Roar, which forces the opponent to switch Pokemon. While using Roar is good for pseudo-hazing opponents that like to stat boost, it is even more effective if you have set up some Spikes. After another Pokemon on your team sets up 3 layers of Spikes, you can annoy the opponent a lot by forcing switches and making his Pokemon take 25% damage with each switch.

Your second option is Heal Bell. This requires that you have Pokemon XD since that's the only way Articuno can learn that move. This gives Articuno the very useful ability of healing your entire team as well as healing itself after it falls asleep. The low PP for Heal Bell doesn't matter because if Sleep Talk selects Heal Bell, it uses its own PP.

Special Thanks to:

Bulbapedia.
LegendaryPokemon.
Psypoke.
Serebii.
Smogon.
Veekun.

Allright guys today we have Lucario


Lucario



Base stats
70 HP / 110 Atk / 70 Def / 115 SAtk / 70 SDef / 90 Spd


Weaknesses: Fighting (x2), Fire (2x), Ground (x2)
Resistances: Dark (x1/4), Rock (x1/4), Ice (1/2x), Ghost (1/2x), Steel (x1/2), Normal (x1/2), Dragon (x1/2), Grass (x1/2)
Immunities: Poison

Moves

1) Endure or Substitute
2) Reversal
3) Crunch
4) Swords Dance

Strategy:

There are many Pokemon that are able to use a Reversal set, but Lucario is one of the best canditates. Not only does it get STAB on Reversal, but it's also immune to the Sandstorm damage brought on by Tyranitar and Hippowdon's abilities. Sandstorm would kill off any other Pokemon that tried to use this set.

The goal is to boost your Attack with Swords Dance while lowering your HP to under 4% using either Endure or Substitute. At that stage, Salac Berry will activate and grant you a Speed boost that allows you to outrun most opponents you'll face.
Which of the two moves you pick is up to you. Endure is guaranteed to work the first time you use it, but if your opponent doesn't attack you or uses an attack that doesn't do enough damage, the strategy falls apart. Substitute means you can lower your HP by yourself as well as prevent status effects from messing you up. However, taking Stealth Rock damage means you'll only be able to use Substitute up to 3 times. You'll have too few HP left over to make a fourth Substitute and too much HP to gain a full power Reversal.

If you decide to select Substitute, it's absolutely vital that you make sure your Lucario's HP is NOT divisible by 4. If it is, you'll only be able to use a maximum of 3 Substitutes which would leave you with too much HP to get Reversal to full power.

As you can see, even with a Sandstorm immunity, Lucario still faces some challenges when setting up for Reversal. But once you're ready, the payoff is great since you'll be hitting opponents with a STABed 200 power Fighting move. Only Ghost types are truly safe against this devastating attack and those Pokemon can be handled with a supereffective Crunch.

Moves

Swords Dancer

1) Close Combat
2) Crunch
3) Stone Edge
4) Swords Dance

Strategy:

This moveset has a simple objective: find an oppurtunity to use Swords Dance, then sweep. A STABed Swords Danced Close Combat puts a huge dent in most opponents. Ghost and Psychic foes are handled by Crunch while Stone Edge takes care of Flying-types.

Moves

Choice Band

1) Close Combat
2) Crunch
3) Stone Edge
4) Blaze Kick
OR
Bullet Punch
OR
Extremespeed

Strategy:

As with any physical sweeper, Lucario works great with a Choice Band attached. Without the need for Swords Dance, Lucario has quite a few options for its fourth move.

Blaze Kick defeats Heracross, Forretress, and Scizor in one hit. It's also supereffective against Skarmory and Bronzong, but Close Combat will still do more damage. Bullet Punch is a first-strike move that gets STAB and can OHKO Weavile and Aerodactyl as well as finish off weakened opponents. Extremespeed can do the same thing and though it doesn't gain STAB, it will do more damage to enemies that aren't weak to Steel.

Moves

Choice Specs

1) Aura Sphere
2) Dark Pulse
3) Dragon Pulse
4) Psychic

Strategy:

Normally, Blissey can switch in and wall any Pokemon that only use special attacks. But not Lucario. A Choice Specs Aura Sphere can deal over 50% damage to a Blissey with max HP EVs. And if Aura Sphere can do that much damage to the best special wall in the game, it will do a ton to any Pokemon not resistant to Fighting attacks.

Ghost and Psychic types will fall to a Dark Pulse. Dragon Pulse is mainly there to hit Salamence and Garchomp on the switch-in. Both are faster and know moves supereffective against Lucario, so getting rid of them is pretty important. Psychic is for Heracross, who resists both Aura Sphere and Dark Pulse.

Modest is the ideal nature here. Timid can allow it to outrun opponents that have below 300 Speed, but the Special Attack boost from Modest is more important since it guarantees a 2HKO on most of the common walls out there (especially Blissey).

Other options: Hi Jump Kick (breed with Hitmonlee), Cross Chop (breed with Machop), Shadow Claw (TM65), Shadow Ball (TM30), Rock Slide (TM80), Calm Mind (TM04),Hidden Power Ice (TM10), Vacuum Wave(breed with Hitmonchan), Choice Scarf (Battle Tower Prize), Life Orb (Battle Tower Prize)

Hi Jump Kick is less powerful and less accurate than Close Combat, but it won't lower your defenses. If you don't want to let Lucario's nice set of resistances go to waste, then feel free to use this move. Cross Chop has the same power plus the increased chance of getting a critical hit, but its accuracy makes it less viable than other Fighting moves that Lucario learns.

Shadow Claw can replace Crunch on any of the physical sets. It's slightly weaker than Crunch, but it also has a higher chance of inflicting a critical hit and isn't resisted by Fighting types. Likewise, Shadow Ball can go over Dark Pulse on the special set.

Rock Slide can go over Stone Edge if you prefer accuracy over power. Lucario is rather frail so having its attack miss in a crucial situation could lead to its defeat.

Lucario can use a special set with Calm Mind, but the process of setting this up takes too long. In the end, the Choice Specs set is more effective since you can hit hard and fast with a boosted Special Attack right off the bat.

Hidden Power Ice is an option over Dragon Pulse on the Choice Specs set. It will do a lot more damage to Dragons with 4x Ice weaknesses like Salamence or Garchomp and is supereffective against Flying types as well. Vacuum Wave is another good option on that Specs set, being a special version of Bullet Punch.

For items, you can use Choice Scarf instead of Choice Band or Specs. It gives a welcome boost to Lucario's less than stellar Speed and lets it surprise enemies that are normally faster than it. Life Orb can be used in place of Choice Specs if you prefer versatility, but Choice Specs offers more power which is more important in the long run.

How to counter Lucario:

Lucario is a very diverse fighter and the first step to countering it is to find out what kind of a set it's using. Most Lucarios tend to use physical attacks, so we'll go over counters to those sets first.

Flying types are generally good counters to Lucario. Gliscor easily switches into any of the physical sets with its excellent Defense and resistance to Fighting. It packs a STABed Earthquake that can defeat Lucario with no problem. Salamence and Gyarados can Intimidate Lucario and usually know a supereffective move like Earthquake or Flamethrower. The only thing they have to worry about is getting hit with a Stone Edge.

Weezing takes little damage from any of Lucario's physical moves and can give it a nasty Burn using
Will-o-wisp.

Dusknoir and Spiritomb with Shadow Sneak have no problem against the Reversaler. They are immune to Reversal and if Lucario tries to attack with Crunch, they will hit first with Shadow Sneak.

Hippowdon can easily take two Choice Banded Close Combats, heal the damage with Slack Off, and strike back with Earthquake. It can take a Swords Danced Close Combat too, but only if Lucario is not holding Life Orb.

The Choice Specs set is much harder to counter mainly because many special walls in the game are weak to Fighting. Still Spiritomb saves the day again by having no weaknesses and an immunity to both Aura Sphere and Psychic. Cresselia also does a fine job of walling it. Even without any Special Defense EVs, it can easily survive two Dark Pulses
Heracross can serve as a counter if you're careful not to send it in on a Psychic. It has above average Special Defense and resistance to Aura Sphere and Dark Pulse, Lucario's two most commonly used attacks.

lol lol lol
When I read those move sets I can't control myself.
1st point
1) Endure or Substitute
2) Reversal
3) Crunch
4) Swords Dance

Where are the the damage dealing attacks ?
What are you planning to use if a fire type or flying or Fighting or Ground is used !
Also Lucario is offensive fighter seeing that its fighting type .
If you want the best move set try IPGL's Leader MAGNADETH's

Also using Bulbapedia data outside Bulbagardden can mean trouble to you .
Specially seeing that I am a Bulbapedian .

There is no problem if you credit them. -_-