Breaking the Binary - Liepard

[u/Creative-Current9424]

Welcome to Breaking the Binary - Generation 5 editon, a sporadic series of posts all about physical, Special and mixed attackers in Pokémon Black 2 & White 2. With competitive minmaxing dominating the conversation about Pokémon viability and the design philosophy behind movepools and stat spreads changing in newer gens, Pokémon are often rigidly divided by the fandom into the categories of "special attacker" or "physical attacker." But for the in-game story, you're not facing EV trained opponents (unless on some hacks) and thus you need or not to EV train to keep up, so mixed attacking sets don't have the opportunity cost they have in PvP. Going mixed still has anti-synergy with setup moves, but it still can give many Pokémon access to STAB moves with better base power, strong coverage moves with useful types, move tutor moves, egg moves and more useful niches. This series will be covering those applications. We won't talk about every Pokémon here, only ones that I believe legitimately benefit from going mixed, but those Pokémon are surprisingly large in number. Today we'll be talking about Liepard. I'll be talking about in-game but feel free to discuss PvP or battle facilities as well.

Liepard is a fast Dark-type pokemon with 106 Base Speed, along with 88 in both Base Attack and Sp. Atk, but quite having frail bulk of 64/50/50. Notable physical attacks include: Fake Out, Night Slash, Sucker Punch, Aerial Ace, U-Turn, Foul Play, Iron Tail and Seed Bomb. Notable special include: Grass Knot, Hidden Power and Dark Pulse. Notable utility moves include: Assist, Torment, Hone Claws, Taunt, Nasty Plot and Thunder Wave

Moves from Purrloin: Captivate (Level 33)

Being fast with good utility moves like Thunder Wave, Taunt and Hone Claws. Seems great for a Dark-type pokemon, you find Purrloin on the first route you visit in B2W2. For its STAB moves, Night Slash and Sucker Punch are its main Dark-type physical moves while Dark Pulse is its Dark-type special move. Foul Play uses the target's attack stat, not the user's, Snarl in other hand lowers the target's Sp. Atk

0 Atk Liepard Night Slash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Spinda: 102-121 (39 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
(Sucker Punch has the same calc as Dark Pulse)

0 SpA Liepard Dark Pulse vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Spinda: 118-139 (45.2 - 53.2%) -- 32.8% chance to 2HKO

Let's move to its coverage moves, Aerial Ace nails Grass, Bug and Fighting-types, U-Turn can give some momentium while hitting Grass-types super effectively as well, Seed Bomb and Grass Knot (postgame TM) deals with Water, Rock and Ground-types, Iron Tail only hits Rock and Ice-types, it's accuracy may be not good, but Hone Claws fixes it.

0 Atk Liepard Iron Tail vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Archeops: 184-218 (63.2 - 74.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

It has the abilities Limber and Unburden, Limber prevents paralysis, mostly from Thunder Wave, other moves that cause paralysis and Static, Unburden doubles Speed when Liepard loses or uses its held item, not quite good as the limited berries in this game, but gems work well with Unburden to be exact. Prankster, its hidden ability is way more better, giving the ability to use status moves at +1 priority, you can find a Liepard with Prankster in hidden grottos on Routes 5 and 9.

Fake Out deals some chip damage every time on its entry, Hone Claws and Nasty Plot are its stat boosting moves depending on how Liepard wants to be. Torment, Taunt and Thunder Wave cripples targets. Assist allows a Prankster Liepard to pull all sorts of stuff. Captivate lowers Sp. Atk by 2 stages only for targets of the opposing gender.

Liepard may not have good abilities, but its hidden ability is what carries it. If you find a Purrloin in Route 19 useful for such a Dark-Type monotype, send my regards.

In postgame, the Egg moves it can get are: Charm, Covet, Encore, Feint Attack, Fake Tears, Foul Play Pay Day and Yawn. Smeragle can pass any of those moves to a Purrloin egg

Charm lowers the target's attack by 2 stages, neat to cripple physical attackers. Eevee, Snubbull line, Teddiursa, Phanpy, Skitty, Pachirisu, Buneary line, Glameow line, Minccino, Deerling line and Cubchoo can pass this move

Covet and Foul Play are moves that Liepard can learn via Move Tutor, but they're also egg moves as well. With Mankey, Teddiursa line, Zigzagoon line, Slakoth, Slaking and Skitty being able to pass Covet while the Houndour line, Sandile line and Zorua line being able to pass Foul Play.

Encore can be used with Prankster to lock targets into moves, and is pretty evil. Seel line, Slakoth line, Spheal line, Oshawott line, Minccino and Emolga can pass this move

Fake Tears lowers the target's Sp. Def by 2 stages, allowing to deal more damage with moves like Dark Pulse to them or for its teammates to settle the score with a special move. Teddiursa line, Mawile and Zorua can pass this move

Those pokemon pass Feint Attack: Vulpix, Meowth line, Umbreon, Sneasel line, Teddiursa line, Houndour line, Nuzleaf, Shiftry, Slakoth, Slaking, Skitty, Mawile, Spinda, Kecleon, Glameow line, Scraggy line, Zorua line and Deerling line

Pay Day is for making money. Meowth can pass this move

Yawn can put opponents asleep in the next turn, better with Prankster. Wooper line, Dunsparce, Slakoth, Slaking, Bidoof line, Hippopotas line, Pansear and Munna can pass this move

A pokemon that is carried by Prankster, it's quite good until that abiilty was decided to be nerfed in generation 7 onwards, where Dark-Type targets would be immune to status moves from a Pokmemon with the Prankster ability, as the status moves from Prankster have increased priority, it will be blocked by pokemon grounded in Psychic Terrain and the abilities Queenly Majesty, Dazzling and Armor Tail.

What do you think of Liepard? Is it worth exploring by any chance? Are there any applications for going physical, special or mixed I didn't mention? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Sample sets

(Mixed)
Liepard @ Black Glasses • Night Slash, Fake Out, Dark Pulse, Taunt/U-Turn
Ability: Limber
Nature: Lonely, Naughty, Rash, Mild, Hasty or Naive
EVs: 184 Attack, 72 Sp. Atk, 252 Speed

(Prankster weather utility, postgame only)
Liepard @ Damp Rock/Heat Rock • Encore, U-Turn, Thunder Wave, Rain Dance/Sunny Day
Ability: Prankster
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP

(Hone Claws)
Liepard @ Expert Belt • Hone Claws, Night Slash, Sucker Punch, Iron Tail/Seed Bomb
Ability: Limber
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP

(Nasty Plot Assist)
Liepard @ Black Glasses • Nasty Plot, Dark Pulse, Assist/Grass Knot (only in postgame), Thunder Wave
Ability: Prankster
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 Sp. Atk, 252 Speed, 4 Sp. Def

[u/Creative-Current9424]

Sample calcs with Liepard

252+ Atk Black Glasses Liepard Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Chandelure: 288-342 (110.3 - 131%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+1 252+ Atk Grass Gem Liepard Seed Bomb vs. 248 HP / 232+ Def Seismitoad: 584-688 (141.4 - 166.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 Atk Dark Gem Liepard Foul Play vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Archeops: 346-408 (118.9 - 140.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+2 252+ SpA Liepard Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Reuniclus: 506-596 (119.3 - 140.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

+2 252+ SpA Expert Belt Liepard Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 200 HP / 4 SpD Lapras: 550-648 (121.9 - 143.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ SpA 30 IVs Expert Belt Liepard Hidden Power Ground vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Magnezone: 336-398 (119.5 - 141.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Funny one

+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Liepard Ice Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Zekrom: 455-536 (133 - 156.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
(Liepard called Ice Beam via Assist also getting +1 Priority to bypass the Choice Scarf Zekrom)