PotW: Clefable

Hello again, Pokemon trainers! How was everyone's summer? Good? Same here. But now, since most everyone's back to the old grind, I have returned to give everyone their weekly fix of Pokemon knowledge. And, without further ado, I'm going to give you your weekly fix of Pokemon knowledge. 

So, as some of you who follow me on Twitter may know, I'm a big fan of Pokemon battler YouTube channels, such as Shofu or Haydunn or PokeMoshPit. Aside from the battles being fun to watch and the commentators usually being entertaining, but the YouTube channels often give me a peek into the hidden world that is the Underused and Never used tiers. I can honestly say that I wish I knew enough about the NU and UU tiers to battle in them. But, unfortunately, most of the battles I've watched, and almost all of the battles I've participated in have been in the aptly named Overused tier. 

But now, onto the point of this article. One Pokemon that I've seen used quite a bit in all of YouTube's Underused battles is the Fairy Pokemon, Clefable. According to Smogon, Clefable is the glue that can hold almost any UU team together, thanks to its wonderful ability, Magic Guard, and its incredibly versatile movepool. Magic Guard gives the Pokemon immunity to all field conditions, such as the ever-popular Stealth Rocks, Spikes, and even Toxic Spikes. As for its movepool, Clefable is essentially unrivaled in its tier in its ability to become most anything you need it to be for your specific team's composition. It can support, it can attack, it can stall, and it can set up. What more could you ask for in a Pokemon? 

If you answered "better stats", you would be correct. Clefable's stats just don't weigh in well enough to get it into the OU tier, and while they're much more excusable in lower tiers, they don't quite match up with some of the more heavy attackers or solid walls. But fret not, fairy-lovers! Clefable's pitiable stats don't make it useless by a long shot. Here's the set I'd like to run on a Clefable if I ever get around to making one:

Encore, Thunder Wave, Wish, Seismic Toss

EVs: 252 Spd/252 HP/4 whatever

Leftovers, Calm Nature.

Now I know that this looks an awful lot like Smogon's preferred moveset, but that's just because it is Smogon's top preferred moveset. But fret not, poke-hipsters, I don't just blindly follow Smogon's staggeringly large userbase, I've just seen sets very similar to this being used on the ol' YouTube, and noted that they've preformed quite nicely. 

Okay folks, hope you've enjoyed my triumphant return to the weekly article realm, and hope your school/work/pokemon training year goes very very well. Follow me on Twitter at @AtDavidThomas, and shoot me an email to DavEdwTho@gmail.com to suggest next week's Pokemon of the week. (Hint: 100% of the people who've emailed me suggestions have had their request fulfilled the week immediately after they made the suggestion. Just sayin'. ) 

Thanks for reading!