Pokémon X and Y/Species Strategies (Generation V Families)

This page contains information on every Pokémon family first introduced in Generation V, including stats, recommended movesets and evolutionary lines. All evolutionary lines are put together, even if an evolution or pre-evolution was not introduced in the same Generation as other members of its evolutionary family.

Victini
Victini is one of the few legendary Pokémon based off of Mew, possessing a completely balanced set of stats, being available only through events and being generally adorable. It has a pretty unique Psychic/Fire type, which gives it 7 resistances but also leaves it with six weaknesses. It has a pretty cool ability in Victory Star, which can make it a great teammate when paired up with users of low accuracy moves like Focus Blast and Stone Edge, but the ability itself is rather limited in single battles.

While these aforementioned traits are pretty decent but not excellent, what makes Victini outstanding is its amazing movepool, although most of its best moves are only obtainable through events. The most notable of these is V-Create, the strongest Fire-type move in the game at a ridiculous 180 Base Power, which can even tear through Pokémon that resist it when combined with Victini's great 100 Attack. While V-Create is its best STAB attack, its signature move, Searing Shot, is also a great move for double and triple battles, being the strongest Fire-type spread move there is. Other than these two STAB attacks, Victini can also learn Bolt Strike, Focus Blast, Dazzling Gleam, and Energy Ball for coverage, while it can use Psychic, Psyshock or Zen Headbutt for Psychic STAB.

Although Victini does have extreme power, V-Create comes at a cost. Every use of it will reduce Victini's defenses and Speed, so it will eventually have to switch out to avoid being outsped and OHKO'd. However, Victini can learn U-Turn to switch out more efficiently, and its coverage moves can take out an opponent's counter that switches in to early. Another of Victini's cons is its plethora of weaknesses, which are worryingly common attacking types, and while its defensive stats are above average, Victini can still be easily worn down, especially after some V-Creates. All in all, while Victini can't guarantee victories as it claims to do, its sheer power will certainly net you quite a few.

Snivy, Servine and Serperior
In its debut generation, Serperior was a pretty underwhelming Grass-type, as while it has great Speed and decent bulk, it is too weak to be a threat. However, it has gained a crucial trait that elevates it into one of the most powerful Grass-types there is: the Contrary ability. Serperior is a Pokemon that finds great success relying on one gimmick, which is firing off increasingly stronger Leaf Storms, using the Special Attack raise from Contrary to turn it into a powerhouse. Its naturally high Speed helps it spam Leaf Storm liberally, giving it the potential to sweep through teams lacking Grass resists. Unfortunately, Serperior's coverage moves are severely lacking, so Pokemon that can take a Leaf Storm and retaliate are effective ways at handling it, though Serperior can eventually overwhelm some walls just by boosting its stats high enough. Serperior also has a rather mediocre defensive typing, which makes it vulnerable to many popular attack types like Flying and Ice.

No Serperior moveset is complete without Leaf Storm, as this move's synergy with Contrary is the entire strategic reason to use Serperior in the first place. Leaf Storm is normally a powerful attack that cuts the user's Special Attack, forcing the user to switch out to refresh their strength. However, Contrary makes the move raise Serperior's Special Attack instead, effectively giving it a free Nasty Plot boost along with the heavy damage from Leaf Storm, so Serperior only grows stronger the more it uses this move. Dragon Pulse is the best coverage move among Serperior's extremely limited special movepool, striking most Grass-resistant Pokemon for decent damage. Hidden Power Fire or Ground deals with Steel-types that handily resist both of its most common attacking options. Glare is a guaranteed paralysis for neutering faster Pokemon that like to take on Serperior, and can even paralyze Ground-types too. Serperior's Speed makes it a good user of Taunt, which stops the bulkier answers to Serperior by disabling their vital support moves.

Tepig, Pignite and Emboar
Among the trinity of Fire/Fighting type Pokemon, Emboar takes on a more slow and steady approach, eschewing blazing Speed for better HP. However, Emboar is not lacking in the damage department at all, as it still has powerful mixed attacking stats and a varied movepool that rivals its predecessors. Emboar is notable for being the only Fire-type Pokemon with the Reckless ability, which gives it a ludicrously strong Flare Blitz. Despite its poor defenses, Emboar's huge HP lets it take hits better than expected, and its typing gives a solid 5 resistances to boot. Emboar's main weakness is its poor Speed, so faster powerful attackers can outspeed and neutralize it due to its subpar defense stats. Since it relies on Reckless to deal heavy damage, it also loses a lot of HP from recoil just by attacking.

Flare Blitz is Emboar's best STAB move, being an attack that uses its superior physical Attack stat and getting a power boost from Reckless. Superpower is a fair Fighting-type STAB move for cracking open Rock-types that resist Fire, and it doesn't deal severe recoil damage, making it a good alternative move when Emboar needs to conserve its health. Wild Charge is an Electric move that also gets boosted by Reckless, giving Emboar a solid answer to Water-types. Grass Knot is occasionally used as well if Water/Ground types are a big problem. Sucker Punch lets Emboar hit first despite its terrible Speed, and is its main way of dealing with faster attackers. Lastly, Head Smash is another ridiculously powerful recoil move boosted by Reckless, though it's not as strong as Flare Blitz on neutral hits and has less accuracy.

Oshawott, Dewott and Samurott
Of all the Unova starters, Samurott has gained the least in this generation, as its hidden ability Shell Armor isn't as game-changing as Contrary or Reckless to even justify using over Torrent. Nevertheless, it is still a decent offensive Water-type with nice physical and special attack. Samurott sports a pretty interesting movepool, having a range of moves to perform as a powerful physical or mixed attacker. Samurott's biggest issue is its poor Speed, so it's often forced to depend heavily on Aqua Jet to take on faster foes, or get KO'd due to its middling bulk. It can also be walled due to its intermediate attacking stats, although Samurott can boost its Attack or simply run mixed sets to trip up its defensive answers.

For Water-type STAB, Hydro Pump is Samurott's strongest option that doesn't come with any severe side effects, while Waterfall is the preferred Water-move for purely physical movesets. Aqua Jet is absolutely necessary as a secondary Water move, as it lets Samurott circumvent its mediocre Speed and take on the myriad of faster Pokemon it may face. For special attacks, Ice Beam provides a ton of extra type coverage particularly against Grass and Dragon types. Grass Knot trips up other Water-types, particularly certain Water/Ground types. For physical moves, Megahorn keeps Grass-type Pokemon at bay, while Knock Off provides helpful utility by removing the enemy's items. Samurott can use Swords Dance to double its Attack, either to break through particularly bulky foes or attempt an Aqua Jet sweep. While Samurott isn't very fast, it may also use Taunt for shutting down enemy support moves.

Patrat and Watchog
Watchog is a mediocre Normal-type Pokemon with roughly balanced stats that make it struggle to excel in any aspect. Like many Normal-types, Watchog is built as a physical attacker, with Attack being its strongest stat, though it has a surprising number of status moves it can use as well. It's most notable perk is getting the uncommon Analytic ability, which takes advantage of Watchog's subpar Speed to increase the power of its attacks whenever it goes second, remedying the fact that Watchog's best stat is still pretty poor. Unfortunately, Watchog is very frail, so it's difficult to take advantage of the Analytic boost since most faster Pokemon are strong enough to quickly take it out. Watchog is also generally quite weak even with the Analytic boost, so bulkier Pokemon can reliably sponge its moves and retaliate accordingly.

Return is Watchog's best STAB move, being a high base power attack at ma happiness with no drawbacks. Knock Off lets Watchog target Ghost-types and is a very handy move in general, reducing the effectiveness of foes by removing their items. Low Kick gives Watchog coverage against Rock and Steel-types, which conveniently tend to take more damage from it due to their high weight. Super Fang helps Watchog wear down bulky Pokemon by chipping away half of their current HP. Watchog also gets the three elemental punches, Crunch, Zen Headbutt, Seed Bomb and Gunk Shot as options to hit specific Pokemon. Hypnosis, Toxic and Thunder Wave are some debilitating status moves to give Watchog more utility. Reflect, Light Screen and Helping Hand lets it provide team support, or it could use Swords Dance and Baton Pass to send Attack boosts to a better Pokemon.

Lillipup, Herdier and Stoutland
Stoutland is a solid Normal-type with good Attack, decent bulk and a selection of helpful abilities. It is a standard physical attacker that uses its reliable range of attacks to smack a wide variety of Pokemon for good damage. Intimidate is an excellent support ability that makes enemy physical attackers more manageable while improving Stoutland's bulk, while Scrappy lets it hit Ghost-types without the need for a coverage move. Sand Rush is the most situational option since it requires Sandstorm support from a teammate, but easily makes Stoutland one of the fastest Pokemon in the game and it lacks the common weaknesses of most Sandstorm abusers. Stoutland isn't too bad, but its rarely seen due to being outclassed by so many other physical Normal-types that are either stronger or better at abusing its abilities.

Return is the go-to STAB move of any physical Normal-type, dealing reliable and considerable damage without negative side effects. Superpower punches holes through Rock and Steel types that resist Normal. Crunch gives Stoutland coverage against Ghost-types, which is important if it isn't using Scrappy. Stoutland can also use Pursuit to trap Ghost and Psychic types and take them out. Other coverage options are Wild Charge, which does good damage against common bulky Water-types, or Play Rough, which can devastate opposing Fighting-types.

Purrloin and Liepard
Liepard is a conniving support Pokemon, one of the few blessed with the coveted Prankster ability that makes its status moves go first. It also has no lack of disruptive support moves to make itself a massive nuisance to the enemy team. Among other Prankster users, Liepard possesses above average Speed, which gives it an edge over other priority users, as well as decent offense and a typing that gives it STAB on some of the game's best utility attacks. Unfortunately, Liepard is incredibly frail, so it has severe difficulty facing Pokemon it cannot outspeed or outprioritize. It also faces competition from other Prankster users that either have better bulk or strong niche moves to abuse Prankster with.

One of Liepard's most dreaded methods of Prankster abuse is the infamous SwagPlay combo. Using Swagger, Liepard can reliably inflict Confusion on the enemy while raising their Attack, making them hit themselves harder when confused. It can then take advantage of the Attack boost with Foul Play to strike its foe with massive damage. Thunder Wave is excellent when used with the aforementioned combo or on its own, completely crippling many offensive Pokemon and having the possibility of rendering them completely useless for a turn by random chance. Encore is another menacing move to use with Prankster, since Liepard can often force switches by locking a foe into a status or setup move. Alternatively, Taunt is a more straightforward option that guarantees the enemy can't use status moves the moment Liepard switches in. Liepard's great Speed and decent Attack means it can provide utility in a more standard way with Knock Off, Pursuit or U-turn. It is also one of the faster users of Fake Out, which can be crucial for doubles and triples. Lastly, Liepard can attempt a surprise sweep with Nasty Plot and Dark Pulse, serving as a decisive trump card once faster foes and dark-resistant enemies have been taken out.

Drilbur and Excadrill
With a respectable 135 Attack and decent Speed for a Ground-type, Excadrill is one of the better Ground Pokémon in the game. It is one of the more well-known users of Rapid Spin, due to its double resistance to Stealth Rock and deadly offensive presence that can prevent attempts at spinblocking. It also works well as a straight up attacker due to its excellent selection of abilities, notably being the only Ground-type line to get Mold Breaker as well as becoming an almost unstoppable sandstorm sweeper with Sand Rush. Excadrill's unique Ground/Steel typing, while giving it a slew of resistances and two immunities, does leave it with some problematic weaknesses, with Fighting, Fire, Water and Ground moves all being pretty common. It is also disappointingly slow, so it must be wary of faster threats that can outspeed and knock it out.

Earthquake is the best Ground STAB without a doubt, and Excadrill can take advantage of Mold Breaker to ignore Levitate users like Bronzong and Rotom, scoring easy KOs these Pokémon that normally don't fear Ground attacks. Excadrill doesn't get many good Steel STAB moves, unless you go through the trouble of teaching one Iron Head via Move Tutor in B2W2, though it is a good option against fairly common Fairy-types. Rock Slide is a better coverage move as it can hit Flying-types and Bug-types that don't fear Earthquake, though its Base Power is pretty low. Rapid Spin is a great utility move for removing hazards, especially since most Pokémon that can block its effect fear Excadrill's powerful attacks. Excadrill can also set up Stealth Rock itself, but it must learn this move from a Gen V Move Tutor. Besides these moves, Excadrill also gets Sandstorm and Swords Dance for Sand Rush sweeping. It interestingly has two OHKO moves, Horn Drill and Fissure, but their poor accuracy means you're better off using more conventional attacks.

Minccino and Cinccino
At first glance, Cinccino looks like a generic Normal-type Pokémon with cute looks and not much else. However, Cincinno's strengths lie in its abilities, namely Technician and Skill Link, and a movepool that makes use of these two abilities quite well. It can learn Rock Blast, Bullet Seed and Tail Slap, all of which are excellent moves when used with Skill Link or Technician. Skill Link causes all multi-hit moves to always hit 5 times, which make these moves have an effective base power of 125, which can cause quite a bit of damage with Cinccino's base 95 Attack. If you're willing to trade reliability for power, Technician is a potentially stronger option, as it make all multi-hit moves have a minimum of 75 base power in total and does the equivalent of a 188 base power attack if all five hits land. With that much power and being decently fast as well, Cinccino is a surprisingly powerful threat.

As stated before, Tail Slap, Rock Blast and Bullet Seed are mandatory for Cinccino. Tail Slap gets STAB and is usually its most damaging option, while Bullet Seed can hit Rock-types that resist Tail Slap as well as any Ground and Water types. Rock Blast doesn't exactly cover any of its offensive weaknesses, but it enables it to hit common Flying and Fire types for super effective damage. All three moves are resisted by Steel-types however. For its remaining moveslot, Steel Tail and Aqua Tail are its strongest physical options that don't share a type with its main moves. Wake-Up Slap is also usable to dent Steel-types, while U-turn can simply let it switch out against a threat. Defensively, Cinccino is pretty frail, and a weakness to common Fighting-type moves doesn't help it stay alive, and there are plenty of other offensive Pokémon with similar or better stat distributions, so it faces a lot of competition. Regardless, Cinccino's powerful multi-hit moves makes it a legitimate threat, and opponents fooled by its innocent appearance will find themselves Tail Slapped and knocked out.

Gothita, Gothorita and Gothitelle
The Gothitelle line is one of three evolutionary lines that have the amazing Shadow Tag ability. As long as Gothitelle is on the field, this ability will keep enemies from switching out, unless they're Ghost-types. Wobuffet uses counterattacks to take down its targets, Mega Gengar overwhelms its trapped victims with immense power, but Gothitelle's form of trapping is more gradual and defensive. It has great defenses to help it keep foes trapped for longer, and it has a wide support movepool to let it wear down a variety of Pokemon, both offensive and defensive. Once it has defeated a key target, the rest of the team can perform their roles more freely. Common tactics to counter Shadow Tag work on Gothitelle as well. It fears Ghost-type and Dark-type attacks, and is prone to being trapped by Pursuit itself. Gothitelle's Speed is also quite poor, but it has effective ways to remedy this.

Gothitelle commonly use a combination of Trick and Choice Scarf. The speed boost from Choice Scarf helps it get the first move, and it can trick the Choice Scarf away to lock its foes into undesirable moves, which is especially devastating to opposing walls. Even if Gothitelle fails to successfully trap and discard of its target, the tricked Choice Scarf will still have lasting effects by limiting your opponent's tactics. For trapping more offensive Pokemon, Gothitelle also has Thunder Wave, which negates its target's speed advantage. Next, Gothitelle can use either Psychic or Psyshock to directly wear its foes down. Finally, Gothitelle can use Rest to prolong its survivability while stalling out a trapped Pokemon, which also has the additional benefit of dispelling status effects like Toxic. In doubles or triples, Gothitelle can both trap and support its teammates, due to learning moves like Trick Room, Heal Pulse and Helping Hand.

Keldeo
Keldeo rounds out the Swords of Justice with its similar typing and stats, having the best Special Attack among the group. Its uncommon typing is perhaps its greatest asset, as it gives Keldeo a massive 7 resistances that it can take advantage with its decent, all-around bulk. Its typing also gives it a nice STAB combination, being one of the top offensive users of Scald, while its unique Secret Sword attack lets it hit the weaker Defense stat of most special walls, an advantage otherwise limited to Psychic-types. Like the other Swords of Justice, Keldeo also enjoys having nice Speed, as well as a Justified ability to grab an Attack boost when switching into a Dark-type attack. While Keldeo is quite versatile, it has a very disappointing special movepool that misses out on a lot of coverage, and while its Water/Fighting typing gives it a nice amount of resistances, they also leave it with weaknesses to common Fairy and Flying moves, among others.

No matter if Keldeo is built offensively or defensively, Scald will always be its main STAB move. This Water-type attack boasts good power, though its high chance of causing burns is what really makes it a troublesome move to play around. For sheer power, Hydro Pump is a nice alternative. Secret Sword is a great secondary STAB move for Keldeo, a special move that damages foes based on their physical Defense stat, so Keldeo can't easily be stopped by special walls. Icy Wind is Keldeo's only notable coverage move used for hitting Grass and Dragon types. While its damage is very poor, the speed drop could be useful for Keldeo or its teammates. Hidden Power can also be used for added coverage, with Hidden Power Electric being the most popular as a way of dealing with the myriad of bulky Water-types in the game. Keldeo can use Calm Mind for added power and bulk, which can be used for Substitute to protect itself from status. Taunt can also be an option to shut down bulky support Pokemon.

Meloetta
Meloetta is an interesting Pokemon with multiple formes. In its Aria Forme, it has the stats of a standard Psychic-type attacker, having good special stats, decent speed but poor physical stats, with the added advantage of a Ghost immunity due to its Normal sub-type. Pirouette Forme Meloetta boasts better physical stats, impressive speed but poor special stats as a tradeoff. The change in typing significantly alters Meloetta's weaknesses and resistances to catch foes off guard. Its type combination in either form gives it good neutral coverage, which it can patch up with its nice movepool, and it learns a variety of support moves as well. Meloetta's main weakness is its poor bulk from one of its defense stats in either forme. It also struggles to compete with other special Psychic types, with its part Normal-type being its main draw. Finally, Meloetta's Pirouette Forme is rather unwieldy, being forced to start in Aria Forme, requiring an otherwise mostly useless Relic Song to transform, and using a completely different set of attacks from Aria Meloetta.

Hyper Voice is a nice Normal-type STAB move that hits through Substitutes. Psyshock is a good Psychic STAB that hits special walls hard, and is Meloetta's main STAB move for the most part, though Psychic can be used instead for more power. Focus Blast punches through Steel-types that resist either of Meloetta's STAB moves, as well as threatening Dark-types. Shadow Ball in turn keeps Ghost-type at bay. For Pirouette Forme, Relic Song is necessary for Meloetta to transform in the first place. Return has massive neutral coverage, while Close Combat crushes anything that resists Normal. Knock Off deals with Ghost-types handily, while having amazing utility in general. U-turn is another good utility move to maintain offensive pressure by letting Meloetta switch out into a better contender against the opponent. Thunder Wave and Toxic are generally good options for more support based Meloetta. Calm Mind boosts Aria Meloetta's main stats while improving its bulk, while Substitute can be used with it for protection against attacks and status. It can also cure status with Heal Bell, while Perish Song can force switches. Lastly, Trick can be used with a choice item to stop bulkier Pokemon intent on sponging Meloetta's attacks.

Genesect
With great speed and mixed offenses coupled with an excellent ability in Download, Genesect is practically the offensive counterpart to Scizor. Genesect's Bug/Steel typing gives it a myriad of resistances, with only a single serious weakness to Fire, and it is backed up by decent defensive stats. However, it's main highlight is its rare Download ability, which boosts the attacking stat the foe's defenses are more vulnerable to the moment Genesect switches in, powering itself up for free. This amazing offensive power is backed up by its amazing movepool, including a range of coverage moves, priority and strong boosting moves as well, making it a tremendously versatile Pokemon. Its main issue is rather lackluster speed compared to other offensive threats, and Download doesn't always provide the boosts it needs.

No matter what kind of set Genesect is running, U-Turn is an ubiquitous attack on all of them. This amazing utility move helps Genesect's team pressure the opponent, as it can simply deal some chip damage and switch out if the foe decides to bring in a Genesect answer. Genesect's special attacks have a bit more variety than its physical attacks, having the uncommon Thunderbolt and Ice Beam combination, as well as Flamethrower, Energy Ball, Flash Cannon and Dark Pulse. Its signature Techno Blast ability is quite strong and can give it extra coverage with the right items, but Genesect generally prefers using more traditional held items like Choice Scarves. Its physical attacks have less type variety but are useful nevertheless. In addition to the aforementioned U-Turn, Genesect is one of the few Pokemon that gets Extreme Speed, a great priority move that works around Genesect's middling speed. Iron Head is a nice STAB move as well, while Shadow Claw and Zen Headbutt are coverage options. Explosion can also give foes a nasty surprise, especially with a Download boost. Lastly, Genesect is one of the Pokemon species that gets Shift Gear, which raises both its lackluster Speed and further boosts its Attack, making it a deadly setup sweeper.