Taillow Movesets & Competitive Sets

Moves Boomburst is the attack that should be utilized the most; when paired with Scrappy and Life Orb, it becomes very difficult to switch into. Heat Wave heavily damages Steel-types, OHKOing Ferroseed and Magnemite after Stealth Rock damage. Hidden Power Fighting can be used instead to deal more damage to Rock-types and OHKO standard Pawniard, but it misses out on the aforementioned KOs. What Taillow can't break, it can U-turn out of, granting its team momentum in the process. Brave Bird is mostly a filler move, but with Life Orb, it is useful for OHKOing Fighting-types, something that Air Slash cannot do. Set Details The given EVs and nature maximize Taillow's Special Attack and Speed and thus its sweeping potential, with the remaining EVs put in Defense so that Taillow can better take priority attacks. The reduced HP IVs allow Taillow to hit 19 HP, meaning Taillow only loses one HP per round of Life Orb recoil instead of two. Life Orb is the preferred item so that Taillow can hit hard while maintaining the ability to switch moves. Usage Tips This set performs best once opposing Rock- and Steel-types are adequately weakened or removed, allowing Taillow to freely fire off Boomburst. Otherwise, playing with this set is quite straightforward: use Boomburst as much as the situation allows. Team Options Entry hazards on the opposing side are as appreciated as they are for any offensive Pokemon, allowing Taillow to get a few OHKOs and 2HKOs that it otherwise could not; Tirtouga and Pawniard are examples of Pokemon that can set up Stealth Rock while checking the Rock-types that trouble Taillow. Diglett is able to set up Stealth Rock and can trap and KO a variety of Rock- and Steel-types. On the other hand, Rapid Spin support is beneficial to deal with Taillow's Stealth Rock weakness, with Drilbur being a prime candidate for its ability to set up Stealth Rock as well. Taillow also makes an excellent member of a "bird spam" core by being paired with other Flying-types, such as Fletchling, Doduo, and Archen; one Flying-type weakens the opposing team's checks and counters to Flying-types, allowing the others to sweep.

Moves This set aims to take advantage of powerful Guts-boosted attacks. Facade becomes incredibly dangerous once Taillow is inflicted with status, 2HKOing almost everything that doesn't resist it. Brave Bird is an alternative STAB move; although the recoil can be detrimental, it hits Fighting- and Grass-types quite hard and deals more damage than Facade before Guts is activated. Quick Attack, although not especially powerful, is useful for picking off weakened threats and is Taillow's only priority attack. U-turn is useful for maintaining momentum and chipping away at Taillow's checks, while Protect allows Taillow to reliably activate Toxic Orb. However, Steel Wing can be viably used in the third or fourth moveslot if Archen is particularly troublesome. Set Details The given EVs maximize Taillow's Attack and Speed and thus its sweeping potential, and the leftover EVs are dumped into HP so that Taillow can switch into Stealth Rock 4 times instead of 3 if Toxic Orb does not activate. Toxic Orb is preferred over Flame Orb because Taillow's lack of methods to directly break through checks and counters means that it will usually not be staying in for very long. Usage Tips Because most of Taillow's success depends on Guts, it is essential to activate Toxic Orb as early as possible. The best way of doing so is through a slow U-turn or Volt Switch user to get Taillow into play unharmed. This can also be done by switching Taillow into a Ghost- or Ground-type move or Will-O-Wisp, although this can be quite risky, as the opponent may choose a different attack. Team Options Because Taillow is prone to switching a lot during the match, Rapid Spin or Defog support is essential; as such, Drilbur makes for an excellent partner because not only can it remove hazards from your side of the field, but it is also capable of setting Stealth Rock and heavily damaging troublesome Rock- and Steel-types with its STAB Earthquake. Arena Trap Diglett is another good teammate to get rid of certain Rock- and Steel-types. Because this set doesn't have Scrappy, a solid Pursuit user such as Stunky or Houndour is also a good partner to remove Ghost-types, which are immune to Facade. As with all of its sets, Taillow can be paired with another powerful Flying-type Pokemon such as Fletchling, Doduo, or Archen to help wear down their shared checks and counters.

In a metagame plagued with dangerous sweepers, such as Dragon Dance Dratini and Shell Smash Clamperl, Choice Scarf Taillow can act as a solid revenge killer. Even after both sweepers have used Dragon Dance or Shell Smash, respectively, using a combination of impressive Speed and a high-powered Brave Bird, Taillow can outpace and OHKO both Dratini and Clamperl. Unfortunately, Doduo gives Taillow stiff competition, because it can achieve the same results as Taillow using two more Attack points. However, Taillow possesses several traits giving it an advantage over the twin-headed bird. One of these is U-turn, which is not only a useful move to escape from Wynaut unharmed, but allows the team to retain offensive momentum, as well as easing the prediction required for Taillow to switch to another teammate. Taillow also boasts the choice of two superior abilities, when compared to Doduo, which are Guts and Scrappy. Guts allows Taillow to turn a Toxic or Burn status into the equivalent of a Choice Band boost, making it strong enough to 2HKO a Slowpoke with Brave Bird. While Scrappy isn't as useful as Guts, it could help you nab an OHKO on Gastly, should it think it can switch into your choice locked Return unharmed. When you can't afford to take recoil damage, or if you want to hit an Electric-type, Return is a reliable second STAB attack. Toxic is used to disrupt walls, such as Lileep and Slowpoke, who would otherwise recover off Taillow's Brave Birds and KO it back. Taillow can then switch out to another teammate that can stall out the Toxic damage or just KO them. Double-Edge can be used over Return, if you want to have a recoil party, but there generally isn't anything significant enough to warrant the extra risk. Pursuit is another option which can be used over Toxic, should you want to KO a fleeing Gastly and/or weakened Slowpoke, but its far more situational than Toxic. The EVs give Taillow the maximum amount of Attack and Speed for an Adamant nature and dumps the leftovers into HP to slightly alleviate Brave Bird recoil. It is recommended that you do not use a Jolly nature to outspeed other Choice Scarf users as it will keep you from revenging a full health Timburr with Brave Bird, along with missing out on several other important KOs. Because Taillow is a revenge killer with a Stealth Rock weakness and relies on a strong recoil move, it greatly appreciates a Rapid Spin user to help it not kill itself. Staryu is the top Rapid Spinner, being able to take hits from the likes of Dwebble and Shelmet, and threaten them back with a strong STAB Hydro Pump. However, Ferroseed is a problem for both of them so a strong Fighting-type, such as Mienfoo or Croagunk, couldn't hurt. Pokemon that benefit from Taillow's U-turn's safe switching, such as Wynaut, Diglett, and set-up sweepers, enjoy taking advantage of whatever specific Pokemon they are U-turned into. Lastly, like every other Choice item user, Taillow can be taken advantage of by Pokemon who are resistant or immune to whichever move it is locked into. Keeping this in mind, you should be aware of the opponent's team and carefully predict accordingly.

After Toxic Orb's activation, Taillow's Attack stat rockets to a powerful 22, nearly reaching that of Meditite. Along with its high 19 Speed stat, Taillow becomes a very dangerous all-out attacker. Once the Pokemon that resist its moves have been knocked out, Taillow can deal heavy damage to an entire team with its boosted STAB Facade. Taillow's primary attacking option is its 140 Base Power Facade, which hits incredibly hard coming from its 22 Attack stat. Brave Bird gives Taillow an effective way to deal with Ferroseed, as well as Ghost-types such as Misdreavus on the switch. Yet, in general, Facade is the preferable option thanks to its higher power and lack of additional recoil. Pluck is also a viable alternative to Brave Bird by merit of its ability to steal Oran Berries from Pokemon such as Bronzor or Misdreavus, as well as avoid the recoil from Brave Bird. However, Taillow does lose the ability to hit Ferroseed nearly as hard as it could with Brave Bird, which puts it at risk of being stalled out by Leech Seed and Protect. Quick Attack, while far weaker than Facade, allows Taillow to outspeed most other priority users and damage them first, and deal good damage to, or even KO, set-up sweepers once they have been significantly weakened. For the final slot, both moves have significant upsides. A Taillow using U-turn can scout the opponent's team while doing good damage, despite U-turn having only 70 Base Power. However, with Protect, Taillow can easily find that one turn required to activate the Guts boost it so sorely needs to do any significant damage. To demonstrate the power a Guts Facade possesses, here are some damage calculations against some of the most common threats in Little Cup. Facade vs. 196 HP / 236 Def Bold +1 Slowpoke: 53.6-69.2% Facade vs. 76 HP / 52 Def Chinchou: 124-148% Facade vs. 76 HP / 156 Def Eviolite Timburr: 72-84% Facade vs. 76 HP / 156 Def +1 Eviolite Timburr: 52-60% Taillow is heavily walled by Pokemon such as Ferroseed who, despite being hit neutrally by Brave Bird (or Pluck), can stall Taillow out with Leech Seed damage along with the recoil from Brave Bird, Iron Barbs, and Toxic Orb. For this reason, it is important to carry a strong Fighting- or Fire-type such as Timburr, Mienfoo, or Houndour alongside Taillow in order to consistently remove those bulky Steel-types from its path. Also, packing a Pokemon capable of taking care of Ghost-types, such as Misdreavus, Stunky, or Houndour, will allow Taillow to spam Facade without fear of a Ghost-type switching in for free and racking up Toxic damage. Running Magnemite alongside Taillow is also a good option, as Magnemite can trap and kill those pesky Steel-types Taillow struggles so much against, and resists all three of Taillow's weaknesses to boot. For the same reason, Diglett is also a good partner for Taillow, as it can trap and kill both Steel- and Rock-types, and absorb the Electric-type attacks aimed at Taillow. Other Ground-types, such as Wooper or Sandile, can also be used alongside Taillow. Partnering Taillow with Chinchou can be helpful, as Chinchou resists Ice- and Electric-type attacks and can scout alongside Taillow (who has U-turn) with Volt Switch. Pawniard's strong priority attack and useful resistances make it a viable partner as well, and it greatly appreciates Taillow's Ground-type immunity.

Taillow's fantastic base Speed in conjunction with Guts and powerful STAB Double-Edge allows it be an excellent revenge killer and wallbreaker. Quick Attack is used to safely revenge kill weakened Pokemon that Speed tie with or are faster than Taillow such as Aipom, Staryu, and Elekid. While not nearly as strong as Double-Edge, Aerial Ace provides a non-recoil STAB move that is still able to threaten offensive Pokemon as well as Bug- and Grass-types such as Bayleef, Dustox, and Exeggcute. Hidden Power Ground is coverage that allows Taillow to deal super effective damage to Rock- and Steel-types such as Rhyhorn, Magnemite, and Nosepass. As an alternative to Aerial Ace and Hidden Power Ground, Hidden Power Flying and Steel Wing can be used. Hidden Power Flying is stronger than Aerial Ace, while Steel Wing can hit Lileep, with the trade-off being walled by Magnemite and Aron. Taillow's access to Guts allows it to punish the use of Toxic and Will-O-Wisp by increasing its damage output, which other Choice Band Normal-types like Aipom and Pidgeotto cannot do. Taillow fits on offensive and balanced teams that enjoy its wallbreaking and revenge killing capabilities. Taillow suffers from competition from Pidgeotto, which has much better bulk and stronger attacks. However, Taillow's much higher Speed justifies its use on faster teams. Due to its extreme fragility, Taillow appreciates Rock- and Steel-type checks like Koffing, Bayleef, and Lileep. Special attackers such as Elekid, Chinchou, and Growlithe appreciate Taillow's ability to deal with common special walls like Dustox, Delcatty, and Chinchou; in return, Taillow benefits from their ability to deal with physical walls such as Rhyhorn, Koffing, and Magnemite. Spikes and Toxic support can help soften physical walls and lower faster offensive Pokemon into Quick Attack range.