Kabutops
Shellfish Pokémon
In the water, it tucks in its limbs to become more compact, then it wiggles its shell to swim fast.
Base Stats
Type Effectiveness
Evolution Chain
Moves
Details
Sprites
Competitive
Strategy Overview
Consistent with its terrifying appearance, Kabutops is a unique and dangerous sweeper. With Swords Dance boosting its already high Attack, it can quickly become a terror to deal with, and the looming possibility of an Ancient Power boost can cause opponents to dread confrontations with this freakish fossil. Unfortunately, the fact that Kabutops runs such a move in its standard set should allow one to infer that Kabutops is lacking in the movepool department; notably, it lacks access to Rock Slide and Earthquake. Kabutops also has rather low HP and Special Defense stats, meaning it must move with care to ensure that it has enough HP left after setting up to take one or two foes down with it. Moreover, while its typing and decent Speed stat grant it winning matchups against all three of Nidoqueen, Granbull, and Scyther, it is far from a reliable response to any of these Pokemon. Instead, it is best played aggressively and, ideally, with screen support to maximize its opportunity to break through the opponent's defenses.
Most Used Items
Common Teammates
Competitive data from Smogon University via data.pkmn.cc