Scizor
Pincer Pokémon
Bulky pincers account for one third of Scizor’s body weight. A single swing of one of these pincers will crush a boulder completely.
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Details
Sprites
Competitive
Strategy Overview
Scizor's potent defensive typing, amazing utility in Knock Off and U-turn, reliable recovery in Roost, and useful ability in Technician for Bullet Punch make it one of UU's scariest cleaners and best pivots. Scizor's dominance stems from its set versatility and ability to fit on nearly every playstyle, ranging from hyper offense to balance. Scizor's 3 Attacks + Roost set provides near-unmatched utility as a pivot that can nearly always make progress by crippling switch-ins like Salamence and Celesteela with Knock Off and enabling threats like Azelf with U-turn, all while having Roost to check threats like Tangrowth and Zarude throughout a game. Meanwhile, Scizor's bulky Swords Dance set is notorious for being a strong late-game cleaner that can take advantage of common Pokemon like Zarude, Chansey, and Hippowdon to boost its Attack while also being a great revenge killer against Zygarde-10% and Nihilego, as well as having the longevity to outlast checks like Celesteela and sweep when the time is right. Scizor's offensive Swords Dance set focuses on going all out and steamrolling past defensive Pokemon like Tangrowth and Chansey while easily sweeping past Hydreigon and Mamoswine with its boosted attacks. All of these factors make Scizor quite tough to handle in the builder, possibly exploiting Skarmory and Cobalion with U-turn as well as potentially outlasting hard checks like Salamence, opening up its team. However, Scizor is not without its flaws. Its poor Speed and average Special Defense leave it susceptible to strong special attackers like Keldeo and Thundurus-T. Cleaning with Bullet Punch isn't always easy due to the prevalence of faster Steel-resistant Pokemon like Cobalion, Rotom-W, and the aforementioned Keldeo and Thundurus-T. This relegates Scizor to item displacement and pivoting for the early- to mid-game, as it is unable to immediately make progress on its own. Scizor also has a horrific weakness to Fire-type attacks, leaving it limited by common coverage moves from threats such as Galarian Slowbro, Celesteela, Azelf, and Salamence. Common defensive Pokemon like Skarmory and Amoonguss can be used to scout nearly all of Scizor's attacks, making it easier to distinguish what set it is running. Scizor struggles to fit all the moves it would like, wanting Swords Dance to sweep late-game, Knock Off to cripple switch-ins like Salamence, and U-turn to pivot away from unfavorable matchups.
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Common Teammates
Competitive data from Smogon University via data.pkmn.cc