Physical Sweeping Ursaring

Ursaring is a Pokémon that is barely used, yet has incredible Attacking ability. A combination of an insanely high Attack stat and its Guts ability gives it astronomical damaging capabilities. Ursaring is one of my personal favorites to use in competitive battles.

One of the best moves to use on Ursaring is Façade. It is a Normal-type move that has a base power of 70, but this doubles if the user is afflicted by a status condition. When Ursaring holds a Toxic or Flame Orb, he is automatically afflicted with a status at the end of his first turn in battle. Façade’s now 140 base power plus the STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) on top of the Guts bonus makes this almost a guaranteed one hit KO.

Ursaring is rather slow, making him ideal for a trick room team, but he is not limited to just these types of teams. Move Set one is best for Trick Room, while Move Set 2 is better for everything else.

Strategy

Ursaring can be sent in at almost any time during a battle, since it does not rely on many things to function well. For a Trick Room team, he should be used after Trick Room is set up for maximum potential.

On the first turn in battle, Ursaring won’t be Poisoned or Burned since the Orb items only activate at the end of the first turn. On this turn, you have a few options. If you think that your opponent will use an attack, it is best to use Protect, to give you the “free” turn and activate Ursaring’s Orb. If you don’t think they will attack, use a stat boosting move, either Bulk Up or Swords Dance, to raise Ursaring’s Attack even further.

Once Ursaring has a status condition, repeatedly use Façade (or another move, if you think that the other move will do more damage) to knock out your opponent’s Pokémon. Façade will 1-hit-KO most any Pokémon that doesn’t resist Normal-type attacks, regardless of how high its Defense stat is.

If Ursaring is holding a Toxic Orb, only leave him in battle for 3-4 turns, since the Toxic damage increases significantly over time (starts out 1/16 of max HP each turn, then increases to 2/16 next turn, then 3/16, etc). Switching Ursaring out resets the Toxic damage back to its original value.

Using a Flame Orb instead will do more damage initially (Burn afflicts 1/8 of maximum HP each turn), but you will be able to leave Ursaring out longer, since Burn damage doesn’t increase every turn like Toxic.

Having a Pokémon that knows Wish is a handy way to restore damage done to Ursaring by the Toxic or the Burn. Use Wish on one of your Pokémon and then switch out to Ursaring, and he will regain 50% HP.

Things to Watch Out For

1. Ghost types. Normal-type attacks do not affect Ghosts at all, so Façade will be useless. Having Crunch on Ursaring gives him a good way to deal with Ghosts.
2. Mach Punch. This is a priority Fighting-type move that will go first, even if Trick Room is active. This could potentially KO Ursaring before he can even attack.
3. Ferrothorn. This is a very common Pokémon in competitive battling. Not only is its Defense stat sky high, but it resists Façade. This, paired with the common “Iron Barb-Rocky Helmet” set could take out Ursaring easily. If your opponent has Ferrothorn on their team, they could switch in to take Ursaring’s attack.

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