u/ianlazrbeem22

Welcome to Breaking the Binary, a sporadic series of posts all about mixed attackers in Pokémon Platinum. With competitive minmaxing dominating the conversation about Pokémon viability and the design philosophy behind movepools changing in newer gens, Pokémon are often rigidly divided by the fandom into the categories of "special attacker" or "physical attacker." But for the in-game story, you're not facing EV trained opponents and thus don't need to EV train to keep up, so mixed attacking sets don't have the opportunity cost they have in PvP. Going mixed still has anti-synergy with setup moves, but it still can give many Pokémon access to STAB moves with better base power, strong coverage moves with useful types, and more useful niches. This series will be covering those applications. We won't talk about every Pokémon here, only ones that I believe legitimately benefit from going mixed, but those Pokémon are surprisingly large in number. Today we'll be talking about Bibarel. I'll be talking about in-game but feel free to discuss PvP or battle facilities as well. 

Bibarel is a Normal/Water Pokémon with middling stats, including 85 Atk and 55 SpA. Its notable physical moves include Return, Rollout, Superpower, Dig, Pluck, Quick Attack, and Waterfall. Its notable special moves include Ice Beam, Blizzard, Surf, Thunder, Charge Beam, Shadow Ball, Grass Knot, Shock Wave. Useful utility moves include Yawn, Curse, Super Fang, Amnesia, Sunny Day, Rain Dance, and Defense Curl.

Bibarel's poor SpA makes its mixed potential limited, but the types and base power of its options mean its mixed potential still exists. Surf is available long before Waterfall and has 95 base power, STAB, and an excellent typing. Ice coverage, which pairs very well with Water STAB, only comes in the form of special moves for Bibarel. Most water types want ice moves, so dipping into that 55 spa is Bibarel's only access to that key type. With poor SpA, the high base power of moves like Blizzard and Thunder makes a big difference though, so you mostly have to run those risky moves to get good damage output from it. Ice Beam is passable on it but Blizzard's power makes it worth the risk. It also has some other coverage moves on the special side, and combining those with Charge Beam can be a funny meme on it with Simple, but in my opinion Ice coverage is the only worthwhile reason to dip into Bibarel's special movepool and deviate from its stronger builds like Curse and/or Amnesia sets. Using utility moves like Yawn or Super Fang along with 3 attacks, or just slapping Amnesia on there, works out fine for Bibarel overall, and Ice is likely its best coverage type. Bibarel also goes mixed in the earlygame when it gets Water Gun but also has Tackle, Quick Attack, and CurlOut, but this is mostly for a lack of other options.

What do you think of mixed Bibarel? Is it worth exploring? Are there any applications for going mixed I didn't mention? Leave a comment below with your thoughts. 

Sample Set:

Bibarel @ Silk Scarf • Return, Waterfall, Blizzard, Yawn

Welcome to Breaking the Binary, a sporadic series of posts all about mixed attackers in Pokémon Platinum. With competitive minmaxing dominating the conversation about Pokémon viability and the design philosophy behind movepools changing in newer gens, Pokémon are often rigidly divided by the fandom into the categories of "special attacker" or "physical attacker." But for the in-game story, you're not facing EV trained opponents and thus don't need to EV train to keep up, so mixed attacking sets don't have the opportunity cost they have in PvP. Going mixed still has anti-synergy with setup moves, but it still can give many Pokémon access to STAB moves with better base power, strong coverage moves with useful types, and more useful niches. This series will be covering those applications. We won't talk about every Pokémon here, only ones that I believe legitimately benefit from going mixed, but those Pokémon are surprisingly large in number. Today we'll be talking about Empoleon. I'll be talking about in-game but feel free to discuss PvP or battle facilities as well. 

Empoleon is a slow and bulky Water/Steel type with 86 Atk and 111 SpA. Its notable special attacks include Surf, Blizzard, Ice Beam, Grass Knot, and Flash Cannon. Its notable physical attacks include Pluck, Rock Tomb, and Metal Claw early, and later, Rock Slide, Earthquake, Aqua Jet, and Drill Peck. 

Empoleon isn't the best mixed attacker and it heavily leans Special given its movepool and better SpA, but as a Prinplup it's good as a mixed attacker in the early and midgame, and Empoleon still has a couple physical moves worth considering. The main ones are Earthquake and Aqua Jet. Earthquake has a fantastic typing and fantastic base power with no downside, and it synergizes with Ice Beam for near-perfect coverage. Aqua Jet is a non-bred Empoleon's only tool for working around its poor Speed. 

You can also give Empoleon Swords Dance and prioritize physical moves, and Aqua Jet is good on this set, but Ice Beam or Blizzard are its only real Ice moves, and this can still be useful for perfect coverage. I don't think this is that good though, EdgeQuake + Aqua Jet is good enough on this build and this build is mostly a meme anyways. 

As a Prinplup, going mixed gives it a lot more to do. Pluck makes it a good killer of route Grass and Bug types, and helps it a bit against Gardenia. Rock Tomb helps with early Flying types like Starly and Zubat, and the speed debuff can be nice against problem mons like Purugly or Skuntank. You can gradually phase out these moves as they fall off and transition to all-special, or slap EQ or Aqua Jet on, and either is totally fine. 

I also don't think Drill Peck is very good on Empoleon due to its lack of genuine utility or useful matchups; Surf + Ice Beam does enough on its own and 80/100 coming from a lesser attacking stat is outclassed by its other options. Flying is a good stab type but not a great coverage type once you have access to ice moves. 

Overall, mixed Empoleon is a little obscure and not the best, but Earthquake is still a great move, Aqua Jet helps a lot with its speed problem, and mixed Prinplup is very strong in the early and midgame but usually wants to change its moves upon evolving. 

What do you think of mixed Empoleon? Is it worth exploring? Are there any applications for going mixed I didn't mention? Leave a comment below with your thoughts. 

Sample Sets:

Prinplup @ Oran Berry/Pecha Berry/Cheri Berry • BubbleBeam, Pluck, Metal Claw, Rock Tomb

Empoleon @ NeverMeltIce • Surf, Ice Beam, Flash Cannon/Grass Knot, Earthquake