Note: Now that we are outside of the early metagame of Terrain Wars, terrain is much less important and impactful now, and you don't see
many terrains other than grassy terrain, so while this article may be a bit outdated, it still grasps how you use Raticate-Alolan here.
Introduction
With the 35 pokes June roster being revealed today, the early metagame has quickly developed into Terrain Wars. With Indeedee setting up Psychic, Pincurchin setting up Electric, and Arboliva setting up Grassy Terrain respectively. With each player wanting their Terrain up for their team’s strategies, people are willing to dedicate a slot to guaranteeing winning the Terrain Wars. Raticate is a perfect example of this.
Because of Raticate’s access to pursuit, it can pursuit the common Indeedee-Male, which Electric Terrain directly benefits from. Grassy terrain teams also love being able to remove indeedee, though they dont mind Psychic Terrain being up all the time because of how Anti-Meta Grassy Terrain teams tend to be, they still appreciate getting rid of the opposing Terrain setter. Even on Psychic Terrain teams, applying offensive pressure with pursuit on walls such as Runerigus, which would normally deal with your sweepers, often makes it worthwhile in the long term to use a pokemon such as Raticate.
Pursuit Trapper
Raticate-Alola @ Choice Band/Black Glasses
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Knock Off/Stomping Tantrum
- U-turn/Taunt
- Sucker Punch/Facade/Quick Attack/Stomping Tantrum/Zen Headbutt/Switcheroo
This is the most common set you will be seeing and be using on Raticate. Though Raticate has a measly 71 base ATK stat, you can increase it’s damage output with Hustle, giving it a 1.5x damage multiplier, and with choice band you can increase it’s damage output further by another 1.5x damage multiplier, effectively bringing it up to a 2.25x damage multiplier, which when maxed out ATK EVS and an adamant nature, brings you up to a whopping 596 ATK. The rest of your EVS go into bulk, which maximizes your longevity in 1v1 situations against walls that stay in on your pursuit. If you are on black glasses instead of Choice Band, you still have significant damage output, and aren’t restricted to just pursuit which allows you to threaten both pursuit and knock off, which is nice for mind games. If you are willing to sacrifice some consistency in exchange for damage output, life orb is another viable item however you are more prone to chip damage.
Though Pursuit is an excellent click most of the time, it isn’t your only one nor is it the only relevant move Raticate can use. Knock off, is a perfect example, it’s a strong stab move that is a good click into pretty much everything, if a wall swaps in it loses it’s item, if a frail mon swaps in it either dies or loses most of it’s health, and so on. U-turn hits incoming cacturnes 4x super effectively, lets raticate pivot out on pesky switches, and sometimes lets you slow pivot teammates in safely, though generally speaking you do want to avoid taking damage on Raticate. Finally, Sucker punch is just priority to help with cleaners like Alolan-Raichu, though Raticate does trap and eliminate Indeedee, you should still be tracking those Psychic Terrain turns which could potentially stop a Raticate sucker punch. Also with Raticade being choice locked, Sucker Punch should be used sparingly to avoid letting your opponent take advantage of a choice locked move that does nothing when they don’t attack.
Quick Attack is another solid option for a priority move. Even after Same Type Attack Bonus, Quick Attack is only 60 base power, it is coming off of 596 ATK, and will be pretty deadly and useful for picking off low foes. Facade can be a useful short term way to punish status users and status spam such as Will o Wisp, Toxic Spikes, and Thunder Wavers, and can also serve as a way to chip down in coming dark switch ins. Stomping Tantrum is decent coverage which allows Raticate to hit Pincurchin, Registeel, and Delphox super effectively. Notably you can also still hit Galarian-Slowbro for super effective damage, ensuring it wont switch into your non dark coverage safely. Zen Headbutt can be inconsistent, yet crucial coverage. What I mean by this is with the various annoying ass fighting types in the format such as SirFetch’d and Toxicroak who love coming into Raticate, Zen Headbutt can serve as a way to punish those fighting types. I say it’s inconsistent, largely because it’s prediction reliant on top of your opponent already having to guess 50/50 pursuit situations constantly, which can throw off your own prediction. It’s not helped that Zen Headbutt has a miss chance on top of hustle’s miss chance, regardless it MIGHT be worth using in some situations.
Seitcheroo is pretty simple and self explanatory, you have choice band, you have budget trick, cripple a wall. Do be aware though you may be turning some walls into wall breakers by giving them choice band, and you have a significant drop in power after losing choice band. Taunt lets you deny annoying status moves from walls you may be trying to pursuit trap like will o wisp or toxic, but do be aware, clicking taunt opens up a turn for your opponent to freely switch out without consequence.
Teammates
Because of Raticate’s amazing ability to pursuit trap and eliminate Indeedee, as well as guarantee chunking Arboliva, it can become a very complimentary teammate to Pincurchin, guaranteeing Electric Terrain staying up and not being countered by opposing Terrain. Because of Pincurchin clearing up Psychic Terrain, it also allows Raticate to click Sucker Punch without worry of Psychic Terrain preventing priority. A typical trapper core on Electric Terrain will look something like Pincurchin + Alolan-Raichu + Alolan-Raticate.
Rotom Wash, Heliolisk, Delphox, Galarian-Slowbro, Alolan-Raichu, and even Cyclizar all appreciate Raticate doubling into special walls and getting damage off on them with pursuit or coverage moves. Raticate forms powerful offensive cores with electric type special attackers like Rotom Wash, Alolan-Raichu, and even the niche Heliolisk because of this, and because the ghost type of the format, Runerigus, is weak to pursuit.
Because the number one target of Raticate’s pursuit being Runerigus, naturally normal types turn out to be a pretty effective pairing with Raticate. With flame orb and guts, Squawkabilly can be an amazing late game cleaner as well as mid game wall breaker, however it faces the issue of Runerigus coming in on it’s stab facade and replacing guts with Wandering Spirit, effectively crippling Squawkabilly until it switches out. However with Raticate, you can quickly overwhelm Runerigus and allow Squawkabilly to go ham. Indeedee is another common normal type which really likes the support from Raticate. Calm mind variants in particular that like having hyper voice for outside of terrain or psychic resists, and expand force to break through walls such as Runerigus naturally, however indeedee does not appreciate getting earthquaked back, and indeedee is quite easy to wear down at times. Once again, raticate helps apply more pressure on Runerigus, and allows indeedee to break through it with less repercussions. Scyther, while not a normal type, really loves it’s technician boosted quick attack sets, and of course having a mon immune to your best move is going to cause issues.
A lot of the cores you will find Raticate in such as Electric Terrain, Normal Spam, and Special Offense tend to be very weak to Registeel, who can come in on them and set up iron defense body press. Though you can slowly break through registeel with coverage. You aren’t always able to out last or break through it. However, forcing it to rest is your biggest thing over it, and Trapinch takes perfect advantage of it. Many teammates including Raticate use pivot moves such as volt switch or u-turn, which allow Trapinch to come in and eliminate or chunk Registeel, effectively making it dead weight against your Raticate cores. Trapinch and Raticate also form a very nice offensive trapper core, which enables a lot of offensive teams and strategies.
Checks & Counters
We just got off of mentioning this one, so might as well just get it out of the way. Cores Raticate is often on also can get hard violated by registeel, who can set up and exploit these pokemon. You can play around this by slowly chipping down Registeel and forcing it to use rest, if you have trapinch you can also use that to beat Registeel.
Mabosstiff, can come in on dark choice locked moves and get free clicks off which can often be annoying, you can play around this by just having a good switch bozo.
Crabominable, Toxicroak, and Sirfetch’d completely wall 4x weak Raticate, with little you can do back. Fighting type coverage is some of the more scary move type you can possibly face against, and having it be a free click is even more scary, especially if it’s from Sirfetch’d who completely invalidates ghost’s fighting immunity. Slowbro can often be a effective pairing with Raticate because of it’s 4x fighting resistance, and it’s quality of taking Sirfetch’d’s choice band jolly brave bird decently well.
Relevant Calcs
Pursuit
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Raticate-Alola Pursuit (40 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Runerigus: 120-144 (37.5 - 45%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Raticate-Alola switching boosted Pursuit (80 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Runerigus: 240-284 (75 - 88.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Raticate-Alola Pursuit (40 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Banette: 204-242 (61.4 - 72.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Raticate-Alola switching boosted Pursuit (80 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Banette: 408-482 (122.8 - 145.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Raticate-Alola Pursuit (40 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Indeedee: 224-266 (69.1 - 82%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Raticate-Alola switching boosted Pursuit (80 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Indeedee: 446-528 (137.6 - 162.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Raticate-Alola Pursuit (40 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arboliva: 118-141 (32.7 - 39.1%) -- 99.5% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Raticate-Alola U-turn vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arboliva: 276-326 (76.6 - 90.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
U-turn
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Raticate-Alola U-turn vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arboliva: 276-326 (76.6 - 90.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Raticate-Alola U-turn vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Cacturne: 768-904 (223.2 - 262.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Sucker Punch
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Raticate-Alola Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Raichu-Alola: 660-776 (252.8 - 297.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Pros:
Raticate is easily the best/only pursuit trapper in the tier. With pursuit being stab, and access to hustle, it can hit super hard compared to other thoeritical pursuiters like Fearow or Scyther.
Because of raticate’s immunity to psychic type, Raticate has no issue switching into Indeedee’s expanding force. This is especially relevant because of the rise of choice scarf Indeedee, this makes Raticate an excellent revenge killer with pursuit and allows you to punish choice scarf Indeedee, which even registeel can sometimes struggle to do because of hazard damage and mystical fire. Raticate also takes non specs dazzling gleam pretty well, though cannot switch into it.
Raticate’s ability to eliminate or chunk high value targets such as Indeedee, and Runerigus allows for Raticate to fit on a variety of teams to serve different win cons. Examples of such include terrain teams, physical offense teams, and semi stall teams.
Despite wanting to match up against specific pokemon, Raticate matches up well against majority of teams. Concerning the big 3, you obviously pursuit Indeedee, against electric terrain you can prevent Alolan-Raichu sweeps by threatening sucker punch and you love being able to knock off Pinchurin as well as playing the sucker punch pursuit mind games against volt switchers. Finally, Raticate can demolish the common Slowbro/Registeel core on grassy terrain teams with stab knock off threatning Galarian-Slowbro and removing Registeel’s left overs. Against more offense teams, sucker punch can threaten many of the fast attackers in the tier such as choice scarf Rotom-Wash, Heliolisk, Delphox, Scarf Indeedee, Alolan-Raichu, Boots Scyther, and Cyclizar. Pursuit also threatens great neutral damage against most defensive and offensive options.
Cons:
Raticate suffers from Tomotaco syndrome. Because of hustle, all it’s moves become 80% or less accuracy. It doesn’t help that while Raticate can deal a ton of damage to most of it’s defensive targets, it cannot kill them a good majority of the time. These factors combined make Raticate pretty inconsistent when it comes to the job of pursuing and eliminating walls. Theres no way to play around the non perfect accuracy of Hustle, which makes every click with Raticate a dice roll, which sucks because without hustle Raticate is just minus one slot. Despite this however, Raticate still can find value in chunking down walls for your teamates to finish off, for many teams this is valuable enough.
You suck against Fighting types. It’s pretty simple in it’s heavy type disadvantage in Normal/Dark, making Raticate 4x weak to any fighting move. Toxicroak, Sirfetche’d, and anything with fighting coverage in general can easily come in on Raticate and threaten it with a fighting move. It’s match up is especially bad against Sirfetche’d and Toxicroak with them being the fighting types of the tier. Normally you can threaten faster pokemon with sucker punch, but because of their fighting typing it won’t do much of anything to them. It doesn’t help that facing a fighting type pokemon with knock off is one of the worst situations you can be in, with the only pokemon in the tier that can switch into both Sirfetche’d and Toxicroak, Galarian-Slowbro, being weak to knock off. While you can out skill your opponent, you can only do it so many times and giving your opponent this interaction by just using Raticate can often backfire and lose you momentum.
Core Dump
Grassy Terrain Passive Aggressive
Note: change these in any way you feel would make them better, these cores are more mons that just work well together rather than definitive sets.
Written by Essence