Pokémon you prefer using with their worse Attack stat

Corveone

Corveone

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    We all want our Pokémon to do as much damage as they can. So when deciding their movesets, usually we apply the most obvious and reasonable strategy of choosing either physical or special attacks, depending on which is the highest attack stat of that Pokémon.

    But what if we didn't? Are there any Pokémon that you actually prefer using with moves that use their lower attack stat? There are two that come to my mind:

    Sceptile : Physical
    It can learn great coverage moves, such as Drain Punch, Earthquake, Rock Slide, and Thunder Punch, while also being compatible with Dragon Dance and Swords Dance. Acrobatics also has nice synergy with its hidden Ability Unburden. Its special counterpart, however, has a very shallow move pool with pretty much nothing besides Grass moves and Dragon Pulse.

    Flygon: Special
    It has access to Boomburst and Bug Buzz, both sound moves it can use combined with Throat Spray for one Sp. Attack boost, which can be then followed by a boosted Draco Meteor. Can also learn Heat Wave/Flamethrower which are stronger than Fire Punch. Although it has less potential as a Ground type attacker with Earth Power than a physical Flygon has with Earthquake, I think the other moves it can learn make it more interesting to use.
     
    Agrees on Sceptile. Suffers from such a terrible Special movepool.

    One other one: Greninja, primarily with Protean. Expands its potential types.

    An odd one: Luvdisc. Pits 30 base Attack versus 40 base Special Attack. Accomplishes very little either way. Prefers Waterfall (for flinches with its good Speed) or Liquidation (for defense drops) over the higher power Surf.

    Arcanine: Hates the drawback of higher power physical Fire moves. Favors Flamethrower.

    Victreebel: Remembers using a mixed set on a Sun team. Combines Chlorophyll with Solar Beam. Swaps to Leaf Blade against Special walls.

    Weezing: Learns better Special moves than Physical ones, including the signature Strange Steam on Galarian Weezing. Only loses 5 base stat points by going with the weaker stat.
     
    Arcanine is definitely one that comes to mind. Sure its phys. atk. is higher by like 10 points but I always make it run special moves.

    I've always hypothesized to run Dragonite with a special set in gens 1-3 because what physical moves can it learn in those gens besides wing attack or a basic normal type move that is better suited for miltank, snorlax, or tauros? My most recent fire red playthrough I finally tried it out since I got a rash dratini from the game corner and I was surprised by how good it was. Perfect special coverage in that game thanks to ice beam/blizzard, thunderbolt/thunder, and flamethrower/fire blast. Even with 30 less points in its special stat, base 100 is still 100.

    I remember as a kid my Empoleon in platinum had physical moves like drill peck, waterfall, aqua jet, and metal claw. That's because in Diamond my Empoleon only had HMs so I wanted to at least give it real moves and as little HMs as possible. If I made that set today I think I would replace metal claw with swordsdance. Physical empoleon ain't that bad because of drill peck's flying coverage against fighting types, and before gen 9 its HA was defiant which boosts phys. atk. despite being at 86.

    The last pokemon I'd run with its lower atk. stat is Flareon because it lacks a good physical fire STAB until like gen 6. In my JP Fire Red playthrough I ran it with Flamethrower, bite, hidden power electric, and return being its only physical move. Base 95 special isn't bad in gen 3. In fact I'd say it is really good.
     
    Nidoking hands down, especially in earlier gens.
    It has a higher attack and access to Earthquake, yes, but his special coverage is simply too good to pass up.
     
    RMVNZ said:
    Nidoking hands down, especially in earlier gens.
    It has a higher attack and access to Earthquake, yes, but his special coverage is simply too good to pass up.
    Click to expand...
    Funny you mention Nidoking in the early games. Even in the later gens his special coverage is considered better than his physical thanks to sheer force and life orb.
     
    Usually Pokemon that have almost identical Attack and Sp. Attack, but their moves favor the slightly lesser one more.
    Don't really remember any specific ones off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure I've ran physical Lucario on playthrough teams at least a couple times.
     
    I know most people tend to run special Tapu Koko over physical Tapu Koko. Granted that's probably because strong physical Electric moves (without recoil) are fairly rare, and its special movepool is much better. The shiny Tapu Koko event from gen 7 is locked to have Timid nature, after all.
     
    On my recent Leaf Green run, I used a Special-focused Dragonite so it could get STAB for its Dragon-type moves (this is before the Physical/Special split) and I gave it Flamethrower since I didn't have an actual Fire type on my team.

    It actually worked out quite well for me.
     
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