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[Guide] Pokemon Showcase: Antarki [Competitive]
#1
Hello guys and welcome to my thread all about Antarki's! I'll show you all about the possible viable spreads revolving Antarki, the Guide Star Pokemon! I'll cover various spreads including Pain-arki and Troll-tarki sets, so feel free to look through this showcase and pick the best possible moveset that would suit your battling tastes for this cute little fella :3


If you don't know what exactly is this Pokemon, it's this guy shown bellow:
[Image: latest?cb=20160816053917]
Antarki [Ghost/Fire]
Abilities: Illuminate or Prankster [HA]

His base stat is shown as below!


HP - 85
Attack - 45
Defense - 70 
Sp. Att - 125
Sp. Def - 90
Speed - 105

Base Total : 520

Defensive Spread: 85/70/90
Offensive Spread: 45/125/105



As seen as above, Antarki is a very capable Special Attacker with lackluster Attack and decent defenses. His ability, Illuminate has no impact in battles (In case you are curious, Illuminate increases the odds of a Wild Pokemon encounter if it is positioned first in your party), while his second ability, his Hidden Ability (HA) is Prankster, which gives a +1 Priority to non-damaging moves, allowing Antarki to move first in many situations.


But let's not dwindle any further, I shall present to you the spreads for Antarki!



[1] Bulky Sweep-tarki



Fat-arki w/ Leftovers
Nature: Modest
EVs: 248 HP/ 252 DEF /8 Speed
Ability: Prankster

Calm Mind
Recover
Fire Blast
Shadow Ball


Strategy: The first Antarki set I shall present to you is a fairly set I'd believe anyone and everyone can pick up. The spreads are pretty simple: offer some bulk to Antarki, and pump the rest into raw power by stacking up Calm Minds. With the Prankster Ability, Antarki will always move first when it uses moves like Calm Mind and Recover. Need more damage and bulk? Calm Mind and boost your stats up before your opponent hits you specially! Low on Health? Opt to Recover and regain back 50% of your current HP! Antarki's sheer bulk, power and speed is bound to sweep your opponent's feet away while sustaining itself and your team to victory! 


Side Notes: One can opt to mess around with it's EVs quite notably. If you want your Antarki to be able to hit harder faster, pumping in 252 Sp. Attack EVs instead of Defense can be rewarding, as this would allow you to sustain longer on the field and thus, allow you to stack up on more Calm Minds. Instead of Leftovers, Life Orb can be preferred as well, as you will deal more damage in exchange of health that you can recover off in a jiffy. If you have another powerful Pokemon that can deliver STAB Fire, Antarki can opt to rid of Fire Blast in favour of taking down its checks by replacing it with other offensive moves such as Energy Ball for incoming checks like Syrentide, Escartress, Tubareel and Electruxo, Dazzling Gleam upon Baariettes and other dragons of nuisances such as Yatagaryu and Luxelong, Focus Blast for the likes of Beliaddon, or perhaps even Will-o-Wisp or Taunt to deter physical attackers from hitting you harder or prevent your opponents from setting up on you respectively. Shadow Ball should never be replaced over the fact that most Pokemon are Neutral, if not weak against Ghost moves, allowing Antarki to sweep the opponents as long as your opponents do not have Normal-type Pokemon.


Checks and Counters: Specially-Defensive Pokemon, fast Physical attackers or other Pokemon that can counteract before you can set up. Syrentide and many water Pokemon can easily wall an unboosted Antarki without unboosted Energy Ball, Mega Dramsama is faster and can hit back with Shadow Ball, while both Beliaddon and Inflategah is oblivious to Will-o-Wisp and can hit back with Earthquake. Because of this, Antarki cannot act as a early bulky sweeper and will need the help of its partner Pokemon. All Field Hazards will greatly benefit sweepin' Antarki, as Spikes and Stealth Rocks will cripple your opponent's HP and break Focus Sash, while a Sticky Web set up will means that your Antarki will almost never move last in battle. Pokemon such as Offensive Swords Dance Metalynx or Yatagaryu that can handle the bulky water and other Pokemon that can wall its remaining faster checks such as Tubareel or potential scarfed Pokemon like Laissure and Baariette are good partner Pokemon as well. Normal types can also otherwise wall Antarki, therefore a good Fighting-type Pokemon such as Luchabra, Winotinger or Navighast can be considered as well, the later being able to check for Earthquakes and Earth Power thanks to its ability Levitate.



[2] Choice Specs Antarki
 

Antarki w/ Choice Specs
Nature: Timid
Abilities: It doesn't matter, Pain-arki doesn't need it!
EVs: 4HP/252 Sp. ATT/ 252 Speed

Overheat
Shadow Ball
Dazzling Gleam
Energy Ball / Focus Blast / Psyshock / Flamethrower

Strategy: With good Sp. Attack and Speed to boot, Choice Items such as Choice Specs is always an option for Pain-tarki. A 1.5x boost to its amazing Special Attack upon switch-out will take a big chunk out of your opponent's HP. Overheat is preferred over Fire Blast to boot out that amazing 130 base damage, while respecting the fact that Pain-tarki cannot stay out for very long without its bulk. As usual, Shadow Ball is a must-have, and it should be your primary move to use once Antarki is out especially in the early battle phase; unless you are certain you can deal more damage otherwise. Dazzling Gleam's amazing coverage is almost a must-have, covering Antarki's weakness to Dark types otherwise while being able to hit a lot of others for Super-effective damage. The last move is a filler, you can opt for Energy Ball to counter Ground-types and Water-types, Focus Blast or Psyshock for some Fighting and Psychic coverage respectively, or even Flamethrower if you want a STAB Fire move that wouldn't miss.

Side Notes: A Pokemon with Choice Items can never and should never stay out in battle for too long, as they will be capped to use the same move again and again otherwise. This allows your opponent to counteract and therefore, harm Antarki or your team in various ways e.g. setup, free switch-ins. Aside from that fact, Antarki will be a powerful wallbreaker and will deal massive damage so long as Antarki outspeeds before the opponent does the same to you. Just going to remind newer players especially by stating this again: using Shadow Ball is often always preferred, especially earlier on during the beginning of the battle, as it has no chances of missing, hits most Pokemon for at least neutral damage, or have its Special Attack stat drop like Overheat. 


Checks and Counters:  Antarki has a decently large amount of weaknesses, therefore one should always consider if the situation is safe enough for one to switch it in. Because of this, Pokemon that can bring momentum (aka VoltTurn-ers) can be greatly appreciated for an Antarki, allowing you to scout your opponent's next move or Pokemon, therefore allowing you to predict and counteract to the situation. As usual, hazards are beneficial to the little Guide Star that wishes to guide their enemies to death- I mean what? and therefore allow Antarki to knock out opposing Pokemon easier from either outspeeding them due to Sticky Webs or just from sheer damage received from Stealth Rocks and/or Spikes upon switch in. Ally Pokemon with access to Priority moves such as Extremespeed, Bullet Punch and Aqua Jet is also greatly appreciated, as weakened opposing Pokemon can be picked off from the fray due to Antarki's sheer damage-dealing capabilities. Examples of Pokemon that can learn Volt Switch or U-turn are Gliscor, Jolteon, Nimflora, Theriamp and Whimsicott.




[3] Yee-ol' Life Orb'ed Pain-arki

Pain-arki w/ Life Orb
Nature: Timid or Modest
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4HP/252 Sp. ATT/ 252 Speed

Fire Blast/Flamethrower
Shadow Ball
Recover/ Taunt
Taunt / Dazzling Gleam/ Energy Ball


Strategy: What do you mean strategy? Honestly this is the simplest set anyone can pick up, and it will always be effective in battle. This set brings out one the best in Antarki's ability to disrupt and damage your opponents. Want to disable your opponent's set up and deal damage back to them on the same Pokemon? Then this set is for you. Life Orb is used as you can immediately bring out some great damage without the need of set-up Calm Mind and be at risk of being hit hard by the opponent; all without getting Choice-locked from Choice Items. Your two primary STABs, Fire Blast and Shadow Ball are here at your disposal, and you can have an extra coverage move to hit incoming checks and counters hard. 

Side Notes: With this set, Antarki can effectively pick off opponents and do good damage, but to the lesser extent of those from sets [1] and [2] if played well. Because of that, one should instead take advantage of having more potential and flexibility in disrupting your opponent's Pokemon. Instead of having coverage moves like Dazzling Gleam or Energy Ball, one can also run other non-damaging moves to make better use of Antarki's Prankster ability, such as Substitute, which will greatly extend the lifespan of Antarki behind its sub with access to Recover; Will-o-Wisp to spread statuses and also cut your opposing Pokemon's health and attack; Sunny Day to boost your Fire-type moves or act as the secondary weather setter; Taunt to prevent stall/set-up, and Attract too because... why not? XD 

Checks and Counters: To avoid redundancy, read the following Checks and Counters for [1] and [2]. Most of them applies for this set as well. 



Want to make your opponents rage? Look no further...


[4] Troll-arki v1

Troll-arki w/ Leftovers
Nature: Bold
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248HP/ 252 Defense / 8 Sp. Def

Recover
Substitute
Calm Mind
Shadow Ball

Strategy: ALRIGHT WE'RE FINALLY HERE. This set, if played right, will make your opponents beg for mercy. This set starts out as a bulky Antarki without much else to offer. Switch your little troll onto the field when you know no Pokemon can counteract with you within the next 2 turns, set up your Priority Substitute, and rake up as many Calm Minds as possible behind the guise of substitute. Rinse and repeat everytime your sub is down, and use Recover when necessary. This will lead you to the unkillable Guide Star Pokemon that will truly guide you to your doom. 

Side Notes: Be careful of switch ins, and heavily consider when is a good time to safely bring Troll-arki out to battle. Many moves that many Pokemon can carry can still deal a significant amount of damage onto it, such as Earthquake, Hydro Pump, Knock Off, and Shadow Ball. As Troll-arki also only has access to one reliable attacking move, players MUST remove any Pokemon that resists Ghost types. Prominent examples of this is are Dark types such as Beliaddon and Normal types such as Kiricorn. 

Checks and Counters: Winotinger, our flamboyant drunkard antelope-bunny hybrid is a great partner Pokemon against Antarki's checks. It capabilities as a great mixed attacker on Life Orb can pack some intense STAB Aura Sphere or Focus Blast for the Red Demon, and Iron Tail for My Little Ponyta. Daikatuna can also act as the perfect counter for both examples above as well, delivering powerful STAB Aqua Tail and Iron Head respectively. As it can be hard to bring in Troll-arki without its Calm Mind set up to battle, VoltTurn-ers are once again useful in this situation to maintain momentum and allow the player to scout and act accordingly per turn. It should also be noted that you shouldn't even consider bringing Troll-arki of this set to battle if your opponent has access to Taunt, Whirlwind, Roar or Dragon Tail, therefore another Taunt Pokemon on your team can be great as well. Otherwise, try to effectively remove the opponent Pokemon that has access to such moves. Pokemon examples with access to Taunt, Whirlwind, Roar, or Dragon Tail are Whimsicott, Sableye, Laissure, Terlard, and Seikamater. 



[5]  Troll-arki v2

Troll-arki w/ Wide Lens
Ability: Prankster
Nature: Modest
EVs: 248 HP/ 252 Sp. Att/ 8 Def

Hyposis
Dream Eater/ Will-o-Wisp / Taunt
Dream Eater/ Recover/ Taunt
Fire Blast / Shadow Ball

Strategy: Do you want to mess with your enemies by applying Priority status moves that are less likely to miss? Hell yes! This set is all about spreading statuses to your opponent's team and crippling them. Wide Lens is a held item that boosts your accuracy of the moves by 10%, allowing moves like Hyposis, Will-o-Wisp, and Fire Blast to hit more frequently. Dream Eater is there for you to mess around in your enemies' dreams while allowing you to deal damage and recover HP. The other optional moves such as Taunt and Recover is there for you to make sure you can annoy your opponents even more by staying alive, or preventing them from set up. With Wide Lens, Fire Blast will now have a 95% chance of hitting your opponents, making it extremely devastating on a Pokemon with 125 base Sp. Attack with STAB. Shadow Ball is another option for players to use if they already have another Pokemon that can deliver strong Fire STAB, or prefers Shadow Ball over Fire Blast.

Side Notes & Checks and Counters: Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa??? You want me to write about this when you can potentially set all of your opponents to sleep before they can even get to you? Nonsense! But I guess I'll still do a little anyways XD All I can really say is don't miss, and hope that we don't have sleep clauses in battle Big Grin



Did you like what you read? Tell me about it and feel free to request for more guides in the future!

Credits to Rhys and Harbinger on PU Breeder's Guild for asking me for good movesets out of sheer curiousity and help respectively! A huge shout-out as well to poweroftibarn cause he didnt chew on me for being blind! 

That's it for now, I hope you enjoyed my complete Antarki showcase! Big Grin

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#2
No offense to you, for you clearly put a lot of work into this, but didn't someone else also put up a antarki guide? I love competitive contribution and all, but why not post this there, instead of making a whole new thread for it? I am honestly curious.
Like the wind, I come and go as I please... but I am always there to provide a comforting breeze.

Member of Team PUNishment. Pun-pare for Struggle, make it Double Team!

Heart Phantom is my OTP~ Heart

Online ID: 000650
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#3
Holy sheet I am a blind fool. As usual. Thanks for the heads up. I really didn't know there was another guide for Antarki and completely bypassed it.

To powerofibarn, the original writer of the first thread regarding Antarki, I am really sorry XD I will probably remove this thread and post everything as a comment on the other.

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#4
(09-19-2016, 08:58 PM)Reeveelution Wrote: Holy sheet I am a blind fool. As usual. Thanks for the heads up. I really didn't know there was another guide for Antarki and completely bypassed it.

To powerofibarn, the original writer of the first thread regarding Antarki, I am really sorry XD I will probably remove this thread and post everything as a comment on the other.

All good, no need to apologize.  You don't need to remove the thread for now, or at least not until we have an organized catalog of analyses for every viable mon, which won't be for a while.  Although I can't help but feel that you overlooked the main purpose of Antarki, (Prankster utility) the effort you put into this is admirable nonetheless, and we will need more of this type of effort put towards the competitive scene if we hope to see any growth in the community.  Good job.

(P.S. ty for the ha cassnail)
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#5
(09-19-2016, 11:11 PM)poweroftibarn Wrote:
(09-19-2016, 08:58 PM)Reeveelution Wrote: Holy sheet I am a blind fool. As usual. Thanks for the heads up. I really didn't know there was another guide for Antarki and completely bypassed it.

To powerofibarn, the original writer of the first thread regarding Antarki, I am really sorry XD I will probably remove this thread and post everything as a comment on the other.

All good, no need to apologize.  You don't need to remove the thread for now, or at least not until we have an organized catalog of analyses for every viable mon, which won't be for a while.  Although I can't help but feel that you overlooked the main purpose of Antarki, (Prankster utility) the effort you put into this is admirable nonetheless, and we will need more of this type of effort put towards the competitive scene if we hope to see any growth in the community.  Good job.

(P.S. ty for the ha cassnail)

Ah, feels good that I dont need to remove it yet. I also hope I didnt overlook HA Antarki at all. It's just that having Prankster + good offensive stats and movesets imo is something that can be abused of, making antarki a great sweeper/tank/utility/core that will never seem to die thanks to Priority Recover. But if you feel that way from reading my post, I shall edit it and re-emphasize on how good Priority is. Choice Antarki meanwhile has no use of Prankster, therefore the disclaimer i wrote in this post.

Unless you've already done it, I want to make two more sets for antarki, one that is extremely similar to that of sableye and another That befits the name of Troll-arki. I also did make a Prankster Utility Antarki set, it is set [3]. I did not reemphasize heavily that it was a powerful Utility set because.. frankly I need to write in more words and the beginners of the competitive field would probably already have a seissure reading my very smogon-style guide presentation. On another hand, look out for these sets i've mentioned above earlier, as they are only very much capable of existing in the metagame thanks to its Prankster ability. Hopefully in the near future you wouldnt feel odd looking at this guide, as it feels as if i really did miss out on Prankster Utility Antarki XD

P.S. Not a problem bro, I have 3 boxes of 5IV cassnail cause I'm still trying for 6IV male cassnail, got two 6Iv females so far and I'm in agonyyyy

EDIT: making a comment on your handheld device is really really hard lol

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#6
I knew Antarki had potential after running into wild Antarki and discovering how much of a pain this poke is.
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#7
This pokemon, with or without its HA (but especially with it) is a pain in the arse to deal with. Priority status move or Taunt? Fast Specially attacker that'll ruin regular walls? Bingo!

If I start a new game, I am definitely going to consider to get this poke early. Its a pain , but I love it none of the less~.
Like the wind, I come and go as I please... but I am always there to provide a comforting breeze.

Member of Team PUNishment. Pun-pare for Struggle, make it Double Team!

Heart Phantom is my OTP~ Heart

Online ID: 000650
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