Is Beat-Up a Good Move for Shiftry?

Question

I recently found a Seedot with a docile nature in a shaking patch of grass on ORAS. It knows Beat-Up, so I'm wondering if it's going to be an okay in-game Shifry.

Comments

This has already been BA'd, so I won't answer, but in Doubles/VGC you can use Beat Up on a Justified user to get a maximum of +4 Attack. A neat little core for this is Terrakion / Shiftry / Mega Charizard Y or Ninetales.

Answer 1

Not worth it.

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Effects
Beat Up deals damage from each Pokémon on your team that does not have a status ailment (nor is fainted). Each strike has a different base power, calculated as:

UsersBaseAttack ÷ 10 + 5

However, the actual attack is carried out by the original user of Beat Up, so it will always use that Pokémon's current attack stat to calculate damage. It will also receive any boosts from the originating user, such as STAB and any applicable items. However, any items held by the rest of the team do not affect the damage dealt.

Each strike of Beat Up is treated like a separate attack:

Each strike can get a critical hit independently.
Abilities that activate on contact (Static, Weak Armor, Iron Barbs etc.) activate for each strike.
If the Sturdy ability, Focus Sash, or Focus Band activates before the final hit, the subsequent hit will still deal damage and therefore cause the opponent to faint.
If the first hit breaks a Substitute, the second hit will deal damage to the target Pokémon.
The move Counter only counters the final hit, but Bide counters the complete damage.

Example
Let's say we have the ultimate team of 1 Weavile and 5 Magikarps. One of the Magikarps is paralyzed, so only 4 can attack with Beat Up. Weavile's base Attack is 120, while Magikarp's is an incredible 10. Beat Up would attack 5 times, first with 17 base power (120 ÷ 10 + 5) and then 4 times with 6 base power (10 ÷ 10 + 5). The result would be as if Weavile had attacked with a Dark type move of 41 base power.

In a more realistic scenario, the average total base power for Beat Up is typically around 60-90.

--The Pokedex

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Pros:

• Okay-ish Base Power
• Other Party Pokemon generally don't get affected by Status all that much in-game.
• Good PP
• Breaks through Sturdy

Cons:

• Much better substitutes for both Shiftry as well as Beat Up.
• On the off-chance that some of yourPokemon are fainted, it won't do as much damage.
• Abilities like Sturdy are rare-ish, and aren't all that hard to by-pass.

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Tl;dr: Worth a try if you a want of fun, but to gimmicky and unreliable to be of as much benefit. Also, it is outclassed by a LOT of other options.

That said, you you try it once. That's where the fun lies, after all. Just don't expect to wreck teams left and right.

Answer 2

In-game, nearly anything is ok, as long as it has respectable power, as in-game is all hyper-offensive play and not much strategy-you just don't need it as the AI is not very good at battling and often uses Pokemon at a considerably lower level than the user. This is especially apparent in xy because the AI is one of the easiest in Pokemon. If you have a full party of six, beat up should be fine for ingame. It won't be much use in online battling though, so if you are going to use your Shiftry in online battles, I would not use it unless you are using the beat up+justified strategy in a double battle with the swords of justice, lucario/gallade with justified, ect. If you are going to use Shiftry online, here is a good moveset:
Shiftry @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Seed Bomb / Bullet Seed
Swords Dance allows Shiftry to gain an impressive attack stat. Knock Off is STAB and cripples Pokemon by removing their item. Sucker Punch is priority and more STAB. Seed Bomb is grass STAB and lets Shiftry hit many common ground, water and rock-type Pokemon. Bullet Seed is for KOing focus sash and sturdy leads.
-RedGenesect