What is a good moveset for Minior?

Question

If you have a good competitive moveset for Minior, post an answer below and upvote the best ones. Movesets for any of its pre-evolutions can also be shared on this thread.

Be sure to include full set details in your post, e.g. items, abilities, natures and EVs. Some explanation, including the intended game mode for your set, is also appreciated. Access the full list of guidelines here.

Minior Pokedex and learnset for reference.

Answer 1

Death Star (Minior) @ Focus Sash / White Herb
Ability: Shields Down
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shell Smash
- Acrobatics
- Stone Edge
- Explosion / Earthquake

"That's no moon."

Shell Smash Minior is fun. It has enough bulk in Meteor Form to survive non-supereffective attacks and allow you to Shell Smash. After the boosts, spam Acrobatics and Stone Edge STAB to your heart's content. Earthquake offers more coverage, while +2 Explosion can be a nice parting gift when it's time to retire your lil' meteor. As for items, Focus Sash can let you survive a supereffective attack and set up Shell Smash, or White Herb lets you get your defences back to normal. Either way, they'll get used up eventually to let you spam Acrobatics. An important thing to note is that, in Meteor Form, Minior is immune to status, meaning that otherwise crippling moves like Will-O-Wisp and Thunder Wave won't affect Minior until it has lost its shields.

Comments

I was about to post an answer but you read my mind.  Kudos to you, sir.  Well done.

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This is a crazy good set. Thank you so much.

This is pretty much my best (competitively) shiny Pokemon.

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Would this work for a naive minior

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This is mainly the set you'd see in Pokemon Showdown random battles, and it is quite good. I totally had the same idea, except for a shell smash set, White Herb is much better in every case, since it has enough defense in meteor form, thus making the focus sash almost unnecessary (Also considering it's moves).

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Why jolly? It has 120 speed in shield down forms and shell smash straight up doubles the speed. I'd rather run adamant

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Jolly helps out speed scarfers I guess?

Answer 2

Gen 9 NU Shell Smash

Minior-Indigo @ White Herb
Ability: Shields Down
Tera Type: Ghost / Ground / Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 30 HP
- Shell Smash
- Substitute
- Acrobatics
- Tera Blast / Earthquake

A Shell Smash set for Minior to use in NU. Cloyster recently got banned from Gen 9 NU, so I decided to give Minior a try as a Shell Smash Pokemon to use on HO teams. Minior has more of a reason to get used since the Cloyster got banned, and Minior can do quite well in games if you build around it/support it.

With Shell Smash, Minior can clean through teams that are unable to stop it. Shields Down is nice ability to prevent it from being statused when it uses Shell Smash, but a +2 Attack +2 Speed Minior in its Meteor form isn't threatening, and sometimes opposing Pokemon won't bring Minior down to 50% HP. That's why this set has Substitute, as it helps Minior to get to 50% HP so it can actually become a potent sweeper. Plus, Substitute can let you play Sucker Punch mind games and take advantage of Choice locked Pokemon such as Flygon being locked into Earthquake. Acrobatics is the Flying STAB since its Minior's powerful spammable move after it consumes its White Herb, dealing quite a bit of damage against Pokemon who don't resist it. For the last move, I've been liking Tera Blast Ghost recently. If you don't mind dedicating Tera to Minior, Tera Blast Ghost is useful to hit Bronzong and Cresselia super effectively, as well as being a nice coverage move against Tera Steel Flygon and other Steel-types such as Klefki and Copperajah. In addition to being used for Tera Blast Ghost, Tera Ghost also lets Minior become immune to Fighting and Normal moves, being useful against Pokemon who are Choiced locked into one as well as Mach Punch and Extreme Speed Pokemon. You can use Earthquake instead for the coverage move if you don't want a coverage move that's reliant on Tera. If you use Earthquake, you can use Tera Ground to make Earthquake a STAB move, or Tera Steel for a nice defensive typing. This set uses 30 HP IVs to make Minior's HP divisible by 4, meaning Minior will have 25% HP Subs to easily get down to 50% HP.

Answer 3

Shell Smash on Minior = DEATH!

Minior @ White Herb
Ability: Shields Down
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Nature: Jolly / Adamant
- Acrobatics (STAB + White Herb use = More power!)
- Shell Smash (Attack and Speed stats up!)
- Stone Edge / Earthquake (Either STAB or Accuracy)
- Self-Destruct / Explosion

Minior in it's Meteor Form is used to set up some Shell Smashes, which lowers it's Defence and Sp. Defence by 1 stage, and raises it's Attack, Sp. Attack, and Speed by 2 stages! After it's Defences fell, it will use the White Herb to set those stat falls back to normal. Right after it's HP falls below half, it's Ability, Shields Down, triggers and Minior now transforms into it's Core Form, which exchanges it's Defences for more Attack! Minior in it's Core Form is very fast and very aggressive. Due to it's White Herb loss, Acrobatics grow more powerful! Stone Edge is a good move for Minior, since it is boosted by STAB, but it can miss sometimes. Earthquake is also a good move for Minior, because it has a better accuracy than Stone Edge, and covers some weaknesses, such as rock, steel, electric, etc. And it has a good power of 100! And lastly, Self-Destruct and Explosion are only in use if Minior is about to faint. They are both the two strongest Normal Type moves in the series! So Self-Destruct or Explosion (your choice) are very good moves for Minior. Those are all the moves I chose for Minior, and that is about all the information that I have about it. Hope you enjoyed using this moveset! :)

Answer 4

This may be an odd set but It just might work.

Minior @ Focus Sash/ Insect Plate
Ability: Shields Down
EVs: 252 Spe / 248 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Light Screen
- Telekinesis
- Acrobatics
- U-turn

First, the extra EVs going towards Defense and Sp. Defense when Shields Down activates so it at least has a little durability. Light Screen to reduce special attacks it may be weak to like Ice type moves, (commonly Ice Beam) and other Rock type moves Like Stone edge. Telekinesis helps it so for 3 turns, all moves (except OHKO Moves like Horn Drill, Fissure, Sheer Cold, etc.) will be guaranteed to hit. The only way it can be canceled is if the opponent uses Smack Down on Minior. (Or any Telekinesis user, for that matter.) Acrobatics is so if you use up your Focus Sash, the move will do some more damage, or you could give it an Insect Plate so more power goes into U-turn if you don't want your precious star to die just yet so you can switch to another Pokemon. Been seeing pretty much the same sets so I decided to change it up a little bit :) I hope I helped!

Answer 5

Minior @ Psychium Z
Ability: Shields Down
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA
Calm Nature
- Calm Mind
- Shell Smash
- Solar Beam
- Power Gem

The strategy with this set is to have a Sunny Day Heat Rock setup Pokémon, then U-turn or Volt Switch into Minior.
Do about 3 Shell Smashes then use Z-Calm Mind. Z-Calm Mind, as well as doing SpA up, SpD up, resets all stat drops (Calm Mind SpA up will fail). Then you can sweep with Power Gem and Solar Beam. Hope I helped!

Comments

It's almost impossible to set up more than one Shell Smash without being KOed.

Answer 6

Since most of the answers are physical Shell Smash sets, why not make a special Shell Smash set?
Gen 7 NU

Minior @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Shields Down
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shell Smash
- Power Gem
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]

So, this is to be used on a Dual Screens team, so when you get hit by a super effective hit, Weakness Policy will activate. Shell Smash is to boost your special attack and speed. If you use Shell Smash at least once and your Weakness Policy activates, you can have a +4 Special Attack boost. Power Gem is STAB. Psychic hits Pokemon like Passimian, Weezing, and Garbodor super effectively. HP Fire is for coverage against steel types.

Comments

Weakness Policy instead of White Herb is interesting.

Answer 7

Mixed attacking Minior, taking full advantage of Shell Smash boosts and allowing it to get past specific walls like Chansey/Blissey. Probably best for the NU tier (Gen 8)

Minior @White Herb
Hasty Nature (+Speed, -Defense to maximise speed and let it outspeed threats easier)
EVs: 170 Speed, 170 Attack, 170 Special Attack (maximises all the stats that Shell Smash boosts in a balanced manner)
: Shields Down
- Acrobatics, Power Gem, Shell Smash, Psychic

Acrobatics is strong Flying type STAB for when you've used up the White Herb. Power Gem is powerful Rock type STAB that becomes devastating after the +2 to special attack that Shell Smash gives. It's also much more reliable than Stone Edge. Shell Smash is a great setup move that has its defense drops removed by the White Herb. Psychic is just extra coverage to let Minior hit hard against more types.

Comments

Minior isn't in Gen 8. Minior is NU in Gen 7 and can be used in NU in Gen 9 though.

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Give more in the special side considering your moves