How to Make a Butter Sandwich Pokémon: A Culinary and Competitive Guide
This article details how to create a Pokémon with exceptional resilience and surprising offensive capabilities by cleverly utilizing movesets, held items, and strategic breeding to maximize its survivability and potential to outlast opponents, like a metaphorical butter sandwich that refuses to crumble.
Introduction: The Butter Sandwich Concept
The “Butter Sandwich” Pokémon build isn’t about creating a single Pokémon species. Instead, it’s a strategic approach applicable to various defensive Pokémon. The core idea centers on building a Pokémon that is incredibly difficult to defeat, capable of withstanding immense pressure, and possessing the means to slowly but surely chip away at the opponent’s team. Think of it as a slow-burning strategy focused on outlasting the opposition. The “butter” represents the slippery, difficult-to-handle nature of this strategy, and the “sandwich” signifies the layered defense.
The Benefits of a Butter Sandwich Strategy
Implementing a Butter Sandwich strategy offers several distinct advantages in competitive Pokémon battling:
- Attrition Warfare: The primary goal is to wear down the opponent’s team through consistent damage and healing.
- Status Condition Infliction: Butter Sandwich Pokémon often utilize status conditions like poison, burn, or paralysis to further hinder the opponent.
- Stall Breaking: These builds can effectively counter hyper-offensive teams that rely on overwhelming power.
- Opponent Frustration: A well-executed Butter Sandwich strategy can be mentally draining for the opponent, potentially leading to mistakes.
Key Components of the Perfect Sandwich
Creating an effective Butter Sandwich Pokémon requires careful consideration of several key components:
- Pokémon Species: Choosing a Pokémon with naturally high Defensive and Special Defense stats is crucial. Pokémon like Toxapex, Ferrothorn, Blissey, and Chansey are excellent candidates.
- Moveset: The moveset should prioritize survivability, status infliction, and gradual damage output. Consider:
- Recovery Moves: Recover, Soft-Boiled, Synthesis, Moonlight (Essential for sustaining health)
- Status Moves: Toxic, Will-O-Wisp, Thunder Wave (For hindering the opponent)
- Entry Hazards (Optional): Stealth Rock, Spikes, Toxic Spikes (For chipping damage when the opponent switches)
- Defensive Moves: Protect, Substitute (To scout moves and gain passive healing)
- Held Item: The held item should further enhance survivability or status infliction.
- Leftovers: Provides passive healing each turn.
- Black Sludge: Heals Poison-type Pokémon and damages non-Poison types.
- Rocky Helmet: Deals damage to the opponent upon contact.
- Nature & EVs: The Nature should be chosen to further boost one of the already high defenses, while EV training should be focused on maximizing HP, Defense, and Special Defense.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Building Your Butter Sandwich
Here’s a general guide to building your own Butter Sandwich Pokémon:
- Choose a suitable Pokémon: Select a species with high base Defense and Special Defense stats.
- Breed for desired IVs: Aim for perfect IVs (Individual Values) in HP, Defense, and Special Defense.
- Train with the correct Nature: Ensure the Pokémon has a Nature that boosts one of its defenses.
- EV train carefully: Maximize HP and either Defense or Special Defense, depending on the team’s needs and the opponent’s threats.
- Select the appropriate moveset: Prioritize recovery, status, and defensive moves.
- Equip the ideal held item: Leftovers, Black Sludge, or Rocky Helmet are all viable options.
- Test and refine: Experiment with different strategies and adjust the moveset and EVs as needed.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Neglecting Recovery: Failing to include reliable recovery moves significantly weakens the Butter Sandwich strategy.
- Ignoring Status Conditions: Status conditions are crucial for hindering the opponent and increasing damage output.
- Underestimating Offensive Pressure: While primarily defensive, a Butter Sandwich Pokémon should still have a way to deal damage, even if it’s only through status or entry hazards.
- Poor Prediction: Successfully utilizing a Butter Sandwich strategy requires excellent prediction skills to anticipate the opponent’s moves.
- Over-Reliance: A team consisting of only Butter Sandwich Pokémon is easily countered; diversify your team composition.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are the best Pokémon for a Butter Sandwich build?
Toxapex is widely considered one of the best due to its high defenses, access to Regenerator (healing upon switching out), and moves like Toxic and Baneful Bunker. Blissey and Chansey are legendary special walls, while Ferrothorn excels at setting up entry hazards and inflicting status. Choosing the best depends on your team’s needs and the meta.
What’s the difference between physical and special Butter Sandwich Pokémon?
A physical Butter Sandwich focuses on walling physical attackers, using moves like Will-O-Wisp to burn them, and often employing Rocky Helmet to deal damage. A special Butter Sandwich, on the other hand, walls special attackers, utilizes moves like Toxic to poison them, and benefits from items like Leftovers for passive healing.
How important are IVs and EVs for this strategy?
IVs and EVs are extremely important. Perfect IVs in HP, Defense, and Special Defense are crucial for maximizing survivability. EVs should be allocated to maximize HP and either Defense or Special Defense, depending on the Pokémon and the threats it will face. Without proper IV/EV investment, the strategy is significantly weakened.
What held item is the most effective?
Leftovers is often the most consistent choice, providing passive healing each turn. However, Black Sludge is superior for Poison-type Butter Sandwich Pokémon. Rocky Helmet can be effective against physical attackers, but its effectiveness is more situational.
How do I deal with Taunt?
Taunt prevents the use of status moves and recovery, severely crippling a Butter Sandwich Pokémon. One solution is to include a attacking move to prevent being completely helpless. Another option is to use a teammate to remove Taunt or switch out the Butter Sandwich Pokémon.
What about moves like Haze or Clear Smog?
These moves reset stat boosts, which can be problematic if the Butter Sandwich Pokémon is relying on stat-boosting moves. Therefore, the best solution is to not rely heavily on such moves. Instead, focus on consistent damage output and status infliction.
How does this strategy fare against critical hits?
Critical hits ignore stat boosts and defenses, dealing significantly more damage. Unfortunately, there is no guaranteed defense against critical hits. You can reduce their frequency with abilities such as Shell Armor, but this makes your Pokémon more predictable. The best approach is to minimize exposure to Pokémon known for high critical hit rates.
How do I counter a Butter Sandwich Pokémon?
Powerful offensive Pokémon with strong STAB moves (Same Type Attack Bonus) can often overwhelm a Butter Sandwich Pokémon. Also, Pokémon with abilities like Mold Breaker, which ignore abilities such as Regenerator, can bypass key defensive mechanisms. Entry hazards can also chip away at HP when switching.
Can I use this strategy in a doubles battle?
Yes, the strategy can be adapted for doubles battles. Protecting the Butter Sandwich Pokémon with Follow Me or Rage Powder can buy time and allow it to set up. Supporting it with Pokémon that can remove status conditions or provide additional healing is also beneficial.
What about Rest and Sleep Talk?
Rest fully heals HP and cures status conditions but puts the user to sleep for two turns. Sleep Talk allows the user to use a random move while asleep. This combination can be effective, but it leaves the Pokémon vulnerable for two turns, requiring careful timing and potentially support from teammates.
Is this strategy effective against all team compositions?
No, the Butter Sandwich strategy is not a universal solution. It struggles against teams that can quickly overwhelm it with powerful attacks or teams that utilize moves like Haze to negate stat boosts. Building a well-rounded team with diverse strategies is crucial.
What are some alternative moves I could use besides Toxic or Will-O-Wisp?
Other viable status moves include Thunder Wave (paralysis) and Confuse Ray (confusion). Alternative damage options include Seismic Toss (deals damage equal to the user’s level) and Night Shade (deals damage equal to the user’s level) which bypass defenses and always deal consistent damage. The best choice depends on the Pokémon’s type, stats, and the overall team strategy.