Barrakiefa Movesets & Wettbewerbs-Sets

Set Details Flip Turn is one Barraskewda's most important moves, as it gives it the ability to pivot out of unfavorable matchups and deal noticeable damage at the same time, especially if rain is active. Close Combat is essential coverage to threaten common Water-resistant or -immune targets such as Cyclizar, Wo-Chien, Empoleon, and Gastrodon. Aqua Jet enables Barraskewda to pick off fast sweepers such as Agility Porygon-Z and Choice Scarf users such as Gardevoir and Krookodile after they are weakened. Crunch can serve as optional coverage to threaten some of Barraskewda's checks like Slowbro and Basculegion-F. Choice Band provides Barraskewda with much-needed offensive firepower that allows it to act as a more threatening wallbreaker. Heavy-Duty Boots can be used to keep Barraskewda from falling in range of strong priority moves like Bisharp's Sucker Punch, although the loss in power is very noticeable. A Jolly nature allows Barraskewda to outspeed key targets such as Cyclizar and Noivern. An Adamant nature trades off some of its Speed for damage and is preferred on rain teams, as Swift Swim already boosts Barraskewda's Speed to incredible levels. Tera Water boosts the power of Barraskewda's STAB moves, which is often all it needs to clean up a chipped opposition. Tera Fighting is used to power up Close Combat, enabling Barraskewda to deal more damage to Water-immune or -resistant foes like Gastrodon and Suicune while also giving it useful resistances to U-turn and Dark-type moves. Tera Dark boosts the power of Crunch, which can allow Barraskewda to pick off Psychic-type Pokemon like Slowbro and Reuniclus after some chip damage and give it resistances to key priority moves like Shadow Sneak from Mimikyu and Sucker Punch from Bisharp. Barraskewda finds itself at home in offense structures that can utilize its Speed and power to create holes that can be taken advantage of by its partners. It pairs well with special wallbreakers like Gengar, Gardevoir, and Porygon-Z that can capitalize on Flip Turn giving them safe entry points against physically defensive Pokemon like Slowbro, Chesnaught, and Amoonguss. On rain teams, Barraskewda synergizes well with other rain exploiters like Basculegion-F and Kingdra to overwhelm Water-resistant foes like Slowbro, Empoleon, and Noivern with brute force. Other pivots can form VoltTurn cores with Barraskewda that aim to accrue chip damage on the opposing team by safely switching in on each other's defensive checks, with strong options like Magnezone, Flamigo, and Raikou synergizing particularly well thanks to their ability to threaten defensive Water-types like Slowbro and Empoleon. Barraskewda appreciates the presence of defensive partners such as Hisuian Goodra, Empoleon, and Chesnaught that can keep wallbreakers like Basculegion-F, Crawdaunt, and Feraligatr from dealing too much damage after forcing Barraskewda out. Choice Band Barraskewda often relies on entry hazard removal options such as Cyclizar and Noivern to prevent strong priority moves like Bisharp's Sucker Punch and Choice Band Entei's Extreme Speed from picking it off after some entry hazard chip.

Thanks to its huge Speed, good Attack, and Swift Swim, Choice Band Barraskewda is a formidable rain sweeper, outpacing Flutter Mane and heavily threatening teams with no sturdy Water-resistant Pokemon like Dark, Fighting, and Normal. Liquidation heavily pressures foes under rain, OHKOing the likes of Enamorus, Iron Valiant and Gallade. Flip Turn, as a second Water-type STAB move, mitigates the drawback of Choice Band by keeping momentum while dishing out good damage under rain, especially chipping switch-ins like Dragonite and Primarina. Close Combat hits Water-resistant Steel-types like Hisuian Goodra and Archaludon. Furthermore, Close Combat also OHKOes non-Choice Scarf Kyurem, Meowscarada, and Greninja. Psychic Fangs nails common switch-ins such as Toxapex, Amoonguss, and Water Absorb Clodsire, as well as removing dual screens in the Fairy matchup. Crunch helps in the Ghost and Dragon matchups by breaking Sinistcha, Dragapult, and Latios. Alternatively, Ice Fang may be used to hit more Dragon-types such as Garchomp and Dragonite. Pelipper is the most valuable teammate, as it sets rain for Barraskewda, brings it in safely with U-turn, can remove items with Knock Off such as Leftovers from Archaludon and Rocky Helmet from Skarmory, and threatens Grass-types like Meowscarada and Amoonguss with Hurricane. Swampert and Gastrodon are both key teammates, providing an all-important Electric immunity to the team and entry hazard support. Swampert comes with a pivot option in the form of Flip Turn to keep the momentum and Knock Off to remove aforementioned items or pick up KOs on wounded foes like Dragapult and Latios. Gastrodon trades offensive options for defensive ones such as Spikes and Recover to repeatedly switch in on Electric-type moves from Regieleki and Raging Bolt, as well as Choice Scarf Archaludon's Thunderbolt. In return, Barraskewda lures in Grass-types like Amoonguss and Brambleghast and removes them with the corresponding coverage moves. Toxapex and Tentacruel both provide a Grass neutrality to handle Meowscarada and Amoonguss, but each comes with distinct features. Toxapex easily walls most physical sweepers like Dragonite and Choice Scarf Meowscarada and has access to Haze to prevent Dragonite, Ceruledge, and Bisharp from setting up, but it lacks a pivoting move, which locks it into using the Eject Button for that purpose. Tentacruel synergizes well with rain by effectively regenerating HP with Rain Dish, which can be further augmented by running Black Sludge. Although it's less bulky than Toxapex, Tentacruel has access to Flip Turn, Rapid Spin, and Knock Off to provide both pivoting and utility for Barraskewda. Swords Dance Hisuian Samurott threatens Ghost- and Psychic-type Pokemon like Dragapult, Slowbro, and Choice Scarf Latias with Sucker Punch while also providing Spikes support via Ceaseless Edge to wear down the opposing team. Urshifu-R is a great asset in the Steel matchup, easily dismantling Steel's defensive core with its Swords Dance set by deleting defensive Gholdengo, defensive Archaludon, and Corviknight. Choice Specs Greninja is a great partner and forms a devastating wallbreaking core with Barraskewda, taking out physical walls that hamper it such as Amoonguss, Skarmory, and Clodsire with ease, while Barraskewda removes special walls that check Greninja such as Hisuian Goodra and Blissey. Choice Scarf Walking Wake is great in the Dragon matchup, notably outpacing and removing Latios, Dragapult, and Raging Bolt, while a Choice Specs set weakens walls like Toxapex and Corviknight.

With great offensive stats and a spammable move in Flip Turn, Barraskewda serves as an excellent offensive pivot that's capable of outpacing the majority of the metagame. Close Combat lets it deal with foes that resist its Water-type moves such as Roaring Moon, Ogerpon-W, and Empoleon, while Aqua Jet lets it pick off weakened foes that normally outspeed it such as Choice Scarf Sandy Shocks and Hisuian Electrode, as well as foes that have set up, such as Volcarona and Great Tusk. Drill Run and Psychic Fangs also threaten Water-resistant foes, with Drill Run OHKOing Desolate Land Fire-types such as Iron Moth, Heatran, and Ceruledge and Psychic Fangs threatening Quaquaval and Kommo-o. Barraskewda takes great advantage of weakened walls such as Corviknight and Deoxys-D, making physical wallbreakers such as Iron Boulder, Galarian Zapdos, and Ceruledge good partners. Specially offensive pivots such as Hisuian Electrode and Azelf form great VoltTurn cores with Barraskewda, since they're able to threaten each other's checks, with Barraskewda forcing out special walls such as Meloetta and Swampert while they threaten physical walls such as Corviknight and Quaquaval in return. Barraskewda is very frail and easily OHKOed by faster foes such as Choice Scarf Roaring Moon and Azelf, which makes defensive pivots such as Corviknight, Mandibuzz, and Swampert necessary. It also struggles a lot with entry hazards, making hazard removers such as Great Tusk and Corviknight appreciated.

Barraskewda functions as one of the best sweepers on rain Water teams, in part thanks to its high Speed tier, which is increased further under rain due to its ability Swift Swim, allowing it to outspeed the entire tier. Flip Turn allows Barraskewda to pivot out of Pokemon like Corviknight and Rotom-W, which are not OHKOed by rain-boosted Liquidation, while still dealing respectable damage and maintaining momentum to get in its teammates to deal with these Pokemon. Close Combat is the strongest coverage move that Barraskewda has access to and it most notably threatens Ferrothorn, which is able to take Liquidation from Barraskewda. Psychic Fangs in conjunction with an Adamant nature lets Barraskewda 2HKO Mega Venusaur and Toxapex, and its secondary effect of destroying dual screens, while situational, is useful in the Fairy matchup. Crunch is an alternative option to let Barraskewda target Psychic-types like Latios, Mega Latias, and Slowbro, which are able to switch into Liquidation. Poison Jab is also an option to target Fairy-types like Tapu Bulu and Azumarill, which resist Liquidation and Close Combat. A Jolly nature is preferred to outspeed Tapu Koko and Mega Lopunny, whereas an Adamant nature can also be run to achieve the aforementioned results with Psychic Fangs. Pelipper is a mandatory partner of Barraskewda, as it not only sets rain but also offers a slow U-turn as a form of pivoting, which lets Barraskewda get on the field safely, and its ability to threaten opposing Grass teams with Hurricane helps Barraskewda get past Pokemon like Mega Venusaur. Mega Swampert can form a potent Swift Swim offensive core with Barraskewda, wearing down each other's checks such as Ferrothorn and Porygon2. Swampert also works well with Barraskewda, offering hazard support in Stealth Rock to weaken opposing Pokemon so Barraskewda can secure KOs. It also provides slow pivoting with Flip Turn, and its Ground typing is a must to stave off opposing Electric-types like Regieleki, which are faster than Barraskewda outside of rain. Toxapex is also a strong defensive teammate for Barraskewda, being able to cripple Barraskewda's checks with Toxic and also handle setup sweepers like Mega Altaria and Mega Scizor with Haze. Greninja is able to break past physically defensive walls like opposing Toxapex, Mega Scizor, and Mega Venusaur, which are reliable answers to Barraskewda, while Greninja appreciates Barraskewda being able to handle specially defensive walls like Blissey and Ting-Lu.