Base Stats
HP: 80
Attack: 110
Defense: 60
Special Attack: 150
Special Defense: 130
Speed: 70
Abilities:
Magician: The Pokémon steals the held item of a Pokémon it hits with a move.
DISCLAIMER- ALL OF THIS IS SPECULATION. ALL INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
“This troublemaker sends anything and everything to faraway places using its loop, which can warp space.” That's what the Pokémon Y Pokédex entry has to say about this thing. Hoopa is a strange Pokémon - not as strange as Diancie, but still bizarre. The Mischief Pokémon is blessed with some gorgeous mixed attacking stats, and because of it looks like it should be one of the most dangerous Pokémon out there. Unfortunately, that's about where the positives of Hoopa end. While it has a 150 Special Attack and a 110 Attack, it's base 70 Speed is not enough to outpace many Pokémon in a heavily offensive metagame. While it does also have an attractive 130 Special Defense, its physical Defense is nothing short of garbage, clocking in at only 60.
Its typing doesn’t make it any better, either. Hoopa is the first Psychic/Ghost type-combination and while that's interesting and unique, it does not have much utility. Its STAB combination does not offer much coverage offensively, and defensively it has a x4 weakness to two of the most common offensive types in the game - Dark and Ghost - most of which are faster than Hoopa and leave it with an unsolvable weakness to Pursuit, Sucker Punch, and Shadow Sneak. And its ability, Magician, is nearly useless in a metagame where Hoopa should be carrying its own item from the get-go.
To top it all off, its movepool leaves a lot to be desired with no ways to boost its mediocre Speed. It was given a cool-sounding signature move called Hyperspace Hole, which is an 80 base power special Psychic-type move which ignores protecting moves like Protect, Spiky Shield, and King’s Shield. Despite the awesome name, it is weaker than Psychic and has less utility than Psyshock.
In case this is unclear, I do not have high hopes for Hoopa, and unless something changes for it before it’s released to the general populace, it’s going to struggle in the standard metagame. Like last time, all of this is speculation, but here are a few ways I think Hoopa could be used competitively.
Mini-Buddha, Substitute Attacker
Hoopa
Hold Item: Leftovers
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Substitute
Shadow Ball
Psyshock
Focus Blast
Without a Substitute set up, Hoopa is Pursuit/Crunch bait for any Dark-type Pokémon that's faster than Hoopa, which, to name a few, are Tyranitar, Mandibuzz and Bisharp. However, once behind the Substitute, Hoopa is a very dangerous threat than can utilize its 150 Special Attack to lay waste to its opponents. In fact, once it is behind a Substitute, many of the previously mentioned Pokémon wouldn't dare stay in on the Mischief Pokémon for fear of being hit by the wrong end (or any end, really) of Focus Blast. Once any Dark-type Pokémon are out of the way, Hoopa can use its two STABs to take down opponents with relative ease.
The biggest problem with this set is that it does require a lot of switching and prediction, as even seemingly less dangerous Pokémon could carry a Ghost or Dark-type move to attack Hoopa once the Substitute is broken. In fact, if you cannot OHKO a counter, they pose a serious threat due to the possibility of Pursuit.
There are three Pokémon that receive “special mentions” as checks to this set. Scizor, because it does not take super effective from any of the listed moves (unless you choose to run Hidden Power Fire, for some reason) and can hit with pseudo-STAB Pursuit. Chandelure, with Infiltrator, can bypass the Substitute, outspeed Hoopa, and OHKO with a powerful Shadow Ball, although it will likely need to revenge kill unless you switch in on a predicted Focus Blast. However, the Pokémon who is most dangerous to this set is definitely the rare Infiltrator Spiritomb - with high defenses, immunity to most attacks on this set, and the ability to ignore the Substitute and Pursuit on the switch out. If you're worried about Spiritomb (which you really shouldn't be because it's rare in today's metagame), then a nice Fairy type should be good to stomach whatever it throws at Hoopa - I am partial to Magic Guard Clefable to negate burns and Toxic, but Sylveon might be the best option because of its higher Special Attack and beefy Special Defense. Scizor and Chandelure have vastly different counters, but generally speaking, Skarmory can handle one and Blissey can take the other, basically forcing them to switch out.
Perhaps the best way to support this set would be Thunder Wave support to give Hoopa an edge against otherwise faster Pokémon. A great Pokémon for this is actually Dragonite, who can use its good natural bulk, Roost, and Multiscale to spread paralysis with a support set of Thunder Wave, Dragon Tail, Roost and Iron Head. If not Thunder Wave, other support includes Sticky Web to slow down enemies, as well as Stealth Rock to break opposing Focus Sashes and to negate Sturdy. Shuckle can accomplish both of these feats, in addition to being fairly sturdy itself (sort of).
All in all, with some support, Hoopa's high power should prove advantageous to your team. But I suspect that's not all Hoopa can do.
Tricky Business
Hoopa
Hold Item: Life Orb
Quiet Nature
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Special Attack, 4 Special Defense
IVs: 0 Speed
Trick Room
Shadow Ball
Psyshock
Focus Blast
Remember the Infiltrator Chandelure I talked about before? How it could switch in, outspeed, and OHKO Hoopa? Imagine your opponent’s surprise when, instead of a Substitute, you fling the Pokémon into another dimension and set up Trick Room. Being slower than most sweepers and negatively investing in Speed will allow Hoopa to “outspeed” most of the metagame under Trick Room, and utilize its massive Special Attack to the fullest. The attacking moves are the same as the last set - nothing different, but because you won't be worrying about setting up Substitutes, you can carry Life Orb to maximize damage output.
While slower than other offensive Pokémon under Trick Room, there are still a lot of slower defensive Pokémon that will move “quick” and threaten Hoopa. A great example would be Donphan, whose 50 base Speed and access to Knock Off can defeat Hoopa. Ferrothorn has the option to set up Leech Seed or attempt to hit Hoopa's low Defense with STAB Power Whip. Aegislash only fears switching into a Shadow Ball, and can use its lower Speed to KO with a Shadow Ball of its own, or use priority Shadow Sneak - they'll both do the trick.
Speaking of priority, that still exists under Trick Room. Anything that carries Shadow Sneak can hit its low Defense and x4 weakness, and other powerful priority works, too - Azumarill's Aqua Jet, Talonflame's Brave Bird, Scizor's Bullet Punch, Pinsir's Quick Attack, and again, anything that carries Sucker Punch. Mawile, sitting comfortably at 50 base Speed can use any of its powerful STABs or priority Sucker Punch. For this exact reason, Pokémon like Mawile make great teammates for Hoopa, as they become powerfully speedy Pokémon under Trick Room. If you want to run a fourth coverage move, another Pokémon such as Eviolite Dusclops that can set up Trick Room would make a good team member, though it is another Pokémon with the same weaknesses as Hoopa.
Hoopa has a 110 base attack, which is really good and would be useful for getting around powerful special walls. Or rather, it would, if Hoopa had the movepool to back it up and had any kind of useful, powerful physical move to hit with. For the most part, Psyshock is the most useful way to get around special walls, such as Blissey. You might be thinking that Hoopa gets Brick Break and you can use that to work around Tyranitar's mammoth Special Defense in Sandstorm. But even if Tyranitar is running maximum Special Defense and carrying the Assault Vest, you still do more with Focus Blast than Brick Break, and that set is VERY rare. Keep in mind, you can only score a OHKO on Tyranitar if you are carrying Life Orb and are running max Special Attack, and even then, it's not a guaranteed OHKO.
Another potential set that I did not touch upon is the option for a Choice set utilizing the three moves listed above and Trick as the fourth move. This actually has the capability to be very effective - a Choice Scarf can patch up Hoopa's mediocre speed, and with Specs it can hit harder than a truck, while Trick can cripple walls. The only reason I didn’t list it is because the other sets focus on mitigating and working around Hoopa's weakness to Pursuit and Sucker Punch. Both of these sets, while they could be very effective, make it too easy for Hoopa to be revenge killed.
Not to beat a dead Ponyta, but any powerful Pokémon (Scizor, Azumarill, Talonflame) that carries some form of priority can score a OHKO or 2HKO on Hoopa because of its low, uninvested Defense. This goes double (or rather x4) for Pokémon who carry Shadow Sneak. Priority aside, anything faster than Hoopa that carries a Dark or Ghost-type attack can be a threat to the Mischief Pokémon's Substitute set, whereas anything slower than Hoopa that carries a Dark or Ghost type attack will be a threat to the Trick Room set. Until your opponent knows which set you are running, it will be hard for them to act correctly, so it is a gamble, and nothing likes switching into attacks as powerful as Hoopa’s.
Hoopa will be a challenging Pokémon to use. Its strengths are amazing, but with the current state of the metagame it will have a hard time showcasing them because of its bizarre typing. If you give it a little team support and recognize its shortcomings, Hoopa will be a very fun and potentially fulfilling Pokémon to use.
Signing off for now,
- Alltheginjoints
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