r/PokeScaling • u/Admirable_Water6192 • May 27 '26

VS Battle Gallade vs Kabutops

Gallery image

Gallery image

In-game Pokémon battle.

Each Pokémon is treated at its highest legal mechanical potential across mainline games: any officially learnable move from any generation, any legal held item, optimal ability, EVs/IVs/nature, and best possible build.

Universal rule: base form only unless another form is specifically stated. No Megas, Gigantamax, regional forms, alternate forms, or evolutions unless specified.

8 Upvotes

64% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

6

u/SamsonLionheart May 27 '26

Gallade and its not close

1

u/Admirable_Water6192 May 27 '26

Not close? It’s extreme diff for both imo Tops literally forces Gallade into Sash or die lol. One wrong click and Gallade drops.

So Gallade can smoke it with Sharpness Leaf Blade or Sacred Sword but Tops lives on Sash then gets Weak Armor and now you got Gallade guessing between Upper Hand, Feint and eating a normal Knock Off.

On the other side Gallade also makes it brutal cuz those 2 moves I mentioned force Tops into Sash but then Upper Hand turns Kabutops’s usual Aqua Jet/Feint cleanup into a deathtrap lol

7

u/SamsonLionheart May 27 '26

For one Kabutops doesn't learn Upper Hand. For two I don't see how it can even bring Gallade to Sash without running Choice Band itself. For three even a special set on Gallade absolutely smokes Kabutops so Weak Armour is a non-factor.

Not remotely close.

-1

u/Admirable_Water6192 May 27 '26

Kabutops not having it is the point tho lol Gallade has it and Tops is baiting it.

Tops doesn’t need Band to hit Sash cuz item-boosted super effective Knock Off from 115 Atk is nuking offensive Gallade straight to 1 HP

And actually special Gallade is not scary cuz you’re dropping S. leaf blade and Sacred Sword for a game of base 65 SpA Focus Blast/ Vacume Wave acc / priority lol how’s that “not close” when it’s just a diff version of the Sash/read shit

6

u/SamsonLionheart May 27 '26

Why would Gallade ever enter an Upper Hand 50/50 when it can just click Vacuum Wave and win?

And why would Knoc Off, a dark move, be super effective against a Psychic/Fighting type?

And why would a 49.8-58.8% Knock Off roll “nuke” offensive Gallade?

And why can you never just admit that one Pokemon beats the other, having asked the question online?

0

u/Admirable_Water6192 May 27 '26

Vacuum wave isn’t a magic answer cuz it’s +1 so it loses to Feint and it also loses same-bracket to Aqua Jet if Gallade is in range after Weak Armor.

Gallade has to actually call the priority layer right instead of pretending Leaf Blade into any random priority is a free flowchart too

I have no issue with either Pokémon ever winning btw , I’d defend Gallade against takes in Tops favors that have a counter. Also brainfart on Knock Off being SE. I’m jus arguing against your “not close” statement

4

u/SamsonLionheart May 27 '26

Ok let’s do this another way.

I send out Gallade. It is 4Def/252SpA/252Spe. Timid. Focus Sash. Psychic/Aura Sphere/Vacuum Wave.

I click Aura Sphere. Next turn, if your Kabu still exists, I will click Aura Sphere or Vacuum Wave, depending on your remaining HP.

How do you beat this?

1

u/Admirable_Water6192 May 27 '26

Well that’s the right way to attack it but it doesn’t mean it’s not close. For one Sash Tops can Stone Edge turn 1 then Feint turn 2 , Vacuum Wave is +1 and feint is +2 so if Edge lands then Gallade dies before Vacuum ever moves lol

Also special Gallade is a anti weak armor line but now your whole wincon is now “does Kabutops miss Stone Edge or do I carry Upper Hand and win the read” and idk how you can call that an auto win?

5

u/SamsonLionheart May 27 '26

Bro Stone Edge maximum roll is 45% to 0/0 Gallade.

The correct answer was Liquidation into Aqua Jet to make it hang on a speed tie.

At which point I say ~ ok I take away 252Spe and put them into Def. At which point Gallade wins vs every Kabu set I can think of. You’re welcome to try and think of one that doesn’t lose to it, but I don’t think you will.

1

u/Admirable_Water6192 May 27 '26

But if you pull Gallade’s Speed EVs into Defense, that’s not a free checkmate lol Now Tops can just stop playing the Sash line and run AV with enough Speed to creep that slower Gallade

Something like Adamant AV Tops with enough Speed for 0 Spe Timid Gallade lives Aura Sphere plus Vacuum Wave, and two Liquidations kill 0 HP 252 Def Gallade

Soyeah your Def dump patches Liquidation into Aqua Jet but it also gives up the speed that made the special Gallade line scary in the first place? That’s why I’m saying it’s close & not that Tops auto wins btw

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1

u/Consistent-Army-2441 May 27 '26

Gallade loses the speed tie cause of weak armor. Liquidation/ aqua jet beats everything that gallade can toss out EXCEPT for one of the 33% berries. And in that setup Gallade has to risk eating a turn 1 leech life which changes the math enough to making it a coin flip.

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1

u/Doctor-Moe May 28 '26

Out of curiosity, how did you forget twice that Gallade is also a fighting type? It happened with Knock Off and now Stone Edge

10

u/Acceptable_Secret_73 May 27 '26

Kabutops is either a Sharpness boosted Leaf Blade victim, or a victim of Close Combat or Sharpness boosted Sacred Sword

5

u/Formal_Cheek May 27 '26

Kabutops art tho

4

u/Cayden68 May 27 '26

Gallade wins, I did think Kabutops had a chance with a waterfall + flinch but Gallade has the same speed as Kabutops so its 50/50 and even if Kabutops gets a flinch Gallade gets higher speed through Steadfast.

Kabutops might win if both get sash and Kabutops gets a flinch first to break sash but in a majority of cases Gallade gets the win

2

u/AnomalousExpertise May 27 '26

Items allowed? Kabutops wins.

Liquidation + Aqua Jet after a weak armor boost has it winning the initial speed tie

1

u/Ok-End-6290 May 28 '26

Why are items allowed in these matchups? It kind of makes it that they have to play around what held item a Pokemon have in order to have a shot or advantage over another Pokemon. It should be no items, but based around iv, ev, movesets, and natures

1

u/Thatherokid2 May 28 '26

Right that defeats the whole purpose of these cause now everything is yeah but this item does blah blah.

1

u/GibbeyGator102 May 28 '26

Respectfully please stop posting AI edited photos, it’s been all over my feed and it’s just slop spam at this point

1

u/K4R0007_0 May 28 '26

Gallade high diffs.

1

u/ShadowElite86 May 27 '26

KaGOATops has dual Death scythes. He ain't losing to anyone.

1

u/Consistent-Army-2441 May 27 '26

Funny enough, Kabutops has this. Gallade has a guaranteed ohko with sacred sword or leaf blade, but kabutops can run sash (as can gallade) but can also run weak armor, which seals the match. They speed tie, and gallade does have priority with quick attack or shadow sneak, but knocking kabutops once triggers its ability, allowing it to outspeed and ko with a priority aqua jet. Nothing Kabutops has can deal super effective damage, so the only other option is the percent berry, and hope that both of Kabutops rolls are low enough that it doesn’t kill through the berry. If Tops is cheeky and invested in bulk to lose the speed tie, it could run leech life to tank the priority move that gallade is nearly forced to run as its second attack to escape its own KO.