Summary

Swellow is a relatively good value pick in ADV, with decent attributes that make it a good late-round pickup. Swellow's claim to fame is usually its access to Guts-boosted Facade, but without a held item to provoke a burn in the game, it typically has to settle for its measly base 85 attack stat. This means that Swellow's best use is as a fast support pokemon, with its lightning fast base 125 speed allowing it to use Substitute and Baton Pass extremely safely, allowing for easy setup in passing Substitutes, boosts from pinch berries, or general fast pivoting. Its Ground-type immunity gives it ample switch-in opportunities in order to dodge Earthquakes aimed at its ally Ground-weak pokemon. Passing Substitute can be game ending, allowing a threat on your team a chance to set up and deal massive damage. Despite its high speed, it is outsped by two strong draft pokemon, Jolteon and Aerodactyl, and will immediately be forced to switch out by both. Its Normal/Flying STAB combination means it gets heavily walled by Steel and Rock types. Despite its flaws, a skilled player can use a surprise Swellow to throw a wrench into an opponent's plans and support attempts at either late game sweeps or early game wallbreaking.

Swellows damage is pitiful, with Hidden Power Flying not even being a guaranteed 2HKO on defensive Celebi sets, even with Choice Band. This low damage output could be remedied by activating its only ability, Guts, but that has the downside of needing your opponent to play into it -- either throwing off a Toxic or Will-o-Wisp for you to catch with Swellow. This does a lot of damage, particularly with Choice Band on Facade, but requires work to pull off. In a format like ADV Draft where teams are known, opponents could expect Swellow to do this which dampens its surprise factor. Choice Band also prevents Swellow from consistently pulling off the thing its good at: using Baton Pass and Substitute. Adamant Guts-boosted Hidden Power Fighting is a guaranteed OHKO on bulky Tyranitar after one layer of spikes -- a lot of work, but is still impressive for the little bird. The best thing you could expect to do with Swellow is get the Guts boost or sub down to a pinch berry's range, and fire off strong Returns and try to clean up endgame scenarios. A surprise Hidden Power may be able to catch an opponent off guard, but its weaknesses are notable and should be kept in mind when building.

Passing Substitute, on the other hand, is a great role that Swellow fills well. Coming on Pokemon that either don't have a good matchup into it or are locked into an awkward move, like defensive Celebi, Skarmory, or an Earthquake-locked Choice Band user, will allow for a free Substitute to pass to any of your teammates. With the strength of Baton Pass, you can bring in a Pokemon and with Substitute up, allowing for a free set up opportunity and can allow mons like Heracross and Metagross to become either more flexible or threatening by allowing them to take advantage of free turns provided by the Substitute. If the opponent wants to bring in a faster threat, the Substitute can act as a shield and allow the Swellow to Baton Pass freely to a teammate without them taking damage. This role won't win games on its own, but can catch opponents off guard and force them to make an awkward decision. This is ignoring the eventual attack or speed boosts you can pass later in the game that could be game winning, or the boosts from pinch berries.

Besides Substitute and Baton Pass, the last two moves on Swellow are often Endeavor and Quick Attack for security -- once Substitute is used to take Swellow down to low health, it can essentially take a pokemon down with it by bringing it down to exactly 1 HP with Endeavor, then either dying and swinging tempo back into the users favor or using Quick Attack the next turn to KO the opposing Pokemon, which is great for catching Pokemon without priority off guard. This means you will never be forfeiting tempo to the opponent, always threatening sending in pokemon with a Substitute or whittling down a threat on the opposing team with Endeavor. Swellow gets a variety of other options as well, such as Rain Dance and Sunny Day to clear sand, Toxic, Pursuit, Agility, Feather Dance, Endure, and Thief can all slot into its two moveslots not used by Substitute and Baton Pass.

Despite its clear and strong role in ADV Draft, there is a reason Swellow is often priced around 6 points. Its Substitutes arent the most bulky, capping out at 80 HP, meaning that sometimes all it can do is provide a safe switch. It's notably frail, and even neutral hits could ruin its game plan of using Substitute. As with all Endeavor Pokemon, it hates sand, and while it is immune to spikes and can potentially welcome Toxic with Guts the chip damage will wear it down and potentially kill it if the user is not careful with their HP. It loses to many notable pokemon -- it hates to fight any Steel type, most Rock types, most Ghost types, and anything faster than it (specifically Jolteon and Aerodactyl who will ruin any chance of a successful substitute pass without a Speed boost). It will not come to all of your matchups, but as a late-round pickup it often does not have to. It will usually be your 7th or 8th drafted Pokemon, and at such a low price it can be used to round out a core of 6 very strong or 7 balanced Pokemon and add an extra dimension to a draft team. At the end of the day, Swellow is a very polarizing pokemon, but is likely one of the best options at its cost, and can fill in many gaps in a team and make certain games easier for one player. In games where its brought, its unlikely to get 0 value, and can sometimes provide enough support to turn the tides in endgame scenarios.

Summary written by ARBY

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