Help with Sableye, please

[Cedric]

You know, I've got this shiny Sableye and I would love if you could help me with it's moveset and ev's distribution...
Actually, Sableye is a good annoyer but no good as sweeper or anything else. Then, I figured out I could raise it like this:

Sableye- Male
Rash nature
Rest
Toxic
Confuse Ray
Double Team

252 ev's on Spec. Defense
252 ev's on Defense
6 ev's on Speed

What do you think? And plus, if someone could help me with an item...
Thanks a lot =)

[Number1ChanseyFan]

That's cool that you found a shiny Sableye!! Unfortunately, your Sableye doesn't exactly have the best personality. (Rash = + Special Attack, - Special Defense) A + Special Attack personality doesn't help out Sableye a whole lot. Anyways, here is a moveset, but it is more or less designed for a + Attack personality, like Adamant.

Sableye

Night Shade
Focus Punch
Toxic
Confuse Ray
@Leftovers.

EDIT: Forgot that Recover is an egg move... That is too bad, because Sableye really needs Recover.

[Scythemantis]

Sableye

Night Shade
Focus Punch/Confuse Ray
Toxic
Recover
@Leftovers.

It can't have recover if it's a wild-caught shiny.

Unfortunately it's the one thing that makes sableye reasonably useable. If it learns moonlight I guess that'd work.

Leftovers only really help pokemon higher HP...maybe brightpowder or something, I dunno.

[rinku]

Moves available to him:

Level up:
Leer, Scratch, Foresight, Night Shade, Astonish, Fury Swipes, Fake Out, Detect, Faint Attack, Knock Off, Confuse Ray, Shadow Ball, Mean Look

Machine:
Focus Punch, Water Pulse, Calm Mind, Toxic, Hidden Power, Sunny Day, Taunt, Protect, Rain Dance, Frustration, Return, Dig, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Brick Break, Double Team, Shock Wave, Rock Tomb, Aerial Ace, Facade, Secret Power, Rest, Attract, Thief, Snatch, Cut, Flash, Rock Smash

(Moonlight is also an egg move)

What is his special Attack value? If his IVs are OK you might want to boost that up and go with:

Confuse Ray
Faint Attack/Thief/Knock Off
Psychic
Toxic/Taunt/Mean Look

A Rash Sableye would have Special Attack close in value to its Attack (depending on IVs), so making it more of a Special Attacker annoyer is feasable. Certainly, you will get the 10% bonus to effort spent there, so it is worth considering.

Or you can stick with a pure annoyer set:

Toxic
Protect
Dig
Confuse Ray

OR

You can save it for contest use.

[Cedric]

Man, that sucks... =/
So you think I'd better raise my Sbaleye based on it's special attack? Right... then I guess Shadow Ball would be the best choice, wouldn't it? Because it has STAB and is a good ghost move. But anyway, If that's so, how could I distribute it's EV's? Leftovers would surely be the best choice for an item, I guess...
Maybe like this?
Sableye- Male
Rash

Confuse Ray
Toxic
Shadow Ball
Double Team

What do you think now? Confuse Ray and Toxic would slowly deal with the enemy while Double Team would keep him safe (leftovers recovering his HP) and Shadow Ball to benefit from it's Special Attack.
But dammit, if he will be a special attacker, Calm Mind would surely be a good option too... what to do??? HEEELP

[Loupeitak]

uhh dude, shadow ball is based on attack not sp attack.

[Cedric]

uhh dude, shadow ball is based on attack not sp attack.

Is that it? Are you sure? Can't believe I could be so dumb, then... but, wow... ghost moves are based on attack and not special attack? I really had no idea =/
Anyway, I still need help

[phaedrus]

Is that it? Are you sure? Can't believe I could be so dumb, then... but, wow... ghost moves are based on attack and not special attack? I really had no idea =/
Anyway, I still need help

normal, fighting, rock, ground, flying, bug, steel, poison and ghost run of ATTACK.

grass, water, fire, dragon, electric, dark, psychic, and ice run off special attack.

i have a modest sableye:

theif
confuseray
[something]
[something]

i don't remember what's on it. =^ but i remember shadow ball was on, but that will be taken out.

[Scythemantis]

The weirdness of ghost moves being attack-based is old news. People were baffled by it in the r/b days. I think the idea is that ghosts do attack physically, just on a different plane of existence (which is why ghost is weak to itself). Makes sense considering shadow ball, shadow punch, lick etc.

...Pretty unfair for moonlight AND the vastly superior recover to be egg-only for sableye. Bleh...

They really shafted the little guy. Having no weaknesses is not[ a signifigant enough advantage to warrant stats that low...

[Powarun]

They really shafted the little guy. Having no weaknesses is not[ a signifigant enough advantage to warrant stats that low...

True, but we also wouldn't want it an uber either. Sableye should be used as an annoyer with
Double team
Toxic
Dig
Confuse ray, yeah it wouldn't work to well on skarm though, oh well, h:

[rinku]

I'd also point out that Sableye can make a good target for a decent Baton Pass, especially if switching in to something that will have trouble affecting it.

[CooltrainerNick]

here's a moveset for sableye:
sableye
?nature with Quick Claw
night shade
confuse ray
dig
*slash, if it can learn it, I don' have the guide with me now*.

[rinku]

No Slash. The normal attacks it learns are: Scratch, Fury Swipes and Cut, plus the usual Return/Frustration/Facade/Secret Power TMs. One of the few single-stage pokémon that does not learn Hyper Beam.

Return would be a more than fair substitute for Slash if you *have* to have a Normal attack.

[Music Dragon]

This is nothing I will use, and I'm not suggesting that you'd use it either, so maybe this is a little off-topic... I wonder if Sableye learns Protect. If it does, it could just Mean look+Toxic and then just use Protect, Detect, Protect, Detect and so on. This won't work, I know it, just wondering.

[CooltrainerNick]

Okay then fury swipes as the last move. As I said, I'm away from my book right now. I'm on vacation.

[phaedrus]

This is nothing I will use, and I'm not suggesting that you'd use it either, so maybe this is a little off-topic... I wonder if Sableye learns Protect. If it does, it could just Mean look+Toxic and then just use Protect, Detect, Protect, Detect and so on. This won't work, I know it, just wondering.

protect and detect run off the same counter. no use.

[DarkestLight]

Hrm. Still craptastic stats {Still say its a setup for an evolution...}

Umm, well rinku put up a good set for it, I was thinking along the lines of

Confuse Ray
Faint Attack/Night Shade
Shock Wave/Psychic
Taunt/Toxic

Yeah really similar sets, aside from Shock Wave...

I wouldn't give Sable Mean Look, only because there is no recovery on this set. Since he can't breed, he does get shafted with getting any health, since Rest is not an option-even with 6 CM's BP'ed to it...

Maybe that item that gets health based on physical damage-does that work for attacks like Night Shade? {Is that Shoal Bell? Can't remember}

[Poryhedron]

Hrm. Still craptastic stats {Still say its a setup for an evolution...}

I'm pretty sure Nintendo felt the need to give Sableye bad stats to balance the advantage of its type, since Dark/Ghost has no defensive weaknesses.

[Don't Run With Scizors]

Wait until FRLG comes out, and then Substitute and Counter become a nice option.

Hell, just teach it Metronome and build a whole fun team around that.