Update: since I completed my testing of this Pokemon, many of Showdown’s replays were lost (occurred Nov/Dec 2023). Consequently, some of the replays I used as a showcase may no longer work- apologies!
RBY Farfetch’d I think has a clear air of goofiness about it, and that’s translated to its competitive potential. It has some potent tools in Swords Dance and STAB Slash, but they don’t synergise at all, given that critical hits ignore Attack boosts. Unfortunately, those are really its only two good traits.
For some incomprehensible reason it lacks Hyper Beam, a critical tool for a Swords Dance Normal. Does it have coverage? Absolutely not. Good stats? Nope, they’re some of the worst in the game. How’s its typing? Well it’s weak to Ice and Electric, while the lack of coverage means it can’t leverage its Ground immunity.
It even faces competition. Scyther has access to many of the same moves as Farfetch’d, while its superior stats make it generally more useful and almost entirely offset its lack of STAB. All of this is to say that Farfetch’d faces an uphill battle in competitive RBY. So what does a team with Farfetch’d look like?
Teambuilding
The first thing to decide upon is Farfetch’d’s set. Its movepool has some interesting tools, but Swords Dance, Body Slam and Slash are clearly the best options. For the 4th slot there are a couple options to consider:
- Agility makes for an interesting combo with Slash and helps to remedy Fetch’s poor speed, especially since +2 Body Slam only barely outdamages Slash, diminishing the appeal of Swords Dance
- Double Edge at +2 can achieve a couple KOs that Body Slam cannot. It usually 2HKOs Tauros, Exeggutor and Zapdos, and guarantees a 3HKO on Cloyster
- Sand Attack is something I noted as not having an obvious purpose, but potentially being surprisingly useful. In retrospect, an obvious use case would be if the opponent has a counter such as Gengar or Rhydon. Bonus points for being something Scyther can’t do
When I was testing I decided Agility would be the most useful, giving Farfetch’d more offensive versatility. At the time of writing this though, I’m testing Pidgeot, and am now thinking that Sand Attack would be great for mitigating Fetch’s counters.
Either way, once you’ve decided on Farfetch’d’s set, you need to address 2 issues- Farfetch’d is hard countered by Normal resists, and is a defensive liability against pretty much everything. With those factors in mind, I opted for standard Tauros and Reflect/Earthquake Snorlax. No way in hell am I cheating on coverage with Farfetch’d in tow.
My initial version of the team saw me use Lapras, Sing Chansey and lead Alakazam. Testing swiftly demonstrated that this team wasn’t viable, with an incoherent status plan and major Zapdos weakness. I then decided to swap Lapras out for Hydro Pump/Thunderbolt Starmie, as it has broad defensive coverage and even though it’s still weak to Zapdos, its Speed is something of a saving grace. I hate running lead Alakazam if I’m not prepared to paralyse early, which is at odds with Sing Chansey. Therefore I replaced it with lead Exeggutor.
The final version of the team was still significantly weak to Zapdos, but it’s not so bad that the team is entirely unviable. It is worth noting that in 2023 Zapdos is at what looks like a low point. Potentially if the metagame shifts to be more friendly to it this team could be exposed. Regardless, if you’d like to try my team it can be found here.
Results
The biggest selling point of Farfetch’d is its versatility as an attacker. You have the option of going for immediate damage with Slash, or investing in your attacking potential with Swords Dance and/or Agility.
Having said that, it also falls short in some notable areas. As I mentioned, Body Slam is only a little better than Slash after a single boost, meaning a single Swords Dance often isn’t the best use of a turn. It also has a dicey matchup against Reflect users which is not a great look for something that spams Slash- Chansey generally isn’t 2HKO’d.
Fortunately there’s a neat tech against Snorlax, the most notorious reflect user. Although Farfetch’d cannot break Lax with Slash, it can force a Rest loop. This means that Snorlax will be predictably using Rest, giving you the free turn you need to use Swords Dance. Once you boost up to +6, Fetch’s Body Slam is powerful enough to break through Lax’s Reflect. Of course, this is a slow process and your opponent should catch on to what you’re doing and disrupt it… except I’ve pulled it off against a quality opponent (admittedly, I think Laurel was just complacent).
Of course, I haven’t addressed the fact that the terrible bulk and defensive typing of Farfetch’d means it’s almost impossible to bring in, never mind set up (after all, it gets 2HKO’d by Porygon apparently). Throughout my testing I heavily benefited from opponents being complacent around Farfetch’d and leaving in sleeping or frozen Pokemon. You also have to account for the fact that Farfetch’d is completely walled by Gengar and Rhydon, with the latter being the last thing you want to let in safely.
Overall, Farfetch’d is really, really bad. It’s capable of being a threat, but most of the time it’s a gaping liability, while being flawed even as an offensive threat. It’s also totally outclassed by Scyther unless you run Sand Attack- that’s something that I wish I’d tested, and honestly it’s a change I’ll go back and make. Farfetch’d isn’t quite useless enough to share a tier with Golbat and the like, but it’s still treading thin ice, and is unambiguously unviable.
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