The Sweeper is your powerhouse. It’s the job of the sweeper to hit, and hit hard. Of course with so many offensive powerhouses the question of what sort of sweeper to use is a tricky one.

Personally I would recommend one physical sweeper and one special sweeper. I tend to find that the best sweepers are double typed Pokémon that can get a same type attack boost on two different moves. For example Garchomp gets a boost to his dragon and ground type attacks. While this isn’t necessary I do find that it allows for the maximum offensive output.

You may also want to consider a Pokémon who is super effective against the most types. For example, fire and fighting have a very broad range of coverage, as do fighting and dark. A Pokémon such as Scrafty can hit nearly every thing effectively because of its great dual typing. Certain type combinations will be better than others.

Speed is another important factor. You ideally always want to go with the Pokémon that can hit first; remember how in the introduction I brought up that Salamence was widely outclassed by Garchomp? That was because while Salamence had the greater offensive power, it was out sped by Garchomp and though the difference wasn’t too great, it still meant Garchomp would have the advantage because it was still faster.

The Dragon type often makes for a great sweeper as while it is only super effective against its own type it’s attacks are so powerful. That coupled with the fact that dragon types usually have the highest stats of any Pokémon, and that they have great type coverage (being able to use fire, ground and water type attacks) that they nearly always hit hard.

Some sweepers I’d recommend besides the aforementioned Garchomp and Salamence are: Mega Charizard X and Y.

Mega Charizard X provides good physical attack with an immunity to being burned (meaning that attack stat is very hard to lower, as burn cuts your attack in half) and access to dragon dance and its ability tough claws means it will consistently do a lot of damage, but it still has a decent special attack which allows it to act as a mixed sweeper.

Mega Charizard Y is more powerful in terms of offense but not quite as versatile as Mega Charizard X. Mind you, it doesn’t need to be. With a sky-high special attack and the ability drought, Y-Zard is always in the sun giving it boosted fire attacks and a constant access to a ready charged solarbeam. That coupled with great speed allows it to hit rock and water types for super effective damage and will often one hit KO them.

However there is more to offense than damaging attacks. Next time I will break down the annoyer.