I see a lot of people use the move Substitute in their movesets. I was just wondering what the different strategies are that go along with using the move.

Thanks.

The most common use would be for tanks. If you create a substitute with 25% of your life and a pokemon hits you for what would deal 80% of your life bar in damage, it'll only KO the substitute. It's also useful for absorbing status effects if you know they're coming.

Substitute is used a lot in conjunction with Focus Punch, though only a few pokemon can pull off this strategy very well (DP's TTar... ¬_¬). The pokemon, if with good defenses and excellent HP, can withstand hits until it needs to. The substitute is meant to protect from hits, so Focus Punch can be successfully landed.

Wow I have never thought of that combo before, and btw taser thats a great new Avatar!

There remains the mystery of exactly what the hell Froslass is...

Well, I have no idea where that frosslass comment came from, but I also like substitute on baton passers and leach seeders.

Using it as a sheild to get the power ups to pass.

Or in the leach seed case, recovering as much hp as you're spending.

Substitute is great on a Baton Passer with high HP and Defences. When a Pokémon creates a substitute, it calculates how hard of a hit it can take using that original pokémon's stats. Have a Drifblim with a lot of HP and decence defences create a substitute, then Baton Pass it to a more fragile Pokémon. The hits that substitute takes still depend on the stats of the Drifblim that created it.

Hope that made sence...

or for beating Blissey - 101 subs
A pokemon with a 100 base HP stat or higher, with max HP, can make subs that take two Seismic Tosses to break

I never thought of that, but that's pretty cool!