Gen 3 Breloom(OU Revamp)[QC 2/2] [GP 2/2] [DONE]

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[OVERVIEW]

Breloom is the most reliable sleep inducer, thanks to Spore, the only fully accurate sleep move. It exploits sleep excellently with the most powerful Focus Punch in OU, possibly 2HKOing even physical walls and resistant switch-ins like Skarmory and Zapdos. To generate Spore opportunities, it makes use of its great defensive typing to switch into Water-type attacks from Swampert, Milotic, and Suicune and Crunch from special Tyranitar. It also resists the Rock Slide + Earthquake coverage of the tier's most potent physical threat: Tyranitar. To top it off, Breloom has Mach Punch to revenge kill Dragon Dance Tyranitar, limit Dugtrio's ability to revenge kill it, and generally finish off weakened foes.

Breloom, however, is incredibly frail, and the Pokemon that it switches into frequently carry moves like Ice Beam, Fire Blast, and Focus Punch that can severely damage or OHKO it. Breloom is also rather slow; while it can outspeed most defensive Pokemon, the vast majority of offensive threats can easily revenge kill it. Breloom also has poor coverage; it relies on a weak Hidden Power or status moves to cripple Pokemon that resist Fighting. This limits its utility outside of the initial Spore + Focus Punch sequence, lets Ghost-types and Psychic-types with Recover wall it, and renders it setup fodder for Dragon Dance Salamence and Gyarados. Finally, Breloom is easily trapped and revenge killed by healthy Dugtrio.

[SET]

name: Spore
move 1: Spore
move 2: Focus Punch
move 3: Sky Uppercut
move 4: Mach Punch
item: Leftovers
ability: Effect Spore
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

Set Description
=========

Spore is what sets Breloom apart from the other Fighting-types in OU. Sleep is a great asset against balance and defensive teams that have a dedicated role for each Pokemon, as putting one wall out of commission provides opportunities for specific teammates to wallbreak and sweep. For example, putting a Ground-, Water-, or Steel-type to sleep can help secure a Dragon Dance Tyranitar sweep. Spore is also good against hit-and-run-based offense teams that lack setup sweepers that are strong against Breloom, as these teams struggle to come back from the functional one Pokemon deficit of sleep. Spore is also useful to shut down Spikers and spinners like Skarmory, Claydol, or Forretress.

Focus Punch is Breloom's strongest move and synergizes perfectly with Spore, allowing it to dish out a devastating attack while the opposing Pokemon is sleeping or switching out. It is so strong that physically bulky Pokemon like Skarmory, Metagross, and Swampert are likely to be 2HKOed, common Fighting-resistant foes like offensive Zapdos and Moltres are potentially 2HKOed in sand, and even sturdier Fighting-resistant foes like Salamence cannot switch in forever. While not as powerful, Sky Uppercut is a reliable attack that threatens Tyranitar, Snorlax, and Blissey, which sometimes stay in on Breloom after a teammate has been put to sleep; Sky Uppercut is also useful to finish off slow Pokemon that Breloom or its teammates have weakened previously, like Skarmory, Swampert, and Metagross. The combined threat of Focus Punch on switching out and Sky Uppercut on staying in makes Breloom really hard to predict and appropriately check.

Mach Punch makes Breloom the best priority user in OU. Mach Punch primarily revenge kills chipped Dragon Dance Tyranitar and low HP Aerodactyl; additionally, it puts Dugtrio that revenge kill Breloom into range of Tyranitar's Pursuit. Finally, Mach Punch gives Breloom that extra bit of damage against many faster offensive threats like Jolteon, offensive Jirachi, Salac Berry Heracross, and Salac Berry Vaporeon, helping teammates take them down, possibly with the aid of sand, even if Mach Punch itself does not KO them.

A Jolly nature is preferred over Adamant to outspeed maximum Speed Tyranitar, Swampert, Cloyster, and Vaporeon; slower variants of defensive Celebi, Jirachi, and Zapdos; and neutral nature Metagross, Claydol, and Magneton. At worst, Jolly Breloom Speed ties with Metagross, Cloyster, and Magneton. Outspeeding maximum Speed Tyranitar is especially important because it commonly runs a set with Lum Berry and Fire Blast, which allows it to switch into Spore and OHKO Breloom. However, an Adamant nature gives a 50% chance to OHKO Modest Blissey with Sky Uppercut and a chance to 2HKO Skarmory with Focus Punch + Sky Uppercut.

There are generally two ways to use Spore. If Breloom is used on a team with a variety of sweepers and wallbreakers, it is beneficial to use Spore early-game. There is a good chance that Spore disables a check to one of Breloom's teammates, letting it make progress. If Breloom's team is focused on trading KOs with the opponent, such as a Dugtrio team or one with Choice Band Metagross and Curse + Self-Destruct Snorlax, then it is beneficial to use Spore late-game after several trades are made. This prevents opponents from sacrificing the sleeping Pokemon and increases Breloom's impact—with few Pokemon remaining, it is likely that the opponent will lack a sufficient defensive backbone to handle Spore and Focus Punch. While Spore is almost always good to use, one must be wary of getting lured into providing setup opportunities; sweepers like Dragon Dance Salamence and Calm Mind Jirachi can easily turn the tables if Breloom slept a different foe instead, bringing their team back from behind.

Team Options
========

The single most important piece of support that Breloom appreciates is Pursuit, since Gengar walls it and bulky Psychic-types like Celebi, Starmie, and Claydol check it effectively. Pursuit Tyranitar is an excellent partner that can potentially deal with all of these Pokemon. In addition, it traps the Flying types that threaten Breloom: Tyranitar can switch into Choice Band Salamence's Hidden Power Flying, mixed Salamence’s Fire Blast, Choice Band Aerodactyl’s Double-Edge or Hidden Power Flying, Moltres’s and Charizard’s Fire Blasts, and even Zapdos’s Thunderbolt to forcibly chip each with Pursuit. If Dugtrio revenge kills Breloom, Mach Punch, followed up by Tyranitar's Pursuit, will KO it in return. Tyranitar also sets sand, which makes Breloom's Focus Punch damage stick against the sand-weak Fighting-resistant foes like Zapdos and Salamence. Despite Pursuit Tyranitar having the most synergy with Breloom, mixed and Dragon Dance Tyranitar might be better partners on hyper offense teams, as they have more offensive potential. If this choice is made, one should mitigate the Gengar weakness with Stun Spore or Hidden Power Ghost. Less popular Pursuit users like Metagross, Houndoom, and Umbreon are also potential Breloom partners, fitting well on teams without sand or those that prefer a different Tyranitar set.

Breloom sometimes struggles to get on the field due to its poor defenses, so it is commonly paired with pure or Substitute Baton Pass users like Zapdos, Celebi, and Vaporeon. Zapdos is the most common and consistent of the three, as it synergizes nicely with Breloom defensively and offensively: Zapdos can pass to Breloom to handle a Rock Slide from Tyranitar or to pressure Blissey and Snorlax that come in on Zapdos. Celebi can pass out of Pursuit Tyranitar into Breloom or catch Skarmory on the switch to deny Spikes with Breloom's Spore. Vaporeon is another Substitute + Baton Pass user that can create Substitutes that survive Blissey's Seismic Toss to pass to Breloom safely.

Breloom fits well on mixed offense teams. Mixed attackers lure in and weaken Skarmory, Celebi, and Zapdos for Breloom and vice versa, while Breloom compensates for their inability to break past the bulky core of Milotic and Blissey. These mixed attackers include mixed Salamence, offensive Swampert, Charizard, and mixed Zapdos. Using Charizard and Zapdos helps offensive teams check the tier's most fearsome physical threats without wasting a teamslot on a passive wall; both defensively cover Metagross, while Breloom covers physical Tyranitar. In general, offense teams need a strategy for checking Dragon Dance Tyranitar, and Mach Punch Breloom shores up that weakness without ceding momentum. Breloom is also great on offense teams that rely on trades to get into a favorable position. With partners that can take out just about any Pokemon one-on-one, like mixed or Choice Band Explosion Metagross, Self-Destruct Snorlax, and Endeavor Swampert, one can continuously trade KOs until there are few Pokemon left on either side; here, Spore, by disabling one of the key Pokemon remaining, can be devastating. Dugtrio can also perform trades via trapping and revenge killing; additionally, it can reverse trap opposing Dugtrio and enable Calm Mind sweepers, though one has to be careful about stacking weaknesses to Dragon Dance Salamence. Finally, Breloom fits very well on offense teams that feature setup sweepers like Dragon Dance Tyranitar; Calm Mind Jirachi, Suicune, and Celebi; or Substitute Aerodactyl, as sleeping a wall provides extra turns for them to set up and break through.

On stall and balance teams, Breloom is used to generate momentum and win the Spikes war, putting either the opposing Spiker or spinner to sleep. While both Skarmory and Forretress are appropriate Spikers, Forretress is the more common Breloom partner, as they both benefit from Pursuit Tyranitar. Forretress is also good at pressuring the Psychic-types that wall Breloom like Celebi, Claydol, and Starmie with Hidden Power Bug. As both Breloom and Forretress are weak to mixed attackers, they are often paired with a mixed wall like Blissey, Milotic, or specially defensive Zapdos; these are especially useful versus mixed Salamence, which is a very common Breloom answer. Aerodactyl is another good switch-in to mixed Salamence and acts very well as a late-game cleaner when used with Spikes. Additionally, Hidden Power Bug Aerodactyl can also mitigate Breloom’s weakness to Psychic-types, especially Celebi.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]

Other Options
========

Hidden Power Bug nails Celebi and deals good damage to the spinners Starmie and Claydol, making it especially effective on Spikes teams. Hidden Power Ghost Breloom can hit Gengar super effectively if Pursuit Tyranitar is not used as a partner, and like Hidden Power Bug sets, it can chip Psychic-types. However, Hidden Power Ghost is unreliable, as it requires prediction to hit Gengar on the switch to win the interaction.

Stun Spore cripples common Breloom switch-ins like Zapdos, Moltres, Gengar, Salamence, and Gyarados. One of the most common ways to deal with Breloom is to sacrifice a Pokemon to Spore and then go to a Fighting-resistant or immune teammate above to absorb the Focus Punch. Stun Spore really cripples these checks because they are highly valued for their Speed. Stun Spore is also useful for denying free setup opportunities to Dragon Dance Gyarados, Dragon Dance Salamence, and Calm Mind Jirachi. However, Stun Spore is quite useless against Celebi and Starmie due to Natural Cure.

A SubSeed Breloom set can exploit the free turn that sleep generates to set up Substitute and start stalling. Besides allowing Leech Seed stall, Substitute lets Breloom scout for switches to a designated Pokemon to absorb Spore. Should the foe be slower, Substitute allows Breloom to use Focus Punch without expending Spore or continue with Spore to fire off two Focus Punches. This really punishes teams that have only one Pokemon that can take a Focus Punch. Unfortunately, this set has a hard time getting past Celebi due to its immunity to Leech Seed.

Swords Dance combined with Mach Punch and Sky Uppercut turns Breloom into a scary late-game sweeper when all the Fighting-resistant foes have been cleared out. This set does very well against opposing offense teams that plan on revenge killing Breloom with fast but frail cleaners like Aerodactyl and Jolteon. The cost of this set is its mid-game wallbreaking power due to the lack of Focus Punch.


Checks and Counters
===================

**Flying-types**: Salamence and Gyarados are great checks to Breloom thanks to their typings and Intimidate. Dragon Dance Salamence and Gyarados can use Breloom to set up, while mixed Salamence can be particularly threatening to Breloom's teammates, especially when it gets many opportunities to enter the field. While less common, Wish + Protect Salamence and Rest Gyarados are perhaps the most robust Breloom counters. Other Flying-types like Zapdos, Moltres, Charizard are all frailer Fighting-resistant Pokemon but can still switch into Focus Punch once per game. Skarmory can effectively check Breloom with Drill Peck but cannot switch safely into Focus Punch.

**Gengar**: Gengar is immune to Fighting, so it can switch safely into any Breloom, assuming it is not running Hidden Power Ghost or Stun Spore; however, Breloom is frequently partnered with Pursuit Tyranitar, so Gengar is not a reliable solution.

**Psychic-types**: Bulky Celebi and Starmie with Recover are some of the best Breloom checks; however, they have to be careful of Hidden Power Bug Breloom and Pursuit Tyranitar. Claydol lacks a form of instant recovery, but with its good bulk and sand immunity, it can manage to switch into Breloom a couple of times.

**Dugtrio**: Dugtrio traps and OHKOes Breloom. However, Mach Punch followed by a Pursuit user will trap and eliminate Dugtrio in return.

**Sleep Talk Heracross**: Sleep Talk Heracross is a rare set, but it’s a good Breloom check; unlike any other check, it can absorb the Spore and threaten Breloom out with Guts-boosted attacks. It also takes little damage from Breloom's attacks, courtesy of its Fighting resistance.

**Poison-types**: Venusaur and Weezing are serviceable Breloom checks thanks to their Fighting resistances. However, they lack recovery moves and are not immune to sand, so they are bound to get worn out over the course of the game.

**Physically Defensive Jirachi**: Wish + Protect physically defensive Jirachi is a good Breloom check despite not resisting Fighting because of its sheer bulk and sand immunity.

**Revenge Killers**: Aerodactyl, Calm Mind Jirachi, offensive Suicune, and offensive Starmie cannot switch reliably into Breloom, but all are faster and can threaten an OHKO as long as they are out of range of Mach Punch.

[CREDITS]

- Written by: [[mikmer, 511989]]
- Quality checked by: [[vapicuno, 5454], [johnnyg2, 57904]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429], [dex, 277988]]
 
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vapicuno

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yo mikmer are we gonna do this? feel like we should update this now that breloom is ou. let me know!

some comments on this skeleton:

i feel that hp bug should be slashed in the last slot, since celebi and mie are very common and not easy to trap.

also, good to talk a bit more about spore
- vs defensive teams that have a dedicated role for every pokemon, spore putting out an important wall can be devastating.
- vs offensive teams without salamence, focus punch can really hurt
- good way to limit spikes by disabling skarm (really helps spikes teams not play a 3spike vs 3spike game too cos frequently the breloom side is losing in those)
- spikers as team options, because although spikers dont chip breloom switchins, people frequently use claydol to take sleep, so unrevealed spiker can take advantage of that. also, pursuit tar helps take out the spinners too.

checks and coutners
- i think flying types goes on top, followed by psychic types, then gengar, just because gengar gets trapped so much.
- revenge killers - can talk about starmie again
 
Hey Mikmer -- this is really well done! I know I'm not a qc member, but I thought I might try to give my insight on this analysis

View attachment 295781
[OVERVIEW]


Breloom’s role in the ADV OU metagame is a compression of defensive utiliy and wallbreaking power topped by the ability to put a Pokemon to sleep with 100% accuracy thanks to Spore. Breloom’s defensive utility allows it to switch into the common Quake/Slide combination of Tyranitar while threatening it with an OHKO, it also switches into Water types like Swampert, Milotic and defensive Suicune without Ice Beam and threatens them with Spore. Breloom’s wallbreaking power allows it to deal massive unresisted damage to the common defensive cores of Tyranitar/ Blissey/ Skarmory/ Swampert with the combination of Focus Punch + Sky Uppercut. Breloom’s biggest asset is undoubtedly the move Spore, it can take out of commission any Pokemon putting it to sleep, additionally it gives Breloom a free turn to set up Focus Punch coming out of Breloom's incredible attack stat. Additionally, Breloom’s decent speed and good defensive typing allow it to create plenty of opportunities where it can use Spore against a slower Pokemon. I feel like we should switch the sentences about defensive utility and wall breaking -- you emphasize Loom's frailness in the next paragraph and I feel the defensive attributes are secondary to Spore and its wall breaking. You could potentially add an aside that Loom is the best priority user in OU w Mach Punch to revenge DDTar / help trap Dugtrio w Pursuit Tar. Could also add that Loom's Spore is more reliable than other sleepers such as Smeargle, Venu, or Jynx due to Loom's offensive presence and Spore's perfect accuracy, respectively.

However Breloom has many drawbacks that keep it in check: for one, it is increadibly frail and can only take well resisted attacks as it would get OHKOed by most supereffective hits as well as some neutral ones; Breloom is also quite slow, while it can generally outspeed most defensive Pokemon, it will fall short against the vast majority of offensive threats meaning it’s very easy to revenge kill it; Breloom also struggles with its coverage moves having no other choice than the weak hidden power or status to damage the Pokemon that resist its fighting attacks; finally Breloom is trapped and OHKOed by Dugtrio, the most common trapper in ADV OU. You could mention that here that loom also is one of the best ways to cripple fighting resists w Paralysis or Sleep. Bc Fighting resists are such obvious counters to Loom, you could add this is great way to lure them in -- double Pursuit TTar into Gengar after Loom sleeps something as an example.





[SET]
name: Spore
move 1: Spore
move 2: Focus Punch
move 3: Sky Uppercut
move 4: Mach Punch / HP Bug Is HP Bug the standard choice for the other hidden power? I thought it was ghost or stun spore if you didn't want mach? Or maybe we should move all the other options OO and just keep the triple fight in the standard?
item: Leftovers
ability: Effect Spore
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]


Set Description
=========


Spore is Breloom’s defining move and is what sets it apart from the other fighting types in OU. Spore is a devastating asset agaist defensive teams that have a dedecated role for each Pokemon, putting out an important wall can be game breaking. Spore is useful for shutting down an opposing spiker like Skarmory therefore ensuring your team doesnt have to deal with Spikes for the remaining of the game, alternatively, it is used to put to sleep a spinner like Claydol allowing your Spiker to set Spikes uncontested. Spore is great against offensive teams because it is in the nature of offense to trade Pokemon 1 vs 1 and putting one of the opposing threats to sleep leaves them with fewer possibility to break your defensive cores.
Could also mention how Spore helps your offensive threats set up -- sub cm Jirachi loves Claydol being asleep, DDTar loves Swampert being asleep, etc.

Focus Punch synergizes perfectly with Spore allowing Breloom to dish out a devastating attack while the opposing Pokemon is sleeping, Focus Punch is so strong that common fighting resists like offensive Zapdos and Moltres get 2HKOed by it. Sky Uppercut is a more reliable attack that doesn’t require prediction despite having lower power. The threat of Focus Punch combined with the immediate power of Sky Uppercut makes Breloom really hard to switch into for teams lacking Salamence or Gengar.

Mach punch is the most common move in the last slot, it revenge kills dragon dance Tyranitar and low hp Aerodactyl and puts Dugtrio into Pursuit range. Hidden Power Bug is an alternative that nails Celebi and deals good damage to Starmie and Claydol.
Would emphasize that Mach make Loom the best priority user in OU. You mentioned the main cases, but I'd emphasize that it always nice to be able revenge threats at low health. If we choose to keep HP Bug in the main, probably would mention that it helps to nail prominent Psychics such as Celebi, Starmie, and Claydol. Maybe mention it a guaranteed 2HKO on all of them.

A jolly nature outruns max speed Tyranitar and Swampert as well as neutral nature Metagross and Magneton, an adamant nature has a chance to OHKO Blissey with sky uppercut and 2HKO Skarmory with the combination of Focus Punch + Sky uppercut. I'd emphasize that Jolly is preferred, because of the value of outspeeding that 240-252 speed tier (making sure you get that Spore off, not getting nailed by fast TTar Fire Blast, and a whole host of others) is more valuable than the other damage rolls in my opinion. I would also mention that Jolly gets the jump on slower versions of base 100s like Zap, Celebi, and Jirachi as well as ties guaranteeing you at least tie w other base 70s.


Team Options
========

The single most important piece of support that Breloom needs is Pursuit, Breloom is walled by Gengar and is checked quite well by Psychic types like Recover Celebi, Recover Starmie and Claydol. Pursuit Tyranitar is an excellent partner as it is the only Pursuit user that can potentially deal with all of these pokemon; Pusuit Tyranitar synergizes well with Breloom also because it can pusuit the Flying types that threaten Breloom, for example Tyranitar can switch into Choice Band Salamence's HP Flying, Mix Salamence’s Fire Blast, CB Aerodactyl’s Double-Edge or HP Flying, Moltres’s Flametrower, Charizard’s Fireblast, even Zapdos’s Thuderbolt and Pursuit them for some good chip damage. Could mention other Pursuit trappers, like Umby, Metagross, and Houndoom (I've only really seen this on super offensive teams, but it could be worth a mention). You could also make a mention of TTar's sand, as it helps make Loom's focus punch damage stick on Fighting resists. You could also mention that even DDTar is a good partner to Loom, as it can take advantage of Loom getting trapped by Duggy to get a free DD and still sets up Sand.

Breloom can sometimes struggle to get on the field due to its poor defenses, this is why it’s commonly paired with dry pass or sub pass users like Zapdos, Celebi and Vaporeon. Zapdos is the most common of the three and synergizes well with it because Breloom can switch into Rock Slide from Tyranitar that threatens Zapdos while Zapdos can dry pass into Breloom on the Normal type special walls Blissey and Snorlax. Pretty sure Rock Slide still breaks the sub unless Zap has a lot of HP, but the point still stands. I'd still mention the value of the others -- Celebi can BP a sub out of Pursuit tar and threaten the team (I haven't really seen this core in action though) and Vap can sub pass out of special walls w a 101 HP sub and threaten most defensive teams w Loom's Focus Punch and Spore. Agree w emphasizing Zap though, it is the best one

Breloom is usually seen on mixed offense teams or stall teams; on mixed offense it enjoys partering with Pokemon that can abuse Celebi like Fire types Moltres and Charizard or Flying types Salamence and Zapdos with Drill Peck. On stall teams Breloom enjoys having a solid defensive core that can sustain the long term pressure of opposing physical threats like DD Mence and dd Gyarados and special threats like Moltres and Zapdos, therefore it is commonly seen alongside Blissey + Swampert. Finally on these stall teams Breloom is paired with a spiker either Forretress or Skarmory because Spikes are key in order to maintain the initiative, force progress and keep your opponent on the backfoot in order to give Breloom more oppotunities to sneak into the field. I think I would separate these two paragraphs, offensive teams pairing solid w Celebi abusers like Molt, Charizard, MixMence, and Drill peck Zapdos. I would mention that Loom acts a pseudo rock resist here, shores the team's typically weak answers to DDTar, abuses Loom's Spore Loom more effectively w momentum, and provides some speed control w Mach Punch. On the other hand, they provide Loom ample ways to come in w the aforementioned Zap / Vap BP, answers to Fighting resists like Pursuit Meta and TTar, and ways to get through bulky walls after Loom has dropped Spore w Selfdestruct/Explosion from like Snorlax and Metagross.

On Stall teams, Loom is commonly used as a way to generate momentum and cripple opposing spinners. I wouldn't mention DD Mence or Gyara, as MixMence is the more common pairing and DD Gyara + Loom is pretty niche pairing imo. Moltres and Zap are great partners on these archetypes, as Moltres takes advantage of Loom's ability to cripple its few answers like Milo, Blissey, and Pursuit TTar while also threatening Celebi. Both Off Zap and rest Zap fit well w Loom on defensive teams imo. I'd word the Bliss and Pert differently imo. Strong walls also work well w making up for Loom's defensive liabilities, such as Milo and Pert to make up for Loom's weak Rock resist and Bliss/Jirachi for special threats. Could also mention how these can help w MixMence, a common defensive answer to Loom. For the Spiker, could also emphasize how Forre synergizes well w the Pursuit Tar Loom needs on Stall teams, whereas Loom synergizes well w Skarm due to Spikes, being a good answer to Celebi, and allowing Loom on the field. I'd also generally flesh out these paragraphs.



[STRATEGY COMMENTS]


Other Options
=============

Stun Spore can cripple common Breloom switchins like Zapdos, Moltres and Gengar, it also denies a free setup by DD Gyarados and DD Salamence, but it is quite useless against Celebi and Starmie due to their ability Natural Cure. I think you're underselling Stun Spore a bit, as a common answer to Loom is to sack to Spore then switch into Fight resist and immunities. Stun Spore cripples them w Para, and is one of the best ways to spread Para on hard those hard Paralyze threats. Despite this, agree w keeping in the natural cure aside

Substitute can scout sleep sacks and punish them with a safe Focus Punch behind a Sub, Leech seed helps to keep Breloom healthy and synergizes well with Sub agaist slower Pokemon, unfortunately this set is completely walled by Celebi. I'd talk to the rest of QC, but this might warrant a separate set due to how differently it plays from standard Loom

Swords Dance combined with Mach Punch and Sky Uppercut turns Breloom into a scary late game sweeper, as a drawback this set is much worse in the mid game due to lacking the breaking power of Focus Punch.

Hp ghost Breloom is worth mentioning since it’s the only set that doesn’t require Pursuit support, but it requires prediction since Breloom can’t stay vs Gengar to click it. I don't agree w keeping it all the way at the end, as I think HP ghost is nice for more offensive teams that can't fit pursuit or are using weak pursuiters like metagross. I'd talk to the rest of QC to see what they think




Checks and Counters
===================

**Flying types**: Salamence and Gyarados are great checks to Breloom due to their tipying and the ability intimidate, especially Wish+Protect Salamence and Rest Gyarados can wall Breloom pretty much forever. Other Flying types like Zapdos, Moltres, Charizard can generally switch into Focus Punch once or twice while non fighting resist Flying types like Skarmory runs the risk of ketting koed by the combination of focus punch + sky uppercut. Would mention that Skarm still is a good check w Drill Peck, as if it avoids the Focus, Breloom is not getting through it

**Gengar**: Gengar is immune to Fighting moves so it walls non hp ghost Breloom forever, but it has to be afraid of Stun Spore and getting trapped by Breloom's most common partner Pursuit Tyranitar. Don't know if it worth mentioning, but could also mention Dusclops, as it walls Breloom super hard and changing the header to be Ghost types.

**Psychic types**: Celebi and Starmie with Recover are some of the best Breloom checks, however they have to be careful of Hp Bug and Pursuit Tyranitar. Claydol lacks instant Recovery but with its good bulk and sand immunity can switch into Focus Punch multiple times and can become a long term counter with the help of wish support. I'd argue that off Claydol doesn't take Focus Punches that well, as well as Starmie and Celebi aren't super vulnerable to Pursuit Tar since most Starmie are Ev'ed to 2HKO and not get OHKOed by Crunch while Celebi has BP and can 2HKO back w HP Grass. But these are of course fantastic checks to Loom

**Heracross(Sleep Talk)**: Sleep talk Heracross is a rare set but it’s an excellent counter to Breloom because unlike any other check it can switch in on Spore and then thereaten Breloom out with Guts boosted sleeping attacks. This is a great check, but should it be mentioned here?

**Poison types**: Venusaur and Weezing can switch into Breloom a few times but lack a reliable form of recovery.

**Jirachi(defensive)**: Wish+Protect physically defensive Jirachi is actually a good Breloom check despite not resisting fighting attacks because of its sheer bulk and reliable recovery. I think only physically defensive Wish rachi is a good check -- standard spdef rachi is KOed by Focus + Sky w some a small amount of prior damage.

**Dugtrio**: Dugtrio is the best Breloom revenge killer because of its ability to trap it and reliably OHKO it, however Mach Punch into Pursuit make so that Dugtrio is trapped in return. I'd put this above Heracross and the others in the fourth slot imo

**Revenge killers **: Aerodactyl, Jolteon with Hp Ice, offensive Metagross, offensive Jirachi, offensive Suicune with Ice Beam, offensive Starmie cannot switch reliably into Breloom but they can all scare it away with the threat of an OHKO.



[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[mikmer, ]]
- Quality checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
 
apologies that it took so long for this am check vapicuno johnnyg2
-i rephrased the intro to put more enphasis on Spore and less on the defensive utility
-i bulked up the team options section
-i put hp bug and stun spore in OOs, since people were in disagreement to which one should be featured as a slash, im still unsure myself, willing to listen what qc guys have to say
-i put the checks & counters in order of viability imo, and i put revenge killers last since they can't switch into loom
 

vapicuno

你的价值比自己想象中的所有还要低。我却早已解脱,享受幸福
is a Site Content Manageris a Forum Moderatoris a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Past WCoP Champion
Moderator
Sorry for the wait. Blue = additions, Green = comments. Once these are implemented let me know and I'll give a 1/2.

View attachment 295781
[OVERVIEW]

Breloom is the most reliable sleep inducer in ADV OU. Spore being a 100% accurate sleep move makes Breloom more reliable than other sleep inducers like Jynx and Venusaur, and having a good defensive typing helps Breloom to get into the field compared to the other Spore user Smeargle. Breloom's defensive typing allows it to switch into the Quake/Slide combination of physical Tyranitar and Flygon as well as into Crunch from special Tyranitar. Additionally, it switches into bulky Water types like Swampert, Milotic and Suicune. Once Breloom has successfully landed Spore, it can put to use its massive physical attack stat combined with the powerful move Focus Punch for devastating results. Focus Punch does north of 60% worth of damage to non fighting resists like Skarmory and Metagross, and it can do up to 50% to frailer fighting resists like offensive Zapdos and Moltres. Finally, Breloom has access to one of the few good priority moves in ADV in Mach Punch which is very useful for its ability to revenge kill a boosted Dragon Dance Tyranitar.

However, Breloom has many drawbacks: Despite its good typing, it is incredibly frail and can only switch into resisted attacks as it would get OHKOed by most super effective hits as well as some neutral boosted ones. On top of that, Breloom is also quite slow; while it can generally outspeed most defensive Pokemon, it falls short against the vast majority of offensive threats, making it susceptible to being revenge killed. Additionally, Breloom struggles with its coverage moves having no other choice than Hidden Powers or status to cripple the Pokemon that resist its fighting coverage, often at the expense of valuable moves; this limits its utility outside of the initial Spore + Focus Punch and furthermore makes Breloom set up fodder for Dragon Dance Salamence and Gyarados. Finally, Breloom is prone to being trapped by Dugtrio.

[SET]

name: Spore
move 1: Spore
move 2: Focus Punch
move 3: Sky Uppercut
move 4: Mach Punch
item: Leftovers
ability: Effect Spore
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

Set Description
=========

Spore is Breloom’s defining move and is what sets it apart from the other fighting types in OU. Spore is a great asset against balanced and defensive teams (I realized I said defensive last time, I feel like it applies well to balance too. Basically I feel like sleep is best vs balanced teams and hit-and-run offenses that dont use dd flyers especially, but it may be a bit clunky to write. Thoughts?) that have a dedicated role for each Pokemon because putting out of commission an important wall can open up possibilities for Breloom’s teammates or for itself: for example putting asleep an opposing Ground type can help set up a Dragon Dance Tyranitar or Substitute + Calm Mind Jirachi sweep. Breloom can also use Spore to break for itself by taking out damaging a Fighting resist like Salamence or Claydol (I don't really understand the language of "break for itself". It's not common that Breloom dents mence/dol and then proceeds to sweep itself. Also, it doesn't take out mence/dol). Spore is also useful for shutting down an opposing Spiker like Skarmory therefore ensuring your team doesn't have to deal with Spikes for the remaining of the game. Alternatively, it can put to sleep a spinner like Claydol or Forretress allowing your Spiker to set Spikes uncontested. Spore is also great against hit-and-run based offensive teams that lack a setup sweeper that is strong against Breloom. because In a fast paced game, seizing the momentum is critically important and Spore is one of the best momentum reversing moves in the game; without a setup sweeper apart from Dragon Dance Tyranitar, regaining the momentum is an uphill task.

Focus Punch synergizes perfectly with Spore allowing Breloom to dish out a devastating attack while the opposing Pokemon is sleeping, Focus Punch is so strong that common fighting resists like offensive Zapdos and Moltres get 2HKOed by it. Sky Uppercut is a weaker but more reliable attack that can be used to finish off weakened threats. The threat of Focus Punch combined with the immediate power of Sky Uppercut makes Breloom really hard to switch into for teams lacking Salamence or Gengar.

Mach Punch Breloom is the best priority user in OU. It can OHKO a 70% health chipped Dragon Dance Tyranitar (not guaranteed depending on EVs, I'd just say chipped), a 30% health low HP Aerodactyl and guarantees to put Choice locked on Aerial Ace Dugtrio into range of Pursuit Tyranitar. Mach Punch gives Breloom that extra reach that is helpful against offensive teams that have many faster threats that could revenge kill Breloom even at low health, but the opportunity cost is that Mach Punch is often a dead move against bulky stall teams (not sure if this point should be included. First, a huge portion of stall, except Hariyama stall and magdol, use dug. Second, if you talk about opportunity cost, you must offer an alternative. Since there isn't an alternative here, best to just leave it out).

A Jolly nature is preferred over Adamant because outspeeding opposing Pokemon and landing Spore is the key behind Breloom’s success. Specifically, Jolly Breloom outruns max Speed Tyranitar, Swampert and Vaporeon, as well as neutral Speed Metagross, Magneton, Claydol and opposing Breloom; outspeeding max speed Tyranitar is especially important given the fact that is commonly runs with Lum Berry and Fire Blast to effectively deal with Adamant Breloom, which together allow it to pivot into and OHKO Breloom. Additionally Jolly Breloom can outspeed a group of Pokemon that commonly sit in the 244-250 range such as bulky variants of Celebi, Jirachi and Zapdos.

However an Adamant nature has its benefits including afavorable roll to OHKO Modest Blissey with Sky Uppercut about half the time and a chance good roll to 2HKO Skarmory with the combination of Focus Punch + Sky Uppercut.

Team Options
========

The single most important piece of support that Breloom needs on most teams is Pursuit. (some offensive teams get away with Stun Spore) Breloom is walled by Gengar and is checked quite well by Psychic types like Recover Celebi, Recover Starmie and Claydol. Pursuit Tyranitar is an excellent partner as it is the only Pursuit user(not really, Umbreon does a decent job too, but Umbreon needs too much of other support) that can potentially deal with all of these pokemon ; Pursuit Tyranitar synergizes well with Breloom also because it can switch in and trap the Flying types that threaten Breloom. For example, Tyranitar can switch into Choice Band Salamence's Hidden Power Flying, mixed Salamence’s Fire Blast, Choice Band Aerodactyl’s Double-Edge or HP Flying, Moltres’s Flamethrower, and Charizard’s Fire-type attacks Blast and even Zapdos’s Thunderbolt and Pursuit them for some good chip damage. Tyranitar is also a great Breloom partner because it sets sand which make Breloom’s Focus Punch stick against the sand weak fighting resists like Zapdos and Salamence. Despite Pursuit tar having the most synergy with Breloom, Mixed and Dragon Dance Tyranitar are also very good alongside it especially on hyper offensive teams that benefit from Tyranitar setting up sand and from Breloom wallbreaking abilities. Other Pursuit users like Metagross, Houndoom and Umbreon are decent partners if aiming for a sandless build or to free up a different tyranitar set.

Breloom sometimes struggles to get on the field due to its poor defenses, so this is why it’s commonly seen paired with dry pass or sub pass users like Zapdos, Celebi and Vaporeon. Zapdos is the most common and consistent of the three as it synergizes nicely with Breloom complementing its weaknesses: Zapdos can baton pass to Breloom on Rock Slide from Tyranitar that threatens Zapdos, while Breloom can come in on the Normal type special walls Blissey and Snorlax that wall Zapdos. Another good dry passer is Celebi which can dry pass out of Pursuit Tyranitar into Breloom and also deny Spikes from Skarmory with Spore lure Skarmory in let breloom in for a free spore. Vaporeon is a cool sub passer that can create 101 HP Substitutes that survive Blissey's Seismic Toss to pass to Breloom safely.

Breloom fits well on mixed offensive teams as a wallbreaker that mitigates its partners weaknesses to the bulky core of Milotic and Blissey. Spore is a great asset on these types of teams as they play very well when they are ahead in resources and they can take advantage of a sleeping pokemon to set up a ddtar sweep (There are two points in this sentence which should be separated. The first point - the idea of "playing well when being ahead in resources" - has a few issues. It is confusing to me and will probably confuse many others reading too. Presumably you mean that when you are equal or ahead in Pokemon in like say a 3v3, Spore is very devastating. But this point is independent of mixed offense or milo/bliss. If this is a general point that doesn't have to do with teammates, then it should be in set description, not team options. The second point about setting up a ddtar sweep - it belongs in team options yeah, but I think it's not just ddtar but any setup sweeper - we even talked about this in the first paragraph of the set description with cmrachi. Sleep helps lots of setup sweepers break through their checks - not just ddtar but also ddmence, ddgyara, cmrachi, offcune, even subaero possibly). Mixed attackers synergize well with Breloom in weakening Skarmory, Celebi and defensive Zapdos (weakening all kinds of Zapdos is good) for Breloom like the Fire types Charizard and Moltres (Molt is not a mixed attacker. If you want to talk about the fire grass synergy, make it a separate point), Zapdos with Drill Peck, mixed Salamence, mixed Metagross, and offensive Swampert, offensive Vaporeon and offensive Suicune (Vaporeon is not mixed, and you talked about it above in subpass. Offcune is also not mixed - combine with point about setup sweepers). Since these teams often lack a true long term dd tar answer mach punch breloom is a great asset to mitigate that weakness.
(Mention dug as partner too)

On stall and balance teams Breloom is used as a way to generate momentum and cripple opposing spinners to help the spikers Skarmory or Forretress. Forretress is more commonly seen with Breloom as they both benefit from partnering with Pursuit Tyranitar which removes Gengar allowing Forretress to spin. Forretress is also more effective vs pressures the Psychic types that wall Breloom like Celebi, Claydol and Starmie when packing Hidden Power Bug (questionable point about "more effective" - protox skarm also does the job. I recommend using a more neutral tone). As both Breloom and Forretress are weak to mixed attackers they are often paired with a mixed wall like Blissey, Milotic, or specially defensive Zapdos; these are especially useful vs mixed Salamence, which is a very common Breloom answer. Aerodactyl is also a surprisingly good switchin to mixmence and acts very well as a cleaner lategame combined with spikes. Hidden Power Bug Aerodactyl can also mitigate Breloom’s weakness to Psychic-types, especially Celebi, but Hidden Power Fighting Aerodactyl is also a consideration on Breloom teams as an extra way of dealing with Dragon Dance Tyranitar. (really? I can't think of a team where you would want to use HP Fight Aero with Breloom)

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]

Other Options
========

Hidden Power Bug Breloom nails Celebi and deals good damage to Starmie and Claydol, it is especially effective on spikes teams as an anti spinner measure.

Stun Spore cripples common Breloom switchins like Zapdos, Moltres, Gengar and Salamence. One of the most common ways to deal with Breloom is to sac something to spore and then go to a fighting resist to absorb the focus punch. Stun Spore can really undermine that plan since paralyzing the fighting resist means that i twill struggle to check breloom in the future really cripples these checks because they are highly valued for their speed. Stun Spore is also useful at denying what would otherwise be a free setup opportunity by Dragon Dance Gyarados, Dragon Dance Salamence or Offensive Jirachi when they are ready to sweep. Unfortunately, Stun Spore is quite useless against Celebi and Starmie due to their ability Natural Cure.

A Substitute + Leech Seed set can also be used to exploit the free turn that Spore gives to get the chain running. The idea is to slowly wither away the opposing Pokemon with Leech Seed while continuously using Substitute to block attacks while regaining HP. Additionally, Substitute can scout sleep sacs and punish them with a safe Focus Punch behind a Substitute. Leech Seed helps to keep Breloom healthy and synergizes well with Substitute against slower Pokemon. However, this set has a hard time getting past Celebi due to its immunity to Leech Seed.

Swords Dance combined with Mach Punch and Sky Uppercut turns Breloom into a scary late game sweeper. As a drawback, this set is much worse in the mid game since lacking the breaking power of Focus Punch.

Hidden Power Ghost Breloom is worth mentioning since it’s the only set that doesn’t require Pursuit support, but it requires prediction since Breloom can’t easily stay in vs Gengar to click it needs to hit Gengar on the switch to survive the interaction.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Flying types**: Salamence and Gyarados are great checks to Breloom thanks to their typing and Intimidate, especially Wish + Protect Salamence and Rest Gyarados are very difficult for Breloom to get through. Dragon Dance Salamence and Gyarados can also use the switch-in opportunity to set up, while mixed Salamence can be particularly threatening to Breloom's teammates, especially when it is used on a mixed offense team. Other Flying types like Zapdos, Moltres, Charizard are frailer but can still switch into Focus Punch once per game. Skarmory runs the risk of getting KOed by the combination of Focus Punch + Sky Uppercut; however, if Skarmory doesn’t switch into Focus Punch, it can effectively check Breloom with Drill Peck.

**Gengar**: Gengar is immune to Fighting type attacks so it can switch without fear into Breloom without Hidden Power Ghost in a vacuum. However Gengar hates getting paralyzed by Stun Spore and has to be mindful of getting trapped since most Breloom are run together with Pursuit Tyranitar. However, Breloom frequently comes with Pursuit Tyranitar, which traps Gengar, and Gengar may run into the occasional Stun Spore. (talk about the more common interaction first)

**Psychic types**: Bulky variants of Celebi and Starmie with Recover are some of the best Breloom checks. However, they have to be careful of Hidden Power Bug Breloom and Pursuit Tyranitar. Claydol lacks instant recovery but its good bulk and sand immunity allows it to switch into Focus Punch multiple times. Additionally, it can become a long term check with the help of Wish support.

**Dugtrio**: Dugtrio is the best Breloom revenge killer because of its ability to traps it and reliably OHKOs itBreloom. However Mach Punch with an opposing teammate's Pursuit as follow up traps and eliminates Dugtrio make so that Dugtrio is trappable in return. (moved Dugtrio up, again talk about common stuff first. And if you're going to talk about revenge killers later, distinguish dugtrio from other revenge killers. Don't talk about revenge killing then - its niche is trapping)

**Sleep Talk Heracross**
: Sleep Talk Heracross is a rare set but it’s an excellent counter to Breloom. Unlike any other check it can switch in on Spore and then threaten Breloom out with Guts boosted sleeping attacks while taking insignificant damage, courtesy of its Fighting-type resistance.

**Poison types**: Venusaur and Weezing can switch into Breloom a few times but lack a reliable form of recovery.

**Physically defensive Jirachi**: Wish + Protect physically defensive Jirachi is actually a good Breloom check despite not resisting fighting attacks because of its sheer bulk and reliable recovery.

**Revenge killers **: Aerodactyl, Jolteon with Hidden Power Ice, Metagross, Jirachi, offensive Suicune and offensive Starmie cannot switch reliably into Breloom but they can all scare it away if they face it at full health are out of range of Mach Punch.

[CREDITS]

- Written by: [[mikmer, ]]
- Quality checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
 
Last edited:

vapicuno

你的价值比自己想象中的所有还要低。我却早已解脱,享受幸福
is a Site Content Manageris a Forum Moderatoris a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Past WCoP Champion
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One of the things to note about C&C is that it is always better to say more in fewer words. Treat this as both a QC check and AMGP check at the same time. I took the liberty to rewrite some things. Please copy word for word and if there are reservations, let me know.

Note that I made some grammar edits that I didn't bother marking red or blue, so please copypaste even the text that isn't highlighted.

Blue = add
Red = remove
Green = comments

QC1/2 once done

View attachment 295781

[OVERVIEW]

Breloom is the most reliable Sleep inducer. It has Spore— the only fully accurate Sleep move. It exploits the Sleep turn excellently with the most powerful Focus Punch in OU, possibly 2HKOing even physical walls and resisted switch-ins like Skarmory and Zapdos. To generate these opportunities, it makes use of its great defensive typing to switch in. It comes in easily on Water-type attacks from Swampert, Milotic, and Suicune, and Crunch from special Tyranitar. It also resists the QuakeSlide coverage of the tier's most potent physical threat, Tyranitar. To top it off, Breloom has Mach Punch, which lets it act as a revenge killer to Dragon Dance Tyranitar, and limits Dugtrio's ability to revenge kill Breloom.

Breloom, however, is incredibly frail against anything it does not resist, and the Pokemon that it switches in on frequently carry moves like Ice Beam, Fire Blast and Focus Punch that can severely damage or OHKO it. Breloom is also rather slow; while it can outspeed most defensive Pokemon, it can easily be revenged killed by the vast majority of fast offensive threats. Breloom also has poor coverage; it relies on a weak Hidden Power or status moves to cripple Pokemon that resist its attacks. This limits its utility outside of the initial Spore + Focus Punch sequence, leaves it prone to being walled by Ghost-types and Psychic-types with Recover, and renders Breloom set up fodder for Dragon Dance Salamence and Gyarados. Finally, Breloom is easily trapped and revenge killed by Dugtrio.


Breloom is the most reliable sleep inducer in ADV OU thanks to Spore being a 100% accurate sleep move that makes Breloom more reliable than other sleep inducers like Jynx and Venusaur that have to gamble on a 75% accurate move, also having a good defensive typing and decent bulk allows Breloom to switch into enemy attacks more easily compared to the other popular Spore user Smeargle. Breloom's typing is excellent for switching into the Quake/Slide combination of physical Tyranitar as well as into Crunch from special Tyranitar, additionally, it's a good switch into bulky Water-types like Swampert, Milotic and Suicune. Once Breloom gets into the field it has an oppurtunity to use Spore and after having succesfully put something to sleep it can put to use its massive physical attack stat with the move Focus Punch as the sleeping Pokemon switches out. This is what makes Breloom so terrifying for teams lacking a sturdy Fighting-type resist, as Focus Punch does north of 60% worth of damage to bulky non Fighting-type resists like Skarmory, Metagross or Swampert, and it can do up to 50% to frail Fighting-type resists like offensive Zapdos and Moltres. Additionally, Breloom has access to one of the few good priority moves in ADV: Mach Punch which allows Breloom to revenge kill a chipped Dragon Dance Tyranitar that is ready to sweep.

Despite its good typing, Breloom is incredibly frail and can only switch into weak or resisted attacks as it would get OHKOed by most boosted or super effective hits like a Fire Blast from a mixed Tyranitar or a Focus Punch from a Choice Band Tyranitar. On top of that, Breloom is also quite slow, while it can generally outspeed most defensive Pokemon it falls short against the vast majority of offensive threats, making it very easy to be revenge killed after it grabbed a KO. Additionally, Breloom struggles with its own coverage moves having no other choice than a weak Hidden Power or status to cripple the Pokemon that resist its fighting coverage, this limits Breloom's utility outside of the initial Spore + Focus Punch and leaves it prone to being easily walled by Ghost and bulky Psychic-types with Recover as well as being potentially setup fodder for Dragon Dance Salamence & Gyarados. Finally, Breloom is easily trapped and revenge killed by Dugtrio with Aerial Ace, altough with Mach Punch Breloom can chip Dugtrio into Pursuit KO range.


Generally, the overview should display information that is literally what it says - overview. Specifics like numbers should be mentioned in set details.

This information about jynx/venu/smear is too much, considering that they don't even have similar roles. Nobody compares putting breloom and smeargle on a team just because they want a sleeper.


[SET]

name: Spore
move 1: Spore
move 2: Focus Punch
move 3: Sky Uppercut
move 4: Mach Punch
item: Leftovers
ability: Effect Spore
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

Set Description
=========

Spore is Breloom’s defining move and is what sets it apart from the other Fighting-types in OU. Sleep is a great asset against balanced and defensive teams that have a dedicated role for each Pokemon because putting out of commission a defensive wall can open up possibilities provides opportunities for Breloom’s teammates to wallbreak and sweep. For example, putting to sleep an opposing Ground, Water or Steel-type can help in securing a Dragon Dance Tyranitar sweep. Spore is also good especially amazing against hit-and-run based offensive teams that lack setup sweepers strong against Breloom non-setup based offense, as these teams do not have robust methods for coming back from behind. Spore is also useful in the context of Spikes. It can be used to shut down for shutting down an uncontested Spikers like Skarmory or Forretress. Alternatively, it can put to sleep or to disable spinners like Claydol and Forretress., giving your own Spiker an easier time.

as being up 6vs5 from an early stage can secure a comfortable advantage against those teams, but also keeping Spore for the late game can be devastating, if you can trade down to a 3vs3 scenario while still having Spore intact your chances of winning are going to be very high. Spore is less good against setup based offense as they can generally reverse the numerical advantage of being down a Pokemon with sweepers that can easily win 1vs6 such as Dragon Dance Salamence or Calm Mind Jirachi.

Focus Punch is Breloom's strongest move and synergizes perfectly with Spore, allowing it to dish out a devastating attack while the opposing Pokemon is sleeping. furthermore Focus Punch It is so strong that physically bulky Pokemon like Skarmory, Metagross, and Swampert are likely to be 2HKOed, common Fighting-type resists like offensive Zapdos and Moltres get are potentially 2HKOed by it in sand, and even sturdier Fighting-type resists like Salamence cannot switch in forever. While not as powerful, Sky Uppercut is a weaker but more reliable attack that is used to threaten with immediate damage the likes of threatens Tyranitar, Snorlax and Blissey that sometimes decide to stay in after a teammate has been put to Sleep sleep clause has been activated; Sky Uppercut is also useful to finish off threats slow Pokemon that have been weakened previously by Breloom or its teammates, like a low HP Skarmory, Swampert or Metagross. The combined threat of Focus Punch on switches combined with and the immediate power of Sky Uppercut when the opposing Pokemon stays in is what makes Breloom really hard to predict and check successfully for the enemy team.

Mach Punch is one of the best priority moves in ADV and makes Breloom the best priority user in OU. Mach Punch is useful in many situations but primarily it is used to revenge kill a chipped Dragon Dance Tyranitar as well as a very low HP Aerodactyl, Additionally, it guarantees to puts Choice locked Aerial Ace Dugtrio that revenge kills Breloom into range of Pursuit Tyranitar. Finally, Mach Punch gives Breloom that extra reach that is really helpful against the against many faster offensive threats that are faster than it, that extra chip damage could go a long way against fast sweepers like Jolteon, offensive Jirachi Superrachi, Salac Heracross or and Salac Vaporeon, helping teammates take them down, possibly with the aid of sand, even if Mach Punch itself does not KO them.

A Jolly nature is preferred over Adamant to outspeed the many threats that try to outspeed neutral speed Breloom. Specifically, Jolly Breloom outruns max Speed Tyranitar, Swampert, Cloyster and Vaporeon, slower variants of defensive Celebi, Jirachi, and Zapdos, and as well as neutral Speed Metagross, Claydol, and Magneton. and at worst, it ties with Metagross, Cloyster, and Magneton and of course opposing Breloom. Outspeeding max speed Tyranitar is especially important given the fact that it commonly runs a set with Lum Berry and Fire Blast, which allow it to switch into Spore and OHKO Breloom to lure and OHKO Adamant Breloom. Additionally, Jolly Breloom can outspeed a group of Pokemon that commonly sit in the 244-250speed range such as bulky variants of Celebi, Jirachi and Zapdos. However, an Adamant nature has the benefits of having a 50% chance to OHKO Modest Blissey with Sky Uppercut and a chance to 2HKO Skarmory with the combination of Focus Punch + Sky Uppercut.

There are generally two ways to use Spore. If Breloom is used on a team with a variety of sweepers and wallbreakers, it is beneficial to use Spore early-game. There is a good chance that Spore disables a check to one of Breloom's teammates, and one can make progress on that front. If Breloom is used with a team focused on trades, such as Dugtrio teams or those with Choice Band Metagross and Curse + Self-Destruct Snorlax, then it is beneficial to use Spore late-game after several trades are made. This prevents the slept Pokemon from being sacrificed, and increases Breloom's impact— with few Pokemon remaining, it is likely that the opponent does not have a sufficient defensive backbone to handle Spore and Focus Punch. While Spore is almost always good to use and appears to give the numerical advantage, one must be wary of getting lured into providing setup opportunities; sweepers like Dragon Dance Salamence or Calm Mind Jirachi can easily turn the tables and come back from behind.

Team Options
========

The single most important piece of support that Breloom needs on most teams is Pursuit. Breloom is walled by Gengar and is checked quite effectively by bulky Psychic types like Celebi, Starmie and Claydol; Pursuit Tyranitar is an excellent partner that can potentially deal with all of these Pokemon. In addition, it Pursuit Tyranitar synergizes with Breloom also because it can by trapping the Flying types that threaten Breloom: Tyranitar can switch into Choice Band Salamence's Hidden Power Flying, mixed Salamence’s Fire Blast, Choice Band Aerodactyl’s Double-Edge or HP Flying, Moltres’s and Charizard’s Fire Blast and even Zapdos’s Thunderbolt and Pursuit them for some good chip damage. Tyranitar also sets sand which makes Breloom's Focus Punch damage stick against the sand-weak Fighting-type resists like Zapdos and Salamence. Despite Pursuit Tyranitar having the most synergy with Breloom, Mixed and Dragon Dance Tyranitar are also very good partners, especially might be better partners on hyper offense teams that benefit from Tyranitar setting up sand and from Breloom wallbreaking abilities (this statement doesn't explain how DD/Mixed Tyranitar is different from Pursuit Tar as a partner to Breloom, because all of them set sand and appreciate Breloom's wallbreaking, so I beefed it up with more explanations) as they have more offensive potential than Pursuit Tyranitar. If such a choice is made, one should mitigate the Gengar weakness with Stun Spore or a robust switch-in such as Jolteon. Less popular Pursuit users like Metagross, Houndoom and Umbreon are also decent Breloom partners that fit well on a sandless build teams or on a build teams that wants to free up prefer a different Tyranitar set.

Breloom sometimes struggles to get on the field due to its poor defenses, so it is commonly paired with drypass or SubPass users like Zapdos, Celebi and Vaporeon. Zapdos is the most common and consistent of the three as it synergizes nicely with Breloom defensively and offensively complementing its weaknesses: Zapdos can pass to Breloom to check a Rock Slide from Tyranitar and it can also pass to Breloom expecting a switch to or to pressure Blissey and Snorlax a Normal type special wall that often that come in on Zapdos. Another good dry-pass user is Celebi which can dry-pass out of Pursuit Tyranitar into Breloom or catch pass to it on a Skarmory on the switch in and order to deny Spikes with Spore. Vaporeon is another cool SubPass user that can create 101 HP Substitutes that can survive Blissey's Seismic Toss in order to pass to Breloom safely.

Breloom fits well on mixed offense teams. Mixed attackers lure and weaken Skarmory, Celebi and Zapdos for Breloom and vice versa, while Breloom compensates for their inability to break past the bulky core of Milotic and Blissey. Examples of such These mixed attackers include mixed Salamence, offensive Swampert, Charizard, and mixed Zapdos. One particular defensive synergy of Charizard, Zapdos and Breloom is that the former two defensively cover Metagross, while Breloom covers physical Tyranitar, two of the tier's most fearsome physical threats. In general, offensive teams need a strategy for checking Dragon Dance Tyranitar, and Mach Punch Breloom is a great way to shores up that weakness without ceding momentum. Breloom is also great on offensive teams that rely on trades to get into a favorable position. With partners that can take out just about any Pokemon one-on-one like mixed or Choice Band Explosion Metagross, Self-Destruct Snorlax, and Endeavor Swampert, one can continuously trade to set up a scenario where every Pokemon left is important; Spore, in disabling one of the key Pokemon remaining, can be devastating. Dugtrio can also perform trades via trapping and revenge killing; additionally, it can reverse trap opposing Dugtrio and enable Calm Mind sweepers, though one has to be careful about stacking weaknesses to Dragon Dance Salamence. Finally, Breloom fits very well on offensive teams that feature setup sweepers like Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Calm Mind Jirachi, Suicune, and Celebi, or Substitute Aerodactyl; sleeping a defensive wall provides additional turns that help these sweepers break through their walls.

On stall and balanced teams, Breloom is used as a way to generate momentum and win the Spikes war, either by sleeping the opposing Spiker, or cripple disabling the opposing spinner, either of which results in one laying more Spikes than the opponent to help the spikers Forretress and Skarmory. While both Skarmory and Forretress are appropriate Spikers, Forretress is the more common Breloom partner as they both benefit from teaming up with Pursuit Tyranitar which removes Gengar allowing Forretress to spin. Forretress is also good at pressuring the Psychic types that wall Breloom like Celebi, Claydol and Starmie when packing with Hidden Power Bug. As both Breloom and Forretress are weak to mixed attackers, they are often paired with a mixed wall like Blissey, Milotic, or specially defensive Zapdos; these are especially useful vs mixed Salamence, which is a very common Breloom answer. Aerodactyl is also a surprisingly good switch-in to mixed Salamence and acts very well as a late game cleaner when used combined with Spikes. Additionally, Hidden Power Bug Aerodactyl can also mitigate Breloom’s weakness to Psychic-types, especially Celebi.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]

Other Options
========

Hidden Power Bug Breloom acts as is a great surprise weapon that nails Celebi and deals good damage to the spinners Starmie and Claydol (it may not be surprising; meta dependent), it and hence is especially effective on Spikes teams as an anti spinner measure. Hidden Power Ghost Breloom is the only set that doesn’t generally pair with Pursuit support, as Breloom now can can be used to hit Gengar super-effectively if Pursuit Tyranitar is not used as a partner, and like Hidden Power Bug, thus and can also chip the Psychic-types. However Hidden Power Ghost is unreliable as it requires prediction since Breloom needs to hit Gengar on the switch to win that the interaction.

Stun Spore cripples common Breloom switchins like Zapdos, Moltres, Gengar, Salamence and Gyarados. One of the most common ways to deal with Breloom is to sacrifice something to Spore and then go to a fighting resist to absorb the focus punch. Stun Spore really cripples these checks because they are highly valued for their speed. One of the most common ways to deal with Breloom is to sacrifice something of low value to Spore and then go to a healthy Fighting-type resist to absorb the Focus Punch, Stun Spore really puts a dent in that plan as it cripples these checks that are highly valued for their speed. Stun Spore is also useful at denying what would otherwise be a free setup opportunity from Dragon Dance Gyarados, Dragon Dance Salamence and Calm Mind Jirachi. However, Stun Spore is quite useless against Celebi and Starmie due to their ability Natural Cure.

A Substitute + Leech Seed Breloom set can exploit the free turn that sleep generates to grab a free sub start a SubSeed sequence. The idea is to slowly wither away the opposing Pokemon with Leech Seed and continuously use Substitute to block attacks while regaining HP. Additionally, Substitute can be used to scout for switches to a designated Pokemon to absorb Spore. Should this Pokemon be slower, Substitute allows Breloom to use Focus Punch without expending Spore or continue with Spore to fire off two Focus Punches. This scout sleep sacs and really punishes those teams that have only one Pokemon that can take a Focus Punch. However, Unfortunately, this set has a hard time getting past Celebi due to its immunity to Leech Seed.

Swords Dance combined with Mach Punch and Sky Uppercut turns Breloom into a scary late game sweeper when all the Fighting-type resists have been cleared out. This set does very well against opposing offense teams that plan on revenge killing Breloom with fast but frail cleaners like Aerodactyl and Jolteon. However, this set is much worse as a The cost of this set is its mid game wallbreaking power due to the lack lacking the power of Focus Punch.


Checks and Counters
===================

**Flying types**: Salamence and Gyarados are great checks to Breloom thanks to their typing and Intimidate. (moving WishTect mence and rest gyara to the back because they're less common sets) Dragon Dance Salamence and Gyarados can use Breloom as an opportunity to set up, while mixed Salamence can be particularly threatening to Breloom's teammates, especially when it gets many opportunities to get into the field. While less common, Wish + Protect Salamence and Rest Gyarados are perhaps the most robust Breloom counters very difficult for Breloom to get through. Other Flying types like Zapdos, Moltres, Charizard are all frailer Fighting-type resists but can still switch into Focus Punch once per game. Skarmory can effectively check Breloom with Drill Peck but cannot switch safely into Adamant Focus Punch.

**Gengar**: Gengar is immune to Fighting type attacks so it can switch safely into any Breloom not packing Hidden Power Ghost or Stun Spore; however, Breloom is frequently partnered with Pursuit Tyranitar, which means so Gengar is likely not a reliable to be a long term solution.

**Psychic types**: Bulky variants of Celebi and Starmie with Recover are some of the best Breloom checks; however, they have to be careful of Hidden Power Bug Breloom and Pursuit Tyranitar. Claydol lacks a form of instant recovery but with its good bulk and the sand immunity it can manage to switch into Breloom a couple times. alternatively, Claydol can become a long term check with the help of Wish support from its teamates. (I don't feel like Claydol's longevity is super important vs Breloom now that I think about it, because Breloom can't use Focus Punch that many times anyway)

**Dugtrio**: Dugtrio traps and OHKOs Breloom. However, Mach Punch with a Breloom teammate's Pursuit as follow up followed by a Pursuit user will trap and eliminate Dugtrio in return.

**Sleep Talk Heracross**: Sleep Talk Heracross is a rare set but it’s a good Breloom check; unlike any other check, it can both absorb the Spore and then threaten Breloom out with Guts boosted sleeping attacks, it also takes while taking little damage from Breloom's attacks, courtesy of its Fighting-type resistance.

**Poison types**: Venusaur and Weezing are serviceable Breloom checks thanks to their Fighting-type resistance. However, they lack a reliable form of recovery recovery moves and are not immune to sand, and are bound to get worn out over the course of the game.

**Physically defensive Jirachi**: Wish + Protect physically defensive Jirachi is a good Breloom check despite not resisting Fighting-type attacks because of its sheer bulk and reliable recovery in sand immunity.

**Revenge killers **: Aerodactyl, Calm Mind Jirachi, offensive Suicune and offensive Starmie cannot switch reliably into Breloom, but they are all faster and can scare it away threatening an to OHKO if as long as they are out of range of Mach Punch.

[CREDITS]

- Written by: [[mikmer, ]]
- Quality checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
 
Last edited:
Go ahead and qc 2/2 this once you implement vapi's changes -- I added all of my comments in italics (I didn't have many) (I also removed the bold of vapi's text)

In the overview, I would mention at the last sentence of the first paragraph this To top it off, Breloom has Mach Punch, which lets it act as a revenge killer to Dragon Dance Tyranitar, limits Dugtrio's ability to revenge kill Breloom, and allows it to finish off weakened opponents.

When talking about Mach Punch in the main paragraph:

Mach Punch makes Breloom the best priority user in OU. Mach Punch is primarily used to revenge kill chipped Dragon Dance Tyranitar, low HP Aerodactyl, and puts Dugtrio that revenge kills Breloom into range of Tyranitar's Pursuit. Finally, Mach Punch gives Breloom that extra bit of damage against many faster offensive threats like Jolteon, offensive Jirachi, Salac Heracross, and Salac Vaporeon. This helps teammates take them down, possibly with the aid of sand, even if Mach Punch itself does not KO them.

In the first paragraph of team options when discussing dd/mix tar:

Mixed and Dragon Dance Tyranitar might be better partners on hyper offense teams as they have more offensive potential than Pursuit Tyranitar. If such a choice is made, one should mitigate the Gengar weakness with Stun Spore, Hidden Power Ghost or a robust switch-in such as Jolteon. (Johnny note to vapi and mikmer, I really havent seen loom + jolt pairings? I suppose it could work? When I run ddtar or mixtar w loom, I typically drop mach and run hp ghost (stun def works too). Idk if we should emphasize Jolt here? I typically deal w gar on those teams w lum tar itself, lum rachi, or just hit it w spdef zap or dol. Lemme know what you think). Less popular Pursuit users like Metagross, Houndoom and Umbreon are also potential Breloom partners that fit well on a sandless teams or those that prefer a different Tyranitar set.

Also I remember discussing whether or not to include subseed post ci -- I think we should just keep it in oo. What do you guys think?
 

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[OVERVIEW]

Breloom is the most reliable Sleep inducer.(RP) It has because of its access to Spore— the only fully accurate Sleep move. It exploits the Sleep turn excellently with the most powerful Focus Punch in OU, possibly 2HKOing even physical walls and resisted switch-ins like Skarmory and Zapdos. To generate these opportunities, it makes use of its great defensive typing to switch in. It comes in easily on Water-type attacks from Swampert, Milotic, and Suicune, and Crunch from special Tyranitar. It also resists the QuakeSlide coverage of the tier's most potent physical threat, Tyranitar. To top it off, Breloom has Mach Punch, which lets it act as a revenge killer to Dragon Dance Tyranitar, and limits Dugtrio's ability to revenge kill Breloom and allows it to finish off weakened opponents.

Breloom, however, is incredibly frail against anything it does not resist, and the Pokemon that it switches in on into frequently carry moves like Ice Beam, Fire Blast and Focus Punch that can severely damage or OHKO it. Breloom is also rather slow; while it can outspeed most defensive Pokemon, it can easily be revenged killed by the vast majority of fast offensive threats. Breloom also has poor coverage; it relies on a weak Hidden Power or status moves to cripple Pokemon that resist its attacks. This limits its utility outside of the initial Spore + Focus Punch sequence, leaves it prone to being walled by Ghost-types and Psychic-types with Recover, and renders Breloom set up fodder for Dragon Dance Salamence and Gyarados. Finally, Breloom is easily trapped and revenge killed by Dugtrio.


[SET]

name: Spore
move 1: Spore
move 2: Focus Punch
move 3: Sky Uppercut
move 4: Mach Punch
item: Leftovers
ability: Effect Spore
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

Set Description
=========

Spore is Breloom’s defining move and is what sets it apart from the other Fighting-types in OU. Sleep is a great asset against balanced and defensive teams that have a dedicated role for each Pokemon because putting out of commission a defensive wall out of commission provides opportunities for Breloom’s teammates to wallbreak and sweep. For example, putting to sleep an opposing Ground, Water or Steel-type to sleep can help in securing a Dragon Dance Tyranitar sweep. Spore is also good against hit-and-run based offensive teams that lack setup sweepers strong against Breloom, as these teams do not have robust methods for coming back from behind. Spore is also useful in the context of Spikes. It can be used to shut down Spikers like Skarmory or Forretress or to disable spinners like Claydol and Forretress.

Focus Punch is Breloom's strongest move and synergizes perfectly with Spore, allowing it to dish out a devastating attack while the opposing Pokemon is sleeping. It is so strong that physically bulky Pokemon like Skarmory, Metagross, and Swampert are likely to be 2HKOed, common Fighting-type resists like offensive Zapdos and Moltres are potentially 2HKOed by it in sand, and even sturdier Fighting-type resists like Salamence cannot switch in forever. While not as powerful, Sky Uppercut is a reliable attack that threatens Tyranitar, Snorlax and Blissey that sometimes decide to stay in after a teammate has been put to Sleep; Sky Uppercut is also useful to finish off slow Pokemon that have been weakened previously by Breloom or its teammates, like Skarmory, Swampert or Metagross. The combined threat of Focus Punch on switches and Sky Uppercut when the opposing Pokemon stays in makes Breloom really hard to predict and check successfully for the enemy team.

Mach Punch makes Breloom the best priority user in OU. Mach Punch is primarily used to revenge kill chipped Dragon Dance Tyranitar or low HP Aerodactyl, Additionally, it puts Dugtrio that revenge kills Breloom into range of Tyranitar's Pursuit. Finally, Mach Punch gives Breloom that extra bit of damage against many faster offensive threats like Jolteon, offensive Jirachi, Salac Heracross,(AC) and Salac Vaporeon, helping teammates take them down, possibly with the aid of sand, even if Mach Punch itself does not KO them.

A Jolly nature is preferred over Adamant to outspeed max Speed Tyranitar, Swampert, Cloyster,(AC) and Vaporeon, slower variants of defensive Celebi, Jirachi, and Zapdos, and neutral Speed Metagross, Claydol, and Magneton. at At worst, it ties with Metagross, Cloyster, and Magneton. Outspeeding max speed Tyranitar is especially important given the fact that it commonly runs a set with Lum Berry and Fire Blast, which allow it to switch into Spore and OHKO Breloom. However, an Adamant nature has the benefits of having a 50% chance to OHKO Modest Blissey with Sky Uppercut and a chance(would probably be better if you put the percent chance here) to 2HKO Skarmory with the combination of Focus Punch + Sky Uppercut.

There are generally two ways to use Spore. If Breloom is used on a team with a variety of sweepers and wallbreakers, it is beneficial to use Spore early-game. There is a good chance that Spore disables a check to one of Breloom's teammates, and one can make progress on that front. If Breloom is used with a team focused on trades, such as Dugtrio teams or those with Choice Band Metagross and Curse + Self-Destruct Snorlax, then it is beneficial to use Spore late-game after several trades are made. This prevents the slept Pokemon from being sacrificed, and increases Breloom's impact— with few Pokemon remaining, it is likely that the opponent does not have a sufficient defensive backbone to handle Spore and Focus Punch. While Spore is almost always good to use and appears to give the numerical advantage, one must be wary of getting lured into providing setup opportunities; sweepers like Dragon Dance Salamence or Calm Mind Jirachi can easily turn the tables and come back from behind.

Team Options
========

The single most important piece of support that Breloom needs on most teams is Pursuit. Breloom is walled by Gengar and is checked effectively by bulky Psychic types like Celebi, Starmie,(AC) and Claydol; Pursuit Tyranitar is an excellent partner that can potentially deal with all of these Pokemon. In addition, it synergizes with Breloom by trapping the Flying types Flying-types that threaten Breloom: Tyranitar can switch into Choice Band Salamence's Hidden Power Flying, mixed Salamence’s Fire Blast, Choice Band Aerodactyl’s Double-Edge or HP Flying, Moltres’s and Charizard’s Fire Blast,(AC) and even Zapdos’s Thunderbolt and Pursuit them for chip damage. Tyranitar also sets sand which makes Breloom's Focus Punch damage stick against the sand-weak Fighting-type resists like Zapdos and Salamence. Despite Pursuit Tyranitar having the most synergy with Breloom, Mixed and Dragon Dance Tyranitar might be better partners on hyper offense teams as they have more offensive potential than Pursuit Tyranitar. If such a choice is made, one should mitigate the Gengar weakness with Stun Spore or Hidden Power Ghost. Less popular Pursuit users like Metagross, Houndoom and Umbreon are also potential Breloom partners that fit well on a sandless teams or those that prefer a different Tyranitar set.

Breloom sometimes struggles to get on the field due to its poor defenses, so it is commonly paired with drypass or SubPass users like Zapdos, Celebi,(AC) and Vaporeon. Zapdos is the most common and consistent of the three as it synergizes nicely with Breloom defensively and offensively: Zapdos can pass to Breloom to check a Rock Slide from Tyranitar or to pressure Blissey and Snorlax that come in on Zapdos. Celebi can dry-pass drypass out of Pursuit Tyranitar into Breloom or catch Skarmory on the switch in and deny Spikes with Spore. Vaporeon is another cool SubPass user that can create 101 HP Substitutes that survive Blissey's Seismic Toss in order to pass to Breloom safely.

Breloom fits well on mixed offense teams. Mixed attackers lure and weaken Skarmory, Celebi,(AC) and Zapdos for Breloom and vice versa, while Breloom compensates for their inability to break past the bulky core of Milotic and Blissey. these mixed attackers include mixed Salamence, offensive Swampert, Charizard, and mixed Zapdos. One particular defensive synergy of Charizard, Zapdos,(AC) and Breloom is that the former two defensively cover Metagross, while Breloom covers physical Tyranitar, two of the tier's most fearsome physical threats. In general, offensive teams need a strategy for checking Dragon Dance Tyranitar, and Mach Punch Breloom shores up that weakness without ceding momentum. Breloom is also great on offensive teams that rely on trades to get into a favorable position. With partners that can take out just about any Pokemon one-on-one like mixed or Choice Band Explosion Metagross, Self-Destruct Snorlax, and Endeavor Swampert, one can continuously trade to set up a scenario where every Pokemon left is important; Spore, in disabling one of the key Pokemon remaining, can be devastating. Dugtrio can also perform trades via trapping and revenge killing; additionally, it can reverse trap opposing Dugtrio and enable Calm Mind sweepers, though one has to be careful about stacking weaknesses to Dragon Dance Salamence. Finally, Breloom fits very well on offensive teams that feature setup sweepers like Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Calm Mind Jirachi, Suicune, and Celebi, or Substitute Aerodactyl; sleeping a defensive wall provides additional turns that help these sweepers break through their walls.

On stall and balanced teams, Breloom is used as a way to generate momentum and win the Spikes war, either by sleeping the opposing Spiker,(RC) or disabling the opposing spinner, either of which results in one you laying more Spikes than the opponent. While both Skarmory and Forretress are appropriate Spikers, Forretress is the more common Breloom partner as they both benefit from Pursuit Tyranitar. Forretress is also good at pressuring the Psychic types that wall Breloom like Celebi, Claydol,(AC) and Starmie with Hidden Power Bug. As both Breloom and Forretress are weak to mixed attackers, they are often paired with a mixed wall like Blissey, Milotic, or specially defensive Zapdos; these are especially useful vs mixed Salamence, which is a very common Breloom answer. Aerodactyl is also a good switch-in to mixed Salamence and acts very well as a late game cleaner when used with Spikes. Additionally, Hidden Power Bug Aerodactyl can also mitigate Breloom’s weakness to Psychic-types, especially Celebi.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]

Other Options
========

Hidden Power Bug nails Celebi and deals good damage to the spinners Starmie and Claydol , and hence is especially effective on Spikes teams. Hidden Power Ghost Breloom can be used to hit Gengar super-effectively super effectively if Pursuit Tyranitar is not used as a partner, and like Hidden Power Bug, can also chip the Psychic-types. However Hidden Power Ghost is unreliable as it requires prediction to hit Gengar on the switch to win the interaction.

Stun Spore cripples common Breloom switchins switch-ins like Zapdos, Moltres, Gengar, Salamence,(AC) and Gyarados. One of the most common ways to deal with Breloom is to sacrifice something to Spore and then go to a fighting resist to absorb the focus punch Focus Punch. Stun Spore really cripples these checks because they are highly valued for their speed. Stun Spore is also useful at denying what would otherwise be a free setup opportunity from Dragon Dance Gyarados, Dragon Dance Salamence,(AC) and Calm Mind Jirachi. However, Stun Spore is quite useless against Celebi and Starmie due to Natural Cure.

A Substitute + Leech Seed Breloom set can exploit the free turn that sleep generates to start a SubSeed sequence. The idea is to slowly wither away the opposing Pokemon with Leech Seed and continuously use Substitute to block attacks while regaining HP. Additionally, Substitute can be used to scout for switches to a designated Pokemon to absorb Spore. Should this Pokemon be slower, Substitute allows Breloom to use Focus Punch without expending Spore or continue with Spore to fire off two Focus Punches. This really punishes teams that have only one Pokemon that can take a Focus Punch. Unfortunately, this set has a hard time getting past Celebi due to its immunity to Leech Seed.

Swords Dance combined with Mach Punch and Sky Uppercut turns Breloom into a scary late game late-game sweeper when all the Fighting-type resists have been cleared out. This set does very well against opposing offense teams that plan on revenge killing Breloom with fast but frail cleaners like Aerodactyl and Jolteon.(AP) The cost of this set is its mid game mid-game wallbreaking power due to the lack of Focus Punch.


Checks and Counters
===================

**Flying types**: Salamence and Gyarados are great checks to Breloom thanks to their typing and Intimidate. Dragon Dance Salamence and Gyarados can use Breloom as an opportunity to set up, while mixed Salamence can be particularly threatening to Breloom's teammates, especially when it gets many opportunities to get into the field. While less common, Wish + Protect Salamence and Rest Gyarados are perhaps the most robust Breloom counters. Other Flying types like Zapdos, Moltres, and Charizard are all frailer Fighting-type resists but can still switch into Focus Punch once per game. Skarmory can effectively check Breloom with Drill Peck but cannot switch safely into Focus Punch.

**Gengar**: Gengar is immune to Fighting type Fighting-type attacks so it can switch safely into any Breloom not packing Hidden Power Ghost or Stun Spore; however, Breloom is frequently partnered with Pursuit Tyranitar, so Gengar is not a reliable solution.

**Psychic types**: Bulky Celebi and Starmie with Recover are some of the best Breloom checks; however, they have to be careful of Hidden Power Bug Breloom and Pursuit Tyranitar. Claydol lacks a form of instant recovery but with its good bulk and the sand immunity it can manage to switch into Breloom a couple times.


**Dugtrio**: Dugtrio traps and OHKOs OHKOes Breloom. However, Mach Punch followed by a Pursuit user will trap and eliminate Dugtrio in return.

**Sleep Talk Heracross**: Sleep Talk Heracross is a rare set but it’s a good Breloom check; unlike any other check, it can absorb the Spore and threaten Breloom out with Guts boosted sleeping attacks while taking little damage from Breloom's attacks, courtesy of its Fighting-type resistance.

**Poison types**: Venusaur and Weezing are serviceable Breloom checks thanks to their Fighting-type resistance. However, they lack recovery moves and are not immune to sand, and are bound to get worn out over the course of the game.

**Physically defensive Jirachi**: Wish + Protect physically defensive Jirachi is a good Breloom check despite not resisting Fighting-type attacks because of its sheer bulk and sand immunity.

**Revenge killers **: Aerodactyl, Calm Mind Jirachi, offensive Suicune,(AC) and offensive Starmie cannot switch reliably into Breloom, but are all faster and can threaten to OHKO Breloom as long as they are out of range of Mach Punch.

[CREDITS]

- Written by: [[mikmer, 511989]]
- Quality checked by: [[vapicuno, 5454], [johnnyg2, 57904]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
good job! :blobthumbsup:
 

Adeleine

after committing a dangerous crime
is a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Smogon Media Contributoris a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
incorporating some changes from xaviere's above check
Add/Fix Remove Comment
(AC)/(RC): Add/Remove Comma


[OVERVIEW]

Breloom is the most reliable Sleep inducer. It has Spore— sleep inducer thanks to Spore, the only fully accurate sleep move. It exploits the Sleep turn sleep excellently with the most powerful Focus Punch in OU, possibly 2HKOing even physical walls and resisted resistant switch-ins like Skarmory and Zapdos. To generate these Spore opportunities, it makes use of its great defensive typing to switch in. It comes in easily on Water-type attacks from Swampert, Milotic, and Suicune (RC) and Crunch from special Tyranitar. It also resists the QuakeSlide Rock Slide + Earthquake coverage of the tier's most potent physical threat, Tyranitar. To top it off, Breloom has Mach Punch, which lets it act as a revenge killer to Punch to revenge kill Dragon Dance Tyranitar, and limits Dugtrio's ability to revenge kill Breloom and allows it to finish off weakened opponents. punish Dugtrio for revenge killing it, and generally finish off weakened foes. (for dugtrio part, it seemed like the primary point was allowing the pursuit kill on dugtrio instead of, like, picking dug off before it revenges you, but if the second part is also very important you can do "limit Dugtrio's ability to revenge kill it". however, if you do, you should probably add a qualifier to the second paragraph last sentence, eg "Breloom is easily trapped and revenge killed by (healthy) Dugtrio.")

Breloom, however, is incredibly frail against anything it does not resist, and the Pokemon that it switches in on into frequently carry moves like Ice Beam, Fire Blast, (AC) and Focus Punch that can severely damage or OHKO it. Breloom is also rather slow; while it can outspeed most defensive Pokemon, it can easily be revenged killed by the vast majority of fast offensive threats can easily revenge kill it. Breloom also has poor coverage; it relies on a weak Hidden Power or status moves to cripple Pokemon that resist its attacks. Fighting. This limits its utility outside of the initial Spore + Focus Punch sequence, leaves it prone to being walled by lets Ghost-types and Psychic-types with Recover wall it, and renders Breloom set up it setup fodder for Dragon Dance Salamence and Gyarados. Finally, Breloom is easily trapped and revenge killed by Dugtrio. (removed extra line break under)

[SET]

name: Spore
move 1: Spore
move 2: Focus Punch
move 3: Sky Uppercut
move 4: Mach Punch
item: Leftovers
ability: Effect Spore
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

Set Description
=========

Spore is Breloom’s defining move and is what sets it what sets Breloom apart from the other Fighting-types in OU. Sleep is a great asset against balanced and defensive teams that have a dedicated role for each Pokemon, (AC) because putting out of commission a defensive wall since putting one wall out of commission provides opportunities for Breloom's specific teammates to wallbreak and sweep. For example, putting to sleep an opposing Ground, Water or Steel-type can help in securing a Ground-, Water-, or Steel-type to sleep can help secure a Dragon Dance Tyranitar sweep. Spore is also good against hit-and-run-based (added hyphen) offensive teams that lack setup sweepers strong against Breloom, as these teams do not have robust methods for coming back from behind. struggle to come back from the functional one Pokemon deficit of sleep. Spore is also useful in the context of Spikes. It can be used to shut down Spikers like Skarmory or Forretress or to disable spinners like Claydol and Forretress for your own Spikes.

Focus Punch is Breloom's strongest move and synergizes perfectly with Spore, allowing it to dish out a devastating attack while the opposing Pokemon is sleeping or switched out. It is so strong that physically bulky Pokemon like Skarmory, Metagross, and Swampert are likely to be 2HKOed, common Fighting-type resists Fighting-resistant foes like offensive Zapdos and Moltres are potentially 2HKOed by it in sand, and even sturdier Fighting-type resists Fighting-resistant foes like Salamence cannot switch in forever. While not as powerful, Sky Uppercut is a reliable attack that threatens Tyranitar, Snorlax, (AC) and Blissey that sometimes decide to stay in Blissey, which sometimes stay in on Breloom after a teammate has been put to sleep; Sky Uppercut is also useful to finish off slow Pokemon that have been weakened previously by Breloom or its teammates, like Skarmory, Swampert or slow Pokemon that Breloom or its teammates have weakened previously, like Skarmory, Swampert, and Metagross. The combined threat of Focus Punch on switches and Sky Uppercut when the opposing Pokemon stays switching out and Sky Uppercut on staying in makes Breloom really hard to predict and check successfully for the enemy team.

Mach Punch makes Breloom the best priority user in OU. Mach Punch is primarily used to revenge kill chipped Dragon Dance Tyranitar low HP Aerodactyl, Additionally, primarily revenge kills chipped Dragon Dance Tyranitar and low HP Aerodactyl; additionally, it puts Dugtrio that revenge kills Breloom into range of Tyranitar's Pursuit. Finally, Mach Punch gives Breloom that extra bit of damage against many faster offensive threats like Jolteon, offensive Jirachi, Salac Berry Heracross, (AC) and Salac Berry Vaporeon, helping teammates take them down, possibly with the aid of sand, even if Mach Punch itself does not KO them.

A Jolly nature is preferred over Adamant to outspeed maximum Speed Tyranitar, Swampert, Cloyster and Vaporeon; (comma -> sc) slower variants of defensive Celebi, Jirachi, and Zapdos; (comma -> sc) and neutral Speed nature Metagross, Claydol, and Magneton. At worst, it Jolly Breloom Speed ties with Metagross, Cloyster, and Magneton. Outspeeding maximum Speed Tyranitar is especially important given the fact that because it commonly runs a set with Lum Berry and Fire Blast, which allows it to switch into Spore and OHKO Breloom. However, an Adamant nature has the benefits of having gives a 50% chance to OHKO Modest Blissey with Sky Uppercut and a chance to 2HKO Skarmory with the combination of Focus Punch + Sky Uppercut.

There are generally two ways to use Spore. If Breloom is used on a team with a variety of sweepers and wallbreakers, it is beneficial to use Spore early-game. There is a good chance that Spore disables a check to one of Breloom's teammates, and one can make progress on that front. If Breloom is used with a team focused on trades, such as Dugtrio teams or those letting it make progress. If Breloom's team is one focused on trading KOs with the opponent, such as a Dugtrio team or one with Choice Band Metagross and Curse + Self-Destruct Snorlax, then it is beneficial to use Spore late-game after several trades are made. This prevents the slept Pokemon from being sacrificed, opponents from sacrificing the sleeping Pokemon and increases Breloom's impact—with (removed space before "with") few Pokemon remaining, it is likely that the opponent does not have will lack a sufficient defensive backbone to handle Spore and Focus Punch. While Spore is almost always good to use, (AC) and appears to give the numerical advantage, one must be wary of getting lured into providing setup opportunities; sweepers like Dragon Dance Salamence or and Calm Mind Jirachi can easily turn the tables and come if Breloom slept a different foe instead, bringing their team back from behind.

Team Options
========

The single most important piece of support that Breloom needs on most teams is Pursuit. Breloom is walled by Gengar and is checked effectively by bulky Psychic types like Celebi, Starmie and Claydol; is Pursuit, since Gengar walls it and bulky Psychic-types like Celebi, Starmie, and Claydol check it effectively. Pursuit Tyranitar is an excellent partner that can potentially deal with all of these Pokemon. In addition, it synergizes with Breloom by trapping traps the Flying types that threaten Breloom: Tyranitar can switch into Choice Band Salamence's Hidden Power Flying, mixed Salamence’s Fire Blast, Choice Band Aerodactyl’s Double-Edge or Hidden Power Flying, Moltres’s and Charizard’s Fire Blasts, (AC) and even Zapdos’s Thunderbolt and Pursuit them for chip damage. to forcibly chip each with Pursuit. If Dugtrio revenge kills Breloom, Mach Punch followed up by Tyranitar's Pursuit will KO it in return. Tyranitar also sets sand, (AC) which makes Breloom's Focus Punch damage stick against the sand-weak Fighting-type resists Fighting-resistant foes like Zapdos and Salamence. Despite Pursuit Tyranitar having the most synergy with Breloom, mixed and Dragon Dance Tyranitar might be better partners on hyper offense teams, (AC) as they have more offensive potential than Pursuit Tyranitar. If such a this choice is made, one should mitigate the Gengar weakness with Stun Spore or Hidden Power Ghost. Less popular Pursuit users like Metagross, Houndoom, (AC) and Umbreon are also potential Breloom partners, (AC) that fit well on a sandless teams fitting well on teams without sand or those that prefer a different Tyranitar set.

Breloom sometimes struggles to get on the field due to its poor defenses, so it is commonly paired with drypass or Subpass pure or Substitute Baton Pass users like Zapdos, Celebi, (AC) and Vaporeon. Zapdos is the most common and consistent of the three, (AC) as it synergizes nicely with Breloom defensively and offensively: (removed space before colon) Zapdos can pass to Breloom to check handle a Rock Slide from Tyranitar or to pressure Blissey and Snorlax that come in on Zapdos. Celebi can dry-pass out of Pursuit Tyranitar into Breloom or catch Skarmory on the switch in and to deny Spikes with Breloom's Spore. Vaporeon is another cool Substitute + Baton Pass user that can create 101 HP Substitutes that survive Blissey's Seismic Toss in order to pass to Breloom safely.

Breloom fits well on mixed offense teams. Mixed attackers lure in and weaken Skarmory, Celebi, (AC) and Zapdos for Breloom and vice versa, while Breloom compensates for their inability to break past the bulky core of Milotic and Blissey. These mixed attackers include mixed Salamence, offensive Swampert, Charizard, and mixed Zapdos. One particular defensive synergy of Charizard, Zapdos and Breloom is that the former two The latter two defensively cover Metagross, while Breloom covers physical Tyranitar, addressing two of the tier's most fearsome physical threats. In general, offensive teams need a strategy for checking Dragon Dance Tyranitar, and Mach Punch Breloom shores up that weakness without ceding momentum. Breloom is also great on offensive teams that rely on trades to get into a favorable position. With partners that can take out just about any Pokemon one-on-one, (AC) like mixed or Choice Band Explosion Metagross, Self-Destruct Snorlax, and Endeavor Swampert, one can continuously trade to set up a scenario where KOs until every Pokemon left is important; Spore, in disabling one of the key Pokemon remaining, can be devastating. Dugtrio can also perform trades via trapping and revenge killing; additionally, it can reverse trap opposing Dugtrio and enable Calm Mind sweepers, though one has to be careful about stacking weaknesses to Dragon Dance Salamence. Finally, Breloom fits very well on offensive teams that feature setup sweepers like Dragon Dance Tyranitar; (comma -> sc) Calm Mind Jirachi, Suicune, and Celebi; (comma -> sc) or Substitute Aerodactyl; sleeping a defensive wall provides additional turns that help these sweepers break through their walls. Aerodactyl, as sleeping a wall provides extra turns for them to set up and break through.

On stall and balanced teams, Breloom is used as a way to generate momentum and win the Spikes war, either by sleeping the opposing Spiker, or disabling the opposing spinner, either of which results in one laying more Spikes than the opponent. putting either the opposing Spiker or spinner to sleep. While both Skarmory and Forretress are appropriate Spikers, Forretress is the more common Breloom partner, (AC) as they both benefit from Pursuit Tyranitar. Forretress is also good at pressuring the Psychic-types (added hyphen) that wall Breloom like Celebi, Claydol, (AC) and Starmie with Hidden Power Bug. As both Breloom and Forretress are weak to mixed attackers, they are often paired with a mixed wall like Blissey, Milotic, or specially defensive Zapdos; these are especially useful versus mixed Salamence, which is a very common Breloom answer. Aerodactyl is also a another good switch-in to mixed Salamence and acts very well as a late-game (added hyphen) cleaner when used with Spikes. Additionally, Hidden Power Bug Aerodactyl can also mitigate Breloom’s weakness to Psychic-types, especially Celebi.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]

Other Options
========

Hidden Power Bug nails Celebi and deals good damage to the spinners Starmie and Claydol , and hence is Claydol, making it especially effective on Spikes teams. Hidden Power Ghost Breloom can be used to hit Gengar super-effectively hit Gengar super effectively if Pursuit Tyranitar is not used as a partner, and like Hidden Power Bug sets, it can also chip the Psychic-types. However, (AC) Hidden Power Ghost is unreliable, (AC) as it requires prediction to hit Gengar on the switch to win the interaction.

Stun Spore cripples common Breloom switch-ins (added hyphen) like Zapdos, Moltres, Gengar, Salamence, (AC) and Gyarados. One of the most common ways to deal with Breloom is to sacrifice something a Pokemon to Spore and then go to a fighting resist to absorb the focus punch. Fighting-resistant or immune teammate above to absorb the Focus Punch. Stun Spore really cripples these checks because they are highly valued for their Speed. Stun Spore is also useful at denying what would otherwise be a free setup opportunity from for denying free setup opportunities to Dragon Dance Gyarados, Dragon Dance Salamence, (AC) and Calm Mind Jirachi. However, Stun Spore is quite useless against Celebi and Starmie due to Natural Cure.

A Substitute + Leech Seed SubSeed Breloom set can exploit the free turn that sleep generates to start a SubSeed sequence. The idea is to slowly wither away the opposing Pokemon with Leech Seed and continuously use Substitute to block attacks while regaining HP. Additionally, Substitute can be used to set up Substitute and start stalling. Besides allowing Leech Seed stall, Substitute lets Breloom scout for switches to a designated Pokemon to absorb Spore. Should this Pokemon be slower, Substitute allows Breloom to use Focus Punch without expending Spore or continue with Spore to fire off two Focus Punches. This really punishes teams that have only one Pokemon that can take a Focus Punch. Unfortunately, this set has a hard time getting past Celebi due to its immunity to Leech Seed.

Swords Dance combined with Mach Punch and Sky Uppercut turns Breloom into a scary late-game (added hyphen) sweeper when all the Fighting-type resists Fighting-resistant foes have been cleared out. This set does very well against opposing offense teams that plan on revenge killing Breloom with fast but frail cleaners like Aerodactyl and Jolteon. (added period) The cost of this set is its mid-game (added hyphen) wallbreaking power due to the lack of Focus Punch.


Checks and Counters
===================

**Flying-types**: (added hyphen) Salamence and Gyarados are great checks to Breloom thanks to their typings and Intimidate. Dragon Dance Salamence and Gyarados can use Breloom as an opportunity to set up, while mixed Salamence can be particularly threatening to Breloom's teammates, especially when it gets many opportunities to get into enter the field. While less common, Wish + Protect Salamence and Rest Gyarados are perhaps the most robust Breloom counters. Other Flying-types (added hyphen) like Zapdos, Moltres, Charizard are all frailer Fighting-type resists Fighting-resistant Pokemon but can still switch into Focus Punch once per game. Skarmory can effectively check Breloom with Drill Peck but cannot switch safely into Focus Punch.

**Gengar**: Gengar is immune to Fighting type attacks Fighting, so it can switch safely into any Breloom not packing Hidden Power Ghost or Stun Spore; however, Breloom is frequently partnered with Pursuit Tyranitar, so Gengar is not a reliable solution.

**Psychic-types**: (added hyphen) Bulky Celebi and Starmie with Recover are some of the best Breloom checks; however, they have to be careful of Hidden Power Bug Breloom and Pursuit Tyranitar. Claydol lacks a form of instant recovery, (AC) but with its good bulk and the sand immunity, (AC) it can manage to switch into Breloom a couple times. (removed extra linebreak under)

**Dugtrio**: Dugtrio traps and OHKOes Breloom. However, Mach Punch followed by a Pursuit user will trap and eliminate Dugtrio in return.

**Sleep Talk Heracross**: Sleep Talk Heracross is a rare set but it’s a good Breloom check; unlike any other check, it can absorb the Spore and threaten Breloom out with Guts boosted sleeping attacks while also taking Guts-boosted attacks. It also takes little damage from Breloom's attacks, courtesy of its Fighting-type resistance.

**Poison-types**: (added hyphen) Venusaur and Weezing are serviceable Breloom checks thanks to their Fighting-type resistances. However, they lack recovery moves and are not immune to sand, and so they are bound to get worn out over the course of the game.

**Physically Defensive Jirachi**: Wish + Protect physically defensive Jirachi is a good Breloom check despite not resisting Fighting-type attacks because of its sheer bulk and sand immunity.

**Revenge killers **: Killers**: Aerodactyl, Calm Mind Jirachi, offensive Suicune, (AC) and offensive Starmie cannot switch reliably into Breloom, but all are all faster and can threaten to OHKO as long as they are out of range of Mach Punch.

[CREDITS]

- Written by: [[mikmer, 511989]]
- Quality checked by: [[vapicuno, 5454], [johnnyg2, 57904]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429], [, ]]
 
Last edited:

vapicuno

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Thanks Finland for the check. I have some questions on the proposed edits.

(for dugtrio part, it seemed like the primary point was allowing the pursuit kill on dugtrio instead of, like, picking dug off before it revenges you, but if the second part is also very important you can do "limit Dugtrio's ability to revenge kill it". however, if you do, you should probably add a qualifier to the second paragraph last sentence, eg "Breloom is easily trapped and revenge killed by (healthy) Dugtrio.")
I think limiting Dugtrio's ability to revenge kill is the way to go, since Dugtrio can be put in range of Mach Punch by Spikes. So we will go ahead with the addition of "healthy" in the 2nd paragraph, which I suppose should not be in brackets?
The single most important piece of support that Breloom needs on most teams is Pursuit. Breloom is walled by Gengar and is checked effectively by bulky Psychic types like Celebi, Starmie and Claydol; is Pursuit, since Gengar walls it and bulky Psychic-types like Celebi, Starmie, and Claydol check it effectively.
"Needs" is not the best word; the original phrasing's intended meaning is "needs on most teams" => some teams don't need, especially if Breloom has HP Ghost or Stun Spore. Perhaps we should change "need" to a weaker word like "appreciates"?
Breloom fits well on mixed offense teams. Mixed attackers lure in and weaken Skarmory, Celebi, (AC) and Zapdos for Breloom and vice versa, while Breloom compensates for their inability to break past the bulky core of Milotic and Blissey. These mixed attackers include mixed Salamence, offensive Swampert, Charizard, and mixed Zapdos. One particular defensive synergy of Charizard, Zapdos and Breloom is that the former two The latter two defensively cover Metagross, while Breloom covers physical Tyranitar, addressing two of the tier's most fearsome physical threats.
This proposed edit might be confusing because up till here, everything has been about offensive synergies. Cutting out this sentence creates an abrupt switch to talking about defensive synergies - It's easy to miss out "defensively" on a single read. Perhaps you can suggest a way to improve the flow? A point that can help glue these together is that these combinations allow checking of physical threats with offensive Pokemon without wasting a slot on a passive physical wall.
 

Adeleine

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I think limiting Dugtrio's ability to revenge kill is the way to go, since Dugtrio can be put in range of Mach Punch by Spikes. So we will go ahead with the addition of "healthy" in the 2nd paragraph, which I suppose should not be in brackets?
yes+yes

"Needs" is not the best word; the original phrasing's intended meaning is "needs on most teams" => some teams don't need, especially if Breloom has HP Ghost or Stun Spore. Perhaps we should change "need" to a weaker word like "appreciates"?
you can just keep "needs on most teams" from original honestly. appreciates is fine too if you prefer

This proposed edit might be confusing because up till here, everything has been about offensive synergies. Cutting out this sentence creates an abrupt switch to talking about defensive synergies - It's easy to miss out "defensively" on a single read. Perhaps you can suggest a way to improve the flow? A point that can help glue these together is that these combinations allow checking of physical threats with offensive Pokemon without wasting a slot on a passive physical wall.
fair point. how about:

Breloom fits well on mixed offense teams. Mixed attackers lure in and weaken Skarmory, Celebi, and Zapdos for Breloom and vice versa, while Breloom compensates for their inability to break past the bulky core of Milotic and Blissey. These mixed attackers include mixed Salamence, offensive Swampert, Charizard, and mixed Zapdos. Using Charizard and Zapdos helps offensive teams check the tier's most fearsome physical threats without wasting a teamslot on a passive wall; both defensively cover Metagross, while Breloom covers physical Tyranitar.
 
I really like this analysis. I concur with Vapicuno that HP bug should be slashed alongside Mach punch and/or Sky uppercut. I also think that adamant should be mentioned in the "other options" section since adamant is extremely situational. Considering that the majority of the blisseys run a bold nature, jolly should be the obvious and primary pick. Other than that, solid analysis and I can't wait for it to be published.
 
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dex

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blue = add
red = delete
green = comments

[OVERVIEW]

Breloom is the most reliable sleep inducer, (add comma) thanks to Spore, the only fully accurate sleep move. It exploits sleep excellently with the most powerful Focus Punch in OU, possibly 2HKOing even physical walls and resistant switch-ins like Skarmory and Zapdos. To generate Spore opportunities, it makes use of its great defensive typing to switch in. It comes in easily on Water-type attacks from Swampert, Milotic, and Suicune and Crunch from special Tyranitar into Water-type attacks from Swampert, Milotic, and Suicune and Crunch from special Tyranitar. It also resists the Rock Slide + Earthquake coverage of the tier's most potent physical threat: (comma->colon) Tyranitar. To top it off, Breloom has Mach Punch to revenge kill Dragon Dance Tyranitar, limit Dugtrio's ability to revenge kill it, and generally finish off weakened foes.

Breloom, however, is incredibly frail against anything it does not resist, and the Pokemon that it switches into frequently carry moves like Ice Beam, Fire Blast, and Focus Punch that can severely damage or OHKO it. Breloom is also rather slow; while it can outspeed most defensive Pokemon, the vast majority of fast offensive threats can easily revenge kill it. Breloom also has poor coverage; it relies on a weak Hidden Power or status moves to cripple Pokemon that resist Fighting. This limits its utility outside of the initial Spore + Focus Punch sequence, lets Ghost-types and Psychic-types with Recover wall it, and renders it setup fodder for Dragon Dance Salamence and Gyarados. Finally, Breloom is easily trapped and revenge killed by healthy Dugtrio.

[SET]

name: Spore
move 1: Spore
move 2: Focus Punch
move 3: Sky Uppercut
move 4: Mach Punch
item: Leftovers
ability: Effect Spore
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

Set Description
=========

Spore is what sets Breloom apart from the other Fighting-types in OU. Sleep is a great asset against balance and defensive teams that have a dedicated role for each Pokemon, since as putting one wall out of commission provides opportunities for specific teammates to wallbreak and sweep. For example, putting a Ground-, Water-, or Steel-type to sleep can help secure a Dragon Dance Tyranitar sweep. Spore is also good against hit-and-run-based offense teams that lack setup sweepers that are strong against Breloom, as these teams struggle to come back from the functional one Pokemon deficit of sleep. Spore is also useful to shut down Spikers and spinners like Skarmory, (add comma) Claydol, (add comma) or Forretress or to disable spinners like Claydol and Forretress for your own Spikes.

Focus Punch is Breloom's strongest move and synergizes perfectly with Spore, allowing it to dish out a devastating attack while the opposing Pokemon is sleeping or switched switching out. It is so strong that physically bulky Pokemon like Skarmory, Metagross, and Swampert are likely to be 2HKOed, common Fighting-resistant foes like offensive Zapdos and Moltres are potentially 2HKOed in sand, and even sturdier Fighting-resistant foes like Salamence cannot switch in forever. While not as powerful, Sky Uppercut is a reliable attack that threatens Tyranitar, Snorlax, and Blissey, which sometimes stay in on Breloom after a teammate has been put to sleep; Sky Uppercut is also useful to finish off slow Pokemon that Breloom or its teammates have weakened previously, like Skarmory, Swampert, and Metagross. The combined threat of Focus Punch on switching out and Sky Uppercut on staying in makes Breloom really hard to predict and appropriately check for the enemy team.

Mach Punch makes Breloom the best priority user in OU. Mach Punch primarily revenge kills chipped Dragon Dance Tyranitar and low HP Aerodactyl; additionally, it puts Dugtrio that revenge kill Breloom into range of Tyranitar's Pursuit. Finally, Mach Punch gives Breloom that extra bit of damage against many faster offensive threats like Jolteon, offensive Jirachi, Salac Berry Heracross, and Salac Berry Vaporeon, helping teammates take them down, possibly with the aid of sand, even if Mach Punch itself does not KO them.

A Jolly nature is preferred over Adamant to outspeed maximum Speed Tyranitar, Swampert, Cloyster, (add comma) and Vaporeon; slower variants of defensive Celebi, Jirachi, and Zapdos; and neutral nature Metagross, Claydol, and Magneton. At worst, Jolly Breloom Speed ties with Metagross, Cloyster, and Magneton. Outspeeding maximum Speed Tyranitar is especially important because it commonly runs a set with Lum Berry and Fire Blast, which allows it to switch into Spore and OHKO Breloom. However, an Adamant nature gives a 50% chance to OHKO Modest Blissey with Sky Uppercut and a chance to 2HKO Skarmory with Focus Punch + Sky Uppercut.

There are generally two ways to use Spore. If Breloom is used on a team with a variety of sweepers and wallbreakers, it is beneficial to use Spore early-game. There is a good chance that Spore disables a check to one of Breloom's teammates, letting it make progress. If Breloom's team is one focused on trading KOs with the opponent, such as a Dugtrio team or one with Choice Band Metagross and Curse + Self-Destruct Snorlax, then it is beneficial to use Spore late-game after several trades are made. This prevents opponents from sacrificing the sleeping Pokemon and increases Breloom's impact—with few Pokemon remaining, it is likely that the opponent will lack a sufficient defensive backbone to handle Spore and Focus Punch. While Spore is almost always good to use, one must be wary of getting lured into providing setup opportunities; sweepers like Dragon Dance Salamence and Calm Mind Jirachi can easily turn the tables if Breloom slept a different foe instead, bringing their team back from behind.

Team Options
========

The single most important piece of support that Breloom appreciates is Pursuit, since Gengar walls it and bulky Psychic-types like Celebi, Starmie, and Claydol check it effectively. Pursuit Tyranitar is an excellent partner that can potentially deal with all of these Pokemon. In addition, it traps the Flying types that threaten Breloom: Tyranitar can switch into Choice Band Salamence's Hidden Power Flying, mixed Salamence’s Fire Blast, Choice Band Aerodactyl’s Double-Edge or Hidden Power Flying, Moltres’s and Charizard’s Fire Blasts, and even Zapdos’s Thunderbolt to forcibly chip each with Pursuit. If Dugtrio revenge kills Breloom, Mach Punch, (add comma) followed up by Tyranitar's Pursuit, (add comma) will KO it in return. Tyranitar also sets sand, which makes Breloom's Focus Punch damage stick against the sand-weak Fighting-resistant foes like Zapdos and Salamence. Despite Pursuit Tyranitar having the most synergy with Breloom, mixed and Dragon Dance Tyranitar might be better partners on hyper offense teams, as they have more offensive potential. If this choice is made, one should mitigate the Gengar weakness with Stun Spore or Hidden Power Ghost. Less popular Pursuit users like Metagross, Houndoom, and Umbreon are also potential Breloom partners, fitting well on teams without sand or those that prefer a different Tyranitar set.

Breloom sometimes struggles to get on the field due to its poor defenses, so it is commonly paired with pure or Substitute Baton Pass users like Zapdos, Celebi, and Vaporeon. Zapdos is the most common and consistent of the three, as it synergizes nicely with Breloom defensively and offensively: Zapdos can pass to Breloom to handle a Rock Slide from Tyranitar or to pressure Blissey and Snorlax that come in on Zapdos. Celebi can pass out of Pursuit Tyranitar into Breloom or catch Skarmory on the switch to deny Spikes with Breloom's Spore. Vaporeon is another cool Substitute + Baton Pass user that can create Substitutes that survive Blissey's Seismic Toss to pass to Breloom safely.

Breloom fits well on mixed offense teams. Mixed attackers lure in and weaken Skarmory, Celebi, and Zapdos for Breloom and vice versa, while Breloom compensates for their inability to break past the bulky core of Milotic and Blissey. These mixed attackers include mixed Salamence, offensive Swampert, Charizard, and mixed Zapdos. Using Charizard and Zapdos helps offensive teams check the tier's most fearsome physical threats without wasting a teamslot on a passive wall; both defensively cover Metagross, while Breloom covers physical Tyranitar. In general, offense teams need a strategy for checking Dragon Dance Tyranitar, and Mach Punch Breloom shores up that weakness without ceding momentum. Breloom is also great on offense teams that rely on trades to get into a favorable position. With partners that can take out just about any Pokemon one-on-one, like mixed or Choice Band Explosion Metagross, Self-Destruct Snorlax, and Endeavor Swampert, one can continuously trade KOs until every Pokemon left is important there are few Pokemon left on either side; here, (add comma) Spore, in by disabling one of the key Pokemon remaining, can be devastating. Dugtrio can also perform trades via trapping and revenge killing; additionally, it can reverse trap opposing Dugtrio and enable Calm Mind sweepers, though one has to be careful about stacking weaknesses to Dragon Dance Salamence. Finally, Breloom fits very well on offense teams that feature setup sweepers like Dragon Dance Tyranitar; Calm Mind Jirachi, Suicune, and Celebi; or Substitute Aerodactyl, as sleeping a wall provides extra turns for them to set up and break through.

On stall and balance teams, Breloom is used to generate momentum and win the Spikes war, putting either the opposing Spiker or spinner to sleep. While both Skarmory and Forretress are appropriate Spikers, Forretress is the more common Breloom partner, as they both benefit from Pursuit Tyranitar. Forretress is also good at pressuring the Psychic-types that wall Breloom like Celebi, Claydol, and Starmie with Hidden Power Bug. As both Breloom and Forretress are weak to mixed attackers, they are often paired with a mixed wall like Blissey, Milotic, or specially defensive Zapdos; these are especially useful versus mixed Salamence, which is a very common Breloom answer. Aerodactyl is another good switch-in to mixed Salamence and acts very well as a late-game cleaner when used with Spikes. Additionally, Hidden Power Bug Aerodactyl can also mitigate Breloom’s weakness to Psychic-types, especially Celebi.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]

Other Options
========

Hidden Power Bug nails Celebi and deals good damage to the spinners Starmie and Claydol, making it especially effective on Spikes teams. Hidden Power Ghost Breloom can hit Gengar super effectively if Pursuit Tyranitar is not used as a partner, and like Hidden Power Bug sets, it can also chip the Psychic-types. However, Hidden Power Ghost is unreliable, as it requires prediction to hit Gengar on the switch to win the interaction.

Stun Spore cripples common Breloom switch-ins like Zapdos, Moltres, Gengar, Salamence, and Gyarados. One of the most common ways to deal with Breloom is to sacrifice a Pokemon to Spore and then go to a Fighting-resistant or immune teammate above to absorb the Focus Punch. Stun Spore really cripples these checks because they are highly valued for their Speed. Stun Spore is also useful for denying free setup opportunities to Dragon Dance Gyarados, Dragon Dance Salamence, and Calm Mind Jirachi. However, Stun Spore is quite useless against Celebi and Starmie due to Natural Cure.

A SubSeed Breloom set can exploit the free turn that sleep generates to set up Substitute and start stalling. Besides allowing Leech Seed stall, Substitute lets Breloom scout for switches to a designated Pokemon to absorb Spore. Should this Pokemon the foe be slower, Substitute allows Breloom to use Focus Punch without expending Spore or continue with Spore to fire off two Focus Punches. This really punishes teams that have only one Pokemon that can take a Focus Punch. Unfortunately, this set has a hard time getting past Celebi due to its immunity to Leech Seed.

Swords Dance combined with Mach Punch and Sky Uppercut turns Breloom into a scary late-game sweeper when all the Fighting-resistant foes have been cleared out. This set does very well against opposing offense teams that plan on revenge killing Breloom with fast but frail cleaners like Aerodactyl and Jolteon. The cost of this set is its mid-game wallbreaking power due to the lack of Focus Punch.


Checks and Counters
===================

**Flying-types**: Salamence and Gyarados are great checks to Breloom thanks to their typings and Intimidate. Dragon Dance Salamence and Gyarados can use Breloom to set up, while mixed Salamence can be particularly threatening to Breloom's teammates, especially when it gets many opportunities to enter the field. While less common, Wish + Protect Salamence and Rest Gyarados are perhaps the most robust Breloom counters. Other Flying-types like Zapdos, Moltres, Charizard are all frailer Fighting-resistant Pokemon but can still switch into Focus Punch once per game. Skarmory can effectively check Breloom with Drill Peck but cannot switch safely into Focus Punch.

**Gengar**: Gengar is immune to Fighting, so it can switch safely into any Breloom, (add comma) not packing assuming it is not running Hidden Power Ghost or Stun Spore; however, Breloom is frequently partnered with Pursuit Tyranitar, so Gengar is not a reliable solution.

**Psychic-types**: Bulky Celebi and Starmie with Recover are some of the best Breloom checks; however, they have to be careful of Hidden Power Bug Breloom and Pursuit Tyranitar. Claydol lacks a form of instant recovery, but with its good bulk and sand immunity, it can manage to switch into Breloom a couple of times.

**Dugtrio**: Dugtrio traps and OHKOes Breloom. However, Mach Punch followed by a Pursuit user will trap and eliminate Dugtrio in return.

**Sleep Talk Heracross**: Sleep Talk Heracross is a rare set, (add comma) but it’s a good Breloom check; unlike any other check, it can absorb the Spore and threaten Breloom out with Guts-boosted attacks. It also takes little damage from Breloom's attacks, courtesy of its Fighting resistance.

**Poison-types**: Venusaur and Weezing are serviceable Breloom checks thanks to their Fighting resistances. However, they lack recovery moves and are not immune to sand, so they are bound to get worn out over the course of the game.

**Physically Defensive Jirachi**: Wish + Protect physically defensive Jirachi is a good Breloom check despite not resisting Fighting because of its sheer bulk and sand immunity.

**Revenge Killers**: Aerodactyl, Calm Mind Jirachi, offensive Suicune, and offensive Starmie cannot switch reliably into Breloom, but all are faster and can threaten to an OHKO as long as they are out of range of Mach Punch.

[CREDITS]

- Written by: [[mikmer, 511989]]
- Quality checked by: [[vapicuno, 5454], [johnnyg2, 57904]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429], [dex, 277988T]]

2/2
 

vapicuno

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