Project OU Next Best Thing: Cycle 87 - Not hosted anymore

[Snapteryx]

Reserving technician stored power

Stored Power Toxtricity



Toxtricity @ Throat Spray
Ability: Technician
EVs: 40 Atk / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Naive / Hasty Nature
- Overdrive
- Stored Power
- Drain Punch
- Shift Gear
​

Fun Fact: Even if you have enough stat boosts to give Stored Power over 60 base power, technician still works on it.

Shift Gear also just happens to give Toxtricity some much needed speed along with an attack boost to give it more stored power boosts and letting it take advantage of physical moves as well. Drain Punch combined with Shift Gear and Stored Power turns a pokemon normally hard walled by Ferrothorn into a sweeper that can use Ferrothorn as set up fodder. Also, fighting and psychic is just good coverage. Technician boosted Stored Power can nuke while anything that resists it can die to Drain Punch or Overdrive. Throat Spray is to give the same damage boost as specs but without the drawback of being choice locked and also giving another boost for stored power. The given speed evs are enough to outspeed base 110 scarfers after a shift gear while leftovers are put in attack. Toxtricity in general isn't really the first thing you'd consider when making a competitive team, but I imagine this set being pretty fun.

 

[Steel With It]

Toxtricity @ Magnet / Silk Scarf
Ability: Punk Rock
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Timid / Modest Nature
- Overdrive
- Boomburst
- Sludge Wave
- Volt Switch

Tox's problem in OU isn't its moveset, it's its item. Y'all run Specs on something with three type immunities and make it completely useless against any team with a Ground, a Ghost and a Steel; no wonder it seems to suck. Run Magnet or Silk Scarf (depending on which move you want to bluff with) instead.

 

[nameless90]

Snarl Toxtricity

Toxtricity @ Expert Belt
Ability: Punk Rock
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Timid Nature
- Overdrive
- Boomburst
- Sludge Wave
- Snarl

This Toxtricity runs three attacking moves (powered up by its ability) + Snarl as utility move if the opponent runs annoying Steels such as Magnezone and Heatran that hit using their SpA. Don't understimate the bulk of Toxtricity, because this thing has a total of 8 resistances to check some hits for its teammates.

 

[Vector Lynthos]

F(L)AIL(?) Toxtricity


Toxtricity @ Liechi Berry / Protective Pads / Weakness Policy
Ability: Punk Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute / Endure
- Shift Gear
- Flail
- Throat Chop / Encore

Ah, don't you love it when a mon gets a good ability like Technician, but doesn't really have the movepool to make use of it? :) Anyway, this is the best I could come up with. The premise goes as such:
1. Sub up on a mon that you can scare out or can't really directly harm Toxtricity.
2. Proceed to click Shift Gear.
3. Assuming the opponent switched, they will most likely opt to immediately break the sub with said switch-in. Keep subbing until you get as low as possible(Toxtricity's naturally odd numbered HP total makes this literally 1) to both activate your berry and fully power up Flail.
4. Go for broke. With your Liechi in tow you should be +2/+2 and ideally rocking a 200 BP Flail. Good luck!

There a couple of other alternatives with this gimmick. Seeing as this isn't R/S/E anymore a lot of pokemon have a few more (passive)tricks up their sleeves. Protective Pads can provide a more "safe" option. While missing out on an extra boost sucks, immediately succumbing to Rocky Helmet and the like sucks even more. Endure + Weakness Policy is another novel idea. Since Toxtricity has an uncanny ability to attract Ground-types/moves you could use that fact to your advantage. Encore can also be used to open up a potential set-up opportunity if you don't care about Ghosts.

Priority is your bane, but if you're crazy you can try pairing it up with a Lele. It's terrain may save you some trouble and it can lure in and wear down/take out some problematic Steels that stand in the lizard's way.

 

[kek123]

Balloon 3 attacks taunt Toxtricity

Toxtricity @ Air Balloon
Ability: Punk Rock
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overdrive
- Boomburst
- Sludge Bomb
- Taunt

The balloon allows Toxtricity to beat a lot of the meta pokemon that can usually server as a one time switch to it.
For example these familiar faces:

Lando

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 23 Spe
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Defog
- U-turn

HIPPO

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Slack Off

Heatran

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 232 SpD / 24 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Toxic

Taunt allows that set to also break through Hippo and Zapdos , not allowing them to heal up.

Over this is isn't made to sweep team but, it main job is to weaken pokemon for other mons to get the chance to sweep

 

[BT89]

Cycle 79 Submissions Phase is over!
Time to vote!

This Cycle's Featured Pokemon


Shift Gear + Drain Punch by Bluecliqse
Sub + Toxic Moyashi
Choice Scarf by GiyuForPresident
Metal Sound by Xenocide88
Nuzzle by JTD783
Stored Power by Snapteryx
/ Choice Specs Bluff by Steel With It
Snarl by nameless90
/ / Flail by Vector Lynthos
Air Balloon by kek123

You must vote for 2 sets, in no particular order.
You have 48 hours to vote!
Voting ends on Monday, July 4th.

Please do not vote for your own set, and make sure to vote for 2 sets. ​

 

[nameless90]

Metal Sound by Xenocide88
Nuzzle by JTD783

 

[Snapteryx]

Bluecliqse's Shift Gear + Drain Punch
kek123's Air Balloon

 

[Xenocide88]

Sub-Toxic by Moyashi
Air Balloon Taunt by kek123

 

[A Welcome Guest]

stored power
/ specs bluff

 

[JTD783]

Specs Bluff

Air Balloon

 

[Hatternity]

Sub + Toxic Moyashi
Air Balloon by kek123

 

[Vector Lynthos]

Metal Sound by Xenocide88

Stored Power by Snapteryx

 

[Vengeance417]

Metal Sound by Xenocide88

Stored Power by Snapteryx

 

[Firest0rm]

stored power and air balloon

 

[BT89]

Voting is up!



The winner is…
Air Balloon by kek123!

Votes

Shift Gear + Drain Punch by Bluecliqse - 1
Sub + Toxic Moyashi - 2
Choice Scarf by GiyuForPresident - 0
Metal Sound by Xenocide88 - 3
Nuzzle by JTD783 - 1
Stored Power by Snapteryx - 3
/ Choice Specs Bluff by Steel With It - 2
Snarl by nameless90 - 0
/ / Flail by Vector Lynthos - 0
Air Balloon by kek123 - 5

Week 80



Gastrodon has been a rising presence in the OU metagame as a defensive staple on fat balance and stallish teams thanks to its capabilities to wall a plethora of threatening Pokemon in the tier, namely Volcanion, Dragapult, and Tapu Koko. It also serves as a general blanket special check to numerous dangerous breakers like Nidoking. Gastrodon has an array of rather unique options, so let’s see what you guys got!

Banned Sets


The deadline is Sunday, July 9th!​

 

[Hatternity]

Yawn + Iapapa Berry



Gastrodon @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 180 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Earthquake
- Yawn
- Recover

The standard Gastrodon set can be a momentum sink. Gastrodon has access to yawn which can force switches and allow you to get momentum back. To go along with this, the 50% HP berries can let you switch in and yawn more aggressively in exchange for losing the long term benefits of leftovers. However, if you are interested in running storm train instead of sticky hold, Gastro is likely to loose its item over the course of a long match anyways, so the single-use berries are useful to get everything out of your item up front. The standard EV spread is a-ok as the HP number is already divisible by 2 for speedy iapapa activation.

 

[Xenocide88]

Reserving Eject Button
Ejectodon

Gastrodon (M) @ Eject Button
Ability: Storm Drain
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam/Scald*
- Earth Power
- Yawn
- Recover

This Gastrodon set aims to maintain a lot of the strengths of the classic SpDef Gastro, while also addressing it's potential to act as a momentum sink. Eject Button let's you switch Gastro into a U-turn or resisted hit to gain momentum early on, while Yawn lets you generate momentum later on mons that may try to break you or set up in your face because you lack Clear Smog. Earth Power and Ice Beam were chosen for their strong coverage for just two moves, while hitting all the things Gastro needs to check for at least neutral, and being special attacks with 0 Atk IVs reduces the stray Foul Play you may need to contend with. Scald is an alternative if you need to act more as a mid ground to more threats with the burn proc, but lose the ability to threaten Dragapult, Zapdos, and Torn in a meaningful way, while also losing the ability to deal with Garchomp, Lando, and Dragonite in a timely manner. Recover rounds out the last slot for standard sustainability, and without Boots or Leftovers is essentially a hard requirement. Storm Drain is the chosen ability to gain an type immunity for the rain match up, and because after you have activated Eject Button Sticky Hold will provide zero value.

This set will have to contend more with chip damage from hazards given its lack of Boots/Leftovers, so pairing it with a strong defogger is a must. PhysDef Defog Zapdos can meet this challenge well as it also provides a stellar switch in for Rillaboom and Kartana which otherwise ruin Gastrodon, while also threatening Corviknight better than Gastro can.

 

[kek123]

Curse Setup

Gastrodon-East @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Sticky Hold
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Waterfall
- Rest
- Amnesia
- Curse

This set run max defence as it defence stat is harder to raise as curse only raises defence by 1 per use whereas Amnesia raised Spdef by 2 per use, the set runs sticky hold as it is quite important to the set that the Chesto Berry does not get knocked off. The idea about running Rest over recover is that sets with recover or more prone to getting forced out by toxic slowly chipping them down and the set can also be hurt quite badly be burns, this set run Chesto Berry over leftovers is because often times after the first cycle of setting up into rest a apposing pokemon can still kill it before it wakes or at least force it to rest again straight away, the Chesto Berry gives that set to chance to continue setting up after the first rest so that by the time the second rest is needed Gastro can usually get in a few more sets or some attack before need to rest again.

This set could run Recover over rest to make it a move reliable wall and not just a set up sweeper or it could run rest talk curse waterfall but at the point you may as well run Suicune

Pair with?

Magnezone

(Magnezone) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Thunderbolt
- Toxic

Heatran

Heatran @ Power Herb
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 232 SpD / 24 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Solar Beam

You can pair this set with the Magnezone set shown above , Magnezone helps get rid of common big threats to Gastrodon like Ferrothorn and Kartarna allowing, also running the heatran set with can help deal with Toxapex's and the Power Herb can solar beam can help bait in Fini's which are two prevalent Haze users.

 

[blooclipse]

reserving sand force
lol

 

[JTD783]

Edit: Fixed; I wasn't aware that the OU dex entry included Clear Smog. Oops.

Rocky Helmet



Gastrodon @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sticky Hold
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Def / 92 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Recover
- Toxic​

Rocky Helment punishes U-Turn and annoys physical attackers in general. Accordingly, I tweaked the EV spread to make it more physically defensive. This still provides enough special bulk to ensure that 252 SpA Timid Zapdos' Hurricane is always a 3HKO after Stealth Rock.

Recommended partners: A defogger, a status absorber/cleric, a Lele answer, a Weavile answer (you die to +2 Triple Axel), and for the love of god a grass resist.

 

[Xenocide88]

Clear Smog isn’t exactly out of pocket but it’s not the standard Toxic. Clear Smog allows Gastrodon to shut down Clefable, Tapu Fini, Volcarona, and Dragonite while serving as an emergency check to Hawlucha, Galarian Moltres, and Cloyster. It’s a nice anti-cheese option in general.

Sans swapping Earthquake for Earth Power, your current submission is essentially the recommended meta set: https://www.smogon.com/dex/ss/pokemon/gastrodon/ou/
Edit: That's a cool entry, I was thinking about a Helmet set myself.

 

[Snapteryx]

Reserving trapper set

Infestation Gastrodon



Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold / Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf / Earthquake / Brine
- Toxic
- Infestation
- Recover​

You can't get more self explanatory than this. You're running gastrodon with a trapping move so you can toxic anything that comes in and rack up a ton of damage on them. Gastrodon actually learns 3 trapping moves (whirlpool, sand tomb, infestation), but infestation is the best one by far. Not only is it 100% accurate unlike the other 2 trapping moves, but nothing is immune to infestation so you don't have to worry about flying types or water absorbers. Your first move slot depends on what you want to beat more. Water coverage for ground or flying types, or ground coverage for steel or poison types that are immune to toxic. Surf seems like an odd choice until you realize that status doesn't matter for Gastrodon if you're just gonna toxic it anyways. If you're a real psychopath, you can even use brine to deal double damage against mons that have been chipped from infestation and toxic damage. Use whatever you want, just switch to an impish nature and max attack IVs if you end up going for earthquake.

 

[Vector Lynthos]

Choiced Drain


Gastrodon-East @ Choice Specs
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 68 HP / 252 SpA / 188 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Earth Power
- Weather Ball
- Ice Beam

Simple and clean specs set that thrives with and against rain. The combination of Gastro's typing + ability let's it stifle the most common avenues of rain-based assaults whilst making a splash itself(even more so if you can nab a Storm Drain boost). It's also a decent option in sand as most sand teams appreciate a water-immunity and it's coverage can help deal with a few things that might be problematic for the average sand sweeper.

The speed EVs are there to speed-creep the typical Melmetal sets(CB to be exact), but if one doesn't care about that, feel free to dump them into HP/Def/Sp.Def for more survivability.​

 

[nameless90]

RestStockpile Gastrodon

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sticky Hold
EVs: 152 HP / 104 Def / 248 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Rest
- Stockpile


Here we have a Gastron that uses Stockpile to gain some defensive presence + Rest to regain its entire hp while also getting rid of detrimental status moves. Stockpile is here in order to use Rest with more ease, proving Grass-types being already out of the picture.
If you play well (= you avoid switchin-in into Water-type moves), your opponent will be caught off guard for some turns.
152 HP EVs are enough to reach 401 hp, enough to withstand 5 Seismic Toss (without taking into account Leftovers), while 4 Spe EVs are just a filler.