A team built around Arbok?

[Mewsol]

I'm new to competitive battling, and I was curious about the NU tier. Most often I lean towards UU but I wanted to explore other tiers and options.

Looking on the strategy Pokedex, I noticed Arbok is very deserving of this tier, with few things in its favour except for a Coil strategy, perhaps; bu it has little type versatility. I don't know if any of you use Arbok, since it's clearly not the best Pokemon in the tier, but what if there was a team buillt around it? What would Arbok's purpose be in the team? What movesets would Arbok need to gain potential?

I used Arbok in HGSS and I want to know what role it could have in the metagame. Me being unexperienced here means I'll be asking tons of questions, so I want to have the opportunity to use these questions to start conversations.

So, do you have any thoughts?

 

[Originality]

Arbok is deadly when played correctly. With a near perfect accuracy +1 Gunk Shot after one coil will seriously damage any pokemon aslong as they are not steel or Weezing. My suggested moveset and spread would be

Arbok @ Leftovers
Adamant 252 Atk/252 Spe
Intimidate
-Coil
-Gunk Shot
-Sucker Punch
-Earthquake/Bulldoze

Pros of Arbok

• Extremely powerful and accurate STAB Gunk Shot can really put a hole in even some of the bulkier pokemon in NU such as Alomomola and Amoongus, thanks to the godsend of which is Coil.
• Arbok also makes a good late game cleaner with access to a +1 attack boosted sucker punch.
• Intimidate is great for switching into a physical pokemon as Arbok will most likely be able to take two or three hits from them (watch out for choice band abusers such as Emboar).
• Earthquake hits steels with great power which are immune to gunk shot and can safely switch into a sucker punch. However Bulldoze can be used to make up for Arbok's lack luster speed however and can also cause switches allowing an additional Coil boost.
• Great overall counter to choice Sawk however make sure it's locked into anything except earthquake or else Arbok will be hit with major damage

Cons of Arbok​

• Completely walled by Weezing as levitate ensures a safe switch in.
• 80 base speed means that Arbok will be outpaced by most sweepers in the tier.
• Weak to Psychic and Ground and with Gardevoir being in the top #5 usage, Arbok will need it's team to be able to back it up. Also Earthquake can be found on about 90 % of all physical sweepers and most outspeed Arbok which are also a threat.

Some suggested team members:


Skuntank @ Life Orb
Trait: Aftermath
EVs: 36 Spd / 220 SAtk / 252 Atk
Lonely Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Fire Blast
- Sludge Bomb
- Pursuit

Skuntank gets a free switch into to a locked psychic spamming Gardevoir and can destroy her on the switch with pursuit, making Skuntank a great partner for an Arbok.

Miltank @ Leftovers
Trait: Thick Fat
Evs : 252 HP, 252 Sp.D, 4 Atk
Careful Nature
-Thunder Wave
-Heal bell
-Milk Drink
-Return

Miltank can Support Arbok in a number of ways, it can provide Thunder Wave support to get over Arbok's pretty low base speed. It can heal Arbok's status problems with Heal Bell and can Also Cause some damage in aid of Arbok with Return.

​

 

[marilli]

Welcome to smogon! First things first you shouldn't make your own thread on small topics like this. That's what the NP thread is for, and next time you should post your small questions there. Don't think too much of it if someone comes around locking the thread; you can still ask these questions in the NP thread.

The FAQ thread has a lot of the relevant links, not to mention you can ask questions on the thread itself if you have any additional questions. IIRC, the distinction is NP thread deals with more metagame-wise questions (such as yours) and FAQ is for more general questions that don't necessarily pertain to the metagame.

For the subject at hand, Arbok is a very underrated / good Pokemon. Given Amoonguss is so common, it gets a lot of chances to switch in and set up. It's fast enough to check some of the most devastating threats like Ludicolo. Its ability and Coil boost gives a lot of bulk for an offensive mon. You'll need to get rid of bulky Psychic-types and the rare ghost-types, so Skuntank might be a good teammate. You'll need something to take Earthquakes from the likes of Golurk. A bulky non-Poison Grass type, perhaps. Aqua Tail helps with Golurk, but if you don't have EQ you'll have worse time against Rock-types and such. Ludicolo / Samurott might help you cover those threats offensively, and you can essentially throw in Normal-types and a SR user if you want a full team.

If you have time you can come join #neverused in IRC in which case we might be able to give you more detailed teambuilding help.

 

[Django]

Basically Amarillo summed it up, smaller questions like this should go in the np thread. You could, however, make an Arbok discussion thread, similar to this. Please do bring Arbok up elsewhere in the forum; it's a fantastic Pokemon and needs more love.

Locking up this thread.