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Thanks to its access to Swords Dance, solid coverage moves, and good Speed and Attack stats, Garchomp is a strong wallbreaker capable of threatening the majority of the tier. It's also a reliable entry hazard setter thanks to its ability to offensively threaten common defoggers.
Your goal this week is to post creative and viable movesets for Garchomp that are NOT listed as sample sets in its SmogDex entry. You have 4 days from now to post sets, after which the voting phase will begin. Deadline: 20th January 2024 11:30PM, GMT + 5:30.
Garchomp @ Life Orb
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Fire Fang
- Swords Dance
This set is a very good physical wallbreaker on teams which already have a different Z-Move user and good Stealth Rocker and need physical walls such as Landorus-Therian and Skarmory to be pressured harder. It synergises very well with Mega Charizard X on Dual Screens Hyper Offense teams in particular.
Choice Scarf Garchomp is a cool alternative to something like Choice Scarf Landorus; trading the latter's ability to pivot out with U-Turn and emergency Defog ability for late-game cleaning potential with Outrage and Earthquake, and an even faster revenge killer or panic button against boosted opponents, reaching 499 Speed. Garchomp's base 102 Speed is exceptionally good, enabling it to pass +1 Volcarona and emergency OHKO it with Stone Edge, in addition to passing Choice Scarf Tapu Lele and doing an enormous amount of damage to it, even potentially OHKOing after Stealth Rock. Mega Alakazam falls to Earthquake or Outrage, while Mega Charizard X is beaten by the same. Hawlucha is nearly OHKOd by Outrage if running Misty or Psychic Seed, which can improve a team's matchup against the dangerous Hawlucha + Tapu core.
Outrage is the main STAB move Garchomp is going to be clicking, owing to its very good neutral coverage across a lot of OU. Earthquake is chosen in the second slot to maximise Garchomp's excellent dual STAB combination, and to prey on the Steel-types which resist Outrage and severely chunking the Fairy-types that are immune. Stone Edge improves Garchomp's coverage, allowing it to target down and eliminate threats such as Zapdos, Hawlucha, Volcarona, and Mega Charizard Y. The last slot here is highly customizable depending on what the team requires - I like Toxic here as it allows Garchomp to cripple switchins which come in against it, such as Landorus-T wanting to intimidate what could be a Rockium-Z variant, or Mega Latias, threatening it out with Ice Beam and base 110 speed. However, Stealth Rock can act as emergency hazard support for the team if necessary, or Roar can be used to stack up chip damage on Garchomp's switchins via already-set hazards - really any option works here.
252 Atk Garchomp Stone Edge vs. 248 HP / 112 Def Volcarona: 532-628 (142.6 - 168.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tapu Lele: 208-246 (74 - 87.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Outrage vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Alakazam-Mega: 277-327 (110.3 - 130.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Charizard-Mega-X: 300-354 (101 - 119.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Garchomp Outrage vs. 96 HP / 0 Def Hawlucha: 249-294 (77.5 - 91.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Zapdos: 186-220 (48.4 - 57.2%) -- 44.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Garchomp Stone Edge vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Charizard-Mega-Y: 536-632 (180.4 - 212.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Garchomp Outrage vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Latias-Mega: 336-396 (92.5 - 109%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
I'd highly suggest giving this set a go, it's a superb option to cleanup once your setup sweeper is eventually killed; and a very fun option to switch in, knowing you can click Outrage and the opponent can't do anything about it. Best of luck to other entrants!
Have you ever had the feeling that your tank chomp doesn't put out enough chip damage?
That it can't get up rocks AND damage an opposing physical attacker to the point where they can't even take a kartanas mega drain?
Good, here is THE solution for this problem:
T-90 Tank Chomp
T-90 Tank Chomp (Garchomp) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Rough Skin
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 212 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Endure
- Draco Meteor/Toxic/Hidden Power Ice
- Earthquake
What differentiates this set from the standard smogon sample?
1 move and 1 move only, endure :D
What does it do you ask?
It gives your garchomp an additional life, the opportunity to spread even more juicy chip damage
with rocky helmet and rough skin.
Lets do some math :]
252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 44 Def Garchomp: 189-223 (45 - 53%) -- 31.6% chance to 2HKO
Rocky Helmet: 1/6
Rough Skin: 1/8
Garchomp has a 68.4% chance to live 2 leafblades from standard non boosted kartanas
Let's assume we get the role:
Now that is a huge amount of chip damage already: kartana is half dead.
This is where endure comes into play.
You click it once, they attack, you survive and get an additional 7/24 chip damage, meaning,
they are dead if they attack again and take the kill.
Boom, you just traded your garchomp for rocks and 1 kartana (68.4% of the time, if they don't crit leafblade).
If you were crazy like me and took out even more speed and put the ev's into hp you could increase your odds of killing that kartana passively.
Lets look at lopunny mega calcs:
252 Atk Lopunny-Mega Return vs. 252 HP / 44 Def Garchomp: 172-204 (40.9 - 48.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
you switch in on return, tank a hit and play the same game, assuming they don't carry ice punch.
You could also just attack them and save up chomp as a sack after taking the first attack.
You can play a similar game with hawlucha:
252+ Atk Hawlucha Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 44 Def Garchomp: 156-184 (37.1 - 43.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Hawlucha High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 44 Def Garchomp: 184-217 (43.8 - 51.6%) -- 10.2% chance to 2HKO
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 44 Def Garchomp: 366-432 (87.1 - 102.8%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
Basically as long as garchomp is alive it can get of 56% chip damage against any and all physical attackers, besides eq users.
It is a nice trick to have up your sleeve and can bail you out against many sweepers.
You can also use this tech to burn an opponents Z-Move
Overall I wouldn't recommend to use this set outside of some very specific teams.
And once it is revealed it can force severe mind games.
Tyranitar's high Attack stat coupled with powerful, spammable STAB moves in Stone Edge and Crunch makes it a fearsome wallbreaker. Powerful STAB Pursuit lets Tyranitar also serve as one of OU's most threatening trappers. It can check many scary offensive threats such as Mega Latios and Volcarona thanks to its special bulk in sand. Sand Stream lets it support sand sweepers such as Excadrill and Mega Garchomp.
Your goal this week is to post creative and viable movesets for Tyranitar that are NOT listed as sample sets in its SmogDex entry. You have 4 days from now to post sets, after which the voting phase will begin. Deadline: 27th January 2024 11:30PM, GMT + 5:30.
Tyranitar @ Tyranitarite
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Curse
- Payback
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
Curse is a cool option on Tyranitar, allowing it to play a slightly more defensive role against a lot of teams, while still maintaining heavy offensive pressure. Payback synergises well with Curse; as it is more likely to go last and recieve the boost as Tyranitar's speed drops in addition to being STAB. Stone Edge is the other main STAB move here, heavily damaging a significant chunk of OU even unboosted. Earthquake is the final option I chose here to guarantee Tyranitar's neutral coverage, but this could easily be swapped out for something like Fire Punch, or even Pursuit. The EVs are straightforward, maximising Tyranitar's bulk and Attack, while Tyranitarite lets Tyranitar Mega Evolve, boosting its bulk further.
Magnezone's near-exclusive access to Magnet Pull gives it a very unique and valuable niche in the OU metagame as a trapper and eliminator of Steel-types such as Ferrothorn, Mega Scizor, Skarmory, and Celesteela. It also functions as a solid revenge killer with Choice Scarf, being able to check a number of dangerous Pokemon like Kartana, Mega Scizor, and weakened Celesteela.
Your goal this week is to post creative and viable movesets for Magnezone that are NOT listed as sample sets in its SmogDex entry. You have 4 days from now to post sets, after which the voting phase will begin. Deadline: 2nd February 2024 11:30PM, GMT + 5:30.
Magnezone @ Custap Berry
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Endure
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Custap Berry + Endure is a tech used to check Hawlucha on teams that are weak to it. Endure allows you to safely activate Custap Berry, move first the next turn and KO the Hawlucha with Thunderbolt. It can also provide some emergency speed control, but it should not be relied on for this purpose as it can only do so once. This set also does the usual Magnezone things: trapping most offensive and defensive steels.
This set trades the Custap + Endure set's ability to reverse Kartana and Hawlucha for the ability to singlehandedly destroy Heatran and pretty much any special attacker in the tier with Mirror Coat. For those not in the know, this doubles the damage taken from a special attack back onto the attacker, and since it is a Psychic-type move, Flash Fire doesn't activate on Heatran. Given Magnezone's ability to bait in Heatran and other special attackers like Mega Charizard Y and this set's ability to destroy them singlehandedly from full (in addition to, obviously, taking on most other Steel-types in the tier), teammates which struggle with these such as Tapu Lele or Mega Latios are good pairings. The only difficulty is keeping Magnezone at full HP until you need to deploy it, but otherwise this is a very consistent set with all the benefits of regular Magnezone and a surprise factor against numerous special threats.
The Speed EVs allow it to creep uninvested Mega Scizor by one point, while maximising Magnezone's Special Attack and HP to hit as hard as possible. With this HP, a Mirror Coat from Magnezone once Focus Sash activated is going to do 626 HP to the opponent, enough to OHKO anything in OU.
Don't you hate when your Magnezone is out and these mons are in your face?
, +2, +4
Or when these mons whips out Focus miss?
Especially when this bitch copies your Magnet Pull? Me too.
And that's what Chople Berry is meant to do, to live all these pesky ass fighting type moves and either sends them packing or in medichams case, cripples it, while still being able to be the feared fridge magnet we all know and love.
Mirror Coat like clematis mentioned before, deals twice the damage the special attack dished out, it's great because zone will live these hits and slaps the fuck out of them in return.
Because zone cant kill medicham, Thunder Wave is needed, because a paralyzed medi is far more manageable to deal with
200 hp and 136 +physdef makes Magnezone live a +2 hjk from lucha after rocks, as well as living a hjk from mediacham and +4 Sacred Sword from Kartana
The 128 in speed is to make sure you always outspeed the usual Mega Scizor sets while you still 2hko it.
And the 44 in special attack is, funny enough, to make sure you are guaranteed in ohkoing Skarmory
+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha High Jump Kick vs. 200 HP / 136+ Def Chople Berry Magnezone: 262-310 (79.1 - 93.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Pure Power Medicham-Mega High Jump Kick vs. 200 HP / 136+ Def Chople Berry Magnezone: 253-298 (76.4 - 90%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
+1 252 SpA Alakazam Focus Blast vs. 200 HP / 0 SpD Chople Berry Magnezone: 221-260 (66.7 - 78.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Magearna Focus Blast vs. 200 HP / 0 SpD Chople Berry Magnezone: 143-169 (43.2 - 51%) -- 4.7% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Magearna All-Out Pummeling (190 BP) vs. 200 HP / 0 SpD Chople Berry Magnezone: 226-267 (68.2 - 80.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
44 SpA Magnezone Thunderbolt vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Skarmory: 336-396 (100.9 - 118.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
44 SpA Magnezone Hidden Power Fire vs. 248 HP / 244 SpD Scizor-Mega: 180-216 (52.4 - 62.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
44 SpA Magnezone Thunderbolt vs. 96 HP / 36 SpD Hawlucha: 348-410 (108.4 - 127.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO