Salazzle (F) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Overheat
- Sludge Bomb
- Toxic
- Knock Off
This was the mon and set I used for research week, and I decided that since specs is a little less explored than the typical HDB set, I would try that instead. Having two utility moves on a specs set looks weird, but I think the ability to toxic anything is still fantastic (hitting stuff like swampert and nihilego), and knock off is of course one of the best utility attacks in the game, being able to, again, chip more at salazzle's checks.
Even in the midst of a meta with swamperts, chanseys, nihilegos, and more, I find that salazzle can thrive against teams with these types of pokemon (but of course you'd rather not see these pokemon so u can click your strong stab moves instead of toxic/knock off).
One of course glaring issue specs salazzle has over it's standard HBD variant is that it takes 25% each time it comes in if rocks are up for the opponent. This makes it necessary to have a pokemon with hazard removal on the team, and I even think having TWO pokemon with hazard removal is the way to go, as you want to be bringing in this pokemon as much as possible to blow holes in the opponent's team.
Good speed tier and strong stabs, alongside its great utility moves make this pokemon a serious headache to switch into, and can be very rewarding with good play. However, I believe it is much more difficult to build with than the standard HBD set because of the limitations you have of likely needing two hazard removal mons on your team alongside it.
I tried a couple of different teams, both having two hazard removal moves on them, but I would say I like the team in the first replay more, as I found it easier to get salazzle in more with rotom and mence being such consistent defoggers, but the team with celebi and friends is good as well. A theme here with these teams is having pokemon that can help get salazzle in, like rotom-wash and slowking, while also having two hazard removals, which I think is the way to go when building with specs salazzle.
Here are some replays of it in action (some of them aren't the best but it was hard to find games that wasn't against cheese tbh lol)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8uu-1519987659-0zudkhlrcc5qcx3p6g1073pjwdfswf7pw
A nice game against pif in which salazzle has plenty of opportunities thanks to the consistency of the two defoggers and the nice matchup they had against his team. Even though there is a nihilego, a knock off and multiple blastings of overheat eventually took it down to let the salazzle wreak havoc.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8uu-1525079964-tvcywihezns3g4ni3mkx83xfpgneoh8pw
This is a nightmare game for salazzle. Swampert, chansey, AND nihilego all on one team. With the help of slowking scalding the swampert to like ~40%, and salazzle knocking off nihilego early, it still managed to put in quite a bit of work and even allow me to win this game despite the abysmal matchup, with the help of some misplays from my opponent.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8uu-1525530209
Finally, a good salazzle matchup. This game ends up going by pretty quickly, but every time salazzle came in, it did massive damage to my opponents team. Not much to say here
Teams I used:
https://pokepast.es/2b51914ed75ae5b8
https://pokepast.es/d34152fc00213f86
I think that if you wanted to use salazzle, the HBD version would be much easier to build around. Frankly, I believe that given the reliance of predictions, alongside the necessary hazard removal mon(s) required to use specs salazzle, the reward is not worth the cost that come with these conditions. With this being said, it can definitely cause more damage than the standard salazzle with correct play.
Overall Rating: B-