Vigoroth (NU Analysis)

Disaster Area

formerly Piexplode
My 14th Analysis posted today, now I'm off to bed!

[Overview]
- Very fast, very powerful.
- Faces competition with Raticate, which is faster and enjoys having Guts to prevent anyone from statusing it. On the flipside, Vigoroth has Bulk Up, Endure alongside Flail and Reversal, and Focus Punch, and is altogether still a fast and bulky package to be wary of.
- Very flexible, multiple viable sets.
- Great stallbreaker.
- Vital Spirit lets it check Venomoth, Sunnybeamers, and a handful of other Sleep users.
- Harder to prepare for it because it's versatile, has decent coverage, and is also fast and quite bulky.

[SET]
name: Bulk Up
move 1: Bulk Up
move 2: Body Slam / Return
move 3: Shadow Ball / Earthquake
move 4: Slack Off / Substitute
item: Leftovers
nature: Jolly
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
- Variety of moves and items can work with Bulk Up, making Vigoroth versatile, unpredictable, and challenging to prepare for.
- Normal STAB varies depending on what you want to achieve. Body Slam spreads Paralysis, Return hits harder, and Double Edge hits hardest, but has recoil and less staying power, making it somewhat easier to deal with.
- Shadow Ball is the best coverage alongside its Normal STAB, hitting everything not Steel type for neutral damage or better. Earthquake can be used instead if you're able to remove Haunter, which is the only Pokemon that easily handles that combination.
- Slack Off allows you to keep it around longer, but hates status. Substitute allows you to block status, and should probably be run alongside Leftovers, although a Salac berry (with Adamant) could work.
- Taunt allows you to block status too, and pressure Spikes users, stopping them spreading hazards or anything else like status. It lets you avoid being Mawile set-up bait which is nice if you're not running Earthquake.
- Double Edge could be run as a Normal STAB for the extra power, but generally Return is strong enough, and doesn't impact upon its survivability.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
- Jolly needed to outpace many threats, abusing its great Base 90 speed, but Adamant can be run for the sake of demolishing stall.
- Spikes are fantastic with any offensive Pokemon, and Vigoroth is no different in that regard.
- Diglett or Houndour support can work to remove Haunter or various Rock/Steel types, allowing you to only run one coverage type without worry of being walled.
- Earthquake could be run alongside Shadow Ball and Normal STAB of choice, providing the best coverage, but lacking the utility of alternative options.
- ChestoRest alongside Bulk Up and 2 STABs is a worthwhile option to consider.
- Silk Scarf can be run if you want extra power on your Normal STAB, but most sets prefer the recovery of Leftovers.
- Run 12 HP EVs (take the remainder from Attack), or reduce your HP IVs and throw the spare 4 EVs into Defense or Special Defense, if you wish to run Susbstitute+Pinch Berry, since then your HP is divisible by 4, letting you activate the Pinch berry with more health remaining, meaning that Quick Attack and other priority users have less chance of KOing you.
- If you run Taunt, it can be run as a lead, since it prevents Glalie getting Spikes.

[SET]
name: SubPunch
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Focus Punch
move 3: Shadow Ball
move 4: Earthquake / Slack Off / Bulk Up
item: Leftovers
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
- Substitute allows Vigoroth to safely fire off Focus Punches, and also blocks status, and Intimidate.
- Shadow Ball has perfect coverage alongside Focus Punch.
- The last slot can be customized to the team's needs. Earthquake hits certain targets harder, such as Arbok, Swalot, and Sableye. Slack Off gives it greater survivability, letting it come in again at another time. Bulk Up lets it become increasingly threatening every time it recieves a free turn, but you usually want to be firing off attacks. The increased Defense can make its substitutes more challenging to break however. A Normal STAB could fit in the last slot, but it's not vital on this set since it already has fantastic coverage and isn't easily walled.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
- Pinch Berries can work instead of Leftovers, although you want to bring your HP EVs to 12, or reduce your HP IVs, so that your HP hits a number divisible by four, so that you can activate them in 3 Substitutes and get a boost whilst at 25% HP.
- Extra bulk could be used, if you have specific attacks you wish to live, or avoid breaking its substitutes.
- Bulk Up is the best option for it at sheer stall-breaking, with Adamant.

[SET]
name: Flail / Reversal
move 1: Endure / Substitute
move 2: Reversal / Brick Break
move 3: Flail
move 4: Shadow Ball
item: Salac Berry / Leichi Berry
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
- Flail and Reversal is a deadly combination that only Ghosts can circumvent, although Brick Break can be run over Reversal, since sometimes it's too risky to totally rely upon it, whilst making it difficult to bring out Vigoroth earlier in the match if you have to.
- Raticate is mostly a better user, although Raticate does not have Earthquake or Reversal at its disposal, Quick Attack always beats Vigoroth, whilst Raticate has access to its own Quick Attack to beat the opposing Quick Attack user, although it may not always OHKO.
- Salac Berry is preferred over Leichi Berry, for the additional ability to take on offensive teams.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
- Pursuit support is helpful if you want to run Leichi. If you are certain you can remove Haunter for it, Earthquake in the last slot hits Sableye harder.
- You could run 0 HP, Defense, and Special Defense IVs to be more certain to bring yourself down to 1 HP, as well as a Defensively hindering Nature, if you're running Endure.
- The current spread leaves Vigoroth with a HP that's a multiple of 4, plus an extra point, meaning that if you choose to run Substitute, 4 Substitutes brings you down to 1 HP.
- Taunt can be used as well to force the opponent into attacking and activating its Berry, but is difficult to fit.
- Many of the tier's Physically Defensive behemoths check it very well, so coming up with ideas to get around those is key to this set's success.

[Other Options]
- Choice Band could work for suprise, or paired with other CBers, but Raticate generally does it better so there's little reason to use other than suprise.
- Toxic could work as a Sableye lure, but otherwise appears poor.
- Amnesia + SubPunch looks effective as an anti-Offense pokemon due to its great speed and passable special bulk, but probably requires some testing.
- RestTalk could function, but if it runs Bulk Up alongside, it is walled by immunities.
- It gets Roar but its defensive utility is pretty small, so it's probably not totally worth it. Maybe in combination with Spikes and an offensive set it could work though.
- It's bulky enough it could probably pull off Counter, but versus most foes it does more damage just by attacking anyway.
- Sub + Slack Off + Bulk Up monoattacker could work if you can clear its counters
- Various special attacks fill its movepool, but it has perfect coverage with physical attacks as it is.

[Checks and Counters]
- Hitmonchan, particularly the Bulk Up set, is a strong check.
- Reflect CM Chimecho is a solid check, but a boosted Shadow Ball or STAB normal move really hurts.
- Swalot and Arbok.
- Toxic can put Vigoroth on a timer, and Paralysis makes it much less of a threat. These can neuter every set except for the rare ChestoRest Bulk Up set. Substitute is used on Vigoroth in part to block status though, so your plans to defeat it must include that into its considerations.
- Tangela and Bellossom can check it, but cannot sleep it.
- Sableye can wall some sets, but has issues doing anything in return.
- Rock- and Steel-types, such as Mawile, Metang, Relicanth, and Sudowoodo, but dislike Earthquake and Focus Punch.
- Haunter, but loses to Shadow Ball, however the rare Will-o-Wisp is fantastic versus it.
- Most specially offensive things don't mind it too much, especially if they outspeed, although some such as Plusle and Minun might mind its super-effective coverage.
- Quick Attack and other priority is quite vital to carry, to be able to KO Vigoroth at 1HP on Endure sets, but they're quite non-threatening to stall - a good reason for stall to run Mach Punch on Rapid Spin Hitmonchan however.
 
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I think the first mentioned set should be somewhere along the lines of Bulk Up/Taunt/Return/Slack Off,because that thing is a superb stall-breaker imo,and the first item slash,should obviously be Leftovers for said set :)
 

Oglemi

Borf
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the first set has too many slashes, it should just look like

[SET]
name: Bulk Up
move 1: Bulk Up
move 2: Return / Body Slam
move 3: Shadow Ball / Earthquake
move 4: Slack Off / Substitute


all the other move options and Chesto Berry should be in AC

Earthquake needs to be the first slash of the fourth slot on SubPunch

Brick Break should be slashed next to Reversal on the SalacFlail set; having 2 moves depending on the strategy to work is just too risky sometimes, and having to absolutely rely on it to do damage makes it difficult to break the strategy and bring out Vigo earlier in the match if you have to. Salac Berry also NEEDS to be the first slash, Vigo loses to way too much to risk bringing it out late-game without it
 

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