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Team Building / Competitor's Corner

« on: June 05, 2013, 16:11 »

Hi there!
This is my new pseudo-blog where I attempt to issue competitive battling advice in the form of analyzing Pokemon and offering up movesets. I might throw in some random analyses of other stuff too. Anyway, I'll try to analyze something new at least 3 times a week. Feel free to inject your opinion, make suggestions, or rant about how terrible my last post was.
Here goes...
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Venusaur - Grass/Poison type
Abilities: Overgrow, Chlorophyll
Base Stats
HP - 80
Atk - 82
Def - 83
SpA - 100
SpD - 100
Spd - 80

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Sun Sweeper
@Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
Nature: Modest
EVs: 4/0/0/252/0/252
Moves:
-Solarbeam
-Sludge Bomb
-HP Fire/HP Psychic
-Sunny Day/Growth/Synthesis
Solarbeam is obvious on this set, a 120 BP STAB attack running off base 100 SpA.  Sludge Bomb gets STAB and is a special attack, as well as a 30% Poison rate (regular Poison, unfortunately) and it gives Venusaur a way to get by enemy Grass-types. The Hidden Power is a somewhat tough decision: HP Psychic has a shot at OHKOing Gengar without a critical hit, whereas HP Fire allows Venusaur to not get completely walled by Steel-types, and as such will be the weapon of choice. The fourth move is really filler; Sunny Day restarts strong sun, Growth juices up Venusaur's Special Attack, and Synthesis restores health lost by Life Orb recoil.

Annoyer
@Black Sludge/Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
Nature: Bold
EVs: 100/0/200/8/200/0
Moves:
-Giga Drain
-Sleep Powder
-Toxic
-Leech Seed
This set is for the more adventurous among you. Lead with Sleep Powder, then either seed the sleeping Pokemon/switch-in or use Toxic to cripple the switch-in. Use Giga Drain to replenish health in tandem with Leech Seed. The hold item depends on how adventurous you feel: Black Sludge can harm your opponent potentially, but can also harm you potentially, whereas Leftovers can't harm you or your opponent.
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Other options

Uhhh... You can change the Hidden Power type to Bug to get past Psychic-types, I guess. You can try running some sort of physically attacking set, but base 82 Attack will only get you so far, so it's really just a gimmick. You could throw your opponent for a loop and run Sleep Powder on the sweeper set I guess, too.
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Counters

All versions of Venusaur lacking HP Fire will get completely walled by Steel-types. All versions of Venusar period get walled by special walls such as Blissey. Choice Banded Heracross will OHKO Sun Sweeper Venusaur with Megahorn 100% of the time. Also threatening the Sun Sweeper are weather-changers such as Politoed and Abomasnow. Major threats to the Annoyer include anything with Sap Sipper, like Tauros or Sawsbuck.
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Final Rating

4.5/5 stars

For all those counters to Venusaur, it is still, if used correctly, a very good Pokemon, so don't hesitate to stick it on your sun team or annoyer team.