Topic: 6th Gen Pokemon of the Week

[Richard and Blaziken]

Oh, that's actually a very good note, Dick! I'll edit that in as something worth mentioning. As you said, it's definitely not the standard by any means, and that also makes it harder to setup, given that you have less of a chance to survive a hit and BD in the same turn, but ideally you're doing that on the switch anyway. Thanks!

[OpalRhea]

Itty-bitty nitpick. In the In Game Information, you said that Thick Fat helps against fire and water. Isn't it fire and ice? After all, isn't Thick Fat part of why Mega Venusaur is such a wall? Sorry to nitpick...

[Richard and Blaziken]

Ah, yes, thanks for pointing that out! Just a slip of the mind on my part, I'm afraid. Water and Ice are similar and Azumarill resists both, so it was a mental slip up. But thank you, I appreciate it!

[OpalRhea]

You're welcome. Speaking of the giant dino-plant, is an issue for it coming up at any point? And would you say that there's a viable set for mega Blastoise in OU?

[Richard and Blaziken]

Quite possibly, on both accounts! Mega Blastoise is a fantastic spinner, and one with an actual offensive presence! The problem with Blastoise is that it has no recovery outside of Rest and forces you to give up your mega slot for a Pokemon that neither excels offensively or defensively, and serves a niche on your team that is usually better filler by a Defogger. Still, offensive sets can be decent and Blastoise's offensive movepool isn't bad at all. I'll get into a Mega Blastoise article soon-ish, but it'll probably come after Venusaur. Might as well do all 3 of the Kanto starters!

[OpalRhea]

Alright. So I'll be looking forward to those. Still trying to decide what my core will be for when i (finally) get x or y.

[Delicious_Scout]

Well... this is Azumarill. Apart from other Azumarill who run more speed, most Rotoms, (Mega)Venusaur, Physically Defensive MegazardX (they exist, although they are scarce, they are a threat), Jellicent (I DO use it since I have means to keep Aegislash out), Aegislash (mindgames) and prosecutors, only imaginative way of defeating it can be applied. For example, a U-turn chain formed by Landorus-Simba is risky but worth of consideration, Jolly-Intimidate-Substitute Gyarados can set-up on it in case Gyarados is played by a smart player and can muscle Azumarill... anything else?




Nothing else to say.

[Richard and Blaziken]

Been a crazy week, and I've been sick for half of it, and busy for the other half. PotW will be up by tomorrow night. It's half done, I'm just too exhausted to finish it. I'll say this though: it's on a Pokemon that can Mega Evolve!

[Hahex and Oshawott]

Well... this is Azumarill. Apart from other Azumarill who run more speed, most Rotoms, (Mega)Venusaur, Physically Defensive MegazardX (they exist, although they are scarce, they are a threat), Jellicent (I DO use it since I have means to keep Aegislash out), Aegislash (mindgames) and prosecutors, only imaginative way of defeating it can be applied. For example, a U-turn chain formed by Landorus-Simba is risky but worth of consideration, Jolly-Intimidate-Substitute Gyarados can set-up on it in case Gyarados is played by a smart player and can muscle Azumarill... anything else?




Nothing else to say.

Hold on. Azumarill isn't typically a very fast pokemon, barring aqua jet. If we're talking about a choice band set, although azumarill is quite bulky, I don't think he's as strong as you seem to be making him out to be. For a start, Rotom-W is pretty damn common and can cause severe headaches for an azumarill, as you've mentioned already. Because it has choice band, its locked into one move, and this eases prediction by a ton. When the Azumarill uses any move other than Aqua Jet, then you can switch in all kinds of speedy sweepers, like Gengar or Alakazam, and threaten a Sludge Bomb or Energy Ball respectively.

Even against the Belly Drum variant, if Azumarill doesn't use Aqua Jet, then it should be easy to outspeed it for the KO. Even then, I feel like there's enough distribution of priority moves to deal with it. You've already mentioned Aegislash, but Dragonite is also a potential candidate. It risks getting hit hard by a Play Rough, but Dragonite can always get the first jump with Extremespeed. Since the Belly Drum set seems to be a lot less bulky than the CB set, that's bound to do some damage.
Meh, did some calcs, Play Rough does way too much damage and ES from Dragonite only does about 50-60% in return, with CB. That's almost enough to KO but with Sitrus Berry, Azumarill will be able to barely live. Scizor likewise just misses out on that KO. Jeez, even Ferrothorn gets one-shot by Superpower.
Still, the critical moment for beating a Belly Drum Azumarill comes from the turn in which it uses Belly Drum. A lot of pokemon with priority can 2HKO a weakened Azumarill, as I've hopefully demonstrated.

What I'm trying to say, is that Azumarill's weakness is its speed and its halved health/locked move. That's not a particularly hard wekaness to capitalize on, even though I might not have really done a good job of showing that.

And how does your U-turn chain work? Surely both of those pokemon are weak to water type attacks.

[Richard and Blaziken]

Well, it happened again. I began writing this on Tuesday, but got sick on Wednesday, and finished writing today... and our Pokemon of the Week is the same as blocked's again. I swear, I couldn't plan this if I tried, I don't even visit their site or read their articles very often. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy this week's slightly late PotW: Garchomp. Sorry again for the delay. :<

[Hahex and Oshawott]

Well, it happened again. I began writing this on Tuesday, but got sick on Wednesday, and finished writing today... and our Pokemon of the Week is the same as blocked's again. I swear, I couldn't plan this if I tried, I don't even visit their site or read their articles very often. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy this week's slightly late PotW: Garchomp. Sorry again for the delay. :<

Would you say that the speed drop on mega-garchomp means that it's never worth using a mega evolution to pull off a fast sweeper type of set? I suppose if it had dragon dance it might be viable but... it doesn't.

[SaRo|Rapidash]

I think the tags got messed up a but on the SD set - Substitute appears really weirdly with the table row tags in ^^

But, as for the actual content, I thought it was really good, and after using SubSD Garchomp I kind of want to try out a new set, so this'll definitely be my first port of call.

I see MegaChomp as Kyurem-B for sand; Sand Force basically becomes life orb without recoil, and he has near identical stats, so that's just kind of how I'd use him.

[Captain Jigglypuff]

Richie, it happened again! Garchomp is ALSO blocked's Pokemon of the Week!

[Richard and Blaziken]

Hahex - Yeah, LO regular Chomp is stronger and faster unless you have Sand up, but even so... it's a lot of maintenance to ensure MegaChomp is useful when you can just use a better Mega and regular Chomp.

Dick - Fixed, thanks! Yeah, the only thing is Kyu-B doesn't require Sand to retain its power. =/

Captain Jigglypuff - Yeah, like I said, complete coincidence. Hopefully mine's a bit more enjoyable. =P

[the bread dragon]

man, I wish.....


good article rich! o/