The standard Bronzong is capable of setting up a variety of supporting moves and doing decent damage on many Pokemon with its attacking moves and good Attack stat. Usually, a supporting Bronzong is used as a leading Pokémon, as its excellent set of resistances and immunities mean it can easily set up a layer of Stealth Rock or sleep an opponent with Hypnosis before anything else. Gyro Ball is the reason this Bronzong is recommended to be as slow as possible; at a meager 63 Speed, Gyro Ball strikes at near-maximum power on common opposing leads such as Weavile or Gengar. Not too much is capable of withstanding a couple of STAB boosted attacks with over 120 base power, even if Bronzong's Attack stat may leave a bit to be desired. Earthquake is a useful attack for type coverage against Fire and Electric Pokémon, but Reflect or Light Screen can serve as emergency stops to certain attackers and offer even more team support.
Bronzong is one of the sturdiest and slowest purveyors of Trick Room, and therefore is an obvious choice for such theme teams. As well as being excellent team support, Trick Room is also of enormous aid to Bronzong itself. Since Bronzong's Speed is usually minimized to superpower Gyro Ball, Bronzong will almost always move first in Trick Room situations; however, since Trick Room does not influence the absolute Speed stat, Gyro Ball will still have the power it would have against fast enemies. Sleep from Hypnosis is as usual helpful, and can be used to bring in a Pokemon easier, but that costs an extra turn. When using Trick Room, you can't afford to sit around, since it only lasts for five turns (including the turn it's used). This is why Explosion is so useful. It lets you bring in your Pokemon for free without taking more turns than just switching. If you are using Explosion, Life Orb is a great item. This is because Bronzong will usually only be taking two hits max: one as it switches in, and then again as it uses Trick Room. After the Trick Room, Bronzong will generally go before the opponent, and thus will not take another hit as it Explodes. Being able to maximize the Explosion damage can be helpful.
The observant reader may have noticed that the first set for Bronzong, which attempted at defensive prowess, was missing one of the most vital components to a reliable wall, which is immediate, reliable recovery. This set doesn't particularly have that either, but tries to remedy Bronzong's lack of recovery with the next best thing, the combination of Rest and Sleep Talk. Sleep Talk Bronzong is a wall in its simplest sense, offering only pure defensive might, nothing more, and nothing less. It is not as adept at being a leading Pokemon as the Standard Support set, for it has nothing of significant value to offer during the first turn, no Stealth Rock, no quick sleep in Hypnosis, and no team support in Trick Room. While all of the above may sound depressing, Sleep Talk Bronzong is a more reliable counter to whatever the Standard Support set is victorious against due to its recovering potential. Additionally, it can switch in without fear on common sleepers, including Gengar, Tangrowth, and other Bronzong, and all other status effects as well. While Leftovers is still the most reliable and recommended item, Macho Brace and Life Orb's lack of health restoration is no longer as critical or damaging, making them more viable. If you are stuck deciding between Macho Brace and Life Orb, consider the following. If Bronzong's opponent has 290 Speed, Life Orb Gyro Ball will do about the same damage as Macho Brace Gyro Ball. If they have less Speed than that, Macho Brace helps more; if they have more Speed, Life Orb helps more. This is because Gyro Ball's power maxes out at 150, so at a certain point, Macho Brace adds nothing to your damage. Life Orb will also boost the power of your Earthquake. This comes at the cost of 10% damage to yourself. It's an interesting trade-off if you want more damage than Leftovers can provide.
Block something that can't really hurt Bronzong from escaping, then proceed to Calm Mind up or use Charge Beams to boost your Special Attack. Then Rest off whatever damage you have and proceed to sweep. Use Calm Mind with Psychic. Charge Beam can be used with Psychic or Hidden Power Ice. Other OptionsHidden Power Electric will 2HKO Gyarados, although Charge Beam will do the same thing if it gets the Special Attack boost, which isn’t always guaranteed. It’s probably best to get at least 210 Special Attack for this. Grass Knot also does quite a bit to Swampert and Rhyperior, but thanks to Sand Stream’s Special Defense boost it's not as effective against Tyranitar as we'd like to hope–Gyro Ball is far more effective against it, even though Tyranitar isn't all that fast. Bronzong's high defenses and lack of real offense make it ideal for Toxic. You can sit there stalling as your opponent slowly loses HP. You could fool your opponent for a while with Heatproof, if they immediately assume that your Bronzong, like just about every other, has Levitate. However, the facade won’t last long if they decide to run some damage calculator estimates, or if you switch it in on an Earthquake or Spikes. This ruins the usual argument for Heatproof (that they won't use Earthquake on you) because it deprives Bronzong of the ability to switch into Earthquakes. Leftovers is ordinarily the preferred item, because above all else Bronzong intends to utilize its multiple resistances to common types like Ice, Dragon, Ground, Grass and Rock to serve as a stronghold against such attacks. However, Macho Brace can give more attacking strength. It doesn't directly boost the power of any attacks, but lowers Bronzong's Speed significantly, which in turn drastically increases Gyro Ball's power so it may inflict veritable damage even on Pokemon as slow as Blissey. EVsBronzong is a little tricky to EV for, but there is one thing you should always do: maximize HP. Then, if it's mostly an attacking set (such as the Trick Room or Calm Mind sets), put EVs mostly in the attack stat you'll use. If it's a supporting wall, like the pseudopassing or Sleep Talk sets, pump defenses. If you're using any set involving Gyro Ball, make sure you try to get your Speed as low as possible by using a -Speed nature and preferably a 0 Speed IV. This will help ensure Gyro Ball deals the most damage. OpinionBronzong has some nice defenses and some very key resistances, namely Rock, Ground, Dragon and Ice. This gives it a bit of an edge against some very feared Pokémon, including Weavile, Tyranitar and Garchomp. It also works against Choice Specs Salamence if you switch it in on Draco Meteor. However, Bronzong can't take repeated abuse from these attacks, so it’s probably best to use it with a Wisher on the team somewhere. Bronzong has the resistances to easily come in and benefit from a Wish. CountersThanks to Magnet Pull, Bronzong fears Magnezone if it doesn’t have Earthquake to stop it, and even that can be foiled by Magnet Rise. Gyarados Intimidates and resists Gyro Ball, but can be Hypnotized or hit by Charge Beam. In fact, most bulky Waters can switch in on Bronzong and slowly wear it down with Surf. Suicune is especially dangerous because it can get a Calm Mind sweep going if Bronzong is foolish enough to stay in. If Bronzong has Rest, it can outstall some Waters, however. Infernape can also switch in on a Gyro Ball and survive, and can finish off a weakened Bronzong—however, if it switches in on Earthquake, it's dead. Heatran is in a similar boat, except it takes practically nothing from Gyro Ball thanks to lower Speed, good defenses, and a 4x resistance to Steel. It needs to be able to OHKO Bronzong or it will just get slapped by an Earthquake, assuming Bronzong stays in. Moltres can come in on Bronzong pretty much regardless of what it uses, with the exception of Hypnosis and Explosion. Pressure will eat up two of Gyro Ball's precious 8 PP, and Moltres has STAB Flamethrower to hit back. Moltres also often carries Substitute to block any attempts at Hypnosis once it gets in. Charizard can use Bronzong as a way to set up a Belly Drum sweep, because it usually lacks anything to really damage Charizard with, aside from Explosion (and Charizard often packs Substitute). Flamethrower Blissey wears it down, assuming Bronzong doesn't have Explosion. Calm Mind Blissey is much of the same, except that it can actually set up something. Celebi can use Leech Seed and easily PP stall, as even Explosion won't OHKO Celebi. Even if Celebi doesn't have Leech Seed, most sets will have more PP than Bronzong does, so they will win a PP war if it comes down to that. Celebi could also Calm Mind up and either overpower Bronzong or Baton Pass out of there. Skarmory can come in on anything Bronzong does and set up Spikes. It doesn't even have to worry about the Block set because Skarmory can use Whirlwind to remove any set up. |
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