Taking advantage of some new physical STAB Attacks, Cacturne can now hit hard without heavily relying upon Focus Punch. With one use of Swords Dance, Cacturne can tear apart most Water and Ground-types with Seed Bomb, regardless of their EV layout. Pokémon like Suicune and Hippowdon would need to max out their HP and Defense EVs in order to survive the attack. Sucker Punch forces Pokémon like Azelf, Starmie and Gengar to switch out as it KOs them in one hit unless they have an unusually large investment in Defense and HP EVs. If you are at full health, Counter can be used as a surprise answer to physical attackers that are causing problems like Metagross, Gyarados or Garchomp. Going from full health to 1 HP will do 562 damage to the opponent. This KOs everything except Wobbuffet, Chansey, and Blissey, which should be handled by direct attacks. The Focus Sash can also be used to get a free Swords Dance. Even at 1 HP, Cacturne is still a threat through the use of Sucker Punch. Prediction is vital to this Cacturne set. If you play your cards right, you can get off a Swords Dance or two while threatening to KO the opponent with Sucker Punch. Max Speed EVs are necessary so that Cacturne will outrun most Suicune and smash them with a Swords Dance Seed Bomb before being downed by Ice Beam. Speed EVs can also be put into HP instead in order to give Cacturne better survivability for when the opponent puts down a Stealth Rock or Spikes, deactivating Focus Sash.
This is a bit of an odd moveset but it usually KOs one of your opponent's Pokémon in exchange for Cacturne's life. It uses Endure to activate a Salac Berry and then it uses Destiny Bond to try and takes the opponent out with it. If for some reason they didn't KO you, you use alternate Focus Punch and Destiny Bond until they do. Sucker Punch takes out some faster enemies (especially Ghosts like Gengar), or you can try throwing out some Spikes on the turn you could be using Focus Punch.
This set has a great combination of attacks, all of which work very well with Substitute. With a Sub up, Cacturne can freely Focus Punch enemies, and as Sub encourages them to attack, he can get in a hit with Sucker Punch before the Sub is broken. Leech Seed rounds out the set and completes the SubSeed combination, allowing Cacturne to recover more HP at the expense of his opponents. Although it is hard to recommend breaking up this combination of attacks, Spikes can be thrown in over either of the Punch attacks. SubSeeding often causes opponents to switch, so throwing out Spikes on a predicted switch will further aid Cacturne in his goal to wear down the opposition. It is not a necessity, but this set greatly benefits from support in the form of Sandstorm, Stealth Rock, and Toxic Spikes.
Cacturne doesn't have too big a special movepool, but it still has what it needs to do well. Dark Pulse and Focus Blast provide good type coverage and can hit at least neutrally on almost any opponent. Grass Knot is used over Energy Ball because it hits harder on the Pokémon you would attack with it like Rhyperior, Suicune, Hippowdon, and Milotic. However, in UU battles, Energy Ball is the more reliably powerful option, but Grass Knot is still a good option as it packs more power against Mantine, who soaks up special attacks well. Hidden Power Fire covers Heracross, Breloom, Toxicroak and other assorted Bugs and Steels, as well as providing more power than Dark Pulse against most Grass types. Other Hidden Power types to consider are Flying, which has more power than Fire against Breloom, Heracross and Toxicroak; Ground, for a more reliable way to dispose of Steels like Heatran (given the shaky accuracy of Focus Blast), and hitting Toxicroak; Ice hits Flying, Grass and Dragon-types; Rock covers Flying, Fire and Bug-types.
This set is the physical version of the last one, with the excellent Sucker Punch and Focus Punch. Sucker Punch fails if your opponent doesn't attack, so it isn't much use against incoming opponents. However, Payback is boosted to an effective base power of 150 (including STAB) against anything that switches in, so it becomes the superior option. Return is Cacturne's best physical attack against Toxicroak and Heracross, 2HKOing them both. Other OptionsPoison Jab is rather poor, especially without STAB to back it up, but it's there if you want to hit Grass-types a little harder. Brick Break and Drain Punch are on offer if you don't want to rely on predicting with Focus Punch. Teeter Dance can annoy opponents, and might buy Cacturne some time to set up a Sub or Swords Dance. GrassWhistle has terrible accuracy, but will send an enemy to sleep if you're lucky. ThunderPunch is decent for bringing down Gyarados, but is illegal with Seed Bomb. EVsFocus on Cacturne's offense stats. 52 Speed EVs will give Cacturne a Speed of 159, allowing it to outrun Pokémon with base 61 or lower that have no Speed EVs. The Destiny Bond set would require max Speed, otherwise the rest of the EVs would go to HP. The Focus Sash Cacturne would require max Speed in order to outrun Suicune to Seed Bomb it. With a neutral nature, max Speed lets Cacturne outrun the likes of Suicune and Milotic, so they don't get a chance to finish it off with Ice Beam. Switching to a boosting nature means he will outrun most Gliscor and Adamant Tyranitar. OpinionCacturne hits hard with its base 115 offensive stats, but has paper defenses. With attacks like Focus Punch that encourages the opponent to attack, and Sucker Punch, Counter or Destiny Bond that deter the opponent from attacking it, Cacturne is very prediction reliant. It can be dangerous if used well, moreso under the influence of Sand Veil evasion. CountersOU: Skarmory takes physical sets easily, but won't enjoy switching into Focus Blast or Hidden Power Fire from the Choice Specs set. Heracross shrugs off everything barring Hidden Power Flying (Choice Specs Hidden Power Fire and Choice Band Return will 2HKO). Heatran, Lucario, Breloom, Infernape, and Blaziken resist both STAB moves, but take care not to switch them into a Focus Punch. Gliscor and Weezing both do well against physical sets, but switching into Choice Specs boosted attacks will hurt. Blissey handles the Choice Specs sets quite easily, but is quickly destroyed by Focus Punch or boosted physical attacks. Salamence gets in easily on physical sets, and thanks to Intimidate doesn't fear being taken down by Sucker Punch. He can switch in easily on most of the attacks on the Choice Specs set too, although Dark Pulse will 2HKO, and Hidden Power Ice is an easy OHKO. UU: Toxicroak is the best counter you will find in UU, resisting most of Cacturne's attacks. Torkoal can handle physical sets, but loses to special attacking sets, as Dark Pulse can nearly OHKO. Aggron and his Rock/Steel comrades wall any set without a Fighting attack, although a Choice Specs Grass Knot can OHKO them. Hitmontop has Intimidate to soak up Seed Bomb, Payback, Sucker Punch, and Focus Punch, high Special Defense to take the special sets and Fake Out to bypass Focus Sash/Counter. He can then finish Cacturne with his STAB attacks. Honchkrow can get in on both STAB moves and easily kill Cacturne with Drill Peck, but beware of switching into Focus Punch/Blast, and watch out for Counter or Destiny Bond. Pinsir can easily handle Seed Bomb and Focus Punch, but a Swords Dance Sucker Punch can OHKO, as can a CB Payback on the switch. Since Cacturne often relies on Sucker Punch, sending in something to set up a Substitute will let you kill him off without fearing a hit. |
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