Of all the Chlorophyll Pokémon, Exeggutor has the highest Special Attack. Use Sunny Day to double your Speed and turn SolarBeam into a one-turn 120 base power attack. Grass Knot is a good alternative to SolarBeam as it often reaches the same 120 base power, and lets Exeggutor attack without needing to set up first. It is also a big help if Tyranitar or Hippowdon get any bright ideas about ruining your set up, since it will 2HKO the former and OHKO the latter. Sleep Powder incapacitates an enemy, buying Exeggutor time to set up or attack. Blissey isn't going to wall this all the time: she can be put to sleep 75% of the time and forced to go away with Natural Cure, or you can blow up on her to make it easier for another special attacker in your line-up to sweep. The EVs listed will ensure that Explosion OHKOs her. Heat Rock makes the Sun last longer, which can be good for both Exeggutor and his teammates if you tune them to it. Heatran and most other Fire-types will greatly benefit from it. Focus Sash guarantees survival so you have time to set up.
Similar to the last set, but with more options to abuse that colossal Special Attack. Hidden Power Fire destroys most Steel-types, and Exeggutor's fellow Grass-types won't be too fond of it either. Hidden Power Ice helps against Dragons, like Salamence and HP Ground hits Heatran, although neither receive a boost from Sunny Day, and Hidden Power Ground leaves you helpless against Celebi. Sleep Powder helps to set up Sunny Day and lets you fire attacks at a sleeping enemy without fear of retaliation (unless they have Sleep Talk), or you can simply explode to take out Blissey or anything else that gets in the way. Psychic is also an option to bring down Heracross and Infernape, and still does acceptable damage to Salamence and a few other Grass resists. Sleep Powder and Explosion are generally more useful though. Life Orb gives Exeggutor some extra power which it often needs to sweep, and gives Psychic the chance to KO a Salamence if it has taken Stealth Rock damage. The same goes for Celebi and HP Fire. Even with these EVs, Life Orb will ensure the OHKO on Blissey with Explosion. Lum Berry cures status, especially paralysis, which will hinder Exeggutor's sweeping attempt.
Another way to play around with field effects and fix up Exeggutor's poor Speed. Send something to sleep, set up Trick Room, then explode, hopefully taking out an opponent in the process and getting your slow powerhouse in for free. The STAB attacks in the last slot are pretty much filler, but you can use them to attack if the need arises. With a -Speed nature and 0 Speed IV, Exeggutor has a mere 103 Speed, making him "faster" than almost everything under Trick Room conditions. Focus Sash will let Exeggutor survive an attack so it can set up, while Life Orb gives Explosion and whichever STAB move you choose more power.
Hard to switch in properly, but 125 Special Attack with Choice Specs will be inflicting pain. Leaf Storm does major damage, Psychic is for secondary STAB and Hidden Power Fire takes care of Steels and other Grass-types. Hidden Power Fire is optimal here, as it provides the best coverage alongside your STAB moves. Dragons all take heavy damage from Psychic (Salamence) or Leaf Storm (Garchomp, Kingdra), so Hidden Power Ice isn't required. Hidden Power Ground isn't as useful as Fire, since it won't hit Skarmory and Bronzong, nor will it OHKO Scizor and Forretress, but it will surprise the hell out of Heatran, who will easily wall all of Exeggutor's other attacks. Explosion in the last slot can be used to take out the opponent's special sponge, or some other troublesome opponent.
At first glance it may seem foolish to work with Exeggutor's base 95 Attack when you have access to a base 125 Special Attack. However, Exeggutor's access to Swords Dance makes it more than worthwhile. Like most offensive Exeggutor sets this is designed to abuse Chlorophyll. Simply Swords Dance and start sweeping. Wood Hammer will be Exeggutor's primary method of damage. Zen Headbutt acts as a secondary STAB and in the Sun Exeggutor can abuse the 20% flinch rate. Hidden Power Fire complements this set and easily disposes of the majority of Pokemon that resists Grass and Psychic; namely Celebi, Skarmory, Metagross, and Bronzong, all of whom are OHKO'd or 2HKO'd in the Sun. Sleep Powder is also viable if you instead want to Sleep your counters. It is recommended you pair this with Wish support as the recoil from Wood Hammer and Life Orb can drain Exeggutor's health quickly. If this is a concern, Seed Bomb is an acceptable alternative to Wood Hammer. Expert Belt is a decent alternative to consider. While it will not sweep quite as easily, Leftovers is perfectly viable on Exeggutor. Unfortunately, Heatran walls this set entirely so pairing this with a Choice Scarf Dugtrio to remove the threat of it is decent option to consider. With a Naive nature and 240 Speed EVs Exeggutor hits 225 Speed, enough to outrun neutral natured base 100 Speed Pokemon holding a Choice Scarf in the Sun. Maximum Attack is used and the remaining EVs are placed in Special Attack to boost Hidden Power Fire's damage output.
Exeggutor's HP and Defense are in fact pretty good and he resists Earthquake, so this set takes advantage of all that. Defensively, this is inferior to Celebi, but Exeggutor's fellow Grass/Psychic does not have access to any of the moves on this set, with the exception of Leech Seed. Get Exeggutor in on a defensive Ground-type, like Hippowdon or Swampert, put something to sleep and pass Wish around. Wish is from an old NYPC event, and you may have problems obtaining it for WiFi battles, so Leech Seed is a good replacement. Seed Bomb means you won't have to take recoil damage, but the high base power of Wood Hammer makes it very tempting to use nonetheless. This set wastes that great 125 Special Attack, but this way you don't have to split up offensive EVs, and you do more damage to Tyranitar this way. The problem is the pretty abysmal Special Defense and the huge amount of weaknesses Grass and Psychic bring together. Mr Coconut is weak to Pursuit, and nearly every threatening physical attacker carries a super effective move on him. Salamence can use Fire attacks, Rhyperior has Megahorn, Tyranitar has Crunch, you get the idea. You still get to put one Pokémon to sleep and Explode on another though. Speed EVs put Exeggutor one point ahead of Impish Swampert. Attack EVs are to power up Explosion, Seed Bomb or Wood Hammer, although you can switch some to Defense if you wish.
Exeggutor's use in Ubers is to abuse the sun you or your opponent's Groudon brings. As far as the moveset goes, the selections are pretty intuitive. STAB Grass Knot OHKOs enemy Groudon, while Sleep Powder and Explosion are the usual "we must kill something with this thing, right?" options. Hidden Power Ice is mainly Rayquaza, whose threat level has been raised in DPP. With those moves, though, you won't do much to other Psychics, especially the Lati twins. To remedy this, you can use Thief to steal an item - quite a nerf for your opponent. If you get Leftovers, they lose their recovery and will be worn down. If you grab a Choice Band, your Explosion is now boosted. If you got Choice Specs, fire away with your main STAB. Stealing a Soul Dew basically means Exeggutor's job is done, as he's removed the Lati twins auto-Calm Mind all by himself. Remember not to equip Exeggutor with an item if you're using Thief. Stun Spore is also an option to cripple things. Other OptionsReflect and Light Screen for support. AncientPower hits Moltres and Charizard, but doesn't help with much else. Sludge Bomb does more to most Grass-types than Hidden Power Fire or Ice, but has poor coverage otherwise. EVsIf you plan on using Chlorophyll, max out Speed. 418 doesn't outrun anything specific, but it does place Exeggutor ahead of most Cresselia, so you can put it to sleep before it gets a chance to use Thunder Wave, or fire off an Ice Beam. Max Speed is also recommended on Choice Specs set too, so Suicune can't finish Exeggutor off with an Ice Beam before it falls to Leaf Storm. Trick Room sets should have a -Speed nature and the lowest possible Speed IV. When using Exeggutor as a defensive Pokémon, it should have plenty of HP first. A lot of whichever attacking stat you're using is good, and a few Speed EVs won't hurt either. You want at least enough to beat Swampert, although you can just max out Speed again if you want to outrun Suicune and Cresselia. Around 245 Attack (neutral nature, 76 EVs) is needed to OHKO Blissey with Explosion. Near maximizing Speed and Attack is generally the way to go on the Swords Dance set. OpinionExeggutor has the horrible tendency to take a hit every time a new generation comes out. He was basically an obligatory Pokémon in the RBY generation when he still had astonishing Special, but nowadays Exeggutor has so many issues that even 20 Mr. Mimes can't count them on all their hands. Celebi gets the nod over him as a defensive Grass/Psychic, even though Exeggutor has a few advantages over it. As a sweeper, his rather poor offensive typing means he is often very easy to wall, despite that massive Special Attack. Don't worry though, there is also some positivity under the sun, of course. Exeggutor's movepool didn't grow much since the last era, although Grass Knot, Leaf Storm, Seed Bomb, and Wood Hammer do give him plenty of options for Grass STAB, and he is a decent user of Trick Room. The addition of items like Choice Specs, Heat Rock, and Life Orb are also good news for Exeggutor. Add all that to his other fine options including Sleep Powder and Explosion, and it all comes together to make a flawed, but nonetheless effective Pokemon. CountersEvery time you switch in a counter, you risk that Exeggutor puts it to sleep, paralyzes it, or suicides with Explosion. It is important to note that you're never completely safe. Heatran is the perfect counter to Exeggutor as it resists nearly everything in its arsenal, excluding the rare super effective Hidden Power, and can OHKO with its own super effective move: STAB Fire Blast or Flamethrower. It also gains a boost from Flash Fire if it manages to switch in on a Hidden Power Fire. Likewise, Houndoom also has access to Flash Fire and switches in with near impunity to every set. From there, Houndoom can either use Pursuit, Sucker Punch, or just nail Exeggutor with a swift Flamethrower. While Weavile and Tyranitar will not enjoy switching directly into STAB Grass attacks if you can get them in on a Psychic or Zen Headbutt they can easily threaten Exeggutor with Pursuit. Tyranitar does have the advantage of clearing away Sunny Day, which often shuts down Exeggutor's strategy. Wood Hammer will damage Tyranitar much more then Grass Knot or SolarBeam. Gengar can switch in on a Grass-type move and take Exeggutor out with Shadow Ball as Choice Scarf Gengar will outrun it even if Chlorophyll is activated. Simple status can cripple Exeggutor as well; this goes for all Pokemon that rely on their Speed, though. |
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