Grumpig was one of the very first Advance Pokémon to obtain Substitute and has always kept it since. The idea of Substitute is to keep Grumpig away from nasty status like Toxic and maintain a guard against faster physical sweepers, so you can Calm Mind safely. Signal Beam offers the best coverage alongside Psychic, as it hurts Psychics and Darks, two of the three types that resist Grumpig's STAB move. Only Steel types wall Psychic/Bug, but Aggron and Mawile won't enjoy boosted STAB Psychics, and you can simply set up against the offensively inept Probopass and Bastiodon (beware of Taunt). HP Fighting easily takes out Steel-types, and also hits Dark-types. However, if you are up against another Psychic with a super effective attack (or Hypno with Seismic Toss), you may be in trouble. Energy Ball hits most Psychics and Darks neutral and even scores super effective hits on a few, such as Lunatone, Solrock, Sharpedo and Crawdaunt. Beware of Cacturne, Shiftry, Skuntank and Honchkrow if you carry Energy Ball. If you want perfect coverage, Shadow Ball and Hidden Power Fighting work, but this forces you drop STAB Psychic, which is not recommended in most cases. The EV spread might not suggest as such, but this Grumpig is quite a fearsome sweeper. With Thick Fat, enough Speed for some major threats in OU and UU alike, and extremely sturdy Substitutes, this is one Pokémon to watch out for.
Tricking is very evil. If you switch in Grumpig on a random attack and they see you don't have Leftovers they might see it coming, but otherwise you can expect to fool something like Solrock into accepting the Choice Specs. If you obtain a Choice Band from something in return, try Tricking that on something else. It brings along some difficult mind games sometimes. Of course, the great thing about Tricking Grumpig is that you don't have to use Trick right away: feel free to abuse either Choice item as long as you can to either fire boosted special hits or hit something that doesn't expect you to be faster (hello there, Fearow). Calm Mind can be used on this set to try and set up after Tricking.
This set truly takes advantage of that great 110 Special Defense Grumpig has. This Grumpig can be freely switched into almost any Special threat in UU and shrug it off as if it never happened. Toxic helps in stallwars against things that do not Rest like you do, and Calm Mind is usually for those that do. The Defense EVs are there to keep you alive versus some physical attackers during Rests, but don't let Grumpig face off Choice Banders or something heavy powered like that.
Grumpig can work as a lead in UU to get your team off to a good start. Magic Coat means status gets bounced back, and can immediately stop the likes of Persian and Venomoth who may try to sleep you, while you then Reflect or predict a switch and Thunder Wave. To give you an idea of its defensive capabilities, it also survives Jolly Choice Band Primeape’s U-Turn while it can OHKO Primeape with Psychic. The EV spread also gives you a 46% chance to OHKO standard Rapid Spin Hitmontop, who can only really Toxic you for damage, which can be reflected back by Magic Coat. Signal Beam is used for Dark-types, namely Absol, who you have a 53% chance to OHKO and you OHKO always with Stealth Rock. Hidden Power Ice can be used to hit Altaria harder. Reflect is used to buffer hits and for team support, while Thunder Wave can paralyze threats who think they are switching in easily. Counter is an option to help against Persian and Primape, who's U-Turn's will not OHKO, so you can hit the switch-in hard, for a possible KO. Other OptionsCharge Beam can be used to boost your Special Attack without using Calm Mind and gives you a little more versatility. While Psychic/Electric isn't the best coverage in the game, at least it works on these Water/Psychic types as well as Sharpedo, Honchkrow and Crawdaunt. Psych Up can steal other people's Calm Minds. Focus Blast is inaccurate, but deals with nuisances in OU that Grumpig usually can't help (Blissey, Tyranitar, some Steels). Focus Punch does the same, but is harder to pull off and screws up your EV spread or ends up getting cushioned too easily. If you're thinking of using Grumpig in OU, you might want to use Grass Knot over Energy Ball, as it does more damage on heavy things like Milotic, Rhyperior, and Tyranitar. Reflect and Light Screen are nice and offer support. Counter is awesome on Grumpig, as people should target his 65 Defense all the time. Especially if you're setting up Calm Mind. EVsIf you're going to sweep, you'll need some Speed. 280 Speed beats Pikachu, Zangoose and a few others to the punch. Choice Scarf sets can settle for less—270 in OU (beats standard Heracross), while 242 is plenty in UU (beats Persian). With Calm Mind there's not much need to pump Special Attack, so HP and Special Defense are welcome to take hits better. Defensive or Counter sets don't need much, if any, Speed and should focus entirely on staying alive. OpinionA premiere force in UU, rivaled only by Hypno for the best special wall there. Hypno is the more versatile wall now that he gained Switcheroo while maintaining Baton Pass. Nonetheless, Grumpig does better at taking Fire and Ice hits thanks to Thick Fat, and is more dangerous as a sweeper. In OU, Grumpig is an underdog that should try to distinguish himself from the likes of Blissey, Azelf, and Alakazam. CountersIn UU, Seismic Toss Hypno can test his set and work from there—beware of Trick, Signal Beam and Shadow Ball. If Grumpig starts to snooze, send in some heavy physical hitter to knock him out. Pursuit can work wonders if you have it. Dark-types like Honchkrow and Skuntank can put a great hurting on him, as he is unlikely to carry any attack that is super-effective on either of them. In OU, Blissey, Snorlax, Spiritomb, and pretty much every other special wall that can do a decent amount of damage, will easily defeat Grumpig. |
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