Toxic is a great move on bulky Regirock as it really screws up many of its common counters, Hippowdon and Swampert to name but two. Stealth Rock is for more team support, and Regirock has plenty of opportunities to get in a set it up. This may be a labeled a support set, but Regirock's decent base 100 Attack stat isn't going to waste because you have STAB Stone Edge to make good use of it. To complement the STAB move, there are three good options to consider. Hammer Arm makes taking on Tyranitar a lot easier, while Earthquake stops Metagross from switching in as easily and still does decent damage to Tyranitar. Either attack does plenty of damage to Lucario, who could otherwise switch in with impunity. Ice Punch is the weakest option in terms of type coverage, but it will hit Garchomp, Breloom, and Gliscor hard. Explosion should always be considered, and can be used over the attacks in the last slot. It all depends what you want Regirock to do. Setting up Stealth Rock and then poisoning one or two enemies is a good contribution, so if you feel Regirock is no longer needed, you can send it (and more than likely, an opposing Pokemon) out with a bang. EVs are placed in HP and Special Defense to make greater use of the sandstorm boost. Regirock's Defense is already incredibly high, and therefore does not need much additional help.
Rather than poisoning opponents, this variation focuses on providing paralysis support. Thunder Wave is the reliable choice, although you will often be met with a Ground-type, so Body Slam is better in that case. Rock Slide is suggested for STAB as a paralyzed enemy can be flinched into submission. Hammer Arm is absent here as the Speed drop can eventually negate your advantage against paralyzed opponents. Explosion is again a great option to consider over the extra attacks.
This Regirock's purpose is to seriously irritate the opposing player. Paralysis, confusion, and flinching combine to allow Regirock as many "free" turns as possible. Regirock almost seems preordained for this set, as it has high natural Defense to compensate for Swagger and is a Rock type and therefore gets STAB on Rock Slide and a Special Defense boost in sandstorm. Thunder Wave versus Body Slam depends entirely on how big a factor Ground Pokemon are. If Gliscor, Garchomp, and Swampert are repeatedly switching into Regirock, by all means run Body Slam and hope for a paralysis on the switch. However, if Ground Pokemon are not an issue, running Thunder Wave for its 100% chance of paralysis is preferred. Psych Up versus Explosion is a matter of personal preference. Psych Up allows Regirock to gain the Attack boost Swagger gives the opponent, and therefore pumps up Rock Slide's overall damage. Explosion can be chosen as well, as with a paralyzed opponent, Regirock will be going first. At lower health it might be wiser to finish off the opponent as opposed to taking the chance to flinch, confuse, or fully paralyze the opponent. The EVs are constructed to allow Regirock to take STAB Earthquakes from Garchomp (in case Explosion is the preferred move) and STAB Surfs from Starmie in sandstorm (to allow Regirock to Thunder Wave and Swagger Starmie). Explosion will also always OHKO the likes of 4 HP / 0 Def Garchomp.
Rest is Regirock's only form of recovery and it can help it stick around for quite some time. This Regirock a great option for absorbing Hypnosis from Yanmega, Gengar, and even Milotic. Sandstorm boost accounted for, none of those three can 2HKO Regirock; even a Life Orb Focus Blast from Gengar fails to guarantee a 2HKO.
Curse boosts Regirock's respectable Attack and sends his already phenomenal Defense stat through the roof. If you've provided Regirock with sandstorm support (which you should), a single Curse nets it 355 Attack, 654 Defense and 492 Special Defense. Impressive to say the least. Hammer Arm or Fire Punch cover Steel-types. Hammer Arm is better for Heatran, while Fire Punch is more effective against Bronzong. Ice Punch takes out Garchomp and Gliscor, or you can use Explosion to kill something with near guarantee. Explosion takes out almost anything after a Curse, or you can choose Ice Punch to cover Ground-types, especially Garchomp and Gliscor. You can use Rest in the last slot if you wish, but you're risking being set up on while sleeping. Counter can also work here as a Regirock with one Curse will survive any physical attack in the game.
It may be a slow bugger, but Choice Band Regirock hits very hard. Ice Punch is great against many troublesome Pokémon, such as Garchomp, Gliscor, Breloom and Flygon. The third slot offers coverage for Rocks and Steels. Earthquake 2HKOs the likes of Metagross and Tyranitar and with Stone Edge and Ice Punch, it forms a combination only resisted by Bronzong. If Bronzong is a concern you can switch to Fire Punch, which still hits Metagross and other Steel-types. It is also a more reliable weapon for hitting Skarmory, who can buy itself a Rock resist with Roost and stall out your Stone Edge PP. Without Earthquake you're doing a lot less damage to Tyranitar but he can still be 2HKOed with Stone Edge. After throwing out a few attacks, simply Explode Regirock and take out pretty much anything that doesn't resist it in the process.
Counter is awesome on Regirock; even a Choice Band Meteor Mash from Metagross can't OHKO this. Ideally you should KO two opponents if you execute this correctly. Rock Polish as a physical threat switches in, then Counter for the KO. Since Regirock will be close to death after a successful Counter, you can simply Explode on the next Pokémon sent out. Thanks to the Rock Polish boost you should be fast enough to get in your swan song with Explosion before taking a fatal blow. Other OptionsFocus Punch and Superpower are alternatives to Hammer Arm, but their side effects ("charging up" for Focus Punch and the Attack and Defense drops for Superpower) make Hammer Arm a much safer choice. Psych Up is cool for stealing stat boosts, like Curses from Snorlax. Besides providing more accuracy than Stone Edge against the likes of Gyarados and Starmie, ThunderPunch is of no real use. Drain Punch has a rather sad base power of 60, but does give Regirock a little extra healing. EVsCareful nature, 252 HP / 6 Atk / 252 SpD is fine for the Support, Curse and Sleep Talk sets. The maxing out of his Special Defense allows it to take Surfs and even some weaker Grass Knots. You can pour your EVs into physical Defense if you wish, which makes it easier to take hits from Tyranitar and the like. Maxed out Defense guarantees survival from three CB Earthquakes from Tyranitar, when factoring in recovery from Leftovers. On the Choice Band set, maxing out Speed reaches 199, beating Milotic by a single point. If you want a sturdier Choice Bander, you can drop your Speed down to 187 to outrun minimum Speed Claydol or 157 to make Regirock faster than most Weezing. 157 also outruns Impish Swampert, while 141 beats Relaxed versions. Max Attack with Adamant nature, with any EVs leftover after setting your Speed allocated to HP. For the Counter set you have two options. Max HP and Speed allows Regirock to survive a CB Meteor Mash from Metagross and reaches 398 Speed after a Rock Polish. A CB Close Combat from Heracross can still OHKO Regirock if you use that spread, so you'll need 200 Defense EVs if you want to guarantee you'll survive a hit from the bug. This leaves you with only 56 EVs to allocate to Speed and will only allow you to reach stats of 300 or 330, depending on whether you choose Adamant or Jolly. Adamant and 4 Attack EVs reaches a stat of 260, enough to OHKO Blissey with Explosion. OpinionRegirock saw sporadic use in ADV and this hasn't changed much in DP. However, the walking pile of rubble has a lot more to recommend it for now. Its physical movepool is much improved with STAB Stone Edge, Hammer Arm and the now physical Ice Punch. The biggest change to Regirock's usefulness is the Special Defense boost afforded to it by sandstorm. Sand Stream support is a necessity if you want to get the most out of Regirock; it really makes a massive difference to its tanking ability. Even Choice Specs Salamence can't 2HKO with Draco Meteor and it even allows it to stand up to the several other top tier special attackers, like Gengar and Porygon-Z. Hardy it may be, its unfortunate list of weaknesses does hinder its survivability, which massive defensive stats only go so far to compensate for. CountersMost bulky Ground-types do well against Regirock. Hippowdon and Donphan are both good choices and Swampert fares even better as he is neutral to Ice Punch and can hit the weaker of Regirock's defenses with Surf and Hydro Pump. Claydol also works well as he walls Rock/Ground/Fighting attacks and only fears Ice Punch. Metagross takes Earthquakes pretty well, just watch out for Counter. Bullet Punch followed by Meteor Mash is a good way around this. With only Stone Edge and Earthquake as offensive moves, Flygon, Bronzong, Breloom, and Torterra can wall Regirock. With the exception of Bronzong, all of them need to be wary of a well predicted Ice Punch. Fire Punch is Bronzong's only real fear. Sadly for Bronzong he can't really do much in return. Gyro Ball, Earthquake, and Grass Knot (under sandstorm conditions) can barely manage 25% in most cases. However, Reflect does shut down Regirock somewhat, as does Hypnosis. Dugtrio can trap and kill a weakened Regirock with Earthquake. Beware, because Regirock can be EVed to survive three CB Earthquakes, although it requires maxing out Defense. Most of the time Dugtrio can finish it off if below 60%. |
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