The most notable difference between Slowking’s and Slowbro’s movepools is Nasty Plot. Slowking can actually utilize it to beat even special walls like Blissey. Slowking is resistant to Ice Beam, and does not really care about being paralyzed by Thunder Wave. With 212 HP EVs, Slowking can Slack Off after two Seismic Tosses (regaining full health), and alternate between Nasty Plot and Slack Off until it maximizes its Special Attack. Then, Slowking can hit the standard Blissey with Surf for a minimum of 63.7% damage. The second attack depends on what you fear will switch into Slowking the most: Ice Beam is for Dragon-types; Grass Knot is for Water-types; Hidden Power Electric is for Gyarados. Calm Mind can be used instead of Nasty Plot to also boost Slowking’s already impressive Special Defense stat.
This is Slowking used as a special wall. With 350 SpD and 384 HP, Slowking is guaranteed to survive two consecutive Draco Meteors from Choice Specs Salamence, and Slack Off the damage twice. Thunder Wave cripples attackers that tend to switch into Slowking, while Light Screen provides better special protection not just for Slowking, but for your whole team.
Slowking’s good Special Defense stat makes him capable of switching into a good number of Pokémon, but its low speed gives him bad sweeping capabilities. Because of this, a Choice Specs set is indicated. You switch in, predict what your opponent will do, and choose the move accordingly. Afterwards, Slowking will probably switch out, but, with good prediction, it should have dented, or even OHKOed, a Pokémon in the process.
This is an attempt by Slowking to go physical by employing a Snorlax-like strategy. One of the problems of doing this is that Slowking (and Slowbro) doesn’t learn any physical Water moves. However, Earthquake and Avalanche together hit every Pokémon (except Surskit, Levitating Bronzong, and Shedinja) for neutral at least, and Zen Headbutt is a nice STAB move that also messes up Heracross if you predict well. Other OptionsSlowking gets access to a few other special attacks, like Brine, Flamethrower and Fire Blast. Counter can be accessed from the Fire Red/Leaf Green/Emerald Move Tutors, and is certainly worthy of consideration on Slowking, since a lot of players will invariably attack Slowking from the physical side. Trick Room aids Slowking’s poor Speed and can be considered in teams revolving around the move’s strategy. In the physical department, Slowking gets access to the risky Belly Drum, but it might be able to pull it off with Slack Off support. It can also Focus Punch, Brick Break and Drain Punch. Yawn is also an interesting option for Slowking which can cause an unsuspecting opponent to switch. EVsThe EVs for Slowking are relatively straightforward. For the special attacker, maximize its Special Attack first, and then concentrate on its HP and defenses, in that order. For the special wall, maximize its Special Defense and give Slowking a lot of HP to be able to survive most neutral special hits, and even a few super effective ones. For the physical attacker, maximize its attack first, then concentrate on its HP and Defenses. Don’t ever put any EVs in Speed; Slowking will never be able to outspeed anything useful, except by Trick Room or Thunder Wave. OpinionSlowking is inevitably always compared with Slowbro. DP tries to distinguish between the two Pokémon by giving Nasty Plot only to Slowking. It has got surprisingly high special defense which, coupled with Slack Off, makes him a decent special wall. However, a special wall with weaknesses to Electric and Grass is not very appealing, and that’s the main reason why Slowking usually gets the shaft for things like Blissey in that regard. Nevertheless, Slowking’s Special Attack is higher than Blissey’s, and its array of special attacks is a lot wider, making him capable of hitting its counters better. As a special attacker, the fact that Slowking can actually beat Blissey itself one on one is testament to how powerful its special attacks can become. It has got really low speed, though, which makes him switch out of battles more often than not. As a result, Slowking is usually forced to play second fiddle to other Pokémon in this respect too. CountersFor the first set, the counters depend on what is the second attacking move. If it is Ice Beam, then most Water-types are counters. If it is Grass Knot or Hidden Power Electric, then Grass-types and Dragon-types are counters. If it is Psychic, then the counters are limited to Empoleon, Water/Dark-types and Grass/Dark-types. Also, if a Pokémon that can hit Slowking hard with a physical super effective move can predict a Nasty Plot, Calm Mind or Slack Off from Slowking, it can switch in and threaten to OHKO Slowking. Tyranitar and Heracross can do this with Crunch and Megahorn respectively. It should also be noted that anything with Taunt will also severely limit the success of the first set, since Taunt would disable Slowking’s boosting and recovery moves. For the second and third sets, any special wall, like Blissey or Cresselia, is a counter since Slowking can’t boost its damage there. For the fourth set, any Pokémon that has a powerful move that is super effective against Slowking is a counter if it does not let it set up with Curse. Tyranitar and Heracross are good enough counters again, even though Slowking has a super effective move against both of them. Bronzong, as already mentioned, is a counter as well. |
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