Thanks to its nice Earthquake immunity and resistance to Normal and Flying, Solrock can come in on Choice Banders and other physical attackers, and support the team with Stealth Rock and status or screen support. Will-O-Wisp lets Solrock inflict some more permanent damage to physical attackers that have no way to cure themselves. Reflect protects from all physical attackers for a few turns. When the battle gets a little too hot for Solrock's tastes (which takes a while because Solrock is a sun!) just press button four and maniacally laugh as nearly anything that doesn't outright resist Normal gets knocked out instantly. Earthquake can be worked in over Stealth Rock or Explosion if you want to cover Steel-types, mostly Probopass. Other Steels, like Aggron and Steelix can be crippled with Will-O-Wisp already.
Solrock boasts a very acceptable base 95 Attack to tear opponents apart with. The last slot is filler as Solrock has no other good physical options. Return and Double-Edge are for hitting Claydol, although they only do an average of 37% and 44%, respectively. Fire Blast does a bit more to Steelix than Earthquake, and hits Forretress and Skarmory if you're crazy enough to try Solrock in OU. Solrock doesn't really have the raw power to use Choice Scarf effectively, but it can reach 358 Speed, which outruns a lot of common sweepers. And having a fast Explosion to take out most threats is always useful. Speed EVs let Solrock outrun Modest Omastar and Gorebyss. If you use Choice Scarf, aim for at least 234 Speed (232 EVs) so you can outrun max Speed Froslass.
Rock Polish on the switch, then go for a sweep. Fire Blast will easily 2HKO Steelix, whereas Earthquake is only a 3HKO at best. Grass Knot will 2HKO Quagsire, and even has a slim chance of OHKOing with Stealth Rock. Gastrodon is unlikely to be 2HKOed by it, and It only does an average of 40% to Claydol. Explosion, as always, is a great move on Solrock and thanks to the Speed boost it should be able to go kamikaze without taking a fatal hit first. The EV spread assumes you are using Fire Blast or Grass Knot. For Explosion, switch to Adamant and move the Special Attack EVs to HP.
Much like the last set, the idea is to set up Rock Polish as your opponent switches. This time however, if a troublesome opponent appears, simply pass the Speed boost to a counter. Leftovers is suggested as it makes Solrock a bit sturdier, making it easier to come and Baton Pass repeatedly. In the last slot, you can use Substitute if you want something else to pass around. With Sub, you can drop Leftovers and use Liechi Berry so you have the chance to pass +2 Speed and +1 Attack to a sweeper. Starf Berry is also an option if you're feeling lucky. Earthquake helps to cover Steels, or you can simply explode when passing Speed is no longer beneficial, or just to take out a potential threat to Solrock's team.
More support play from Solrock. Set up Trick Room, then explode to get your slow powerhouse in for free while taking out an opponent in the process. Lum Berry stops Solrock being shut down by sleep inducing leads like Persian. If you have a favorable match up, and think your opponent will switch, set up a screen first so your sweepers will have an easier time coming in. If you have something like Clamperl or Camerupt waiting in the wings, you can switch the screens for the appropriate weather move. In that case you may want to switch to Focus Sash, otherwise Solrock may die while setting up. Make sure you use a 0 Speed IV (or as low as you can get on WiFi), to maximize the potential of Trick Room.
While Lunatone makes a superior Special Attacker to Solrock thanks to Hypnosis and higher Special Attack, Solrock tends to be more durable, so it's easier to get Calm Minds in. Calm Mind on your opponents switch, then Baton Pass out to some evil special sweeper. Grass Knot catches Quagsire off-guard, and generally deals with Waters and Grounds nicely. Fire Blast can be used for Grassers like Meganium, and means Steelix has a harder time coming in to phaze away Solrock's boosts. Of course, a Solrock set without Explosion as a possibility is like a cookie jar without cookies in it. So yeah, Explosion is a possibility! Will-O-Wisp is great as well to tank from both sides of the spectrum.
As a suicide lead, Solrock has a few very specific advantages over other leads like Azelf, Aerodactyl, Bronzong, and Claydol. Unlike Azelf, Solrock is immune to Sand Stream, meaning that it can Explode on Tyranitar after surviving a Crunch with Focus Sash. Unlike Aerodactyl, Solrock is capable of Exploding. Unlike Bronzong and Claydol, Solrock has a more powerful Explosion to KO Swampert and sometimes Hippowdon, after an Earthquake. Solrock also resists every attack Azelf carries barring U-turn and Grass Knot. Solrock can offensively beat Azelf and Aerodactyl if one predicts correctly. While effective in OU as a lead, Solrock can function just as well as a lead in the UU tier. Common leads such as Electrode will usually Taunt Solrock first to prevent a set up move or Stealth Rock while Solrock can then OHKO with Earthquake. Furthermore, Solrock's dual Psychic/Rock typing allows it to scare off other common leads such as Primeape, Hitmontop, Scyther, and Swellow; this allows Solrock a free turn to set up Stealth Rock. If a counter is sent out to Solrock after it sets up Stealth Rock, it usually takes the counter down with it because of Explosion and the Focus Sash. As with any suicide lead, Solrock works best on high-offensive teams as a reliable way to Stealth Rock. Thus, unless you anticipate a Taunt, using Stealth Rock on Turn one is preferred. From there, feel free to do as much damage as you can. For example, an Earthquake and Explosion will OHKO Swampert leads in OU (and two Earthquakes, followed by Explosion will OHKO Hippowdon leads). Solrock's Explosion is really its greatest asset in any tier, so it's required on this set. Feel free to run Will-o-wisp over one of the attacks if you feel like crippling Tyranitar "on your way out". Other OptionsYou can try a few different special attacks on the Calm Mind + Baton Pass set. Charge Beam will hit Mantine, and it might grab Solrock an extra Special Attack boost, which can then be Baton Passed. Shadow Ball hits Grumpig and other Psychics. Psychic and Hidden Power Rock benefit from STAB, but don't really help all that much. Solrock tends to draw in special attacks from the likes Blastoise and Meganium, so you can use Light Screen as an alternative to Reflect. Safeguard can prevent your team being hit with Toxic and other status afflictions, but is rarely worth giving up a moveslot. Rest/Sleep Talk give Solrock more durability, but are quite limiting as it is left with only two spare moveslots. EVsUnless you're trying to hit hard with Solrock, max out its HP and put most investment in Defense so he does what he does best. You need these EVs to help him out because, while nowhere near bad, 70 HP and 85 Defense could always use a boost. For attacking sets, 136 Speed EVs hit 210 which outruns Modest Omastar and Gorebyss. This benchmark also works on the Rock Polish sets, as it gets Solrock up to 420 Speed after a boost, enough to beat everything in UU. OpinionSolrock's reign in standard is over. Gyarados, Tyranitar and Salamence can hit him really hard in Diamond/Pearl (while he could live up to them a bit in Advance), a lot of things gained Pursuit and other new toys to hit Solrock and it is not enjoying it at all. However, Solrock remains a monster in UU. Psychic typing doesn't really help defensively, but it gets Solrock an array of good support options, and it can be an effective physical attacker thanks to a decent base Attack and STAB Rock moves. Solrock is clearly a fine Pokémon in the UU environment and will certainly be worth its weight in gold if you put it on your squad. CountersSturdy Water-types stop most Solrock sets, especially the ones with a secondary Ground-type. Quagsire, Gastrodon and Whiscash all work well, provided they avoid a surprise Grass Knot. Poliwrath does a good job, since it resists Rock moves, although it won't enjoy Will-O-Wisp. Blastoise is the safest bet, since Will-O-Wisp won't hinder its ability to hurt Solrock, as it can simply fire off Surfs. Steelix does ok if it has Gyro Ball, but repeated hits from Earthquake and Fire Blast can wear it down. Claydol switches in easily on the attacking sets, thanks to an Earthquake immunity and Rock resist. Watch out for Calm Mind set though, as a boosted Grass Knot can 2HKO. Meganium will be effective if she steers clear of Fire Blast. |
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