This set shows you right off the bat why you would use Tangrowth and not Celebi: Sleep Powder, Knock Off and Power Whip. Sleep Powder is nothing new for our tangled fellow: use it if you predict your opponent switching into something Tangrowth or your team can't handle and three times out of four it will be put out of commission until they use Heal Bell or Aromatherapy (if they have it). Knock Off is very useful when it comes to Pokémon switching into Tangrowth. Salamence wishes to come in with its quadruple Grass resistance? Knocking Off Salamence's item not only cripples it, but also reveals whether it's a SpecsMence, a Choice Bander, a bulky variant, or perhaps the mixed or Dragon Dance sets (with Life Orb). Skarmory, another potent threat, hates Knock Off because its items are valuable to it. Without Shed Shell, Skarmory becomes more susceptible to Magnezone thanks to Magnet Pull, and without Leftovers, you have a better chance to KO it any other turn. Leech Seed is also an excellent choice for Pokémon that switch into Tangrowth, as sapping HP from the opponent will help Tangrowth survive longer than usual. The EVs help optimize Tangrowth’s ability to take physical hits. Gyarados, even with a Life Orb attached, won’t 2HKO Tangrowth until it uses Dragon Dance while Tangrowth can respond with Power Whip, thus doing around 50% to Gyarados, without Intimidate.
Another good reason to use Tangrowth over Celebi is Double Powder. Put one Pokémon to sleep while paralyzing their secondary counter with Stun Spore. Grass Knot uses Tangrowth’s higher attack stat and deals massive damage to heavy Pokémon such as Gyarados, Milotic, and Rhyperior. On the other hand, Power Whip does more to Tyranitar, Blissey, and Vaporeon, preying on their weaker defense. Hidden Power Fire is mainly for Steel-types that resist Grass. Pokémon that are common switch-ins to Tangrowth's STAB Grass moves are Skarmory, Magnezone, Bronzong, and especially Scizor. Earthquake can handle paralyzed Fire-types such as Heatran and it usually does more damage to Jirachi than Hidden Power Fire. Stick with Grass Knot and Hidden Power Fire or Power Whip and Earthquake. Mixing these moves together will weaken Tangrowth’s damage output or force Tangrowth to use a –Speed nature to accommodate the situation. When you look at Tangrowth’s counters, one must realize that the vast majority of them are weak to Stealth Rock. Most of Tangrowth’s counters are Fire, Bug, and Flying-types, all which take 25% off their health thanks to Stealth Rock. Another teammate setting up Stealth Rock is recommended for the reasons stated above.
Tangrowth is an excellent candidate for Sunny Day teams. Tangrowth not only has Chlorophyll backing up his poor Speed under the sun, but also has base stats of 100 Attack and 110 Special Attack. Sunlight support is recommended as Tangrowth is a menace in the sun with the given moveset, boosting its Speed to 422, enough to outpace even Timid Choice Scarf Heatran. Tangrowth should not use Sunny Day as it sacrifices coverage for a move that is better suited to another Pokémon, such as Bronzong. While Grass Knot may sound appealing due to its perfect accuracy and working off of Tangrowth's higher Special Attack stat, Power Whip hits more key Pokémon such as Vaporeon, Blissey, and Suicune harder than Grass Knot. Power Whip still 2HKOes Gyarados, provided Intimidate is not factored in the calculation, as well as OHKOing Tyranitar. Earthquake gives decent coverage alongside Power Whip and shuts down Heatran, Electivire, Infernape, and Raikou in a single shot. Hidden Power Fire in the sun 2HKOes most Celebi while OHKOing Skarmory with Stealth Rock down. AncientPower is for hitting Pokémon such as Salamence and Moltres, who otherwise wall this set. AncientPower's 10% chance of boosting Tangrowth's stats, though rare, is also a benefit for it. Sleep Powder, on the other hand, can eliminate other counters by temporarily putting them to sleep. SolarBeam initially seems appealing due to the fact that sunlight allows SolarBeam to fire without the charge turn; however it is not recommended on this set as Tyranitar, Hippowdon, and Abomasnow can switch in to eliminate the sunlight and, in turn, place Tangrowth in a bad situation, threatening with free Dragon Dances or STAB Blizzard. What's even worse is when Sandstorm or Hail is activated, SolarBeam's attack power is cut in half, making it a quite unreliable choice. Grass Knot is recommended over SolarBeam, while Power Whip is recommended over both Grass Knot and SolarBeam.
Choice Specs Tangrowth is meant to be used as a bulky sweeper, similar in fashion to that of Suicune. Leaf Storm is the move of choice here, OHKOing Suicune and most Bulky Gyarados 92.31% of the time with Stealth Rock support. Leaf Storm 2HKOes most Bulky Gyarados after the Special Attack drop 100% of the time, while it will only ever 4HKO Tangrowth in return with Ice Fang, assuming it rolls maximum damage every turn. Tyranitar is OHKOed easily by Focus Blast, while Tyranitar can only threaten a 3HKO with Crunch. Metagross, Celebi, Bronzong are all defeated 1-on-1 easily. AncientPower is mainly filler, but it does easily 2HKO Salamence and Dragonite. Running 92 Spe EVs outspeeds minimum Speed Tyranitar, which can be handy. The extra bulkiness is preferred on the set however.
Sceptile may have an advantage over Tangrowth in its higher Speed; however, Tangrowth has a higher Attack stat, Power Whip, Stun Spore, and Chlorophyll. Stun Spore helps shut down opponents faster than Tangrowth, thus giving Tangrowth free turns to set up. After using Swords Dance, fire off Power Whips against everything in your way, while using Earthquake for Steel-types that block Tangrowth’s way. Chlorophyll is another reason to use Tangrowth over Sceptile. Under sunlight and with a Jolly nature, Tangrowth can surpass Timid Choice Scarf Heatran. When opting for this set-up, Return is a better option than Stun Spore, as you don't need to paralyze your opponents to outspeed them anymore. Return deals decent damage against Salamence and Celebi, who otherwise wall this set. Rock Slide hits Flying-types best, whom otherwise resist both Power Whip and Earthquake. The EVs suggested above are for use with Chlorophyll. If you’re using Stun Spore to fix your Speed issue, use 240 HP / 232 Atk / 36 Spe and use Leftovers as an item. This allows Tangrowth to absorb some physical hits from opponents before paralyzing them. Other OptionsAs a reference, Tangrowth should be used to differentiate from Celebi and Tangrowth’s fellow Grass-types. Block is an interesting move that could be utilized with Sleep Powder and Leech Seed. With Block you can create an “annoyer” out of Tangrowth. The problem is Tangrowth is left with only one move, which is why it's not heavily recommended. Substitute can be used with Leech Seed, as Tangrowth can produce 101 HP Substitutes; however, you’ll quickly realize that most Blissey carry Flamethrower or Ice Beam, which will easily break the Substitute. On top of that, Celebi has better defenses overall to use the strategy, while Sceptile has superior Speed. Toxic works in conjunction with either the Knock Off set or an option over Stun Spore on the Double Powder set. Reflect is an excellent support move for Tangrowth and its pals; it’s just a pity that Tangrowth doesn’t get Light Screen to help out with its mediocre Special Defensive stat. Due to Synthesis being available through a move tutor, it is legal to use with Leech Seed. Synthesis works best with sunlight support, but Tyranitar, Hippowdon, and Abomasnow are the three main reasons why Synthesis is still a shaky option. With Sandstream or Snow Warning, Synthesis’s recovery rate becomes 25%. Physical moves include Brick Break and Poison Jab. Brick Break does the same damage to Skarmory as Rock Slide would (and with better accuracy), and it still does respectable damage against Heatran. Nothing resists the combination of Grass / Fighting / Rock achieved by using Power Whip, Brick Break, and Rock Slide on the Swords Dancer. Poison Jab gives mediocre coverage, but it damages Celebi and other Grass-types more than any of Tangrowth’s other physical moves. Sludge Bomb follows the same logic as Poison Jab; however, it works off of Tangrowth’s Special Attack stat instead (and with a higher base power to boot). EVsTangrowth is generally a defensive Pokémon and should be EVed as such. Max out his HP before you work on his Defense. A little Speed (not much more than 28 EVs), as shown in the movesets, is welcome, as it helps him outspeed Relaxed Swampert. Offensively oriented sets should emphasize on the attacking stat they're using. If you're using Chlorophyll with Sunny Day, use 228 Speed EVs with a Jolly, Timid, or Naive nature at the very least. This allows Tangrowth to outpace Timid Choice Scarf Heatran in sunlight. Without Sunny Day, 92 Speed EVs can help outrun minimum Speed Tyranitar. OpinionTangrowth definitely got cool points when it evolved from Tangela. Tangrowth has high HP, Defense, and useful attack stats on both spectrums. On top of that, Tangrowth is the only competitive Pokémon, barring Carnivine, who gets STAB Power Whip. And unlike Celebi, Tangrowth has Sleep Powder, Stun Spore, Knock Off, and a great physical and special movepool to boot. The competitive metagame has changed, and not for the better as far as Tangrowth is concerned. Zapdos’s Heat Wave makes it harder for Tangrowth to function well. There’s also the high usage of Heatran, perhaps Tangrowth’s most feared enemy. STAB Fire moves are something Tangrowth hates in general, especially on Tangrowth’s weaker defensive side. Gyarados commonly carries Life Orb, and Ice Fang isn’t exactly a rarity either. Tangrowth still works well against Gyarados, though not as greatly as a Tangrowth user would hope. Rhyperior and Electivire aren’t as common as would necessitate the use of Tangrowth, and threats such as Lucario and Scizor carry moves, even physical ones, that Tangrowth usually don’t want to mess with, such as Close Combat and X-Scissor. Don’t let these make you feel that Tangrowth is a horrible Pokémon, though. Tangrowth can still function as a bulky Grass-type and be an excellent annoyance to the opponent thanks to Knock Off, Stun Spore, and Sleep Powder. The Pokémon listed above hate having these moves used against them, as crippling is something that is unaffordable nowadays. Stealth Rock support makes Tangrowth even better on the field, as many of Tangrowth’s counters hate having 25% of their HP chipped off. Tangrowth can spank a lot of butts with Power Whip and his support move alone. Plus, unlike Celebi, Tangrowth doesn’t roll over and die from strong Pursuit. Tangrowth deserves a lot of love. His sprite just begs “bring it”. CountersWith Grass’s total of seven resistances offensively, it seems rather easy to switch into Tangrowth. However, Tangrowth has reasons why not to switch into it. Knock Off, Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, and Leech Seed effectively cripple most common switch-ins to Tangrowth. With Stealth Rock down, most of the Ice, Flying, Bug, and Fire counters become easier to deal with. In other words, don’t underestimate Tangrowth’s ability to “neuter” the opponent’s Pokémon with Tangrowth’s useful support movepool. Salamence has been mentioned over and over again, and rightfully so. Sporting Intimidate and a x4 resistance to Grass, Salamence can easily switch into Tangrowth and threaten it off with Salamence’s large special movepool. Barring Hidden Power Ice, AncientPower, or its powder attacks, Tangrowth is not threatening Salamence very much. Skarmory is another threat to Tangrowth, as Power Whips barely faze the metal bird while Skarmory retaliates with STAB Brave Bird. Skarmory must fear two things from Tangrowth: Hidden Power Fire boosted by sunlight or Knock Off. The former is usually seen on the attacking variants and can nearly OHKO Skarmory. Knock Off, on the other hand, can be a big problem for Skarmory as Shed Shell is Skarmory’s most coveted item, and without it Skarmory worries more about Magnezone and its Magnet Pull ability. Heatran is contender #3 with its STAB Fire attacks easily crisping Tangrowth. Unfortunately, Knock Off and Stun Spore can become major problems as Choice Scarf is Heatran’s commonly used item. By crippling Heatran, it is more susceptible to assaults from Lucario and Scizor. Heatran also has to worry about taking an Earthquake on the switch-in. Zapdos climbs as a popular threat to Tangrowth, sporting both Heat Wave and Hidden Power Ice to easily dispatch Tangrowth. The Rotom formes don't enjoy status nor Leech Seed, but Rotom-H can eliminate Tangrowth with Overheat and Rotom-S can take Tangrowth out with Air Slash. Finally, Scizor can come in on Power Whip with a 4x resistance and proceed to put a hole in Tangrowth with its vicious U-turn. However, it must be careful not to come into Knock Off, lest it lose its precious Choice Band. Some threats aren’t very common in the OU metagame; however, they’re good counters to Tangrowth most of the time. Moltres’s x4 resistance to Tangrowth’s Grass-type moves as well as having Roost to recover the damage makes Moltres a great counter. Arcanine has Intimidate on top of still resisting most of Tangrowth’s attacks as well. Weezing, although uncommon, still has an excellent Defense stat, a resistance to Grass, Levitate, Will-O-Wisp to cripple Tangrowth, and finally Flamethrower (or Fire Blast) to eliminate Tangrowth. Barring Weezing, notice that Stealth Rock takes a number off these Pokémon and usually is the reason why they’re a rarity in OU. Finally, Tangrowth’s fellow Grass-types can wear it down. Celebi has STAB Psychic while Sceptile has Hidden Power Ice or Grass. Roserade x4 resists Power Whip and carries STAB Sludge Bomb commonly enough for it to be a threat. Ludicolo doesn’t resist Grass, but it makes a good counter thanks to Ice Beam. |
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