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 strangled 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 Blissey comes out to Aromatherapy it again. Knock Off is new to this line and is a very handy move. Salamence wishes to come in with his quadruple Grass resistance? Knocking Off his item will not only disable him from using it, but it will also pretty much reveal whether it's a Specsmence, a Choice Bander, a Dragon Dancer or a Life Orber. After you Knock Off one Pokémon your opponent will probably keep switching that in to prevent more item loss. Feel free to predict so and switch in a counter at the same time, or Leech Seeding it on the switch to wear it down. Leech Seed will generally support Tangrowth's tanking ability and help out your team as well, so use it whenever you see fit. You'll find this EV set-up ideal to take on physical threats. Just to show you how sturdy Tangrowth is: a Gyarados with 350 Attack and one Dragon Dance doesn't even 3HKO Tangrowth using Ice Fang with Leftovers factored in. In the meantime, Tangrowth will deal about 40% back with Power Whip (as long as it isn't Intimidated), making him a pretty neat Gyarados counter.
And here you have double-powder revisited. Put one opposing Pokémon to sleep, and when they switch out to their secondary counter, paralyze it with Stun Spore. This set also serves to showcase Tangrowth's downright impressive 110 Special Attack. Sadly Energy Ball and Grass Knot aren't going to be hurting Tyranitar as much as Power Whip when taking his Special Defense boost from Sand Stream into account, but they will usually serve you well. Energy Ball does more against Vaporeon, but Grass Knot does a lot on heavier Pokémon like Milotic and Rhyperior. You can also opt for Leaf Storm, which outshines the other two options in damage if you're hopping in and out a lot. Since Grass Pokémon are usually Skarmory bait, this is where I included Tangrowth's way to deal with it. Hidden Power Fire works not only for Skarmory, but also other Steels like Magnezone, Metagross and Bronzong. Shock Wave is mostly mentioned for those who don't wish to endlessly hatch Tangela eggs for a decently powered Hidden Power, but Hidden Power Electric is better if available. It doesn't help much against aforementioned Steels, but you will 2HKO Gyarados with it most of the time and it takes care of Skarmory just as quickly as Hidden Power Fire usually will. What's interesting to look at here is how well Tangrowth can fare if you put Hidden Power Fire on it and let one of his team mates set up Stealth Rock for him. Nearly everything that usually annoys Tangrowth (just check the Counters section) is weak to Stealth Rock: Bugs, Fliers, Fires and the very popular Salamence. Hidden Power Fire will take of Steels that do not have Heatran as their name, which pretty much leaves him and Poison types like Gengar and Weezing in the way.
The bad news is that Leaf Guard wasn't such a great addition as an ability. The good news is that a Chlorophyll set can still work wonders as a late-game sweeper. Like with the two previous sets, you have the chance to put one of your counters to sleep to ease your sweep. Sunny Day makes it pretty easy to time this because you'll be faster than anything after using it. From there you can launch powerful SolarBeams, or use Hidden Power Fire, Hidden Power Ice or Sludge Bomb when you find yourself facing another Grass-type. Hidden Power Fire is boosted in the sun as well and beats up these aforementioned Steels, and by beats up I mean nearly OHKOs Skarmory, 2HKOs Magnezone and takes two or three turns to tame a Bronzong depending on which defensive stat your opponent decided to focus him on. Hidden Power Ice can OHKO Salamence and nearly OHKO most Garchomp. Knock Off can still be used in this slot. While Chlorophyll sets have reason for praise, the fact will always remain that it's Blissey bait, and using Knock Off against the pink blob is better than watching it wall you forever. Sludge Bomb is there if you don't desire to breed for a specific Hidden Power but you still want to hit other Grassers sort of hard. Note that Morning Sun on this set is not a bad idea at all. As long as you avoid status like the plague you will find Tangrowth turns into a lightning-swift defensive tank that can restore over half of its HP at once. You should also note that Heatran is this set's best friend, especially if you're facing an opponent who seeks to abuse your sunshine by aiming a Fire attack at you. Switch out Tangrowth before he gets hurt, and let Heatran shine on the field. With Sunny Day, Flash Fire and STAB working on tandem, his Fire attacks will leave a mark in anything, while he can keep on covering Tangela's back (he resists every single of Tangrowths weaknesses). Heat Rock is recommended if you want the sun to shine as long as possible. Lum Berry is also a good possibility because it is really hard to sweep with Tangrowth if his speed is reduced by paralysis, or his HP gets cut down after every move due to burn or poison. Leftovers is still there if you wish to let Tangrowth live a bit longer.
While Sceptile arguably does this better because of a huge Speed advantage, Tangrowth has a higher Attack stat, Stun Spore and Power Whip on his side. Still, it's a pretty novel set. Stun Spore is to shut down or at least do something to everything that walls you, be it Salamence, Skarmory or Weezing. Rock Slide is for fliers and flinch while Earthquake is for Steels. If anything, Rock Slide makes Tangrowth an even better Gyarados counter, while Earthquake means he doesn't have to take his chances with Power Whip's hit-or-miss nature against Electivire.
This set is here because Rest is Tangrowth's only recovery option outside of Morning Sun, which is XD-exclusive and therefore less than preferable; not to mention that Sand Stream gets in the way of that. But don't worry, this is a pretty good set if you're using Tangrowth to counter one of these many things it counters and you want to keep it alive. Beware Taunt if you're sleeping though. The last move is a filler and can be almost anything. Earthquake here is for Electivire and Steels, but a Sleep Talked Knock Off or Leech Seed has some nice touch to it. Sadly you're not going to see much action from Tangrowth as a sleep absorber unless you like to play Russian Roulette. Hypnosis Gengar, Hypnosis Milotic, Sing Blissey and Lovely Kiss Jynx will happily exploit his low, low Special Defense. Breloom and other Grassers might be fair game, though Tangrowth can't really do much back to them.
And here's another set Sceptile and probably Roserade probably do better, but it had to be mentioned. Fix up Tangrowth's wretched Speed by Stun Sporing your counter, wear them down by Leech Seeding them and repeatedly using Substitute, and hitting your opponent in the face with Sludge Bomb once in a while when they get fully paralyzed. Sadly we're sacrificing STAB here for something to touch enemy Grassers, but this isn't a perfect world. EVs are a little forced: you might not want to get a lot of HP because it gets in the way with Subseeding. The more HP you have, the more HP your Substitute will cost, the less % HP you drain from your opponent with Leech Seed will make up for. Speed can come handy but with Stun Spore you usually won't need it, so that leaves Special Attack to give more oomph to Sludge Bomb and Tangrowth's good Defense stat. Other OptionsMan, the fun with Tangrowth doesn't end with six movesets. Block allows for some entertaining mindgames: you can use it to trap an opponent on the switch, then putting them to sleep. Switch to anything that needs one turn of free set-up, sit back and enjoy. Toxic is a good filler on about anything and it suits Tangrowth: it can go in the place of Stun Spore on his double-powder set, but it also works in conjunction with Knock Off, or just on its own to wear down things. Reflect gives nice defensive support to the team, sadly Tangrowth doesn't get Light Screen to cover his hideous Special Defense. Aerial Ace can be used on a Heracross switch for a 2HKO. As mentioned in the Sleep Talk set, Tangrowth can get Morning Sun (purify the Tangela in Pokémon XD), but you will miss out on all of its egg moves (like Leech Seed) and you will be hard-pressed to get it to work properly with Sand Stream being as common as it is. He's got some alternate physical options (Poison Jab, Brick Break, Return) as well as some special ones (Ancientpower, Giga Drain, Focus Blast) that you could fit in somewhere for a change of pace, but the ones in the movesets are more recommended. Hidden Power Ice is the one I would try out sometime for enemy Grassers, Salamence and Garchomp. Endeavor is interesting, but not the most practical move because, in case you missed it the last ten times I mentioned it in the analysis, Tangrowth is pretty damn slow! EVsTangrowth is generally a defensive Pokémon and should be trained 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 -Speed Swampert. Offensively oriented sets should emphasize on the attacking stat they're using. If you're using Chlorophyll with Sunny Day, just max out Speed. OpinionTangrowth is amazing compared to Tangela. He is everything you expect from a defensive Grass-type, plus these bonuses. He's the only competitive Pokémon besides Carnivine that gets STAB on Power Whip (and besides Lickilicky nobody else learns it either), which gives him uniqueness and potential. He also gets Knock Off, powder attacks, all kinds of Grass moves and even a nice pool of physical attacks such as Earthquake and Rock Slide. Even better than his movepool is his potential to counter some of the most threatening enemies in the game. Gyarados can't do much to him without Ice Fang and even with he needs to get ahead first. Electivire has trouble 3HKOing with Ice Punch while Tangrowth resists its Electric attacks and Earthquake. Rhyperior's Earthquake and Stone Edge are nothing to be worried about and Megahorn is just barely a 2HKO on a bulky Tangrowth. Garchomp does about 50% with a Swords Danced Dragon Claw (though Tangrowth will have to rely on Sleep Powder, Stun Spore or Hidden Power Ice to do something significant back). In short, Tangrowth can spank a lot of butts with Power Whip and does a lot of things well. He has Celebi and some other Grassers to compete with, but unlike Celebi Tangrowth doesn't roll over and die from Pursuit. And unlike all those Grass/Poisons he actually resists Earthquake. Tangrowth deserves a lot of love. His sprite just begs "bring it". CountersThis is where I note that you shouldn't shy away from Tangrowth just because Grass got shafted as a type in some areas. A grand total of 7 types resist Grass, and the defensive Fire, Ice and Flying weaknesses are not pretty. Don't worry too much about it: Tangrowth usually can put counters to sleep, paralyze them or Knock Off their items. He will rarely leave the arena without leaving some kind of parting gift. Salamence has been mentioned quite a few times, and rightfully so. Intimidate and 4x Grass resistance mean the only ways Tangrowth is going to damage him are Hidden Power Ice, status or Knock Off. If Salamence has a Fire move, Tangrowth is toast. Skarmory doesn't feel Power Whips hitting on its metal wings either. However, if Tangrowth Knocks Off his Shed Shell, Skarmory can be trapped by Magnezone. Heatran is the third contender with 4x Grass resistance. Fried Tangrowth might be very tasty in the Pokémon World, but I wouldn't recommend leaving him into Heatran when battling as he's not ever going to survive. Along with Heatran goes every Fire-type in existence. Arcanine with Intimidate can take quite some Power Whips. Infernape may not like them as much but is generally present a lot and you'll want to take care of him. Most Fire-types get nerfed by Stun Spore or Earthquake though. Moltres and Charizard are immune to Earthquake and are more examples of 4x Grass resistant Pokémon. They'll need to beware of Rock Slide, but you'll probably see Rock Slide on Tangrowth once in a blue moon. Fliers in general can usually damage Tangrowth pretty badly. Fortunately, one of the most threatening ones (Aerodactyl) doesn't even resist Grass. Staraptor, however, will gladly Intimidate you and take a huge stab at him with Brave Bird. Zapdos can U-turn, Drill Peck or Hidden Power Ice him. If you ever see Articuno and it isn't killing itself with Stealth Rock, you may want to watch out because Ice Beam is going to hurt a lot. Weezing floats instead of flies, but he gets a mention anyway because Will-o-Wisp is not enjoyable for Tangrowth, STABed Sludge Bomb hitting on 50 Special Defense is going to leave a scar, and Weezing walls any kind of attacking Tangrowth does (Grass moves, Earthquake, Rock Slide, it all matters little). Gengar can get a little worn down on taking Power Whips, but overall he will scare Tangrowth, especially since his STAB Sludge Bomb is a lot more scary than Weezing's, and you may also encounter Gengar using Hidden Power Fire or Ice. Other Grassers can be a nuisance if Tangrowth doesn't pack something to hurt them, while they pack something to hurt Tangrowth. Sludge Bomb, Hidden Power Fire or Ice would be obvious answers, but there's also Psychic Celebi and Exeggutor, Ice Beam Ludicolo (though he doesn't resist Grass) and a few others. |
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