Primarily this is a defensive set, but Wood Hammer and Earthquake still do plenty of damage, despite the lack of Attack EVs. Stone Edge can replace Earthquake if you want to put a nice dent in an incoming Salamence, Abomasnow or Staraptor, although this will make it easier for Fire-types like Infernape and Heatran to come in. Leech Seed is a great move as always, and works nicely alongside Stealth Rock. The floating rocks help to wear down the opposing team if they switch out of their Leech Seed prison. If you have another team member to set up Stealth Rock, Protect is a good alternative. It helps regain HP with Leftovers and Leech Seed, and scouts what the likes of Heracross and Salamence are planning to do. Reflect and Light Screen are also good options in the last slot.
The tried and true "SubSeed" theme is the rather annoying moveset available to most Grass Pokémon, and is known to force a lot of switches. Torterra also has the advantage of being one of only two SubSeeders who still receives Leftovers recovery in a Sandstorm (Poison Heal Breloom being the other). You use Substitute while your opponent switches in his or her counter, then you Leech Seed it- rinse and repeat. Unfortunately, Torterra is rather slow and has no way to quickly deal with other Grass-types (although Earthquake does plenty of damage to Roserade and other Grass/Poison-types), so Toxic is listed to help wear down Celebi, Tangrowth and friends. Ideally, you should support this set with a Toxic Spiker, leaving Torterra free to dispense with Toxic and use a secondary attack.
This bulkier Torterra is designed to take more abuse from Tyranitar and other physical attackers. The EV spread is meant to guard against a 2HKO from Tyranitar's Crunch. The downside to this is that you will not be hitting nearly as hard while you are in the battle, and you still have to switch if your opponent brings in a Pokémon with an Ice attack. It is useful, but specialized. Again, the combination of Wood Hammer and Stone Edge have the best type coverage, but Earthquake gets STAB and gives you a 2/3 chance of a super effective hit on Tyranitar while sleeping.
With the excellent type coverage afforded by Torterra's wide physical movepool, there are very few Pokémon that can switch into a boosted attack without incurring significant damage. His strong physical defense coupled with a dual resistance to Rock and Ground attacks will generally facilitate his entry into a battle, allowing him to deal extensive damage. As with all Choice Band users, prediction is the key to success. Most every Pokémon that resists Wood Hammer risks a super effective hit from either Stone Edge or Earthquake when switching in. The last slot is largely filler; Superpower hits Skarmory, Breloom and Bronzong for neutral damage while Crunch is better against Celebi and Exeggutor. The Speed EVs allow Torterra to outrun minimum Suicune and Cresselia.
The idea behind this set is to outspeed many unsuspecting threats with Rock Polish, attempting to cause as much damage as possible to the opponent. Choice Scarf users can act as barriers which prevent this strategy from working effectively. 252 Speed EVs allow Torterra to hit 422 Speed, which is enough to outspeed Modest Choice Scarf Porygon-Z after using Rock Polish once. Life Orb allows Torterra to pack more of a punch after it has used Rock Polish. The extra offense aids Torterra in posing a greater threat - as it is, Grass, Ground and Rock threatens many Pokemon. Leftovers sacrifices offense in exchange for survivability, while Lum Berry acts as a method of preventing a status affliction ending your sweep. Other OptionsOn the physical side, Seed Bomb can be used anywhere Wood Hammer is listed if you find the recoil distasteful and do not mind the significant drop in base power, and Rock Slide can supplant Stone Edge if you want a bit more accuracy and PP. Torterra's special attacking options include Leaf Storm, Giga Drain, Energy Ball, and Grass Knot, none of which should be used when you have Seed Bomb, Wood Hammer and a sexy base attack score. Other support options include Curse, Synthesis, and Swords Dance. Curse is difficult to pull off because of the Ice weakness, and Synthesis is not great because Torterra prefers to play in the sand. Swords Dance suffers from the same problem as Curse since it opens the door for an Ice attacker to come in... but it is probably the more viable choice if you are looking to boost your attack score. EVsFor defensive sets, focus your EVs in HP and Defense. 44 EVs in Speed take him to 159 in order to beat Tyranitar variants that do not care about Speed, and also outruns minimum Swampert and Empoleon. You can sacrifice HP EVs if you want more Speed. 236 EVs hits 207, which outruns minimum Speed Suicune and Cresselia. Choice Band and Rock Polish sets should focus on Speed and Attack. OpinionTorterra is one of those "off the beaten path" Pokémon that seems to be constantly underrated. His distribution of defensive stats, typing, and resistance to Stealth Rock make him easy to switch in and deal a lot of damage quickly with his wide array of physical options. Torterra holds up reasonably well against some of the metagame's largest threats in Tyranitar, Rhyperior, Gyarados (without Ice Fang!), and Garchomp. The quad Ice weakness is a problem, but not an insurmountable one; it is certainly not a reason for him to fall to disuse. CountersSkarmory, with its legendary Defense, is the best overall counter since it is not weak to any of Torterra's offensive options, and it can pseudo-haze away any subbing variants while laying down Spikes and Stealth Rock. Bronzong will shrug off anything Torterra can muster as well, although CB hits from Superpower can take their toll, and SubSeed sets can easily drain its HP. Defensive Grass-types like Celebi and Tangrowth can get in easily on most attacks, although CB Crunch will wear down Celebi. Breloom resists all of Torterra's attacks barring Superpower, but as it has low Defense, switching into CB hits from Earthquake and Wood Hammer will do a lot of damage (enough to 2HKO in most cases). Obviously, all these Grass-types have the advantage of being immune to Leech Seed. Cresselia can handle Wood Hammer decently, although she may be risking getting worn down by SubSeeding if she is slower than Torterra. Salamence, Dragonite, Gengar, Staraptor and Heracross are more offensive minded counters. Just keep them away from CB Stone Edge (and Crunch in Gengar's case). |
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