@Solomon : Wartortle is sadly a terrible spinner due to its only okay defenses, 4 moveslot syndrome, and that it has absolutely no offensive presence. Hell it can even lose to Golurk as it gets 2HKOed by CB EQ while not even 2HKOing back with Scald.
EDIT: omg, I saw Wartortle and assumed spin without looking at it...what kind of set is that lol Wartortle isn't breaking anything, not even things weak to Scald (Golurk)
@Furi Kuri : Haunter is my favorite :)
Speaking of spinners, I'll do Torkoal and Armaldo for today. This thread REALLY needs spinners posted, I've seen way too many people claiming Wartortle to be amazing on PS chat. (ö.ö)
(No fancy picture for today as looking back at it, if I was running this thread my CDO (More like OCD, but alphabetical order strong) would kill me about not having every post formatted exactly the same and mine stick out the most.
Torkoal (F) @ White Herb
Trait: Shell Armor
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Shell Smash
- Rapid Spin
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Grass] / Earth Power
Role: Rapid Spinner / Special Sweeper (Secondary)
What it does: While Torkoal is normally looked at as a defensive Pokemon, it actually does have a pretty good base 85 Special Attack and access to Shell Smash. Now you might ask yourself, "How could this possibly work out?". Well the answer is simple, Torkoal is capable of beating Golurk, Drifblim, and Misdreavus with Fire Blast, while OHKOing Haunter easily. With Shell Smash Torkoal is capable of not only outspeeding potential spinblockers, but can easily destroy them to allow a free opportunity to Rapid Spin or even sweep if need be. Torkoal's spread allows it outspeed positive Speed natured base 70 Pokemon and hit as hard as possible, while White Herb makes up for Shell Smash's decrease in defenses. With max Speed Torkoal also hits 139 Speed, enough to outspeed standard Golem to get off a Hidden Power Grass early game. While it won't be outspeeding Haunter at +2, Haunter is easily just taken down by a Fire Blast on the switch. (If they switch at all, otherwise it's a free Spin regardless) HP Grass is there to provide some pretty good coverage alongside Fire Blast and allows Torkoal to give the Alomomola + Amoonguss some trouble.
- 252 +2 SpAtk Torkoal (+SpAtk) Fire Blast vs 172 HP/0 SpDef Golurk: 107.18% - 126.24% (Guaranteed OHKO)
- 252 +2 SpAtk Torkoal (+SpAtk) Fire Blast vs 252 HP/0 SpDef Eviolite Misdreavus: 75.93% - 89.81% (2 hits to KO) [Not a big deal though as Missy can't do much with Shadow Ball after White Herb. You can even set up another Shell Smash on it to sweep if needed]
- 252 +2 SpAtk Torkoal (+SpAtk) Fire Blast vs 0 HP/4 SpDef Drifblim: 119.73% - 141.04% (Guaranteed OHKO)
Good Teammates: Torkoal functions best on more offensive Fire/Water/Grass cores as it provides the bulk and power that those team look for, and it's too offensive to function all that well on defensive cores such as Alomoonguss. Special Samurott and Torterra make good partners for this as they can easily keep the offensive momentum and cover a huge amount of threats.
What counters it: Most Fire-types such as Emboar, Rapidash, and Camerupt can easily stop Torkoal from sweeping although they can't stop it from accomplishing its main goal of getting off a Rapid Spin.
Any Additional Info: Let's hope that next gen White Smoke stops Overheat SpA drops. :)
Armaldo (M) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Battle Armor
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Rapid Spin
- Rock Blast
- Aqua Tail
Role: Rapid Spinner / Physical Sweeper (Secondary)
What it does: Armaldo follows the same "If you can't Spin through Ghosts, smash them" mentality as Torkoal. Having great bulk and excellent Attack Armaldo makes a great user of Swords Dance, and relies on all of these traits to terminate the Ghosts that haunt and overshadow Armaldo's ability to Rapid Spin. After a single Swords Dance Armaldo's Attack skyrockets to a massive 766 and can start destroying the Ghost-types that will attempt to stop its Rapid Spin. Rock Blast and Aqua Tail provide good coverage and allows Armaldo to deal with Substitute using Ghost-types such as Drifblim and Haunter as well as OHKO Golurk, respectively. Lum Berry is a great item on SD Armaldo as it allows it to easily shrug any Will-O-Wisps that the Ghost-types like to throw around and follow it up with a powerful attack. EVs are set to allow Armaldo to outspeed uninvested base 50 Pokemon such as Regirock, max Attack to give it more of a punch, and 200 HP to make use of its good 75/100/80 defenses.
Good Teammates: Since Armaldo is troubled by Fighting-types and bulky, albeit weak attackers Gothitelle makes the perfect partner for it. Specs Gothitelle will remove Gurdurr, Machoke, Alomomola, Tangela, Amoonguss, Weezing, and Garbodor easily for Armaldo, while appreciating Armaldo's ability to beat down Ghost-types that can badly hurt Gothitelle.
What counters it: Fighting-type Pokemon such as Gurdurr and Machoke truly don't care about any of Armaldo's moves and can start retaliating or boosting up with Bulk Up. Alomomola and Tangela also take minimal damage from this Armaldo's attacks and can easily stall it out while having Regenerator to recover whenever needed. Weezing and Garbodor can take Armaldo's attacks fairly well and reset its boosts with Clear Smog/Haze.
Any Additional Info: Rock/Water Armaldo would have been the best thing ever and I would have used that on probably every team
