Breloom
SevenDeadlySins has taken over the Breloom write-up.
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[Overview]
- Possesses an incredibly Attack stat of 130.
- Access to the invaluable Spore (100% accurate sleep move)
- Can make good use of his excellent Poison Heal ability.
- Great offensive movepool with access to moves like Mach Punch, Focus Punch, Stone Edge and Bullet Seed. Also has access to excellent boosting moves like Swords Dance and Bulk Up.
- Rather poor defenses. (60/80/60)
- His unique typing offers him excellent resistances to common moves.
name: SubPunch
move 1: Spore
move 2: Focus Punch
move 3: Substitute
move 4: Seed Bomb / Stone Edge
item: Toxic Orb
ability: Poison heal
nature: Adamant
evs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 244 Spe
Set Comments:
- The classic Spore Puncher set returns from gen 4, and it's still as effective as before. The old play style remains, Spore your opponents, Sub then start Focus Punching your foes.
- Unlike the previous set, this Breloom isn't designed to be a sweeper but a general supporter/annoyer.
- Breloom comes in on something he can scare, like a Hippowdon or Swampert, sets up a Substitute and Spores the next switch in.
- After setting up, Breloom can start firing those powerful STAB Focus Punches backed by his superb 394 attack stat.
- Seed Bomb forms up your secondary STAB and it allows to attack instantly, but Stone Edge is useful for dealing with bulky flying types like Gyarados and Zapdos.
- Entry hazards are recommended due to insane amount of switches Breloom can force.
- Breloom can run 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe EV's for a slower but bulkier approach. Life Orb or Leftovers can be run if you think you can safely bring Breloom into a predicted Toxic.
- Bullet Seed is an option over Seed Bomb. However , Bullet Seed is only outdamaging Seed Bomb with 4-5 hits, making it unreliable.
- Typically, countering Breloom is a pain due to it's ability to cripple one of it's counters with Spore.
- Bulky Psychic's like Celebi and Cresselia can deal with Breloom (especially if Sleep Clause is in effect) Heracross resists everything you can throw at it and typically runs Toxic or Flame Orb to Dodge Spore and can heavily damage Breloom with STAB Megahorn.
- Tyranitar is still an effective partner due to his ability to remove most of the aforementioned threats without much trouble.
name: SubSeed
move 1: Leech Seed
move 2: Substitute
move 3: Spore
move 4: Focus Punch
item: Toxic Orb
ability: Poison Heal
nature: Adamant / Impish
evs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Set Comments:
- Despite gaining some new competition when it comes to subseeding (Jaroda) Breloom still has got it's unique assets that allow him to perform adequately as a Subseeder.
- The added physical bulk means that Breloom has an easier time time setting up on Tyranitar (it will avoid the 2HKO from Choice Banded Stone Edge) and can't have it's subsitute broken by Hippowdon or Gliscor's Earthquake.
- Access to the Poison Heal Ability ability means that Breloom has a significantly easier time forming substitutes. In fact, a Leech Seeded foe coupled with the healing gained from Leech Seed means that Breloom is gaining 25% of it's health back per turn.
- Spore is an invaluable tool and should be saved to deal with a problematic pokemon.
- Even with no Attack EV's, Breloom still hits hard coming from that base 130 Attack.
- A more offensive EV spread of 44 HP / 252 Atk / 212 with an Adamant nature can be used to get the jump on faster walls with Spore. (Suicune, Rotom etc)
- Celebi is by far the best SubSeed Breloom counter. It's immune to Leech Seed, takes pitiful damage from Focus Punch and can take the sleep and still beat Breloom 1 on 1. Best of all it has the natural cure ability, so it can be healed of it's sleep status.
- Typically the previous counters apply (assuming Sleep talk is in effect)
- Tentacruel gets an honorable mention as it resists Focus Punch and can drain Breloom's own health due to it's Liquid Ooze ability.
- Pokemon who can take out troublesome ghost types are recommend. Pursuit Tyranitar is an excellent partner to Breloom as it can switch into most ghost and psychic types and threaten them with a powerful pursuit. Breloom himself enjoys setting up on many of Tyranitar's counters.
name: Choice Scarf
move 1: Spore
move 2: Superpower
move 3: Seed Bomb
move 4: Stone Edge
item: Choice Scarf
ability: Poison Heal
nature: Jolly
evs:4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Set Comments:
- Equiping Breloom with a Choice Scarf helps fix Breloom's mediocre speed stat, turning him into a fast revenge killer and or sweeper.
- Superpower is Breloom's strongest fighting STAB move. It's quite powerful, but the drop in power after use makes difficult sweep with the move. Instead, when using Superpower use Breloom as a hit and run pokemon.
- Seed Bomb is a somewhat strong secondary STAB, and it can be used to hit pokemon who resist fighting.
- A choiced Sleeping move is general inadvisable, but Spore is good enough to warrant a slot. It's also useful in an emergency situation.
- Mach Punch could be used if you wanted to revenge threats that couldn't outspeed even after a scarf boost. (Base 130's, opposing scarf pokemon etc)
- Poison Heal is an option if you can predict the toxic. The large drop in power, from Bullet Seed to Seed Bomb isn't worth it.
- All of the previous counters mentioned in the above set counter this moveset. Even moreso due to Breloom's inability to switch attacks.
- Skarmory, Celebi, Cresselia and Venusaur can take on Breloom's hits, and force him out with their STAB moves.
- Pokemon like Tyranitar and Magnezone are effective partners, because then can trap some of the aforementioned threats.
- Breloom can be used as lead to quickly spore opposing leads to give your team some momentum. Setup sweepers like Garchomp and Terakion appreciate the free turns given early on.
- Breloom enjoys pursuit support to remove those psychic types that can momentarily halt him.
- Tyranitar is an excellent partner to Breloom due to their fantastic Synergy. Breloom can come in on most of Tyranitar's switch in's (Swampert, Hippowdon, Terakion) and threaten them with Bullet Seed or Mach Punch respectively. Tyranitar takes care of Celebi and Cresselia without much trouble.
- Magnezone is a decent partner, as it can remove troublesome Skarmory and threaten them with a KO.
- Typically, Breloom can fit into nearly any team due to the usefulness of Spore.
- Breloom can utilize Bulk Up as an alternative to Swords Dance. The loss of power is quite noticeable, and Breloom is still weak on the special side.
- Effect Spore is an alternative ability, that has slight chance of paralyzing, sleeping or poisoning the foe on contact. The ability nearly 100% inferior to Poison Heal however, due to it's unreliable nature.
- Countering Breloom is as tricky as ever due to the ubiquity of Spore. Celebi is an excellent counter to Breloom, as it resists both of it's STAB moves
- and can easily take Breloom's assault over 3 moves.
- Cresselia can work, provided that sleep clause is in effect, because a Swords Dance boosted Bullet Seed can be fatal.
- Skarmory is also an excellent check to Breloom if sleep clause is in effect, as he can threaten him with 4X effective Brave Bird, or Whirlwind him out.
- Heracross resists both of Breloom's STAB moves and can threaten him with a powerful Megahorn. Heracross typically used with a Toxic Orb or Flame Orb, allowing him to dodge Spore.
- Faster, more powerful pokemon can easily revenge kill Breloom due to it's low speed. Keep in mind that Breloom may carry Mach Punch so frailer
pokemon are not advised. - Fast pokemon with resistances to Mach Punch like Borutorusu and Zapdos are recommended.
- Breloom received Technician as his Dream World ability and makes excellent use of it.
- Low base Power moves like Bullet Seed, Mach Punch and Ankle Sweep are incredibly boosted by Technician, making them significantly more viable for use.
- Bullet Seed in particular reaches 56 Base Power per hit, making it hit for 280 Base Power if Breloom hits 5 times.
- A moveset consisting of: Adamant 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe, with Bullet Seed, Mach Punch, Spore, Swords Dance / Stone Edge while carrying Life Orb Breloom can pose as a potent offensive threat, that is even harder to switch into. (Latias for example is 2HKO by 4 hit Bullet Seed and Mach Punch)
