autobots, move out
QC [3/3]: Oglemi, Snunch, PK Gaming
[Overview]
<p>The fifth generation provided an interesting shift in the world of Ghost-type Pokemon. Having lost the "appliance" formes of Rotom as Ghost-types, a new trio of Ghost-types emerged. Each has it's own uses in its own metagame, and the Ground/Ghost-typed automaton does not disappoint. Thanks to a whopping 124 base attack and the ability Iron Fist, Golurk is a force to be reckoned with, as it is currently the physically strongest Ghost-type (something that Ghost-types were severely lacking). Due to its unique typing, Golurk can smash opponents with powerful moves such as Earthquake and can also double as a spin-blocker. Golurk is often a wall's worst nightmare, with immunity to common moves such as Thunder Wave and Seismic Toss. This allows it to come in and immediately threaten Chansey with SubPunch or a powerful Choice Band Hammer Arm. However, Golurk possesses a somewhat mediocre movepool, with no stat-boosting moves outside of Rock Polish and also a low speed stat, which leaves it susceptible to its five weaknesses. As such, Golurk should make up by setting up a Substitute when possible, or switch in and out as a powerful Choice Bander.</p>
[SET]
name: SubPunch
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Focus Punch
move 3: Shadow Punch
move 4: Earthquake / Stone Edge / Toxic
item: Leftovers
ability: Iron Fist
nature: Adamant
evs: 208 HP / 252 Atk / 48 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Perhaps Golurk's best set in the UU environment is a Substitute+Focus Punch set. Thanks the Iron Fist ability, Golurk's Focus Punch reaches 180 base power, which is a large threat to anything that can't resist it when coming from Golurk's massive 381 Attack stat. Golurk also has access to its STAB Iron Fist-boosted Shadow Punch, which creates an un-resisted combo with Focus Punch. Golurk can easily come in and set up a Substitute many of UU's top threats, such as Chansey, Hitmontop, and Heracross. Due to this, getting a Substitute up is often not an issue for Golurk, and allows him to threaten and break stall teams. It is especially viable for being one of the top switch-ins on Chansey, resisting both Thunder Wave and Seismic Toss, and setting up a Substitute to block Toxic while dealing massive damage with Focus Punch.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>The last move option on this set is a toss-up depending on what you feel Golurk needs most. Earthquake is an ever-reliable STAB move, and while it falls short in power to Focus Punch, it allows Golurk to pose more of a threat before it gets a Substitute up. It's your best bet against Nidoking and Nidoqueen and can also hit things like Arcanine for higher damage. Stone Edge is another option which allows Golurk to hit Flying-type enemies such as Zapdos and Crobat who could otherwise switch into Focus Punch. Lastly, due to the un-resisted Fighting/Ghost coverage,Toxic is an option in the last spot, which allows Golurk to poison common switch-ins and Substitute allows you to Toxic stall to an extent if necessary.</p>
<p>Golurk's EV spread is meant to maximize attacking power, and it allows it to outspeed 4 Speed Empoleon while dumping the rest into HP for maximum bulk. Due to the mechanics of SubPunching, the ability to outspeed Empoleon could be forfeited for maximum bulk. The one advantage that this EV spread gives is being able to pick off Empoleon with Earthquake before it breaks your Substitute. Lastly, Leftovers is Golurk's item of choice as it allows him to heal enough HP to create an extra Substitute. Using a power-boosting item such as Expert Belt and Life Orb may seem desirable due to the raw offensive power they provide, but Leftovers still remains optimal due to more Substitutes available.</p>
[SET]
name: Choice Band
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Hammer Arm
move 3: Shadow Punch
move 4: Stone Edge
item: Choice Band
ability: Iron Fist
nature: Adamant
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>With an Adamant nature and a Choice Band equipped, Golurk's attack stat reaches a massive 571. A Choice Banded Golurk should be played like a standar hit-and-run attacker. While Golurk's base 55 speed may seem very slow, 252 Speed EVs allows Golurk to outspeed even bulky variants of Suicune and Rotom-A. However, this still leaves it too slow to keep up with many of the other power-hitters of UU. Golurk's strengths lie in its powerful STABs and Iron Fist-boosted coverage with Earthquake, Hammer Arm, and Shadow Punch. With many powerful defensive Pokemon in UU, Golurk's movepool and power can deal a large amount of damage to all of them, given the right predictions. The trade-off of using this Golurk set is obviously that you get a lot of power right off the bat, being able to threaten Rapid Spinners such as Hitmontop and Donphan when spin-blocking. Choice Band Golurk must be played as a hit-and-run Pokemon given its large amount of weaknesses.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>As with all Pokemon using Stone Edge, Rock Slide could be used over Stone Edge if you really hate Stone Edge's accuracy, but in the end, you're losing out on a lot of power and some important OHKOs and 2HKOs. Plus, Golurk doesn't exactly have the speed to take advantage over Rock Slide's hax, and the things that it does outspeed aren't scared of Rock Slide anyways. Choice Band Golurk is bound to cause a lot of switches, so Stealth Rock and Spikes support would be helpful when using him on your team. This works especially well due to Golurk's Ghost-typing and ability to block Rapid Spin.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>A Rock Polish set could be considered for Golurk, as at +2 max speed allows it to outspeed Scarf Rotom-A. However, Golurk lacks the raw power of many other sweepers in the metagame, such as Shell Smash and Quiver Dance sweepers. Despite a decent base attack stat, a +0 LO Golurk isn't exactly frightening in the UU metagame. Along the lines of speed, Golurk could also attempt a Choice Scarf set, but this is also outclassed by other Pokemon, such as Krookodile. Choice Scarf also makes Golurk lose out on bulk and power, which removes its ability to come in and scare Pokemon like Hitmontop and Donphan.</p>
<p>Golurk possesses a decent special movepool, such as Ice Beam, Grass Knot, and Shadow Ball. While at first glance, it seems that this gives Golurk an easy way to deal with threats like Flygon, Eviolite Gligar, and Gastrodon, Golurk's abysmal base special attack makes special attacks near useless and a waste of investment. In that sense, Golurk's high base attack stat means that Golurk's physical attacks deal more damage than its special attacks, even with the special attacks having the type advantage. Aside from its special movepool, Golurk has other options for unexpected moves, such as Rain Dance, which allows Golurk to provide surprise Rain Dance support to counter weather teams or support rain-abuse Pokemon such as Kingdra. Lastly, Fly is Golurk's strongest physical attack not yet covered (excluding Giga Impact), and can cover Grass and Bug-types and whatnot, but in the end, it's two-turn set-up obviously hurts its usefulness badly. Lastly, Golurk has another ability aside from Iron Fist, Klutz. This ability is useless in just about every imaginable way and Iron Fist should be used in every available instance.</p>
- Klutz? Useless. >_>
<p>Bulky waters such as Milotic and Suicune are not hit super-effectively by Golurk's STAB moves or Focus Punch. Depending on Golurk's speed EVs, many bulky waters may also outspeed and OHKO or 2HKO Golurk with a STAB Water-attack. The only answer Golurk has to these bulky waters is Toxic, which comes at the cost of a loss of coverage. Aside from the bulky waters, several other bulky Pokemon can shut down most Golurk sets. Pokemon like Donphan, Spiritomb, Tangrowth, Eviolite Hippopotas, and Eviolite Gligar can all effectively shut down nearly everything Golurk has to offer. Due to the threat and power of Golurk's SubPunching, countering it may be difficult with an offensive Pokemon, but a Bullet Seed user like Shaymin could effectively break through Substitutes and blast it with STAB Bullet Seeds.</p>
[Dream World]
<p>Dream World Golurk gets No Guard as its hidden ability. This ability basically means Dynamic Punch abuse and 100% accurate Stone Edge in the UU environment. This allows Golurk to be a hard-hitting annoyer (basically the Machamp of UU). No Guard could be considered on Choice Band sets and perhaps a Rock Polish set as well. However, the classic SubPunch set is better off with Iron Fist.</p>
