(Quality Control) Rotom-C (QC 1/2)

[Sprocket]

Rotom-C (aka Rotom-Mow)

Side note, I have an electric lawn mower, and it's pretty awesome.

[OVERVIEW]

Pros:

• Unique Grass/Electric typing, Levitate grants immunity to Ground
• Offensive typing fills roles that other Rotom cannot easily fill
• Good defenses
• Due to abundance of Water, Rock, and Ground types, Rotom-C is effectively anti-metagame.
• Leaf Storm is 210 base damage due to STAB.

Cons:

• Weak to Fire and Ice, which are common attack types in VGC
• Has coverage problems offensively
• Leaf Storm causes Special Attack drops, discouraging repeated use. Many common Pokemon in VGC also resist Leaf Storm.
• 86 base Speed is lacking

[SET]
name: Choice Specs
move 1: Leaf Storm
move 2: Thunderbolt
move 3: Hidden Power Ice / Hidden Power Fire
move 4: Trick
item: Choice Specs
nature: Modest
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

• With given EV spread and nature, Rotom-C reaches an insane 258 Special Attack while using Choice Specs.
• Unless the user carries a Rindo Berry, Leaf Storm will always OHKO Politoed, Rotom-W, Jellicent, 4HP Kingdra. Gastrodon is always OHKOd regardless of Rindo Berry usage, and standard Tyranitar is always OHKOd even in a Sandstorm.
• Everything else that doesn't resist is mowed down by Leaf Storm.
• Thunderbolt is secondary STAB, tried and true way to take down most Flying types, as well as just being a good attack all around.
• Hidden Power Ice is an all-around effective coverage move for taking down Dragons.
• Hidden Power Fire helps get past Ferrothorn and Abomasnow, who otherwise wall.
• Trick is preferred for tricking Choice Specs on a defensive Pokemon like Cresselia, effectively crippling it.

[TEAM OPTIONS & ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

• The reason to use Rotom-C over Rotom-W is both its typing and Leaf Storm.
• Electric/Grass gives it a rare 4x resistance to Electric, and 2x resistance to common Water and Grass, which most common Pokemon are weak against. Levitate grants immunity to Ground.
• Leaf Storm effectively counters most Pokemon that give Rotom-W (and Rain Teams) a hard time, namely Gastrodon and Jellicent, while its Grass/Electric typing means it takes minimal damage from opposing Grass and Electric attacks that are used against Rain teams. This means that Rotom-C works well on a rain team since the Grass weaknesses won't be going up, as well as against rain teams to effectively shut them down with Leaf Storm and Thunderbolt.
• Also works well to counter opposing Sand teams, as most common Sand abusers are weak to Leaf Storm or HP Fire/Ice.
• Modest nature and Choice Specs enables Rotom-C to inflict maximum possible damage with its attacks. Pokemon that don't resist will take very high damage. However with Choice Specs you should be wary of being locked into an unfavorable move, so some prediction is needed.
• The choice between Hidden Powers is a choice between what your team needs more coverage against, as either option leaves Rotom-C with coverage gaps. HP Ice is best for countering Dragons, while HP Fire is best for Scizor, Ferrothorn, and Abomasnow. It should be noted that many Dragons carry a Yache Berry, while Scizor often carries an Occa Berry.
• With HP Fire, the EV spread should be 4 HP / 4 Def / 248 SpA / 4 SpDef / 248 Spe due to the IV drop. HP Fire isn't recommended when using Rotom-C on a Rain Team as it cuts the damage in half while rain is up.

[OTHER OPTIONS]

• Rotom-C has access to a number of utility moves that all Rotom formes have access to, including Will-O-Wisp, Confuse Ray, Toxic, Light Screen, Reflect, Telekinesis, and Swagger.
• Access to Rain Dance to restart Rain, should a Politoed partner lose the weather war. If running Rotom-C with rain support, consider using Thunder, as its accuracy is boosted to 100% in rain, and will inflict significantly more damage than Thunderbolt.
• Access to Signal Beam as an additional option to take down the ever-present Latios, and an additional option to hit opposing Grass Types without requiring a Hidden Power.
• Also access to Shadow Ball, Dark Pulse, Shock Wave, Pain Split.
• Volt Switch allows Rotom-C to switch out while dealing damage to the opposing team, keep momentum up.
• Access to Discharge and Eletroweb if spread moves are desired. Due to Levitate Rotom-C can fit into a DisQuake team without issue. Discharge is preferred over Electroweb due to the higher base damage and chance to paralyze.
• Works well in Trick Room, as it underspeeds common Swift Swimmers. However use of Iron Ball should be avoided as it negates Levitate.
• Life Orb can be used to mitigate the Special Attack loss from Leaf Storm usage, while Grass Gem can net a one time boost to Leaf Storm. Both options have the benefit of not locking Rotom-C into one move.
• Choice Scarf allows Rotom to outspeed the entire unboosted Metagame, but it will miss out on several KOs that Choice Specs grants.

[CHECKS AND COUNTERS]

• Anything that takes neutral damage from or resists Rotom-Cs STABs, and has access to Flamethrower or Ice Beam is a check.
• Opposing Rotom-H completely walls Rotom-C and hits back with Overheat, while Rotom-F can counter with a super effective STAB Blizzard.
• Ferrothorn and Abomasnow wall Rotom-C if it lacks HP Fire, while most Dragons rout it if it lacks HP Ice.
• Rotom-C dislikes Sunlight due to increasing its Fire-type weakness. Common Fire-type attackers such as Ninetales, Chandelure, and Infernape inflict heavy damage in and out of Sun.
• Bug types are effective checks, notably Scizor, Escavalier, Galvantula, and Ninjask, but all must beware HP Fire.
• Volcarona gets special mention, as both of its STAB attacks inflict massive damage on Rotom-C, while it 4x resists Leaf Storm.
• Rare, but Sap Sipper Pokemon can switch into Leaf Storm and gain an Attack boost.
• Lightningrod users can switch in and divert Thunderbolt, but most Lightningrod users are weak to Leaf Storm, so prediction is the key.
• Volt Absorb users, notably Thundurus-T and Jolteon, can switch in on a predicted Thunderbolt, but won't appreciate a Leaf Storm.

[Sprocket]

Ready for QC. I listed the Choice set first, but I'm not opposed to rearranging it.

[TrollFreak]

yea switch it, Protect is far more useful on Rotom-C than Trick, espcially with common Fire- and Ice-type weaknesses

[Sprocket]

Switched

[Lucien Lachance]

Life Orb would be good to help deal with the SpA drop.

[Sprocket]

Originally Posted by Fat Lucien Lachance

Life Orb would be good to help deal with the SpA drop.

Added in OO

[muffinhead]

With given EV spread, Rotom-C reaches 226 Speed with Scarf and Timid nature, and 258 Special Attack with Specs and Modest nature.

mention why this is good. most of the koes you mention are slower, meaning modest / specs is better.

-Leaf Storm + Grass Gem provide incredible power, OHKOing Gastrodon thru a Rindo Berry, Politoed, Rotom-W, Tyranitar in Sandstorm, 4HP Kingdra, 252HP Jellicent, and just plain inflicting a lot of damage to those that don't resist.

and

-With Choice Scarf and Timid nature, Leaf Storm will OHKO standard Gastrodon thru a Rindo Berry, OHKO standard Politoed (who usually holds Wacan Berry), OHKO standard Rotom-W, high chance to OHKO 252 HP Jellicent, inflict massive damage on Tyranitar in Sandstorm, 4HP Kingdra, and just inflict massive damage to anything that doesn't resist it.

are very similar, which means grass gem may be inferior to choice specs, especially when it comes to stuff you want to tbolt.

[Sprocket]

If the Choice Specs set is superior to the Grass Gem set, should I just make Choice Specs the primary set, and move Choice Scarf to OO?

[Sprocket]

After consideration, I dropped the Grass Gem set and made the Choice Specs set the main set. There isn't anything notable that Rotom-C really needs a Choice Scarf for, but it's mentioned in OO along with Grass Gem.

[gec]

-Works best as a hit-and-run Pokemon due to the Special Attack drops from Leaf Storm.

I wouldn't word it as such, since you won't have time to switch too much given the fast paced nature of VGC. Instead say how Choice Specs Leaf Storm does hit a lot incredibly hard but one should be really wary about being locked into it given the special attack drops, and a good portion of common Pokemon resist grass attacks.

Give a brief mention to why this would be used over Rotom-W, especially on a rain team (beats a lot of problem pokemon for rain teams such as Gastrodon, doesn't add additional grass weaknesses to the team).

Little nitpick, in counters you said Rotom-H and Rotom-F resist both STABs but only Rotom-H does, F still takes a lot from a neutral Leaf Storm.

All in all it's a greatly underrated Pokemon, you've done a good job.

QC 1/2

[Sprocket]

Thanks. I will implement your suggested changes immediately.

[Sprocket]

Bump! Still need a second QC. Also added a few minor tweaks.

[Project_Mars]

I noticed that you have a note stating that pain split is a hgss move tutor only move... The Humilau Yellow Shard Tutor trains it for 10 shards.

[Sprocket]

At the time, that was true. Considering the VGC2013 ruleset has finally been announced, expect a rewrite.

[Sprocket]

There wasn't much to change as Rotom-C didn't gain many notable moves with BW2 (Electroweb), and the only new check/counter is Thundurus-T.