Pokemon of the Week #7 Dragonite

[Lavos Spawn]

I sort of want to post another set because the thread hasn't seen it yet. Not claiming it's mine btw, just want to get it out there.


Breloom @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Low Sweep
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Stone Edge

CB Loom should not be taken lightly, it's an extremely hard-hitting threat that can decimate teams if given even the slightest opportunity. Technician-boosted STAB Low Sweep hits like a truck, and it lowers the opponent's Speed by 1 stage to boot. This means Latios can't switch in with impunity, because it'll be lowered to below Breloom's Speed and 2HKO'd after rocks by Low Sweep. Other faster threats have to beware of this as well. CB Mach Punch is excellent secondary Fighting STAB, and it's one of the strongest priority attacks in OU, rivaling CB Scizor's Bullet Punch. Bullet Seed is great secondary STAB, and an excellent tool for breaking Substitutes if necessary. Stone Edge rounds off the four-move combination for a clean OHKO on Tornadus-T and some much appreciated extra coverage. No Spore because it's very underwhelming on a CB set. Adamant > Jolly for more power, Jolly is a possibility to make Tornadus-T slower than Breloom after a Low Sweep, but you lose the ability to 2HKO Latios after rocks, which is invaluable in my opinion.

Give the set a shot, it's better than it looks.

[dragonuser]

Breloom (F) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 236 HP / 248 SDef / 24 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Drain Punch
- Spore

This loom is really a monster, and was used to a lot of success in Wcop by LA iirc. The idea is that protect can shield you from status and get you extra healing (Leech Seed/Poison Heal). Drain Punch is the better choice over Focus Punch as you lack a sub to hide behind, and can once again give you more healing. The EV Spread makes Breloom really bulky on the Special side and lets him be a very reliable answer to slower paced Rain teams. This loom can't be compared to sets like CB or SD, as it serves a different purpose. But it is really effective at stalling out opponents and getting a lot of residual damage, as well as being a very solid Water-Type Resist.

[Lavos Spawn]

Originally Posted by Fat dragonuser

Breloom (F) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 236 HP / 248 SDef / 24 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Drain Punch
- Spore

This looks amazing, I'm trying it. Props to whichever member of LA invented this set. Better than my Work Up Vaporeon, that's for sure.

[Temp V1]

Another really original [/sarcasm] set, which I don't think has been specifically mentioned is this set:


Breloom @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly/Adamant Nature
- Spore
- Swords Dance
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed

Okay so a very generic set that everyone already knows about, although allow me to explain some of the further applications of it. This is the set I was running on my latest HO team with which I had decent success. The basic idea was that after setting my my rocks and screens I would bring Breloom in against my opponents lead, or whatever Genesect had gone into, and then behind the safety of screens go for Spore. This is an incredibly obvious play, but it doesn't make it any less effective. After something was asleep, 99% of the time I would SD, this is because usually my opponent would switch out predicting an offensive move to come straight up, and when they did decide to stay in, say with Ferrothorn, it would still be a free SD.
After getting the SD I could then proceed to go to town on my opponents team. As Lavos mentioned Latios is generally one of the best ways to counter Breloom, alongside Xatu and almost any other Dragon. So if I saw more than one of Breloom's major checks on my opponents team I wouldn't go straight into it after my lead. However if my opponent lacked more than one, or any, hard checks/counters to Breloom I would be guaranteed to take out at least two members of my opponents team thanks to the dual screens and the +2 LO Technician Mach Punch. I ran a Jolly nature because I wanted to outspeed and OHKO Adamant Mamoswines, which were really the only thing that tended to cause my Breloom problems, although its up to preference as to which you run. After a SD with LO and Technician, even things that resist Breloom's stabs can have a seriously bad day at the office, which was very useful because it meant I did not have to switch out often, which is really not appreciated by HO teams.

This Breloom obviously functions well on any offensive team, and doesn't require screen support by any means, however with it you are almost assured a few KO's. This thing is also really fun to use, because the raw power never ceases to amaze.

[FallenFoliage]

Personally my own favorite set would have to be the lead off Sub-Sword set.


Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poion Heal
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly/Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Mach Punch
- Stone Edge

As a lead what you're hoping to do is to scare the opponent into sleep fodder or attempt to get entry hazards in (fearing the spore you don't have).
Once you get a sub up you're rewarded with a swords dance. The key is to predict a switch, since most of us won't throw in our breloom counter for sleep fodder. If you're awaiting a Gyarados and such (much easier now with team preview) you can go ahead and smash with Stone Edge. Giving you coverage.
The opponent will now have realized you don't carry spore. This is where it's arguable that you trade Spe EVs for HP EVs, since you're really not fast in this metagame and you're only hopes to set up again is checking another pokemon into a swicth. This set has worked well if used correctly. (Hence lead off)

If stopped, which usually* happens it can finally work as a late game Mach Punch aid for cleaning up.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by Fat Temp V1

Another really original [/sarcasm] set, which I don't think has been specifically mentioned is this set:


Breloom @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly/Adamant Nature
- Spore
- Swords Dance
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed

Okay so a very generic set that everyone already knows about, although allow me to explain some of the further applications of it. This is the set I was running on my latest HO team with which I had decent success. The basic idea was that after setting my my rocks and screens I would bring Breloom in against my opponents lead, or whatever Genesect had gone into, and then behind the safety of screens go for Spore. This is an incredibly obvious play, but it doesn't make it any less effective. After something was asleep, 99% of the time I would SD, this is because usually my opponent would switch out predicting an offensive move to come straight up, and when they did decide to stay in, say with Ferrothorn, it would still be a free SD.
After getting the SD I could then proceed to go to town on my opponents team. As Lavos mentioned Latios is generally one of the best ways to counter Breloom, alongside Xatu and almost any other Dragon. So if I saw more than one of Breloom's major checks on my opponents team I wouldn't go straight into it after my lead. However if my opponent lacked more than one, or any, hard checks/counters to Breloom I would be guaranteed to take out at least two members of my opponents team thanks to the dual screens and the +2 LO Technician Mach Punch. I ran a Jolly nature because I wanted to outspeed and OHKO Adamant Mamoswines, which were really the only thing that tended to cause my Breloom problems, although its up to preference as to which you run. After a SD with LO and Technician, even things that resist Breloom's stabs can have a seriously bad day at the office, which was very useful because it meant I did not have to switch out often, which is really not appreciated by HO teams.

This Breloom obviously functions well on any offensive team, and doesn't require screen support by any means, however with it you are almost assured a few KO's. This thing is also really fun to use, because the raw power never ceases to amaze.

I love how Breloom disposes some of Keldeo's main checks and severely damages the likes of Lati@s, so you can prepare your ScarfDeo sweep during the latter stages of a battle. Gastrodon looks like it's going to switch into Keldeo, double switch in to Breloom and Spore from there. This set is especially good if you're running Jolly so you can Bullet Seed with confidence knowing most Gliscor will not opt to run much Speed EVs.

You can always run Weavile to help with Dragons/Celebi/Venusaurs, etc.

[Frozen UK]

Originally Posted by Fat Lavos Spawn

LOOK WHAT I FOUND

252 SpAtk Genesect Ice Beam vs 68 HP/212 SpDef Breloom: 79.86% - 94.24%

That is actually pretty good :O I'll be sure to test that me thinks

Originally Posted by Fat Taylor

I love how Breloom disposes some of Keldeo's main checks and severely damages the likes of Lati@s, so you can prepare your ScarfDeo sweep during the latter stages of a battle. Gastrodon looks like it's going to switch into Keldeo, double switch in to Breloom and Spore from there. This set is especially good if you're running Jolly so you can Bullet Seed with confidence knowing most Gliscor will not opt to run much Speed EVs.

You can always run Weavile to help with Dragons/Celebi/Venusaurs, etc.

If you are using it like this wouldn't the bulky set be better? being able to take hits from Lanturn and Gastodon, still hitting lati@s hard. Otherwise you take big damage + Life Orb you will have a hard time living long enough to do enough damage

[IstheCakeReallyaLie]

The best part about Breloom is how it can fit stall or offense. I like to use BulkLoom in my stall teams, due to what's basically better Lefties with status immunity, defense from Bulk Up, and, as odd as it is on a stall team, it's great for its sheer power.

[X5Dragon]

Breloom (aka Wall-E) @ Lum Berry
Adamant (-SpA, +Atk)
Technician (Boosts low base powered moves by 50%)
252 Atk, 124 Speed, 132 HP

Spore
Sword Dance
Mach Punch
Bullet Seed


This is my set and I'm having lots of success with it. I have been using loom with some consistency for the last 2 years, and I look at him for what he is not what he lacks or try to be, a great priority, spore user with brilliant atk stats and fantastic stabs.

He isn't going to outspeed anything significant beyond walls however, and he isn't gonna killed dragons not named Kyurem/Hydregion anytime soon so let's not even try. The set is standard, the items and evs aren't.

Basically the lum berry allows him to switch infont of Jellicent, Sableeye, Ferrothorn, Pink Blobs, Rotom-W, another loom and countless other mons who will no doubt ruin loom if he gets statuses. The adamant nature is trying to offset the loss of items such LO and Expert belt while the evs allow him to outspeed most OU walls and bulky variants of pokemon (207 Speed), full atk investment and enough to pad his HP to take non stab super effective moves like Timid Scarf Politoid's ice beam and continue to set up.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by Fat Frozen UK

If you are using it like this wouldn't the bulky set be better? being able to take hits from Lanturn and Gastodon, still hitting lati@s hard. Otherwise you take big damage + Life Orb you will have a hard time living long enough to do enough damage

No, the offensive presense and possibility of a set up forces the issue and the opponent has to respond with their definitive Breloom checks. Breloom is one of the best sweepers in the metagame right now, so running a more tame, bulkier spread does not pose a threat to the likes of Latias. Where as with Swords Dance, the opponent cannot afford to allow you to boost your Attack and thus need to react with their hard Breloom checks immediately.

[Frozen UK]

Originally Posted by Fat Taylor

No, the offensive presense and possibility of a set up forces the issue and the opponent has to respond with their definitive Breloom checks. Breloom is one of the best sweepers in the metagame right now, so running a more tame, bulkier spread does not pose a threat to the likes of Latias. Where as with Swords Dance, the opponent cannot afford to allow you to boost your Attack and thus need to react with their hard Breloom checks immediately.

I was talking about the SD set but with a bulkier set, still has a huge attack stat to do damage to Lati@s, and an the Item Fight Gem maybe more useful. Even though you have less power, your survive ability increases a huge amount. Allowing you to weaken the opponents team more for ScarfDeo in the long run.

[ThePillsburyDoughBoy]

I never have really liked Techniloom. Not having Poison Heal combined with its fraility means its ability to combat bulky waters becomes severely limited. Having a Substitute means you can be much more selective on what you will Spore on the opponents team. With its 150 Base Power move STAB Fighting>STAB Grass. Overall I have found STAB Focus Punch much harder to stomach than Bullet Seed.

Surprised that many of you haven't identified yet the awesomeness of Substitute>Spore on the Tech'ed Swords Dance set and its attacking set with Low Sweep. Granted, putting something to sleep buys a good amount of time to set up, however I find that the Spore just goes to the opponents Sleep Fodder. Breloom can get up the Substitute on the expected Spore or even against a Scald'ing bulky water. With Substitute, you have the ability to set up on Bulky Water's Scald's safely while having Life Orb instead of Lum Berry in your item slot. In addition, it provides you a layer of safety to decide whether you want to SD or spam Bullet Seed and sweep safely against revenge killers that aren't weak to Mach Punch. You can run an Adamant Nature instead of Jolly while still beating Mamoswine's Ice Shard and have the low speed problem curtailed even more. Just some food for thought.

[Fifth]

Originally Posted by Fat dragonuser

Breloom (F) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 236 HP / 248 SDef / 24 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Drain Punch
- Spore

This loom is really a monster, and was used to a lot of success in Wcop by LA iirc. The idea is that protect can shield you from status and get you extra healing (Leech Seed/Poison Heal). Drain Punch is the better choice over Focus Punch as you lack a sub to hide behind, and can once again give you more healing. The EV Spread makes Breloom really bulky on the Special side and lets him be a very reliable answer to slower paced Rain teams. This loom can't be compared to sets like CB or SD, as it serves a different purpose. But it is really effective at stalling out opponents and getting a lot of residual damage, as well as being a very solid Water-Type Resist.

This is an excellent set and I can certainly attest to its effectivness. I used something very similiar to it extensively in BW1 and has netted me more games than I can count; it still performs very well in the BW2 meta and I encourage more people to try it.

[Temp V1]

Originally Posted by Fat ThePillsburyDoughBoy

I never have really liked Techniloom. Not having Poison Heal combined with its fraility means its ability to combat bulky waters becomes severely limited. Having a Substitute means you can be much more selective on what you will Spore on the opponents team. With its 150 Base Power move STAB Fighting>STAB Grass. Overall I have found STAB Focus Punch much harder to stomach than Bullet Seed.

It is true that Breloom is frail, and if you swap an item that heals 12% for one that loses 10% each turn you are really restricted on the life of Breloom, however the threat you can pose in that maximum ~10 turns is probably far superior. Generally Fighting stabs are better than Grass, however with so many Rotoms and bulky waters running around in the meta that Grass stab really does help out. I can't like the amount of times that after just one SD, it takes only one hit from Bullet Seed to OHKO a Jellicent, or Rotom. Thats a good feeling :d. The really useful thing about TechniLoom Bullet Seed besides that, is hitting things behind subs. For example you might be playing a Gyarados that gets behind a sub, you can bring in Techniloom as he subs, and then proceed to Bullet Seed as he tries to DD/Bounce whatever. Against a standard SubDD Gyarados Bullet Seed coming off a Jolly 252 LO deals: 83.76 - 99.13%, in three hits, which means that its a guaranteed OHKO after rocks, (it would be at ~56% after leftovers + sub) provided that Gyarados does not have intimidate. That is assuming it hits three times, and the minimum possible damage for each individual hit is 27.92%, ranging to 34.03% per hit. There are many other examples where being able to hit things behind subs hard is quite invaluable.

[Frozen UK]

After testing out the Bulky SD set

Breloom (F) @ Fight Gem
Trait: Technician
EVs: 68 HP / 224 Atk / 192 SDef / 24 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Spore

I am inlove, this set never fails to get a KO a pokemon or sweep, can set up extremely easy and being able to take Starmie Ice beam/Psychic, Genesect Ice beam/Flamthrower (attack boost), Scarf Terra CC, Keldeo Icy Wind. It's just perfect. Never used a better breloom set, works great with Scarf Keldeo, taking out all Keldeos counter outside the latitwins and Celebi, still does enough damage to allow Icy wind to KO.

I have lived a move and spore a counter so many times, it's nice being able to live any non-specs or LO Lati@s move and Spore back.

[Lavos Spawn]

Originally Posted by Fat Frozen UK

After testing out the Bulky SD set

Breloom (F) @ Fight Gem
Trait: Technician
EVs: 68 HP / 224 Atk / 192 SDef / 24 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Spore

I am inlove, this set never fails to get a KO a pokemon or sweep, can set up extremely easy and being able to take Starmie Ice beam/Psychic, Genesect Ice beam/Flamthrower (attack boost), Scarf Terra CC, Keldeo Icy Wind. It's just perfect. Never used a better breloom set, works great with Scarf Keldeo, taking out all Keldeos counter outside the latitwins and Celebi, still does enough damage to allow Icy wind to KO.

I have lived a move and spore a counter so many times, it's nice being able to live any non-specs or LO Lati@s move and Spore back.

yeah my set is great...why did you change the EVs though, they were for a purpose

[PttP]

I personally enjoy he subpunch/subseed set because its ridiculously easy to bluff a sd Mach punch variant. Just bring it in on like a 30% tornadus-t and substitute away as your opponent tries to preserve his pokemon. Now not only are you behind a sub, but you can actually see wht you're sporing. I've never liked the sd techniloom variant due to how quickly it wears itself out, but I guess everyone has their preferences

Edit: an lavos I really hope you're not saying that fighting gem Breloom is your set...because it was made quite a while ago in dream world...around last year iirc

[Frozen UK]

Originally Posted by Fat Lavos Spawn

yeah my set is great...why did you change the EVs though, they were for a purpose

Your version was slower then some important pokes Loom needs to outspeed, so I gave it 24 to outspeed Def poli, faster versions of Jelli and Skarm to spore it. Also with these EV's I can still survive everything that I mentioned before.

[Lavos Spawn]

Originally Posted by Fat Frozen UK

Your version was slower then some important pokes Loom needs to outspeed, so I gave it 24 to outspeed Def poli, faster versions of Jelli and Skarm to spore it. Also with these EV's I can still survive everything that I mentioned before.

alright well that's nifty then, glad you figured that out

and no pttp I'm not claiming fighting gem is my set, by "my set" I meant "the set I posted", not "the set I created"

[Baka Ki Eru Dogura]

Doublepowder any1?

In this fast meta after putting a poke to sleep, Stun Spore can cripple the incoming swich-in, like the genies, Genesect or whatever


Breloom (M) @ Fight Gem
Trait: Technician
EVs: 232 HP / 252 Atk / 24 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Spore
- Stun Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed

Evs are pretty standard, 24 in speed to outspeed defensive Politoed, Atk is maxed out and the remaining Evs are putted in Hp for a little bulkyness.
Fight Gem is here for a well timed Mach Punch having the strenght of the Cbander
Life Orb can be used to improve Bullet Seed also.

[Frozen UK]

Originally Posted by Fat Baka Ki Eru Dogura

Doublepowder any1?

In this fast meta after putting a poke to sleep, Stun Spore can cripple the incoming swich-in, like the genies, Genesect or whatever


Breloom (M) @ Fight Gem
Trait: Technician
EVs: 232 HP / 252 Atk / 24 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Spore
- Stun Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed

Evs are pretty standard, 24 in speed to outspeed defensive Politoed, Atk is maxed out and the remaining Evs are putted in Hp for a little bulkyness.
Fight Gem is here for a well timed Mach Punch having the strenght of the Cbander
Life Orb can be used to improve Bullet Seed also.

Problems are that stun spore is a 75% accuracy attack, while Low sweep has a 100% chance to lower you opponents speed by one stage, this usually means being faster without the need to cut their speed by 75%, obviously using jolly. Also Breloom isn't very strong with just Fight Gem thrown on and only Mach Punch and Bullet Seed. While Low sweep deals huge damage to anything non-ghost type, stun spore deals no damage while having a huge chance of missing.

[Lavos Spawn]

Yeah I'm going to agree with Frozen UK on this one and say that Low Sweep is superior to Stun Spore as far as Breloom goes. The benefit of Stun Spore, of course, is that the status lasts the whole battle (or until it is removed by Natural Cure/Heal Bell/Aromatherapy), whereas Low Sweep's -1 Speed only lasts until the Pokemon switches out. However, Low Sweep has several advantages over Stun Spore. First, it actually does damage, which is what Breloom is trying to do to things that would be switching into it. Second, it puts the opponent in range for another Low Sweep or a Bullet Seed to KO, whereas if the opponent switches in on a Stun Spore, sure, it'll be paralyzed, but Breloom's going to have to switch out anyways unless it feels like eating a Draco Meteor or Hurricane or whatever it may happen to be. Plus, there's that 75% accuracy to contend with...I can't tell you how many times I've lost a match because of a low-accuracy move not connecting (i.e. Sableye's Will-O-Wisp), so relying on 75% accuracy makes me pretty nervous. I'm much more comfortable with Low Sweep on the whole.

[GatoDelFuego]

Although an offensive breloom seems the best as a keldeo partner, defensive classic DPP set is the best way to use breloom...so in that case, which one should you use? A superior breloom set, or a superior metagame set? IMO Breloom never stopped being a god with its old set and people just started putting bulk up on it and giving it technician when the best set was already there.

[Bryce]

Life Orb Adamant Techniloom is what I use and it's the best Breloom set imo.The sheer power and offensive presence of this set very standard set makes it such a threat imo.Toxic Orb sets are really good too,But techniloom is really the selling point.If you compare the usage stats of pre techniloom time you'll see what I mean.

There is one set I battled against and it really took me by surprise.Then I used it a bit.

Breloom (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Spore
- Low Sweep
- Bullet Seed
- Stone Edge

Scarf Loom!Breloom at first glance is not a very good scarfer.But what makes this set to be effective is surprise factor.Imagine you're about to KO Breloom with your Torn-T and suddenly the mushroom outspeeds and spores you.If you don't have something for back up,this could mean disaster.The ScarfLoom I faced Spored my DDMence and went to town against my Terrakion,Keldeo and Landorus with Bullet Seed.Really when you are able to surprise spore their Breloom check/counter Breloom becomes extremely threatning.

These set also outspeeds Adamant Dnite and Gyarados at +1 so fuck yeah.Bullet Seed and Low sweep is the obvious powerful STABs while Stone Edge provides useful coverage.You will be astonished by how many surprise kills this boy can get.But when you spored something and blown your cover,with Sleep clasue ScarfLoom becomes slightly medicore.

[Neliel]

what about this?
it seems that noone never used it, so ill share this with you.


Breloom (F) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 236 HP / 252 SDef / 20 Spd
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Spore
- Stun Spore

to be honest i think that loom is not that effective as a sweeper, almost any fight resistor can survive a +2 mach punch and then ko it in return.
so i tought that turn back to poison heal and crippling two pokemon instead of one (u know, once u spore something it seems that anyone sends out their latios/tornadus/landorus ect to wall breloom) is a great reason to use this set. it works similarly to amoonguss, but noone expects it and it has a more offensive approach.