Throh (WIP)

[Danger Mouse]

This is my first time doing this, so bear with me if it's a bit sloppy. I saved the original to Notepad. Hopefully this skeleton is a good starting point. I can add further details if needed.

Don't underestimate me!

[Overview]
- Throh got the elemental punches in BW2, greatly improving his coverage.
- 120/85/85 defenses make him the bulkiest fighting type in the game.
- Access to Circle Throw allows him to phaze with his STAB attack.
- With entry hazards on the opponent's side of the field, can easily force enemy teams to rack up residual damage.
- Enemy teams carrying stealth rock weak pokemon like Salamence, Dragonite, Volcarona, Tornadus-T, and Thundrus-T won't enjoy facing Throh.
- Needs to boost to be any sort of offensive threat, so beware of enemy phazers.
- Thanks to Guts, Throh can't be stopped by status, but he doesn't appreciate the residual damage.

[SET]
name: Bulk Up
move 1: Bulk Up
move 2: Circle Throw
move 3: Payback/ThunderPunch
move 4: Ice Punch
item: Leftovers
ability: Guts
nature: Careful
evs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD

[SET COMMENTS]

- After a couple of Bulk Ups, Throh becomes very hard to take down, and hits hard too.
- Try to bring this in on something that can't do much damage to Throh so you can more easily set up.
- Enemies who try to set up will be phazed and damaged.
- Throh makes excellent use of entry hazards - wearing down enemies with Circle Throw phazing, and making it easier for your sweepers to clean up.
- Payback allows Throh to heavily damage ghosts and psychics, while ThunderPunch can punish bulky water types.
- Ice Punch is the primary choice in the fourth slot - heavily damaging Dragonite, Salamence, and the Therians.
- The given nature and evs give Throh maximum special bulk. If you want to hit harder, you can shift evs from HP into attack, but you might miss the added bulk.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

- Rest is a possibility for healing, but it's generally an inferior option.
- Entry hazard support is mandatory. Forretress, Deoxys-D, and Ferrothorn are all viable partners in this regard. Spikes can inflict more immediate damage, but the gradual damage of Toxic Spikes compliments Throh's bulkiness.
- Enemy phazers such as Skarmory, Vaporeon, and Hippowdon will cause you nonstop headaches. Magnezone can trap and eliminate Skarmory. You may consider a grass type such as Celebi or Shaymin to deal with Vaporeon and Hippowdon.
- Since it has no means of healing itself, Wish support is a good idea. Jirachi and a Vaporeon of your own can help.
- Ghost types can be an annoyance despite Payback. You might consider teammates like Scizor to help deal with them.
- In general, Throh fits equally well on balanced offensive teams and stall teams. His teammates should reflect this.
- His ability to rack up residual damage against foes, force out boosting sweepers, sponge hits, and absorb status can be an asset to many playstyles.

[OTHER OPTIONS]
- Throh has access to moves like Pain Split, Superpower, and Toxic, but they all tend to be inferior options.
- Throh can run a resttalk set now, but it's pretty weak and is completely walled by ghosts.
- Not many other real options for Throh in OU.

[CHECKS AND COUNTERS]
- All non-ghosts must be careful when switching in, lest they be phazed as soon as they come in.
- Skarmory, Hippowdon, Vaporeon, and other phazers perform well against Throh.
- Amoongus can remove Throh's boosts with Clear Smog and heal off damage with Giga Drain.
- Breloom can put Throh to sleep with Spore.
- Choice Band and Choice Specs users can threaten to OHKO Throh despite its impressive bulk. Latios and Haxorus deserve particular mention because of their raw power.

[jc104]

I know you are keen to make use of the new moves Throh has gained from BW2, but the first set is definitely not viable. Having only one relatively weak attack with negative priority and fairly low PP, to which several pokemon are immune is not acceptable. RestTalk is generally a poor option anyway with the new sleep mechanics. Make that one QC rejection for that set.

I've yet to test the second set but it looks rather more promising. I think Ice Punch should probably be the only option in its slot. Payback can be slashed with ThunderPunch, and I'd leave Fire Punch out. I'd also really like you to explain what the spread is for.

Generally, you need quite a bit more detail here. We recommend a bullet-point skeleton to be written, as it's easy for you to write and us to read. This way you don't have to waste time writing up the wrong sets either.

[Danger Mouse]

I could scrap this and make it a skeleton if it'd make things easier.

[jc104]

There's no reason to permanently delete it, but a skeleton would certainly be nice.

[Danger Mouse]

I'll copy/past what I originally wrote to notepad, and reformat this to a skeleton. I don't even run resttalk, actually. :P

[Swamp-Rocket]

Don't forget - as the title, you need to put something like either "Throh (QC 0/3)" if you feel like it is ready for a check or "Throh [WIP]" if you are still working on it. "Throh Revamp" doesn't really follow any of the other thread's titles.

To change the title, just go to "Go Advanced" in your original post and add it from there.

But yeah, I think a skeleton would really help. It aids in coming up with ideas and explaining the purpose of its moves to allow discussion.

[Danger Mouse]

Okay, I changed my format to a skeleton and changed the title to add 'WIP' - sorry for the rocky start! I'm learning as I'm doing, more or less.

[Electrolyte]

I think RestTalk really deserves more of a mention- you get a Guts boost, as well as great recovery, and you can run Rest / Sleep Talk / Circle Throw / Payback with the same evs.

I also think you should redo the moveset. It should look like this:
move 1: Circle Throw
move 2: Bulk Up
move 3: Ice Punch / Thunder Punch
move 4: Payback / Stone Edge

Having Ice Punch / Thunder Punch is more important than Payback, IMO because dealing with flying types is of utmost importance. I also added Stone Edge as an option; it often hits harder than the punches and does decent damage to psychic / ghost types.

[Danger Mouse]

I actually run payback and ice punch on my throh, and personally I think ice punch is practically mandatory - the ability to beat those 4x ice weak Pokemon is just too good to pass up. Stone edge is a possibility but I dislike its bad accuracy and low pp - it really doesn't fit in with throh's style. Ice punch comfortably deals with most fliers - but you can always run thunderpunch as well to deal with stuff like gyarados. As for rest talk there seems to be disagreement as to whether or not it's even viable. I will defer to what people think I should do with it...I'd be happy to put a set in or addMore mention of it, whatever folks agree to.

[PK Gaming]

QC Rejected (1/3)

Sorry but this thing ranges from being outclassed to just straight up being terrible in BW OU. It was a mistake to ever say it was "OU worthy" because its been incredibly underwhelming from what i've tested with it. The bulk up set is straight up "worse" than Conkeldurr. The extra bulk is more or less irrelevant. They're both forced out by the same Pokemon and set up on the same things... Conkeldurr is a heck of a lot stronger and has access to Drain Punch which is 100% more reliable than Circle throw. I gave Restalk a try and it was just fodder for most of the games I played with.

Sorry, but i'm not approving Throh.

[ginganinja]

QC Rejected 2/3

[Pocket]

Throh, a poor man's Conkeldurr :(

QC Rejected (3/3)

[Danger Mouse]

Aww my first analysis and it's a dud :( oh well, I still think he's good