Golurk (QC 3/3)

[col49]

Sorry several times over for all the delay guys, my computer went haywire, the document for this got deleted twice, it was a mess. I know this needs to get up soon, and I feel really bad for wasting everyone's time. Again, really sorry :(

“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”

[Overview]

• Huge Attack stat, complimented by respectable bulk allows Golurk a fairly easy time switching in and dealing some damage.
• Interesting Ground / Ghost typing allows him a variety of useful resistances and immunities, granting him the distinct ability to serve as one of the better offensive checks to dangerous Pokemon such as CB Cincinno and Sawk naturally.
• Two solid abilities in Iron Fist and No Guard allow him to even pressure the opponent in their own ways.
• 55 Base Speed really lets Golurk down at the worst times, and really hard presses in terms of staying power.
• Despite having some very choice resistances and immunities, typing also poses troubling issues for Golurk, offering weaknesses to several common attacking types.

[SET]
name: Choice Band
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Shadow Punch
move 3: Ice Punch
move 4: Drain Punch
item: Choice Band
ability: Iron Fist
nature: Adamant
evs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe


[SET COMMENTS]

• A textbook example of a high risk, high reward ‘mon
• Choice Band Golurk is capable of netting a KO every time upon entry to the field with proper hazard support, but locking yourself into the wrong move may full well prove disastrous, from giving a free switch to a Swellow to an easy Pursuit from Skuntank
• Earthquake provides primary STAB, 2HKOing even Luvdisc2 with SR+1 layer of Spikes
• Shadow Punch offers a secondary STAB, and allows Golurk the ability to safely break through stuff like Misdreavus and Musharna
• Ice Punch rounds off coverage, hitting Swellow / Braviary / Sawsbuck / Cacturne hard, in addition to allowing him to punch holes in bulky Grass-types like Tangela and Torterra.
• Drain Punch offers a semi-reliable source of recovery with solid overall coverage, which is important early-game when you can’t be locking yourself into your STAB moves too haphazardly.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

• The given EV spread maximizes offensive presence and bulk, running enough Speed to outpace min Speed Luvdisc2. You can run more Speed to suit your team’s needs, though most benchmarks it would like to be hitting require a Jolly nature :(
• Alternative move options include Stone Edge for hitting Bug- and Flying-types hard and Thunderpunch for hitting Alomomola harder (+Water- and Flying-types in one move).
• By merit of his Ghost sub-typing and excellent offensive prowess, hazard users make excellent partners for Golurk. Probopass, Cacturne, Garbodor, and such are all excellent examples.
• Ludiculo makes an excellent switch-in to most Water-types, can threaten them with a STAB Giga Drain, and in turn appreciates Golurk's ability to break through bulky Normal-types. Likewise, Mantine and Special Samurott can shrug off most Water-type attacks and either set up on them or hit them hard with Grass Knot, respectively.
• Cincinno lures Steel-types and Fighting-type attacks and can pivot to Golurk via U-Turn, who threatens them out. Moreover, Cincinno's plethora of multi-hit moves allows it to keep Pokemon that try to Substitute over poorly locked-in Golurk in check.
• Klang covers all but Golurk's Water-type weakness, and can set up all over checks like Tangela.

[SET]
name: SubPunch
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Focus Punch
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Shadow Punch
item: Leftovers
ability: Iron Fist
nature: Adamant
evs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

• As it finds a plethora of opportunities to set up a Substitute, in addition to having a nice solid Iron Fist-boosted Focus Punch, not giving him a SubPunch set seems almost a waste.
• Moreover, a resistance to Rock Blast and an immunity to Tail Slap makes him one of the more “viable” users of Substitute in the tier.
• Focus Punch is somewhat of a given, don’t really know what I’ll write for that but yeah .-.
• Earthquake, while having some sort of redundancies with Focus Punch is terms of coverage, is still valuable for it’s lack of negative priority, which would otherwise totally prevent him from hitting a wide array of Pokemon in 1v1 situations. Also it prevents Garbodor from setting a handful of layers in your face.
• Shadow Punch provides secondary STAB with an Iron Fist boost, also granting perfect coverage with Focus Punch.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

• EVs the same, so same spiel.
• Ice Punch can be used to hit Flying-types who may well trouble you, and Toxic makes him a good lure for big physical walls.
• Since it can’t just plow through walls like CB, Exeggutor is a pretty helpful partner for dispatching Regen cores and such. However, one should in turn address the issue with Ice- and Dark-type attacks.
• Since this Golurk set positively screams “Bullet Seed me!”, Sap Sipper users such as Sawsbuck and Miltank make for excellent partners, abusing the boosts acquired and in turn luring Fighting-type attacks for Golurk to switch in on.
• Once more, hazard users offer amazing synergy with Golurk, though Garbodor in particular is useful for abusing Tangela and Alomomola to lay multiple layers (and I’d like to say Toxic them, but the on-site set only AC’s it, which I’d say is a debatable choice, but neither here nor there I guess).

[SET]
name: Stealth Rock
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Shadow Punch
move 4: Ice Punch / Drain Punch
item: Leftovers
ability: Iron Fist
nature: Adamant
evs: 176 HP / 168 Atk / 164 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

• It’s the only Ghost-type that can set up SR, and it threatens early-game hazard users with it’s STAB, not bad.
• EQ+Shadow Punch is decent coverage, bleh, said it twice already :I
• Ice Punch also rounds off coverage quite well, and hits the Flying- and Grass-types harder than the alternative.
• Drain Punch offers a decent recovery option with good coverage with it’s STAB. Also has some needs perks in threatening Offensive Probopass and guaranteeing some clutch KO’s on stuff like Cincinno, Zangoose, and Absol.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

• EV's allow Golurk the speed to outpace Garbodor, bulk to shake off attacks from Wartortle, Skuntank, and Sawk (among other things), while retaining solid offensive presence.
• Stone Edge is alright here, mostly because the extra damage against Armaldo doesn’t hurt, but that’s all it’s good for most of the time.
• An Earth Plate can be used to feign the Choice Band set if played tactfully, and can allow Golurk to effectively lure and KO Pursuit users such as Skuntank and Absol. This can make Golurk a very effective partner for fast, frail sweepers (Gorebyss, basically every Sunny Day sweeper, etc.) that get checked by their Sucker Punch.
• Since SR is covered, a Spike user (again, Garbodor / Cacturne) becomes much more useful to Golurk, as it does a solid job beating the tier’s spinners.
• Acroblim does a nice job patching up Golurk’s issues (offensively, cuz terrible defensive synergy), threatening Grass-types that wall him and offering a second response to spinners in case Golurk goes down. Swellow and Braviary can also act in a similar manner.
• Regice actually supports Golurk quite well, covering specially oriented Water-types that can threaten Golurk, threaten Grass- and Flying-types, and offer paralysis support via Thunder Wave.

[Other Options]

• No Guard (I’m under the impression that while it’s certainly OK, it doesn’t justify any kind of serious set, the best it’s doing for itself is AC on the SR set, but even then it’s iffy)
• Rock Polish (It’s terrible, it doesn’t threaten offensive teams who either has a Scarfer that easily RKs or a Sucker Punch user or both, and defensive teams easily LO stall it under most circumstances. This is strictly a courtesy mention)
• Fly!
• Superpower / Hammer Arm to guarantee KO's on bulky Normal-types like Lickilicky.
• Gravity / Magic Coat (both in the “neat gimmick” boat)
• It’s got a pretty extensive special movepool lol...

[Checks and Counters]

• Really depends on the set :/
• Alomomola or Tangela (and to a degree Amoongus) switch in on any given attack once, and switch to the appropriate countermeasure w/out much consequence courtesy of Regenerator.
• The best way to deal with CB Golurk is really just predicting around it. It’s incredibly powerful, but every one of it’s attacks leaves huge openings, and exploiting that is really the best way to quote-on-quote “counter” it.
• Grass-types (especially those with Bullet Seed) can usually switch into at least 50% of Golurk’s competitive movepool without much trouble, and threaten him out with their STAB.
• Cincinno outpaces and beats Golurk courtesy of Bullet Seed.
• Bulky Flying-types (Golbat+?) safely take everything bar CB Ice Punch quite well, and can whittle it down from there. Normal / Flying-types like Braviary can switch into either STAB move with impunity and threaten it with a powerful Brave Bird
• As with any Ghost-type, Pursuit users like Skuntank and Absol are capable of putting him into a checkmate position as long as they mangage a safe switch-in.
• Due to lackluster Speed, all but the SubPunch set are easily revenge-killed by any relatively strong ‘mon with an SE move for it.
• Water-types generally put Golurk in an awkward position, threatening him not only with their STAB, but common coverage options as well, making it difficult for partners as well. Primes examples of these include Samurott, Ludicolo, and Mantine.

[CrashinBoomBang]

• Superpower and Hammer Arm should both get a mention in the Choice Band sets' AC; while you don't recover health, you deal a lot more damage, always OHKO'ing 252/0 Lickilicky for example (which Drain Punch will never do).
• Thunderpunch should be mostly mentioned for securing the 2HKO on Alomomola after Stealth Rocks only (even though Regenerator lets it heal that off easily).
• As for offensive partners, Pokemon that can take Grass/Water/Ice and Dark/Ghost attacks aimed at Golurk work well: Ludicolo easily sponges most special Grass, Water and Ice attacks while taking care of Alomomola and Tangela. Golurk, in return, easily breaks through Lickilicky trying to wall Ludicolo. Klang also works well, taking Dark/Ghost attacks while setting up on Tangela (and Alomomola to some degree).
• Slash Ice Punch before Drain Punch on the Stealth Rock set; You won't OHKO Probopass anyway thanks to Sturdy, so using Shadow Punch + Earthquake basically has the same effect unless you really want it at 1%. Earthquake also OHKO's Absol a majority of the time (~80%) while doing the same to Cinccino after one turn of Life Orb damage and Zangoose after one turn of Toxic damage.
• Definitely mention Braviary alongside Golbat in Checks and Counters since it's immune to both of Golurks STAB moves, not OHKO'd by Drain Punch after Stealth Rocks and Choice Banded Brave Bird is an easy OHKO.
• Pursuiting Golurk should be listed as a valid check (I know you mentioned it in the CB comments, but it's even more important here), even though none of the Pursuit users really want to switch into any move at all.

Uh, that's all I can think of right now, looks good so far.

[col49]

Cool, thanks for the fast response cbb!
-Adding Superpower+Hammer Arm
-Yeah, I was going to say something along the lines of "Thunderpunch if you hate Alomomola and can't afford Spikes" or something, but that made it sound like it wasn't at all worth it, when it kinda sorta is x_x
-Ludi and Klang sound awesome for partners, I totally forgot about Klang tbh :P Adding both
-Honestly, I thought that Offensive Probopass normally ran Magnet Pull to eliminate opposing Steels early-game .-. Oh well, I dunno, I run that, even if they aren't super common. But if most people run Sturdy on them, then Ice Punch is superior, especially outside the "lead metagame".
-Why didn't I mention Braviary? lol
-Also confused why I missed Pursuit users...

[Raseri]

[OVERVIEW]

• I'd emphasize the 3 immunities, they are pretty big for Golurk

[Choice Band set]

• I'm pretty sure Ice Punch KOs Torterra, so it belongs in the first list.

[additional comments]

• I've always loved Ludicolo and MANtine as offensive partners. Cinccino is also really good, and Special Samurott

[SubPunch]

• MANtine and Ludicolo are good offensive partners here too, I'm also not to sure on the EV spread but if I find a better one ill post it later

[Stealth Rock]

• Ice Punch > Drain Punch
• I think outpacing Garbodor is worth it if you're leading with Golurk. idk the EV spread to do that though

[Other Options]

• Personally I think Hammer Arm and Superpower belong here, cbb said they OHKO Lickilicky, but it can do nothing in return. I think the Healing is 100% better than the extra damage.

[Checks and Counters]

• Cinccino can revenge kill
• Water types like Samurott, Simipour, MANtine and Ludicolo also outspeed and OHKO

I'll probably add more later but thats what I see so far

[CrashinBoomBang]

Eh, it's not only Lickilicky, but more power in general. Licky was just being used as a good example. I see what you mean though, it isn't very important, so moving it to OO would probably be a better idea.

[col49]

Alrighty, so I'm definitely emphasizing his immunities, 'cuz they are pretty key. I was mostly naming resistances to Ground/Ghost with that first line, I'm definitely not denying Torterra as an important target of Ice Punch too :P Outpacing Garbodor requires 164 EVs, so it's a little hefty, but definitely not outside possibility. I'll leave the current spread as is, but I could certainly tamper with the EVs and see what I can come up with :P Everything else is added / moved I believe, let me know if I missed a point.

[col49]

Quick double post to say that after some testing, I'm kind of leaning towards a spread of 176 HP / 168 Atk / 164 Spe (w/Adamant). Outpacing Garbodor and 2HKOing w/EQ (252 Atk doesn't OHKO without something like Earth Plate or LO :( ) is pretty nice for avoiding an extra layer of hazards, while giving it the opportunity to play mind games with lightly invested Cacturne and such if you have yet to reveal SR and stuff along those lines. The added bulk allows him some leniency in match-ups with Skuntank (always taking one non-LO Sucker Punch / Pursuit on the switch safely), the ability to never be 2HKOed by Wartortle after SR (which I realize isn't too common, but it's really the only spinner with any chance of beating Golurk 1v1, I guess), and can take 1 CS Sawk Ice Punch after SR. Also I'm considering dropping Earth Plate into the AC of the set, the little boost in the EQ is fairly useful, and more importantly it feigns the CB set if played tactfully (or jus against players who don't know Golurk's damage output .-.) and allows him to sponge a Pursuit and KO the user with the respective move, which is pretty cool for teams that hate Sucker Punch users (I mostly used Gorebyss in testing). Thoughts?

[CrashinBoomBang]

I'd be fine with that spread if it really does what you outlined (and you mention all that in the final analysis), but in that case I'd make a bigger mention of Drain Punch since you don't do as much to them with Earthquake anymore (but still more than enough). I'd still keep Ice Punch as the first slash. Earth Plate sounds okay as an AC option as well.

[Django]

Change the EV spread on the final set to the one you brought up, and add in alll those points about it. After that:

QC APPROVE 1/3

A really nice skeleton here.

[col49]

Sorry for taking so long to implement, everything's all added in. Thanks for the check :)

[CrashinBoomBang]

Alright, this looks good now, so

QC APPROVE 2/3

[MMF]

QC Approve 3/3

God I'm lazy as fuck

[Zebraiken*]

This is trading hands.