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[Overview]
- One of the most effective and powerful offensive Grass-types in the metagame.
- Special Attack stat is eggcellent, letting Exeggutor punch holes in teams with Choice Specs Leaf Storms or sweep with Chlorophyll and its excellent coverage.
- Being able to break through Roselia with a powerful STAB Psychic or Psyshock is no yolk, and separates Exeggutor from its competition.
- Typing is a mixed bag defensively; while it can abuse its resistances to Water, Electric, Ground and Fighting attacks, a 4x weakness to U-Turn and other Bug moves is really rotten.
- However, Harvest alongside a Lum or Custap Berry can make defensive Exeggutor very difficult for the opponent to respond to.
- Low Speed means that Exeggutor will struggle to sweep without Chlorophyll being active.
name: Choice Specs
move 1: Leaf Storm
move 2: Psychic / Psyshock
move 3: Hidden Power Ground / Sleep Powder
move 4: Giga Drain
item: Choice Specs
ability: Chlorophyll
nature: Modest
evs: 132 HP / 252 SpA / 124 Spe
[Set Comments]
- 2HKOes most of the tier if it predicts correctly, and 2HKOes a lot of Pokemon even if it doesn't.
- Breaks holes in teams for sweepers such as Ludicolo and Samurott to exploit later in the match.
- Most powerful Leaf Storm out there, pretty much. Meanwhile, STAB Psychic takes care of Amoonguss if it tries to block Leaf Storm.
- Psychic is a powerful secondary STAB that is much easier to spam now that Absol is absent from the tier. Psyshock performs better than Psychic against specially-defensive targets, particularly Roselia, but also Lickilicky, Regice, and Flareon. However, it is generally worse against other targets.
- Hidden Power Ground is extremely useful, dealing heavy damage to Skuntank and Steel-types. On the other hand, Sleep Powder lets Exeggutor remove counters, such as Specially Defensive Flareon and Skuntank, from the game momentarily, breaking open even more holes in defensive teams.
- Giga Drain is a more reliable Grass-type STAB, and the recovery it provides can be invaluable in letting Eggy switch into battles and maintain offensive pressure throughout longer matches.
- Good physical bulk and a wide range of resistances gives Exeggutor many opportunities to switch into battle, and Giga Drain's recovery only bolsters Exeggutor's defensive capacity.
- EVs outspeed uninvested base 70s, while leaving Exeggutor with a massive Special Attack stat and excellent physical bulk. More Speed can be run if your team has trouble with 252 Spe Golem, or Spikes from standard Garbodor.
- Hidden Power Ice removes Altaria as a counter, while Giga Drain can be used for when Exeggutor needs to heal off residual damage. It's still plenty powerful enough to secure kills against many opponents.
- Hidden Power Ice can be used for Altaria, but it's not great to be locked into, and makes it easier to trap and kill Eggy with Skuntank.
- Nature Power hits Skuntank while bypassing Sucker Punch, but is much less powerful than Specs Hidden Power Ground and much easier to switch into.
- Use teammates that provide defensive synergy against revenge killers, such as Regirock to deal with Fire, Normal, and Flying types.
- Flareon takes on Fire-types with ease while providing cleric support that allows Exeggutor to fire off more Leaf Storms throughout the match.
- Hazard support lets Eggy secure even more kills, with Probopass being able to set up Stealth Rock fairly reliably, while bringing Eggy into battle safely with a slow Volt Switch or Paralysing faster threats with Thunder Wave so that Eggy can revenge kill them later.
- Sawk and Gurdurr can deal reliably with the Dark-types that can switch into Psychics.
name: Sun Sweeper
move 1: Sunny Day
move 2: SolarBeam / Giga Drain
move 3: Psychic / Psyshock
move 4: Sleep Powder / Substitute
item: Heat Rock / Life Orb
ability: Chlorophyll
nature: Modest / Timid
evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
[Set Comments]
- Eggy is an extremely powerful and fast sweeper under sunlight, and can break through unprepared offensive teams with ease, often with its STAB attacks alone.
- Counters to Eggy and other sweepers on Sunny Day teams can be shut down with a fast Sleep Powder, forcing defensive teams to play carefully around Exeggutor, otherwise risking losing a key member.
- Alternatively, Exeggutor can use Substitute to bypass Sucker Punch from Skuntank, not to mention it provides a buffer against Scarfers that outspeed it in sunlight (Haunter, Zebstrika) and other priority (Piloswine's Ice Shard?)
- Can set up Sunny Day pretty well due to its good physical bulk, numerous resistances, and the offensive pressure it places on other teams.
- SolarBeam is a very powerful STAB attack, and can only really be disrupted by opposing weather inducers such as Volbeat, Murkrow, and Ludicolo. On the other had, Giga Drain is the weaker but more consistent Grass-type attack; the healing it provides also helps Eggy stay healthy throughout the match and set up Sunny Day multiple times if necessary.
- Usual dilemma with Psychic STAB attacks. Psyshock can be used over Psychic to deal with specially defensive Pokémon more easily, but the loss of power against offensive targets such as Braviary can stop Eggy's sweep abruptly.
- The item choice depends largely on Exeggutor's role on a team. If you're using a lead to set up Sunny Day in advance, such as Volbeat or Probopass, then Life Orb is the best option for maximizing Eggy's sweeping capacity. Likewise, if you're using Exeggutor as a standalone sweeper on an otherwise weatherless team, then the extra Sunlight from Heat Rock is somewhat unnecessary, and a Life Orb should again be used to maximize power. However, one of Eggy's best niches as a Sunny Day user is its ability to switch into opponents, using its defensive capacity to set up Sunny Day for a team without relying on a dedicated setter. Heat Rock is definitely the best choice for this role.
- If you lack Fire-types on your team, then Hidden Power Fire provides a more powerful response to opposing Grass-types, when sunlight is on the field. However, Sleep Powder and Substitute usually have more utility in this metagame.
- Three attacks + Sleep Powder can be used if you already have numerous teammates with Sunny Day, but bear in mind that Exeggutor is a pretty good candidate for setting the move itself, and the presence of Fire-types such as Charizard and Rapidash on your team somewhat mitigates the need for Hidden Power Fire.
- Modest nature is the default choice, giving Exeggutor the most power while still letting outrun Swellow, Tauros etc in sunlight. However, a Timid nature can be used if you want Eggy to outspeed Pokémon such as Choice Scarf Rotom-S and Shell Smash Gorebyss in sunlight.
- Stealth Rock support is highly appreciated, as it gives Exeggutor a much better chance of breaking through bulky Flying, Fire, and Ice types. Probopass and Regirock again provide Stealth Rock support, and are also great defensive users of Sunny Day, removing some pressure from Exeggutor to set the move up itself.
- If you're running Exeggutor on a Sunny Day offense team, then Fire-types should be used alongside it, so that they can break through their mutual checks. Rapidash with Drill Run can smash specially defensive walls, especially the likes of Regice and Flareon, while Charizard destroys most Grass-types. Sawsbuck is a useful partner as well, using physical attacks to break through special walls, while also dealing with Skuntank via Nature Power, and potentially setting up a deadly sweep with Swords Dance.
- If you're running Exeggutor as a standalone sweeper, it loves switching into Rock-types such as Golem and Carracosta, forcing them out ad setting up Sunny Day in the process. Thus, Flying-types such as Swellow and Braviary can appreciate Exeggutor dealing with these threats. Skuntank also appreciates Exeggutor's ability to switch into choiced Fighting-type moves and Gurdurr. Finally, Rock types of your own will appreciate having their Water-weaknesses reduced.
name: Physically Defensive
move 1: Psychic
move 2: Giga Drain / Leech Seed
move 3: Sleep Powder
move 4: Rest
item: Lum Berry
ability: Harvest
nature: Bold
evs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 Spe
[Set Comments]
- Amoonguss? Never heard of him.
- While Exeggutor has a lot of weaknesses, its resistances to Grass, Water, Ground, and Fighting, in combination in above-average physical bulk when invested, make it a good physically defensive tank.
- What makes Exeggutor a GREAT physical tank is that Lum + Harvest Rest essentially gives it a 100% recovery move, not to mention immunity to all status effects so long as it can retrieve its berry.
- Great at switching into things like CB Sawk, Choiced Superpowers from various things, Torterra in general, most Rock-types in the tier, Gurdurr, etc, and recovering off any damage they inflict.
- While it's not quite as good as Amoonguss' Spore, Sleep Powder can still be used to shut down threats, and Exeggutor can use it to respond to more targets thanks to its better Speed stat.
- Meanwhile, its attacking power is still pretty good even without investment. It's certainly not as easy to set up on as something like post-Spore Amoonguss, with Psychic breaking bulky Braviary's Substitutes 100% of the time. Giga Drain breaks through Water, Ground and Rock types more easily, although Leech Seed can also be used to stack up residual damage on threatening switchins like Regice.
- EVs allow Exeggutor to outspeed uninvested Alomomola, letting you kill it with Giga Drain or disable it with Sleep Powder before it can fire off a Wish. The rest go into physical bulk so that Eggy can take on physical attackers such as Sawk more effectively.
- I wouldn't recommend going specially defensive since Ice, Fire, Poison, and Ghost weaknesses in this metagame are terrible, and Exeggutor's special defense is unspeggtacular.
- Chesto Berry prevents double activations, where the opponent uses a status move before you use Rest, thus putting yourself to sleep without waking up until your berry recharges. Lum Berry is useful for switching directly into status moves without repercussions.
- Exeggutor's main weakness as a physical tank is its 4x weakness to U-Turn, meaning that sweepers such as Cinccino and Swellow can threaten it while conserving offensive momentum. Make sure to pack something that can take repeated U-Turns above all else, such as Probopass, Regirock, or even Misdreavus. The former two can provide Stealth Rock support to wear these threats down and prevent them from switching in too often.
- Exeggutor has a lot of weaknesses, and if you're using it in a defensive role, then dealing with them is necessary. Specially Defensive Flareon is a great partner, taking on most offensive responses to Exeggutor with ease, while retaining useful team support options, and using Lava Plume to give Exeggutor an even easier time against physical attackers. Other special tanks such as Lickilicky are also cool.
- As always, using a Fighting-type to deal with Absol and Skuntank is very helpful, with Swords Dance Absol being a particularly potent threat. Emboar is a good choice as it can also switch into Ice and Fire type pokemon, threatening both with Superpower.
- Substitute + Sitrus Berry + Harvest is an incredibly annoying staller. BIG MENTION.
- Likewise, Nature Power bypasses Sucker Punch while dealing damage, particularly to Skuntank, but is generally less useful.
- Custap Berry + Harvest allows Exeggutor to attack first against all faster Pokemon (or use Sleep Powder!) but it can be difficult to get Exeggutor below 25% HP. Furthermore, it does nothing to defend against Sucker Punch and other priority moves, which still move before Exeggutor, and Harvest can be too inconsistent for a sweep without Sunlight.
- Starf Berry + Harvest is fun but extremely inconsistent, and Exeggutor can't really pull it off with low initial Speed.
- Type resist berries can be used with Harvest to sort-of remove one of Exeggutor's weaknesses, but this is only situationally useful.
- Trick Room can be used to give Exeggutor a Speed advantage via different means, but the Sunny Day set is generally more useful unless your team is specifically Trick Room based.
- Other support moves like Wish, Dual Screens, Gravity, Stun Spore etc.
- Can go physical with Swords Dance, Wood Hammer, Zen Headbutt and Explosion, but special Grass and Psychic attacks are far better in the NU metagame, especially considering the gap in Exeggutor's attacking stats.
- Countering the Specs set is actually pretty difficult, as almost everything either gets maimed by its STAB attacks or crippled by Sleep Powder. For instance, even Regice gets 2HKO'd by Leaf Storm after SR.
- Lickilicky is the best response, being able to switch into any attack and heal off the damage. However, Sleep Powder can be annoying.
- Flareon is also pretty good and poses more of an offensive threat, but takes heavy damage from Psyshock or Nature Power.
- Altaria excels at taking Leaf Storms, but Psychic inflicts heavy damage after Stealth Rock, and Altaria will have to Roost constantly to stay alive. Natural Cure also lets Eggy stay in and spam Sleep Powder to hit something else if Altaria switches out.
- Revenge killing Specs Exeggutor is much easier, with Braviary, Swellow, Cinccino, and others, being able to threaten it with U-Turn.
- The aforementioned are able to counter the Sun Sweeper such much more easily due to the overall lower damage output.
- It's harder to revenge kill the Sun Sweeper set, but Absol and Skuntank can use Sucker Punch to stop variants without Substitute. Scarf Zebstrika and Haunter also outspeed Exeggutor in sunlight, as does +1 Ninjask.
- Meanwhile, the defensive set is liable to being OHKOed by special attackers. Even coverage attacks from modest SpA stats (like Ludicolo) can secure a OHKO after Stealth Rock.
