Acrobatic Stallbreaker Gliscor

[Legacy Raider]

Ok so the last time I wrote an analysis was before QC was a thing, so if I'm not allowed to post this yet or something please let me know.

So basically I've been tearing my hair out at the Goth+MegaSab stall meta. Gliscor has always been an effective stallbreaker but its currents sets do not fare well against the typical stall teams at the moment. I've been using the following tailored set with much better success in this department. Note that while Fling and Acrobatics get a brief mention in Other Options at the moment, I would like to add this as a standalone set in order to flesh out its description.

[SET]
name: Acrobatic Stallbreaker
move 1: Acrobatics
move 2: Fling
move 3: Taunt
move 4: Roost
item: Toxic Orb
ability: Poison Heal
nature: Careful
EVs: 244 HP / 8 Def / 200 SpD / 56 Spe

Moves
========

• With Toxic Orb equipped, Fling turns into a one-time 30 BP Dark-type physical attack that inflicts the foe with bad poison, at the cost of losing the item.
• More significantly, since the bad poison is considered a proc chance of the damaging move (e.g. like Sludge Bomb) rather than a status move, it is not reflected by Magic Bounce Pokemon such as Mega-Sableye.
• Additionally, Fling can be used in a defensive manner if the opponent tries to cripple Gliscor by Tricking a Choice item onto it, e.g. from Gothitelle.
  
• Once the held item has been flung, Acrobatics doubles in base power and becomes Gliscor's most powerful STAB attack. As the sole true damaging attack on this set, it forgoes Earthquake's super-effective potential for greater neutral coverage.
• Taunts prevents slower foes from recovering their HP or setting up on Gliscor.
• Roost provides Gliscor with valuable instant recovery on top of the powerful Poison Heal recovery.

Set Details
========

• HP EVs allow Gliscor to gain optimal mixed bulk and Poison Heal recovery.
• Careful nature and SpD EVs make Gliscor very bulky on the special side and allows it to take many attacks, including some weaker super-effective attacks such as Scald from Quagsire (which is a 4HKO after Poison Heal).
• Speed EVs allow Gliscor to outspeed Adamant Bisharp and Breloom, easily OHKOing the latter with Acrobatics.

Usage Tips
========

• This set differentiates itself from other Gliscor sets through its ability to take on the combination of Mega-Sableye, Skarmory, Quagsire, +/- Gothitelle.
• The SD set can boost past Mega-Sableye but its boosts are rendered useless by Unaware Pokemon such as Quagisre. Additionally, by foregoing Taunt it cannot prevent walls such as Skarmory or Quagsire from healing themselves, limiting its wallbreaking potential against heavy stall teams.
• The Taunt set functions better against Quagsire and Skarmory (if is using Knock Off rather than EQ) but is set up fodder for Mega-Sableye.
• Both those sets are also extremely vulnerable to having a Choice Scarf Tricked onto them by Gothitelle, at which point they lose their stallbreaking capabilities. This set combines many of the positives of the other sets together.
  
• It is important to activate your Poison Heal in a safe manner - Mega Sableye may be the premier target for a Flung Toxic Orb, but if you are switching into it make sure it is not into a Will-O-Wisp.
• If Gothitelle tries to cripple Gliscor with Trick, Fling will allow you to dispose of the Scarf and continue your role. Ideally you want to get rid of the Toxic Orb before Gothitelle has a chance to take it from you, as otherwise your opponent may be able to Trick the Toxic Orb onto another one of your Pokemon.
• With a powerful super-effective STAB Acrobatics, Gliscor makes a good check for Mega-Venusaur.

Team Options
========

• This Gliscor excels at picking apart defensive cores, whether on balanced or full-stall teams. Due to its impressive bulk and recovery it also serves as a good mixed wall and pivot.
• Note that this Gliscor set is more vulnerable to Bisharp since it does not run Earthquake, so ensure you have a back-up check for it such as Keldeo. Keldeo also makes an excellent partner in general because it resists Gliscor's Ice and Water weaknesses and complements Gliscor by putting pressure on more offensive teams.
• Despite its Ground-typing, this Gliscor set is particularly vulnerable to fast Electric-types such as Raikou and Mega-Manectric since it cannot hit them super-effectively and will take huge damage or be outright KO-ed by HP Ice. Mega-Venusaur makes for a good partner by checking these Pokemon and also provides a Water-resistance for Gliscor.

Thanks for reading, let me know if you have any corrections or suggestions.

 

[p2]

Yeah the way analyses work now is by posting with mod approval (TDK, TheEnder, or Tokyo Tom for OU) for doing an analysis and from then you just put it through WIP into QC, where you get 3 checks, then you put it through Grammar checks which you only need 2 of. The Analysis Reservation Index explains it well http://www.smogon.com/forums/thread...ly-and-all-current-writers-must-read.3536205/

I'm not sure if this set deserves a standalone analysis so that's up to the mods.

 

[Legacy Raider]

Yeah the way analyses work now is by posting with mod approval (TDK, TheEnder, or Tokyo Tom for OU) for doing an analysis and from then you just put it through WIP into QC, where you get 3 checks, then you put it through Grammar checks which you only need 2 of. The Analysis Reservation Index explains it well http://www.smogon.com/forums/thread...ly-and-all-current-writers-must-read.3536205/

I'm not sure if this set deserves a standalone analysis so that's up to the mods.

OK once they see this thread I'll leave it up to their discretion. This is the only Gliscor set atm that does anything at all to the common Sableye / Skarmory / Chansey / Gothitelle / Quagsire / Amoongus stall builds, and is one of the few pokemon that can take stand up to each of these pokemon including Gothitelle while not running Shed Shell. Since Gliscor's only other two sets are named "stallbreakers" but actually fail to achieve that, I personally feel this is significant enough to warrant an analysis.

 

[Vert]

i don't see how this set beats sableye anyways, doesn't even come close to 2hkoing while you just burn all your pp. same with skarmory too because acrobatics is not infinite pp. it wins with rocky helmet anyways rofl.

 

[Martin]

I mean, the most I could see happening is Acro being slashed onto the SD set, which I could actually see happening because SD+Acro is really good anyway. FlingScor sucks outside of poisoning M-Sab (which is super team-specific anyway and screwed over by Knock Off), and it really doesn't need it alongside Acro on the basis that part of its job is to eat Knock Offs anyway. I could see an Acro moves mention on the SD set as its pretty good anyway, but I don't really see what this set achieves that the other sets don't do better tbh.

i don't see how this set beats sableye anyways, doesn't even come close to 2hkoing while you just burn all your pp. same with skarmory too because acrobatics is not infinite pp. it wins with rocky helmet anyways rofl.

Its less about beating sab directly and more about being the only set capable of inflicting toxic. SD achieves this v.s. Knock Off variants anyway and there are better things to take on Foul Play vars anyway, so your point still mostly stands.

 

[Freeroamer]

It beats stall assuming it poisons the Sableye with Fling because then it can Taunt the Chansey and ensure it never gets that Toxic healed. As for beating Skarm, you simply Taunt and they're forced to either Brave Bird or Struggle, which obviously forces them to switch. You don't even have to waste Acrobatics PP here because you can repeatedly press Fling or whatever. Assuming you manage to get rocks up, this set will slowly pick apart common stall due to how nothing can heal on it or harm it and how it dissuades from pp stalling via switches as rocks will be digging into the likes of Chansey / skarm(no lefties on these teams, helmet/shed shell usually preferred) however by this point you're seeing the word assume a lot, it takes specific conditions for it to beat stall but it is achievable and it's kinda cool that it can do it in one mon and only really needs rocks up to achieve it.

 

[AM]

I mean this doesnt particularly matter when it supposably becomes a thing and people just change sets to prep for it. This is really OO at best, keeping an M-Sableye in on Gliscor is kind of bad anyways when an incoming SD is about to happen and threaten the support variants which will just bring Quagsire / Skarmory by then and becomes a huge hit or miss scenario.

Edit: For what's it worth changing the set title is more suited to Gliscors role on the Dex which is basically just support for the Taunt variant so I do agree calling it a "stallbreaker" is pretty off right now in the current meta.

 

[Hootie]

Agree 100% with AM here. Tried it out and it seems like a neat idea, but it'd realistically be far too inconsistent and if the set ever were to catch on people would just switch out to their Toxic immunity to respond to it. The build is also for a specific type of team as well making its effectiveness heavily based on matchup. I'm fine with giving it a stronger mention in OO, but not a full set.