Stratos
Banned deucer.
(might be an Awakening, better touch it to find out)
[Overview]
<p>The main and only reason to use Amoonguss in Doubles is because it is an incredibly bulky Rage Powder user. That's more than enough, though; being able to redirect every single-target attack in the game towards an entirely expendable team member is very useful when using moves or Pokemon that require help setting up, such as Trick Room or Manaphy. Of the four viable Rage Powder or Follow Me users in the tier, Amoonguss only has direct competition from Jirachi as a damage sponge that does little save spam Rage Powder, as Volcarona and Togekiss tend to mostly use offensive pressure and have Follow Me more as a card in their back pockets to redirect troublesome attacks occasionally. Compared to Jirachi, Amoonguss has more reliable healing, a great move in Spore, and arguably better bulk due to its incredibly useful Water- and Fighting-type resistances, which help it take on rain teams. However, Regenerator is not as good as it might seem; it's tempting to keep Amoonguss on life support forever, as it is certainly capable of surviving for that long, but Amoonguss is entirely useless as a last Pokemon. The biggest point in its favor, though, is that Amoonguss is usually the best choice for teams that use Rage Powder to help set up Trick Room; most of Jirachi's support movepool is speed control, which is entirely useless under Trick Room, and Amoonguss has an incredibly fast Spore once it's helped set up. Furthermore, Amoonguss can be quite useful in beating Trick Room, as it can Spore the opposing team's setter for an almost guaranteed stop to the move.</p>
<p>Of course, Amoonguss isn't easily better than Jirachi, either. Amoonguss's movepool is nearly empty, while Jirachi's is deep. Low Speed might be a boon under Trick Room, but outside of it, being outsped by every common Fake Out is a pain that Jirachi doesn't have to deal with. Jirachi's Dragon-type resistance (and many other resistances) also help to put it above Amoonguss, though Amoonguss still has the raw bulk not to be KOed by most neutral moves. Perhaps most importantly, Amoonguss lacks any offensive presence, often failing to break Substitutes of Pokemon that don't even resist Giga Drain. Still, Amoonguss's unique resistances and access to Spore make it an old standby for any team in need of a sponge.</p>
[SET]
name: Rage Powder
move 1: Rage Powder
move 2: Spore
move 3: Protect
move 4: Giga Drain
item: Sitrus Berry / Mental Herb
ability: Regenerator
nature: Sassy
evs: 252 HP / 64 Def / 192 SpD
ivs: 0 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Rage Powder is the main draw of this set; to put it simply, Amoonguss should not be used if your team doesn't need Rage Powder. Rage Powder simply has so many neat applications, such as helping a frail sweeper survive another turn or letting a Trick Room user set up the move without fear of Taunt. When it doesn't need to use Rage Powder though, Amoonguss loves having Spore, a move that allows it to cripple virtually any Pokemon, though only one at a time. Amoonguss's other two moves are useful only in much more niche situations. Protect should mostly be used in the case of an obvious Fake Out (as it can outspeed Amoonguss's Rage Powder), in which case Amoonguss and its partner both protecting can save your strategy from disaster. It can also be used instead of Rage Powder if Amoonguss is certainly going to be double-targeted, but predicting this is incredibly risky and thus rarely advised. Giga Drain seems good at first, dealing damage and healing, but it's so weak that it can't break the Substitute of bulkier Pokemon which are neutral to it, such as Garchomp. As such, it's really only good when Amoonguss is Taunted or can use it to secure a KO. The most important thing to remember when using Amoonguss is not to be fooled into thinking that all four of its moves are equally useful: Giga Drain and especially Protect will mostly only find themselves as options in specific situations, so after activating Sleep Clause, Amoonguss is usually better off just using Rage Powder until it is KOed.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Amoonguss's Speed is absolutely minimized because it is used most of the time under Trick Room, in which case it usually becomes the fastest Pokemon on the field and can Spore almost anything. Meanwhile, its given EV spread allows it to tank almost every hit in the game; 64 Defense EVs let it survive a non-item-boosted Zen Headbutt from Metagross, and putting the rest in Special Defense is just enough to avoid the KO from a full health non-item-boosted Eruption from Heatran. When Sitrus Berry is used in conjunction with these EVs, Amoonguss can take yet another 25% of its max HP in punishment, guaranteeing that it almost always lives to the second turn, though it still must be wary of being 2HKOed if the opponent leads with two strong attackers. However, if Thundurus is a major threat to your team, Amoonguss can use Mental Herb to redirect its attacks (all of which Amoonguss shrugs off) without worrying about being shut down by Taunt. Effect Spore's 30% status effect is great when it activates, but it is less reliable than Regenerator and doesn't boost Amoonguss's greatest selling point: longevity. Amoonguss's Speed tier is also almost fully customizable if you are not running it on a Trick Room team, as it has another junk stat in Attack and 31 IVs to work with. For example, 27 Speed IV Calm Amoonguss can outspeed paralyzed Choice Scarf Tyranitar outside of Trick Room, while still outpacing minimized base 50 Speed Pokemon in Trick Room.</p>
<p>When it comes to picking good partners for Amoonguss, the two most important things to consider are as follows: 1) Does this Pokemon appreciate Rage Powder support more than any other type of support? For example, if it needs a little help dealing damage, Helping Hand users would be better, or if it is kind of slow, but not Trick Room slow, then paralysis or Tailwind support is optimal. 2) Is this Pokemon irreparably weak to common spread moves? If it is, then Amoonguss cannot help, as Rage Powder does not redirect Earthquake, Surf, Heat Wave, etc. What this paring process generally leaves is Pokemon that function well either after a turn of setup or under Trick Room. For example, Tail Glow Manaphy appreciates Amoonguss's redirecting of powerful Electric, Grass, and Dragon attacks and can spam powerful Surfs while doing minimal damage to Amoonguss. Another well-known teammate is Water Spout Jellicent, as Amoonguss can redirect Taunts that would stop Jellicent from using Trick Room, while simultaneously redirecting all single-target moves so Water Spout stays at full power. Many such team options are possible with Amoonguss—though it is important to make sure that Amoonguss is not on your team only to help out one other Pokemon.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>Amoonguss without Rage Powder and Spore should never be considered. Protect and Giga Drain serve niche, but equally important, roles in making sure the set can fulfill its function: Protect so it is not Fake Out weak and Giga Drain so it is not Taunt bait and absolutely useless once it has used Spore (not to mention entirely necessary in the case of Amoonguss being your last Pokemon). As such, Amoonguss's moveslot customization options are extremely limited, but they do exist. Substitute over Protect trades the ability to block Fake Outs on turn one with the great utility of being able to redirect non-damaging effects at no cost, but it is hard to set up. That said, it is probably Amoonguss's best alternative move, as it can be extremely useful. Giga Drain can be replaced with Sludge Bomb or Grass Knot for more situational power but less overall utility. It can also be scrapped for Clear Smog, but Volcarona and Bisharp, two of the most common boosting Pokemon in Doubles, do not fear it. Stun Spore and Toxic appear to be good options for Amoonguss as they are more crippling than Giga Drain in almost all cases, but they leave it completely open to Taunt and are thus inadvisable. Synthesis is a bad idea in most cases because although it lets Amoonguss use Rage Powder more times over the course of the match, Amoonguss has to stop using Rage Powder in order to use Synthesis, and the turn wasted is rarely worth it. Hidden Power Ice can be used on teams that need a check to Flying- and Dragon-types such as Thundurus, Salamence, and Shaymin-S, but is only two-thirds as strong as Giga Drain against neutral targets and doesn't have any healing property. The only other move that Amoonguss should ever consider is After You, as it allows Trick Room teams running a fast tech to use that Pokemon while Trick Room is up without any ill effects. Lastly, Amoonguss can run Lum Berry, which is extremely useful for Spore Breloom and Amoonguss leads but absolutely pointless otherwise, or Black Sludge, which is better than Sitrus Berry if Amoonguss survives more than four turns, but should only be considered alongside Substitute, as otherwise Amoonguss should not be on the field that long.</p>
[Checks and Counters]
<p>The best way to counter Amoonguss is not to chip away at it—as long as it has redirected attacks, it has done its job. The best way to counter Amoonguss is to keep it from using Rage Powder and Spore at all. As such, Taunt is absolutely invaluable, as is Fake Out, as long as the Amoonguss user is not prepared for those moves. Though spread moves such as Heatran's Heat Wave and Abomasnow's Blizzard don't actually stop Rage Powder, they circumvent it while simultaneously dealing a massive chunk of damage to Amoonguss and are thus some of your best options. If you can OHKO Amoonguss (especially with a fast Pokemon, whose partner can then proceed to attack Amoonguss's partner), it's a great way to beat it. Note that this basically will require a Gem-boosted STAB move, such as Tornadus's Acrobatics or Chandelure's Heat Wave. Speaking of Chandelure, it is the number one way to beat Amoonguss which are on Trick Room teams, as it can Imprison Trick Room instead of having to Taunt to stop it and can OHKO Amoonguss with Heat Wave while simultaneously attacking its partner. Though they can't ignore Rage Powder, bulky or Grass-resisting Pokemon with Substitute have nothing at all to fear from Amoonguss, which cannot break their Substitutes or Spore them when they are behind one. Lastly, Spore Breloom functions as a pseudo-Taunt user, being able to shut down Amoonguss for a couple of turns, but is very frail. If your team carries none of the above, the best way to beat Amoonguss is simply to beat it down as quickly as possible and remember not to target its partner with a single-target move that Amoonguss resists.</p>
[Overview]
•its niche is a bulky as fuck rage powder
•compare its upsides and downsides with the other bulky rage powderer in jirachi
•upsides: reliable healing, better against rain, spore, blazing fast in tr, arguably harder to ohko due to less common weaknesses, resists Water and Fighting
•only good FMer in TR since most of rachi support is speed control
•downsides: barren movepool, slower than most fake outs, Flying weakness, doesn't resist Dragon (or a host of things rachi resists) (but it still wont be ohkoed by them), less offensive presence (ie none)
•more defensively-oriented than the other rage powderers volc and toge who are mostly used to place offensive pressure while RPing occasionally instead of spamming RP
[SET]
name: Rage Powder
move 1: Rage Powder
move 2: Spore
move 3: Protect
move 4: Giga Drain
item: Sitrus Berry / Mental Herb
ability: Regenerator
nature: Sassy
evs: 252 HP / 64 Defense / 192 Special Defense
ivs: 0 Speed
[SET COMMENTS]
•rage powder is why you're using the set
•spore is why you're using amoonguss over rachi
•protect because fake out is a douche, you can stall it with double protect and be nearly unhindered in your setup
•protect can also be used if you're sure amoonguss will be double-targetted but that takes some big balls
•giga drain because being taunt bait sucks, can also deal decent damage to weaks or frail pokemon
•nearly useless once something is asleep so just keep using rage powder
•setup bait for sub users
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
•Nature and ivs to make it as slow as possible, allowing it to spore to its hearts content under tr
•EVs to survive basically any hit in the game: can take Heatran's non item boosted eruption on the special side and metagross's non item boosted zhb on the physical side
•sitrus berry is main item so you can take 125% punishment for the good of the team, amoonguss goes hard for his bros
•mental herb bc taunt is a bitch
•effect spore is not a bad option per se on the set and can really fuck your opponent, but regen provides greater reliability and lets amoong do that one last trolly rage powder in the lategame
•good partners dont get fucked by common spread moves (especially not the ones amoonguss is weak to)
•partner with setup mons (tg manaphy best, sd steels rekt by heat wave but work, volc rekt by rock slide but works)
•partner it up with pokemon that are common targets and appreciate not being: fast pokemon for thunder waves, tr setters for taunts, or just pokemon weak to certain single-target attack types (such as fighting)
•amoong+jelli is kind of a famous pairing for their ability to wreak havoc with full hp water spouts thanks to amoong's rp support and jelli's spread neutrality
•it's fun to fuck with amoonguss's speed tier depending on your needs
•27 iv calm amoonguss can outrun paralyzed pokemon up to scarftar outside of tr, while still being decently fast under tr, outspeeding minimized base 50s (not that there are any common ones)
[Other Options]
•since amoong virtually needs rp/spore to not be outclassed, and probably needs at least one attacking move so you dont kick urself in the balls endgame, and mostly needs protect unless you like getting your strategy wrecked by the most common lead in the game, its customization options are... limited
•you can replace giga drain with sludge bomb or grass knot for more power but less usefulness
•clear smog... but the three common stat boosters in doubles are steel, steel, and fire type respectively :oops:
•The only option he has that would be close to worth being total taunt bait or fake out bait is After You, so you can run a non-tr pokemon on your tr team and get away with it
•recovery seems good, but amoonguss is more the self-sacrificial type, and would rather be Rage Powdering
•toxic can break walls like cress faster than giga drain's 78hko but is tauntable
•stun spore can also replace giga drain or protect for some double powder action on non-tr teams (but is tauntable) (and its acc blows)
•rage powdering into substitute is super nice if it's up but hard to set up and replacing protect is risky
•lum extremely useful against spore leads otherwise inferior
[Checks and Counters]
•amoonguss doesn't care too much about dying, as long as it can redirect attacks and get a spore off. So you're trying to keep it from letting its partner set up TR
•taunt
•fake out if your partner doesnt carry protect
•spread moves (blizz, heat wave) (tran, abomasnow...)
•anything that can ohko (WILL require an item boosted SE STAB basically) (tornadus, fire gem fires, psy gem metagross...)
•Chandelure can threaten with STAB fire moves and imprison or undo TR
•fire gem tran ohkoes and hits partner with eruption
•fire gem overheat volc ohkoes; rage powder lum volc threatens and redirects spore
•if you cant stop its strategy, just get it out of the way with as strong of moves as you can, and dont assume it won't rage powder
•loom sleeps it, as does amoong not using rage powder turn 1
•literally anything with sub that resists grass cannot be touched, though it can still successfully redirect attacks which is what matters
•its niche is a bulky as fuck rage powder
•compare its upsides and downsides with the other bulky rage powderer in jirachi
•upsides: reliable healing, better against rain, spore, blazing fast in tr, arguably harder to ohko due to less common weaknesses, resists Water and Fighting
•only good FMer in TR since most of rachi support is speed control
•downsides: barren movepool, slower than most fake outs, Flying weakness, doesn't resist Dragon (or a host of things rachi resists) (but it still wont be ohkoed by them), less offensive presence (ie none)
•more defensively-oriented than the other rage powderers volc and toge who are mostly used to place offensive pressure while RPing occasionally instead of spamming RP
[SET]
name: Rage Powder
move 1: Rage Powder
move 2: Spore
move 3: Protect
move 4: Giga Drain
item: Sitrus Berry / Mental Herb
ability: Regenerator
nature: Sassy
evs: 252 HP / 64 Defense / 192 Special Defense
ivs: 0 Speed
[SET COMMENTS]
•rage powder is why you're using the set
•spore is why you're using amoonguss over rachi
•protect because fake out is a douche, you can stall it with double protect and be nearly unhindered in your setup
•protect can also be used if you're sure amoonguss will be double-targetted but that takes some big balls
•giga drain because being taunt bait sucks, can also deal decent damage to weaks or frail pokemon
•nearly useless once something is asleep so just keep using rage powder
•setup bait for sub users
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
•Nature and ivs to make it as slow as possible, allowing it to spore to its hearts content under tr
•EVs to survive basically any hit in the game: can take Heatran's non item boosted eruption on the special side and metagross's non item boosted zhb on the physical side
•sitrus berry is main item so you can take 125% punishment for the good of the team, amoonguss goes hard for his bros
•mental herb bc taunt is a bitch
•effect spore is not a bad option per se on the set and can really fuck your opponent, but regen provides greater reliability and lets amoong do that one last trolly rage powder in the lategame
•good partners dont get fucked by common spread moves (especially not the ones amoonguss is weak to)
•partner with setup mons (tg manaphy best, sd steels rekt by heat wave but work, volc rekt by rock slide but works)
•partner it up with pokemon that are common targets and appreciate not being: fast pokemon for thunder waves, tr setters for taunts, or just pokemon weak to certain single-target attack types (such as fighting)
•amoong+jelli is kind of a famous pairing for their ability to wreak havoc with full hp water spouts thanks to amoong's rp support and jelli's spread neutrality
•it's fun to fuck with amoonguss's speed tier depending on your needs
•27 iv calm amoonguss can outrun paralyzed pokemon up to scarftar outside of tr, while still being decently fast under tr, outspeeding minimized base 50s (not that there are any common ones)
[Other Options]
•since amoong virtually needs rp/spore to not be outclassed, and probably needs at least one attacking move so you dont kick urself in the balls endgame, and mostly needs protect unless you like getting your strategy wrecked by the most common lead in the game, its customization options are... limited
•you can replace giga drain with sludge bomb or grass knot for more power but less usefulness
•clear smog... but the three common stat boosters in doubles are steel, steel, and fire type respectively :oops:
•The only option he has that would be close to worth being total taunt bait or fake out bait is After You, so you can run a non-tr pokemon on your tr team and get away with it
•recovery seems good, but amoonguss is more the self-sacrificial type, and would rather be Rage Powdering
•toxic can break walls like cress faster than giga drain's 78hko but is tauntable
•stun spore can also replace giga drain or protect for some double powder action on non-tr teams (but is tauntable) (and its acc blows)
•rage powdering into substitute is super nice if it's up but hard to set up and replacing protect is risky
•lum extremely useful against spore leads otherwise inferior
[Checks and Counters]
•amoonguss doesn't care too much about dying, as long as it can redirect attacks and get a spore off. So you're trying to keep it from letting its partner set up TR
•taunt
•fake out if your partner doesnt carry protect
•spread moves (blizz, heat wave) (tran, abomasnow...)
•anything that can ohko (WILL require an item boosted SE STAB basically) (tornadus, fire gem fires, psy gem metagross...)
•Chandelure can threaten with STAB fire moves and imprison or undo TR
•fire gem tran ohkoes and hits partner with eruption
•fire gem overheat volc ohkoes; rage powder lum volc threatens and redirects spore
•if you cant stop its strategy, just get it out of the way with as strong of moves as you can, and dont assume it won't rage powder
•loom sleeps it, as does amoong not using rage powder turn 1
•literally anything with sub that resists grass cannot be touched, though it can still successfully redirect attacks which is what matters
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