Gary
Can be abrasive at times (no joke)
I've lost my niche!!
[Pros]
<ul>
<li>Gastrodon has a fantastic defensive typing; only weak to the Grass-type.</li>
<li>Storm Drain makes it immune to Water-type attacks, while also giving it a free +1 Special Attack boost when hit by one.</li>
<li>Has access to reliable recovery in the form of Recover.</li>
</ul>
[Cons]
<ul>
<li>Drizzle teams aren't nearly as common as they used to be because of the weather nerf.</li>
<li>Gastrodon is extremely slow.</li>
<li>It is crippled by a 4x weakness to Grass-type moves.</li>
<li>Toxic renders it useless.</li>
<li>There are overall better bulky Water-types out there.</li>
</ul>
[Set Recommendations]
<p>name: Physically Defensive<br />
move 1: Scald<br />
move 2: Earthquake<br />
move 3: Ice Beam / Toxic<br />
move 4: Recover<br />
ability: Storm Drain<br />
item: Leftovers<br />
evs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD<br />
nature: Relaxed</p>
<p>This set is designed to wall the plethora of physical attackers that litter the tier, such as Tyranitar, Talonflame, Aegislash, and Salamence. It's also very effective at walling Electric-types such as Rotom-W and Jolteon, and is also capable of switching into any kind of Water-type attack thanks to Storm Drain. Scald is important for burning physical attackers that it will commonly be walling, while also providing it with a STAB Water-type move to beat Fire-types like Talonflame. Earthquake is to provide it with another STAB move to hit Aegislash, Heliolisk, and Toxicroak for much-needed super effective damage. Ice Beam is very important because Gastrodon is a great check to Dragon-types such as Garchomp, Salamence, and Dragonite, but Toxic can be used to cripple opposing bulky Water-types and common switch-ins like Gourgeist. Recover is mandatory in order to keep Gastrodon alive. Pairing this set with teammates that can easily take hits from Grass-type moves are essential, as Gastrodon is 4x weak to it. Scizor, Ferrothorn, and Breloom can all switch into Grass-type attacks with relative ease and set up on them. Goodra has the ability Sap Sipper, which allows it to freely switch into any Grass-type move and obtain a free +1 Attack boost.</p>
[Checks and Counters]
<p>Grass-types completely vaporize Gastrodon, as it is 4x weak to it. Amoonguss, Ferrothorn, Roserade, Trevanent, Gourgeist, and Breloom can all threaten Gastrodon with their respective STAB Grass-type move. Although Gastrodon is quite bulky, it still fails to comfortably wall powerful wallbreakers such as Choice Band Azumarill, which can easily 2HKO it with Play Rough. Other wallbreakers such as Choice Specs Noivern and Goodra can also severely dent it with a STAB Draco Meteor. Anything with Toxic can stop Gastrodon cold, because it depends so much on its bulk and recovery to stay alive. Chansey and Blissey can take any of Gastrodon's moves and threaten to cripple it with Toxic.</p>
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