DPP Donphan (Update) +



http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/donphan/

Team support options. There wasn't really much wrong with the analysis as it was, barring a few grammatical errors.

---
[SET]
name: Rapid Spin
move 1: Rapid Spin
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Ice Shard
move 4: Stone Edge / Stealth Rock / Knock Off / Roar
item: Leftovers
nature: Impish
evs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def

[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Donphan has a lot of useful selling points, but perhaps the most notable of these is Rapid Spin. With Stealth Rock flying around everywhere, the ability to remove the floating rocks can be a great asset to every team.</p>

<p>Earthquake is always a great move, especially when you have STAB and an impressive Attack stat to back it up, both qualities which Donphan holds. Unlike that of his fellow spinning Ground-type, Claydol, Donphan's Earthquake packs quite a punch and can start to take its toll on sturdy Ghost-types, namely Dusknoir and Spiritomb, who will block Donphan's Rapid Spin attempts. Ice Shard is an excellent attack on Donphan, because not only does it bypass Donphan's rather pitiful Speed, but it also hits the ever threatening Flying / Dragon-types incredibly hard and can also take down other speedy, weakened foes; unfortunately, its pitiful base power will let Donphan down against anything that it isn't 4x effective on.</p>

<p>The final slot has a few options for you to choose from, depending mostly on your team needs. Stone Edge helps to prevent Gyarados getting in for free and is more powerful than Ice Shard against most Flying-types. Besides spinning away Stealth Rock, Donphan can also set it up, thus providing a further service to his team mates. Knock Off is just an excellent move and Donphan can make a real nuisance of himself with it, removing Leftovers from tanks like Swampert and Suicune, who may want to switch into Donphan to score a STAB Surf. Removing Leftovers from Dusknoir, Spiritomb, and Rotom-A can really help Donphan to wear the Ghost-types down, leaving him, hopefully, free to Rapid Spin without fear of being blocked. Finally you have Roar should your team be in need of a phazer, a role which Donphan fills quite effectively.</p>

<p>Rapid Spinning Donphan's biggest problems are the main three Rapid Spin blockers: Dusknoir, Rotom-A, and Spiritomb. Donphan works particularly well in conjunction with Heracross. Heracross can take Will-O-Wisp from Rotom-A, Dusknoir, and Spiritomb and use it for a Guts boost, and can hit all three threats for big damage with Choice Banded assaults. Heracross also resists Hidden Power and Dark Pulse, two common attacks of Spiritomb's, while only particularly fearing Overheat from Rotom-H, and Dusknoir's Fire Punch. Houndoom can also work with Donphan, being able to easily take any Will-O-Wisp, Overheat, or Fire Punch from the three Ghost-types, and can hit all three hard with STAB attacks, but must be wary of Stealth Rock damage repeatedly wearing it down, on top of Water-type attacks, a weakness which both Donphan and Houndoom hold. Heatran is in a similar position; taking Fire-type attacks with ease and smashing them with boosted Fire Blasts. Also, Heatran does not have a Stealth Rock weakness, and generally has better defenses, but misses out on STAB Dark Pulse. Tyranitar has a more powerful Pursuit than Heracross, but must be particularly wary of Will-O-Wisp, and again, boosted Water-, or Grass-type attacks will quickly wear it down. Weavile can be used if one would like to revenge kill these threats, as a Choice Band Night Slash or Pursuit will severely dent Dusknoir and Rotom-A, but Weavile must be wary of Spiritomb, who it will have trouble beating, especially if Spiritomb carries Hidden Power Fighting. On top of this, Weavile has a weakness to Stealth Rock, so it is rather counter-productive that Weavile must take out the opponent's spin blocker, to help with its Stealth Rock weakness.</p>

[SET]
name: Choice Band
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Stone Edge
move 3: Ice Shard
move 4: Fire Fang / Assurance / Rapid Spin
item: Choice Band
nature: Adamant
evs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Slow, but very powerful and still capable of taking a hit or two. One advantage of using a Choice Band Donphan is to hammer Ghost-types that switch in, expecting to block his attempts to Rapid Spin. This also takes full advantage of Donphan's very impressive base 120 Attack. Many potential switch-ins on him are special attackers, who tend to be rather weak defensively and will be unable to withstand powered up hits. Starmie, for example, is very likely OHKOed by an Earthquake, while Gengar can be OHKOed with Stone Edge, and Sceptile can take a whopping 81% from Ice Shard. Ice Shard also becomes a fantastic tool for slaying Dragons with the boost from Choice Band, OHKOing most Salamence.</p>

<p>Fire Fang provides Donphan with his most powerful attack against Bronzong, although a 2HKO is unlikely. Skarmory will also fail to be 2HKOed, but you can do up to 48% to the flying menace. Assurance allows you to nab kills on Rotom-A, who usually doesn't think twice about switching in. If it comes in on Stealth Rock, Assurance's power will double giving you an easy 2HKO. Rapid Spin can go in the last slot to remove spiking moves after Donphan has removed the Ghosts who block it, but you're generally better employing another Rapid Spinner for this task.</p>

<p>Vaporeon, Milotic, and Suicune are all big threats to this set, being able to outspeed Donphan and hit it with a STAB Surf. For this reason, the use of either Ludicolo or Zapdos is highly recommended. Ludicolo can pair up with Donphan to take advantage of its x4 resistance to Water-type moves, and can then use either Grass Knot or Energy Ball alongside Toxic or Leech Seed to wear these threats down. On the other hand, Zapdos can be used to often take out these bulky Water-types, while having the additional advantage of resisting Grass-type moves which threaten Donphan, and Zapdos carries the ability to beat Skarmory and non-Explosion Bronzong, two threats which can cause problems for Choice Band Donphan.</p>

[Team Options]
<p>If you're using Donphan defensively, pairing it with a Poison-type is an excellent choice, to stop Donphan from being hindered by Toxic Spikes. Even though Donphan's primary objective is to Rapid Spin, Toxic Spikes will quickly take their toll, and will potentially ruin future chances to Rapid Spin away Stealth Rock and/or Spikes. Alternatively, one can use Donphan with a cleric in the form of an Aromatherapist or a user of Heal Bell, allowing Donphan to spin away the Toxic Spikes, and then proceed to be healed by the cleric. However, if Donphan's attempt to Rapid Spin is stopped, this will leave your team in a position where Toxic Spikes are much more likely to have a bad effect.</p>

<p>Predominantly, Rapid Spin Donphan has problems with Levitating Ghost-types; Gengar, Rotom-H, Mismagius, and even Shedinja. Drifblim, Mismagius, and Gengar are slightly less of a worry as all three have the ability to be 2HKOed by Stone Edge, but a bulky Tyranitar can cause all these Pokémon problems with either Pursuit or Crunch, and will cause Shedinja to automatically faint courtesy of Sand Stream. Heracross causes the same problems to these Pokémon, threatening with high powered Choice Banded hits. Dusknoir and Spiritomb are two other common Rapid Spin blockers, but both of these are hit relatively hard by Donphan's Earthquake, provided it avoids Will-O-Wisp. Tyranitar can again power through these Pokémon with Choice Banded Crunches and Stone Edges respectively, but again, must be wary of Will-O-Wisp. The typing of Donphan's team mate (in conjunction with Donphan), is slightly less of an issue than for the Choice Band set, as the aim of this Donphan is to Rapid Spin, and the only Pokémon threatening that are Ghost-types. However, it is still advised to pack a Water- and Grass-type resist to support Donphan. For this reason Celebi is particularly useful, as it is able to beat Swampert, Milotic, Vaporeon, and to an extent, Suicune.</p>

<p>For the Choice Band set, typing is much more important. Few Pokémon will enjoy taking Donphan's Choice Band Earthquake, so it is vital that your team will be able to deal with these threats. As previously mentioned, bulky Water-types will cause problems with their STAB Surfs, as will Grass-types and Flying-types, the latter of which avoid Earthquake altogether. Unfortunately for Donphan, there is not a single Pokémon which resists Water-, Grass-, and Ice-type attacks. However, there are quite a few Pokémon that resist two of the three aforementioned typed moves. Lanturn resists both Water- and Ice-type moves, while being able to use a STAB Thunderbolt to hit back at any opposing Water-types. Magnezone resists both Ice- and Grass-type moves, while threatening bulky Water-types with a powerful STAB super effective Thunderbolt. Magnezone has the excellent addition of Magnet Pull, which will trap Shed Shell-less Skarmory, making it much easier for Donphan to use Earthquake with ease. However, both of these Pokémon are left hopeless against Swampert, so Hidden Power Grass Zapdos may well be more favorable for you, at the cost of an Ice-type weakness. Zapdos has the advantage of being able to use Heat Wave, allowing it to do high damage to defensive Grass-type Pokémon. As mentioned earlier in the analysis, Ludicolo can take on bulky Water-types relatively well with a resistance to Water-type moves, and good Special Defense, on top of a choice of STAB Grass-type moves. However, Brave Bird Skarmory may well cause Ludicolo problems. Heracross can again be used if wanted, as it can deal with Cresselia and certain Ghost-types, which may want to cause Donphan issues.</p>

<p>While you may carry a strong Electric- or Grass-type Pokémon to deal with bulky Water-types, it is likely the opponent will carry a resistance of their own to these types. Blissey with Toxic will cause these Pokémon problems, but obviously risks facing Donphan, a matchup of which the latter would win. Gliscor can shrug off Electric-type moves, and Donphan's Earthquakes, so it may be worth firing off an Ice Shard relatively early in the game, so Gliscor will be fearful of switching into Donphan. Other common team mates of bulky Water-types are Tyranitar and Salamence, both of which won't like taking hits from Donphan. Swampert is also popular, but can be 2HKOed by Donphan's Earthquake, while being outsped due to the Speed EVs.</p>

<p>In addition, Swords Dance Infernape can work well on a team with Donphan. Infernape will lure in Pokémon which are common switch-ins to Donphan; Vaporeon, Swampert, and Gyarados. After a Swords Dance, Life Orb Infernape can OHKO Vaporeon and Gyarados after Stealth Rock with Close Combat and Stone Edge respectively, while being able to do huge amounts of damage to Swampert. Paralysis support is also highly advised when used with Donphan, to make up for the severe lack of Speed.</p>


[Other Options]
<p>Body Slam can provide paralysis but doesn't offer much in the way of type coverage. Thunder Fang is only of use for Gyarados, but Stone Edge does plenty of damage already. Counter works fairly well with Donphan's high Defense and can grab a surprise KO when facing something like a Heracross Megahorn. Assurance works with Stealth Rock and hits such threats as Starmie and Dusknoir hard. Poison Jab is his most powerful weapon against most Grass-types, but the poor coverage it offers otherwise make it a lesser option. Seed Bomb allows for an easy 2HKO with no investment on even the most defensive of Swampert, but has poor synergy with Earthquake and is one of its lesser options. Rock Polish, Endeavor, and Flail are all on offer, but are rather gimmicky options for Donphan.</p>

[EVs]
<p>The Rapid Spin set should have max HP and Defense with an Impish nature to soak up physical hits.</p>

<p>Choice Bander should have Adamant and max Attack, the remainder can go in HP. Some investment can be made in Speed to outrun and possibly 2HKO Swampert. 20 Speed EVs hits 141, outrunning Relaxed Swampert. 84 Speed EVs will outrun Impish versions. This assumes no Speed EVs on Swampert. Although it requires max Speed, you can aim for 199 to beat minimum Speed Milotic, who will be always 2HKOed by an Earthquake.</p>

[Opinion]
<p>Donphan got some very good boosts to his previously barren movepool. Knock Off and Stealth Rock are excellent moves and bulky Donphan has no problem using them effectively. Ice Shard helps make him a decent counter for most physical oriented Dragon-types too. As was mentioned in the Rapid Spin set, Rapid Spin is one of Donphan's most useful moves. With the list of Rapid Spinners being relatively short, and those that can use it effectively shorter still, Donphan should be one of the first Pokémon you consider if you are in need of spin support. Donphan's main flaw as a spinner is that a battler must send him in before or during the turn the opponent is setting up Toxic Spikes. If you fail to do so, Donphan will be poisoned and without a reliable recovery move, he will not be able to Rapid Spin for you much longer. The sturdy elephant is not the most spectacular Pokémon around, but he is a solid and reliable supporter who can also hit hard when the need arises.</p>

[Counters]
<p>Most Water-types can take him down with ease. Swampert, Suicune, and Milotic are good examples although they won't enjoy Choice Banded Earthquakes. Ludicolo's Ground-type resistance makes him an even better choice. Grass-types in general make great counters, particularly the more defensive minded ones, like Tangrowth and Celebi.</p>

<p>Bronzong only fears a Choice Band Fire Fang and can bring down Donphan with Grass Knot. Skarmory is technically a counter, since Donphan can't really hurt him much while it takes repeated Brave Birds or Drill Pecks. However, since Skarmory's primary purpose is laying down Spikes and/or Stealth Rock, one could argue that Donphan is actually "countering" Skarmory by spinning away his set up. However, Donphan will not enjoy Skarmory's Toxic.</p>

<p>Cresselia makes an excellent counter thanks to her high HP and Defense and Earthquake immunity. Ice Beam, Energy Ball, and Grass Knot finish Donphan. In order of how much damage Donphan does to them, Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf will also work in a similar fashion. Azelf is the defensively weakest of the group, so watch out of Choice Banded Stone Edges, which won't OHKO but take a big chunk of his HP. It's fine against the standard Donphan with Ice Shard, though.</p>

<p>Any decently powered special attack that isn't a Thunderbolt should at least 2HKO. Donphan's Special Defense is terrible, so prey on that and he should fall easily.</p>
 

bojangles

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http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/donphan/

Team support options. There wasn't really much wrong with the analysis as it was, barring a few grammatical errors.

---
[SET]
name: Rapid Spin
move 1: Rapid Spin
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Ice Shard
move 4: Stone Edge / Stealth Rock / Knock Off / Roar
item: Leftovers
nature: Impish
evs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def

[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Donphan has a lot of useful selling points, but perhaps the most notable of these is Rapid Spin. With Stealth Rock flying around everywhere, the ability to remove the floating rocks can be a great asset to every team.</p>

<p>Earthquake is always a great move, especially when you have STAB and an impressive Attack stat to back it up, both qualities which Donphan holds. Unlike that of his fellow spinning Ground-type, Claydol, Donphan's Earthquake packs quite a punch and can start to take its toll on sturdy Ghost-types without Levitate, namely Dusknoir and Spiritomb, who will block Donphan's Rapid Spin attempts. Ice Shard is an excellent attack on Donphan, because not only does it bypass Donphan's rather pitiful Speed, but it also hits the ever threatening Flying / Dragon-types incredibly hard and can also take down other speedy, weakened foes; unfortunately, its pitiful base power will let Donphan down against anything that it isn't 4x effective on.</p>

<p>The final slot has a few options for you to choose from, depending (removed "mostly") on what your team needs. Stone Edge helps to prevent Gyarados getting in for free and is more powerful than Ice Shard against most Flying-types. Besides spinning away Stealth Rock, Donphan can also set it up, thus providing a further service to his team mates. Knock Off is just an excellent move and Donphan can make a real nuisance of himself with it, removing Leftovers from tanks like Swampert and Suicune, who may want to switch into Donphan to score a STAB Surf. Removing Leftovers from Dusknoir, Spiritomb, and Rotom-A can really help Donphan to wear the Ghost-types down, leaving him, hopefully, free to Rapid Spin without fear of being blocked. Finally you have Roar should your team be in need of a phazer, a role which Donphan fills quite effectively.</p>

<p>Rapid Spinning Donphan's biggest problems are the main three Rapid Spin blockers: Dusknoir, Rotom-A, and Spiritomb. Donphan works particularly well in conjunction with Heracross, who can take Will-O-Wisp from Rotom-A, Dusknoir, and Spiritomb and use it for a Guts boost, and can hit all three threats for big damage with Choice Banded assaults. Heracross also resists Hidden Power and Dark Pulse, two common attacks of Spiritomb's, while only particularly fearing Overheat from Rotom-H, and Dusknoir's Fire Punch. Houndoom can also work with Donphan, being able to easily take any Will-O-Wisp, Overheat, or Fire Punch from the three Ghost-types, and can hit all three hard with STAB attacks, but must be wary of Stealth Rock damage repeatedly wearing it down, on top of Water-type attacks, a weakness which both Donphan and Houndoom hold. Heatran is in a similar position; taking Fire-type attacks with ease and smashing them with boosted Fire Blasts. Also, Heatran does not have a Stealth Rock weakness, and generally has better defenses, but misses out on STAB Dark Pulse. Tyranitar has a more powerful Pursuit than Heracross, but must be particularly wary of Will-O-Wisp, and again, boosted Water-, or Grass-type attacks will quickly wear it down. Weavile can be used if one would like to revenge kill these threats, as a Choice Band Night Slash or Pursuit will severely dent Dusknoir and Rotom-A, but Weavile must be wary of Spiritomb, who it will have trouble beating, especially if Spiritomb carries Hidden Power Fighting. On top of this, Weavile has a weakness to Stealth Rock, so it is rather counter-productive that Weavile must take out the opponent's spin blocker, to help with its Stealth Rock weakness.</p>

[SET]
name: Choice Band
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Stone Edge
move 3: Ice Shard
move 4: Fire Fang / Assurance / Rapid Spin
item: Choice Band
nature: Adamant
evs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
<p>This set is slow, but very powerful and still capable of taking a hit or two. One advantage of using a Choice Band Donphan is to hammer Ghost-types that switch in, expecting to block his attempts to Rapid Spin. This also takes full advantage of Donphan's very impressive base 120 Attack. Many potential switch-ins on him are special attackers, who tend to be rather weak defensively and will be unable to withstand Donphan's powered up hits. Starmie, for example, is very likely to be OHKOed by an Earthquake, while Gengar can be OHKOed with Stone Edge, and Sceptile can take a whopping 81% from Ice Shard. Ice Shard also becomes a fantastic tool for slaying Dragons with the boost from Choice Band, OHKOing most Salamence.</p>

<p>Fire Fang provides Donphan with his most powerful attack against Bronzong, although a 2HKO is unlikely. Skarmory will also fail to be 2HKOed, but you can do up to 48% to the flying menace. Assurance allows you to nab kills on Rotom-A, who usually doesn't think twice about switching in. If it comes in on Stealth Rock, Assurance's power will double giving you an easy 2HKO. Rapid Spin can go in the last slot to remove spiking moves after Donphan has removed the Ghosts who block it, but you're generally better employing another Rapid Spinner for this task.</p>

<p>Vaporeon, Milotic, and Suicune are all big threats to this set, being able to outspeed Donphan and hit it with a STAB Surf, while taking almost no damage from an Ice Shard. For this reason, the use of either Ludicolo or Zapdos to assist Donphan is highly recommended. Ludicolo can pair up with Donphan to take advantage of its x4 resistance to Water-type moves, and can then use either Grass Knot or Energy Ball alongside Toxic or Leech Seed to wear these aforementioned threats down, while also hitting Grass-types with a 2x effective Ice Beam. On the other hand, Zapdos can be used to often take out these bulky Water-types, while having the additional advantage of resisting Grass-type moves which threaten Donphan, and Zapdos carries the ability to beat Skarmory and non-Explosion Bronzong, two threats which can cause problems for Choice Band Donphan.</p>

[Team Options]
<p>If you're using Donphan defensively, pairing it with a Poison-type is an excellent choice, to stop Donphan from being hindered by Toxic Spikes. Even though Donphan's primary objective is to Rapid Spin, Toxic Spikes will quickly take their toll, and will potentially ruin future chances to Rapid Spin away Stealth Rock and/or Spikes. Alternatively, one can use Donphan with a cleric in the form of an Aromatherapist or a user of Heal Bell, allowing Donphan to spin away the Toxic Spikes, and then proceed to be healed by the cleric. However, if Donphan's attempt to Rapid Spin is stopped, this will leave your team in a position where Toxic Spikes are much more likely to have a bad effect.</p>

<p>Predominantly, Rapid Spin Donphan has problems with Levitating Ghost-types; Gengar, Rotom-H, Mismagius, and even Shedinja. Drifblim, Mismagius, and Gengar are slightly less of a worry as all three have the ability to be 2HKOed by Stone Edge, but a bulky Tyranitar can cause all these Pokémon problems with either Pursuit or Crunch, and will cause Shedinja to automatically faint courtesy of Sand Stream. Heracross causes the same problems to these Pokémon, threatening with high powered Bug-type (not all Heracrosses are CBed) hits. Dusknoir and Spiritomb are two other common Rapid Spin blockers, but both of these are hit relatively hard by Donphan's Earthquake, provided it avoids their Will-O-Wisp. Tyranitar can again power through these Pokémon with Choice Banded Crunches and Stone Edges respectively, but again, it too must be wary of Will-O-Wisp. The typing of Donphan's team mate (in conjunction with Donphan), is slightly less of an issue than for the Choice Band set, as the aim of this Donphan is to Rapid Spin, and the only Pokémon threatening that are Ghost-types. However, it is still advised to pack a Water- and Grass-type resist to support Donphan. For this reason Celebi is particularly useful, as it is able to beat Swampert, Milotic, Vaporeon, and to an extent, Suicune.</p>

<p>For the Choice Band set, typing is much more important. Few Pokémon will enjoy taking Donphan's Choice Band Earthquake, so it is vital that your team will be able to deal with these threats (this is very awkward, and I'm not quite sure what you're saying here.). As previously mentioned, bulky Water-types will cause problems with their STAB Surfs, as will Grass-types and Flying-types, the latter of which avoid Earthquake altogether, while the former can pummel Donphan with STAB Grass-type attacks. Unfortunately for Donphan, there is not a single Pokémon which resists Water-, Grass-, and Ice-type attacks. However, there are quite a few Pokémon that resist two of the three aforementioned typed moves. Lanturn resists both Water- and Ice-type moves, while being able to use a STAB Thunderbolt to hit back at any opposing Water-types. Magnezone resists both Ice- and Grass-type moves, while threatening bulky Water-types with a powerful STAB super effective Thunderbolt. Magnezone has the excellent addition of Magnet Pull, which will trap Shed Shell-less Skarmory and Levitate Bronzong, making it much easier for Donphan to use Earthquake with ease. However, both Magnezone and Lanturn (should you mention HP Grass on Magnezone?) are left hopeless against Swampert, so Hidden Power Grass Zapdos may well be more favorable for you, at the cost of an Ice-type weakness. Zapdos also has the advantage of being able to use Heat Wave, allowing it to do high damage to defensive Grass-type Pokémon. As mentioned earlier in the analysis, Ludicolo can take on bulky Water-types relatively well with a resistance to Water-type moves, and good Special Defense, on top of a choice of STAB Grass-type moves. However, Brave Bird Skarmory may (removed "well") cause Ludicolo problems. Heracross can again be used if wanted, as it can deal with Cresselia and certain Ghost-types, which may want to cause Donphan issues.</p>

<p>While you may carry a strong Electric- or Grass-type Pokémon to deal with bulky Water-types, it is likely the opponent will carry a resistance of their own to these types. Blissey with Toxic will cause these Pokémon problems, but obviously risks facing Donphan, a matchup in which the latter would win. Gliscor can shrug off Electric-type moves, and Donphan's Earthquakes, so it may be worth firing off an Ice Shard relatively early in the game, so Gliscor will be fearful of switching into Donphan. Other common team mates of bulky Water-types are Tyranitar and Salamence, both of which won't like taking an Earthquake or Ice Shard from Donphan, respectively. Swampert is also popular, but can be 2HKOed by Donphan's Earthquake, while being outsped due to Donphan's Speed EVs.</p>

<p>In addition, Swords Dance Infernape can work well on a team with Donphan. Infernape will lure in Pokémon which are common switch-ins to Donphan: Vaporeon, Swampert, and Gyarados. After a Swords Dance, Life Orb Infernape can OHKO Vaporeon and Gyarados after Stealth Rock with Close Combat and Stone Edge respectively, while also being able to do huge amounts of damage to Swampert. Paralysis support is also highly advised when used with Donphan, to make up for its severe lack of Speed.</p>


[Other Options]
<p>Body Slam can provide paralysis support but doesn't offer much in the way of type coverage. Thunder Fang is only of use for Gyarados, but Stone Edge does plenty of damage already. Counter works fairly well with Donphan's high Defense and can grab a surprise KO when facing something like a Heracross's Megahorn. Assurance works with Stealth Rock and hits such threats as Starmie and Dusknoir hard. Poison Jab is his most powerful weapon against most Grass-types, but the poor coverage it offers otherwise make it a lesser option. Seed Bomb allows for an easy 2HKO with no investment on even the most defensive of Swampert, but has poor synergy with Earthquake and therefore is one of its lesser options. Rock Polish, Endeavor, and Flail are all on offer, but are rather gimmicky options for Donphan.</p>
Comments in parentheses. Just a few things, nice job Twash.
 

cim

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I thought the whole point of Donphan is that two of the three main Spin blockers (Dusknoir and Spiritomb) don't really phaze it as it can just repeatedly EQ them on switch-ins. Mention maybe how you can beat them one on one by having Heatran take the burns and just hitting them on the switch in Team Options?
 

Colonel M

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K, so I'd like to ask if Assurance > Stone Edge? I know Rock and Ground are an awesome combination, but Assurance is needed for things like Gengar and Rotom-A, whom are more common than, say, Dusknoir and Spiritomb. Stone Edge, then, should be listed as the first move in list 4. OR, list Rapid Spin, then Stone Edge, then Fire Fang. I'd almost argue Stone Edge > Ice Shard, but having utility of being a Dragonslayer (lol) seems alright.

In Team Options for the Choice Band set: mention Stealth Rock somewhere. Since STAB Earthquake is usually responded by a Flying-type, they'll likely take 25% off their HP, or less if their second typing is NVE (obviously). Levitating Pokemon still suffer 12.5% of damage. Guess I'm trying to highlight that a Pokemon that has access to Stealth Rock is a good idea in tandem with Choice Band Donphan.
 

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