Drifloon (QC 0/3)

Bagon

Banned deucer.
Taken over from Darkamber8828



QC Checks: / /

Final QC Check:

GP Checks: /

Overview
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-Frail, SR weak
-Doesn't like surge in Knock Off / Dark usage.
-Access to a great ability in Unburden.
-34 Speed after Unburden makes it a great late-game sweeper, no Flying Gem, but Berry Juice gives it extra longevity
-Ghost buff means nothing resists both STABs outside of Helioptile and Pawniard
-Berry Juice + Recycle gives reliable recovery, easy to stack Calm Mind boosts
-Excellent support movepool including Will-O-Wisp, Baton Pass, Destiny Bond, Memento, Knock Off, and Tailwind

AcroFloon
########
name: AcroFloon
move 1: Acrobatics
move 2: Shadow Ball
move 3: Substitute
move 4: Destiny Bond / Will-O-Wisp / Hidden Power Fighting
ability: Unburden
item: Berry Juice
evs: 196 Atk / 116 SpA / 196 Spe
nature: Naive

Moves
========

-Acrobatics is this set's bread and butter, hitting everything that doesn't resist it hard.
-Shadow Ball smacks Rock, Steel, and Electric types that resist Acrobatics, as well as outspeeding and killing other Ghost-types after an Unburden boost, and is the best move to use before activating Unburden.
-Substitute allows you to activate Unburden and Berry Juice easily, as well as avoid status and play around Sucker Punch users.
-Hidden Power Fighting allows Drifloon to hit Pawniard and Helioptile, the only pokemon that resist its STABs, hard, as well as being Drifloon's strongest move against Aron and Amaura.
-Will-o-Wisp lets Drifloon cripple Dark-types like Pawniard that checks it with strong STAB Sucker Punch, as well as any other physical attacker.
-On the other hand, Destiny Bond lets Drifloon go out with a bang, nabbing another kill at the tail-end of a sweep and helping with Sucker Punch mindgames, while Memento allows for a free turn of setup for a teammate to sweep

Set Details
========

-Max attack lets Drifloon hit hard with Acrobatics, max speed and a positive nature lets Drifloon outspeed Pawniard before Unburden and outpace all scarfers and +1 Speed Boost users after it.
-Naive nature and physical investment allows Drifloon to take priority hits better
-Berry Juice allows Drifloon to regain health.
-If you are using HP fighting it should be changed to 36 HP / 196 Atk / 8 Def / 40 SpA / 8 SpD / 200 Spe.

Usage Tips
========

-Drifloon has plenty of opportunities to switch in on an immunity to Normal, Ground, or Fighting, or his quadruple Bug resist
-This set excels at late-game sweeping, when physically-bulky pokemon and priority users have been KO'd or weakened
However, it can be brought in early-game to neuter its switch-ins with Will-o-Wisp and soften Flying resists with Shadow Ball

Team Options
========

-Drifloon appreciates having Stealth Rock off the field, so a user of Rapid Spin or Defog is welcome. Vullaby resists Drifloon's Dark and Ghost weaknesses and can use Knock Off to weaken physical walls, Drilbur resists Rock, is immune to Electric, and has access to a powerful STAB Earthquake to hammer both of them, as well as access to Rapid Spin
-Misdreavus and Drifloon form an excellent team, as Misdreavus can lure in Dark-types and cripple or remove them with Will-o-Wisp, Trick, or Destiny Bond, allowing Drifloon to sweep.
-Drifloon appreciates Knock Off support to be able to OHKO bulky pokemon, such as Spritzee. Pawniard resists Ice, Dark, Ghost, and Rock for Drifloon, while Drifloon takes Fighting and Ground moves for it. Scraggy resists Dark, Ghost, and Rock, and keeps itself healthy with STAB Drain Punch, while Drifloon takes Fighting moves for it.


Calm Mind
########
name: Calm Mind
move 1: Calm Mind
move 2: Shadow Ball
move 3: Hidden Power Fighting
move 4: Recycle / Substitute / Will-O-Wisp
ability: Unburden
item: Berry Juice
evs: 116 HP / 184 Def / 36 SAtk / 4 SpD / 120 Spe
nature: Modest

Moves
========

-Calm Mind is essential, weakening special attacks and increasing the power of Drifloon's Shadow Ball.
-Shadow Ball has great coverage on its own, only stopped by Normal- and Dark-typed pokemon.
-Recycle allows Drifloon to regain its Berry Juice and keep boosting up.
-Hidden Power Fighting is to hit both Dark and Normal types that do not take damage from Shadow Ball.
-Will-o-Wisp allows Drifloon to patch up its physical defense and cripple Normal- and Dark-types, most of whom are physical attackers.

Set Details
========

-Speed investment gives Drifloon 30 speed after Unburden, enough to outspeed 19 Speed scarfers like Misdreavus.
-14 SpA prevents rounding down when boosting
-Remainder invested primarily into defense, as it is not boosted by Calm Mind

Usage Tips
========

-Drifloon has plenty of opportunities to switch in on an immunity to Normal, Ground, or Fighting, or his quadruple Bug resist
-This Drifloon is reliant on teammates to stop the things that hard counter it, namely Norrmal- and Dark-types, as well as physical-attacking Fire-types, who are immune to burns.
-This Drifloon has utility beyond sweeping, as access to reliable recovery allows it to switch in multiple times and spread burn

Team Options
========

-Drifloon appreciates having Stealth Rock off the field, so a user of Rapid Spin or Defog is welcome. Vullaby resists Drifloon's Dark and Ghost weaknesses and can use Knock Off to weaken special walls, Drilbur resists Rock, is immune to Electric, and has access to a powerful STAB Earthquake to hammer both of them, as well as access to Rapid Spin
-Misdreavus and Drifloon form an excellent team, as Misdreavus can lure in Normal- and Dark-types and cripple or remove them with Will-o-Wisp, Trick, Destiny Bond, Hidden Power Fighting, or Dazzling Gleam, allowing Drifloon to sweep, while Drifloon can take hits and spread burn
-Drifloon appreciates Knock Off support to be able to OHKO bulky pokemon. Pawniard resists Ice, Dark, Ghost, and Rock for Drifloon, while Drifloon takes Fighting and Ground moves for it, Scraggy resists Dark, Ghost, and Rock, and keeps itself healthy with STAB Drain Punch, while Drifloon takes Fighting moves for it
-This Drifloon struggles against physically-attacking Fire-types, so a switch-in to them are appreciated. Chinchou can beat Ponyta and Growlithe lacking Close Combat with Volt Absorb and STAB Hydro Pump, and can absorb burns and use Heal Bell to remove crippling paralysis and Toxic, and resists Electric- and Ice-type moves for Drifloon, while Drifloon takes Ground- and Grass-types moves for it.

Baton Pass
########
name: Baton Pass
move 1: Stockpile / Calm Mind
move 2: Shadow Ball
move 3: Will-o-Wisp
move 4: Baton Pass
ability: Unburden
item: Weakness Policy
evs: 36 HP / 164 Def / 84 SpD / 196 Spe
nature: Timid

Moves
========

-Drifloon is one of the few pokemon with Stockpile and Baton Pass, as well as Unburden and perfect typing, with many weaknesses but no quadruple weaknesses, as well as immunities to many forms of priority, making it one of the best Weakness Policy passers in the tier
-Stockpile is the crux of the set, as Drifloon becomes bulky enough to survive super-effective hits after a boost or two, and it can be Baton Passed.
-Shadow Ball is STAB and has great coverage on most of the tier, nothing that doesn't resist it likes taking a +2 Shadow Ball.
-Will-O-Wisp is more efficient than Stockpile for tanking physical hits, permanently crippling many threats to Drifloon's Baton Pass.
-Baton Pass allows Drifloon to pass its defensive and offensive boosts to another sweeper
-Calm Mind can be used to boost your Special Attack as well as raising your Special Defense, and doesn't warn your opponent that you are using Weakness Policy, but Stockpile is much more reliable for raising your defenses than the shaky accuracy and prediction requirement of Will-O-Wisp.

Set Details
========

-Max speed and a positive nature allow Drifloon to outspeed Pawniard and Stockpile before it can attack.
-Remaining EVs put into bulk, as tanking super-effective hits is quite difficult and this Drifloon's priority is not to sweep
-Unburden allows Drifloon to outspeed every unboosted pokemon in the tier
-Baton Pass away once Weakness Policy is activated

Usage Tips
========

-Drifloon's many weaknesses, Ice, Electric, Rock, Dark, and Ghost, all come in handy here, and every team has multiple pokemon that can activate Weakness Policy
-Drifloon should generally Stockpile on a predicted switch, unless the switch-in will be a faster physical attacker, which is when Will-o-Wisp is the preferred option.
-Drifloon can tank weaker Knock Offs and activate Weakness Policy, but stronger STAB hits can ruin it without sufficient Stockpile boosts or burning
-This set is hard-countered by phazers like Whirlwind Munchlax and Dragon Tail Tyrunt, although neither of them enjoy burns, as well as Clear Smog users like Foongus and Koffing, so make sure these are removed before sweeping.

Team Options
========

-Rapid Spin or Defog is a necessity, as Drifloon needs every bit of health it can get to tank super effective hits. Vullaby resists Drifloon's Dark and Ghost weaknesses and can use Knock Off to weaken special walls. Drilbur resists Rock, is immune to Electric, and has access to a powerful STAB Earthquake to hammer both of them, as well as access to Rapid Spin
-In terms of receivers, it's best to have a well-rounded pokemon that can take hits with Stockpile boosts and dish back with good Speed and Weakness Policy-boosted attack.
-Scraggy is one of the best, resisting Dark, Ghost, and Rock moves, as well as shrugging off crippling burn and paralysis with Shed Skin, it has access to Dragon Dance to help outspeed things and STAB Drain Punch to keep its health up, as well as being able to beat phazers Munchlax and Tyrunt with Fighting moves. It also lures bulky Poison-types with Clear Smog, like Koffing, Trubbish, and Foongus. Lastly, it Knocks Off Eviolites, making them much more fragile and easy to remove.
-Pawniard is another option, as it also has STAB Knock Off, as well as resisting Dark-, Ghost-, Rock-, and Ice-type moves for Drifloon, with near-unresisted STABs, and powerful priority in Sucker Punch.
-Chinchou works well too, taking Electric- and Ice-type moves for Drifloon, with good bulk, unresisted coverage in three moves, and access to Agility.

Other Options
========

-Status moves can be used, as Hypnosis can be run alongside Substitute to provide an 84% chance of sleep in two turns, and Thunder Wave and Toxic have their merits, but Will-o-Wisp is usually the superior option to help bolster Drifloon's subpar bulk
-Explosion is an alternative to Memento or Destiny Bond to heavily damage an opponent and bring in a switch-in, but the other two options are superior due to being able to play around Sucker Punch
-Hidden Power Ground destroys Magnemite without Sturdy and still hits Helioptile, but is much weaker against Pawniard
-Haze and Clear Smog are options for a support Drifloon, but Drifloon is fragile without boosts or burns and has trouble switching in repeatedly due to its Stealth Rock weakness, limiting its ability to take boosted attacks
-Knock Off can be used to knock off opponents' items and cripple them.
-Sucker Punch can be used to eliminate other priority users before they beat Drifloon, but most of the priority users that Drifloon fears resist Sucker Punch, like Croagunk, Pawniard, and Stunky.

Checks & Counters
========

**Bulky Normal Types**: Porygon is one of the hardest counters, immune to Shadow Ball and not minding burns at all while threatening it with Ice Beam or Thunder Wave. Munchlax is immune to Shadow Ball, can tank boosted hits, and Whirlwind Drifloon away, or simply Pursuit.

**Knock Off** Drifloon fears Knock Off, as Recycle does not recover items that have been knocked off, but users are often hesitant to switch in for fear of being burned. It is usually OHKOd by Knock Off.

**Dark Types**: Dark-types in general fare well against Drifloon, resisting Shadow Ball and threatening it with STAB Sucker Punch, Knock Off, or Pursuit. None of them enjoy Acrobatics, however, except for Pawniard. Substitute, Destiny Bond, Baton Pass, and Memento give it options to play around Sucker Punch, however.

**Sturdy Users**: Magnemite and Tirtouga resist Acrobatics and have a failsafe in Sturdy, while being able to OHKO with STAB attacks, or in Tirtouga's case, threaten with priority or set up.

**Stealth Rock**: Stealth Rock puts a damper on Drifloon's longevity, limiting the amount of times it can switch in.
 
Last edited:

Lord Alphose

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Overview - Not the only Ghost-type with reliable recovery. Frillish still has recovery. Yes, Frillish isn't common, but it exists.

AcroFloon
Moves - Yeah, I question using HP Fighting. I see that it hits Pawniard, but frankly, Drifloon shouldn't be staying in on Pawniard since its going to get rekt anyways.
There are a bunch of spots where you didn't put in bullet points where there were supposed to be bullet points. For the sake of organization, put that in there.
Will-O-Wisp checks far more than Dark-types.

Team Options - I'm thinking that Drifloon likes Fighting-types as teammates since it is kinda afraid of Pawniard, except in the rare case of HP Fighting, which I still question.

Recycle
Moves - One attacking move that is walled by Normal-types? I wouldn't much trust that. Maybe slash some coverage moves after Will-O-Wisp.

Usage Tips - Why do the words get really big all of a sudden? What the heck?

Team Options - Again with the Fighting-types, imo

Baton Pass
Set Details - You misspelled, like, a buh-million words.
I question using Weakness Policy. Sure, the crazy boosts passed to another Pokemon would be incredible, but if I recall correctly, Drifloon isn't the bulkiest of Pokemon, and it's not going to have time to set up enough Stockpiles to survive much of anything super effective.

Other Options - LOLOLOL, remove mention of Gligar

Checks and Counters - Most Electric-types beat Drifloon. Chinchou has great natural special bulk, while Magnemite has sturdy anyways.

But don't listen to a word I say. I'm crazy.
 

Bagon

Banned deucer.
Hey Alphose_Elric thanks a bunch dude, i only edited from darkambers skelly a bit, so its rough. Its also kind of clunked together, so some stuff I cant see. Again, thanks a bunch, will implement asap.
 

Rowan

The professor?
is a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
I don't want substitute slashed with anything else it's a very necessary move to guarantee berry juice + unburden, it's too frail to get the unburden boost without it. knock off doesn't offer any coverage with shadow ball, move it to OO completely

move 1: Acrobatics
move 2: Shadow Ball
move 3: Substitute
move 4: Destiny Bond / Hidden Power Fighting / Will-O-Wisp

Make the set look like this. mention memento in moves, move knock off to OO completely. EVs are complicated. have 196 Atk / 116 SpA / 196 Spe as the EV spread. mention in set details that if you are using HP fighting it should be changed to: 36 HP / 196 Atk / 8 Def /40 SpA / 8 SpD / 200 Spe

I'm very skeptical about the recycle set, i want replays before i approve that, or at least more input from other QC - its not got much bulk for a BJ recycle set and is hit supereffectively by too much shit. if a calm mind set was to exist it would be CM/Sub/shadow ball/hp fight with BJ. i'd change the set to that if anything

weakness policy needs will-o-wisp to burn pawniard so you dont get killed with SR. remove hp fighting from the set. remember you can't pass the unburden boost so the receiver needs to be fast

change the CM set and i'll recheck after that
 

Bagon

Banned deucer.
All done Rowan. On the calm mind set, I kept hp fighting as a slash after will-o-wisp, as it is a sweeper. With shadow ball as its only attacking move, it cant do anything to normal types and it is walled completely.
 

Bagon

Banned deucer.
EVs were 168 Def / 208 SpA / 132 Spe Bold for recycle calm mind.
Probably could be better distributed
 

tcr

sage of six tabs
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I would definitely put Will o Wisp before Hidden Power Fighting in the main set. so the slashes would look Destiny Bond / Wil-O-Wisp / Hidden Power Fighting. I'd rather HP Fight not even be in there, but other people disagree so w/e. WoW has much more utility, still hitting Pawniard, while also stopping most physical attackers in their place.

Move the last bullet in "Moves" to "Set Details." It belongs there, since it is about an EV spread.

On the Calm Mind set you might as well switch HP Fight to the 3rd slot, and have the fourth slot be a mix of the two. Recycle /Substitute / Will-O-Wisp

I see no reason for the Baton Pass set. It's extremely hard to pull off, and is often useless unless in a full on baton pass chain. If you try it as a quickpasser like Torchic, it is sooooooooooooooooo easy to completely mess up, as it requires too much timing to pull off. I would personally remove it and put it in OO but QC members can discuss its viability more. It is way too niche and difficult for me to allow it as a standard set.
 

Rowan

The professor?
is a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Calm Mind set looks better now you have substitute there. In usage tips though, i don't think it has much use other than a sweeper so remove that imo.

Baton Pass is fine imo TCR, especially if using stockpile. +2 offenses and +1 defenses is is pretty fucking scary to face, and Drifloon is almost guaranteed to be hit with a super effective attack, as it has plenty of weaknesses and thanks to defense boosting it will be able to take them.

disable needs a huge mention in OO, it can really fuck up stuff like Porygon, Scarf Pawniard etc, and works very well with Sub.

remove 'knock off' in counters as its covered by 'Dark-types' already. Electri types, rock types, steel types should all be added to counters.

1/3
 

Lord Alphose

All these squares make a circle
is a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Also, Checks and Counters could use a section on Utility, like Taunt and Encore. Cottonee would seriously have a field day against any one of these sets.
 

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