[Overview]
<p>Exeggutor stands out as the only Grass-type that can set up and also perform well in Trick Room, unlike Whimsicott and Celebi, which are too fast for Trick Room. The combination of Harvest, Sitrus Berry, and passable bulk with EV investment enables Exeggutor to withstand attacks from many Pokemon and passively heal them off. Exeggutor can also be used as a special attacker on Sunny Day teams, as it has the highest Special Attack out of a the Chlorophyll users, which can be utilized for sweeping under sunlight.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the positives end there. Exeggutor's horrid defensive typing leaves it vulnerable to a large list of common Pokemon (though this can be remedied to an extent by Sleep Powder). Many Pokemon resist its STABs, hindering Exeggutor's offensive potential. Chlorophyll sets are also dependent on sunlight to function, and sunlight is difficult to maintain in a metagame where sand, rain, and even hail are more common.</p>
[SET]
name: Trick Room
move 1: Trick Room
move 2: Leaf Storm
move 3: Psyshock / Psychic
move 4: Protect
item: Sitrus Berry
ability: Harvest
nature: Sassy
evs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 24 SpA / 220 SpD
ivs: 0 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Trick Room gives Exeggutor and its slow teammates a Speed advantage over your opponent for five turns; moreover Exeggutor has the durability to set it up. Its typing and incredible passive recovery also differentiate it from other Trick Room users.</p>
<p>Leaf Storm is Exeggutor's most powerful STAB move and has an 81.25% chance to OHKO 252 HP / 0 SpD Politoed. Psyshock or Psychic are alternative STAB moves that does not lower Exeggutor's special attack whilst providing extra coverage, especially against Fighting- and Poison-types. Psyshock is preferred, as Pokemon in the Doubles metagame are more likely to be specially defensive than physically defensive. Psychic does outdamage Psyshock against some notable Pokemon, though, such as Conkeldurr and Kyurem-B. Protect is obligatory to keep Exeggutor safe against Pokemon that threaten Exeggutor whilst your other Pokemon on the field can threaten it, and, in addition to its normal myriad of uses, provides more opportunities for Harvest to activate.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Harvest and Sitrus Berry are what enables Exeggutor to withstand trauma, giving it incredible passive recovery. Its Special bulk enables it to truly utilize this combo. With the given EV spread, Exeggutor will always survive Timid Latios' Dragon Gem Draco Meteor, and Modest 252 SpA Politoed' Ice Beam will deal 51.77% damage maximum (on that note, Exeggutor is brilliant against rain teams, as it fairs similarly well against other Water-types). 12 Defense EVs guarantee survival against Tyranitar's unboosted Crunch. Sleep Powder can be used instead of one of Exeggutor's STAB moves for sleep support, but Exeggutor then loses out on valuable coverage.</p>
<p>Exeggutor is not a Pokemon that you can just slap on the team; the team needs to effectively utilise Exeggutor's Grass typing for synergy. This is the main reason to use Exeggutor as a Trick Room setter. Otherwise you would be better off with another Pokemon to set up Trick Room. Heatran as a teammate benefits from Trick Room whilst providing excellent defensive synergy with Exeggutor; in addition, it covers Scizor, Genesect, and Bisharp, all of which counter Exeggutor. In return, Exeggutor manhandles the Water-types who wall Heatran. The same applies to other Fire-types such as Chandelure and Victini, though they don't synergize as well defensively. On that note, Chandelure and Victini can also set up Trick Room. Cresselia can use Sunny Day to give Harvest a 100% chance of restoring a Berry and can also be a second Trick Room setter for the team. Quiet Ninetales holding an Iron Ball also sets up sunlight and benefits from Exeggutor's Trick Room and ability to handle Water-types. Water-types also work well as teammates, covering the Fire-types such as Heatran that threaten Exeggutor. Exeggutor in turn checks two of the most common Grass-types that threaten Water-types, Amoonguss and Breloom, as well as Electric-types like Thundurus and Zapdos. Although Jellicent shares Exeggutor's weaknesses to Ghost and Dark, it can provide burn support through Scald and Will-O-Wisp to neuter physical threats so that less Pokemon can break through Exeggutor's passive recovery whilst acting as a secondary Trick Room setter.</p>
<p>Fake Out support increases the likelihood that Exeggutor can pull off Trick Room. Follow Me and Rage Powder support also achieve this, but Fake Out is preferred, as unlike Fake Out, they are ineffective against Heat Wave and Blizzard, both of which hit Exeggutor super effectively. Hitmontop and Scrafty can provide Fake Out support, whilst benefiting from Trick Room. They also provide Intimidate support, which enables Exeggutor to utilize Harvest more easily, and threaten Tyranitar and Bisharp for Exeggutor.</p>
[SET]
name: Chlorophyll
move 1: Leaf Storm / Grass Knot
move 2: Psychic / Psyshock
move 3: Sleep Powder
move 4: Protect
item: Life Orb / Focus Sash
ability: Chlorophyll
nature: Modest
evs: 32 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD / 216 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Chlorophyll utilizes Exeggutor's massive Special Attack and pairs it with incredible Speed for a sweeping approach. Be warned though, much of the metagame can OHKO Exeggutor without EV investment in defenses due to its many weaknesses and lack of bulk to cover them.</p>
<p>Leaf Storm is the main move due to its raw power — when backed by Life Orb, it nets a guaranteed OHKO on 0 HP Garchomp and 252 HP Landorus-T and Tyranitar even in sand; all of the said Pokemon commonly trouble sun teams. Grass Knot is a less powerful alternative that does not cause a Special Attack drop, and it has 100 or 120 Base Power against much of the metagame. But be warned, it misses out on OHKOes against many notable threats, such as Rotom-W and Politoed. Psychic or Psyshock provides a secondary STAB option that can OHKO the multitude of Fighting-types in Doubles. Psychic is slashed first as it OHKOes Conkeldurr even without a Life Orb, but Psyshock only has a 56.25% chance to OHKO the standard 96 HP / 80 Def Conkeldurr with a Life Orb and a 0% chance when unboosted. Both options will OHKO Hitmontop, the premier Fighting-type of doubles. Sleep Powder can immobilize an opposing Pokemon for the rest of the battle, as they will most likely switch out after being put to sleep. Furthermore, it allows Exeggutor to dodge Sucker Punch. Protect keeps Exeggutor safe for a turn, or alternatively, gives an ally Pokemon a chance to set up sunlight to activate Chlorophyll.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Life Orb maximizes Exeggutor's offense capabilities and, therefore, gets the first slash. It is strongly recommended if using Leaf Storm in order to score the aforementioned OHKOs. Furthermore, Life Orb recoil means little when much of the metagame will OHKO Exeggutor even at full health. On that topic, Focus Sash is also viable to ensure Exeggutor will survive at least one attack. The EVs maximize Special Attack and enable Exeggutor to outspeed neutral-natured Deoxys-A and positive-natured base 130s in the sun. 32 HP EVs provide a Life Orb number, minimizing Life Orb recoil. The rest is dumped into Special Defense. If not using Life Orb, reallocate Exeggutor's Special Defense EVs into HP.</p>
<p>Exeggutor has many coverage moves that it can utilize instead of either Psyshock or Psychic, as well as Sleep Powder. Hidden Power Fire nails Steel-types that resist Exeggutor's STABs, and it gets pseudo-STAB in sun. Be warned that Scizor and Genesect holding an Occa Berry or Focus Sash can survive Hidden Power Fire OHKO Exeggutor back with their Bug-type attacks. Hidden Power Ground nails Heatran, which otherwise walls Exeggutor to death and OHKOes it in return. Hidden Power Ground will always OHKO 4 HP / 0 SpD sets without Shuca Berry provided Exeggutor holds a Life Orb, and has a chance to OHKO 252 HP / 0 SpD sets. Hidden Power Ice provides coverage against the multitude of Dragon-types, and OHKOs 4x Ice-weak Dragon-types and Landorus-T with a Life Orb boost unless they hold a Yache Berry or Focus Sash (sadly, most Landorus-T hold one of these items). Solarbeam can also be used as a Grass-type STAB move without Leaf Storm's Special Attack drop and Grass Knot's low Base Power against Pokemon with low weight. However, it is unreliable, as it renders Exeggutor a sitting duck when used outside sun, and as such is much less useful against the omnipresent Politoed and Tyranitar, which can remove sun upon switching in.</p>
<p>Either Ninetales or a Sunny Day user is required as a teammate, though both can be run on the same team. Without it, there is no point in using Chlorophyll, and Exeggutor becomes a liability; this cannot be stressed enough. With no Speed or bulk, it will be KOed easily before it does anything. Pairing Exeggutor with Fire-types work well once again, as they can nail Steel-types which otherwise wall Exeggutor, and also benefit from the sun that Exeggutor desperately needs to function. In return, Exeggutor can potentially OHKO Tyranitar and Politoed with Leaf Storm (and Abomasnow if running Hidden Power Fire), who are huge threats to sun teams thanks to their weather-inducing abilities.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>Giga Drain can be used for a Grass-type STAB move, but it is weak and cannot 2HKO Tyranitar, who will 2HKO back at worse. Exeggutor benefits little from Giga Drain's recovery when it already has extensive passive recovery with Sitrus Berry + Harvest. In addition, Hidden Power Ground, Low Kick, and Nature Power are coverage options against Steel-types. Low Kick also smacks Tyranitar hard. Nature Power becomes Earthquake and deals similar damage to Hidden Power Ground but targets every other Pokemon on the field. Power Swap can be used in tandem with Leaf Storm to pass Exeggutor's Special Attack drop to an opposing Pokemon, though it requires a moveslot, and the Special Attack drop can be offset by simply switching. Exeggutor set up Reflect and Light Screen, but Exeggutor has more important roles. This is better left to bulkier or faster Pokemon that can set up screens more reliably. Substitute sounds good in theory on a Pokemon who can easily restore HP passively and can set it up on a predicted double-Protect (which is used to stall out Trick Room), but it is not as impressive in practice; Exeggutor's Substitutes are easily broken, Exeggutor already has 4 moveslot syndrome, and it doesn't gel well with Leaf Storm's Special Attack drop.</p>
<p>Exeggutor can use Harvest without Trick Room. The main issue with this is that Exeggutor's match-ups against Pokemon tend to be very one-sided; opposing Pokemon are generally either easily walled by Exeggutor, or easily counter or check Harvest Exeggutor. Depending on your opponent's team, if it has many Pokemon in the latter category (which is not uncommon), Exeggutor can be a liability. Trick Room fortunately generally ensures that Exeggutor will at least have some use, whereas Exeggutor otherwise has trouble achieving anything notable when it can do little to much of the opponent's team whilst taking major damage in return. Other bulky Grass-type, such as Amoonguss, and other offensive types such as Shaymin-S, are more likely to be useful against such teams. Finally Lum Berry and Rest can be combined with Harvest for status immunity and full HP recovery, but it is difficult to give up a moveslot for Rest, and Exeggutor might not find the time to use Rest.</p>
[Checks and Counters]
<p>As a general rule of thumb, any Pokemon with a STAB super effective move can break through Harvest Exeggutor, as such a move usually does enough damage to prevent Exeggutor from restoring enough HP with Harvest and Sitrus Berry to take two hits even if Exeggutor can take one hit. This list of Pokemon is surprisingly large. Scizor, Genesect, Hydreigon, Heatran, Bisharp, and Escavalier all laugh at Exeggutor's STAB moves and hit it back super effectively with their STABs. Be warned, however, that Hidden Power Fire can 2HKO or OHKO most Steel-types, with the notable exception of Heatran. Volcarona, Abomasnow, Shaymin-S, Salamence, and Tornadus also hit Exeggutor hard whilst resisting Exeggutor's most powerful move, Leaf Storm. Despite being weak to one of Exeggutor's STABs, Tyranitar and Heracross can take a STAB Leaf Storm and Psychic-type STAB of choice respectively, and hit hard with their STABs. Metagross is one of the few Pokemon that can outmuscle Exeggutor without super effective hits, thanks to shrugging off Exeggutor's STAB moves and gaining potential Attack boosts with Meteor Mash. Any Pokemon running U-turn will probably 2HKO Exeggutor; and Landorus-T has a guaranteed OHKO on Exeggutor with it. Jirachi can redirect Exeggutor's attacks with Follow Me and easily shrug them off with its typing and bulk, whilst its teammate takes out Exeggutor.</p>
<p>All the Pokemon mentioned above can also check Chlorophyll Exeggutor and, as it lacks bulk, most of them will be able to OHKO Exeggutor. However, they will have to watch out for Sleep Powder and coverage moves such as Hidden Power. Note that the appropriate resistance Berry can enable them to withstand the appropriate coverage move. Exeggutor can be outrun and OHKOed by common Choice Scarf users, such as Genesect, Landorus-T, Tyranitar, and Terrakion with X-Scissor. Bisharp bypasses Exeggutor's Speed and with Sucker Punch, which OHKOes it. Removing sun from the field will make Exeggutor much easier to handle; low Speed combined with many weaknesses and weak Special Defense makes it prey for many Pokemon. Abomasnow is the best weather inducer for this job, as the others are either weak to Grass or set up sun themselves. By extension, Trick Room also renders Chlorophyll Exeggutor vulnerable. Regardless of its set, Exeggutor is walled by Cresselia, which can utilize its multitude of support moves or even hit back with Ice Beam.</p>
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