What to use:
Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Rock Tomb
Role: Lead
What it does: Despite the nerfing of powder moves, making Grass types and Overcoat users immune to their effects, Spore's guaranteed sleep chance . Aside from Smeargle, Breloom is the fastest pokemon with access to Spore, and Breloom's base 130 attack, access to Technician, with several moves that benefit from the boost allow it to be a powerful physical attacker even after it has put something to sleep. This set is Breloom's most common (and best) option in OU, and even though this set is exactly what the opponent will expect when they see a Breloom on team preview, its predictability in no way diminishes its effectiveness.
Spore is a key move on Breloom, immediately threatening teams that lack a Grass type, Overcoat user or Poison Heal user. Even if the opponent does have a safe switchin to Spore, this can be predicted used to safely bring in a check to their sleep absorber. Technician boosted Mach Punch is Breloom's most feared attack, as it is likely to OHKO both Greninja and Mega Tyranitar. Bullet Seed is a great STAB move, as each hit is boosted by Technician, allowing it to OHKO most Grass weak pokemon even without a boosting item, and on the rare chance that it hits five times, pokemon like Landorus can be OHKOed. Rock Tomb is a key move, as it both receives a boost from Technician, offers excellent coverage with Breloom's STABs, OHKOing pokemon like Talonflame, Mega Pinsir and Mega Charizard-Y on the switch. Additionally lowers the speed of a pokemon that it hits, allowing Breloom to potentially outspeed and KO checks with a second attack; for example Specs Keldeo cannot switch in, as it will be outsped and hit by Bullet Seed. Jolly Breloom reaches 262 speed, which allows it to outspeed Tornadus-T, Raikou and Starmie after hitting them with Rock Tomb.
Swords Dance over Rock Tomb may be an option, but Mega Pinsir in particular can freely setup on Breloom then. It may be possible to drop Spore for Swords Dance, to bluff an opponent into thinking you lack the move, although Breloom faces competition as a wallbreaker from more powerful pokemon like Crawdaunt. Breloom has a few other options in its movepool, such as Focus Punch to hit a pokemon on the switch with after using Spore, or Force Palm for a more powerful Fighting STAB but this forces Breloom to give up Rock Tomb, which is generally undesirable.
Jolly is the preferred nature for Breloom, as you outspeed everything slower than base 130+ speed pokemon after Rock Tomb, and allows you to outspeed and Mach Punch pokemon such as Diggersby who more commonly run an Adamant nature. although Adamant is also viable if your team is positioned to cover up faster threats, as it gives additional power with Mach Punch, which for example allows it to always OHKO Greninja. The main alternative to a Focus Sash is Life Orb, but Focus Sash is generally preferred, as it almost guarantees that you can get off a Spore or another attack, followed by a Mach Punch.
Good teammates: As this Breloom set is best used as a lead, it can fit on a variety of teams, although it is best on hyper offense, as it is excellent against both opposing offensive teams, and helps to counter the favourable matchup that weather based teams have against weatherless hyper offense. Breloom is a very good check to the sand core of Excadrill and Tyranitar, as even though Sand breaks its Focus Sash, it only requires a little prior damage to have a guaranteed OHKO on both pokemon. Rain teams have trouble with Breloom too, as Bullet Seed can potentially OHKO Politoed, and no Swift Swim users can safely switch in on Breloom. This set is less useful against stall and some balanced teams, as they generally carry a cleric, or a defensive Grass type, such as Mega Venusaur or Amoonguss, both of which are immune to Spore and wall this set, although Breloom is by no means dead weight against stall, as no bulky Water type can afford to stay in on Breloom. To cover up the stall weakness, it's standard to pair Breloom with at least one wallbreaker; for example Mega Pinsir is a great partner, as Breloom is able to beat most of the common Flying resistant pokemon. Greninja and Talonflame are both excellent on offensive teams, and easily take on the Grass types that resist Breloom's Spore . Pairing Breloom with hazard removal is also a good idea, as if Breloom can keep its Focus Sash intact, then it can also switch in later in the game. Breloom is also a dangerous pokemon to use in conjunction with Sticky Web, as it can outspeed most grounded pokemon, and can use Rock Tomb to slow down levitate or Flying types.
What counters it: Jolly Mamoswine with Life Orb can anti-lead Breloom with Icicle Spear, as can Infernape with Fake Out and Mega Medicham, if it has Fake Out to break the Focus Sash, as Mega Medicham outspeeds Breloom. As mentioned above, defensive teams fare fairly well against this set, as they often carry a pokemon that hard counters this set and is immune to Spore, such as Mega Venusaur, Amoongus, Gliscor or Celebi. Sleep is still relatively uncommon in OU, and very few pokemon can give up a moveslot for Sleep Talk, with Choice Banded Talonflame and Trick Room Choice Specs Exploud being two of the only pokemon that don't benefit more from running a 4th attack. Rest + Sleep Talk users are also fairly rare in OU, with the most common being Suicune, who will likely lose to Bullet Seed unless it pulls Scald from the Sleep Talk roulette and gets a lucky burn. Breloom has a very favourable matchup against offensive teams, as they seldom carry a pokemon to take a Spore, and often have pokemon weak to Mach Punch, so these teams may be forced to use a faster attacker to outspeed Breloom and bring it down to its Focus Sash, before outspeeding and 'revenge killing' it with a second pokemon.
Any additional info: Breloom doesn't have to use Spore right away; if you can predict a switchin to a Grass type, or to a pokemon that the opponent will sleep fodder, then it may be better to go for Rock Tomb, which may allow Breloom the chance to outspeed and OHKO the switchin.
Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Rock Tomb
Role: Lead
What it does: Despite the nerfing of powder moves, making Grass types and Overcoat users immune to their effects, Spore's guaranteed sleep chance . Aside from Smeargle, Breloom is the fastest pokemon with access to Spore, and Breloom's base 130 attack, access to Technician, with several moves that benefit from the boost allow it to be a powerful physical attacker even after it has put something to sleep. This set is Breloom's most common (and best) option in OU, and even though this set is exactly what the opponent will expect when they see a Breloom on team preview, its predictability in no way diminishes its effectiveness.
Spore is a key move on Breloom, immediately threatening teams that lack a Grass type, Overcoat user or Poison Heal user. Even if the opponent does have a safe switchin to Spore, this can be predicted used to safely bring in a check to their sleep absorber. Technician boosted Mach Punch is Breloom's most feared attack, as it is likely to OHKO both Greninja and Mega Tyranitar. Bullet Seed is a great STAB move, as each hit is boosted by Technician, allowing it to OHKO most Grass weak pokemon even without a boosting item, and on the rare chance that it hits five times, pokemon like Landorus can be OHKOed. Rock Tomb is a key move, as it both receives a boost from Technician, offers excellent coverage with Breloom's STABs, OHKOing pokemon like Talonflame, Mega Pinsir and Mega Charizard-Y on the switch. Additionally lowers the speed of a pokemon that it hits, allowing Breloom to potentially outspeed and KO checks with a second attack; for example Specs Keldeo cannot switch in, as it will be outsped and hit by Bullet Seed. Jolly Breloom reaches 262 speed, which allows it to outspeed Tornadus-T, Raikou and Starmie after hitting them with Rock Tomb.
Swords Dance over Rock Tomb may be an option, but Mega Pinsir in particular can freely setup on Breloom then. It may be possible to drop Spore for Swords Dance, to bluff an opponent into thinking you lack the move, although Breloom faces competition as a wallbreaker from more powerful pokemon like Crawdaunt. Breloom has a few other options in its movepool, such as Focus Punch to hit a pokemon on the switch with after using Spore, or Force Palm for a more powerful Fighting STAB but this forces Breloom to give up Rock Tomb, which is generally undesirable.
Jolly is the preferred nature for Breloom, as you outspeed everything slower than base 130+ speed pokemon after Rock Tomb, and allows you to outspeed and Mach Punch pokemon such as Diggersby who more commonly run an Adamant nature. although Adamant is also viable if your team is positioned to cover up faster threats, as it gives additional power with Mach Punch, which for example allows it to always OHKO Greninja. The main alternative to a Focus Sash is Life Orb, but Focus Sash is generally preferred, as it almost guarantees that you can get off a Spore or another attack, followed by a Mach Punch.
Good teammates: As this Breloom set is best used as a lead, it can fit on a variety of teams, although it is best on hyper offense, as it is excellent against both opposing offensive teams, and helps to counter the favourable matchup that weather based teams have against weatherless hyper offense. Breloom is a very good check to the sand core of Excadrill and Tyranitar, as even though Sand breaks its Focus Sash, it only requires a little prior damage to have a guaranteed OHKO on both pokemon. Rain teams have trouble with Breloom too, as Bullet Seed can potentially OHKO Politoed, and no Swift Swim users can safely switch in on Breloom. This set is less useful against stall and some balanced teams, as they generally carry a cleric, or a defensive Grass type, such as Mega Venusaur or Amoonguss, both of which are immune to Spore and wall this set, although Breloom is by no means dead weight against stall, as no bulky Water type can afford to stay in on Breloom. To cover up the stall weakness, it's standard to pair Breloom with at least one wallbreaker; for example Mega Pinsir is a great partner, as Breloom is able to beat most of the common Flying resistant pokemon. Greninja and Talonflame are both excellent on offensive teams, and easily take on the Grass types that resist Breloom's Spore . Pairing Breloom with hazard removal is also a good idea, as if Breloom can keep its Focus Sash intact, then it can also switch in later in the game. Breloom is also a dangerous pokemon to use in conjunction with Sticky Web, as it can outspeed most grounded pokemon, and can use Rock Tomb to slow down levitate or Flying types.
What counters it: Jolly Mamoswine with Life Orb can anti-lead Breloom with Icicle Spear, as can Infernape with Fake Out and Mega Medicham, if it has Fake Out to break the Focus Sash, as Mega Medicham outspeeds Breloom. As mentioned above, defensive teams fare fairly well against this set, as they often carry a pokemon that hard counters this set and is immune to Spore, such as Mega Venusaur, Amoongus, Gliscor or Celebi. Sleep is still relatively uncommon in OU, and very few pokemon can give up a moveslot for Sleep Talk, with Choice Banded Talonflame and Trick Room Choice Specs Exploud being two of the only pokemon that don't benefit more from running a 4th attack. Rest + Sleep Talk users are also fairly rare in OU, with the most common being Suicune, who will likely lose to Bullet Seed unless it pulls Scald from the Sleep Talk roulette and gets a lucky burn. Breloom has a very favourable matchup against offensive teams, as they seldom carry a pokemon to take a Spore, and often have pokemon weak to Mach Punch, so these teams may be forced to use a faster attacker to outspeed Breloom and bring it down to its Focus Sash, before outspeeding and 'revenge killing' it with a second pokemon.
Any additional info: Breloom doesn't have to use Spore right away; if you can predict a switchin to a Grass type, or to a pokemon that the opponent will sleep fodder, then it may be better to go for Rock Tomb, which may allow Breloom the chance to outspeed and OHKO the switchin.
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