Porygon2

[Gay Bird]

[OVERVIEW]

* Porygon2 is one of the bulkiest Pokemon in the VGC17 metagame.
* Access to Eviolite gives it a major boost to its defenses, making it nearly impossible to OHKO with most common threats.
* Its high Special Attack lets it deal a decent amount of damage as well, threatening Pokemon that are weak to its coverage moves.
* Porygon2 also offers the ability to set up Trick Room, allowing the numerous slower Pokemon in VGC17 to thrive alongside it.
* Overall, Porygon2 is one of the strongest and most popular tanks in the metagame and is something that every team needs to prepare for.

[SET]
name: Bulky Trick Room Setter
move 1: Ice Beam
move 2: Thunderbolt / Tri Attack / Toxic
move 3: Recover
move 4: Trick Room
item: Eviolite
ability: Download
nature: Sassy
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpD

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

* Tri Attack is Porygon2's strongest STAB move, providing reliable damage as well as a chance to inflict status.
* Ice Beam is used to OHKO most Salamence and Garchomp.
* Shadow Ball is another option, as it's Porygon2's best option against Marowak, which would otherwise wall it.
* Thunderbolt can hit Water- and Flying-types, most notably Celesteela, Pelipper, and Gyarados.
* Toxic can be used against Pokemon that wall Porygon2, such as Gastrodon and opposing Porygon2.
* Recover is used to give Porygon2 more longevity.
* Finally, Trick Room is used to set up Trick Room for your team.

Set Details
========

* Eviolite and HP investment maximizes bulk.
* Physical attackers are the most common Pokemon to deal the most damage to Porygon2, so the Defense investment guarantees survival of two Sacred Swords from max Attack Kartana.
* The Special Attack investment guarantees that Ice Beam can OHKO 4 HP Garchomp.
* Quiet nature and 0 IV in Speed makes Porygon2 as fast as possible in Trick Room.
* Download is used for a more consistency, but Trace can be used as well, as there are very few detrimental abilities for Porygon2 in this metagame.
* Just be careful not to get Swift Swim or Surge Surfer, as these will hurt your performance in Trick Room.

Usage Tips
========

* Porygon2 has a very simple but very important role, take hits and set up Trick Room.
* Its bulk means it can take getting doubled into by almost anything, so you only need to be wary of Fake Out or Taunt users.
* Sometimes, both players need to set up trick room.
* In this situation, there is a difficult mind game to get it set up.
* If both players use Trick Room, they cancel each other out.

Team Options
========

* Porygon2 benefits slow Pokemon that thrive in Trick Room, so Pokemon like Muk-Alola, Marowak-Alola, Araquanid, Vikavolt, and Drampa are all great options.
* Hariyama stands out as it has access to Fake Out, stopping Taunt, Sky Drop, or Roar users.
* Tapu Lele is a strong partner as well, stopping priority moves that would bypass Trick Room.
* Porygon2 also fits into most non-hyper-offensive teams, it's amazing bulk and sustainability make it an asset in longer battles.
* Tapu Fini is a strong partner as it can protect Porygon2 from toxic.
* The other Tapus can be good partners as well, to turn off misty terrain so Porygon2 can toxic opponent's mons.
* Pokemon that can check fighting types make strong partners as well.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

* Porygon2 can use Psych Up along with a partner that knows Minimize. This lets it gain the evasiveness of its partner in a single turn.
* Return can be used as an alternative coverage move, as snarl can completely disable Porygon2's offensive capabilities.
* Shadow Ball is an option to hit alolan Marowak, but it has no other viable use.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Toxic**: Because Porygon2 can take so many hits, toxic can be used in order to wear it down without attacking it.

**Fighting Types**: Strong fighting types, including Hariyama, Pheromosa, and Buzzwole, can deal a ton of damage to Porygon2.

**Celesteela**: Celesteela can out-stall Porygon2, especially if it lacks thunderbolt. Celesteela's immunity to toxic and access to leech seed gives it a big advantage.

**Snorlax**: Snorlax can comfortably wall Porygon2, and set up with curse. This also makes trick room ineffective against it as well.

**Taunt**: Pokemon that can use Taunt threaten Trick Room teams, as they can prevent it from getting set up.

**Knock Off**: Pokémon like Muk-Alola and Hariyama can knock off Porygon2's Eviolite, making it much more vulnerable.

 

[Carbonific]

Gay Bird Get this out of WIP soon please.

EDIT: Just changing the tag doesn't count...

 

[kingofmars]

Couple of issues with this analysis:

First off, Recover and Trick room are required moves on any half decent porygon2, they shouldn't be left as options, let alone 3rd options.

For move choices, I would absolutely include toxic as it's one of its more viable options for the mirror and gastrodon.

The EV Spread needs significant work, I'd recommend this instead:
EVs: 244 HP / 92 Def / 28 SpA / 140 SpD
Sassy Nature (0 atk IV, 0 Speed IV)

For partners you'd want to list some common Trick Room mons, most notably Marowak and Araquanid. Porygon2 does a great job of letting these mons succeed under trick room.

Finally, you should mention Porygon2's biggest counter, toxic. This is most notably used by Gastrodon. The only other way you really take care of Porygon2 is by leaving it until the endgame or doubling into it with a strong Z move.

 

[Gay Bird]

Couple of issues with this analysis:

First off, Recover and Trick room are required moves on any half decent porygon2, they shouldn't be left as options, let alone 3rd options.

For move choices, I would absolutely include toxic as it's one of its more viable options for the mirror and gastrodon.

The EV Spread needs significant work, I'd recommend this instead:
EVs: 244 HP / 92 Def / 28 SpA / 140 SpD
Sassy Nature (0 atk IV, 0 Speed IV)

For partners you'd want to list some common Trick Room mons, most notably Marowak and Araquanid. Porygon2 does a great job of letting these mons succeed under trick room.

Finally, you should mention Porygon2's biggest counter, toxic. This is most notably used by Gastrodon. The only other way you really take care of Porygon2 is by leaving it until the endgame or doubling into it with a strong Z move.

Thanks! I've made a few changes, and I'm still working on the EV spread. What are some calcs that are relevant to the spread you suggested? I want to make sure I'm on the same page.

 

[Gotham-Mimiqui]

Your overview lacks cons, you should add Taunt or Knock off, like in Checks & Counters.

 

[Blackmagav]

If somebody sees a porygon 2 they know it's ussing eviolite an is likely slow, assuming that your opponent notices that you likely have a trick room team they will try to taunt which ever pokemon has acess to the trick room. So it will need at least 1 team mate that can also use the trick room and you will simply have to plan accordingly

 

[Carbonific]

Teostra. and Blackmagav, please avoid posting in WIP threads. It's not done yet.

 

[Jibaku]

Overview:
- Should mention its negatives (weakness to strong fighting attacks, occasionally passive, often double targetted / is a prime target for Z moves because it usually doesn't run Protect and usually doesn't have room for it, download's unreliability)

Set:
- Reorder to:
name: Bulky Trick Room Setter
move 1: Ice Beam
move 2: Thunderbolt / Tri Attack / Toxic / Return
move 3: Recover
move 4: Trick Room
item: Eviolite
ability: Download

- Sassy > Quiet imo (note that you lose the ability to OHKO Garchomp but I think Sassy is still overall better bc P2's main job is to tank stuff).
- Ice Beamless P2 is viable but a vast majority of the time you want to have it so I'm leaving it without a slash.
- Move Shadow Ball to the moves section and off the actual set. It's still good enough to be mentioned (hits marowak/metagross), but it's rather situational compared to everything else.
- Admittedly I am rather biased towards Return bc it does so much damage. Also Return actually outdamages Tri Attack.

Usage Tips:
"* In this situation, there is a difficult mind game of getting Trick Room set up." - I don't agree with this, because Trick Room is more of a win condition and not really something you set up early game (though it's possible). An early game TR won't make or break most games (unless you're facing a hyper offense team, which has early game TR stoppers anyways). This kind of situation is something that happens lategame and I think for the most part a lead P2 is just firing off attacks in this situation.

Team Options:
- P2 can flexibly fit into non-Hyper offense archetypes. It doesn't necessarily just have to be TR abusers. It's a very well rounded Pokemon.
- Anti Fighting Pokemon are important teammates.
- Tapu Fini helps protect P2 from Toxic
- Non Fini Tapus can help P2 by overriding Misty Terrain to Toxic stuff.

Checks & Counters:
- Add Fighting types: Buzzwole Pheromosa and Hariyama, mainly
- Snarl is a major nuisance to P2, as its Special Attacks aren't strong to begin with and Snarl just nerfs that into oblivion. This opens up opportunities for the opponent to focus on the partner and ignore P2 for a while. Return kinda works around this, however.
- Celesteela is annoying if P2 lacks Thunderbolt
- Snorlax is also a very strong counter to P2, comfortably taking hits and setting up Curse. P2 cannot use Trick Room safely against Snorlax.

 

[Gay Bird]

Thanks for the suggestion!

I'm a little bit unclear as to how approval works for QC and finalization, what would be expected of a final draft?

 

[Carbonific]

Thanks for the suggestion!

I'm a little bit unclear as to how approval works for QC and finalization, what would be expected of a final draft?

You move from WIP to QC when the analysis is feature complete in terms of content. You can slack a bit on grammar until 2/2 QC where you're expected to clean it up before sending it to the GP team.

 

[tofucocoa]

how is this still a WIP? Gay Bird

 

[Carbonific]

Given Gay Bird 's lack of activity, I'm going to consider this dropped. This is a pretty important Pokemon, so I don't want it sitting in WIP for this long.