Tentacool (QC 3/3)

[jc104]

Tentacool

[Overview]

• Great movepool; one of NU's rare Rapid Spinners, also providing support through Toxic Spikes, Haze, Knock Off.
• Absorbs Toxic Spikes too.
• Stats are all bad except Special Defense (base 100, which is excellent taking eviolite into account) and Speed (base 70)
• Typing would be considered good in most other metagames, but a combination of terrible physical defense and this typing does not stand up well to the most common NU pokemon. Most common specially based Pokemon will hit tentacruel with STAB, super effective attacks.
• Still a unique support Pokemon. Nothing else can do what Tentacool does.

[SET]
name: Support
move 1: Toxic Spikes
move 2: Rapid Spin
move 3: Scald
move 4: Knock Off / Haze
item: Eviolite
nature: Calm
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD

[SET COMMENTS]

• Toxic Spikes – a great move for stalling out opponents. Beware of Scolipede and Roselia, as they'll absorb them.
• At least Tentacool can absorb theirs too, and spin away their spikes.
• Rapid Spin is the key move here, as good Rapid Spinners are fairly rare in NU. Removes Stealth Rock and Spikes, allowing your team to switch around more freely in order to deal with threats.
• Scald is the only viable attacking move Tentacool gets, thanks somewhat to STAB, but more to its secondary effect. Burns are rarely unhelpful.
• Last move is largely filler. Knock Off helps to remove the many Eviolites in NU. Haze is a cool move, but there are few good, specific examples of Pokemon on which to use it.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

• Moves for the last slot: Toxic hits enemies that are not grounded, and is useful if the opponent has something to absorb Toxic Spikes.
• Attacking moves: Sludge Bomb has respectable power, and decent coverage with Scald. Secondary effect is less useful though. Ice Beam might do respectable damage to 4x weak Pokemon such as Altaria.
• Surf over Scald if you really don't want burns, and would appreciate the added power.
• Abilities: all three have rather niche uses in NU. Rain Dish rises and falls in usefulness with the popularity of Rain teams; this is unlikely to be enough to warrant its use. Liquid Ooze punishes Leech Seed / Giga Drain users, primarily Roselia. This or Clear Body, to prevent stat drops, is probably best.
• Choice between investing in Defense and ignoring it is tricky. Could go as far as 252 Defense Bold, but might be left unable to properly wall anything.
• Could invest in Speed to become more of a suicide Toxic Spiker/spinner.
• Works well with Wish support as it has no recovery (e.g from Flareon, Leafeon, Hypno, Gardevoir)

[Other Options]

• Running anything other than a fully defensive set with eviolite is suicide. Tentacool will just die and won't achieve anything.
• Attacking options: Hydro Pump, Sludge Bomb, Ice Beam, Giga Drain.
• Mirror Coat
• Rain dish on a rain team

[Checks and Counters]

• Tentacool is not exactly threatening, nor especially difficult to take down. Most common special attackers in NU (e.g Mesprit, Magneton) can hit Tentacool with super effective STAB attacks, and if not running Defense evs, a light breeze could take out Tentacool from the physical side.
• However, Toxic Spikes / Rapid Spin can potentially destroy your chances of winning.
• Absorb Toxic Spikes with Roselia or Scolipede.
• Block Rapid Spin with Drifblim, Misdreavus, even Haunter.

 

[Ice-eyes]

I'd go with the Special Defense just because that's what you need for the few common things you can come in on (basically Roselia - which arguably beats you - and defensive Altaria, because literally everything else in the top 20 1-2HKOs.)

 

[JockeMS]

I have put some Defense EVs into my Tentacool, and that makes it survive some physical moves it shouldn't (I think), like some Earthquakes and stuff.

But I don't know, I'll let you and QC decide on that.

Here's the spread:

252 HP / 112 Def / 136 SpD Calm

Works for me.

 

[jc104]

As I said, I have no idea. I worry that if you try to split you'll end up walling nothing. Also, I'd like the spread to have a reason behind it, e.g surviving a particular attack.

 

[JockeMS]

That I don't know. I just had trouble with some Regirock when I first put Tentacool on my team, so I just put some Defense EVs on it and all went easier, seeing it has Scald and everything. But I don't know if there's any specific move it can survive with that.

 

[Charge]

Well, I guess you can use Calm and pump your SpD to a certain level and the rest to buff the Def and coupled with Scald, I guess...well, I really don't know.

 

[jake]

I would probably just go for a SpD set. Even with maximum investment in defense, you're still being very nearly OHKOd by stuff like Scarf Braviary BB or 252/252 Impish Rhydon (who OHKOs a large portion of the time with SR up). Nearly every physical attacker has a way to handle Tentacool anyway via EQ, whereas the things SpD Tenta can handle don't. Even Quagsire with no Attack investment cleanly 2HKOs max/max Tenta with EQ.

 

[NatGeo]

Yeah you should just be trying to salvage tentacools special defense since its defense is god awful ( honestly zebraiken hit the nail on the head). You could probably just mention a physically defensive spread in OO but that's as far as I would go with it.

Regarding the rest of the analysis you could mention protect when you talk about rain dish since that's your only form of recovery... Other from that I think you have this covered

QC APPROVED 1/3

Edit yeah protect also scouts for random attacks but it's def ac or OO material

double edit yeah scratch protect i use tentacruel too much in ou

 

[Ice-eyes]

Not sure how relevant Protect is with no auto-Rain, but yeah.

 

[jc104]

OK I'm leaving the SpD investment in. Thanks for the advice.

Also, using Protect without permanent rain is a bad idea; you're wasting a precious rain turn. I don't think that's worthy of mention at all.

edit: thanks for the stamps. And yes, it is underwhelming; it might even work better in RU than it does in NU lol.

 

[tennisace]

Protect isn't worth it at all, keep it focused on what it does good as in SpDef, etc.

 

[Ice-eyes]

Tentacool is kinda underwhelming but this is what it is I guess.

 

[Molk]

i apologize for bumping such an old thread, but there is something i must point out before this goes on-site

rapid spin and haze on tentacool are sadly illegal

so the set should probably look like this in this case


[SET]
name: Support
move 1: Toxic Spikes
move 2: Rapid Spin / Haze
move 3: Scald
move 4: Knock Off
item: Eviolite
nature: Calm
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD

as i said im sorry for bumping such an old thread, but i noticed that rapi spin and haze were illegal according to my PO when i tried to make an NU stall team

 

[erisia]

What about Venoshock? At least it'll deal somewhat respectable damage to Poisoned opponents, if you're running both Toxic and Toxic Spikes.

 

[JockeMS]

This can be locked, it was taken over by Zebraiken.