Treecko (Analysis)

Clearly the offensive Grass-type of choice. Not counting Dream World Tsutarja and Snover, of course.

status: done!

[Overview]

• Treecko hasn't changed much, but its moves and the metagame around it did
• One of Treecko's selling points has always been being one of the fastest unboosted Grass-types
• Gen V gave Grass-types a huge boost. Bullet Seed and Giga Drain got boosts in power, and Grass-type STAB got better thanks to additions of new Ground-type and Water-type threats, as well as major improvements to old ones
• With access to not only Swords Dance but also Agility, Treecko can be a formidable foe
• Sadly, while 17 Speed isn't bad, it's not phenomenal either. Treecko is also very frail and its Attack is lackluster without a Swords Dance boost
• Treecko has a poor special movepool

[Set]

name: Agility
move 1: Agility
move 2: Giga Drain
move 3: Hidden Power Fire
move 4: Leaf Storm / DragonBreath
item: Life Orb
nature: Modest / Timid
evs: 240 SpA / 200 Spe
ivs: 15 HP / 30 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe

[Set Comments]

• Despite Treecko's poor special movepool, Treecko can inflict some heavy damage with this set
• Agility boosts Treecko's Speed to 32 with a Modest nature and 34 with a Timid nature. Timid nature is superior if you are worried about Jolly Moguryuu in Sandstorm being faster than you
• Giga Drain is Treecko's main STAB. The HP recovered from Giga Drain can be used to heal off Life Orb recoil, making it an extremely efficient move
• Hidden Power Fire gets great coverage with Giga Drain
• Leaf Storm can be used as an extremely powerful STAB move to decimate foes with, but the Special Attack drop hurts Treecko greatly
• DragonBreath hits Dragon-types who resist both Grass and Fire as well as hitting Fire-types as a last resort

[Additional Comments]

• With the IVs given, Treecko gets 70 base power Hidden Power alongside 19 HP. You can save 15% or more on your Life Orb recoil by switching to 19 HP
• Always use Stealth Rock with this set. Not only does it help score KOes, but it keeps Fire-types at bay, especially Meraruba. It also makes powerful Bug-types, such as Scyther and Yanma, more cautious about switching in
• Removing common priority users like Croagunk is highly recommended, since Treecko is so frail any priority attack will leave a massive dent
• Diglett can trap and KO Fire-types, making it an excellent teammate
• If you are running Leaf Storm, a Steel-type like Aron, Teshiido or Bronzor who can switch in on Kibago's or Dratini's Outrage is great to have

[Set]

name: Anti-Lead
move 1: Bullet Seed
move 2: Protect
move 3: Endeavor / Acrobat
move 4: Quick Attack / GrassWhistle
item: Focus Sash / Berry Juice
nature: Jolly
evs: 76 HP / 236 Atk / 196 Spe

[Set Comments]

• The classic anti-lead Treecko is back with a few new tricks up its sleeves
• Bullet Seed breaks through Focus Sash and Sturdy in Gen V, making it a fantastic option as a move
• Protect keeps Treecko safe from Fake Out and is a great scouting move
• Endeavor works better with Focus Sash
• With Berry Juice, Acrobat may be a better choice, since Bullet Seed and Acrobat get great coverage against common leads
• Priority is great for beating Sucker Punch, so Quick Attack is great move to have
• GrassWhistle has shaky accuracy, but sleep is even more annoying in Gen V since the sleep counter restarts whenever you switch out, making it sometimes well worth the risk

[Additional Comments]

• If you want to go mixed, Leaf Storm and Hidden Power Fire are good options
• Has trouble against Snover and Gastly leads
• Works well on offensive teams

[Set]

name: Swords Dance
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Bullet Seed / Seed Bomb
move 3: Acrobat
move 4: Drain Punch / Quick Attack
item: Berry Juice
nature: Jolly
evs: 76 HP / 236 Atk / 196 Spe

[Set Comments]

• Treecko has a much better physical movepool than special movepool
• With Swords Dance and decent Speed, Treecko can be a powerful physical sweeper
• Bullet Seed for Substitute / Focus Sash breaking STAB, although Seed Bomb may be preferable for reliability
• Acrobat's base power doubles after Treecko consumes Berry Juice and gets excellent coverage with Grass-STAB in Little Cup
• Drain Punch hits Steel-types and recovers Treecko's HP
• Priority it always good, so Quick Attack is a fine option

[Additional Comments]

• Life Orb can be used as well, but be sure to switch Acrobat with either Aerial Ace or even Crunch
• Stealth Rock and screen support is highly recommended, so Bronzor is a great teammate
• Croagunk is a pain, so a trapper like Wynaut or a good Croagunk lure is a great teammate
• Chinchou is an excellent teammate, covering three of Treecko's weaknesses. Gastly covers the other two, so it works well with them both as well

[Team Options]

• For Stealth Rock support, Bronzor and Teshiido are great teammates
• For screen support, Bronzor is arguably the best guy around
• Trappers, such as Wynaut and Diglett, and lures who can bring down Fire-types and Croagunk are fantastic teammates
• Gastly and Chinchou cover Treecko's weaknesses very well and help Treecko offensively as well

[Optional Changes]

• Treecko can run SubSeed, but Tsutarja is better at it due to its overall better defenses while still having the same Speed
• ThunderPunch and Rock Slide can be used to hit Flying-types for super-effective damage
• Counter is a decent option on the lead set

[Counters]

• Agility Treecko is stopped cold by Munchlax and most Fire-types
• Anti-Lead is easily beaten by Snover and Gastly leads, but they need to watch out for Acrobat
• Swords Dance is tricky to counter, but probably the best counter would be Koffing
• However, Swords Dance is easily revenge killed, especially if Treecko lacks Quick Attack
• Paralysis absolutely decimates Treecko

[Dream World]

Unburden is an interesting ability on Treecko. It's most useful on the Swords Dance set, leaving Treecko with +2 Attack and +2 Speed after it consumes Berry Juice. On the other sets, it's okay, but it is on the Swords Dance set it really shines.

Berry Juice has been banned, just to inform.

I don't think Bullet Seed is a good idea on the anti-lead set. Geodude and Onix are very rare leads so it's a bit unnecessary. I think you should use a variation of the Sceptile lead in my sig with HP Fire over HP Ice and Protect over Rock Slide. Treecko is specially based so I don't understand why it's physically based set.

edit: and different EVs of course

How about a DW set like this?
name- Unburden Sweep
@Oran Berry(Berry Juice Banned)
-Drain Punch
-Bullet Seed
-Acrobat
-Quick Attack
evs-252 att/100 spe/158 defence

You don't need additional speed because of unburden so put it in defense if Moguryuu scares you before the Unburden boosting. Acrobat's power is sensational with no item so it is amazing! Bullet Seed Breaks subs so yeah, and it is STAB. Drain Punch restores your health making you pretty hard to defeat

No.

The OP of this thread has informed me that he/she is no longer working on this analysis. This thread can be moved to L&O.