Zuruggu

iss

let's play bw lc!
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http://veekun.com/dex/pokemon/zuruggu

Status: Done

Overview:

-Zuruggu has good attack and decent speed, and when combined with Dragon Dance and very good STABs it becomes a monster
-It also has good defenses and the ability to run a bulky set.
-It has Overconfident which can allow it to become more and more powerful as its sweep goes on
-Faster Scarfers can prey on its Fighting- and Flying- type weaknesses (as well as priority users)

[SET]
name: Dragon Dance
move 1: Dragon Dance
move 2: Hi Jump Kick / Brick Break
move 3: Crunch
move 4: Ice Punch / Zen Headbutt
item: Life Orb / Berry Juice
ability: Overconfident
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 212 Spe

Set Comments:

-Very difficult to wall, due to its STABs having near-perfect coverage
-Reaches 21-22 Speed and 25-27 Attack after a single Dragon Dance
-Hi Jump Kick has great power and coverage in Little Cup
-Crunch is a secondary STAB, having almost perfect coverage when combined with HJK in Little Cup
-Ice Punch will easily OHKO Gligar, who doesn’t mind HJK or Crunch
-Zen Headbutt OHKOes Croagunk, who resists Zuruggu’s STABs and can do massive damage back with Vacuum Wave

Additional Comments:

-Life Orb makes Zuruggu very powerful
-Berry Juice gives Zuruggu’s good defenses a great boost, allowing it to possibly set up more than one Dragon Dance
-Brick Break breaks screens and avoids taking damage from hitting Ghosts with HJK / missing
-Jolly gives two less attack points, but allows you to outspeed Scarf Machop after a Dragon Dance

Team Options:

-Entry hazard support is helpful to assist Zuruggu in its sweep, especially with Overconfidence
-Wynaut helps Zuruggu set up and also can remove Croagunk
-Stunky or Munchlax can remove Ghosts and allow Zuruggu to use HJK without worry
-If Zen Headbutt is being used, Snover is helpful to remove Gligar

Optional Changes:

-Rest, Shed Skin, and Berry Juice can create a good bulky Dragon Dance set
-Zuruggu gets Head Smash, which is stronger than Crunch- it also has great type coverage
-Zuruggu also gets Stone Edge and Rock Slide
-Zuruggu can run a lead set well with access to Fake Out, Taunt, and Counter
-An odd shuffling set consisting of Dragon Dance, Dragon Tail, Rest, and Sleep Talk is viable

Counters:

-Intimidate Ekans takes little damage from any of Zuruggu’s attacks and can paralyze it with Glare, rendering it useless
-Koffing burns it and walls it
-Croagunk can take out Zuruggu using Fake Out and Vacuum Wave
-Gligar beats non-Ice Punch variants
-Tangela can sleep it or KO it if sun is up
-Reflect Bronzor wins if Zuruggu does not have Brick Break
-Faster Scarfers such as Scarf Mankey can take out Zuruggu if they have a Fighting- type attack or if Zuruggu is low on health


Dream World:

-Intimidate is a good choice on bulky sets, especially ones with Berry Juice.
 

eric the espeon

maybe I just misunderstood
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Draco made a nice lead set, Fake Out/Taunt/Brick Break (could be HJK)/Crunch, perhaps worthy of a set not just an OC mention? Head Smash looks like it could do with a bit more of a mention, 150 base power rock type moves are awesome despite the annoying acc and recoil (same power as STAB HJK, much better than Crunch/BB). Mention it's awesome type more, unresisted STABs and only two weaknesses is great.

Gligar looks like a solid counter to non Ice Punch variants. Same for Tangela, Reflect Bronzor (yay DD powering up Gyro Ball), Machop should be able to take a hit and KO back. Priority can wear it down no matter how much it sets up, though you need stronger ones do do so quickly (like 'tini's ES). Wonder if Duskull can take a Crunch and WoW back.. Koffing could at least. Koaruhii resists Fight can outspeed and has STAB flying moves to hit back with. May have trouble taking DD Crunch though.
 

iss

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Draco made a nice lead set, Fake Out/Taunt/Brick Break (could be HJK)/Crunch, perhaps worthy of a set not just an OC mention?
Sorta iffy on this, unboosted Zuruggu really doesn't KO much especially without Life Orb. I'm thinking about it though.

Head Smash looks like it could do with a bit more of a mention, 150 base power rock type moves are awesome despite the annoying acc and recoil (same power as STAB HJK, much better than Crunch/BB). Mention it's awesome type more, unresisted STABs and only two weaknesses is great.
Done.

Gligar looks like a solid counter to non Ice Punch variants. Same for Tangela, Reflect Bronzor (yay DD powering up Gyro Ball), Machop should be able to take a hit and KO back. Priority can wear it down no matter how much it sets up, though you need stronger ones do do so quickly (like 'tini's ES). Wonder if Duskull can take a Crunch and WoW back.. Koffing could at least. Koaruhii resists Fight can outspeed and has STAB flying moves to hit back with. May have trouble taking DD Crunch though.
Added Gligar, Tangela, Bronzor, and Koffing. Duskull is easily KOed, priority doesn't really hamper Zuruggu due to its good defenses, and Koaruhii won't like the DD Crunch. Machop is iffy, Zen Headbutt versions destroy it and iirc +1 HJK KOes it too.

Thanks eric!
 

Bologo

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-Zuruggu gets Head Smash, which is just as powerful as HJK and stronger than Crunch- it also has great type coverage
I'm fairly sure that STAB HJK is stronger than Head Smash since it got upgraded to 130 BP this generation, and is no longer 100 BP.
 

Brambane

protect the wetlands
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With that great bulk and the ability Shed Skin, Zuruggu can definitely run a ShedRest set. Something like Zuruggu @ Evolution Stone - Bulk Up / Crunch / Brick Break / Rest would be damn hard to stop physically and still tough to stop specially.
 
I actually agree with Draco, 50/70/70 is amazing by LC standards and his weaknesses are almost all primarily physical (the odd Air Slash and Vacuum Wave are special, I guess).
 

eric the espeon

maybe I just misunderstood
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Swap Brick Break for HJK and try it? Looks like a fairly fun unusual set. Not certain that it'd work, but it could have quite a bit of potential.
 
This set is nowhere near as effective as the more bulkier sets of Zuruggu. The set should look like this:

[SET]
name: Dragon Dance
move 1: Dragon Dance
move 2: Drain Punch / Hi Jump Kick
move 3: Crunch
move 4: Ice Punch
item: Evolution Stone
ability: Overconfident
nature: Impish / Jolly
evs: 36 HP / 156 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpD / 212 Spe
 

Destiny Warrior

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@Heysup: Probably you could move 1 point from attack to HP. Overconfidence makes up, and the additional bulk helps, while Zuruggu still hits hard.
 

macle

sup geodudes
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You should list Shed Skin as a second option as an ability. Being able to take paralysis and burns and remove them is awesome. Also Drain Punch > Brick Break
 
I just had a thought for a set something along the lines of HJK+Head Smash+Crunch/Ice Punch/ZHeadbutt+Rest, with bulky EVs and Evo Stone as the item-- defensive Zuruggu. I'm mostly theorymonning out of my ass here, but with those defenses, plus Shed Skin Rest... it could be a pretty impressive tanky mon in LC. Is something like that maybe worth testing?
 
As long as I know, Berry Juice and Tangela are banned in LC. List
You only mentioned Dragon Dance as a boosting move in Zuruggu. Zuruggu can run a potent set with Bulk Up too (same as Dracoyoshi wrote). You also didn't mentioned Drain Punch as an optional move.
Finally, you could also mention Payback, as Zuruggu is bulky and slow enough to use the move effectively.
 

Nails

Double Threat
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Dragon dance is the better move. Dokkora is the better bulk up user due to higher bulk and mach punch, even with defense boosts it still might have issues shed skin resting. Either way, DD Zuruggu is the best pokemon in this metagame, and using bulk up zuruggu is... passing on one of, if not the best sets in the meta for an inferior one. It's like using Swords Dance Darkrai. Sure it has Dark Void, 90 attack, and STAB Sucker Punch... but nasty plot is so much better.
 

DarkSlay

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I'm surprised that no one has mentioned a SubPunch set for Zuruggu. Zuruggu has a few advantages that other SubPunchers like Dokkora, Croagunk, etc. Zuruggu has access to STAB Payback, which helps against things like Bulky Mismagius and such, as well as putting some extra damage on things like Medicham who switch in. It also has access to the Elemental Punches, something that Dokkora does not have. This helps against the ever present Gligar (Ice Punch), and adds extra coverage against the Flying types in the tier. On the downside, it doesn't have access to a priority move, so it needs to rely on its power and coverage to wreck mid-game havoc.


SubPunch Zuruggu

name: SubPuncher
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Focus Punch
move 3: Payback / Crunch
move 4: Ice Punch / Zen Headbutt
item: Leftovers / Oran Berry
ability: Shed Skin
nature: Adamant
evs: 196 HP / 236 Atk / 36 Def

Just some stat comparisons between Zuruggu and its fellow SubPunchers in the tier:

Zuruggu: 24 / 18 / 14 / 9 / 13 / 11
Dokkura: 25 / 18 / 14 / 8 / 11 / 10
(One more HP point, two less SpD points, one less Spe point)
Croagunk: 22 / 16 / 11 / 10 / 11 / 14
(Two less HP points, two less Atk points, three less Def points, two less SpD points, three more Spe points)

Stat-wise, it's slightly less physically bulky than Dokkura, but more specially bulky than any other SubPuncher in the tier. That in itself is a pretty useful niche. It's also doesn't sacrifice any power for its bulk, either, as an 18 Attack stat paired with 24 / 14 / 13 defenses is excellent.

Move-wise, Payback is the Dark move of choice, allowing it to essentially have a Base 100 STAB attack against most Pokemon in the tier. One other thing that Zuru does have that other SubPunchers do not is STAB Crunch. This gives Zuru more immediate damage against the likes of Puriuru, who is slower than it by one point. Ice Punch and Zen Headbutt round out the set for coverage, depending on whether you wish to take out Gligar or the Poison types in the tier, like Croagunk.

Shed Skin is the preferred ability, guaranteeing no status against Zuru with a combination of it and Substitute. However, as a side note, this set would be optimal when Dream World Zuruggu is released, as Intimidate would theoretically make it the bulkiest of all the SubPunchers, and would force a lot of switches for potential Substitutes.
 
why not add shed skin? It allows you to shed off burn or paralysis which would normally cripple it. Evo stone could be an option for items too because it allows him to take hits better.
 
This set is nowhere near as effective as the more bulkier sets of Zuruggu. The set should look like this:

[SET]
name: Dragon Dance
move 1: Dragon Dance
move 2: Drain Punch / Hi Jump Kick
move 3: Crunch
move 4: Ice Punch
item: Evolution Stone
ability: Overconfident
nature: Impish / Jolly
evs: 36 HP / 156 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpD / 212 Spe

Want to update this?
 
Drain Punch should atleast get a mention, in Optional Changes. A bulky DD set with Evolution Stone and running Drain Punch is far better than the currently listed Life Orb set. Just invest enough EV's to reach 20 Speed after 1 Dragon Dance, and put the rest in your defenses.
 
Drain Punch is better than Brick Break any day, with same BP, and healing Zuruggu. Also, I think Dokkora should be mentioned as a counter, because it survives +1 HJK, and can easily OHKO Zuruggu with Mach Punch.
 

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