Statistics
|
Stat |
| HP |
80
|
363 |
| Atk |
105
|
308 |
| Def |
65
|
228 |
| SpA |
100
|
298 |
| SpD |
60
|
218 |
| Spe |
70
|
238 |
Swords Dance set, can be very dangerous in standard play as well as underused. Sleep anything that can cause a problem for Victreebel, then Swords Dance up and sweep out with Sludge Bomb. Giga Drain is helpful for Ground and Rock-types and also helps to replenish some HP.
Victreebel's Special Attack isn't much lower than its Attack stat, but it suffers from low power on its primary attacking move and the fact that Growth only increases Special Attack by one stage instead of two.
Hidden Power Water is an option in the last slot if you are afraid of Fire types.
Other Options
Synthesis takes away a little of Victreebel's attacking versatility, but it serves well to recover half your HP. Razor Leaf has a lot more PP than Giga Drain, has a 25% critical hit rate, and works on foes that use Substitute. Hidden Power Fire will mess up Victreebel's Steel counters in OU, while in UU you can use Hidden Power Ground to hit Magneton, Poison-types, and Rock-types. Stun Spore, while not as useful on a sweeper like Victreebel, can paralyze many things, which could help something else set up to take over. Encore can screw over Cursers or Sleep Talkers nicely.
Opinion
Victreebel is an awesome underused sweeper and can make a big dent in standard play if used correctly. Victreebel does have a lot of common counters, but if you can work Victreebel in tandem with something that can kill its counters (Sleep Powder helps a lot here), Victreebel is a monster. After a Swords Dance, Sludge Bomb will OHKO a lot of things, and while it's not fast, Victreebel does outspeed many standard Pokémon. Try and keep it from getting hit—even with Synthesis, Victreebel can't take a lot of hits unless they're Surfs or Thunderbolts.
Counters
As with many other Grass-types, Victreebel is shut down by Steel-types, such as Steelix, Skarmory, Forretress, Scizor, and Magneton. All are completely immune to Sludge Bomb, at worst neutral to Giga Drain, and sport some solid attacks. Heracross switches in easily on Giga Drain, as does Muk, and both can hit Victreebel neutrally with STAB attacks. Tentacruel can use its Poison resistance and superior Speed to win in a Swords Dance war. Nidoking and Nidoqueen 4x resist Poison and play similarly to Steelix against Victreebel. Gengar and Zapdos are strong special attackers that annihilate Victreebel with Ice Punch and Drill Peck, respectively.
