There aren't words that can explain how much Curselax affects the metagame. Snorlax in general is a huge force to be aware of, but with Curse this thing is a monster. He pretty much has the perfect build for one too. A nice high HP and Special Defense, so after you Curse you boost his mediocre Defense and his already fairly nice Attack stat. If used correctly, this thing has the potential to sweep teams. If a Curselax is left as the last Pokémon on your team, there is a strong possibility that you can make a comeback. If you cannot be Roared or Whirlwinded, you aren't afraid of common counters such as Skarmory. The move choices depend on your style and team, each have their own pros and cons. Earthquake hurts Tyranitar, Jirachi, and Metagross, but leaves you powerless against Gengar. Shadow Ball solves the Gengar problem, and hits a lot harder on Dusclops and other, more uncommon Ghosts as well. However, it does only slightly more against Metagross than your STAB moves, and you will lose to it in the long run. Not to mention it gives a free set-up for Tyranitar, which is never a good thing. Fire Blast is fairly universal: it can take out Metagross in 3 hits and does enough damage to Gengar to keep it from Focus Punching you (and is also unaffected by Will-o-Wisp). Its greatest use is that it OHKOs Forretress and usually 2HKOs Skarmory, which none of its other moves do. But then again, it's another option that provides opportunities for Tyranitar. Hidden Power Steel hits Gengar hard enough (as long as you can do at least 25% damage to it, it can't set up a Substitute and cannot Focus Punch, and Snorlax's natural Special Defense is plenty to take anything Gengar can throw at it on that side), and still nails Tyranitar super effective. You're lost against Metagross and Jirachi, but the same can be said for Shadow Ball (although Shadow Ball at least does some damage, I'd still rather use Body Slam on them for the 30% paralysis rate).
It's a pain to take down overall, as it will take hits and statuses fairly easily. If you create a decent EV spread for this guy, he should be able to hurt a ton of stuff with a STAB Double-Edge and be able to take a lot of hits in return. It may not pack the same punch as Curselax in the late-game, but the Sleep Talker is an amazing sponge and a valuable asset to most teams.
This is the Choice Banding variant. It fits in nicely on a Choice Band team with it being able to take some Special hits for the rest of your army. This guy hits Pokémon hard, and without regret. The Normal move is completely up to you. Return is for a safe and consistent hitter, while you can always run Body Slam if you just love that 30% Paralysis rate. Selfdestruct is going to OHKO anything not resistant, and even a load of Pokémon that are, which is always good (Skarmory needs absolute max HP and near max Defense to survive).
This is the "Subpunching" (named after the common strategy of Substituting to avoid attacks and then Focus Punching) Snorlax. It's really not as useful as the other movesets, but hey, it's a lot of fun to use once in a while. You won't do much to Metagross at all with this set however, which is a shame. Without Choice Band, Skarmory won't be as afraid of your attacks either. Body Slam has the dual purpose of being a good regular attack with STAB and Paralyzing the enemy, which makes it more likely for you to keep a Substitute.
It requires some prediction, but if you get the hang of it, you can hurt most things on the switch-in. It's really versatile and could definitely clean up the opponent's team if you save him for later.
This guy is so much fun to use. People won't attack you with Special Attacks most of the time, so you'll be able to Counter yourself down to low health, which is when you explode. Body Slam could be used to ensure that you go first on the Selfdestructing turn, but Return is of course stronger. The filler move depends on the team, but Shadow Ball seems the most useful as it would be the only move that could hit Ghost Pokémon.
A very risky set. Extremely hard to take down, but also easy to wall. Take care of Ghosts with a Pursuiter on your team, and preferably get rid of Metagross and Tyranitar with Dugtrio. Use like you would with a usual Curselax. Other OptionsEverywhere where it says Body Slam, you can use Double-Edge or Return. Body Slam has that awesome 30% chance to Paralyze things but has less power than the other two. Double-Edge has the most power, but gives Snorlax nasty recoil, which can hurt when coupled with Spikes and / or Sand Stream. Therefore it is mostly recommended on the Sleep Talker. Return is a safe option in-between them: safe, consistent 102 base power, no Paralysis, but no recoil either. Flamethrower is as good as Fire Blast. As long as you don't use a -Special Attack nature, you should do enough damage to Gengar to hold off his Substitutes, and 3HKO Skarmory. It prevents Snorlax from being stalled out of Fire Blast PP, or people waiting for him to miss. Always consider it. Thunderbolt and Thunder are two other decent Special Attacks Snorlax can hold off Skarmory with. Thunder can also paralyze opponents. Don't expect to damage Suicune with them though. Belly Drum can work, and if it does, it's extremely dangerous. Yawn, Block, Charm, Psych Up, Protect and Toxic are all sort of novelty on Snorlax but they're fun to use. It's really up to you, but you can mix and match your moves pretty much and get a decent set with this guy. EVsYou always want to start with Special Defense. 300 or 320 are some nice numbers to work with in that department. After that, it depends a lot on the moveset. If you're using Curselax, 200 Defense is usually the norm. The others usually aren't meant to take physical hits too much. After that, you want to get Attack, something around 290 or 300 is what you should aim for. Lastly, since Snorlax's HP is so titanic, you save that for last and dump the remaining EVs into it. You'll know your defenses are close to optimized when HP = Defense + Special Defense. Snorlax should usually have a Careful or Adamant nature as this boosts his best stats. The only exception is when you're using a Special Attack like Flamethrower, in which case you'll want Sassy or Brave instead. You don't need to pour EVs into Special Attack. OpinionSnorlax is one of the most dominant Pokémon in every single generation, if not the single most dominant Pokémon overall. It can be a major threat on any team, no matter what moveset. Snorlax drastically changed the metagames by himself, and can be a pain to face, but if you utilize him correctly, he can be an amazing asset to your team. He is a monster through and through; be careful when facing him. CountersA counter to Snorlax depends entirely on the set. Virtually any Snorlax set is walled early on by Suicune, who can Roar away Curses. However, Suicune gets worn down by Cursed STAB hits pretty quickly and will be forced to Rest, and there's always the possibility Snorlax Selfdestructs on Suicune, opening up for another physical menace like Salamence or Metagross. If Snorlax lacks a Fire or Electric move, Skarmory can come in for free, Spike up against Snorlax and Whirlwind / Roar him away for Spike damage. If Snorlax is the last Pokémon, however, these two counters have a harder time. Skarmory will only be able to beat Curse Snorlax if Skarmory carries Counter (and Snorlax doesn't have a Fire or Electric move, obviously). Suicune is faster and can Calm Mind up, and may have a prayer of beating Snorlax, though it's not very likely if Suicune doesn't have one or more Calm Minds in before Snorlax enters the fray. Another pain for Snorlax is Celebi. Without a boost from Choice Band or Curse, a well EVed Celebi is not going to get 2HKOed easily by Snorlax, which means it can Recover to its heart content. Leech Seed will do a lot of good to Celebi, coming from Snorlax' extremely high HP stat. Celebi shrugs off Body Slam Paralysis thanks to Natural Cure and Heal Bell too. To prevent losing to a Resting Snorlax, Celebi can Calm Mind up and Psychic Snorlax to death, as long as it plays it safe with Recover. Again, beware of Selfdestruct, because Celebi is pretty valuable. Then there's the Metagross / Tyranitar / Gengar triangle addressed in the first set explanation. If you don't have the right moves for them, they will beat you, though Snorlax CAN stall out a Focus Punchless Gengar more often than not, even if it doesn't have anything to touch him. Fighters are a counter to Snorlax in the sense that they're an offensive threat to him. You won't find any Fighting type repeatedly coming in on a STAB Return, Body Slam or Double-Edge and live to tell the tale, but they can come in on predicted Rests, Curses and, to an extent, his secondary attacks, and try to hit Snorlax' relatively weak Defense. Focus Punch will hurt Snorlax, even if he has multiple Curses in. Heracross also puts a big hurting with Brick Break or Megahorn, Medicham can also use Hi Jump Kick, but the worst case is really a Machamp, Primeape or Hariyama using Cross Chop, since a Critical Hit will OHKO Snorlax no matter how many Curses he has. Besides all this, Snorlax generally isn't good at taking physical hits from the likes of Aerodactyl and Salamence. |
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