
name: Classic
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Toxic / U-Turn
move 3: Roost
move 4: Taunt / Stealth Rock
item: Leftovers
ability: Sand Veil
nature: Impish
evs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spe
Why this set deserves to be on-site
- Whilst Toxic Orb + Poison Heal has advantages, it only provides an extra 6.25% recovery per turn and immunity to status in comparison to Leftovers. Since it also restricts Gliscor's movepool quite a bit, I think it's worth posting a standard set without Poison Heal.
- Gliscor is a great pivot on many teams against powerful fighting types like Conkeldurr and Terrakion, whilst also checking other powerful physical attackers nicely. As such, it can force switches often, and can capitalise on this by setting up Stealth Rock to support a team or using Roost to instantly heal off a lot of prior damage.
- The ability to Roost allows Gliscor to deal successfully with opponents by wearing them down, either with Life Orb recoil or reducing the PP of viable attacking options. It provides Gliscor with the same amount of HP it would regenerate over 8 turns with Poison Heal (net vs Leftovers) and prevents it from being worn down by powerful neutral attacks.
- Be aware that as Gliscor roosts against slower opponents, it loses it's Fighting resistance. Whilst it makes this Gliscor slightly worse at dealing fully with Conkeldurr, you can normally force it out anyways, and using Taunt to prevent Conkeldurr from boosting makes it much less of an issue. Meanwhile, Gliscor also reduces its Ice weakness when Roosting, which can be helpful.
- Overall, the ability to Roost and instantly heal off a lot of damage makes Gliscor more useful against Dragons likes Dragonite and Haxorus, where he can tank an unboosted hit and heal up, but makes him worse against slow opponents who can capitalize on Gliscor's vulnerability to Fighting and Ground attacks after it Roosts.
Additional Comments
- Taunt is used primarily to stop any status users who might want to capitalise on Gliscor's lack of Poison Heal and hit it with Poison or a Burn. Gliscor outspeeds the vast majority of them and can thus make status less of an issue than it may first appear, combined with Gliscor's immunity to Thunder Wave. It also stops Skarmory, Ferrothorn and Forretress from setting up alongside you. On the other hand, Stealth Rock can be used if you lack other places to slot it on your team, and Gliscor makes a fairly good user thanks to his bulk and decent speed.
- Toxic allows Gliscor to pester opponents that take little damage from its Earthquake, and helps Gliscor fulfill a role as a stallbreaker. U-Turn can also be useful for maintaining Gliscor's role as a bulky pivot, and can also break Air Balloons and Focus Sashes if need be.
- Sand Veil is also useful in reducing the accuracy of an opponent's moves to 80%, which is especially useful against opponents like Conkeldurr that can only hit you hard with Stone Edge (now 64% acc) most of the time. Given that Sandstorm is a dominant force in the metagame, this ability sees more use than might first be apparent, especially if you provide your own support. It also allows Gliscor to heal up more reliably, occasionally getting a Roost for free if the opponent's attack misses.
- Ice Fang can be handy for beating opposing Gliscor and Landorus, but doesn't have a lot of use outside of that.
Teammates and Counters
- Fast sweepers such as Infernape and Mienshao like Gliscor's ability to deal more successfully with physical threats such as Conkeldurr and Terrakion, and also appreciate the extra residual damage that Stealth Rock provides.
- Toxic Spikes support from Tentacruel or Forretress allows Gliscor to stall out certain opponents more successfully using Roost and Taunt.
- Any special attacker with super-effective moves can threaten Gliscor and its sub-par Special Defense. Scald in particular is a nuisance since it either kills or Burns Gliscor.
- This set largely has the same counters as any other set, but has the advantage in that it can simply set up Stealth Rock as a counter switches in, before you switch to your own response.