Pokémon Torterra

1600px-Giant_Torterra_Detective_Pikachu.png

Grass/Ground
95/109/105/75/85/56 (525 BST)
Overgrow/Shell Armor (HA)

Notable moves:
  • Body Press (NEW)
  • Crunch
  • Curse
  • Earthquake
  • Facade
  • Grassy Glide (NEW)
  • Headlong Rush (NEW)
  • Heavy Slam
  • High Horsepower (NEW)
  • Iron Head
  • Leech Seed
  • Outrage
  • Rock Blast
  • Rock Slide
  • Shell Smash (NEW)
  • Smack Down
  • Stealth Rock
  • Stone Edge
  • Superpower
  • Swords Dance
  • Synthesis
  • Wood Hammer
  • Zen Headbutt
Pros:
  • Shell Smash allows it to be a very powerful and threatening sweeper, with it having just enough speed to outspeed the entire unboosted metagame at +2
  • Good offensive STAB combo that gives it an advantage against walls like Great Tusk, Dondozo, Galarian Slowking, and Toxapex, as well as having Rock coverage to deal with Flying-types like Zapdos
  • Has access to high-BP moves like Wood Hammer and Headlong Rush
  • Rare EdgeQuake resist, and is also immune to Electric (and by extension Thunder Wave and Volt Switch)
  • Can run a couple of support options like Stealth Rock and Leech Seed, if you're into that sort of thing
Cons:
  • Even at +2, it can't outspeed some of the +1 Paradoxes, most notably Walking Wake and Iron Valiant; additionally, it falls short of a few scarfers like Meowscarada
  • Its type combo gives it several obnoxious weaknesses. A 4x weakness to Ice is not a good thing in a meta where Baxcalibur is a huge threat, and a weakness to U-turn is never fun.
  • Priority is a big threat to it. Unless it Teras, Baxcalibur's Ice Shard will stop its sweep outright, and since it is reliant on recoil moves, it can easily get in range of Kingambit's Sucker Punch.
  • There are still Pokémon it can struggle to break, like Corviknight.
Tera potential:
  • The STAB Teras of Grass and Ground can give it even more power
  • Rock to boost Stone Edge's power (or give a Rock Tera Blast if you hate Stone Miss's accuracy). Rock resists most of Torterra's weaknesses, so it can help while setting up.
  • Electric or Fire to help it break through Corviknight. The former keeps a good matchup against Flying-types if run over Stone Edge, while the latter resists Ice Shard and is immune to burn.
  • General defensive Teras like Water, Steel, and Fairy to help it set up and give it resistances to certain kinds of priority.
Shell Smash Sweeper (Torterra) @ Life Orb / White Herb
Ability: Overgrow
Tera Type: Grass / Ground / Rock / Fire / etc.
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Headlong Rush / Earthquake
- Stone Edge / Tera Blast
- Shell Smash

This is probably the main set you'll see in OU. You basically have two options: go all in on power at the cost of wearing it down quickly or use a more careful set with the aim of having it take out the rest of the opponent's team. Ultimately, despite all its buffs, Torterra has two main problems holding it back in OU: One is "Staraptor syndrome", in that while it can break through most of the walls, it will take itself out in the process, and secondly, competition, in that why would I use Torterra when there are setup sweepers like Baxcalibur that are more immediately threatening and easier to use. Still, these buffs are definitely enough to get Torterra out of the ZU hell it was stuck in as of late, but will it be enough to make it compete in the big leagues of OU? Probably not, but we'll have to see!
 
A more stall oriented set with it's old Curse tactics + it's new access to Body Press would probably look like:

Curse Sweeper (Torterra) @ Leftovers
Ability: Shell Armor
Tera Type: Fight / Steel / Water / Rock
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def/ 252 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Leech Seed
- Curse
- Body Press / Superpower
- Iron Head / Stone Edge

However, I think it would probably still get knocked due to the higher power level in OU.
If it ever drops to UU or below this set would prob be viable to some degree.
 
Proposal for an alternative “safer” set not reliant on recoil:

Torterra @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Shell Armor
Tera Type: Grass / Ground / Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Bullet Seed
- Headlong Rush / Earthquake
- Rock Blast

Loaded Dice means you get the power of wood hammer without the recoil, and rock blast is the best rock coverage money can buy, with the obvious downside of no White Herb.

+2 252+ Atk Torterra Rock Blast (5 hits) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 190-225 (47.6 - 56.3%) -- approx. 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

+2 252+ Atk Tera Rock Torterra Rock Blast (5 hits) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 285-335 (71.4 - 83.9%) -- approx. 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

We have the technology
 
Proposal for an alternative “safer” set not reliant on recoil:

Torterra @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Shell Armor
Tera Type: Grass / Ground / Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Bullet Seed
- Headlong Rush / Earthquake
- Rock Blast

Loaded Dice means you get the power of wood hammer without the recoil, and rock blast is the best rock coverage money can buy, with the obvious downside of no White Herb.

+2 252+ Atk Torterra Rock Blast (5 hits) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 190-225 (47.6 - 56.3%) -- approx. 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

+2 252+ Atk Tera Rock Torterra Rock Blast (5 hits) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 285-335 (71.4 - 83.9%) -- approx. 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

We have the technology

Land Cloyster lol
 
With Tera allowing to change the mediocre typing, not only Shell Smash sets are viable. Torterra learns, SD, Stealth Rock and Synthesis, it has many ways to contribute to a team, not just a pure sweep. Headlong Rush has been a very cool toy and Torterra has the ideal typing offensively to break or force Tera of every Unaware Mon except Clef.
 
Torterra
Held Item: White Herb
Ability: OverGrow/Shell Armor
Tera Type: Grass/Rock/Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly/Adamant

Moves:
- Shell Smash
- Wood Hammer / Seed Bomb / Grassy Glide
- Earthquake / Headlong Rush
- Stone Edge

Shell Smash boost Atk, SpAtk, and Spe stats by two stages, but drop the Def and SpD stats by one stage. White Herb resets your lower stats.
 
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Tera Rock seems fun. You resist fire and ice, letting you smack Bax around the head.
Nope. You do lose your crippling double-weakness, sure, but Rock doesn't resist Ice, never has.

I'm really glad Torterra got Shell Smash, but I'm afraid it might become another Blastoise situation - that one special asked-for ingredient turning out not to be enough for the beastly turtle soup fans wanted. Remains to be seen though; if nothing else, Torterra has more oomph behind its STAB options and of course access to Terastallization this gen, including Tera Blast as an option. I struggle to think of anything that resists Grass/Ground/Rock combination from this aside from Levitate Bronzong.
 
Bax is banned! That's pretty big news for Torterra, as it now doesn't have to worry about Bax's Ice Shard ending its sweep, although Kingambit's Sucker Punch is still an issue. Weavile or Mamoswine might still make a comeback, but I doubt they'll be as prominent as Bax was.
 
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Shell Smash Sweeper
Torterra @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Shell Armor
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
Tera Type: Grass / Ground / Rock / Steel
- Bullet Seed
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Shell Smash


Safer Shell Smash Sweeper
Torterra @ White Herb
Ability: Shell Armor
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
Tera Type: Grass / Ground / Rock / Steel
- Seed Bomb
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge / Rock Blast
- Shell Smash



Headlong Rush is a great alternative (only for the Loaded Dice set) which has x1.2 BP compared to EQ, but it doesn’t matter.
 
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