[2013] Breloom (Revamp)

[The Knights of Wario Land]

[Overview]

-With Intimidate users everywhere, physical attackers consistently have a rough time in the VGC metagame. However, Breloom is a diamond in the rough, having a unique niche over several popular Pokemon in the tier.
-Grass and Fighting is an excellent STAB combination, punishing Rain, Hail, and Sand teams
-Fastest user of Spore
-BW2 gave Breloom Technician, making it a sort-of equivalent to Scizor but with different coverage
-Bulk absolutely sucks and has awkward speed
-However, with proper support, Breloom can be a huge threat to any team

[SET]
name: Technician
move 1: Bullet Seed
move 2: Mach Punch
move 3: Spore
move 4: Protect
item: Focus Sash / Life Orb
ability: Technician
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

-Technician is the best ability Breloom could have ever wished for
-Bullet Seed minus STAB now deals a base 37 damage per hit, hitting multiple threats such as Gastrodon, Swampert, and Politoed for massive damage, and hitting through Rindo Berry and Focus Sash
-Mach Punch to Breloom is like Bullet Punch to Scizor: Mach Punch now has 60 base power minus STAB, having priority to get rid of an opponent that has been knocked down to its Sash or low HP, and hitting Tyranitar, Bisharp, and plentiful other Pokemon weak to Fighting for large damage
-Spore has a plethora of usages: stopping Trick Room users and other setup, disabling Pokemon that are slightly slower than Breloom that it can't hit well enough with both of its STABs, and providing support for thee partner against a huge threat
-Breloom needs Protect, as its average bulk won't help it much against faster threat's moves, such as Volcarona's Heat Wave, Mienshao's Acrobatics, and more

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

-Both Focus Sash and Life Orb offer their different perks. With Focus Sash, Breloom is more guaranteed survival in the unpredictable world of Double Battles, but with Life Orb, Breloom can clutch certain KOs it can't normally get, and allows him to synergize better with Sand or Hail, but at the loss of the aformentioned survivability.
-252 EVs in both Attack and Speed maximizes Breloom's potential

-Choice Scarf sounds like a potentially interesting item for Breloom, allowing it to fire off extra-fast Spores, but it really should not be used. Being locked into a non-attacking move permanantly can backfire quickly, requiring a switch

-Partners with Tailwind such as Togekiss and Latios synergize well with Breloom, aleviating its mid-speed issue and giving freedom to fire off fast Spores.
-In fact, Togekiss remains a fantastic ally, as it can redirect harmful Thunder Waves and other harmful moves away from Breloom with Follow Me. Volcarona serves a similar role with Rage Powder but both suffer an unfortunate Flying weakness.
-Pokemon with Safeguard protect Breloom from status, which is one of its worst enemies.

[SET]
name: Poison Heal
move 1: Spore
move 2: Seed Bomb
move 3: Drain Punch / Mach Punch
move 4: Protect
item: Toxic Orb
ability: Poison Heal
nature: Adamant
evs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

-Before Technician, this was the standard, but less useful spread. Although TechniLoom outclasses this, Poison Heal has its perks
-Toxic Orb protects Breloom from all status, which is a huge plus.
-Seed Bomb doesn't have the multi-hit properties of Bullet Seed, but still hits targets who take super effective damage from it incredibly hard.
-Drain Punch increases the emphasis on HP recovery for this set, but Mach Punch can easily counteract Breloom's speed issues
-Protect is even more vital on this set, allowing a guarantee that Breloom's Toxic Orb will activate turn 1.

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

-252 EVs in HP instead of Speed on this set in order to more emphasize Poison Heal's abilities

-The same partners mentioned in the Technician set all pertain here, especially the speed control aspect, as Breloom is much slower

[Other Options]

-Low Sweep gets boosted by Technician but lacks the priority of Mach Punch
-Low Kick punishes Tyranitar and Terrakion hard but its boost from Technician depends on the weight of the foe
-Stone Edge can be a surprise move to hit Flying, Bug, and Fire types that give Breloom trouble hard, but it usually isn't worth giving up one of the vital moveslots for.
-0 Speed EVs and a negative speed nature allows Breloom to be used in Trick Room, allowing it to fire off Spores more immediately, but in general it works better with Tailwind or Thunder Wave support

[Checks and Counters]

-Thundurus and Tornadus take nothing from Breloom bar the rare Stone Edge, and can quickly OHKO back if the Sash has been broken. Thundurus can also Taunt Breloom so that it can't stall it out with Spore.
-Lum Berry Volcarona and Amoonguss can redirect Spores and cause Breloom's turn to be useless, while Volcarona can hit back Breloom for the likely KO
-Intimidate Pokemon such as Hitmontop and Landorus-T decrease Breloom's firepower, and Hitmontop in particular can Fake Out Breloom to get rid of its Sash immediately. Hitmontop also has Feint to get rid of Breloom once its Sash has been used.
-Tyranitar and Abomasnow set up their respective weather to automatically eliminate Breloom's Sash. However, both must watch out for Mach Punch

 

[Tobes]

Might as well make this a full revamp since most Poison Heal Breloom (which is actually quite good btw) are specially defensive with the purpose of handling rain better and the current analysis doesn't reflect that.

 

[tofucocoa]

can't say ive ever used poison heal breloom, but i'd agree that that set needs to be redone since techniloom outclasses it.

while you're at it, add low kick to oo and an explanation on why you shouldnt use choice scarf. also on the technician set, you should explain what jolly and adamant do. what does jolly outspeed? what kos does adamant net?

 

[callforjudgement]

The main problem with Choice Scarf is if you get priority Taunted, which can happen quite a lot. (The mons most likely to do that are the Prankster genies; Scarfed Breloom thus really needs to run a Rock move to cover them, but unfortunately can't KO them short of Stone Edge, which is a pretty awful move to lock yourself into.) It might be good enough to make OO, though, especially with a Fake Out partner to help it out as a lead combo. Takes a lot of prediction, though.

 

[Darkmalice]

You can mention in the first set in AC that with a -Speed nature and 0 Spe Ivs, it can be use in Trick Room. It's slow enough for the job and can then Spore everything. And unlike Amoongus, it can hit hard too.

 

[The Knights of Wario Land]

Ready for QC.

 

[tofucocoa]

I think the Toxic Orb set is still trying to be a little too much like the Technician set with a spread like that. imo, Poison Heal Breloom should be focused on checking Politoed and Tyranitar while just Sporing everything else. I did some calculations and here are a few spreads to consider:

Careful, 252 HP / 4 Def / 228 SpD / 20 Spe; lives LO Kingdra Draco Meteor, 2HKO's politoed, excadrill, ttar, but severely lacks in power. makes up for this by sticking around long past its expiration date.

Adamant, 132 HP / 76 Def / 176 SpD / 124 Spe; lives stuff like HP Ice and Heat Wave from Zapdos, Expert Belt 252 Modest Cresselia Psyshock (ie: every move people casually throw at breloom and expect it to die) and outspeeds standard cress and ties with rotom-w. can also make better use of icy wind's chip damage.

Good partners for this 'loom include offensive cress, snarl/light screen raikou, gyarados (icy wind, not thunder wave) and as you mentioned, latios. you may also want to mention low sweep in AC since this breloom loves speed control. in essence, i think it should play like early '12 toxicroak, except spore is a lot more useful and breloom can be /decently/ bulky against sand and rain because of its better typing.

of course this is for the most part theorymon, so i'd encourage you to test the spreads first. the technician set looks ok except i still dont see an explanation of why jolly and adamant are slashed together.

 

[Darkmalice]

-0 Speed EVs and a negative speed nature allows Breloom to be used in Trick Room, allowing it to fire off Spores more immediately, but in general it works better with Tailwind or Thunder Wave support

Thunder Wave support would be counter-productive with Breloom's Spore. Icy Wind would be better to mention in its place.

Also, add Lum Berry Metagross to counters, who has the physical bulk to withstand Breloom's attacks including a resistance to Bullet Seed and can OHKO in return with Zen Headbutt or 2HKO with the combination of Meteor Mash and Bullet Punch. Bullet Punch is also useful for finishing off Breloom after it's used its Sash (at the worse forcing it to use Protect or Mach Punch to do something meaningful).