The Gliscor spread is VaporeonIce’s Jolly Gliscor spread from the Maison, used on his Mega Lopunny / Gliscor / Quagsire team. I bred the Pokemon in 5th gen, EVed it much later to a Maison spread, and then set it aside for years. I didn’t re-theorymon it, besides deciding I wanted to try Jolly over a defensive nature since I find it much easier to play fast Substitute users. I now know I do want to continue to outspeed Mega Sharpedo. Currently Gliscor has 159 Speed, and the Sharpedo has 157. So at most, I could drop by 8 EV (1 stat point). Sadly (foreshadowing!) Gliscor can’t outspeed Mimikyu3 and its 162 Speed even at full investment.
Gliscor is a beautiful lead. On foes that assuredly lack a set-up move, Gliscor can freely Protect on turn 1, giving Toxic Orb time to activate, usually revealing the enemy’s set, and letting me know whether I can immediately switch to Chansey or Gliscor, whether I should stall out a threatening move before making such a switch, or, less frequently, whether I need to attack or Toxic. Where the foe might be able to set up, first turn Protect can be a liability, so in those situations, I’m often better of leading with Substitute, so that Gliscor doesn’t effectively lose a turn while scouting. The Sub then makes it easier to Sub-stall (even if the foe is now faster), or Earthquake or Toxic, if the enemy’s set is not a good one for trying to stall out. The one place Gliscor badly loses to Dragonite is that against foes that use Taunt or are too threatening to try to stall or buy a turn for a switch, Gliscor’s smashing power is much lower. Outrage, even unboosted, cuts down a lot more threats than does Earthquake.
Gliscor’s typing is delightful, drawing Ice-type attacks (which Chansey and Slowbro handle well) while providing immunities to Ground-type and Electric-type attacks (allowing for lots of switch stall fun). The Ground-type immunity also protects from Fissure, making Snorlax4 and Dugtrio3 less dangerous. Better yet, since Giscor will be poisoned after the first turn of battle, it’s immune to status in later turns, giving the opportunity to freely switch back into status moves, which turn even more foes into easy stall bait. While this spread is not the bulkiest, Gliscor still can survive enough attacks to start the Sub-stall chain even against faster Pokemon. And it’s amazing how fast Gliscor can heal back up once damaged. An extra Protect before switching, a missed attack here or there, and a badly wounded Gliscor seemingly fit only for stalling can rapidly Poison Heal itself into being able to absorb another attack.
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Chansey still uses my “fast Chansey” spread from the Maison. One slight change is that Speed isn’t maxed now, since 112 has a number of Speed-ties, while 111 only Speed ties with Clawitzer4, which beats Chansey if locked into Aura Sphere and loses otherwise.
Chansey is amazing. Very few Special Attackers can threaten it, and once set up, it can beat a large number of physical attackers too, especially those it outspeeds, since moving faster means you know exactly when you need to re-Sub and when you can safely attack. Even though it doesn’t do much damage, Seismic Toss can still sweep a lot of teams! Sub is so much easier to use on things you outrun, so I love the fast spread. Although Gliscor is already good at this, Chansey is useful against OHKO users like Articuno2 and Walrein4 (a further advantage of fast Chansey is outspeeding Articuno2), but remember not to switch it directly into a potential OHKO move.
Chansey’s PP are limited, so need to be careful about stalling too aggressively with it, especially when you don’t yet know all of your opponent’s team. Where switch-stalling can save PP, do it! Chansey is also hindered by the inability to hit Ghost-types. Stalling (especially switch-stalling) can often handle things, but certain Ghost-types can cause more trouble. Mega Gengar prevents switch-stalling, and stalling it demands a ton of PP, while the especially evil Mimikyu3 can set up on you. Against most Ghost-types, however, Chansey usually looks to switch-stall, if its partners can’t set up unaided. Thankfully, Ghost-types create lots of switch-stall opportunities since Chansey can freely switch into Ghost-type attacks, so if the enemy Pokemon will use an attack that either plays into Gliscor’s immunities (Thunderbolt, for example) or can be healed off by Slowbro’s Regenerator (Froslass’s Icy Wind and Ice Shard come to mind), then you are set.
Also remember the danger of moves like Dragon Rush and Body Slam which hit automatically and do double damage if you’ve used Minimize. Snorlax4, for example, can mash Chansey, even if it’s fully set up.
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Slowbro is the Jelly to Chansey’s peanut butter. The two play together so well. Where Chansey can easily set-up on most special attackers, Gliscor loves to set-up on physical ones. The spread is a fairly standard max Defense, with a slight modification to take advantage of Level 50 EV mechanics. Slowbro’s huge luxury is that, thanks to its immunity to critical hits (post Mega Evolution), and protection from status through Scald and Sleep, it can get away with using two boosting moves, rather than needing to carry Substitute. OHKO moves are still an issue, of course, but otherwise, once Slowbro is able to set up, there are few things that can stop it, even on the special side. But it’s important to remember that Slowbro isn’t quite as reliable an immediate switch-in to physical attackers as Chansey is to special ones. Slowbro’s extremely low Speed means that when switching against most opponents, it will need to take two attacks before it gets to act itself, one on the switch turn, and one before on the next turn. Moreover, on the switch turn, Slowbro will not be Mega Evolved, and so will be vulnerable to critical hits, which can turn a safe switch into a risky one. Where you have doubts, run the calcs! Sometimes one has to use Gliscor stall out the attack that is most dangerous to Slowbro before switching in and setting up.
Mega Sharpedo is an example of a physical attacker that scares Slowbro. Consider a 252 / 252 Mega Slowbro, identical to mine save for one more HP. On a free switch, Slowbro Mega Evolves and Iron Defenses, taking 114 - 134 from Crunch. On the next turn, at +2 (and aiming to Rest) he takes 56-68. Max rolls on both sum to 202, exactly enough to KO. This 1/256 risk would be tolerable, except for two things. First is that a free switch requires letting something else faint, which is not typically recommended. And where the free switch is not available, a switch into Ice Fang, normally not a problem, becomes a big issue, since that small damage is enough to make the 2HKO much more likely. Worse, Crunch can drop Defense. So with bad luck on Defense drops from Crunch, even on a free switch, the risk is real. Jolly Gliscor saves the day here. It outspeeds Mega Slowbro, and can stall out Ice Fang. Ideally, we’d then stall out Crunch and switch over to Slowbro, but since the AI is erratic once it can’t OHKO, one often gets a Substitute to survive a Poison Jab, allowing for an easy kill with Toxic.
While Slowbro usually wants to Mega Evolve as soon as it’s in battle, Regenerator is nonetheless very important to the set. Most important is that Regenerator allows many more switch stall opportunities, since it can keep Slowbro at full health even after taking a bunch of hits from a low damage attack. Regenerator also eases the occasional double switch to Chansey. Consider an opposing lead Mega Alakazam, identified after a first turn Protect form Gliscor. Naturally, I want to get Chansey in, but I don’t want to risk a painful Special Defense drop from Psychic, as that would make Focus Blast more scary. So instead of switching directly to Chansey, I instead switch first to Slowbro, who takes the (resisted) Psychic. Even resisted, the move does a good bit of damage to Slowbro, but Regenerator really reduces the sting once I switch out next turn. And switch out I will, knowing that Chansey will face an ineffective Shadow Ball on the switch. Double switches aren’t incredibly common, but they are useful enough that you should always keep them in mind, and Regenerator makes them easier to pull off. Regenerator’s final advantage is that it can help cover for mistakes. Over a long streak, one is prone to screw up occasionally. When you have that “Oops!” moment after improperly switching to Slowbro, Regenerator often undoes much of the damage.
. You've definitely given me a lot to consider. Enough to make me rethink how heavily I weigh certain factors when choosing a Pokemon.
