[OVERVIEW]
* Alomomola is one of the most underrated and often overlooked defensive pokemon in OU.
* It has pretty much everything that a defensive pokemon could want, from a gigantic HP stat to good defense, important support moves and the invaluable regenerator ability.
* While those qualities make it a great defensive Pokemon, they leave Alomomola very passive, and unable to directly threaten any pokemon outside of wearing them down with Status moves. This can give your opponent opportunities to take advantage of it.
* Mono-Water was always considered a great defensive typing, but the amount of big electric threats in gen 7 also pose a big issue for it, so it requires very specialized teammates to work to its full extent.
[SET]
name: Defensive Utility
move 1: Scald
move 2: Wish
move 3: Protect
move 4: Toxic / Knock Off
item: Leftovers / Rocky Helmet
ability: Regenerator
nature: Calm
evs: 36 HP / 220 Def / 252 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
* Scald is the bread-and-butter move for every bulky water type, not only because it lets them do chip damage to enemies that don't force you out, but also because it has a chance to burn, which cripples physical attackers as well as Pokemon that are immune to Toxic, one of the most common status conditions used by the stall and balance teams Alomomola fits best on. You have to be careful not to spam Scald too carelessly against defensive teams, since the DoT itself got weakened, and often you would rather Toxic the Pokemon that can be found on such teams.
* Wish is Alomomolas only real recovery move bar Rest, which would leave you unable to perform any actions for several turns, greatly decreasing its ability in supporting its team. At the same time, Wish can also be used to heal up all but the bulkiest of Alomomolas teammates to full, thanks to its massive HP stat.
* Protect is often used in tandem with Wish when trying to heal yourself, to guarantee that you don't die or get PHazed while trying to do so. It is also great for scouting coverage moves on enemy pokemon, get a free turn of Leftovers recovery, stall Toxic/Burn turns on the enemy pokemon and take advantage of choiced Pokemon.
* Toxic is the preferred move in the last slot, letting Alomomola cover a wide range of Switch-Ins together with its other moves by enabling you to both wear down defensive Pokemon, or Pokemon that aren't bothered by a Scald Burn, like special sweepers.
* Knock Off is a viable option if you already have other means of spreading Toxic, or don't find it important for your team's gameplan. It is a very spammable moves, and can cripple a plethora of Pokemon who rely on their item, both defensively and offensively.
Set Details
========
* The EV spread used is an optimized one, which lets Alomomola check a plethora of threats up to everything but Pheromosa and +2 Offensive SD M-Scizors, as well as special attackers like Ash-Greninja and Nihilego. Due to its high base HP stat, it is more beneficial to invest in Def and SpD compared to HP, because even though increasing HP would result in bigger Wishes passed, the only Pokemon that would benefit from this are the likes of Chansey, which has reliable recovery and bulk on its own; everything else gets healed enough from the base HP. The fact that there are still 36 EVs put into HP is because it nets you an additional point of Leftovers recovery, but if you use Rocky Helmet, you can use those EVs to max out Def and SpD instead.
* Regenerator is the obvious ability choice on Alomomola, allowing it to heal itself for 1/3 of its HP without having to use Wish or stall out Leftover turns, simply by switching out. Since Stall and Balance naturally switches a lot, this ability fits naturally into your normal game flow.
* Leftovers are the most consistent and "safe" item choice, which, coupled with its Regenerator ability, allow Alomomola to recover a substantial amount of HP without having to use a recovery move, and you can't do much wrong with it.
* At the same time, Rocky Helmet is a more than viable option as well. Since Alomomola, unlike many other Pokemon, has two innate ways to recover HP, Leftovers can often seem redundant, and punishes a lot of the physical attackers it checks. Another big plus for Rocky Helmet is the fact that there are so many U-Turn users in the metagame right now, like Mega Scizor, Genesect, Pheromosa, or Tapu Kokos that are trying to be cheeky against Alolan-Marowaks; if you consistently switch Alomomola into those Pokemon, the additional damage they take from each U-Turn, especially coupled with other residual damage sources like entry hazards or volatile status conditions, can really add up. At the same time it requires you to play more carefully on the defensive side though, because you will be forced to use Wish and/or switch out to activate Regenerator a lot more often than you would have to if you ran Leftovers.
Usage Tips
========
* Switch Alomomola into physical attackers or weaker special/mixed attackers lacking Electric coverage in as much as possible. Most of those Pokemon can't harm it much, so you will have plenty of time to eecute your gameplan.
* Once your opponent is forced out because he can't break through it, proceed to either cripple the switchin with Toxic or Knock Off, or, if none of the former are needed, get chip damage and a burn chance with Scald. You can also use the free turns it generates by using Wish preemptively, so you can switch to your own check to the pokemon switching in, and if necessary, heal it up while doing so.
* Because you will be switching a lot yourself, try to keep Alomomola as healthy as possible, especially with entry hazards up on your side of the field. Else, it might come in weakened enough to enable Pokemon that it would normally wall to suddenly threaten you. Regenerator helps you a lot with this task, but you should still not play carelessly; sometimes it can be a better option to use Wish + Protect instead of switching out again.
* If you are using Rocky Helmet, be on the lookout for enemy U-Turn users and switch into them whenever you predict a U-Turn. If you are confident in your mindgame-ability, you can even try that to Pokemon that run U-Turn but are not normally walled by Alomomola, such as Tapu Koko. As an example, if you switch in one of your Pokemon that checks Koko, he is likely to U-Turn (assuming it runs U-Turn over Volt Switch) out of it the turn after. You can abuse this fact by doubling into Alomomola to get the Rocky Helmet chip damage in and weaken Koko even further. Be cautious though, something like this won't happen too often, eventually your enemy will adapt to that, and soon the mindgames will continue again.
Team Options
========
* Since Alomomola works well on Stall teams, a lot of the staples of this archetype work well with it, good examples are Special Walls like Chansey, Mantine (be careful about the overlapping weaknesses here) or Umbreon, who complement it nicely, considering that Alomomola mostly checks physical threats. Alolan-Marowak gets a special highlight here, because with SpD investment and its Lightning Rod ability it makes for the perfect partner, especially because of how popular Tapu Koko is. Every coverage move that Tapu Koko normally runs, does close to nothing to Alomomola, or, if you run Rocky Helmet, even puts your enemy at a disadvantage. At the same time, everything Tapu Koko has to threaten Alomomola, does nothing to Marowak (Thunderbolt/Thunder, Volt Switch). Another great asset of Alolan Marowak is the fact that it fits on every archetype Alomomola is commonly used on, from full Stall over Balance/Semistall to Bulky Offense.
* Unaware or Haze users and PHazers can remedy for the fact that Pokemon which force Alomomola out can use the free turn to set up a boosting move.
* Because of the many switches Alomomola forces, entry hazard setters will help whittle down the enemy team. Skarmory can set up both Rocks or Spikes, but shares both its Electric weakness and role as a physicall wall. Chansey can double its role of a special wall with Stealth Rock, while Pokemon like Ferrothorn can set up Rocks or Spikes and act as an Electric Resist.
* Just as your opponent will be forced to switch a lot, so will you, that means Hazard Removal is immensely useful. Defog users such as the aforementioned Mantine and Skarmory, or Rapid Spinners such as Excadrill work well with it.
* On balanced and offensively oriented teams, setup sweepers that lack innate reliable recovery GREATLY appreciate the Wish support from Alomomola, and are also aided in sweeping by the chip damage it can put on the enemy team. Excadrill should be mentioned once again, other great options are Zygarde, Mega Charizard X and many more.
* Last but not least, other Regenerator Pokemon like Amoonguss, Tangrowth or Tornadus-T all make great teammates for a regenerator core.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
* Healing Wish is an option on offensively oriented teams, because it can give your sweepers a "second chance", if you know Alomomola will faint soon, or don't need it to check something anymore. In practise though, Wish alone is able to do that trick most of the time, and if you are worried about status conditions you can always add a cleric to your team.
* Also on offensive teams that don't need the Toxic support, you could use Refresh to cure yourself of Status conditions, but normally Alomomola won't stay in long enough for Toxic to matter, and Regenerator makes up for the lost HP anyways.
* Another option is Light Screen, which can help on defensive builds if your team is weak to strong special sweepers, or lets your setup sweepers boost more freely on offensive teams.
* Soak is a cheeky way of spreading Toxic to Steel and Poison types who would normally be immune to it, although it is hard to justify using Soak over any of your other 3 moves (since without Toxic it's useless).
Checks and Counters
===================
**Strong special sweepers and wallbreakers**: While Alomomola can definitely take some special attackers on, it is not on "Chansey-level". Especially after a boost or two, many dedicated special breakers can force it out and leave you in need of checking them in another way.
**Electric and Grass types**: Due to its mono water typing, Alomomola struggles against many hard hitting threats in the tier, such as Tapu Koko, Xurkitree or Tapu Bulu.
**Taunt users**: Taunt leaves Alomomola virtually useless in many situations, since not only does Scald not directly threaten something outside of the Atk reduce of a burn, but also can none of your utility or healing moves be used when falling for a Taunt.
**Setup sweepers**: Due to its passivity, many Pokemon can use Alomomola as setup fodder, or even become threats after 1-2 boosts when they would normally get walled by it. This applies especially to Pokemon that can not be Toxiced and/or don't mind Scald burns.
* Alomomola is one of the most underrated and often overlooked defensive pokemon in OU.
* It has pretty much everything that a defensive pokemon could want, from a gigantic HP stat to good defense, important support moves and the invaluable regenerator ability.
* While those qualities make it a great defensive Pokemon, they leave Alomomola very passive, and unable to directly threaten any pokemon outside of wearing them down with Status moves. This can give your opponent opportunities to take advantage of it.
* Mono-Water was always considered a great defensive typing, but the amount of big electric threats in gen 7 also pose a big issue for it, so it requires very specialized teammates to work to its full extent.
[SET]
name: Defensive Utility
move 1: Scald
move 2: Wish
move 3: Protect
move 4: Toxic / Knock Off
item: Leftovers / Rocky Helmet
ability: Regenerator
nature: Calm
evs: 36 HP / 220 Def / 252 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
* Scald is the bread-and-butter move for every bulky water type, not only because it lets them do chip damage to enemies that don't force you out, but also because it has a chance to burn, which cripples physical attackers as well as Pokemon that are immune to Toxic, one of the most common status conditions used by the stall and balance teams Alomomola fits best on. You have to be careful not to spam Scald too carelessly against defensive teams, since the DoT itself got weakened, and often you would rather Toxic the Pokemon that can be found on such teams.
* Wish is Alomomolas only real recovery move bar Rest, which would leave you unable to perform any actions for several turns, greatly decreasing its ability in supporting its team. At the same time, Wish can also be used to heal up all but the bulkiest of Alomomolas teammates to full, thanks to its massive HP stat.
* Protect is often used in tandem with Wish when trying to heal yourself, to guarantee that you don't die or get PHazed while trying to do so. It is also great for scouting coverage moves on enemy pokemon, get a free turn of Leftovers recovery, stall Toxic/Burn turns on the enemy pokemon and take advantage of choiced Pokemon.
* Toxic is the preferred move in the last slot, letting Alomomola cover a wide range of Switch-Ins together with its other moves by enabling you to both wear down defensive Pokemon, or Pokemon that aren't bothered by a Scald Burn, like special sweepers.
* Knock Off is a viable option if you already have other means of spreading Toxic, or don't find it important for your team's gameplan. It is a very spammable moves, and can cripple a plethora of Pokemon who rely on their item, both defensively and offensively.
Set Details
========
* The EV spread used is an optimized one, which lets Alomomola check a plethora of threats up to everything but Pheromosa and +2 Offensive SD M-Scizors, as well as special attackers like Ash-Greninja and Nihilego. Due to its high base HP stat, it is more beneficial to invest in Def and SpD compared to HP, because even though increasing HP would result in bigger Wishes passed, the only Pokemon that would benefit from this are the likes of Chansey, which has reliable recovery and bulk on its own; everything else gets healed enough from the base HP. The fact that there are still 36 EVs put into HP is because it nets you an additional point of Leftovers recovery, but if you use Rocky Helmet, you can use those EVs to max out Def and SpD instead.
* Regenerator is the obvious ability choice on Alomomola, allowing it to heal itself for 1/3 of its HP without having to use Wish or stall out Leftover turns, simply by switching out. Since Stall and Balance naturally switches a lot, this ability fits naturally into your normal game flow.
* Leftovers are the most consistent and "safe" item choice, which, coupled with its Regenerator ability, allow Alomomola to recover a substantial amount of HP without having to use a recovery move, and you can't do much wrong with it.
* At the same time, Rocky Helmet is a more than viable option as well. Since Alomomola, unlike many other Pokemon, has two innate ways to recover HP, Leftovers can often seem redundant, and punishes a lot of the physical attackers it checks. Another big plus for Rocky Helmet is the fact that there are so many U-Turn users in the metagame right now, like Mega Scizor, Genesect, Pheromosa, or Tapu Kokos that are trying to be cheeky against Alolan-Marowaks; if you consistently switch Alomomola into those Pokemon, the additional damage they take from each U-Turn, especially coupled with other residual damage sources like entry hazards or volatile status conditions, can really add up. At the same time it requires you to play more carefully on the defensive side though, because you will be forced to use Wish and/or switch out to activate Regenerator a lot more often than you would have to if you ran Leftovers.
Usage Tips
========
* Switch Alomomola into physical attackers or weaker special/mixed attackers lacking Electric coverage in as much as possible. Most of those Pokemon can't harm it much, so you will have plenty of time to eecute your gameplan.
* Once your opponent is forced out because he can't break through it, proceed to either cripple the switchin with Toxic or Knock Off, or, if none of the former are needed, get chip damage and a burn chance with Scald. You can also use the free turns it generates by using Wish preemptively, so you can switch to your own check to the pokemon switching in, and if necessary, heal it up while doing so.
* Because you will be switching a lot yourself, try to keep Alomomola as healthy as possible, especially with entry hazards up on your side of the field. Else, it might come in weakened enough to enable Pokemon that it would normally wall to suddenly threaten you. Regenerator helps you a lot with this task, but you should still not play carelessly; sometimes it can be a better option to use Wish + Protect instead of switching out again.
* If you are using Rocky Helmet, be on the lookout for enemy U-Turn users and switch into them whenever you predict a U-Turn. If you are confident in your mindgame-ability, you can even try that to Pokemon that run U-Turn but are not normally walled by Alomomola, such as Tapu Koko. As an example, if you switch in one of your Pokemon that checks Koko, he is likely to U-Turn (assuming it runs U-Turn over Volt Switch) out of it the turn after. You can abuse this fact by doubling into Alomomola to get the Rocky Helmet chip damage in and weaken Koko even further. Be cautious though, something like this won't happen too often, eventually your enemy will adapt to that, and soon the mindgames will continue again.
Team Options
========
* Since Alomomola works well on Stall teams, a lot of the staples of this archetype work well with it, good examples are Special Walls like Chansey, Mantine (be careful about the overlapping weaknesses here) or Umbreon, who complement it nicely, considering that Alomomola mostly checks physical threats. Alolan-Marowak gets a special highlight here, because with SpD investment and its Lightning Rod ability it makes for the perfect partner, especially because of how popular Tapu Koko is. Every coverage move that Tapu Koko normally runs, does close to nothing to Alomomola, or, if you run Rocky Helmet, even puts your enemy at a disadvantage. At the same time, everything Tapu Koko has to threaten Alomomola, does nothing to Marowak (Thunderbolt/Thunder, Volt Switch). Another great asset of Alolan Marowak is the fact that it fits on every archetype Alomomola is commonly used on, from full Stall over Balance/Semistall to Bulky Offense.
* Unaware or Haze users and PHazers can remedy for the fact that Pokemon which force Alomomola out can use the free turn to set up a boosting move.
* Because of the many switches Alomomola forces, entry hazard setters will help whittle down the enemy team. Skarmory can set up both Rocks or Spikes, but shares both its Electric weakness and role as a physicall wall. Chansey can double its role of a special wall with Stealth Rock, while Pokemon like Ferrothorn can set up Rocks or Spikes and act as an Electric Resist.
* Just as your opponent will be forced to switch a lot, so will you, that means Hazard Removal is immensely useful. Defog users such as the aforementioned Mantine and Skarmory, or Rapid Spinners such as Excadrill work well with it.
* On balanced and offensively oriented teams, setup sweepers that lack innate reliable recovery GREATLY appreciate the Wish support from Alomomola, and are also aided in sweeping by the chip damage it can put on the enemy team. Excadrill should be mentioned once again, other great options are Zygarde, Mega Charizard X and many more.
* Last but not least, other Regenerator Pokemon like Amoonguss, Tangrowth or Tornadus-T all make great teammates for a regenerator core.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
* Healing Wish is an option on offensively oriented teams, because it can give your sweepers a "second chance", if you know Alomomola will faint soon, or don't need it to check something anymore. In practise though, Wish alone is able to do that trick most of the time, and if you are worried about status conditions you can always add a cleric to your team.
* Also on offensive teams that don't need the Toxic support, you could use Refresh to cure yourself of Status conditions, but normally Alomomola won't stay in long enough for Toxic to matter, and Regenerator makes up for the lost HP anyways.
* Another option is Light Screen, which can help on defensive builds if your team is weak to strong special sweepers, or lets your setup sweepers boost more freely on offensive teams.
* Soak is a cheeky way of spreading Toxic to Steel and Poison types who would normally be immune to it, although it is hard to justify using Soak over any of your other 3 moves (since without Toxic it's useless).
Checks and Counters
===================
**Strong special sweepers and wallbreakers**: While Alomomola can definitely take some special attackers on, it is not on "Chansey-level". Especially after a boost or two, many dedicated special breakers can force it out and leave you in need of checking them in another way.
**Electric and Grass types**: Due to its mono water typing, Alomomola struggles against many hard hitting threats in the tier, such as Tapu Koko, Xurkitree or Tapu Bulu.
**Taunt users**: Taunt leaves Alomomola virtually useless in many situations, since not only does Scald not directly threaten something outside of the Atk reduce of a burn, but also can none of your utility or healing moves be used when falling for a Taunt.
**Setup sweepers**: Due to its passivity, many Pokemon can use Alomomola as setup fodder, or even become threats after 1-2 boosts when they would normally get walled by it. This applies especially to Pokemon that can not be Toxiced and/or don't mind Scald burns.
Last edited:
