[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 7 onwards
**Price Range**: 1-2 points
**Overview**: While it may seem underwhelming, Arbok is a surprisingly decent low-cost Poison-type that fills lots of roles and offers great utility. Its Poison typing along with Intimidate lets it check many of the metagame's best physical wallbreakers, especially Fighting-, Grass-, and Fairy-types. It can also cripple foes with Glare and Knock Off, and setup sweepers cannot reliably set up on it, since it has Haze and Dragon Tail. Its defensive stats are relatively average, however, so it struggles taking strong hits, especially from special attackers. It also has an average Attack stat with few reliable coverage options, meaning it often gets walled by specific foes.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Defensive Utility / Disruption**: Arbok works best when using its wide array of utility options to cripple foes and support its own teammates. It can effectively switch in on many physical attackers with Intimidate, and it can weaken them with Rocky Helmet in some occasions. It can punish switch-ins with Glare and Knock Off, stop setup sweepers with Haze and Dragon Tail, and set Toxic Spikes while preventing foes from setting them up as well.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Gunk Shot, Poison Jab
**Setup Moves**: Coil
**Utility Moves**: Knock Off, Glare, Toxic Spikes, Toxic, Haze, Switcheroo, Dragon Tail, Pain Split
**Coverage**: Crunch, Earthquake, Fire Fang, Ice Fang, Leech Life, Psychic Fangs, Rock Slide, Seed Bomb, Thunder Fang, Scale Shot
Niche Moves
========
**Scale Shot**: Although it is unreliable as coverage, Scale Shot lets Arbok boost its Speed while doing a decent amount of damage, which can synergize well with Coil in some scenarios.
**Rest**: While Intimidate is often preferred, Rest works really well with Shed Skin, giving Arbok a good chance of waking up immediately so that it does not have to rely on Pain Split to recover health.
Common Items
========
**Rocky Helmet**: With Intimidate, Rocky Helmet works well in further punishing physical attacks, especially if they try to pivot out with U-turn or Flip Turn.
**Black Sludge**: Black Sludge provides Arbok with much-needed passive recovery so that it can switch in and take hits more often.
Niche Items
========
**Sitrus Berry**: Sitrus Berry is preferred over Black Sludge when Arbok is expected to switch in on a very strong attack so that it can turn a 2HKO into a 3HKO.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Arbok can get weakened throughout the game by Spikes and Stealth Rock, so Heavy-Duty Boots can negate that if it needs to stay healthy, especially if Knock Off is not a concern.
**Mental Herb**: Arbok is reliant on its status moves to disrupt and phaze foes, so Mental Herb prevents it from getting stopped from Taunt or locked into a move from Encore.
**Shuca Berry**: Since Arbok cannot do much to Ground-types, it can take a hit when opponents expect it to switch out so that it can use Glare or Knock Off to weaken the foe.
**Switcheroo Items**: With Switcheroo, Arbok can cripple foes that switch into it with items such as Lagging Tail, Toxic Orb, and Choice Band. Choice Band also gives it a little more offensive pressure that can catch foes off guard before using Switcheroo.
Tera
========
Arbok can work decently as a secondary Tera Captain if no other cheap Pokemon on its team benefit from Terastallization. While its Poison typing is usually ideal for checking specific foes, it can use other defensive Tera types like Tera Steel and Fairy to check other Pokemon. It can also gain stronger coverage from Tera Water, Ground, and Fighting to make Coil sets more effective.
Draft Strategy
========
Arbok works best on teams that are notably weak to Fairy-, Grass-, and Fighting-types. It should not come to matches often, as it's relatively weak, but it occasionally does a great job in checking many of the metagame's best physical wallbreakers, including Ogerpon, Iron Valiant, Sneasler, Zarude, and Meowscarada. It also provides good support by removing foes' items and spreading status so that its teammates can win late-game.
Checks and Counters
========
**Ground-types**: Although they have to watch out for Glare on the switch-in, Ground-types like Great Tusk, Ting-Lu, and Clodsire wall all of Arbok's coverage and deal large amounts of damage back, allowing them free opportunities to deal damage or set entry hazards.
**Strong Special Attackers**: Special attackers like Chi-Yu, Gholdengo, and Terapagos do not need to worry about Intimidate and can easily blast through Arbok's average Special Defense.
**Substitute**: Foes that resist Poison can easily use Substitute in front of Arbok, rendering it useless and allowing them to set up or wallbreak without any risk.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nyx.564960/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/sunny004.197240/
**Draft Order**: Round 7 onwards
**Price Range**: 1-2 points
**Overview**: While it may seem underwhelming, Arbok is a surprisingly decent low-cost Poison-type that fills lots of roles and offers great utility. Its Poison typing along with Intimidate lets it check many of the metagame's best physical wallbreakers, especially Fighting-, Grass-, and Fairy-types. It can also cripple foes with Glare and Knock Off, and setup sweepers cannot reliably set up on it, since it has Haze and Dragon Tail. Its defensive stats are relatively average, however, so it struggles taking strong hits, especially from special attackers. It also has an average Attack stat with few reliable coverage options, meaning it often gets walled by specific foes.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Defensive Utility / Disruption**: Arbok works best when using its wide array of utility options to cripple foes and support its own teammates. It can effectively switch in on many physical attackers with Intimidate, and it can weaken them with Rocky Helmet in some occasions. It can punish switch-ins with Glare and Knock Off, stop setup sweepers with Haze and Dragon Tail, and set Toxic Spikes while preventing foes from setting them up as well.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Gunk Shot, Poison Jab
**Setup Moves**: Coil
**Utility Moves**: Knock Off, Glare, Toxic Spikes, Toxic, Haze, Switcheroo, Dragon Tail, Pain Split
**Coverage**: Crunch, Earthquake, Fire Fang, Ice Fang, Leech Life, Psychic Fangs, Rock Slide, Seed Bomb, Thunder Fang, Scale Shot
Niche Moves
========
**Scale Shot**: Although it is unreliable as coverage, Scale Shot lets Arbok boost its Speed while doing a decent amount of damage, which can synergize well with Coil in some scenarios.
**Rest**: While Intimidate is often preferred, Rest works really well with Shed Skin, giving Arbok a good chance of waking up immediately so that it does not have to rely on Pain Split to recover health.
Common Items
========
**Rocky Helmet**: With Intimidate, Rocky Helmet works well in further punishing physical attacks, especially if they try to pivot out with U-turn or Flip Turn.
**Black Sludge**: Black Sludge provides Arbok with much-needed passive recovery so that it can switch in and take hits more often.
Niche Items
========
**Sitrus Berry**: Sitrus Berry is preferred over Black Sludge when Arbok is expected to switch in on a very strong attack so that it can turn a 2HKO into a 3HKO.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Arbok can get weakened throughout the game by Spikes and Stealth Rock, so Heavy-Duty Boots can negate that if it needs to stay healthy, especially if Knock Off is not a concern.
**Mental Herb**: Arbok is reliant on its status moves to disrupt and phaze foes, so Mental Herb prevents it from getting stopped from Taunt or locked into a move from Encore.
**Shuca Berry**: Since Arbok cannot do much to Ground-types, it can take a hit when opponents expect it to switch out so that it can use Glare or Knock Off to weaken the foe.
**Switcheroo Items**: With Switcheroo, Arbok can cripple foes that switch into it with items such as Lagging Tail, Toxic Orb, and Choice Band. Choice Band also gives it a little more offensive pressure that can catch foes off guard before using Switcheroo.
Tera
========
Arbok can work decently as a secondary Tera Captain if no other cheap Pokemon on its team benefit from Terastallization. While its Poison typing is usually ideal for checking specific foes, it can use other defensive Tera types like Tera Steel and Fairy to check other Pokemon. It can also gain stronger coverage from Tera Water, Ground, and Fighting to make Coil sets more effective.
Draft Strategy
========
Arbok works best on teams that are notably weak to Fairy-, Grass-, and Fighting-types. It should not come to matches often, as it's relatively weak, but it occasionally does a great job in checking many of the metagame's best physical wallbreakers, including Ogerpon, Iron Valiant, Sneasler, Zarude, and Meowscarada. It also provides good support by removing foes' items and spreading status so that its teammates can win late-game.
Checks and Counters
========
**Ground-types**: Although they have to watch out for Glare on the switch-in, Ground-types like Great Tusk, Ting-Lu, and Clodsire wall all of Arbok's coverage and deal large amounts of damage back, allowing them free opportunities to deal damage or set entry hazards.
**Strong Special Attackers**: Special attackers like Chi-Yu, Gholdengo, and Terapagos do not need to worry about Intimidate and can easily blast through Arbok's average Special Defense.
**Substitute**: Foes that resist Poison can easily use Substitute in front of Arbok, rendering it useless and allowing them to set up or wallbreak without any risk.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nyx.564960/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/sunny004.197240/
Last edited:
