ZU Basculin [QC 0/2]

[yo cho]

[SET]
Offensive Pivot (Basculin) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Adaptability
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly/Adamant Nature
- Wave Crash
- Flip Turn
- Aqua Jet
- Psychic Fangs


[SET COMMENTS]
Basculin serves as a fantastic revenge killer thanks to its great speed, solid damage output and ability to bring its teammates in with Flip Turn. Equipped with a choice-scarf, it outspeeds the entirety of the unboosted metagame, as well as potent sweepers such as Oricorio after a Quiver Dance and Beartic in Snow. Adaptability-boosted Wave Crash is able to pick up OHKOes on threats such as Jolteon, Sneasel and Charizard, as well as having a good chance to OHKO Eviolite Sneasel-Hisui after Stealth Rock. With Flip Turn, Basculin gives free entry for teammates on its would be checks. Thanks to Adaptability, Flip Turn often threatens a KO on fast threats after some chip, creating a win-win scenario for Basculin. Aqua jet, though rarely used, finds its niche in revenge killing boosted threats such as Oricorio after two Quiver Dances, and picking off Pokemon like Lycanroc and Hitmontop, which can threaten a KO on a worn down Basculin with their own priority moves. Psychic fangs allows Basculin to hit switch-ins such as Virizion, Venusaur and Poliwrath and, with Adaptability, it becomes quite powerful after Tera, even against neutral targets, such as Water Absorb Lanturn and Lapras. A jolly nature allows for Basculin to outspeed Oricorio after a quiver dance and Choice Scarf Rotom-C. If its teammates are comfortable with dealing with these threats, Basculin can opt for an Adamant nature instead, maximizing its damage and notably giving it an 87.5% chance to OHKO Eviolite Sneasel-Hisui with Wave Crash.

Basculin excels on momentum-heavy offense teams which are able to constantly pressure the opponent, keeping hazards off and giving Basculin opportunities to enter the field. Compared to more self-sufficient Scarfers, Basculin has very little defensive utility, as it has poor bulk and is prone to being worn down by a combination of hazards, rocky helmet and recoil, making pivots great partners. Vikavolt and Jolteon create good offensive cores with Basculin, while defensive staples such as Mesprit, both specially defensive and physically defensive, and Persian-Alola are able to switch in on a plethora of attacks and bring Basculin in safely. Snorlax, though not a pivot, is able to blanket check many Special attackers such as Vikavolt, Lapras, Arboliva and Exeggutor which gives Basculin a lot of breathing room, and it is thus a solid teammate. Lanturn proves to be annoying for Basculin, punishing its usually riskless Flip Turns while shrugging off Psychic Fangs, which makes slow grass type breakers such as Choice Specs Exeggutor-Alola and Arboliva which take advantage of Lanturns passivity fantastic teammates for Basculin. Basculin also appreciates teammates which help it minimize the chip it takes. Knock off users such as Sneasel and Passimian which often bring in the same Rocky Helmet user as Basculin are great at this. Hazard removal with Basculin is preferred, typically in the form of Sandslash and Hitmontop, the tiers two best spinners. Sandslash provides Spikes and Knock Off, helping wittle down Basculin's checks and removing Rocky Helmets. However, Hitmontop is usually the spinner of choice for teams which Basculin finds itself on, as it threatens the ghost types of the tier much better than Sandslash and simultaneously creates a great offensive core with Basculin, with the grass types that it brings in creating free opportunities for Hitmontop to use its Technician-boosted Triple Axel.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Choice Band can be used to power up Basculin's attacks, making it a solid breaker against teams without Water Absorb Lanturn. However, considering its average speed and already solid output thanks to Adaptability, Basculin finds itself preferring the speed boost of Choice Scarf a majority of the time. Double-Edge can be used as a more powerful alternative to Psychic Fangs against neutral targets, namely Water Absorb Lanturn, but it misses out on hitting targets such as Venusaur, Virzion and Poliwrath super effectively and Basculin does not appreciate the recoil either. Tera Water can be used to boost its STAB moves even further, however, due to the way Tera interacts with Adaptability the damage boost is quite disappointing, with the multiplier only increasing from 2 to 2.25.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Physical Walls**: Rocky Helmet users such as Weezing and physically defensive Mesprit are able to punish Basculin for using Flip Turn and eventually bring it into range of being KO'd by priority moves.

**Water Absorb users**: Water Absorb users such as Lanturn, Lapras and Poliwrath are able to prevent Basculin from risklessly using Flip Turn and force the Basculin user to make risky predictions in order to make progress.

**Faster Scarfers**: Pokemon such as Sneasel-Hisui, Grafaiai and Shaymin equipped with a Choice Scarf outspeed Basculin and threaten an KO after minimal chip, or none in the case of Shaymin.

**Defensive Tera**: Setup sweepers like Minior and Oricorio often use defensive teras such as grass and water which are able to catch Basculin off guard and turn the revenge kill attempt into a setup opportunity.

**Bulky Grass-type Attackers**: If Basculin ever finds itself in front of Pokemon such as Choice Specs Arboliva or Exeggutor-Alola which are not threatened by any of its attacks and deal huge damage back, the Basculin team is often forced to give up one of its Pokemon to take the hit.


[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/yo-cho.610452/
Quality checked by:

Grammar checked by:

 

[yo cho]

Ready for QC

 

[kriegueur]

This is an AMQC and should not be implemented

Spoiler

remove add comment
[OVERVIEW]
Basculin serves as a fantastic revenge killer thanks to its great speed, solid damage output and ability to bring its teammates in with Flip Turn. Equipped with a choice scarf, it outspeeds the entirety of the unboosted metagame, including threats such as Sneasel, Sneasel-Hisui, Charizard, Jolteon and Whimsicott, as well as outspeeding potent sweepers such as Oricorio after a Quiver Dance and Beartic in Snow and also outspeeds the most prominent scarf users such as Passimian, Mesprit and Rotom-C. To add to that, Basculin's Adaptability-boosted Flip Turns are often able to threaten a KO on the aforementioned threats once they are weakened, creating a win-win scenario. However, Basculin's poor bulk and susceptibility to being worn down by a hazards, Rocky Helmet and Wave Crash recoil, leave it reliant on its teammates to take hits and bring it in safely.

[SET]
Basculin @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Adaptability
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly/Adamant Nature
- Wave Crash
- Flip Turn
- Aqua Jet
- Psychic Fangs


[SET COMMENTS]
Choice Scarf Basculin is an excellent revenge-killer in ZU. Adaptability-boosted Wave Crash is able to pick up OHKOes on threats such as Jolteon, Sneasel and Charizard, as well as having a good chance to OHKO Eviolite Sneasel-Hisui after Stealth Rock. With Flip Turn, Basculin gives free entry for teammates on its would be checks. The most common switch ins to Basculin are Venusaur, Arboliva, physically defensive Mesprit and Weezing, which makes breakers such as choice specs Jolteon, Magmortar and Vikavolt great teammates. Jolteon and Vikavolt are in turn able to bring in pokemon that fear Basculin with volt switch, while Magmortar's combination of strong coverage and knock off spells trouble for most defensive cores. Psychic fangs allows Basculin to hit switch-ins such as Virizion and Venusaur and, with Adaptability, it becomes quite powerful after Tera, even against neutral targets, although using tera weakens your water type moves as they lose the Adaptability boost. In certain scenarios, using Tera Psychic Fangs will be necessary to avoid losing to a defensive tera from the opposing sweeper, such as against Oricorio and Minior which often run tera grass. Aqua jet, though rarely used, finds its niche in revenge killing boosted threats such as Oricorio after two Quiver Dances, and picking off Pokemon like Lycanroc and Hitmontop, which threaten a KO on Basculin with their own priority moves. A jolly nature allows for Basculin to outspeed Oricorio after a quiver dance and Choice Scarf Rotom-C and scarf Mesprit. If its teammates are comfortable with dealing with these threats, Basculin can opt for an Adamant nature instead, maximizing its damage (List meaningful matchups for adamant such as guaranteed wave crash kill on eviolte sneasel-H after rocks).

Compared to more self-sufficient Choice Scarf users such as Passimian and Rotom-C, Basculin has very little defensive utility. It struggles to switch in on most unresisted attacks and is prone to being worn down by hazards, Wave Crash recoil and Rocky Helmet. This makes pivots, both defensive and offensive, great partners. The aforementioned Vikavolt and Jolteon create a great offensive core with Basculin, while defensive staples such as Mesprit, both specially defensive and physically defensive, and Persian-Alola are able to switch in on a plethora of attacks and bring Basculin in safely. Snorlax, though not a pivot, is able to blanket check many Special attackers which gives Basculin a lot of breathing room, and it is thus a solid teammate. Lanturn and other Water Absorb users prove to be extremely annoying for Basculin, punishing its usually riskless Flip Turns, which makes slow grass type breakers such as Choice Specs Exeggutor-Alola and Arboliva which take advantage of Lanturns passivity fantastic teammates for Basculin (you mention the existance of other water absorb users and only list pokemon that abuse Lanturn, maybe only mention Lanturn as the other water absorb mons are basically irrelevant).

Basculin also appreciates teammates which help it minimize the chip it takes. Knock off users such as Sneasel and Passimian which often bring in the same Rocky Helmet user as Basculin are great at this. Hazard removal with Basculin is mandatory (mandatory is too strong of a word, or requires some explanation associated with it), usually in the form of Sandslash and Hitmontop, the tiers two best spinners. Sandslash provides Spikes, which can help wittle down Basculin's checks and it also helps by Knocking Off Rocky Helmets. However, Hitmontop is usually the preferred spinner of choice for teams which Basculin finds itself on, as it threatens the ghost types of the tier which would want to prevent Rapid Spin much better than Sandslash and simultaneously creates a great offensive core with Basculin, with the grass types that it brings in creating free opportunities for Hitmontop to use its Technician-boosted Triple Axel.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Choice Band can be used to power up Basculin's attacks, making it a solid breaker against teams without Water Absorb Lanturn. However, considering its average speed and already solid output thanks to Adaptability, Basculin finds itself preferring the speed boost of Choice Scarf a majority of the time. Double-Edge can be used as a more powerful alternative to Psychic Fangs against neutral targets, namely Water Absorb Lanturn, but it misses out on hitting targets such as Venusaur and Virzion super effectively and Basculin does not appreciate the recoil either. Tera water can be used to get more wave crash damage but the boost only goes from 2x to 2.25x after tera which makes it hard to justify. (The interraction between tera and adaptability is not that well known so readers might not understand why basc wouldn't go tera water)

Checks and Counters
===================

**Physical Walls**: Rocky Helmet users such as Weezing, Persian-Alola, physically defensive Mesprit and physically defensive Shaymin are able to punish Basculin for using Flip Turn and eventually bring it into range of being KO'd by priority moves

**Water Absorb users**: Water Absorb Lanturn and Lapras are able to prevent Basculin from risklessly using Flip Turn and force the Basculin user to make risky predictions in order to make progress.

**Faster Scarfers**: Pokemon such as Sneasel-Hisui, Grafaiai and Shaymin equipped with a Choice Scarf outspeed Basculin and threaten an OHKO after minimal chip, or none in the case of Shaymin.

**Defensive Tera**: Setup sweepers like Minior and Oricorio often use defensive teras such as grass and water which are able to catch Basculin off guard and turn the revenge kill attempt into a setup opportunity.

(Bulky Grass types ?)

 

[sleid]

QC check. this is not a full check because i want to take a last look after you implement this stuff

Copyedit

Spoiler

remove add comment = kriegueur. purple = sleid
[OVERVIEW]
Basculin serves as a fantastic revenge killer thanks to its great speed, solid damage output and ability to bring its teammates in with Flip Turn. Equipped with a choice scarf, it outspeeds the entirety of the unboosted metagame, including threats such as Sneasel, Sneasel-Hisui, Charizard, (idt you need to mention both sneasels since they share the same speed tier, and zard is borderline a "particularly fast" worthy mention) Jolteon and Whimsicott, as well as outspeeding potent sweepers such as Oricorio after a Quiver Dance and Beartic in Snow and also outspeeds the most prominent scarf users such as Passimian, Mesprit and Rotom-C. To add to that, Basculin's Adaptability-boosted Flip Turns are often able to threaten a KO on the aforementioned threats once they are weakened, creating a win-win scenario. However, Basculin's poor bulk and susceptibility to being worn down by a hazards, Rocky Helmet and Wave Crash recoil, leave it reliant on its teammates to take hits and bring it in safely.

for future reference, you don't need to do overviews on pokemon with only 1 set. but you can choose to keep this since you already did

[SET]
Offensive Pivot (Basculin) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Adaptability
Tera Type: Psychic / Water (you dont think water could be useful for a boost in damage?)
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly/Adamant Nature
- Wave Crash
- Flip Turn
- Aqua Jet
- Psychic Fangs


[SET COMMENTS]
Choice Scarf Basculin is an excellent revenge-killer in ZU (why? list out the good qualities that make it so good). Adaptability-boosted Wave Crash is able to pick up OHKOes on threats such as Jolteon, Sneasel and Charizard, as well as having a good chance to OHKO Eviolite Sneasel-Hisui after Stealth Rock. With Flip Turn, Basculin gives free entry for teammates on its would be checks. The most common switch ins to Basculin are Venusaur, Arboliva, physically defensive Mesprit and Weezing, which makes breakers such as choice specs Jolteon, Magmortar and Vikavolt great teammates. Jolteon and Vikavolt are in turn able to bring in pokemon that fear Basculin with volt switch, while Magmortar's combination of strong coverage and knock off spells trouble for most defensive cores (this first section is to specifically talk about the moves and what they do, use this in the teammate section). Psychic fangs allows Basculin to hit switch-ins such as Virizion and Venusaur and, with Adaptability, it becomes quite powerful after Tera, even against neutral targets (water absorbers in general, especially wrath should be mention specifically, even though it's a bit less common atm), although using tera weakens your water type moves as they lose the Adaptability boost. In certain scenarios, using Tera Psychic Fangs will be necessary to avoid losing to a defensive tera from the opposing sweeper, such as against Oricorio and Minior which often run tera grass. Aqua jet, though rarely used, finds its niche in revenge killing boosted threats such as Oricorio after two Quiver Dances, and picking off Pokemon like Lycanroc and Hitmontop, which threaten a KO on Basculin with their own priority moves (aqua jet sentence needs to directly follow the flip turn sentence, you write the moves in order). A jolly nature allows for Basculin to outspeed Oricorio after a quiver dance and Choice Scarf Rotom-C and scarf Mesprit (you outspeed scarf mesp either way). If its teammates are comfortable with dealing with these threats, Basculin can opt for an Adamant nature instead, maximizing its damage (List meaningful matchups for adamant such as guaranteed wave crash kill on eviolte sneasel-H after rocks).

this section starts off by listing te type of teams basculin works well on/what role it fits that teams may look for. Compared to more self-sufficient Choice Scarf users such as Passimian and Rotom-C, Basculin has very little defensive utility. It struggles to switch in on most unresisted attacks and is prone to being worn down by hazards, Wave Crash recoil and Rocky Helmet. This makes pivots, both defensive and offensive, great partners. The aforementioned Vikavolt and Jolteon create a great offensive core with Basculin, while defensive staples such as Mesprit, both specially defensive and physically defensive, and Persian-Alola are able to switch in on a plethora of attacks and bring Basculin in safely (can we find a way to make these 4 sentences into 2? i feel like there is a lot of content that could be shortened to make sentence 1 and 2 one sentence, and sentence 3 and 4 one sentence). Snorlax, though not a pivot, is able to blanket check many Special attackers which gives Basculin a lot of breathing room (vs who in particular), and it is thus a solid teammate. Lanturn and other Water Absorb users prove to be extremely annoying for Basculin, punishing its usually riskless Flip Turns, which makes slow grass type breakers such as Choice Specs Exeggutor-Alola and Arboliva which take advantage of Lanturns passivity fantastic teammates for Basculin (you mention the existance of other water absorb users and only list pokemon that abuse Lanturn, maybe only mention Lanturn as the other water absorb mons are basically irrelevant(i think you can mention wrath and lapras at least, cacturne is kind of a sleeper ig)).

Basculin also appreciates teammates which help it minimize the chip it takes. Knock off users such as Sneasel and Passimian which often bring in the same Rocky Helmet user as Basculin are great at this. Hazard removal with Basculin is mandatory (mandatory is too strong of a word, or requires some explanation associated with it(i would just say "preferred"), usually in the form of Sandslash and Hitmontop, the tiers two best spinners. Sandslash provides Spikes, which can help wittle down Basculin's checks and it also helps by Knocking Off Rocky Helmets. However, Hitmontop is usually the preferred spinner of choice for teams which Basculin finds itself on, as it threatens the ghost types of the tier which would want to prevent Rapid Spin much better than Sandslash and simultaneously creates a great offensive core with Basculin, with the grass types that it brings in creating free opportunities for Hitmontop to use its Technician-boosted Triple Axel.

this section should only be 2 paragraphs, so please merge these. i would also make sure the checks and counters section is reflected here, so mention teammates that help switchin to offensive grasses like arbo that can come in on basc


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Choice Band can be used to power up Basculin's attacks, making it a solid breaker against teams without Water Absorb Lanturn. However, considering its average speed and already solid output thanks to Adaptability, Basculin finds itself preferring the speed boost of Choice Scarf a majority of the time. Double-Edge can be used as a more powerful alternative to Psychic Fangs against neutral targets, namely Water Absorb Lanturn, but it misses out on hitting targets such as Venusaur and Virzion super effectively and Basculin does not appreciate the recoil either. Tera water can be used to get more wave crash damage but the boost only goes from 2x to 2.25x after tera which makes it hard to justify. (The interraction between tera and adaptability is not that well known so readers might not understand why basc wouldn't go tera water) (i personally think tera water fits in the main set)

Checks and Counters
===================

**Physical Walls**: Rocky Helmet users such as Weezing, Persian-Alola, physically defensive Mesprit and physically defensive Shaymin are able to punish Basculin for using Flip Turn and eventually bring it into range of being KO'd by priority moves. (i haven't seen much aper and shaymin where helmets tbh)

**Water Absorb users**: Water Absorb Lanturn and Lapras are able to prevent Basculin from risklessly using Flip Turn and force the Basculin user to make risky predictions in order to make progress.

**Faster Scarfers**: Pokemon such as Sneasel-Hisui, Grafaiai and Shaymin equipped with a Choice Scarf outspeed Basculin and threaten an OHKO after minimal chip, or none in the case of Shaymin.

**Defensive Tera**: Setup sweepers like Minior and Oricorio often use defensive teras such as grass and water which are able to catch Basculin off guard and turn the revenge kill attempt into a setup opportunity.

(Bulky Grass types ?)

(bulky grass types is a good add, i would also mention priority)