[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 7 onwards
**Price Range**: 2-3 points
**Overview**: Bruxish is a cheap wallbreaker and pivot that can fit on teams looking for some help breaking down defensive foes. While its base stats leave a lot to be desired, its high-Base Power STAB moves in Wave Crash and Strong Jaw-boosted Psychic Fangs allow it to deal serious damage. It can also function as a competent revenge killer when equipped with a Choice Scarf, and it can use its secondary ability Dazzling to flip the script on strong priority move users. However, Bruxish's lack of defensive utility and middling Speed make it difficult to fit on most drafts, requiring significant support to get it on and off the field safely.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Offensive Pivot**: Bruxish can use its high-Base Power STAB moves in Wave Crash and Strong Jaw-boosted Psychic Fangs to force switches, allowing it to deal big damage to opposing defensive pieces or to pivot to a teammate with Flip Turn. These sets will often use a Choice Scarf to force out faster opposing Pokemon or Choice Band to maximize its damage output.
**Wallbreaker**: Bruxish can use Swords Dance to boost its power even further, allowing it to break past defensive foes that would otherwise be able to handle its Choice item sets. Once boosted, it can sometimes use Aqua Jet to pick off faster revenge killers, but it is usually too weak to complete a full sweep.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Psychic Fangs, Wave Crash, Flip Turn, Aqua Jet, Liquidation
**Setup Moves**: Swords Dance
**Utility Moves**: Taunt, Super Fang, Substitute
**Coverage**: Crunch, Ice Fang
Niche Moves
========
**Agility**: Agility can allow Bruxish to boost its Speed and clean up a weakened team. However, Bruxish's poor base stats make this difficult in practice; its lack of bulk means it struggles to find opportunities to set up, while its average base Attack makes it reliant on the opposing team already being severely weakened.
**Speed Control Moves**: Bruxish has access to Trick Room and Icy Wind, which can occasionally be useful to limit fast sweepers and help its teammates revenge kill them.
Common Items
========
**Choice Scarf**: Choice Scarf allows Bruxish to overcome its unimpressive base Speed and function as an effective revenge killer and pivot.
**Choice Band**: Choice Band maximizes Bruxish's damage, allowing it to more effectively break through defensive foes or deal significant chip damage when pivoting with Flip Turn.
**Damage-boosting Items**: When running a setup set or in matchups where the ability to switch moves is important, Bruxish can use items such as Mystic Water and Life Orb to augment its damage output.
Niche Items
========
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: In matchups where removing entry hazards is difficult, Bruxish can use Heavy-Duty Boots to improve its longevity when pivoting in and out. However, Bruxish's middling base stats make damage-boosting items preferred where possible.
**Sitrus Berry**: Since Bruxish tends to incur a lot of chip damage from Wave Crash recoil, hazards, and foes holding a Rocky Helmet, Sitrus Berry can be useful to give it a little extra health to work with.
Tera
========
While it should not be Terastallized often, Bruxish can be a good choice for a secondary or tertiary Tera Captain. It makes good use of Tera Water and Psychic to boost its STAB attacks even further, as well as Tera Dark to gain STAB on its Strong Jaw-boosted Crunch. In occasional matchups, it can also use types such as Tera Electric and Fairy to gain new coverage with Tera Blast. Conversely, Bruxish's lackluster bulk and propensity for taking chip damage make it a poor candidate for defensive Tera types, so even setup sets will generally prefer types that boost its STAB or coverage attacks.
Draft Strategy
========
Bruxish offers very little to a draft in terms of filling roles, so it should only be taken on drafts that are otherwise complete. Since Bruxish has almost no defensive utility, it appreciates teammates that can take hits for it and pivots that give it safe entry to the field. In return, Bruxish's ability to deal significant damage to bulky Pokemon is appreciated by late-game cleaners and sweepers that cannot break these Pokemon on their own.
**Late-game Cleaners**: Bruxish's main role is to force damage onto opposing bulky Pokemon, especially defensive Water-types, making it a useful partner to late-game cleaners and setup sweepers like Iron Valiant and Gouging Fire.
**Entry Hazard Control**: Bruxish is good at forcing switches, so it pairs well with Pokemon such as Garchomp and Ting-Lu that can set hazards, racking up extra chip damage on defensive foes. Since Bruxish is also prone to taking chip damage itself, it appreciates partners that can remove hazards, such as Great Tusk and Terapagos.
**Defensive Teammates**: Bruxish has poor defensive stats and weaknesses to common moves including Knock Off and U-turn, making it difficult to bring in and easily forced out. Bulky teammates such as Landorus-T and Corviknight that can bring Bruxish in safely and switch in on moves that threaten it are essential to getting the most out of it.
Checks and Counters
========
**Contact Punishment**: Bruxish already tends to accumulate chip damage from entry hazards and Wave Crash recoil, so contact damage from Rocky Helmet and Rough Skin can wear it down very quickly. It also has to watch out for contact abilities like Static and Flame Body, as its ability to wallbreak is greatly diminished by being burned or paralyzed.
**Faster Pokemon**: Bruxish's middling Speed leaves it outsped by many common Pokemon, and its poor bulk and propensity to take chip damage mean they usually threaten to KO it. While Choice Scarf lets it outspeed almost all unboosted Pokemon, it is still slower than many common Choice Scarf and Booster Energy users like Meowscarada and Roaring Moon.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/wughead.622647
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/scionicle.599989
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/theuncultured.629845
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/a-blue-banana.649096
**Draft Order**: Round 7 onwards
**Price Range**: 2-3 points
**Overview**: Bruxish is a cheap wallbreaker and pivot that can fit on teams looking for some help breaking down defensive foes. While its base stats leave a lot to be desired, its high-Base Power STAB moves in Wave Crash and Strong Jaw-boosted Psychic Fangs allow it to deal serious damage. It can also function as a competent revenge killer when equipped with a Choice Scarf, and it can use its secondary ability Dazzling to flip the script on strong priority move users. However, Bruxish's lack of defensive utility and middling Speed make it difficult to fit on most drafts, requiring significant support to get it on and off the field safely.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Offensive Pivot**: Bruxish can use its high-Base Power STAB moves in Wave Crash and Strong Jaw-boosted Psychic Fangs to force switches, allowing it to deal big damage to opposing defensive pieces or to pivot to a teammate with Flip Turn. These sets will often use a Choice Scarf to force out faster opposing Pokemon or Choice Band to maximize its damage output.
**Wallbreaker**: Bruxish can use Swords Dance to boost its power even further, allowing it to break past defensive foes that would otherwise be able to handle its Choice item sets. Once boosted, it can sometimes use Aqua Jet to pick off faster revenge killers, but it is usually too weak to complete a full sweep.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Psychic Fangs, Wave Crash, Flip Turn, Aqua Jet, Liquidation
**Setup Moves**: Swords Dance
**Utility Moves**: Taunt, Super Fang, Substitute
**Coverage**: Crunch, Ice Fang
Niche Moves
========
**Agility**: Agility can allow Bruxish to boost its Speed and clean up a weakened team. However, Bruxish's poor base stats make this difficult in practice; its lack of bulk means it struggles to find opportunities to set up, while its average base Attack makes it reliant on the opposing team already being severely weakened.
**Speed Control Moves**: Bruxish has access to Trick Room and Icy Wind, which can occasionally be useful to limit fast sweepers and help its teammates revenge kill them.
Common Items
========
**Choice Scarf**: Choice Scarf allows Bruxish to overcome its unimpressive base Speed and function as an effective revenge killer and pivot.
**Choice Band**: Choice Band maximizes Bruxish's damage, allowing it to more effectively break through defensive foes or deal significant chip damage when pivoting with Flip Turn.
**Damage-boosting Items**: When running a setup set or in matchups where the ability to switch moves is important, Bruxish can use items such as Mystic Water and Life Orb to augment its damage output.
Niche Items
========
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: In matchups where removing entry hazards is difficult, Bruxish can use Heavy-Duty Boots to improve its longevity when pivoting in and out. However, Bruxish's middling base stats make damage-boosting items preferred where possible.
**Sitrus Berry**: Since Bruxish tends to incur a lot of chip damage from Wave Crash recoil, hazards, and foes holding a Rocky Helmet, Sitrus Berry can be useful to give it a little extra health to work with.
Tera
========
While it should not be Terastallized often, Bruxish can be a good choice for a secondary or tertiary Tera Captain. It makes good use of Tera Water and Psychic to boost its STAB attacks even further, as well as Tera Dark to gain STAB on its Strong Jaw-boosted Crunch. In occasional matchups, it can also use types such as Tera Electric and Fairy to gain new coverage with Tera Blast. Conversely, Bruxish's lackluster bulk and propensity for taking chip damage make it a poor candidate for defensive Tera types, so even setup sets will generally prefer types that boost its STAB or coverage attacks.
Draft Strategy
========
Bruxish offers very little to a draft in terms of filling roles, so it should only be taken on drafts that are otherwise complete. Since Bruxish has almost no defensive utility, it appreciates teammates that can take hits for it and pivots that give it safe entry to the field. In return, Bruxish's ability to deal significant damage to bulky Pokemon is appreciated by late-game cleaners and sweepers that cannot break these Pokemon on their own.
**Late-game Cleaners**: Bruxish's main role is to force damage onto opposing bulky Pokemon, especially defensive Water-types, making it a useful partner to late-game cleaners and setup sweepers like Iron Valiant and Gouging Fire.
**Entry Hazard Control**: Bruxish is good at forcing switches, so it pairs well with Pokemon such as Garchomp and Ting-Lu that can set hazards, racking up extra chip damage on defensive foes. Since Bruxish is also prone to taking chip damage itself, it appreciates partners that can remove hazards, such as Great Tusk and Terapagos.
**Defensive Teammates**: Bruxish has poor defensive stats and weaknesses to common moves including Knock Off and U-turn, making it difficult to bring in and easily forced out. Bulky teammates such as Landorus-T and Corviknight that can bring Bruxish in safely and switch in on moves that threaten it are essential to getting the most out of it.
Checks and Counters
========
**Contact Punishment**: Bruxish already tends to accumulate chip damage from entry hazards and Wave Crash recoil, so contact damage from Rocky Helmet and Rough Skin can wear it down very quickly. It also has to watch out for contact abilities like Static and Flame Body, as its ability to wallbreak is greatly diminished by being burned or paralyzed.
**Faster Pokemon**: Bruxish's middling Speed leaves it outsped by many common Pokemon, and its poor bulk and propensity to take chip damage mean they usually threaten to KO it. While Choice Scarf lets it outspeed almost all unboosted Pokemon, it is still slower than many common Choice Scarf and Booster Energy users like Meowscarada and Roaring Moon.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/wughead.622647
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/scionicle.599989
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/theuncultured.629845
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/a-blue-banana.649096
Last edited:
