One of the best turn outs we've had so far, thank you for the contributions everyone! The top partners for this week are as follows:
Tyranitar by
gamer boy - When using Specs Volcanion, one of the main things to consider when building is Pursuit support to eliminate obstacles like Mega Latias, Latios, Slowking, and Jellicent. Trapping offensive electrics like Raikou and Mega Manectric is also useful. Although Clefable can check a good portion of these relatively well, eliminating them via trapping helps significantly to help Volcanion and relieve the pressure Clefable has to handle all of these threats. CB Tyranitar provides this assistance with trapping like no other and forms a powerful wall breaking duo with Volcanion. An overall nice partner alongside the core.
Landorus-T by
RonaldMcdonald - One of the main issues this core faces is a weakness to offensive Ground-types like Excadrill, which Landorus-T covers nicely. In addition, Landorus-T provides SR to the core, and is arguably the best candidate for the role here given the valuable defensive utility it brings to the table by providing a check to Pokemon like Charizard-X and physical attackers in general.
Thundurus-I by
Fire Fist Ace - With Pursuit support established by Tyranitar and offensive Ground-types checked by Landorus-T, there are two crucial things to consider now: speed and having something to pressure the Water-types Volcanion dislikes running into in general. Because the core is slow, some speed control is greatly appreciated to keep several faster offensive threats from going crazy. Even with Tyranitar to pressure Water-types like Slowking and Jellicent, the core would still appreciate a partner to further threaten them and others Tyranitar can't deal with, like Keldeo and Manaphy. Thundurus-I fulfills all of these roles well and can even carry GK to lure in and eliminate some nuisances for Volcanion, like Gastrodon.
With the top partners for this week decided, I'd like to extend my congratulations to
gamer boy for entering the hall of fame with five winning entries! In honor of this accomplishment, I have decided to make this week's core feature Jellicent, who we haven't done in either thread thus far and has been receiving some attention lately!
Jellicent @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 172 SpD / 88 Spe
Calm Nature
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Scald
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
Jellicent has been receiving some attention lately thanks to its ability to keep popular threats like Volcanion and Keldeo at bay. Although other Pokemon like Slowking and Mega Latias can do something similar, Jellicent separates itself from them in a few ways. The first is an immunity to water, allowing it to avoid being burned and pressured as much into healing by Scald and Steam Eruption. The second is the ability to threaten trappers like Tyranitar thanks to Colbur Berry and Will-O-Wisp, which is useful given how often threats like Volcanion and Keldeo are seen alongside Pokemon carrying Pursuit. Ferrothorn benefits from Jellicent's ability to do all the aforementioned, and also appreciates how well it stops Pokemon like Starmie from removing Spikes. Typing wise, these two pair well nicely as well, resisting Electric, Grass, Fire, and Fighting for one another. This can be useful to, for example, discourage strong Fighting-types like Mega Medicham from clicking High Jump Kick versus Ferrothorn. Overall, these two possess many characteristics common to your typical Grass + Water defensive core. Because of the nature of the core, however, numerous offensive threats can break through these two easily. It's up to you all to find the threats this core has issues with and any partners capable of helping the core deal with them!
You may now begin discussing
threats and
partners. Make sure to specify whether the Pokemon you mention is a threat or a partner. This will run for 4 or 5 days depending on activity. Have fun!