DP Tentacruel

Evil Hamster

Evil Hamster

This is something I've been playtesting in a stall team I've been running on the Suspect ladder, though I'm sure it would work equally well on the standard ladder. I have only tried it with Toxic Spikes, so I'm not entirely sure how well Rapid Spin fits here, or if any secondary attacks should be listed.

http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/tentacruel

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[SET]
name: Utility ReSTalker
move 1: Rest
move 2: Sleep Talk
move 3: Surf
move 4: Toxic Spikes
item: Leftovers
ability: Liquid Ooze
nature: Calm
evs: 252 HP / 56 Def / 200 SpD

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Tentacruel's excellent special defense stat and useful set of resistances (most notably Fire, Fighting and Ice) makes it a good choice to come in on threats such as Infernape, Heatran and Specs Lucario to set up Toxic Spikes. However with no reliable means of recovery Tentacruel can struggle to come in on these attacks repeatedly, and so will not always find the time to set down two layers of Toxic Spikes. The combination of Rest and Sleep Talk allows Tentacruel to replenish any lost health to allow it to come in on these threats again and again, making it much easier to get both layers of Toxic Spikes down. Tentacruel also makes a good switch into a number of the common sleep inducers, most notably Yanmega and Milotic. However, it does struggle against the likes of Gengar (Thunderbolt) and Bronzong (Earthquake) and can do very little back to Roserade, who sponges Surf easily and can also remove your Toxic Spikes upon switching in. </p>

<p>If you don't feel that Toxic Spikes are necessary for your team, then there are several other options for the last slot, most notably Rapid Spin. With this set, Tentacruel makes an excellent spinner, being able to come in repeatedly and clear entry hazards. However, apart from Gengar, Tentacruel struggles to do anything to most anti-spinners, and when you consider that Tentacruel already clears Toxic Spikes upon switching in, it becomes a much less attractive option. Despite this, it is still worth considering if your team dislikes Stealth Rock or Spikes. Sludge Bomb gets STAB and excellent coverage with Tentacruel's Surf, and hits Abomasnow and Celebi hard. Ice Beam hits Salamence, Garchomp and maintains some coverage on Celebi, whilst Hidden Power Electric actually does something to other Water types, most notably Starmie and Gyarados. However, a utility move is recommended as otherwise Tentacruel's role in a team can be somewhat limited. It also helps to differentiate Tentacruel from other bulky waters who can run a similar set, most notably Milotic and to a lesser extent Gyarados.</p>
 
and to set up Toxic Spikes.
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You can omit "and" here without losing anything.

and so not always find time to set down two layers of Toxic Spikes.
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Add "will" in between "so" and "not". You might also wanna add "the" in between "find" and "time".

Thanks have a nice day ^^.
 
I kinda think it's a bit of a liability to use Rest and Sleep Talk on Tentacruel, in a way. He's reduced to attacking only 33% of the time, and with that Ground weakness he'll have to switch out. Plus though he can somewhat absorb sleep from the numerous Special threats, that comes at the cost of half of his movepool.

I don't think Rapid Spin really makes sense on this set. He absorbs TSpikes anyway, so just let him TSpike.
 
this set reminds me of the drapion one that came up a few weeks ago.
http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43704&highlight=drapion

however, I'd probably go with Drapion over Tenta for a few reasons.
Battle Armor is way to good of an ability to pass up, especially on a stall poke. While Liquid Ooze isn't a bad ability, I would rather have something to prevent crits in general that demolish stall teams anyway.

I think a Pseudo-Tank/Toxic Spiker is often better off being more physically driven that Special for a few reasons. If this is used on a stall team (which you mentioned and from what the set reflects to me), then often times you'll have a Blissey taking specials hits. However other Sleep Talking TS like nidoqueen and even Drapion to some extent take physical hits better. In personal experience, Blissey is often the only Special Wall you need, but Physical walls/tanks are harder to come by so taking a Nido or Drapion is often the better choice in my mind. I use Nido as my fighting resists often times (for Lucario).

Granted, a lot of the stuff I said above is a bit biased. I haven't tried this set yet I use both Drapion and Nidoqueen. I think it might be addable, but as Chris said, you might just think about sticking to the regular TS set.

The other thing is it looks like you took the EVs from the Support set. There might be a better way to distribute them for the Sleep Talking set because you probably won't be attacking all that much and I never remember what the 36 speed is there for.
 
The 36 Speed is there to allow him to outrun Adamant Breloom and Jolly TTar. However, I agree with Matty that that spread may not be the best one for Tentacruel. You might want to try the Hail team standard spread of 252 HP, 252 SpD, 4 SpA.
<
 
Edited in Servant's fixes :)

I kinda think it's a bit of a liability to use Rest and Sleep Talk on Tentacruel, in a way. He's reduced to attacking only 33% of the time, and with that Ground weakness he'll have to switch out. Plus though he can somewhat absorb sleep from the numerous Special threats, that comes at the cost of half of his movepool.
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I can see where you're coming from here, but Tentacruel's purpose isn't really attacking anyway. Most of the stuff that switches in on it, with a few exceptions such as Salamence and Gyarados, would come in just as easily on Tentacruel if you ran two or even three attacks. I would go so far as to say that ignoring offensive moves, the only other worthwhile support moves in Tentacruel's arsenal are Rapid Spin and Knock Off, which are illegal with one another, so it's not that large a sacrifice to make for a means to replenish it's own HP and take status.

I don't think Rapid Spin really makes sense on this set. He absorbs TSpikes anyway, so just let him TSpike.
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Yeah, this makes sense I guess. Seeing as most teams that carry regular spikes will carry Dusknoir/Spiritomb anyway, spinning away regular spikes is pointless. I'll keep it in set comments though, as it might be useful for teams that really hate Stealth Rock.

however, I'd probably go with Drapion over Tenta for a few reasons.

Battle Armor is way to good of an ability to pass up, especially on a stall poke. While Liquid Ooze isn't a bad ability, I would rather have something to prevent crits in general that demolish stall teams anyway.
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I don't doubt that Drapion is a perfectly competent ReSTalk/TSpiker, but they do counter very different things due to their different typing, making them suitable for completely different teams. Whilst Drapion counters the likes Azelf, Gengar and Deoxys-S nicely, all of which Tentacruel struggles with, Tentacruel's resistances allows it to come on totally different things, most of which Drapion would find very difficult.

I think a Pseudo-Tank/Toxic Spiker is often better off being more physically driven that Special for a few reasons. If this is used on a stall team (which you mentioned and from what the set reflects to me), then often times you'll have a Blissey taking specials hits. However other Sleep Talking TS like nidoqueen and even Drapion to some extent take physical hits better. In personal experience, Blissey is often the only Special Wall you need, but Physical walls/tanks are harder to come by so taking a Nido or Drapion is often the better choice in my mind. I use Nido as my fighting resists often times (for Lucario).
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Surely this logic would apply to the standard Toxic Spiker set too, not just this variant? Tentacruel does have the potential to counter a decent number of threats that Blissey struggles with, most notably Infernape, Specs Lucario, Sub-Punch Abomasnow (struggles to do damage back, but you wear it down much quicker than it beats you, and setting up Toxic Spikes will severely cut it's longevity next time it switches in. It's a similar story with most sub-seeders) and, if you run the popular stalling Toxic/Flamethrower Blissey set then the Heatran coverage is most welcome too. Not all stall teams necessarily need carry Blissey either (the one I'm playing this set in doesn't) though I will admit that the vast majority do.

The other thing is it looks like you took the EVs from the Support set. There might be a better way to distribute them for the Sleep Talking set because you probably won't be attacking all that much and I never remember what the 36 speed is there for.
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36 Speed outspeeds Jolly Tyranitar. It's slightly different to the analysis spread, but I removed most of the special attack and maxed Special Defense. 204 Hp hits a leftovers number, but I think I'll just run 252Hp/220SpDef/36Spe as it would probably work better, seeing as Leftovers numbers are largely insignificant.
 
used it for a while, however i felt it better suited with some more def rather than spdef to make it a more able repeated switch into infernape's close combats, but then again i had shed shell since dugtrio was being a bitch and had to make up that 6% loss
 
Wouldn't Drapion or Nidoqueen be better if you wanted a physically / mixed oriented Tentacruel, aero?
 
well tenta with def does alot better job at countering nape than standard nidoqueen, not being 2hkod by lo fb and everything
 
You should probably fix "36Spe" to "36 Spe", small thing but I thought I'd point that out
 
If you wanna run defense, you can use 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SDef; that was Obi's spread. Makes taking Close Combats and even some hits from EQless Gyarados easier.
 
I do think that outrunning Jolly Tyranitar is well worth the EV investment, seeing as it would make the difference between you Surfing it for around 40%, or being OHKO'd by Earthquake. 204 HP / 96 Def / 172 SpD / 36 Spe would probably be the best option if you want to run some Defense; turns Scarf Heatran's Earth Power into a 3HKO whilst allowing you to take Close Combats and Focus Punches considerably better. I'll add that in for now.
 
You know, I've often found that there are very few scenarios when a Jolly Tyranitar (usually of the DD variant) is going to switch into Tentacruel at anything but full health. It really seems useless to me, as you can't even 2HKO it.

Max HP > Leftovers number if your HP isn't the size of Hariyama's. I'd put more HP EVs before Defense, then adjust the SDef EVs so that he's still not 2HKO'd by Earth Power without being too wasteful.
 
Have just worked it out; with max HP, you need a Calm nature and 200 SpD EVs to guarantee survival of two Modest Scarf Heatran's Earth Powers taking Leftovers and Stealth Rock damage into account. I'm pretty sure that the 204/172 recommended in the analysis doesn't account for either. I still think that outrunning Tyranitar would be pretty useful, seeing as if it's Jolly it probably runs max speed and no HP, which means you do can do up to ~52%, and the 2HKO is guaranteed if it comes in on Stealth Rock or has at least one turn's Life Orb recoil.

Will change to 252 HP / 20 Def / 200 SpD / 36 Spe for now.
 
Not really. You already outrun Adamant Tyranitar, and the only Jolly Tyranitar are Dragon Dance sets that outspeed you after a turn anyway and that Tentacruel shouldn't be staying in on.
 
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