Overview
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Gliscor is a top defensive threat in today's metagame. With great defensive typing that gives it a resistance to Fighting, immunity to Ground, and neutrality to Stealth Rock, it checks top-tier threats such as Excadrill, Terrakion, Landorus-T, and Lucario. In addition to its great typing, it has access to the coveted Poison Heal, which lets Gliscor regain one-eighth of its HP once Toxic Orb has activated, while making Gliscor effectively immune to status. Despite facing competition from Landorus-T, Gliscor's main advantage is its longevity. Its SubToxic set is still a great stall Pokemon, though it does have to get past many more threats this generation in order be successful.
However, Gliscor has its fair share of problems as well. While its Defense is fantastic, it falls short due to mediocre HP making its physical bulk good, but not outstanding. Also, while its typing does give it some good resistances and immunities, it still does not have enough resistances to take on a substantial number of threats. As mentioned above, Gliscor faces competition with Landorus-T, which sports a much greater Attack and better physical bulk after factoring in Intimidate, making it much more suited to the current metagame. Gliscor also has very bad special bulk and is weak to common Water- and Ice-type attacks. Despite these shortcomings however, Gliscor has many great qualities that make it a great support Pokemon overall.
SubToxic
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Name: SubToxic
Move 1: Substitute
Move 2: Toxic
Move 3: Protect
Move 4: Earthquake
Ability: Poison Heal
Item: Toxic Orb
Nature: Impish
EVs: 244 HP / 28 Def / 236 Spe
Moves
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With its great typing and decent Speed, Gliscor can stall many threats. Substitute is the most important move on this set as it allows Gliscor to scout incoming attacks and stall against Pokemon that are inflicted with Toxic. Protect helps recover more HP from Poison Heal, letting Gliscor continue setting up Substitutes. It also helps stall out the opponents PP, a critical tactic for defeating Pokemon such as Rotom-W that rely on a low PP move, Hydro Pump, to take out Gliscor. Earthquake is an obligatory STAB move so Gliscor is able to hit Steel- and Poison-types that switch in on Toxic, preventing it from being setup bait. All of these moves are absolutely mandatory for this set to succeed; any other options would be inferior to the given moves listed as without either Protect or Substitute, stalling becomes inefficient, and without Earthquake Gliscor becomes setup bait for Pokemon immune to Toxic.
Set Details
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The given HP EVs make Gliscor's HP a multiple of eight so it is able to gain back the maximum amount of health possible from Poison Heal. The Speed EVs allow Gliscor to outspeed maximum Speed Mamoswine and below so it stalls out as many slower threats as possible, while an Impish nature plus putting the remaining EVs in Defense augments Gliscor's good physical bulk. Toxic Orb is mandatory to automatically activate Poison Heal, as without recovering an eighth of Gliscor's HP every turn, it would not be very effective at stalling.
Usage Tips
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As with most defensive Pokemon, Gliscor should switch in on Pokemon that it walls, set up a Substitute on the opponent's forced switch, and start stalling Pokemon with Toxic. After a Pokemon has been inflicted with Toxic, it's best to alternate between Substitute and Protect as there is no net HP loss in doing so while the opponent's Pokemon slowly faint from residual damage. Make sure to alternate between Protect and Substitute only when Gliscor is Toxic stalling a faster Pokemon. Earthquake should only be used when finishing off weakened slower targets or when up against a Steel-type. It is best to not start Toxic stalling until bulky Pokemon immune to Toxic are taken out. Watch out for Air Balloon users such as Heatran or Aegislash, as they shut down this set completely. If Gliscor is against a status user before Toxic Orb has activated, use Protect to block the opponent's attack. After Toxic Orb activates, Gliscor also makes a great Knock Off absorber. Lastly, when facing an opponent utilizing low accuracy or PP moves, it is best to wait for a miss and stall out the move's PP so Gliscor obtains a free Substitute.
Team Options
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This set has a lot of trouble dealing with defensive Steel-types and Mega Venusaur due to its reliance on Toxic to deal damage. Because of this, Gliscor appreciates powerful Fire-types such as Heatran, Talonflame, and both Mega Charizard formes to take out problematic Steel-types. Latios easily 2HKOes Mega Venusaur with Life Orb Psyshock. Mega Venusaur also makes a great partner as it is able to take on powerful special attackers that threaten Gliscor such as Keldeo, Thundurus, Manaphy, Greninja, and Mixed Aegislash. Gliscor also appreciates both Latios and Latias removed, so Pursuit trappers such as Tyranitar, Bisharp, and Aegislash are all great partners because they also have decent synergy with Gliscor.
Other Options
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Gliscor has some other offensive options at its disposal. Firstly, Knock Off is a very good support move that allows Gliscor to remove items while also enabling it to cripple Gengar on the switch. Ice Fang hits Pokemon 4x weak to Ice such as opposing Gliscor, Landorus-T, Garchomp, and Dragonite. Facade is decently powerful after being inflicted with poison to hit Pokemon such as Rotom-W, but does not help against Steel-types and a STAB Earthquake generally deals more damage. Swords Dance and Acrobatics is another option to attempt a sweep, but the set walled by Rotom-W, Zapdos, and Thundurus, and Flying Gem is unavailable. Fling with a Toxic Orb can be used alongside Acrobatics, but Gliscor is better off using Toxic instead. A set consisting of Earthquake, Substitute, Baton Pass, and Taunt is another option for Gliscor for use on full Baton Pass teams, but it is somewhat outclassed on these teams in general. There is also an option for Gliscor to use a set consisting of Toxic, Taunt, Roost, and Earthquake to wear down stall teams with ease, but it does not fare so well against offensive teams. Finally, Gliscor can utilize a support set with Defog, Stealth Rock, Roost, and Earthquake, but there are better users of Defog and Gliscor has to forgo Poison Heal to use it.
Checks & Counters
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**Water-types**: Water-types that outspeed Gliscor can force it out, such as Greninja, Manaphy, Keldeo, and Choice Scarf Rotom-W. Calm Mind Suicune can also set up on Gliscor as it can cure status and restore HP with Rest. Swift Swim Pokemon such as Kabutops, Ludicolo, and Kingdra can also force Gliscor out, but none of them appreciate Toxic wearing them down.
**Strong Special Attackers**: Mega Charizard Y can OHKO Gliscor with a sun-boosted Fire Blast. Mega Gardevoir's Hyper Voice pierces Gliscor's Substitute and OHKOes after Stealth Rock damage. Thundurus and Deoxys-S can easily take out Gliscor with Hidden Power Ice and Ice Beam, respectively.
**Toxic-Immune Pokemon**: Mega Scizor with Roost easily sets up on Gliscor, while it can barely do anything in return. Gengar shuts down any SubToxic set due to Levitate and its Poison typing, however it must watch out for Knock Off, though it is rare. Magic Guard Clefable takes no damage from Toxic and can easily take Earthquakes, but Unaware variants fall to Toxic. Lastly, Air Balloon users such as Heatran and Aegislash can temporarily check Gliscor if it is not behind a Substitute.
**Faster Taunt Users**: Faster users of Taunt easily shut down Gliscor. Crobat can Taunt Gliscor and is immune to Toxic and Earthquake, making it the perfect counter to the SubToxic set. Prankster Taunt users such as Thundurus, Sableye, and Tornadus stop Gliscor in its tracks while Gliscor cannot do much to any of them in return. Timid Deoxys-D and Deoxys-S also shut down Gliscor with their speedy Taunts.
**Sound-Based Moves**: Gliscor greatly relies on Substitute to be useful, but this can be ignored by sound-based moves. Both Mega Gardevoir and Sylveon have Pixilate-boosted Hyper Voice to pierce Substitute while hitting extremely hard. Sylveon also has the distinct advantage of having Heal Bell to heal off Toxic.
**Ice-types**: Ice-types in general can be problematic for Gliscor. Mamoswine and Cloyster both have access to Icicle Spear to go through Gliscor's Substitute and KO it. Kyurem-B and Weavile outspeed and threaten with STAB Ice Beam and Ice Punch respectively while the former can also Substitute on a predicted Toxic.
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