[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 8
**Price Range**: 1-2 points
**Overview**: Leveraging its explosive capabilities through powerful moves off a high Attack stat in conjunction with Sturdy, letting it survive nuclear-level attacks, means Golem can efficiently detonate opposing Pokemon. Furthermore, it's a cheap pick capable of providing entry hazard and phasing support. Despite all this, these assets are solely theoretical, because Golem's dreadful defensive typing, pitiful Speed, and terrible Special Defense prevent it from blowing up in its roles. Dedicated lead sets can be played around or neutralized, and if Golem is not being led with, it struggles to find opportunities to burst in, let alone attack freely. Despite this, Golem can still be a great final-round pick capable of making even the strongest Pokemon go boom.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Dedicated Lead**: Between Sturdy, access to Stealth Rock, STAB EdgeQuake coverage, and Explosion, Golem can get up entry hazards and fire off one or two strong attacks before fainting off lead or act as a wallbreaking lead aimed at immediately blowing holes through the enemy team for allies to exploit.
**Revenge Killer**: Because of Sturdy enabling Golem to survive any one hit no matter how strong, it can be an effective revenge killer where the opposing Pokemon either takes strong hits from Golem or is forced to switch out.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Rock Blast, Earthquake, High Horsepower
**Setup Moves**: Rock Polish, Curse, Iron Defense
**Utility Moves**: Stealth Rock, Roar, Brick Break, Substitute, Bulldoze
**Coverage**: Explosion, Body Press, Fire Punch, Gyro Ball, Hammer Arm, Heavy Slam, Thunder Punch
Niche Moves
========
**Smack Down**: Bringing pesky Ground-immune foes to the floor with Smack Down leaves them prone to being bombarded by Golem's powerful Earthquake.
Common Items
========
**Custap Berry**: The combination of Custap Berry and Sturdy allows Golem to set Stealth Rock reliably and have the opportunity to blast off a second hit. This is especially notable with Explosion as a way of gaining momentum while simultaneously preventing entry hazard removal attempts.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Heavy-Duty Boots nullifying any type of entry hazard chip preserves Sturdy, allowing Golem to fulfill its role more consistently.
Niche Items
========
**Weakness Policy**: Sturdy enables Golem to avoid OHKOs from super effective moves, which sets off Weakness Policy, letting it fire off attacks with the force of a megaton. However, given Golem's abysmal Speed stat, it only gets off one such attack at best, making this option easy for opponents to play around if they call the move it selects, as Golem is easily revenge killed after dropping to Sturdy.
**Choice Band**: With a solid Attack and STAB on coveted EdgeQuake coverage, Golem can wallbreak if necessary by equipping a Choice Band.
**Leftovers**: Despite Golem's defensive typing being a major shortcoming, it does bring valuable resistances to common offensive types such as Flying and Fire, making Leftovers an effective choice if its goal is to repeatedly come in on moves of those types. Note that Leftovers can also heal Golem back up to full health after taking chip damage to maintain Sturdy.
**Red Card**: Red Card alongside Sturdy turns Golem into the ultimate anti-setup weapon, ensuring that the opposing Pokemon is removed from the battlefield. Note that this requires entry hazards to be kept off the field in order to function, which is no easy task in the vast majority of matchups.
Tera
========
Although allowing Golem to Terastallize is almost certainly a waste of your secondary Tera Captain slot, if there is somehow no other Pokemon on your draft that better utilizes this blessing, it definitely appreciates shedding its awful defensive type combination. Despite being easily forgotten, Golem does in fact boast excellent physical bulk, so superior defensive Tera types such as Tera Water, Steel, and Fairy can turn it into a capable physical wall. Tera Grass flips both of its debilitating 4x weaknesses on its head, allowing it to survive hits without going down to Sturdy so that it can retaliate. Offensively, Tera Rock and Ground intensifies the power of its STAB moves, while Tera Normal raises the power of Explosion to terrifying heights.
Draft Strategy
========
Golem isn't a Pokemon you draft around, as it is not regularly brought to games nor necessitates support from its teammates. However, its anti-sweeper and lead support toolkit can be rather helpful for its teammates in some matchups.
**Strong Offensive Pokemon**: Setup sweepers and wallbreakers alike can greatly benefit from Golem's ability to soften up enemy teams by setting Stealth Rock and dishing out good damage before providing momentum by fainting.
**Pokemon Vulnerable to Setup Sweepers**: Pokemon that are prone to being taken advantage of by setup sweepers, such as Choice-locked Iron Moth and Latios after a Draco Meteor stat drop, appreciate Golem being a contingency plan that can stop setup sweepers in their tracks.
Checks and Counters
========
**Water- and Grass-types**: Golem can struggle to pump out meaningful damage versus bulky Water- and Grass-types, especially if they carry reliable recovery, and it is immediately put into danger by virtue of its disastrous 4x weakness to both types.
**Multi-hit Moves**: Multi-hit moves essentially bypass Sturdy's protection, meaning Golem is vulnerable to being OHKOd by moves such as Bullet Seed, Surging Strikes, Water Shuriken, and Icicle Spear.
**Priority Attacks**: Priority attacks can pick off Golem after falling to Sturdy. Such attacks go off before Custap Berry activates, meaning it has no way to react.
**Chip Damage**: Chip damage from pivoting moves, entry hazards, or status breaks Golem's Sturdy, making it easier to deal with. Pivoting moves are especially of note, as foes that resist Golem's attacks that are capable of threatening a KO on it can be easily brought in afterwards.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/takuaa.197914/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nyx.564960/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
**Draft Order**: Round 8
**Price Range**: 1-2 points
**Overview**: Leveraging its explosive capabilities through powerful moves off a high Attack stat in conjunction with Sturdy, letting it survive nuclear-level attacks, means Golem can efficiently detonate opposing Pokemon. Furthermore, it's a cheap pick capable of providing entry hazard and phasing support. Despite all this, these assets are solely theoretical, because Golem's dreadful defensive typing, pitiful Speed, and terrible Special Defense prevent it from blowing up in its roles. Dedicated lead sets can be played around or neutralized, and if Golem is not being led with, it struggles to find opportunities to burst in, let alone attack freely. Despite this, Golem can still be a great final-round pick capable of making even the strongest Pokemon go boom.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Dedicated Lead**: Between Sturdy, access to Stealth Rock, STAB EdgeQuake coverage, and Explosion, Golem can get up entry hazards and fire off one or two strong attacks before fainting off lead or act as a wallbreaking lead aimed at immediately blowing holes through the enemy team for allies to exploit.
**Revenge Killer**: Because of Sturdy enabling Golem to survive any one hit no matter how strong, it can be an effective revenge killer where the opposing Pokemon either takes strong hits from Golem or is forced to switch out.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Rock Blast, Earthquake, High Horsepower
**Setup Moves**: Rock Polish, Curse, Iron Defense
**Utility Moves**: Stealth Rock, Roar, Brick Break, Substitute, Bulldoze
**Coverage**: Explosion, Body Press, Fire Punch, Gyro Ball, Hammer Arm, Heavy Slam, Thunder Punch
Niche Moves
========
**Smack Down**: Bringing pesky Ground-immune foes to the floor with Smack Down leaves them prone to being bombarded by Golem's powerful Earthquake.
Common Items
========
**Custap Berry**: The combination of Custap Berry and Sturdy allows Golem to set Stealth Rock reliably and have the opportunity to blast off a second hit. This is especially notable with Explosion as a way of gaining momentum while simultaneously preventing entry hazard removal attempts.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Heavy-Duty Boots nullifying any type of entry hazard chip preserves Sturdy, allowing Golem to fulfill its role more consistently.
Niche Items
========
**Weakness Policy**: Sturdy enables Golem to avoid OHKOs from super effective moves, which sets off Weakness Policy, letting it fire off attacks with the force of a megaton. However, given Golem's abysmal Speed stat, it only gets off one such attack at best, making this option easy for opponents to play around if they call the move it selects, as Golem is easily revenge killed after dropping to Sturdy.
**Choice Band**: With a solid Attack and STAB on coveted EdgeQuake coverage, Golem can wallbreak if necessary by equipping a Choice Band.
**Leftovers**: Despite Golem's defensive typing being a major shortcoming, it does bring valuable resistances to common offensive types such as Flying and Fire, making Leftovers an effective choice if its goal is to repeatedly come in on moves of those types. Note that Leftovers can also heal Golem back up to full health after taking chip damage to maintain Sturdy.
**Red Card**: Red Card alongside Sturdy turns Golem into the ultimate anti-setup weapon, ensuring that the opposing Pokemon is removed from the battlefield. Note that this requires entry hazards to be kept off the field in order to function, which is no easy task in the vast majority of matchups.
Tera
========
Although allowing Golem to Terastallize is almost certainly a waste of your secondary Tera Captain slot, if there is somehow no other Pokemon on your draft that better utilizes this blessing, it definitely appreciates shedding its awful defensive type combination. Despite being easily forgotten, Golem does in fact boast excellent physical bulk, so superior defensive Tera types such as Tera Water, Steel, and Fairy can turn it into a capable physical wall. Tera Grass flips both of its debilitating 4x weaknesses on its head, allowing it to survive hits without going down to Sturdy so that it can retaliate. Offensively, Tera Rock and Ground intensifies the power of its STAB moves, while Tera Normal raises the power of Explosion to terrifying heights.
Draft Strategy
========
Golem isn't a Pokemon you draft around, as it is not regularly brought to games nor necessitates support from its teammates. However, its anti-sweeper and lead support toolkit can be rather helpful for its teammates in some matchups.
**Strong Offensive Pokemon**: Setup sweepers and wallbreakers alike can greatly benefit from Golem's ability to soften up enemy teams by setting Stealth Rock and dishing out good damage before providing momentum by fainting.
**Pokemon Vulnerable to Setup Sweepers**: Pokemon that are prone to being taken advantage of by setup sweepers, such as Choice-locked Iron Moth and Latios after a Draco Meteor stat drop, appreciate Golem being a contingency plan that can stop setup sweepers in their tracks.
Checks and Counters
========
**Water- and Grass-types**: Golem can struggle to pump out meaningful damage versus bulky Water- and Grass-types, especially if they carry reliable recovery, and it is immediately put into danger by virtue of its disastrous 4x weakness to both types.
**Multi-hit Moves**: Multi-hit moves essentially bypass Sturdy's protection, meaning Golem is vulnerable to being OHKOd by moves such as Bullet Seed, Surging Strikes, Water Shuriken, and Icicle Spear.
**Priority Attacks**: Priority attacks can pick off Golem after falling to Sturdy. Such attacks go off before Custap Berry activates, meaning it has no way to react.
**Chip Damage**: Chip damage from pivoting moves, entry hazards, or status breaks Golem's Sturdy, making it easier to deal with. Pivoting moves are especially of note, as foes that resist Golem's attacks that are capable of threatening a KO on it can be easily brought in afterwards.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/takuaa.197914/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nyx.564960/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Last edited:
