Type:
Base Stats: HP: 108 / ATK: 112 / DEF: 118 / SPA: 68 / SPD: 72 / SPE: 47
Abilities: Sand Stream, Sand Force
Notable Moves:
- Body Press
- Crunch
- Curse
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Heavy Slam
- Ice Fang
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Substitute
- Thunder Fang
- Whirlwind
- Yawn
Gained:
Lost:
- Helping Hand
- Hyper Voice
- Tera Blast
Lost:
- Attract
- Confide
- Double Team
- Headbutt
- High Horsepower
- Iron Tail
- Muddy Water
- Revenge
- Rock Smash
- Round
- Scorching Sands
- Snore
- Superpower
- Toxic
- Water Pulse
- Weather Ball
- Bite
- Body Press
- Body Slam
- Bulldoze
- Crunch
- Dig
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Facade
- Fire Fang
- Fissure
- Giga Impact
- Heavy Slam
- Ice Fang
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Rock Tomb
- Sand Tomb
- Stomping Tantrum
- Stone Edge
- Tackle
- Take Down
- Tera Blast
- Thunder Fang
- Earth Power
- Hyper Beam
- Hyper Voice
- Mud Shot
- Mud-Slap
- Spit Up
- Tera Blast
- Amnesia
- Curse
- Endure
- Helping Hand
- Protect
- Rest
- Roar
- Sand Attack
- Sandstorm
- Slack Off
- Sleep Talk
- Stealth Rock
- Stockpile
- Substitute
- Sunny Day
- Swallow
- Whirlwind
- Yawn
- Sand Stream provides constant chip damage and a special defense boost to Rock types
- Great physical bulk with 108 HP and 118 defense along with access to reliable recovery in Slack Off and an immunity to Electric
- Strong attack stat of 112 complimented with a surprisingly decent array coverage moves and an always useful STAB Earthquake
- Access to utility moves like Stealth Rock, Whirlwind, and Yawn
- Relatively low special defense of 72
- Ground typing leaves it vulnerable to common types in Water, Grass, and Ice
- Low speed of 47 leaves Hippowdon slower than the vast majority of Pokemon, but still faster than other walls like Torkoal and Garganacl
Terastallization Potential:
Potential Sets:
Mixed Wall
Hippowdon @ Leftovers / Rocky Helmet / Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful / Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Yawn / Whirlwind
This set allows Hippowdon to comfortably switch in to keep up a constant source of sand as this hippo can eat hits from most Pokemon in the metagame and heal them off with Slack Off. Earthquake is a powerful STAB move that has good coverage and allows Hippowdon to not be entirely passive, something that has become more noticeable with the loss of Toxic, a valuable move in defensive slogs. In order to replace Toxic, Hippowdon can choose between Yawn and Whirlwind. Yawn provides the threat of sleep to force switches or even perhaps to fully incapacitate a Pokemon. On the other hand, Whirlwind forces switches in a much more assertive manner, wiping away substitutes and stat boosts along the way. In terms of item choice, Leftovers provide consistent passive healing, Rocky Helmet provides chip damage against physical attackers, and Smooth Rock gives you even more sand. Leftovers is the most universally useful item for this set but the other two can fill potentially valuable niches.
Sand Force Attacker
Hippowdon @ Soft Sand / Life Orb / Choice Band
Ability: Sand Force
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge / Rock Slide
- Curse / Iron Head
- Slack Off / Ice Fang
This is mostly a gimmick set to be paired with Tyranitar on sand teams. The boosts from Sand Force, an attacking item, and Ground Tera on top of Hippowdon's respectable base 112 attack make way for an Earthquake that can crack physical walls like Garganacl and Torkoal (assuming they choose to stay weak to ground types that is). Hippowdon's natural physical bulk and Slack Off open the door for Curse to further boost this angry hippo's power while a Choice Band set can instead use Iron Head and Ice Fang to round out coverage.
Overall:
This stubborn hippo differentiates itself from its Sand Stream cousin, Tyrantiar, with its access to reliable recovery and by having less the half the number of weaknesses with better physical bulk to solidify its role as a sand setter separate from the mighty pseudo-legendary. Strong overall bulk and a valuable ability have kept Hippowdon viable for its entire lifespan, however, the loss of Toxic and PP nerf to Slack Off on top of the introduction of new threats like Chien-Pao, Baxcalibur, and Quaquaval may very well make Generation 9 quite the headache. Despite this, and despite Hippowdon not being a true OU Pokemon for many years, this hippo has been and will likely remain a common sight in the SV metagame.
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