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[Overview]
<p>Despite possessing truly atrocious offensive stats and defensive stats that are mediocre at best, Jumpluff is surprisingly good. Jumpluff makes up for its poor stats with a phenomenal movepool which, when coupled with its high speed, make it a great at supporting fellow team members and annoying the opponent. Whilst having almost identical movepools, Jumpluff differentiates itself from Cottonee by abusing its greater bulk, an important Ground-type immunity and access to Sleep Powder.</p>
[SET]
name: SubSeed
move 1: Sleep Powder
move 2: Leech Seed
move 3: Substitute
move 4: Encore
item: Leftovers
ability: Chlorophyll
nature: Jolly
evs: 188 Def / 68 SpDef / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>This set is as simple and easy to use as it is effective: Sleep an opponent, Substitute on the switch, and begin Leech Seeding. When played correctly, this set can be incredibly annoying and difficult to take down. No HP EVs are invested to ensure Leech Seed restores the greatest proportion of Jumpluff's total health and the defensive EVs give Jumpluff a stat of 223 in both defenses. Encore should be used to lock an opponent into a harmless move (like Earthquake or Stealth Rocks) and allow you to set up after sleep clause has been activated.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>On its own, this set is poor; however, with full hazards support, it becomes very good due to the combination of Leech Seed and Encore's ability to force switches. Toxic Spikes is especially helpful in wearing down the opponent's team, especially opposing Grass types that may want to ruin your fun. Nidoqueen is a great defensive team-mate, because she has access to both Stealth Rocks and Toxic Spikes, as well as a rock resist and nice bulk. Qwilfish also gets a mention due to having Toxic Spikes and Spikes.</p>
<p> Despite Sub-Seed being intensely annoying, grass types will find it relatively easy to break through Jumpluff, with their immunity to Leech Seed. For this reason, Victini and Arcanine also make good offensive team mates, being able to take full advantage of any grass type switch-ins.</p>
<p> Despite Encore generally being considered the best option for Jumpluff, there are a few other options that can be used effectively. Protect can be used over Encore to increase Leech Seed and maybe Poison damage; however, it becomes more difficult to set up, without it. A double status type set can be used by replacing Encore with Stun Spore to enable Jumpluff to continue to status foes after Sleep Clause's activation and cripple faster switch-ins. Finally, U-turn and Aerial Ace are both options in the fourth slot, so that Jumpluff can escape from or damage grass types, although Protect or Stun Spore are generally superior.</p>
[Other Options]
<p> A Sun-Support set can be used, abusing Encore and Sleep Powder to set up Sun; however, outside of these two moves, its frailty means that is outclassed by a myriad other Pokemon when attempting to set up Sun. Jumpluff can also attempt to support the team with Reflect (which also bolsters its weaker defensive stat), although again, aside from abusing Sleep Powder and Encore to force switches, it is horribly outclassed in this role. Jumpluff gets access to the very useful moves Aromatherapy and Memento, which can be used with Sleep Powder and Encore for a general support set, though its poor bulk once again means that it is not well suited to this role. Jumpluff gets Infiltrator through the Dream World, though The only use for infiltrator would be Sleep Powdering through Safeguard; however Safeguard is extremely rare and not common enough to warrant running infiltrator. Jumpluff could also run Synthesis to heal itself reliably, however, Jumpluff cannot normally give up a moveslot for this, as well as it being preferable to set up a sub on any free turn that it may get</p>
[Checks and Counters]
<p> Although Jumpluff is annoying, it can be dealt with. Xatu is probably the best one here, as Jumpluff cannot do anything to it and if it comes in on a Sleep Powder, it can effectively neutralise Jumpluff for the remainder of the game due to Sleep mechanics. Another fantastic way to counter Jumpluff is Sap Sippers: Jumpluff cannot touch them and they can come in on any set that Jumpluff is running and most likely get a +1 Attack boost. Sawsbuck and Bouffalant are the most notable Sap-Sippers, so if they (or Xatu, for that mattet) are seen in Team Preview, you should avoid spamming Sleep Powders and Leech Seeds willy nilly.</p>
<p> If you are not inclined towards using one of these, Sub-seed will be irritating to play around, because many of its checks are susceptible to sleep. However, once Sleep Clause has been activates, Jumpluff is significantly easier to deal with. Roserade and Ferroseed can shrug off Jumpluff's attempts at sub-seeding and set up hazards with impunity. Furthermore, Pokemon with reliable recovery can effectively stall Jumpluff out so long as they avoid status. Any faster Pokemon that is in decent health can deal with Jumpluff but will need to watch out for Stun-Spore, as that will cripple it, and it will be unable to effectively check Jumpluff. Similarly, Multi-hit moves can break Jumpluff's substitute and deal significant damage to Jumpluff, making anything with a multi-hit move an effective check. Grass types are particularly troublesome, as they cannot be Leech Seeded, making them effective checks so long as they avoid status. A fast or Prankster Taunt puts a stop to any of Jumpluff's shenanigans. Finally, Crobat, Aerodactyl and Azelf are all particularly effective checks, being faster than Jumpluff and able to Taunt Jumpluff, s well as being capable of taking it out with Super-Effective attacks.</p>
[Dream World]
<p>DW Jumpluff has been released</p>
