[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 8
**Price Range**: 1-2 points
**Overview**: Morpeko is mainly drafted on teams that desperately need additional entry hazard removal late in the draft. Despite this, it does have some interesting tools, such as a deceptively powerful STAB Knock Off to threaten spinblockers, access to Parting Shot and Super Fang, and a decent Speed tier to make it a decent role compression pick. While it's incredibly frail and can get 2HKOed by even strong resisted hits, Morpeko can potentially use its valuable resistances alongside its Psychic immunity to act as a useable offensive pivot. It's held back by a lack of good coverage, mediocre at best stats, and a very linear gameplan, but it can be an effective final pick if the utility options on the board are scarce.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Utility Pivot**: Morpeko's access to pivoting in Parting Shot, entry hazard removal with Rapid Spin, and access to other amazing utility options like Super Fang, Taunt, and Thunder Wave make it a surprisingly effective support piece. Its Speed, while not great by any means, is high enough to get the jump on many wallbreakers and almost all defensive Pokemon, giving it plenty of opportunities to use a fast Parting Shot.
**Anti-lead**: Morpeko's valuable Dark typing, decent Speed tier, and access to good utility in the form of Taunt, Rapid Spin, and Knock Off can also make it an effective stopgap to opposing hyper offense leads, denying them from setting entry hazards or a second dual screen while potentially spreading status of its own through Thunder Wave.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Aura Wheel, Wild Charge, Volt Switch, Knock Off, Foul Play
**Utility Moves**: Rapid Spin, Parting Shot, Taunt, Thunder Wave, Fake Out, Super Fang, Protect, Substitute
**Coverage**: Seed Bomb, Stomping Tantrum, Psychic Fangs, Brick Break, Fire Fang, Ice Fang, Outrage
Niche Moves
========
**Electroweb**: Electroweb allows Morpeko to guarantee value against would-be faster switch-ins by lowering their Speed, allowing it to pivot out with Parting Shot, prevent setup with Taunt, or guarantee a Rapid Spin before fainting.
**Endeavor**: Morpeko can, especially with a Focus Sash, be an emergency user of Endeavor to greatly weaken would-be counters before fainting, allowing a teammate to finish them off.
**Reversal**: Focus Sash sets can also opt to run Reversal, giving Morpeko a powerful option to force a trade or even revenge kill before fainting.
Common Items
========
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Given Morpeko's primary role as an entry hazard remover, Heavy-Duty Boots allows it to hit the field as much as possible and use Rapid Spin without taking chip damage.
**Focus Sash**: Morpeko can use a Focus Sash to be an effective anti-lead, guaranteeing it survives at least one hit and either debuffs the foe, pivots out, or uses a last-ditch Rapid Spin, Endeavor, or Reversal.
Niche Items
========
**Damage-boosting items**: Morpeko can use its decent Attack stat and high Base-Power moves to, in tandem with a damage-boosting item like Life Orb or Choice Band, be far more threatening as an offensive pivot.
**Air Balloon**: Morpeko can potentially use an Air Balloon for a one-time entry against Ground-type attacks, guaranteeing an opportunity to use Rapid Spin or another utility move as well as floating above Spikes.
**Assault Vest**: Assault Vest can allow Morpeko to shore up its poor bulk and become a decent check to notable special attackers like Gholdengo and Zapdos while retaining access to utility moves like Knock Off, Rapid Spin, and Super Fang.
Tera
========
Morpeko should almost never be a Tera Captain, as its bulk and offenses are too low to benefit muchfrom Terastallization. If Morpeko is made a Tera Captain regardless, Tera Dark and Electric are the most obvious choices to boost its decently powerful STAB moves into surprisingly dangerous weapons, especially since Hunger Switch is disabled by Terastallization. Alternatively, Tera Grass can be used to removethe its Ground weakness while boosting the power of Seed Bomb, and Tera Flying can remove its Fighting and Bug weaknesses.
Draft Strategy
========
Morpeko is a usable end-of-draft pick that can provide extra entry hazard removal, threaten spinblockers, and give a team some additional disruption options with its good utility movepool, but it is very much a pawn and not a centerpiece.
**Entry Hazard-weak threats**: Offensive teammates, especially Rock-weak ones like Enamorus, Iron Bundle, and Dragonite, all appreciate Morpeko's hazard-removing capabilities, freeing up their reliance on Heavy-Duty Boots or their weakness to Knock Off.
**Other Entry Hazard Removers**: Morpeko, while able to threaten common spinblockers like Gholdengo and Ceruledge, is not a very good option as a team's only entry hazard remover due to its immense frailty and mediocre defensive profile, so another teammate like Corviknight or Terapagos is greatly appreciated; in turn, they often appreciate the flexibility in their movepools that Morpeko's presence allows them.
**A Cohesive Team**: Morpeko isn't a great solo performer. On its own, it is hardly consistent as either an Electric- or Dark-type. Its team should be able to handle powerful Flying-, Ghost-, and Psychic-types without relying on it to check them.
Checks and Counters
========
**Faster Attackers and Priority**: Morpeko is forced out by pretty much everything. Anything faster than it with super effective or even strong neutral coverage can threaten to OHKO it, making it a lot harder for it to do its job as a utility pivot. Similarly, Morpeko's pitiful bulk means that priority users can easily revenge kill it even after a Speed boost.
**Physical Walls**: Morpeko may be decently strong, but in the grand scheme of things, it's still pretty weak and doesn't have many options for breaking through common physical walls like Great Tusk, Archaludon, and Landorus-T outside of annoying them with Taunt and Super Fang.
**Clear Amulet**: Clear Amulet users can absorb Parting Shot, denying Morpeko of pivoting and wiping it out with ease. Morpeko itself usually doesn't demand the use of Clear Amulet, but opponents may bring it to help with Intimidate or other teammates with Parting Shot.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/gimmicky.540420/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/big-pharma.657717/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/theuncultured.629845/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/scionicle.599989/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
**Draft Order**: Round 8
**Price Range**: 1-2 points
**Overview**: Morpeko is mainly drafted on teams that desperately need additional entry hazard removal late in the draft. Despite this, it does have some interesting tools, such as a deceptively powerful STAB Knock Off to threaten spinblockers, access to Parting Shot and Super Fang, and a decent Speed tier to make it a decent role compression pick. While it's incredibly frail and can get 2HKOed by even strong resisted hits, Morpeko can potentially use its valuable resistances alongside its Psychic immunity to act as a useable offensive pivot. It's held back by a lack of good coverage, mediocre at best stats, and a very linear gameplan, but it can be an effective final pick if the utility options on the board are scarce.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Utility Pivot**: Morpeko's access to pivoting in Parting Shot, entry hazard removal with Rapid Spin, and access to other amazing utility options like Super Fang, Taunt, and Thunder Wave make it a surprisingly effective support piece. Its Speed, while not great by any means, is high enough to get the jump on many wallbreakers and almost all defensive Pokemon, giving it plenty of opportunities to use a fast Parting Shot.
**Anti-lead**: Morpeko's valuable Dark typing, decent Speed tier, and access to good utility in the form of Taunt, Rapid Spin, and Knock Off can also make it an effective stopgap to opposing hyper offense leads, denying them from setting entry hazards or a second dual screen while potentially spreading status of its own through Thunder Wave.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Aura Wheel, Wild Charge, Volt Switch, Knock Off, Foul Play
**Utility Moves**: Rapid Spin, Parting Shot, Taunt, Thunder Wave, Fake Out, Super Fang, Protect, Substitute
**Coverage**: Seed Bomb, Stomping Tantrum, Psychic Fangs, Brick Break, Fire Fang, Ice Fang, Outrage
Niche Moves
========
**Electroweb**: Electroweb allows Morpeko to guarantee value against would-be faster switch-ins by lowering their Speed, allowing it to pivot out with Parting Shot, prevent setup with Taunt, or guarantee a Rapid Spin before fainting.
**Endeavor**: Morpeko can, especially with a Focus Sash, be an emergency user of Endeavor to greatly weaken would-be counters before fainting, allowing a teammate to finish them off.
**Reversal**: Focus Sash sets can also opt to run Reversal, giving Morpeko a powerful option to force a trade or even revenge kill before fainting.
Common Items
========
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Given Morpeko's primary role as an entry hazard remover, Heavy-Duty Boots allows it to hit the field as much as possible and use Rapid Spin without taking chip damage.
**Focus Sash**: Morpeko can use a Focus Sash to be an effective anti-lead, guaranteeing it survives at least one hit and either debuffs the foe, pivots out, or uses a last-ditch Rapid Spin, Endeavor, or Reversal.
Niche Items
========
**Damage-boosting items**: Morpeko can use its decent Attack stat and high Base-Power moves to, in tandem with a damage-boosting item like Life Orb or Choice Band, be far more threatening as an offensive pivot.
**Air Balloon**: Morpeko can potentially use an Air Balloon for a one-time entry against Ground-type attacks, guaranteeing an opportunity to use Rapid Spin or another utility move as well as floating above Spikes.
**Assault Vest**: Assault Vest can allow Morpeko to shore up its poor bulk and become a decent check to notable special attackers like Gholdengo and Zapdos while retaining access to utility moves like Knock Off, Rapid Spin, and Super Fang.
Tera
========
Morpeko should almost never be a Tera Captain, as its bulk and offenses are too low to benefit muchfrom Terastallization. If Morpeko is made a Tera Captain regardless, Tera Dark and Electric are the most obvious choices to boost its decently powerful STAB moves into surprisingly dangerous weapons, especially since Hunger Switch is disabled by Terastallization. Alternatively, Tera Grass can be used to remove
Draft Strategy
========
Morpeko is a usable end-of-draft pick that can provide extra entry hazard removal, threaten spinblockers, and give a team some additional disruption options with its good utility movepool, but it is very much a pawn and not a centerpiece.
**Entry Hazard-weak threats**: Offensive teammates, especially Rock-weak ones like Enamorus, Iron Bundle, and Dragonite, all appreciate Morpeko's hazard-removing capabilities, freeing up their reliance on Heavy-Duty Boots or their weakness to Knock Off.
**Other Entry Hazard Removers**: Morpeko, while able to threaten common spinblockers like Gholdengo and Ceruledge, is not a very good option as a team's only entry hazard remover due to its immense frailty and mediocre defensive profile, so another teammate like Corviknight or Terapagos is greatly appreciated; in turn, they often appreciate the flexibility in their movepools that Morpeko's presence allows them.
**A Cohesive Team**: Morpeko isn't a great solo performer. On its own, it is hardly consistent as either an Electric- or Dark-type. Its team should be able to handle powerful Flying-, Ghost-, and Psychic-types without relying on it to check them.
Checks and Counters
========
**Faster Attackers and Priority**: Morpeko is forced out by pretty much everything. Anything faster than it with super effective or even strong neutral coverage can threaten to OHKO it, making it a lot harder for it to do its job as a utility pivot. Similarly, Morpeko's pitiful bulk means that priority users can easily revenge kill it even after a Speed boost.
**Physical Walls**: Morpeko may be decently strong, but in the grand scheme of things, it's still pretty weak and doesn't have many options for breaking through common physical walls like Great Tusk, Archaludon, and Landorus-T outside of annoying them with Taunt and Super Fang.
**Clear Amulet**: Clear Amulet users can absorb Parting Shot, denying Morpeko of pivoting and wiping it out with ease. Morpeko itself usually doesn't demand the use of Clear Amulet, but opponents may bring it to help with Intimidate or other teammates with Parting Shot.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/gimmicky.540420/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/big-pharma.657717/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/theuncultured.629845/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/scionicle.599989/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Last edited:
