Octillery (NU Revamp)

[Oglemi]

https://www.smogon.com/dex/rs/pokemon/octillery/

[Overview]

Octillery sports some of the best mixed attacking stats in NU and one of the best offensive movepools, making it a wickedly dangerous Pokemon when played well. Its Speed is a huge letdown though, as it's forced to pump a ton of EVs into it in order to outspeed even the slowest defensive Pokemon, taking away from its offenses and bulk. Fortunately, Octillery's bulk is just good enough to let it tank an attack or two and dish them right back out, and its great coverage makes it very hard to switch into. What's more, its ability Suction Cups makes it one of the best Baton Pass receivers in the tier as it can't be phazed out once it steps onto the battlefield, and at +2 in both Attack and Special Attack, there's very little in the tier that can avoid an OHKO. Octillery fits very few teams due to its quirks, but it performs magnificently on the teams it does.

[SET]
name: Tank
move 1: Surf
move 2: Fire Blast
move 3: Hidden Power Electric
move 4: Thunder Wave
item: Leftovers
ability: Suction Cups
nature: Modest
evs: 172 HP / 252 SpA / 84 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
- Works very well as an anti-lead, O-2HKOs every common lead and paralyzes the ones it loses to (Hitmonchan)
- Surf is for STAB, no Hydro Pump in gen 3 :(
- Fire Blast and HP Electric complete nearly perfect coverage, Ice Beam is not recommended as it is really redundant with these two. fire Blast is wanted for the OHKO on Glalie but Flamethrower works well too
- Thunder Wave makes up for Octillery's Speed a bit and can paralyze some dangerous Pokemon before going down

[ADDITIONAL SET COMMENTS]
- 84 Speed EVs are needed to outspeed minimum Relicanth and below. Modest to get as much power out of Octillery as possible, rest in HP to let Octillery tank when needed
- Lots of moves can be run in the last slot over Twave. Toxic, Psychic, Sludge Bomb, Rock Blast, Substitute are all usable
- If used in the lead slot, Lum Berry is recommended to beat Venomoth
- Fits best on offensive balanced teams as an offensive partner to Huntail, damaging checks and paralyzing things for Huntail to sweep easily late-game

[SET]
name: Baton Pass Receiver
move 1: Surf
move 2: Flamethrower
move 3: Hidden Power Fighting
move 4: Double-Edge / Substitute
item: Lum Berry
ability: Suction Cups
nature: Rash
evs: 252 Atk / 252 SpA / 4 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
- This set is designed to perform with +2 in Attack, +2 Special Attack and +4 in Speed, getting as many OHKOs in the tier as absolutely possible. Octillery will OHKO everything in the tier with +4 in both Attack and Spa
- Most things are going to be hit with Surf, everything else is for the things that resist it or would take more from something else. Flamethrower for Grass-types, Double-Edge for Water-types, and HP Fighting for the bulky Normal-types like Kelceon and Lickitung
- Substitute is for an emergency situation when getting +4 in Speed isn't an option

[ADDITIONAL SET COMMENTS]
- Lum Berry is to protect Octillery on the switch-in if getting a Sub to it isn't possible and prevents Kecleon, Wailord et al from tanking an attack and hitting Octillery with Twave or Toxic
- Speed can obviously be run if you feel getting a +4 to it isn't doable, but Agility is the easiest thing to pass in the tier by far so it shouldn't be too difficult. More difficult to get both Attack and Special Attack to it in the long run
- Hidden Power Electric an option if you feel Fighting isn't needed for the Normal-types, still doesn't OHKO Wailord or Dewgong though and Dewgong will take more from Fighting anyway
- Only really works on committed BP chains, short passing not really an option for Octillery as it isn't strong, fast, or bulky enough to get the most out of just one boost or the other
- Typical BP chain members needed, Volbeat, Ariados, Beedrill, Mawile, etc.

[Other Options]
- Choice Band
- Screech
- Lock-On
- Haze, Thief

[Checks and Counters]
- SpD Bellossom, Swalot, Kecleon
- Plusle
- Wailord and other bulky Water-types
- Anything faster with a strong attack will normally 2HKO Octillery, just kinda hard to switch into
- Don't try phazing it

 

[Bughouse]

A faster Octillery that creeps 0 speed 70s is an option.
Otherwise this all looks good. Probably oversells it a bit tbh since other waters fit better on most teams, but eh it's not egregious so it's fine imo.

 

[Rabia]

i do not like the baton pass spread; it functions under the assumption that every game you will get that exact stat pass. i personally feel attack boosts arent really necessary anyway on this pokemon; surf / ice beam or flamethrower / hp electric gives you the coverage you require and since you cant get phazed by say, wail, i find the double edge tech to be unnecessary. i would recommend a spread with max spa and enough speed to outpace raticate at +2 with the rest dumped into hp. all the other options sound really bad and gimmicky, but eh, if youve used them at all then its prob fine.

 

[Oglemi]

i do not like the baton pass spread; it functions under the assumption that every game you will get that exact stat pass. i personally feel attack boosts arent really necessary anyway on this pokemon; surf / ice beam or flamethrower / hp electric gives you the coverage you require and since you cant get phazed by say, wail, i find the double edge tech to be unnecessary. i would recommend a spread with max spa and enough speed to outpace raticate at +2 with the rest dumped into hp. all the other options sound really bad and gimmicky, but eh, if youve used them at all then its prob fine.

Ya I would probably edit it to that spread at this point. The set was designed when people were still using Kecleon and Lickitung with relatively high frequency, making HP Fighting more desirable, and no one was prepping for BP chains either making getting multi boosts far more easy to guarantee, and Wailord was extremely uncommon to top it off, meaning the chain was not as easily stopped as just Roaring before too many boosts built up.