QC: Jio / Carbonific
GP: Winry
[OVERVIEW]
* Strong coverage with moves like High Jump Kick and Ice Beam make Pheromosa a threatening offensive Pokemon capable of dealing a lot of damage very quickly due to it naturally outspeeding the entire metagame, barring Choice Scarf users.
* Pheromosa is one of the few Pokemon in the metagame capable of OHKOing Porygon2, easily putting pressure on it.
* Pheromosa's fragility makes it vulnerable to priority attacks like Arcanine's Extreme Speed and Metagross's Bullet Punch while also making it take huge amounts of damage even from resisted attacks.
* Furthermore, Pheromosa's high Speed and frailty makes it totally incapable of functioning inside Trick Room.
[SET]
name: All-out Attacker
move 1: High Jump Kick
move 2: Poison Jab
move 3: Ice Beam / U-turn
move 4: Protect
item: Focus Sash / Life Orb
ability: Beast Boost
nature: Naughty / Adamant
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
* High Jump Kick is Pheromosa's strongest STAB move, hitting for a consistent 130 Base Power, but costing it 50% of its health if the attack misses or lands into Protect.
* Poison Jab allows Pheromosa to threaten Tapu Lele, Tapu Koko, Tapu Fini, and Tapu Bulu, making it a move you should almost always have on it.
* Ice Beam allows Pheromosa to OHKO Garchomp without taking Rough Skin damage or worrying about High Jump Kick missing.
* U-turn allows Pheromosa to deal solid damage to a target and immediately switch out for an ally that can take a hit.
* Protect is a VGC staple, allowing Pheromosa to be safe for a turn while its ally handles a threat like Gengar or Alolan Marowak.
Set Details
========
* A simple EV spread of 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe is best for Pheromosa, as any investment in bulk will be meaningless given its nonexistent bulk. The remaining 4 EVs are placed into HP to give it an odd HP number, allowing High Jump Kick to miss or land into Protect twice.
* Focus Sash allows Pheromosa to take one attack, something it could only dream of accomplishing without it.
* Life Orb boosts Pheromosa's power, enabling it to always OHKO Porygon2 with High Jump Kick and always OHKO Tapu Koko with Poison Jab.
* Pheromosa already outspeeds the entire unboosted metagame without a Speed-boosting nature, making Naughty the preferred nature to give Pheromosa more power and allow it to get an Attack boost from Beast Boost without weakening Ice Beam.
* An Adamant nature should be used if Pheromosa runs U-turn instead of Ice Beam, as there is no need to run a Naughty nature if Pheromosa does not have any special attacks.
* An EV spread of 36 HP / 212 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe gives Pheromosa a boost in Speed from Beast Boost instead of Attack. This makes it less susceptible to being revenge killed by Choice Scarf users but makes it more susceptible to Intimidate.
* A Naive or Jolly nature will reduce Pheromosa's damage output, but they allow it to outspeed Modest Choice Scarf Tapu Lele, which is one of the most common methods of checking Pheromosa.
Usage Tips
========
* Never switch Pheromosa into an attack. Its nonexistent bulk means it will take a lot of damage, even from resisted hits. Instead, switch it in after something else has fainted. Leading with Pheromosa is also a surefire way to make sure it can get on the field safely.
* Be careful about using High Jump Kick, as its target can easily use Protect to force Pheromosa to lose 50% of its health. Try to use it only if the target used Protect the turn before or doesn't have Protect. This is mostly important for Focus Sash variants of Pheromosa, as High Jump Kick landing into Protect will break the Focus Sash; Life Orb variants don't care nearly as much.
* If you see Porygon2 in Team Preview, you should probably bring Pheromosa to the match in the lead spot in order to immediately threaten Porygon2 and potentially prevent a Trick Room setup. However, if your opponent's team has a secondary setter like Mimikyu, or if their team has a Fake Out user, it won't be as simple as just leading with Pheromosa to prevent Trick Room, so you will need to adjust your leads in order to handle those scenarios. For example, leading with a Roar user will prevent Mimikyu from setting up Trick Room, while leading with something like Tapu Lele or your own Fake Out user will help against a Fake Out lead.
Team Options
========
* Fake Out users like Salazzle, Togedemaru, and Alolan Persian make for good teammates for Pheromosa, as they can immobilize one opponent while Pheromosa takes care of the other one.
* Tapu Lele shields Pheromosa from priority attacks like Arcanine's Extreme Speed and Metagross's Bullet Punch, but it should be noted that this will conflict with the aforementioned Fake Out users as well.
* As Gengar and Alolan Marowak are huge problems for Pheromosa, Dark-types like Krookodile, Alolan Muk, and Alolan Persian make for good teammates. Alolan Muk is particularly noteworthy here thanks to its ability to use Imprison, which prevents any opponent from using Protect in order to block High Jump Kick.
* Tailwind support from Pokemon such as Pelipper, Aerodactyl, and Drifblim allows Pheromosa to get past Choice Scarf users, one of the most common ways of checking Pheromosa.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
* A specially based set of Focus Blast, Ice Beam, Bug Buzz, and Protect carrying Fightinium Z can be used. This set can easily OHKO Porygon2 with All-Out Pummeling while being totally unfazed by Intimidate, but is generally not recommended due to Focus Blast's unreliability once All-Out Pummeling has been used.
* Pheromosa is generally too frail to run setup sets, but Quiver Dance allows it to form a potentially deadly combination with Oricorio, whose Dancer Ability will copy Quiver Dance. It should never be used on a team without Oricorio, though.
* Speed Swap allows Pheromosa to trade Speed stats with slow Pokemon like Snorlax or Alolan Marowak. This can be used on an ally to make it incredibly fast, or on an opposing Pokemon to allow Pheromosa to function in Trick Room.
* Quick Guard allows Pheromosa to block priority moves, which is useful given its vulnerability to priority, but this should generally be left to bulkier Pokemon.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Fighting resistances and immunities**: Pokemon such as Drifblim, Mimikyu, Gengar, and Alolan Marowak boast an immunity to High Jump Kick while fearing nothing from Pheromosa's coverage, allowing them to handle Pheromosa with ease. Similarly, Gyarados and Araquanid both resist High Jump Kick while not particularly caring about its coverage moves and can OHKO with Waterfall and Liquidation, respectively. Furthermore, Gyarados has Intimidate to further weaken Pheromosa, although Araquanid will have to be on the lookout for U-turn.
**Speed Control**: Being naturally faster than the entire metagame turns Pheromosa into a liability in Trick Room, as it will be virtually guaranteed to be moving last, which is a death sentence for a Pokemon as frail as Pheromosa is. However, Pheromosa can easily threaten Porygon2, the most common Trick Room setter. Similarly, Tailwind gives a boost in Speed, which allows Pokemon like Tapu Koko and Garchomp, which are normally defeated by Poison Jab and Ice Beam, respectively, to outspeed and OHKO Pheromosa.
**Choice Scarf users**: Choice Scarf allows Pokemon such as Tapu Lele and Garchomp, which are normally outsped by Pheromosa, to outspeed and OHKO it.
**Intimidate and Burns**: As a predominantly physical attacker, Intimidate and Burns hamper Pheromosa's damage output. However, these will not cripple specially oriented Pheromosa sets.
**Priority**: Arcanine's Extreme Speed does a minimum of approximately 64% to Pheromosa, allowing Arcanine to revenge kill a worn-down Pheromosa. Likewise, Metagross's Bullet Punch always 2HKOes Pheromosa while Pheromosa cannot OHKO it in return with High Jump Kick. Talonflame deserves a special note here thanks to being able to OHKO Pheromosa with Gale Wings Supersonic Skystrike, even through Protect.
Last edited:
