[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 8
**Price Range**: 2-3 points
**Overview**: Pincurchin finds a specific niche in being the only legal Pokemon to set up Electric Terrain via its Electric Surge ability, allowing teammates that can make full use of the Terrain to become more threatening in their own right. While it looks good on paper with entry hazard support and Thunder Wave, it is held back by a significant amount of flaws, including pitifully low speed with no access to pivoting, poor bulk with low HP, meaning it can be overwhelmed easily, and role compression that is outclassed by other Pokemon that can also patch up weaknesses and Speed tiers for your team.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
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**Terrain Setter**: Pincurchin sets up Electric Terrain, maximizing its usefulness to control the field during the match. The damage boost to Thunderbolt and Discharge are also useful to chip foes down and fish for paralysis.
Common Moves
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**Primary STAB Moves**: Zing Zap, Wild Charge, Supercell Slam, Thunderbolt, Discharge
**Setup Moves**: Pincurchin's teammates
**Utility Moves**: Thunder Wave, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Memento, Recover
**Coverage**: Scald, Liquidation, Poison Jab, Sucker Punch, Throat Chop
Niche Moves
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**Reversal**: Given its extremely low Speed, Reversal can be used to deal more damage to opposing Pokemon, as Pincurchin is likely to take damage before committing to a move.
Common Items
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**Terrain Extender**: Set the quark to maximum overdrive! Pincurchin mainly uses Terrain Extender to increase the amount of turns Electric Terrain stays on the field so that teammates can benefit as much as possible from the Quark Drive boost.
Niche Items
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**Mental Herb**: Pincurchin can use a Mental Herb to guarantee an opportunity to set up entry hazards or disrupt threats with Thunder Wave.
**Eject Button**: With no access to pivoting and its low Speed, Eject Button can be a useful item on Pincurchin to safely get one of its partners in to revenge kill or set up.
**Shuca Berry**: Pincurchin can use Shuca Berry to tank a Ground-type move if a specific threat needs to be chipped down heavily in return with its STAB moves or Scald or disrupted with Thunder Wave.
Tera
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Pincurchin gains no benefit from Tera. It's too slow and frail to make use of Tera both offensively and defensively, and a plethora of other Pokemon make for better secondary Tera Captains. If you decide to make Pincurchin a Tera Captain anyway, it can utilize defensive Tera types to gain some longevity against specific threats; for example, Tera Ghost can be used to block Rapid Spin.
Draft Strategy
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Pincurchin should never be the center piece of a draft. It only offers Electric Terrain as its niche for its teammates to take advantage of, so it should only be drafted alongside partners that can fulfil the aforementioned role.
**Quark Drive**: Pincurchin enables all future paradox Pokemon to gain the benefit of activating their Quark Drive ability without the need to use Booster Energy, allowing more flexibility in their item slot to fulfil their specific roles. For example, Iron Valiant and Iron Bundle can instead use damage-boosting items to become more deadly cleaners, especially as they prefer to maximize their Speed to outrun their opponents.
**Strong Electric-types**: Raging Bolt appreciates Pincurchin setting up Electric Terrain, providing a strong nuke option in Rising Voltage to leverage its already-high Special Attack. Alolan Raichu also deserves a mention, as it can utilize its Surge Surfer ability to become a threatening sweeper late-game.
**Pivots**: In order to continuously set up Electric Terrain throughout the course of the match, Pincurchin appreciates Pokemon that can pivot to it. Landorus-T, Meowscarada and Tornadus-T are good examples.
**Unburden Sweepers**: Unburden users such as Sneasler and Hawlucha can utilize Electric Seed in conjunction with Pincurchin setting up Electric Terrain to gain more bulk and sweep late-game.
**Ground-resistant/ -immune Pokemon**: As Pincurchin is usually drafted alongside other Electric-types and sometimes Sneasler, Pokemon that resist Ground and threaten them in return are imperative to consider. Examples to fulfil this role are Serperior, Latios, and Latias.
Checks and Counters
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**Opposing Terrain Setters**: Rillaboom and both Indeedee formes can switch in on Pincurchin to replace its Terrain, forcing it out if it wants to get Electric Terrain back up as soon as possible. In addition, the aforementioned foes overwhelm Pincurchin with their STAB moves, given their superior Speed.
**Taunt/Encore**: As Pincurchin almost always moves last, it is very susceptible to disruption from Taunt and Encore, limiting its utility while it's on the field.
**Substitute**: Given its somewhat predictable nature, opposing threats can utilize Substitute against Pincurchin to set up freely, especially if it attempts to disrupt them with Thunder Wave. Substitute can also be used to stall out Electric Terrain and limit the borrowed time its partners want to deal damage or set up.
**Ice Spinner**: Ice Spinner removes Electric Terrain, forcing Pincurchin out if it wants to set it up again. Great Tusk and Donphan are examples that can both remove the Terrain and threaten it with their STAB moves in return.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/theuncultured.629845
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/scribble.356084/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
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