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Houndoom @ Darkinium Z
Ability: Unnerve
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Pursuit
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Nasty Plot
Houndoom here is a fantastic partner to Ape. Firstly, it is able to beat Primeape’s common checks such as Mesprit and Tangela while Primeape does serious damage to Doom’s checks such as Chan.
Froslass @ Icium Z / Life Orb / Ghostium Z
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Spikes
- Ice Beam
- Shadow Ball
- Taunt / Will-O-Wisp
Froslass is able to form a solid offensive core with Primeape by virtue of its speed, typing and utility. It's access to Spikes is greatly appreciated by Primeape, since pivoting damage from U-turn + Spikes secures as much chip as possible for the scarfed monkey to function as a reliable way of beating slower threats after those have taken damage. Furthermore, Ape is able to support Lass with its ability Defiant, which can function as a way of preventing Defog and because of both of them appreciating Spikes. Lastly, Lass is an exceptional partner thanks to its ability to spin block and Taunt opposing Pokemon, allowing it to stop opponent from clicking Defog.
Despite this set being the one put on display here, the bulky Spikes set for Lass must be taken into consideration due to allowing Ape to get past some of the physically oriented threats that might be able to take a hit from it, since Will-O-Wisp + Hex allows Lass to cripple Pokemon such as Mudsdale, which can be a problematic wall for Ape. Furthermore, the offensive set allows Lass to threaten Pokemon such as Mesprit and the aforementioned Muds, as well as Flying-types such as Oricorio Pom-Pom while Primeape is able to revenge Pokemon such as Houndoom, Skuntank and Persian-Alola. I wont be putting in calcs this time around since what players mostly appreciate from Lass is its utility, hope that makes sense but theres always the nuke with the Z move which is quite self explanatory.
In terms of partners, spinners such as Sandslash-Alola and Hitmonchan are adviced, as well as Pokemon that benefit from Spikes such as Kanghaskan, Lycanroc and Absol. Checks to Pokemon like Gurdurr and Lilligant such as Mesprit and Pom Pom respectively, as well as strong wallbreakers that appreciate Spikes such as Drampa and Stoutland form great cores for these two. Thank you for reading!
Lilligant @ Normalium Z
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Giga Drain
- Hyper Beam
- Hidden Power Fire
- Quiver Dance
Primeape is arguably the best scarfer in the tier and to live up to that, it will need pests to be rid of that wall it like Quagsire, Gastrodon, Jellicent, Mesprit, among others. Lilligant can do just that. The flower annihilates the former 3 mons with ease and could do the same with the latter if given a boost or two.
Alolan Persian appreciates Primeape's ability to bring it in safely with U-turn. Most of Primeape answers (Mesprit and Jellicent, for example) are dealt with with Alolan Persian, which allows Primeape to further pressure the opponent. In return, Primeape appreciates Alolan Persian's ability to bring it in safely and can deal with threats Alolan Persian struggles to break, such as Audino and Articuno. This core greatly appreciates Spikes support as it pairs well with Parting Shot and U-turn and allows them to weaken their checks faster, so a partner such as Froslass is appreciated !
Bonus Points Round (Scores will be doubled for the winner)
We have had an all star studded cast submitting their matches this week. Primeape is quite the handsome fella and it has very good matches.
Have a read of the well-informed and put together posts by our esteemed users PhantomHuriousKellyKafkaOathkeepre and Gum and vote for the best match for Primeape!
Runner up is Houndoom by PhantomHurious but unfortunately it is now banned. These were also really good matches from the users Gum and Oathkeepre respectively.
In our final round we are matching Lanturn. Lanturn has a really great set of resistances which allows it to check Electric, Flying, Water and Fire types including the Ori's, Swanna, Manectric and Simisear. It's used as a special blanket check and has access has a good movepool with access to momentum with Volt-Switch, Heal Bell, Toxic, Hydro Pump, Scald and Ice Beam. Despite all this, she's still single and has come to us given how happy our previous couples have been. In pursuit for Lanturn's partner - check out the honourable Oathkeepre's Victim of The Week thread that was dedicated to Lanturn a few weeks ago here.
This is also the final round and we will announce our reigning cupid at the end of this week.
Primeape works really well with both Lanturn sets (2 because specs lanturn sucks lol) because of their fantastic synergy and the fact that they are able to create a fire volturn core. To start with, Lanturn struggles with Pokemon such as Lilligant that are able to just attack Lanturn and heal back the damage that lanturn does. In this specific example, Primeape is able to almost always beat Lilligant in a 1v1 scenario with a Gunk Shot or a Close Combat after chip. Lanturn also struggles against special sponges that soak up most of its attacks very well but again, Primeape is a physical attacker and is able to break through these Pokemon. Primeape, having 95 base speed, struggles against faster checks such as Swanna and Scyther. Lanturn is able to beat both of these Pokemon with ease and allow Primeape to help later on.
Scyther forms a fantastic VoltTurn core with Lanturn, checking both Grass types like Roselia/Tangela/Lilligant and offensively threatening physical attackers such as Primeape and Gurdurr thanks to its speed, typing and strong U-Turn. In return, Lanturn is able to handle the special attackers that threaten Scyther, notably Ice and Flying types such as Aurorus and Oricorio-Pom-Pom respectively. Together they're able to put pressure on the opponent throughout a match by pivoting, and gradually chip away at each others checks.
Both Scyther and Lanturn are easily worn down by hazards, however, so I'd recommend running some solid hazard control when operating this core.
➤ What I like about Lanturn, is the ability to bring in basically every Mon that is frail on the physical side. So forming a Voltturn Core with Primeape or Scyther makes a lot of sense (s/o Uhuhuhu7 and Hurious!) However, I want to go another route and rather pick a breaker that enjoys the form of momentum Lanturn creates.
➤ Eelektross, Audino, Clefairy, Roselia, Drampa, Silvally Dragon/Fairy: All Pokemon that Lanturn lures in and Stoutland likes to come in freely. Lanturn ist able to threaten out Rock Types like Aggron or Regirock which allows Stoutland to pressure the team immensely due to the stacking chip damage it will create. Spdef Alolaslash also comes in against Lanturn (if that's the water resist of the opponent's team) where Stoutland can't click Return so easily but obviously Superpower is there too.
➤ Another nice thing about Stoutland is the ability to pursuit-trap the likes of Eelektross, Drampa or Roselia which supports Lanturn to pressure the opponent's team with its STAB-moves.
@ Assault Vest / Volt Absorb
172 SpA / 136 SpD / 200 Spe / Modest
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Volt Switch
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power Grass
➤ For the Lanturn set I'd go with the AV Set because it has the ability to hit Quagsire super effectively with HP Grass. I think it makes sense to run it because there are more and more Quagsires that run Protect to check Stoutland a bit better with the Leftovers recovery; so getting rid of it with Lanturn first is very helpful. Also, doing quite a bit more damage to Hitmonchan, Mesprit and Sandslash helps Stoutland out to spam its STAB easier.
➤ As a side note, Disscharge could be nice too since you can para common switchins like Lilligant or Scarf Mesprit but most of the time, people have far better switchins to Lanturn so I don't know if you want to do that. It really depends on personal preference since the moves you click the most with Lanturn are its STABs.
➤ Defensively, Lanturn can help out Stoutland as well. Often times you'll find yourself in the position with Stoutland where you don't want to lock yourself into the Normal STAB because there are forces like Omastar or Aurorus in the back to pressure your team. With Lanturn, however, you don't lose too much if a Superpower/Return-50/50 didn't work out because you can pivot into Lanturn and Voltswitch out again.
➤ Flaws of the core are obvious I think: Strong physical attackers. If you want to go crazy with the Voltturn, you can think about slapping defensive Mesprit on there; supporting you with Healing Wish, a resist to fighting types and Stealth Rock as well. Gurdurr could be another decent pick to patch up weaknesses against Normal and Rock type attacks.
➤ A more offensive approach would be Scarf/Eviolite Scyther that forms a nice Voltturn Core with Lanturn, provides a decent Fighting Resist or maybe gives you Speedcontrol with the Choice Scarf.
Since Lanturn just has a hard time dealing with Grasses, Grounds, physical breakers, and potential setup sweepers, Offensive Spikes Froslass seemed like a good partner imo. Taunt prevents the would be sweepers from doing just that. It can nuke the opposing Ground type and/or Grass type and send them to the "Slammer" per se. Froslass could also setup Spikes to make Lanturn's job easier if running an AV or Specs set.
Drampa @ Choice Specs
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 136 HP / 252 SpA / 120 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Hyper Voice
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast
Similarly to jonago, I decided to pair Lanturn with a really strong wallbreaker. When considering Lanturn, the first thing that came to mind was alleviating the Grass and Ground weaknesses that Lanturn suffers from due to a great typing that obviously isn’t free from drawbacks.
Drampa has become a rather popular wallbreaker in the PU tier lately thanks to its huge amount of power, typing and ability in Sap Sipper which allows it to check most Lilligant variants. Drampas bulk is nothing to scoff at and its great offensive power makes it incredibly hard to switch into. Which are the drawback of this mon? Weakness to Fighting and Ice types as well as a pretty bad speed.
The idea of pairing these two together is simple. Drampa is able to cover up for Lanturns Grass-type weaknesses coming in on threats such as Lilligant and Victreebel (the player must scout for potential Z-moves), as well as passive Ground types such as Quagsire and Mudsdale. The ability to bring in Drampa through a slow pivot means that the dragon will have as much health as possible in order to nuke most of the tier multiple times.
252+ SpA Choice Specs Drampa Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Lilligant: 514-606 (182.9 - 215.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Drampa Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Victreebel: 544-640 (180.7 - 212.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Drampa Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mudsdale: 411-484 (101.7 - 119.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Drampa Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Quagsire: 510-601 (129.4 - 152.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Now, what does Lanturn provide for Drampa? Apart from the aforementioned function of a slow pivot, Lanturn is able to take on Ice-types such as Froslass and potentially burn Sandslash-Alola (though it must be wary of Earthquake). I decided to utilized the bulky pivot set, specifically the Toxic-Protect option since this supports Drampa's ability to pick off KOs in different Pokemon a lot after a bit of chip damage, which Lanturn is great at providing.
The core doesn’t come without flaws though, since Fighting-types end up being trouble for these two. Id support this with a Pokemon like Mesprit which can obviously help checking Pokemon such as Gurdurr and Primeape. Lack of speed is also a problem for these two, so Pokemon such as Primeape and the aforementioned Mesprit, this time scarfed, can also function quite well (These two also form a nice volt-turn core with Lanturn, as previously mentioned by the earlier very good posts). I guess wallbreakers like Stoutland and Kang can also be threatening for these two, so just put a Regirock in there, that should do the job. Thank you so much for reading!
