Project PU Next Best Thing: Gnarly [Cycle 3: Won by SergioRules]

roxie

roxie

https://youtube.com/@verynoxious
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approved by PU Mods | Originally Hosted NU Best Thing | Artwork by DaWolfKid, thank you <3

What is Next Best's Thing?
Next Best Thing is a project where players search through a listed Pokémon's movepool along with providing and explaining why this set should be used over a standard set. Every cycle/week, participants of this project will submit and create a new set for the selected Pokemon, and near the end of the week, voting will occur. Submissions will take place from Monday to Friday, and on Saturday and Sunday, voting will occur for your nomination to be featured in our Hall of Fame!
​
Rules
You can be as creative as you want, just make sure that you can prove that your set stands apart from the standard sets. It is also important that you understand the difference between a creative set and a gimmicky set- this project is meant to use creativity to maximize a Pokemon's potential, not produce gimmicks. We may disallow sets if we deem them too gimmicky, situational, or unoriginal.
  • Suggestions are welcome for Pokémon to cover in the future, but please directly send those to me in a DM for direct consideration rather than posting them here to be considered (more)!​
  • Please do not reserve a set that currently has an analysis or is in the process of being created.​
  • Voting for your own set is not allowed, and advertising for people to vote for your set will result in a disqualification in your submission.
  • You may reserve a set, but if you haven't properly filled it in within 2 days of your reservation, it may be taken by someone else.
  • Follow the forum rules, meaning that you shouldn't post one-liners, unless voting. Try to also avoid double-posting if possible.
[Current Project: :sv/hariyama: Click Me!]
 
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Cycle 1 - Slowbro-Galar, I Regret Nothing
:sv/slowbro-galar:
Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien. Those were my first words when I joined the extravagant PU metagame to disover a devilish figure... in Galarian Slowbro. It's Poison-typing offers a natural fundamental to teambuilding in absorbing Toxic Spikes alongside longevity in Regenerator and Slack Off. Its longevity notably highlights Galarian Slowbro as an important defensive measure to account for in team preperation. Traditionally, Calm Mind, Sludge Bomb, Flamethrower, and Slack Off is used, but it will be banned for this starting slate as that's already common across tiers. The deadline for submissions will end on May 9th (Tuesday - Friday). Also I tried translating this to French and it didn't go so well.
Slowbro-Galar
Ability: Regenerator
- Calm Mind
- Sludge Bomb
- Flamethrower
- Slack Off

Preferably anything without Sludge+Flame combination on THIS SPECIFIC set. You can still submit Calm Mind.
 
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:slowbro-galar:
Slowbro-Galar @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Slack Off
- Shell Side Arm
- Surf

Cool first pick for the thread!

NP glowbro is a great bulky wincon, and Poison+Water coverage is very hard to cover defensively. In fact, it is unresisted by everything in the tier except for Qwilfish (apart from random unmon NFE / LC things). Tera Water removes glowbro's weaknesses and lets you lure things like Rhydon when used alongside Surf. That, and Tera Water- and NP-boosted Surf really stings, which is icing on the cake.

Close to maximum HP and Defense investment facilitate setup with NP, while Slack Off + Regenerator prevent you from crashing out. Rocky Helmet with investment in Defense / HP is pretty good and lets you chip down targets that you sit on (or block Rapid Spin if they're low enough to be killed by Helmet, thus protecting hazards in the process), though I'm not married to the item - HDB / resist berries like Colbur or Shuca / even Cloak are fine too, of course. Speed EVs let glowbro outpace Palossand (which you do see a lot, even though the castle can be kind of mid at the moment), though you can run it faster or just use a more basic max / max spread if desired. 216 Bold also just happens to be a jump point in Defense oo
 
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:slowbro-galar:idef + body press

Slowbro-Galar @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Def / 60 SpA / 128 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Body Press
- Iron Defense
- Slack Off
- Shadow Ball ( also possible with Foul Play / Psychic / Toxic)

The idea :

iron defense glowbro is an idea that I think is really interesting and that has been suggested by the goat Esteb4n . The original idea was to play idef body press + toxic, so you can beat the steel types with body press and then toxic the rest, but unfortunately it doesn't work much because of the number of special poison type in this tier (like venusaur, salazzle, and even glowbro itself). We tried to use psychic, as it helps against those poison type, and idef + body press wins against the poison + dark type, but it has the problem of being walled by psychic types, and everybody knows that we have a lot of them.

I finally ended up with 2 offensive coverage ideas that hits both ghost and psychic types, foul play (that has already been used on idef + body press sets like on Bastiodon) and shadow ball. I think shadow ball is a bit better, as most of the psychic types have 0 IVs in atk and some ghost types like houndstone and palo take way more on shadow ball.

With that spread, you will be able to :

- 2HKO golurk after the rocks
60 SpA Slowbro-Galar Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Golurk: 148-176 (46.3 - 55.1%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock

- 3HKO Houndstone with the leftos
60 SpA Slowbro-Galar Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Houndstone: 126-150 (36.2 - 43.1%) -- 98.2% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

- Outspeed 44 speed EVs rhydon, because you hit 128 of speed, and beat it 1v1
+2 68+ Def Slowbro-Galar Body Press vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Rhydon: 148-176 (35.8 - 42.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
16+ Atk Rhydon Earthquake vs. +2 252 HP / 68+ Def Slowbro-Galar: 134-158 (34 - 40.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

- Still not be KO'd by koff + double shock from LO pawmot
252 Atk Life Orb Pawmot Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 68+ Def Colbur Berry Slowbro-Galar: 112-133 (28.4 - 33.7%) -- 0.2% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Life Orb Pawmot Double Shock vs. 252 HP / 68+ Def Slowbro-Galar: 208-246 (52.7 - 62.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

What you can change in the set :

- The tera is up to you, I put fairy because it helps you better check some physical mons that might want to use knock off on you, but generally most of the defensive teras (like water or steel) are good on it, it will mostly depend on your team.
- The spread has some spatk but you can remove it as you will most of the time switch out when you face golurk, and houndstone's night shade doesn't do a lot to you. It's just to make you a bit less passive, but it costs you some defensive bulk.
- The speed is cool to beat rhydon more easily, but you could just go max def and win the 1v1 anyway, you'll just be more open to crits.

To conclude :

This set can work well against HOs, more specifically that have a lot of physical attackers (hello grassy terrain), or against more fat teams thanks to glowbro's longevity and set up ability. It still needs quite some time to be threatening against more classic structures, so you might want to pair it with mons that can enable that, like some paralysis or parting shot users.
 
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:slowbro-galar:
Slowbro-Galar @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Quick Draw
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Shell Side Arm
- Earthquake
- Zen Headbutt

nu is filled with very unfun people so they banned quick claw for no reason, meaning this set can't reach its full potential. however, qd activates at the same rate focus blast misses, and we all know how often that happens. this set is very easy to use, setup on something that glowbro forces out and just keep gambling. might wanna creep to outspeed some slower mons but idk the right spread.
 
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:sv/Slowbro-Galar:
Offensive Quick Draw (Slowbro-Galar) @ Heavy-Duty Boots / Leftovers
Ability: Quick Draw
Tera Type: Water / Dark
EVs: 128 HP / 252 SpA / 128 Spe
Modest Nature
- Nasty Plot / Calm Mind
- Fire Blast / Surf / Psyshock / Psychic
- Slack Off / Psychock / Psychic
- Shell Side Arm

IDEA:

I got this idea when I saw his second Ability almost never used: Quick Draw. Indeed, this Ability is good, but is only available on Glowbro, which despite its good offenses, is played defensively, because of its slowness. So I wanted to pay tribute to this Ability which corrects its flaws.

EXPLICATIONS :

The Poison+Fire combo is resisted by few Pokémon, such as Qwilfish and Salazzle. This is why a Psychic move is optional, but Slack Off is preferred to maintain staying power against Milotic or other Glowbros, for example. Surf is optional to hit Salazzle or Typhlosion-H. He is weak vs special Pokémon like Typhlosion-H, Hoopa and Salazzle. His investments in Speed are used to outpace all Pokémon with 127 Speed. The Dark and Water Terastals have the same purpose: to cover your weaknesses. The Water Tera will also be used to boost Surf.

CALCS:

+1 252+ SpA Slowbro-Galar Surf vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Typhlosion-Hisui: 306-362 (106.6 - 126.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO//252 SpA Typhlosion-Hisui Shadow Ball vs. +1 128 HP / 0 SpD Slowbro-Galar: 218-260 (60 - 71.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO//252+ SpA Slowbro-Galar Surf vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Salazzle: 270-318 (97.4 - 114.8%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO//252 SpA Salazzle Fire Blast vs. 128 HP / 0 SpD Slowbro-Galar: 216-255 (59.5 - 70.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO//252+ SpA Slowbro-Galar Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Abomasnow: 412-488 (128.3 - 152%) -- guaranteed OHKO//+1 252+ SpA Slowbro-Galar Surf vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Palossand: 340-400 (90.9 - 106.9%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO//0 SpA Palossand Shadow Ball vs. 128 HP / 0 SpD Slowbro-Galar: 234-276 (64.4 - 76%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
 
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:slowbro-galar: Double Status Spreader :slowbro-galar:

Slowbro-Galar @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Fairy / Water
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Toxic
- Thunder Wave
- Shell Side Arm
- Flamethrower / Ice Beam / Surf


The idea:
As a person who has mostly only played SS tiers and that has recently joined the SV PU metagame, first thing I realized when looking at the mons in the tier and the move distribution this gen was how broken status is. Because of its typing and its bulk, Glowbro is able to spread status through the majority of the tier, detrimenting walls with toxic and neutralizing offensive threats types with t-wave.

Both toxic and t-wave sets are relatively common on the tier, but, when putting both moves together on the same set you can spread status through the totality of some team structures. Moreover, the fact that most people only expect one status moves makes luring certain stuff really easy for glowbro.


Thought process justifying the double status set:
Toxic is a really easy click that puts a timer on almost every wall in the tier. With this set Glowbro can punish most of the mons that can happily switch into it:

- Poison types weak to psychic :salazzle: :venusaur: :qwilfish:
These mons aren’t usually switching into Glowbro because of the threat of eating a psychic/psyshock. In this set I’m not running these but
T-Wave hugely punishes said mons.

- Poison + Dark types :qwilfish-hisui: :skuntank:
These are the ones I was more interested on luring into taking a T-wave. While teambuilding with the set I focused on having mons that could benefit from these being paralyzed such as Banded :decidueye-hisui:, Air-Slash :articuno-galar: or Nasty Plot :hoopa:

- Natural cure mons :altaria: :pawmot: :shaymin:
Both Pawmot and Shaymin get 2hko’ed by shell-side-arm. Ice beam is a valuable coverage option for instantly hitting Altaria but its also easy to make this mon go down by spamming T-Wave + shell side since brave bird isn’t hitting 184+ def glowbro hard enough.

- Espeon :espeon:
A relaxed nature over bold makes no bulk Espeon unable of taking 2 shell side arms.
0 Atk Slowbro-Galar Shell Side Arm vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Espeon: 147-174 (54.2 - 64.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

- The steel type (in singular) :sandslash-alola:
This guy doesn’t care that much about T-wave so flamethrower is my preference as 4th move on this glowbro set.

- Scrafty and Glowbro :scrafty: :slowbro-galar:
These are the two mons that don’t care that much about this set. Still, shed skin has 30% chance of activating so clicking T-wave into scrafty isn’t that bad (if it doesn’t heal turn 1) and lets you pivot into your scrafty check more safely. A paralyzed glowbro is kinda meh but paralysis is so cheap I can’t see this as a negative thing.

Some other details about the set:

Surf is another option as the 4th move since poison+water coverage is really solid on the tier atm

The spread specifically aims to check the unburden mons being spammed on Grassy Terrain teams by clicking T-wave on both knock off :hitmonlee: and Double Edge :grafaiai:. Colbur and 184+ defense allow glowbro to click T-wave on +2 Hitmonlee clicking knock off and recovering enough with regen to then take the double edge from grafaiai and clicking T-wave once again. This makes these two mons easy to revenge kill and unable to overwhelm their shared checks.

:hitmonlee: +2 252+ Atk Hitmonlee Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Colbur Berry Slowbro-Galar: 173-204 (43.9 - 51.7%) -- 10.9% chance to 2HKO

:grafaiai: +2 252+ Atk Grafaiai Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Slowbro-Galar: 273-322 (69.2 - 81.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Rest of the evs are put into spdef cause why not

KEY IDEA:
This Glowbro set aims to support its team by spreading status in a tier in which status is broken. Due to Glowbro’s bulk, typing and coverages this can be easily executed while luring status into stuff that only expects one status move.
 
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