[OVERVIEW]
With a solid defensive typing in Water / Ground, Quagsire has valuable resistances in Fire, Rock, Steel, and Poison, on top of an Electric immunity and only one weakness, albeit a 4x one to Grass. While 95/85/65 defenses are on the middling side of decent, it's just enough that in conjunction with Quagsire's inability to be hit super effectively by anything but Grass, means that Quagsire can survive a wide range of physical and special attacks, using Z-Stockpile's healing effect to immediately negate any attack that doesn't KO it and boost its defenses. Access to Unaware means that the opponent can't use boosting moves of their own to counter Stockpile, leaving them unable to KO Quagsire with an attack. However, Quagsire's average bulk can be taken advantage of by some of the more powerful moves in 1v1, often relying on rolls to live threats such as Tapu Lele, Mega Lopunny, and Porygon-Z. Stockpile can only be used three times as well, meaning moves that drop defenses such as Psychic, Crunch, and Metal Sound can leave it vulnerable. Quagsire is also very passive, struggles against opposing stall, and tends to lose to Taunt.
[SET]
name: Stockpile
move 1: Stockpile
move 2: Recover
move 3: Toxic
move 4: Scald
item: Normalium Z
ability: Unaware
nature: Calm
evs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Stockpile is the point of the set, boosting Quagsire's defenses, and when used with Normalium Z, allowing Quagsire to heal at the same time. With Quagsire's slow speed, almost every offensive Pokemon will attack first, at which point it can shrug off any hit that doesn't OHKO, fully restore its health, and boost its defenses to ensure that it'll weather any subsequent attacks. Recover continues to restore health after using Stockpile, and is essential as most physical attackers can continue to do enough damage to threaten Quagsire after one Stockpile, giving Quagsire the longevity it needs to continue to boost its defenses. Toxic is Quagsire's main method of doing damage, hitting everything but Steel and Poison-types, putting them on a timer, and is what Quagsire uses to take out the majority of Pokemon. Scald keeps Quagsire from being completely passive, and also gives it a chance of burning physical attackers, ensuring it will live physical critical hits, and giving it a chance against Mold Breakers like Mega Gyarados.
Set Details
========
Normalium Z is essential, as Quagsire needs Z-Stockpile's healing effect to survive more than a single attack against the majority of offensive Pokemon. Unaware allows Quagsire to ignore the stat changes of the foe when taking or dealing damage, meaning that boosting moves like Calm Mind and Swords Dance are ineffectual against it, although it leaves a vulnerability to moves like Draco Meteor and Fleur Cannon, as Quagsire unfortunately ignores the stat dropping effect of these moves as well. Full investment in HP maximizes its bulk, with an emphasis on Special Defense giving it the bulk to take the widest range of attacks and live, with a Calm nature further boosting Special Defense and allowing it to take the likes of Hyper Beam from Meloetta and Mega Gardevoir, and giving it a chance of living against Scarf Porygon-Z's Hyper Beam, and uninvested Modest Tapu Lele's Shattered Psyche. 16 EVs in Defense ensures that Quagsire can always live Supersonic Skystrike from Landorus-T
Usage Tips
========
On team preview, consider what Pokemon your opponent has capable of beating Quagsire. Most Grass-types like Venusaur or Kartana are a no-go, and Quagsire likely shouldn't be brought out against them. Instead, it can easily handle a plethora of other bulky offense Pokemon, so if your opponent's team features the likes of Mega Metagross, Mimikyu, Magearna, and Mega Charizard X, Quagsire can easily shine. When your opponent has Pokemon capable of running Grass coverage such as Charizard, Greninja, and Genesect, try to sense out what moves they're likely to be running based on their teammates and any notable weaknesses you can see. Determining whether Charizard is X or Y can often be done simply by looking at the teammates, and Greninja and Genesect often have other moves they'd rather be running over Grass coverage, so if the team has Magnezone or Victini, it's less likely that they may feel the need to run Grass moves. Always remember that Quagsire can lose to an inopportune crit, so if you have a more reliable way of taking out the opponent's Pokemon, it may be better to go with them instead. When using Quagsire against an offensive threat, your first move should just about always be to go for the Z-Stockpile. As long as Quagsire manages to live the hit, it will completely restore its health and boost its defenses by one stage. Turn two, go for Stockpile again, after which you should be tanky enough to spam Recover until you reach full health again, and go for your third Stockpile, at which point you can go for Scald against physical attackers without recovery, or Toxic against special attackers and any Pokemon with recovery. Against defensive Pokemon, go for Toxic immediately, getting the foe's timer started as quickly as possible is key to winning a Toxic war, and be sure to preserve your Z-Stockpile as long as you can, as it allows you to survive Toxic for a few turns longer than your foe can by healing more than Recover late in the Toxic counter.
Team Options
========
Teammates capable of beating Grass-types like Venusaur are appreciated, so Flyinium Dragonite and Landorus-T make good partners, Quagsire taking out Pokemon for them such as Mimikyu, Tapu Fini, and Donphan. Tapu Lele beats Venusaur, as well as other counters such as Mega Gyarados, Haxorus, and Greninja, while taking out some of Lele's best answers in Mega Metagross and Aegislash. Porygon-Z can tear through the aforementioned threats, as well as provide a degree of offensive pressure, baiting in more bulky but less powerful Pokemon from the opponent. Porygon-Z in turn appreciates Quagsire's ability to defeat these bulky Pokemon, taking on the likes of Magearna, Golem, Dragonite, and Crustle. Stall beaters such as Mega Gyarados and Zygarde help patch up Quagsire's weakness to opposing stall, while letting Quagsire capitalize on the focused sets run to beat them, however Quagsire must be wary as Grass coverage is often used to threaten Mega Gyarados.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
A spread of 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD with a bold nature sacrifices versatility for better chances against physical attackers, improving Quagsire's matchup against Mega Gyarados and choice locked Haxorus. A Sassy or Relaxed nature with minimized speed IVs lets Quagsire always underspeed Mega Aggron and Mega Mawile, letting it dodge a Metal Burst, but leaves it more vulnerable to Taunt from them. Water Absorb on the physically defensive set lets you still beat specially oriented Water types without another strong STAB more easily, such as Greninja, but it leaves you vulnerable to the foe boosting. Rest can be run over Recover to beat opposing stall, removing toxic and starting a PP war, but doing so leaves Quagsire unable to recover enough on more powerful offensive threats.
Checks and Counters
===================
With a solid defensive typing in Water / Ground, Quagsire has valuable resistances in Fire, Rock, Steel, and Poison, on top of an Electric immunity and only one weakness, albeit a 4x one to Grass. While 95/85/65 defenses are on the middling side of decent, it's just enough that in conjunction with Quagsire's inability to be hit super effectively by anything but Grass, means that Quagsire can survive a wide range of physical and special attacks, using Z-Stockpile's healing effect to immediately negate any attack that doesn't KO it and boost its defenses. Access to Unaware means that the opponent can't use boosting moves of their own to counter Stockpile, leaving them unable to KO Quagsire with an attack. However, Quagsire's average bulk can be taken advantage of by some of the more powerful moves in 1v1, often relying on rolls to live threats such as Tapu Lele, Mega Lopunny, and Porygon-Z. Stockpile can only be used three times as well, meaning moves that drop defenses such as Psychic, Crunch, and Metal Sound can leave it vulnerable. Quagsire is also very passive, struggles against opposing stall, and tends to lose to Taunt.
[SET]
name: Stockpile
move 1: Stockpile
move 2: Recover
move 3: Toxic
move 4: Scald
item: Normalium Z
ability: Unaware
nature: Calm
evs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 240 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Stockpile is the point of the set, boosting Quagsire's defenses, and when used with Normalium Z, allowing Quagsire to heal at the same time. With Quagsire's slow speed, almost every offensive Pokemon will attack first, at which point it can shrug off any hit that doesn't OHKO, fully restore its health, and boost its defenses to ensure that it'll weather any subsequent attacks. Recover continues to restore health after using Stockpile, and is essential as most physical attackers can continue to do enough damage to threaten Quagsire after one Stockpile, giving Quagsire the longevity it needs to continue to boost its defenses. Toxic is Quagsire's main method of doing damage, hitting everything but Steel and Poison-types, putting them on a timer, and is what Quagsire uses to take out the majority of Pokemon. Scald keeps Quagsire from being completely passive, and also gives it a chance of burning physical attackers, ensuring it will live physical critical hits, and giving it a chance against Mold Breakers like Mega Gyarados.
Set Details
========
Normalium Z is essential, as Quagsire needs Z-Stockpile's healing effect to survive more than a single attack against the majority of offensive Pokemon. Unaware allows Quagsire to ignore the stat changes of the foe when taking or dealing damage, meaning that boosting moves like Calm Mind and Swords Dance are ineffectual against it, although it leaves a vulnerability to moves like Draco Meteor and Fleur Cannon, as Quagsire unfortunately ignores the stat dropping effect of these moves as well. Full investment in HP maximizes its bulk, with an emphasis on Special Defense giving it the bulk to take the widest range of attacks and live, with a Calm nature further boosting Special Defense and allowing it to take the likes of Hyper Beam from Meloetta and Mega Gardevoir, and giving it a chance of living against Scarf Porygon-Z's Hyper Beam, and uninvested Modest Tapu Lele's Shattered Psyche. 16 EVs in Defense ensures that Quagsire can always live Supersonic Skystrike from Landorus-T
Usage Tips
========
On team preview, consider what Pokemon your opponent has capable of beating Quagsire. Most Grass-types like Venusaur or Kartana are a no-go, and Quagsire likely shouldn't be brought out against them. Instead, it can easily handle a plethora of other bulky offense Pokemon, so if your opponent's team features the likes of Mega Metagross, Mimikyu, Magearna, and Mega Charizard X, Quagsire can easily shine. When your opponent has Pokemon capable of running Grass coverage such as Charizard, Greninja, and Genesect, try to sense out what moves they're likely to be running based on their teammates and any notable weaknesses you can see. Determining whether Charizard is X or Y can often be done simply by looking at the teammates, and Greninja and Genesect often have other moves they'd rather be running over Grass coverage, so if the team has Magnezone or Victini, it's less likely that they may feel the need to run Grass moves. Always remember that Quagsire can lose to an inopportune crit, so if you have a more reliable way of taking out the opponent's Pokemon, it may be better to go with them instead. When using Quagsire against an offensive threat, your first move should just about always be to go for the Z-Stockpile. As long as Quagsire manages to live the hit, it will completely restore its health and boost its defenses by one stage. Turn two, go for Stockpile again, after which you should be tanky enough to spam Recover until you reach full health again, and go for your third Stockpile, at which point you can go for Scald against physical attackers without recovery, or Toxic against special attackers and any Pokemon with recovery. Against defensive Pokemon, go for Toxic immediately, getting the foe's timer started as quickly as possible is key to winning a Toxic war, and be sure to preserve your Z-Stockpile as long as you can, as it allows you to survive Toxic for a few turns longer than your foe can by healing more than Recover late in the Toxic counter.
Team Options
========
Teammates capable of beating Grass-types like Venusaur are appreciated, so Flyinium Dragonite and Landorus-T make good partners, Quagsire taking out Pokemon for them such as Mimikyu, Tapu Fini, and Donphan. Tapu Lele beats Venusaur, as well as other counters such as Mega Gyarados, Haxorus, and Greninja, while taking out some of Lele's best answers in Mega Metagross and Aegislash. Porygon-Z can tear through the aforementioned threats, as well as provide a degree of offensive pressure, baiting in more bulky but less powerful Pokemon from the opponent. Porygon-Z in turn appreciates Quagsire's ability to defeat these bulky Pokemon, taking on the likes of Magearna, Golem, Dragonite, and Crustle. Stall beaters such as Mega Gyarados and Zygarde help patch up Quagsire's weakness to opposing stall, while letting Quagsire capitalize on the focused sets run to beat them, however Quagsire must be wary as Grass coverage is often used to threaten Mega Gyarados.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
A spread of 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD with a bold nature sacrifices versatility for better chances against physical attackers, improving Quagsire's matchup against Mega Gyarados and choice locked Haxorus. A Sassy or Relaxed nature with minimized speed IVs lets Quagsire always underspeed Mega Aggron and Mega Mawile, letting it dodge a Metal Burst, but leaves it more vulnerable to Taunt from them. Water Absorb on the physically defensive set lets you still beat specially oriented Water types without another strong STAB more easily, such as Greninja, but it leaves you vulnerable to the foe boosting. Rest can be run over Recover to beat opposing stall, removing toxic and starting a PP war, but doing so leaves Quagsire unable to recover enough on more powerful offensive threats.
Checks and Counters
===================
- Grass Moves: Quagsire's 4x weakness to Grass means that Grass coverage is more than capable of OHKOing easily. Venusaur, Kartana, and Tapu Bulu, as well as Solar Beam Mega Charizard Y, Bloom Doom Heatran, Grass Knot Greninja, and Energy Ball Genesect are all threats to look out for
- Mold Breaker: Mega Gyarados, Haxorus, and Non-Mega Evolved Pinsir can all essentially ignore Unaware to boost their attack more than Stockpile allows, and KO
- Extremely Powerful Moves: Quagsire's middling bulk leaves it unable to take the more powerful moves in the meta, relying on low rolls to not die to Tapu Lele's Shattered Psyche, Mega Lopunny's Fake Out + Giga Impact, and Scarf Porygon-Z's Hyper Beam, and always dying to Banded Haxorus's Outrage, Choice Specs Porygon-Z's Hyper Beam or Breakneck Blitz, and specially invested Tapu Lele's Shattered Psyche.
- Defense Lowering Moves: Moves capable of lowering a Pokemon's defense such as Metal Sound from Aegislash or Magnezone, Acid Spray from Nihilego, and Crunch or Psychic from a variety of Pokemon can break through Stockpile's limited three boosts, leaving it vulnerable
- Laser Focus: Most commonly used on Meloetta, Quagsire is woefully unable to take a critical hit Hyper Beam, Mega Metagross sometimes carrying it as well.
- Taunt: Although Normalium Z ensures Quagsire can get at least one defensive boost, it's simply too passive to pose much of a threat afterward, Scald easily out-damaged by most offensive Pokemon
- Stall: Without usually having a way to get rid of status, Quagsire is vulnerable to Toxic, can't harm Pokemon with Rest, and tends to lose PP stall matches
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