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Research Week 2 - Tentacool

Brambane

Brambane

protect the wetlands
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Well, here's Research Week #2: Tentacool.

Goals of this Research WeeK:


  • Figure out what moves are viable on Tentacool.
  • Find potentially good teammates for Tentacool.
  • Figure out what kind of team Tentacool preforms best on.
  • Figure out what kind of support Tentacool may need to be productive.
This thread is for discussion about Tentacool during the Research Week. I would appreciate that if any viable sets are discovered that they be posted here, since all the good ones will be combined into an analysis at the end of the week. Also feel free to post sets of any Pokemon that work good alongside Tentacool.

And a certain somebody better post here.
 
Not to burst anyone's bubble, but I had kind of already reserved this...

Name: Offensive Spinner
Move 1: Hydro Pump
Move 2: Sludge Bomb
Move 3: Hidden Power Psychic
Move 4: Rapid Spin
Item: Oran Berry
Nature: Timid
EVs: 36 HP / 76 DEF / 196 SATK / 196 SPE

Tentacool is a far better spinner than Squirtle. He has higher special defense, better special attack, and higher speed. Hydro Pump puts a large dent in almost anything. Gastly, Duskull and Drifloon are all one or 2HKO'd, and those are the pokemon who will be switching in to block Rapid Spin. Sludge Bomb has excellent coverage alongside Hydro Pump, and it hits dragons for high damage. However, if you wish to OHKO Dratini and Bagon, Ice Beam can also be used. Hidden Power Psychic OHKOs Croagunk, whom Tentacool is an excellent switching to, resisting all of his common moves bar Shadow Ball and Dark Pulse. You can also revenge kill Carvanha, but the only move that you can switch into is Aqua Jet.
 
First set that comes to mind is the basic:

Tentacool@Oran Berry
Evs/nature quite variable, maxing speed with a nature gives 17 which is cool, but defenses and SpA are also important.
~ Hydro Pump
~ Sludge Bomb
~ Toxic Spikes / Rapid Spin
~ HP Electric / Giga Drain

Able to hit fairly hard with Hydro Pump, hit foes that don't need the extra damage with the more accurate Sludge Bomb and use one of the support moves which don't have huge distribution. Last moveslot gives you something to hit waters. HP Ground could work for Chincy+Croagunk.

I guess for a hail team Tenta could be fun, great defensive synergy with Snover (resists Fire, Fighting, Bug, Steel and Poison for Snover, Snover resists Electric and Ground for it) and being able to use Blizzard would certainly help Tenta. Hail teams would also love Toxic Spikes set up if using the classic hail stall strategy.
 
Ulysses said:
Name: Offensive Spinner
Move 1: Hydro Pump
Move 2: Sludge Bomb
Move 3: Hidden Power Psychic
Move 4: Rapid Spin
Item: Oran Berry
Nature: Timid
EVs: 36 HP / 76 DEF / 196 SATK / 196 SPE

Tentacool is a far better spinner than Squirtle. He has higher special defense, better special attack, and higher speed. Hydro Pump puts a large dent in almost anything. Gastly, Duskull and Drifloon are all one or 2HKO'd, and those are the pokemon who will be switching in to block Rapid Spin. Sludge Bomb has excellent coverage alongside Hydro Pump, and it hits dragons for high damage. However, if you wish to OHKO Dratini and Bagon, Ice Beam can also be used. Hidden Power Psychic OHKOs Croagunk, whom Tentacool is an excellent switching to, resisting all of his common moves bar Shadow Ball and Dark Pulse. You can also revenge kill Carvanha, but the only move that you can switch into is Aqua Jet.
Click to expand...

You can also use hp ground instead of hp psychic, like you said, gunk cant really do much anyways so a 2hko doesnt mind, and this also lets you whack chinchou harder
 
I think Eo uses a lead tenta on his stall team, something like surf/giga drain/tspikes/filler. I will test this later, don't have time right now.
 
Surf / Ice Beam / Toxic Spikes / Protect or Giga Drain is the exact set. Ice Beam is basically for Dratini because apparently nobody expects Ice Beam Tentacool for some reason, but Sludge Bomb would probably be superior otherwise. Protect helps with stuff like Fake Out Meowth, and everything else is rather self-explanatory (you could probably put Rapid Spin over Ice Beam for Chimchar). Sets up Toxic Spikes against a lot of leads; however, Kabuto is a real pain in the ass, especially if it gets a lucky flinch with Rock Slide.

EVs are 196 HP / 196 SpD / 116 Spe.
 
Tentacool looks like it would do well on a sandstorm team. Gligar and Tentacool resist each other's weaknesses. Also, SSStall Gligar is a bitch to take down normally, but with Toxic Spikes, it can rip apart teams.

EDIT: Stolen from that Uber Tentacruel thread (Forry is better)

A Basic Look into the Attacks

Physical Moves
Facade
Payback
Poison Jab
Return
Waterfall

Special Moves
Blizzard
Hydro Pump
Ice Beam
Muddy Water
Sludge Bomb
Surf
Water Pulse

Support Moves
Acupressure
Confuse Ray
Endure
Haze
Icy Wind
Knock Off
Mirror Coat
Protect
Rapid Spin
Rest
Safeguard
Sleep Talk
Substitute
Swagger
Swords Dance
Toxic
Toxic Spikes
 
I've been running this tenta in a lead for a kinda fast/bulky feel at the same time. idk, its probably not at its full potential, ev spread wise but yeah.

name: Bulky Spiker ???
move1: Toxic Spikes
move2: Surf
move3: Sludge Bomb
move4: Rapid Spin
item: Leftovers / Oran Berry
ability: Liquid Ooze
nature: Calm
evs: 196 HP / 76 Def / 36 SpA / 196 Spe

big base sdef help it a long way against neutral hits. 70 base speed is p fast, all things considered. cant take physical hits very well, 76 def lets it manage nuetral and resisted hits better. sludge bomb + surf for dual stab. t-spikes is the core of this set. rapid spin helps get rid of spikes/rocks/tpikes on your side of the feild. leftovers or oran berry is preference. liquid ooze makes sure that shroomish cant subseed on you as effectively.
 
I've been using SD tenta a lot lately and it seems very underwhelming. You might get an SD off and even then something faster can come in to take you down. Maybe I'm not giving it the right support and this is the set I've been using:

Tentacool @ Oran Berry
EVs:116 HP / 236 Atk / 196 Spe
Adamant / Jolly
-SD
-Waterfall
-Poison Jab
-Return
 
Im just theorymoning here, but would a mixed Tenta work? Something along the lines of:

Tentacool@Life Orb
Mixed EV's (not sure yet, ill try it later)
+SpA -Def Nature
Hydro Pump
Waterfall
Sludge Bomb
Hp Electric/Grass

Somethin like that could possibly work. Hydro Pump everything, Waterfall to 2hko munchlax or whatever
 
Max attack attack Adamant Life Orb Waterfall (not a good choice) does just over 50% after SR, so it'll activate Oran and 3HKO while Munchy EQs for the OHKO.

Druidcool>Mixed Tentacool. Water/Poison is only resisted by Wooper and Croagunk iirc, so the additional coverage isn't needed imo.
 
Will test in a couple of days. Right now I'm thinking about passing an aglity to it from gligar or venonat for sd tenta. It's bulky, so perhaps set up will work. i'm thinking sd/waterfall/poison jab/return like sledge.

EDIT: olol 299 posts
 
It might be better to focus more on teammates for Tentacool, since it probably doesn't have too many great sets, and most of them will feature Toxic Spikes anyways.

Tenta is easily one of the best Toxic Spikers, more than likely THE best Toxic Spiker. What really likes Toxic Spike support though? Obviously defensive teams do, but are there any offensive pokemon that shine with them (blah blah everything appreciates residual damage but thats not the point), and if so what are they? This is probably more productive to discuss than "should I be using Scarf Tentacool or LO?"...
 
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