Woah your right for the longest time I had thought it was physical
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Pokémon Salazzle
- Thread starter Albacore
- Start date
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I'm thinking something along the lines of
Salazzle (F) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 16 HP / 252 SpA / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Substitute
- Venoshock
- Fire Blast
I love the idea of crippling things with Disable and Taunt, so maybe a slash somewhere, but this thing screams Toxic + Venoshock synergy.
Salazzle (F) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 16 HP / 252 SpA / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Substitute
- Venoshock
- Fire Blast
I love the idea of crippling things with Disable and Taunt, so maybe a slash somewhere, but this thing screams Toxic + Venoshock synergy.
I think a bunch of us have all suggested the same set at least 3-4 times in this thread now...
Anyway, after some playtesting, Salazzle's speed tier actually allows it to Toxic stall pretty decently - presuming you predict correctly. I combined her with Tapu Bulu (surprisingly solid type synergy, minus the ability to hit bulky poison types like Toxapex with a direct attack) so she gets some passive recovery alongside Black Sludge. It may seem counter-intuitive, but Toxic ramps up and outscales the healing done, and the Grassy Terrain allows Salazzle a tad more wiggle room in getting up her substitutes. Being able to outspeed the Lati's, Starmie/Raikou, and Keldeo is pretty nasty - but again, the problem is sure, you outspeed, but you can't really kill any of them, and MAYBE you get off a Toxic while just flat out dying to a STAB/SE attack.
All in all, I still think Salazzle is too frail to really utilize Corrosion (because its honestly a pretty cool ability!). If, say, Toxapex had it, it would be so, so powerful. But I digress - Salazzle will most likely be UU/RU and be used as a niche pick in OU. Poisoning Aegislash was fun while it lasted, but I'm also honestly glad the sword n' board is gone.
Anyway, after some playtesting, Salazzle's speed tier actually allows it to Toxic stall pretty decently - presuming you predict correctly. I combined her with Tapu Bulu (surprisingly solid type synergy, minus the ability to hit bulky poison types like Toxapex with a direct attack) so she gets some passive recovery alongside Black Sludge. It may seem counter-intuitive, but Toxic ramps up and outscales the healing done, and the Grassy Terrain allows Salazzle a tad more wiggle room in getting up her substitutes. Being able to outspeed the Lati's, Starmie/Raikou, and Keldeo is pretty nasty - but again, the problem is sure, you outspeed, but you can't really kill any of them, and MAYBE you get off a Toxic while just flat out dying to a STAB/SE attack.
All in all, I still think Salazzle is too frail to really utilize Corrosion (because its honestly a pretty cool ability!). If, say, Toxapex had it, it would be so, so powerful. But I digress - Salazzle will most likely be UU/RU and be used as a niche pick in OU. Poisoning Aegislash was fun while it lasted, but I'm also honestly glad the sword n' board is gone.
Salazzle is frail but against mons who are meant to be walls she works pretty nicely. She can go up against the likes of Toxapex, Ferrothorn, etc and either scare them away and get a free sub/NP or poison them. She can then stall it out, poison the switch in, or proceed to deal some heavy damage. I like black sludge with her.
You can't afford to move second, so no.
Didn't notice how fragile she was. Thanks for the reply.
Edit: Could you also tell me your opinion on if it would be wise to give Salazzle a Focus Sash?
Focus sash is rather situational so its not some sort of general item to slap on as it requires support, that said I don't really see the merit in it since Salazzle since she'd much rather benefit from immediate fire power of LO or yes passive recovery -- both items have more general applications. Unless your aim is to get one NP off and go ham? But in which case you don't really need Focus Sash as you'd be better off running Encore + Nasty Plot to create that set up more consistently.
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So is Dragon Pulse not a viable move for the nasty plot set? I would have thought the strong hit vs all non-uber Dragons would be better than Hidden Power sometimes, as it deals with opponents such as Kommo-o, Hydreigon, Kyurem-B (once Pokebank is released) and other dragons not 4x weak to Ice.
+2 Sludge Wave/Bomb OHKOes most Dragons already and having Dragon coverage in the first place does not help Salazzle's coverage issues much against the omnipresent Heatran and Garchomp among other threats.
Dragon Pulse does help against Garchomp, actually. It needs a lot of HP investment to introduce a chance to avoid the OHKO after Nasty Plot, and a stupidly high amount to guarantee a 2HKO.
+2 252 SpA Salazzle Dragon Pulse vs. 92 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 380-448 (100 - 117.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252 SpA Salazzle Dragon Pulse vs. 252 HP / 60 SpD Garchomp: 354-418 (84.2 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
But Garchomp doesn't take its STAB attacks significantly well anyway. It's not the issue here. Heatran is straight immune to those STABs and takes Dragon Pulses well even with no special defense.
+2 252 SpA Salazzle Dragon Pulse vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Heatran: 79-93 (24.3 - 28.7%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery
Hidden Power Ground does relatively well in that regard... but one with an Air Balloon can't be hit, period, which is a bad trait for it to have.
I feel like, if you're really trying to smack garchomp, HP ice is just better all around, since it helps deal with gliscor and lando (no need to risk a miss) more safely, too.
+2 252 SpA Salazzle Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 60 SpD Garchomp: 264-312 (122.7 - 145.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252 SpA Salazzle Hidden Power Ice vs. 248 HP / 252 SpD Gliscor: 232-276 (128.1 - 152.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Also, does corrosion sludge bomb have a chance to poison other poison types?
Just a small change in the sub+toxic set you mention Albacore
Also most viable set is sub+toxic. It's defensive stats are bad and you can't really set up on anything. I do think in lower tiers it will shine like albacore said. I will probably go more deep on the spread when I feel like it. But 240 Spe lets you out speed 115 mons like starmie and mega Absol. Just wanted to just say that. I see people use NP but it's just too hard to set up in the OU meta game.
Salazzle (F) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 16 HP / 252 SpA / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Substitute
- Flamethrower/Fire Blast
- Sludge Wave
Also most viable set is sub+toxic. It's defensive stats are bad and you can't really set up on anything. I do think in lower tiers it will shine like albacore said. I will probably go more deep on the spread when I feel like it. But 240 Spe lets you out speed 115 mons like starmie and mega Absol. Just wanted to just say that. I see people use NP but it's just too hard to set up in the OU meta game.
Salazzle (F) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 16 HP / 252 SpA / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Substitute
- Flamethrower/Fire Blast
- Sludge Wave
I'm thinking this might be a good set for it:
Salazzle (F) @ Black Sludge/Life Orb
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Toxic
- Knock Off
- Sludge Wave
- Fire Blast
Come in on something you force out, Toxic/Knock Off the switch in and wear down the stuff that wants to come in on you that way.
Salazzle (F) @ Black Sludge/Life Orb
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Toxic
- Knock Off
- Sludge Wave
- Fire Blast
Come in on something you force out, Toxic/Knock Off the switch in and wear down the stuff that wants to come in on you that way.
Damn I'm so torn on this thing... While I love its design, movepool, and ability I feel that it loses out on so much potential by having such paper glassy defenses. Toxic is interesting on this thing. Being able to poison poison types is pretty rad, although if dealing with steel types it'll often be best to just flamethrower or FB anyway aside from Heatran. I'm not entirely sure how this thing is going to sweep with Nasty Plot considering that almost everything will 1 or 2HKO it but we'll see how well it does.
My wife used one in-game and was almost immediately of the opinion that it's definitely too frail for NP. From what I've read on the matter, I'm hard-pressed to disagree.
Utilizing the benefits of her Corrosive Toxic in some form or fashion seems like the best use of her, honestly. I definitely like the idea of SubToxic sets since that gives her an extra layer of protection with how bloody fragile she is.
The set that I'd run is max speed / special attack (no point in investing in bulk lol) with Flamethrower, Sub, Toxic, and Protect / Encore / Knock Off.
Although, hell, maybe Sludge Wave or another support move over Sub might be preferable over FT... It CAN stall steels out with Toxic, after all.
Why would those Pokemon switch in?
Salazzle is basically begging for Choice-Band Garchomp, Choice Band Terrakion, or Tyranitar to come in a wreak a hole into your team. Salazzle's ability is obviously "Walls must stay away", but its poor coverage against Rock and Ground Pokemon means that you're keeping an invitation for a wallbreaker to wreak your team.
You use a Bulky-Pivot to force Salazzle out. Not a wall. Walls are never a good idea against a Nasty Plotter, let alone one with Encore and unstoppable Toxic. Salazzle needs to figure out how to deal with Garchomp, Terrakion, and Tyranitar. Fortunately, rock-types are weak to Dugtrio earthquake while Garchomp dies to the +2 Dragon Pulse.
Speaking of Dugtrio: that's Salazzle's worst enemy. Slightly higher speed, a trapper, and easy OHKO with Earthquake. Gotta wait for Pokebank but the presence of Dugtrio would be a solid doorstop to any endgame sweep.
Jolly Choice Band Talonflame OHKOs, Salazzle's defenses are rather thin. Assault-Vest Azumarril's Aqua Jet has an OHKO chance. 117 seems a bit too slow: both Alakazam and Azelf OHKO with Psychic.
This thing ain't gonna be sweeping anybody's team. Its surprisingly hard to wall and/or pivot if you're threatening a CB Dugtrio on the opponent's rock type.
The only wall with any business switching in is Chansey (due to Natural Cure and T-Wave to utterly cripple this guy).
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why is mega venu being discussed as a switch in to Salazzle lol
+2 252 SpA Life Orb Salazzle Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Thick Fat Venusaur-Mega: 359-424 (98.6 - 116.4%)
Salazzle (F) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Fake Out
- Poison Gas
- Fire Blast
- Protect
Really surprised it's support movepool hasn't been addressed. It's got an amazing movepool for doubles packing Poison Gas, Encore, Disable, Will O Wisp, Fake Out, Taunt, Knock off and Venoshock. I can definitely see this being great for Hex oriented squads, perhaps pairing it with Mega Gengar w/ Hex. Poison Gas is very spammable as there is basically nothing to absorb it and it puts huge pressure upon your opponent.
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Fake Out
- Poison Gas
- Fire Blast
- Protect
Really surprised it's support movepool hasn't been addressed. It's got an amazing movepool for doubles packing Poison Gas, Encore, Disable, Will O Wisp, Fake Out, Taunt, Knock off and Venoshock. I can definitely see this being great for Hex oriented squads, perhaps pairing it with Mega Gengar w/ Hex. Poison Gas is very spammable as there is basically nothing to absorb it and it puts huge pressure upon your opponent.
I think Salazzle is gonna be one of the fastest Fake Out users in this meta but I don't know how reliable it will be, but why Poison Gas instead of Sludge Wave or Sludge Bomb? I also think that Corrosion may be a great ability but Salazzle's frail defenses and typing make Corrosion almost (if not completely) useless in this mon
Double/VGC are formats where almost everything runs protect. If your opponents entire team is poisoned (Poison Gas poisons both foes) they're on the clock and you'll only need to wait. Just sit tight and protect spam.
Probably should have specified you were talking about doubles :v
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