CURSE HOODRA
Goodra-Hisui @ Leftovers
Ability: Sap Sipper
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Atk / 148 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Curse
- Heavy Slam
- Dragon Tail
- Rest
In the switch-in it comes, in the turns between it sets up.
Outspeed it. Fight it. Burn it, Poison it, bring in another to shield
It matters not.
For once it hits the field
You are forced to struggle against what you have wrought.
Curse Hoodra is a pretty threatening wincon and is honestly so far removed from regular Hoodra that it essentially can be considered a completely different pokemon, requiring different support, team structures, and goals in mind when being used.
Lets get the first thing out of the way: The set.
Sap Sipper is chosen as the ability of choice as it allows you to essentially have completely free switch-ins to Amoonguss, be able to restrict Ribombee's pressure by being immune to Stun Spore, and be able to avoid the chip damage of Leech Seed being set by Wo-Chien, which can be a very slow and annoying matchup for unprepared Curse Hoodra teams. Shell Armor is also a very useful ability as it allows you to avoid crits, which can be very damning in last mon situations where you are under pressure by super effective attacks and want to avoid having your curse progress ignored entirely. Gooey is essentially useless and you are throwing if you chose it on this set.
The Tera Type may be the most malleable part of this set, as there's really no single good answer. Fairy is on here just as a good fighting resist than can occasionally do well into ditto MU's, but basically anything that can resist fighting first and ground second is prefered. Flying could be a good Tera, as it checks both, but a lack of resistances and a sudden weakness to Rock and Electric may not be preferable, especially if you get forced out. Poison is doable, but does suffer from a Psychic and Ground weakness.
The EVs chosen here are pretty specific, but essentially 252 HP is there just for max bulk, and the Sassy Nature and 148 spD evs are designed to allow you to survive 2 consecutive Specs Hoodra Draco Meteors after 1 layer of spikes, with 2 layers of spikes making it a 31.3% chance to 2HKO.
(252+ SpA Choice Specs Goodra-Hisui Draco Meteor over 2 turns vs. 252 HP / 148+ SpD Goodra-Hisui: 268-317 (73.6 - 87%) -- 31.3% chance to 2HKO after 2 layers of Spikes and Leftovers recovery)
(252+ SpA Choice Specs Goodra-Hisui Draco Meteor over 2 turns vs. 252 HP / 148+ SpD Goodra-Hisui: 268-317 (73.6 - 87%) -- not a KO)
This allows you to set up 1 curse and rest up, or dragon tail out the hoodra if things may be dicey if you set up, but overall it allows you to get some pretty nice setup opportunities.
The rest went into ATK for this roll in particular
+1 108 Atk Goodra-Hisui Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 104 HP / 0 Def Cyclizar: 306-361 (99.6 - 117.5%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
It's the same damage for Dragon Tail, but Heavy Slam doesn't have a chance to miss
Finally, the moveset is pretty self explanatory.
Curse is the main bread and butter, and exactly why you picked the set in the first place, allowing you to get some disgusting levels of bulk and become pretty unkillable in endgame scenarios once you set up enough
Dragon Tail and Heavy Slam are your two main stabs that both complement each other, Dragon Tail being for hitting neutral targets and racking up hazard damage and Heavy Slam hitting whatever Dragon Tail can't.
And finally, rest was chosen as it lets you pretty much solidify your endgame and heal off status, since if they can't 3HKO you, they're pretty much screwed, and it allows you to explore more tera types than the ones that you want to choose for their status immunities, such as Poison, Fire, and Steel. Extremely useful move, even if it is exploitable at times.
And now onto all of the 14 teams I built over the course of this research period, where for YOUR viewing pleasure you can see me start to lose my teambuilding marbles in REAL TIME!!
Hoodra Research Team 1
The very first team I made, even before fluff's post about what could possibly be good hoodra partners. Here you can see the start of the famed TalonGoo core, along with defensive mew. Pawmot is here and i'll be honest idk why. maybe i was inspired by games of long past and feliburn but like he's here. I think I wanted a volt-turn core with fez that could also hit steels?
Hoodra Research Team 2
The same team as before without defensive slowbro and with CB terrakion, who honestly games pretty hard is like a pretty good contender for "pretty valuable pokemon to consider on your team".
Hoodra Research Team 3
Fezandipiti is dead. Slither Wing is in. This I think was a direct change made after the privated game in which fezandipiti blanked into tera poison wo-chein like 20 different times and never once got a toxic proc. And yes, this is where things start slipping, but not in crazy ways yet.
Hoodra Research Team 4
This is where things start to fall apart. I try a new offensive spiker, and switch out the tried and true talonflame for a new defogger to see what exactly changes and what exactly works.
These first 4 teams I would recommend the most. Mew is honestly pretty goated, and is really good at doing what it does, Fez can force switches into the fighting breakers, and slowbro is just good at what it does. If you want a good template to start off of, these 4 are what you should follow. What follows I cannot endorse fully at times, except for Team 9.
Hoodra Research Team 5
I start to lose track of what it means to play towards a win condition. An amalgamation of a balance team with an awkward hoodra-sized lump on the side.
Hoodra Research Team 6
Muk-A was there as the "special wall". I guess. Entei I like can see but idk if this team was quite it.
Hoodra Research Team 7
I think i used this team like once. The start of the Kilowattrel Arc (which i think is like pretty good??).
Hoodra Research Team 8
iirc, this started as a normal "lets build with mowtom" and became "how can mowtom assist hoodra" before I went into my bread and butters of "things that worked well with curse hoodra" and "things that worked well with spec hoodra".
Hoodra Research Team 9
The start of the double bird's arc. Honestly, I'm proud of this team. Mienshao is the goat with being able to come in multiple times and just click buttons, Chesnaught is a good spikes setter with some offensive prowess, Talonflame has obvious synergy with Hoodra, Glowbro is the slowbro but able to click toxic, and Kilowattrel is good at click volt switch and being semi-speed control.
Hoodra Research Team 10
A more experimental take on the classics.
I will say that a few teams i just deleted out of spite, so the absolute worst of the worst I cooked up either died in teambuilding or failed me horribly.
Hoodra Research Team 11
I got annoyed at losing to bisharp so i made this team out of hate. it did not go well. use this if you want to win against a HO gamer. Preferably in bracket.
Hoodra Research Team 12
A more experimental team in that I was really more trying to see what exactly made the teams *pop*, and see what made the teams "good."
Results: inconclusive.
Hoodra Research Team 13
I think it's fitting that on big number 13 is when I lose my teambuilding skills completely. No synergy, No wincon, No thought. Just trapping steels and beating down volcanions with sheer damage.
Hoodra Research Team 14
A nice, sensible team to end it off. AV Reun to stuff special attackers, and the rest of the team due to being tried and true.
OVERALL CONCLUSIONS:
So Curse Hoodra is like really sick when you manage to pull off a good wincon, but there are like a couple of really big issues that stand in your way most of the time. Number 1 is that your team needs to be able to handle the big special attackers. That's Specs Hoodra, Volcanion, Gengar, Mence (usually), Armarogue (usually), and Azelf. Mence and Arma you usually are able to game all over with your Hoodra, but EQ hits hard from mence, and the armarogue can get pretty threatening if allowed to set up w/ calm mind. Volcanion is definitely the massive thing to worry about, as your team structures often are pretty slow and get chewed up by volcanion and your resists that you bring in either are Hoodra who gets earth powered / body pressed, Salamence if you want it who takes 40% + burn, Fez, who gets destroyed, and honestly idk who else you'd be able to fit who could defeat the menace. Try to beat it with offense I guess and hope it doesn't tera because if it does you're screwed? Gengar isn't like super dangerous, but trick is a killer against hoodra, and the nasty plot set can come in on rest turns to set up and do major damage before trading and potentially locking you out of one of your stabs w/ cursed body. Azelf is usually not an issue, but it's coverage and ability to pivot out to other team members w/ u-turn along with a good speed tier makes it pretty threatening and slippery to nail down.
Additionally! You absolutely want to be able to handle all forms of setup, which can come in the form of moxie boosters
, or setup calm mind gamers that can steal games if you play wrong. Stuff like Haze is great as you're able to avoid putting Hoodra in danger, and general anti-HO team structures and mons like Hippowdon and the likes are generally great. Try not to be too reliant on status to shut down sweepers though, lum berry can be a bitch.
General Teambuilding Tips:
Use talonflame honestly, like it's just really good and has solid synergy with hoodra, able to burn to allow for easier setups, and allow teams to get one more good turn in vs stuff like bisharp.
Try to have a fighting type breaker, stuff like terrakion, mienshao, the likes. You want to be able to pressure your opponent, and the things that hoodra hates the most often get threatened the most by fighting type breakers. Terrakion is solid if you want a good breaker with a solid speed tier, and Mienshao is good as it's able to come in multiple times a match and potentially form a volt turn core.
In general, you want to acheive a couple of things:
#1: Take out the steels. They're the main roadblock a lot of the times vs. Hoodra, and resist both stabs while often having good options vs. Hoodra, so make sure you can threaten, pressure, or weaken them before the endgame.
#2: Have a good physical wall! Slowbro works wonders, and has great synergy with the Gooflame core. Just be sure you have something vs. special breakers. You really don't want to rely on Hoodra for tanking physical hits is the thing, especially since most physical attackers in the tier have access to one of hoodra's 2 main weaknesses, and you don't want to tera early.
#3: HAVE SOMETHING VS SPECIAL ATTACKERS!! Like I've been saying, volcanion especially with tera is absolutely tyranical to fight against, since you're usually building slower teams, so make sure you can have something that can either switch in, or have a teamstructure that can bring in something to force out Volcanion.
#4: Have hazards. Strong hazard control is crucial. This is like basically how you make Hoodra like 2x more threatening in most games. If they're taking even just 12% more damage every dragon tail, like you're gaming at that point. Spikes is the biggest thing I'd recommend, so insert stuff like Mew, chesnaught (additional physical wall!), Diancie, Deoxys-Defense, etc. Stealth Rocks is also usable, but spikes usually gets you more bang for your buck. Toxic Spikes is unexplored territory, but in theory it's good? Hoodra once it gets the ball rolling doesn't really prolong the game so at the very least it threatens stuff trying to stay in vs. it for extended periods of time. Having some kind of gameplan to be able to consistantly set hazards also just good as Talonflame ofc defogs constantly vs. other teams using hazards, so be wary!
#5: Try to have something to pressure the waters and grounds. Krook ofc is scary, Slowbro can be irritating to deal with, and vaporeon can haze away your curse progress. Something like a grass type move works well, and Kilowattrel can be really good at threatening the bulky waters and lots of other stuff too.
#6: Just... have something vs. HO teams. Bisharp is the killer of Curse Hoodra teams, and sweepers of all variety are killers if you misplay. Yanmega kinda isn't like the biggest issue lots of time, since w/tera Hoodra just wins, and also kinda forces it out, but again man. Bisharp w/ tera is the absolute bane of your existence, be able to scout tera, and don't just auto pilot to talon cause tera fire beats you bigtime.
If you can handle those 6 things, then you're good! Curse Hoodra i imagine will continue to be pretty niche, but I think it's one of the more solid setup wincons in the tier. It's got generally good matchups, and can be pretty hard to deal with if the opponent doesn't have good enough pressure or mons to beat it. It's not something that really can easily fit onto teams though, so it's kinda something that you will have to initally start with, and you will have to contend with knowledgeable opponent's knowing your wincon, but if you can maneuver into a good position you'll have lots of fun with Curse Hoodra! Thanks for reading, and below I have link a plethora of replays for you to review, where you can see what works, how NOT to play the game, and what gamestates you should watch out for.
REPLAY ZONE
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2227778872 VS. gooberclimbton3
The earliest (?) replay I saved, which demonstrates just how funny Curse Hoodra can be once it's obstacles have been eliminated, while also showing off it's defensive profile even when it isn't being brought in to clean games. He pretty much just lost once Slither and Chesnaught got killed, and at that point a Hoodra win was secured.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2228052470 VS. PrinceLukeVelaryon
PrinceLukeVelaryon withdrew Goodra!
PrinceLukeVelaryon sent out
Bisharp!
The opposing Bisharp was hurt by the spikes!
Goodra used
Curse!
Goodra's Speed fell!
Goodra's Attack rose!
Goodra's Defense rose!
Goodra restored a little HP using its Leftovers!
Turn 13
The opposing Bisharp used
Brick Break!
It's super effective!
(Goodra lost 33% of its health!)
That's pretty all I wanted to show off, also it's good to get lucky, so para may be a useful status to use on your Curse Hoodra teams. Also yes, this was Adamant 252 Atk Bisharp, bro wasn't throwing lmao. You can see in this replay just what Hoodra can do when it gets it's way in, essentially winning me the game on turn 11 with him being unable to find any footing and set up or anything.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2228056568 VS. Miyami~~~
A loss for Curse Hoodra!? Unimaginable, but true. Bisharp, and particularly ANY setup mons can often destroy curse hoodra and the teams that the snail is attached to, so don't throw like i did.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2228066289 VS. pinsir crowned
I could of won earlier but got chipped down heavily by the armarogue and into chansey range.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2228068108?p2 VS. pinsir crowned
The guy immediately rematched and got gamed on by Hoodra surviving a crit +1 Ribombee moonblast and still having enough HP to survive the rocky helm on the avalugg.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2228083139 VS. goshdarnittt
Again, be careful with setup sweepers. Hoodra luckily was simply that snail but you can see how close it gets to being dicey multiple times, and you can also see the use in rest allowing you to come in multiple times and heal off damage.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2228431771?p2 VS. scizor34
The first replay in which you can see the first major gamer that you REALLY need to build around. Volcanion is the bane of Hoodra teams. like, to a crazy extent. Also the mention of grass knot was me running grass knot on mienshao to tech for quagsire since i was worried that i would just lose to a decently good quagsire that would just click EQ forever. Additionally, having a good physical wall for gapdos and the like.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2228439264?p2 VS. PathyLala15
A VERY long game vs. a defensive rain team that shows Hoodra come in and game all over anything that isn't baraskewda which died once, came back and STILL got stuffed out by slowbro. I was playing pretty defensively until I saw the Forretress's full set and like. yeah. I can setup for years on that. Won once the guy got tied of being constantly stuffed out by the defensive core of Hoodra + Slowbro.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2228851539?p2 VS. juyr72
+2 Gengar Shadow Ball does 42 to neutral Hoodra.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2228854142?p2 VS. Bloody Leaves
A very embarrassing game in which Curse Hoodra's weakness to setup sweepers get compounded by me throwing and letting gyarados sweep like it did.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2229168756?p2 VS. shrekitonz
Hoodra reaches it's ideal position in which the fighting types and steel types are dead and becomes unkillable. also he just kinda threw but like ignore that
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2229187550 VS. technivorm
Gyarados once again sweeps. Beware the moxie!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2229195165?p2 VS. deniz_abi
Hoodra becomes unkillable and defeats the sample infernape balance (doesnt the infernape have aura sphere??)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2229200165 VS. moominmoo
An awkward matchup into a weird semistall team that once again had it's player not realizing they could've just clicked EQ. Although to be fair, they were kinda getting trapped in the phazing vortex and were trying to avoid going the route of sac'ing a mon to get in an EQ.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2229216359?p2 VS. PUDouche
Hoodra admittedly just is like kinda there and phazes out the vileplume, but does also work as a solid sac to get in terrakion, allowing slowbro to win from there.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2232168803?p2 VS. RedGizmo
Not putting this in here to show anything off but it's at this point that I started to go off the deep end with my teams.
There actually were some pretty good games vs. gamers such as Umbra Soul(Win!), Atrueasay(loss), glueeaterisn'tbad(hilarious win) actually i kinda wanna see if
it's possible for other people to see this but i dont think so
anyways, gamers such as Pourrigon (epic win!), Cubadogs(epic win!), jayden.lottes(gimmicky misty terrain team that gave up once hitmonlee died on a switch-in and tried to private to prevent word from going out BUT I KNOW, AND I ALWAYS WILL; JAYDEN YOU FORFEITED ON TURN 14 YOU CAN'T ESCAPE YOUR MISTAKES), one step from eden (another epic win!), Mrs.Mimes69 (the mono grass team understandably got completely decimated by the combo of hoodra + pawmot, but this is where i put on sap sipper to avoid being completely shut down by wo-chein; like it was a 56 turn game just cause i couldn't break wo-chein).
All of these games mentioned were privated, and thus cannot be shown (i think). Of all of these, Hoodra was a key component in winning, often either being insurance as a "you really cannot possibly win this" or being the final thing standing on the field when the game ended. The match vs. one step from eden did end in slowbro beating glastrier, but hoodra was instrumental in shutting down glastrier and ninetales-alola, and heavily damaging the gligar. The Umbra Soul match was mostly the rest of the team but hoodra kinda just walled out the ribombee and horoark (there was also a gapdos but that threw by thinking i would switch to gengar and got slammed, heavily.)
anyways, moving on to the rest of the replays you can actually view...
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2232239370 VS. sandstormfrmbrawl
basic HO structure that got shut down by the rest of the team. Hoodra does nothing, but I included this here to showcase that you really want to have a team that can function decently well without the snail.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2232584078 VS. Pineapple_Style
idk what this guy was doing but hoodra tanks an eruption ig
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2234699442 VS. Phantasmus
I got up 3 layers of spikes and kinda autopiloted from there, and Hoodra just kinda won on it's own.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2234703342?p2 VS. tertywater
a cautionary tale.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2234774495?p2 VS. BordaLorde
Hoodra gets a kill!! and the rest of the team kinda carries
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2236368751?p2 VS. TxunT
A game that shows that if you're not confident in your teamstyle that you just need to get luckier than your opponent and you can get away with literally anything
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2236372992?p2 VS. hermetist
Bisharp clicks tera and sd and wins
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2236384872 VS. weezyoutahere
another cautionary tale that you really should be more careful with what tera you pick and not greed for curses
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2236404282 VS. andjelicpwnsu
at this point i just start throwing with the teambuilding and I honestly thought that the krook wasn't choice scarf tbh
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2236410346?p2 VS. YALESAMA
I just feel bad.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2236796242?p2 VS. Kelminao
Remember when my teams didn't have max spD AV reun? well who cares and notice that i got crit.. i could have gotten like 26% off on him... :(
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2230980522-ltg2edyyidses14qn3amfutugboj0cypw VS. HAAH FLARBS
i hope you can see this, but essentially I beat flarbs using Research Team 9
testing-ant1234's team:Goodra-Hisui / Kilowattrel / Mienshao / Slowbro-Galar / Chesnaught / Talonflame
HAAAH FLARBS's team:Hippowdon / Quagsire / Cyclizar / Deoxys-Defense / Weezing-Galar / Chansey
Turn 106
HAAAH FLARBS has 30 seconds left this turn.
HAAAH FLARBS forfeited.
testing-ant1234 won the battle!
testing-ant1234's rating: 1293 →
1330
(+37 for winning)
HAAAH FLARBS's rating: 1481 →
1451
(-30 for losing)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ru-2229978131?p2 VS. Fluff!
Incredibly close game vs. the fluffster in which regular bulky hoodra beats curse hoodra. GGs!
anyways thanks y'all for reading this (or not) and thanks to fluff for giving me a day of leeway
Gengar
Hydreigon unbanned
Hawlucha unbanned
