
Throh

[Overview]
<p>Throh has excellent bulk but low Speed, and his good Attack, along with his ability Guts, makes him an ideal Trick Room attacker. Unfortunately, Throh is often passed over in favor of Conkeldurr as a Fighting-type Trick Room abuser due to Conkeldurr's much higher Attack and access to Mach Punch. However, Throh's greater bulk makes him a very viable option, and gives him a definite niche alongside Conkeldurr.</p>
[SET]
name: Physical Attacker
move 1: Storm Throw
move 2: Rock Slide
move 3: Facade / Earthquake
move 4: Protect / Wide Guard
item: Flame Orb
nature: Brave
ability: Guts
evs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
ivs: 0 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Guts, when paired with a Flame Orb, boosts Throh's Attack without need for setup. Storm Throw, while only possessing a low 40 Base Power, always attains a critical hit, making him effectively an 80 Base Power move. Rock Slide does excellent damage to the genies and Chandelure, which take little damage from Throh's other moves, and offers excellent coverage in conjunction with Storm Throw. Facade gives Throh a powerful attack which outdamages a neutral Storm Throw, hits Psychic-types for excellent damage, and 2HKOes most Amoonguss. Protect allows Throh to bypass his checks for a turn and give his partner a chance to eliminate Pokemon such as Reuniclus which give him trouble. The EVs, IVs, and nature allows Throh to hit as hard as possible, retain suitable bulk, and reach the lowest possible Speed all at the same time.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Earthquake gives Throh another spread attack, allowing him to hit Psychic-types for good damage, but provides redundant coverage with Storm Throw, making it inferior to Facade in most situations. Psychic-type Trick Room users such as Reuniclus or Musharna pair well with Throh, setting up Trick Room for him and taking advantage of Throh's ability to severely damage most Dark-types. Dark-types such as Krookodile and Hydreigon along with Ghost-types such as Chandelure also happen to pair well with Throh, hitting opposing Psychic-types hard with their STAB attacks. Gigalith can take out most Flying-types with its STAB Rock Slide, and also works well in Trick Room, making him another excellent partner for Throh.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>Throh can use an Endure + Reversal set, allowing him to hit incredibly hard, but such a set is very weak to priority, and due to the ubiquity of Psychic-types, it's generally a bad idea. Circle Throw allows Throh to stop opposing Trick Room setup, and also remove troublesome Pokemon such as Whimsicott from the field, but its low Base Power and negative priority generally make it a bad choice. Low Sweep allows Throh to cut an opponent's Speed, reducing Throh's reliance on Trick Room to function, but its low Base Power proves underwhelming at best. Payback may seem like a good idea with Throh's low Speed, but most Psychic-types are either slower than Throh or can OHKO him outright, so Facade is usually a far better choice. Inner Focus, Throh's other ability, allows him to avoid flinching, but is inferior to Guts and has very situational usage.</p>
[Checks and Counters]
<p>Almost any Psychic-type can take all of Throh's attacks and deal severe damage or OHKO with Psychic. Tornadus and Archeops can outspeed Throh and OHKO him with Acrobatics, but if Trick Room is up, Throh can outspeed them and do huge damage with Rock Slide. Jellicent and Cofagrigus take very little damage from most of Throh's attacks, and can take him down with repeated Shadow Balls or, in Jellicent's case, Water Spouts.</p>