VGC Torkoal

[OVERVIEW]

* Torkoal has exclusive access to drought, making it the most consistent sun setter in the format. Its rock-bottom Speed and sun-boosted Eruption make it an absolutely terrifying Trick Room sweeper, capable of chunking or outright KOing a majority of the metagame.

* Heavy support in the form of Trick Room and/or Chlorophyll + After You Lilligant is mandatory. Torkoal also welcomes priority protection from the likes of Farigiraf and Indeedee, both of which set Trick Room as well. While Torkoal has high enough bulk to shrug off most priority moves, it hates having the power of Eruption lowered, and Fake Out wastes its Trick Room turns.

* Torkoal faces stiff competition from Armarouge due to Armarouge's superior support capabilities and better coverage options, in spite of its lower overall damage output. To make matters worse, Tera Grass, Pyschic, or Dark Armarouge and Ceruledge wall most Torkoal sets endlessly, using Flash Fire, Wide Guard, and Terastillization removing their weakness to Earth Power. However, Armarouge pairs well with Torkoal by giving it protection from Earthquake and enjoying sun itself.

* Most Dragon-types such as Garchomp and Assault Vest Hydreigon can take everything Torkoal can dish out and threaten it in return. Guts Hariyama can protect against Garchomp's Earthquake with Wide Guard and threatens an OHKO on Garchomp. Lilligant can put them to sleep and threatens Garchomp with Leaf Storm. Hatterene is a more offensive Trick Room setter that threatens the Dragon-types with Dazzling Gleam.

[SET]
name: Trick Room Offense
move 1: Eruption
move 2: Earth Power
move 3: Heat Wave
move 4: Protect
item: Charcoal
ability: Drought
nature: Quiet
tera type: Fire
evs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
ivs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

* This set makes full use of Torkoal's nuclear power. Eruption vaporizes nearly anything without a resistance or immunity to Fire after Terrastilization. Heat Wave gives it a mostly-reliable spread option after taking damage. Earth Power hits opposing Fire-types and gives Torkoal a single-target option to get around Wide Guard.

* Tera Fire is the go-to option to maximize Torkoal's damage. Tera Flying and Grass removes its weaknesses, which helps greatly against the ever-frequent Ground-type attacks, but are generally not worth it.

* Solar Beam is an option to hit Water-types meaningfully and to hit Rock- and Ground-types a little harder than Earth Power. Tera Blast is a niche option if Torkoal is running Tera Flying, turning the tables on Tera Grass Armarouge and Ceruledge attempting to wall it. Choice Specs would push Torkoal's offensive capabilities onto another planet, but it makes Torkoal even easier to exploit with Wide Guard, Flash Fire, and attacks in general; it can't viably run Protect.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Ghalundra, 19313]]
- Quality checked by: [[Yourwelcomethanku, 541847], [zee, 501951]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Adeleine, 517429]]
 
Last edited:
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[OVERVIEW]

* Torkoal has exclusive access to drought in series 1, making them the premier sun setter in the format. Its rock-bottom speed and sun-boosted eruption make them an absolutely terrifying trick room sweeper, capable of chunking or outright KOing the majority of Pokémon in the metagame. While an incredibly predictable Pokémon, Torkoal can lead to immediate checkmate situations if positioned well against certain teams. Remember that Pokemon nouns are capitalized, see this thread for more info. Similarly, we don't use the accented E in Pokemon for analyses.

* Heavy support is mandatory to make Torkoal work in the form of Trick Room and/or Chlorophyll After You Lilligant. Torkoal has high natural physical defense which allows it to shrug off most priority moves while still doing its job, but otherwise hates fake out users due to their ability to waste his trick room turns while lowering the power of eruption. As such, he appreciates priority protection from the likes of Farigiraf and Indeedee-F. Its reliance on support can make it difficult to position well, as it needs to maximize the amount of time it has in both sun and trick room.

* Torkoal faces stiff competition from Armarouge due to Armarouge's superior support capabilities and better coverge options in spite of their lower overall damage. To make matters worse, Tera-grass Armarouge walls the majority of torkoal sets endlessly due to flash fire, wide guard, and Torkoal's abysmal coverage options in the match up. I'd lump in Psychic and Dark Armarouge as well here which see a fair bit of play. On the flip side, Armarouge pairs well with Torkoal by giving him protection from earthquake while also enjoying sun-boosted fire stab themselves.

* Torkoal similarly matches up poorly against the majority of flash fire users such as Ceruledge and often relies on his teammates to remove such threats before he can pop off with eruption. To make this point a bit more fleshed out I think you can add Dragons - Garchomp and AV Hydreigon in particular sit on it and threaten it pretty hard. I think these are a bit better than the following examples of checks so we can remove those.

* Clodsire ties Torkoal for the slowest fully evolved pokemon in the metagame and threatens either heavy damage from earthquake or a coin flip into After You with a more powerful sweeper.

* Gholdengo wants nothing to do with Torkoal, but can still chunk him for considerable damage with shadowball.

* Strong, bulky waters such as Palafin and Dondozo are potent checks. Both shrug off Torkoal's attacks and threaten clean OHKOs in a variety of situations, sun or not. Powerful rock and ground type Pokémon similarly do well, but need to watch out for a potential solar beam.

* Priority tailwind users such as Murkrow and Talonflame can make Torkoal think twice about leading a game while also threatening to prevent his support from being set up in the first place (either through status or KO).
I think this point works better in a Lilligant analysis since I think that's what you're getting at here?

[SET]
name: Trick Room Offense
move 1: Eruption
move 2: Earth Power
move 3: Heat Wave
move 4: Protect
item: Charcoal
ability: Drought
nature: Quiet
tera type: Fire
evs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
ivs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

* This set makes full use of Torkoal's nuclear power. Eruption vaporizes nearly anything without a resistance or immunity to fire after terastilization. Heat Wave gives it a mostly reliable spread option after taking chip damage while also allowing for a chance to burn something. The obligatory protect helps keep Torkoal fresh as it is a prime target for removal and likes to keep topped off for Eruption. Typically we don't mention Protect in analyses. This is also where you could mention Earth Power as hitting fire types etc.

* Tera Fire is the go-to option to maximize Torkoal's damage. Tera Flying has use against the ever frequent ground attacks while removing his weaknesses but is generally not worth it. Wouldn't grass be better for this?

* Solar Beam is an option to hit water types and to chunk rock and ground types a little harder. Lava Plume would give Torkoal a single target STAB attack to get around wide guard while threatening a burn. Yawn is a surprise option if you need to put something to sleep (such as a flash fire user), but is better suited for tank sets. Tera Blast is an option if Torkoal is running tera flying to turn the tables on flash fire tera-grass Pokémon attempting to wall it. Choice Specs would push Torkoal's offensive capabilities onto another planet, but makes them even easier to exploit. I'm not huge on Yawn or Lava Plume so I'd probably remove those mentions.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Ghalundra, 19313]]
- Quality checked by: [[username, user ID]]
- Grammar checked by: [[username, user ID]]


good work Ghalundra! tag me on discord [lavender#1999] when this is implemented and I'll take another look
 
tag me once implemented, this is pretty good.
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[OVERVIEW]

* Torkoal has exclusive access to drought in series 1, making them the premier sun setter in the format.(Well, it's the only so of course it's the premier) Its rock-bottom speed and sun-boosted Eruption make them an absolutely terrifying Trick Room sweeper, capable of chunking or outright KOing the majority of Pokemon in the metagame. While an incredibly predictable Pokemon, Torkoal can lead to immediate checkmate situations if positioned well against certain teams.(This honestly doesn't seem important to say, plenty of things are predictable and "against certain teams" isn't exactly descriptive)

* Heavy support is mandatory to make Torkoal work well in the form of Trick Room and/or Chlorophyll After You Lilligant. Torkoal has high natural physical defense which allows it to shrug off most priority moves while still doing its job, but otherwise hates Fake Out users due to their ability to waste its Trick Room turns while lowering the power of Eruption.(A 92% HP Eruption is still pretty strong) As such, he appreciates priority protection from the likes of Farigiraf and Indeedee which can also set Trick Room. Its reliance on support can make it difficult to position well, as it needs to maximize the amount of time it has in both sun and Trick Room. (I do question if this is worth having. Is it really much more difficult to position than say other Trick Room Pokemon?)

* Torkoal faces stiff competition from Armarouge due to Armarouge's superior support capabilities and better coverage options in spite of their lower overall damage. To make matters worse, Tera Grass/Psychic/Dark Armarouge wall the majority of Torkoal sets endlessly due to Flash Fire, Wide Guard, and Torkoal's abysmal coverage options in the match up. On the flip side, Armarouge pairs well with Torkoal by giving it protection from Earthquake while also enjoying sun-boosted fire stab themselves.

* Torkoal similarly matches up poorly against the majority of Flash Fire users such as Ceruledge and often relies on its teammates to remove such threats before he can pop off with eruption.(I think we can combine and compress the highlighted areas somewhat. Where you talk about Flash Fire Armarouge being a problem you can also talk about Ceruledge, they can Terastalize to remove their Earth Power weakness and have Flash FIre. Mention counterplay to Ceruledge and Armarouge as they're important. ) Most Dragon-types such as Garchomp and Assault Vest Hydreigon can similarly take everything Torkoal can dish out and threaten it in return.

[SET]
name: Trick Room Offense
move 1: Eruption
move 2: Earth Power
move 3: Heat Wave
move 4: Protect
item: Charcoal
ability: Drought
nature: Quiet
tera type: Fire
evs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
ivs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

* This set makes full use of Torkoal's nuclear power. Eruption vaporizes nearly anything without a resistance or immunity to Fire after Terastilization. Heat Wave gives it a mostly reliable spread option after taking chip damage while also allowing for a chance to burn something.(Burn is dex info + not that important) Earth Power hits opposing Fire-types and gives Torkoal a single target option.(Elaborate on why a single-target option is valuable, mainly cause of Wide Guard I would assume)

* Tera Fire is the go-to option to maximize Torkoal's damage. Tera Flying/Grass have uses against the ever frequent ground attacks while removing its weaknesses but are generally not worth it.

* Solar Beam is an option to hit Water-types and to chunk Rock and Ground types a little harder. Tera Blast is a niche option if Torkoal is running Tera Flying to turn the tables on Flash Fire Tera Grass Pokemon attempting to wall it.(So, basically Armarouge and Ceruledge, might as well just say them) Choice Specs would push Torkoal's offensive capabilities onto another planet, but makes them it even easier to exploit. (Would be better to say how it's easier exploited than that it is)

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Ghalundra, 19313]]
- Quality checked by: [[username, user ID]]
- Grammar checked by: [[username, user ID]]
 
qc 1/1 great work

Most Dragon-types such as Garchomp and Assault Vest Hydreigon can take everything Torkoal can dish out and threaten it in return.
I think quickly mentioning some answers to these would be good

As such, he appreciates priority protection from the likes of Farigiraf and Indeedee.
which can also set Trick Room, I had this in my QC is there a reason you didn't implement it?

Tera Blast is a niche option if Torkoal is running Tera Flying to turn the tables on Armarouge and Ceruledge attempting to wall it.
Specify Tera Grass so that it's more clear


* Tera Fire is the go-to option to maximize Torkoal's damage. Tera Flying/Grass have uses against the ever frequent ground attacks while removing its weaknesses but are generally not worth it.
Capitalize Ground

Choice Specs would push Torkoal's offensive capabilities onto another planet, but makes it even easier to exploit with Wide Guard or Flash Fire.
and a lack of Protect
 

Adeleine

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(AC): Add Comma
[OVERVIEW]

* Torkoal has exclusive access to drought in series 1, Drought, making it the most consistent sun setter in the format. Its rock-bottom speed Speed and sun-boosted Eruption make it an absolutely terrifying Trick Room sweeper, capable of chunking or outright KOing the majority of Pokemon in a majority of the metagame.

* Heavy support is mandatory to make Torkoal work in the form of Trick Room and/or Chlorophyll + After You Lilligant is mandatory. Torkoal also welcomes priority protection from the likes of Farigiraf and Indeedee, both of which set Trick Room as well. While Torkoal has high enough bulk to shrug off most priority moves, it hates having the power of Eruption lowered, (AC) and Fake Out wastes its Trick Room turns. As such, it appreciates priority protection and Trick Room support from the likes of Farigiraf and Indeedee.

* Torkoal faces stiff competition from Armarouge due to Armarouge's superior support capabilities and better coverage options, (AC) in spite of their its lower overall damage output. To make matters worse, Tera Grass/Psychic/Dark Grass, Psychic, or Dark Armarouge and Ceruledge wall the majority of Torkoal sets endlessly due to most Torkoal sets endlessly, using Flash Fire, Wide Guard, and their ability to remove Terastallization removing their weakness to Earth Power. On the flip side, However, Armarouge pairs well with Torkoal by giving it protection from Earthquake while also enjoying sun-boosted fire stab and enjoying sun itself.

* Most Dragon-types such as Garchomp and Assault Vest Hydreigon can take everything Torkoal can dish out and threaten it in return. Guts Hariyama can help protect against Garchomp's Earthquake with Wide Guard and threatens a an OHKO on Garchomp. Lilligant can put them to sleep and threatens Garchomp with Leaf Storm. Hatterene is a more offensive Trick Room setter that threatens the Dragon-types with Dazzling Gleam.

[SET]
name: Trick Room Offense
move 1: Eruption
move 2: Earth Power
move 3: Heat Wave
move 4: Protect
item: Charcoal
ability: Drought
nature: Quiet
tera type: Fire
evs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
ivs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

* This set makes full use of Torkoal's nuclear power. Eruption vaporizes nearly anything without a resistance or immunity to Fire after Terastilization. Terastallization. Heat Wave gives it a mostly-reliable (added hyphen) spread option after taking damage. Earth Power hits opposing Fire-types and gives Torkoal a single-target (added hyphen) option to get around Wide Guard.

* Tera Fire is the go-to option to maximize Torkoal's damage. Tera Flying/Grass have uses have uses against the ever frequent Ground attacks while removing its weaknesses Flying and Grass remove its weaknesses, which helps greatly against the metagame's ever-frequent Ground-type attacks, (you can change wording if you'd like) but are generally not worth it.

* Solar Beam is an option to hit Water-types meaningfully (I imagine? change if needed) and to chunk Rock and Ground types hit Rock- and Ground-types a little harder than Earth Power. Tera Blast is a niche option if Torkoal is running Tera Flying to turn Flying, turning the tables on Tera Grass Armarouge and Ceruledge attempting to wall it. Choice Specs would push Torkoal's offensive capabilities onto another planet, but makes it it makes Torkoal even easier to exploit with Wide Guard, Flash Fire, and its lack of protect. attacks in general—it can't viably run Protect.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Ghalundra, 19313]]
- Quality checked by: [[Yourwelcomethanku, 541847], [zee, 501951]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Adeleine, 517429]]
Adeleine-1.gif
GP Team done
 
Changes have been implemented. If you would be so kind as to check the double check the final line (the spoiler box mangled part of your correction), I'd appreciate it.
 

Adeleine

after committing a dangerous crime
is a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Smogon Media Contributoris a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
you should keep that part as i wrote it, weird text and all; when the analysis is uploaded, that will transform into –
 

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