Torkoal [QC 1/2]

[PA]

name: Support
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Rapid Spin
move 3: Lava Plume
move 4: Stone Edge / Toxic / Body Press
item: Heat Rock
ability: Drought
nature: Relaxed / Bold
evs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA

Torkoal is a fundamental part for sun teams thanks to its incredible role compression as an entry hazard remover, hazard setter, and weather setter due to its access to Rapid Spin, Stealth Rock, and Drought. Torkoal’s impressive physical bulk allows it to switch in on wallbreakers like Rillaboom, Dragon Dance Dragapult, and physical variants of Zeraora. Stone Edge with a Relaxed nature can be helpful against Volcarona, which threaten Sun teams. Toxic helps cripple common weather setters like Hippowdon and other Pokemon like Mandibuzz, Rotom-H, and Slowbro. Body Press acts as a good failsafe for Pokemon like Tyranitar which would otherwise wall it and come in for free.

Sun sweepers are mandatory for Torkoal to work effectively: Venusaur and Charizard benefit from the boost in power, Venusaur provides sun teams with a Water-resistance handling Toxapex and other Pokemon like special variants of Zeraora, while Torkoal can remove Stealth Rock with Rapid Spin and Toxic crippling their checks like Rotom-H and Kommo-o. Having a secondary answer to deter Stealth Rock is appreciated; Mandibuzz, Corviknight, and Hatterene are great ways of preventing Stealth Rock from going up. Urshifu-S is a fantastic partner for Torkoal, muscling through specially defensive Pokemon like Blissey and Chansey. This is important as it doesn't appreciate being whittled down with Toxic and detriments its ability to keep sun up. Having pivots such as Blissey and Xatu are beneficial to safely bring in Torkoal to reset Drought turns and also bring in sun sweepers.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Poison Adhesive, 430787]]
- Quality checked by: [curiosity, 443485], []]
- Grammar checked by: [[]]

 

[curiosity]

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[SET]
name: Support
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Toxic
move 3: Lava Plume
move 4: Rapid Spin / Rest / Yawn
item: Heat Rock
ability: Drought
nature: Bold
evs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA

Toxic should be in slot 4; it’s the only option that you can actually afford to drop given that removal is mandatory on sun. Even if you do have another slot dedicated to removal / prevention in mandibuzz / hatterne / excadrill, it’s still better to have spin given the amount of hazard-weals you’re dealing with.

Torkoal is a fundamental part for sun teams thanks to its incredible role compression as an entry hazard remover, hazard setter, and weather setter due to its access to Rapid Spin, Stealth Rock, and Drought. Torkoal’s impressive physical bulk allows it to switch in on wallbreakers like Rillaboom, Dragon Dance Dragapult, and Choice Band Aegislash. I’d prefer it if you were to mention something like zera instead considering that most aegi rn are specially-based Toxic helps cripple common weather setters like Hippowdon and Tyranitar and other Pokemon like Mandibuzz, Rotom-H, and Slowbro. Rest is a viable option for longevity and keeping Sun up for its teammates to maximize the benefits of Drought. Alternatively, Yawn can help prevent set up sweepers like Hydreigon and Calm Mind Clefable, from taking advantage of it.

Sun sweepers are mandatory for Torkoal to work effectively: Darmanitan replace this with venu; it’s generally a better option and as good as dark is, it’s currently UR on the VR so we don’t want to be including it for the time being.and Charizard benefit from Torkoal weakening Water-type moves, they’re still not really switching into any waters regardless; mention that they just appreciate the boost in power removing Stealth Rock with Rapid Spin and Toxic crippling their checks like Rotom-H and Kommo-o. Venusaur provides sun teams with a Water-resistance handling Toxapex and other Pokemon like special variants of Zeraora. merge this with the previous point; both cover the same topic so i don’t understand why this is separate Due to Torkoal’s unreliability of removing entry hazards can you even call it unreliable when it legit beats most forms of removal 1v1 and can also take on a huge amount of setters? having a secondary answer is appreciated; Mandibuzz, Corviknight, and Hatterene are great ways of preventing Stealth Rock from going up. Urshifu-S is a fantastic partner for Torkoal, muscling through specially defensive Pokemon like Blissey and Chansey. why is this important for torkoal? It’s not really an offensive mon so having holes punched open doesn’t help it too much, especially given that those two are more or less free turns for other mons to abuse Having pivots such as Blissey and Xatu are beneficial to safely bring in Torkoal to reset Drought turns and also bring in sun sweepers.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Poison Adhesive, 430787]]
- Quality checked by: [[], []]
- Grammar checked by: [[]]

Apologies if anything doesn’t make sense; I’m doing this on mobile so it’s difficult to proofread without getting carsick so feel free to hmu on discord (curiosity#2758) if you have at questions.

QC 1/2

 

[ShootingStarmie]

I'd personally mention Stone Edge as an option over Toxic/Rapid Spin. A lot of Sun teams have trouble facing Volcarona, so Torkoal can act as a solid check to it. Obviously if running Stone Edge change the nature to Relaxed.

0 Atk Torkoal Stone Edge vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Volcarona: 360-424 (96.5 - 113.6%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
+1 252 SpA Volcarona Flamethrower vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Torkoal in Sun: 225-265 (65.5 - 77.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

 

[Trinitrotoluene]

this is a very minor nitpick, but torkoal should be using 248 hp evs instead of 252 hp evs. 252 hp evs leaves torkoal at 344 hp, which makes sneaky pebbles ko torkoal in 4 switch-ins rather than 5.

 

[Vert]

personally think slot 4 should be stone edge / toxic / body press

rest is super situational. yawn is trash, they'll just switch out

 

[Arcueid]

personally think slot 4 should be stone edge / toxic / body press

rest is super situational. yawn is trash, they'll just switch out

I honestly agree with Body Press being an option as well for slot 4. It really eases the matchup against TTar sand by giving you a 56% chance to OHKO TTar.

 

[Finchinator]

With the emergence of Tyranitar, I almost exclusively use Body Press last. I personally think it should be even higher on the slashes. I'd just move it ahead of Toxic.

Torkoal’s impressive physical bulk allows it to switch in on wallbreakers like Rillaboom, Dragon Dance Dragapult, and physical variants of Zeraora.

Remove DD Dragapult. At +1, it can 2HKO and you can only Lava Plume back generally, which relies a lot upon burning. Instead, I would mention Scizor or Hawlucha.

Body Press makes use of Avalugg's great Defense stat preventing Tyranitar from coming in freely.

This is a Torkoal analysis, not Avalugg.

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I am 99% sure this is coincidental as the rest of the analysis is not alike anything else and I am not trying to call you out, but it may be best to rephrase this sentence honestly.

I would add a sentence about fringe Sun options like Volcarona and Darmanitan in the second paragraph, perhaps over the Urshifu-S sentence as Urshifu-S Sun is not the most common right now I feel. But the rest is good, 2/2 with these