[SET]
name: Defensive
move 1: Burning Jealousy
move 2: Body Press
move 3: Yawn
move 4: Protect
item: Sitrus Berry
ability: Drought
nature: Bold
evs: 244 HP / 156 Def / 108 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
Torkoal has a high Defense stat that allows it to easily handle the offensive threats that are among the most present in the metagame like Zacian-C, Incineroar, and Rillaboom. In a metagame that relies heavily on weather, Drought allows Torkoal to cause trouble for teams based on rain. Burning Jealousy hits common Steel-types such as Zacian-C and Solgaleo while threatening a burn on physical attackers that tend to boost their stats with Max Moves, such as Landorus-T and Thundurus. Body Press takes advantage of Torkoal's high Defense stat, allowing it to ignore Intimidate and heavily damage Incineroar. Yawn allows Torkoal to threaten to waste opposing Dynamax turns and slow down the momentum of opposing strategies thanks to its good bulk. The EV spread allows Torkoal to survive three +1 Sacred Swords from Zacian-C, a +1 Earth Power from Venusaur, and a Wicked Blow from Choice Band Urshifu-S.
Zacian-C is Torkoal's most common Restricted partner, which takes care of Pokemon such as Porygon2 and Urshifu-S against which Torkoal can't do much. Torkoal in turn handles opposing Zacian-C. Torkoal is very commonly paired with Charizard and almost always with Venusaur as Drought allows the former to deal very large amounts of damage with its powerful Solar Power-boosted G-Max Wildfires and the latter to fire off fast Sleep Powders and G-Max Vinelashes. In the case of a team with a Trick Room setter, Whimsicott and Calyrex-I are good partners for Torkoal, as Burning Jealousy will always burn against Zacian-C since it burns Pokemon that have had a stat boost, allowing Calyrex-I to better resist Behemoth Blade.
[SET]
name: Offensive
move 1: Eruption
move 2: Heat Wave / Burning Jealousy
move 3: Earth Power / Yawn
move 4: Protect
item: Charcoal
ability: Drought
nature: Quiet
evs: 252 HP / 252 Spa / 4 SpD
ivs: 0 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Through the combination of Charcoal, Drought, and STAB Eruption, Torkoal is capable of acting as one of the most powerful Trick Room sweepers in the Series 11 metagame. Eruption is an incredibly powerful option for Torkoal, especially since under Trick Room it will almost always act first, allowing it to act as a mini-Kyogre and fire off a 150 BP STAB weather-boosted spread move, OHKOing even the bulkiest of Zacian-C and heavily damaging Dynamaxed Calyrex-I. Consequently, offensive Torkoal tend to opt for Charcoal as their item instead of Life Orb, since they will almost always be using Fire-type moves and do not want to reduce Eruption damage with Life Orb recoil. Charcoal Torkoal often opts for a second spread Fire-type move as an alternative choice for after it has been weakened enough to meaningfully reduce Eruption damage. Heat Wave is the most common choice due to its superior power, but some offensive Torkoal will opt for Burning Jealousy instead due to its perfect accuracy and ability to work as a support option against leads such as Zacian-C and Defiant Thundurus. However, a major downside for Burning Jealousy is that it runs the risk of missing out on KOs that Heat Wave would be able to reach, such as against Zacian-C with 4 HP EVs. To round out the moveset, many Charcoal Torkoal opt for Earth Power as a means of providing an attacking option against Incineroar, Coalossal, and opposing Torkoal, while others choose to run Yawn to put pressure on Dynamax Pokemon and provide a supportive option if Torkoal has its Special Attack dropped or if the weather gets changed from sun. While Charcoal is typically the preferred item for offensive Torkoal, which will run Protect as the fourth move, some opt to instead run Choice Specs in order to maximize the power of Eruption and will use a fourth attacking move instead of Protect such as Solar Beam.
Due to having one of the lowest Speed stats in the metagame, offensive Torkoal excels on teams that are either wholly dedicated to Trick Room or have a strong Trick Room option. Consequently, it is almost always paired with one of the three common non-Restricted Trick Room setters in the format: Porygon2, Mimikyu, and Dusclops. Common Restricted partners for offensive Torkoal are those that excel in Trick Room, such as Calyrex-I and Necrozma-DM, although it is also possible to use offensive Torkoal on teams using a Restricted Pokemon such as Zacian-C alongside a Trick Room mode. Many teams using offensive Torkoal will also opt to run Gigantamax Venusaur, giving the team an alternative "fast mode" where Torkoal can both support the incredibly strong Gigantamax Venusaur outside of Trick Room and act as a Trick Room attacker during different phases of the match. Some teams will opt to go all in on sun and run Gigantamax Charizard alongside, or instead of, Venusaur to provide massive damage potential with double sun-boosted attacks.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Hervalt, 532762]]
- Quality checked by: [[Sole Survivor, 518634]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Estronic, 240732]]
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