Torterra
[Overview]
- Torterra's fantastic stats, unique typing, and extensive movepool allow it to perform a variety of roles in RU effectively, including, but not limited to, a lethal Rock Polish set that can tear apart offensive and defensive teams alike and a bulkier attacker that can last throughout the match while dishing out incredibly hard-hitting attacks.
- However, Torterra is hindered by the fact that it has no way of getting past certain common defensive threats in the current metagame, such as Tangrowth, the fact that it has many common weaknesses that are easily exploitable, and its relatively low Speed, which all make it so that he may not be as strong as you'd like.
- Essentially, Torterra is a decent Pokemon in RU who is hindered by very noticeable flaws; however, if you can lure out and remove its key counters, Torterra can become a tremendous threat.
[SET]
name: Rock Polish
move 1: Rock Polish
move 2: Wood Hammer / Seed Bomb
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Stone Edge
item: Leftovers / Life Orb
ability: Overgrow
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
- This is Torterra's trademark set for good reason; once you have removed the opponent's revenge killers, after a single Rock Polish, Torterra suddenly becomes a monster capable of single-handedly tearing apart frail offensive teams in a blink of an eye.
- Furthermore, thanks to Torterra's fantastic STAB combination in Wood Hammer and Earthquake, Torterra can also dismantle many defensive cores with ease, though Tangrowth does give it some severe issues.
- To top it all off, Torterra's great bulk and fantastic typing lets it set up on a myriad of opponents on both defensive and offensive teams, making it a very potent force.
- Wood Hammer is Torterra's most deadly attack; with a whopping 120 Base Power that is further boosted by a STAB boost, and potentially an Overgrow boost, Wood Hammer will inflict huge damage onto a significant portion of the RU metagame.
- However, because of the nasty recoil that Wood Hammer causes, Earthquake will generally be the attack that you should turn to in most situations. Earthquake still receives a nice STAB boost, is still reasonably powerful, and hits most foes for neutral coverage.
- Stone Edge complements Wood Hammer and Earthquake nicely, rounding off Torterra's coverage by hitting foes such as Moltres and other Flying-types extremely hard.
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
- Adamant is generally the preferred nature because it gives Torterra a much-needed boost in power, but Jolly is an option so Torterra can outspeed Pokemon such as Accelgor after a Rock Polish boost.
- Leftovers are also the preferred item in order to capitalize on Torterra's great natural bulk and help it shrug off the recoil from Wood Hammer; however, Life Orb is an option if you want extra power, though the recoil, especially in tandem with Wood Hammer, will cause Torterra to faint very very quickly.
- Seed Bomb can be used over Wood Hammer if you use Life Orb to avoid the devastating recoil.
- Swords Dance is not a completely terrible option to let Torterra pull off a double boosting set of sorts, using Swords Dance to steamroll through slower teams while Rock Polish demolishes faster ones. However, the loss of coverage that Swords Dance will cause is way too crippling for Torterra.
- Overgrow is the ability of choice because getting Torterra down to Overgrow and range and using Wood Hammer will utterly demolish almost anything, though this will often cause Torterra to faint as well.
- Fuk Tangrowth. Use teammates like Escavalier / Emboar / Magmortar to destroy it. These guys also help check fast Grass-types who give Torterra lots of issues.
- Levitating Psychics are also very irritating. Escavalier and Spiritomb help a lot with those.
[SET]
name: Tank
move 1: Wood Hammer
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Stone Edge
move 4: Synthesis
item: Leftovers
ability: Overgrow
nature: Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
- Like Rock Polish, this set takes advantage of Torterra's great Attack and offensive STABs, but instead focuses on Torterra's bulk rather than attempting to sweep.
- This set makes a more reliable check to stuff like Aggron while still posing a formidable offensive threat.
- Synthesis gives Torterra a fairly reliable recovery option; while it is neutered by Hail, Torterra is probably going to be completely useless against Hail anyway, so this isn't much of a detriment.
- Wood Hammer is once again Torterra's strongest attack; however on this set, you can afford to spam it a bit more because Synthesis helps with the recoil immensely.
- Earthquake gives Torterra a nice, recoilless secondary STAB attack that compliments Wood Hammer nicely.
- Stone Edge rounds off Torterra's coverage by hitting the Flying-types that are resistant / immune to Wood Hammer and Earthquake.
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
- Adamant gives an extra kick to Torterra's powerful moves, while max Speed allows Torterra to outpace neutral natured base 55s like Bouffalant, as well as Pokemon who such as Qwilfish who run just enough speed to beat that benchmark. Jolly is mostly unnecesary because this Torterra doesn't need to sweep.
- Leftovers are a natural choice for this set to increase Torterra's longevity, though Life Orb is certainly an option since Synthesis can be used to mitigate the recoil.
- Overgrow can let Torterra get in that one last, extremely powerful Wood Hammer needed to OHKO a specific Pokemon in a desperate situation, but Shell Armor is also a nice option to prevent critical hits, which are always irritating.
- This set fits onto bulky offense teams who need Torterra to check certain threats while posing a strong offensive threat.
- Escavalier is thus once again a good partner as it has similar bulk to Torterra and has enough strength to muscle through the troublesome Grsas- and Psychic-types that stop Torterra in its tracks. The fact that Escavalier also essentially gives Aggron a free switch in also makes Torterra a good partner for it.
- Kabutops also makes a good partner due to its ability to handle Fire-types and spin away the spikes that can vastly limit Torterra's longevity.
[SET]
name: Defensive
move 1: Wood Hammer
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Synthesis
move 4: Stealth Rock / Roar
item: Leftovers
ability: Shell Armor
nature: Impish
evs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
- Unlike Rock Polish or Offensive Synthesis, this set focuses purely on Torterra's ability to tank hits and counter Pokemon, rather than its ability to dish out tremendous damage.
- Torterra is capable of doing this in large part due to its massive bulk, access to a reliable recovery move in Synthesis, and access to useful support moves like Stealth Rock and Roar.
- However, even with no offensive investment, Torterra can still pose a decent threat; this, in addition to Torterra's unique set of resistances, is what makes this set a worthy candidate for a teamslot.
- Wood Hammer and Earthquake act as Torterra's main STABs, and are strong enough to dish out some solid damage to the Pokemon Torterra is able to check, such as Aerodactyl, Aggron, Gallade, and Druddigon.
- Synthesis gives Torterra a reliable form of recovery to help it combat those incredibly hard-hitting physical threats throughout the match.
- The last slot mostly depends on your team's needs; if you lack a Stealth Rock user on your team, Torterra can easily set up the hazard for you. However, if you already have a Stealth Rock user on your team, Roar is also a very respectable option in order to phaze out the rare Magnet Rise Aggron and Magneton, as well as Substitute + Bulk Up Gallade.
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
- Use Seed Bomb over Wood Hammer if you hate recoil.
- Torterra's resistances are mostly physical based, so physically defensive is generally the way to go.
- However, using a specially defensive spread is not a bad option either; this would allow Torterra to tackle stuff like Rotom-C and Rotom more effectively, but makes Torterra a much shakier check against something like Choice Band Aggron.
- Shell Armor is the recommended ability to prevent the critical hits that could easily spell doom for Torterra.
- Torterra ability to check various threats makes it a better fit on slower, defensive teams.
- Bulky waters such as Slowking and Lanturn make great partners as they can tackle the troublesome Fire- and Ice-types that can pose a threat to Torterra.
- Will add more when I actually write this up.
[SET]
name: Choice Band
move 1: Wood Hammer
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Stone Edge
move 4: Superpower / Toxic
item: Choice Band
ability: Overgrow
nature: Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
- The aim of this set is simply to smash things as hard as possible, and with Torterra's great STABs, it will often demolish most things that it hits neutrally.
- However, because each of Torterra's moves aren't really "safe" moves to spam, this set requires a large amount of prediction to work effectively.
- Wood Hammer, while easily Torterra's strongest STAB move, unfortunately is resisted by a slew of Pokemon in RU; furthermore, the recoil seriously limits Torterra's ability to switch in and out of the match. However, this is Torterra's safer STAB option when there are still things that are immune to Earthquake.
- Earthquake offers a recoil-less option to Wood Hammer; however, while it lacks recoil, there are still quite a few Pokemon who resist it, and the large number of Levitating / Flying-type Pokemon in RU makes this a pretty unsafe option. The lack of recoil makes this generally the better move to use once levitators / flying-types have been removed however.
- Stone Edge rounds off Torterra's coverage by smashing the Flying-types that are resistant to Wood Hammer / immune to Earthquake; only use Stone Edge for this purpose however, because the lack of STAB and poor accuracy makes this a poor option in most cases, barring an expected switch to a Flying-type.
- Since those three moves already give Torterra all the coverage it needs, the last slot is essentially filler. Superpower allows Torterra to smash through the likes of Ferroseed, while Toxic can help wear down Tangrowth.
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
- Max Attack is obvious in order to give this set its much needed power, while max speed is also used in order to let Torterra outspeed almost all of RU's major walls. However, max HP is certainly an option to help mitigate the effect of Wood Hammer's recoil and give Torterra some longevity.
- Seed Bomb is also an option in the last slot to give Torterra a recoil-less Grass STAB, but it is incredibly weak so it's not really a great option.
- Overgrow gives Torterra the ability to unleash a devastatingly powerful Wood Hammer when Torterra is low on health; the power boost from Overgrow makes Wood Hammer so strong that Torterra gains a chance to OHKO Entei after Stealth Rock with it.
- Will add teammates after testing this more.
[Other Options]
- RestTalk defensive set
- Curse
- SubSeed
- Swords Dance
- Dual Screens
- Stockpile
- Amnesia
- Rock Slide, Seed Bomb, Bulldoze
- Mix set with Hidden Power Fire to SMASH Tangrowth / Durant / Escavalier
[Checks and Counters]
- Tangrowth. FUK Tangrowth.
- Physically Defensive Amoonguss also beats non Life Orb / Choice Band Torterra, though those variants will 2HKO with Earthquake.
- Levitating physically defensive Pokemon like Uxie are also problematic.
- Sceptile / Lilligant / Rotom-C can all survive Stone Edge from a Rock Polish Torterra and retaliate with either Leaf Storm or Sleep Powder. Sawsbuck wins too.
- Fast scarfers like Manectric / Rotom-C / Typhlosion can all outspeed and revenge kill Torterra after a Rock Polish.
- Flying-types such as Moltres can be decent options to use against Torterra, though watch out for Stone Edge.
- Escavalier can take a hit from Torterra and OHKO back with Megahorn, but watch out for Choice Band-boosted Earthquakes, which can potentially OHKO after Stealth Rock and a layer of Spikes.
