Pokémon Toxicroak

[blonde23]

Toxicroak
Abilities: Anticipation, Dry Skin
Hidden Ability: Poison Touch
Stats:
HP: 83
Atk: 106
Def: 65
Sp. Atk: 86
Sp. Def: 65
Speed: 85

Oh Toxicroak, bathed in glory last gen for healing in that perma-rain. And now that's gone. What potential is left in this Poison Frog? That's what I'll be looking at.

First off, like said above, Croak was prominent in rain last gen because he had some good resistances and Drain Punch and Dry Skin in perma-rain meant it could put a dent in your opponent and take a non S/E hit and heal it back easily. Gen 6 got rid of perma-weather, so Croak was left in the dust. Likely to drop to UU or RU. I started using it and found some of Croak's better usage was not your regular set.

Lets get to some sets. Now, Croak comes with a fair typing, being Poison/Fighting, but it still has HUGE holes and is frail. Croak has x4 weakness to Psychic and a very prominent weakness to Ground. Then there is always the huge threat of Talonflame with priority BB that destroys Croak. However, his typing covers up Fighting's weakness to Fairy, so it can become a decent Fairy lure. But enough talking, lets go.

Toxicroak Focus Sash/Black Sludge
Ability: Dry Skin
252 Atk, 252 Speed
+Speed, -Sp. Atk OR +Atk -Sp. Atk
Poison Jab
Drain Punch
Swords Dance
Bullet Punch

This is the most predictable set on Croak. He utilizes STAB Drain Punch as well as STAB Poison Jab to take out Fairies. Bullet Punch at +2 is very dangerous. Nuff said.

Toxicroak Black Sludge
Ability: Dry Skin
252 Atk, 252 Speed
+Speed, -Sp. Atk
Drain Punch
Poison Jab
Substitute
Swords Dance

This is one of the better sets for Croak. A Sub-SD set. Dry Skin can suck up the Substitute downside, then Drain Punch STAB to cover that up as well. Now the next set is where it gets a bit crazy...

Toxicroak Focus sash
Ability: Dry Skin
252 Sp. Atk, 252 Speed
+Sp. Atk, -Atk OR +Speed, -Atk
Sludge Wave
Vacuum Wave
Nasty Plot
Dark Pulse

Special Croak is my absol-ute favorite set this gen. (Pardon the pun) It is so unexpected and hits surprisingly hard. STAB Priority is what really hooked me on this. Dark Pulse destroys the Psychic types that come in on Croak. It is very strong and at +2 it can take a good amount of the OU tier and has a Water Immunity which is always nice.

So what do you guys think? Leave your opinions below.

 

[Ryolain]

His viability in OU is even less than it was in DPP with Talonflame, Genesect, Excadrill and Lando running around. I barely see him having any niche when he's completely outclassed by Lucario.

 

[Dododoggy]

I think that toxicroak will probably go down to UU or even RU. Rain was toxicroaks best friend and now that thats nerfed the poison frog gets outclassed by other fighting types that are loads better than him. he still is alright but just not the frog we used to love anymore. :'(

 

[ColtCababa]

However, his typing covers up Fighting's weakness to Fairy, so it can become a decent Fairy lure.

Not if your opponent knows it's typing and that it can instantly KO most Fairies.

It could be a decent Azumarill check, but other than that, it doesn't have much to gain in OU.

 

[Ryolain]

Not if your opponent knows it's typing and that it can instantly KO most Fairies.

It could be a decent Azumarill check, but other than that, it doesn't have much to gain in OU.

CB Azu OHKOs it with Play Rough.

 

[Jayd]

CB Azu OHKOs it with Play Rough.

That's why it's a check, not a counter.

I'm looking forward to trying out my old Focus Punch set again.

Toxicroak@Black Sludge
Dry Skin
Adamant: 252 Atk, 252 HP
Poison Jab
Sucker Punch
Substitute
Focus Punch

Oh the memories! Not hard to get in and everything gets hurt!

 

[LoDart210]

The problem is the only fairies that see ou play can handle croak, and resist his priority.

Azumarill- CB play rough is an ohko. Even with full hp and def investments, and a defensive nature on a bulk up set, it can't switch in

Gardevoir - ohko with psychic

Klefki - resists the stabs and it's priorities all in one

Togekiss - flying stab wrecks croak

Sylveon - only one croak could probably handle with little worry.

The lack of rain makes it even harder for this awesome poison frog to handle the meta, which is too bad. He was a great anti rain Pokemon.

In the meta as it appears now I see toxicroak being good at taking out any azumarill after switching into a water move.

Basically, with a choice band set, croak can take out the things the attempt to switch in on it, as its really good at doing that.

 

[Clair]

Eh. I used Toxicroak in 4th gen OU occasionally for its resistances combined with Toxic Spikes absorption, I can't see any niche for it in OU now though. Focus Sash / Life Orb should be the slashes for the pure Swords Dancer, and Life Orb should be used on the Nasty Plot set. You absolutely need the extra power, especially with the relatively weak priority.

 

[SansNickel]

The main reason it was used last gen was not only because it was decent in rain, but because ferrothorn was on every other team. Ferrothorn is much less common and is also extremely easy to handle now, meaning toxicroak has little to no hope for OU.

 

[LoDart210]

Yep, that's just the thing. Best you could run him as is an offensive counter to water types. I wonder how good he'd be at beating m-blastoise whose moves, apart from the rare dragon pulse, are all resisted by croak. Thing is, m-blastoise isn't common enough to warrant that kind of theoretical usage.

 

[Shinji Mimura]

Just curious, why hasn't anyone mentioned Life Orb or Choice sets? Are they that bad?

He doesn't have considerable enough bulk to run Black Sludge outside of Sub builds, I feel...

 

[Boltaway]

Reading discussions about Toxicroak always makes me sad, seeing as he's my favorite Pokemon. The unfortunate truth is that the rain nerf depleted his niche. Permanent rain, as much as we all complained about it, made a lot of Pokemon not viable before -- Toxicroak, particularly, as well as others like Ludicolor and Kabutops and Gastrodon -- potentially dangerous to face in battle. With Dry Skin, he could recover health infinitely, and Life Orb would allow him to wreck unprepared teams, especially with all the priority moves he has. However, water immunity just isn't as needed as it was last gen, and Toxicroak's stats are nothing to write about.

That being said, I can see him doing well in the lower tiers where he belongs. Poison/Fighting is a wonderful defensive typing, being neutral to fairy and scaring them off with STAB Poison Jab, resisting bug, grass, posion, fighting, dark, and immune to water. (Ultimately, in the lower tiers there are far fewer viable fairies with less-than-awesome typings that Toxicroak can take advantage of). Being weak to EQ is depressing, but weaknesses to Psychic and Flying are negligible. In OU, Toxicroak has a lot of sets that weren't viable or effective, but hopefully Gen VI UU/RU lets him show off his surprisingly wide physical and special movepool. The Bulk Up + Substitute set is sorely missing out the Dry Skin recovery, but works great at blocking status and giving him a free hit if the opponent switches out -- I would say that his typing and the freedom to run Focus Punch/Sucker Punch are important to those sets. LO will be less effective due to the rain nerf, but are still useful for hitting hard. I don't think Choiced sets will be viable because Toxicroak lacks the moves that could really take advantage of it, not to mention that the lower tiers are filled with fighting types that run them more effectively. LO + Nasty Plot sets are pretty cool for the surprise factor and STAB Vaccuum Wave occupies a niche that only Infernape and M-Lucario in OU can play as effectively. Toxicroak also gets moves like Knock Off and Taunt, which can work well to disrupt stall teams. The fact he can't be scalded or toxic'd is also nice.

Seeing the fact that it ranked 128th in OU this month, it's pretty clear that Toxicroak's time in the Overused tier has croaked. That being said, I think Toxicroak's typing, great ability, and diverse movepool will help it stand out in the lower tiers.

 

[krevvy]

Been running a AV variant of croak and been doing well on showdown.

Joker (Toxicroak) (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 8 Def / 248 SDef
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 SAtk
- Drain Punch
- Fake Out/Sucker Punch
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch

Safe switch in on most SpA in the meta, can 2hKO heatran and been realling finding knock off to be really useful.

 

[Eashy]

Scarf Toxicroak is a complete stop to DD Crawdaunt. Completely ruined a clean sweep :[.

 

[Rosen]

Time to revive this bad boy, as he has a huge plus in being a hard counter to Keldeo and a hard check to Azumarill, two of OU's most dangerous and popular threats.

Now, why the hell would that justify him taking up a spot on a team? Well, unlike Venusaur, he doesn't take up the coveted Mega Slot, and if your team is very Keldeo weak, you can fit him in without having to go the Venusaur route or shitting your pantaloons at the matchup.

Another counter to both, Amoonguss, possesses access to Spore, Regenerator, Foul Play, and other good utility moves, but has almost no offensive presence. If that is what you need, however, Toxicroak's your man.

My prefered set:

Toxicroak @ Black Sludge
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 244 HP / 132 Atk / 120 Def / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Bulk Up
- Poison Jab/Earthquake
- Drain Punch

He outspeeds Azumarill, so as long as you don't switch into a Choice Banded Play Rough, you'll beat the blue bunny one on one 100% of the time, as Aqua Jet can't hurt you and you outspeed it by a large margine. The issue with this set is it's totally walled by Aegislash, so if you can squeeze EQ on there that's a good option, but then Gengar still walls you to hell and back. Partner the croak with a counter to each like Mandibuzz and you should be set

 

[Tressed]

Time to revive this bad boy, as he has a huge plus in being a hard counter to Keldeo and a hard check to Azumarill, two of OU's most dangerous and popular threats.

Now, why the hell would that justify him taking up a spot on a team? Well, unlike Venusaur, he doesn't take up the coveted Mega Slot, and if your team is very Keldeo weak, you can fit him in without having to go the Venusaur route or shitting your pantaloons at the matchup.

Another counter to both, Amoonguss, possesses access to Spore, Regenerator, Foul Play, and other good utility moves, but has almost no offensive presence. If that is what you need, however, Toxicroak's your man.

Keldeo commonly runs HP Psychic or Flying for a shot at beating Venusaur, both of which do a ton to Toxicroak. CB Azumarill also OHKOs with with Play Rough, so that makes it a very shaky check.
Toxicroak really doesn't have much going for it right now. Being totally walled by Aegislash is bad enough, but the fact that it can't really outspeed much and is so frail makes it pretty lackluster, and when you consider that it doesn't actually hit that hard in the first place, it starts looking pretty depressing. Toxicroak was a solid choice in the rain meta of Gen V, but that's gone now, and there isn't anything left that makes Toxicroak a viable choice.

 

[Rosen]

Keldeo commonly runs HP Psychic or Flying for a shot at beating Venusaur, both of which do a ton to Toxicroak. CB Azumarill also OHKOs with with Play Rough, so that makes it a very shaky check.
Toxicroak really doesn't have much going for it right now. Being totally walled by Aegislash is bad enough, but the fact that it can't really outspeed much and is so frail makes it pretty lackluster, and when you consider that it doesn't actually hit that hard in the first place, it starts looking pretty depressing. Toxicroak was a solid choice in the rain meta of Gen V, but that's gone now, and there isn't anything left that makes Toxicroak a viable choice.

Toxicroak outspeeds Azumarill, so that really isn't too big of an issue. Forgot about the HP thing on Keldeo, though. I usually see the Specs variant, and switch in to Scald or something, and I must've never encountered it personally. But yeah that's a fairly significant point.

Toxicroak isn't all bad, though, even out of rain. Mandibuzz is a great partner, as is TrickScarf Gothitelle -- whom can pick off Aegislash and Gengar, and Mega Venusaur and Keldeo respectively (especially the CM variant). He's by no means a top-tier threat, but I think 'unviable' is rather harsh, and not particularly true either. The cons arguably outweigh the pros, but the big one is he doesn't take up a mega slot. So if you need a pseudo-Mega Venusaur, Toxicroak ain't half bad.

 

[Tressed]

Toxicroak outspeeds Azumarill, so that really isn't too big of an issue. Forgot about the HP thing on Keldeo, though. I usually see the Specs variant, and switch in to Scald or something, and I must've never encountered it personally. But yeah that's a fairly significant point.

Toxicroak isn't all bad, though, even out of rain. Mandibuzz is a great partner, as is TrickScarf Gothitelle -- whom can pick off Aegislash and Gengar, and Mega Venusaur and Keldeo respectively (especially the CM variant). He's by no means a top-tier threat, but I think 'unviable' is rather harsh, and not particularly true either. The cons arguably outweigh the pros, but the big one is he doesn't take up a mega slot. So if you need a pseudo-Mega Venusaur, Toxicroak ain't half bad.

Toxicroak can't switch in on Azumarill though, that's the problem. Also, Gothitelle can't trap either Gengar or Aegislash, as they both OHKO with their STABs and can switch out of Gothitelle thanks to their Ghost typing.

The main issue I see here is that Toxicroak itself doesn't do anything that I see worth using it for. 106 Attack is mediocre, 86 Sp Attack is flat out bad, 85 Speed is okay, bulk is terrible. It lacks destructive STAB moves, and really doesn't have support options worth using. It has options like Swords Dance, Bulk Up, Nasty Plot, Sucker Punch, but none of them make up for the fact that this thing has less offenses than Infernape and lacks any of its redeeming qualities. I simply can't find a reason to want Toxicroak on my team outside of the fact that Toxicroak is probably one of the coolest mons out there.

If I want to use pseudo-MSaur, I'll use Amoongus, it can switch in and force stuff out at least. Being OHKOed by something you're supposed to be able to counter isn't anything I'd want to use.

 

[Sergeant Spooky]

Gunk Shot hits really hard.

It can't switch in on Azumarill but it can check, even if it has a Belly Drum. This makes it a check; but it's not a counter.

 

[VanGru]

The only place toxicroak has in ou, is on a rain team. It does a whole lotta work behind a sub, enables swift swimmers to get passed ferrothorn and blissey/chansey.

 

[heritage]

editing or deleting posts that weren't made by me so ignore this post

 

[Rosen]

I still disagree with completely unviable. He's a hard counter to CroCune and Rain Dance Manaphy, who have been rising in popularity recently. His role on non rain teams is extremely niche and he is for the most part outclassed in other areas, but I still think completely unviable is not entirely true.

 

[Durant]

I still disagree with completely unviable. He's a hard counter to CroCune and Rain Dance Manaphy, who have been rising in popularity recently. His role on non rain teams is extremely niche and he is for the most part outclassed in other areas, but I still think completely unviable is not entirely true.

What Tyranitar would ever switch in on Toxicroak.

 

[Rosen]

What Tyranitar would ever switch in on Toxicroak.

I never mentioned Tyranitar...

 

[Durant]

I never mentioned Tyranitar...

Did I just really quote the wrong post. Good job me fuking great !