Plague von Karma
Banned deucer.
Double Powder go brrrrrrr
[OVERVIEW]
Venomoth is the fastest viable user of Sleep Powder in RBY UU, which gives it solid use as a supporting teammate. Furthermore, it has Stun Spore, which lets it keep supporting the team after sleeping a foe and notably cripple Dugtrio. Venomoth compressing both moves saves teammates like Hypno and Haunter from using a moveslot on the less reliable Hypnosis. Its solid base 90 Speed lets it effectively pressure slower threats like Articuno and Dragonite, and it can freely switch in on Toxic to protect its Wrap-using teammates like Dragonite and then threaten the Toxic user with status.
However, that niche is largely the extent of its defensive capabilities thanks to its poor typing and middling stats, and the ubiquitous Tentacruel does this anyway while also providing the threat of Wrap. Worse still, Venomoth's typing gives it a weakness to Psychic and no STAB moves to speak of, which, alongside its middling Special, makes its damage output average at best without Special drops from Psychic; Mega Drain doesn't even 2HKO Golem reliably. As if this wasn't enough, Venomoth is physically frail, with Dodrio's Drill Peck nearly OHKOing it and many other physical attackers, like Persian, dealing severe damage with their STAB moves. It competes with Tangela, which possesses more bulk in addition to Bind and a better typing, as a Sleep Powder + Stun Spore user. Overall, Venomoth is strictly used for its utility, and while it does its job well, its niche is fairly specific; there will be times where it's little more than KO fodder.
[SET]
name: Double Powder
move 1: Sleep Powder
move 2: Stun Spore
move 3: Psychic
move 4: Mega Drain
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
The existence of Sleep Clause makes a second status move in Stun Spore complement Sleep Powder well. Psychic is Venomoth's strongest viable move, hitting for mostly neutral coverage while potentially allowing for more damage with its 30.1% chance for a Special drop and Venomoth's own decent 17.5% critical hit rate. It can 3HKO Tentacruel and, with Special drops, becomes noticeably more threatening across the board, turning 3HKOs into 2HKOs. Mega Drain acts as coverage for Golem and Omastar, the latter of which tends to try and PP stall Venomoth's Wrap-using teammates, while giving Venomoth some staying power in the process.
Venomoth is best used early in the game to sleep a foe as quickly as possible, but not as a lead, as its lead matchups are poor outside of Hypno. Tentacruel makes a good lead teammate, using Wrap to bring Venomoth in early if the conditions are favorable. Venomoth can later status threats for Tentacruel and switch into Toxic for other partial trapping move users like Dragonite and Pinsir. Kadabra and Electabuzz are also effective, as they can switch to Venomoth turn 1 to punish their common switch-ins in Hypno and Dugtrio, respectively. Putting a foe to sleep successfully creates a 50-50 situation where Venomoth can either paralyze a switch-in or pressure with Psychic should the foe try to burn sleep turns. After Venomoth has done its job, it should focus on using Psychic to get damage in, no matter how middling, and spreading paralysis when possible. Venomoth mainly finds points of entry against threats with good Special like Dewgong and Vaporeon, as they fail to 2HKO Venomoth and allow it to threaten with Sleep Powder thereafter. It's not reserved to these either, as Gyarados, for example, fails to KO Venomoth with Hyper Beam even after Body Slam, forcing the opponent to sacrifice a Pokemon to sleep. Generally, Venomoth works best on teams with Pokemon that profit from its role compression like Kangaskhan, Dragonite, and Articuno, making use of the holes opened in teams through its reliable sleep. However, what it provides is rather specific, which makes it deceptively difficult to utilize effectively.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Generally, the most replaceable move Venomoth has is Mega Drain due to mediocre damage outside of specific targets. Toxic has good utility, as Venomoth can use it when Dragonite attempts to use Agility to negate predicted Stun Spore. This ruins Dragonite's chances of a Wrap sweep, as it would take more damage than it deals. Outside of this, however, Venomoth doesn't have many viable options. Substitute can allow Venomoth to take more hits than usual, giving more opportunities for Psychic Special drops, but since it doesn't block status in RBY, it's a weak choice. Double-Edge can be used to try and hit low-Defense Pokemon, but it falls just short of 3HKOing even Kadabra. On the flip side, with a critical hit, it can deal significant damage and force a Recover, which is a good spot for Venomoth to be in thanks to the threat of Stun Spore.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Kadabra and Hypno**: Venomoth has a lot of trouble against threats that resist its Psychic while threatening it, and Kadabra and Hypno are perfectly suited for this, especially if Sleep Clause isn't active. Both can 2HKO Venomoth with Psychic, or even OHKO with a critical hit, which Kadabra has a high 20.5% chance to land. Kadabra is better suited to revenge killing Venomoth, though, as it dislikes getting paralyzed. In most situations, Venomoth can only attempt to cripple either with status and switch out. However, in a lead situation, Venomoth can effortlessly put Hypno to sleep using Sleep Powder.
**Dodrio**: If Venomoth has taken any amount of damage, it is very likely KOed by Drill Peck. However, Venomoth can at least paralyze Dodrio to diminish its offensive presence; this makes it less inclined to switch in.
**Golem**: Golem cleanly 2HKOes Venomoth with Rock Slide. Golem strongly dislikes Mega Drain, which deals significant damage and can potentially allow Venomoth to recover its way out of KO range, but this scenario is rare, as it can only recover a maximum of 26.8%.
**Normal-type attackers**: Venomoth's physical bulk is poor, which makes Normal-type attackers very threatening. Persian can 2HKO Venomoth with Slash 74.2% of the time and always KO after Slash with Hyper Beam. Kangaskhan can also 2HKO with Body Slam followed up by Hyper Beam. Raticate is capable of using Super Fang to put Venomoth in KO range for its own Hyper Beam. However, none of these Pokemon appreciate being paralyzed, which makes trying to KO Venomoth from full HP very risky.
**Dugtrio**: Dugtrio is adept at revenge killing Venomoth, having a guaranteed 3HKO with Earthquake, or a 2HKO with a critical hit involved. While it can use Rock Slide, it deals only .3% more with less accuracy, making Earthquake optimal. Venomoth outright loses the interaction, failing to even 3HKO Dugtrio with Psychic or Mega Drain. The best Venomoth can do is attempt to heal out of 3HKO range using Mega Drain, but it can't recover fast enough to take another hit from the faster Dugtrio. Note that Venomoth can paralyze Dugtrio with Stun Spore, so Dugtrio needs to be warybefore going for the KO. If Dugtrio is paralyzed, it loses virtually all of its utility for the rest of the game.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Plague von Karma, 236353]]
- Quality checked by: [[phoopes, 96315], [EB0LA, 423005]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429], [CryoGyro, 331519]]
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