OVERVIEW]
-Venonat stands out with it's extensive utility movepool, including Thief, Toxic Spikes, Morning sun, and Sleep powder
-Compound Eyes is great, giving it 97.5% accurate Sleep Powder
-Typing gives it two 4x resistances to fairly common types- Fighting and Grass.
-However, it also has common weaknesses to flying, fire, rock, and psychic
-This also gives it a weakness to SR, which shortens is longevity even with reliable recovery in morning sun
-unfortunately can't easily counter Mienfoo, because of U-turn/acrobatics
[SET]
name: Toxic Spikes Setter
move 1: Toxic Spikes
move 2: Sleep Powder
move 3: Signal Beam / Giga Drain
move 4: Morning Sun / Thief / Giga Drain
item: Eviolite / Berry Juice
ability: Compound Eyes / Tinted Lens
nature: Timid
evs: 36 HP / 116 Def / 36 SpA / 76 SpD / 236 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
-Toxic Spikes are annoying for most teams, wearing down all grounded non-poison Pokemon, as well as breaking Sturdy/sash (except abra), and generally wearing down most set-up sweepers
-Sleep Powder allows for T-spikes to be put up easier. It also allows Venonat to cripple one of the opposing pokemon, effectively taking it out of the battle for a while
-Signal Beam is a basic STAB move
-Giga Drain works better with Tinted Lens, and gives it recovery while applying more offensive pressure
-Morning sun gives it much more longevity, and works better with Eviolite
-Thief should only be used with Berry Juice, and allows Venonat to take items from a lot of it's switches, excluding fletchling
Set Details
========
-fast as possible, hitting 15 speed, while still being bulky enough to take hits. Lives acro from fletch 93.7% of the time with eviolite.
-leftover 36 into SpAttck
-Uneven HP number to take less damage from Stealth Rocks
-Berry Juice for Thief shenanigans and to better fare against Stealth Rocks
-Compound eyes gives a 97.5% accurate Sleep Powder
-Tinted Lens allows it to cause a lot more offensive pressure at the cost of risking the miss with Sleep Powder
Usage Tips
========
-Bring in on fairies, mainly Snubull and Spritzee, as it can easily tank any hit from them and get free T-spikes or sleep
-Sleep something relevant switching in, like Fletchling, Ponyta, or Archen
-Get T-spikes up as often as possible
-Bring in on Fighting moves to get an easy sleep/T-spikes
-Often doesn't need to stay alive the whole game, so it will probably be sacked fairly often
Team Options
========
-Pawniard deters opponent from defogging,
-Ghost SpinBlockers such as Pumpkaboo, Drifloon, Frillish, and Gastly
-Diglett/Gothita for trapping Poison-type t-spike absorbers. Diglett deals with Stunky and Sucker Punch Croagunk better. Gothita works better against Foongus. They both do equally well against other relevant T-spike absorbers like Trubbish and Skrelp.
-Things to handle flying types (Magnemite, Onix, Omanyte, Tirtouga, and chinchou)
-Something to deal with fire types (Water-types like Chinchou, Omanyte and Tirtouga, Onix)
-Something to handle Abra like Pursuit trappers (Stunky and munchlax in particular take little damage from Abra.) Honedge can also work unless Abra has Shadow Ball.
-Things that appreciates opposing pokemon being poisoned like: VenoHex Gastly, Hex Drifloon, and Stally stuff like Spritzee. Drifloon and Gastly can also work as Spinblockers, making them ideal partners.
-Rapid Spin/Defoggers like Vullaby, Drilbur, Archen, and Staryu all help Venonat live longer, as they can get rid of Stealth Rock.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
-Stun Spore can be used, butwith T-spikes and Sleep Powder it is often unable to paralyse anything
-Agillity/Baton pass can be used somewhat effectively due to Sleep Powder, but is usually outclassed by Torchic.
-Disable can be used to help teammates, but Venonat rarely benifits from it itself
-Venoshock can be used to abuse Toxic Spikes, but again, Venonat lacks the power to make full use of it
-Psychic can be used to hit the Fighting Types that it likes switching into, but they will usually switch out anyway
-Offensive Tinted Lens can be used, but Venonat lacks the raw power or set-up moves to really take advantage of it
Checks and Counters
===================
**Flying Types**: can usually OHKO Venonat with their STAB moves, especially Vullaby as it absorbs sleep powder and can defog away the Toxic Spikes that Venonat tries to set up. Fletchling can also OHKO Berry Juice Venonat and only requires a tiny bit of prior damage to OHKO eviolite.
**Foongus**: Walls Venonat no matter what moves it runs, as well as absorbing Toxic Spikes. Though it can't do a massive amount of damage in return, it can also send Venonat to sleep.
**Stealth Rock**: Whittles down Venonat easily, making it more difficult to wall fighting types. This is somewhat mitigated by Morning Sun.
**Faster Leads**: especially Onix and Dwebble, as they both have a good chance to OHKO Venonat. Onix can also Taunt Venonat. Aipom can also kill Eviolite Veno with Fake Out+Fury Swipes, though Berry Juice lives it. Mienfoo, while effectively walled by Venonat, can easily switch out with U-turn into a counter. This does allow Venonat to get a free sleep powder or Toxic Spikes off, however.
**Faster Psychic types**: such as Abra, Gothita, and Natu can all do massive damage or OHKO Venonat. Natu is particularly threatening, as it can bounce back Sleep Powder and Toxic Spikes.
**Fast Taunt users**: like Mienfoo and Onix can both prevent Venonat from getting it's Toxic Spikes up or sending them to sleep.
**Fire Types**: Like Ponyta, Larvesta, and Houndour can often OHKO Venonat, though they can be slept on the switch.
**Grounded poison types** like Stunky, Skrelp, Croagunk and the aforementioned FOongus can absorb Toxic Spikes, though Foongus, Trubbish, Croagunk can't do much in return.
-Venonat stands out with it's extensive utility movepool, including Thief, Toxic Spikes, Morning sun, and Sleep powder
-Compound Eyes is great, giving it 97.5% accurate Sleep Powder
-Typing gives it two 4x resistances to fairly common types- Fighting and Grass.
-However, it also has common weaknesses to flying, fire, rock, and psychic
-This also gives it a weakness to SR, which shortens is longevity even with reliable recovery in morning sun
-unfortunately can't easily counter Mienfoo, because of U-turn/acrobatics
[SET]
name: Toxic Spikes Setter
move 1: Toxic Spikes
move 2: Sleep Powder
move 3: Signal Beam / Giga Drain
move 4: Morning Sun / Thief / Giga Drain
item: Eviolite / Berry Juice
ability: Compound Eyes / Tinted Lens
nature: Timid
evs: 36 HP / 116 Def / 36 SpA / 76 SpD / 236 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
-Toxic Spikes are annoying for most teams, wearing down all grounded non-poison Pokemon, as well as breaking Sturdy/sash (except abra), and generally wearing down most set-up sweepers
-Sleep Powder allows for T-spikes to be put up easier. It also allows Venonat to cripple one of the opposing pokemon, effectively taking it out of the battle for a while
-Signal Beam is a basic STAB move
-Giga Drain works better with Tinted Lens, and gives it recovery while applying more offensive pressure
-Morning sun gives it much more longevity, and works better with Eviolite
-Thief should only be used with Berry Juice, and allows Venonat to take items from a lot of it's switches, excluding fletchling
Set Details
========
-fast as possible, hitting 15 speed, while still being bulky enough to take hits. Lives acro from fletch 93.7% of the time with eviolite.
-leftover 36 into SpAttck
-Uneven HP number to take less damage from Stealth Rocks
-Berry Juice for Thief shenanigans and to better fare against Stealth Rocks
-Compound eyes gives a 97.5% accurate Sleep Powder
-Tinted Lens allows it to cause a lot more offensive pressure at the cost of risking the miss with Sleep Powder
Usage Tips
========
-Bring in on fairies, mainly Snubull and Spritzee, as it can easily tank any hit from them and get free T-spikes or sleep
-Sleep something relevant switching in, like Fletchling, Ponyta, or Archen
-Get T-spikes up as often as possible
-Bring in on Fighting moves to get an easy sleep/T-spikes
-Often doesn't need to stay alive the whole game, so it will probably be sacked fairly often
Team Options
========
-Pawniard deters opponent from defogging,
-Ghost SpinBlockers such as Pumpkaboo, Drifloon, Frillish, and Gastly
-Diglett/Gothita for trapping Poison-type t-spike absorbers. Diglett deals with Stunky and Sucker Punch Croagunk better. Gothita works better against Foongus. They both do equally well against other relevant T-spike absorbers like Trubbish and Skrelp.
-Things to handle flying types (Magnemite, Onix, Omanyte, Tirtouga, and chinchou)
-Something to deal with fire types (Water-types like Chinchou, Omanyte and Tirtouga, Onix)
-Something to handle Abra like Pursuit trappers (Stunky and munchlax in particular take little damage from Abra.) Honedge can also work unless Abra has Shadow Ball.
-Things that appreciates opposing pokemon being poisoned like: VenoHex Gastly, Hex Drifloon, and Stally stuff like Spritzee. Drifloon and Gastly can also work as Spinblockers, making them ideal partners.
-Rapid Spin/Defoggers like Vullaby, Drilbur, Archen, and Staryu all help Venonat live longer, as they can get rid of Stealth Rock.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
-Stun Spore can be used, butwith T-spikes and Sleep Powder it is often unable to paralyse anything
-Agillity/Baton pass can be used somewhat effectively due to Sleep Powder, but is usually outclassed by Torchic.
-Disable can be used to help teammates, but Venonat rarely benifits from it itself
-Venoshock can be used to abuse Toxic Spikes, but again, Venonat lacks the power to make full use of it
-Psychic can be used to hit the Fighting Types that it likes switching into, but they will usually switch out anyway
-Offensive Tinted Lens can be used, but Venonat lacks the raw power or set-up moves to really take advantage of it
Checks and Counters
===================
**Flying Types**: can usually OHKO Venonat with their STAB moves, especially Vullaby as it absorbs sleep powder and can defog away the Toxic Spikes that Venonat tries to set up. Fletchling can also OHKO Berry Juice Venonat and only requires a tiny bit of prior damage to OHKO eviolite.
**Foongus**: Walls Venonat no matter what moves it runs, as well as absorbing Toxic Spikes. Though it can't do a massive amount of damage in return, it can also send Venonat to sleep.
**Stealth Rock**: Whittles down Venonat easily, making it more difficult to wall fighting types. This is somewhat mitigated by Morning Sun.
**Faster Leads**: especially Onix and Dwebble, as they both have a good chance to OHKO Venonat. Onix can also Taunt Venonat. Aipom can also kill Eviolite Veno with Fake Out+Fury Swipes, though Berry Juice lives it. Mienfoo, while effectively walled by Venonat, can easily switch out with U-turn into a counter. This does allow Venonat to get a free sleep powder or Toxic Spikes off, however.
**Faster Psychic types**: such as Abra, Gothita, and Natu can all do massive damage or OHKO Venonat. Natu is particularly threatening, as it can bounce back Sleep Powder and Toxic Spikes.
**Fast Taunt users**: like Mienfoo and Onix can both prevent Venonat from getting it's Toxic Spikes up or sending them to sleep.
**Fire Types**: Like Ponyta, Larvesta, and Houndour can often OHKO Venonat, though they can be slept on the switch.
**Grounded poison types** like Stunky, Skrelp, Croagunk and the aforementioned FOongus can absorb Toxic Spikes, though Foongus, Trubbish, Croagunk can't do much in return.
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