Gastrodon [QC Rejected 3/3]

[Kreme]

QC:
GP:

Overview
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• Water / Ground typing gives it good resistances to Fire-, Poison-, Steel- and Rock-type as well as an Electric-type immunity.
• Storm Drain gives it a highly sought-after Water-type immunity.
• Decent 111 / 68 / 82 bulk.
• Low Defense means it needs to be invested to have good mixed bulk.
• Access to good support moves including Memento, Toxic and Yawn.
• Access to various boosting moves, including Curse, Amnesia and Acid Armor, but has better things to do.

Defensive
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name: Defensive
move 1: Scald
move 2: Recover
move 3: Earth Power / Ice Beam / Clear Smog
move 4: Toxic
ability: Storm Drain
item: Leftovers
evs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
nature: Bold

Moves
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• Scald is a very consistent STAB attack that has a burn chance, making it good to cripple physical attackers.
• Recover is a form of solid recovery, making Gastrodon harder to wear down.
• Earth Power is a good secondary STAB attack that hits Electric-types and Tentacruel among others for super effective damage.
• Ice Beam allows Gastrodon to hit Grass-, and Dragon-types for super effective damage.
• Clear Smog allows Gastrodon to remove the stat boosts of the opposing Pokemon, making it a good check to setup sweepers.

Set Details
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• The given EVs and nature maximize Gastrodon's physical bulk.
• Leftovers gives Gastrodon a form of passive recovery.
• Storm Drain is Gastrodon's best ability, giving it a Water-type immunity as well as boosting its Special Attack each time it's hit by a Water-type attack.

Usage Tips
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• Use to check physical attackers such as Mega Aerodactyl and Entei.
• Also use to check Electric-types lacking Grass-type coverage.

Team Options
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• Grass-types threaten Gastrodon, making Fire-, Flying-, Poison-, Ice- and Bug-types, such as Entei, Mega Pidgeot, Nidoqueen, Kyurem and Heracross respectively, good partners.
• Clerics, such as Florges and Blissey, make for good teammates as they can remove status that cripple Gastrodon.

Other Options
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• Curse set
• Mirror Coat and Counter
• Offensive 3 attacks + Recover
• Memento

Checks & Counters
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**Grass-types**: Grass-types, such as Virizion and Roserade, can easily OHKO Gastrodon with a super effective STAB attack, and aren't 2HKOed by Ice Beam.

**Status**: Any form of status, except paralysis, cripples Gastrodon by either wearing it down or rendering it useless for a few turns.

**Wallbreakers**: Wallbreakers, such as Choice Specs Kyurem and Choice Band Heracross, can easily take any hit from Gastrodon, not care about the burn from Scald and retaliate with a hard-hitting STAB attack.

 

[dodmen]

So I've spent a bit of time thinking about it, and as much as I hate to say it, I've basically come to the conclusion that Gastrodon just isn't UU viable. There's really no reason to use it over the many other bulky waters in UU: Swampert and Seismitoad both have access to Stealth Rock, and while they don't have reliable recovery, they do have better overall utility with Roar and Knock Off, respectively (and are frequently paired with Florges or other Wish passers). Then there's Vaporeon who has the Water immunity as well but can also support its teammates with Wish, Baton Pass, and Heal Bell. Jellicent pretty much directly outclasses Gastrodon as it can actually beat Suicune and reliably shut down other Water-types with Taunt, in addition to the Fighting immunity, access to Will-o-Wisp, and overall much better bulk. So yeah unfortunately I'm gonna have to reject this one since whatever tiny niche Gastrodon has in UU doesn't make it worth using over one of the other significantly better and more useful defensive Water-types in the tier :/

QC Reject 1/3

Just so you know, Jellicent's analysis hasn't been updated for ORAS and is still available for reservation, and since it basically does everything Gastrodon does better, you might be interested in that. If you do end up writing Jellicent's analysis, feel free to PM me with any questions you might have about it. And if I didn't do a good enough job of explaining why Gastrodon's not viable, let me know too and I'll try to clarify as best as I can.

 

[Ernesto]

Needs more Curse Gastro imo :o

 

[Kreme]

I'll wait on QC's decision of either rejecting this or keeping it before I make any updates.

 

[Kink]

Yeah, unfortunately, I'm gonna have to give a reject too, Gastrodon is hardly RU viable.

 

[IronBullet]

Yeah sorry Kreme, agree with dodmen that it's simply outclassed by other Waters and its particular niche really does not work in its favour much. Rejected 3/3 so moving