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Pokemon Spotlight: Obstagoon

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening!

My name is Hidden and today I’ll be spotlighting Obstagoon! Obstagoon quickly became a fan favourite for gen 8 as it gave Linoone a brand new lease on life and has an amazing punk rock design, perfectly fitting of the British region! So without much further ado, lets look at Obstagoon, the Blocking Pokemon!

1) Stats: Being a third stage pokemon, its not surprising to see that Obstagoon has good stats. Boasting a BST of  520, distributed as 93/90/101/60/81/95. This makes Obstagoon a good all round pokemon to use, since it can work offensively and defensively very well.

2) Abilities: Alongside this, Obstagoon boasts 3 all-round great abilities. The primary abilities, Guts and Reckless are both great. Guts boosts the pokemons attack stat when affected by a status condition, most use Burn for this since Guts ignores burn’s halving of the attack stat and boosts it regardless, burn also does the least damage. Reckless is also fun because it boosts Obstagoon’s recoil move damage, like Double Edge or Take-Down. As the third and hidden ability, Obstagoon gets Defiant. This ability is a personal favourite of mine, as when Obstagoons stats are reduced, it gets +2 in its attack stat. This makes Obstagoon tremendous for Raids.

3) Movepool: Obstagoon continues the trend of being good by having a really nice movepool. Obstagoon gets a wide array of power physical moves, such as Cross-Chop, Throat Chop, Poison Jab, Seed Bomb, X-Scissor, Close Combat, Body Press, Shadow Claw and Night Slash, just to name a few. Alongside this, Obstagoon gets very good status moves too, making it much better defensively. These status moves include Obstruct (Protect but if the opponent tries to hit Obstagoon physically, they get -2 to defense.), Taunt, Torment, Parting Shot, Iron Defense, Bulk Up, Baby-Doll Eyes and Counter. 

And with that out the way, lets look at some of the sets you can run with Obstagoon. Today I’ll be including one Smogon set and one set of my own!

Guts Wallbreaker

Obstagoon @ Flame Orb Ability: Guts EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Jolly Nature - Facade - Knock Off - Close Combat - Switcheroo

This set is for one simple goal, Hit hard as a truck. Guts boosts the power of all of its physical moves, making this thing dangerous. Knock-Off is incredible against tanky pokemon with leftovers, and Switcheroo swaps your held item for the opponents, so you can retain your burn and take their item, thus burning the opponent. Facade deals double damage if you are affected by a status condition, combining with the STAB bonus thanks to Obstagoons typing and it will do high damage to basically anything non-ghost type.

And now for my set:

Defensive:

Obstagoon @ Leftovers   Ability: Defiant   EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def   Impish Nature   - Obstruct   - Body Press   - Night Slash   - Parting Shot

This set is built for one goal, hitting hard with defense. As we know, Obstruct lowers the defense of a potential attacker by 2 stages, this makes room for Body Press and Night Slash to do considerable damage. Furthermore, this Obstagoon doesnt fear burn, as it doesnt rely on its physical attack as much. Parting Shot is there to add a pivot for Obstagoon, meaning it can safely get out and seriously impede whatever is threatening it. This Obstagoon also can exploit Intimidate users thanks to Defiant and sets up nicely in the face of Dynamax.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed making it. Obstagoon is a pokemon I seriously love from Galar, everything about it fits me nicely. Hope ya’ll have a good day and a great time in the upcoming Crown Tundra. Seeya next time!

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Fun Pokedex Entries: Haxorus

For a pokemon that looks so dangerous, Haxorus is weirdly described as being kind, for example:

Pokemon Shield:  While usually kindhearted, it can be terrifying if angered. Tusks that can slice through steel beams are how Haxorus deals with its adversaries.

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Pokemon Spotlight: Sableye

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening!

My name is Hidden and today I’ll be spotlighting my personal favourite pokemon, what better way to start a series of pokemon spotlights, eh?

So today I will be covering Sableye, the Darkness Pokemon!

Sableye is a Dark/Ghost type introduced in gen 3, where it could be discovered lurking in Granite Cave. This pokemon was the first Dark/Ghost type, which until gen 6 had no weaknesses, making it a really fun typing to play with. Sableye was blessed in gen 5, as it was granted the fantastic ability Prankster, which gives priority to Status moves, making it considerably more viable as its main two abilities are trash.

But enough with the chitchat, lets have a looksee at exactly how good Sableye is! This will be using gen 8 Sableye, but gen 7 Sableye will have occasional mentions since Sw/Sh did change things about Sableye.

1) Stats: So Sableye isnt exactly good stat wise. I mean its OK but its mediocre. Boasting a Base Stat Total (BST) of 380, Distributed as 50/75/75/65/65/50 (HP/Attack/Defense/SpecialAttack/SpecialDefense/Speed), its hard to see that Sableye could be viable but with its typing of Ghost/Dark, this was balanced by its lack of weaknesses, until gen 6, but by then Sableye had Prankster.

2) Abilities: So Sableyes primary abilities, Stall and Keen Eye are honestly awful. Keen Eye prevents accuracy loss and Stall means Sableye moves last in the turn. I dont quite understand the purpose of Stall but lets just push those to the side as we cover Sableyes Hidden Ability (HA), Prankster. Prankster is an extraordinary ability that makes Status Moves have +1 Priority, so moves like Will o’ Wisp and Quash go first. Sableye isnt the only user of Prankster of course, but in my opinion it makes the best use of it.

3) Movepool: Sableye’s movepool caters deeply towards Prankster, providing lots of Status moves and relatively little actual power. For power, Sableye gets Foul Play (Which we’ll discuss later), Shadow Ball, Psychic, Sucker Punch, Poltergeist (Another one for later discussion) and Power Gem. This means Sableye can dish out damage but with that 75 attack stat it wont actually be doing much. Status wise however, Sableye gets access to Nasty Plot, Trick, Quash, Will o’ Wisp, Recover, Taunt, Torment, Metronome and Substitute. All these moves can be mean with Prankster.

4) Mega: We can’t discuss Sableye without discussing its Mega. Back in gen 7 Sableye had a mega, which added a +100 to its BST and turned Sableyes meagre 380 into a 480 distributed as 50/85/125/85/115/20, and giving it Magic Bounce, which reflects any status move used on it back unto the opponent. For example, if the opponent used Stealth Rocks on Mega Sableye, the rocks would be rebounded onto the opponents side of the field! Mega Sableye made for a defensive powerhouse if used correctly, and even worked offensively when Trick Room was in effect.

5) Sets: Sableye’s movepool and Prankster makes it open to a wide array of different competitive sets, and I’ll be showing you the currently most viable one (according to Smogon) and two sets that I baked up in the lab to be as chaotic as humanly possible.

Defensive (Smogon)

Sableye @ Leftovers Ability: Prankster EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Bold Nature - Foul Play - Recover - Will-O-Wisp - Encore

This set clearly makes use of Prankster to seriously impede any offensive powerhouse. I dont quite understand Foul Play being here, as Foul Play deals more damage the higher the opponents attack stat and Will o’ Wisp burns the opponent, which halves their attack stat? I ain’t the competitive genius so what would I know? I just like this gremlin alot.

Physical Chaos (Hidden’s Set)

Sableye @ Choice Band   Ability: Prankster   EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def   Impish Nature   - Shadow Sneak   - Foul Play   - Trick   - Recover

This sets goal is simple, Give an opponent who doesnt want the Choice Band a Choice Band using Trick, this is normally a special attacker like Roserade who just tried to set up, and then Foul Play. Foul Play will do high damage due to the newfound high attack stat. Shadow Sneak is just nice Priority and STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) and Recover gives you longevity.

(UPDATE: Foul Play doesnt increase in damage based on the choice band, but you are still stealing a powerful item and giving them trash in exchange)

Special Chaos (Hidden’s Set)

Sableye @ Choice Specs   Ability: Prankster   EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD   Calm Nature   - Poltergeist  - Fling   - Trick   - Recover

This set fills a similar goal, but with different results. Heres the gist of it, say your opponent as an Assault Vest, which boosts its special defense in exchange for preventing it from using status moves. This hurts Sableye, who needs status to work. Solution? Throw the vest back at the opponent when you steal it. Assault Vest Fling does a solid 80 base power, so its certainly nice. But now you’ve used Fling, how do you do damage? Simple, Poltergeist. Poltergeist was one of the many new moves added in the Isle of Armor DLC, which in my opinion added so much to competitive pokemon, I love it. Poltergeist is a base 110 power Ghost move that only works if the opponent is holding an item. Thanks to Sableye, The opponent is now holding an item, and you can punish it for daring to hold your precious specs!

And that is Sableye covered. I didnt cover a Mega Sableye set because despite Showdown and the toxic fanbase’s begging, Megas are unlikely to return with the Dynamax meta and if they did it would tank competitive, since Rayquaza is confirmed returning. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk on this gemstone stealing Gremlin, Sableye! Hopefully you can see why I love this little man so much. Any questions? Feel free to ask! My sets aren’t SUPER-DUPER Viable, infact they can be countered easily, but they are fun and thats what matters!

Seeya’ll next time, 

-Hidden

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Introduction

Howdy!

My name is Hidden and this is going to be my Pokemon Blog! This Blog will contain assorted trivia about Pokemon, Fun and unusual Dex Entries, interesting Competitive sets and Spotlights on specific pokemon! I hope you all enjoy this blog and just know if you need anything specific that you can just give me an ask and I’ll make sure to answer you as soon as possible.

So a little about me, I am vaguely interested in Competitive, as I have always meant to get into it but never had the confidence to give it a shot, as a result I know a fair bit about it due to frantic overpreparation but never fully getting involved. My favourite pokemon both competitively and non-competitively is Sableye, and my favourite pokemon gen is gen 5. I enjoy using Stall teams but enjoy making just fun chaotic sets.

Thanks for listening to me rant about myself, I look forward to blogging here in the future!