Edit: read the 6th post. ;_;
- Tyranitar's Sand Stream whipped up a sandstorm!
A sandstorm brewed!
- Hippowdon used Stealth Rock!
- Blissey used Toxic!
- Skarmory used Spikes!
- Tentacruel used Toxic Spikes!
Recently, battling in DP is like trying to get through the Gobi desert; sandstorms are raging more than half of the time, strange and dangerous creatures are trying to poison you at every chance they get, and jagged rocks gnaw on the feet of worn travellers. Even when you think you've finished wiping the sand out of your eyes, there's always Abomasnow's Leech Seed and Hail, along with one form of spikes in the very least. I realize that this part of the "natural" life cycle of the metagame, but I'm ready for the "circle of life" to start spinning again, hopefully adding some variety to the sandy pit that is DP. This may come off as negative negative stewing from a malcontent, but I'm simply hoping to start to use Pokemon that aren't resistant to Sandstorm and Toxic, or perhaps even 4x weak to Stealth Rock. =0 I may even be doing this just to start a discussion. But for stall teams to stop showing up, people need to look for things that either counter the current defensive metagame, or perform more effectively than the current metagame.
Many other people seem to be searching for strategies that are, shall we say, "super effective" against stall teams, and although they may be doing that more to increase their win percentage than to change the metagame, they will do both at the same time. An enemy of the Sandstorm is my friend, though that's saying a bit too much for both someone who runs a Hippowdon lead, and a Kankurou fan. :P Boah is a somewhat hypocritical way of dealing with stall teams. Though it can ruin some effective stall combinations, it's Sandstream just adds to the recurring problem. Stealth Rock, 3x Spikes, and 2x Toxic Spikes are very intimidating, so Taunting before any of that can be laid down looks nice. Unfortunately, there's nothing a Gliscor can do if he isn't currently on the field, and your opponent's Hippowdon lead is ready to lay down some Rocks. Spinning gets rid of one aspect of stalls, but only temporarily, and stall teams sometimes make it an objective to take out opposing Rapid Spinners like the thorn, Starmie. There's also The Man Who Was Thursday, and his Ghosty gang that block spinners. I think that anti-walls are the answer to stall teams. *gasps* Infernape, along with some other Pokemon do a good job of this, but as this thread is titled, "Two Feet of Huge Power", I obviously want to promote a different wall breaker...
Imagine a Pokemon with 436 attack... what does it look like? It's obviously an awesome Pokemon, just as long as the other stats are somewhat worthwhile. What does that Pokemon look like? Razor fangs, black wings; something scary, with a scrappy pre-evolution. This is what Azumarill actually looks like.
Here's it's, "scrappy pre-evolution".
=3 Not exactly your average terror, is it? :P The fact that Azumarill is underrated is actually something that the aquarabbit Pokemon has going for it. It's scary, but in a round, cute, bubbly, and somewhat plain way. Two feet of terror in the form of a bunny. But I'm not here to discuss Azumarill aesthetically, I'm made this thread to talk about his potential in the current OU metagame.
Azumarill @ Choice Band
Adamant, Huge Power
EVs: 170 Hp, 252 Attack, 88 Speed
~Waterfall
~Double-Edge
~Focus Punch
~Aqua Jet
With this moveset, Azumarill can (at least) 2HKO everything in game, barring Giratina (Azumarill can actually 2HKO Calm variants with Aqua Tail and Kyogre support), but he shouldn't be showing up in any metagame near Azumarill. On a side note, Azumarill is currently allowed in UU, at least according to this this list, where Azumarill is neither on the BL nor OU list. It's also missing from the threat list, when it can easily ruin teams, as will be shown soon. Some of you may think that Double-Edge is a bit of a "filler" move, but Normal is a great type to pair with Water. It's recoil is nicely absorbed by 383 Hp, and it has the exact same power as STAB Waterfall.
But back to that mind-blowing fact that it can 2HKO anything with any spread in the OU metagame (barring Shedinja...). *finally gets over the shock* So, there is no safe switch-in, as long as you can predict a bit. Here are some damage calculations, courtesy of Dragontamer's defense tiers. Assume that the following moves are all used with the above setup. They are rounded to the nearest hundreth. Please assume maximum IVs for all of the damage calculations.
Waterfall OHKOs defense tier 119.05 and below, the Skarmory tier.
Double-edge OHKOs defense tier 119.05 and below, the Skarmory tier.
Focus Punch OHKOs defense tier 121.38 and below, the Cresselia tier.
Aqua Jet OHKOs defense tier 111.85 and below, the Gengar tier.
These next ones are 2HKOs, accounting for Leftovers (53%+).
Waterfall 2HKOs defense tier 125.78 and below, over the Regirock tier.
Double-Edge 2HKOs defense tier 125.78 and below, over the Regirock tier.
Focus Punch 2HKOs defense tier 128.06 and below, over the Regirock tier.
Aqua Jet 2HKOs defense tier 118.54 and below, the Mew tier.
Now, that's all fine and dandy for people who know a thing or two about defense tiers, but what do all of those numbers mean? Well, Dragontamer explains them very well here, so you could read the first part of the thread, or look at the below standard damage calculations. Doing damage calcs with Azumarill is a pain, because Metalkid's calculator doesn't account for Huge Power; I have to input Azumarill's attack stat (436) against every opposing Pokemon's defense/Hp score, instead of simply putting their species and EV spread. They are listed in order of defense tier number. I'll list the moves I think are most relevant. "Max defense" means 252 Hp, 252 Defense, and a +Defense nature. If the EVs and nature are unlisted, assume a neutral nature and no EVs. "AR" stands for "analysis reccommended", meaning that the Smogon analysis offers that spread. Use common sense when looking at these as well. Aqua Jet does half the damage Waterfall does, Double-Edge does the same damage as waterfall (assuming neutrality), and Focus Punch does a chunk more than Waterfall. Should be simple.
Waterfall vs. max defense Regirock: 85 - 100%
Focus Punch vs. max defense Regirock: 106 - 125%
Waterfall vs. 252 Hp Regirock (AR): 107 - 126%
Waterfall vs. max defense Steelix: 88 - 103%
Waterfall vs. 252 Hp Impish Steelix (AR): 101 - 119%
Waterfall vs. max defense Cresselia: 51 - 60%
Waterfall vs. 252 Hp Cresselia (AR): 69 - 81%
Waterfall vs. 252 Defense Cresselia (AR): 65 - 77%
Double-Edge vs. 252 Hp, 228 Defense, Impish Tangrowth (AR): 55 - 65%
Double-Edge vs. max defense Cloyster (AR): 55 - 65%
Double-Edge vs. max defense Suicune (AR): 58 - 68%
Waterfall vs. max defense Empoleon: 37 - 44%
Focus Punch vs. max defense Empoleon: 188 - 221%
Waterfall vs. 252 Hp Empoleon (AR): 53 - 63%
Focus Punch vs. 252 Hp Empoleon (AR): 267 - 314%
"Really rip through" that, Empoleon!
The rest have been omitted, because the 2HKOs are way too obvious. As you can see, our bunny friend can 2HKO every wall in existance, and even OHKO some, due to a great attacking type. The above are some of the strongest walls (when only counting stats, Cloyster is definitely one of them) in the game. What do you think when you hear that a physical Pokemon can OHKO the strongest defensive Pokemon in the game? From what you see, the only thing in the game that isn't guarunteed to be 2HKO'd by an Azumarill with good prediction (barring strange conditions, and things like Will-o-wisp) is Cresselia, and even then she must have max defense, Leftovers, and a lot of luck, as there's a 78% chance that Azumarill will do 53% or more. The nonexistant "max defense" Empoleon does a good job against Waterfall, but since we are talking about an Azumarill that predicts, Empoleon will get nailed with Focus Punch.
So, we've established that Azumarill has a lot of power. Unfortunately, it isn't very speedy, with only 50 base speed. But, Azumarill has the defenses to make up for it. 100 base Hp, and 80 base defenses are pretty nice, and Azumarill can often take the hit, and OHKO back. The Water type is also pretty nice, with 3 good resistances (Fire, Ice, Water; then, there's Steel), and only two weaknesses. But what will you do with this overpowered rodent? How does it work, what strategy works well? I tested Azumarill out on Shoddy (not in an entirely new team, I replaced a Pokemon on my current team), and it worked very conveniently. Switch it into a wall, hopefully on something a little bit more passive, such as a Blissey Ice Beam or Seismic Toss, easily absorbed by Azumarill's base 100 Hp. It also doesn't mind Thunder Wave too much, as it's pretty slow already. Avoid Will-o-wisp like the plauge, because it'll sap the Hp that Azumarill likes so much, and utterly destroy your offensive capability. That one should be obvious. :P Ultimately, using Azumarill comes down to prediction; assuming that the opponent has a defensive water resist, and a ghost, whoever makes the better prediction will have the advantage. But, as not all teams have both of those things, Azumarill will quite often have a large advantage. A teammate with Thunder Wave would also help out, since Azumarill is a slow Poke. Something so prediction-reliant also benefits greatly from a scouting Pokemon (Rocks+Roar Swampert, etc.). Once you know that the opponent's team is, say, Hippowdon, Tentacruel, Spiritomb, Blissey, Skarmory, Celebi, you know the team's water and normal/fighting resistances, so you can aim your Azumarill's teammates against that. I know that this "strategy" section isn't the greatest, but it should cover the basics. Besides, I want to save some of the secrets for myself. :P
Speaking of Obi's stall team, let's see how Azumarill fares against those (in)famous six Pokes. My reccommended set's EV spread outspeeds half of his team (Hippowdon, Blissey, Spiritomb), and two thirds of it, if you give Azumarill an extra 32 speed EVs to get the jump on Skarmory. As it is, the EVs above give enough to outspeed Tboahs, and base 60s like Weezing. Azumarill OHKOs Blissey and Hippowdon with Waterfall, Tentacruel with Double-Edge, does 93 - 110% to Spiritomb (meaning that Stealth Rock will push that into an OHKO, or since Sandstream goes before Leftovers, 94%+ will OHKO at the end of the turn. Pain Split does a number, though), 2HKOs Celobi with Double-Edge, and Skarmory with Waterfall. He can also switch into most of their passive moves with relative ease. Obviously, this requires some good prediction, but when Azumarill leads off against Hippowdon, Obi (or anyone using a copy of his team) will basically have to choose who will die. All the passive damage on Obi's stall team, and Double-Edge recoil definitely adds up on Azumarill, but when you have base 100 Hp, and take around 10 turns to finish off a team, you're doing well. I'm not suggesting that Azumarill (who is unadressed on Obi's threat list) can single-handedly break Obi's stall team (or that I'm anywhere close to his skill level), but as a wall-breaker, it's definitely a valuable asset on a team facing an opponent like Obi and his stall team.
Once the metagame changes, and shifts away from stall teams to include more offensively oriented Pokemon, won't Azumarill become obsolete? Well, if you saw Aqua Jet on the CB set I suggested, you'll know that the answer to that is no. CB, STAB'd Aqua Jet is a beast, burning through anything less defensive than Gengar with one hit, and reaching more with the help of Spikes. Entry hazards also help his other powerful moves, pushing many 2HKOs into OHKOs, and generally making it easier to sweep. Back on the subject of Aqua Jet, here's a quick list of what it can OHKO. Sorry for possibly including some irrelevant Pokemon, but I thought that I should make a more complete list. UUs are included, because Azmarill is technically UU (unless I'm missing something). All of the following are guarunteed to be OHKO'd by Aqua Jet off the set above, assuming that they have no defensive EVs.
Gengar
Persian
Primape
Jolteon
Espeon
Absol
Swellow
Mismagius (sometimes has defensive EVs)
Houndoom
Ninjask
Alakazam
Dugtrio
Smeargle
Entei (can run defensive EVs if it appears)
Mamoswine (often runs Hp)
Moltres
Armaldo (may run Hp)
Nidoqueen (often runs Hp)
Marowak (sometimes runs Hp, I guess)
Claydol (will run Hp and often defense)
Arcanine (will outspeed with Extremespeed)
Nidoking
Charizard
Typhlosion
Nintetales
Blaziken
Rampardos
Infernape
Aerodactyl
Magmortar
Azumarill will often take the hit from these numerous Pokemon, and return it with an OHKO. As I mentioned before, Azumarill may OHKO many more if Stealth Rock or Spikes are added (many more including Azelf, Ambipom, etc,). It can 2HKO quite a lot with this move as well, useful if you're locked into it.
So, Azumarill is both sweeper bane and wall bane! What can counter it? Well, the simplest answer comes the analysis.
Azumarill can also soak up hits reasonably well, taking 43.60% - 51.44% from Metagross' max attack, CB Meteor Mashes, taking 37.08% - 43.86% from Mixpert's Earthquakes, and being light enough that Grass Knot only has 60 base power against it. Max special attack CS Heatran's Flamethrower does a pitiful 40.47% - 47.78%, which is quite something, considering that the setup above does about 1/3 to Blissey. Azumarill scores a defense tier of 116.57 which is decently tanky. It's not invincible, however, and is still better off switching into passive attacks, and resistances.
I do believe that the CB set above is Azumarill's best bet for OU play, but it also has some nice other options. Keeping within the CB set, Azumarill can sacrifice 32 Hp EVs to outspeed Skarmory. It's other moves can be useful; Body Slam is reccomended in the analysis, but I think that paralysing should be a job for a support Pokemon; a CB Pokemon shouldn't sacrifice power, unless we're talking about CB Rampardos and Head Smash. ;) Return is another alternative to Double-Edge, but you sacrifice OHKOs on Pokemon such as Intimidate Salamence, and the ability to predict against defensive water resists (in return for the lack of Recoil). Aqua Tail is a nice option, and the most useful "other option", but it's accuracy is "only" 90% (Draco Meteor's accuracy has messed me up before), and it loses the nice flinch rate that Waterfall has. Ice Punch and Sing are two other nice options, but Sing (and any more of the Azurill-only egg moves) is incompatible with Aqua Jet, and any of the Marill only egg moves. Ice Punch is cool for Mojo, but as you already get at Garchomp and Salamence with Waterfall and Double-Edge respectively, there's no need to sacrifice Aqua Jet for an Advance-only move. Even if they are inferior, these alternate moves deserve some tier calculations, at least.
Aqua Tail OHKOs defense tier 120.30 and below, the Hippowdon tier.
Return OHKOs defense tier 117.32 and below, the Weezing tier.
Body Slam OHKOs defense tier 114.56 and below, the Porygon-Z tier.
Ice Punch OHKOs defense tier 114.11 and below, the Porygon-Z tier.
Azuma can also utilize some sets that don't cling to Choice Band. The subpuncher would be the best of those, in my opinion, so take a look at the Azumarill analysis.
I had originally written the OP of this discussion to introduce Azumarill to ubers, but as I dug a little bit into ubers, I saw how outclassed he was by Palkia as a Kyogre addition. Was I thinking correctly when I thought of that? No... but as Blissey is still common in ubers, Azumarill can come in on that, and wreak havoc with Kyogre support. Again, Palkia outclasses this, but since I did so many damage calculations on Azuma vs. ubers, I decided to post them. If you want to look at them, follow these two links: 1, 2. Assume CB, rain, etcetera.
I considered waiting until I had hatched a good Azumarill to post this, but I just need something to do; I obviously posted this. Keep an eye out in my thread, if you want an Azumarill!
- Tyranitar's Sand Stream whipped up a sandstorm!
A sandstorm brewed!
- Hippowdon used Stealth Rock!
- Blissey used Toxic!
- Skarmory used Spikes!
- Tentacruel used Toxic Spikes!
Recently, battling in DP is like trying to get through the Gobi desert; sandstorms are raging more than half of the time, strange and dangerous creatures are trying to poison you at every chance they get, and jagged rocks gnaw on the feet of worn travellers. Even when you think you've finished wiping the sand out of your eyes, there's always Abomasnow's Leech Seed and Hail, along with one form of spikes in the very least. I realize that this part of the "natural" life cycle of the metagame, but I'm ready for the "circle of life" to start spinning again, hopefully adding some variety to the sandy pit that is DP. This may come off as negative negative stewing from a malcontent, but I'm simply hoping to start to use Pokemon that aren't resistant to Sandstorm and Toxic, or perhaps even 4x weak to Stealth Rock. =0 I may even be doing this just to start a discussion. But for stall teams to stop showing up, people need to look for things that either counter the current defensive metagame, or perform more effectively than the current metagame.
Many other people seem to be searching for strategies that are, shall we say, "super effective" against stall teams, and although they may be doing that more to increase their win percentage than to change the metagame, they will do both at the same time. An enemy of the Sandstorm is my friend, though that's saying a bit too much for both someone who runs a Hippowdon lead, and a Kankurou fan. :P Boah is a somewhat hypocritical way of dealing with stall teams. Though it can ruin some effective stall combinations, it's Sandstream just adds to the recurring problem. Stealth Rock, 3x Spikes, and 2x Toxic Spikes are very intimidating, so Taunting before any of that can be laid down looks nice. Unfortunately, there's nothing a Gliscor can do if he isn't currently on the field, and your opponent's Hippowdon lead is ready to lay down some Rocks. Spinning gets rid of one aspect of stalls, but only temporarily, and stall teams sometimes make it an objective to take out opposing Rapid Spinners like the thorn, Starmie. There's also The Man Who Was Thursday, and his Ghosty gang that block spinners. I think that anti-walls are the answer to stall teams. *gasps* Infernape, along with some other Pokemon do a good job of this, but as this thread is titled, "Two Feet of Huge Power", I obviously want to promote a different wall breaker...
Imagine a Pokemon with 436 attack... what does it look like? It's obviously an awesome Pokemon, just as long as the other stats are somewhat worthwhile. What does that Pokemon look like? Razor fangs, black wings; something scary, with a scrappy pre-evolution. This is what Azumarill actually looks like.
=3 Not exactly your average terror, is it? :P The fact that Azumarill is underrated is actually something that the aquarabbit Pokemon has going for it. It's scary, but in a round, cute, bubbly, and somewhat plain way. Two feet of terror in the form of a bunny. But I'm not here to discuss Azumarill aesthetically, I'm made this thread to talk about his potential in the current OU metagame.
Azumarill @ Choice Band
Adamant, Huge Power
EVs: 170 Hp, 252 Attack, 88 Speed
~Waterfall
~Double-Edge
~Focus Punch
~Aqua Jet
With this moveset, Azumarill can (at least) 2HKO everything in game, barring Giratina (Azumarill can actually 2HKO Calm variants with Aqua Tail and Kyogre support), but he shouldn't be showing up in any metagame near Azumarill. On a side note, Azumarill is currently allowed in UU, at least according to this this list, where Azumarill is neither on the BL nor OU list. It's also missing from the threat list, when it can easily ruin teams, as will be shown soon. Some of you may think that Double-Edge is a bit of a "filler" move, but Normal is a great type to pair with Water. It's recoil is nicely absorbed by 383 Hp, and it has the exact same power as STAB Waterfall.
But back to that mind-blowing fact that it can 2HKO anything with any spread in the OU metagame (barring Shedinja...). *finally gets over the shock* So, there is no safe switch-in, as long as you can predict a bit. Here are some damage calculations, courtesy of Dragontamer's defense tiers. Assume that the following moves are all used with the above setup. They are rounded to the nearest hundreth. Please assume maximum IVs for all of the damage calculations.
Waterfall OHKOs defense tier 119.05 and below, the Skarmory tier.
Double-edge OHKOs defense tier 119.05 and below, the Skarmory tier.
Focus Punch OHKOs defense tier 121.38 and below, the Cresselia tier.
Aqua Jet OHKOs defense tier 111.85 and below, the Gengar tier.
These next ones are 2HKOs, accounting for Leftovers (53%+).
Waterfall 2HKOs defense tier 125.78 and below, over the Regirock tier.
Double-Edge 2HKOs defense tier 125.78 and below, over the Regirock tier.
Focus Punch 2HKOs defense tier 128.06 and below, over the Regirock tier.
Aqua Jet 2HKOs defense tier 118.54 and below, the Mew tier.
Now, that's all fine and dandy for people who know a thing or two about defense tiers, but what do all of those numbers mean? Well, Dragontamer explains them very well here, so you could read the first part of the thread, or look at the below standard damage calculations. Doing damage calcs with Azumarill is a pain, because Metalkid's calculator doesn't account for Huge Power; I have to input Azumarill's attack stat (436) against every opposing Pokemon's defense/Hp score, instead of simply putting their species and EV spread. They are listed in order of defense tier number. I'll list the moves I think are most relevant. "Max defense" means 252 Hp, 252 Defense, and a +Defense nature. If the EVs and nature are unlisted, assume a neutral nature and no EVs. "AR" stands for "analysis reccommended", meaning that the Smogon analysis offers that spread. Use common sense when looking at these as well. Aqua Jet does half the damage Waterfall does, Double-Edge does the same damage as waterfall (assuming neutrality), and Focus Punch does a chunk more than Waterfall. Should be simple.
Waterfall vs. max defense Regirock: 85 - 100%
Focus Punch vs. max defense Regirock: 106 - 125%
Waterfall vs. 252 Hp Regirock (AR): 107 - 126%
Waterfall vs. max defense Steelix: 88 - 103%
Waterfall vs. 252 Hp Impish Steelix (AR): 101 - 119%
Waterfall vs. max defense Cresselia: 51 - 60%
Waterfall vs. 252 Hp Cresselia (AR): 69 - 81%
Waterfall vs. 252 Defense Cresselia (AR): 65 - 77%
Double-Edge vs. 252 Hp, 228 Defense, Impish Tangrowth (AR): 55 - 65%
Double-Edge vs. max defense Cloyster (AR): 55 - 65%
Double-Edge vs. max defense Suicune (AR): 58 - 68%
Waterfall vs. max defense Empoleon: 37 - 44%
Focus Punch vs. max defense Empoleon: 188 - 221%
Waterfall vs. 252 Hp Empoleon (AR): 53 - 63%
Focus Punch vs. 252 Hp Empoleon (AR): 267 - 314%
"Really rip through" that, Empoleon!
The rest have been omitted, because the 2HKOs are way too obvious. As you can see, our bunny friend can 2HKO every wall in existance, and even OHKO some, due to a great attacking type. The above are some of the strongest walls (when only counting stats, Cloyster is definitely one of them) in the game. What do you think when you hear that a physical Pokemon can OHKO the strongest defensive Pokemon in the game? From what you see, the only thing in the game that isn't guarunteed to be 2HKO'd by an Azumarill with good prediction (barring strange conditions, and things like Will-o-wisp) is Cresselia, and even then she must have max defense, Leftovers, and a lot of luck, as there's a 78% chance that Azumarill will do 53% or more. The nonexistant "max defense" Empoleon does a good job against Waterfall, but since we are talking about an Azumarill that predicts, Empoleon will get nailed with Focus Punch.
So, we've established that Azumarill has a lot of power. Unfortunately, it isn't very speedy, with only 50 base speed. But, Azumarill has the defenses to make up for it. 100 base Hp, and 80 base defenses are pretty nice, and Azumarill can often take the hit, and OHKO back. The Water type is also pretty nice, with 3 good resistances (Fire, Ice, Water; then, there's Steel), and only two weaknesses. But what will you do with this overpowered rodent? How does it work, what strategy works well? I tested Azumarill out on Shoddy (not in an entirely new team, I replaced a Pokemon on my current team), and it worked very conveniently. Switch it into a wall, hopefully on something a little bit more passive, such as a Blissey Ice Beam or Seismic Toss, easily absorbed by Azumarill's base 100 Hp. It also doesn't mind Thunder Wave too much, as it's pretty slow already. Avoid Will-o-wisp like the plauge, because it'll sap the Hp that Azumarill likes so much, and utterly destroy your offensive capability. That one should be obvious. :P Ultimately, using Azumarill comes down to prediction; assuming that the opponent has a defensive water resist, and a ghost, whoever makes the better prediction will have the advantage. But, as not all teams have both of those things, Azumarill will quite often have a large advantage. A teammate with Thunder Wave would also help out, since Azumarill is a slow Poke. Something so prediction-reliant also benefits greatly from a scouting Pokemon (Rocks+Roar Swampert, etc.). Once you know that the opponent's team is, say, Hippowdon, Tentacruel, Spiritomb, Blissey, Skarmory, Celebi, you know the team's water and normal/fighting resistances, so you can aim your Azumarill's teammates against that. I know that this "strategy" section isn't the greatest, but it should cover the basics. Besides, I want to save some of the secrets for myself. :P
Speaking of Obi's stall team, let's see how Azumarill fares against those (in)famous six Pokes. My reccommended set's EV spread outspeeds half of his team (Hippowdon, Blissey, Spiritomb), and two thirds of it, if you give Azumarill an extra 32 speed EVs to get the jump on Skarmory. As it is, the EVs above give enough to outspeed Tboahs, and base 60s like Weezing. Azumarill OHKOs Blissey and Hippowdon with Waterfall, Tentacruel with Double-Edge, does 93 - 110% to Spiritomb (meaning that Stealth Rock will push that into an OHKO, or since Sandstream goes before Leftovers, 94%+ will OHKO at the end of the turn. Pain Split does a number, though), 2HKOs Celobi with Double-Edge, and Skarmory with Waterfall. He can also switch into most of their passive moves with relative ease. Obviously, this requires some good prediction, but when Azumarill leads off against Hippowdon, Obi (or anyone using a copy of his team) will basically have to choose who will die. All the passive damage on Obi's stall team, and Double-Edge recoil definitely adds up on Azumarill, but when you have base 100 Hp, and take around 10 turns to finish off a team, you're doing well. I'm not suggesting that Azumarill (who is unadressed on Obi's threat list) can single-handedly break Obi's stall team (or that I'm anywhere close to his skill level), but as a wall-breaker, it's definitely a valuable asset on a team facing an opponent like Obi and his stall team.
Once the metagame changes, and shifts away from stall teams to include more offensively oriented Pokemon, won't Azumarill become obsolete? Well, if you saw Aqua Jet on the CB set I suggested, you'll know that the answer to that is no. CB, STAB'd Aqua Jet is a beast, burning through anything less defensive than Gengar with one hit, and reaching more with the help of Spikes. Entry hazards also help his other powerful moves, pushing many 2HKOs into OHKOs, and generally making it easier to sweep. Back on the subject of Aqua Jet, here's a quick list of what it can OHKO. Sorry for possibly including some irrelevant Pokemon, but I thought that I should make a more complete list. UUs are included, because Azmarill is technically UU (unless I'm missing something). All of the following are guarunteed to be OHKO'd by Aqua Jet off the set above, assuming that they have no defensive EVs.
Gengar
Persian
Primape
Jolteon
Espeon
Absol
Swellow
Mismagius (sometimes has defensive EVs)
Houndoom
Ninjask
Alakazam
Dugtrio
Smeargle
Entei (can run defensive EVs if it appears)
Mamoswine (often runs Hp)
Moltres
Armaldo (may run Hp)
Nidoqueen (often runs Hp)
Marowak (sometimes runs Hp, I guess)
Claydol (will run Hp and often defense)
Arcanine (will outspeed with Extremespeed)
Nidoking
Charizard
Typhlosion
Nintetales
Blaziken
Rampardos
Infernape
Aerodactyl
Magmortar
Azumarill will often take the hit from these numerous Pokemon, and return it with an OHKO. As I mentioned before, Azumarill may OHKO many more if Stealth Rock or Spikes are added (many more including Azelf, Ambipom, etc,). It can 2HKO quite a lot with this move as well, useful if you're locked into it.
So, Azumarill is both sweeper bane and wall bane! What can counter it? Well, the simplest answer comes the analysis.
Prediction is both the ally and enemy of Azumarill, whichever player can predict better will probably win (as far as Azumarill vs. a team goes), which makes me reconsider my opinion of Smogon's battlers, and battlers in general, as Azumarill is only the 61st most used Pokemon on Shoddy's list. How is it that so few people think they can outpredict? Isn't prediction a fun and central part of battling? Prediction helps quite a bit against Azumarill, but even an Intimidated Waterfall does quite a bit of damage to Salamence, and Double-Edge can OHKO. Your best bet is a Ghost, for immunity to Double-Edge and Focus Punch, and a defensive Water resistance in order to mess with Azumarill. From then on, all you can do is predict (being careful not to over-predict) well, and pray that your opponent is less skilled or experienced than you. If you know your opponent has an Azumarill, try switching out your Blissey, and replacing it with Zapdos on the same turn you predict an Azumarill switch-in. If everything is at 100% health, it will be next to impossible to KO it without losing one of your Pokemon, or at the very least, having one crippled.chaos** said:
Azumarill can also soak up hits reasonably well, taking 43.60% - 51.44% from Metagross' max attack, CB Meteor Mashes, taking 37.08% - 43.86% from Mixpert's Earthquakes, and being light enough that Grass Knot only has 60 base power against it. Max special attack CS Heatran's Flamethrower does a pitiful 40.47% - 47.78%, which is quite something, considering that the setup above does about 1/3 to Blissey. Azumarill scores a defense tier of 116.57 which is decently tanky. It's not invincible, however, and is still better off switching into passive attacks, and resistances.
I do believe that the CB set above is Azumarill's best bet for OU play, but it also has some nice other options. Keeping within the CB set, Azumarill can sacrifice 32 Hp EVs to outspeed Skarmory. It's other moves can be useful; Body Slam is reccomended in the analysis, but I think that paralysing should be a job for a support Pokemon; a CB Pokemon shouldn't sacrifice power, unless we're talking about CB Rampardos and Head Smash. ;) Return is another alternative to Double-Edge, but you sacrifice OHKOs on Pokemon such as Intimidate Salamence, and the ability to predict against defensive water resists (in return for the lack of Recoil). Aqua Tail is a nice option, and the most useful "other option", but it's accuracy is "only" 90% (Draco Meteor's accuracy has messed me up before), and it loses the nice flinch rate that Waterfall has. Ice Punch and Sing are two other nice options, but Sing (and any more of the Azurill-only egg moves) is incompatible with Aqua Jet, and any of the Marill only egg moves. Ice Punch is cool for Mojo, but as you already get at Garchomp and Salamence with Waterfall and Double-Edge respectively, there's no need to sacrifice Aqua Jet for an Advance-only move. Even if they are inferior, these alternate moves deserve some tier calculations, at least.
Aqua Tail OHKOs defense tier 120.30 and below, the Hippowdon tier.
Return OHKOs defense tier 117.32 and below, the Weezing tier.
Body Slam OHKOs defense tier 114.56 and below, the Porygon-Z tier.
Ice Punch OHKOs defense tier 114.11 and below, the Porygon-Z tier.
Azuma can also utilize some sets that don't cling to Choice Band. The subpuncher would be the best of those, in my opinion, so take a look at the Azumarill analysis.
I had originally written the OP of this discussion to introduce Azumarill to ubers, but as I dug a little bit into ubers, I saw how outclassed he was by Palkia as a Kyogre addition. Was I thinking correctly when I thought of that? No... but as Blissey is still common in ubers, Azumarill can come in on that, and wreak havoc with Kyogre support. Again, Palkia outclasses this, but since I did so many damage calculations on Azuma vs. ubers, I decided to post them. If you want to look at them, follow these two links: 1, 2. Assume CB, rain, etcetera.
I considered waiting until I had hatched a good Azumarill to post this, but I just need something to do; I obviously posted this. Keep an eye out in my thread, if you want an Azumarill!
