Research Week #1: Camerupt, Swanna, Tropius and Zebstrika

[Punchshroom]

Would you really bother passing speed boosts to Camerupt when it could learn Rock Polish on its own? I've tried an unorthodox Rock Polish Rupt with Stone Edge to hit Mantine, Charizard and Altaria which works decently, though the choice in nature was a tricky one. The ability to switch into Electrics without fearing a super effective move also makes SDef Camerupt an interesting choice.

Edit: Well celever, I've just mentioned that Camerupt usually has little to fear from specially oriented Electric-types, the most threatening attack would likely be in the form of Focus Blast or STAB Air Slash, otherwise it's weak Giga Drains, Psychics or Hidden Powers, which is enough opportunity to setup Rock Polish. I'll admit from experience that SDef Rupt doesn't work in NU nearly as well as in RU, where Electrics and Bugs are more prevelant and most Waters dislike STAB Earth Power.

 

[Celever]

Would you really bother passing speed boosts to Camerupt when it could learn Rock Polish on its own? I've tried an unorthodox Rock Polish Rupt with Stone Edge to hit Mantine, Charizard and Altaria which works decently, though the choice in nature was a tricky one. The ability to switch into Electrics without fearing a super effective move also makes SDef Camerupt an interesting choice.

It doesn't seem to force anything out to try and set up that way, and it certainly doesn't have enough bulk to be able to do any damage on top of that. Rock polish just doesn't work on camerupt from my experience.

 

[NfskMjmMal]

Just Theorymonning here, but I think Misdreavus or Musharna with Twave would be really good partners for Camerupt and especially Tropius. Both are fantastic walls and clerics which can provide nice defensive synergy, and SubSeeding Tropius with para support would be annoying.

 

[Lasagne]

OK I laddered with Swanna and Zebstrika under the alt 'u r a pos'. Unfortunately I didn't have time to get under 70 provisional and skylight won't let me submit this properly cos shes a dum.

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http://pastebin.com/d1r0Cn5B

Zebstrika was very good, and helped deal with lots of threats that i regularly encountered, such as Exeggutor and Alomomola that otherwise caused my team some trouble. I did find it was rather lacking in power sometimes, but generally it wasn't too much of a problem with Life Orb.

Swanna was probably about as useful. There were a few matches in which it cleaned up the remaining 2-4 pokemon on the opponent's team. In other situations, it liked to come in and make dents in the opponents teams with Surf and Hurricane, which I found is a very good combination that hits a large percentage of the most used pokemon very hard.

Both pokemons' speed tiers helped them out a bunch, Swanna's enabling it to outspeed key threats such as Primeape and Jynx, and Zebstrika's letting it outspeed and ohko faster pokemon like Scolipede.

Generally, they are both pretty good, and should definitely be considered as threats in the current metagame in my opinion. Zebstrika is possibly the best fast electric type in the tier right now, alongside Electabuzz, and Swanna is just good :P

 

[skylight]

Hey guys! I hope you had a fun week using these mons and getting to know the ins and outs of them, unfortunately this week is now over. Another week will be up really soon, so keep an eye out here! On another note, if you'd like to continue discussing the viability of these mons in the current meta, by all means use the np thread, or the viability ranking thread if you wanna get technical. :) I liked the discussion and the interest here, so hopefully this keeps up for the next week and onwards. If you have any feedback or thoughts, lemme know via Private Message, or on IRC, thanks!