Quiver Dance in RU
With the addition of Tera to Gen 9, Quiver Dance has become an even more devastating move in competitive mons, and I thought itd be interesting to analyze some of the viable options that exist in the tier for Pokemon that have it, as I believe some of them are some of the most threatening but somewhat lesser talked about cleaners that exist within the tier, often overshadowed by the much more obviously broken Haxorus and Lycan, but that still could prove to be problematic later on. This should also be a good guideline of the main sets Ive encountered and/or used with these Pokemon, as well as their different intricacies and dynamics within the tier. Finally a last disclaimer is that a lot of these mons can utilize different Tera types to get past team specific threats, and this is more relevant as a showcase of what theyre generally capable of doing:
Venomoth @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Tinted Lens
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Sleep Powder
- Bug Buzz
- Sludge Bomb
Starting with the most common culprit of Quiver Dance in RU, Venomoth is back and it does what its always done, be really annoying with Sleep moves. Veno is probably the one mon in this list that doesnt really need Tera commonly. This is cause Tinted Lens and Tera Bug allows Venomoth to get past would be walls such as SpDef Magnezone with ease without relying on Tera Ground.
+1 252 SpA Tinted Lens Tera Bug Venomoth Bug Buzz vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Magnezone: 178-210 (51.8 - 61.2%) -- 96.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Venomoth currently stands as one of the least threatening Quiver Dancers in RU, in my opinion, due to its lack of recovery (ig Morning Sun could be used instead of Sleep Powder but then ur not using broken sleep....), propensity to priority such as Accelerock, Ice Shard, etc., and matchup with other users of QD. Its still a great mon that breaks balance and doesnt rely on Tera to get past some annoying walls that could help your mons in the back finish the job.
Frosmoth @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Tera Blast
- Ice Beam
- Giga Drain
Frosmoth is, in my opinion, one of the biggest nuisances in RU right now thanks to its amazing ability Ice Scales. This ability allows Frosmoth to not be easily revenge killed by common Choice Scarf users such as Gardevoir as well as being setup fodder for diverse common Special Attackers such as Tatsugiri, Mismagius and even Oricorio, whos unable to beat Frosmoth one on one.
+1 252 SpA Frosmoth Ice Beam vs. +1 0 HP / 0 SpD Oricorio-Pom-Pom: 384-452 (131.9 - 155.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252 SpA Oricorio-Pom-Pom Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Ice Scales Frosmoth: 243-286 (86.4 - 101.7%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
The final caveat that makes Frosmoth such a menace, albeit at the cost of aTera Shard, is its ability to change type with Ice Scales. Tera Ground is probably the main set here, allowing Frosmoth to not be revenge killed by Accelerock and granting it a way to hit SpDef Pokemon or Steels such as Magnezone, Revavroom and faster would be counters like Tauros-Paldea Fire, Salazzle. Tera Fighting can also be considered for still resisting Accelerock but also not being hit supereffectively with Ice Shard while Tera Water allows you to not be easily revenge killed by Fire-types.
Frosmoths lower speed does make it easily revenge killed by Scarf Tauros-Paldea Fire and Salazzle, and its reliance on Tera does grant the player less flexibility with its teammates, but Moth is honestly threatening enough to a lot of teams without Tera, as well as being a great way to force switch-ins, and its ability to recover health with Giga Drain also means its often harder to take down with priority.
Oricorio-Pom-Pom @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Dancer
Tera Type: Ground/Fighting
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Revelation Dance
- Hurricane/Air Slash
- Roost
Oricorio gaining Quiver Dance completely changes its whole game, and makes it a very valuable member of any team wanting a faster, surprisingly versatile wincon and breaker. An interesting dynamic to understand with Oricorio and the move Revelation Dance is that the typing of the move also changes when its Tera activates. So for example, one turn you could be using Pom Pom with Electric-type Revelation Dance, then Tera and have a Ground-type Revelation Dance.
This adds a great layer of depth to Oricorio, since it doesnt rely on Tera Blast to make use of its Tera STAB, meaning its able to hit Electric and Flying resists such as Toxtricity, Magnezone without having to drop recovery in Roost or either of its original STAB moves. This can also work against Oris favor tho, since its reliance on Revelation Dance could suddenly make it walled by a Ground immunity after Tera. Um, example might be an opposing Oricorio Pom-Pom, but this dynamic rarely happens.
Their Speed stat is also versatile: Youre able to drop a certain amount of Speed in order to outspeed threats such as Rotom and Heracross, but leaving you vulnerable to Scarf Flamigo . Even bulkier variants could be worth considering, which doesnt seem to be the case for the other Quiver Dancers mentioned in this post. Its higher Speed and Roost simply allow it to function as a breaker if you want it or as an all out sweeper depending on what you need.
All of the 3 Oricorio formes utilize Tera in a similar fashion, but theyre not interchangeable.
Ori Pom-Pom is probably the most reliable forme thanks to its solid defensive and offensive typing.
Ori Sensu has an even better offensive typing allowing it to be less reliant on Tera than the other two Oris able to hit Rotom formes for neutral damage. Ghost is also generally solid defensively and its able to remove its weaknesses to checks such as Naclstack, Krook thanks to Tera Fighting.
Ori Baile, probably the most niche one, has a great offensive typing thanks to the tiers main Rock-type having 75 65 bulk. It also holds the best matchup against Snow teams, especially if running Tera Fighting. It also might have the option of setting up on Tauros-Paldea if Scarf (ive never seen that thing click Wild Charge ever and u could also Tera Ground, but thats a pretty awkward mindgame...).
Hope this was worth reading and entertaining! These mons are all surprisingly distinct and fun to use, so if you wanna not win all of your games with broken ass Haxorus or Lycan, give these a shot! Prediction: these will be broken eventually.
With the addition of Tera to Gen 9, Quiver Dance has become an even more devastating move in competitive mons, and I thought itd be interesting to analyze some of the viable options that exist in the tier for Pokemon that have it, as I believe some of them are some of the most threatening but somewhat lesser talked about cleaners that exist within the tier, often overshadowed by the much more obviously broken Haxorus and Lycan, but that still could prove to be problematic later on. This should also be a good guideline of the main sets Ive encountered and/or used with these Pokemon, as well as their different intricacies and dynamics within the tier. Finally a last disclaimer is that a lot of these mons can utilize different Tera types to get past team specific threats, and this is more relevant as a showcase of what theyre generally capable of doing:
Venomoth @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Tinted Lens
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Sleep Powder
- Bug Buzz
- Sludge Bomb
Starting with the most common culprit of Quiver Dance in RU, Venomoth is back and it does what its always done, be really annoying with Sleep moves. Veno is probably the one mon in this list that doesnt really need Tera commonly. This is cause Tinted Lens and Tera Bug allows Venomoth to get past would be walls such as SpDef Magnezone with ease without relying on Tera Ground.
+1 252 SpA Tinted Lens Tera Bug Venomoth Bug Buzz vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Magnezone: 178-210 (51.8 - 61.2%) -- 96.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Venomoth currently stands as one of the least threatening Quiver Dancers in RU, in my opinion, due to its lack of recovery (ig Morning Sun could be used instead of Sleep Powder but then ur not using broken sleep....), propensity to priority such as Accelerock, Ice Shard, etc., and matchup with other users of QD. Its still a great mon that breaks balance and doesnt rely on Tera to get past some annoying walls that could help your mons in the back finish the job.
Frosmoth @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Tera Blast
- Ice Beam
- Giga Drain
Frosmoth is, in my opinion, one of the biggest nuisances in RU right now thanks to its amazing ability Ice Scales. This ability allows Frosmoth to not be easily revenge killed by common Choice Scarf users such as Gardevoir as well as being setup fodder for diverse common Special Attackers such as Tatsugiri, Mismagius and even Oricorio, whos unable to beat Frosmoth one on one.
+1 252 SpA Frosmoth Ice Beam vs. +1 0 HP / 0 SpD Oricorio-Pom-Pom: 384-452 (131.9 - 155.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252 SpA Oricorio-Pom-Pom Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Ice Scales Frosmoth: 243-286 (86.4 - 101.7%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
The final caveat that makes Frosmoth such a menace, albeit at the cost of aTera Shard, is its ability to change type with Ice Scales. Tera Ground is probably the main set here, allowing Frosmoth to not be revenge killed by Accelerock and granting it a way to hit SpDef Pokemon or Steels such as Magnezone, Revavroom and faster would be counters like Tauros-Paldea Fire, Salazzle. Tera Fighting can also be considered for still resisting Accelerock but also not being hit supereffectively with Ice Shard while Tera Water allows you to not be easily revenge killed by Fire-types.
Frosmoths lower speed does make it easily revenge killed by Scarf Tauros-Paldea Fire and Salazzle, and its reliance on Tera does grant the player less flexibility with its teammates, but Moth is honestly threatening enough to a lot of teams without Tera, as well as being a great way to force switch-ins, and its ability to recover health with Giga Drain also means its often harder to take down with priority.
Oricorio-Pom-Pom @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Dancer
Tera Type: Ground/Fighting
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Revelation Dance
- Hurricane/Air Slash
- Roost
Oricorio gaining Quiver Dance completely changes its whole game, and makes it a very valuable member of any team wanting a faster, surprisingly versatile wincon and breaker. An interesting dynamic to understand with Oricorio and the move Revelation Dance is that the typing of the move also changes when its Tera activates. So for example, one turn you could be using Pom Pom with Electric-type Revelation Dance, then Tera and have a Ground-type Revelation Dance.
This adds a great layer of depth to Oricorio, since it doesnt rely on Tera Blast to make use of its Tera STAB, meaning its able to hit Electric and Flying resists such as Toxtricity, Magnezone without having to drop recovery in Roost or either of its original STAB moves. This can also work against Oris favor tho, since its reliance on Revelation Dance could suddenly make it walled by a Ground immunity after Tera. Um, example might be an opposing Oricorio Pom-Pom, but this dynamic rarely happens.
Their Speed stat is also versatile: Youre able to drop a certain amount of Speed in order to outspeed threats such as Rotom and Heracross, but leaving you vulnerable to Scarf Flamigo . Even bulkier variants could be worth considering, which doesnt seem to be the case for the other Quiver Dancers mentioned in this post. Its higher Speed and Roost simply allow it to function as a breaker if you want it or as an all out sweeper depending on what you need.
All of the 3 Oricorio formes utilize Tera in a similar fashion, but theyre not interchangeable.
Ori Pom-Pom is probably the most reliable forme thanks to its solid defensive and offensive typing.
Ori Sensu has an even better offensive typing allowing it to be less reliant on Tera than the other two Oris able to hit Rotom formes for neutral damage. Ghost is also generally solid defensively and its able to remove its weaknesses to checks such as Naclstack, Krook thanks to Tera Fighting.
Ori Baile, probably the most niche one, has a great offensive typing thanks to the tiers main Rock-type having 75 65 bulk. It also holds the best matchup against Snow teams, especially if running Tera Fighting. It also might have the option of setting up on Tauros-Paldea if Scarf (ive never seen that thing click Wild Charge ever and u could also Tera Ground, but thats a pretty awkward mindgame...).
Hope this was worth reading and entertaining! These mons are all surprisingly distinct and fun to use, so if you wanna not win all of your games with broken ass Haxorus or Lycan, give these a shot! Prediction: these will be broken eventually.
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