Credit to: Yilx
This is it. This is the low point in my life. For those who have been around a while, you'll know that I hate Amoonguss. We all have that one Pokemon we hate, some dislike Mega Kangaskhan, some dislike Talonflame *cough* Rogue *cough* and for me it Amoonguss.
Despite my hatred for this...thing, Amoonguss is a really good support Pokemon with access to Rage Powder to redirect attacks from it's partner, allowing for a potential set up/sweep, and Spore to put everything barring Grass types and Safey Goggle users to sleep, which can heavily swing the game in your favour allowing you to take out big threats while they snooze. Amoonguss has no offensive pressure however, so if you're looking to blast through opponents' teams before they can even blink, Amoongus may not be the Pokemon for you, but if you like more defensive play, being able to support other members of the tesm to take care of things, then hopefully these build will prove useful
Type: Grass/Poison
Weaknesses: Flying (X2), Fire (X2), Psychic (X2), Ice (X2)
Resistances: Fighting (X0.5), Water (X0.5), Grass (X0.25), Electric (X0.5), Fairy (X0.5)
Abilities: Effect Spore - When a Pokémon with this Ability is hit by a move that makes contact, there is a 30% chance that the attacking Pokémon will be become paralyzed, asleep or poisoned.
Effect Spore has a 9% chance of inducing poison, 10% chance of inducing paralysis, and 11% chance of inducing sleep.
If a Pokémon with this Ability is hit by a multi-strike move that makes contact, each hit has an independent chance to activate this Ability. Grass-type Pokémon, Pokémon with Overcoat, and Pokémon holding the Safety Goggles are immune to Effect Spore
Regenerator (Hidden Ability) - Regenerator restores ⅓ of the Pokémon's maximum HP upon switching out. This effect will occur if Regenerator is the Pokémon's Ability in battle when it switches out and is not suppressed; a Pokémon that obtained the Ability with Trace will restore HP when it switches out, whereas a Pokémon which has Regenerator but has been affected by Gastro Acid will not.
Base Stats: 114 HP / 85 ATK / 70 DEF / 85 SpA / 80 SpD / 30 Spe
Physically Defensive
Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet / Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 236 HP / 188 Def / 84 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect
Amoongus doesn't really need much investment to survive most neutral physical attacks, and this set is designed to take the hardest hitting ones. The HP / Def investment allow Amoongus to take an Adamant 252 Attack Mega Kangaskhan's Double Edge, and coupled with Rocky Helmet, Kang is doing just as much damage to itself. The EVs also allow it to survive a Timid 252 SpA Life Orb Psyshock from Latios, and make a Knock off from Bisharp (97.5 Base Power) a 3HKO. Lastly you can survive a Jolly 252 Attack Mega Salamence's Double Edge if you have intimidate support, as shown in the calculations below. The rest of the EVs were thrown into Special Defense to help take special hits better. Like I mentioned earlier, the sole purpose of Amoonguss is to support so I felt it was better to put the rest in SpD rather than distribute between it and SpA.
As for item choice, Rocky Helmet is a great item on a physically defensive Pokemon because it can help Amoonguss' partner take out physical attackers with the chip damage it provides, while also breaking any potential Focus Sash. It also helps Mega Kangaskhan matchup immensely since it hits twice, meaning it take Rocky Helmet damage twice. To give an example;
A lot of Mega Kangaskhan's carry Double Edge, a move where the user receives recoil damage equal to 1/3 of the damage done to the target. So if we take a 4 HP / 252+ Attack Mega Kangaskhan (has a HP stat of 181 with 31 IVs in HP) and use Double Edge on this Amoonguss build it does damage between 157-187 in HP. 1/3 of 157 = 52.3333. Rocky Helmet takes 1/6 of the attackers maximum HP each time the holder is hit with a contact move. 1/6 of 181 = 30.166666. Mega Kang takes damage from Rocky Helmet after each hit. Round these down to 52 and 30 = 52 + 30 + 30 = 112. So 181 - 112 = 69 HP left, which is less than half and you haven't even attacked it.(I think I've done these calcs right, pls don't hit me if they're wrong). Alternatively, you can run Sitrus Berry to help Amoonguss stay around without the need to switch out for the Regenerator.
Should you want to take physical hits even better, you can always run 252H HP / 252 DEF / 4 SpD
Damage Calculations
Defensive
Offensive
Specially Defensive
Amoonguss @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 180 HP / 92 Def / 236 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect
Obviously, this set isn't going to take physical hits as well as the aforementioned set, but with Amoonguss' naturally high HP stat, it can still take a decent amount. The main goal of this set was to survive Timid 252 SpA Charizard Y Heat Wave in the Sun (Not that you'd really want to stay in if you could help it), and the HP / SpD investment does let Amoongus survive it. It also survives a Modest one with up to 112 EVs in Special Attack. Lasty, with 180 HP / 92 Def, Amoonguss can survive a Double Edge from Jolly 252 Attack Mega Kangkaskhan. Move choices and item choices remain the same from the first set.
Damage Calculations
Defensive
Offensive - Same as previous set
Potential Teammates include, but aren't limited to;
- Heavy hitters particularly Mega Kangaskhan since Amoonguss can redirect Fighting type attacks which it resists
- Potential set up Pokemon - Despite Clefairy/Clefable being more popular with Mega Salamence, Amoonguss may still find a place on a team with him
- Mega Gardevior - Amoongus can help redirect attacks if it's a trick room Mega Gard, and if it gets set up Amoongus can Spore away
- Fire types such as Heatran - redirect Water and Fighting type attacks
Threats Include but aren't limitied to
- Mega Charizard Y -
Nothing makes me happier than seeing Amoonguss burn in hellI mean, uh, Charizard Y is an obvious threat with his sun boosted fire attacks. Although the SpD set can survive a Timid Heat Wave and some Modest ones, and Overheat will make quick work of Amoonguss
- Talonflame - 252 HP / 252 DEF Bood Amoongus has a 25% of being OHKO'd by Life Orb Brave Bird, so if you're not running this set, then it's time to switch (or leave him in, I don't mind)
- Heatran - Another fire type. Although Heatran won't one shot with an unboosted Heat Wave, Amoongus still doesn't want to be taking strong STAB fire attacks, and a lot of Heatran run Substitute which Spore will not affect
- Mega Salamence - Aerilate boostes Double Edge / Return / Frustration. Need I say more?
- Psychic types such as Mega Metagross, Mega Gardevoir and Latios
- Other Grass type such as Mega Venusaur and Ferrothorn - Unaffected by Spore and Rage Powder
- Being doubled up on - With Rage Powder being used to redirect attacks, even though we're EV'd to survive a lot of strong attacks any combination of a stong super effective hit and a neutral hit means Amoonguss won't be supporting it's partner for long
- Taunt users such as Thundurus
- Safety Goggle users - Some exapmles are; Cresselia, Zapdos, Rotom-H
Other Notable Moves
Although 99% of Amoonguss will run the moveset given, there are other moves which I'll list just in case
- Sludge Bomb - A STAB that can hit fairies for SE damage
- Clear Smog - An attacking move that also resets all stat changes
- Double Team - (Why am I listing this...)
- Swagger - As if Amoongus wasn't annoying enough already, Swagger raises the targets attack stat by 2 stages and confuses them, which means you can potentially get a free turn if they hit themselves
- Gastro Acid - Suppresses the targets ability. Also despite being a Poison type move, it affects Steel type Pokemon (Look out Aegislash!)
- Stun Spore - Paralyses the target
Other Notable Items
- Mental Herb - Prevents the holder being taunted -single use
- Leftovers - To help Amoonguss stay for longer - A longer alternative to Sitrus Berry
- Black Sludge - Same as Leftovers
- Eject Button - Amooguss can switch in to take a hit for a team member if for example you can't Protect, and you can immediately switch back, with Amoonguss getting the Regenerator health.
- Coba Berry - Decreases the damage taken from Flying type moves
- Occa Berry - Decreases the damage taken from Fire type moves
- Payapa Berry - Decreases the damage taken from Psychic type moves
- [Yache Berry - Decreases the damage taken from Ice type moves
Thanks for reading. As always you can tweak EVs to your liking, and if you have any builds to share I'll be happy to add them to the original post :D