Fisty Cuffs
[OVERVIEW]
* It has access to a great ability in Technician combined with a very high Attack stat, good offensive typing, and STAB priority in Mach Punch. This in conjunction with it having access to Swords Dance and Spore makes it very threatening once its hard stops have been weakened or eliminated.
* Rockium Z allows it to blast through most of its traditional answers.
* It faces massive competition from Tapu Bulu as a physically offensive Grass-type.
* Its Speed stat leaves a lot to be desired, making it irritatingly reliant on Mach Punch versus offensive teams.
* It is frail, and it is easily worn down when holding Life Orb.
[SET]
name: Technician Attacker
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Mach Punch
move 3: Bullet Seed
move 4: Stone Edge / Spore
item: Rockium Z / Life Orb
ability: Technician
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
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* Swords Dance boosts Breloom's Attack stat to astronomical levels in a single turn.
* Mach Punch is a STAB priority move and gets the boost from Technician.
* Bullet Seed hits like a truck with a boost from Technician and can hit through Substitute. To illustrate its raw power, it OHKOes uninvested Tapu Bulu after Stealth Rock if it hits 4 times with Life Orb and an Adamant nature.
* Stone Edge gets turned into Continental Crush, which allows Breloom to deal massive damage to a lot of its traditional answers such as Amoonguss, Mega Venusaur, Tangrowth, Skarmory, and Mega Scizor. Stone Edge is also nice for hitting Charizard and Volcarona switch-ins hard if Continental Crush has already been used or needs to be saved for later. Continental Crush Breloom is better at wallbreaking than Spore variants are.
* Spore cripples one Pokemon and allows for a free Swords Dance while also creating free turns for teammates later on. This is a generally nice utility option, and it is also easy to bluff if you carry Stone Edge due to Breloom's notoriety for using the move.
Set Details
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* Maximum Attack and Speed investment allows Breloom to hit as hard and fast as possible.
* Adamant is usually the preferred nature because it lets Breloom hit noticeably harder and takes better advantage of Breloom's tendency to spam Mach Punch.
* Jolly is an option to Speed tie with opposing base 70s such as Volcanion, Bisharp, and opposing Breloom and makes it a slightly more consistent sweeper versus slower teams. It also outpaces neutral base 80s such as Mamoswine and Dragonite. That said, it is much more team specific, so Adamant is usually better.
* Technician boosts its two primary STAB moves.
* Rockium Z converts Stone Edge into a 180-Base Power Continental Crush to hit the foes it targets hard.
* Life Orb bolsters the firepower of all of Breloom's attacks. If running this, 29 HP IVs should be used to make Life Orb recoil deal 25 HP as opposed 26 HP—resulting in a net HP saving across three or more attacks.
Usage Tips
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* Do not switch Breloom into strong attacks directly; bring it in after a teammate has fainted or via a slow U-turn or Volt Switch instead. Don't bring it in on Knock Off so as to not reveal that it is using a Z-move.
* It is sometimes better to preserve Rockium Z rather than using it immediately; this is because your opponent will often scout for it, so making sure you hit the intended target with it is important.
* Use Swords Dance as your opponent switches into the Continental Crush target rather than attempting to hit them as they switch in.
* Mach Punch is the move you will click the most.
* Only use Swords Dance against something Breloom forces out or immediately after putting a foe to sleep with Spore.
* Be wary of opposing Tapu Fini and Tapu Koko when clicking Spore because Misty Surge and Electric Surge render it useless versus grounded foes.
Team Options
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* Slow Volt Switch or U-turn users and pivots such as Mega Scizor, Rotom-W, Tapu Fini, and Landorus-T help get Breloom out onto the field.
* Stealth Rock users such as Landorus-T and Garchomp help whittle foes down into KO range of a +2 hit.
* Tapu Koko, Tapu Bulu, and Tapu Fini are all capable of clearing Psychic Terriain, which is helpful to reduce the time needed before you can send Breloom out safely once Tapu Lele has been eliminated. Tapu Fini in particular is a good partner because Misty Terrain makes Breloom a safe Rotom-W switch-in, whereas Tapu Bulu is capable of boosting its Bullet Seeds to monstrous levels with its Grassy Surge.
* Dark-types such as Bisharp, Weavile, Tyranitar, and Alolan Muk have good offensive synergy with Breloom due to their ability to deal with Psychic-types. Since many of these Dark-types will carry Pursuit to trap Psychic- and Ghost-types, other Pursuit users such as Mega Scizor and Metagross also make for good partners by extension.
* Ghost-types—namely Gengar and Alolan Marowak—hit similar foes to Dark-types and in addition have good matchups versus Pokemon like Tapu Bulu, Tapu Koko, Skarmory, Amoonguss, Mega Scizor, and Mega Venusaur, which give Breloom a headache, although Alolan Marowak has to be careful of Stone Edge from Tapu Bulu.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
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* Focus Punch is an alternative to Swords Dance on Adamant Life Orb variants, putting Skarmory into the KO range of Mach Punch after Stealth Rock.
* Force Palm has a paralysis rate and hits harder than Mach Punch, but Breloom has difficulty fitting it onto its set and it only really serves a purpose against slower Pokemon.
* A Poison Heal set is an option for good longevity, but Breloom generally prefers Technician.
* A Substitute + Focus Punch set can hit incredibly hard repeatedly throughout the match and benefits from Poison Heal, but a standard Technician set is typically preferred.
* A Choice Band set with Superpower / Mach Punch / Bullet Seed / Rock Tomb helps with the longevity issues a Life Orb set faces while still hitting immensely hard, with Superpower almost always 2HKOing physically defensive Skarmory after Stealth Rock and also having a chance to do the same to physically defensive Tangrowth. However, it faces a large amount of competition from Tapu Bulu, which has Grassy Surge alongside Wood Hammer and better bulk.
Checks and Counters
========
**Tapu Lele**: Tapu Lele sets Psychic Terrain as it switches in, which renders Mach Punch ineffective, and it also outpaces Breloom and OHKOes with either Psychic or Moonblast. It cannot switch in on anything other than Mach Punch, however.
**Faster Attackers**: Pokemon that are faster and can shrug off Mach Punch in order to threaten it back with powerful attacks, such as Latios, Mega Alakazam, Tapu Koko, and Mega Metagross, are capable of forcing Breloom out.
**Skarmory**: If its user can successfully make Breloom waste its Continental Crush on a teammate, Skarmory walls Breloom and clears its Swords Dance boosts with Whirlwind or, alternatively, threatens it with Brave Bird. It is also capable of using Counter to deal damage to Breloom using any attack other than Continental Crush.
**Bulky Grass-types**: If Continental Crush gets used against a teammate, bulky Grass-types such as Tangrowth, Amoonguss, and Mega Venusaur take very little from Breloom's attacks. Amoonguss can clear its Swords Dance boosts with Clear Smog, and they all threaten it with a potential Hidden Power Fire.
**Flying-types**: Flying-types such as Tornadus-T, Mega Pinsir, and Salamence threaten Breloom with a 4x effective STAB attack. They must be careful of Stone Edge when coming in, however.
**Fire-types**: Fire-types naturally threaten Breloom due to resisting Bullet Seed and hitting it super effectively in return. Volcarona outpaces Breloom and resists Mach Punch and Bullet Seed. From there, it can threaten Breloom in return by outpacing and hitting it with Fire Blast. Mega Charizard X outpaces and OHKOes Breloom with Flare Blitz, whereas Mega Charizard Y outpaces Breloom, resists Mach Punch, and OHKOes with Fire Blast. Alolan Marowak is immune to Mach Punch and KOes in return with either Shadow Bone or Fire Punch. That said, all of these Pokemon need to be wary of Stone Edge when switching in, and the latter is not a threat to Breloom if it carries said move due to being naturally outpaced.
**Poison-types**: Gengar is immune to Mach Punch and outpaces and hits Breloom extremely hard with any of its attacks; similarly, Nidoking resists Mach Punch and OHKOes back with Ice Beam. Scolipede takes pitiful damage from both of its STAB moves and deals heavy damage in return with Megahorn, although it has to be wary of Stone Edge.
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