Project NU Next Best Thing [Week 35: Gastrodon]

Hey everyone! My name's Pokeslice and I was asked to help out the fantastic team of Roxiee and Corthius with a few of their projects, so shout out to them for their great work for the community and letting me tag along :D

Now, without further ado, the winner of last week was nameless90 for his Swords Dance Celebi, Congrats!

CYCLE 13 - Tornadus

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Only God knows why this came to town NU. With a beautiful 125 SpA and 111 Spe, this mon is a demon on paper, especially when coupled with it's fantastic movepool and Prankster shenanigans. Physical sets are possible too, with it's more than workable 115 Atk and wide variety of physical moves. I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with for this week. The possibilities are endless!
Submissions for NU's Santa end on Christmas(!), Friday, December 25th. Have fun!

None!
 
Reserving Defog+U-turn

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Tornadus (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Knock Off
- Defog
- U-turn​

Torn has the potential to be one of the best utility mons in the tier right now. With access to moves such as Knock Off, Defog, and U-Turn for a pivot option, Tornadus acts as a fantastic support mon for more offensive builds, and with great attacking stats, it can still pack a punch.
 
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Defiant + Bulk Up
:ss/Tornadus:
Tornadus (M) @ Sitrus Berry / Lum Berry
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- Brick Break
- Crunch
- Bulk Up​

Since most people usually use Prankster Tornadus, I'd thought I do something different. Defiant + Bulk Up. Defiant raises your attack two stages when an opponent lowers your stats. You could run Sitrus Berry for some healing, or Lum Berry so you don't have to be crippled by status such as burns. Anyways, once you consume your berry or it gets knocked off, Acrobatics will have double power and is STAB. Brick Break deals with ice, steel, and rock types, and can remove screens as well. Crunch is to hit Bronzong and Slowbro-Galar hard. Bulk Up raises Tornadus' attack and defense.
 
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reserving sub + hdb + 3 attacks

:bw/tornadus:
Tornadus @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Prankster
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- Knock Off
- Substitute​

substitute tornadus serves the purpose of being more threatening than it already is especially on teams with a rain-setter like politoed.

due to tornadus high speed and high special attack, this pokemon is a great wallbreaker and serves the purpose of demolishing the opposing team with its high base power stab in hurricane and its great coverage-options in focus blast and knock off. focus blast hits steel-types such as copperajah and aggron, furthermore it hits rock-types such as tyrantrum and barbarcle hard. knock off is its utility-option and removes annoying items from other pokemons, items like heavy-duty boots, leftovers, and focus sashes.

substitute is there to help tornadus doing that job perfectly and to serve as a threatening option, as the opposing pokemon has to break its sub first. specially defensive threats such as cresselia can be threatened with knock off and it helps removing colburs from psychic- and ghost-types.
 
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:ss/tornadus:
Tornadus (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Weather Ball
- U-turn
- Focus Blast

I feel like rain hasn't been getting much usage despite being a really strong playstyle, and when I was building with rik yesterday, we decided to test out Choice Specs Tornadus with rain support. Turns out, this is a good combination :O Rain-boosted Weather Ball means Tornadus can just blast through Diancie, while Choice Specs Hurricane---especially under rain so that you can't miss---makes breaking generic special walls like Mantine and Milotic rather trivial. The third moveslot is pretty flexible; we ran U-turn because pivoting is OP, but there are a few possible options here. Knock Off could be nice to cripple foes like Sylveon and Porygon2; Sludge Wave bops Sylveon both in and outside of rain; and even something like Defog could probably be run. Lastly, we did Focus Blast because... it was the last slot and felt the most practical? idk lol
 
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Itemless mixed attacker Tornadus

Tornadus (M) @ No item
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 8 Atk / 248 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Acrobatics
- Heat Wave
- U-turn
- Grass Knot


Simply put, Tornadus has both mixed offenses and it is a waste choosing only one side. The key point of the set is the replacement of Hurricane, strong but inaccurate, with Acrobatics. The lack of item can be useful as a gimmick to absorb better some random unboosted Knock Off.
This EVs spread allows Tornatus to use its special coverage move, while using U-turn + Acrobatics (a 110 base power move with STAB and 100% accuracy). The ability Defiant helps with the special side, but I think that Heat Wave and Grass Knot needs more immediate power because they are the two main coverage moves without the STAB bonus.
I want to put Knock Off there, but 4 moveslots are really few.

The best part of this set is that Tornadus has a lot of moves, especially on the special side to choose from, so pick whatever moves you feel more useful (such as Sludge Bomb, Dark Pulse, Focus Blast, Knock Off, Superpower and so on) depending on what your team needs to cover.
 
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Choice Band
:ss/tornadus:
Tornadus (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Superpower
- Iron Tail
- U-turn

I am a fan of Choice Band Knock Off Pokemon like Guzzlord so I thought I'd give Tornadus a try. You need something to hit Fairies considering Knock Off, Superpower, and U-turn are all resisted by Sylveon and Comfey so I went with Iron Tail. Fly is a 2-turn hit and it basically invites Steels and Rocks in on the Pokemon you're specifically trying to hit. Superpower hits Rock-, Steel, and Ice-type Pokemon like Aggron, Gigalith, and Tyrantrum. U-turn helps keep Tornadus alive and Tornadus usually can force switches on persay Bug and Grass mons so U-turning on them is never a bad play.
 
All my homies hate torn, it’s broken as hell and should leave this tier immediately. my favorite torn set is no torn set, and no torn. My second favorite torn set, is this one:

:ss/tornadus:
Tornadus (M) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bulk Up
- Rest
- Acrobatics
- Superpower/ Knock Off

Baller set, Davon almost beat my stall with it in this replay I will link below because it was actually a really good game imo. His matchup was a bitch and Davon always shits on me so I was pretty happy when I won this one. Either way this set is a menace, setting up on many things in the tier, and once you pop your Chesto, you are vibing. Acrobatics hits like a truck, and you can choose your coverage. I personally believe Knock is better because most times you will just be switching in on defog and knocking off annoying items, but Superpower has merit as well to just nuke Copper. Davon used it on screens, which makes it really difficult to kill, but I believe that it could also work well on some spikestack, forcing Defog and just being all around annoying for opponents. Overall, scary set, scary mon, ban it for the other sets, enjoy this wholesome set :)

Degenerate HO vs Degenerate Pyukumuku:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nu-1248176422
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:bw/tornadus:
Mucho Macho (Tornadus) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Big Pecks Prankster
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Attract
- Substitute
- Fly
- Toxic / Bulk Up​

Heat set showcasing Tornadus's attractiveness. Easy way to 1v1 those pesky Cresselias and Sylveons. Bulk Up is an option over Toxic to better allow Tornadus to flex those muscles and further entrance the likes of Salazzle with his beauty.
 
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