Pangoro
Type: Fighting / Dark
Abilities: Iron Fist / Mold Breaker / Scrappy
Base Stats: 95 / 124 / 78 / 69 / 71 / 58
Notable Moves:
Type: Fighting / Dark
Abilities: Iron Fist / Mold Breaker / Scrappy
Base Stats: 95 / 124 / 78 / 69 / 71 / 58
Hammer Arm
Crunch
Bulk Up
Superpower
Drain Punch
Knock Off
Fire Punch
Ice Punch
Thunder Punch
Gunk Shot
Stone Edge
Earthquake
Circle Throw
Taunt
Parting Shot
General Analysis:
Pangoro is another new Pokemon XY brought; and it comes with the ever great Fighting / Dark typing, after Scrafty. Pangoro, stat wise, isn't too bad. It's got loads of Attack, so it hits quite hard, and has decent bulk as well. It is rather slow, but 70 Speed isn't completely terrible either; it does outspeed some walls at the very least! 80 Special Attack I guess is rather mediocre but not unusable. It has two abilities in Iron Fist and Mold Breaker, and both are pretty decent abilities overall. Overall, Pangoro's looking like a Pokemon made to take some hits and hit back hard.
Potential Sets:
Pangoro @ Choice Band
Trait: Iron Fist or Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Hammer Arm
- Crunch
- Parting Shot / Stone Edge / Earthquake
- Poison Jab
With such a high Attack stat, it's only natural to consider CB for a set. With a CB intact, Pangoro hits quite hard, and Dark / Fighting has pretty decent coverage except on fairies; Hammer Arm and Crunch are the two STAB moves, and although they're not Close Combat or anything, they're still packing decent power. Parting Shot is kind of funny since it's a combination of U-turn and Memento to an extent; weaken them and switch. Stone Edge is there to deal with Flying-types, of course, and since Pangoro is apparently walled by Fairies like Sylveon, Poison Jab is an ideal move to smack them on the switch-in. Earthquake could go in there if Toxicroak could be a problem, although I'm not sure if that will be a relevant threat anymore with rain being nerfed. Poison in general has pretty bad coverage, but is worth it. Basically, I think CB will the way to go with Pangoro, though that could change as more is found out about it.
Pangoro @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Substitute / Crunch
- Bulk Up
- Hammer Arm
- Crunch / Poison Jab
Pangoro's got decent bulk, and it has Bulk Up as well, so it could go out of the immediate power route and go the bulky boosting route, boosting with Bulk Up multiple times. Although there's still Scrafty around with the great Shed Skin and Drain Punch, Pangoro's got a lot more power and somewhat better Speed (not sure if this counts as an advantage though lol). It can run Sub to complement Bulk Up, or it could possibly just run BU+3 Attacks to hit decently hard and take hits. Hammer Arm+Crunch still has decent coverage, and Poison Jab gets the edge on Gardevoir and Sylveon. Overall, Pangoro could make a potentially decent user of Bulk Up.
Checks and Counters:
There aren't an awful lot of counters, but checks are certainly out there. Fairies like Gardevoir and Sylveon could come in on most things not named Poison Jab and wreck it with Moon Blast. Both of the ones I mentioned (since they'll probably be the most relevant ones) are somewhat shaky though. Other Fighting- and Flying-types, particularly Hawlucha, could be a threat to it as well, since Hawlucha does resist both STABs, unfortunately. Other than that, I don't have much of an idea here, because the XY metagames have yet to exist!
Conclusion:
Pangoro overall brings something rather interesting to the table, and a somewhat different approach from Scrafty for a Fighting / Dark type overall. It looks rather interesing to see how it fares, so what do you think about this panda?
Pangoro is another new Pokemon XY brought; and it comes with the ever great Fighting / Dark typing, after Scrafty. Pangoro, stat wise, isn't too bad. It's got loads of Attack, so it hits quite hard, and has decent bulk as well. It is rather slow, but 70 Speed isn't completely terrible either; it does outspeed some walls at the very least! 80 Special Attack I guess is rather mediocre but not unusable. It has two abilities in Iron Fist and Mold Breaker, and both are pretty decent abilities overall. Overall, Pangoro's looking like a Pokemon made to take some hits and hit back hard.
Potential Sets:
Pangoro @ Choice Band
Trait: Iron Fist or Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Hammer Arm
- Crunch
- Parting Shot / Stone Edge / Earthquake
- Poison Jab
With such a high Attack stat, it's only natural to consider CB for a set. With a CB intact, Pangoro hits quite hard, and Dark / Fighting has pretty decent coverage except on fairies; Hammer Arm and Crunch are the two STAB moves, and although they're not Close Combat or anything, they're still packing decent power. Parting Shot is kind of funny since it's a combination of U-turn and Memento to an extent; weaken them and switch. Stone Edge is there to deal with Flying-types, of course, and since Pangoro is apparently walled by Fairies like Sylveon, Poison Jab is an ideal move to smack them on the switch-in. Earthquake could go in there if Toxicroak could be a problem, although I'm not sure if that will be a relevant threat anymore with rain being nerfed. Poison in general has pretty bad coverage, but is worth it. Basically, I think CB will the way to go with Pangoro, though that could change as more is found out about it.
Pangoro @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Substitute / Crunch
- Bulk Up
- Hammer Arm
- Crunch / Poison Jab
Pangoro's got decent bulk, and it has Bulk Up as well, so it could go out of the immediate power route and go the bulky boosting route, boosting with Bulk Up multiple times. Although there's still Scrafty around with the great Shed Skin and Drain Punch, Pangoro's got a lot more power and somewhat better Speed (not sure if this counts as an advantage though lol). It can run Sub to complement Bulk Up, or it could possibly just run BU+3 Attacks to hit decently hard and take hits. Hammer Arm+Crunch still has decent coverage, and Poison Jab gets the edge on Gardevoir and Sylveon. Overall, Pangoro could make a potentially decent user of Bulk Up.
Checks and Counters:
There aren't an awful lot of counters, but checks are certainly out there. Fairies like Gardevoir and Sylveon could come in on most things not named Poison Jab and wreck it with Moon Blast. Both of the ones I mentioned (since they'll probably be the most relevant ones) are somewhat shaky though. Other Fighting- and Flying-types, particularly Hawlucha, could be a threat to it as well, since Hawlucha does resist both STABs, unfortunately. Other than that, I don't have much of an idea here, because the XY metagames have yet to exist!
Conclusion:
Pangoro overall brings something rather interesting to the table, and a somewhat different approach from Scrafty for a Fighting / Dark type overall. It looks rather interesing to see how it fares, so what do you think about this panda?
General Analysis:
Pangoro, a previously rather mediocre Pokemon in XY, has been improved substantially in ORAS by virtue of receiving a slew of new moves via the Move Tutors-it has received pretty much everything it ever needed to become a usable offensive Pokemon. This includes Drain Punch and Knock Off, two excellent STAB moves that Pangoro very much appreciates, giving Pangoro a means of recovery and a stronger STAB move that has the luxury of removing items, making Pangoro all the more threatening. Moreover, Pangoro has also received Gunk Shot and the elemental punches, which allows it to hit Fairy-types such as Azumarill and Clefable even harder than ever, and with Ice Punch, Pangoro finally has a way to hit threats such as Landorus-T and Gliscor hard. Of course, Pangoro can still run its unique signature move, Parting Shot, which is another boon, allowing Pangoro to weaken the opponent offensively while switching, giving a lot of free momentum. Pangoro also has the tools it needs to take on Magic Bounce users and Bisharp, which helps. However, Pangoro is still quite slow, which makes it very easy to revenge kill, and it suffers from three very common weaknesses and somewhat middling bulk. Regardless, Pangoro makes for an interesting niche Pokemon that brings a few nice things to the table, making it worth the slot for some teams.
Sets:
Pangoro @ Choice Band / Life Orb
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Superpower / Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Gunk Shot
- Parting Shot / Ice Punch
NEVER SAY NO TO PANDA!!! Pangoro comes back to ORAS, better than ever, with a new and improved movepool that makes a physical wallbreaker set even better than before. Scrappy is an excellent ability on Pangoro as of now, allowing it to use its Fighting STAB against the ever popular
Conclusion:
Well, to put it simply, Pangoro has gotten much better in ORAS, much like its friend Dragalge. It's still very niche, however, as it does face some competition from other Fighting-types such as Terrakion, but Pangoro does have its unique movepool at its disposal, which is definitely very interesting, and with its wallbreaking prowess, Pangoro has definitely carved out a niche for itself in the OU metagame, which is still a nice feat.
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