Somewhat New Moveset: Tauros

Colonel M

Colonel M

I COULD BE BORED!
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...We resume back to the year 2007, when we first discovered Life Orb. With this item, it was said to change the metagame...

...But why the hell didn't Tauros have it!?!

You see, with this, what if I told you he can actually destroy his arch-nemesis: Skarmory, into a pile of oblivion? Bet you'd go nuts a bit, amiright?

Well obviously some of you may know the set, alright, that's a given. However, there's a slight catch of course, sadly. But meh, despite that, let's see him and the set.

rbspr128.png

Hehehe.

[SET]
Name: 1.3 Times the Tails! (Or just Life Orb)
Move 1: Return
Move 2: Stone Edge
Move 3: Earthquake
Move 4: Fire Blast
Ability: Intimidate
Item: Life Orb
EVs: 140 Atk / 116 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Naive

You see, since Intimidate helps you switch in "decently", I have chosen Naive for that reason. Obviously one move you don't want is Double-Edge, as that's just committing suicide, amiright? Ok, so Return, Stone Edge, and Earthquake seem mandatory. Stone Edge hits fliers easily while Earthquake hits everything else that resists Return. Return is your main attack obviously and just hits pretty hard.

Fire Blast is the kicker here. With the EVs given, you can easily 2HKO a 252 / 0 Skarmory (and this includes Leftovers by the way). You sadly can't hit Bronzong very hard (roughly 36 - 43%), but it still does make a difference. It can also seek out if Bronzong has Levitate or Heatproof (and note, this is with 252 / 0 EVs, sadly). This also gives you another edge against another Pokemon however, and that would be Forretress, so it's still not a bad idea. If Tangrowth became more popular, Fire Blast would hit him harder than Return does (2HKO with Fire Blast). Obviously, this about 3HKOs Celebi either way, unless Celebi didn't do its homework and invested in Defense.

Obviously, it's not a really good "wall-breaker" so to speak, but the fact that you would see Skarmory often gives a decent reason for it. So now, other moves that could be included...

*Thunderbolt
So yeah, a real question mark, eh? When you factor in Intimidate from Gyarados, Stone Edge won't do a whole lot. With Thunderbolt, you can scratch a 2HKO on him at least. It does less to Skarmory though. Thunder, on the other hand, does the same to Skarmory but a lot more to Gyarados.

*Payback
Well, see, it's a 100BP move if you go last, but if you're lucky, it can be 100BP if your opponnent just plainly switches. In this case, it would do more to Celebi and Cresselia than Return would. It also hits Gengar decently. Obviously Pursuit can work, but it's a bit weaker in the beginning. Despite this, if you smell that you're opponnent is staying in, Return is better.

*Ice Beam
Can you say wierd? So eh... it can be a decent revenge-killer against Garchomp. And hey, it's about 75% damage, but you have to rely on either Life Orb recoil or some extra damage to kill him off. Again, Blizzard would do a little bit more, but still doesn't OHKO with even these EVs (IIRC).

Probably nothing else to really use. But still, since it isn't in the analysis, I just wanted to make it apparent. Obviously the weaknesses are Sandstorm and entry hazards, so those really hurt Tauros. So really Hippowdon is twice as worse. >_>; Support Pokemon: Well, there isn't much to consider. Salamence would do fine, but so could a lot of them. Really a Spinner would be the best support Pokemon, and Starmie could accomplish it decently.

...Discuss I guess otherwise. This is about the second best set you could have on Tauros in my opinion (next to the Anger Point one...).
 
You are right. I suggested it since one of Tauros's biggest disadvantages is Skarmory, and Fire Blast is about the only way to patch it. The fact of there was no Life Orb in the analysis intrigued it, and despite Tauros not being effective, you have to admit that being able to 2HKO Tauros with Fire Blast gives him a reason to be used slightly more. Still, nowhere near stellar compared to the beasts like MixMence and such.
 
That set looks good.. beating its normal counters for only loseing a filler move and a 20% power drop is decent. dunno why it was not there before. I dont expect it to jump back to OU, but it may get some use.
 
In my opinion, Tauros needs more than 140 Attack EVs, especially with that base 100 Attack. If you set up Stealth Rock, a mere 20 Special Attack EVs are required for a 2HKO against Leftovers Skarm, letting you have 236 EVs in Attack.
 
*Thinks of the time in RBY when standard Tauros had Blizzard and sometimes T-Bolt*

It's a nice thought. You'd be surprised how many things can learn Fire Blast and pwn their counters.
 
Can't any bulky water scare this? I can't see this Tauros getting past Swampert any time soon.
Physical sweepers shouldn't be playing with special attacks.
 
RaikouLover said:
*Thinks of the time in RBY when standard Tauros had Blizzard and sometimes T-Bolt*

It's a nice thought. You'd be surprised how many things can learn Fire Blast and pwn their counters.
Click to expand...

I can think of 3. Machamp, Marowak, Muk.

Yep this is reminiscient of RBY Tauros, with a much toned down special attack, that is. Btw, how much does Fire Blast do to Metagross and Jirachi? Or would Earthquake still be the better choice to hurt them?
 
In Jirachi's case, Earthquake would be better, especially because of the 100 / 100 defenses. Earthquake runs off his Attack better.

In Metagross's case, I think I did something wrong with Earthquake (it said about 21%), but for Fire Blast it does 83 - 98% (252 / 0) with my EVs given. So Fire Blast would do well.

You know, Thunder doesn't sound so bad. It's not doing anything to Swampert, and it's scratching a 252 / 0 Milotic with around 29 - 35%, but meh... Bulky Waters, as you said Glen, just add on to his problems on top of walls. Definately not as stellar as he used to be in the days of RBY.
 
Colonel M said:
In Jirachi's case, Earthquake would be better, especially because of the 100 / 100 defenses. Earthquake runs off his Attack better.

In Metagross's case, I think I did something wrong with Earthquake (it said about 21%), but for Fire Blast it does 83 - 98% (252 / 0) with my EVs given. So Fire Blast would do well.

You know, Thunder doesn't sound so bad. It's not doing anything to Swampert, and it's scratching a 252 / 0 Milotic with around 29 - 35%, but meh... Bulky Waters, as you said Glen, just add on to his problems on top of walls. Definately not as stellar as he used to be in the days of RBY.
Click to expand...

according to metalkid, life orb earthquake with the evs you listed does about 47.80% - 56.32% to 252hp\0def metagross
 
your calculator is way, way off, with your EVs you're only doing 41-49% to 252HP/0SpD metagross
 
At least you're not claiming you're some kind of god like the idiots behind such sets as Special Gyarados. So I'll give you that.

Problem is, uh, Tauros kinda sucks. I mean, Ambipom can do this whole "kill Skarmory with a Special Attack and Life Orb" thing a bit better (still not well), plus you lower your good attack so that you can't beat things that don't happen to be weak to Fire Blast. I'd rather just have him sweep, maybe with a Life Orb, and have Magnezone to take out problematic Steels (as with any CB/Life Orb Normal type really).

Still, I can't thank you enough for not being utterly stupid.
 
Weird, but regardless I could've been at fault on the Fire Blast and Earthquake part. Alright, Jumpman and Haunterfan were right however. Still, wonder how that happened, seriously. Sorry if I led someone astray on that, I really did not mean to cause any harm, if I did (though I don't think I did anyways because the corrections came quickly).

Tsk, I don't think Tauros will ever live up to RBY days again though. Kind of sad really. In a serious case however, I think Skarmory WOULD be the only wall he would actually be able to do much against (in OU anyways). Even Gliscor takes Returns easily, but in a suprising case Blizzard OHKOs 252hp / 0 SDef Gliscor. >_>; (And this time, I know I am correct).
 
I am agreeing with most of the above posters. Seems good, but Salamence can do this job better and sacrificing Tauros' Attack for his Special Attack probably is not the best way to go..
 
I understand why you did this. It's a flashback of GSC, where pokemon like this had fire blast ONLY for Skarmory, because he was so frickin' amazing back then! Now, it's really isn't necessary with the attacks he is now accessible to and the EV's you have to put into him just to 2HKO a skarmory and nothing more. Plus, it has a whopping 40 base sp. attack! Machamp can barely pull off a Fire Blast in certain move sets, and its base sp. attack is 65.

It's enticing, and it would surprise Skarmory, but with the loss of attack for all the other pokemon it faces, it really isn't worth is.
 
I'd personally still run the Life Orb on this set, but instead of running Fire Blast and sacrificing so many attack EVs, I'd use Tail Whip to at least discourage Skarm from staying in, since after 2 Tail Whips, you have a chance at a 2HKO with Stone Edge, which is good since you can at least hit everything else harder as well.

Tail Whip also messes up Gliscor because it'll: a) be passing a defense drop if it's a baton pass variant or b) get 2HKOed by a Life Orb Return after a Tail Whip.

In case you're wondering, the EV spread I'm suggesting is just 252 atk/252 spd with a +spd nature. Of course I didn't really think much about that EV spread, but yeah. I just don't think it needs all that special attack and a defense dropping nature that much just to 2HKO Skarm when he already has a way of dealing with him. Tail Whip is much better IMO.

Remember, Tauros is already dropping the opponent's attack when he comes in, so using Tail Whip is like the equivalent to using Tickle (-1 atk, -1 def) (and only on the opponent Tauros switched in on) which definitely makes him bulky enough to keep using Tail Whip and force some switches with it.
 
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