Tentacruel [QC: 0/3]

silfan

This is my first try at analysis, so please help to give as much input as possible.

QC: 0/3 [] [] []
GP: 0/2 [] []

Overview
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  • Good special bulk 80/65/120
  • Great typing defensively with 8 resists and only weak to Electric, Ground and Psychic
  • Access to Rapid Spin as the differentiating point from other bulky Water-types. Mega Blastoise is another bulky Water with Rapid Spin, but prefer more offensive sets. MBlastoise also has similar special bulk and is constrained to use Blastoisinite, i.e. no passive healing from Leftovers in item slot
  • The only spinner able to remove Toxic Spikes upon entry
  • The removal of permanent rain hurts Tentacruel a lot, as it relied on Rain Dish+Black Sludge as its only reliable means of recovery
  • Poor offensive stats 70/80
  • Buff to Defog means Rapid Spin is not as necessary as it was


Rapid Spin
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name: Rapid Spin
move 1: Rapid Spin
move 2: Scald
move 3: Sludge Bomb
move 4: Toxic / Knock Off
ability: Liquid Ooze
item: Black Sludge
nature: Bold
evs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spe

Moves
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  • Rapid Spin should be one of the main reasons to use Tentacruel
  • Scald has good utility and coverage as STAB move
  • Sludge Bomb is used against Fairy-types and Grass-types
  • Toxic is a really good status move that puts timer on any non Steel- and Poison-types, especially against Mega Charizard X, Volcarona, and Mega Charizard Y, which otherwise can just walk over Tentacruel
  • Knock Off is a very good utility move, especially against common spinblockers who like to switch into Tentacruel to block Rapid Spin. This also lets Tentacruel beat HarvestLum Trevenant and 2HKO Gengar after SR with Scald
  • Sludge Wave can replace Sludge Bomb if you don't want the Poison status effect [AC]
  • Ice Beam provides extra coverage to hit Dragon- and Ground-types on the switch for super effective. Most notably, this makes Dragonite not able to switch into Tentacruel as it is 2HKOed by Ice Beam and slower without boost [AC]
  • Haze can be an alternative to Toxic / Knock Off. It prevents Tentacruel from being a setup bait against CM Clefable, QD Volcarona, SD Aegislash, Scolipede and Baton Pass team [AC]
  • Protect can be used in the last slot to scout and stall for Black Sludge's recovery. However, most of the time if Tentacruel's option is either to Protect or switch, it's better to switch out since many of its checks carries setup moves [AC]

Set Details
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  • The EV spread is to outspeed Adamant Breloom and Jolly Tyranitar with the rest of the point put into physical bulk
  • Black Sludge provides passive healing that Tentacruel really appreciates, as it will be switching a lot to try to spin
  • Liquid Ooze can get pass Leech Seed, Giga Drain or Drain Punch user. This ability especially allows Tentacruel to beat Conkeldurr and Ferrothorn one-on-one. However, doing so also wears down Tentacruel a lot and hinders it from doing its job to Rapid Spin
  • Clear Body is another good option, making Tentacruel immune to Sticky Web and indirectly increases Tentacruel's bulk by giving immunity to secondary SpD drop effect from Shadow Ball and such
  • Rain Dish should only be used when your team has Rain Support like Politoed or Rain Dance user

Usage Tips
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  • Tentacruel works better in balance or stall team as it has no offensive presence and has a harder time fending off spinblocker, thus prefer multiple tries to spin
  • Rapid Spin is the main priority and should be used to remove hazard from your field if there is no ghost to spinblock
  • When in doubt, Scald or Toxic is probably the best option to use. Scald more so due Water-types only resisted by Water and Grass, and those who resist it would not like Burn chance. You need to be careful with Scald if there is Gastrodon or Vaporeon on the enemy's team
  • Tentacruel can switch into Azumarill, Aegislash, Scizor, and Fairy-type in general, among others and face little risk in doing so

Team Options
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  • No reliable recovery method means Tentacruel appreciates Wish and/or Heal Bell support. Fairy-types work well as they can counter Lati@s, Garchomp, Dragonite, Goodra
  • Tentacruel works well with Ferrothorn, covering each other weaknesses as well as both physical and special side
  • Celebi is also a good teammates as it can take care of Tentacruel's counter such as Latias/Latios, Thundurus-T, Mega Venusaur
  • Latias can switch into Electric-, Psychic-, and Ground-types moves, which are often used against Tentacruel
  • Mamoswine has immunity against Electric-type moves and handles some of Tentacruel's checks well, like Dragonite, Landorus-T, Latias/Latios
  • Tyranitar can Pursuit trap Psychic-types that threatens Tentacruel, though it shares weakness against Ground-type moves
  • Obviously, when utilizing Rain Dish, Politoed is one of the best teammate

Other Options
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  • Tentacruel can run Rain Stall sets with Rapid Spin/Scald/Toxic/Protect, though without perma-weather effect from Drizzle, rain is more suited for Offense rather than Balance or Stall style due to required switching in and out with Rain Dance/Drizzle pokemon and limited number of set-up/stall turns
  • Tentacruel is one of the best Toxic Spikes user and can use it on the last slot. However, many common OU threats are immune to it and so are many common Rapid Spin / Defog users. At times, player also may prefer to inflict opponents with other better status, such as Burn, Toxic, or Paralysis
  • Giga Drain gives Tentacruel a method of recovery. Still, without STAB and investment in SpA, it hits not very hard and consequentially, heals very little as well. For illustration, Giga Drain hits Physically Defensive Gastrodon, a pokemon 4x weak to Grass, for only a little over 50% Hp.


Checks & Counters
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  • **Psychic-types**: Latios/Latias takes little from both STAB and 2HKO with Psychic/Psyshock, Magic Guard Alakazam though takes a bit from Scald not fearing Burn/Poison, Gothitelle can trap with Shadow Tag, Reuniclus, Espeon

  • **Natural Cure**: Celebi and Starmie not fearing status, has recovery and can retaliate with strong super effective STAB. Blissey/Chansey taking little from STAB, can heal status, counter with Seismic Toss.

  • **Electric-types**: Thundurus-T, Zapdos. Magnezone immune to Poison.

  • **Ground-types**: Garchomp, Excadrill, Mamoswine and Landorus-T threaten with STAB EQ, but scared of Scald's 30% Burn chance. Garchomp and Landorus-T are also hit hard by Ice Beam. Gastrodon fears Toxic, but it get SpA boost from Scald and threatens back with Earth Power.

  • **Mega Venusaur**: Resists both STAB, has reliable healing, EQ on negative Attack nature without investment 3HKO after SR

  • **Lum Berry Dragonite**: Can switch in without worry to any Tentacruel not carrying Ice Beam. Dragonite also threatens to 2HKO with either EQ or Thunder Punch

  • **Goodra**: Positive SpA nature with max investment Goodra can 2HKO with Thunderbolt around 90% of the time and takes little from Tentacruel's STAB and Ice Beam

  • **AV Guts Conkeldurr**: Burned Conkeldurr win trade against non-Liquid Ooze Tentracruel, as it can heal damage with Drain Punch dealing 28.2%-33.5% damage and takes little from either Sludge Bomb or Scald.
 
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Few things I'm not very sure about
1. Is the rain stall set from BW still viable?
My opinion is no, because without permanent rain, Tentacruel stall is just too easy to play around.
Though I haven't actually played or seen much rain team, so I may be wrong.
2. Which ability is the better one for Tentacruel now?
I think Liquid Ooze is just too situational and easily one of the worst. There aren't that many drain users around. Maybe Mega Venusaur, Ferrothorn, Trevenant, Gourgeist and Conkeldurr. However, Tentacruel has no reliable way to recover his health, and Leech Seed, Giga Drain, and Drain Punch can be handled better by other pokemon.
Clear Body seems to be the best for me, though the use seems to be limited to against Sticky Web. I'm not sure if anyone would bother to debuff Tentacruel.
Rain Dish is very niche right now and requires team support.

Edit: Looking for some help on these 2. I'm not very sure still.
Also forgot that Clear Body blocks SpDef drop from Shadow Ball.
 
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Some calculation for Tentacruel:
1.) Azumarill

252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 220+ Def Tentacruel: 130-153 (35.7 - 42%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
0 SpA Tentacruel Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Azumarill: 194-230 (48 - 56.9%) -- 90.6% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Tentacruel Sludge Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Azumarill: 204-242 (50.4 - 59.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

2.) Aegislash

252+ SpA Life Orb Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Tentacruel: 121-142 (33.2 - 39%) -- 99.8% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Aegislash-Blade Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 220+ Def Tentacruel: 175-208 (48 - 57.1%) -- 92.6% chance to 2HKO
0- Atk Tentacruel Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Aegislash-Blade: 162-192 (50 - 59.2%) -- 78.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Tentacruel Scald vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Aegislash-Blade: 124-147 (38.2 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

The rest of Aegislash's common moves are resisted by Tentacruel, so I think Shadow Ball and Shadow Claw are the most relevant by far.
Shadow Claw is actually not even that common.

3.) Mega Charizard Y

252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Tentacruel: 87-103 (23.9 - 28.2%) -- 94.1% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Tentacruel in Sun: 90-106 (24.7 - 29.1%) -- 99.9% chance to 4HKO
0 SpA Tentacruel Sludge Bomb vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Charizard Y: 72-85 (24.1 - 28.5%) -- 97.6% chance to 4HKO


Edit: Forgot to add Life Orb to Aegislash :(
 
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Not QC but you should probably just call the set Rapid Spin or Support. "Bulky Utility Spinner" is too long and you are combining like 3 set names.
 
Remove Assault Vest and Sludge Wave from the second set, and put Knock Off to the set comments instead of main set. Tentacruel appreciates Lefties much more than AV, as it is its only form of recovery and Tentacruel is expected to be taking a lot of residual in order to spin, so Lefties matters a lot. Also, the general rule of thumb is that AV is better than lefties on Pokemon whose SpD is smaller than their HP (with a few exceptions, usually Pokemon with Regenerator), which is clearly not the case with Tenta. Similarly, the extra power from Sludge Wave is not needed, where the 30% poison chance of Sludge Bomb is golden against Pokemon such as Sitrus Berry Trevenant and Gourgeist. Finally, Haze is too good not to be slashed first, helping against major threats such as CM Clefable, SD Aegislash, and boosting Scolipede, as well as against Baton Pass teams in general, while making Tentacruel impossible to set up on if he chooses to stay in.

Knock Off serves no purpose other than annoying the opponent and unlike most Knock Off users, Tentacruel is too weak to take advantage of the initial 97 BP to deal meaningful damage to opponents. Also, many common MEvos such as Mega Char Y, Mega Char X (with Roost), and Mega Venu can switch into Tentacruel with little or no risk and make Knock Off useless.
 
alexwolf said:
Remove Assault Vest and Sludge Wave from the second set, and put Knock Off to the set comments instead of main set. Tentacruel appreciates Lefties much more than AV, as it is its only form of recovery and Tentacruel is expected to be taking a lot of residual in order to spin, so Lefties matters a lot. Also, the general rule of thumb is that AV is better than lefties on Pokemon whose SpD is smaller than their HP (with a few exceptions, usually Pokemon with Regenerator), which is clearly not the case with Tenta. Similarly, the extra power from Sludge Wave is not needed, where the 30% poison chance of Sludge Bomb is golden against Pokemon such as Sitrus Berry Trevenant and Gourgeist. Finally, Haze is too good not to be slashed first, helping against major threats such as CM Clefable, SD Aegislash, and boosting Scolipede, as well as against Baton Pass teams in general, while making Tentacruel impossible to set up on if he chooses to stay in.

Knock Off serves no purpose other than annoying the opponent and unlike most Knock Off users, Tentacruel is too weak to take advantage of the initial 97 BP to deal meaningful damage to opponents. Also, many common MEvos such as Mega Char Y, Mega Char X (with Roost), and Mega Venu can switch into Tentacruel with little or no risk and make Knock Off useless.
Click to expand...

Done.
Can I still put Sludge Wave as AC? I just think that some people might not want the Poison status if they have another Pokemon who can inflict Burn, Paralysis or Toxic.

Also, may I know why AV is better on Pokemon with higher base HP?
Doesn't AV increase the SpD by a percentage amount, and thus increase the special bulk by the same percentage for any Pokemon which wear the item?
An example of common AV user with less HP than SpD is Goodra, I believe.
 
silfan said:
Done.
Can I still put Sludge Wave as AC? I just think that some people might not want the Poison status if they have another Pokemon who can inflict Burn, Paralysis or Toxic.

Also, may I know why AV is better on Pokemon with higher base HP?
Doesn't AV increase the SpD by a percentage amount, and thus increase the special bulk by the same percentage for any Pokemon which wear the item?
An example of common AV user with less HP than SpD is Goodra, I believe.
Click to expand...
Any AV user that doesn't fulfill the requirements i told you (HP > SpD or Regenerator as its ability) has enough power to make sure that every switch-in it gets counts, such as the example you mentioned, Goodra.

AV is suited mostly for Pokemon with higher HP than SpD, because the closer your HP is to your SpD the less special bulk you gain by investing to it. The most extreme example of this is Blissey, which gets almost three times physically bulkier by maxing its Def. For the same reason, AV users with similar HP and SpD don't get such a big boost to their special bulk as do Pokemon whose SpD is significantly lower than their HP. So in most of those Pokemon (whose HP and SpD are close) the constant 6.25% healing each turn from Leftovers usually outdoes the raw special bulk gained by AV.

Finally, yeah you can give Sludge Wave a mention in the set comments.

EDIT: As silfan told me via PM, i made a mistake about AV. Here is the correct reasoning as to why it's not good on Pokemon with already high special bulk that lack Regenerator or power:

Let me rephrase then by saying that Asssault Vest is better on Pokemon that have bad or mediocre special bulk, because they would be taking lot of damage from special attacks and Lefties would need to activate a lot of turns to heal the damage that AV prevented. However, this is not the case with specially bulky Pokemon, which already take relatively small amount of damage from most special attacks, meaning that the Lefties recovery can outperform AV much easier (6.25% out of 30% damage done is a much bigger percentage than 6.25% out of 60% for example).
Click to expand...
 
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I'm no qc or anything, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Tentacruel is indeed a bulky water rapid spinner, but Blastoise is similar in this regard. you may want to mention how Tentacruel differentiates itself from Blastoise, mainly by pointing out the other roles that they play and especially that Tentacruel doesn't take up the mega slot.
 
Psyco Josho
Added some comments on Mega Blastoise.
I think Tentacruel still has niche over Mega Blastoise as bulky Water-type spinner, in that it has better typing, similar special bulk, and is not constrained to Mega Stone in item slots. Passive healing from Leftovers / Black Sludge does add up to Tentacruel's bulk.

I've also removed Jolteon and DD Dragonite from list of C&C.
Jolteon is deemed not viable in OU (correct me if I'm wrong) and I think access to Haze+Rapid Spin means Dragonite can't setup on Tentacruel.
I'm not really sure whether Dragonite without Dragon Dance does well against Tentacruel, but Scald-hax is too scary at times, so for now he is out of C&C.

Edit:
Dragonite's set is usually Adamant with max HP and Atk, which implies it will be slower than Tentacruel.
2 Scald has burn chance of 51%.
252+ Atk Dragonite Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 220+ Def Tentacruel: 180-212 (49.4 - 58.2%) -- 64.5% chance to 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252+ Atk Dragonite Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 220+ Def Tentacruel: 238-282 (65.3 - 77.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
Lum Berry Dragonite seems like a good counter to Tentacruel.

Edit2:
I think this should be ready for QC.
 
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I don't understand why Haze is necessary on Tentacruel. To begin with, it's not even a good move and is mostly situational at best. If Tentacruel is your only answer to Calm Mind Reuniclus or Clefable, then you're simply doing it wrong. Tentacruel should even beat Clefable anyway through Sludge Bomb + poison, assuming Clefable is Unaware (which most are). A lot of Aegislash are also mixed variants and not Swords Dance, but I mean, Tentacruel can only stop it so many times before it eventually succumbs. I can see it being useful against Baton Pass teams, but I don't think that makes Haze better than Tentacruel's other options. Why not use Knock Off? Toxic? Maybe even a mention of Toxic Spikes, even though they aren't that strong anymore?
 
yeah haze is not the first move i think of...

fuzznip explained why it isn't your best move well. i would like to see knock off / toxic. knock off messes up switch-ins with an assault vest, and does over half to gengar, 2hkoing after sr. this enables you to get THE majorly annoying spinblocker out of the way.

it also does half to blade stance aegislash, which you can scald and hopefully burn on its first turn out. it's a shitty matchup for aegi overall, but knock off makes it even worse.

toxic, on the other hand, lets you just cripple stuff. it's a simple move with almost no drawbacks that you can spam and on the spot make the battle more difficult for the opponent, putting a timer on his/her pokemon.

another set details move besides tspikes is ice beam, which hits dragons, does huge damage to gliscor/lando-t, etc., you get the idea. it's extra coverage that can prove useful.

the evs also outrun 72 spe gliscor, a pretty cool thing imo that's worth mentioning.
 
I personally really like Knock Off a lot even though the damage is not that good, but I took it off due to alexwolf's suggestion.
Knock Off just flats out let Tentacruel cripples common spinblockers: Sableye, Trevenant, Gourgeist, Life Orb/Leftovers Aegislash, Gengar. All of those like to switch into Tentacruel to block Rapid Spin.
I will definitely move it again to the main set. Slashing Toxic and adding Ice Beam to use against Dragon-, and Ground-types on the switch in set comments.
I will put Haze in set comments.

Toxic Spikes I feel is OO materials at best. I've tried the Rapid Spin/Scald/Sludge Bomb/Toxic Spikes and it just felt so underwhelming.
So many OU threats are immune to it. I mean just from the top 10 ...
| 1 | Rotom-Wash | 31.09859% | 590188 | 19.264% | 508298 | 20.849% |
| 2 | Genesect | 21.49627% | 341231 | 11.138% | 289620 | 11.879% |
| 3 | Lucario | 19.75134% | 424511 | 13.856% | 318966 | 13.083% |
| 4 | Talonflame | 18.41057% | 453848 | 14.814% | 356773 | 14.634% |
| 5 | Aegislash | 18.20237% | 364924 | 11.911% | 287728 | 11.802% |
| 6 | Heatran | 16.98578% | 305797 | 9.981% | 256060 | 10.503% |
| 7 | Garchomp | 15.07428% | 359339 | 11.729% | 274139 | 11.244% |
| 8 | Excadrill | 12.91188% | 296515 | 9.678% | 218774 | 8.973% |
| 9 | Tyranitar | 12.09412% | 296668 | 9.683% | 244387 | 10.024% |
| 10 | Azumarill | 11.61804% | 274238 | 8.951% | 218888 | 8.978% |
70% of that are not affected by Toxic Spikes.

Not to mention common hazard removers:
| 8 | Excadrill | 12.91188% | 296515 | 9.678% | 218774 | 8.973% |
| 19 | Skarmory | 8.83667% | 213533 | 6.970% | 181294 | 7.436% |
| 21 | Mandibuzz | 8.03313% | 138150 | 4.509% | 114488 | 4.696% |
| 25 | Latios | 6.52728% | 129807 | 4.237% | 97355 | 3.993% |
| 31 | Latias | 5.38145% | 81991 | 2.676% | 62086 | 2.547% |
| 48 | Starmie | 3.80081% | 123737 | 4.039% | 92455 | 3.792% |
| 52 | Tentacruel | 3.38977% | 111913 | 3.653% | 90435 | 3.709% |
Only Latios/Latias and probably Starmie are concerned with Toxic Spikes. Natural Cure Starmie definitely does not care.
Additionally, Tentacruel is usually run on Balanced or Stall team, and those team most likely will have another status user.
Sometimes I don't even want to Sludge Bomb in fears of Poison status and not being able to Burn thereafter.

Edit:
Added everything mentioned. Also added that the EV spread outruns 72 Spe EV Impish Gliscor (the most common variant of Gliscor).
Thanks for the input Fuzznip and Jukain.
 
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Mention that Haze helps against Volcarona, since otherwise it can just set up as it will take pebbles from scald after two quiver dances.
 
A couple of changes need to be made. The first is that Tentacruel's EVs in Speed need to drop to 32 for Jolly Tyranitar because aiming to beat 244 Speed Gliscor is blatant speed creep, and cannot be encouraged on analyses. Next, you should replace "Clear Body / Rain Dish" as the recommended ability to simply "Liquid Ooze" because being able to punish Leech Seed, Giga Drain, and Drain Punch is valuable, and allows Tentacruel to take on certain threats, such as Mega Venusaur and Conkeldurr, with greater ease. His other two abilities should be relegated to Set Details.


Fuzznip edit: Can you switch the last slot to Toxic / Knock Off? Thanks.
 
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Super Mario Bro
The EV is actually to outspeed 72 Speed EV Impish Gliscor, which is the most popular variant of Gliscor right now.

| Spreads |
| Impish:252/0/184/0/0/72 36.937% |
| Adamant:184/252/0/0/0/72 4.897% |
| Impish:244/0/40/0/0/224 4.717% |
| Impish:252/4/252/0/0/0 4.167% |
| Impish:252/0/252/0/0/4 4.049% |
| Impish:244/0/248/0/0/16 3.067% |
| Other 42.167% |

I'm actually not very sure why Gliscor runs 72 Speed EV, as I'm not very familiar with Gliscor.
I'll change it to 32 Speed EV as you said.

Sure, I don't mind changing Tentacruel's recommended ability, since I don't have any preference. All of them have uses.
Please note that Tentacruel can't beat Mega Venusaur with EQ, so I'm not sure if it's worth to mention?
Not to mention a lot of Mega Venusaur use Synthesis to recover.

0- Atk Mega Venusaur Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 224+ Def Tentacruel: 124-148 (34 - 40.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery

| Moves |
| Giga Drain 80.174% |
| Sludge Bomb 74.002% |
| Synthesis 49.223% |
| Leech Seed 48.358% |
| Sleep Powder 38.576% |
| Earthquake 25.063% |

I think Liquid Ooze is mostly against Conkeldurr and Ferrothorn, which otherwise can just either trade against you or setup SR and stall you out.

Would you mind explaining to me why Toxic > Knock Off?
I'm more inclined to go with Knock Off because it guarantees 2HKO on Gengar after SR. Not to mention without Knock Off it's harder to win against Harvest+Lum Berry Trevenant.

0- Atk Tentacruel Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Gengar: 142-168 (54.1 - 64.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
0 SpA Tentacruel Scald vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Gengar: 91-108 (34.7 - 41.2%) -- 63.2% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
 
On analyses, we aim to outspeed only min or max Speed Pokemon. Anything in between is Speed creep and we don't do it. Assuming we did use enough Speed to outrun 72 Spe Gliscor, then Gliscor could just use 76 Spe EVs, we could use 4 more Spe EVs, etc, etc, which leads to a stupid and pointless back and fourth.

Liquid Ooze is the only ability that has real use on Tenta atm, so it's only logic its the main choice. As for Toxic > Knock Off, Toxic lets you cripple dangerous Pokemon such as Mega Char X, Volcarona, and Mega Char Y, that Knock Off does shit against.
 
Just piping in to say that contrary to what your checks and counters section currently states, the Lati@s do not resist both STABs; they only resist Water. That being said, they can prey on the Poison typing with Psychic STABs of their own, but they don't resist Poison.
 
alexwolf
What do you think about mentioning AV in set comments?
I am thinking it deserves at least a mention in the set details, as it allows Tentacruel to reliably check few top threats.
Just a few calculations:

252 SpA Life Orb Gengar Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Tentacruel: 146-174 (40.1 - 47.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 SpA Gengar Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Tentacruel: 112-134 (30.7 - 36.8%) -- 67.4% chance to 3HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Gengar Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tentacruel: 221-260 (60.7 - 71.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery

252+ SpA Life Orb Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tentacruel: 177-211 (48.6 - 57.9%) -- 53.9% chance to 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252+ SpA Life Orb Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Tentacruel: 121-142 (33.2 - 39%) -- 99.8% chance to 3HKO

252+ SpA Life Orb Clefable Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tentacruel: 192-229 (52.7 - 62.9%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252+ SpA Life Orb Clefable Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Tentacruel: 130-153 (35.7 - 42%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
 
I think that a specially defensive set with Rain Dish should be added, which should be used only on rain teams. Here are some cool calcs against a max HP / max SpD+ spread:
  • 252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tentacruel: 102-121 (28 - 33.2%) -- possible 5HKO after Rain Dish recovery and Black Sludge recovery
  • 252+ SpA Life Orb Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tentacruel: 133-157 (36.5 - 43.1%) -- 9.5% chance to 3HKO after Rain Dish recovery and Black Sludge recovery
  • 252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tentacruel in Sun: 99-117 (27.1 - 32.1%) -- 61.4% chance to 4HKO after Black Sludge recovery
  • 252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tentacruel: 96-114 (26.3 - 31.3%) -- 19% chance to 4HKO after Black Sludge recovery
  • +2 252 SpA Adaptability Mega Lucario Aura Sphere vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tentacruel: 117-138 (32.1 - 37.9%) -- 84.4% chance to 4HKO after Rain Dish recovery and Black Sludge recovery
  • 252 SpA Genesect Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tentacruel: 118-140 (32.4 - 38.4%) -- 93% chance to 4HKO after Rain Dish recovery and Black Sludge recovery
  • +1 252 SpA Genesect Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tentacruel: 178-210 (48.9 - 57.6%) -- 6.6% chance to 2HKO after Rain Dish recovery and Black Sludge recovery
  • +1 252 SpA Expert Belt Genesect Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tentacruel: 214-252 (58.7 - 69.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Rain Dish recovery and Black Sludge recovery
  • 252+ SpA Mega Venusaur Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tentacruel: 82-97 (22.5 - 26.6%) -- possible 7HKO after Rain Dish recovery and Black Sludge recovery
  • 252 SpA Life Orb Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tentacruel in Rain: 94-112 (25.8 - 30.7%) -- possible 5HKO after Rain Dish recovery and Black Sludge recovery
  • 252 SpA Life Orb Greninja Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tentacruel: 94-110 (25.8 - 30.2%) -- possible 5HKO after Rain Dish recovery and Black Sludge recovery
  • 252 SpA Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tentacruel: 84-99 (23 - 27.1%) -- possible 6HKO after Rain Dish recovery and Black Sludge recovery
  • 252 SpA Life Orb Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tentacruel: 109-129 (29.9 - 35.4%) -- 3.2% chance to 4HKO after Rain Dish recovery and Black Sludge recovery
  • 252 SpA Choice Specs Keldeo Secret Sword vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tentacruel: 147-174 (40.3 - 47.8%) -- 98.5% chance to 3HKO after Rain Dish recovery and Black Sludge recovery
  • 252 SpA Choice Specs Keldeo Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tentacruel in Rain: 127-150 (34.8 - 41.2%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Rain Dish recovery and Black Sludge recovery

So, as you can see, SpD Tentacruel counters some of the biggest special attackers of OU, in rain. It walls Mega Charizard Y, Aegislash, most Genesect sets, Mega Lucario, Greninja, Keldeo, and more. Against Mega Char Y it may not be able to do anything significant back, but it can act as a pivot to bring Politoed in safely, as after Charizard MEvolves, Politoed can come in easily against it. The set would be Scald / (Toxic / Sludge Bomb) / Rapid Spin / (Knock Off / Protect), and Damp Rock Politoed a mandatory partner. It can also beat Aegislash, the most common spinblocker, which is great, as well as Gengar, the next most common Ghost-type. I guess that Assault Vest could be slashed after Black Sludge on this set, but i am not sure yet, so i will test it some more.

EDIT: Also, i am ok with Assault Vest getting slashed on the first set after Black Sludge, as long as it is stressed that it should be used only with Politoed as a partner, to make up for the lack of passive healing. This means that you should also slash Rain Dish after Liquid Oooze.
 
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^ I'm rather busy at the moment. Will test the above and update by next week if you don't mind, alexwolf and Jukain.
 
All right, so the new strategy dex is going up very soon and there are several Pokemon, including this one, that do not currently have completed analyses. silfan, if you could please try to make this look presentable within the next day, that would be helpful. Please contact user darkie once you've made it look presentable (by that I mean "acceptable to be on-site") and refer to and update this pirate pad: https://www.piratepad.ca/p/dex_skeletons

This needs to be done by tomorrow afternoon (GMT -6), so make sure you get it done! If you can't make it look presentable in the next day, please say so in the pirate pad so someone else can make a quick skeleton of it. Thanks!
 
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