The Next Best Thing v2 - Latios

I'm guessing now wouldn't be an appropriate time to bring up my belief that band wagoning behind a well-known player dominates every poll in this forum =P Don't get me wrong though, Kidogo's set is good.
 
ThePillsburyDoughBoy

Because the set is creative and pretty cool on a Semi Stall team. Also I wouldn't want to vote on a standard SD Garchomp. C'mon people.
 
Voting is now closed and the winner is Kidogo's Rain Swords Dance set. This set will be added in the v2 archive featured in the second post of the thread.

The next subject is the Sea Slug Pokémon, Gastrodon!
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Voting will take place in 4 days!
 
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Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Waterfall
- Recover
- Curse

An ancient set, dug up from the depths of DPP UU, Curse Gastrodon returns from the murky depths, posing a role of a setup sweeper, rather than a Specially Defensive wall, or a Choice Specs set. Gastrodons excellent typing, solid base 83 Attack, he can pose a potent offensive threat once he gets going. 303 Attack & near 300 Defense after Curse is no joking around with. Waterfall & Earthquake are the obvious STAB moves here, while Recover keeps him in good health. This set is best used in rain, as a Boosted Waterfall hits extremely hard.
 
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Gastrodon (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald / Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic / Counter


Although seemingly standard at first, a closer inspection shows that this Gastrodon is running an unorthodox EV spread: Physically Defensive. Physically Defensive Gastrodon has quite a few quirks that makes it very viable in the current metagame. Unlike Specially Defensive sets, this set beats a common Rain Spinner in Life Orb Starmie with Psyshock. It is immune to its main STAB in Hydro Pump and takes Psyshock with ease. Even Ice Beam fails to 3HKO, so it is a hard stop to it. All Keldeo lacking Calm Mind lose to this Gastrodon as well. Secret Sword can't 2HKO and you can Toxic and Recover stall or just fish for a burn. Choice Specs has to lock itself into Secret Sword to heavily damage you which means another Pokemon on your team has ample oppurtunity to switch in and set up. Physically Defensive EV's are just ideal in the sense that you can still counter the stuff that Gastrodon is supposed to like Thundurus-T and Starmie while being able to tank random Physical hits. A +2 unboosted Terrakion Close Combat fails to OHKO and it can tank a Banded Outrage as well for a few examples of why having Defensive EV's is cool. Scizor's trying to U-turn on your for heavy damage now fail to even do more than 45% which means you can Recover it off easily, even with a critical hit. You can tank anything Mamoswine has to throw at you one time around if you're really desperate to OHKO the Mammoth with Scald. This Gastrodon handles all Tyranitar varients better since you're not sodomized by BandTar anymore. Toxic is standard on this set to nail common switches like Lati@s and to Toxic stall random Pokemon, but Counter is a cool niche move as well to retaliate and OHKO stuff like Scizors trying to U-turn on you. Scald or Earthquake is just dependent on your team and what you're weak to. I prefer Scald since fishing for a burn is nice, but it's all up to you.
 
Gastrodon @ leftovers
Ability:Storm Drain/Sand Force
252hp/252attack/4sdef
~curse
~waterfall
`earthquake
`body slam
Set up a curse and then wall physical attackers and paralyze stuff with body slam. Waterfall and Earthquake are there for stab and are very useful for terrakion and other physical attackers like scizor. If you can get a paralysis or weaken something then you could just send out a sweeper and start rampaging. If you're using a sand team then you would use sand force but otherwise use storm drain. This works pretty well on sand teams though as it can put major dents into walls and destroy stuff like scizor and terrakion. Anything that takes neutral damage gets wrecked by it unless there's like screens or something.
 
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Gastrodon @ Leftovers/Chesto Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
Evs: 252 HP/ 172 Def/ 84 Sp.Def
Bold Nature (+ def/ - atk)
-Stockpile
-Scald
-Ice Beam
-Recover/Rest

this set makes Gastrodon an absolute defensive behemoth, and it works excellently on rain stall teams or weather less/sand stall teams to check rain. with only one weakness in grass, Gastrodon can begin to boost its already strong bulk on many opposing threats to ridiculously high levels as stockpile boost defense and special defense by +1 each. after boosting, Gastrodon can use recover or rest to restore HP which makes it even harder to take down. rest helps avoid toxic stalling in combination with a chesto berry, however recover works well too. scald is there for STAB and to cause burns, while ice beam hits dragons. special attacks were opted for this set to simply take advantage of possible storm drain boosts. the Ev spread helps to even out Gastrodon's defenses.
 
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Gastrodon | Leftovers | Storm Drain
Bold | 248 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
- Toxic
- Protect
- Scald
- Recover

Once Gliscor, now Gastrodon 2.0, Toxic Stall. When it comes to stalling, Gastrodon has no problem shrugging off moves and stalling moves such as LO Outrage from Garchomp, and can Recover off damage or Protect for victory. This set runs attacking move of your choice. With Earth Power, you can take out steel-types, who are immune to Toxic. Scald is generally the better option because it gains a rain boost, and hits steel-types for nuetral-damage, bar Ferrothorn, which Gastrododn doesn't want stay on with and can burn the opponent too if it has no been poisoned yet. Recover si the key move for stalling.
 
Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SDef
Calm Nature
- Magic Coat
- Scald
- Ice Beam / Clear Smog / Mirror Coat
- Recover

One of Gastrodon's biggest problems is that it is terrific setup fodder, as well as being super susceptible to status. This set resolves that issue, as Magic Coat not only bounces back status such as Toxic as well as Spikes from Ferrothorn, it also prevents Taunt from screwing Gastrodon over. Scald is standard for the nifty chance to cripple a physical attacker. Ice Beam makes Grass and Dragon types have a harder time switching in, while Clear Smog prevents stuff like Gyarados and Dragonite without sub from setting up. Mirror Coat is gimmicky, but Gastrodon can take a hit from uninvested Celebi at full health and KO back. Finally, Recover keeps Gastrodon in tip top condition. With this set, Gastrodon can last longer since it has reliable recovery as well as a means to prevent status.
 
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Gastrodon (M) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 124 HP / 252 SAtk / 132 SDef
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Surf
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]

seeing many people already posted a lot of defensive sets, i'm posting this. choice specs gastrodon can look very strange and stupid, but it can work. it's able to switch into a rotom-w or into a non-toxic politoed (it only fears hidden power grass) and then it can hit with a good coverage, boosted by choice specs. if you want a mon which can counter rotom-w, and you need some offensive power (and a good surprise factor too) gastrodon isn't very bad. definitely not a bad choice, especially for rain offense which are weak to rotom-w and don't want to run a defensive mon.
 
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