(I know this is Croagunk but still)



Type:


Stats: 83 HP / 106 Atk / 65 Def / 86 SpA / 65 SpD / 85 Spe (BST: 490)
Abilities: Anticipation / Dry Skin / Poison Touch (Hidden)
Notable Moves: Close Combat, Dark Pulse, Drain Punch, Earthquake, Focus Blast, Gunk Shot, Nasty Plot, Poison Jab, Sludge Bomb, Sucker Punch, Sword Dance, Vaccum Wave
Notable Moves Gained: Close Combat
Notable Moves Lost: Knock Off, Throat Chop
Moves Gained:
Moves Lost:
- Acid Spray
- Aerial Ace
- Chilling Water
- Close Combat (finally)
- Mud Shot
- Reversal
- Scary Face
- Shadow Claw
- Take Down
- Tera Blast
Moves Lost:
- Acupressure
- Assurance
- Attract
- Bounce
- Coaching
- Confide
- Corrosive Gas
- Cross Poison
- Cut
- Double Team
- Dual Chop
- Focus Punch
- Fury Cutter
- Knock Off
- Lash Out
- Mega Kick
- Mega Punch
- Payback
- Power-Up Punch
- Retaliate
- Revenge
- Rock Smash
- Role Play
- Round
- Screech
- Sludge Wave
- Snore
- Spite
- Strength
- Super Fang
- Throat Chop
- Torment
- Venom Drench
- Work Up
Pros:
- Its STABs hit popular types such as Fairy, Steel and Dark
- Can FINALLY learn Close Combat
- Can run both physical and special attacking sets
- Dry Skin gives it potential to be a rain team counter
Cons:
- Has a 4x weakness to Psychic
- Overall frail bulk (83 HP / 65 Def / 65 SpD)
- Doesn't deal with Water-Types well without Tera
- Lost Knock Off and Throat Chop
- Can't take Hurricanes when in rain
Tera Potential:
Toxicroak wants to use its Tera to find oppertunities to set up and/or gain STAB on its coverage moves.
- Tera Dark is the most obvious choice since it turns Toxicroak's 4x weakness into an immunity, allowing it to potentially go "Nothing personal, kid" on a Psychic-Type looking to kill it with Sucker Punch, though the move's low base power lets it miss out on some crucial KOs, and gaining a Fairy weakness means most Psychic-Types in the tier can KO Toxicroak after tanking a Sucker Punch
- Tera Ground has great synergy with Dry Skin and makes Toxicroak immune to both of Rotom-Wash's STABs. It also grants STAB on Earthquake, letting it 2HKO Tinkaton without Tera, but this comes at the cost of not having Sucker Punch, which is crucial when facing offensive threats in the tier
- Tera Ghost can be a alternative to Tera Dark on special sets to boost Shadow Ball's Power without gaining a Fairy weakness. You could use it on physical sets to make Shadow Claw stronger, but you're better off using Sucker Punch
Swords Dance (Toxicroak) @ Life Orb
Ability: Dry Skin
Tera Type: Dark / Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Gunk Shot / Poison Jab
- Close Combat / Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch / Earthquake
Life Orb is essentially required for additional power. As for attacks, Gunk Shot and Close Combat are the preferred STABs, though you can opt for Drain Punch over CC for healing and Poison Jab over Gunk Shot if you don't wanna pray to god. The third move depends on what you're trying to counter and is basically tied to your Tera Type, as explained above.
Nasty Plot (Toxicroak) @ Life Orb
Ability: Dry Skin
Tera Type: Dark / Ghost / Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Sludge Bomb
- Focus Blast / Vaccum Wave
- Dark Pulse / Shadow Ball / Vaccum Wave
This is essentially a special variant of the previous set, but with some notable differences. Sludge Bomb and Focus
Conclusion:
To be honest, Toxicroak doesn't really have a place in UU. While rain is currently a common sight in UU and Toxicroak has Dry Skin, an ability that grants Water immunity and passive recovery in rain, it simply doesn't check all the rain threats in UU well. However, I'm looking forward to seeing what it can do in the lower tiers. It finally got Close Combat this generation, improving its damage output by quite a bit. Hopefully, this frog can find a confortable (and humid) place in RU.
Last edited: