Venomoth

[Celebiii]

Thanks to BigFatMantis for the help writing this!

Base Stats: 70 HP / 65 Atk / 60 Def / 90 SpA / 75 SpD / 90 Spe
Abilities: Shield Dust | Tinted Lens | Wonder Skin (Hidden Ability)
Notable Moves:

• Bug Buzz
• Quiver Dance
• Sleep Powder
• Sludge Bomb
• Tera Blast

Pros:

• Venomoth can boost into a terrifying special attacking sweeper with Quiver Dance
• Tinted Lens allows Venomoth to bypass its STABs' resistances to still dish out neutrally effective damage against them
• Access to Sleep Powder to cripple checks and give Venomoth opportunities to accrue more Quiver Dances
• Useful secondary effects on STAB moves; Bug Buzz bypasses Substitues due to being sound-based, while Sludge Bomb has a 30% poison rate
• Double Fighting and Grass resistances, single Poison, Bug, and Fairy resistances, and a Toxic immunity give Venomoth some switch-in opportunities

Cons:

• Poor physical bulk means Venomoth takes heavy damage or is even KO'd by many neutrally-effective physical attacks, to say nothing of super effective ones. It also makes it vulnerable to several priority attacks, including Sucker Punch and Extreme Speed
• Venomoth needs a Quiver Dance to outspeed many offensive threats, meaning that it requires at least one free turn to get going
• Weak to many relevant attacking types in Flying, Rock, Fire, and Psychic
• Requires a coverage move or boosts to break past some Pokemon that resist both STABs, such as Tinkaton and Gengar

Terastalizing Potential:

• Tera Bug allows Venomoth to boost its Bug Buzz to dizzying levels of power in combination with Tinted Lens
• Tera Ground provides Venomoth with a useful Rock resistance and ability to hit Steel- and Rock-types super effectively
• Tera Fire provides a Steel and Fire resistance and the ability to hit Steel-types super effectively

Potential Sets:
Quiver Dance + Sleep Powder
Venomoth @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Tinted Lens
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Sludge Bomb
- Sleep Powder

A straightforward sweeper. Use Sleep Powder to cripple a check and start boosting with Quiver Dance, then spam your STABs. Use Tera Bug to make Bug Buzz even more powerful if needed.

Quiver Dance + Coverage
Venomoth @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Tinted Lens
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Sludge Bomb
- Tera Blast

The same as the above set, but with a coverage move in Tera Blast instead of Sleep Powder. Tera Ground is chosen to hit Steel-types, Poison-types, and Rock-types. Tera Ground also provides Venomoth with a Rock resist, which can be helpful in setting up or surviving Lycanroc-Dusk's Accelerock.

Other Options

• Tera Fire can be used instead of Tera Ground. Tera Fire is good neutral coverage, provides a super effective hit on Steel-types, and gives Venomoth Steel and Fire resistances, which can be useful against moves like Lucario's Bullet Punch and Armarouge's Armor Cannon, respectively. However, Fire-type Tera Blast does not hit Gengar super effectively and is resisted by Rock-types like Naclstack, Iron Thorns, and Lycanroc-Dusk. It also maintains Venomoth's Rock weakness while giving it a new weakness to Water, which can be taken advantage of by Aqua Jet users like Azumarill.
• Life Orb can be used over Heavy-Duty Boots for increased damage output if hazards can be kept off Venomoth's side of the field consistently.
• A set of Quiver Dance, Sludge Bomb, Sleep Powder, and Tera Blast, using either Tera Ground or Tera Fire, can be used to allow Venomoth to maintain the ability to cripple a check with Sleep while having an unexpected but potent STAB combination. Giving up Bug Buzz means that Venomoth can no longer penetrate Substitutes, however, which can be critical against Espathra.

 

[STEELDRAGON]

Tinted Lens is huge for Venomoth especially because most of the time it is only running 2 damaging moves. It is pretty dangerous late game but still faces some crippling flaws. UU is full of flying pokemon and it easily outsped by choice scarfers such as Staraptor, even worse Talonflame outspeeds and OHKOes no matter how many boosts it has if it's still at full health. I like Throat Spray as a item even though it's a one time thing because Venomoth needs all the power it can get and Life Orb makes it even more vulnerable to priority.

 

[gamieTG]

even worse Talonflame outspeeds and OHKOes no matter how many boosts it has if it's still at full health.

This usually isn't the case. In UU, Talonflame usually runs Flame Body as its ability to potentially punish U-turns with burn. The value of burn spread outweighs priority Flying moves at full health most of the time, unless Talonflame is running a offensive set, which is much less common.

 

[STEELDRAGON]

This usually isn't the case. In UU, Talonflame usually runs Flame Body as its ability to potentially punish U-turns with burn. The value of burn spread outweighs priority Flying moves at full health most of the time, unless Talonflame is running a offensive set, which is much less common.

About 75% of the Talonflame that I have encountered on the ladder run Gale Wings. At least on defensive sets, I agree that Flame Body is a superior ability.