[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 7 onwards
**Price Range**: 5-6 points
**Overview**: Wo-Chien has great defensive stats that are amplified further with Tablets of Ruin; decent Speed; and access to utility moves such as Ruination, Knock Off, and Leech Seed, making it an annoying disruptive wall in theory. However, despite its useful resistances to Water, Ground, Dark, and Ghost, its typing is also riddled with common weaknesses, the most exploitable of which is being 4x weak to U-turn. Coupled with its lackluster offenses and coverage, as well as a lack of reliable recovery outside of Leech Seed, Wo-Chien struggles to find a place on most drafts.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Disruptive Wall**: Wo-Chien can use its useful resistances to Water-, Ground-, Dark-, and Ghost-type attacks to switch in and disrupt or do chip damage to foes, while having staying power through Leech Seed and potentially Leftovers recovery.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB moves**: Foul Play, Knock Off, Power Whip, Seed Bomb, Dark Pulse, Energy Ball, Giga Drain, Grass Knot, Leaf Storm
**Setup moves**: Trailblaze
**Utility moves**: Ruination, Leech Seed, Light Screen, Poison Powder, Protect, Reflect, Stun Spore, Substitute, Taunt
**Coverage**: Body Press, Zen Headbutt, Pollen Puff
Niche Moves
========
**Mean Look**: Mean Look can be used to trap an opposing Pokemon, allowing Wo-Chien to gain significant chip damage or eliminate it outright.
**Rest and Sleep Talk**: This combination of moves gives Wo-Chien recovery outside of Leech Seed and Leftovers, allowing it to remain healthy across the course of a game.
**Scary Face**: Scary Face allows Wo-Chien to slow down opposing Pokemon that might otherwise set up in front of it, allowing its teammates to revenge kill the setup sweeper more easily.
Common Items
========
**Leftovers**: With Leech Seed, Leftovers gives Wo-Chien great staying power versus teams that struggle to break it immediately.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Against teams with multiple entry hazard users, Wo-Chien may use Heavy-Duty Boots to maintain its longevity throughout a game.
**Rocky Helmet**: Wo-Chien can utilize its defensive profile to punish physical attackers with chip damage. This item also punishes pivoting moves, especially U-turn.
**Resistance Berries**: Resistance Berries allow Wo-Chien to better check opposing Pokemon with coverage moves aimed at it, and with an expansive list of common weaknesses, it can pick from a variety of different resistance Berries to check its desired target.
Niche Items
========
**Weakness Policy**: Wo-Chien can leverage its weakness-laden typing and use it to lure in and trade with an opposing Pokemon with Weakness Policy boosts or attempt to sweep with Trailblaze.
**Light Clay**: Wo-Chien can use Light Clay in conjunction with Reflect and Light Screen to extend their duration, enabling its teammates to sweep.
**Eject Pack**: Paired with Leaf Storm, Wo-Chien can pivot into a teammate, not conceding too much momentum.
Tera
========
Wo-Chien benefits greatly from Tera, being able to function well as a wall without the hindrance of its weakness-ridden typing. Any defensive Tera type, such as Fairy, Poison, Steel, or Water, are all good options. However, it must be mentioned that Wo-Chien lacks setup options, rendering it unfit to function as a setup sweeper enhanced by Tera.
Draft Strategy
========
Wo-Chien offers a team key resistances such as Water, Ground, Dark, and Ghost, as well as the ability to accumulate chip damage across opposing teams with Ruination, Leech Seed, and potentially even its Rocky Helmet. However, it should be noted that Wo-Chien should not be the sole Pokemon with a resistance to the aforementioned types, as its defensive holes are very easily exploited by common coverage moves, rendering it a shaky check at best. It should be a complementary piece to a team that supports it well in return.
**U-turn Punishers**: As U-turn is Wo-Chien’s greatest counter, Pokemon that can dissuade or punish the usage of U-turn are great partners for it, such as Annihilape, Garchomp, and Glimmora.
**Entry Hazard Setters and Control**: Wo-Chien greatly benefits from teammates that can set up entry hazards, which makes switching around Leech Seed and Ruination more difficult as well as further dissuading U-turn. Entry hazard setters such as Garchomp and Glimmora pair well with it. Wo-Chien also appreciates entry hazard removal from Pokemon such as Great Tusk, Iron Treads, and Terapagos, so it can run an item that is not Heavy-Duty Boots.
**Offensive Teammates**: As Wo-Chien is mainly a defensive presence, it relies on teammates that can capitalize on the chip damage it spreads, enabling them to better clean up. Strong, fast offensive teammates such as Iron Valiant, Greninja, and Cinderace are great partners.
Checks and Counters
========
**U-turn**: U-turn hits Wo-Chien 4x super effectively and pivots the user out so that it can avoid Leech Seed. Most Pokemon that Wo-Chien is meant to check have this move, such as Greninja, Ogerpon-W, Ogerpon, and Landorus-T. Strong users of U-turn such as Cinderace and Scizor are Wo-Chien's arch nemeses.
**Entry Hazards**: Wo-Chien lacks reliable recovery outside of Leech Seed and potentially Leftovers, rendering it extremely liable to be chipped down over the course of a game by entry hazards and therefore no longer able to perform its defensive role. Toxic Spikes in particular ruins Wo-Chien's walling prowess. When holding Heavy-Duty Boots, Wo-Chien's defensive profile is significantly diminished due to the inability to hold other defensive items such as Leftovers, Rocky Helmet, or resistance Berries.
**Setup Sweepers**: As Wo-Chien lacks common forms of disruption, it is prone to being set up on by common setup sweepers that do not care about Foul Play such as Iron Valiant, Zarude, and Enamorus.
**Grass-types**: Grass-types are immune to Wo-Chien's Leech Seed, cutting off its most reliable form of recovery, and they largely do not care about Ruination. Some Grass-types such as Amoonguss have Toxic to further shut down Wo-Chien.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/ryan-ditto.601382/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/drizzle.313217/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/theuncultured.629845/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/autumn.384270/
**Draft Order**: Round 7 onwards
**Price Range**: 5-6 points
**Overview**: Wo-Chien has great defensive stats that are amplified further with Tablets of Ruin; decent Speed; and access to utility moves such as Ruination, Knock Off, and Leech Seed, making it an annoying disruptive wall in theory. However, despite its useful resistances to Water, Ground, Dark, and Ghost, its typing is also riddled with common weaknesses, the most exploitable of which is being 4x weak to U-turn. Coupled with its lackluster offenses and coverage, as well as a lack of reliable recovery outside of Leech Seed, Wo-Chien struggles to find a place on most drafts.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Disruptive Wall**: Wo-Chien can use its useful resistances to Water-, Ground-, Dark-, and Ghost-type attacks to switch in and disrupt or do chip damage to foes, while having staying power through Leech Seed and potentially Leftovers recovery.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB moves**: Foul Play, Knock Off, Power Whip, Seed Bomb, Dark Pulse, Energy Ball, Giga Drain, Grass Knot, Leaf Storm
**Setup moves**: Trailblaze
**Utility moves**: Ruination, Leech Seed, Light Screen, Poison Powder, Protect, Reflect, Stun Spore, Substitute, Taunt
**Coverage**: Body Press, Zen Headbutt, Pollen Puff
Niche Moves
========
**Mean Look**: Mean Look can be used to trap an opposing Pokemon, allowing Wo-Chien to gain significant chip damage or eliminate it outright.
**Rest and Sleep Talk**: This combination of moves gives Wo-Chien recovery outside of Leech Seed and Leftovers, allowing it to remain healthy across the course of a game.
**Scary Face**: Scary Face allows Wo-Chien to slow down opposing Pokemon that might otherwise set up in front of it, allowing its teammates to revenge kill the setup sweeper more easily.
Common Items
========
**Leftovers**: With Leech Seed, Leftovers gives Wo-Chien great staying power versus teams that struggle to break it immediately.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Against teams with multiple entry hazard users, Wo-Chien may use Heavy-Duty Boots to maintain its longevity throughout a game.
**Rocky Helmet**: Wo-Chien can utilize its defensive profile to punish physical attackers with chip damage. This item also punishes pivoting moves, especially U-turn.
**Resistance Berries**: Resistance Berries allow Wo-Chien to better check opposing Pokemon with coverage moves aimed at it, and with an expansive list of common weaknesses, it can pick from a variety of different resistance Berries to check its desired target.
Niche Items
========
**Weakness Policy**: Wo-Chien can leverage its weakness-laden typing and use it to lure in and trade with an opposing Pokemon with Weakness Policy boosts or attempt to sweep with Trailblaze.
**Light Clay**: Wo-Chien can use Light Clay in conjunction with Reflect and Light Screen to extend their duration, enabling its teammates to sweep.
**Eject Pack**: Paired with Leaf Storm, Wo-Chien can pivot into a teammate, not conceding too much momentum.
Tera
========
Wo-Chien benefits greatly from Tera, being able to function well as a wall without the hindrance of its weakness-ridden typing. Any defensive Tera type, such as Fairy, Poison, Steel, or Water, are all good options. However, it must be mentioned that Wo-Chien lacks setup options, rendering it unfit to function as a setup sweeper enhanced by Tera.
Draft Strategy
========
Wo-Chien offers a team key resistances such as Water, Ground, Dark, and Ghost, as well as the ability to accumulate chip damage across opposing teams with Ruination, Leech Seed, and potentially even its Rocky Helmet. However, it should be noted that Wo-Chien should not be the sole Pokemon with a resistance to the aforementioned types, as its defensive holes are very easily exploited by common coverage moves, rendering it a shaky check at best. It should be a complementary piece to a team that supports it well in return.
**U-turn Punishers**: As U-turn is Wo-Chien’s greatest counter, Pokemon that can dissuade or punish the usage of U-turn are great partners for it, such as Annihilape, Garchomp, and Glimmora.
**Entry Hazard Setters and Control**: Wo-Chien greatly benefits from teammates that can set up entry hazards, which makes switching around Leech Seed and Ruination more difficult as well as further dissuading U-turn. Entry hazard setters such as Garchomp and Glimmora pair well with it. Wo-Chien also appreciates entry hazard removal from Pokemon such as Great Tusk, Iron Treads, and Terapagos, so it can run an item that is not Heavy-Duty Boots.
**Offensive Teammates**: As Wo-Chien is mainly a defensive presence, it relies on teammates that can capitalize on the chip damage it spreads, enabling them to better clean up. Strong, fast offensive teammates such as Iron Valiant, Greninja, and Cinderace are great partners.
Checks and Counters
========
**U-turn**: U-turn hits Wo-Chien 4x super effectively and pivots the user out so that it can avoid Leech Seed. Most Pokemon that Wo-Chien is meant to check have this move, such as Greninja, Ogerpon-W, Ogerpon, and Landorus-T. Strong users of U-turn such as Cinderace and Scizor are Wo-Chien's arch nemeses.
**Entry Hazards**: Wo-Chien lacks reliable recovery outside of Leech Seed and potentially Leftovers, rendering it extremely liable to be chipped down over the course of a game by entry hazards and therefore no longer able to perform its defensive role. Toxic Spikes in particular ruins Wo-Chien's walling prowess. When holding Heavy-Duty Boots, Wo-Chien's defensive profile is significantly diminished due to the inability to hold other defensive items such as Leftovers, Rocky Helmet, or resistance Berries.
**Setup Sweepers**: As Wo-Chien lacks common forms of disruption, it is prone to being set up on by common setup sweepers that do not care about Foul Play such as Iron Valiant, Zarude, and Enamorus.
**Grass-types**: Grass-types are immune to Wo-Chien's Leech Seed, cutting off its most reliable form of recovery, and they largely do not care about Ruination. Some Grass-types such as Amoonguss have Toxic to further shut down Wo-Chien.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/ryan-ditto.601382/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/drizzle.313217/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/theuncultured.629845/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/autumn.384270/
Last edited: