[OVERVIEW]
Aurorus has incredibly powerful STAB attacks that are accentuated by great coverage options in Earth Power and Freeze-Dry, making it quite difficult to answer defensively. Furthermore, it can use Rock Polish to negate one of its biggest weaknesses: lacking Speed. Beyond its offensive capabilities, Aurorus also has an amazing support movepool, using Aurora Veil, Stealth Rock, Encore, and Thunder Wave to greatly help itself and its teammates. Despite its Speed advantage over other wallbreakers like Golurk and Alolan Exeggutor, though, Aurorus is generally quite slow, exposing its horrible defensive profile and leaving it vulnerable to a multitude of revenge killers like Silvally-Steel, Tsareena, and Duraludon.
[SET]
name: Wallbreaker
move 1: Meteor Beam
move 2: Blizzard
move 3: Earth Power
move 4: Stealth Rock / Freeze-Dry / Rock Polish
item: Power Herb
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Modest / Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Details
====
Earth Power hits Steel-types trying to pivot into its powerful Ice- and Rock-type attacks, compounding with chip from hail in the process. Stealth Rock is great on Aurorus because it forces a lot of switches and threatens Xatu as well as common entry hazard removers like Tsareena, Rotom-C, and Talonflame. Freeze-Dry can be used to reliably hit bulky Water-types like Vaporeon and Gastrodon, although they struggle to switch into a Meteor Beam and take other hits afterwards, and other bulky Water-types like Mantine and Araquanid cannot switch into Meteor Beam. Lastly, Aurorus can serve as a powerful setup sweeper with Rock Polish and Meteor Beam. After a Rock Polish and with a Timid nature, Aurorus will outspeed common Choice Scarf users like Rotom-C and Passimian. Aurorus can use Refrigerate and Hyper Voice instead of Blizzard on this set in the event that hail hinders its teammates, although this is not too common.
Due to its horrible defensive typing and weakness to Stealth Rock, Aurorus appreciates both the pivoting and entry hazard control provided by Xatu, Tsareena, and Rotom-C. Other pivots like Arcanine and Silvally-Ground can deal with healthy Steel-types Aurorus may struggle against while also letting it hit the field relatively safely. Aurorus can KO or weaken Steel-types itself, though, making it work well with others Pokemon that struggle to break them such as Galarian Articuno and Swords Dance Talonflame. Vileplume can pivot into common revenge killers like Rotom-C and Passimian that threaten Aurorus with their super effective STAB moves.
[SET]
name: Dedicated Lead
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Aurora Veil
move 3: Blizzard
move 4: Earth Power / Encore / Thunder Wave
item: Focus Sash
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Details
====
Most common users of entry hazard control, such as Rotom-C, Dhelmise, and Xatu, are weak to Blizzard, making Aurorus a very consistent Stealth Rock setter. Because of its terrible bulk, Aurorus can also consistently set Aurora Veil as its Focus Sash is broken, and go down the next turn to provide its teammates with three turns of dual screens. If the opponent decides to keep Aurorus around to prevent its teammates from taking advantage of Aurora Veil, they have to deal with powerful Blizzards and other disruptive moves like Encore and Thunder Wave. Encore prevents Aurorus from being taken advantage of by specially defensive setup sweepers like Snorlax and Scrafty, while Thunder Wave lets it cripple faster offensive threats and then set up Aurora Veil before going down.
Aurorus is commonly seen on hyper offense teams. Aurora Veil and Stealth Rock greatly support fast setup sweepers like Silvally-Ground, Decidueye, and Drapion. Lots of setup sweepers that become very dangerous if given a free turn to set up make it very difficult for the opponent to spend a turn removing Stealth Rock. Bulkier setup sweepers like Snorlax and Scrafty also benefit from Aurora Veil, although they're also often thwarted by support moves rather than raw damage anyway.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
====
Aurorus can forgo Power Herb and Meteor Beam and use Heavy-Duty Boots to consistently hit the field. This results in a significant loss of wallbreaking power, though. Aurorus can also rock Choice Specs for even stronger Blizzard spam, but this hinders it from making the best use of its coverage and is often not needed to reliably wallbreak.
Checks and Counters
====
**Special Walls**: Aurorus is quite dependent on Meteor Beam to muscle past special walls like Snorlax, Vaporeon, Scrafty. Should it use Meteor Beam too early or encounter multiple of these special walls that resist Blizzard, it can struggle to break them.
**Steel-types**: Steel-types must be chipped thoroughly before they can be OHKOed by Earth Power, with the exception of Stakataka. Silvally-Steel outspeeds and OHKOes Aurorus, and Escavalier and Copperajah must be hit by a Meteor Beam before they can go down to a boosted Earth Power. If Aurorus cannot get its Meteor Beam boost, it will likely fail to beat specially defensive Steel-types.
**Faster Wallbreakers**: Faster wallbreakers like Silvally-Ground, Decidueye, and Starmie all boast super effective attacks and threaten to OHKO Aurorus before it can accomplish anything. This issue is further accentuated by Aurorus's myriad of weaknesses and relatively poor Speed.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Togkey, 400664]]
- Quality checked by: [[Rabia, 336073]]
- Grammar checked by: [[deetah, 297659]]
Aurorus has incredibly powerful STAB attacks that are accentuated by great coverage options in Earth Power and Freeze-Dry, making it quite difficult to answer defensively. Furthermore, it can use Rock Polish to negate one of its biggest weaknesses: lacking Speed. Beyond its offensive capabilities, Aurorus also has an amazing support movepool, using Aurora Veil, Stealth Rock, Encore, and Thunder Wave to greatly help itself and its teammates. Despite its Speed advantage over other wallbreakers like Golurk and Alolan Exeggutor, though, Aurorus is generally quite slow, exposing its horrible defensive profile and leaving it vulnerable to a multitude of revenge killers like Silvally-Steel, Tsareena, and Duraludon.
[SET]
name: Wallbreaker
move 1: Meteor Beam
move 2: Blizzard
move 3: Earth Power
move 4: Stealth Rock / Freeze-Dry / Rock Polish
item: Power Herb
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Modest / Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Details
====
Earth Power hits Steel-types trying to pivot into its powerful Ice- and Rock-type attacks, compounding with chip from hail in the process. Stealth Rock is great on Aurorus because it forces a lot of switches and threatens Xatu as well as common entry hazard removers like Tsareena, Rotom-C, and Talonflame. Freeze-Dry can be used to reliably hit bulky Water-types like Vaporeon and Gastrodon, although they struggle to switch into a Meteor Beam and take other hits afterwards, and other bulky Water-types like Mantine and Araquanid cannot switch into Meteor Beam. Lastly, Aurorus can serve as a powerful setup sweeper with Rock Polish and Meteor Beam. After a Rock Polish and with a Timid nature, Aurorus will outspeed common Choice Scarf users like Rotom-C and Passimian. Aurorus can use Refrigerate and Hyper Voice instead of Blizzard on this set in the event that hail hinders its teammates, although this is not too common.
Due to its horrible defensive typing and weakness to Stealth Rock, Aurorus appreciates both the pivoting and entry hazard control provided by Xatu, Tsareena, and Rotom-C. Other pivots like Arcanine and Silvally-Ground can deal with healthy Steel-types Aurorus may struggle against while also letting it hit the field relatively safely. Aurorus can KO or weaken Steel-types itself, though, making it work well with others Pokemon that struggle to break them such as Galarian Articuno and Swords Dance Talonflame. Vileplume can pivot into common revenge killers like Rotom-C and Passimian that threaten Aurorus with their super effective STAB moves.
[SET]
name: Dedicated Lead
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Aurora Veil
move 3: Blizzard
move 4: Earth Power / Encore / Thunder Wave
item: Focus Sash
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Details
====
Most common users of entry hazard control, such as Rotom-C, Dhelmise, and Xatu, are weak to Blizzard, making Aurorus a very consistent Stealth Rock setter. Because of its terrible bulk, Aurorus can also consistently set Aurora Veil as its Focus Sash is broken, and go down the next turn to provide its teammates with three turns of dual screens. If the opponent decides to keep Aurorus around to prevent its teammates from taking advantage of Aurora Veil, they have to deal with powerful Blizzards and other disruptive moves like Encore and Thunder Wave. Encore prevents Aurorus from being taken advantage of by specially defensive setup sweepers like Snorlax and Scrafty, while Thunder Wave lets it cripple faster offensive threats and then set up Aurora Veil before going down.
Aurorus is commonly seen on hyper offense teams. Aurora Veil and Stealth Rock greatly support fast setup sweepers like Silvally-Ground, Decidueye, and Drapion. Lots of setup sweepers that become very dangerous if given a free turn to set up make it very difficult for the opponent to spend a turn removing Stealth Rock. Bulkier setup sweepers like Snorlax and Scrafty also benefit from Aurora Veil, although they're also often thwarted by support moves rather than raw damage anyway.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
====
Aurorus can forgo Power Herb and Meteor Beam and use Heavy-Duty Boots to consistently hit the field. This results in a significant loss of wallbreaking power, though. Aurorus can also rock Choice Specs for even stronger Blizzard spam, but this hinders it from making the best use of its coverage and is often not needed to reliably wallbreak.
Checks and Counters
====
**Special Walls**: Aurorus is quite dependent on Meteor Beam to muscle past special walls like Snorlax, Vaporeon, Scrafty. Should it use Meteor Beam too early or encounter multiple of these special walls that resist Blizzard, it can struggle to break them.
**Steel-types**: Steel-types must be chipped thoroughly before they can be OHKOed by Earth Power, with the exception of Stakataka. Silvally-Steel outspeeds and OHKOes Aurorus, and Escavalier and Copperajah must be hit by a Meteor Beam before they can go down to a boosted Earth Power. If Aurorus cannot get its Meteor Beam boost, it will likely fail to beat specially defensive Steel-types.
**Faster Wallbreakers**: Faster wallbreakers like Silvally-Ground, Decidueye, and Starmie all boast super effective attacks and threaten to OHKO Aurorus before it can accomplish anything. This issue is further accentuated by Aurorus's myriad of weaknesses and relatively poor Speed.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Togkey, 400664]]
- Quality checked by: [[Rabia, 336073]]
- Grammar checked by: [[deetah, 297659]]
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