Gen 3 Castform (NU Revamp)

[Oglemi]

https://www.smogon.com/dex/rs/pokemon/castform/

[Overview]

Huntail, Bellossom, and Tangela are some of the most potent sweepers in NU, and Castform happens to be able to check them all offensively, something very few other Pokemon can accomplish. Being able to take advantage of any weather is a cool niche and Castform's special attacking movepool is about as good as it gets, but the rest of Castform is pretty lackluster. Its stats are just too low to attempt a weather-based sweep, which is what it really wants to be able to do. You should really only bring Castform if you are using an offense team and you are sure your opponent is going to bring a weather sweeper. Otherwise you're probably better off bringing something like Kecleon.

[SET]
name: Special Attacker
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Weather Ball / Fire Blast
move 3: Thunder Wave
move 4: Substitute / Hail
item: Leftovers / Lum Berry
ability: Forecast
nature: Timid
evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
- Thunderbolt + Weather Ball nails the three prominent weather sweepers and has pretty good two-move coverage in any weather
- Weather Ball a bit more flexible in its use, becomes a base 100 STAB Water move in rain which helps prevent Castform from being walled, Fire in sun, Ice in hail, Rock in sandstorm
- However, Weather Ball contingent on weather being active to be useful
- Fire Blast non-weather contingent and Castform's strongest reliable special attack
- TWave helps Castform be useful outside checking weather sweepers and is Castform's best option against a full health Huntail
- Hail messes up weather supporters and allows Castform to inflict passive damage for a few turns
- Substitute protects Castform from the switch-in and makes predicting easier

[ADDITIONAL SET COMMENTS]
- Modest + Thunder can be used to ensure OHKO against Huntail. Thunder sucks outside rain though, and Timid is wanted to outrun Timid Tangela before sun is set up or hit by Sleep Powder
- Lum Berry can ensure Castform is able to check the sun sweepers without fear of Sleep Powder connecting
- Castform really only fits offense teams that need a faster weather check than something like Kecleon.
- Main thing to remember is that Castform is only a check to Huntail, can't switch into Hydro Pump followed by HP Grass and doesn't KO with Thunderbolt or Timid Thunder half the time

[Other Options]
- Sunny Day + Solar Beam, Rain Dance + Thunder, Hail + Blizzard
- Physical set w/ Sandstorm
- Body Slam, Icy Wind
- Future Sight
- Thief, Toxic

[Checks and Counters]
- Anything with good special bulk not weak to Thunderbolt or Fire Blast; Flareon, Torkoal, Whiscash, Lickitung, Kecleon
- Anything faster with decent power; Hitmonchan, Pidgeot, Raticate

 

[DurzaOffTopic]

If you're going to mention Hail, you might as well mention Blizzard with it. I personally think this set that Disjunction showed was quite effective as a more bulky offensive weather check, while also having more use in other matchups. That would be this set here:

name: Special Attacker
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Flamethrower / Fire Blast
move 3: Blizzard
move 4: Hail
item: Leftovers / Lum Berry
ability: Forecast
nature: Modest
evs: 152 HP / 252 SpA / 104 Spe

The set you have above feels like its a bit deadweight outside of facing weather, and while that set is inarguably more effective at consistently countering opposing weather this set here still has a great opposing weather matchup while having significantly more use against less offensive builds.

Modest Thunder is still a roll (albeit in Castform's favor) to KO Huntail so I wouldn't really say it ensures the OHKO. Running Timid to outspeed Tangela before sun doesn't really matter if you're not running Flamethrower / Fire Blast as you can't OHKO it anyway, I'd just run Lum Berry if you're that worried about Tang. I think the 128HP/128SpD benchmark is still really important to mention to avoid the 2HKO from a Huntail's Hydro Pump in Rain without Leftovers and it avoids the 2HKO from HP grass in rain with lefties.

 

[DurzaOffTopic]

for some reason I (and clearly disjunction and other people) falsely thought that hail removes blizzard accuracy check but that wasn't in place till gen4. remove blizzard from other options, its not exactly useful.

 

[Bughouse]

Durza gave me a set, which I've modified

Castform @ Lum Berry / Leftovers
Ability: Forecast
EVs: 144 HP / 200 SpA / 164 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder / Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower / Fire Blast
- Ice Beam
- Thunder Wave

252 SpA Huntail Hydro Pump vs. 144 HP / 164 SpD Castform in Rain: 127-150 (40 - 47.3%)
252 SpA Huntail Hidden Power Grass vs. 144 HP / 164 SpD Castform: 134-158 (42.2 - 49.8%)
200+ SpA Castform Thunder vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Huntail: 231-272 (91.6 - 107.9%) -- 50% chance to OHKO

Modest is a bigger problem... but what else is new... you could run lefties and 176 HP / 164 SpA / 168 SpD Modest if you want to dodge even Modest Huntail's 2HKO. If you do this though, you can get slept by the sunnybeamers.

The point of Lum obviously is that it lets you beat the sunnybeamers easily
252+ SpA Bellossom Solar Beam vs. 144 HP / 164 SpD Castform: 91-108 (28.7 - 34%)
200+ SpA Castform Flamethrower vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Bellossom in Sun: 321-378 (109.9 - 129.4%)

This is coincidentally literally the "Special Attacker" already on site with a horrific "analysis" just with Thunder over Tbolt, though tbh Tbolt is usable... and Fire Blast slashed. The main reason to run Fire Blast is to 2HKO most Roselia, which Flamethrower does not do.

You could potentially slash Hail with TWave since it can be more reliable than TWave in slowing down a weather sweeper, since they could be behind a sub or have Lum Berry, etc. It's probably more OO than anything though.

Ice Beam can probably also be replaced since it hits very little that Electric or Fire attacks don't already hit. You could potentially run a Hidden Power (Dark, Grass, and Water all seem usable), Protect (if Lefties), or Icy Wind. Ice Beam is really just there as a strong move that it gets... the main benefit I guess is Pupitar, which HP or IW would handle too.