Pokémon Goodra-Hisui

[War Incarnate]

Goodra-Hisui

Type(s) - Steel/Dragon
Base Stats - 80 HP / 100 Atk / 100 Def / 110 SpA / 150 SpD / 60 Spe

Abilities: Sap Sipper/Shell Armor/Gooey [HA]
Moveset

Movepool

Level Up:
01: Shelter
01: Acid Spray
01: Tearful Look
01: Feint
01: Absorb
01: Tackle
01: Water Gun
01: Dragon Breath
Evo: Iron Tail
15: Protect
20: Flail
25: Water Pulse
30: Rain Dance
35: Dragon Pulse
43: Curse
49: Iron Head
49: Body Slam
58: Muddy Water
67: Heavy Slam
TMS:
001: Take Down
002: Charm
007: Protect
011: Water Pulse
013: Acid Spray
022: Chilling Water
025: Facade
026: Poison Tail
028: Bulldoze
035: Mud Shot
044: Dragon Tail
047: Endure
049: Sunny Day
050: Rain Dance
066: Body Slam
067: Fire Punch
068: Thunder Punch
070: Sleep Talk
078: Dragon Claw
084: Stomping Tantrum
085: Rest
086: Rock Slide
089: Body Press
103: Substitute
115: Dragon Pulse
123: Surf
125: Flamethrower
126: Thunderbolt
135: Ice Beam
141: Fire Blast
142: Hydro Pump
143: Blizzard
148: Sludge Bomb
149: Earthquake
152: Giga Impact
156: Outrage
163: Hyper Beam
169: Draco Meteor
171: Tera Blast
Egg Moves:
Counter
Life Dew

Notable Moves:

• Heavy Slam
• Iron Head
• Dragon Claw
• Draco Meteor
• Dragon Pulse
• Flash Cannon
• Fire Blast
• Flamethrower
• Focus Blast
• Earthquake
• Dragon Tail
• Chilling Water
• Body Press
• Curse
• Shelter

Signature Move:
Shelter - Steel-type | Status | --- acc | 10 PP [max 16] | Raises Defense by 2 stages

The release of Pokemon: Legends Arceus introduced many variants to existing Pokemon in the form of regional forms and new evolutions. Many breathed new life into them - look at Samurott, Ursaluna, and Sneasler, for example, poised to be some of the best mons introduced into the SV OU metagame with the advent of HOME compatibility. Others are less fortunate, but still potentially noteworthy, as was the case with mons like Kleavor and Basculegion, among many others.

Goodra’s new regional variant fell into the former, granting it a part Steel-typing and a +30 Defense buff, in exchange for 20 points of Speed and 10 points in HP. With an amazing defensive typing and great mixed bulk, Hisuian Goodra is poised to be a powerful, hard-to-break tank. However, it’s not like it’s a slump offensively either - with decent offenses and a wide offensive movepool, Hisuian Goodra is able to fight back against the opponent. The Steel-type in particular lets Goodra hit the Fairy-types that would stomach its Dragon STAB, and it has a variety of coverage moves in Earthquake/Fire Blast for opposing Steel-types.

However, Hisuian Goodra is not without its flaws. Firstly, that Defense buff cost it 20 points of speed, putting it behind many pokemon in the tier, including offensive threats and faster defensive threats like Great Tusk. In addition, its defensive typing still retains weaknesses to common offensive types like Fighting and Ground, traits bad in a meta where Great Tusk still runs rampant. Furthermore, being a Steel not resistant to Fairy or Ice can be quite troublesome at times. Having no means of reliable recovery also hurts and leaves Hisuian Goodra easy to wear down as well.
Positives:

• Steel/Dragon is an amazing defensive typing, granting it a bevy of valuable resistances to common types like Electric and Water.
• This typing also covers a decent variety of weaknesses, notably being a Steel that doesn’t fear Fire-type moves.
• Amazing special bulk backs up that further amazing defensive typing, and its physical bulk is massively improved compared to its base form.
• Is not completely passive thanks to decent offensive stats of 100/110 and a variety of coverage moves to hit other pokemon.

Negatives:

• Very slow, sitting at the base 60 speed tier. Many mons outspeed it, which is bad in such a fast-paced meta.
• No recovery outside of Leftovers [Life Dew is too weak, RestTalk sets are potentially an option but are gimmicky at best] leaves Hisuian Goodra easy to wear down.
• Its defensive typing leaves it with common weaknesses to mons like Zamazenta and its Crowned variant, as well as Great Tusk, Sneasler, and Ursaluna.
• It’s a Steel that doesn’t resist Fairy and Ice thanks to being part Dragon-type. This causes all sorts of problems against mons like Chien-Pao and Enamorous.

Terastalizing Potential:

• In all fairness, it’s not likely that Hisuian Goodra will want to Terastallize.
• Considering its great defensive typing is what carries it, it’s not likely it will want to give that up. Plus, there will likely be better users of Terastallization on its team.
• That said, if you need to Tera it, Tera Flying may be your main way to go. It flips Hisuian Goodra’s weaknesses to Ground and Fighting and turns them into resistances/immunities. However, bear in mind that you may need HDB if you do this to ensure that you do not crumble to Stealth Rocks and you will be left without Leftovers recovery as a result.
• Tera Poison may be an option if you need something that can keep Iron Valiant/other Fairies and Fightings in check. However, it retains a weakness to Ground-types, so make sure that your team has the capacity to deal with threats like Ursaluna and Great Tusk.
• Other options may include Tera Steel, Tera Ghost, or Tera Water depending on the scenario.

Potential Movesets
Tank [Physical Attacking]
Goodra-Hisui @ Leftovers/Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sap Sipper
Tera Type: Flying/Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature/Relaxed Nature

• Heavy Slam
• Dragon Tail
• Body Press/Dragon Claw
• Curse/Hydro Pump/Flamethrower/Fire Blast/Earthquake

Simple tank build. Because Goodra-H’s special defense is so naturally high, it can get away with investing fully in Defense and HP. The last 4 EVs can be allocated anywhere and do not particularly matter. Heavy Slam is used as the STAB of choice, being a powerful STAB boosted further by Sap Sipper. Dragon Tail is useful for phasing the opponent and racking up hazard damage. The last moveslot has a decent variety of options, with Curse as a means to boost its Attack and Defense even further. Alternatively, you might run Hydro Pump to snipe Great Tusk or Flamethrower/Fire Blast/Earthquake/Body Press to snipe mons like Kingambit and Magearna. Impish Nature is used if not running special attacks so to not compromise its speed, while Relaxed is used to ensure that its special attacks are not compromised in power, at the cost of some speed. Both also notably give its Body Presses some hitting power as well.

Tank [Special Attacking]
Goodra-Hisui @ Leftovers/Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Shell Armor
Tera Type: Flying/Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature

• Flash Cannon
• Draco Meteor
• Fire Blast
• Hydro Pump

The above set, but rebuilt to be a special attacker.

Overall Thoughts:
Hisuian Goodra is an interesting new option for the SV HOME meta. With the amazing Special Defense of the Kalosian variant backed up by an amazing typing in Steel/Dragon and buffed physical defense, it’ll be an interesting tank. Meanwhile, with decent coverage options and good offenses, it is not a sitting duck and has the capacity to fight back against the opponent. However, with the new and old threats of the HOME meta, such as Ursaluna, Sneasler, Great Tusk, Chien-Pao being able to exploit its weaknesses in Fighting and Ground, on top of its lack of reliable recovery and poor speed tier, only time will tell how good Hisuian Goodra will actually be.

 

[Loginator]

Goodra-Hisui

Type(s) - Steel/Dragon
Base Stats - 80 HP / 100 Atk / 100 Def / 110 SpA / 150 SpD / 60 Spe

Abilities: Sap Sipper/Shell Armor/Gooey [HA]
Moveset

Movepool

Level Up:
01: Shelter
01: Acid Spray
01: Tearful Look
01: Feint
01: Absorb
01: Tackle
01: Water Gun
01: Dragon Breath
Evo: Iron Tail
15: Protect
20: Flail
25: Water Pulse
30: Rain Dance
35: Dragon Pulse
43: Curse
49: Iron Head
49: Body Slam
58: Muddy Water
67: Heavy Slam
TMS:
001: Take Down
002: Charm
007: Protect
011: Water Pulse
013: Acid Spray
022: Chilling Water
025: Facade
026: Poison Tail
028: Bulldoze
035: Mud Shot
044: Dragon Tail
047: Endure
049: Sunny Day
050: Rain Dance
066: Body Slam
067: Fire Punch
068: Thunder Punch
070: Sleep Talk
078: Dragon Claw
084: Stomping Tantrum
085: Rest
086: Rock Slide
089: Body Press
103: Substitute
115: Dragon Pulse
123: Surf
125: Flamethrower
126: Thunderbolt
135: Ice Beam
141: Fire Blast
142: Hydro Pump
143: Blizzard
148: Sludge Bomb
149: Earthquake
152: Giga Impact
156: Outrage
163: Hyper Beam
169: Draco Meteor
171: Tera Blast
Egg Moves:
Counter
Life Dew

Notable Moves:

• Heavy Slam
• Iron Head
• Dragon Claw
• Draco Meteor
• Dragon Pulse
• Flash Cannon
• Fire Blast
• Flamethrower
• Focus Blast
• Earthquake
• Dragon Tail
• Chilling Water
• Body Press
• Curse
• Shelter

Signature Move:
Shelter - Steel-type | Status | --- acc | 10 PP [max 16] | Raises Defense by 2 stages

The release of Pokemon: Legends Arceus introduced many variants to existing Pokemon in the form of regional forms and new evolutions. Many breathed new life into them - look at Samurott, Ursaluna, and Sneasler, for example, poised to be some of the best mons introduced into the SV OU metagame with the advent of HOME compatibility. Others are less fortunate, but still potentially noteworthy, as was the case with mons like Kleavor and Basculegion, among many others.

Goodra’s new regional variant fell into the former, granting it a part Steel-typing and a +30 Defense buff, in exchange for 20 points of Speed and 10 points in HP. With an amazing defensive typing and great mixed bulk, Hisuian Goodra is poised to be a powerful, hard-to-break tank. However, it’s not like it’s a slump offensively either - with decent offenses and a wide offensive movepool, Hisuian Goodra is able to fight back against the opponent. The Steel-type in particular lets Goodra hit the Fairy-types that would stomach its Dragon STAB, and it has a variety of coverage moves in Earthquake/Fire Blast for opposing Steel-types.

However, Hisuian Goodra is not without its flaws. Firstly, that Defense buff cost it 20 points of speed, putting it behind many pokemon in the tier, including offensive threats and faster defensive threats like Great Tusk. In addition, its defensive typing still retains weaknesses to common offensive types like Fighting and Ground, traits bad in a meta where Great Tusk still runs rampant. Furthermore, being a Steel not resistant to Fairy or Ice can be quite troublesome at times. Having no means of reliable recovery also hurts and leaves Hisuian Goodra easy to wear down as well.
Positives:

• Steel/Dragon is an amazing defensive typing, granting it a bevy of valuable resistances to common types like Electric and Water.
• This typing also covers a decent variety of weaknesses, notably being a Steel that doesn’t fear Fire-type moves.
• Amazing special bulk backs up that further amazing defensive typing, and its physical bulk is massively improved compared to its base form.
• Is not completely passive thanks to decent offensive stats of 100/110 and a variety of coverage moves to hit other pokemon.

Negatives:

• Very slow, sitting at the base 60 speed tier. Many mons outspeed it, which is bad in such a fast-paced meta.
• No recovery outside of Leftovers [Life Dew is too weak, RestTalk sets are potentially an option but are gimmicky at best] leaves Hisuian Goodra easy to wear down.
• Defensive leaves it with common weaknesses to mons like Zamazenta and its Crowned variant, as well as Great Tusk, Sneasler, and Ursaluna.
• It’s a Steel that doesn’t resist Fairy and Ice thanks to being part Dragon-type. This causes all sorts of problems against mons like Chien-Pao and Enamorous.

Terastalizing Potential:

• In all fairness, it’s not likely that Hisuian Goodra will want to Terastallize.
• Considering its great defensive typing is what carries it, it’s not likely it will want to give that up. Plus, there will likely be better users of Terastallization on its team.
• That said, if you need to Tera it, Tera Flying may be your main way to go. It flips Hisuian Goodra’s weaknesses to Ground and Fighting and turns them into resistances/immunities. However, bear in mind that you may need HDB if you do this to ensure that you do not crumble to Stealth Rocks and you will be left without Leftovers recovery as a result.
• Tera Poison may be an option if you need something that can keep Iron Valiant/other Fairies and Fightings in check. However, it retains a weakness to Ground-types, so make sure that your team has the capacity to deal with threats like Ursaluna and Great Tusk.
• Other options may include Tera Steel, Tera Ghost, or Tera Water depending on the scenario.

Potential Movesets
Tank [Physical Attacking]
Goodra-Hisui @ Leftovers/Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sap Sipper
Tera Type: Flying/Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature/Relaxed Nature

• Heavy Slam
• Dragon Tail
• Body Press/Dragon Claw
• Curse/Hydro Pump/Flamethrower/Fire Blast/Earthquake

Simple tank build. Because Goodra-H’s special defense is so naturally high, it can get away with investing fully in Defense and HP. The last 4 EVs can be allocated anywhere and do not particularly matter. Heavy Slam is used as the STAB of choice, being a powerful STAB boosted further by Sap Sipper. Dragon Tail is useful for phasing the opponent and racking up hazard damage. The last moveslot has a decent variety of options, with Curse as a means to boost its Attack and Defense even further. Alternatively, you might run Hydro Pump to snipe Great Tusk or Flamethrower/Fire Blast/Earthquake/Body Press to snipe mons like Kingambit and Magearna. Impish Nature is used if not running special attacks so to not compromise its speed, while Relaxed is used to ensure that its special attacks are not compromised in power, at the cost of some speed. Both also notably give its Body Presses some hitting power as well.

Tank [Special Attacking]
Goodra-Hisui @ Leftovers/Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Shell Armor
Tera Type: Flying/Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature

• Flash Cannon
• Draco Meteor
• Fire Blast
• Hydro Pump

The above set, but rebuilt to be a special attacker.

Overall Thoughts:
Hisuian Goodra is an interesting new option for the SV HOME meta. With the amazing Special Defense of the Kalosian variant backed up by an amazing typing in Steel/Dragon and buffed physical defense, it’ll be an interesting tank. Meanwhile, with decent coverage options and good offenses, it is not a sitting duck and has the capacity to fight back against the opponent. However, with the new and old threats of the HOME meta, such as Ursaluna, Sneasler, Great Tusk, Chien-Pao being able to exploit its weaknesses in Fighting and Ground, on top of its lack of reliable recovery and poor speed tier, only time will tell how good Hisuian Goodra will actually be.

Idk why Shelter was changed to be an Iron Defense clone when it already has Acid Armor, which has double the PP. I don’t think Goodra-H will be OU viable considering its complete lack of utility and recovery. I think Assault Vest might be the best set for it.

 

[War Incarnate]

Idk why Shelter was changed to be an Iron Defense clone when it already has Acid Armor, which has double the PP. I don’t think Goodra-H will be OU viable considering its complete lack of utility and recovery. I think Assault Vest might be the best set for it.

Worth noting that it really doesn't need it since its special defense is so naturally high. Plus you forgo Leftovers recovery and/or HDB hazard protection which is never a good thing.

 

[turd2]

I could see Goodra-H being good once the obvious ubers are gone. It's going to take a few bans before we get there though.

 

[Magcargo]

I think this Pokemon has the potential to be OK since it matches up well vs Regieleki, but so far, fighting it has been a disappointment. The set I see on low ladder rn is this Acid Armor + BP Restalk set that's LARPing as Zamazenta and kinda does an OK job until you realize it does no damage to Slowking-G / Gholdengo & loses the 1v1 HARD to Magearna in a potential setup war. I've seen other variants of this set pop up like ones that Run ID + BP, Life Dew + one other rando coverage move that I didn't see & I think it could be good later on in the metagame, but atm I think its a bit too scrapped for slots & faces some competition with other Defense boosting Pokemon like Zamazenta-C & Magearna to be effective.

Aside from that, I think this Pokemon is OK. I think it needs to run HDB in this metagame since Hazards are pretty common with Hisuian Samurott around & the lack of real recover outside of Life Dew / Rest ain't ideal, but it still is an extremely bulky Pokemon with a ton of resistances, letting it 1v1 a fair few mons like Gholdengo, Slowking etc. IF it packs the right coverage. Gooey is also a pretty solid ability vs some Pokemon like Magearna using Draining Kiss, Samurott, etc. One problem for it is that Regieleki can just Volt Switch on it & bring in a counter, but this Pokemon does have coverage like Ice Beam, EQ, Flamethrower, etc. to make that task more difficult than it may initially seem.

 

[Eeveeto]

Why is Shelter an Iron Defense clone? Would have been better if it boosted both defenses and Special Attack one stage.

 

[Loginator]

Why is Shelter an Iron Defense clone? Would have been better if it boosted both defenses and Special Attack one stage.

Like I said it’s literally worse than Acid Armor due to having lower PP even though Goodra-H also learns it. The only thing I can think of is Gamefreak just had an oopsie and forgot Acid Armor existed.

 

[Joe Career]

Why is Shelter an Iron Defense clone? Would have been better if it boosted both defenses and Special Attack one stage.

Heck even a simple Cosmic Power copy would have sufficed.

 

[pika pal]

Like I said it’s literally worse than Acid Armor due to having lower PP even though Goodra-H also learns it. The only thing I can think of is Gamefreak just had an oopsie and forgot Acid Armor existed.

This isn't as outlandish to me as it might look since evidently in Gen 9, Goodra only has Acid Armor when evolved from Sliggoo (sort of like Breloom and Spore), so if you import an already evolved Goodra its only Defense boosting option is Shelter.

 

[UnfortunateSal]

I've been using Choice Specs on this as a strong, bulky pivot on offense, and it's actually pretty solid. Draco Meteor / Flash Cannon / Flamethrower / Surf is great coverage, and while it is a bit prediction-reliant, sometimes you can just click Draco meteor and watch stuff drop.

I also like Gooey on it a lot, really helps if you're switching into something like Dnite Espeed and Urshifu Surging Strikes as well as neutral hits like Great Tusk Ice Spinner / Knock Off or Ceruledge Bitter Blade since Goodra is naturally slow, but it's still fast enough to outpeed things that have had their speed dropped. Also helps if you sac it vs Close Combats and the like since you can then more easily outspeed with something else. You do need to invest a bunch in Speed but you probably want to do that anyway for stuff like Heatran if you're going the offensive route on this, and its natural bulk carries it well (and you don't need to invest at all for Urshifu since Gooey procs multiple times pretty sure)

 

[Lectrys]

I like sets like this the best; Goodra-H's best strength is its insane coverage, and I recall having a horrible time trying to switch into it in HOME preview tours:

Goodra-Hisui @ Assault Vest / Leftovers
Ability: Gooey / Sap Sipper
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 248 HP / 32 Atk / 196 Def / 32 SpA
Relaxed Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Heavy Slam
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake / Dragon Tail

The EVs let you do these:

32 Atk Goodra-Hisui Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Iron Valiant: 290-344 (100 - 118.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
32 SpA Goodra-Hisui Fire Blast vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Corviknight: 202-238 (50.6 - 59.6%) -- 82.4% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Iron Valiant Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 196+ Def Goodra-Hisui: 296-350 (81.5 - 96.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Use Gooey in bulky offence and maybe balance teams; Sap Sipper or maybe even Shell Armor is the better ability in stallier teams.

FWIW, this set putting in work in a weirder roomtour:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-1877253336

 

[lolgod3]

Hoodra IMO is a good check to some of the current strongest mons in the meta, namely Sneasler and Zamazenta. An IronPress set would be very good since Shell Armor stops it from getting sniped by a crit, and Tera Ghost allows it to set up on fighting-types who wants to kill it

Goodra-Hisui (F) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Shell Armor
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Body Press
- Acid Armor
- Dragon Pulse / Draco Meteor / Fire Blast
- Rest

Even works as an emergency check to chien-pao if you catch it trying to use sacred sword on the tera

 

[Docter_Peng99]

I used hoodra before. Its now down in uu but the av set with boltbeam coverage was actually decent.