Nyx
Anyways - so then I cursed her.
[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 5 onwards
**Price Range**: 8-9 points
**Overview**: Tentacruel is a solid form of entry hazard control that can both set and remove entry hazards to help support its teammates. It's also blessed by having a great utility movepool on top of this, which turns it into a very solid support Pokemon. However, it's held back by having incredibly common and exploitable weaknesses and no reliable recovery, as well as tending to overlap too heavily with better, more expensive Pokemon. For these reasons, Tentacruel is never going to be your first choice for its roles, but it can serve as a very valuable backup.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Utility Support**: Tentacruel utilizes its vast movepool, from Toxic Spikes to Knock Off to Flip Turn with many more in between, acting as a great enabler for its teammates. It can be especially disruptive against teams with poor entry hazard removal, as it's able to both remove hazards from its own side and set them on the other.
**Specially Defensive Wall**: Typically paired with an Assault Vest to enhance its already-great Special Defense, Tentacruel is able to check nearly all special attackers and force them to take a strong hit, thanks to Mirror Coat.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Surf, Hydro Pump, Sludge Bomb, Sludge Wave, Gunk Shot
**Setup Moves**: Acid Armor, Acid Spray
**Utility Moves**: Toxic, Toxic Spikes, Rapid Spin, Knock Off, Flip Turn, Mirror Coat, Haze, Chilling Water, Icy Wind, Whirlpool, Reflect Type
**Coverage**: Dazzling Gleam, Giga Drain, Hex, Ice Beam, Tera Blast, Weather Ball
Niche Moves
========
**Swords Dance**: Despite its relatively low Attack, Swords Dance Tentacruel is able to punch holes through specially defensive teams due to the combination of its surprise factor and good STAB moves such as Gunk Shot and Liquidation, especially when powered up by a Life Orb.
Common Items
========
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: The standard item of choice, it grants Tentacruel the longevity to safely come in and fulfill its role as support for its teammates.
**Black Sludge / Leftovers**: Against teams with poor entry hazard setters, Tentacruel benefits more from the passive recovery granted by Black Sludge and Leftovers, especially if they are paired with Protect. Black Sludge is nearly always optimal, but Leftovers is better when Tentacruel is a Tera Captain.
**Assault Vest**: Assault Vest allows Tentacruel to act as a sponge for most special hits, which works well in conjunction with Mirror Coat.
Niche Items
========
**Rocky Helmet**: Due to resisting Bug, Tentacruel can be used to punish most U-turn spammers with Rocky Helmet.
**Sitrus Berry**: Sitrus Berry is a sidegrade to Black Sludge / Leftovers in games where Tentacruel is expected to only have to take a handful of hits, usually in quick succession.
Tera
========
Tentacruel should rarely, if ever, be considered as a Tera Captain. Its teammates nearly always benefit from Tera more than it does. In the event that you still make it a Tera Captain, it can utilize types such as Grass, Steel, and Ground defensively, as well as benefitting from Tera Blast Electric and Dark offensively.
Draft Strategy
========
Tentacruel is never something one plans for going into the draft, but it can find itself fitting well alongside the following kinds of Pokemon.
**Entry Hazard-weak Wallbreakers**: Tentacruel is able to be a reliable entry hazard remover and can pivot, making it a great partner alongside the likes of Chi-Yu, Enamorus, and Weavile.
**Physical Bulk**: Tentacruel's key weakness is its poor Defense, offsetting its specially defensive prowess. It can form a strong backbone alongside traditionally physically defensive tanks and walls such as Landorus-T, Skarmory, and Iron Hands.
**Fighting-type Answers**: While Tentacruel
resists Fighting, it often finds itself vulnerable to Fighting-types as a whole due to its poor physical bulk. It works well in conjunction with Pokemon such as Scream Tail, Uxie, and Zapdos for this reason.
Checks and Counters
========
**Electric-types**: Tentacruel finds itself in a tough spot when trying to remove entry hazards, as it becomes a free switch in for Electric-types such as Zapdos, Raging Bolt, and Iron Hands. It's unable to punish them effectively and is thus forced out, putting its user on the back foot.
**Physical Attackers**: Tentacruel's poor Defense means that it's unable to deal with strong physical attackers such as Baxcalibur and Ogerpon and is even 2HKOed by resisted hits such as Palafin's Wave Crash.
**Taunt**: Due to Tentacruel's poor offensive stats and reliance on Toxic and Toxic Spikes to help make progress against bulkier teams, it is incredibly susceptible to Taunt.
**Poison- and Steel-types**: Since they both resist or are immune to Sludge Bomb and Toxic, most Poison- and Steel-types can switch in safely on Tentacruel. They tend to not fear its Water-type attacks and usually take very little damage from coverage moves, causing Tentacruel to become deadweight against them.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nyx.564960/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/abriel.473082/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/user3.300000
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/
**Draft Order**: Round 5 onwards
**Price Range**: 8-9 points
**Overview**: Tentacruel is a solid form of entry hazard control that can both set and remove entry hazards to help support its teammates. It's also blessed by having a great utility movepool on top of this, which turns it into a very solid support Pokemon. However, it's held back by having incredibly common and exploitable weaknesses and no reliable recovery, as well as tending to overlap too heavily with better, more expensive Pokemon. For these reasons, Tentacruel is never going to be your first choice for its roles, but it can serve as a very valuable backup.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Utility Support**: Tentacruel utilizes its vast movepool, from Toxic Spikes to Knock Off to Flip Turn with many more in between, acting as a great enabler for its teammates. It can be especially disruptive against teams with poor entry hazard removal, as it's able to both remove hazards from its own side and set them on the other.
**Specially Defensive Wall**: Typically paired with an Assault Vest to enhance its already-great Special Defense, Tentacruel is able to check nearly all special attackers and force them to take a strong hit, thanks to Mirror Coat.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Surf, Hydro Pump, Sludge Bomb, Sludge Wave, Gunk Shot
**Setup Moves**: Acid Armor, Acid Spray
**Utility Moves**: Toxic, Toxic Spikes, Rapid Spin, Knock Off, Flip Turn, Mirror Coat, Haze, Chilling Water, Icy Wind, Whirlpool, Reflect Type
**Coverage**: Dazzling Gleam, Giga Drain, Hex, Ice Beam, Tera Blast, Weather Ball
Niche Moves
========
**Swords Dance**: Despite its relatively low Attack, Swords Dance Tentacruel is able to punch holes through specially defensive teams due to the combination of its surprise factor and good STAB moves such as Gunk Shot and Liquidation, especially when powered up by a Life Orb.
Common Items
========
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: The standard item of choice, it grants Tentacruel the longevity to safely come in and fulfill its role as support for its teammates.
**Black Sludge / Leftovers**: Against teams with poor entry hazard setters, Tentacruel benefits more from the passive recovery granted by Black Sludge and Leftovers, especially if they are paired with Protect. Black Sludge is nearly always optimal, but Leftovers is better when Tentacruel is a Tera Captain.
**Assault Vest**: Assault Vest allows Tentacruel to act as a sponge for most special hits, which works well in conjunction with Mirror Coat.
Niche Items
========
**Rocky Helmet**: Due to resisting Bug, Tentacruel can be used to punish most U-turn spammers with Rocky Helmet.
**Sitrus Berry**: Sitrus Berry is a sidegrade to Black Sludge / Leftovers in games where Tentacruel is expected to only have to take a handful of hits, usually in quick succession.
Tera
========
Tentacruel should rarely, if ever, be considered as a Tera Captain. Its teammates nearly always benefit from Tera more than it does. In the event that you still make it a Tera Captain, it can utilize types such as Grass, Steel, and Ground defensively, as well as benefitting from Tera Blast Electric and Dark offensively.
Draft Strategy
========
Tentacruel is never something one plans for going into the draft, but it can find itself fitting well alongside the following kinds of Pokemon.
**Entry Hazard-weak Wallbreakers**: Tentacruel is able to be a reliable entry hazard remover and can pivot, making it a great partner alongside the likes of Chi-Yu, Enamorus, and Weavile.
**Physical Bulk**: Tentacruel's key weakness is its poor Defense, offsetting its specially defensive prowess. It can form a strong backbone alongside traditionally physically defensive tanks and walls such as Landorus-T, Skarmory, and Iron Hands.
**Fighting-type Answers**: While Tentacruel
resists Fighting, it often finds itself vulnerable to Fighting-types as a whole due to its poor physical bulk. It works well in conjunction with Pokemon such as Scream Tail, Uxie, and Zapdos for this reason.
Checks and Counters
========
**Electric-types**: Tentacruel finds itself in a tough spot when trying to remove entry hazards, as it becomes a free switch in for Electric-types such as Zapdos, Raging Bolt, and Iron Hands. It's unable to punish them effectively and is thus forced out, putting its user on the back foot.
**Physical Attackers**: Tentacruel's poor Defense means that it's unable to deal with strong physical attackers such as Baxcalibur and Ogerpon and is even 2HKOed by resisted hits such as Palafin's Wave Crash.
**Taunt**: Due to Tentacruel's poor offensive stats and reliance on Toxic and Toxic Spikes to help make progress against bulkier teams, it is incredibly susceptible to Taunt.
**Poison- and Steel-types**: Since they both resist or are immune to Sludge Bomb and Toxic, most Poison- and Steel-types can switch in safely on Tentacruel. They tend to not fear its Water-type attacks and usually take very little damage from coverage moves, causing Tentacruel to become deadweight against them.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nyx.564960/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/abriel.473082/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/user3.300000
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/
Last edited: