Doubles Torkoal

[zee]

[OVERVIEW]

Torkoal's low Speed and powerful Drought-boosted Eruption make it one of the most devastating Trick Room sweepers in Doubles, though its reliance on Trick Room and sun being active can leave it inconsistent in practice. Eruption, in particular, is amazing for getting as much damage on the board as possible in the limited amount of turns that Trick Room is up. Its passable natural bulk, particularly its solid Defense, makes it difficult to KO in one hit without a special Ground- or Rock-type attack. However, Torkoal has its limitations: namely, entry hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes, which greatly limit its offensive potential, as they cripple Eruption's power as soon as Torkoal enters the battlefield. Additionally, its reliance on Trick Room, and accordingly, multiple Trick Room setters like Porygon2, Diancie, and Necrozma, and sun means that it needs to work hard to get the most out of the few turns it is afforded. Even then, other Fire-types such as Heatran and Volcanion give it stiff competition for a slot on semi-Trick Room teams. It also despises Fake Out users like Incineroar and Zeraora if it isn't paired with some sort of priority blocker like Tapu Lele, Indeedee-F, or Tsareena, as they can stall its Trick Room turns.

[SET]
name: Trick Room Attacker
move 1: Eruption
move 2: Earth Power
move 3: Heat Wave
move 4: Protect
item: Charcoal
ability: Drought
nature: Quiet
evs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
ivs: 0 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

* Eruption is capable of sweeping teams quickly when at full power, 2HKOing almost any neutral target and even some resisted targets like Dragapult.

* Earth Power hits common resists such as Volcanion, Diancie, and Incineroar, making it a great complementary move to Torkoal's Fire-type attacks.

* Heat Wave is a strong secondary Fire-type attack that can be used when Torkoal's HP is too low to effectively make use of Eruption.

* Protect is useful for avoiding opposing Fake Outs and stalling a turn when bringing in a Trick Room setter.

* The This EV Spread maximizes Torkoal's general bulk while also having the strongest possible offensive capabilities. 0 Speed IVs and a negative nature are crucial for underspeeding Amoonguss.

* Charcoal gives Torkoal a powerful Eruption with virtually no drawback, making it the best choice for an item.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Choice Specs can be used for the strongest Eruption possible, but being locked into a move dependent on HP can lead to potentially unfavorable scenarios. Solar Beam is useful for hitting Urshifu-R, Tapu Fini, and Diancie hard but leaves Torkoal completely walled by Fire-types or without a backup STAB attack. Flamethrower and Overheat are alternative options to Heat Wave, useful for giving Torkoal an option to bypass Wide Guard; however, being single-target moves, they limit Torkoal's potential as a sweeper. Wise Glasses is useful for giving Torkoal a general boost to all of its special attacks, including the ability to always OHKO Heatran with Earth Power.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[zeefable, 501951]]
- Quality checked by: [[emma, 294304], [Memoric, 215000]]
- Grammar checked by: [dex, 277988]]

 

[emma]

[OVERVIEW]

• Torkoal is not a good Pokemon, so there should be more emphasis on its drawbacks. Perhaps in the opening sentence you can end with how it's completely reliant on Trick Room and Sun being up / works on a minimal amount of structures. I know you mention this later, but I would prefer a stronger emphasis on it. This is the most important change I would like to see.
• The reliant on Trick Room point should definitely be mentioned before its weakness to entry hazards.
• Mention how it faces competition from Volcanion and even Heatran as an offensive Fire-type on Trick Room structures. Incineroar even finds its way on these structures to provide Fake Out and Parting Shot support in getting up Trick Room. This also meshes well with the point that Torkoal only fits on limited archetypes.

[SET]

• 150 Base Power Eurption with Charcoal doesn't 3HKO the analysis Incineroar spread so I would remove that mention. It also does 2HKO Dragapult, so I would frame the sentence like, "Eruption is capable of sweeping teams quickly at full power, 2HKOing almost any neutral target and even some resisted targets such as Dragapult." or something like that.

[OTHER OPTIONS]

• Add Wise Glasses and specifically note that is OHKOs Heatran. You can slash this too if you want.
• I do not think anyone has ever used Heavy-Duty Boots, but if you think it is viable you can keep it.

QC 1/2

 

[Idyll]

check

OV

• I think it's worth noting that its physdef in particular is really good and comes in handy a lot
• I don't like the inclusion of sun in the part where you say "it needs a lot of set up to get going" as Torkoal sets sun itself, so it really only matters in this context when weather gets contested / it's just spent too much time and and it can't "reset" sun properly. I get the point though in the sense that without sun it's really bad, so it needs to work around the limited turns of sun as well. I'd rewrite that part to be more accurately reflect it as such.
• I recommend including a bit saying it's really really good for pushing damage in full TR teams in particular, in contrast to the other fires

Set Details

• Incredibly minor but I think Volcanion is a better example of an EP target than Heatran so it should be mentioned instead, though could also just mention all 4 lol. Your call on this one :shrug:

2/2

 

[dex]

GP Check
blue = add
red = delete
green = comments

GP Check

[OVERVIEW]

Torkoal's low Speed and powerful Drought-boosted Eruption make it one of the most devastating Trick Room sweepers in Doubles, though its reliance on Trick Room and sun being active can leave a lot to be desired inconsistent in practice. Eruption, (add comma) in particular, (add comma) is amazing for getting as much damage on the board as possible in the limited amount of turns that Trick Room provides is up. Its passable natural bulk, particularly its solid Defense, makes it difficult to remove KO in one hit without a special (uncapitalize) Ground- or Rock-type attack. However, Torkoal has its limitations: (semicolon->colon) namely, entry hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes, (add comma) will which greatly limited its offensive potential, (add comma) as they cripple Eruption's power as soon as Torkoal enters the battlefield. Once again, its reliance on Trick Room, specifically full Trick Room teams, provided by multiple allies like Porygon2, Diancie, and Necrozma, and sun to be active to thrive at full power, means it needs to work hard to get the most of just a few turns. Additionally, its reliance on Trick Room, and accordingly, Trick Room setters like Porygon2, Diancie, and Necrozma, and sun means that it needs to work hard to get the most out of the few turns it is afforded. (wording was unclear before, I think this is a more clear way to say what you were saying. LMK if I cut any important content.) Even then, other Fire-types such as Heatran and Volcanion give it stiff competition for a slot on semi-Trick Room teams. It also despises Fake Out users like Incineroar and Zeraora if it isn't paired with some sort of priority blocker like Tapu Lele, Indeedee-F, or Tsareena, as they can stall its Trick Room turns.

[SET]
name: Trick Room Attacker
move 1: Eruption
move 2: Earth Power
move 3: Heat Wave
move 4: Protect
item: Charcoal
ability: Drought
nature: Quiet
evs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
ivs: 0 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

* Eruption is capable of sweeping teams quickly when at full power, 2HKOing almost any neutral target and even some resisted targets like Dragapult.

* Earth Power hits common resists such as Volcanion, Diancie, and Incineroar, making it a great complementary move to Torkoal's Fire-type attacks.

* Heat Wave is a strong secondary Fire-type attack that can be used when Torkoal's HP is too low to effectively make use of Eruption.

* Protect is useful for avoiding opposing Fake Outs and stalling turns to bring in Trick Room support a turn when bringing in a Trick Room setter.

* The This EV Spread maximizes Torkoal's general bulk while also having the strongest possible offensive capabilities. 0 Speed IVs and a negative nature are crucial for underspeeding Amoonguss.

* Charcoal gives Torkoal a powerful Eruption with virtually no drawback, making it the best choice for an item.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Choice Specs can be used for the strongest Eruption possible, but being locked into a move dependent on HP can lead to potentially unfavorable scenarios. Solar Beam is useful for hitting Urshifu-R, Tapu Fini, and Diancie hard (remove comma) but leaves Torkoal completely walled by Fire-types or without a backup STAB attack. Flamethrower and Overheat are alternative options to Heat Wave, useful for giving Torkoal an option to bypass Wide Guard; however, being single-target moves, they limit Torkoal's potential as a sweeper. Wise Glasses is useful for giving Torkoal a general boost to all of its special attacks, including the ability to always OHKO Heatran with Earth Power.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[zeefable, 501951]]
- Quality checked by: [[emma, 294304], [Memoric, 215000]]
- Grammar checked by: [dex, 277988]]

1/1

 

[zee]

Thank you for the check! I agree with your change on the trick room setters point, I just added "multiple" to stress the fact that it usually relies on more than one as per Memoric's suggestion.

dnagerbdager Memoric this is ready for upload

 

[zoe]

https://www.smogon.com/dex/ss/pokemon/torkoal/doubles/