Toxicroak

[kingofmars]

The Parched Frog
Doubles/Triples Set

Toxicroak@ Black Sludge/Life Orb
140 HP/252 Atk/116 Spe
Adamant Nature
Ability: Dry Skin
- Fake Out
- Sucker Punch
- Low Kick/Drain Punch
- Protect/Substitute

· Good as a rain Counter, or as a rain abuser
· Fake out allows Toxicroak’s partner to set up before being hit by a powerful attack, or it can be used to ruin an opponent’s strategy.
· Sucker Punch is a strong priority move that is useful for both finishing off weakened foes and dealing some nice damage on a lot of pokemon.
· Low Kick normally does more damage, however Drain Punch can be used to heal even more HP than normal.
· Since Toxicroak is 4X weak to psychic, being able to protect it from attacks that will more then surely kill it is very important.
· 140 hp evs are used to provide a very nice black sludge number for Toxicroak. Max attack is there so that Toxicroak can actually do some damage with its attacks, the rest are dumped in speed for lack of a better place.
· The main gimmick behind Toxicroak is to be immune to powerful water type attacks, while becoming only bulkier the longer the opponent refuses to deal with it.


So yeah, this is clearly a wip, I just want to get some advise on the set before I deal with all of the formatting stuff.

 

[Arcticblast]

Toxicroak is a staple on Singles rain teams, and every time it's in battle it usually destroys at least one Pokemon (with me it's normally three...). IIRC it usually runs Bulk UP/Drain Punch/Sucker Punch/(some other move).

 

[muffinhead]

im suggesting a life orb or even focus sash slash in, rain reverses lo damage. also taunt is a fantastic move on toxicroak to prevent your swift swim pokemon from becoming paralyzed, trick room from going up, etc.

and yeah @ arcticblast, sub, bulk up, drain punch, sucker punch toxicroak is awesome in singles o 3o

 

[iss]

Sub should definitely be slashed in- you're only losing a miniscule 6.25% of your health per turn when accounting for Black Sludge and Dry Skin, and Drain Punch will easily fix that up.

 

[kingofmars]

Bumping this up a page, if anyone could give me specific evs besides a 4/252/252 set for the singles set, i'd appreciate it.

 

[Solace]

i'm pretty sure 252 hp / 252 atk / 4 def is fairly standard

there might be a couple of other spreads in circulation and i'll ask around

 

[cosmicexplorer]

While 252 HP might allow it to take hits a little better, 85/65/65 defenses don't allow it to take too many hits at all, even with maximum HP investment. For that reason, 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe or something quite like that is really the best choice, since Toxicroak won't be able to take advantage of the investment in bulk thanks to its low defenses. For that reason, unless Toxicroak is aiming to abuse Substitute as much as possible, I don't think Black Sludge will be a really useful item choice, and why I believe Focus Sash should be slashed, if not the first item.

 

[Skore]

I've surprised a couple of people with this set in singles:

Toxicroak@Black Sludge
Timid - Dry Skin
4HP / 252 SpAtt / 252 Spe

Substitute
Nasty Plot
Dark Pulse
Vacuum Wave

Basically come in on something that you can take a hit from because he's pretty frail, Sub up and boost. Dark/Fighting moves and one of them being priority gives great coverage and the chance to flinch from Dark Pulse is just nice when it happens.
And since most folks expect a Sucker Punch from this guy they generally give you the chance to sub before they realise what's going on.

I've used it in doubles rain teams but it requires a Focus Sash and Surf Abuse to work and no room for Protect can be a pain.

 

[Joel]

I've surprised a couple of people with this set in singles:

Toxicroak@Black Sludge
Timid - Dry Skin
4HP / 252 SpAtt / 252 Spe

Substitute
Nasty Plot
Dark Pulse
Vacuum Wave

Basically come in on something that you can take a hit from because he's pretty frail, Sub up and boost. Dark/Fighting moves and one of them being priority gives great coverage and the chance to flinch from Dark Pulse is just nice when it happens.
And since most folks expect a Sucker Punch from this guy they generally give you the chance to sub before they realise what's going on.

I've used it in doubles rain teams but it requires a Focus Sash and Surf Abuse to work and no room for Protect can be a pain.

I have run a set like that before in singles, but with HP Ice over Substitue.