OU Breloom

[OVERVIEW]

Breloom has a high base Attack stat as well as access to the coveted Spore, which makes it a powerful offensive threat in the OU metagame. It also has access to a strong priority move in Mach Punch, which is boosted by its Technician ability. However, Breloom's low Speed stat leaves it significantly less useful versus offensive teams, forcing it to rely heavily on Mach Punch in these matchups. Breloom is also extremely frail; it can be OHKOed by even some strong neutral attacks. While its defensive typing does allow it to take on certain Water-types such as Mega Gyarados and Toxapex as well as the likes of Tyranitar, it also gives it crippling weaknesses to common attacking types in Fairy, Flying, Fire, and Ice. Additionally, Breloom faces a lot of competition from Tapu Bulu as a physically attacking Grass-type, as the latter offers more defensive utility thanks to its better bulk and more useful defensive typing. Finally Breloom struggles with the increased presence of Pokemon that resist Fighting-type moves such as Tapu Lele, Gengar, Zapdos, and Landorus-T.

[SET]
name: Offensive
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Mach Punch
move 3: Bullet Seed
move 4: Spore
item: Life Orb
ability: Technician
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

Swords Dance boosts Breloom's already high base Attack stat to incredible levels, allowing it to achieve feats such as 2HKOing specially defensive Celesteela from full with Mach Punch. Alternatively, Rock Tomb could be used to hit certain switch-ins such as Zapdos and Latios on the switch and put Breloom in a position where it can use Spore on them. Mach Punch gives Breloom some priority to make up for its low Speed stat and also allows it to put in work versus offensive teams. Bullet Seed is used to take advantage of Technician and give Breloom access to a more powerful STAB move, which is helpful in certain situations. Spore puts one Pokemon to sleep, giving Breloom several options to take advantage of if it can get it off successfully; for example, it can set up a Swords Dance or use the opportunity to fire off a powerful Bullet Seed. However, the omnipresence of Electric Terrain and Misty Terrain make this move less reliable.

Set Details
========

Technician boosts the power of Mach Punch and Bullet Seed significantly, allowing Breloom to hit as hard as possible. Maximum Attack and Speed EVs alongside an Adamant nature are utilized because Breloom needs as much speed and power as it can get. Jolly is an option to outpace neutral-nature Gyarados, Tapu Bulu, Heatran, and Volcanion, as well as Speed tying with Jolly Bisharp, but it is generally worse than Adamant. Life Orb increases Breloom's overall power at the cost of recoil. Black Belt can be used instead to avoid this recoil, but the power drop is noticeable.

Usage Tips
========

Breloom should very rarely be switched directly into attacks, as it's ridiculously frail and will lose significant HP. Mach Punch can be used to revenge kill weakened threats and prevent Breloom from being easily revenge killed itself. Utilize Swords Dance to take advantage of the various double switches that Breloom forces, as well as the free turns provided by Spore if running it. If there is a Tapu Fini or a Tapu Koko on the opposing team, be mindful of the fact that their Terrains stop Spore from working against grounded Pokemon, although neither wants to take a Bullet Seed.

Team Options
========

Tapu Bulu forms an effective Grass-type-stacking core with Breloom, as its Grassy Terrain boosts the power of Bullet Seed to extremely high levels and makes it harder for even Pokemon that resist Grass to switch in to Breloom; for example, defensive Zapdos and Alolan Muk can potentially be 2HKOed by Bullet Seed under Grassy Terrain. Tapu Bulu is also able to use Swords Dance to break through many of the Pokemon that Breloom struggles to take on such as Celesteela. Hazard support helps Breloom to pick up more KOs; as such, Stealth Rock setters such as Landorus-T and Heatran and Spikes setters such as Greninja make for good partners. Pursuit trappers such as Tyranitar, Weavile, and Mega Scizor can eliminate troubling Psychic-types such as Tapu Lele and Latios for Breloom. Magnezone is capable of taking on Tapu Lele and Tapu Koko with ease, as well as providing a slow Volt Switch to get Breloom in safely. It also traps and KOes Celesteela and Skarmory, which otherwise give Breloom issues. In return, Breloom can deter Ground-types for Magnezone.

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

Focus Punch gives Breloom a 150-Base Power STAB Fighting-type move, which is mainly useful for hitting sleeping foes and Pokemon such as Skarmory and Tangrowth on the switch. Force Palm is a 90-Base Power STAB move when taking Technician into account, which comes with a nifty 30% chance to paralyze the foe. However, the priority provided by Mach Punch is generally more useful. Stone Edge in combination with Rockium Z breaks through a number of traditional Breloom checks such as Mega Charizard Y, Zapdos, and Mega Pinsir. A Poison Heal set allows Breloom to passively recover considerable amounts of HP each turn and avoid status. However, it struggles with the plethora of fast threats in the metagame. A Focus Sash set with a Jolly nature allows Breloom to patch up its poor bulk, although it comes at the cost of a significant amount of firepower. Choice Band with Superpower / Mach Punch / Bullet Seed / Rock Tomb is an option to take advantage of Breloom's high Attack stat to the fullest and avoid the recoil damage from Life Orb, but such a set faces heavy competition from Tapu Bulu.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Fairy-types**: Fairy-types in general are difficult for Breloom to deal with. Tapu Lele blocks Mach Punch with Psychic Terrain and can easily OHKO Breloom with its super effective STAB attacks. Tapu Koko and Tapu Fini prevent Spore from putting a foe to sleep with their respective Terrains. Magearna resists Bullet Seed, can take several hits from Mach Punch, and can OHKO Breloom with Fleur Cannon. Clefable resists Mach Punch, and its natural bulk allows it to take a Bullet Seed from Breloom and beat it 1v1.

**Psychic-types**: Psychic-types such as Tapu Lele, Mew, Latios, and Mega Alakazam resist Mach Punch and can easily OHKO Breloom with their super effective Psychic-type STAB attacks. However, many of them have trouble switching into Breloom's Bullet Seed.

**Flying-types**: Flying-types such as Skarmory, Zapdos, and Landorus-T can take on Breloom with relative ease, as they resist its STAB combination. However, they do have to watch out for the rare Rockium Z.

**Fire-types**: Mega Charizard X, Mega Charizard Y, Volcarona, and Alolan Marowak all resist Bullet Seed and can OHKO Breloom with their powerful Fire-type STAB moves. However, they also have to be wary of the potential Continental Crush.

**Ghost-types**: Ghost-types are immune to Breloom's Fighting-type moves, which is why most of them can beat it in a 1v1 scenario. Gengar can easily take out Breloom with a strong Poison-type STAB attack. Alolan Marowak is notable because it resists Bullet Seed and can come in on Breloom's attacks with impunity. Cofagrigus is also worth a mention because it can come in on Bullet Seed multiple times and burn Breloom with Will-O-Wisp. However, all of these Pokemon have to watch out for Spore and struggle to come in if a Pokemon on their team isn't already asleep.

**Bug-types**: Bug-types naturally resist Breloom's STAB combination, which means that many of them can beat it 1v1. Mega Scizor takes pitiful damage from both Bullet Seed and Mach Punch and can 2HKO Breloom with Bullet Punch after Stealth Rock damage. Mega Heracross outspeeds Breloom and can OHKO it with one of its STAB moves. Volcarona also outpaces Breloom and can notably use it as setup fodder with Quiver Dance, although it must watch out for Rock Tomb or Continental Crush.

**Faster attackers**: In general, fast, powerful attackers that are able to take a Mach Punch such as Latios, Zapdos, Mega Pinsir, and Tapu Lele are able to easily revenge kill Breloom thanks to its low bulk and relatively poor base Speed.
 
Last edited:

Martin

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Rockium Z Breloom blows; I've used it more since I wrote the preview and honestly LO+Spore is better like 99% of the time tbqh. Bump it down to OO. Swap out SEdge in the moves section for Rock Tomb when u do this.

Add Black Belt to Set Details; getting the boost to Mach Punch w/o wearing yourself down is an absolute godsend considering that's the move you click 90% of the time anyway, and being able to click it early game without repercussions can very easily come in clutch.

Focus Punch isn't reliant on its target being put to sleep; you use it to catch Skarm/Tang etc. as they switch in, putting PhysDef vars of the former into Mach Range after 2 SR switch-ins and PhysDef variants of the latter w/ SR+1 Spike.

OO should look like this (order included) imo:
  • Focus Punch
  • Force Palm
  • Rockium
  • PHeal
  • Band (Superpower + Mach + Bullet + Tomb)
  • Sash
DPunch does nothing useful at all. PHeal, Band, and Sash's order can probably be interchanged so its w/e with those ones.

Add a Ghost-types section to C&C, mentioning Gengar, Marowak, and Mimikyu in three separate sentences. A Poison-types section where you mention Nidoking and Scolipede is probably worth adding too.

Drop the Z move mention in the overview. Remove the bullet about its movepool being excellent; you should instead mention SD and Mach Punch ("strong priority move in Technician Mach Punch") in the high atk bullet point and mention Spore in its own bullet point (smth along the lines of "Spore provides useful utility for offense"). Add bullet points commenting on how it faces heavy competition from Tapu Bulu and how meta conditions aren't that favourable for Loom (Psy terrain being everywhere, lots of Fighting resists/immunities running around, lots of Tangrowth running around etc.). The biggest issue with the overview you have atm (and one which I admittedly had in the original Loom analysis) was that you have focussed entirely on what Breloom has as opposed to its place in the meta, so just try and highlight that side of it a lot more.
 
In the bulu section of team options, mention about how it negates electric terrain, misty terrain and psychic terrain, since all of those cripple loom a lot.
 

PK Gaming

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Overview
  • No mention of Spore in the first line? It's one of Breloom's defining traits and an ever-present threat (even if its nowhere near as good as before)
  • I agree with Martin in that RockiumZ is terrible. Remove all mentions of it in the Overview.
  • Merge the 1st and 3rd lines together.
  • Merge the 4th and 6th lines together.
Offensive

mach punch gives breloom some priority to make up for its low speed, and allows it to put in work against offensive teams.
Don't forget to mention the technician boost

- spore puts one pokemon to sleep, allowing breloom to set up a free swords dance if it can get it off without being KOed. however, it's less reliable in gen 7 with the omnipresence of electric terrain and misty terrain.
Not always. It's more accurate to say that a successful Spore gives the Breloom several options at their disposal.

no way of recovering its HP on this set.
No need to mention this since Poison Heal isn't a staple.

gengar is also capable of beating psychic types, and additionally provides some needed speed to revenge kill faster threats and can break through fairy types such as tapu bulu and tapu koko.
Are you referring to Choice Scarf Gengar?

**Fairy-types**: Fairy-types in general are difficult for breloom to deal with. tapu lele blocks mach punch with psychic terrain and can easily ohko breloom with its stab attacks. tapu koko and tapu fini prevents spore from putting a foe to sleep. magearna resists bulletseed and can take several hits from mach punch.
Similar to the above, you need to mention Tapu Bulu as well, since it hard counters Breloom.

Implement all of Martin's suggestions.
 

Martin

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Just a note, but in my post when I said what I did I meant for it to be listed like this as opposed to the way you've slashed it:
name: Offensive
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Mach Punch
move 3: Bullet Seed
move 4: Spore
item: Life Orb
ability: Technician
nature: Adamant
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Moves
========
  • Rock Tomb
Set Details
========
  • Black Belt
Spore is just such a big part of why you'd use Breloom that I honestly don't think Rock Tomb is quite good enough to warrant more than a moves mention; same goes for Black Belt, although it's less to do with the niche and more to do with the fact that LO is generally better.
 
Implemented everything except one thing:

Similar to the above, you need to mention Tapu Bulu as well, since it hard counters Breloom.
I'm not really sure how it's a hard counter to Breloom. Bullet Seed from Breloom in grassy terrain is a guaranteed 2HKO on the offensive set after rocks assuming 3 hits, and zen headbutt doesnt even KO breloom from full.
 

PK Gaming

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high attack stat of 130 coupled with its access to spore, which allows it to put a single foe to sleep at a time, makes breloom a powerful offensive threat.
You don't need to tell the reader what Spore does. Simply mentioning it should be enough.

Implemented everything except one thing:

I'm not really sure how it's a hard counter to Breloom. Bullet Seed from Breloom in grassy terrain is a guaranteed 2HKO on the offensive set after rocks assuming 3 hits, and zen headbutt doesnt even KO breloom from full.
Fair enough.

1/3
 
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Colonel M

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Jolly Loom definitely has some merit as a slash. For starters you still do good against stuff like Adamant Bulu:

+2 252 Atk Life Orb Technician Breloom Bullet Seed (3 hits) vs. 40 HP / 0 Def Tapu Bulu in Grassy Terrain: 312-369 (107.2 - 126.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Also being able to at worst tie against Jolly Bisharp is worthwhile since it means that Sucker Punch has a 50% chance to fail. If you used Z Rock it also goes faster than slower Zapdos and slower Tapu Fini but I don't think that's really too noteworthy (maybe the latter but rn max Speed Fini is the "standard" on the analysis). Former two definitely are though.

tl;dr slash Jolly but keep it after Adamant. Definitely detail the benefits of Jolly.
- breloom is extremely frail; it can be OHKOed by even neutral attacks. its poor defensive typing further limits its survivability, as it's weak to common offensive types in fire, ice, and flying.
I don't necessarily disagree that Breloom is frail, but I will say that you kind of hit on its typing a little too hard. One thing is that it still is very good defensively against Tyranitar - a Pokemon that is creeping a little more in usage. Having a strong neutral or SE STAB against Water-types also helps a lot of times too since a lot of bulky Water-types don't run Ice Beam very often.
if there is a tapu fini or tapu koko on the opposing team, be careful as their terrains stop spore from working, although note that neither want to take a bullet seed.
When you write this up note that it is ineffective against GROUNDED Pokemon. Think about Zapdos, who levitates, is never affected by terrains so it is vulnerable to Spores.
- tapu bulu forms an effective typespam core with breloom, as it boosts the power of bullet seed to extremely high levels.
I would also note that Bulu can break a lot of mons that Breloom can really struggle against while also making it harder for those that only x2 resist Grass to switch into Breloom. Name examples (slower defensive Zapdos is a good example).
- hazard support helps breloom to pick up more kos; as such, stealth rock setters such as land-t and excadrill and spikes setters such as greninja make good partners.
I feel Heatran is a lot better of a partner than Excadrill. Heatran comes in on a lot of moves that are often targetted by Breloom while also being huge annoyances to Pokemon such as non-Superpower Tornadus-T, etc.
- choice scarf gengar is also capable of beating psychic types, and additionally provides some needed speed to revenge kill faster threats and can break through fairy types such as tapu bulu and tapu koko.
Choice Scarf is a bit weaker in the meta at the moment. Band Weavile like listed above is a good example, though it obviously isn't great against Tapu Koko. I would just ditch this line or figure something different out - if you go back to your "typespam" core Bulu takes care of Tapu Koko fairly well as an example. There are better options like Magnezone which can handle Lele + Koko with Assault Vest, provide momentum with Volt Switch, Breloom deters Ground-types, etc.
- focus sash allows breloom to patch up its poor bulk, although it comes at the cost of a significant amount of firepower.
Mention this is Jolly and that some carry Rock Tomb over Swords Dance (Rock Tomb puts some switch-ins like Latios and faster Zapdos in bad positions).

I'm really nervous on some of the Other Options stuff. Some I can reason with, others seem... awkward? Focus Punch definitely is fine as would Rock Tomb - which I think should be mentioned higher in OO outside of Band. I think the first set definitely needs more work - I'll probably look at it later on.

I'll talk to other Quality Control members on other opinions. I'll probably be back to make more changes, so for now tag me when you implement these changes and I'll discuss with QC on how to proceed from here.
 
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Gary

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Mention Rock Tomb in move options cause it's useful for hitting Zapdos on switch-in as well as Latios so u can Spore it.

jolly is an option to outpace neutrally natured gyarados, heatran, and volcanion, as well as speed tie with jolly bisharp, but it is generally worse than adamant.
Mention neutral natured Bulu here as well.

- life orb increases breloom's overall power, while black belt does the same but sacrifices a bit of power for no recoil.
Also cuts down on Bullet Seed's power which is pretty significant if you are running Black Belt > Orb

magnezone is capable of taking on tapu lele and tapu koko with ease, as well as providing a slow volt switch to get breloom in safely. breloom also notably deters ground types for magnezone.
Mention how Zone also traps Steela and Skarm which give it issues

Remove CB from OO, that set is almost completely unviable with Bulu existing.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Fairy-types**: Fairy-types in general are difficult for breloom to deal with. tapu lele blocks mach punch with psychic terrain and can easily ohko breloom with its stab attacks. tapu koko and tapu fini prevents spore from putting a foe to sleep. magearna resists bulletseed and can take several hits from mach punch. (mention Clefable in here as well)

**Psychic-types**: psychic types such as tapu lele, megazam, megagross, (banned) and hoopa-u (it doesn't resist mach punch and takes a lot from it) resist mach punch and can easily ko breloom with their super effective psychic type stab attacks. however, many of them have trouble switching into breloom's other moves.

**Flying-types**: Flying-types such as Skarmory, Zapdos, Landorus-T, and Salamence can take on Breloom with relative ease if it isn't holding Rockium Z or if it gets used up.

**Fire-types**: Mega Charizard X/Y, Volcarona, and Alolan Marowak all resist Bullet Seed and can ohko with their powerful fire type stab moves, although they need to watch out for continental crush.

**Ghost-types**: Ghost-types are immune to Breloom's Fighting-type moves and as such, most of them can beat it 1v1. Gengar can easily take out Breloom with a strong Poison-type STAB attack. Mimikyu is able to use Breloom as setup fodder to use Swords Dance and KO it with Play Rough (Disguise only works for one Bullet Seed, so if Loom still gets 4 more rolls, Mimi will be taking a LOT so it's not really THAT free). Alolan Marowak is notable because it resists Bullet Seed and can come in on Breloom's attacks with impunity. All of these Pokemon have to watch out for Spore though, and struggle to come in if a Pokemon on their team isn't already asleep. (Mention Cofagrigus)

**Faster attackers**: In general, fast, powerful attackers are able to easily revenge kill breloom thanks to its low bulk and relatively poor base speed, but only if they are capable of surviving a mach punch. (mention some examples)
QC 2/3
 
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p2

Banned deucer.
[OVERVIEW]

Breloom has a high base Attack stat of 130 as well as access to the coveted Spore, which makes it a powerful offensive threat in the OU metagame. It also has access to a strong priority move in Mach Punch, which is boosted by its Technician ability. However, Breloom's low Speed stat leaves it significantly less useful versus offensive teams, forcing it to rely heavily on Mach Punch in these matchups. Breloom is also extremely frail; it can be OHKOed by even some strong neutral attacks. While its defensive typing does allow it to take on certain Water-types such as Mega Gyarados and Toxapex as well as the likes of Tyranitar, it also gives it crippling weaknesses to common attacking types in Fairy, Flying, Fire, and Ice. Additionally, Breloom faces a lot of competition from Tapu Bulu as a physically attacking Grass-type, as the latter offers more defensive utility thanks to its better bulk and more useful defensive typing. Finally, current metagame conditions are not very favorable for Breloom, as it struggles with the increased presence of Pokemon that resist Fighting such as Tapu Lele, Gengar, Zapdos, and Landorus-T.

[SET]
name: Offensive
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Mach Punch
move 3: Bullet Seed
move 4: Spore
item: Life Orb
ability: Technician
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

Swords Dance boosts Breloom's already high base Attack stat to incredible levels, allowing it to achieve feats such as 2HKOing specially defensive Celesteela from full with Mach Punch. Alternatively, Rock Tomb could be used to hit certain switch-ins such as Zapdos and Latios on the switch and put Breloom in a position where it can use Spore on them. Mach Punch gives Breloom some priority to make up for its low Speed stat, and it also allows it to put in work versus offensive teams. Bullet Seed is used to take advantage of Technician and give Breloom access to a more powerful STAB move, which is helpful in certain situations. Spore puts one Pokemon to sleep, giving Breloom several options to take advantage of if it can get it off successfully; for example, it can set up a Swords Dance or use the opportunity to fire off a powerful Bullet Seed. However, the omnipresence of Electric Terrain and Misty Terrain makes this move less reliable. Roc ?

Set Details
========

Technician boosts the power of Mach Punch and Bullet Seed significantly, allowing Breloom to hit as hard as possible. Maximum Attack and Speed EVs alongside an Adamant nature are utilized because Breloom needs as much speed and power as it can get. Jolly is an option to outpace neutral-natured Gyarados, Tapu Bulu, Heatran, and Volcanion, as well as Speed tie with Jolly Bisharp, but it is generally worse than Adamant. Life Orb increases Breloom's overall power at the cost of recoil. Black Belt could be used instead to avoid this recoil, but the power drop is noticeable. free fist plate > belt D:

Usage Tips
========

Breloom should very rarely be switched directly into attacks, as it's ridiculously frail and will lose significant amounts of HP. Mach Punch can be used to revenge kill weakened threats and prevent Breloom from being easily revenge killed itself. Swords Dance should be utilized to take advantage of the various double switches that Breloom forces, as well as the free turns provided by Spore if it is being run. If there is a Tapu Fini or a Tapu Koko on the opposing team, be mindful of the fact that their terrains stop Spore from working against grounded Pokemon, although neither want to take a Bullet Seed.

Team Options
========

Tapu Bulu forms an effective Grass-type stacking core with Breloom, as its Grassy Terrain boosts the power of Bullet Seed to extremely high levels and makes it harder for even Pokemon that resist Grass to switch in to Breloom; for example, defensive Zapdos and Alolan Muk can potentially be 2HKOed by Bullet Seed under Grassy Terrain. Tapu Bulu is also able to use Swords Dance to break through many of the Pokemon that Breloom struggles to take on such as Celesteela. Hazard support helps Breloom to pick up more KOs; as such, Stealth Rock setters such as Landorus-T and Heatran and Spikes setters such as Greninja make for good partners. Pursuit trappers such as Tyranitar, Weavile, and Mega Scizor can eliminate troubling Psychic-types such as Tapu Lele and Mega Alakazam replace zam with latios for Breloom. Magnezone is capable of taking on Tapu Lele and Tapu koko and ease, as well as providing a slow Volt Switch to get Brleoom in safely. It also traps and KOs Celesteela and Skarmory, which otherwise give Breloom issues. In return, Breloom can deter Ground-types for Magnezone.

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

Focus Punch gives Breloom a 150-Base Power STAB Fighting-type move, which is mainly useful for hitting sleeping foes and Pokemon such as Skarmory and Tangrowth on the switch. Force Palm is essentially a 90-Base Power STAB move when taking Technician into account, which comes with a nifty 30% chance to paralyze the foe. However, the priority provided by Mach Punch is generally more useful. Stone Edge in combination with Rockium Z breaks through a number of traditional Breloom checks such as Mega Charizard Y, Zapdos, and Mega Pinsir. A Poison Heal set allows Breloom to passively recover considerable amounts of HP each turn and avoid status. However, it struggles with the plethora of fast threats in the metagame. A Focus Sash set with a Jolly nature allows Breloom to patch up its poor bulk, although it comes at the cost of a significant amount of firepower. add choice band

Checks and Counters
===================

**Fairy-types**: Fairy-types in general are difficult for Breloom to deal with. Tapu Lele blocks Mach Punch with Psychic Terrain and can easily OHKO Breloom with its super effective STAB attacks. Tapu Koko and Tapu Fini prevent Spore from putting a foe to sleep with their respective terrains. Magearna resists Bullet Seed, can take several hits from Mach Punch, and can OHKO Breloom with Fleur Cannon. Clefable resists Mach Punch, and its natural bulk allows it to switch into Bullet Seed relatively easily. i wouldn't say clef switches in easily, 2 3hits from bullet seed can pick off clef so you're banking on some odds there to not get broken by bseed. i would say its bulk allows it to 1v1 breloom, but right now it sounds like its a counter to loom.

**Psychic-types**: Psychic-types such as Tapu Lele and Mega Alakazam resist Mach Punch and can easily OHKO Breloom with their super effective Psychic-type STAB attacks. can you list 1-2 more psychics, just things like mew / latios would be fine However, many of them have trouble switching into Breloom's Bullet Seed.

**Flying-types**: Flying-types such as Skarmory, Zapdos, Landorus-T, and Salamence can take on Breloom with relative ease, as they resist its STAB combination. However, they do have to watch out for the rare Rockium Z.

**Fire-types**: Mega Charizard X, Mega Charizard Y, Volcarona, and Alolan Marowak all resist Bullet Seed and can OHKO Breloom with their powerful Fire-type STAB moves. However, they also have to be wary of the potential Continental Crush.

**Ghost-types**: Ghost-types are immune to Breloom's Fighting-type moves, which is why most of them can beat it in a 1v1 scenario. Gengar can easily take out Breloom with a strong Poison-type STAB attack. Alolan Marowak is notable because it resists Bullet Seed and can come in on Breloom's attacks with impunity. Cofagrigus is also worth a mention because it can come in on Bullet Seed multiple times and burn Breloom with Will-O-Wisp. However, all of these Pokemon have to watch out for Spore and struggle to come in if a Pokemon on their team isn't already asleep.

**Faster attackers**: In general, fast, powerful attackers that are able to take a Mach Punch such as Latios, Zapdos, Mega Pinsir, and Tapu Lele are able to easily revenge kill Breloom thanks to its low bulk and relatively poor base Speed.

it would be nice to get stuff like mega scizor in here but there's not much it currently fits under, i guess you could get away with bug-types, sciz walls loom pretty hard once something has been foddered to sleep, mega hera outspeeds and volc obviously outspeeds. if you wanna go more niche, buzzwole and beedrill also annoy it a lot
3/3
 
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dhelmise

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[OVERVIEW]

Breloom has a high base Attack stat of 130 as well as access to the coveted Spore, which makes it a powerful offensive threat in the OU metagame. It also has access to a strong priority move in Mach Punch, which is boosted by its Technician ability. However, Breloom's low Speed stat leaves it significantly less useful versus offensive teams, forcing it to rely heavily on Mach Punch in these matchups. Breloom is also extremely frail; it can be OHKOed by even some strong neutral attacks. While its defensive typing does allow it to take on certain Water-types such as Mega Gyarados and Toxapex as well as the likes of Tyranitar, it also gives it crippling weaknesses to common attacking types in Fairy, Flying, Fire, and Ice. Additionally, Breloom faces a lot of competition from Tapu Bulu as a physically attacking Grass-type, as the latter offers more defensive utility thanks to its better bulk and more useful defensive typing. Finally, current metagame conditions are not very favorable for Breloom, (RC) as it (time-related statements are not very favorable for analyses, as they struggle with the increased presence of changing metagame conditions) struggles with the increased presence of Pokemon that resist Fighting-type moves such as Tapu Lele, Gengar, Zapdos, and Landorus-T.

[SET]
name: Offensive
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Mach Punch
move 3: Bullet Seed
move 4: Spore
item: Life Orb
ability: Technician
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

Swords Dance boosts Breloom's already high base Attack stat to incredible levels, allowing it to achieve feats such as 2HKOing specially defensive Celesteela from full with Mach Punch. Alternatively, Rock Tomb could be used to hit certain switch-ins such as Zapdos and Latios on the switch and put Breloom in a position where it can use Spore on them. Mach Punch gives Breloom some priority to make up for its low Speed stat, and it also allows it to put in work versus offensive teams. Bullet Seed is used to take advantage of Technician and give Breloom access to a more powerful STAB move, which is helpful in certain situations. Spore puts one Pokemon to sleep, giving Breloom several options to take advantage of if it can get it off successfully; for example, it can set up a Swords Dance or use the opportunity to fire off a powerful Bullet Seed. However, the omnipresence of Electric Terrain and Misty Terrain makes this move less reliable.

Set Details
========

Technician boosts the power of Mach Punch and Bullet Seed significantly, allowing Breloom to hit as hard as possible. Maximum Attack and Speed EVs alongside an Adamant nature are utilized because Breloom needs as much speed and power as it can get. Jolly is an option to outpace neutral-natured neutral-nature Gyarados, Tapu Bulu, Heatran, and Volcanion, as well as Speed tie tying (if there's a comma before "as well as" the verb coming after the words is in this form) with Jolly Bisharp, but it is generally worse than Adamant. Life Orb increases Breloom's overall power at the cost of recoil. Black Belt could can be used instead to avoid this recoil, but the power drop is noticeable.

Usage Tips
========

Breloom should very rarely be switched directly into attacks, as it's ridiculously frail and will lose significant amounts of HP. Mach Punch can be used to revenge kill weakened threats and prevent Breloom from being easily revenge killed itself. Swords Dance should be utilized to take advantage of the various double switches that Breloom forces, as well as the free turns provided by Spore if it is being run. If there is a Tapu Fini or a Tapu Koko on the opposing team, be mindful of the fact that their Terrains stop Spore from working against grounded Pokemon, although neither want to take a Bullet Seed.

Team Options
========

Tapu Bulu forms an effective Grass-type-stacking (AH) core with Breloom, as its Grassy Terrain boosts the power of Bullet Seed to extremely high levels and makes it harder for even Pokemon that resist Grass to switch in to Breloom; for example, defensive Zapdos and Alolan Muk can potentially be 2HKOed by Bullet Seed under Grassy Terrain. Tapu Bulu is also able to use Swords Dance to break through many of the Pokemon that Breloom struggles to take on such as Celesteela. Hazard support helps Breloom to pick up more KOs; as such, Stealth Rock setters such as Landorus-T and Heatran and Spikes setters such as Greninja make for good partners. Pursuit trappers such as Tyranitar, Weavile, and Mega Scizor can eliminate troubling Psychic-types such as Tapu Lele and Latios for Breloom. Magnezone is capable of taking on Tapu Lele and Tapu Koko and ease, as well as providing a slow Volt Switch to get Brleoom in safely. It also traps and KOes Celesteela and Skarmory, which otherwise give Breloom issues. In return, Breloom can deter Ground-types for Magnezone.

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

Focus Punch gives Breloom a 150-Base Power STAB Fighting-type move, which is mainly useful for hitting sleeping foes and Pokemon such as Skarmory and Tangrowth on the switch. Force Palm is essentially a 90-Base Power STAB move when taking Technician into account, which comes with a nifty 30% chance to paralyze the foe. However, the priority provided by Mach Punch is generally more useful. Stone Edge in combination with Rockium Z breaks through a number of traditional Breloom checks such as Mega Charizard Y, Zapdos, and Mega Pinsir. A Poison Heal set allows Breloom to passively recover considerable amounts of HP each turn and avoid status. However, it struggles with the plethora of fast threats in the metagame. A Focus Sash set with a Jolly nature allows Breloom to patch up its poor bulk, although it comes at the cost of a significant amount of firepower. Choice Band with Superpower / Mach Punch / Bullet Seed / Rock Tomb is an option to take advantage of Breloom's high Attack stat to the fullest and avoid the recoil damage from Life Orb, but such a set faces heavy competition from Tapu Bulu.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Fairy-types**: Fairy-types in general are difficult for Breloom to deal with. Tapu Lele blocks Mach Punch with Psychic Terrain and can easily OHKO Breloom with its super effective STAB attacks. Tapu Koko and Tapu Fini prevent Spore from putting a foe to sleep with their respective Terrains. Magearna resists Bullet Seed, can take several hits from Mach Punch, and can OHKO Breloom with Fleur Cannon. Clefable resists Mach Punch, and its natural bulk allows it to take a Bullet Seed from Breloom and beat it 1v1.

**Psychic-types**: Psychic-types such as Tapu Lele, Mew, Latios, and Mega Alakazam resist Mach Punch and can easily OHKO Breloom with their super effective Psychic-type STAB attacks. However, many of them have trouble switching into Breloom's Bullet Seed.

**Flying-types**: Flying-types such as Skarmory, Zapdos, Landorus-T can take on Breloom with relative ease, as they resist its STAB combination. However, they do have to watch out for the rare Rockium Z.

**Fire-types**: Mega Charizard X, Mega Charizard Y, Volcarona, and Alolan Marowak all resist Bullet Seed and can OHKO Breloom with their powerful Fire-type STAB moves. However, they also have to be wary of the potential Continental Crush.

**Ghost-types**: Ghost-types are immune to Breloom's Fighting-type moves, which is why most of them can beat it in a 1v1 scenario. Gengar can easily take out Breloom with a strong Poison-type STAB attack. Alolan Marowak is notable because it resists Bullet Seed and can come in on Breloom's attacks with impunity. Cofagrigus is also worth a mention because it can come in on Bullet Seed multiple times and burn Breloom with Will-O-Wisp. However, all of these Pokemon have to watch out for Spore and struggle to come in if a Pokemon on their team isn't already asleep.

**Bug-types**: Bug-types naturally resist Breloom's STAB combination, which means that many of them can beat it 1v1. Mega Scizor takes pitiful damage from both Bullet Seed and Mach Punch and can 2HKO Breloom with Bullet Punch after Stealth Rock damage. Mega Heracross outspeeds Breloom and can OHKO it with one of its STAB moves. Volcarona also outpaces Breloom and can notably use it as setup fodder with Quiver Dance, although it must watch out for Rock Tomb or Continental Crush.

**Faster attackers**: In general, fast, powerful attackers that are able to take a Mach Punch such as Latios, Zapdos, Mega Pinsir, and Tapu Lele are able to easily revenge kill Breloom thanks to its low bulk and relatively poor base Speed.
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[OVERVIEW]

Breloom has a high base Attack stat of 130 (for future reference, listing stat numbers is somewhat frowned upon because you can already see all the stats on the dex page) as well as access to the coveted Spore, which makes it a powerful offensive threat in the OU metagame. It also has access to a strong priority move in Mach Punch, which is boosted by its Technician ability. However, Breloom's low Speed stat leaves it significantly less useful versus offensive teams, forcing it to rely heavily on Mach Punch in these matchups. Breloom is also extremely frail; it can be OHKOed by even some strong neutral attacks. While its defensive typing does allow it to take on certain Water-types such as Mega Gyarados and Toxapex as well as the likes of Tyranitar, it also gives it crippling weaknesses to common attacking types in Fairy, Flying, Fire, and Ice. Additionally, Breloom faces a lot of competition from Tapu Bulu as a physically attacking Grass-type, as the latter offers more defensive utility thanks to its better bulk and more useful defensive typing. Finally Breloom struggles with the increased presence of Pokemon that resist Fighting-type moves such as Tapu Lele, Gengar, Zapdos, and Landorus-T.

[SET]
name: Offensive
move 1: Swords Dance
move 2: Mach Punch
move 3: Bullet Seed
move 4: Spore
item: Life Orb
ability: Technician
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

Swords Dance boosts Breloom's already high base Attack stat to incredible levels, allowing it to achieve feats such as 2HKOing specially defensive Celesteela from full with Mach Punch. Alternatively, Rock Tomb could be used to hit certain switch-ins such as Zapdos and Latios on the switch and put Breloom in a position where it can use Spore on them. Mach Punch gives Breloom some priority to make up for its low Speed stat, (RC) and it also allows it to put in work versus offensive teams. Bullet Seed is used to take advantage of Technician and give Breloom access to a more powerful STAB move, which is helpful in certain situations. Spore puts one Pokemon to sleep, giving Breloom several options to take advantage of if it can get it off successfully; for example, it can set up a Swords Dance or use the opportunity to fire off a powerful Bullet Seed. However, the omnipresence of Electric Terrain and Misty Terrain makes this move less reliable.

Set Details
========

Technician boosts the power of Mach Punch and Bullet Seed significantly, allowing Breloom to hit as hard as possible. Maximum Attack and Speed EVs alongside an Adamant nature are utilized because Breloom needs as much speed and power as it can get. Jolly is an option to outpace neutral-natured Gyarados, Tapu Bulu, Heatran, and Volcanion, as well as Speed tying with Jolly Bisharp, but it is generally worse than Adamant. Life Orb increases Breloom's overall power at the cost of recoil. Black Belt can be used instead to avoid this recoil, but the power drop is noticeable.

Usage Tips
========

Breloom should very rarely be switched directly into attacks, as it's ridiculously frail and will lose significant HP. Mach Punch can be used to revenge kill weakened threats and prevent Breloom from being easily revenge killed itself. Utilize Swords Dance should be utilized to take advantage of the various double switches that Breloom forces, as well as the free turns provided by Spore if running it is being run. (little too much passive here) If there is a Tapu Fini or a Tapu Koko on the opposing team, be mindful of the fact that their Terrains stop Spore from working against grounded Pokemon, although neither wants (neither and either are singular) to take a Bullet Seed.

Team Options
========

Tapu Bulu forms an effective Grass-type-stacking core with Breloom, as its Grassy Terrain boosts the power of Bullet Seed to extremely high levels and makes it harder for even Pokemon that resist Grass to switch in to Breloom; for example, defensive Zapdos and Alolan Muk can potentially be 2HKOed by Bullet Seed under Grassy Terrain. Tapu Bulu is also able to use Swords Dance to break through many of the Pokemon that Breloom struggles to take on such as Celesteela. Hazard support helps Breloom to pick up more KOs; as such, (side note, when using as such, think "as what?". so a good usage would be something like "he is a venture capitalist; as such, he makes a lot of money". as what? as a venture capitalist. "larvesta appreciates the support of a defogger; as such, ducklett is a good partner". as what? as a defogger. "i haven't eaten in ten hours; as such, i'm about to faint." this one is kinda iffy. as what? as a person who hasn't eaten...maybe? that requires a little more mental work. here's an example that doesn't work at all: "the blizzard grounded all the flights; as such, she would not be able to fly home for the holidays." as what? she's not a blizzard or a flight. as for your sentence, i think it works; as what -- as hazard support. basically, as such isn't a direct substitution for therefore. this is a pretty obscure rule though, I didn't even know about it until like last year, so it's not a big deal at all, but fun fact i guess. here's a link for further reading if interested) Stealth Rock setters such as Landorus-T and Heatran and Spikes setters such as Greninja make for good partners. Pursuit trappers such as Tyranitar, Weavile, and Mega Scizor can eliminate troubling Psychic-types such as Tapu Lele and Latios for Breloom. Magnezone is capable of taking on Tapu Lele and Tapu Koko with and ease, as well as providing a slow Volt Switch to get Brleoom Breloom in safely. It also traps and KOes Celesteela and Skarmory, which otherwise give Breloom issues. In return, Breloom can deter Ground-types for Magnezone.

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

Focus Punch gives Breloom a 150-Base Power STAB Fighting-type move, which is mainly useful for hitting sleeping foes and Pokemon such as Skarmory and Tangrowth on the switch. Force Palm is a 90-Base Power STAB move when taking Technician into account, which comes with a nifty 30% chance to paralyze the foe. However, the priority provided by Mach Punch is generally more useful. Stone Edge in combination with Rockium Z breaks through a number of traditional Breloom checks such as Mega Charizard Y, Zapdos, and Mega Pinsir. A Poison Heal set allows Breloom to passively recover considerable amounts of HP each turn and avoid status. However, it struggles with the plethora of fast threats in the metagame. A Focus Sash set with a Jolly nature allows Breloom to patch up its poor bulk, although it comes at the cost of a significant amount of firepower. Choice Band with Superpower / Mach Punch / Bullet Seed / Rock Tomb is an option to take advantage of Breloom's high Attack stat to the fullest and avoid the recoil damage from Life Orb, but such a set faces heavy competition from Tapu Bulu.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Fairy-types**: Fairy-types in general are difficult for Breloom to deal with. Tapu Lele blocks Mach Punch with Psychic Terrain and can easily OHKO Breloom with its super effective STAB attacks. Tapu Koko and Tapu Fini prevent Spore from putting a foe to sleep with their respective Terrains. Magearna resists Bullet Seed, can take several hits from Mach Punch, and can OHKO Breloom with Fleur Cannon. Clefable resists Mach Punch, and its natural bulk allows it to take a Bullet Seed from Breloom and beat it 1v1.

**Psychic-types**: Psychic-types such as Tapu Lele, Mew, Latios, and Mega Alakazam resist Mach Punch and can easily OHKO Breloom with their super effective Psychic-type STAB attacks. However, many of them have trouble switching into Breloom's Bullet Seed.

**Flying-types**: Flying-types such as Skarmory, Zapdos, and Landorus-T can take on Breloom with relative ease, as they resist its STAB combination. However, they do have to watch out for the rare Rockium Z.

**Fire-types**: Mega Charizard X, Mega Charizard Y, Volcarona, and Alolan Marowak all resist Bullet Seed and can OHKO Breloom with their powerful Fire-type STAB moves. However, they also have to be wary of the potential Continental Crush.

**Ghost-types**: Ghost-types are immune to Breloom's Fighting-type moves, which is why most of them can beat it in a 1v1 scenario. Gengar can easily take out Breloom with a strong Poison-type STAB attack. Alolan Marowak is notable because it resists Bullet Seed and can come in on Breloom's attacks with impunity. Cofagrigus is also worth a mention because it can come in on Bullet Seed multiple times and burn Breloom with Will-O-Wisp. However, all of these Pokemon have to watch out for Spore and struggle to come in if a Pokemon on their team isn't already asleep.

**Bug-types**: Bug-types naturally resist Breloom's STAB combination, which means that many of them can beat it 1v1. Mega Scizor takes pitiful damage from both Bullet Seed and Mach Punch and can 2HKO Breloom with Bullet Punch after Stealth Rock damage. Mega Heracross outspeeds Breloom and can OHKO it with one of its STAB moves. Volcarona also outpaces Breloom and can notably use it as setup fodder with Quiver Dance, although it must watch out for Rock Tomb or Continental Crush.

**Faster attackers**: In general, fast, powerful attackers that are able to take a Mach Punch such as Latios, Zapdos, Mega Pinsir, and Tapu Lele are able to easily revenge kill Breloom thanks to its low bulk and relatively poor base Speed.
 
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