Maractus (QC: 0/3)

[Nockon]

“I am the Love Cactus. Make desert to me.”
― Jarod Klintz

Overview
########

• Spikes make Maractus a reliable lead.
• Almost completely outclassed by other Spikes leads such as Cacturne, Crustle, and Garbodor.
• Knock Off and Endeavor give Maractus a small niche to use over Cacturne.
• Water Absorb gives Maractus an immunity to Water-type moves.
• Speed isn't the best.

Spikes
#########
name: Spikes
move 1: Spikes
move 2: Petal Blizzard / Endeavor
move 3: Knock Off
move 4: Sucker Punch / Endeavor
ability: Water Absorb
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
item: Focus Sash
nature: Jolly

Moves
===============

• Spikes make Maractus a reliable lead for setting up entry hazards.
• Petal Blizzard is Maractus's ideal STAB option.
• Endeavor is very effective when Maractus is down to its Focus Sash.
• Knock Off cripples Defense by removing the target's item.
• Sucker Punch lets Maractus get a final hit on a faster foe before going down.

Set Details
===============

• 252 Attack and Speed is a given, letting Maractus outspeed others and hit as hard as possible.
• Jolly nature on top of 252 Speed allows Maractus to outspeed the base 70's.
• Focus Sash to guarantee at least one layer of Spikes and make Endeavor very effective.

Usage Tips
===============

• This set is best used as a lead so use Spikes until the next attack will take you out.
• Knock Off is the reason to use Maractus as it is a nice utility and can ruin a defensive Pokemon's chances with it not having an item.
• Petal Blizzard is useful for scaring off Stealth Rock users and predicting a faster Taunt from another suicide lead. If Petal Blizzard is doing very little, Maractus can switch out and come in later.
• Endeavor is a cool option that becomes devastating when Maractus is down to its Focus Sash.
• While Maractus is a committed lead, don't worry about Spikes if you're up against a Pokemon boosting its stats and Maractus can't beat at all, you can switch out can come in later.

Team Options
===============

• A suicide lead like Maractus works well with Pokemon that can use them. Examples are Feraligatr, Magmotar, and Primeape.
• Pokemon with Defiant such as Pawniard and Primeape can scare off Defog users from switching-in.
• Ghost-types block Rapid Spin and keep Spikes on the field. Golurk is a good example as it can also set up Stealth Rock.

Other Options
##########

• Energy Ball is a option worth considering if you decide to invest some EVs in Special Attack.
• If your team relies on sun, Maractus can use Sunny Day but without a Heat Rock, it won't last long.
• Grasswhistle can put enemies to sleep, allowing Maractus to set up more spikes safely. However, it's terribly inaccurate.
• Grass Knot is another STAB option that can OHKO a physically defensive Seismitoad and Rhydon.
• Toxic is nice if you find your attacking moves are doing squat to a bulkier Pokemon.

Check & Counters
#############

**Faster Pokemon**: These are usually impossible for Maractus to deal with and usually 2HKO it. Especially if they set up.

**Taunt Users**: Taunt users such as Qwilfish and Mismagius can prevent Maractus from its main role of using Spikes and turn it back on you.

**Fake Out**: Fake Out users such as Kangaskhan can break Maractus's Focus Sash and limit it to one layer of Spikes or none at all if they're faster.

**Rapid Spiners and Defoggers**: Rapid Spinners and Defoggers like Avalugg and Pelipper can ruin whatever Spikes Maractus could set up and make it difficult for it to do anything.

**Xatu**: Xatu can stop Spikes and even with Knock Off, Maractus has trouble taking it out.

 

[Ares]

Hi Nockon first off welcome to Smogon!

Unfortunately Maractus is not up for reservation right now, due to the fact that there are more viable Pokemon without an analysis yet. In the future you should check the reservation thread to see what Pokemon can be reserved and post what you want to reserve found here http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/nu-c-c-index-reserves-analyses-here.3514820/ . Right now there are no Pokemon you can reserve, but for a first attempt on an analysis it wasnt half bad.

 

[Raseri]

yep Montsegur covered it perfectly. I'm locking this for now.

 

[Raseri]

talked to Ogles and he wants this to stay and go through QC normally so alrighty

First of all, this set really doesnt seem viable at all. Petal Dance + Persim Berry? If for some reason I'm using Maractus, I would want to use a set that is A) Using Spikes and B) Not Outclassed by Cacturne. If I had to use Maractus, I would probably use:

Spikes
##################
Name: Spikes
Move 1: Spikes
Move 2: Petal Blizzard / Endeavor
Move 3: Knock Off
Move 4: Sucker Punch / Endeavor
Ability: Water Absorb
EV's: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Item: Focus Sash
Nature: Jolly


This set wont be sweeping any teams, but it takes advantage of Maractus' advantages over Cacturne, while still keeping the set as viable as possible. Any set without Knock Off would be better done by Cacturne, and the other move of note it gets is Endeavor, which can cripple something once Maractus is brought down to its sash. It isn't a great set, but it seems like it would be a reliable Spikes lead for people that dont want to use Crustle or Accelgor for whatever reason. And Endeavor is pretty cool.

If QC has a better set than this, dont be afraid to post it. This is just theorymon right now, I'll test out Maractus more in the future

 

[Nockon]

Fair enough, so I'll leave my original set here for now and add Raseri's set. If anyone else has ideas or opinions (specifically about other options and checks), I would love to hear them seeing how I'm still a babby at this.

 

[tehy]

So the first set sucks

Basically, any defensive team should just Toxic it, any offensive team hit it with a special SE Stab. It's relying on luck-based acupressure and an 8 pp recovery move which will quickly run out as it stalls for boosting turns. Only a grass move for coverage isn't helpful either.

Petal Dance and Solarbeam should be trashed- petal dance locks you in so you can't punish switch-ins without getting revenge killed, solarbeam needs sun support and sun will run out too quickly anyhow. Giga Drain or maybe energy ball (does the most to specs fires as they come in)

Leftovers should be the only item. If anything knocks you down to that focus sash, what's to stop it from killing you the next turn? Maybe if you get lucky with acu on that turn or with evasion, not good enough.

Second set really is the only viable one imo anyhow. Emphasize why to use over cacturne (knock endeavor basically). Mention defiant mons in TO as defog deterrents.

Xatu in checks and counters as fuck. Despite knock off it's still beating you p.hard, especially defensive variants.

 

[Nockon]

So the first set sucks

Basically, any defensive team should just Toxic it, any offensive team hit it with a special SE Stab. It's relying on luck-based acupressure and an 8 pp recovery move which will quickly run out as it stalls for boosting turns. Only a grass move for coverage isn't helpful either.

Petal Dance and Solarbeam should be trashed- petal dance locks you in so you can't punish switch-ins without getting revenge killed, solarbeam needs sun support and sun will run out too quickly anyhow. Giga Drain or maybe energy ball (does the most to specs fires as they come in)

Leftovers should be the only item. If anything knocks you down to that focus sash, what's to stop it from killing you the next turn? Maybe if you get lucky with acu on that turn or with evasion, not good enough.

Second set really is the only viable one imo anyhow. Emphasize why to use over cacturne (knock endeavor basically). Mention defiant mons in TO as defog deterrents.

Xatu in checks and counters as fuck. Despite knock off it's still beating you p.hard, especially defensive variants.

Alright, I'll add those in. Thanks.

 

[Berry Juice]

• Petal Blizzard is a move than can take advantage of Maractus's higher Special Attack.

Petal Blizzard is actually a physical move

 

[soulgazer]

remove the defensive set, only set should be what Raseri posted

 

[Ares]

Nockon the reason for this is because on analyses only viable sets should be given sets, anyone should come to this and be like okay this is how I should use Maractus. It's fine to use different sets for a mon, but this isn't the place to post about them, just giving you a bit of reasoning behind why you need to remove your set.

 

[Nockon]

Nockon the reason for this is because on analyses only viable sets should be given sets, anyone should come to this and be like okay this is how I should use Maractus. It's fine to use different sets for a mon, but this isn't the place to post about them, just giving you a bit of reasoning behind why you need to remove your set.

Gotcha, removing the defensive set!

 

[Nockon]

So, I'm just gonna leave my original moves and so on in other options. Feel free to object.

 

[Nockon]

Petal Blizzard is actually a physical move

Really? How odd. I thought it'd be special like the normal blizzard.

 

[marilli]

I suppose Usage Tips can be somewhat brief because Maractus doesn't really have much to do, but Team Options really do need a lot of help. These are really obvious stuff that I don't even need to play with Maractus to recognize. First, Bisharp is OU, and you're probably thinking of Pawniard. Frogadier is bad, and so is Sliggoo. Maybe 'bad' might not be the precise word for Frogadier, but Sliggoo kind of is. If anything they're undeniably niche and I would not want to encourage people to use those mons and gimp themselves even further. Those mons are honestly just so random it makes me question if you put them there just because you arbitrarily decided to have them in your most recent team together. And Steelix? Maractus is a suicide lead with this set. It honestly doesn't matter what kind of defensive synergy it gets. What does matter is how the rest of the team can use Spikes, and keep Spikes on the field. You want something that can really actively take advantage of Spikes like Feraligatr and Rotom, not defensive Roar / Dragon Tail users.

You have to mention Ghost-types like Rotom that discourages Rapid Spin as teammates. They don't even have to switch in, just the threat of having a Ghost-type on the back scares Spinners from using Rapid Spin the first place, because even if they do predict right and get the Rapid Spin off, their Spinner will most likely die for it. Sometimes, even sacking your Ghost-type to the Rapid Spinner is worth it if it means you get to keep your hazards and win the game off of that. On top of that, you don't mention Rapid Spin and Defog in Checks + Counters. Maractus is useless without its Spikes. For UT, you might want to mention when to use Petal Blizzard on a Suicide Spiker (expecting a faster Taunt, breaking Substitute setup, etc.) especially as using Spikes will do more damage in the long run.

I understand you're hyped up to write stuff about your favorite Pokemon, but I hope you also understand it's our job to not let bad content or untrue statements get on site. This honestly needs more work before it can be QC approved. Would you be OK with that?

 

[Nockon]

I suppose Usage Tips can be somewhat brief because Maractus doesn't really have much to do, but Team Options really do need a lot of help. These are really obvious stuff that I don't even need to play with Maractus to recognize. First, Bisharp is OU, and you're probably thinking of Pawniard. Frogadier is bad, and so is Sliggoo. Maybe 'bad' might not be the precise word for Frogadier, but Sliggoo kind of is. If anything they're undeniably niche and I would not want to encourage people to use those mons and gimp themselves even further. Those mons are honestly just so random it makes me question if you put them there just because you arbitrarily decided to have them in your most recent team together. And Steelix? Maractus is a suicide lead with this set. It honestly doesn't matter what kind of defensive synergy it gets. What does matter is how the rest of the team can use Spikes, and keep Spikes on the field. You want something that can really actively take advantage of Spikes like Feraligatr and Rotom, not defensive Roar / Dragon Tail users.

You have to mention Ghost-types like Rotom that discourages Rapid Spin as teammates. They don't even have to switch in, just the threat of having a Ghost-type on the back scares Spinners from using Rapid Spin the first place, because even if they do predict right and get the Rapid Spin off, their Spinner will most likely die for it. Sometimes, even sacking your Ghost-type to the Rapid Spinner is worth it if it means you get to keep your hazards and win the game off of that. On top of that, you don't mention Rapid Spin and Defog in Checks + Counters. Maractus is useless without its Spikes. For UT, you might want to mention when to use Petal Blizzard on a Suicide Spiker (expecting a faster Taunt, breaking Substitute setup, etc.) especially as using Spikes will do more damage in the long run.

I understand you're hyped up to write stuff about your favorite Pokemon, but I hope you also understand it's our job to not let bad content or untrue statements get on site. This honestly needs more work before it can be QC approved. Would you be OK with that?

I completely understand that this all needs work as I'm completely new to analysis's and I appreciate these tips and suggestions. My original set I had was what I thought of as viable, but now I'm told differently and will change the sets, UT, TO, etc. accordingly. I hope I'm not causing a problem by missing the point every now and then and I bet once I get the hang of things, I will get a better grip of how to do analysis's better! (Also, yes I am hyped.)

 

[Kiyo]

My comments are in bold. Set looks solid, rest of the skeleton needs work. Some of these statements are just opinion and I'd love to hear your feedback or something from the other QC members as well. Once the SD UT and Options are fixed I'd be happy to look at this again. cheers.

Well, let's see how my first analysis goes...


View attachment 28625

Overview
########

• Spikes make Maractus a reliable lead.
• Water Absorb gives Maractus an immunity to Water-type moves.
• Weak to a fair amount of types. I don't think this is relevant on a dedicated lead pokemon.
• Defenses and Speed aren't the best. I'd only mention speed here for the same reason as above.
• Almost completely outclassed by Cacturne.
• It's adorable.

Suicide Spikes
##################
Name: Suicide Spikes
Move 1: Spikes
Move 2: Petal Blizzard / Endeavor I'd like to see Grass Knot at least mentioned so that you can reliably OHKO physically defensive Seismitoad and Rhydon/Golem.
Move 3: Knock Off
Move 4: Sucker Punch / Endeavor
Ability: Water Absorb
EV's: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Item: Focus Sash
Nature: Jolly

Moves
===============

• Spikes make Maractus a reliable lead for setting up entry hazards.
• Petal Blizzard is Maractus's ideal STAB option. If you include GN, I would change this to say both are reliable STAB options.
• Endeavor is very effective when Maractus is down to its Focus Sash.
• Knock Off is something Cacturne doesn't have, giving Maractus a niche.
• Sucker Punch lets Maractus outspeed its adversaries when it needs to. It doesn't outspeed. I'd change this to say it allows it to get off one last hit on faster foe's before fainting.

Set Details
===============

• 252 Attack and Speed is a given, letting Maractus outspeed others and hit as hard as possible. Maybe mention that with Jolly and Max speed you're able to outspeed neutral base 70s. Samurott is the only relevant thing that comes to mind as it can pack taunt to deal with hazard leads. This is also one of the only niches I see it having over Cacturne, and its obviously a very small one.
• Jolly nature so Maractus can move first in battle more.
• Focus Sash to guarantee at least one layer of Spikes and make Endeavor effective.
• Water Absorb gives Maractus an immunity, so if the opponent sends out a lead with only a Water-type as its only damaging move, it would have to switch out to lower Maractus's HP. This is sort of self explanatory and I don't like the way it's phrased at all (not counting the fact that only a few things in the tier are mono attacking water type).

Usage Tips
===============

• This set is best used as a lead so use Spikes until the next attack will take you out.
• Endeavor and Knock Off is the reason to use Maractus over Cacturne. Endeavor can be used when knocked down to your Focus Sash, dealing massive damage. If endeavor is one of the only reasons to use Maractus over Cacturne it should be one of the first slashes on the analysis, if not i'd mention it more as a 'cool option' or something rather than making it sound like the attraction to using the pokemon.
• Knock Off is an option if you know that whatever item the enemy has will cause problems such as Leftovers or Choice items. It's nice utility regardless of the opponents item, I'd cut the part about the item having to be important.
• Petal Blizzard is useful when you predict a faster Taunt from another suicide lead or a Substitute. Maybe mention you can always switch out and set up spikes later if petal blizzard will do negligible damage to the taunt user.
• I'd mention somewhere in here not to stay in and prioritize spikes if you're up against a pokemon that commonly boosts its stats, especially if Maractus can't beat it in any way. Even though you're a dedicated lead, you are allowed to switch out.

Team Options
===============

• A suicide lead like Maractus works well with Pokemon that can use them. Feraligatr is a good example because it also works well with Knock Off support which is something Maractus can provide. I don't think the knock off support is relevant.
• Pokemon with Defiant such as Purugly can scare off Defog users from switching-in. Primeape and Pawniard are really the only two relevant Defiant pokemon in the tier, Meowstic-F and Purugly probably don't deserve a mention.
• Ghost-types such as Rotom discourages Rapid Spin without even being out. Even if Rotom is taken out, the Rapid Spinner will probably go down for it. Which is worth it to keep Maractus's Spikes up. That seems irrelevant to team options, I also wouldn't say it simply discourages rapid spin. It's there to block the spin. Mention that somehow. Also I'd mention spin blockers other than Rotom, Golurk can set up rocks while spin blocking and Mismagius is also pretty reliable.

Other Options
##########

• Maractus has very little wiggle room for other moves, but if your team relies on sun, Maractus can use Sunny Day instead of an attacking move.
• Grasswhistle can put enemies to sleep, allowing Maractus to set up more spikes safely. However, it's terribly inaccurate.
• I'd like to see Toxic get a mention somewhere, it can be nice to wear down bulky pokemon that Grass STAB and Sucker/Knock do nothing to.

Check & Counters
#############

• Physical and Special sweepers can usually 2HKO Maractus before it can set up more than one layer of Spikes or attack. Why is this even relevant, the fact that you mentioned both physical and special makes no sense. if anything mention faster pokemon that can 2hko. their physical/special stats dont really matter.
• Moves that hit multiple times such as Icicle Spear and priority moves such as Fake Out can break Maractus's Focus Sash and proceed to defeat it.
• Magic Bounce Xatu can stop Spikes and even with Knock Off, Maractus had trouble taking it out: 252 Atk Maractus Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Xatu: 98-116 (29.3 - 34.7%) -- 7.4% chance to 3HKO
• Mention Taunt in here somewhere as it shuts down Maractus' main goal of setting up spikes, I'd also mention Magic Coat alongside taunt. MC is fairly common on dedicated leads like Leavanny if you feel the need to mention a specific pokemon.

 

[Nockon]

My comments are in bold. Set looks solid, rest of the skeleton needs work. Some of these statements are just opinion and I'd love to hear your feedback or something from the other QC members as well. Once the SD UT and Options are fixed I'd be happy to look at this again. cheers.

Thank you very much! I'm still new to this as you could probably tell. Funny enough I had Taunt and Toxic in checks and counters originally. Guess I'll get them back in.

Edit: Also, if Maractus cannot beat a Pokemon in anyway, that opposing Pokemon would be both a check and a counter, right?

 

[Nockon]

Still waiting on comments and QCs folks.

 

[Blast]

I would mention that Petal Blizzard also scares out Stealth Rockers and does a lot to most spinners, which is useful for getting up more layers of Spikes.

Give more examples of HO sweepers that like Spikes support.

C&C needs to list actual examples of Taunt, Fake Out, and Magic Coat users. Idk if mentioning multi-hit moves is necessary though--the only one that doesn't need like 5+ hits to kill you is Piloswine, which is a) uncommon and b) slower, so you'll get up at least one layer anyway.

I don't really get the first point of C&C either, the wording is really weird. Replace it with a mention of faster Pokemon that can kill it and limit it to one layer of Spikes.

Nockon

 

[Nockon]

I would mention that Petal Blizzard also scares out Stealth Rockers and does a lot to most spinners, which is useful for getting up more layers of Spikes.

Give more examples of HO sweepers that like Spikes support.

C&C needs to list actual examples of Taunt, Fake Out, and Magic Coat users. Idk if mentioning multi-hit moves is necessary though--the only one that doesn't need like 5+ hits to kill you is Piloswine, which is a) uncommon and b) slower, so you'll get up at least one layer anyway.

I don't really get the first point of C&C either, the wording is really weird. Replace it with a mention of faster Pokemon that can kill it and limit it to one layer of Spikes.

Nockon

Alright, I've changed some bits and bobs but I'm not too sure what would be a good example of a Fake Out user other than maybe Liepard. Could use some suggestions.

 

[Kiyo]

Alright, I've changed some bits and bobs but I'm not too sure what would be a good example of a Fake Out user other than maybe Liepard. Could use some suggestions.

the most relevant fake out users right now are kangaskhan and hariyama. dont list liepard lol, its bad with fake out

 

[Nockon]

the most relevant fake out users right now are kangaskhan and hariyama. dont list liepard lol, its bad with fake out

Thanks! Why didn't I think of hariyama?

 

[tehy]

Checks and counters:

Kanga can limit you to 0 layers with a bit of speed, though if jolly without a boosting item he can't 2hitko with fake out+return. Adamant nearly always does so, only 2 very low rolls can stop adamant from 2hitkoing.

Rapid spin and defog are very important counters, especially defog.

In general also, faster mons can just 2shot you.

 

[marilli]

You realize that Skuntank is not in NU, right? Man I'd use the heck out of it if it were NU

 

[Nockon]

You realize that Skuntank is not in NU, right? Man I'd use the heck out of it if it were NU

Woah, I dunno why I thought Skuntank was in NU... thanks for pointing that out! Replacing Skuntank with Serperior unless there's better examples in NU.