Volk
Demonstrably alive.
I've made it abundantly clear that I'm getting pretty burnt out in this community. I still like playing and writing, but the whole community interaction part is draining me. But I digress. This analysis is done, please get to it when you can. Shoutouts to May. Also, I'm giving partial credit to Enigami here because I referenced his draft pretty extensively. Cheers.
[OVERVIEW]
Porygon is a small fish in a big pond. Its stats are typical of an unevolved Pokemon, making it much slower and weaker than just about everything. Despite this issue,
Porygon's access to Recover and immunity to paralysis from Body Slam give it just enough to be a surprisingly viable pick in OU. These two traits make Porygon an impeccable switch-in to one of the most important Pokemon in OU, Snorlax. Porygon has just enough Speed and physical bulk to switch in against Snorlax and stall out its 24 Body Slam PP with its 32 Recover PP. Most variants of Snorlax will struggle to make any progress against Porygon, meaning Porygon can consistently force it to switch out, as it is almost never worth using Snorlax's Self-Destruct against such a low-value Pokemon. Porygon should always be used with Chansey to create a defensive core; Chansey can handle special attackers like Alakazam and Starmie, while Porygon can handle Snorlax and paralyzed physical attackers.
While its matchup against Snorlax is its main selling point, Porygon can wall some other Pokemon in a pinch. Pokemon that are unable to reliably status Porygon will usually struggle to defeat it in a head-to-head matchup. Especially if they are paralyzed, Porygon is relatively comfortable against Tauros and Gengar, for example. However, Porygon has some consistency issues in even its best matchups. Critical hits and strong attacks can expose its poor defensive stats, Ice Beam and Blizzard can freeze it, Special drops from Psychic can overwhelm it, and paralysis can render it unable to wall Snorlax securely. Perhaps worst of all, Porygon can be easily overpowered by Amnesia Snorlax, meaning it will have almost nothing to do against teams with that set.
[SET]
name: Wall
move 1: Recover
move 2: Thunder Wave
move 3: Ice Beam
move 4: Thunderbolt / Tri Attack / Hyper Beam
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
Recover is one of the most important moves in RBY and the primary reason Porygon has a niche. The move is mandatory for Porygon to wall and stall Snorlax. Given Recover's 32 PP, Porygon can easily absorb all 24 Snorlax Body Slam hits and then some. Unless Snorlax is carrying Amnesia, it lacks any solid option to break through Porygon. Outside of a freeze from Ice Beam or multiple consecutive critical hits, Snorlax can only feasibly beat a healthy Porygon with Self-Destruct. Considering this is generally a poor trade for the Snorlax user, they will often be forced to switch it out. This gives the Porygon user the opportunity to double switch or attack to maintain some momentum. Porygon can prevent Snorlax from getting offensive momentum while keeping Pokemon that often answer Snorlax, like Chansey, Starmie, and one's own Snorlax, safe and available to fill other roles. Porygon is a rather frail Pokemon, so it should use Recover very liberally. It should avoid switching out until it is at or near full health, as it would otherwise risk falling to a heavier hit from Snorlax, like Hyper Beam or any critical hit.
Thunder Wave is also essentially required. Paralysis is critical for mitigating Snorlax: full paralysis generates free turns for Porygon, enabling it to attack instead of simply using Recover on most every turn. Paralysis also makes other physical attackers much more manageable. While Tauros is very unlikely to stay in against a healthy Porygon, if it must do so in a desperate endgame, Porygon can rather safely win the one-on-one by using Thunder Wave, using Recover, and waiting for full paralyses to attack and eventually KO Tauros. Similarly, Thunder Wave is a good way to pressure Pokemon like Gengar and Exeggutor. Additionally, because Porygon pretty consistently forces Snorlax to switch, Porygon can potentially paralyze the Pokemon that commonly switch in like Chansey, Starmie, and Alakazam. However, doing this may prevent Porygon from reaching full health before it switches out, as Porygon will have to switch out in fear of paralysis.
While Porygon may have dismal offensive stats, it has a large and diverse offensive movepool. Ice Beam is the most common attack on Porygon primarily due to its ability to freeze foes. While Porygon generally defeats Snorlax via a war of attrition regardless, it is more than happy to cut the war short with a freeze. Ice Beam allows Porygon to participate in freeze wars and keep higher value Pokemon, like Chansey and one’s own Snorlax, safe from bad luck. Ice Beam is also a reasonable coverage move with a potential 2HKO on Rhydon and likely 4HKOs on Exeggutor and Zapdos. Being able to chip or even potentially freeze switch-ins like Chansey, Starmie, and Alakazam is also significant. Porygon’s final move extends its coverage. Thunderbolt is the most common choice, as it complements Ice Beam famously well. It notably enables Porygon to bully or finish off Water-type Pokemon like Starmie, Slowbro, Cloyster, and Lapras, especially if they are paralyzed. It also has a fair amount of PP to improve Porygon's ability to stall. Tri Attack is a fairly strong option that pressure Pokemon with more special bulk, like Chansey, Alakazam, and Jynx. Finally, Hyper Beam is an option that can catch switch-ins and paralyzed foes by surprise. It can reliably pick off Chansey below 45% health and Alakazam below 60%. The choice for Porygon’s second offensive move often comes down to its teammates and player preference.
Porygon has a very straightforward gameplan. Generally, Pit needs to do two things to stay successful. First, Porygon should try to stay as healthy as possible. Porygon should aim to switch out with as much health as possible so it can consistently answer Pokemon like Snorlax. It should generally only attack when it is close to or at full health. Two important benchmarks to keep in mind are 76.5% and 84.6% HP; Porygon must be at or above these points to survive a Hyper Beam and a critical hit Body Slam, respectively, and thus feel comfortable attacking instead of healing. It is imperative that Porygon ends every turn above both of these benchmarks, especially before it is switched out. In general, Porygon should prioritize Recover and Thunder Wave over attacking. Second, Porygon should avoid paralysis. Paralysis is often a death sentence for Porygon, as it will become slower than Snorlax and very easy to exploit on turns when it is fully paralyzed. Unless it can KO them immediately, Porygon should generally switch out when faced with paralysis inducers like Chansey, Starmie, Alakazam, Slowbro, Jolteon, Zapdos, and Stun Spore Exeggutor. The bigger-picture purpose of using Porygon often comes down to getting more out of one’s Snorlax and Chansey, as neither should need to deal with the opponent’s Snorlax when Porygon can do so. Snorlax is more free to forgo Reflect and explore more offensive options thanks to Porygon’s assistance. Additionally, if Porygon loses a freeze war against Snorlax, one’s own Snorlax can engage in a freeze war with no fear. Chansey works similarly, as it can focus on checking special attackers and be more difficult to exploit.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Porygon has a very deep movepool to play with, both offensively and defensively. Psychic is likely the most valuable alternative coverage move. Psychic comes with a useful chance to drop the foe's Special, but Thunderbolt or a Normal-type move tends to be superior because of the many Psychic-type Pokemon that can come in and scare Porygon out. Psywave is mildly useful as a universal coverage option that can deal up to 150 damage. However, its low accuracy and heavy randomness make it less than reliable.
Reflect can make Porygon even more consistent against Snorlax and Tauros. However, it can be difficult to find an opportunity to use it, as Porygon will generally want to heal or use Thunder Wave first in most cases. Flash is another move for bullying Snorlax and common switch-ins. While the move has poor accuracy itself, it can help Porygon keep up some momentum, as most Pokemon will want to switch out after sustaining the accuracy drop. Sharpen can slowly but surely boost Porygon’s Attack so it can deal hefty damage with Tri Attack or Hyper Beam. Setting up with Sharpen is often quite difficult because Porygon is easy to scare off with paralysis, but it can potentially succeed against a weakened or paralyzed team. Recover also makes Porygon unique among other boosting Pokemon, as it can heal and doesn’t necessarily need to commit to attacking once it starts setting up.
Conversion is a mildly interesting option that Porygon can use to combat certain special attackers like Alakazam, Jynx, Cloyster, and Jolteon. Realistically, however, Conversion will only be useful if Snorlax is already dealt with, as most special attackers have a way to paralyze Porygon—negating its primary purpose in handling Snorlax—or can simply overwhelm it with strong attacks. Toxic allows Porygon to deal passive damage to Snorlax while it repeatedly uses Recover, thus forcing Snorlax to use Rest sooner, even if it is carrying Amnesia. However, a number of Pokemon that are likely to switch into Porygon, like Chansey, Alakazam, and Starmie, generally don't mind Toxic, as it allows them to dodge more dangerous status effects like sleep, freeze, and paralysis. Finally, Mimic is a decent option on Porygon. The main purpose of Mimic is to pick up Amnesia from Amnesia Snorlax, which otherwise completely bulldozes Porygon. At a mere 25% chance, though, this is not a reliable option, unfortunately.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Status Moves**: Paralysis completely ruins Porygon, so Pokemon with Thunder Wave or Stun Spore can consistently force it to switch. This means many Pokemon are very capable of threatening it, including Chansey, Alakazam, Starmie, Zapdos, Jolteon, Slowbro, and some variants of Exeggutor and Victreebel. Unless Porygon has an opportunity to KO these Pokemon, must almost always switch out into a teammate that can absorb paralysis. Sleep and freeze also quickly deal with Porygon, and it is quite vulnerable to the former due to its low Speed. However, because Porygon has relatively low value, it is often good for Porygon to take sleep or freeze so nothing else on the team must. While rare, confusion also inhibits Porygon a lot, as Porygon isn’t bulky enough to risk hitting itself and giving up a free turn to the opponent.
**Stat Alteration**: Because Porygon has mediocre defensive stats, it becomes easy to exploit if the foe begins to boost their stats or lower Porygon’s stats. Amnesia users like Snorlax and Slowbro can boost largely unfettered against Porygon and begin doing a lot of damage. Slowbro in particular only needs to get to +4 before it has a chance to OHKO Porygon. Swords Dance users, while not particularly common, also can set up rather comfortably in front of Porygon and overwhelm it. Special drops from Psychic also threaten Porygon quite a lot. Exeggutor, for example, is guaranteed to 2HKO Porygon with Psychic if the first hit drops its Special. Other users like Alakazam and Starmie also have no issue breaking through Porygon after a Special drop.
**Critical Hits**: Porygon often has trouble with faster foes even if they can’t paralyze it as critical hits imperil Porygon quickly. Tauros, even if it is paralyzed, can potentially break through Porygon if it gets multiple consecutive critical hits. If Snorlax gets a critical hit, it often places Porygon on the backfoot, as it will lose more health than it can recoup with Recover in a single turn. Moreover, a desperate Hyper Beam will cleanly OHKO Porygon if Snorlax manages to score a critical hit. Heavy hitters like Exeggutor, Jolteon, and Zapdos will also make short work of Porygon if they can get a critical hit or two.
**Partial Trapping**: Porygon’s poor Speed leaves it vulnerable to partial trappers like Cloyster, Victreebel, and Dragonite. Partial trappers can accumulate significant damage on Porygon and pivot to a hard counter, all before Porygon has a chance to heal.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Volk, 530877], [Enigami, 233818]]
- Quality checked by: [[May, 236353], [Amaranth, 265630]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429]]
[OVERVIEW]
Porygon is a small fish in a big pond. Its stats are typical of an unevolved Pokemon, making it much slower and weaker than just about everything. Despite this issue,
Porygon's access to Recover and immunity to paralysis from Body Slam give it just enough to be a surprisingly viable pick in OU. These two traits make Porygon an impeccable switch-in to one of the most important Pokemon in OU, Snorlax. Porygon has just enough Speed and physical bulk to switch in against Snorlax and stall out its 24 Body Slam PP with its 32 Recover PP. Most variants of Snorlax will struggle to make any progress against Porygon, meaning Porygon can consistently force it to switch out, as it is almost never worth using Snorlax's Self-Destruct against such a low-value Pokemon. Porygon should always be used with Chansey to create a defensive core; Chansey can handle special attackers like Alakazam and Starmie, while Porygon can handle Snorlax and paralyzed physical attackers.
While its matchup against Snorlax is its main selling point, Porygon can wall some other Pokemon in a pinch. Pokemon that are unable to reliably status Porygon will usually struggle to defeat it in a head-to-head matchup. Especially if they are paralyzed, Porygon is relatively comfortable against Tauros and Gengar, for example. However, Porygon has some consistency issues in even its best matchups. Critical hits and strong attacks can expose its poor defensive stats, Ice Beam and Blizzard can freeze it, Special drops from Psychic can overwhelm it, and paralysis can render it unable to wall Snorlax securely. Perhaps worst of all, Porygon can be easily overpowered by Amnesia Snorlax, meaning it will have almost nothing to do against teams with that set.
[SET]
name: Wall
move 1: Recover
move 2: Thunder Wave
move 3: Ice Beam
move 4: Thunderbolt / Tri Attack / Hyper Beam
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
Recover is one of the most important moves in RBY and the primary reason Porygon has a niche. The move is mandatory for Porygon to wall and stall Snorlax. Given Recover's 32 PP, Porygon can easily absorb all 24 Snorlax Body Slam hits and then some. Unless Snorlax is carrying Amnesia, it lacks any solid option to break through Porygon. Outside of a freeze from Ice Beam or multiple consecutive critical hits, Snorlax can only feasibly beat a healthy Porygon with Self-Destruct. Considering this is generally a poor trade for the Snorlax user, they will often be forced to switch it out. This gives the Porygon user the opportunity to double switch or attack to maintain some momentum. Porygon can prevent Snorlax from getting offensive momentum while keeping Pokemon that often answer Snorlax, like Chansey, Starmie, and one's own Snorlax, safe and available to fill other roles. Porygon is a rather frail Pokemon, so it should use Recover very liberally. It should avoid switching out until it is at or near full health, as it would otherwise risk falling to a heavier hit from Snorlax, like Hyper Beam or any critical hit.
Thunder Wave is also essentially required. Paralysis is critical for mitigating Snorlax: full paralysis generates free turns for Porygon, enabling it to attack instead of simply using Recover on most every turn. Paralysis also makes other physical attackers much more manageable. While Tauros is very unlikely to stay in against a healthy Porygon, if it must do so in a desperate endgame, Porygon can rather safely win the one-on-one by using Thunder Wave, using Recover, and waiting for full paralyses to attack and eventually KO Tauros. Similarly, Thunder Wave is a good way to pressure Pokemon like Gengar and Exeggutor. Additionally, because Porygon pretty consistently forces Snorlax to switch, Porygon can potentially paralyze the Pokemon that commonly switch in like Chansey, Starmie, and Alakazam. However, doing this may prevent Porygon from reaching full health before it switches out, as Porygon will have to switch out in fear of paralysis.
While Porygon may have dismal offensive stats, it has a large and diverse offensive movepool. Ice Beam is the most common attack on Porygon primarily due to its ability to freeze foes. While Porygon generally defeats Snorlax via a war of attrition regardless, it is more than happy to cut the war short with a freeze. Ice Beam allows Porygon to participate in freeze wars and keep higher value Pokemon, like Chansey and one’s own Snorlax, safe from bad luck. Ice Beam is also a reasonable coverage move with a potential 2HKO on Rhydon and likely 4HKOs on Exeggutor and Zapdos. Being able to chip or even potentially freeze switch-ins like Chansey, Starmie, and Alakazam is also significant. Porygon’s final move extends its coverage. Thunderbolt is the most common choice, as it complements Ice Beam famously well. It notably enables Porygon to bully or finish off Water-type Pokemon like Starmie, Slowbro, Cloyster, and Lapras, especially if they are paralyzed. It also has a fair amount of PP to improve Porygon's ability to stall. Tri Attack is a fairly strong option that pressure Pokemon with more special bulk, like Chansey, Alakazam, and Jynx. Finally, Hyper Beam is an option that can catch switch-ins and paralyzed foes by surprise. It can reliably pick off Chansey below 45% health and Alakazam below 60%. The choice for Porygon’s second offensive move often comes down to its teammates and player preference.
Porygon has a very straightforward gameplan. Generally, Pit needs to do two things to stay successful. First, Porygon should try to stay as healthy as possible. Porygon should aim to switch out with as much health as possible so it can consistently answer Pokemon like Snorlax. It should generally only attack when it is close to or at full health. Two important benchmarks to keep in mind are 76.5% and 84.6% HP; Porygon must be at or above these points to survive a Hyper Beam and a critical hit Body Slam, respectively, and thus feel comfortable attacking instead of healing. It is imperative that Porygon ends every turn above both of these benchmarks, especially before it is switched out. In general, Porygon should prioritize Recover and Thunder Wave over attacking. Second, Porygon should avoid paralysis. Paralysis is often a death sentence for Porygon, as it will become slower than Snorlax and very easy to exploit on turns when it is fully paralyzed. Unless it can KO them immediately, Porygon should generally switch out when faced with paralysis inducers like Chansey, Starmie, Alakazam, Slowbro, Jolteon, Zapdos, and Stun Spore Exeggutor. The bigger-picture purpose of using Porygon often comes down to getting more out of one’s Snorlax and Chansey, as neither should need to deal with the opponent’s Snorlax when Porygon can do so. Snorlax is more free to forgo Reflect and explore more offensive options thanks to Porygon’s assistance. Additionally, if Porygon loses a freeze war against Snorlax, one’s own Snorlax can engage in a freeze war with no fear. Chansey works similarly, as it can focus on checking special attackers and be more difficult to exploit.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Porygon has a very deep movepool to play with, both offensively and defensively. Psychic is likely the most valuable alternative coverage move. Psychic comes with a useful chance to drop the foe's Special, but Thunderbolt or a Normal-type move tends to be superior because of the many Psychic-type Pokemon that can come in and scare Porygon out. Psywave is mildly useful as a universal coverage option that can deal up to 150 damage. However, its low accuracy and heavy randomness make it less than reliable.
Reflect can make Porygon even more consistent against Snorlax and Tauros. However, it can be difficult to find an opportunity to use it, as Porygon will generally want to heal or use Thunder Wave first in most cases. Flash is another move for bullying Snorlax and common switch-ins. While the move has poor accuracy itself, it can help Porygon keep up some momentum, as most Pokemon will want to switch out after sustaining the accuracy drop. Sharpen can slowly but surely boost Porygon’s Attack so it can deal hefty damage with Tri Attack or Hyper Beam. Setting up with Sharpen is often quite difficult because Porygon is easy to scare off with paralysis, but it can potentially succeed against a weakened or paralyzed team. Recover also makes Porygon unique among other boosting Pokemon, as it can heal and doesn’t necessarily need to commit to attacking once it starts setting up.
Conversion is a mildly interesting option that Porygon can use to combat certain special attackers like Alakazam, Jynx, Cloyster, and Jolteon. Realistically, however, Conversion will only be useful if Snorlax is already dealt with, as most special attackers have a way to paralyze Porygon—negating its primary purpose in handling Snorlax—or can simply overwhelm it with strong attacks. Toxic allows Porygon to deal passive damage to Snorlax while it repeatedly uses Recover, thus forcing Snorlax to use Rest sooner, even if it is carrying Amnesia. However, a number of Pokemon that are likely to switch into Porygon, like Chansey, Alakazam, and Starmie, generally don't mind Toxic, as it allows them to dodge more dangerous status effects like sleep, freeze, and paralysis. Finally, Mimic is a decent option on Porygon. The main purpose of Mimic is to pick up Amnesia from Amnesia Snorlax, which otherwise completely bulldozes Porygon. At a mere 25% chance, though, this is not a reliable option, unfortunately.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Status Moves**: Paralysis completely ruins Porygon, so Pokemon with Thunder Wave or Stun Spore can consistently force it to switch. This means many Pokemon are very capable of threatening it, including Chansey, Alakazam, Starmie, Zapdos, Jolteon, Slowbro, and some variants of Exeggutor and Victreebel. Unless Porygon has an opportunity to KO these Pokemon, must almost always switch out into a teammate that can absorb paralysis. Sleep and freeze also quickly deal with Porygon, and it is quite vulnerable to the former due to its low Speed. However, because Porygon has relatively low value, it is often good for Porygon to take sleep or freeze so nothing else on the team must. While rare, confusion also inhibits Porygon a lot, as Porygon isn’t bulky enough to risk hitting itself and giving up a free turn to the opponent.
**Stat Alteration**: Because Porygon has mediocre defensive stats, it becomes easy to exploit if the foe begins to boost their stats or lower Porygon’s stats. Amnesia users like Snorlax and Slowbro can boost largely unfettered against Porygon and begin doing a lot of damage. Slowbro in particular only needs to get to +4 before it has a chance to OHKO Porygon. Swords Dance users, while not particularly common, also can set up rather comfortably in front of Porygon and overwhelm it. Special drops from Psychic also threaten Porygon quite a lot. Exeggutor, for example, is guaranteed to 2HKO Porygon with Psychic if the first hit drops its Special. Other users like Alakazam and Starmie also have no issue breaking through Porygon after a Special drop.
**Critical Hits**: Porygon often has trouble with faster foes even if they can’t paralyze it as critical hits imperil Porygon quickly. Tauros, even if it is paralyzed, can potentially break through Porygon if it gets multiple consecutive critical hits. If Snorlax gets a critical hit, it often places Porygon on the backfoot, as it will lose more health than it can recoup with Recover in a single turn. Moreover, a desperate Hyper Beam will cleanly OHKO Porygon if Snorlax manages to score a critical hit. Heavy hitters like Exeggutor, Jolteon, and Zapdos will also make short work of Porygon if they can get a critical hit or two.
**Partial Trapping**: Porygon’s poor Speed leaves it vulnerable to partial trappers like Cloyster, Victreebel, and Dragonite. Partial trappers can accumulate significant damage on Porygon and pivot to a hard counter, all before Porygon has a chance to heal.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Volk, 530877], [Enigami, 233818]]
- Quality checked by: [[May, 236353], [Amaranth, 265630]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429]]
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