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Community POTW #012

Serebii

And, as if by magic, the webmaster appeared...
Staff member
Admin
Time for the next Pokémon and this week we go back to Unova!

604.png


It's Eelektross!

 

Yveltal91057

It’s Kalos season!
Overview: With absolutely no weaknesses, a resistance to Steel type moves and everything else doing neutral damage, Eelektross has been a force to reckon with in both standard gameplay and competitive battling ever since being introduced in Generation 5.

Electric Eel of Death

EV spread: 252 Speed/252 Special Attack/4 HP

Held item: None
Tera type: Electric

Moveset

Wild Charge
Giga Drain
Flamethrower
Acrobatics

Other moveset options

Rest
Flash Cannon
Dragon Claw
Liquidation
Stomping Tantrum
Thunderbolt
Outrage
Close Combat
Tera Blast
Sunny Day/Rain Dance for weather based teams
Brick Break
Drain Punch
U-Turn/Volt Switch
Fire Punch
Thunder Punch
Dragon Pulse
Light Screen
Bulk Up
Bulldoze
Scary Face
Coil
Crunch
Electric Terrain
 
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XaelOstigian

Competitive...kinda
After a prolonged stint as a gen 5 Magikarp, once Tynamo levels up enough and gets its hand on a Thunder Stone, it finally rises to its full potential while still holding the unique title of being the only Pokemon with zero type weaknesses. I find this monster terrifying on a personal level since it is a combination of a sea lamprey and an electric eel, my two biggest fears, but on a competitive level the phobias don't necessarily stack to be a top tier threat. Despite possessing excellent mixed attacking stats, a wide movepool to take advantage of both stats, no type weaknesses, and access to the rare boosting move Coil, Eelektross still has several factors holding it back such as low speed and no access to recovery options outside of draining coverage moves.

Electric Coil
Ability: Levitate
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Careful
EVs: (HP 252) (Sp. Defense 252) (Speed 4)
Tera Type: Electric

Moves:
Coil
Spark/Wild Charge
Liquidation
Drain Punch

Set Details:
A physical tank set. Boost attack, defense, and accuracy with Coil, and invest all stats into HP and special defense so you have bulk on the special side too. Your STAB is a matter of preference since while Wild Charge is stronger, the recoil is undesirable, and Spark has a 30% chance of inflicting paralysis which is appreciated. Liquidation offers coverage against Ground types, and Drain Punch gives wide coverage and more importantly a means of recovering HP since Leftovers can only do so much. Tera type goes to Electric since sacrificing your zero type weaknesses is a waste, and the electric boost is appreciated.

Amprey
Ability: Levitate
Item: Assault Vest
Nature: Quiet
EVs: (HP 252) (Attack 4) (Sp. Attack 252)
Tera Type: Electric

Moves:
Thunderbolt
Flamethrower
Giga Drain
Close Combat

Set Details:
A mixed attacking tank. Thunderbolt for STAB, Flamethrower for powerful coverage, Giga Drain for Ground types and a means to recover HP, and Close Combat is namely for special walls such as Chansey. Assault Vest adds some bulk, and you'll have to sacrifice speed with a Quiet so as not to damage your physical attack.

So Eelektross is not as I intimidating as my personal fears might suggest, but it still has a unique niche in several regards. And as a parting shot, now you all share my phobia for sea lamprey:
sea-lamprey.jpg
 
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Mestorn

Wandering Battler
Eelektross is a classic case of Jack of All Most Trades, master of none, much to its detriment. Which is a shame cause there is a lot of good going for it. Balanced Offensive stats and a wide movepool with coverage options most Electric types would kill for is a great start. Levitate is a good ability, providing Eelektross no weaknesses and immunity to most entry hazards without being weak to Stealth Rock, which does compliment its above average HP and average defenses.

However for every good thing on Eelektross, there is also a bad. Lack of physical STAB outside of Wild Charge hurts a lot, especially when Eelektross is reliant on its bulk. And Special sets, despite having many valuable moves, are running off a lower Special Attack that Eelektross has no way of boosting. And while a lack of weaknesses is nice on Eelektross, there is also a lack of resistances, which is just as, if not even more important, as resistances and immunities are enables a Pokémon to take hits. Recovery being limited to non-STAB draining moves hurts as well, compromising Eelektross' ability to take repeated hits. And it all comes back to Eelektross' poor speed. Thanks to that horrid speed, offensive sets struggle to apply pressure. Thanks to that horrid speed Eelektross must take attacks before retaliating or recovering, ruining its decent bulk. Eelektross' speed makes all of Eelektross's flaws worse.

And in the end, while versatility is good on a Pokémon, optimization is also important. Being decent at everything means little when your competition excels at one particular role and can have teammates reasonably pick up the slack. Eelektross' flaws require excessive support in more inclusive formats, which just leaves passed over for many better picks.
 

Divine Retribution

Conquistador de pan
I haven't tried Eelektross in Gen 9 yet as it does face stiff competition from other Electric-types such as Magnezone and the various Rotom appliance forms, and even newcomers like Pawmot and Kilowattrel generally bring more to the table than Eelektross does, but I imagine not much has changed for Eelektross because, well... not much has. It gained access to Close Combat, but that's already only a marginal upgrade over Superpower, it gets Tera Blast but doesn't really benefit from it nearly as much as other Electric-types as it's already got an unusually colorful coverage arsenal, and it lost access to Knock Off. Other than that, no new toys to speak of.

If I had to describe Eelektross in a single word it would be... mediocre. It's not a bad Pokemon by any means; it's decently bulky, it hits decently hard, and it has a great offensive movepool. It just falls a little bit short in just about every area. It's not strong enough to score OHKOs on a lot of opponents, it's not bulky enough to stand up to repeated hits from offensive opponents (a problem further exacerbated by its lack of reliable recovery), and it's far too slow to outspeed even many defensive Pokemon. What we're left with is a Pokemon that's just barely too weak to pressure bulkier opponents and just barely too frail (and, less barely, too slow) to pressure offensive ones.

In the low tiers, where Eelektross's power level and bulk are a lot more competitive, it's actually quite a good Pokemon. With its wide array of coverage moves, ability to hit from both the physical and the special side, and access to techs like Coil and Acid Spray, it's an incredibly difficult Pokemon to switch in on in more exclusionary formats. It just doesn't quite have the tools it needs to climb out of the obscure depths of the lower tiers.
 
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