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Community POTW #018

Serebii

And, as if by magic, the webmaster appeared...
Staff member
Admin
Time for the next Pokémon and this week we head into the Johto region

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It's Azumarill

 

KyogreThunder

Call of Fate
Azumarill
Adamant nature
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 Attack/252 HP/4 SpDef
@Choice Band
-Liquidation
-Play Rough
-Superpower
-Aqua Jet/Body Slam/Double-Edge
Azumarill
Adamant nature
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 Attack/252 HP/4 SpDef
@Sitrus Berry
-Belly Drum
-Aqua Jet
-Play Rough
-Superpower
 

XaelOstigian

Competitive...kinda
Let's be honest, the only reason we registered Hiker Parry's number back in gen 2 was in the hopes he would call about a Marill swarm rather than him going on and on about his Onyx.
gsc_tips_parry.png

You would think with Pikablue practically being the gen 2 mascot and it's early intro in gen 1 that it would be easy to find and catch, but instead we all had to jump through hoops for a Pokemon that frankly wasn't even worth it at the time. But once gen 3 rolled and Azumarill got Huge Power as an ability, suddenly the blue blob got renewed attention. Gen 4 gave it the physical special split allowing it to finally use its STAB, and by the time gen 6 came it gained a new dual typing in Fairy and it was able to run Belly Drum and Aqua Jet in the same moveslot. And just like that Azumarill went from being one of the hardest and most useless Pokemon to obtain, to a top tier threat that every player fears.
d73q8h5-42ba0fcb-f931-43ed-b53c-555b9e611f44.png
 

Mestorn

Wandering Battler
Azumarill's line first appeared in the short Pikachu's vacation before the Pokémon movie, having scores of kids scour Kanto looking for this Fabled "Pikablu" said to be stronger than even Mewtwo. While Azumarill's first appearance definitely did not live up to the hype, several generations of generous buffs and mechanic changes is now having Azumarill live up to the legend, culminating in Azumarill being excellent for the first two Unrivaled raids with Charizard and Cinderace (albeit with wildly different sets).

Water Fairy is superb both defensively and offensively, leaving 3 weaknesses for twice as many resistances plus an immunity, and has no common resists among its STABs, leaving only a handful of Pokémon capable of taking Azumarill's Huge Power assaults. 100/80/80 Defenses across the board is incredible, leaving Azumarill difficult to take down in a single strike. Having STAB priority in Aqua Jet does do a bit to alleviate Azumarill's speed issues, and combines well with Belly Drum, turning Azumarill into a force of pure destruction.

So with all these excellent traits, why does Azumarill falter in VGC/Doubles? It is down to a very hostile environment. While the Intimidate Spam of Generation 8 is gone, Azumarill still has plenty to deal with. Bad matchups against popular Pokémon including Iron Bundle, Iron Hands (who has the same base Speed and guarantees a OHKO with Wild Charge while Azumarill needs to be running Life Orb/Choice Band to do the same with Play Rough), Dondozo, and Amoongus. And this is not even getting into the fact that most of Azumarill's favored targets (Armarouge, Arcanine, Volcarona, Iron Moth) often carry Grass/Water Tera's that Azumarill struggles against and can often Burn or outright OHKO Azumarill.

Dondozo is another huge problem for Azumarill, not only being a hard wall for Azumarill, but also competition for a team slot. While the two fill very different roles in Singles (Unaware Tank vs Bulky Sweeper), in VGC Dondozo often fulfills the same role as a Bulky Sweeper, with it and Tatsugiri being a potent win condition, something Azumarill cannot claim due to Belly Drum being difficult to setup and maintain in the current VGC. Even as a Perish Song user, Azumarill is outclassed by Scream Tail (who boasts better defenses AND speed alongside a fantastic support movepool) and Fluttermane (who fullfills the slot as an offensive Perish Song user, is faster, and has a good matchup against Ghost types that otherwise cause the strategy to falter).
 

Divine Retribution

Conquistador de pan
Azumarill has an excellent typing to take advantage of in the current metagame. It benefits from the popularity of Pokemon such as Great Tusk, Volcarona, Walking Wake, Dragapult, Dragonite, and Baxcalibur, all of whom it can threaten with its Huge Power-boosted STAB combo. There aren't a whole lot of good priority users in the current metagame, but Azumarill can definitely be counted as one of them.

That being said, Azumarill's flaws from previous generations are still present. It's got decent bulk, but not exactly insane, and will fold to powerful neutral hits. It's also very slow, relying on Aqua Jet to deal with the majority of offensive Pokemon. If they resist Aqua Jet, Azumarill will have to take a hit first before being able to dispatch them, something it can only comfortably do once or twice a match. Azumarill also lost most of the tools that allowed its Sap Sipper set to work, namely Whirlpool, Scald, and Toxic, which makes it generally a much more one-dimensional and predictable Pokemon. The loss of Knock Off also hurts Azumarill's utility.


azumarill.gif

Azumarill @ Assault Vest
Adamant - Huge Power
252 Attack, 252 HP, 4 Sp. Def
-Aqua Jet
-Play Rough
-Liquidation
-Ice Spinner

While Azumarill often runs a Choice Band to maximize its hitting power, Assault Vest is becoming an increasingly popular option to act as a more solid check to the likes of Walking Wake, Iron Valiant, Volcarona, and Dragapult. In many cases the loss of power is somewhat made up for the fact that Azumarill can fire off a powerful Liquidation or Play Rough and then, if the opponent survives that, possibly pick them off with Aqua Jet, while a Choice Band set might be forced to Aqua Jet twice against faster opponents for roughly the same amount of damage. Other than that, this set plays very much like a Choice Band set. It can be more freely switched into opponents like Volcarona and Dragapult, but it still lacks recovery, so don't play it too recklessly.​
 

BillyBobJoe

Well-Known Member
Sap Sipper is normally a good ability, however Azurmarill needs Huge Power, otherwise its Attack is too weak. You would only use Sap Sipper on a mixed set or a defensive set (since Thick Fat isn’t really necessary given it resists those types already).
 

Divine Retribution

Conquistador de pan
Sap Sipper really needs Whirlpool and Perish Song or a source of passive damage like Toxic to work. As Azumarill currently doesn't have access to Whirlpool, Toxic, or Scald in Gen 9, Sap Sipper sets really aren't viable in the current metagame. It can pivot into Grass-type attackers but has no way of threatening them after that outside of a fairly weak Ice Beam or Ice Spinner. The one niche I could see for it is on mono-type teams, specifically mono-Water teams as a pivot into Grass-type attacks, but even then Grass is a very rare type in mono-type so it's probably not worth dedicating an entire team slot to a passive Pokemon whose only purpose is to pivot into Grass-type attacks.
 
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