Community POTW #074

[Serebii]

Time for the next Pokémon of the Week, and this week we have an Alola Pokémon that was once ignored but is now one of the more commonly used Pokémon

It's Kommo-o

https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-sm/784.shtml

Go nuts

 

[TheIceCream]

Kommo-o was a pretty meh Pokemon back in SM. It had decent stats but an odd movepool with its best physical Fighting move being Sky Uppercut. Then USUM came around and brought move tutors, Close Combat and the Kommonium Z. 185 STAB Dragon Move that raises all of your Base Stats? That is insane!

Positives:
+ Clangorous Soulblaze is an amazing Z-Move, being able to raise all of your stats by one stage. This can make Kommo-o very difficult to deal with
+ This thing's movepool is huge. Physical wise, you have Superpower, Close Combat, the Elemental Punches, Iron Head, Aqua Tail, Dragon Claw, Poison Jab, Earthquake etc. For Special, you have Clanging Scales, Focus Blast, Flamethrower, Flash Cannon etc.
+ 110/100 Offenses are pretty solid
+ 75/125/105 Defenses are also pretty good
+ 3 pretty good abilities
+ This thing is very hard to stop when it starts. There are very few Pokemon like that
+ Did I mention Clangorous Soulblaze?

Negatives:
- Unfortunately, this isn't Gen 5 when Fairies didn't exist. If a Fairy switches into your Clangorous Soulblaze, your Z move is wasted and you don't get the boosts. In doubles, only 1 opponent has to be a non-fairy but still...
- Speaking of Fairies, you have a 4x weakness to them. In addition to a weakness to Flying, Psychic, Dragon and Ice
- 85 Speed isn't bad, but it could be better. (I mean you get +1 Speed from using CS but even then, stuff such as T Koko can still outspeed)
- 100 Sp Attack is certainly solid, but again, it could be better for a Sweeper.
- You might not have many friends left if the CS strategy works.

Abilities:
Bulletproof: Pretty good, considering that there are quite a few moves such as Focus Blast that would be annoying to be hit by. But the moves blocked by Soundproof are generally better.
Soundproof: Having an immunnity to Boomburst, Mega Salamence's Hyper Voice or Mega Gardevoir's Hyper Voice or even other Kommo-o's Clangorous Soulblaze. That's pretty cool.
Overcoat: Having an immunity to weather is OK, as well as an immunity to Spore, but Soundproof is still generally better.

Counters: Any of the Guardian Deities can absorb a Clangorous Soulblaze and OHKO back with a STAB Fairy-Type move (except from Tapu Bulu). Tapu Lele does have to watch out for Flash Cannon though. Alolan Ninetales can OHKO with a Moonblast and absorb a CS although again, it has to be careful of a Flamethrower or Flash Cannon. Vanilluxe can do a similar job if it runs a Choice Scarf; assuming Kommo-o hasn't got its boosts yet. Mega Altaria is immune to CS and can OHKO back with a Fairy/Dragon move. However, a Hyper Voice will probably be blocked by Soundproof. Finally, Mega Metagross can take anything but a Flamethrower (and isn't OHKO'd usually) and deal massive damage back with a Zen Headbutt.

It can be pretty difficult to counter Kommo-o when it has its boosts. Preventing it from getting the boosts is a good starts though.

 

[Mestorn]

Kommo-o was probably the worst pseudo-legendary ever when released, barring Dragonite in Gen I. Its stats were good, but Base 85 speed lets it down majorly. Its STAB combination is terrifying offensively but leaves it open to several types defensively, including the super powerful Fairy type. With Salamence, Metagross, Garchomp and Goodra available earlier, Kommo-o did not really stand out when you finally got access to it and even when you did, the previous pseudo legendaries were better.

So how does Gamefreak fix this? By creating one of the most broken Z-Moves in the game. Kommonium Z is terrifying. Having a one shot nuke that buffs all of your stats? That is a recipe to smash through a wall and then proceed to consume the rest of the opposing team.

A Song to our Ancestors
Kommo-o
Item: Kommonium Z
Ability: Soundproof/Bulletproof/Overcoat
-Clanging Scales
-Focus Blast
-Flash Cannon
-Flamethrower
EVs: 4 HP/252 SATK/252 Speed
Nature: Jolly (+SPD, -ATK)

Special Kommo-o. When opposing checks have been knocked out of the way or weakened, come in, fire off a Clangorous Soulblaze, to punch through whatever your opponent sends out and proceed to chew up the rest of your opponent's team. Clanging Scales is mandatory for the obvious reason and good STAB regardless. Focus Blast is the secondary STAB and has great coverage. Flash Cannon is great for dealing with any fairies that may be sneaking about (or to catch a Fairy coming in to block a Clangorous Soulblaze), while Flamethrower offers great coverage. I must stress the opponent's team being weakened for this, with any sponges knocked out of the way, because even at +1 Kommo-o is not powerful enough to punch through most Sponges.

An Ancient Dance
Kommo-o
Item: Kommonium Z
Ability:
Soundproof/Bulletproof/Overcoat
-Clanging Scales
-Close Combat/Drain Punch
-Flash Cannon/Poison Jab
-Earthquake/Flamethrower/Aqua Tail/Dragon Claw
EVs: 96 ATK/160 SATK/252 Speed
Nature: Naive: (+SPD, -SDEF)

Mixed Kommo-o. When opposing checks have been knocked out of the way or weakened, come in, fire off a Clangorous Soulblaze, to punch through whatever your opponent sends out and proceed to chew up the rest of your opponent's team. Due to the fluid nature of this set, its checks and counters can vary wildly, whith Kommo-o's wide movepool ensuring that there is no true safe switch barring walls of good bulk on both ends of the spectrum.

 

[Divine Retribution]

Kommo-O may arguably be the best omni booster in the game, with only Porygon-Z giving it competition (for reference, neither one is ranked on the OU VR while both Porygon-Z and Kommonium-Z are both banned from UU), but that's about its only claim to glory. Its Dragon/Fighting typing sounds amazing at first for anyone who played before Gen 6, but the sad reality of the situation is that if nearly any Fairy-type shows up on the opposing team, Kommo-O's sweeping potential is vastly restricted. In addition, it faces huge competition both for a Z-move slot and a team slot at all from a variety of other sweepers, including fellow dragons Zygarde, Kyurem-Black, and Salamence, which are generally more self-sufficient and splashable threats that require less team support to pull off a sweep. That being said, one of his most threatening sets (and the set that got Kommonium-Z banned from UU) is a dual-boosting Dragon Dance + Clangorous Soulblaze set that allows Kommo-O to set up and apply pressure early game while not risking wasting its Z-move if an opposing Fairy is still present.

It's been a long time since I've used this Pokemon, but here's a set I found buried in the depths of my teambuilder. I wouldn't consider it particularly viable in the current metagame but if for some reason I were to use Kommo-O in a format where Kommonium-Z isn't banned, this would be my go-to set.

Kommo-O @

Kommonium-Z
Naive - Bulletproof
200 Attack / 56 Sp. Atk / 252 Speed
-Dragon Dance
-Clanging Scales
-Close Combat
-Poison Jab

The choice of ability is a bit of a toss-up between Bulletproof and Soundproof. On this particular set I ran Bulletproof as it makes Kommo-O a fantastic pinch check for non-Ghostium Gengar and Blacephalon, and Mega Gardevoir is almost unheard of in USUM OU (not to mention being OHKO'd by a +1 Poison Jab). Soundproof seems useful on paper solely for the purpose of negating Mega Gardevoir's Hyper Voice, but given Mega Gardevoir's rarity and the fact that it can still hit you with its Psychic STAB, I'm personally more partial to Bulletproof. Other than that the set is rather self-explanatory. It is worth noting, however, that Bulletproof does NOT protect you from Moonblast, despite the name. Dragon Dance allows you to threaten a sweep and potentially force in opposing Fairies for a teammate to take advantage of (or even Kommo-O himself if he can score a kill with Poison Jab). Clanging Scales is necessary to access Clangorous Soulblaze, which once opposing Fairies are removed can easily allow Kommo-O to clean up a game. Close Combat is his strongest physical STAB that isn't redundant with Clangorous Soulbaze. Drain Punch is another option that can be considered. While considerably weaker, it doesn't reset his Defensive boosts and allows him to recover some HP, which can help him sustain a sweep in situations where he can't outright OHKO a threat with Close Combat. Poison Jab allows him to hit a variety of fairies such as Tapu Bulu, Tapu Koko, Azumarill, Tapu Fini, and Clefable. Earthquake is another acceptable option that hits Magearna while retaining coverage on Tapu Koko and Mega Diancie, but loses out on Tapu Bulu and Clefable, and Magearna already takes a decent chunk from Close Combat as it is.​