Community POTW #152

[Serebii]

To celebrate the Pokémon GO Wild Area event happening in November, this week we're kicking off with Grimmsnarl!

Grimmsnarl #861 - Serebii.net Pokédex

Grimmsnarl Pokémon Serebii.net Pokédex providing all details on moves, stats, abilities, evolution data and locations for Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

www.serebii.net

 

[XaelOstigian]

You have summoned him.

And he is here to tell you not to underestimate goblins as per usual. Grimmsnarl is no exception. At first glance it may seem like a slow and not exactly bulky target, and therefore not a significant threat in battle, but you are dead wrong. Thanks to Prankster it gets priority on the moves it needs to become a real monster. What's more it recently got access to a means to boost its speed, meaning marginally faster threats are now at risk of being torn to shreds by this goblin champion. So here's what to expect from the green devils so you can prepare.

Slayer Goblin
Ability: Prankster
Item: Life Orb
Nature: Jolly
EVs: (HP 4) (Attack 252) (Speed 252)

Moves:
Bulk Up
Sucker Punch/False Surrender
Play Rough/Spirit Break
Trailblaze/Metronome

Set Details:
A setup sweeper. Use Bulk Up to increase power output and begin pulverizing the opposition. Sucker Punch is an excellent STAB that doubles as priority to get around that iffy speed stat, but if you need a Dark move that isn't useless against non-offensive attacks you can sub in False Surrender. Play Rough serves as your secondary STAB, but if you want a more accurate but less powerful alternative you can use Spirit Break. The last slot is for getting around Grimmsnarl's speed issue. Trailblazer gives it a means to boost the speed directly, but if you are a gambler at heart and trust your luck, you could use Metronome instead as it gets the Prankster priority boost. Invest everything into attack and speed, and pop on a Life Orb for extra power.

Sinister Speed
Ability: Prankster
Item: Choice Scarf
Nature: Jolly
EVs: (HP 4) (Attack 252) (Speed 252)

Moves:
Sucker Punch/False Surrender
Play Rough/Spirit Break
Drain Punch/Fire Punch
Trick

Set Details:
A Choice Scarf set to shore up your speed and punish passive threats. Unload priority Sucker Punch or the more reliable False Surrender, as well as Play Rough or Spirit Break for your Fairy STAB, and wrap up your offenses with Drain Punch for coverage and healing or Fire Punch if you really hate the Bug/Steels. Finally we have priority Prankster Trick which can lock passive threats out of their moves by giving them your Choice Scarf.

Barrier Brute
Ability: Prankster
Item: Light Clay
Nature: Jolly
EVs: (HP 4) (Attack 252) (Speed 252)

Moves:
Reflect
Light Screen
Sucker Punch/False Surrender
Spirit Break


Set Details:
Same set as before but with a defensive focus instead. Thanks to Prankster you get priority on Reflect and Light Screen, allowing you to set up both screens safely for yourself and your teammates. Once the walls are up, either switch out or just unload your STAB choices onto the opposition. Light Clay will keep the barriers up for longer, and once again pump everything into attack and speed since unlike other duel screen users Grimmsnarl can actually fight back and hit hard.

So be warned. Grimmsnarl may seem to fall sort of greatness on first inspection, but it has been used to great success even in the highest of tiers. Failure to heed my warnings and you'll wind up like those scrubs from episode 1 of "Goblin Slayer".

 

[Mestorn]

The savior of millions of raids, Grimmsnarl has been a staple for many raids and all of the doubles formats it has been allowed in for being simply one of the best Prankster abusers in the game. Most of the time, this is in service of setting up Reflect and Light Screen from the word Go, making Grimmsnarl's teammates incredibly hard to break through, but Grimmsnarl's Prankster antics go far beyond that. Taunt to stop opposing setup, Thunder Wave or Trick Lagging Tail of all things to slow a target down, Fake Tears for a damage buff, Misty Terrain to disrupt the likes of Rillaboom, Indeedee, and Miraidon while denying Spore, to even priority Parting Shot to sink an opponent's attack even further while pivoting Grimmsnarl out to an ally waiting in the wings. Even without Prankster, Grimmsnarl is packing support, with the doubles staple in Fake Out as well as its once signature Spirit Break to further sink an opponent's offenses. Its to the point that one forgets that Grimmsnarl can be threatening offensively. Base 120 Attack is nothing to scoff at, especially with the offensively excellent STABs in Fairy and Dark Even Grimmsnarl's typing serves it well in it support antics, blocking opposing Prankster user's Taunts while threatening any Prankster immune Dark type with its own Fairy STAB. It is to the point that Grimmsnarl is one of the biggest sufferers of Four Moveslot Syndrome, unable to fit everything it wants into a single set. This has led to many Grimmsnarl being rather passive, unable to pack as much offense as they like in both movepool and EV investment. 65/75 defenses are rather poor and only partially made up by a good base 95 HP. Dark and Fairy also react rather negatively, with Dark negating several of Fairy's resists, giving Grimmsnarl few if any resistances to speak of. This has not prevented Grimmsnarl from being a reliable and versatile threat that should be expected on the field of battle.

Captain Goblin
Grimmsnarl
-Reflect
-Light Screen
-Thunder Wave
-Spirit Break
Ability: Prankster
Item Attached: Light Clay
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 4 Atk / 132 Def / 116 SpD / 4 Spe
Careful Nature
Tera Type: Ghost

Note that this set is far from emblematic of everything Grimmsnarl can do, this is just by far the most common moves on it. Reflect and Light Screen are near staples on Grimmsnarl given of three Prankster users that get both moves (the others being Sableye and Meowstic-M) it is by far the bulkiest, and thus able to survive to set both Screens as well as re-establish them if need be. Thunder Wave is the most common form of Speed control on Grimmsnarl and as Thundurus has proven, Prankster Thunder Wave is an incredible move, immediately and permanently sapping a target's Speed while have the potential to force the target to miss turns, a dangerous condition in the fast paced doubles format. Spirit Break rounds out the set, giving Grimmsnarl a relatively clean out to Prankster Immune dark types while making Grimmsnarl and its allies even bulkier against Special Attacks.

EVs are to increase Grimmsnarl's bulk as much as possible with the 4 EVs in Speed to get the jump on other Grimmsnarl. With the given Special Defense EVs and Careful nature, Grimmsnarl is guaranteed to survive itemless Gholdengo's Make It Rain before Light Screen as well as Timid (non Specs) Flutter Mane's Moonblast. While Terastalizing Grimmsnarl is far from ideal, Tera Ghost is great in dodging Fake Out and ensuring Grimmsnarl's Screens go up.

Other Options:
Trick with Lagging Tail or Iron Ball is another speed control option that can be even more debilitating given how so many Pokémon rely on their items to function while their downsides matter less and Grimmsnarl is often still going first with Prankster.
Misty Terrain is incredibly disruptive against staples like Miraidon, Rillaboom and Indeedee-F.
Fake Out is an incredible attack, blanking an opponent's turn when Grimmsnarl switches in and with Grimmsnarl's Dark typing, Ghosts don't want to stick around.
Taunt is great in disruptive other support Pokémon as well as stop Trick Room.

 

[Luthor]

Rude Goblin

-Reflect-
-Light Screen
-Parting Shot
-Spirit Break
Ability- Prankster
Item-Light Clay

This set is very similar to the above set but does use parting shot instead (a move it now gets as an egg move). Parting shot allows it to switch out quickly and disrupt an offensive Pokemon and bring in something behind the screens that are set up. Useful for things like Ursaluna that are not vulnerable to thunder wave.


The Bulk-Up Pokemon

Ok this one is less popular but I had to share given it's catagory of being the 'bulk up pokemon'

Bulk up- boosts defence to help longevity and set up attack
Drain Punch/Substitute- Drain punch is damage and healing while substitute is more to take advantage of priority substitute and use the time to build up boosts
Sucker punch- deals priority damage and can mess with teams who are expecting a more defensive variant.
Spirit Break- excellent damage and lowers special attack which might make it harder to take down on special side

Ability- Prankster
Item-leftovers- Leftovers is for consistent healing while building up boosts.

Basically works on the assumption that when people see Grimsnarl they are expecting screens to be set up and don't realise it can be an issue in its own right. Sets up bulk up boosts and then goes on to cause damage. Substitute variant can be very useful as it helps avoid status as well and can work with prankster. Drain punch is more situational but could be useful if expecting steel types.