Venusaur

Quick Note: This is my first moveset, so please tell me what you like and what I can improve on. You can also send in recommedations for the next featured Pokemon.

September 17th, 2011

by Richard

VENUSAUR

 

The Seed Pokémon. Venusaur may not seem like the most popular choice over Charizard and Blastoise, but it has good stats overall. It does have some competition though, with Ferrothorn and Virizion being very popular, but I still think it’s good.

Abilities

Overgrow: When your HP is less than 1/3, all Grass type moves’ power is multiplied by 1.5. That’s a nice add-on to the STAB power that you get already.

Dream World Ability: Chlorophyll: Raises Speed in sunshine. Venusaur’s speed is less than what I would like, so this will pair nicely with Sunny Day and Solar Beam.

 Base Stats

HP   80

Attack   82

Defense   83

Sp. Attack   100

Sp. Defense   100

Speed 80

Movesets

Pure Power

• Petal Dance
• Sludge Bomb
• Earthquake
• Swords Dance
• Ability: Overgrow
• Item: Persim Berry

This is a good set to run if you are using your Venusaur as a sweeper. Petal Dance gives you continuous power, but you’ll get confused. That’s what the Persim Berry is there for. Sludge Bomb is a good special attack and it takes out grasses. Return could be another option. Swords Dance raises Venusaur’s low attack and will pair nicely with Earthquake which will take out fire, rock and steel types.

It’s getting hot

• Toxic/Sleep Powder/Attract
• Sunny Day
• Solarbeam
• Venoshock/Earthquake/Sludge Bomb
• Item: Zoom Lens
• Ability: Chlorophyll-Overgrow

This set is mainly attack, but provides a little support. Toxic is a great move; poisoning worsens each turn. Sleep Powder could be used to stall for Sunny Day. Attract could work, too, but it wouldn’t be effective a lot of the time. Sunny Day pairs nicely with Solar Beam, an awesome attack. Venoshock is awesome with Toxic. Earthquake is another option, but Sludge Bomb is probably better because you get STAB, but I would go with Venoshock.

S-S-S-S

• Sunny Day
• Solarbeam
• Synthesis
• Sludge Bomb
• Item: Focus Sash
• Ability: Chlorophyll

Sunny Day works well with Solarbeam and gives you some speed. When you have the Focus Sash and you end up with one HP or a little in general, you can use Synthesis to regain all of you HP due to weather. You will also have a good chance of getting to attack first due to Chorophyll and the weather. Sludge Bomb gets STAB and hits other Grasses. Be sure to watch out for other weather effects with this set. Rain, Hail, and Sanstorm make Synthesis recover only 25% of Venasaur’s HP. They will also make Solarbeam take 2 turns instead of one. This set could be potentially ruined by Politoed.

Where to put your stats

I’d say go for higher speed on Pure Power, and more attack on the other 2, but less defense on all. You’d only really be vulnerable to Flare Blitz and maybe Fire Punch, Flame Charge, and Fire Fang along with some very rare physical fire attacks. As far as Psychic, attacks, there is Heart Stamp, Psycho Cut, and Zen Headbutt, so you should be safe putting your defense down. Just switch out on Ice and Flying types.

Other options

Light Screen could make Venusaur an amazing special wall.

Substitute and Protect could stall for Toxic damage.

You could use Leach Seed, but synthesis is better in my opinion.

Growth raises att. and sp. att., but your sp. att.is already really good, so I’d say just go with Swords Dance for +2 attack.

Substitute could be used with Leach Seed to make a Sub-Seed combo.

Follow Up

Venusaur is really cool, but now it has lots more competition with Ferrothorn, Virizion, and Whimsicott entering the battle. But Venusaur has access to Earthquake, which lets it counter fires and steels well. Overall, Venusaur is pretty good and it gets its job done, and it gets it done very well. I never realized he was so good up until recently when I started researching some sets for him. He has definitely earned his spot in the OU.