Sets
Calm Minder
- Item Held
- Leftovers / Lum Berry
- Nature
- Bold(+Defense, -Attack)
- Ability
- Own Tempo
- Effort Points
- 252 HP – 252 Defense – 6 Sp.Attack
- Calm Mind
- Surf / Psychic / Ice Beam / Grass Knot
- Surf / Psychic / Ice Beam / Grass Knot
- Slack Off
Slack Off gave a big advantage to Slowbro. This Pokémon has the right stats to support the Calm Mind set. Good HP and great Defense keep it quite safe from the Physical side, while good Special Stats with the Calm Mind support can make it a very strong Special Wall and Sweeper. Slack Off will recover the HP that were lost during the set up. The attacking moves depend on your choices. Surf and Psychic are powerful STAB moves, Ice Beam hits Dragons and Grass Knot hits most of the OU Pokemon hard. Leftovers is there for more HP recovery, while Lum Berry will help you escape from an unwelcome status Attack. Own Tempo is the preferable trait because Confusion moves are more common than Attract. Learning how to use your Slowbro will make it a very big and annoying threat for your opponent.
Physical Wall
- Item Held
- Leftovers
- Nature
- Bold(+Defense, -Attack)
- Ability
- Own Tempo
- Effort Points
- 216HP, 252Def., 40 Sp.Attack
- Ice Beam
- Surf / Grass Knot / Hidden Power Electric / Thunder Wave
- Surf / Grass Knot / Hidden Power Electric / Thunder Wave
- Slack Off
First of all, the given EPs can change depending on your choice or your Slowbro’s Ivs. The sure thing is that you need 252 in Defense. Assuming that you can find a good Hidden Power Electric, Slowbro is one of the best Gyarados counters. If you find it very difficult, Grass Knot can replace it but it will not do the work properly. Surf hits Rhyperior and Tyranitar, while Ice Beam hits Dragon types who are mainly Physical Sweepers. Slack Off is ideal for this set. Note that if you have found a good Slowbro with a good Hidden Power and it doesn’t have Own Tempo, don’t try to breed again. Confusion is not very frequent so you are not going to have problems.
Trick Room User
- Item Held
- Leftovers / Macho Brace
- Nature
- Relaxed(+Defense, -Speed) OR Brave (+Attack, -Speed)
- Effort Points
- 216HP, 252Def., 40 Spa Attack OR 6HP, 252Attack, 252Def
- Trick Room
- Slack Off / Calm Mind / Belly Drum
- Surf / Psychic / Ice Beam/ Grass Knot / Zen Headbutt
- Surf / Psychic / Ice Beam/ Grass Knot / Earthquake / Brick Break / Iron Tail
You have three possible options for this set. The Slack Off version, the Calm Mind Version and the Belly Drum version wich is in bold letters because it is quite different from the other two.
- The Slack Off Version:
This is used mainly to set up Trick Room for other Pokemon.Having Slack Off means that you do not need Leftovers much, so you can use Macho Brace or another Power Item to slow Slowbro down even more. The EPs for this set are 216 in HP, 252 in Defense and 40 in Special Attack but you can change them if you want Slowbro to do more damage. Use the last two SPECIAL moves according to your needs.
- The Calm Mind Version:
The EP spread and the attacking moves are the same with the previous version. Leftovers are better for this set because Slack Off is absent. The main idea here is to Sweep with Slowbro, but the problem is that you will lose turns in order to set up.
- The Belly Drum Version:
For this set give 252 in Attack and you can possibly use a Brave nature. Leftovers here are a must. Zen Headbutt is good because of the STAB and you can use one of the rest sweeping moves according to the rest of your team.If you have a lot of Pokemon that use Trick Room, you can replace Trick Room with a third sweeping move. The main problem here is that Belly Drum will cut your HP a lot and the Trick Room won’t last forever.Generally, the Trick Room idea can work with Slowbro but is the worst compared with the previous sets.
Other Possible Options
Hidden Power Electric is a very good Special choice for all the sets (except the Belly Drum) but it is very hard to get it.
Rest + Sleep Talk is a possible combo but it is not very good for Slowbro.
Curse is an option, but it leaves Slowbro’s Special Defense uncovered plus it takes long to set up.
Light Screen is also an option.
Finally a very useful move is Yawn, but the problem is that it takes the place of a move that would be even more useful on Slowbro…
Counters
Most Special Walls like Blissey and Regice can change easily against Slowbro.The only thing that they fear is a surprise Belly Drum set.
Taunting Gyarados is good unless Slowbro is using Hidden Power Electric.
Although Pokemon like Tyranitar and Heracross fear some of Slowbro’s moves a lot, they can come in with some good prediction and destroy him with Crunch or Megahorn.
Opinion & Notes
With the ability to Slack Off Slowbro has become one of the best Bulky Waters in the game.Hidden Power Electric makes him a perfect Gyarados counter but even without this Slowbro can perform great as a Physical Wall and as a Calm Mind Sweeper. It may looks a little stupid, but it is a very good choice for your team.