Sets
Swords Dance Sweeper V1.0
- Item Held
- Life Orb
- Nature
- Jolly (+Speed, -Special Attack)
- Effort Points
- 252 Attack – 252 Speed – 6 HP
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Stone Edge
What was standard in Advance comes back in D/P with some ways to boost
even more Groudon’s damage output. One Swords Dance is enough to start
delivering powerful blows to the other Ubers but after two, nothing stays
alive. Earthquake is there for STAB and for hitting Dialga, Dragon Claw covers
the Lati twins, Rayquaza and Palkia and Stone Edge is for Ho-Oh, Lugia and
Rayquaza again. But anyway, after 2 Swords Dances not many Pokémon will easily
switch in on Groudon. Life Orb just adds more pain.
Swords Dance Sweeper V2.0
- Item Held
- Salac Berry
- Nature
- Jolly (+Speed, -Special Attack)
- Effort Points
- 252 Attack – 252 Speed – 6 HP
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Shadow Claw
- Substitute
This moveset is quite good at stopping defensive Pokémon like Giratina.
Swords Dance as they switch in, Substitute as they try to use Will-O-Wisp and
one more Swords Dance as they break your Substitute, if they can. Earthquake’s
place in every Groudon moveset is obvious. Shadow Claw is prefered for hitting
that Giratina and other Defense-minded Ubers like Latias and Deoxys-D with its
high critical-hit ratio. Salac Berry makes Groudon faster, helping its mediocre
Speed stat and is easily activated with constant Substitutes.
CB Groudon
- Item Held
- Choice Band
- Nature
- Adamant (+Attack, -Special Attack)
- Effort Points
- 252 HP – 220 Attack – 32 Defense – 6 Speed
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Dragon Claw
- Stone Edge
Choice Band Groudon is expected to be the standard in this generation’s
Uber metagame. With the addition of Pokémon like Manaphy and Palkia, Groudon
will rarely have the time to set up as many Swords Dances as it needs, so the
hit-and-run moveset with Choice Band seems to be a great option. These moves
hit the grand majority of Ubers for super-effective, including Dialga,
Rayquaza, Palkia, Latios and Latias, Giratina, Lugia and Ho-Oh. Fire Punch
deals with Pokémon like Skarmory, Exeggutor and Forretress which are often used
in Ubers.
This EP spread is the standard way to go with CB Groudon. It lets Groudon
survive a Dragon Dance + Life Orb boosted Outrage by Rayquaza while still
leaving enough EPs in Attack. Those few Speed EPs are enough to put you above
other Pokémon with base 90 Speed that rarely invest EPs in Speed (Giratina for
example).
Other Possible Options
As far as sweeping goes, Overheat is a good alternative to Fire Punch for
hitting Skarmory and Tangrowth harder. Rock Polish and Bulk Up are Groudon’s
other means of setting up but Swords Dance works far better for the mighty
giant.
Groudon can also go for a defensive set if you feel like it. Rest is its
only way of recovering so the Rest-Talk combo can be used. Thunder Wave is
quite worthy on that defensive set too. Finally, Stealth Rock is an option but
there’s a huge number of Pokémon that can learn it and losing one of Groudon’s
moveslots for such a move is not so wise.
Counters
Lugia and Cresselia are Groudon’s number one counters. They can both receive
its moves after they set their Reflect and either KO it with Ice Beam or Grass
Knot or send it away along with its boosts with Whirlwind in Lugia’s case.
What’s more, Cresselia’s Moonlight recovers 2/3 of her HP, boosted by Groudon’s
Drought and Lugia gets rid of its Rock-type weakness with Roost if it’s faster
than Groudon.
Latios and Latias have a hard time switching in on Groudon but, if they
manage to get in, knocking it out with Ice Beam or Grass Knot is really easy.
Same happens with other hard-hitting Ubers like Mewtwo.
Tangrowth is also an excellent counter to any Groudon that lacks Overheat.
It can easily switch in, take advantage of Groudon’s Drought becoming faster
with Chlorophyll and beating the titan with Grass Knot. Exeggutor does exactly
the same thing but switching in on Groudon is more difficult. Finally, Giratina
can be considered a counter with its Will-O-Wisp for Choice Band sets and Roar
for Swords Dance sets.
Opinion & Notes
The 4th generation came with some things that Groudon loves and some things it
hates. Fire Punch, Dragon Claw, Shadow Claw, Stone Edge and Life Orb belong in
the first category while Palkia, Manaphy and Grass Knot belong in the second.
Although it got all those awesome moves to use, it now has to worry about much
more Pokémon. And the fact that it is one of the slowest Ubers sure won’t help
it overcome its problems. With moves like Surf and Ice Beam being everywhere,
you have to think twice now before sending Groudon in, especially on a Pokémon
with a really unpredictable moveset like Arceus. However, its ability to
destroy those teams that rely on Kyogre’s Drizzle is still really appreciated
and if Groudon wasn’t used at all, so would be some other Pokémon like
Exeggutor.
Note that Fire Punch is only obtainable through Emerald’s move tutor in the
Battle Frontier. Not much of a problem though considering Groudon is only
available in R/S/E.