Pokémon Analysis 17 – Pheromosa!

If you look up the term ‘Glass Cannon’ in the dictionary, I’m almost certain you’ll find a picture of UB-02 Beauty staring right back at you! In a VGC meta where bulk is typically favoured over sheer offensive prowess, how does Pheromosa fit in within VGC 17?

Having an unbelievable Attack and Special Attack stat of 137, matched by an astonishing speed of 151, Pheromosa works perfectly as a mixed attacker. Defense wise, it is as frail as it is beautiful; despite a HP stat of 71, it won’t be taking hits easily, if at all.

Pheromosa’s movepool is simple yet very effective. Boasting strong options on both the physical and special spectrum for reliable stab such as High Jump Kick, U-Turn, Focus Blast and Bug Buzz. It also gets sufficient coverage with Ice Beam and Poison Jab being perfect for dealing with Tapus or Garchomp, whilst Speed Swap and Taunt could change the tides for any Trick Room matchups.

Don’t let it’s design fool you, Pheromosa is both a Beauty and a Beast!

Set 1: Windgardium Pheromosa

Pheromosa @ Poisonium Z/ Fightinium Z/ Life Orb/ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
– Poison Jab
– High Jump Kick
– Ice Beam
– Protect

Kartana may appear to be made of paper, but Pheromosa is the one with paper thin defences. However, its offences and speed more than make up for that. Being the fastest thing in the game (barring the odd scarfed Pokémon) even without a speed boosting nature, guarantess you’ll be moving first with Pheromosa. The main use of this set is to pick up a quick KO with a Z (or Life Orb) boosted move, get the +1 boost to your Attack (or Special Attack if you’re running a special set) and sweep from there. Z boosted Poison Jab takes care of the Tapu Guardians, whilst simply a Life Orb boosted PJ will take care of most Guardian spreads. A Z boosted High Jump Kick can be used to take out Porygon2, Snorlax, or even Celesteela, in one hit. Ice Beam rounds off the set, specifically to comfortably take out opposing Garchomp in one hit. Protect is essential for keeping Pheromosa around for longer but, if you’re feeling daring, you could partner Pheromosa with a Follow Me user (Smeargle, Clefairy etc) and run an extra coverage move instead.

252+ Atk Pheromosa Acid Downpour (160 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tapu Koko: 238-280 (163 – 191.7%) — guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Pheromosa Acid Downpour (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Bulu: 368-436 (207.9 – 246.3%) — guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Pheromosa Acid Downpour (160 BP) vs. 164 HP / 92 Def Tapu Lele: 234-276 (140.9 – 166.2%) — guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Pheromosa Acid Downpour (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Tapu Fini: 170-200 (96 – 112.9%) — 75% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Pheromosa High Jump Kick vs. 244 HP / 92 Def Eviolite Porygon2: 168-198 (87.9 – 103.6%) — 25% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Pheromosa High Jump Kick vs. 68 HP / 188 Def Snorlax: 278-330 (113.9 – 135.2%) — guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Pheromosa All-Out Pummeling (195 BP) vs. 180 HP / 0 Def Celesteela: 186-219 (95.3 – 112.3%) — 68.8% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Pheromosa All-Out Pummeling (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Muk-Alola: 238-282 (112.2 – 133%) — guaranteed OHKO

4 SpA Pheromosa Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Garchomp: 204-244 (111.4 – 133.3%) — guaranteed OHKO

Sadly, Due to Pheromosa’s lack of bulk, the above set is essentially the best you can do with Pheromosa. The only role it’s going to play on a team is to act as that insanely fast sweeper and dish out as much damage as possible. Instead of an extra set, I’ll instead go over a few extra viable moves which you may want to make room for:

Speed Swap

Speed Swap is an incredibly interesting move which swaps the target’s speed with Pheromosa’s. This could act as an alternative fast mode to your team’s Trick Room abuser and is best saved for a turn where you’re expecting Pheromosa to go down. Imagine setting up a Belly Drum with your Snorlax, and then that +6 Snorlax becomes the fastest Pokémon on the field without having to worry about Trick Room turns? Frightening.

Quiver Dance

Okay, so outside of singles, a Quiver Dance Pheromosa is nothing more than a meme. However, after one Quiver Dance you’re guaranteed to outspeed every Choiced Pokémon and grab an early boost to your Special Attack stat. Partner this next to an Oricorio (which copies any ‘Dance’ moves) and you have yourself some very fun, gimmicky (albeit fairly unviable) fiery memes.

Hyper Beam

Pretty simple, get a quick +1 boost by burning your Fighting Z move, fire off a huge, +1 base 150 Hyper Beam and partner with redirection to bypass the recharge turn. Might seem like a gimmick, but used by Necrocat219, a seasoned worlds competitor, to win a recent MSS, so it must be someway decent…

And that’s it for Pheromosa! Keep an eye out on our Facebook page where we’ll be giving away THREE competitive ready Pheromosa!