Competitive Pokémon History - Amoonguss Quiz

Answer: Regenerator

Regenerator allows the user to recover 33% of its max HP anytime it switches out. This did wonders reducing Amoonguss' passivity, reducing the need for it to use up turns healing itself and instead allowing it to pressure the opponent more commonly. It also gave it good value as a pivot, letting it switch into threats and passively healing most, if not all of the damage taken in the process.

Answer: Spore

Spore was the only sleep inducing move was 100% accuracy, vastly outclassing its more broadly distributed contemporaries in Hypnosis and Sleep Powder, which had far, far less accuracy. Sleep mechanics in the fifth generation were such that a sleeping Pokémon is basically incapacitated for the rest of the game unless they have Sleep Talk or an ability that could wake them up such as Shed Skin or Early Bird, which were rare.

As such, Amoonguss' ability to immediately threaten sleep on turn one was incredibly dangerous for its opponent, giving it great defensive utility.

Answer: 114

114/85/85 with a solid Grass/Poison typing gave Amoonguss plenty of leeway to switch into threats and fire off Spore or a damaging move upon doing so. It wasn't completely invincible, but it was bulky enough to be a very consistent pivot.

Answer: Clear Smog

Clear Smog does frankly pathetic damage, but its utility is removing all stat boosts from its target. It doesn't do anything to Steel types, so they can setup on Amoonguss and should be avoided unless it hasn't used Spore yet. Other than that, Amoonguss cannot be taken advantage of by a setup sweeper, as Clear Smog cannot be blocked by Taunt or Substitute.

Answer: Magmortar

Bouffalant may seem like a pristine counter thanks to Sap Sipper granting it an immunity to Spore. However, Amoonguss has the bulk to sponge hits from it, can potentially carry Body Slam or Toxic to threaten Bouffalant with status, and can use Regenerator to nullify a potential Pursuit trapping effort.

Magmortar is an impeccable counter. Its Vital Spirit ability gives it an immunity to Spore, and it has good enough natural bulk to shrug off any damaging move Amoonguss can throw at it. Once in, Magmortar can simply melt Amoonguss with a super effective Fire type attack or two and be done with it, easy as that.

Answer: OverUsed (standard play)

In standard play, the rise of Fairy types in conjunction with Amoonguss' good bulk and Poison typing made it good at dealing with them. Scary threats such as Azumarill, Mega Diancie and Mega Altaria were kept in check by Amoonguss while it harbored excellent defensive utility in general thanks to Spore and Regenerator.

As such, it became a very common sight in sixth generation standard play.

Answer: Stomping Tantrum

Stomping Tantrum is a base 75 physical Ground type attack whose power doubles if the user's most recent turn saw them use a move which failed to work. The idea was to lure a Steel type in, trying to use a Poison type move on them as they switched in. Because Steel is immune to Poison, this move would fail and power up Stomping Tantrum for the next turn.

When powered up, Stomping Tantrum would hit Heatran and Magnezone for OHKOes after Stealth Rock. Other than using this strategy, Amoonguss generally couldn't threaten Steel types for any sort of serious damage, so Stomping Tantrum gave the user a way around them.

Answer: 30

A 30 for Speed leaves Amoonguss outsped by everything relevant except for Mega Sableye, who countered Amoonguss anyway. As such, Sassy's Speed penalty was of virtually zero consequence, only allowing for an opposing Amoonguss without a Speed reducing nature to always out speed Sassy Amoonguss variants.

Answer: Slowbro

Slowbro could easily switch into the Ice, Psychic and Fire type attacks that threatened Amoonguss. In return, Amoonguss could come in on Grass and Electric type moves easily. Though it didn't resist Dark, its Regenerator ability meant Amoonguss was a good Knock Off absorber as well, letting it relieve Slowbro from having to take that hit as well if needed. Together, the two formed a frustratingly difficult defensive core, checking virtually every single thing in the meta.

Answer: Galarian Moltres

Galarian Moltres shrugged off Amoonguss' attacks very easily, easily capable of boosting with Nasty Plot in front of Amoonguss. Spore wasn't a big deal either, as Galarian Moltres commonly carried Rest/Sleep Talk anyway. Galarian Moltres was ultimately found to be too overpowered for UU and was banned from the tier towards the end of the generation, but before this took place, its very existence and omnipresence made using Amoonguss very risky and generally not advisable.