Greenlit: How to battle with Bronzong

gimmepie · Feb 24, 2016

So, as pretty much everyone on staff knows at this point, I'm an enormous fan of this pokemon and think it's quite underrated. I'd like to contribute an article in the same style as ddrox13's Quagsire and Frosslass ones (for continuity) exploring Bronzing's viability in the OU tier as well as looking at its weaknesses and alternatives.

For anyone unfamiliar with ddrox's format it goes something like

Glossary of Terms
Summary of the Pokemon
Recommended Set(s)
Pros/Cons of Use
Alternatives

Although I think I'd probably do away with the Glossary and include a section about good teammates for the pokemon.

bobandbill · Feb 24, 2016

gimmepie said:
So, as pretty much everyone on staff knows at this point, I'm an enormous fan of this pokemon and think it's quite underrated. I'd like to contribute an article in the same style as ddrox13's Quagsire and Frosslass ones (for continuity) exploring Bronzing's viability in the OU tier as well as looking at its weaknesses and alternatives.

Like before I'll wait for comments from folks with more battling know-how than myself for feedback on the Pokemon choice. That said I remember using this back in gen 4 (yes, I did do sim battles back in the day).

Although I think I'd probably do away with the Glossary and include a section about good teammates for the pokemon.

Any reason for doing away with the glossary? It may be useful for readers not familiar with all the terms, but maybe it's an intended audience thing. [Also, there was a old article pitch for posting a separate glossary, so maybe we could look into reviving that and then simply linking to it for readers left confused].

A teammate section sounds good to me and kinda surprised I forgot that could be such a section for these articles, haha. Yes to that imo!

gimmepie · Feb 24, 2016

bobandbill said:
Like before I'll wait for comments from folks with more battling know-how than myself for feedback on the Pokemon choice. That said I remember using this back in gen 4 (yes, I did do sim battles back in the day).
Any reason for doing away with the glossary? It may be useful for readers not familiar with all the terms, but maybe it's an intended audience thing. [Also, there was a old article pitch for posting a separate glossary, so maybe we could look into reviving that and then simply linking to it for readers left confused].

A teammate section sounds good to me and kinda surprised I forgot that could be such a section for these articles, haha. Yes to that imo!

I don't really use many abbreviations or anything that's all, and any I do are generally explained in the main article.

Nah · Feb 24, 2016

Just saying that I agree that a glossary's not really needed. The people who would be able to make the most use of these kinds of articles should already be familiar with most competitive battling terms.

Also wanna drop this link to Anti's post in the Froslass article thread that appeared in BTB, just so everyone's aware of his feedback on this article series: https://www.pokecommunity.com/showpost.php?p=9128933&postcount=2

ddrox13 · Feb 24, 2016

T R I C K R O O M

As much as I despise TR as a playstyle, it's pretty damn effective. A teammates section would certainly be nice for those who don't run TR, as you have to build a full team around it. I'll probably throw one in whatever my next article is. Just remember to say why to use it over other TR setters i.e. Cresselia.

MeliSNAP · Feb 24, 2016

Bronzong is a Defense Pokémon. I would train a Sassy one in HP & SpDef.
Every defensive Pokémon gets a Leftovers, so I would put one on him. Hability is Levitate, with that special defense you can resist Special Fire moves quite well.
Gyro Ball is a good move, since he is slow as heck, Gyro Ball does more damage if you use it against a fast Pokémon.
I would use his resistance for any stealth rocks or spikes. You can also put up walls (reflect/mirror coat).
Toxic is good to have too.

That's it basically... but you can also use a Trick Room Offensive one, but that's up to you.

gimmepie · Feb 24, 2016

ddrox13 said:
T R I C K R O O M

As much as I despise TR as a playstyle, it's pretty damn effective. A teammates section would certainly be nice for those who don't run TR, as you have to build a full team around it. I'll probably throw one in whatever my next article is. Just remember to say why to use it over other TR setters i.e. Cresselia.

I've actually not used TR Bronzong, so I'll probably have to do some research into that before mentioning of the sort. Nothing I can't handle though xD

MeliSNAP said:
Bronzong is a Defense Pokémon. I would train a Sassy one in HP & SpDef.
Every defensive Pokémon gets a Leftovers, so I would put one on him. Hability is Levitate, with that special defense you can resist Special Fire moves quite well.
Gyro Ball is a good move, since he is slow as heck, Gyro Ball does more damage if you use it against a fast Pokémon.
I would use his resistance for any stealth rocks or spikes. You can also put up walls (reflect/mirror coat).
Toxic is good to have too.

That's it basically... but you can also use a Trick Room Offensive one, but that's up to you.

I think you're confusing Levitate and Heat Proof (or w/e it's called). Levitate is by far the better option since it gives it complete immunity to ground moves as opposed to resistance against the less common fire. Levitate also gives it a spikes immunity.

Aside from that that little issue Gyro Ball, Toxic, Stealth Rock and Earthquake with leftovers is the set I currently run. So we're pretty much on the same page.

MeliSNAP · Feb 24, 2016

gimmepie said:
I think you're confusing Levitate and Heat Proof (or w/e it's called).

Nope, I said choose Levitate because Bronzong can resist Fire attacks with it's Special Defense, thus not needing Heat Proof.

gimmepie · Feb 24, 2016

MeliSNAP said:
Nope, I said choose Levitate because Bronzong can resist Fire attacks with it's Special Defense, thus not needing Heat Proof.

Sure if it's a weak non STAB fire attack maybe, but in general I think if you leave Bronzong in on a fire type, you're gonna have a bad time.

MeliSNAP · Feb 25, 2016

gimmepie said:
Sure if it's a weak non STAB fire attack maybe, but in general I think if you leave Bronzong in on a fire type, you're gonna have a bad time.

Yep, true! In that case just RUN AWAY!!
Also certain Dark type moves like Knock off give me a hard time, be careful with those too!

Dragon · Feb 28, 2016

In that regard, perhaps you can also give mentions to Pokemon who can work effectively as teammates with Bronzong; ie, bulky waters like Vaporeon, Suicune or Manaphy whom can sponge fire type moves while Bronzong can help cover their Grass weaknesses.

That is, if you haven't planned that already. c:

gimmepie · Feb 29, 2016

Dragon said:
In that regard, perhaps you can also give mentions to Pokemon who can work effectively as teammates with Bronzong; ie, bulky waters like Vaporeon, Suicune or Manaphy whom can sponge fire type moves while Bronzong can help cover their Grass weaknesses.

That is, if you haven't planned that already. c:

I definitely plan on doing that :)

Anti · Mar 1, 2016

well, what set(s) are you proposing? it seems like a defensive utility would be a given (though you'll want to outline the specifics, i'm assuming gyro ball/eq/hypnosis/sr with mixed evs?, though i haven't use bronzong except on one team from long ago so i don't remember the details so well), but anything else? jw

anyway, some points of emphasis that might be useful:

- bronzong's niche is as a defensive glue poke. it can check mega gardevoir, mega diancie, and mega altaria (so, the mega fairies) as well as sand rush excadrill, garchomp (kinda-sorta: dragon tail is going to limit it), mega metagross (again, sorta, it's a very very shaky check) and latios and non-mega latias. it's useful on teams that need its specific defensive skillset. i am guessing it might go well with teams running a pokemon like keldeo who struggles w/ most of those mons, for example.

- passive as all hell, so definitely needs to be on a team with strong answers to stuff like megazard (both of them), manaphy, keldeo, mega scizor, etc. (+spikers) which can easily get free turns from zonger's presence.

- as mentioned w/ other articles, a sample team and/or replays with it would not hurt. definitely compare it to skarmory in particular since skarmory can do most of what it can do with sdef iron head sets. to be honest, i am not sure why i'd ever really use zonger over skarm b/c of skarm's roost + superior ability to hold up against pursuit and hoopa unbound, so this seems significant to touch on and really be persuasive on. seems like the selling points are hypnosis, earthquake, maybe trick room, and not being as susceptible to volt-turn.

good luck!

gimmepie · Mar 7, 2016

Anti said:
well, what set(s) are you proposing? it seems like a defensive utility would be a given (though you'll want to outline the specifics, i'm assuming gyro ball/eq/hypnosis/sr with mixed evs?, though i haven't use bronzong except on one team from long ago so i don't remember the details so well), but anything else? jw

anyway, some points of emphasis that might be useful:

- bronzong's niche is as a defensive glue poke. it can check mega gardevoir, mega diancie, and mega altaria (so, the mega fairies) as well as sand rush excadrill, garchomp (kinda-sorta: dragon tail is going to limit it), mega metagross (again, sorta, it's a very very shaky check) and latios and non-mega latias. it's useful on teams that need its specific defensive skillset. i am guessing it might go well with teams running a pokemon like keldeo who struggles w/ most of those mons, for example.

- passive as all hell, so definitely needs to be on a team with strong answers to stuff like megazard (both of them), manaphy, keldeo, mega scizor, etc. (+spikers) which can easily get free turns from zonger's presence.

- as mentioned w/ other articles, a sample team and/or replays with it would not hurt. definitely compare it to skarmory in particular since skarmory can do most of what it can do with sdef iron head sets. to be honest, i am not sure why i'd ever really use zonger over skarm b/c of skarm's roost + superior ability to hold up against pursuit and hoopa unbound, so this seems significant to touch on and really be persuasive on. seems like the selling points are hypnosis, earthquake, maybe trick room, and not being as susceptible to volt-turn.

good luck!

You've basically just listed everything I intend to mention.

Dragon · Mar 7, 2016

Approved! <33

Go get em'!

gimmepie · Mar 8, 2016

I'll get writing sometime soon, it might take a while at the moment though due to my fluctuating health.

takeKopter · Mar 8, 2016

Same here, a fan of giant bell, who doesn't learn Heal Bell (like I said in another thread)

I like to surprise my foe, use it as lead, instead of SR, run Trick Room, EQ, Zen headbutt, Gyro Ball

KorpiklaaniVodka · Mar 8, 2016

Bronzong's a pretty good 'mon. I'd suggest you write its TR set too.

Greenlit: How to battle with Bronzong

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