Rate Bastiodon moveset

[Astarin]

I've had this Bastiodon sitting on my backbench for a while now. He's in his mid-forties. The moveset doesn't really do much for him, currently.

-Swagger
-Ancientpower
-Metal Sound
-Metal Burst

I was thinking of changing him to this:

-Swagger
-Block
-Toxic
-Metal Burst

Another team member already knows Sandstorm, which I considered for Bastiodon but didn't want duplicate moves. Thoughts? Better suggestions, for taking advantage of Bastiodon's high defensive stats?

[mr_pikachu]

Hmm. Not sure that Swagger and Metal Burst go together very well... sure, you're increasing your foe's Attack, but the confusion makes it so that you can't assume a hit for awhile. You might end up wasting that valuable time with a confused foe... seems a little risky to me, although I see the point behind it.

It seems like you're going for an Annoyer set... if you're going to do that, I'd go all the way with it. Maybe swap Metal Burst for Attract in an attempt to hamper your opponent even further. Block and Toxic are a nice combination, so those should be kept on an Annoyer. As for Swagger, you might drop that for Torment or something if the Attack boost proves to be a problem. You could also go with Protect to take more advantage of Toxic. But I'd test Swagger thoroughly first; it may not be an issue with Bastiodon's high defenses.

Anyway, that might look as follows:

Swagger/Torment/Protect
Block
Toxic
Attract


You could also try Bastiodon as a Tank or a Tank/Annoyer. A Tank/Annoyer might look something like the following:

Rest
Double Team/Sleep Talk/Block/Protect/Swagger/Taunt
Toxic
Double Team/Sleep Talk/Block/Protect/Swagger/Taunt/Filler

Sleep Talk's a lot more helpful if you have an attack as your fourth move... otherwise it's pretty much useless. You could also go with defense-boosting moves like Iron Defense, or even throw in an Endure if you think you can get an extra move out of it. This is pretty much a mix-and-match moveset.


As for a regular Tank, you might try...

Iron Defense
Earthquake/Return
Ice Beam/Thunderbolt/Flamethrower/Metal Sound
Toxic/Captivate/Attract/Filler

...or...

Rest
Sleep Talk
Ice Beam/Thunderbolt/Flamethrower/Toxic/Metal Sound
Earthquake/Return

Set 1: Brace yourself and bash away. Toxic poisons, Captivate could help you against Special attacks (although I'd almost go with Attract in that case), or another attack may provide more coverage if you're lucky.

Set 2: Basically, Rest when you're hurt and Sleep Talk into powerful moves. Metal Sound could weaken your opponent for the EQ or Return, while the elemental beams give you more coverage against different Pokemon. Toxic, as always, could give you an edge in longer battles.


So, yeah. Maybe those half-baked ideas will help you in some way. I think your moveset is pretty good; my only real concern is the unreliability of Metal Burst. Then again, I've never been fond of Counter tactics, either, so maybe it's just my personal bias. *shrugs*

[Astarin]

Thanks for the insight, mr_pikachu.

However, I have actually thought up another potential moveset that I wanted to run by you. This one takes more advantage of the moves that Bastiodon learns naturally (and I'm a big fan of utilizing that over TMs whenever possible)

Bastiodon
-Block
-Taunt
-Metal Burst
-Ancientpower

Simple strategy: use the first three moves, in that order. I know you're not a big fan of "Counter" type moves, but this set ensures that it will work.

I'm totally stumped as to what the fourth move should be, though. I put Ancientpower, just to have some kind of attack. As you mentioned before, Swagger doesn't really jive with the Metal Burst. Looking at the rest of Bastiodon's move pool... Metal Sound doesn't help at all, and the thing is too slow for Endure to make any difference. Perhaps Toxic?

[mr_pikachu]

Hmm, that's an interesting set... I'm curious to hear how it'll work.

Toxic doesn't make much sense to me, though. You're forcing your opponent to attack you like crazy with Taunt, but Toxic is best effective in long, drawn out battles. It'd combo better with Torment, but that would take away the point of using Metal Burst... Endure doesn't make sense either unless there's a point to adding another move to the battle. And you need to have HP left to use Metal Burst, unless I'm mistaken.

As long as there's not a problem with raising Bastiodon to level 52, you could try Iron Head instead of Ancientpower. It's more powerful as a straight-up attack and can cause flinching. You're probably not going to hit Ancientpower's effect very often anyway, especially with only 5 PP on the move. Another idea is to breed for a move or two, although I don't know how you feel about that. It would be more time-consuming.

And as for my "insights," I'll go on the record and say that there are several raters here who are much better at this than I am. I just happen to be online a lot more often. ^_^

[Astarin]

Well, I appreciate the discussion nonetheless. I've taken a very loooooong break from the forums, and it's good to see that there are still helpful people here.

At this point, I'll probably go with Iron Head; raising it to 52 isn't a problem at all, but I'd rather avoid breeding right now.