Community POTW #43

[svenosman]

Sorry, Cofagrigus is a ghost type and so doesn't get the defense increse from curse. It gets rid of 1/8th of oppoents HP every turn for half you def. Sorry, svenosman.

Just as a reminder, Curse on ghosts-types halve their HP and curses their opponent who loses 1/8 of their HP per turn. Confagrigus is a ghost type so it loses HP, it doesn't get the stat boosts and reductions. You might want to change that.

v You got ninja'ed

Sorry, I forgot about that. I normally use Curse on a non-Ghost Pokémon, so I forgot the whole Ghost-thing. Thanks for reading and responding!

[svenosman]

Cofagrigus is awesome. This is the set I'm using:

Cofagrigus @ leftovers

Will-o-wisp
Nasty plot
Shadow ball
Trick room

Calm nature (+SDef, -att)
Ev's: 252 hp, 252 SDef, 4 def

It's all about support, but when you've used Will-o-wisp and trick room, you can go for a sweep. Nasty plot for boosting you okay special attack and shadow ball for your strongest STAB move.

You may be wondering: why not def investment but Sdef? Well, base 140 def is good enough without any EV's or nature boosting it. Plus, you're using will-o-wisp which halves the opponents attack, making you physically impossible to beat already. max Sdef means you can take hits from both sides. it works!

Shadow Ball isn't your strongest STAB move. Hex is, but only if the opponent has a status problem, which will likely happen when you use Will-o-wisp against them.

[megamegalomane92]

Cofagrigus: the coffin pokemon that eats people. Cool stats, cool typing, too bad it misses some moves that like every other ghost type gets (no Pain Split... SERIOUSLY?)
Set Name: This bulky coffin will eat your soul
Ability: Mummy
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Bold
Evs: 252 Hp, 252 Def, 4 SpDef
-Will-o-wisp
-Hex/Shadow Ball
-Curse/Haze
-Rest/Disable
Cofagrigus has an insane defence stat and ghost typing, so it can sponge phisical hits quite well. Will-o-wisp cripples completely any non-guts phisical sweeper, Hex gets 100 BP on a statused opponent so comboes very well with Will-o-wisp. Shadow Ball is still an option if you fear pokemon immune to burn or if you don't want to need a turn to status the opponent before you can start attacking. Ghost type Curse is an underrated move that forces switchs like crazy and demolishes Baton Pass chains. Haze is a rare move that Cofagrigus can use nicely to stop set up sweepers. Rest is your only form of recovery and is quite necessary if you run curse. Disable can be useful since many opponents only carry one move that can actually damage Cofagrigus. For the EVs ALWAYS max HP since 58 base stat, than you can go with max defence. Also max special defence is viable, but than why not using something else like Dusknoir?
Other options
Subsitute comboes well with disable. Toxic is an alternative status affliction. Heal block works well with Toxic against pokemon with reliable recovery. Protect stalls out the residual damage and gives you more Leftovers recovery.
Power Swap can reduce your opponents attacking stats and increase yours.
Partners
A cleric makes your Rest more reliable. Blissey/Chansey are the best as they are immune to ghost while you're immune to fighting and because they are great special walls while you are a good phisical wall. They can also pass wishes. Wish passers in general aer good.
Counters
Swellow is immune to ghost, appreciates the burn and starts spamming boosted Brave Birds on everything. Houndoom is immune to burn too, resists ghosts and destroys you with a dark pulse. Chansey/Blissey can easily stall you unless you pack Toxic+Heal Block and force you to use Rest. Specially based dark types in general are great counters, so are ghost types, but they are hit hard by a ghost attack. Magic Guard Clefable completely laughs at everything you pack.

Set Name: Bulky Calm Mind
Ability: Mummy
Item: Leftovers/Chesto Berry
Nature: Bold
Evs: 252 Hp, 252 Def, 4 SpAtk
-Calm Mind
-Shadow Ball
-Hidden Power [Fighting]
-Rest/Will-o-wisp/Substitute
Cofagrigus was made to use Calm Mind: is has a monstrous defence, a nice SpAtk, perfect offensive coverage in two moves, only 2 weaknesses... just great. The only questions are abuot the last move. Rest is doable whith your monstrous defences after some Calm Minds. You can use a Chesto Berry to immediatly wake up after the set up and attempt a sweep. Otherwise, Will-o-wisp is still an option to cripple phisical threats, while Substitute works well with calm mind, since you substitute becomes almost unbreakable after some Calm Minds. For the EVs, max defence is recomended. You can invest in SpAtk, expecially with Rest-Chesto. Your defence is great even without EVs in defence.
Other options
Almost everything was listed, I guess...
Partners
Similar stuff to what was listed before.
Counters
Unlike many other special sweepers, the pink fat blobs are NOT good counters. Whithout Toxic, they can't do anything, and Rest-Chesto and Substitute varriants will win no matter what. P-hazers are great counters. Honchkrow can take you attacks and smashes you with Super Luck Night Slash. Banded Tyranitar doesn't like Hidden Power or Will-o-wisp, but smashes you with a scary powerful crunch. Mandibuzz is probably the perfect counter: it takes your moves all day long and blows you away with Whirlwind.
Whimsicott comes in as you set up and encores you into your non attacking move.

Set Name: A nasty coffin found in the trick room
Ability: Mummy
Item: Leftovers/Life Orb
Nature: Quiet
Evs: 252 Hp, 252 SpAtk, 4 SpDef
IVs: 2 Spe and Atk, 30 Def, Sp Atk, SpDef , 31 Hp
-Trick Room
-Nasty Plot
-Shadow Ball
-Hidden Power [Fighting]
This is a Trick Room sweeper, and a very good one. Your Speed is 60, so in Trick Room you outspeed anything faster than that. Nasty Plot doubles your attack thar reaches 632. Your last two moves give you unresisted coverage.
Max Hp to take hits, max SpAtk to murder stuff. Leftovers to last longer and set up Trick Room repeatedly, Life Orb to get more instant power. Here are given the best IVs for a 70 BP Hidden Power [Fighting] with lowest possible speed and Atk (to do less damage to youself should you hit yourself in confusion).
Other options
Almost everything was listed, I guess...
Partners
Trick Room abusers.
Counters
Mandibuzz is still the best counter ever. Honchkrow outspeeds and spells your doom with Sucker Punch. Should you try to outstall it with non attacking moves, Trick Room will be outstalled too and he will just Night Slash or Brave Bird you. Bisharp does the same thing, but is x4 weak to Hidden Power. Whimsicott comes in as you set up and encores you into your non attacking move.

[chikorita185]

Hexagrigus
252HP,252Def,4SDef
Leftovers
Hex
Calm mind
Will o wisp/toxic
Haze

Hex deals massive damage when the opponent is affected with toxic or will o wisp
Calm mind increases damage
Haze screws over boosters like the latis

[ASB]

Name comes from coffin and egregious, they pulled a Feraligatr and messed with the spelling to make it fit. I still think it's pronounced "cough-a-griggus", not "cough-egregious", though (...kinda like how Blastoise should really be pronounced "blast-iss" since it comes from tortoise).

...but I digress.

[PhilosophicalPsychologica]

Hrm, Cofa doesn't really have that much of a niche. While it lacks Jellicent's Recover, it boasts significantly more defensive power than Dusknoir. Dusknoir is more balanced, though, and Cofagrigus is not as offensively threatening and has less support options.

Cofa's most interesting set, arguably, would be the usage of the Item Escape Button. Use this to apply the Mummy Ablility onto the opponent, switch to Slaking, and use Pursuit to guarantee a removal of Truant. I don't especially recommend such a strategy, but it is nonetheless viable.

[Kraleck]

Hrm, Cofa doesn't really have that much of a niche. While it lacks Jellicent's Recover, it boasts significantly more defensive power than Dusknoir. Dusknoir is more balanced, though, and Cofagrigus is not as offensively threatening and has less support options.

Cofa's most interesting set, arguably, would be the usage of the Item Escape Button. Use this to apply the Mummy Ablility onto the opponent, switch to Slaking, and use Pursuit to guarantee a removal of Truant. I don't especially recommend such a strategy, but it is nonetheless viable.

That's an excellent strategy, but not guaranteed if you still have non-contact Moves flying at you. It works for Archeops, too, but you won't have access to Pursuit if you go down that route. A Red Card would also help Cof' fight back against Slaking and Archeops.

[Vandslaux]

With Mummy-King, the foe can also switch as you switch to Slaking.

[Coryboy]

Slaking could be a good partner in doubles and triples. Hit an unboosted cofagrigus with punishment and slaking will lose truant. Its an idea.

[Ishnura]

status-grigus
will-o-wisp/toxic
curse
mean look/trick room
shadow ball
item: lum berry/sitrus berry
nature:special attack raising.
EV's: defense and special defense

will-o-wisp induces a burn, which is one of the worst status conditions in the game. toxic gets worser as the target stays in, which pairs well with mean look. curse will take a chunk of health out of cofagrigus, but will take a huge chunk of hp out of the target each turn. trick room speeds up cofagrigus to get faster and also make it easier to induce status, and shadow ball is for taunt.

I BEG YOU!!! USE THIS!!! PLEASE!!!!!!

[GirlKirbyZombie]

This is a move set that I gave to my Confagrigus.

Nature: Bold
Item: Lefties
EVs: 252 HP, 189 Sp. Def, and 67 Defense
Moves:
Will-O-Wisp
Toxic
Hex
Calm mind

In this set, you have two stats to choose from and use them at your disposal. Calm mind helps raise that low special defense even more plus it gives you some special attack to blast your foe with hex.

The only problem is that normal types with a possible ghost move will get in the way, especially Ursaring.

[floatzel98]

Bulky Ghost
Cofagrigus @ Leftovers / Chesto Berry
Trait: Mummy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Rest / Haze / Will-o-Wisp

this is a calm mind cofagrigus. set calm minds till your low on health then rest up (saying you choose rest) and sweep with Shadow ball and HP Fighting which give you unresited coverage and a STAB. you can choose chesto berry so you wake up straight after your rest or leftovers for healing. haze and will-o-wisp are other options to use over rest, each with their pros and cons.

[Kraleck]

Slaking could be a good partner in doubles and triples. Hit an unboosted cofagrigus with punishment and slaking will lose truant. Its an idea.

Again, Archeops benefits from this strategy, too. However, Moves like Follow Me, Roar, and Whirlwind will disrupt this in a major way. So will Entrainment coming from (Arceus help you) Durant with Truant Ability...

Getting past Mummy with Simple Beam, Skill Swap, or Entrainment is another way of dealing with Cof' in Multi...or if you can force it to stay in Singles. Even then, Simple Beam is a bit risky due to Cof's Nasty Plot and Calm Mind access...

[Vandslaux]

Again, Archeops benefits from this strategy, too. However, Moves like Follow Me, Roar, and Whirlwind will disrupt this in a major way. So will Entrainment coming from (Arceus help you) Durant with Truant Ability...

Getting past Mummy with Simple Beam, Skill Swap, or Entrainment is another way of dealing with Cof' in Multi...or if you can force it to stay in Singles. Even then, Simple Beam is a bit risky due to Cof's Nasty Plot and Calm Mind access...

Who the heck runs Truant on Durant, when he has Hustle and Hone Claws?

[Kraleck]

Who the heck runs Truant on Durant, when he has Hustle and Hone Claws?

Ones who use an Entrainment gimmick set. I can only see Multi usage and the DW Ability Durant hasn't been released yet, plus it helps if you can Simple Beam away Durant's Truant after sticking Cof' with the Ability.

As for an offense to hit the current PotW, Taunt helps with blocking Cof's Status arsenal. From there, it's easy to find Shadow Ball/Dark Pulse users to attack Cof's lower Sp.Def. Unfortunately, this leads to the Ghost mono-Type issue I mentioned a few posts back - Dark and Ghost being Cof's only Type Weaknesses give counters a little more predictability.

Blocking Ghost Type Moves with Normal Types or reaping the benefits of Justified Ability against Dark Type Moves are solid ways to protect Cof'. Even then, Soak can remove the Ghost Type to throw on the Water Type, allowing some Pokemon to better target Cof' and its Normal Type/Justified Ability backup.

[battle171]

Trick Room Sweeper @Leftovers:
Relaxed/Quiet Nature
252 Sp.Atk / 252 HP / 6 Def
-Shadow Ball/Hex
-Hidden Power [Fighting]
-Trick Room
-Will-o-Wisp/Protect

Basic idea is to help the team set up Trick Room. Cofagrigus is fairly bulky, and Will-o-Wisp is used to hinder physical sweepers. Protect is to scout for moves and leftover recovery. Shadow Ball for STAB, and Hidden Power fighting for perfect neutral coverage with Shadow Ball. Hex may replace Shadow Ball, but not really recommended since Shadow Ball is more reliable and has the 20 % chance of a Sp. Def drop. Relaxed nature for extra bulk, Quiet nature to hit harder.

[Kraleck]

Trick Room Sweeper @Leftovers:
Relaxed/Quiet Nature
252 Sp.Atk / 252 HP / 6 Def
-Shadow Ball/Hex
-Hidden Power [Fighting]
-Trick Room
-Will-o-Wisp/Protect

Basic idea is to help the team set up Trick Room. Cofagrigus is fairly bulky, and Will-o-Wisp is used to hinder physical sweepers. Protect is to scout for moves and leftover recovery. Shadow Ball for STAB, and Hidden Power fighting for perfect neutral coverage with Shadow Ball. Hex may replace Shadow Ball, but not really recommended since Shadow Ball is more reliable and has the 20 % chance of a Sp. Def drop. Relaxed nature for extra bulk, Quiet nature to hit harder.

That right there is part of why I love Cof'. Trick Room usage relies on your user being bulky enough to survive so it can activate it.

Bronzong and Slowbro/king are good examples of this, we know:
-Bronzong has a semi-unique Type (only Metagross shares it, barring previous Evolution Stages) and Abilities to protect itself. Beyond that, not much aside from being a Wall.
-Slowbro and Slowking also have a semi-unique Type (only Starmie and Slowpoke share it), except with good offense and a single good defense each.

Cof' has options beyond the setup phase that Bronzong doesn't have - Special Attacker and Status Annoyer - and simultaneously does Bronzong's job as a Wall; something the Slows can only dream of.

Base 95 Sp.Atk and huge defenses give the hungry coffin a few nails to hammer into others' coffins. Will-o-Wisp, Toxic, Disable, and other Status harassment is just gravy. While your Type isn't so unique, you fill so many other niches.

Speaking back to Bronzong and the Slows, any one of them are great allies to Cof', especially on a Trick Room team. Slowbro/king can (mostly) soak what Cof' cannot take (barring Ghost or Dark Type Moves) and give a ton of other offensive options. Bronzong can block Toxic and is neutral to both of Cof's weaknesses.

[Serpentine]

The Mummy's Hex
Quiet +SpAtk/-Spd
252 Sp Atk/200 HP/52 SpDef
Leftovers

Toxic/Will-o-Wisp
Hex
Nasty Plot/Fake Tears/Calm Mind
Hidden Power (Fighting)

Hex + Toxic/Will-o-Wisp is a given. Hex gets stab and double the power if the opponent has a status condition. Toxic is super crippling, doubling in damage each turn, however, it can't be used on steels, which is where Will-o-Wisp comes in and works on everything except for fire types and it halves attack which totally cripples physical sweepers, not that Cofagrigus' high defense doesn't already cripple them. Then there's Nasty Plot, Fake Tears, and Calm Mind. Fake Tears lowers the opponent's Sp. Def two stages and Nasty Plot raises the user's attack two stages. They pretty much do the same thing, however Fake Tears may make the opponent switch. Also, you can use a special sweeper switch in or have a special sweeper as a partner while Nasty Plot requires you to switch or a status move to be used on you to get rid of its effects. Then Calm Mind raises Sp. Atk only one stage, but it also raises Cofagrigus' Sp. Def. Hidden Power (Fighting) covers more ground, especially Pokemon that have resistance to Hex such as Normal, Steel, and Dark types.

[Charizardmaster#1]

With amazing defences, and good Sp. attack, cofragrigus is great. It's only flaw is it's bad hp and speed, and speed doesn't matter much anywya.

Cofragrigus@Leftovers
Ability: Mummy
EVs: 252 hp/140 sp att/116 spdef
Nature: Calm
-Willowisp
-Hex
-Calm Mind
-Psychic

Calm Mind for bulk and power. Will-o-Wisp and Hex are destructive together. Psychic for extra coverage.

[MetalCrow]

I like Mr. eats gold and people all day... he's got an intimidating set of stats...

Double Status Stall
Relaxed @Leftovers
EV: 252 HP, 128 Def/128 Sp. Def
-Will-o-wisp
-Toxic
-Substitute
-Disable/Protect

Or you could switch a few things around and get this here:

Double Status Abuse
Quiet @ Wide Lens
EV: 252 HP, 156 Sp. Att/100 Sp. Def
-Will-o-wisp
-Toxic
-Hex
-Swagger/Protect

Or you could get ballsy and run this:

Chesto-Rest Booster
Quiet @ Chesto Berry
EV: 252 HP, 252 Sp. Def
-Rest
-Shadow Ball
-Psychic/Energy Ball
-Nasty Plot/Calm Mind