Pokemon of the Week DP: Breloom
Sets
Sleep Puncher
- Item Held
- Toxic Orb
- Ability
- Poison Heal
- Nature
- Adamant
- Effort Points
- 252 Attack - 220 Speed - 38 HP
Simple set to pull off. Put them to sleep with that awesome 100% sleep-inducing move and watch them fly after being hit by Breloom's STABed Focus Punch. Facade gets fantastic neutral coverage along with Focus Punch and causes considerable damage to its “counters”. Thunderpunch will OHKO Gyarados after Stealth Rock and score a super-effective hit on Skarmory. Stone Edge will 2HKO both Salamence and Gyarados. Seed Bomb gets STAB and can 2HKO most bulky Waters, such as Vaporeon and Slowbro.
Swords Dance
- Item Held
- Toxic Orb
- Ability
- Poison Heal
- Nature
- Adamant
- Effort Points
- 252 Attack - 220 Speed - 38 HP
Not much is scarier than Swords Dance Breloom. Mach Punch gets priority, so even faster foes aren’t safe. Thunderpunch will 2HKO Skarmory and OHKO Gyarados, while Seed Bomb gets STAB and will get rid of bulky Water and Ground-type Pokémon. Facade is here once again for its neutral damage to anything that isn't Rock, Steel or Ghost type, preventing Breloom from being walled. It also gets the boost from the Toxic Orb. Spore is the alternative, which will put foes to sleep and potentially give a chance to a free Swords Dance.
If you decided not to use Facade, Life Orb is a pretty decent option over Toxic Orb. While you don't have a way to heal Breloom anymore, you have a massive Attack stat and a STABed priority move further powered by Life Orb's 1.3x boost. Of course, Breloom's survivability is significantly reduced.
SubSeeder
- Item Held
- Toxic Orb
- Ability
- Poison Heal
- Nature
- Adamant
- Effort Points
- 252 Attack - 220 Speed - 38 HP
Breloom is sometimes considered a bit too slow to use a SubSeed set, but Breloom has Poison Heal, making him unique. This is just like any other SubSeed set. Predict the foe’s switch, set up a Substitute, use Leech Seed, stall the foe’s team to death. Because there will be a long line of consequtive uses of Substitute, Focus Punch nicely complements this set. The last move can be important. Spore will prevent the foe from attacking, which means a free Substitute. Stun Spore slows the foe down, which helps Breloom’s poor Speed, while still providing a 25% chance of not having your Substitute broken. Seed Bomb will allow Breloom to hit Ghosts, which would otherwise get a free switch-in on Focus Punch. This can be avoided with some prediction by putting Ghosts to sleep as they switch in with Spore, thus making it the superior choice most of the time.
LeadLoom
- Item Held
- Toxic Orb
- Ability
- Poison Heal
- Nature
- Adamant
- Effort Points
- 252 Attack - 160 HP - 96 Speed
The infamous Breloom lead. Many people are willing to outrun this guy just so that they don’t become asleep by Spore. Well, what they don’t expect is a Mach Punch coming their way. Many common leads, namely Weavile and Tyranitar, are weak to Fighting. Mach Punch OHKOs Weavile and 2HKOs Tyranitar. Seed Bomb deals with Hippowdon and Swampert leads, both of whom are common for setting an early Stealth Rock. Spore allows you to put slower leads to sleep, and then proceed to clobber them. Protect has two functions. Firstly, it gives you a free turn for the Toxic Orb to kick in. Secondly, it allows you to scout for which attack a Flying-type will use against you, thus allowing you to switch to a good counter for it.
Other Possible Options
Sky Uppercut, Brick Break, and Superpower are alternatives to Focus Punch and Mach Punch, but they do not have the power or the priority that those two other moves have. Force Palm's 30% chance of paralysis is also appealing, especially with Breloom’s poor Speed. Bulk Up can be used, but it’s generally inferior to Swords Dance. The only time it could get serious consideration over Swords Dance is when it is used with Superpower. A Choice set is an option, but you lose Poison Heal recovery, the powerful Facade, and it’s generally left better to Heracross. Stone Edge and Rock Slide are not bad, but they only score 2HKOs on Gyarados and Salamence, who are the two main targets. The Coba Berry would reduce Breloom’s Flying weakness, but then you would lose the guaranteed Poison Heal recovery and Facade's boost.
The EVs for most sets are meant for Breloom to outrun Adamant Scizor. Max Speed is always and option, as it will allow you to tie with other Max Speed Breloom and Adamant max Speed Metagross. The extra HP EVs allow for extra Poison Heal recovery. On the LeadLoom set, not much more Speed is needed because he has Mach Punch, which gets priority, and Seed Bomb is meant mainly for the slower bulky Waters.
Counters
The Sleep Punch Breloom is one of the hardest Pokémon to counter. The mighty Bronzong is 2HKOed by Focus Punch, as is Skarmory. However, Rest-Talk Cresselia, with every EV put into HP and Defense, can absorb a Spore and will never be 3HKOed by Facade. Cresselia will then 2HKO with Psychic or Ice Beam. Some other Rest-Talkers, such as Uxie, can do the same thing.
The Swords Dance set is a little harder to deal with. A Dusknoir can take hits and will likely 2HKO with Fire Punch or Ice Punch. However, he will be 2HKOed by Seed Bomb. Spiritimb can switch in, but can’t do anything in return. If he runs Spore, Breloom likely won’t have Facade, which is his major wallbreaker move. If so, Cresselia, Uxie, and other Rest-Talkers will suffice.
SubSeeder is a different story. Grass-types are good, as they are immune to Leech Seed. Sceptile could switch in and take Breloom out with Aerial Ace, but he could get put to sleep by Spore. Any Pokémon with Taunt will completely destroy this set, as it is not stopped by Substitute and will leave Breloom with Focus Punch and maybe one other attacking move.
There are a wide variety of revenge killers that can deal with Breloom. Air Slash Yanmega, Brave Bird Staraptor, and Aerial Ace Dugtrio can switch-in after something has been killed and deal with their respective moves. Ice Shard Weavile can pick-off a slightly weakened Breloom. Don’t try to KO with Ice Punch, because there might be a Mach Punch coming your way.
Just a small note: Don’t bother with paralysis or burn when trying to deal with Breloom. Nine out of ten times it is poisoned, so status moves will do nothing. The best way to get rid of it is to exploit its 4x Flying weakness.
Opinion & Notes
Because of D/P, Breloom became a fantastic Pokémon. Platinum has now turned this guy into a beast. Just think about it: Not only is he immune to poison, but he also benefits from it with Facade and Poison Heal. What's more, Thunderpunch became available with Poison Heal, which is a huge gain. With resistances to Rock (and therefore Stealth Rock,) Electric, Water, Ground, and Dark, common attacks such as Thunderbolt and Earthquake are not super-effective. With Spore, Swords Dance, a priority move in the form of Mach Punch, and a STABed Focus Punch too, there isn’t much explaining needed to prove how great Breloom is.
Note that Superpower and Thunderpunch are Platinum move tutor moves. You could get Thunderpunch from Emerald, but then you lose your awesome Poison Heal ability.
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Ninjomewtwo @ 05/10/2007, 04:56:13 pm
Go to the guy that teaches moves to your Pokémon for Heart Scales. Give him a Heart Scale and voila, you got Mach Punch! ;)
Wergoheb @ 17/10/2007, 10:03:15 pm
Not playing Substitute on the Standard Breloom set is Suicide, btw…
Spore/Substitute/Focus Punch/Seed Bomb is the Standard Set, and the first one on your list should reflect that.
Scipio @ 04/11/2007, 05:05:27 pm
"Thunderpunch is a good offensive option as it can OHKO Gyarados but it is not available with Poison Heal"
I thought abilities could change when a pokemon migrates….
LeanMeanFeraligtr @ 02/12/2007, 01:27:27 pm
Sweet Moveset For Sleep Puncher
random person o_o @ 31/12/2007, 08:51:10 pm
Sleep Clause killed Brelooms =[
question @ 17/03/2008, 01:56:01 am
Couldn't you teach thunderpunch to a male breloom in emerald and breed it in D/P?
Brandon Lee Rapps @ 28/03/2008, 12:15:00 pm
How do i get Breloom? Can Somebody Tell Me?
Brandon Lee Rapps
Carlos Peixoto @ 11/08/2008, 02:00:44 am
adoro pokemons
ghales101 @ 29/12/2008, 03:39:24 pm
Thanks to the Platinum Move Tutors, Breloom can viably use Thunderpunch with Poison Heal as its Ability.
Tim @ 06/01/2009, 12:29:50 pm
Article is badly outdated, and was lacking even when it was written. Breloom was never a borderline Pokemon in D/P, and half the counters mentioned don't even come close to countering Breloom because they have no effective means of foiling its most popular attack - Spore. To add to that, despite sporting fighting resists, Venusaur and Exeggutor's lack of a reliable recovery move means they really cannot stand repeatedly switching in against Focus Punch, let alone Facade (which is actually quite common on the contemporary Breloom). Celebi would be a better counter, but for Natural Cure, which puts it as a disadvantage because it means that, if it switches into Spore, it is forced to stay in against Breloom or free Breloom from the sleep clause by switching out, and allow Breloom to Spore again.
Weezing is another terrible counter. Breloom outspeeds, and Facade is an easy 2HKO, even if Breloom has already spored another team member. It also really can't do anything to Breloom's subseeding strategy even if Breloom lacks Facade. Toxicroak outspeeds Breloom, is OHKOed by Facade and risks being put to sleep on the switch in.
Skarmory is outsped and put to sleep, and even if he switches in against a Breloom crippled by the sleep clause, he can only force Breloom out at a severe disadvantage to himself. Breloom can simply throw up repeated substitutes to use Skarmory's Brave Bird recoil to get Skarmory within KO range of Facade or Mach Punch, and if Skarmory successfully predicts a substitute and roars Breloom out instead, all he's really accomplished is to force a temporary retreat at the cost of over half his HP. Breloom should never have to run from Skarmory on his own accord.
The same goes with Cresselia. It can handle Breloom's attacks tolerably well if it has access to Moonlight, but since only the CM set is given the necessary speed to outrun Breloom, Breloom will still foil it with Spore.
Gyarados fails to OHKO with Ice Fang, and now risks being OHKOed in return by Thunderpunch, as well as fearing Facade, Spore, and Stone Edge on the switch. Salamence fares better, but still fears switching into Spore, Facade, or Stone Edge. ST Zapdos is a much more reliable counter now that it has access to Heat Wave, but still dislikes switching into Stone Edge or Facade.
ExplorerAce @ 08/01/2009, 08:49:17 am
Dude, if you're going to nitpick this article to death, maybe you could suggest some viable counters. For example, Yanmega can take a Focus Punch, outspeed Breloom, and OHKO with Air Slash.
Ninjomewtwo @ 25/01/2009, 01:19:15 am
Well, according to Mr. Tim, if a Pokémon can be put to sleep it's not a counter. Ok then, Spinda and Gastly must have no counters since they can Hypnosis on anything that switches in.
Whatever, article updated with Platinum data. Thanks to ExplorerAce for his help and hard work.
Toxicroak46 @ 22/02/2009, 04:24:46 pm
I also think the same, my breelom actually overcomes most of the threats they throw at him, spore being a great move, though it is most likely defeated by specs infernape on OU
TheNerdWithNoLife @ 11/07/2009, 04:57:47 pm
guys, in platinum you can get thunderpunch from a tutor now, and also yeah mach punch is a heart scale move.
momtaro @ 05/10/2007, 03:29:45 am
Hey guys, thanks for the gengar info….. I figured it was something like a pre- D/P move.
Another (probably) dumb question is, my adamant Breloom is a level 83 and had learned all the schroom moves, but hasn't learned mach punch. I keep waiting and nothing. I DO have POKERUS at this moment. What do you think is going on?