Pokémon Gliscor

[bludz]

Approved by AM
Gliscor

#472

Base stats:
75 HP / 95 Attack / 125 Defense / 45 Special Attack / 75 Special Defense / 95 Speed

Abilities:
Hyper Cutter: This pokemon’s attack cannot be lowered by opposing pokemon
Sand Veil: Raises evasion during Sandstorm
Poison Heal: HP is restored by 1/8th maximum every turn if this pokemon is poisoned

Notable moves (STAB in Bold):
Earthquake
Knock Off
Façade
Toxic
Roost
Protect
Substitute
Swords Dance
Agility
Rock Polish
Baton Pass
Fling
Acrobatics
Ice Fang
U-turn
Taunt
Stone Edge
Stealth Rock​

Overview:
Gliscor thrives in the OU metagame as a bulky ground type and a status absorber that is difficult to wear down thanks to its ability Poison Heal. It has very good natural physical bulk and an excellent defensive typing that allows it to take on many common threats including Heatran, Gengar and Landorus-I without HP [Ice]. It has a wide movepool and can play a variety of roles, each taking advantage of its ability to force switches because of the things it walls.


Notable Sets:
Swords Dance

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 8 Def / 200 SpD / 56 Spe
Careful Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Knock Off / Facade

With this set, Gliscor aims to take advantage of the free turns it creates when it switches into something that cannot touch it. Swords Dance boosts its attack nicely, allowing it to plow through bulkier teams that do not have a good way to hurt it. Earthquake is the main STAB and Roost is to maintain longevity. Knock Off provides good neutral coverage and also utility, while Façade is more powerful but leaves Gliscor walled by Gengar which is one of the best things it can check.

The HP EVs maximize recovery from Poison Heal, while 8 Defense always survives a +2 LO Adamant Bisharp’s Sucker Punch. 56 Speed EVs creep Adamant Bisharp and the rest is dumped into Special Defense to better check pokemon like Gengar, Landorus-I, and Mega Diancie.

Stallbreaker

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 8 Def / 200 SpD / 56 Spe
Careful Nature
- Taunt
- Toxic
- Roost
- Earthquake / Knock Off

After Toxic Orb activates, Gliscor cannot be hit with a status condition so it is often a good answer to more stall oriented teams that rely on status and hazards to wear down the opposing team. Taunt shuts down defensive pokemon outside of Mega Sableye and Toxic allows Gliscor to cripple most of them. Roost helps remain healthy and the choice of the last move is team dependent – Earthquake hits harder but leaves Gliscor walled by a lot of things while Knock Off provides nice utility but is not very powerful.

SubToxic

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 208 Def / 56 Spe
Impish Nature
- Substitute
- Toxic
- Protect / Roost
- Earthquake / Knock Off

This set takes a more stall oriented route with Gliscor. Rather than using its immunity to status and reliable recovery to Taunt or Swords Dance against bulkier pokemon, this Gliscor set aims to spread Toxic status and stall the opposing pokemon as much as possible. Substitute allows Gliscor to stall better and especially to PP stall moves like Rotom-Wash’s Hydro Pump. Protect and Roost both offer certain advantages: Protect straight up stalls turns and recovers the HP it takes to create a Substitute while Roost provides a more reliable form of recovery. Once again the attack on this set depends on what your team can deal with better.

The EV spread achieves a Poison Heal number and outspeeds neutral natured base 70s, with the rest dumped into Gliscor’s solid defense stat.

Conclusion:
Gliscor is an awesome glue on many balance teams that require a status absorber and a stallbreaker or a win condition. Its fantastic defensive typing gives it great synergy with many other defensive pokemon such as Clefable, Heatran, Mega Venusaur, Slowbro and Ferrothorn. Gliscor can even opt to run Baton Pass sets which take advantage of the free turns it creates. Overall it is a very splashable pokemon with great utility in Poison Heal, 2 immunities, and moves such as Knock Off, U-turn and Stealth Rock.

Potential Discussion Questions:
What pokemon make great partners to Gliscor & why?
Do Fling + Acrobatics sets still have any merit?
What pokemon are the best recipients of Gliscor's Baton Pass setups?
How has the rise of ice type coverage affected Gliscor's ability to function in the metagame?
What other sets have you had success using?

 

[Canned Bread]

I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert but I have used Gliscor a lot and have got a few thoughts which I'll put down very quickly. This is my first post on one of these so bear with me if I'm going about this in the wrong way.

I've been thinking about using Gliscor as a Stealth Rocker over Garchomp. Whilst Tanky Chomp is an excellent setter, he is prone to getting worn down rapidly,
something which Gliscor is less prone to. I'm yet to try this but it's something which occurred to me recently. So I'd like to ask, how effective is Gliscor at hazard setting in the current meta and can it afford the slot?

Gliscor loves having Water Type partners and Water Types similarly appreciate Gliscor; however the BoltBeam coverage is always something to bear in mind here. Mega Venusaur is another good defensive partner that compliments Gliscor by virtue of Typing, Ability and offensive options; Gliscor struggles slightly with Fairies and especially with Water types. Gliscor can come in on Ground attacks, U-Turns, Will-O-Wisp and Talonflame to an extent in return.

Fling + Acrobatics does have a very nice niche of being one of the few switch-in answers to Mega Heracross which is alright. Heracross is reasonably uncommon,
but there could be other advantages to Fling-Acrobatics I'm not aware of.

It's telling that mon like Landorus are running Ice coverage pretty much exclusively for Gliscor and anything else it hits is a bonus really. Lando is very partial to it; mon like Gengar less so but it is still a real threat. The Ice coverage issue is something to be aware of but in my experience, it's not having an overly adverse effect on Gliscor at the moment.

 

[AM]

I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert but I have used Gliscor a lot and have got a few thoughts which I'll put down very quickly. This is my first post on one of these so bear with me if I'm going about this in the wrong way.

I've been thinking about using Gliscor as a Stealth Rocker over Garchomp. Whilst Tanky Chomp is an excellent setter, he is prone to getting worn down rapidly,
something which Gliscor is less prone to. I'm yet to try this but it's something which occurred to me recently. So I'd like to ask, how effective is Gliscor at hazard setting in the current meta and can it afford the slot?

Gliscor loves having Water Type partners and Water Types similarly appreciate Gliscor; however the BoltBeam coverage is always something to bear in mind here. Mega Venusaur is another good defensive partner that compliments Gliscor by virtue of Typing, Ability and offensive options; Gliscor struggles slightly with Fairies and especially with Water types. Gliscor can come in on Ground attacks, U-Turns, Will-O-Wisp and Talonflame to an extent in return.

Fling + Acrobatics does have a very nice niche of being one of the few switch-in answers to Mega Heracross which is alright. Heracross is reasonably uncommon,
but there could be other advantages to Fling-Acrobatics I'm not aware of.

It's telling that mon like Landorus are running Ice coverage pretty much exclusively for Gliscor and anything else it hits is a bonus really. Lando is very partial to it; mon like Gengar less so but it is still a real threat. The Ice coverage issue is something to be aware of but in my experience, it's not having an overly adverse effect on Gliscor at the moment.

Yeah Gliscor is a solid rocker. Normally you'll see it paired with M-Sableye answers like Clefable with set of EQ, Coverage (normally knock off), roost, SR on more defensive or balanced builds. I guess when you look past the hype of people of going for the norm and expanding your options then yes Gliscor is indeed a solid rocker due to its longevity and ability to maintain rocks over a longer period of time.

I think honestly Fling is very shitty. I mean I understand the applications of it, like hitting M-Sableye with a toxic, but it's sort of silly when that moveslot of Fling can be allocated to better coverage or utility. It's really just surprise factor honestly. Uh if you're gonna want speed on Gliscor outspeeding base 70s is the most I would go these days, these means Jolly Bisharp and Breloom btw.

Eh idk, the ice coverage thing is really important to note. Lots of the trends that people are using to handle Landorus they're sort of applying to Gliscor as well which is somewhat of a problem cause most times it's the Ice coverage. So you'll see things like HP Ice on AV (or Life Orb I guess) Torn-T, Ice Beam Clefable, just silly stuff that normally gliscor wouldn't care about assuming regular circumstances against mons like these but can still get lured in to them thinking it's ok.

 

[Jaroda]

This is a fun new set I've been trying. :)


Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 244 HP / 8 Def / 200 SpD / 56 Spe
Careful Nature
- U-Turn / Toxic
- Bulldoze
- Roost
- Knock Off / Taunt

While EQ is a solid move, I find if you aren't running Swords Dance that the damage output tends to be paltry. So I changed my perspective of Gliscor being more pure annoyer. While Bulldoze is substantially weaker, the benefit is its guaranteed speed drop, which can be invaluable and allow for easier revenge kills for your team against, say, Mega Lopunny without Ice Punch. When you Knock Off, Taunt or Bulldoze certain threats and they feel forced to switch, that is the perfect time to use U-Turn to maintain the advantage. U-Turn is handy on Gliscor because he can switch in on so many moves for free including status, Ground, Electric and Knock Off after your Orb activates, leaving many opponents able to do nothing back, hence U-Turn's utility. Gliscor excels in this supportive role. I keep changing the moves around though.

 

[dramadrama]

the good thing about fling acro on gliscor is that you dont get locked by trick gothitelle. most of the time you want to run swords dance or taunt so acrobatics is the strongest atack gliscor gets. vs slower venusaur you need a stronger atk since you cant roost on giga drains

 

[Unlucky Desperado]

@above: if you use defensive veunsaurs against sd gliscor, gliscor gradually wins the war. It is situational if it is beneficial though.

 

[Tavros'sTauros]

Ah, sub/toxic orb/poison heal Glisgor, one of OU's great stallers. I won't say it's not good, because it is obviously quite good. However, I think it would be interesting to see a few more diverse movesets (although making movesets for a mon like Glisgor is tough). With knock off and sub/orb, Glisgor has the potential to destroy almost any team with its electric and ground immunity.
Are there any viable sets for Glisgor besides the sub/orb set? I don't often see many other Glisgor sets in OU these days...

 

[Soulz]

Aye whats better Gliscor or Defensive Lando reguarding being able to recover?

 

[Karxrida]

Aye whats better Gliscor or Defensive Lando reguarding being able to recover?

Gliscor. Poison Heal gives you more HP per turn that Leftovers and it has access to Roost.

 

[Blackdrakon30]

I have run Gliscor to great effect with ice fang, because I have personally found that Lando and other Gliscors can easily wall it, or worse something like Togekiss which is fairly common, has bulk, and resists/is immune to both EQ and Knock-Off. Additionally, if it is another Gliscor, toxic wont be useful. I tend to run it like this:
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 172 HP / 96 Atk / 92 Def / 148 Spe
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Roost/U-Turn
- Stealth Rock/Subsitute/Toxic

I would do roost and substitute or toxic for stalling, stealth rock and U-Turn for a stealth rocker. A good teammate is Empoleon, with quad resistance to ice, and Empoleon's weaknesses are all resisted by Gliscor while all of Gliscor's weaknesses are all resisted by Empoleon.

 

[Tavros'sTauros]

I have run Gliscor to great effect with ice fang, because I have personally found that Lando and other Gliscors can easily wall it, or worse something like Togekiss which is fairly common, has bulk, and resists/is immune to both EQ and Knock-Off. Additionally, if it is another Gliscor, toxic wont be useful. I tend to run it like this:
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 172 HP / 96 Atk / 92 Def / 148 Spe
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Roost/U-Turn
- Stealth Rock/Subsitute/Toxic

I would do roost and substitute or toxic for stalling, stealth rock and U-Turn for a stealth rocker. A good teammate is Empoleon, with quad resistance to ice, and Empoleon's weaknesses are all resisted by Gliscor while all of Gliscor's weaknesses are all resisted by Empoleon.

Ooh, that's a lovely idea for a moveset. Thank you!