[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 6 onwards
**Price Range**: 7-8 points
**Overview**: Qwilfish is a solid low-tier Pokemon that provides utility to drafts in need. It has access to a wide variety of entry hazards and utility moves, holding a notable niche as one of the few Pokemon in the format that learns both Spikes and Toxic Spikes, and it is also good at spreading status with Thunder Wave, Toxic, and Barb Barrage. Its excellent defensive typing in Water / Poison and usable physical bulk additionally combine with its access to Intimidate and Flip Turn to make it a viable defensive pivot. Unfortunately, its poor stats make it somewhat passive and unable to take special hits, justifying its relatively low cost.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Entry Hazard Utility**: Using some combination of Spikes and Toxic Spikes, Qwilfish can support its team by stacking entry hazards. It can create its own opportunities to do this by taking advantage of Intimidate to weaken opposing threats and then pivoting with Flip Turn to maintain momentum.
**Defensive Pivot**: If Spikes and Toxic Spikes aren't particularly useful against the opposing team, Qwilfish can fill out its set with other utility moves like Thunder Wave, Haze, and Taunt to check physically offensive foes. It can also run Gunk Shot to offensively pressure foes to some degree, particularly Fairy-types.
**Rain Sweeper**: On rain teams, Qwilfish can take advantage of Swift Swim and Swords Dance combined with its decent base Attack to act as a setup sweeper. It holds a niche over other similar rain sweepers in its flexibility, offering the above roles in addition to its offensive prowess in matchups where it cannot easily sweep.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Gunk Shot, Barb Barrage, Liquidation, Aqua Jet, Hydro Pump, Surf, Sludge Bomb, Sludge Wave
**Setup Moves**: Swords Dance, Curse
**Utility Moves**: Flip Turn, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Thunder Wave, Toxic, Taunt, Haze, Pain Split, Destiny Bond
**Coverage**: Crunch, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Shadow Ball
Niche Moves
========
**Whirlpool**: Whirlpool can trap switch-ins and overly passive foes, allowing Qwilfish to prevent double switches to safely bring a teammate in or set up entry hazards without fear.
**Icy Wind**: Icy Wind prevents opposing setup sweepers from gaining momentum against Qwilfish, which would otherwise allow them said momentum through its passivity.
**Chilling Water**: Chilling Water combines with Intimidate to reduce foes' Attack to laughable levels, removing physical attackers as a threat and letting Qwilfish do whatever it wants while the foe switches out.
**Self-Destruct**: Self-Destruct makes use of Qwilfish's decent Attack to inflict significant unexpected damage and pivot to a teammate that can exploit the weakened foe, which is also often facing an Attack drop due to Intimidate. However, this comes at the steep cost of losing Qwilfish.
**Throat Chop**: Against otherwise-threatening foes like Kommo-o and Toxtricity that commonly use sound moves, Throat Chop can shut them down and deal chip damage as a bonus.
Common Items
========
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Qwilfish often switches in and out to take advantage of Intimidate and Flip Turn, so it commonly runs Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid damage from entry hazards while it does so.
**Rocky Helmet**: As a physically defensive pivot, Qwilfish can take advantage of a Rocky Helmet to wear down the opposing physical attackers it already checks with Intimidate and punish other pivots that use U-turn or Flip Turn. It can also optionally run Poison Point over Intimidate to further wear down these attackers and pivots.
**Black Sludge**: Black Sludge provides Qwilfish with recovery, which is essential as a defensive Pokemon, and can be better than Heavy-Duty Boots when the opposing team has few entry hazards.
Niche Items
========
**Eject Button**: With an Eject Button, Qwilfish can switch in to activate Intimidate against an opposing physical attacker, take a hit, and then instantly pivot out to a teammate that can take advantage of the weakened foe.
**Mental Herb**: Mental Herb can guarantee Qwilfish sets up entry hazards against foes with Taunt or Encore.
**Custap Berry**: When running Destiny Bond, Custap Berry can allow Qwilfish to circumvent its mediocre Speed to trade itself for an opposing threat. If Qwilfish wants to guarantee the Berry's activation instead of relying on taking the correct amount of damage, it can also run Endure.
**Damage-boosting Items**: On its rain sweeper set, Qwilfish appreciates damage-boosting items like Mystic Water and Poison Barb to increase its mediocre base damage output.
Tera
========
Qwilfish should generally not be a Tera Captain, as its base typing is already excellent defensively, and it doesn't have the stats or coverage to make use of Tera offensively. If it is a Tera Captain, however, it can use Tera Ghost to spinblock while setting up entry hazards or other Tera types like Tera Grass, Ground, and Dark to flip specific weaknesses.
Draft Strategy
========
Qwilfish is primarily drafted to provide support to its teammates with entry hazards and pivoting. It also comes with the side benefit of absorbing Toxic Spikes due to its status as a grounded Poison-type, slightly improving its team's hazard control capabilities. As such, it fits on a wide variety of drafts, supporting the following types of teammates.
**Setup Sweepers**: Qwilfish perfectly complements powerful setup sweepers, as it can set entry hazards to wear down the opposing team, weaken foes with Intimidate, and pivot to teammates that can take advantage of these weakened foes. This is especially true for sweepers that prefer to hold items other than Heavy-Duty Boots and may be vulnerable to Toxic Spikes. Excellent partners include the Ogerpon formes, Iron Valiant, and Urshifu-S.
**Wallbreakers**: Similarly, strong wallbreakers that require safe entry also enjoy Qwilfish's entry hazards and pivoting. Great examples include Chi-Yu, Roaring Moon, and Slither Wing.
**Pivots**: Other pivots can form a pivoting core with Qwilfish that can become more potent than other such cores because of Qwilfish's Intimidate constantly weakening foes. Most pivots can work with it, but the most effective are those with Regenerator, like Tornadus-T and Slowking, others with Intimidate, like Landorus-T and Incineroar, and offensively threatening ones, like Sneasler and Cinderace.
**Specially Bulky Pokemon**: One of Qwilfish's primary weaknesses is its poor Special Defense, leaving it vulnerable to strong special attackers. Therefore, partners like Slowking and Latias that can easily switch in and absorb special hits are important to avoid losing momentum.
**Rain**: Rain setters like Pelipper give Qwilfish the option to run its rain sweeper set with Swift Swim.
**Fighting-weak Pokemon**: Teammates weak to Fighting, like Urshifu-S and Weavile, can benefit from Qwilfish's ability to switch into Fighting-types, as it resists their Fighting-type STAB moves, and they are commonly physical attackers.
Checks and Counters
========
**Wallbreakers**: Qwilfish's poor stats, including its special bulk and Speed, leave it as a bit of a momentum sink against special wallbreakers like Landorus, Latios, and Terapagos if it doesn't predict their switch in and use Flip Turn. It often takes excessive damage against even special attacks that it resists, like Choice Specs Iron Valiant's Moonblast and Choice Specs Kyurem's Ice Beam. Physical wallbreakers with super effective moves like Great Tusk and Iron Hands can be threatening as well, especially if they switch into Qwilfish and thus don't have their Attack dropped by Intimidate.
**Grounded Poison-types**: Opposing drafts with grounded Poison-types naturally limit Qwilfish's effectiveness as a Toxic Spikes setter, and these Poison-types also resist its most common and powerful STAB move in Gunk Shot.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/vmnunes.613460/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/olivia.620359/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/autumn.384270/
**Draft Order**: Round 6 onwards
**Price Range**: 7-8 points
**Overview**: Qwilfish is a solid low-tier Pokemon that provides utility to drafts in need. It has access to a wide variety of entry hazards and utility moves, holding a notable niche as one of the few Pokemon in the format that learns both Spikes and Toxic Spikes, and it is also good at spreading status with Thunder Wave, Toxic, and Barb Barrage. Its excellent defensive typing in Water / Poison and usable physical bulk additionally combine with its access to Intimidate and Flip Turn to make it a viable defensive pivot. Unfortunately, its poor stats make it somewhat passive and unable to take special hits, justifying its relatively low cost.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Entry Hazard Utility**: Using some combination of Spikes and Toxic Spikes, Qwilfish can support its team by stacking entry hazards. It can create its own opportunities to do this by taking advantage of Intimidate to weaken opposing threats and then pivoting with Flip Turn to maintain momentum.
**Defensive Pivot**: If Spikes and Toxic Spikes aren't particularly useful against the opposing team, Qwilfish can fill out its set with other utility moves like Thunder Wave, Haze, and Taunt to check physically offensive foes. It can also run Gunk Shot to offensively pressure foes to some degree, particularly Fairy-types.
**Rain Sweeper**: On rain teams, Qwilfish can take advantage of Swift Swim and Swords Dance combined with its decent base Attack to act as a setup sweeper. It holds a niche over other similar rain sweepers in its flexibility, offering the above roles in addition to its offensive prowess in matchups where it cannot easily sweep.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Gunk Shot, Barb Barrage, Liquidation, Aqua Jet, Hydro Pump, Surf, Sludge Bomb, Sludge Wave
**Setup Moves**: Swords Dance, Curse
**Utility Moves**: Flip Turn, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Thunder Wave, Toxic, Taunt, Haze, Pain Split, Destiny Bond
**Coverage**: Crunch, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Shadow Ball
Niche Moves
========
**Whirlpool**: Whirlpool can trap switch-ins and overly passive foes, allowing Qwilfish to prevent double switches to safely bring a teammate in or set up entry hazards without fear.
**Icy Wind**: Icy Wind prevents opposing setup sweepers from gaining momentum against Qwilfish, which would otherwise allow them said momentum through its passivity.
**Chilling Water**: Chilling Water combines with Intimidate to reduce foes' Attack to laughable levels, removing physical attackers as a threat and letting Qwilfish do whatever it wants while the foe switches out.
**Self-Destruct**: Self-Destruct makes use of Qwilfish's decent Attack to inflict significant unexpected damage and pivot to a teammate that can exploit the weakened foe, which is also often facing an Attack drop due to Intimidate. However, this comes at the steep cost of losing Qwilfish.
**Throat Chop**: Against otherwise-threatening foes like Kommo-o and Toxtricity that commonly use sound moves, Throat Chop can shut them down and deal chip damage as a bonus.
Common Items
========
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Qwilfish often switches in and out to take advantage of Intimidate and Flip Turn, so it commonly runs Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid damage from entry hazards while it does so.
**Rocky Helmet**: As a physically defensive pivot, Qwilfish can take advantage of a Rocky Helmet to wear down the opposing physical attackers it already checks with Intimidate and punish other pivots that use U-turn or Flip Turn. It can also optionally run Poison Point over Intimidate to further wear down these attackers and pivots.
**Black Sludge**: Black Sludge provides Qwilfish with recovery, which is essential as a defensive Pokemon, and can be better than Heavy-Duty Boots when the opposing team has few entry hazards.
Niche Items
========
**Eject Button**: With an Eject Button, Qwilfish can switch in to activate Intimidate against an opposing physical attacker, take a hit, and then instantly pivot out to a teammate that can take advantage of the weakened foe.
**Mental Herb**: Mental Herb can guarantee Qwilfish sets up entry hazards against foes with Taunt or Encore.
**Custap Berry**: When running Destiny Bond, Custap Berry can allow Qwilfish to circumvent its mediocre Speed to trade itself for an opposing threat. If Qwilfish wants to guarantee the Berry's activation instead of relying on taking the correct amount of damage, it can also run Endure.
**Damage-boosting Items**: On its rain sweeper set, Qwilfish appreciates damage-boosting items like Mystic Water and Poison Barb to increase its mediocre base damage output.
Tera
========
Qwilfish should generally not be a Tera Captain, as its base typing is already excellent defensively, and it doesn't have the stats or coverage to make use of Tera offensively. If it is a Tera Captain, however, it can use Tera Ghost to spinblock while setting up entry hazards or other Tera types like Tera Grass, Ground, and Dark to flip specific weaknesses.
Draft Strategy
========
Qwilfish is primarily drafted to provide support to its teammates with entry hazards and pivoting. It also comes with the side benefit of absorbing Toxic Spikes due to its status as a grounded Poison-type, slightly improving its team's hazard control capabilities. As such, it fits on a wide variety of drafts, supporting the following types of teammates.
**Setup Sweepers**: Qwilfish perfectly complements powerful setup sweepers, as it can set entry hazards to wear down the opposing team, weaken foes with Intimidate, and pivot to teammates that can take advantage of these weakened foes. This is especially true for sweepers that prefer to hold items other than Heavy-Duty Boots and may be vulnerable to Toxic Spikes. Excellent partners include the Ogerpon formes, Iron Valiant, and Urshifu-S.
**Wallbreakers**: Similarly, strong wallbreakers that require safe entry also enjoy Qwilfish's entry hazards and pivoting. Great examples include Chi-Yu, Roaring Moon, and Slither Wing.
**Pivots**: Other pivots can form a pivoting core with Qwilfish that can become more potent than other such cores because of Qwilfish's Intimidate constantly weakening foes. Most pivots can work with it, but the most effective are those with Regenerator, like Tornadus-T and Slowking, others with Intimidate, like Landorus-T and Incineroar, and offensively threatening ones, like Sneasler and Cinderace.
**Specially Bulky Pokemon**: One of Qwilfish's primary weaknesses is its poor Special Defense, leaving it vulnerable to strong special attackers. Therefore, partners like Slowking and Latias that can easily switch in and absorb special hits are important to avoid losing momentum.
**Rain**: Rain setters like Pelipper give Qwilfish the option to run its rain sweeper set with Swift Swim.
**Fighting-weak Pokemon**: Teammates weak to Fighting, like Urshifu-S and Weavile, can benefit from Qwilfish's ability to switch into Fighting-types, as it resists their Fighting-type STAB moves, and they are commonly physical attackers.
Checks and Counters
========
**Wallbreakers**: Qwilfish's poor stats, including its special bulk and Speed, leave it as a bit of a momentum sink against special wallbreakers like Landorus, Latios, and Terapagos if it doesn't predict their switch in and use Flip Turn. It often takes excessive damage against even special attacks that it resists, like Choice Specs Iron Valiant's Moonblast and Choice Specs Kyurem's Ice Beam. Physical wallbreakers with super effective moves like Great Tusk and Iron Hands can be threatening as well, especially if they switch into Qwilfish and thus don't have their Attack dropped by Intimidate.
**Grounded Poison-types**: Opposing drafts with grounded Poison-types naturally limit Qwilfish's effectiveness as a Toxic Spikes setter, and these Poison-types also resist its most common and powerful STAB move in Gunk Shot.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/vmnunes.613460/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/olivia.620359/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/autumn.384270/
Last edited:
