Grovyle

Tier-OU

Abilities:

Overgrow: Increases power of Grass-type attacks by x1.5 when 33% or less health is remaining.

HP

Atk

Def

Sp Atk

Sp Def

Spd

	Set Name	Nature		Item

SubSDVyle

Jolly

Leftovers

	Moves	EVs

Substitute
Swords Dance
Leaf Blade
Return / Body Slam

252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP

In exchange for coverage, this set gives Grovyle its best chance of setting up Swords Dance for a sweep, as it has little opportunities to do so because of its typing and at best mediocre defenses. Leaf Blade and Return give Grovyle passable coverage in OU, only being resisted by Metang, Bronzor and Haunter. The choice between Body Slam and Return is mainly based on how much your team fears Dragonair. While the 30% chance to paralyze the foe (mathematically, 30% chance to paralyze AND immobilize the foe in the same turn) sounds nice, Grovyle cannot 2HKO the standard Dragonair without the extra Return damage, as well as guaranteeing a OHKO on the standard Monferno after Stealth Rock damage, while OHKOing Yanma even with no Stealth Rock.

	Set Name	Nature		Item

Special Sweeper

Timid

Choice Specs / Life Orb

	Moves	EVs

Leaf Storm
Dragonbreath
Hidden Power Fire
Seismic Toss

252 Sp Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Sp Def

Grovyle's Special movepool is pretty limited, but it carries enough to make an effective Special sweeper set. Proving to be Grovyle's most potent attacks, one of the few sound substitutions for this set is substituting Leaf Storm for Energy Ball to ultimately do more damage over 2 turns. It should be noted that with Leaf Storm, Nosepass is OHKOed, however. No notable OU NFEs are OHKOed with Leaf Storm that Energy Ball cannot muscle. This set works well on Sunny Day teams because Solarbeam can be used, which gives Grovyle the same OHKOs while having no charging turn thanks to the sun. Dragonbreath is Grovyle's best attacking option against Dragonair and Shelgon other than Hidden Power Ice, scoring a 2HKO on both of them (even Hidden Power Ice is a 2HKO). Because of Grovyle's shallow Special movepool, Seismic Toss proves the most powerful attacking option outside of Swift on Grovyle.

Grovyle is tied with a handful of Pokemon in its maximum Speed stat, including Haunter, Elekid, Diglett and Yanma. If you don't like the 50% chance of outspeeding these Pokemon, you can drop 8 EVs, and add them to Defense to still allow you to outspeed the next slowest Pokemon, max Speed Monferno.

	Set Name	Nature		Item

Physical Sweeper

Jolly

Life Orb / Choice Band

	Moves	EVs

Leaf Blade
Dig
X-Scissor
Thunderpunch

252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 Sp Def

Although Grovyle's Attack is only mediocre, it can still make a formidable physical sweeper coupled with Life Orb and its blazing Speed. This set gives more coverage than a Swords Dance set, but you don't have the glory of doubling your Attack power with it. As with other sets, you can opt to drop 8 Speed EVs to give up the Speed contest with Yanma, Elekid and Diglett, while still outspeeding max Speed Monferno.


	Team Benefit
	Grovyle works as a very good late-game sweeper for any NFE team. It cannot score many OHKOs on its own, and therefore should be used when the foe's team has already taken around 25% damage, allowing Grovyle to pick them off. This means entry hazards should always be considered when using Grovyle as any kind of sweeper. This makes Roselia a useful teammate, although both of these Pokemon share many common weaknesses. Grovyle is also highly hampered by priority moves, in particular, Ice Shard. This makes Piloswine a useful teammate, as it can take Sneasel down with Superpower, and survive Brick Break on the next turn with the correct EV spread. Grovyle also has trouble with bulkier Pokemon who pack a super-effective hit, mainly Machoke and Bronzor. This makes bulky Water-types good teammates, as well as Haunter and Misdreavus. Stealth Rock-setters who work well with Grovyle include Graveler and Onix, who can switch to Grovyle when faced with a Water or Grass attack, although as mentioned before, Grovyle works best as a late-game sweeper.
	Counters
	With an extremely wide and unpredictable movepool, Grovyle is difficult to counter until one defines what moves it learns. In general, Sneasel outspeeds even a max Speed Grovyle, and can KO with Ice Punch. Kadabra also outspeeds Grovyle, and can KO with a STAB Psychic. Bronzor, as mentioned before, only suffers at worst neutral hits from Grovyle's most common attacks, and can hit with Signal Beam, or Trick Grovyle, ruining its prediction tactic. Metang only fears a non-STAB Dig or Hidden Power Fire, and can hit Grovyle hard with Meteor Mash. Machoke is at worst neutral to all of Grovyle's attacks, and can hit with Dynamicpunch for an instant KO. Diglett outspeeds Grovyle, and can KO with Aerial Ace or Sucker Punch. It can also switch into a predicted Dig, and KO with a boosted Earthquake.