Kicking off our Pokémon moveset recommendations is the fully evolved form of Kanto's grass starter. I give you; the Seed Pokémon, Venusaur!
After a rainy day, the flower on its back smells stronger. The scent attracts other Pokémon.
-Pokémon Black 2/White 2 Pokédex Entry
-Pokémon Black 2/White 2 Pokédex Entry
Venusaur At a Glance
Type: Grass/Poison
Abilities:
Base Stats:
Abilities:
- Overgrow - Increases the power of Grass-type attacks by 50% when Venusaur has less than or equal to 1/3 of its HP left.
- (Hidden Ability) Chlorophyll - Venusaur's speed doubles in sunny weather
Base Stats:
- HP: 80
- Attack: 82
- Defense: 83
- Special Attack: 100
- Special Defense: 100
- Speed: 80
The moveset + Analysis
Ability: Chlorophyll
Held Item: Life Orb
Nature: Modest (+Special Attack/-Attack)
EV Spread: 4 Defense/252 Special Attack/ 252 Speed
Ability: Chlorophyll raises Venusaur's Speed stat two stages in the sunlight, allowing it to become a very speedy and heavy-hitting sweeper. Venusaur sets that run his regular ability, Overgrow, are harder to find success with, as Venusaur is heavily reliant on the speed boost provided by Chlorophyll.
Held Item: Life Orb allows Venusaur to do extra damage at the cost of being hit with recoil damage. A viable alternative is Black Sludge, which allows Venusaur to recover 6.25% of his maximum HP every turn. This gives Venusaur more survivability at the cost of doing less damage.
Nature: Modest allows you to maximize Venusaur's superior Special Attack stat over his Attack stat. An alternate nature is Timid, which raises Speed instead of Special Attack but also drops Attack. This nature allows Venusaur to outspeed other Venusaurs that run this set on a Modest nature, at the cost of doing less damage.
EV Spread: A basic 252/252/4 spread to boost what the moveset takes advantage of, Venusaur's special attack and speed.
Growth: This raises both Special Attack and Attack stats by one stage, or by two stages in the sunlight. Effectively, on a Chlorophyll Venusaur, you are getting the same bonus Overgrow gives you without the HP requirement, as well as the speed bonus from Chlorophyll.
Solarbeam: At base 120 attack running off Venusaur's monstrous Special Attack stat (ideally boosted by Growth), Solarbeam will deal a huge amount of damage, even to prominent special walls like Blissey, which can potentially get 2HKOd by a Growth-boosted Solarbeam from Venusaur. Alternatively, you can also run Giga Drain. While not nearly as powerful as Solarbeam at base 75 attack, it does allow Venusaur another method of healing any damage it takes.
Hidden Power Fire: This move is intended to counter any potential counters to Venusaur, most commonly Steel-types with good defenses. As sunlight also boosts Fire-type attacks, Venusaur can OHKO most Steel-types.
Sludge Bomb: Another move intended to give Venusaur options against Pokemon that he normally wouldn't be effective against, Sludge Bomb is for Dragon-types like Latios, who resist Solarbeam and Hidden Power Fire. Combined with damage from Stealth Rocks and/or Spikes, a Growth-boosted Sludge Bomb can do a lot of damage to most Dragons, if not outright OHKO. A viable alternative is Sleep Powder, which removes more bulky Dragon-types like Dragonite from the equation as the opponent tries to remove the sleep status.
Held Item: Life Orb
Nature: Modest (+Special Attack/-Attack)
EV Spread: 4 Defense/252 Special Attack/ 252 Speed
- Growth
- Solarbeam
- Hidden Power Fire
- Sludge Bomb
Ability: Chlorophyll raises Venusaur's Speed stat two stages in the sunlight, allowing it to become a very speedy and heavy-hitting sweeper. Venusaur sets that run his regular ability, Overgrow, are harder to find success with, as Venusaur is heavily reliant on the speed boost provided by Chlorophyll.
Held Item: Life Orb allows Venusaur to do extra damage at the cost of being hit with recoil damage. A viable alternative is Black Sludge, which allows Venusaur to recover 6.25% of his maximum HP every turn. This gives Venusaur more survivability at the cost of doing less damage.
Nature: Modest allows you to maximize Venusaur's superior Special Attack stat over his Attack stat. An alternate nature is Timid, which raises Speed instead of Special Attack but also drops Attack. This nature allows Venusaur to outspeed other Venusaurs that run this set on a Modest nature, at the cost of doing less damage.
EV Spread: A basic 252/252/4 spread to boost what the moveset takes advantage of, Venusaur's special attack and speed.
Growth: This raises both Special Attack and Attack stats by one stage, or by two stages in the sunlight. Effectively, on a Chlorophyll Venusaur, you are getting the same bonus Overgrow gives you without the HP requirement, as well as the speed bonus from Chlorophyll.
Solarbeam: At base 120 attack running off Venusaur's monstrous Special Attack stat (ideally boosted by Growth), Solarbeam will deal a huge amount of damage, even to prominent special walls like Blissey, which can potentially get 2HKOd by a Growth-boosted Solarbeam from Venusaur. Alternatively, you can also run Giga Drain. While not nearly as powerful as Solarbeam at base 75 attack, it does allow Venusaur another method of healing any damage it takes.
Hidden Power Fire: This move is intended to counter any potential counters to Venusaur, most commonly Steel-types with good defenses. As sunlight also boosts Fire-type attacks, Venusaur can OHKO most Steel-types.
Sludge Bomb: Another move intended to give Venusaur options against Pokemon that he normally wouldn't be effective against, Sludge Bomb is for Dragon-types like Latios, who resist Solarbeam and Hidden Power Fire. Combined with damage from Stealth Rocks and/or Spikes, a Growth-boosted Sludge Bomb can do a lot of damage to most Dragons, if not outright OHKO. A viable alternative is Sleep Powder, which removes more bulky Dragon-types like Dragonite from the equation as the opponent tries to remove the sleep status.
Teammate options
The most important thing to remember if you want to run this Venusaur set is that it is completely reliant on sunlight. As such, Ninetales with its hidden Drought ability is an almost-essential partner. Failing that, someone who can run Sunny Day can replace Ninetales, but the instant weather that Drought gives is very important.
As for countering Venusaur's counters, both Heatran and Dugtrio are good options. Heatran enjoys a boost to its Fire-type attacks from the sunlight, and can stop powerful Fire-types like Volcarona, as well as tank hits from Flying, Psychic, or Ice-types for Venusaur. Venusaur, meanwhile, can defeat Heatran's counters, mainly Ground, Fighting, and Water-types. Dugtrio, on the other hand, can stop opposing Heatrans, which are 4x week to Ground-types. It can also stop other weather starters, who would otherwise stop Venusaur's sweep cold. Most prominently, Dugtrio can stop Tyranitar, which is a common adversary to most sunlight-based teams.
As for countering Venusaur's counters, both Heatran and Dugtrio are good options. Heatran enjoys a boost to its Fire-type attacks from the sunlight, and can stop powerful Fire-types like Volcarona, as well as tank hits from Flying, Psychic, or Ice-types for Venusaur. Venusaur, meanwhile, can defeat Heatran's counters, mainly Ground, Fighting, and Water-types. Dugtrio, on the other hand, can stop opposing Heatrans, which are 4x week to Ground-types. It can also stop other weather starters, who would otherwise stop Venusaur's sweep cold. Most prominently, Dugtrio can stop Tyranitar, which is a common adversary to most sunlight-based teams.
Countering Venusaur
One easy way to counter Venusaur is to counter its teammate, Ninetales. More specifically, stopping the Sunny weather that Ninetales brings will in turn stop Venusaur. Both Politoed (Rain) and Tyranitar (Sandstorm) can achieve this, having powerful moves in their disposal to defeat Ninetales, as well as stopping the sunlight that Venusaur is so reliant on. Abomasnow can't defeat Ninetales himself, but a Choice-Scarfed Blizzard will allow him to defeat Venusaur directly.
Heatran is a very strong counter to Venusaur. Its Fire/Steel dual-typing allows it to tank anything Venusaur can throw at it; it is 4x resistant to Solarbeam, takes neutral damage from Hidden Power Fire, and is outright immune to Sludge Bomb.
More generally, a powerful STAB super-effective move can defeat most Venusaurs, as long as you can predict when it will try to use Growth. Properly predicted, you can stop Venusaur as its trying to set up its stats for a sweep. This method is pretty low risk, as without a boost from Growth, Venusaur can't really defeat many Pokémon.
Heatran is a very strong counter to Venusaur. Its Fire/Steel dual-typing allows it to tank anything Venusaur can throw at it; it is 4x resistant to Solarbeam, takes neutral damage from Hidden Power Fire, and is outright immune to Sludge Bomb.
More generally, a powerful STAB super-effective move can defeat most Venusaurs, as long as you can predict when it will try to use Growth. Properly predicted, you can stop Venusaur as its trying to set up its stats for a sweep. This method is pretty low risk, as without a boost from Growth, Venusaur can't really defeat many Pokémon.
Final thoughts AND The Future
Venusaur had always needed a small push to become a viable option in competitive battles, and Generation 5 finally gave it that push with the hidden ability Chlorophyll. With it, it is an effective Pokémon to build your Sun teams around.
The changes Generation 6 brought give many interesting options for Venusaur. With the nerf to weather abilities, Chlorophyll Venusaurs will be a bit tougher to run, but his secondary Poison-typing allows him to do major damage to the new Fairy-types. Mega Venusaur and his new ability Thick Fat gives some interesting walling possibilities, as Mega Venusaur no longer has Fire and Ice-type weaknesses thanks to its ability. But with Generation 6 being so young, it is hard to tell just what Venusaur's future looks like in the competitive scene.
Remember, the moveset here is not the very best moveset possible for Venusaur. It is not guaranteed to bring you victory. Rather, it is an analysis on what Venusaur can do with proper planning and predictions. Venusaurs with other movesets can also find success in the competitive scene, and some will undoubtedly be better than the moveset listed here. This is meant only as a way to give you an idea for what to run on your Venusaur.
Thanks for reading, and look forward to the next moveset!
The changes Generation 6 brought give many interesting options for Venusaur. With the nerf to weather abilities, Chlorophyll Venusaurs will be a bit tougher to run, but his secondary Poison-typing allows him to do major damage to the new Fairy-types. Mega Venusaur and his new ability Thick Fat gives some interesting walling possibilities, as Mega Venusaur no longer has Fire and Ice-type weaknesses thanks to its ability. But with Generation 6 being so young, it is hard to tell just what Venusaur's future looks like in the competitive scene.
Remember, the moveset here is not the very best moveset possible for Venusaur. It is not guaranteed to bring you victory. Rather, it is an analysis on what Venusaur can do with proper planning and predictions. Venusaurs with other movesets can also find success in the competitive scene, and some will undoubtedly be better than the moveset listed here. This is meant only as a way to give you an idea for what to run on your Venusaur.
Thanks for reading, and look forward to the next moveset!
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