Draft order: Round 5 onwards
Price range: 8-11
Overview: Armarougue is one of the best Trick Room sweeper in the whole game, Indeedee + Weakness Policy + Trick Room sweeps most of the team that are lacking in Dark-types — unfortunately this is not a VGC draft analysis and Armarogue is quite mediocre in Singles Draft. Armarogue isn't as blessed as it's older sibling Ceruledge, lower speed, worse typing, and the lack of recovery; but it is one of the coolest Pokemon design in current generation and it does work as a Breaker/Setup Sweeper. Armarogue cool factor is the biggest reason to draft it and sometimes a little bit of favoritism can push a Pokemon far in the draft scene.
Common Roles
========
* Role 1: Setup sweeper - The combination of Weak Armor, Calm Mind, and Stored Power allows Armarogue to be a potent sweeper.
* Role 2: Wall Breaker - Armor Cannon is one of the best spamable Fire STAB and STAB Psyshock allows Armarogue to hit Special Defense walls such as Clodsire.
* Role 3: Trick Room Sweeper - A less consistent Setup Sweeper set but still a strategy that can steal win from an unprepared opponent.
Common Moves
========
* Primary STAB moves: Armor Cannon, Fire Blast, Overheat, Flamethrower, Psychic, Psyshock, Stored Power
* Setup moves: Calm Mind, Flame Charge, Iron Defense
* Utility moves: Endure, Destiny Bond, Reflect, Light Screen, Disable, Taunt, Clear Smog, Trick Room, Will-o-Wisp, Trick
* Coverage: Focus Blast, Aura Sphere, Energy Ball, Dark Pulse, Shadow Ball, Scorching Sands
Niche Moves
========
* Psychic Terrain: Opens up Expanding Force as a strong STAB option while blocking priority moves that threaten Armarogue.
* Meteor Beam: Power Herb + Meteor Beam provides Armarogue with a strong Rock coverage for opposing Fire-types while also boosting Armarogue offensive capability.
* Wide Guard: Tech to block Earthquake and Surf that threaten Armarogue.
* Acid Spray: Soften up Special Walls Pokemon that want to switch-in to Armarogue.
Common Items
========
* Heavy-Duty-Boots: The most common item on Armarogue, keeping it healthy to setup or trade blows.
* Weakness Policy: The item that boost the potency of Setup Sweeping with Armarogue. This strategy is very telegraphed so it's less common to see in draft.
* Choice Specs/Life Orb: Improves Armarogue breaking capability, making any switches into it a risky one.
* Focus Sash: Helps Armarogue deals with faster threats, requires a good hazard control to make use of it.
Niche Items
========
* Choice Scarf: Allows Armarogue to be a revenge killer in some match up even if 75 Speed is less than ideal for Choice Scarf.
* Eject Pack: Provides a surprise momentum with Armor Cannon/Overheat on a Special Walls such as Ting-Lu or Blissey.
* Custap Berry: Endure + Custap Berry could score a surprise kill on a key threat.
* Assault Vest/Psychic Seed: Armarogue has a natural Physical Bulk so a Special Defense boost can help Armarogue survive a lot more hits.
Tera
========
Tera Armarogue isn't as game winning as Tera Ceruledge, but it can still do similar tricks. Tera Bug + Flash Fire can turn Armarogue into a good bruiser. Tera Grass helps in resisting Ground and Water moves to make more space for setting up. Terastallizing into any of it's STAB types will help Armarogue score OHKOs or 2HKOs even into resisted targets. Overall, Armarogue could be an adequate Tera option as a secondary win condition or powerful breaker but never opt to make it the main feature of the draft.
Draft Strategy
========
Most of the time Armarogue doesn't fit to every draft structure. Building around Armarogue is also not adviced as it is still littered with a lot of holes that are not easy to patch out; "Psychic Spam" is also a team structure that is very MU reliant and also prep-able so it will produce inconsistent results. These are the only time to consider drafting Armarogue:
* Lack of Fire Breaker: If the draft has a problem with breaking Grass or Steel types, Armarogue provides a powerful breaking role to open up other win conditions.
* Indeedee: Picking up Armarogue is a good idea if Indeedee had been drafted to boost other Psychic-types such as Mewtwo in Ubers draft or to enable Unburden + Psychic Seed strategy with Pokemon such as Hawlucha or Sneasle.
Checks and Counters
========
* Priority: Armarogue is very vulnerable to priority moves especially after Weak Armor or Armor Cannon reducing it's defenses.
* Fast Threats: Armarogue's low speed makes it very prone to getting revenge killed by any faster Pokemon. Endure helps turning the tables on physical Pokemon but special threats could care less about Endure and hit Armarogue very hard. Some faster Choice Scarfed Pokemon can also outspeed Armarogue even with Weak Armor boost.
* Haze: Another weakness from Armarogue due to it's low Speed. Haze erases any Calm Mind or Weakness Policy boosts. While Armarogue has Taunt to prevent Haze, it is very slow so there are a lot of Haze users that will outspeed Armarogue and erases any setup it clicks.
* Hazards: Hazards will either reveal Armarogue's item or chip a good chunk of it's health which makes adapting to it easier.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/xtopher_17.655871/
Quality checked by:
Grammar checked by:
Price range: 8-11
Overview: Armarougue is one of the best Trick Room sweeper in the whole game, Indeedee + Weakness Policy + Trick Room sweeps most of the team that are lacking in Dark-types — unfortunately this is not a VGC draft analysis and Armarogue is quite mediocre in Singles Draft. Armarogue isn't as blessed as it's older sibling Ceruledge, lower speed, worse typing, and the lack of recovery; but it is one of the coolest Pokemon design in current generation and it does work as a Breaker/Setup Sweeper. Armarogue cool factor is the biggest reason to draft it and sometimes a little bit of favoritism can push a Pokemon far in the draft scene.
Common Roles
========
* Role 1: Setup sweeper - The combination of Weak Armor, Calm Mind, and Stored Power allows Armarogue to be a potent sweeper.
* Role 2: Wall Breaker - Armor Cannon is one of the best spamable Fire STAB and STAB Psyshock allows Armarogue to hit Special Defense walls such as Clodsire.
* Role 3: Trick Room Sweeper - A less consistent Setup Sweeper set but still a strategy that can steal win from an unprepared opponent.
Common Moves
========
* Primary STAB moves: Armor Cannon, Fire Blast, Overheat, Flamethrower, Psychic, Psyshock, Stored Power
* Setup moves: Calm Mind, Flame Charge, Iron Defense
* Utility moves: Endure, Destiny Bond, Reflect, Light Screen, Disable, Taunt, Clear Smog, Trick Room, Will-o-Wisp, Trick
* Coverage: Focus Blast, Aura Sphere, Energy Ball, Dark Pulse, Shadow Ball, Scorching Sands
Niche Moves
========
* Psychic Terrain: Opens up Expanding Force as a strong STAB option while blocking priority moves that threaten Armarogue.
* Meteor Beam: Power Herb + Meteor Beam provides Armarogue with a strong Rock coverage for opposing Fire-types while also boosting Armarogue offensive capability.
* Wide Guard: Tech to block Earthquake and Surf that threaten Armarogue.
* Acid Spray: Soften up Special Walls Pokemon that want to switch-in to Armarogue.
Common Items
========
* Heavy-Duty-Boots: The most common item on Armarogue, keeping it healthy to setup or trade blows.
* Weakness Policy: The item that boost the potency of Setup Sweeping with Armarogue. This strategy is very telegraphed so it's less common to see in draft.
* Choice Specs/Life Orb: Improves Armarogue breaking capability, making any switches into it a risky one.
* Focus Sash: Helps Armarogue deals with faster threats, requires a good hazard control to make use of it.
Niche Items
========
* Choice Scarf: Allows Armarogue to be a revenge killer in some match up even if 75 Speed is less than ideal for Choice Scarf.
* Eject Pack: Provides a surprise momentum with Armor Cannon/Overheat on a Special Walls such as Ting-Lu or Blissey.
* Custap Berry: Endure + Custap Berry could score a surprise kill on a key threat.
* Assault Vest/Psychic Seed: Armarogue has a natural Physical Bulk so a Special Defense boost can help Armarogue survive a lot more hits.
Tera
========
Tera Armarogue isn't as game winning as Tera Ceruledge, but it can still do similar tricks. Tera Bug + Flash Fire can turn Armarogue into a good bruiser. Tera Grass helps in resisting Ground and Water moves to make more space for setting up. Terastallizing into any of it's STAB types will help Armarogue score OHKOs or 2HKOs even into resisted targets. Overall, Armarogue could be an adequate Tera option as a secondary win condition or powerful breaker but never opt to make it the main feature of the draft.
Draft Strategy
========
Most of the time Armarogue doesn't fit to every draft structure. Building around Armarogue is also not adviced as it is still littered with a lot of holes that are not easy to patch out; "Psychic Spam" is also a team structure that is very MU reliant and also prep-able so it will produce inconsistent results. These are the only time to consider drafting Armarogue:
* Lack of Fire Breaker: If the draft has a problem with breaking Grass or Steel types, Armarogue provides a powerful breaking role to open up other win conditions.
* Indeedee: Picking up Armarogue is a good idea if Indeedee had been drafted to boost other Psychic-types such as Mewtwo in Ubers draft or to enable Unburden + Psychic Seed strategy with Pokemon such as Hawlucha or Sneasle.
Checks and Counters
========
* Priority: Armarogue is very vulnerable to priority moves especially after Weak Armor or Armor Cannon reducing it's defenses.
* Fast Threats: Armarogue's low speed makes it very prone to getting revenge killed by any faster Pokemon. Endure helps turning the tables on physical Pokemon but special threats could care less about Endure and hit Armarogue very hard. Some faster Choice Scarfed Pokemon can also outspeed Armarogue even with Weak Armor boost.
* Haze: Another weakness from Armarogue due to it's low Speed. Haze erases any Calm Mind or Weakness Policy boosts. While Armarogue has Taunt to prevent Haze, it is very slow so there are a lot of Haze users that will outspeed Armarogue and erases any setup it clicks.
* Hazards: Hazards will either reveal Armarogue's item or chip a good chunk of it's health which makes adapting to it easier.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/xtopher_17.655871/
Quality checked by:
Grammar checked by:
Last edited:
