[overview]
**Draft order**: Round 4 onwards
**Price range**: 8-10 points
**Overview**: Torkoal is the best sun setter in the format. Excellent physical defense, entry hazard control, and useful utility move options set it apart from Ninetales. Torkoal's extremely low Speed means that if leading against an opposing weather setter like Pelipper or Tyranitar, it will always set sun after them, preventing opposing weather. However, Torkoal suffers from poor longevity, being weak to entry hazards and needing to run Heat Rock to maximize sun turns. While Torkoal has a modest damage output, it is highly passive and not worth drafting on its own. As such, it should only be drafted alongside other Pokemon that Torkoal can allow to reach their full potential.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Sun setter**: Torkoal sets sun. It does this well. This set looks to leverage Torkoal's wealth of utility moves and entry hazard control options to maximize its usefulness despite its mediocre damage output. The risk of burn from Lava Plume and Will-O-Wisp dissuades physical attackers from setting up on it.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB moves**: Lava Plume, Flamethrower, Eruption, Overheat, Weather Ball
**Setup moves**: Iron Defence, Amnesia
**Utility moves**: Clear Smog, Rapid Spin, Stealth Rock, Will-O-Wisp, Yawn
**Coverage**: Ancient Power, Body Press, Earth Power, Earthquake, Gyro Ball, Heavy Slam, Rock Slide, Scorching Sands, Sludge Bomb, Solar Beam, Stone Edge, Zen Headbutt
Niche Moves
========
**Rest**: Rest can be used alongside Iron Defense and Body Press to surprise opponents with a frighteningly strong wallbreaker. Amnesia and Shell Armor can also be used to become incredibly hard to knock out.
**Fire Spin**: Torkoal can trap physically weak foes with Fire Spin and whittle them down with relative ease.
**Curse**: Curse synergizes nicely with Gyro Ball and Body Press, providing Torkoal with a niche as a slow wallbreaker.
**Bulldoze**: Bulldoze should only ever be used with a predetermined plan of preventing an opposing Pokemon from setting up on Torkoal and sweeping.
**Endure**: When paired with a Custap Berry, Endure can be used as a last ditch attempt to remove entry hazards with Rapid Spin against faster foes or surprise them with a strong STAB attack.
Common Items
========
**Heat Rock**: It provides more sun for the sun god. Torkoal trades longevity in exchange for longer sun duration.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: At the cost of more turns of sun, Heavy-Duty Boots lets Torkoal be a stronger long-term sun setter, as it removes its crippling weakness to entry hazards. However, this does mean that sun will be around for a shorter time, and therefore its teammates won't benefit from it as much.
**Eject Pack**: Torkoal can use Eject Pack in combination with Overheat to allow it to function as a powerful one-time pivot.
Niche Items
========
**Healing items**: Though outclassed by Heavy-Duty Boots most of the time, healing items like Leftovers and Sitrus Berry can have a use in matchups where opponents have poor entry hazard control options.
**Damage-boosting items**: Choice Specs and Charcoal can capitalize on opponents who might be expecting a more passive Torkoal or against teams with limited defenses against Fire-types.
**Air Balloon**: Air Balloon allows Torkoal to switch in on Ground-type attacks with more safety, giving it a window to burn a foe with Will-O-Wisp or fire back with an attack.
Tera
========
Please do not make Torkoal your Tera Captain. Torkoal is a Pokemon that excels at enabling other Pokemon and as such receives no benefit from Tera. If you have somehow ended up with Torkoal as your Tera Captain, then Tera Fire is a good choice to increase the damage output of its STAB moves considerably. Tera Grass can remove weaknesses to Water and Ground, allowing it to survive longer and set sun more times throughout the battle. However, these perceived positive aspects still don't make Torkoal a viable Tera Captain on any team.
Draft Strategy
========
Torkoal is a complementary piece on sun teams and as such should only be drafted with strong sun users like Walking Wake and Great Tusk. Other partners to consider or things to look for in partners are:
**Entry hazard control**: As it is weak to Stealth Rock, Torkoal appreciates having another Pokemon capable of hazard control like Great Tusk or Iron Treads, enabling it to hold Heat Rock more freely without the need to consistently switch in to remove hazards itself.
**Protosynthesis**: Torkoal enables Protosynthesis users like Gouging Fire, Great Tusk, Roaring Moon, and Raging Bolt to forgo Booster Energy, freeing up another item slot while also dramatically raising a stat of theirs that your choose, making them significantly harder for a foe to deal with.
**Chlorophyll**: Chlorophyll allows most users to outspeed nearly all Choice Scarf users and if positioned well, sweep an opposing team. Notable Chlorophyll users include Hisuian Lilligant and Venusaur, two Pokemon that greatly enjoy having Torkoal supporting them.
**Strong Fire-type Pokemon**: Chi-Yu, Iron Moth, and Gouging Fire are all examples of Pokemon that appreciate Torkoal's sun setting capabilities, forgoing the need for setup moves, as the sun's damage boost is enough to sweep teams.
**Ground-resistant Pokemon**: As Torkoal is typically drafted with other Fire-types that benefit from its sun, Ground-resistant or Ground-immune Pokemon are equally important to draft alongside it. Serperior, Slither Wing, and Latios all enjoy switching in on Ground-type attacks, allowing them to set up if positioned well.
Checks and Counters
========
**Chip damage**: Torkoal's limited access to healing and reliance on Heat Rock or Heavy-Duty Boots mean it is very susceptible to chip damage, especially if it finds itself without Heavy-Duty Boots.
**Bulky Water-types**: Though Torkoal can run Solar Beam as coverage, it typically doesn't want to. Its low offenses mean that Pokemon like Milotic, Manaphy, and Araquanid can shrug off hits and Flip Turn into a strong wallbreaker or set up themselves.
**Opposing weather**: Opposing weather setters like Tyranitar and Alolan Ninetales, or manual setters like Galarian Slowking, can highly disrupt the momentum of sun teams, forcing Torkoal to switch back in to set sun again, leaving it exposed to chip damage or inviting in opposing setup sweepers. Heavy-Duty Boots is valuable on these sets, as Torkoal will be forced to pivot into battle more consistently than desired. Opposing weather setters also make it rare that Torkoal's sun will stay up for the full Heat Rock-extended duration.
**Special attackers**: Torkoal's below average special bulk means it can be preyed upon by strong special attackers like Latias, Kyurem, and Necrozma, all of which Torkoal has difficulty threatening in return.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/olivia7.620359/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/celestiial.613399/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nyx.564960/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solunar11.470115/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/ken.594478/
**Draft order**: Round 4 onwards
**Price range**: 8-10 points
**Overview**: Torkoal is the best sun setter in the format. Excellent physical defense, entry hazard control, and useful utility move options set it apart from Ninetales. Torkoal's extremely low Speed means that if leading against an opposing weather setter like Pelipper or Tyranitar, it will always set sun after them, preventing opposing weather. However, Torkoal suffers from poor longevity, being weak to entry hazards and needing to run Heat Rock to maximize sun turns. While Torkoal has a modest damage output, it is highly passive and not worth drafting on its own. As such, it should only be drafted alongside other Pokemon that Torkoal can allow to reach their full potential.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Sun setter**: Torkoal sets sun. It does this well. This set looks to leverage Torkoal's wealth of utility moves and entry hazard control options to maximize its usefulness despite its mediocre damage output. The risk of burn from Lava Plume and Will-O-Wisp dissuades physical attackers from setting up on it.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB moves**: Lava Plume, Flamethrower, Eruption, Overheat, Weather Ball
**Setup moves**: Iron Defence, Amnesia
**Utility moves**: Clear Smog, Rapid Spin, Stealth Rock, Will-O-Wisp, Yawn
**Coverage**: Ancient Power, Body Press, Earth Power, Earthquake, Gyro Ball, Heavy Slam, Rock Slide, Scorching Sands, Sludge Bomb, Solar Beam, Stone Edge, Zen Headbutt
Niche Moves
========
**Rest**: Rest can be used alongside Iron Defense and Body Press to surprise opponents with a frighteningly strong wallbreaker. Amnesia and Shell Armor can also be used to become incredibly hard to knock out.
**Fire Spin**: Torkoal can trap physically weak foes with Fire Spin and whittle them down with relative ease.
**Curse**: Curse synergizes nicely with Gyro Ball and Body Press, providing Torkoal with a niche as a slow wallbreaker.
**Bulldoze**: Bulldoze should only ever be used with a predetermined plan of preventing an opposing Pokemon from setting up on Torkoal and sweeping.
**Endure**: When paired with a Custap Berry, Endure can be used as a last ditch attempt to remove entry hazards with Rapid Spin against faster foes or surprise them with a strong STAB attack.
Common Items
========
**Heat Rock**: It provides more sun for the sun god. Torkoal trades longevity in exchange for longer sun duration.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: At the cost of more turns of sun, Heavy-Duty Boots lets Torkoal be a stronger long-term sun setter, as it removes its crippling weakness to entry hazards. However, this does mean that sun will be around for a shorter time, and therefore its teammates won't benefit from it as much.
**Eject Pack**: Torkoal can use Eject Pack in combination with Overheat to allow it to function as a powerful one-time pivot.
Niche Items
========
**Healing items**: Though outclassed by Heavy-Duty Boots most of the time, healing items like Leftovers and Sitrus Berry can have a use in matchups where opponents have poor entry hazard control options.
**Damage-boosting items**: Choice Specs and Charcoal can capitalize on opponents who might be expecting a more passive Torkoal or against teams with limited defenses against Fire-types.
**Air Balloon**: Air Balloon allows Torkoal to switch in on Ground-type attacks with more safety, giving it a window to burn a foe with Will-O-Wisp or fire back with an attack.
Tera
========
Please do not make Torkoal your Tera Captain. Torkoal is a Pokemon that excels at enabling other Pokemon and as such receives no benefit from Tera. If you have somehow ended up with Torkoal as your Tera Captain, then Tera Fire is a good choice to increase the damage output of its STAB moves considerably. Tera Grass can remove weaknesses to Water and Ground, allowing it to survive longer and set sun more times throughout the battle. However, these perceived positive aspects still don't make Torkoal a viable Tera Captain on any team.
Draft Strategy
========
Torkoal is a complementary piece on sun teams and as such should only be drafted with strong sun users like Walking Wake and Great Tusk. Other partners to consider or things to look for in partners are:
**Entry hazard control**: As it is weak to Stealth Rock, Torkoal appreciates having another Pokemon capable of hazard control like Great Tusk or Iron Treads, enabling it to hold Heat Rock more freely without the need to consistently switch in to remove hazards itself.
**Protosynthesis**: Torkoal enables Protosynthesis users like Gouging Fire, Great Tusk, Roaring Moon, and Raging Bolt to forgo Booster Energy, freeing up another item slot while also dramatically raising a stat of theirs that your choose, making them significantly harder for a foe to deal with.
**Chlorophyll**: Chlorophyll allows most users to outspeed nearly all Choice Scarf users and if positioned well, sweep an opposing team. Notable Chlorophyll users include Hisuian Lilligant and Venusaur, two Pokemon that greatly enjoy having Torkoal supporting them.
**Strong Fire-type Pokemon**: Chi-Yu, Iron Moth, and Gouging Fire are all examples of Pokemon that appreciate Torkoal's sun setting capabilities, forgoing the need for setup moves, as the sun's damage boost is enough to sweep teams.
**Ground-resistant Pokemon**: As Torkoal is typically drafted with other Fire-types that benefit from its sun, Ground-resistant or Ground-immune Pokemon are equally important to draft alongside it. Serperior, Slither Wing, and Latios all enjoy switching in on Ground-type attacks, allowing them to set up if positioned well.
Checks and Counters
========
**Chip damage**: Torkoal's limited access to healing and reliance on Heat Rock or Heavy-Duty Boots mean it is very susceptible to chip damage, especially if it finds itself without Heavy-Duty Boots.
**Bulky Water-types**: Though Torkoal can run Solar Beam as coverage, it typically doesn't want to. Its low offenses mean that Pokemon like Milotic, Manaphy, and Araquanid can shrug off hits and Flip Turn into a strong wallbreaker or set up themselves.
**Opposing weather**: Opposing weather setters like Tyranitar and Alolan Ninetales, or manual setters like Galarian Slowking, can highly disrupt the momentum of sun teams, forcing Torkoal to switch back in to set sun again, leaving it exposed to chip damage or inviting in opposing setup sweepers. Heavy-Duty Boots is valuable on these sets, as Torkoal will be forced to pivot into battle more consistently than desired. Opposing weather setters also make it rare that Torkoal's sun will stay up for the full Heat Rock-extended duration.
**Special attackers**: Torkoal's below average special bulk means it can be preyed upon by strong special attackers like Latias, Kyurem, and Necrozma, all of which Torkoal has difficulty threatening in return.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/olivia7.620359/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/celestiial.613399/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nyx.564960/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solunar11.470115/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/ken.594478/
Last edited:
