Pincurchin is more likely to be someone’s last choice for their team than their first choice. Pincurchin’s speed is laughably low, and despite decent defense stats, the Pokemon suffers from low HP as well. However, Pincurchin has one move that has potential to sweep an entire team when RNG is on your side, and that’s Acupressure. This strategy is far from foolproof, but the results can be hilarious when left unchecked.
Pincurchin Moveset
| Move 1: Substitute Move 2: Recover Move 3: Acupressure Move 4: Discharge |
Tera Type: Steel Item: Leftovers Ability: Lighting Rod Nature: Bold EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD |
Pincurchin Strategy
The strategy here is simple. First, use substitute. Then, use acupressure and hope you get good RNG. What Acupressure does is raises a random stat — Attack, Defense, Speed, Special Attack, Special Defense, Accuracy or Evasion — by two stages. And it will always pick a stat that hasn’t already been maximized. What this means is that you could potentially raise your evasion and defense stats, making you an almost unkillable monster.
Pincurchin’s primary weakness is, of course, Ground type Pokemon. If your opponent still has Ground Pokemon available, you’ll simply be unable to hurt it because your only offensive move is Discharge. As such, it’s recommended that you deal with any Ground types before sending out Pincurchin, or else you risk wasting several turns and stat boosts. Pincurchin is also susceptible to Ground type attacks, but it’s not necessarily game over if the Ground type attacks are coming from a non-Ground Pokemon — after a few boosts, you’ll likely be able to evade them or tank them.
The obvious item choice here is Leftovers, which will help you recover some health after using Substitute. You do also have Recover to help heal up, but you might not use it much as you’ll want to start using Acupressure right away.