Overview
Many people will be quick to judge Corsola due to it's base stats, and when you take a look for yourself it becomes understandable.
It has base 55 attack and 65 sp attack, so it would make more sense to use it as a defensive mon. It also gets regenerator so one would think that it’s a great defensive pivot, but its water and rock typing leaves a lot to be desired. It’s weak to most of the offensive threats present this month and easily takes more than half by them, so what place does Corsola have in August 2024?
4 words. Banded hustle head smash. With a 2x boost to its attack and another 1.5x boost from a STAB 150 base power move, this thing will pretty much KO anything that stands in its way.
The Set
Corsola @ Choice Band
Ability: Hustle
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Head Smash
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge/Explosion
- Liquidation
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Corsola Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mandibuzz: 492-578 (116 - 136.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Corsola Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Lanturn: 541-637 (119.1 - 140.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Corsola Head Smash vs. 4 HP / 252 Def Blissey: 696-819 (106.7 - 125.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Corsola Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Muk: 272-320 (65.7 - 77.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Corsola Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Fezandipiti: 412-486 (108.4 - 127.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Corsola Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Sableye: 304-358 (100 - 117.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
As you can see, Corsola easily OHKOs or 2HKOs a lot of the defensive mons in August 2024. Head smash and liquidation offer good STAB options while earthquake is there as coverage against Muk-A and can be used against Fezandipiti in case you don’t want to suffer from recoil damage. It’s also nice if you pair it with a gravity team to OHKO Rotom-H.
Stone edge is here as rock STAB if you don’t want to suffer from recoil damage, but you can switch it for another move depending on your needs.
Explosion can replace stone edge to deal with its checks, as explained below in the checks and counters section.
You can forgo an adamant nature for a jolly nature and have 184 speed EVs to outspeed 0 speed Scizor and still OHKO it, but 0 speed investment Scizor isn’t very common.
Shortcomings
As mentioned before, it has weak defensive typing. When paired with a base 35 speed stat, it’s easily outsped and OHKOed by the likes of Heracross, Mamoswine, Scizor, and even Dhelmise (if you don’t have speed investment). That’s a problem when most teams have at least one of these mons.
It also runs into a problem with accuracy. Hustle reduces the accuracy of physical moves by 20%, and with head smash’s 80 accuracy, you’re looking at a 64% accurate move which means that it will be pretty inconsistent.
Head smash’s recoil and lack of recovery means that Corsola isn’t sticking around for long, so it’ll at most get 2 kills before falling, but even 1 kill can be rare. This often means you need a slow pivot like Lanturn or Teleport to make the most of its nuking capabilities.
Checks & Counters
Chesnaught
Chesnaught is Corsola’s #1 hater. The nut resists all of Corsola’s STABs and earthquake and has a monstrous defense stat, so it can easily shrug off anything from it and use it as an opportunity to set up if it’s an iron trailblaze set or just OHKO it with body press.
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Corsola Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chesnaught: 110-129 (28.9 - 33.9%) -- 1.6% chance to 3HKO
Quagsire
Quagsire also resists head smash, can shrug off earthquake, and runs water absorb so it heals from liquidation.
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Corsola Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Quagsire: 140-165 (35.5 - 41.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
To deal with these mons, Corsola can run explosion over stone edge to deal significant damage to them, but it trades its life for damage that can be healed off by recover or synthesis or even blocked by spiky shield.
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Corsola Explosion vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chesnaught: 244-288 (64.2 - 75.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hustle Corsola Explosion vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Quagsire: 311-367 (78.9 - 93.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Partners In Crime
Sableye
If you don’t like gambling those 64% accurate head smashes, then you can use prankster Sableye with eject button and gravity. Gravity makes sure that head smash will always hit and prankster ensures that gravity will always be set up. Eject button helps with getting Corsola in safely and stops any defensive mons using pivot moves like volt switch or u-turn to pivot into a fast and offensive mon. If the enemy doesn’t have Chesnaught or Quagsire on their team, then they’ll have to sacrifice something to Corsola’s wrath. However, if eject button gets knocked off, Sableye won’t have a way to bring Corsola in safely.
Will-o-wisp can also help Corsola survive a close combat from Scizor or an earthquake from Mamoswine and OHKO it in return. Alternatively, it can run thunder wave to help Corsola outrun Scizor or non-scarf variants of Heracross.
Musharna
Musharna also gets gravity and can slow pivot using baton pass, leaving its item slot free for something more useful like a colbur berry. Synchronize can help punish toxic users like Lanturn. It also gets STAB future sight which can help deal with Chesnaught.
Dhelmise
If you keep seeing the nut and Quagsire in your games, then Dhelmise has the solution for you. It can trap them with anchor shot and either use power whip to kill Quagsire or toxic stall Chesnaught. It also benefits from Corsola easily killing Mandibuzz and Rotom-H, which would otherwise wall it.
Heracross
Similarly, Heracross also benefits from the removal of its checks like Mandibuzz and Fezandipiti and makes sweeping up the late game a lot easier. It also helps eliminate faster threats like Mamoswine that would otherwise outspeed and OHKO Corsola.
Final Thoughts
After reading this analysis you might be wondering, “Is it worth using Corsola?” And after using Corsola for a while, I can confidently say that it’s generally not worth going through all the effort it takes to make it work. But it’s sure as hell fun to watch a tiny pink blob delete some of the best defensive mons this month from existence. I highly recommend pairing Corsola with gravity support to make those head smashes 100% accurate (Unless you’re a god of luck or something).
Written by AlfrexFrostStaff