Analysis
Samurott is a decent mon, that got unlucky this month. It’s outshined by it’s older brother blastoise, which is one of the more versatile pokes this month. But it doesn’t mean he can’t pull his own weight.
What I found works best for him is to fill in the gaps of your team, essentially to counter things that spell trouble for you. Specifically the top threats of October, like bisharp or honchkrow. It can go either way of physical or special attack, but it’s too slow to outspeed much, so bulk is required. It also has quite the nice coverage, from fighting, to dark, to even grass. And since you won’t outspeed anything, why not use it to your advantage? Avalanche is a relatively weak move with only 60 base power and -4 priority, but if the user gets hit, the power is doubled into a powerful 120, which takes care of most threats. Honchkrow? Gone. Noivern? you need some bulk to survive draco (252 HP, 108 SpD), but it’s dead nonetheless. Amoonguss? Pulverized or a significant chunk of it’s health is gone (you can use taunt to shut off spore), around half-2/3 depending on bulk [252+ Atk Expert Belt Samurott Avalanche vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Amoonguss: 259-307 (59.9 - 71%)], which can be cleaned up by air slash (yes, the special one, remember amoonguss won’t have both bulks) but it does depend on not getting the lowest rolls. Samurott also has sacred sword, allowing you to deal with bisharp, albeit you might want to get aqua jet, just in case. But that’s only on the physical side, how does it fare on the special side?
Not as well. The movepool is a bit more limited, but not unusable, still being able to sneakily counter some top mons. To keep the ice coverage it replaces avalanche with ice beam, surf for stab, it can take grass knot to kick it’s older brother blastoise right back to kanto (252+ SpA Expert Belt Samurott Grass Knot (80 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Blastoise: 194-230 (53.5 - 63.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery, +2 252 SpA Blastoise Scald vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Samurott: 131-155 (33.2 - 39.3%) -- 99.9% chance to 3HKO) .
All in all, samurott may not be the best pokemon in this meta, it may rely quite a bit on the element of surprise, but it should not be underestimated under any circumstances. Pick your fights carefully, and it’ll be put into the spotlight blastoise took from it.
Yet another thing, recently there has been an uptick in Hisui-Zoroarks disguised as bisharp. It usually becomes a guessing game whether to go with fighting type move (which H-zoroark is immune to) or a dark type move (Which Bisharp resist). Having those two be on one team is a handful to deal with. And guess what? This is where yet another samurott set finds its niche! With Life Orb, Torrent and Aqua Jet/Aqua Cutter/ Drill run it can invalidate this infuriating strategy. It almost one shots Hisui-Zoroark with either Aqua Cutter or Drill Run, and finish it off with an Aqua Jet (252+ Atk Life Orb Samurott Drill Run vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Zoroark-Hisui: 157-186 (62.5 - 74.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO, 252+ Atk Life Orb Samurott Aqua Jet vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Zoroark-Hisui: 118-140 (47 - 55.7%) -- 76.6% chance to 2HKO).
If facing Bisharp it gets a bit more complicated and the string of calculations would be way too long, but it either kills, or dies after dealing significant damage, it kinda depends on the opponent’s Ev’s spread, mindgames, and hoping drill run doesn't miss goddammit. Plus, the set i’ve provided below has facade slapped onto it, so you can say goodbye to annoying burn shenanigans.
Oh, also, sword’s dance doesn’t work that much, it's too slow to take advantage of the set up, toodles!
Written by Aryecki