Breloom

Breloom stands as one of the more difficult threats to cover in the tier thanks to its unique blend of survivability and power. Breloom’s access to Spore, Poison Heal ability as well as Toxic Orb's easy activation, and powerful Grass- and Fighting-type attacks make it one of the premier stallbreakers in the tier. Spore warps the tier: only a few Pokemon such as defensive Latias, Zapdos, and Celebi can stomach repeated attacks while asleep. Offensive teams are forced to sacrifice a key Pokemon to Spore, run a Sleep Talk user, or never give Breloom a chance to gain momentum with multiple fast Pokemon or Lum Berry. Defensive teams must typically carry two strong Breloom checks: one to absorb Spore and the other to beat it. Once Toxic Orb activates, Breloom prominently is immune to both status and Knock Off, making it difficult to wear down despite its poor defensive stats. Breloom's typing grants it key access to strong Grass- and Fighting-type attacks such as Seed Bomb, Superpower, and Focus Punch, allowing it to threaten prominent Pokemon such as Tyranitar, Clefable, Blissey, and Swampert.

Breloom’s attributes allows it to feature on a wide variety of teams and different roles: the most offensive teams use Breloom early in the game to prevent Stealth Rock via sleep and gain momentum while more defensive teams can take advantage of disabling a threat with sleep, Leech Seed, and a strong Clefable answer. Mach Punch allows Breloom to keep most Tyranitar sets in check, crucial for supporting a Choice Scarf Latias or Choice Scarf Rotom-A. Defensive sets are fantastic status absorbers for opposing Breloom, Rotom-A, and Clefable while generally threatening much of the tier with Leech Seed and paralysis with Force Palm. Swords Dance sets with paralysis support can slice through even multiple bulky checks such as Skarmory, Nidoqueen, and Latias. Substitute sets easily punish teams with poor Breloom checks with repeated Focus Punch without having to worry about revenge killing.

Breloom’s flaws lie in its relatively low Speed and defensive stats, making it hard to fulfill all of its niches at once. Breloom is often stuck in a conundrum of needing to invest in its bulk to survive strong attacks such as +1 Tyranitar’s Fire Punch, +1 Gyarados’s Ice Fang, utility Tyranitar's Fire Blast, and Swampert’s Ice Beam, while still needing enough heavy Speed investment to outpace max Speed Swampert, Tyranitar, and slower version of Zapdos and Jirachi if Breloom has a Jolly nature. This makes Breloom vulnerable to offensive pressure from faster Pokemon such as Flygon, Heatran, Latias, Gengar, Dragonite, and Jirachi. Breloom’s survivability comes more from its resilience due to Poison Heal rather than numerical bulk even when invested; it can be overwhelmed by strong neutral attacks such as Life Orb Gengar's Shadow Ball and even resisted hits such as Choice Band Tyranitar’s Stone Edge. Although Breloom can be devastating if underprepared for, common cores are built to limit its impact. Hyper offensive teams often have multiple faster Pokemon with Lum Berry such as Dragonite and Metagross that can OHKO Breloom. Defensive Breloom is deathly afraid of Skarmory—Spikes heavily limit how often Breloom can come in and break common defensive cores, especially since defensive teams often have multiple Breloom counters. Even though Poison Heal heals Breloom in sand, it chips away at its resilience and makes it more difficult to function.