Granbull, The Fairy Pokémon. It is timid in spite of its looks. If it becomes enraged, however, it will strike with its huge fangs. It can make most any Pokémon run away simply by opening its mouth wide to reveal its big fangs. It is actually timid and easily spooked. If attacked, it flails about to fend off its attacker. Because its fangs are too heavy, it always keeps its head tilted down. However, its bite is powerful.
Overview
Up until now, Granbull has had a hard time standing out in competitive play. In GSC, Game Freak released it alongside Ursaring, a Pokemon not only with identical typing, but also with equal HP and Defense stats and higher stats literally everywhere else. All that Granbull really had to set itself apart was Heal Bell. RSE gave it Intimidate, but even then there was only so much it could do defensively with only one immunity and no resistances to speak of, and Ursaring still outclassed it offensively. DPPt gave Granbull Quick Feet, a cool offensive ability…oh yeah, and they gave it to Ursaring too. Bummer. Thankfully, XY finally gave Granbull exactly what it wanted: something to help it carve its own niche. Okay, that was incredibly vague. More specifically, they gave it a brand new Fairy typing. Part of me wonders if they really didn't want to make it a Fairy Pokemon at first but then realized that they kinda brought it upon themselves when they named its species "the Fairy Pokemon," but I digress. With its newfound typing, Granbull finally has a niche of its own since, thanks to Intimidate, it's the most physically defensive Fairy in the game bar Fairy Arceus (technically Mega Mawile beats it after normal Mawile's Intimidate, but that only works once). While it's still outclassed for the most part as a supporting tank in standard environments like OU and Battle Spot, it's a solid pick for lower tier play.
Positives
+Pure Fairy typing is a real blessing. Granbull gets important resistances to Fighting-, Bug-, and Dark-type moves along with a Dragon immunity, all in exchange for two weaknesses to types that aren't all that common outside of STAB users anyway.
+Base 120 Atk is pretty solid, on the level of Blaziken. With its new STAB Play Rough and great complimenting coverage with Earthquake, Granbull hits pretty hard.
+While its physical bulk isn't much on the surface, Intimidate gives a fully invested Granbull 90 / 137 equivalent defenses on the physical side, which makes it ~13% more physically bulky than a fully invested Skarmory.
+Granbull has a movepool that a lot of Pokemon would kill for.
+Is dog.
Negatives
-90 / 60 special bulk isn't too hot at all. Not terrible, but don't expect Granbull to be taking many special hits.
-Lack of a reliable recovery move sure hurts it as a physical tank.
-Its great offensive movepool is somewhat put to waste when it's still outclassed by a ton of other Pokemon offensively
-Granbull has a phenomenal special movepool and a garbage Special Attack stat to go along with it. There are a lot of special attackers *cough*Delphox*cough* that would love to have some of the moves this thing does, and it can't even use them properly.
-Base 45 Speed is slow, even slower than Chansey. You know, that big pink blob with the tiny legs? Yeah, it outruns Granbull.
Abilities
Intimidate: Upon entering battle, the opponent's Attack is lowered one stage. This has always been an excellent ability for any Pokemon, and Granbull is no exception. Combined with its great typing, Intimidate makes Granbull a solid physical tank.
Quick Feet: Speed is increased by 50% when inflicted with a burn, poison, sleep, or paralysis. If paralyzed, the speed drop is ignored. With a measly base 45 Speed stat, Granbull should not try to sweep with Quick Feet. Leave the sweeping to faster Pokemon with better boosting moves.
Hidden Ability (Available):
Rattled: Speed is raised by one stage when the Pokemon is hit by a Bug-, Ghost-, or Dark-type move. To be honest, Quick Feet is better. At least it's reliable. Needless to say, don't use Rattled.
Movesets
Wow. Very Bulk. Much Tank.
-Play Rough
-Earthquake
-Thunder Wave
-Heal Bell
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
If there's one thing Granbull's really good at, it's tanking physical hits (and to a smaller extent, dishing them out as well). It's a pretty solid answer to a lot of RU's top threats such as Druddigon, Gallade, physical Sharpedo, and Hitmonlee. Thankfully, Game Freak didn't pull another Flareon here, so Granbull has a pretty good physical STAB to work with in Play Rough. Earthquake pairs really nicely with Play Rough, hitting most Pokemon that resist Granbull's STAB for neutral or super effective damage while offering solid power in general with no drawbacks. Between these two moves and its impressive Attack stat, there aren't a lot of offensive Pokemon that are comfortable with taking Granbull's hits. Next we have our support moves. Thunder Wave is a solid move for crippling just about any offensive Pokemon. Nothing likes being paralyzed, especially if they're a frail sweeper. What's more is that Granbull is just fast enough to outspeed everything slower than a Choice Scarf Delphox once the opponent has been paralyzed. Heal Bell is another great support move, and Granbull is one of the best users of the move in lower tiers. Due to its solid Intimidate-boosted physical bulk and good typing, Granbull can find plenty of opportunities to switch in and use the move to heal both itself and its teammates from status inflictions. This makes Granbull a good choice on both defensive and offensive teams that don't want to deal with status wearing their Pokemon down or stopping sweepers in their tracks. The given EV spread maximizes Granbull's physical bulk. Just to put this into perspective, Choice Band Terrakion needs Stealth Rock and 3 layers of Spikes just to ensure that Stone Edge will 2HKO Granbull on the switch. However, running more Attack investment is also viable. If you don't need Granbull to wall opponents quite as much, you can give it more power to strengthen its solid neutral coverage while still having enough bulk to take a couple of hits.
Other Options
Roar, Rest, Sleep Talk, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Fire Punch, Fighting-type attacks, Crunch, Payback, Super Fang, Toxic, Bulk Up, Taunt, Quick Feet
Roar is a good support move that can phaze out setup sweepers and eliminate their boosts, although Thunder Wave and the combination of Play Rough and Earthquake should do a decent enough job of stopping setup sweepers.
Rest + Sleep Talk is Granbull's only real form of recovery. If you want it to wall things for a while and can't afford Wish support, this is the next best option. A set of Play Rough / Heal Bell / Rest / Sleep Talk has potential. Heal Bell not only keeps Granbull's job as a cleric alive, but it has a chance of waking it up early.
The elemental punches can be used to cover a few select Pokemon. For example, Fire Punch hits Bronzong (who resists Fairy + Ground coverage), Ice Punch hits Gliscor very hard, and Thunder Punch slams bulky Water-types. However, outside of a few select targets, they don't help with all that much.
Granbull has several good Fighting-type attacks, but none are ideal. Close Combat and Superpower have unwanted drawbacks due to stat drops, Focus Punch requires Substitute to be reliable (which cuts into an extra moveslot), Low Kick's power is somewhat unreliable, and Brick Break is pretty weak. Besides, Earthquake generally offers enough coverage as it is.
Crunch and Payback offer good neutral coverage alongside Play Rough. Crunch's power is more consistent, but given Granbull's awful Speed, it'll probably have a full power Payback most of the time anyway. Still, Earthquake's super effective coverage is better, and it has the reliability of Crunch with the power of a second-attack Payback.
While Play Rough and Earthquake generally handle most offensive opponents, Super Fang can be used to cut a bulkier opponent's health in half and badly cripple it if it lacks recovery, but it's hard to find room for.
Using Toxic over Thunder Wave is viable if you prefer wearing down bulkier opponents over crippling sweepers, but the kind of Pokemon that Granbull will be switching into are generally crippled more by paralysis.
Bulk Up is Granbull's best boosting move, but Granbull has neither good special bulk nor reliable recovery, both of which are important for Bulk Up users.
Taunt stops slower Pokemon from using status moves against Granbull. Too bad there aren't many Pokemon slower than a Granbull.
I'm mentioning Quick Feet here just to advise you to never use it. Even with its new typing, Granbull is still mostly outclassed by Ursaring as a Quick Feet sweeper due to the latter's higher Attack and Speed stats, access to Swords Dance, and very powerful STAB move in Façade. Besides, even with max Speed, Granbull can't even match base 95s after a Quick Feet boost, so it won't be sweeping much.
Double & Triple Battle Options
Jumping into X and Y, Granbull's typing changed. Now instead of being weak to fighting, it's now resistant to it, alongside Bug and Dark. Given what Granbull has always had, was the type change significant enough to grant it a solid niche in competitive battling?
Arkwright & Granbull
-Play Rough
- Stone Edge/Rock Slide
- Close Combat
- Payback/Crunch
Item Attached: Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252HP / 252Atk / 4 Def
Adamant or Brave Nature
The perfect switch in to Physically inclined Dragons right? Intimidate plus the immunity. Nothing can go wrong here. Wait.. what do you mean Garchomp used Rock Slide anyway? Why is Salamence using Fire Blast of all things?? Mega Charizard X Dragon Danced the turn I switched in?/ in Granbull's face? Why isn't this working?
Granbull has an impressive base attack of 120, the same as Arceus. But that alone (and even with Intimidate) won't allow it to do its job properly. in the few examples above it should be noted that Granbull, despite being a fairy, is not THE counter to dragons. It will actually be hard pressed to land a clean hit on any dragon not named Dragalge or Mega Ampharos, and even then Play Rough hits only 90% of the time.
Play Rough is now Granbull's hardest hitting STAB, there's no reason to not use it. Stone Edge hits single targets harder just by being a single target move, not to mention its higher than normal crit rate. Rock Slide is for if you can depend on Trick Room being up with Granbull so that opposing flinches are a possibility. Close Combat is there because it's a strong Fighting type attack and also encourages the "hit and run" play style suggested. Payback can be stronger than Crunch if you know you're going to be hit first, otherwise in Trick Room, Crunch is probably the better option. It also allows Granbull to not be completely helpless when facing Aegislash.
So the idea is to switch Granbull in on something that doesn't want to be intimidated and then depending on what you know of your opponent's team, predict what they might switch in and attack accordingly. With the Choice Band, it's going to hurt no matter what they send in, assuming you've hit for at least neutral damage. And that is where the fun ends with Granbull usually. With Intimidate and Choice Band, it's usually best to switch out after that.
The ideal partners for Granbull would be Trick Room users or U-Turn/Volt Switch users. Trick Room because it has base 45 speed, which means Carbink and Weedle are faster than you normally. And U-Turn/Volt Switch users because Intimidate forces switches more often than not, utilizing U-Turn/Volt Switch may put you ahead of the game for a bit.
Granbull's speed and generally poor defenses hold it back from being able to deal consistent damage. Yeah, intimidate helps its physical defense, but are you really going to switch/keep Granbull in on Mega Mawile? Scizor? Aegislash? I would hope your answer would be NO.
Countering Granbull
Bronzong can tank either of Granbull's main attacks easily, and Thunder Wave only boosts the power of its Gyro Ball. In fact, Bronzong's Gyro Ball goes from a possible 8HKO to a guaranteed 2HKO after paralysis. Rhyperior is only 5HKOed at best by Granbull's Earthquake and is immune to Thunder Wave. It can then set up Stealth Rock on Granbull or just 3HKO with its own Earthquake. Aromatisse can take hits all day, heal off the damage with Wish, cure paralysis with Aromatherapy, and wear Granbull down with Moonblast. In fact, just about any Pokemon that can take a Play Rough and Earthquake and doesn't mind / is immune to / can heal paralysis checks Granbull. Pokemon with strong STAB Poison- or Steel-type attacks can hit Granbull super effectively and hopefully take it out. Likewise, due to the fact that Granbull is so specialized as a physical tank, powerful special attackers can hit its weak point and beat it down. Taunt users ruin Granbull's ability to use its support moves, which is a major part of its purpose on any given team. The fact that Granbull has no reliable recovery often leaves it unable to wall opponents for long time periods (unless it has RestTalk), so even if you don't have a foolproof answer to it, you can generally beat Granbull simply by attacking outright and eventually putting it down like Old Yeller (R.I.P.).
Locations in Games
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Evolve Snubbull (Emerald)
Trade from Emerald/Colosseum (Ruby/Sapphire)
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Trade from Emerald/Colosseum
Colosseum/XD:
Evolve Snubbull (Colosseum)
Trade from Emerald (XD)
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Evolve Snubbull
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Evolve Snubbull
Black/White:
Trade from Black 2, White 2 (Black)
Black 2/White 2:
Route 2 Hidden Grotto
X/Y:
Evolve Snubbull
Animé Appearences
