Gen 9 National Dex Grass-Spam Core with Rillaboom
Anchor9 (Dhelmise) @ Life Orb
Ability: Steelworker
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Poltergeist
- Gyro Ball / Anchor Shot
- Liquidation / Rock Slide / Brick Break
With the relatively fast-paced National Dex metagame, Dhelmise can struggle to keep up without priority. This is where Life Orb Grassy Glide comes in, allowing Dhelmise to actually exert some amount of pressure against faster Pokemon. Grass isn't the best offensive type, but with common Grass-weak Pokemon like Great Tusk, Urshifu-Rapid, and Mega Tyranitar, as well as frailer Pokemon neutral to Grass, Dhelmise can pick off a few KOs here and there. Anchor Shot acts both as tertiary STAB thanks to Steelworker and it can trap some defensive Pokemon that may not want to deal with Dhelmise; however, note that many defensive staples in ND carry pivoting moves, meaning the trapping effect may not be applicable on a game-to-game basis. The last move is very much dependent on your choice of coverage. Liquidation hits the widest array of Pokemon, including many Grounds that are not weak to Grass, such as the Ground-Flyings Landorus-T and Gliscor. Rock Slide can be used to catch Moltres, Volcarona, and Charizard-Mega-Y off guard if they try and take Grassy Glide, especially the former two, as they pack Flame Body. Brick Break serves the same purpose; this time, with Kingambit, although due to its low Speed and Brick Break's low power, it isn't as useful as the first two options.
Rillaboom is basically mandatory alongside Dhelmise to provide priority, a damage boost, and residual healing to displace Life Orb recoil. Choice Band Rillaboom offers a devestating nuclear option using Wood Hammer to blow past even resists, allowing Dhelmise to clean up using the remaining Grassy Terrain turns. It can also pack Knock Off to snipe faster Ghosts on the switch, or use its respectable bulk to tank a hit and trade itself. Dhelmise struggles to threaten faster Pokemon that have super effective options against it, especially Fire-types, as they resist Grassy Glide to boot. As a result, Water-types like Samurott-Hisui can be especially useful. Samurott-Hisui can set up spikes, complementing the dual Grass-type assault, and has a partial Dark typing to deal with Ghosts like Gholdengo, another Grass resist that threatens the daylights out of Dhelmise. Because of Grassy Terrain's limited duration and Dhelmise's hit-and-run playstyle, solid defensive checks are recommended; for example, Assault Vest Raging Bolt blankets the Fire-types and has Volt Switch to bring in teammates safely. Finally, both Dhelmise and Rillaboom are inherently slow and rely on priority to get the jump on faster Pokemon. As a result, a Choice Scarf Pokemon like the aforementioned Samurott-Hisui or a generally fast Pokemon like Mega Lopunny can help.
