What is a good moveset for Garganacl?

Question

If you have a good competitive moveset for Garganacl, post an answer below and upvote the best ones. Movesets for any of its pre-evolutions can also be shared on this thread.

Be sure to include full set details in your post, e.g. items, abilities, natures and EVs. Some explanation, including the intended game mode for your set, is also appreciated. Access the full list of guidelines here.

Garganacl Pokedex & learnset for reference.

Answer 1

Garganacl @ Leftovers
Ability: Purifying Salt
Tera Type: Water / Ghost / Fairy / Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Body Press
- Salt Cure
- Iron Defense / Stealth Rock
- Recover

This thing is a really great tank. Leftovers gives you some decent healing over time. For Tera types, Water gives good resistances with only weaknesses to Freeze-Dry, Electric, and Grass moves. Ghost Tera makes your only weakness Dark with Purifying Salt, but that gives it a weakness to the common Knock Off. In addition, Purifying Salt gives immunity to status.Tera Fairy gives it immunity to Dragon, and resistances to Fighting and Dark. Tera Steel givesbresistances to Ice, Fairy, Dragon, Grass, and more. Body Press is strong with Iron Defense and Curse plus its massive Defense. Salt Cure chips at Pokemon, forcing them to switch or otherwise take chip damage, that being major for Water and Steel types. Recover allows you to heal from attacks, pretty simple. Iron Defense makes Body Press really strong, but Stealth Rock has the utility of chipping the enemy.

Comments

purifying salt gives immunity to status moves though

edit: you could give it tera fighting for stab body press

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Oh yeah I'll add that

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Tera poison is also a really good defensive tera

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@Sam-urai86 purifying salt makes it immune to status conditions, like burn, poison, sleep, etc, not status moves, so iron defence still works

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They meant harmful statuses, not status moves

Answer 2

Curse Set

Garganacl @ Leftovers
Ability: Purifying Salt
Tera Type: Water / Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpD
Impish Nature
- Curse
- Salt Cure
- Recover
- Earthquake

This Garganacl set heavily punishes opponents that lacks major late game wallbreakers, slowly chipping down the team with Salt Cure while also raising its defense to soaring levels. Purifying Salt allows it to sponge hits from notable Ghost Pokemon like Dragapult and Gholdengo's Shadow Ball, but most importantly prevents status, allowing it to set up and stay on the battlefield without fear of being burned, lowering its offensive prowess, as well as preventing Toxic damage that would severely limit Garganacl's defensive capability. Tera Water makes it only weak to Electric and Grass moves, the latter coming in sparse availability. Tera Fairy gives Garganacl a much better matchup against Meowscarada and Great Tusk, as well as various Dragon type wallbreakers. The EV spread gives a nice spread of bulk between defense and special defense. Curse allows Garganacl to boost both its offensive and defensive stats, the former being especially helpful due to lack of attack EV investment. Salt Cure is very useful, chipping basically anything that doesn't run the very niche Covert Cloak. It additionally also does a small bit of damage by itself, which stacks up from attack boosts. Recover is very useful to keep Garganacl healthy. Earthquake is a stronger offensive option that most notably hits Gholdengo, one of the few Pokemon that can afford to hold Covert Cloak. Additionally, the additional base power helps to break Substitute users who try to avoid contact with Salt Cure.

Answer 3

PHYSICAL MENACE
Garganacl @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
Tera: Fighting / Ice
Evs: 252 Atk / 252 Def /4 HP
Adamant Nature
-Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Body Press / Avalanche
- Curse

This is a set that turns Garganacl into a Physical brawler. Curse to get those stats up and Clear Body so they’ll stay. Leftovers allow you to last longer. Earthquake covers and is an all-around great move. Stone Edge is STAB. Your next move determines the Tera. Body Press takes advantage of that huge defense. Avalanche because you’re not going to out speed anyone, so you might as well have this over Ice Punch. Ground combined with Ice provides great coverage.

Answer 4

Gen 9 National Dex

Garganacl @ Leftovers
Ability: Purifying Salt
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Salt Cure
- Recover
- Protect / Curse

With Tera likely to get banned, Garganacl will suffer a large setback in viability due to its role as a defensive set up sweeper with Curse / Iron Defense being less likely to pull off now that it can't Terastalize out of its weaknesses. However, due to its ability to check Pokemon like Zapdos, Iron Moth, Tapu Koko, Volcarona, and Tornadus-T and its positive matchup into pretty much all hazard removers except Gliscor and Great Tusk, Garganacl can still function as an effective Stealth Rock setter. Formerly common balance archetypes featuring Gliscor and Slowking-Galar (which Garg struggles to make progress against) have slowly been phased out by offensive styles dominated by Landorus-T and Iron Crown, which Garganacl can exploit with its progressive Salt Cure chip damage. Recover allows it to sustain itself, and in the last slot Protect can be used to scout the intentions of Choiced attackers like Tapu Lele and Landorus-T while gaining Leftovers recovery, while Curse can be used to have a greater offensive presence and still have utility against bad matchups with its Stealth Rock.
Garganacl faces competition from Mega Tyranitar, a more offensive Rock type Stealth Rock setter that also threatens Defoggers similarly and has Knock off and Pursuit for added utility, but Garganacl's access to Recover and better typing makes it more sustainable and gives it more opportunities to do what it does.

• Garganacl fits best on bulky offensive and balanced teams as a Stealth Rock setter. It appreciates teammates that have Spikes like Ferrothorn, Ting-Lu and Hisuian Samurott.
• Garganacl is severely threatened by Pokemon like Urshifu Rapid Strike, Great Tusk, Iron Crown, and Ogerpon-Wellspring, so it likes partnering up with checks to them such as Zapdos, Toxapex, Roost Dragonite, and Mega Lati twins.
• Knock Off support is useful to remove Leftovers and Heavy-Duty Boots, as such good users of the move like Tornadus-T, Weavile and (if they are freed) Roaring Moon and Kingambit pair well with Garganacl.

Answer 5

Gen 9 NU Stealth Rock

Naclstack @ Eviolite
Ability: Purifying Salt
Tera Type: Water / Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Salt Cure
- Protect
- Recover

A Stealth Rock set Naclstack (aka baby Garganacl) can use in Gen 9 NU. Stealth Rock lets Naclstack setup a hazard that chips opposing Pokemon switching in. Salt Cure is used as the Rock STAB due to its ability to deal chip damage every turn. Protect allows Naclstack to scout the sets of opposing Pokemon and works well with Salt Cure doing chip damage to opposing Pokemon. Recover gives Naclstack a reliable source of recovery. Tera Water gives Naclstack a nice defensive typing. Tera Ghost can be used to turn Naclstack's Fighting weakness into an immunity. Purifying Salt makes Naclstack take less damage from Ghost moves, which is neat if you use Tera Ghost.

Answer 6

Gen 9 National Dex Physical Attacker Remover

Garganacl (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Purifying Salt
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD OR 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Impish Nature
- Salt Cure
- Iron Defense
- Block
- Recover

This set is inspired after I missed three consecutive Magma Storms with Heatran. Block prevents any Pokemon from switching except for those with pivoting moves, while Iron Defense and Recover work in conjunction with Salt Cure to slowly wear the opposing Pokemon down. Tera Ghost works great with Purifying Salt, which turns the Ghost weakness into a neutrality, effectively giving Garganacl one weakness while not being harmed by its original typing of Rock. The EV spread depends on the team. Often, a purely physical defense Garganacl is the best at trapping and removing Pokemon, taking relatively little damage even from the likes of Hoopa-Unbound after an Iron Defense. Alternatively, investing in Special Defense allows Garganacl to be a bit more versatile and fulfill its duties as a traditional wall, even against special attackers. I recommend using the physical set and pairing Garganacl with a good pivoting Pokemon, like Landorus-T, and a good special wall, like Heatran.