VGC 2018 Pokemon Spotlight #6 – Kommo-o

Welcome back to the VGC 2018 Pokemon Spotlight, where the goal is to examine a Pokemon that has had some success in the current VGC 2018 format and tell you everything you need to know about it. Today, we will be taking a look at Kommo-o, who thanks to its signature Z-Move, has received a large surge in popularity to quickly become a threat all on its own, which allows Kommo-o to become a strategy all on its own to build around it to support it where it falls short. Hope you enjoy and let's begin.

Base Stats & Typing

Looking at its typing, Dragon/Fighting is very interesting. What makes this very risky is that although you resist 7 types, which includes Fire, Water, and Grass, a weakness to very common types in this format can make it difficult at time to switch in Kommo-o to allow it to do it job, which includes mainly the fairy typing, which is found on a majority of teams in the format. As you'll find later in this article, it can be very easy to help build around your Kommo-o to support it.

For its base stats, Kommo-o can actually be surprisingly bulky. Barring a low HP stat, its defenses allow this Pokemon to take a large variety of attacks before going down. Its offensive stats are also nothing to laugh at as it means Kommo-o will be threatening some serious damage. Finally, its speed stat is very average so even the fastest Kommo-o will struggle to out-speed a majority of Pokemon which means it either needs to increase its speed through boosts or receive some help through speed control moves like Tailwind and Icy Wind.

Notable Moves

Clanging Scales	Close Combat	Focus Blast
Substitute	Drain Punch	Protect
Flamethrower	Poison Jab	Flash Cannon
Low Kick

Kommo-o's notable moves show how strong of a mixed attacker this Pokemon can be. Clanging Scales is a must due to how strong it is. A spread Dragon-type move is very useful to hit both targets and deal a decent amount of damage. Protect allows Kommo-o to shield itself against problematic attacks and weaken the power of Z-Moves. Close Combat is a very strong fighting type move that can give you the opportunity to threaten Steel types barring Aegislash. Flamethrower threatens Pokemon that Close Combat simply can't for super-effective damage like Celesteela but the main one is Aegislash.

Focus Blast gives you a strong special attacking fighting move and the strongest one Kommo-o gets although the 70% accuracy can be very shaky. Both Poison Jab and Flash Cannon can be very helpful versus the very popular Tapu Pokemon. Substitute can be very useful if your opponent predicts your Kommo-o to play the turn very defensive. you can go for the Substitute to take advantage of this which Alexander Kuhn (@hibikivgc) showed on his live streams. The final 2 moves in Drain Punch and Low Kick are strong physical fighting type moves where Drain Punch can be helpful to keep your health up and Low Kick could be nice to threaten the heavier Pokemon in the format.

Notable Items

• Kommonium Z

To use Kommonium Z, you must have the move Clanging Scales on your Kommo-o. When used in combination with this Z-Crystal, it turns into the very power Z-Move, Clangorous Soulblaze, which is a 185 base power Dragon-type move that hits both targets and as long as this move hits at least 1 target, it will raise your Attack, Defense, Sp. Attack, Sp. Defense, and Speed all by 1 stage each.

This Z-Crystal is honestly the only reason as to why Kommo-o is seeing more popularity. Before receiving this item, Kommo-o never really had anything going for it. Why it had decent base stats, it was never the strongest Dragon-type available as there were always better options in Pokemon like Salamence and Garchomp for example. This Z-Crystal is going to give it a lot of opportunities as we'll talk about in sample sets.

Sample Set #1: A Very Special Time

Kommo-o @ Kommonium Z  

Ability: Soundproof  

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  

Modest Nature  

IVs: 0 Atk  

- Clanging Scales  

- Focus Blast

- Flamethrower 

- Protect

This Kommo-o set is a special attacking set. Due to the power of your Z-Move, the idea is to train this Pokemon to increase the power of this Pokemon to allow your Kommo-o to be as effective as possible. As touched on before, Clanging Scales is a requirement for the Z-Move to be used but do bear in mind that after you get the defense boosts from your Z-Move, Clanging Scales will drop your defenses by 1 stage which will reset them. The second move choice in Focus Blast gives you a strong Fighting-type move can be very helpful to give your Kommo-o another STAB move to threaten Pokemon like Kangaskhan and Heatran, which are 2 very powerful Pokemon. The other move in Flamethrower is very strong for hitting the steel types in the format that can survive a +1 Focus Blast like Celesteela. The EV Spread is very simplistic as it focuses on allowing Kommo-o to be as strong as possible and as fast as possible so thanks to its Modest nature, this is something that is possible to do.

Sample Partners

 

Mega Gengar has proven to be Kommo-o's best friend so far in the format. Because Fairy types can hit Kommo-o for super-effective damage, mainly the Tapu Pokemon, Mega Gengar's poison typing and very fast speed can threaten the popular Fairy types. Its Shadow Tag ability can also keep Pokemon on the field that doesn't threaten Kommo-o.


Tapu Bulu can support Kommo-o in 2 very important ways. First of all, since Tapu Bulu is the slowest Tapu by base speed, it can reliably get the Grassy Terrain up and mainly get rid of the Misty Terrain that will weaken the power of Kommo-o's Z-move. It can also deal with Tapu Fini who has proven to be very annoying to Kommo-o.


Mega Charizard Y's Drought ability allows it to power up Kommo-o's Flamethrower, which it needs to threaten KOs on Pokemon like Tapu Koko, which can be a huge issue for Kommo-o.


To allow Kommo-o to use its Z-move, Clefairy and Amoonguss can help Kommo-o do this thanks to their redirection move in Follow Me and Rage Powder respectively. Clefairy's Friend Guard ability can lessen the damage Kommo-o takes and Amoonguss' defensive typing works well with Kommo-o as Amoonguss can switch into fairy type attacks.

How to Beat Kommo-o

Fairy Types

One of Komm-o's biggest setbacks is the fact it does not take Fairy-type moves at all. Tapu Fini is without a doubt, the most annoying Pokemon for Kommo-o as the Misty Terrain it sets weakens the power of dragon type moves, including Clangorous Soulblaze. Some teams even have more than one fairy types but most teams include at least 1 specifically for Kommo-o.

Mega Gardevoir isn't as much of an issue because of Kommo-o gaining access to the Soundproof ability which means it takes no damage from Hyper Voice. The other 2 Tapus isn't as much of an issue if Kommo-o can move its Z-move as Tapu Lele and Tapu Koko take a large amount of damage from a boosted Flamethrower, Poison Jab, or Flash Cannon. Mimikyu's Disguise ability can prove to be nice as it takes any hit and essentially has 2 chances to use Play Rough to KO Kommo-o.

Sample Teams

Because Kommo-o is a strategy all on its own, check out these sample teams used by top players if you wanna try out this Pokemon for yourself to see how teams around Kommo-o look like.

1. Team #1 - Used by Markus Stadter (@13Yoshi37) to finish 2nd at a Midseason Showdown.
2. Team #2 - Used by Tomoyuki Yoshimura (@BlueYossi) successfully on Battle Spot.

Thanks to its new Z-move, Kommo-o has become a major threat and a Pokemon that trainers should expect to see all throughout VGC2018 so knowing what it does and what to expect should greatly help in dealing with it. I hope you enjoyed this. Check back to the Nimbasa City Post for more VGC articles.