Summary

Torkoal is a terrible Pokemon in ADV OU. It is outclassed by almost every other fire type in terms of speed, special attack, and movesets. Bringing it into a ladder match is like saying "I'm a big fan of losing all my matches, please humiliate me." However, in ADV Draft, this all changes -- its weaknesses become some of its greatest strengths, including its perception. It uses its status as the Fire-type underdog to catch your opponents off guard and cripple their defenses with its multi-tool suicide bomber powers, sending all Water types to an early grave, and making Metagross turn in terror at this turtle terrorist. Even those who are privy to its tricks can simply be exploited with one of the turtle's many other tricks they are unfamiliar with instead. Its presence forces your opponent to see Torkoal in the builder and actually consider what they will do if it shows up, unlike many other Pokemon in its point bracket who simply need a single move to counter them.

Torkoal costs around 3 points on average. These three points, if used to draft Torkoal, gives you a litany of benefits: a Metagross counter for teams that match up poorly into it, a strong Explosion that can live almost any non-critical hit, a great matchup into all other fire types (particularly Charizard and Moltres, who fold to a Hidden Power Rock from Torkoal's solid 85 attack), Curse, Iron Defense and Amnesia whose boosts cannot be reversed thanks to White Smoke, and even Mimic. Its stats for costing three points are also quite high, with Skarmory-level bulk and decent attacking stats. Given that Torkoal is outsped by nearly every other Pokemon in the game, it allows you to forsake its speed stat entirely in order to bolster whatever other stat you need to have it be the coverage you lack. For example, in a matchup against Milotic, you can run a Sassy (+SpDef, -Spd) nature and bulky EVs in order to guarantee Torkoal living a hit from a max-special attack Milotic -- and fight back against the defensively lacking Milotic. With the right Hidden Power, this mon is a fantastic lead, as it can be sacrificed in order to take out a big threat to your team, while your opponent underestimates it and pays the price for doing so. Seeing Torkoal on the field puts your opponent in an awkward scenario where they have to guess what you're going to do, and if they guess wrong, underestimate what it can do, or get greedy and go for a kill right away -- they will be punished for it. Against defensive Pokemon, it can usually live two hits, such as against a bulky Donphan, which many sets struggle to 2HKO Torkoal even with STAB Earthquake. Against aggressive options, Torkoal can punish their hubris by exploding and instantly eliminating the hyper offensive threat. Run a complimentary Thunder Wave user next to Torkoal and you can even outspeed some threats and use a powerful STAB Eruption for massive damage against most Pokemon, even with little special investment into resists. It forces your opponent to sacrifice defensive utility in order to deal with it, such as dropping a staple move to run Substitute or Endure to try and avoid the Explosion.

Unfortunately, due to Torkoal being a high risk mon and it having to sacrifice itself in a lot of matchups, if you don't execute the Torkoal plan perfectly you may end up losing it for no reason. Ghost types like Gengar and Dusclops are hard counters to Torkoal as they not only block Explosion but can use special moves to break down Torkoal on its weaker defensive stat. Running Hidden Power Ghost is a nice counter to this as Torkoal is immune to Will-O-Wisp, but in most cases Ghost-types get free entry on Torkoal. Fire types can also come in on Torkoal quite easily, as some Fire types can kill Torkoal with Fire-type moves, despite being not-very effective, due to its middling special defense. Another problem with Torkoal is its glaringly low speed stat -- even if it can afford to sacrifice speed via a speed-reducing nature -- being guaranteed to be slower can put you at risk of critical hits or unexpected options ruining your plans and calculations. While they aren't likely, losing Torkoal before it does anything can be a huge momentum shift for your opponent. The final problem with torkoal is that against many bulky Pokemon, it cannot guarantee that it wins 1v1 as it relies on Hidden Power for a lot of its super-effective coverage. While this can work in a lot of cases, if your opponent is aware of this they can very easily spec one of their defensive options to be able to take Torkoal down without much effort.

In summary, for around 3 points, you can put your opponent a psychological chokehold that more than likely ends in an exploding turtle for them unless they can read your mind perfectly and gives you an upper hand in the early game against Pokemon susceptible to it like Metagross and Celebi. It can guarantee a kill against most walls, regardless of type, provides defensive utility, and even flips matchups against most Pokemon that hit it super-effectively if built to do so. However, it is a high-risk Pokemon in most cases and needs to be used skillfully in order to make effective progress before its flame burns out, as it can be exploited due to its glacial speed and middling defense and HP.

Summary written by Volta

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