Cottonee Movesets & Competitive Sets

Cottonee has good support moves and Prankster, which allows it to provide opportunities for setup sweepers on hyper offense teams with Memento. Cottonee's typing lets it check some of the biggest issues for hyper offense teams in Mienfoo and Grookey. It also enables Grookey by luring and crippling Ferroseed and Koffing with Knock Off. Encore and Defog give Cottonee a bit more flexibility by allowing it to provide additional setup opportunities for teammates and help teammates such as Tyrunt switch in safely. Cottonee pairs well with Memento Diglett as a secondary Memento user; together, they can provide setup opportunities for multiple setup sweepers. The best teammate for Cottonee is a setup sweeper whose setup it facilitates, like Swords Dance Grookey and Tyrunt.

Moves Giga Drain is a decent STAB option that 2HKOes Ground-, Water-, and Rock-types such as Mudbray, Chinchou, and Amaura while also providing Cottonee with passive recovery. Dazzling Gleam is a powerful Fairy-type STAB option that 2HKOes Dark- and Fighting-type Pokemon such as Vullaby, Timburr, and Mienfoo. Hidden Power Fighting can be used over either of Cottonee's STAB attacks to hit Pawniard for more damage and OHKO non-Eviolite variants, though Cottonee's STAB coverage is usually preferred, as it hits most of the tier neutrally. Encore receives priority from Prankster and is useful for locking foes into status moves as well as discouraging Pokemon such as Tirtouga and Croagunk from setting up on Cottonee. Memento can be used when Cottonee is weakened to severely lower a foe's offensive stats and allow a teammate to begin setting up more reliably. When used with Darkinium Z, Z-Memento will even fully heal an ally and nearly guarantee its setup. Knock Off is useful for removing items from foes and making them easier to whittle down if they were holding Eviolite. Tailwind receives priority from Prankster and can be used when Cottonee is weakened to give its teammates doubled Speed. Set Details Darkinium Z should only be used alongside Memento, as it grants Cottonee access to Z-Memento, which is helpful for supporting its teammates. 36 HP EVs, 40 EVs in each defensive stat, and an Eviolite provide Cottonee with reasonable bulk and allow it to avoid the OHKO from powerful hits in Abra's Psychic, unboosted Omanyte's Ice Beam, and Pawniard's Iron Head while allowing it to reliably switch into the likes of Carvanha and Choice Scarf Mienfoo. 140 EVs in Special Attack and maximum EVs in Speed with a Timid nature allow Cottonee to hit 17 Speed and outpace Scraggy and Pawniard as well as Speed tie with fast Mienfoo while hitting quite hard. Prankster is mandatory, as it gives all of Cottonee's status moves an important +1 boost in priority. Usage Tips It is of utmost importance that Cottonee's inability to hit Dark-type Pokemon with Prankster-boosted moves is noted, as it will fail to check Dark-type setup sweepers such as Scraggy and Vullaby. It is because of this that Encore and Z-Memento shouldn't be used on these foes to prevent generating free turns for the opponent. Cottonee's Prankster ability allows it to switch into resisted attacks and setup moves and lock foes into these moves with priority Encore. It is best for Cottonee to use Z-Memento when weakened, as this will allow it to safely bring in a teammate without wasting all of said teammate's HP immediately. Cottonee can also opt to use Z-Memento against threats that will likely OHKO it, such as Sludge Bomb Diglett and Gastly. If running Knock Off, Cottonee can use the move when predicting switches into Pokemon like Magnemite, Croagunk, and Ponyta in order to remove their items. Tailwind is best used when Cottonee is low on HP, as it allows Cottonee's teammates to receive a temporary 2x boost in Speed upon switching in after it has fainted. Cottonee must be wary of Poison-type coverage from foes, given its 4x weakness to the type. Diglett and Scraggy commonly carry Poison-type coverage and should have their potential coverage moves scouted out so Cottonee is able to properly check these threats. It is worth noting that Cottonee's attacks aren't capable of OHKOing most threats, which means that it will often require prior damage from either entry hazards or teammates to secure KOs on threats such as Pawniard and Vullaby. If Cottonee is running Z-Memento, the sweeper it is trying to support should feel free to set up and punch holes early-game, as it will likely be healed by Cottonee later on. Team Options Most Fire-types resist both of Cottonee's STAB attacks while OHKOing it with super effective STAB moves. As a result, reliable answers to Fire-types such as Shellder, Staryu, Onix, and Tirtouga all make for exceptional partners. Pokemon that are capable of switching into or removing Poison-type Pokemon and threats with Poison-type coverage such as Ferroseed, Mareanie, Abra, and Diglett, the latter of which in particular can use its Arena Trap ability to trap Poison-types, are all very appreciated by Cottonee. Pokemon that can take care of the many Flying-type Pokemon that threaten Cottonee, such as Amaura, Chinchou, and Magnemite, are also very appreciated. Powerful wallbreakers like Abra, Doduo, and Rufflet are capable of weakening or eliminating Cottonee's common checks in Ferroseed and Foongus and are also capable of muscling past bulkier threats to help Cottonee break through foes with more ease. Setup sweepers such as Tirtouga, Corphish, and Shellder all greatly appreciate the Memento support Cottonee is able to provide them with. Offensive Pokemon with rather average Speed such as Pawniard, Croagunk, and Snivy appreciate Cottonee's Tailwind support.

Don't be fooled by how bare this set looks, as half of its options were left out to keep this concise. Cottonee's stat spread and movepool scream for an Eviolite set, which helps it support its team immensely. Regardless of what you are trying to use Cottonee for, Leech Seed is a must on all of its sets, since this is its only true source of reliable recovery and as such is required to keep Cottonee healthy. Stun Spore works very well on Cottonee and allows it to function as an excellent sand check by switching in on an Earthquake and paralyzing Drilbur. Stun Spore is very, very good, but it can be replaced with Toxic if you are desperate to inflict more damage than Leech Seed does. Cottonee's other two moveslots are much more customizable. The choice between Substitute and Protect is a big one, as it changes the way Cottonee is played. Substitute can net Cottonee a free turn easily, for example, on a predicted status move or switch, which can spell doom for its opponent. However, a misprediction will cost Cottonee a quarter of its health, which is significant when it has only Leech Seed to keep it healthy. Protect racks up Leech Seed damage on U-turns and helps scout out opposing Choice item users without wasting 25% of Cottonee's health. However, a wrongly-timed Protect can give your opponent a free turn or switch. Encore and Taunt are in the same boat as the first choice. Encore stops setup sweepers trying to set up on Cottonee, as very few of them have priority moves to KO Cottonee with before it can Encore them. Taunt is mainly used to alleviate Cottonee's weakness to hazard setters, especially Grass-types that Cottonee can't harm with Leech Seed, but this is a poor choice for stopping setup sweepers, as they can still attack Cottonee. The EV spread maximizes Cottonee's defenses while increasing the HP recovered via Leech Seed. Cottonee is most certainly not limited to just the moves above, and can combine almost any move in its support movepool to make an effective combination. Toxic gives Cottonee the potential to do a lot more damage, especially against Grass-types such as Lileep. Many players use Cottonee as a sand check over Snover due to the fact that it doesn't summon hail, which can harm teammates. Since Grass-types are such an issue, Larvesta pairs well with Cottonee. Its STAB combination hits every Grass-type in the tier for super effective damage, and it can also handle the Fighting-types that aren't fazed by Cottonee's antics, such as Mienfoo and Timburr. If you don't want to double up on the Flying weakness, Vullaby can dispatch most Grass-types. Pokemon with fast checks and counters, such as Pawniard, appreciate Cottonee's ability to paralyze threats that they don't want to face, such as Mienfoo and Misdreavus.