Hmm... he does admittedly have a higher Atk IV than SpA, but the Modest nature makes it really hard to me to consider him a mixed attacker. I feel like leaning into that and making more of a minmaxed Special Specialist type thing.
If Sucker Punch shut down the incoming move like a MtG blue counterspell bullshit deck then maybe, but I dunno; I feel like if I want to hit someone with an 80-power Dark move, that's what Dark Pulse is for. If I want him to sneak said attack in first, then we'll just try to give him more Speed EVs.
Super Fang is useful in theory but I feel like if we're ever in a situation where Gmork's strongest STAB (especially if we're going with the Nasty Plot build and have it boosted as well) can't beat Super Fang's set 50% damage anyway, then we have bigger problems. Like, I know it's for walls but that would have to be either one hell of a wall (hi Blissey) or an extremely underwhelming Gmork performance if a Nasty Plot-boosted Fire Blast can't do more than that against it.
Embargo would shut down the Elite Four's bullshit but I don't know how much use we'd see outside of that.
So I guess that narrows it down to these builds:
Fire Blast/Dark Pulse/SolarBeam/Sunny Day: This was the original idea and satisfies my "but what if COVERAGE" fetish.
Fire Blast/Dark Pulse/Flamethrower/Nasty Plot: This would increase Gmork's endurance (hi long dungeons where even with all the PP Ups it can take Gmork's main Fire STAB would only have 8 PP) and let us switch between "we only need to kill this one a little but we need to make sure not to miss" encounters and the big guns, depending on the situation. It's a good Dark/Fire pure "Kill It 'Til It Dies" build if we're not bothering with the counter-counter and none of the other gimmicks appeals to us.
no subject
If Sucker Punch shut down the incoming move like a MtG blue counterspell bullshit deck then maybe, but I dunno; I feel like if I want to hit someone with an 80-power Dark move, that's what Dark Pulse is for. If I want him to sneak said attack in first, then we'll just try to give him more Speed EVs.
Super Fang is useful in theory but I feel like if we're ever in a situation where Gmork's strongest STAB (especially if we're going with the Nasty Plot build and have it boosted as well) can't beat Super Fang's set 50% damage anyway, then we have bigger problems. Like, I know it's for walls but that would have to be either one hell of a wall (hi Blissey) or an extremely underwhelming Gmork performance if a Nasty Plot-boosted Fire Blast can't do more than that against it.
Embargo would shut down the Elite Four's bullshit but I don't know how much use we'd see outside of that.
So I guess that narrows it down to these builds:
Fire Blast/Dark Pulse/SolarBeam/Sunny Day: This was the original idea and satisfies my "but what if COVERAGE" fetish.
Fire Blast/Dark Pulse/Flamethrower/Nasty Plot: This would increase Gmork's endurance (hi long dungeons where even with all the PP Ups it can take Gmork's main Fire STAB would only have 8 PP) and let us switch between "we only need to kill this one a little but we need to make sure not to miss" encounters and the big guns, depending on the situation. It's a good Dark/Fire pure "Kill It 'Til It Dies" build if we're not bothering with the counter-counter and none of the other gimmicks appeals to us.