Bellossom

Bellossom

Welcome to another overlooked buff video! Today i will be talking about Bellossom.
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This Pokemon may already be on your radar because of it recent changes and buffs, but I will analyse them in detail to show you that there really is a reason to use Bellossom over other Pokemon.

But first, what was it like before SuMo?
Introduced in gen 2, it was one of few pure grass types, pretty nice defensive typing with important resistances to ground & water despite a lot of weaknesses. 2nd evolution for Gloom besides Vileplume and it is the more defensive of the 2, with slightly higher defensive stats and lower SpA (these were buffed for both back in gen 6). Despite this, Vileplume's secondary STAB and poison typing removing weakness to Bug & Poison and giving resistance to fighting made Vileplume a generally more popular choice.
Bellossom did not excel at anything, with a bulky cleric being its most effective set oustide of Sun or SD gimmicks.

So what about the buffs?
1. Strength Sap added as egg move only in USUM
Already recovery in Moonlight/Synthesis, but Strength Sap has potential to be stronger (against some attackers, will fully heal!) while at the same time making incoming attacks less powerful. Bellossom can be a much better physical wall, or even a special wall that can now take on physical threats. This is very good news for a bulky Pokemon! However, Vileplume also got this move, and also gets Aromatherapy which Bellossom does not, so does it really change anything? I will get to that...
2. Quiver Dance as level up
Fantastic set up move that boosts SpA, SpD and speed. This is actually neat for Bellossom - it really appreciates the SpA boost, the SpD makes it harder to revenge, and the speed makes sweep potential, though Bellossom is still pretty slow so you will need at least 2 even on a max invested set. However, we already have Lilligant that is faster and more powerful, and on the face of it makes for a better QDer. So does this really help Bellossom out or will it still be relegated to obscurity?

ACTUALLY, when you put the 2 moves together, that is when Bellossom really shines as a bulky set up mon, and where the 3rd buff, in Z-Moves, comes into play. The most effective set is a bulky Quiver Dance sweeper. It needs max speed to be able to outspeed things at +2. But max HP is more useful than max SpA to be able to keep dancing on the opponent, especially in combination with the moves. Strength Sap's recovery and the fact that it reduces attack is invaluable to make Bellossom exteremely tough to KO. Combine this with Grassium Z and you get a defense boost too. With +1 defense and -1 Attack, physical attackers really struggle with Belle. The SpD boost from QD is actually the really neat part, making Bellossom nigh on invincible from either special or physical attackers.
It still won't hit very hard until multiple QDs, but the set is designed to make getting the QDs much easier so that should not be a problem.
Another neat thing to note is Grassium-Z can be used to fire off a powerful Bloom Doom if you decide you do not need the Sap defense boost.
All in all, this very unique set give Bellossom a real niche and an extremely fun way to unexpectedly sweep your opponents.

So that's my verdict on Bellossom. Let me know how you like to use Bellossom and if you've managed any sweeps with it in the comments below. That's all for today, thanks for watching, outro