Venusaur

At 0.53% single-format usage (rank 97), Venusaur sits well outside the mainstream. Chlorophyll accounts for 95.8% of ability picks, yet without a sun setter that can fully exploit it, Overgrow at 4.2% remains the only meaningful alternative.

Playstyle：Special offense frames the set. Earth Power (20.8%) patches the Fire weakness while Weather Ball (14.2%) shifts type with the weather. Giga Drain (14.1%) blends recovery with Grass coverage, and Solar Beam (13.6%) breaks through stall. Sludge Wave (12.2%) and Sludge Bomb (8.7%) cover Fairy. Modest 50.4% pulls special attack and speed equally, Bold 23.8% redirects investment into physical bulk. Life Orb 44.7% amplifies hits, Leftovers 24.2% fuels longer games.

At 8.62% double-format usage (rank 17), Venusaur is a fixture. Chlorophyll holds 99.8% of ability slots, leaving no real alternative. Protect leads at 23.9%, underscoring the format's survival pressure, followed by Sludge Bomb 23.2% and Earth Power 17.8%.

Playstyle：Venusaur operates as a sun-powered wallbreaker. Leaf Storm 14.8% hits its ceiling under sun, Sleep Powder 11.7% adds disruption. Protect and Sludge Bomb split the top usage almost evenly, balancing offense with defense. Modest 65.8% maximizes special attack and speed, the clear default. Life Orb 56.4% boosts burst, Focus Sash 36.6% secures survival after switch-in. Charizard-Mega-Y 17.8% is the leading sun setter, paired with Incineroar 11.6% and Garchomp 11.3% for Fire- and Ground-type synergy; Sylveon 9.0% patches the Dragon gap with Fairy coverage.

Mega Venusaur holds a 2.51% share in singles at rank 56, anchoring the offensive side of Thick Fat lineups with a 100 Special Attack stat boosted by STAB on its Grass typing. It pressures water- and electric-type walls that lack heavy investment, but it crumbles to fire, ice, flying, and psychic hits — a weakness ceiling that caps its singles ceiling.

Playstyle：Earth Power leads at 24.5%, covering fire, ice, steel, poison, and rock switches that would otherwise wall it. Synthesis at 22.4% and Leech Seed at 13.0% form the recovery core — Thick Fat softens incoming fire and ice STAB to the point where Venusaur can stay in and keep the Seed ticking. Giga Drain at 13.5% adds offensive recovery on the Grass STAB, while Sludge Bomb (11.7%) and Sludge Wave (9.5%) patch the fairy and psychic blind spots with Poison coverage.

✅ Favorable matchups1

Archaludon

Mega Venusaur sits at 3.01% in doubles (rank 45), with a higher share of all-format games (2.95%) than its singles footprint suggests. It anchors Thick Fat bulky-offense builds thanks to 100 Special Attack and dual STAB, paired with Protect for safe pivot turns.

Playstyle：Sludge Bomb (24.4%), Earth Power (23.1%), and Giga Drain (20.7%) split the offensive load almost evenly by coverage need. Protect follows closely at 23.0%, reflecting doubles tempo where pivoting around ally attacks and dodging spread damage is essential. Sleep Powder at 3.3% is a fringe pick to force a switch on grass- or psychic-resistant walls.