Tinkaton is a cute and powerful little troll with a war hammer that rivals Thor's Mjölnir. It is both Fairy and Steel which grants it complete immunity to both Dragon and Poison attacks.
This warhammer-wielding troll is best used as a speedy physical attacker but it only has and base attack of 75. An attack stat this low would be a non-starter for a physical sweeper but Tinkaton has access to one of the most powerful moves in the game, Gigaton Hammer.
This move has a whopping 160 base power and 100% accuracy. The only drawback is that you cannot use it 2 times in a row.
While not being able to spam the attack isn'st the end of the world, it does give your opponent some time to work around Tinkaton.
Other than having access to the best Steel move ever created, Tinkaton has a respectable base 94 speed, great special defense at base 105, and a good base HP at 85. It's physical defense is pretty good too at 77.
As such, Tinkaton is not nearly as frail as the physical sweepers we have seen in the past.
Each and every variation of builds for Tinktaon will involve the use of Gigaton Hammer. So, we are left with 3 other move slots to experiment with. Here is a simple but effective ev spread for Tinktaon along with some great move sets.
EV Spread: 252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP - The best nature for Tinkaton for this set is Adamant (+ Attack / - Special Attack).
Tera Type: Not really needed but Water or Flying works well to counter its major weakness (Fire and Ground). The best ability for Tinkaton is Mold Breaker as it stops it from being impacted by the abilities of opposing Pokemon in battle. The best item for Tinkaton when using this set is either a Life Orb or Muscle Band.
Move | Power | Type | Accuracy | Effect |
---|---|---|---|---|
Gigaton Hammer | 160 | Stelle | 100 | Cannot be used twice in a row |
Play Rough | 90 | Fairy | 90 | Has a chance to lower the opponent's attack. |
Fake Out | 40 | Normal | 100 | Only works on the first turn and causes the opponent to flinch. |
Knock Off | 65 | Dark | 100 | Removes the held item from the target and doubles in power whenever the target holds an item. |
This set allows Tinkaton to do some chip damage with with Fake Out and burn one of your opponent's turns by making the target flinch.
Knock Off is great for opposing ghost and psychic types and has the added bonus of removing their items. Gigaton Hammer and Play Rough are both there for STAB.
I would avoid running a Jolly (+Speed / -Special Attack) nature on Tinkaton as its attack stat needs all the help it can get. In addition, Choice items (Band or Scarf) don't work well, given the inability to spam Gigaton Hammer.
Here is another very viable set that affords Tinktaton a bit more diversity in its attacking capabilities.
Move | Power | Type | Accuracy | Effect |
---|---|---|---|---|
Gigaton Hammer | 160 | Stelle | 100 | Cannot be used twice in a row |
Play Rough | 90 | Fairy | 90 | Has a chance to lower the opponent's attack. |
Stone Edge | 100 | Rock | 80 | Has a higher than normal critical hit ratio. |
Tera Blast | 80 | Water | 100 | If crystalized it gains the type of the user, otherwise it's a Normal-type move. |
This set requires you to use your Tera slot but could be well worth it if you are up against an opposing ground type. A water-type Tera Blast can hurt common ground-type counters and is a more reliable way to attack fire types than Stone Edge.
Ice Hammer may seem like a tempting option at first but the speed drops make life much harder for Tinkaton.
Overall, Tinkaton is a fun-to-use Pokemon with a great design. It weighs less than 30 pounds but throws a 220-pound death hammer around like it's a frisbee.
Now, it doesn't fit well on every team and certainly not every tier (if you play the Smogon tiers) but not many Pokemon will shrug off a Life Orb-powered Gigaton Hammer to the face.
Also, the fact that this little fairy springs into the sky to smack Corviknights out of flight for no apparent reason makes me want to use it even more.
Posted by: Matt Irving on 12/11/2022
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