Zangoose @ Mental Herb  
Ability: Toxic Boost  
Tera Type: Ghost  
EVs: 252 Spe  
Timid / Hasty Nature  
IVs: 0 HP / 0 Atk / 0 Def / 0 SpA / 0 SpD  
- Belly Drum  
- Curse  
- Taunt  
- Substitute / Baton Pass / Switcheroo / Thunder Wave / Counter

Zangoose @ Black Sludge  
Ability: Toxic Boost  
Tera Type: Dark / Ghost / Ice
EVs: 252 Spe  
Naive Nature  
IVs: 0 HP / 0 Atk / 0 Def / 0 SpA / 0 SpD  
- Substitute  
- Belly Drum  
- Taunt  
- Baton Pass / Thunder Wave / Switcheroo / Curse / Counter

Zangoose

As a Tera Ghost Curse user, Zangoose holds a niche over its rival Espeon thanks to its ability to use Mental Herb by stringing together Belly Drum into Tera Ghost Curse. This lets it absorb Trick and Switcheroo better than Espeon can. Zangoose is the second fastest Belly Drum user in the entire meta, and its support movepool is better than that of the fastest Belly Drum user, Charizard. In fact, Zangoose can use Taunt, Baton Pass, Thunder Wave, and even Switcheroo (to deny opposing Pokemon their self-harming items)! Counter lets Zangoose typically not injure the opponent if Taunted. Toxic Boost is the better of Zangoose's two abilities in case Zangoose ends up with a Toxic Orb. A Naive nature and Black Sludge are both needed for Zangoose to be OHKOed by Magnemite Steel Beam, and even Timid Mental Herb Zangoose is OHKOed by Gholdengo Steel Beam, so Mental Herb variants often prefer Timid or Hasty instead. For the Black Sludge set, Tera Dark lets Zangoose dodge Pranksters, while Tera Ice makes it weak to Steel Beam and Stealth Rock.

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