14. Great Tusk

Ground / Fighting · Protosynthesis · VR A · 13.87% (2026-04, #10 usage) · 115/131/131/53/53/87 · The format’s flex hazard-control + offensive-pivot glue — a 115/131/131 wall that also punches.

VR-vs-usage note (divergence #1): VR pegs it at A, but it is the #10 most-used mon and a tournament staple — it “plays like A+.” The gap is the classic generalist tax: it spins, it pivots, it sets rocks, it revenges, it walls physical attackers, but it masters none of those jobs. You run it because one slot does four things, which is exactly what an offense short on slots wants.

Format role

Great Tusk is the premier offensive hazard remover. Rapid Spin (90.2%) on a 115/131 bulky body that is also a real attacker is the reason it’s everywhere: it clears Gholdengo-adjacent hazard pressure while threatening the things that set hazards, instead of being passive removal that gives momentum back. Its Ground/Fighting STAB + Ice Spinner coverage hits Kingambit, Gholdengo, Heatran, Garchomp, Landorus-Therian and Dragonite — a who’s-who of the metagame’s hazard setters and Steels. Protosynthesis (100%, weather- or Booster-triggered) flips it between a Booster-Energy attacker or Speed-boost variant and a Boots/Helmet glue piece.

Sets

Booster Energy offensive pivot (Booster Energy 21.3%, Jolly 0/252/4/0/0/252 spread family ~46% of all spreads)

Great Tusk @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis  ·  Jolly Nature
EVs: 0 HP / 252 Atk / 0 Def / 0 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Headlong Rush      (92.98%)
- Ice Spinner        (88.77%)
- Close Combat       (37.44%)
- Rapid Spin         (90.16%)

On this max-Atk build, Booster boosts the highest stat = Attack (361 → 469), not Speed. A Speed-boost Tusk exists only on deliberately low-Atk or otherwise tailored spreads; otherwise Choice Scarf is the clean 450 Speed line. Drops Rapid Spin or Close Combat for Stealth Rock on more utility-leaning builds.

Heavy-Duty Boots utility spinner (HDB 24.0%, Jolly 252/4/0/0/0/252 or 0/252/…/252)

Great Tusk @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Protosynthesis  ·  Jolly Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 0 Def / 0 SpA / 0 SpD / 252 Spe
- Headlong Rush      (92.98%)
- Ice Spinner        (88.77%)
- Rapid Spin         (90.16%)
- Stealth Rock       (41.54%)

The glue build: immune to its own removal target (hazards), so it pivots in repeatedly to spin, set rocks, and chip. No Booster boost (Boots ≠ trigger), so it sits at 300 Speed — fast for a wall, slow for an attacker.

Rocky Helmet physical wall-pivot (Rocky Helmet 16.6%; Impish 248/0/236/0/0/24 = 2.79% of spreads)

Great Tusk @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Protosynthesis  ·  Impish Nature
EVs: 248 HP / 0 Atk / 236 Def / 0 SpA / 0 SpD / 24 Spe
- Headlong Rush      (92.98%)
- Ice Spinner        (88.77%)
- Rapid Spin         (90.16%)
- Stealth Rock       (41.54%)

The defensive answer to physical offense — Helmet + 425/380 phys bulk punishes U-turn/contact spam and checks Urshifu-Rapid-Strike, Mega Scizor, etc. This is the BO/balance toolkit piece, not an offense piece.

Choice Scarf revenge spinner (Choice Scarf 13.1%, Jolly)

Great Tusk @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protosynthesis  ·  Jolly Nature
EVs: 0 HP / 252 Atk / 0 Def / 0 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Headlong Rush      (92.98%)
- Ice Spinner        (88.77%)
- Close Combat       (37.44%)
- Rapid Spin         (90.16%)

Scarf hits 450 Speed; a Booster Speed Tusk only reaches that line if the spread is tailored to make Speed its highest non-HP stat. Scarf revenge-kills +1 sweepers and offers locked-spin in a pinch. Note Icium Z (5.5%) exists as a Subzero Slammer (Ice Spinner → Z) lure but costs the team’s single Z-slot; it’s a fringe pick, not core.

What it does

The Boots/Helmet sets are momentum machines: Tusk comes in on a Steel, a physical breaker, or a hazard-setter, removes hazards with Rapid Spin (Ghost-immune blocking from Gholdengo is its main spin-denier — note Tusk threatens Gholdengo back, so the spinblock is a real mind-game, not a free wall), and pivots out having undone the opponent’s chip plan. Headlong Rush is the nuke STAB but drops Tusk’s Def/SpD a stage on use, so spamming it into a switch is how it gets revenged. Ice Spinner is the glue move: 4x on the Dragon/Ground and Dragon/Flying cores, and it strips Terrain (relevant vs Tapu Lele’s Psychic Surge and Raging Bolt/Bolt-adjacent Electric Terrain teams). Close Combat is the dedicated Kingambit/Steel answer. Bulk Up (7.8%) appears on a slower sweeper variant that snowballs past walls late once its checks are gone.

The Booster set is the one an offense pilot actually fears: standard max-Atk Booster jumps to 469 Attack immediately, while low-Atk Speed-boost variants can hit 450 Speed and outpace most relevant unboosted threats, but not Regieleki-style outliers. Either way it is not a wall while it’s doing it (0 HP / 0 Def). The Scarf set is the cleanest “I lost my speed control” insurance for balance and is the reliable 450-Speed version.

Load-bearing calcs

All Tusk numbers use Jolly 252 Atk (361) unless flagged +Proto (469). These are the lines that decide whether you can switch in or must sack:

• Tusk Ice Spinner vs 0/0 Garchomp (4x): 368-436 (103.1-122.1%) [guaranteed OHKO] — Tusk hard-revenges and switch-kills offensive Garchomp; do not stay in.
• Tusk Ice Spinner vs 0/0 Dragonite, Multiscale intact (4x): 184-218 (57.0-67.5%) [no OHKO] — Multiscale saves Dragonite once; broken Multiscale = clean OHKO (368-436, 113.9-135.0%). Chip Dnite below full first or it lives and DD’s.
• Tusk Close Combat vs 0/0 Kingambit (4x): 676-796 (198.2-233.4%) [guaranteed OHKO] — the reason Kingambit cannot rely on Sucker unless Tusk is already in range; CC is the direct answer and OHKOs through any defensive investment if Tusk gets to move.
• Tusk Headlong Rush vs 248/252+ Gholdengo (2x): 302-356 (80.1-94.4%) [2HKO]; +Proto: 390-462 (103.4-122.5%) [guaranteed OHKO] — once Balloon is gone, a boosted Tusk OHKOs even the bulkiest spinblocker outright (the offensive 0-HP Gholdengo is blown away harder still: 414-488, 131.4-154.9%), so Gholdengo blocking the spin can trade its life. Even unboosted it’s a clean 2HKO into the switch.
• Tusk Headlong Rush vs 252+ Toxapex (2x): 212-252 (69.7-82.9%) [no OHKO]; +1 Headlong Rush (Bulk Up): 318-374 (104.6-123.0%) [guaranteed OHKO] — base Tusk can’t break Toxapex, but the Bulk Up set OHKOs through it once boosted (Ground STAB is the 2x hit here, not Close Combat — Fighting is neutral on Pex’s Poison/Water); this is why Pex isn’t a hard wall to the BU variant.
• Tapu Lele Specs Moonblast vs offensive boots Tusk (2x): 774-912 (208.6-245.8%) [guaranteed OHKO]; Iron Valiant +Proto Moonblast: 632-746 (170.4-201.1%) [OHKO] — Tusk’s weaker special bulk gets exposed by 2x special hits; both Tapu Lele and Iron Valiant blow the offensive spread away outright. Tusk is checked hard by special Fairies/Psychics.

Checks & counters

Hard counters / answers (per the block’s Checks&Counters).

• Tapu Lele (block-leader, 79.8% switch-out-or-KO forced) and Iron Valiant (76.1%) — the two cleanest answers per the usage data: both OHKO the offensive Tusk with a 2x special STAB (Moonblast calcs above) and outspeed non-Scarf, non-Speed-boost Tusk (Lele 273, IV 364; standard max-Atk Booster Tusk stays 300 Speed). They must respect Scarf or deliberately Speed-boosted Tusk at 450, but against standard Attack-boost Booster/Boots Tusk these are clean revenge lines.
• Fat physical pivots that can stomach the unboosted hit and recover: physically defensive Slowking-Galar (Regenerator, Future Sight pressure), bulky Toxapex (checks the non-BU sets despite taking super-effective Headlong Rush — 70-83%, then Recovers/Regenerator-cycles), Alomomola (Regenerator, eats everything non-boosted).
• Corviknight — is immune to Ground, neutral to Ice Spinner, takes even Head Smash for just 28.8-34.0% and Defogs/Pressures Tusk’s PP; a stock balance answer the spinner cannot lure through.

Soft checks / revenge. Anything faster + neutral: opposing Scarf or Speed-boost Tusk ties at 450, Zamazenta (412 Spe, outspeeds standard Attack-boost Booster Tusk and Body-Presses through it), Choice-Scarf Lando/Garchomp, and any priority into a Headlong-Rush-weakened Tusk. Because Headlong Rush self-debuffs Def/SpD, a Tusk that just clicked it is revenge-fodder for resisted priority.

How it fights back: Ice Spinner removes the Terrain its Lele/Bolt checks lean on; Head Smash / Stone Edge are lures vs Flyers — Stone Edge vs 0/0 Zapdos is 252-298 (78.5-92.8%, 2x) [no OHKO, but a near-certain 2HKO into chip] and Head Smash hits harder (376-444, 117.1-138.3%, guaranteed OHKO), so a “spinner” Tusk can blow past a Flying-type that thought it walled the Ground STAB. (Corviknight is the exception — its Steel typing leaves Rock merely neutral, so Head Smash is just 28.8-34.0% there.)

★ Offense angle

For aggressive offense, Tusk is your hazard-control + glue slot that doesn’t sacrifice tempo — the rare removal piece that keeps the pressure on. Run the Booster Energy offensive pivot when you want immediate Attack pressure, or a Speed-boost/Scarf variant when the slot must revenge-kill at 450 Speed while spinning your own Stealth Rock-pressured field clean before your breakers come in. The sequencing that wins games: lead Tusk, force a Steel/setter out or OHKO it (Garchomp/Kingambit lines above), spin if rocks are up, then hand momentum to a wallbreaker. Its Close-Combat OHKO on Kingambit is load-bearing for offense — it removes the late-game Sucker Punch cleaner that otherwise mops up your weakened team, so Tusk on your side is anti-Kingambit insurance baked into the spinner slot.

What your offense uses to break/outpace it when it’s on the other side: it is not a wall while Booster-active (0/0 defenses), so a faster scarfer or a Speed-boost Tusk partner pressures it, and special Fairies/Psychics (Tapu Lele, Iron Valiant) blow it away — Iron Valiant’s boosted Moonblast OHKOs the offensive spread (170.4-201.1%); just respect that Scarf or Speed-boost Tusk at 450 outspeeds and revenges IV first, so lead it or pivot it in safely. Build a Tusk answer into the team and you simultaneously answer half the Ground-types in the tier. The Headlong-Rush self-debuff is the exploit: bait the click, then bring in your priority breaker or a resist and punish the dropped bulk. Enabled teammate: a fast special breaker behind a Tusk lead (Tusk removes the physical hazard-setters and Steels; the breaker abuses the resulting clean field) — exactly the Iron Valiant / Raging Bolt pairings the usage data shows.

Top teammates & cores

From the 2026-04 block (top-10 teammates):

Strongest cores for offense:

1. Tusk + Charizard-Mega-Y (22.6%) — the single best offense core here. Drought auto-triggers Tusk’s Protosynthesis (no Booster needed, freeing the item slot for Boots/Scarf), Tusk clears the rocks that punish Char-Y’s Boots-less switch-ins, and the two share essentially no defensive checks (Char-Y nukes the Grass/Water walls that wall Tusk; Tusk crushes the Steels/Heatran that wall Char-Y). See 05-common-cores.md.
2. Tusk + Raging Bolt (24.6%) — Tusk’s physical hazard-control + Kingambit/Ground-type removal pairs with Bolt’s Thunderclap priority special breaking; Tusk covers the Ground-types and Steels Bolt hates, Bolt covers the bulky Waters/Flyers (e.g. Alomomola, Corviknight) that wall Tusk. A complementary twin-breaker spine for aggressive builds (cross-ref 06-building-offense.md).