Major Threats + Common Counters

The Perfect Jab archetype, being something with a fairly focused gameplan is a team that has quite distinct checks and counters, so problematic tems will be visible right away, in the pick/ban phase. Of course, when building your team, you need to manage these and figure out which ones are “must ban” so you can build ignoring them, and which ones you need to actually be prepared to see and have to have a practical way to deal with. This is another list, but it's not as long as the previous list, I promise.

Nagaise

Coming in at joint #1 problem for PJab teams, it's Nagaise. It being a mental type is already bad enough for an archetype that (usually) leans on neutral and/or melee types to form the core of its primary strategy. It walls your neutrals and melees mostly, so it won't be the easiest thing to deal with. The main problem is its trait – Deceit Aura.

If you're a seasoned Temtem player, you know what this does and how much of a threat it can be. If you're new, then I'll explain what it does. Deceit Aura or DA for short reverses turn order when Naga is on the board. There are some weird specifics around swapping that I won't go into here, but you can expect to have to deal with DA for 4 turns.

The effect of DA is incredibly powerful. If you're playing a fast PJab team, it makes you squishy AND slow now, so not only does the mental type Naga move before you, but it also oneshots you because you're squishy. If you're playing a slow team, you will have a slightly easier time, since you're more likely built for bulk, but since Naga likes to “scuff” its speed SV by running lower than 50, there's a good chance it will still move before you.

To beat Naga, you need to use hold-0 non-electric moves that it is weak to. It has a 4x weakness to electric, but it's for that exact reason that Naga is commonly led with Raignet to draw those electric moves away from it. I find crystal to be the best type for this, as Raignet is also weak to crystal. Zenoreth, Tuvine and Tortenite have all been successful Naga checks in the past.

Do be prepared to double into Naga on turn 1, as it most often runs Reactive Vial, so even a big Toxic Ink from a Nidrasil for example isn't going to KO it, then it's going to heal for 15% and then it's not going to have any type weaknesses any more. Make sure you go for that double, otherwise it's probably going to stick around for more than one turn.

Volgon

Your second joint #1 hard counter is Short-Circuit Volgon. You could argue that Volgon is less of a problem because it's much easier to deal with, and, it is. However, in terms of how much it counters PJab teams, nothing counters you quite as hard. Short Circuit completely negates all stat stage changes while its on the field – positive and negative. You can't buff up if you're on a raid boss secondary strategy, and you can't PJab as the DEF- effect gets prevented. That means it shuts down any Yowlar/Valash/Seismunch side win-cons too. Your main strategy simply does not work for as long as SC Volgon is on the board. If you happen to run into one, you must deal with it as quickly as possible. Thankfully, it is much easier to take out. Just hit it really hard with stuff. Crystal moves, earth moves, big neutral hits, whatever you can. Just knock it out. Zenoreth and Tuvine are especially capable at this job. If you happen to be running Vulffy, Mudrid, Zizare or Vulcrane, they work too. If you can knock the Volgon out or force it off the board, then you can resume your usual PJabbing gameplan.

Short Circuit Volgon is much, much rarer than Superconductivity Volgon. Given that, you can take the risk and let it through the pick/ban phase if you have other priority bans that need to be dealt with. Superconductivity, while incredibly powerful, isn't as much of a threat to your team because at least it doesn't hard counter you.

In this way, you can let it through and if it reveals Short Circuit, switch to it as a priority target. If in a BO3 situation, you can let it through, scout the trait and work from there.

Mushook

Mushook, while being amazing on a PJab team, also happens to be incredibly good against PJab teams as well. The combination of Tenderness and Parrier is super strong against physical attackers in particular, and this allows Mushook to completely shut you down if it remains on the board for large number of turns. The more value Mushook gets out of Tenderness, the more of a problem its going to be for you.

This matchup is where having a just one or two special tems on a PJab team can really shine. Tuvine and Turoc typically run Tornado, despite being physical tems, just to hit Mushook past Parrier. Gravel Bag tems have value in this matchup because they get past Parrier too. Even neutral hits like Crystal Spikes have value just because hitting Mushook on the special side is so much more effective than hitting it on the physical side. Not having to deal with Tenderness is a bonus.

Mushook is rarely a priority ban, as there are other things (like mental type tems) that are more of an issue and require more immediate attention. Its for this reason that you definitely want answers to it that can win the matchup convincingly. The more heavily physical your team is, the more you need to consider ways to beat Mushook. There are some ways to threaten it somewhat, like Narco Hit on Nidrasil and similar, but you ideally want to have a way to gets past Parrier, since the trait is so strong.

Some things are misleadingly weak into it, too. Volarend, while being great in terms of typing, has a weak ATK stat, so since Parrier reduces damage by so much, you'll find that, even at 2x damage, Feather Gatling doesn't hurt Mushook as much as you would hope. Do be prepared to deal with Mushook a lot when playing a PJab team.

General mentals

PJab is an archetype that uses mostly melee moves, which means you typically use tems that are weak to mental. Skunch and Mushook are, arguably, the best two Jabbers in the game, and both have mental weaknesses. You can run teams that stack tems that aren't weak to mental, just to avoid this issue, but it does generally result in less cohesive builds.

Tuvine + Turoc + Raignet as a small PJab core may not be weak to mental, but they're also not as good at being Jabbers compared to some of the mental-weak Jabbers.

Skunch especially, being 4x weak to mental is put in a difficult position. You can't lead it into mentals, unless you also lead CF Tuwire with it. If there's a mental type in front of Skunch, you're either

- Invested to survive a non-synergy Emanip
- Swapping it out
- Sacrificing it for tempo

In all three cases, the presence of a mental type is informing your gameplay decision with this tem.

Beta Burst users are the most threatening to PJab teams as they are the ones carrying a fairly powerful move, at 0 hold and 100 base power. Its very consistent. It's too strong to usually calc for on many tems weak to it and, if you could, there's little you can do back to them anyway, unless softening them up with a Jab for an anti-mental out next to your Jabber to counter-attack back with.

The general bad matchup most Jabbers have into the mental type is the reason why anti-mental is listed as a role for this archetype in the first place.

Kinu is also a major threat. Not only does it carry Beta Burst, but Protector giving +1/+1 defenses slows down your gameplan. You're not longer doubling a target with the 2nd hit being at -1 DEF. Now they're at -0, back to neutral. This massively lowers your tempo. When this happens, a Kinu lead will usually put you on the back foot from the first turn. You'll be playing from behind right away, as your first KO likely got denied by Protector buffs. Its for this reason that I consider Kinu to be one of this archetype's priority bans, even if you aren't weak to mental.

Mental types also present a teambuilding conundrum. How are you building your team to handle them?

If you go heavy on crystals, then your team becomes overall weak to fire and Mushook, so then you either have fires as a bad matchup or need additional answers to beat those, but they also, on average, struggle with Mushook. So then, Mushook becomes an even larger problem for your team, and by this point, you've probably run out of slots on your team to dedicate to more answers.

You could slot lots of digitals, but they mostly either don't benefit from Jabbers (at least we have Molgu), or are generally low-offense or not the most useful tems. You also then have to figure out how you're dealing with things digital is weak to. Digitals also don't resist mental, so if you happen to swap into a Beta Burst or similar, you can expect to take a fairly significant amount of damage.

You could run lots of electrics, but they're weak to crystal. Stacking weaknesses to crystal makes the most sense for PJab since you usually have some form of earth/melee damage to cover that, but then that leads on nicely to the next problem…

Myx

Myx is a particularly big thorn in the side of PJab teams. Between Energy Manipulation and Psy Surge, it's a major threat to your mental-weak tems. It heavily deters the bringing of the electric type to deal with mentals, because it beats them.

Typically, mentals are weak to electric, but Myx's crystal typing reduces that to only 1x damage, so you can't expect to knock a Myx out easily. That then brings its own problem as you then put the Myx into Puppet Master range, which usually means (against PJab teams) they they win the game right there, unless you manage to land a spread move on it somehow. That may be through Cage locking it into a spread move, or simply reading your opponent well. Regardless, PM poses a problem as the vast majority of PJab team damage is single-target. Your primary gameplan is to double into tems with two single-target attacks, so if you lack any spread moves at all, then Myx will completely steamroll your team at any opportunity to gets.

Myx's other offensive options are where it becomes a particularly large problem. You may want to run electrics to handle mentals, but then not only do your electrics no longer hit Myx for 2x, but they're also weak to Crystal Spikes. Imagine, for a moment, that you want to run Innki on your PJab team. It sounds great, doesn't it? Crystal typing allows it to pivot into mentals, Sparkling Bullet synergy with your neutrals, Sharp Stabs as a priority option… it just makes sense.

Then you have it sit in front of a Myx, take a Crystal Spikes to the face and Sharp Stabs only does 80%. What then? You probably lose. I had this exact experience testing heavy electrics as my anti-mental core upon the release of Cipanku. Myx essentially either forces you to accept a poor fire type matchup by stacking crystals, or it forces you to make particular moveset decisions, or forces you to take tems on your team that may be outclassed by others, simply because they bring a spread move and your primary choice did not. Thankfully, that final scenario is becoming more rare over time as more good spread moves are added to the game with greater distribution, but it's still something worth considering.

A simple piece of advice I can give is that, when building your PJab team, always make sure you have a total three methods for dealing with Myx. Even just a simple spread move can count as one. One Toxic Plume from Volarend can go a long way towards helping your matchup into Myx, considering most Myx players will calculate their PM breakpoints in the 1 – 10% HP range, for surviving attacks that are naturally 1HKO's on it. This means that even tiny chips could be enough to finish off a Myx sitting in PM range. If you make sure you have moves and not just tems, the Myx problem becomes less of a constraint on your team building, as you don't have to necessarily dedicate entire tems to the role of just beating Myx (though you can if you want to).

Also, always go for the typical method of playing around Puppet Master. Light tap first, then big hit. Never, ever the other way around. Anything from between 20 – 40% on the first hit is ideal, and then do the rest of the damage with the big hit that comes after. You want to avoid putting Myx into Puppet Master range as much as you possibly can.

A Perfect (Jab) Encyclopaedia of Temtem

In this section, I'm going to try to follow a consistent formula that's hopefully easy to read, easy to understand and something you can come back to and reference if you decide to build your own PJab team. My goal for these is for them to have some “at a glance” info, but also a more detailed description for if you want to know more. I'm going to cover tems that work in this archetype, but a few entries will be tems that don't fit. I want to make sure I at least give every tem with a Jab effect a mention, even if they don't get used. That way, you don't wonder why [X] was forgotten when it has access to [Y]. With that done…

Skunch

 

 

 

 

Roles: Jabber (speed variable), Attacker
Trait: Brawny
Gear: War Drum, Doublescreen, Hacked Microchip (counterbuild only)

Skunch is the posterboy of the PJab archetype. Skunch does it all – it's got high base speed at 75, it has pretty good natural bulk, letting it perform well when invested into bulk rather than speed, while still leaning on its good base speed to Jab for slower team members. Access to strong priority with Ninja Jutsu letting it move at 1.75x speed means that Skunch can be very fast, even when not invested in speed at all. A Neutral/Melee typing also helps Skunch to be naturally bulky is it is weak only to mental (4x) and digital (2x), but takes everything else neutrally, and resists melee.

Skunch is very consistent overall and can fit into any kind of PJab team and perform its role admirably. Its best gear will always be War Drum. This lets Skunch boost itself and its ally, which works great for a tem that fills both a Jabber and attacker role. In early Kisiwa, many people tried Resistance Badge to boost its Suplex and Ninja to even greater heights. While you can do this, War Drum also boosts your melee moves, which tends to lead to overall more consistent results.

PJab and Oshi are both egg moves. If you're building on a budget and can't do that, then Haito Uchi can work just fine in the Oshi Dashi slot. It applies 1 turn of sleep to the target, which adds some nice utility to the team. If you go this route, then a heavily speed invested Skunch is recommended as the sleep status is at its best on fast tems.

Mouflank

 

 

 

 

 

Roles: Attacker, Lead, Utility
Trait: Both have unique functions
Gear: Resistance Badge

Mouflank is also one of the premium tems for the PJab archetype, also able to fit into just about any build of the team. Hurry Wart works great on very aggressive setups that like to get an early advantage and push it through. Turn 1 Cage has the potential to be an incredibly powerful play with game-winning implications when done effectively.

The Hurry-Wart build in particular is the reason why the PJab archetype lends itself to play best on blue side. I'll go over this in greater detail in its own section, but Mouflank forms the backbone of the PJab lead strategy. When running Mouflank, especially the Hurry-Wart version, you will find yourself first picking this tem almost every single time.

At 73 base speed, only two points below Skunch, Mouflank has fantastic synergy with Skunch, and is the main reason why War Drum is preferred over Res Badge. It's because Skunch has moves of two types, so half of its set does not get boosted by Res Badge, but War Drum boost all 4 moves. Mouflank, however, is mono-type in its attacks. It only ever runs neutral-type attacking moves and, therefore, Res Badge is far more efficient on Mouflank over Skunch.

Base Jump and Goring are both essential moves on every build of Mouflank, regardless of trait. Base Jump at 2 prio lets you move under your Jabbers while Goring can be used to finish off low health targets, or set up KO's for follow up when you have two attackers on board at once. Cage is generally run on the Hurry-Wart variant as it lets you use it on the first turn, however, you can still choose to use it on Unnoticed Mouflank.

Execution is great into stall teams, but otherwise optional. It's hard to guarantee a KO from it and, quite often, if the target is in range to go down from Execution, a good Base Jump or Goring is likely to finish it off anyway. Execution is also easily played around and a poorly timed use of it can backfire in catastrophic ways.

Double Kick can be slot on Mouflank as a secondary, weaker Goring. If you choose to run DK, it's because you want on-demand priority, which is a scenario that does come up reasonably often. People have a tendency to stop playing around 3 priority when Goring is down. Double Kick takes advantage of this. It's both weaker than and more expensive than Goring, so use it only when you want to click Goring but you can't because it's just been used.

Tenderness can be played on Unnoticed Mouflank and can provide some great utility into opposing physical teams to slow them down and keep them manageable. Useful to keep tems like Yowlar and Mushook in check.

Unnoticed Mouflank lacks the immediate power of HW Mouflank, but has the potential to snowball out of control with speed boosts, which HW Mouflank is unable to do at all. HW Mouflank is generally easier to use, but lacks the hard carry potential of Unnoticed. Unnoticed is unlikely to perform too well on the slower, bulky PJab variants as it messes up your internal speed staggering. However, on very fast teams, it's going to perform at its best.

Either way, both traits are very good, and the choice is mostly down to user preference. I prefer HW Mouflank, but Unnoticed is still very good.

Tateru

 

 

 

 

 

Roles: Slow Jabber, Attacker, Utility
Trait: Soft Touch
Gear: Many options

There are two ways to look at Tateru. The first way is to say that it's totally outclassed in every way. That it has a fairly mis-matched movepool that wants to do lots of different things, and that it doesn't do any of them particularly well. That it's overall just a bad tem, in need of some help to distinguish itself among other neutrals, which is a very contested slot on a team, especially in PJab.

The other way is to see it as a second Skunch that doesn't do Skunch's job as well, but does a lot of things it doesn't do at the same time. Think of Tateru as bringing things you want from other types, but without the attached typing. It's a Stone Ball user that's not earth type. You lose the damage from STAB, but you also don't gain the weaknesses that come with the earth type either.

Major Slash is just a worse Savage Suplex, but Tateru is also the only neutral type with access to Turbo Choreography, if you happen to be wind-heavy and want to go in that direction. The same applies to it also having Tenderness and Sacrifice.

Overall, you will generally find that if you want just one specific role filled on your PJab team, then something else is better in that slot. But, if you happen to be building and you need multiple things that only Tateru brings, then give it a shot.

Zaobian

 

 

 

 

 

Roles: Attacker, Counter-tech

Trait: Attack T

Gear: Sweatband, Reactive Vial, Doublescreen, Drill, War Drum

Zaobian is an interesting tem for the PJab archetype. It's not particularly good on its own. Zaobian needs a lot of team support before it starts to justify its slot on a team, making it hard to fit, rare to see, and hard to play effectively. However, what you get out of that is effectively the option to “build-a-Temtem”. You can customise your Zaobian to be just about whatever you want thanks to its wide variety of high quality attacking moves. This lets Zaobian fill the unique role of a tem you can bring to counterbuild specific matchups that your team has problems with. An example of this is Mushook.

Mushook is very strong into all variants of PJab thanks to the Parrier trait making it incredibly resilient into your damage. Slow PJab teams are especially vulnerable into Mushook due to it now likely outspeeding them with Tenderness – reducing your damage output on the same turn Tenderness is used. Zaobian having access to Telekinetic Shrapnel means that you can bring Zaobian as a mental type for your team that gets STAB on its one mental type move… while also not being a mental type itself. Similarly, Wastewater lets it lead relatively well into Nagaise and hit back without being threatened by Beta Burst. Crystal Bite lets Zaobian transform into a crystal type, giving you some leverage into heavy mental teams with are the most common counter team to the PJab archetype. Even if you run all three of those moves, Zaobian still has an even deeper pool of options with Frond Whip/Electropunch for potential water threats if you decide to go down the Quetza-Leno route, Cyberclaw for priority and digital damage for opposing Skunch/Mushook/digitals and even Hologram for a defensive option.

You can even run Purgation both as a means to raise your own offense, or as a tech into heavy doom stall, if that ever gains popularity to the point at which you need to prepare for it.

If you want to try something more advanced (and risky, since this is a mostly untested idea), you could even attempt a physical/special hybrid team using Zaobian as a way to glue the physical and special halves together thanks to its access to Data Corruption.

If you are having problems dealing with very specific Temtem or team style that Zaobian can match up into, do consider Zaobian, as it's likely to be the only tem in the game that can do what you need it to.

There is, however, the cost issue. Zaobian is among the most expensive Temtem to build or play. Almost all of its non-digital attacking moves are egg moves, and are very difficult to breed onto Zaobian, requiring a lot of breeding to get right. This leads to a very high pricetag on perfectly bred Zaobian, and on any ETCs that Zaobian uses (if you have a luma Zaobian you want to use, this will be relevant). These things all cost a hefty amount of pansuns, to the point of being prohibitively expensive to players who are not already well-established in terms of income. If you can afford Zaobian, then great, but if you are building on a budget, you may want to consider other tems.

Molgu

 

 

 

 

 

Roles: Attacker, utility
Trait: Team-dependant
Gear: Fake Beard. Sweatband
Molgu is deceptively powerful. It's not a great stand-alone tem, but it is capable. Access to Cage means that, after one turn, the threat of Cage will always be present. Faraday Cage and Digithreat are both moves that really boost teams with specific synergies.

If you're running a team with multiple mentals, then Digithreat gives you a side-option to use doom as an additional win condition, or to remove threats you aren't prepared for. If you are running a team with multiple toxics (which is surprisingly common with this archetype) then Faraday Cage really improves your consistency and overall threat. Unresistable damage followed by Isolation and poison ticks is very powerful.

Molgu also has fairly decent natural bulk. It's got similar overall defense to Skunch. Both of Molgu's traits are fairly good. Splitter is overall reliable, letting it swap into moves like Toxic Ink or Fiery Soul without fear of status after taking damage. It's similar to Neutrality Barnshe in that regard. Splitter is the more overall “general use” trait. Just remember that it only blocks status if it's a secondary effect. Moves like Hypnosis or Fiery Heist will still work.

Sentinel, however lets Molgu do very specific things. If you intend to play a raid boss sub-archetype, consider Molgu. Relax helps you to get passive turns to set up boosts. You can swap in Molgu on a Relax turn and it will prevent both of your tems from going to sleep, letting you use a Stone Wall from your other tem, or Double Edge from Molgu itself on a raid boss target. You can also play Sentinel Molgu with Nidrasil, as it prevents Narcoleptic Hit from applying the sleep, so Nid doesn't put itself to sleep.

If you're playing around with sleep stuff and/or toxics, Molgu may be a decent choice. Providing Electropunch synergy for Koish, Raignet and Zaobian is also a benefit. It may not fit on every PJab team, but Molgu isn't bad. Don't overlook it if your team leans in a direction that it can support.
Granpah

 

 

 

 

 

Roles: Jabber, attacker (special), Utility

Trait: Bully
Gear: Hand Fan, Fake Beard, Sweatband

If you're looking to play a hybrid phys/special PJab team, Granpah can fit. With access to two forms of -DEF, it can help support physical attackers, using its above average base 78 speed to Jab quite effectively.

It's not a great fit, however. Granpah is far superior as a special attacker, and doesn't fit particularly well by itself on dedicated PJab teams. Rather, Granpah's best use is not on PJab teams. If you intend to use it for its Jab effects, then Granpah is most effective supporting a few physical tems on a heavily special team, rather than being a special tem on a heavily physical team, or being built physically itself.

It's for its ability to support physical tems in general, by use of Jab effects that I bring it up here.

Granpah brings a lot of utility to a team with Hypnosis for turn denial and Willpower Drain for stamina control, which can cause an opponent to overexert. A high base SPATK and the Bully trait means that Granpah can do a significant amount of damage, even if not fully invested. It performs well on highly aggressive teams that aim to pick up a numbers advantage as quickly as possible.

It must be stressed that Granpah is here for its ability to use Jab effects to support physical tems on other archetypes, and not for its use on dedicated PJab teams. There are other wind types which are far better.

Mudrid

 

 

 

 

 

Role: Anti-Myx
Trait: Resistant
Gear: Iron Coating, Sweatband

Mudrid seems like an odd choice for a PJab team. It's both faster than Jabbers so it doesn't really fit in that regard, while also being a far, far better special attacker than it is a physical attacker. So, why can it fit?

Myx.

In a later section in this guide, I will dedicate a section entirely to Myx as it's a big problem for PJab teams. When building a PJab team, you absolutely must have answers to Myx. That is Mudrid's only role on these teams. Being able to hit Myx really hard with either Soil Steam or Deluge, the squishier variants of Myx will likely get knocked out, but those that survive still fall to Quartz Dirt.

In addition, Mudrid's typing allow it to resist every offensive move Myx has, which allows it to effectively swap in on Myx. You lose full synergy between physical tems by adding a special tem to your team, but that's a fairly low cost compared to simply losing to Myx. While counter-intuitive, Mudrid has a place, albeit, a small one.

Rhoulder

 

 

 

 

 

Roles: Attacker, Synergy

Trait: Thick Skin

Gear: Fake Beard

Rhoulder is a very, very bulky tem. With stats that are near-perfect for a bulky style PJab team, Rhoulder is well worth a consideration. At a mere 42 base speed, even Goring moves slowly, letting you stagger your Jabbers above it for very high damage combos. Thick Skin also gives you an option for a full resistance to the wind type, without having to bring your own electric or wind type along. If adding an additional wind would skew your weaknesses to crystal, earth or electric too much, consider Rhoulder.

Rhoulder brings more than just remarkable bulk and strong damage however. It's very well positioned to provide synergies to a team. Lots of tems that can fit on PJab teams have synergies that require one of Rhoulder's types, which allows it to really tie the team together.

Raignet and Innki both have access to Piezoelectric Blow, which wants earth synergy. They also both have access to Sparkling Bullet, which requires neutral synergy.

Golzy also carries Sparkling Bullet, which is aided by being out with a Rhoulder.

Quetza-Leno users in Raican and Capyre both really want to be out next to neutral types to get their priority, while Rhoulder's Stone Ball applies burn ticks with fire. If you're building a bulky PJab team with lots of synergies, Rhoulder can be a great fit.

Rhoulder also brings some nice utility options. If running it with electrics, Earthbreaker provides surprise electric damage when needed. Access to Cage is always nice, and Execution lets it be effective into hard stall teams. You can even run Stone Wall if you have a raid boss secondary gameplan.

Rhoulder isn't all good, however, and comes with a couple downsides. It's quite a bit weaker on the special side, so it's fairly vulnerable to special mentals and waters. Ukama in particular can pose major problems. Rhoulder being weak to mental also means that if stacked with other neutral types, your weakness to mental becomes even more extreme, so teams wanting to use the Skunch/Mouflank combination rarely have room to add Rhoulder, no matter how good it may be on paper, simply because even more mental weaknesses is too much.

Secondly, Rhoulder has a very low base stamina stat, but very expensive moves. In order for it to stay on the field long enough to be effective, Rhoulder requires the use of Fake Beard, otherwise, it fails to perform at all. If you have another tem that also is unable to work without Fake Beard, such as Molgu or Zenoreth, then one of them needs to be cut.

There can only be one (Fake Beard user).

Nidrasil

 

 

 

 

 

Roles: Attacker, Utility

Trait: Tri-Apothecary

Gear: Coat, Doublescreen, Pansunscreen, Pillow, Energy Drink

Nidrasil is a very good tem. Even outside of the PJab archetype, Nidrasil is great. Its typing is fantastic defensively, with few weaknesses and many key resists. It's got average base speed, good defensive stats, and one of the highest base ATK stats in the game, and even access to one of the best damage moves in the game – Toxic Ink. Nidrasil is a great overall package.

There are a few ways to build Nidrasil. The most traditional builds are full bulk and nothing else, relying on poison ticks for damage. This is totally viable and after a Jab, even uninvested Tink can really hurt, and that's before an additional 25% max health damage, from the two poison ticks Tink provides.

Another option is a speedy, bulky Nid. This fills a more supportive role with Hypnosis and Spores, in addition to still running Allergic Spread. It's less bulky than the full bulk version, but has the added benefit of being able to Hypnosis mid-speed to slow tems before they move.

Nidrasil can also use Bark Shield, which allows it to support the team as a whole when up against opposing teams that are heavily physical. A well-timed Bark Shield into an opposing physical team can win a game by itself. Narcoleptic Hit lets Nidrasil act as a semi-check to both Mushook and Skunch, threatening them both with 2x and 4x damage, respectively. The addition of Edrink lets Nid use that move without its drawback.

You can even play Nidrasil with high ATK invest, leaning in on its very high base 88 ATK stat to deal very significant damage with Toxic Ink. This build in particular is very strong into Cerneaf and Kinu, so if a meta arises in which Cerneaf comes back, an ATK invested Nidrasil (with Drill) can be very effective to answer that particular team.

Beware of winds and fires, but Nidrasil is otherwise very strong and very consistent, provided you find the right build for your team.

Zenoreth

 

 

 

 

 

Role: Attacker(mixed), Anti-mental

Trait: Channeler

Gear: Fake Beard

Another tem that only works well with Fake Beard, Zeno is a strong option to solve your mental type problems. Unlike Gyalis or Valash, it actually resists mental, which allows it to swap in on a resist, rather than a neutrality.

With excellent base stats in all defenses, Zenoreth can take a surprising amount of damage and keep going. It has an advantage over other crystal types in that Crystal Spikes is 0 hold, while Crystal Bite is 1 hold, which lets Zeno lead into mentals, while a tem like Gyalis needs a turn to get going before it can actually start doing its job.

Channeler means that Zenoreth is the hardest hitting unboosted user of CSpikes, but can also use Madness Buff to carry a game entirely by itself with its incredible damage output at +2. If you do this, you'll need to swap it out after buffing and bring it back in, as it will need more than the 3 turns Fake Bears affords it to win the game.

Zeno also brings other options. In the base 60 speed range, it's slower than most Jabbers (even the Tuwai evolutions) which lets it run a mixed set. This is rarely relevant, but when it is, the difference is immense. Adoroboros for example is one of the mental types of the greatest threat to PJab teams. If you haven't been able to use Madness Buff, then Cbite is able to out-damage CSpikes when attacking tems with very high SPDEF, like Adoroboros.

For example if you compare a 500 SPATK Channeler CSpikes into a 500 HP / 0 DEF Adoro to a 0 ATK Zeno Cbite into the same Adoro, you'll find that Cbite does 4% more damage, because it hits on the physical side.

This means that, after a Jab, Cbite is very likely to be a KO on that Adoro, while Adoro is guaranteed to survive a Crystal Spikes. This kind of thing doesn't come up often, but it allows you to get around specially defensive tems, or tems that have boosted their SPDEF, such as with Mbuff.

As a final aside, Zeno can use Quartz Shield to help an ally survive damage later into the battle. You won't click this often either, but you'll be glad you had it when you do.

Babawa

 

 

 

 

 

Role: Attacker

Trait: Mucous
Gear: Doublescreen, Tucma Mask

Like Rhoulder, Babwa is a tem with low base speed, but access to 3 priority letting it hit that mid-high speed benchmark by using that to its advantage. WCL has a very high base power, especially with synergy, and happens to be in a sweet spot for speed tiers for this archetype. With 0 speed investment, Babawa WCL comes very close to base speed Skunch, which means that, with minimal speed investment, Skunch is able to Jab for Babawa, which will hit targets taking it neutrally for a lot of damage. All this, without Skunch having to give up any effective bulk to do this. They pair well together.

Ice Cubes is usually weak, but gives Babawa a little versatility, letting it lead into fires effectively. Ice Cubes lets it hit Hedgine and Tulcan on turn 1, which helps it to put out pressure against them from a lead position, making Babawa a somewhat safe lead into both of them. Mucous even prevents burns, so it lets Babawa lead into Heater Tulcan without losing damage, making it a decent check. If Hedgine stays in on Babawa and doesn't use Generify, then, at -1 DEF, Ice Cubes will 1HKO most variants. Aqua Stone and Iced Stalactite are basically identical. If you happen to have earth types on your team – even just one – then Aqua Stone is probably better, but the two moves are so similar it really doesn't matter which you choose.

For the last slot, you can choose between Harmful Lick and Revitalize. HL is useful because it lets you hit nature types for significant damage without being totally walled by them like you normally would. Teams that are heavy on the toxic type do exist, and, if for some reason you are forced to bring Babawa to that, such as to deal with one particular tem you need it for, then Harmful Lick helps it to be effective into them, even if only to a limited degree.

Revitalize is, in general, a very good move. The issue with it is that being on a very slow tem, it isn't as strong as it could be. The difference between a fast Revitialize and a slow one is huge. So much so that if you are unable to get a Babawa with the move, for lack of budget or already having one from before it was added to the moveset, do not worry. Harmful Lick is “good enough” and you will rarely find times in which you wished you had Revit because it would have won you the game.

Valash

 

 

 

 

 

Role: Raid boss, attacker, anti-mental

Trait: Scavenger

Gear: Sweatband, Doublescreen

There is a lot to say about Valash.

Firstly, don't let the image above deceive you. That is not the kind of set you want to run. Valash can very easily be run either physical or special, because it has the tools to do either of those things. When taking that image, I wanted to show that it has tools on both the physical and special side, so I selected those 4 moves. They don't go well together. Please don't copy that.

Valash is arguably the most versatile tem on this list. At a whopping 90 base speed, it's one of the fastest tems in the game. On a fast PJab team, you can run a Valash that's close to minimum speed and it will still be reasonably quick, especially when using Sharp Stabs and Ninja Jutsu. It's also in range for PJab from your other tems. You can play Valash with Skunch, Mushook or Seismunch and they all have a high enough base speed that they're able to stagger above slower Valash and PJab for it to follow up with Base Jump or Crystal Bite.

When playing this kind of physical Valash, think about it as if it's a Mouflank with an additional crystal typing. You don't have to play it this way, however.

Some teams have seen tournament success with a fast physical Valash that's faster even than Jabbers on the same team, simply relying on it already having high damage output, even before a Jab, and then having the benefit of a Jab pre-placed to finish off the opponent on the next turn.

You can also play Valash with a special-focus, as a raid boss. With moves like Stone Wall, Quartz Shield, Mbuff (from itself) and even just using Kinu, it's quite possible to position Valash as a bulky monster that's a huge damage threat with CSpikes at +2, which then heals for 20% of its maximum HP after each KO (on either side). Valash is one of those tems that, by itself, can be a win condition if you set it up. So much so, that “Valash teams” built to set it up and have it hard carry for them, are a real archetype.

If you plan to have raid bossing as a secondary archetype paired with your PJab core, then you should definitely be playing Valash. It's a remarkable tem.

Gyalis

 

 

 

 

 

Role: Attacker, anti-mental

Trait: Mirroring is objectively stronger, but Resistant works on a budget

Gear: Chamomille (best gear for Mirroring), Doublescreen, War Drum

Gyalis is a strong tem, but somewhat restrictive. It's very fast, at 100 base speed, and its limited movepool means that the moveset you see above is the only moveset it can run and be at all effective.

At 100 base speed, Gyalis is too fast to run on fully bulky PJab teams that don't invest in speed. It'll attack before you get to Jab, and that kinda ruins your combo. It's going to be most effective on the very fast versions that invest a lot of points into speed. Its second problem is that Gyalis has very little turn 1 pressure. Its only turn 1 options are Glass Blade and Double Gash. Both of which are terrible.

In the past, in Kisiwa, I did try a Glass Blade Gyalis to threaten mentals turn 1, on a fast PJab team, hoping that, at -1, Glass Blade would be enough to deal significant damage to mental types. It was not. Glass Blade was horrible. Do not try it, it does not work.

That leaves Double Gash as your only viable turn 1 move. It's still not good. Gyalis really needs to reach turn 2 before it really starts to become effective. When it does, it's very strong, but, do keep that in mind if you choose to bring Gyalis to your PJab lineup.

In terms of traits, Chamomille is basically just a better version of Resilient that lasts enough turns that it's going to be active for longer than Gyalis usually wants to stay in. That means you get to run Mirroring and can have the benefits of both traits at the same time. This is why it's objectively the better trait over Resistant.

However, if you're on a budget and can't afford a Mirroring Gyalis, or you happen to have a luma one with Resistant, remember that, while objectively weaker, it is “fine” and totally usable.

Piraniant

 

 

 

 

 

Roles: Slow Jabber, attacker, support

Trait: Energy Reserves is preferred, but Patient has a place on a fully supportive build

Gear: First Aid Kit, Doublescreen, War Drum

Piraniant is a very niche tem, even by PJab standards. You're very unlikely to pick this tem up and, honestly, it's similar to Granpah in that it's able to support other archetypes with Jab effects, rather than slotting well on a PJab team.

With access to Hslap, Piraniant can provide -DEF effects for physicals on its team, but there are other tems, including of the water type that can do that, but better (Kalabyss). It can also support physicals with Purgation, but Zaobian and Volgon both do a better job of that and bring other utilities to the team that it prefers over what Piraniant can do.

The same goes for Cold Geyser. Garyo is a better user of it, thanks to its overall better typing and traits, even if you account for the +2 ATK boost of Energy Reserves.

You can meme with Piraniant and get surprise KO's with an attack survival into a +2 Cold Geyser, but outside of that, there are better water types for this archetype. It's funny every once in a while, but otherwise, totally outclassed.

A full support build using Revit, Flood and Purgation with the Patient trait can exist, but again, there are far better uses for a slot on your team than that.

Saipat

 

 

 

 

 

Role: Jabber, attacker

Trait: Both have uses

Gear: Multiple

Saipat is, honestly, severely underexplored. Its place in the meta has regularly shifted and yet it's something that rarely even gets experimented with at high levels, despite having some very powerful tools at its disposal.

In the past, Saipat was easier to slot. Amphibian was much weaker than it is now, as it didn't also boost ATK. That made Toxic Affinity the obvious choice, so Toxic Ink was an easy slot. You'd then add Nicho Sai, plus your choice of water option and then either Ninja Jutsu or some utility.

Nowadays, Saipat is different. With Vulffy, Koish (nature) and Amphatyr around more, its nature weakness is more relevant. Back in Tucma when it was more widely played, Saipat didn't have to fear electrics at all. The only one in the game was Gazuma and it was really weak. Now, there are a lot of very good electric types to be afraid of.

Saipat's typing really lets it down and, it's somewhat like Goolder in that its high base HP means it's not likely to go down in one hit, but low defenses means that it still takes a lot of damage from hits, even if it survives.

The increase in threats to Saipat makes it difficult to position well and therefore hard to play. It's high risk, but not necessarily high reward.

On the other hand, Amphibian does interesting things. If you're going down the Quetza-Leno route and/or have a team with multiple earth types, then Saipat as a swap-in makes sense. You can use Amphibian to deter incoming water type moves and use them to snowball out of control. This lets Saipat have a unique role as an anti-water water type (even without Tox Affinity) on PJab teams with a strong weakness to water.

However, it's unlikely to perform well outside of that role. In theory, it can be a very powerful physical water attacker with Shuine's Horn Toxic Ink being converted to water, getting its 50% STAB boost and then an additional 25% boost from the gear, but whether that's a good set or just a meme remains to be seen.

In closing, Saipat is high-risk for a small niche at present, but really needs to be examined more by the community at large. It also adding additional weaknesses to mental on an already mental-weak archetype certainly doesn't help its case, either.

Tortenite

 

 

 

 

 

Role: Anti-mental, attacker (special)

Trait: Both are very strong
Gear: Trait dependant

Tortenite is likely to be your second choice for CSpiker behind Zeno if you want pure anti-mental support. Valash is kind of in its own category.

Tier lists are going to be somewhat confusing here. Tortenite is generally the better tem overall and I agree with that statement. As a whole, Tort is a better tem than Zeno. So, if that's true, why is Tort second to Zeno? The main reason is because Tort isn't as good at filling the anti-mental role you need it to, compared to Zeno.

See, Tort has one major flaw in this department. It's weak to Barnshe. An anti-mental that loses to mentals is certainly not much use at all. It'll probably out-perform Zeno in other matchups because it's less restrictive in terms of gears and brings other things to its team beyond just clicking Spikes for big damage. However, that weakness to Barnshe is a big, big deal.

Barnshe is one of the most popular mental types, and it also has the highest one-shot potential of them all. Air Specialist + Hand Fan is a very popular and common build for the tem, and that deals absurd amounts of damage. It's also got decent special defense and higher speed than Tort, so it's probably going to outspeed you, and, if it doesn't, it'll probably survive your Spikes anyway.

So, why would you bring Tort? You bring Tort if you already have a lot of things that want toxic type support. There are plenty of moves that are really good with toxic synergy. Urushiol, Water Cannon and Faraday Cage, just to name a few. If you find yourself stacking on toxic synergies, then Tort will be a better choice over Zeno because it ties the team together. However, if you do, you need to accept that Barnshe becomes a must-ban tem.

The other reason you might want to bring Tort over Zeno is if Fake Beard is already taken. Efficient doesn't need a stamina gear, and Confined can use Sweatband very well. If you tried to slot, say, Zeno and Rhoulder on the same PJab team, but decided that Rhoulder was more important, and therefore gets the Fake Beard, then you can replace Zeno with Tort and it'll be your 2nd best option in that slot and still perform admirably, while still letting you run that Rhoulder.

Adding Tort also helps improve your matchup into stall because you can use Garden to slowly tick them down, giving you a way to get through buffed up walls that have gotten too bulky to deal with through direct damage alone. However, be careful with timing that as Garden is often very easy to read and as such, becomes quite easy to counter and likely to backfire, similar to Execution in that regard. Learning to time your use of Garden will be crucial when dealing with the stall matchup.

As an aside, Tort's toxic typing makes it great at dealing with Nagaise and nature Koish on the same team, as the toxic type lets it resist both of their main STAB options. Teams that run a combination of Naga + Mimit + NatKoish can be a problem for PJab and adding Tort can help alleviate that problem.

Raican

 

 

 

 

 

Roles: Attacker, win-condition, synergy, raid boss

Traits: Both have good potential

Gear: Trait dependent

Raican may not be as strong as it was in its Kisiwa glory days, but it's still a solid tem. If you're looking to go down the neutral/fire route, then Raican is going to be your primary option.

Quetza-Leno is a move that's very strong, with a synergy effect (gaining 3 prio) that makes it a build-around sort of move. Quetza-Leno teams are totally a thing, and they make for an easy combo with PJab. Raican works great with tems like Skunch, Mushook, Rhoulder and Mouflank. Rhoulder especially, as it gives synergies both ways.

Your main decision here is between your traits. Prideful can hard-carry a game if it gets set up with one or two boosts, but you can start to outrun your Jabbers after a boost, causing you to lose damage. This means that Pridecan lends itself to a super speedy PJab team that can still Jab for it, even after its first boost. The game patch 0.7.0 nerf to speed stages, making them a +25% boost rather than +50% boost helps with that. A slow Raican with fast Jabbers can usually still attack before opponents, but after a Jab, even at +1. Once you have two boosts, Jab isn't even necessary any more. You're doing more than enough damage.

Motivator Raican is like an offensive support of sorts. It's the choice of Raican you might want to consider on slower, bulkier PJab teams. Skunch can Jab before a synergy Quetza-Leno with middling speed investment. The lack of Prideful on this build lets you remain consistent with your turn order, rather then having it change throughout the game. The other benefit to Motivator is more obvious – it fits really well on stamina-hungry teams. Motivator is numerically equivalent to Sweatband. It works on both tems, too. So Motivator is like adding a Sweatband as a gear on both tems on board, on top of what they already have. Very powerful. Motivator lets you run multiple stamina-hungry tems on the same team.

Take for example, Rhoulder. You want to pair Raican and Rhoulder together because their synergies tie the two together so well. However, Rhoulder and Pridecan want Fake Beard. What you can do is swap to Motican and keep the Fake Beard on Rhoulder. Similarly, you may want to run both Zenoreth and Rhoulder. Motican lets you put Sweatband on the Zeno and, with Motican on the board with it, Zeno will suffer less from its usual stamina problems.

Motican's weaknesses are that it doesn't carry a game the same way Prideful can. It's also harder to use, since its most powerful option – its trait – only works on the board, so setting up a position to use it effectively (like with Zeno) is hard to do consistently.

For gears, Prideful really likes Fake Beard itself, but Sweatband works as a secondary option if the FB is taken. Motican has less immediate threat, so a Fire Chip or a War Drum can be helpful. If you want to stick around for a while, Doublescreen can also be effective.

Simply put, if you're looking at that fire/neutral core, then expect Raican to have the lion's share of play compared to other options.

Innki

 

 

 

 

 

Roles: Attacker, Anti-mental

Trait: Physmaster (for our purposes, but Specmaster is a good trait for other teams)

Gear: Defensive

Don't sleep on Innki. Being the tem with the highest unboosted damage potential, Innki can hit like an absolute truck. Physmaster and Specmaster are 50% boosts to their relative attack type. That's the same as STAB, so when looking at damage, it's as if each move has double its base power. That's why Sparkling Bullet works so well, despite being kinda mediocre on other tems. 60 base power to start, and 105 with synergy isn't that great when you compare it to Quetza-Leno starting at 105 base power.

Physmaster boosts that up enough that Innki is a damage threat, even without synergy. Sharp stabs is similarly powerful, and PBlow is basically a one-shot button on all but the bulkiest targets.

At 73 base speed, Innki ties with Mouflank, sits at 1 below Kinu and Volarend, and 2 behind Skunch. This lets it fit on either fast or slow PJab teams. Innki doesn't have particularly good bulk stats at all, which is why, if you're going for it, you need a defensive gear to help it in that regard. Something like Doublescreen gives Innki enough effective bulk that it can start to survive things and behave in the way you would expect from a tem on a bulky PJab team. Pansunscreen is especially important if you expect to be dealing with Tulcan, which is probably a lot, as Tulcan is one of the best tems in the game. Pansunscreen prevents burn and reduces incoming fire damage by 10%. This helps Innki to survive a Fiery Soul, while also not taking the damage reduction from its burn effect, or from Heater. This lets you trade with Tulcan, guaranteeing a KO on it after a Jab, even without synergy on Sparkling Bullet. Innki will lose a lot of health, but that trade is usually worth it.

Faster teams can also run Innki, as its base speed is in that golden zone where it's close to some key Jabbers in base speed, so can invest to be close to them at all times, no matter how much they invest.

Innki also works nicely in an anti-mental role as mental is weak to both of its STAB types. Mentals will always be threatened by Innki on any given turn. Except Myx. Once gain, Myx is the big problem here. It's weak to your Sharp Stabs, but it's rarely enough to OHKO Myx, and given that it's 1 hold, the Myx is going to hit Innki with at least one CSpikes first. Two, if it's faster than you, which is enough to KO you. Overall, Myx is a losing matchup for Innki, while it takes on all other mentals well. Especially Barnshe. If you've built a team that's super weak to Barnshe, consider Innki as your anti-mental slot (or a second one).

As for your 4th move, the one I've had the most success with is Pickpocket. Sharp Stabs is your only reliable priority option at 1 hold, but having only that for priority can sometimes lower Innki's consistency. I tried a few options on that slot, but the one that helped me the most was Pickpocket. 4 priority let Innki move really fast, even though I didn't invest speed on it. The 1 hold let me cycle priority options, and Physmaster boosted its damage just enough to be relevant. It didn't hit hard (at all) but the ~10% it did to most targets was enough to just barely pick off weakened tems that had survived a Sparkling Bullet or Sharp Stabs in the red. It's great to snipe low-heath targets, but is otherwise not that useful. It's still more useful than the other options, however. If you want to try them, go ahead. Chain Heal might be useful on occasion. As for me, I like Pickpocket.

Golzy

 

 

 

 

 

Role: Attacker, anti-mental, synergy

Trait: Defuser
Gear: Defensive

Golzy is rough. The problems it has in general apply doubly so to PJab teams. The bulk of its issues come from its very awkward typing. It's a melee that's weak to earth and crystal. It's an electric that's weak to mental and digital. With the exceptions of water and wind, everything Golzy should have an offensive advantage to, it also has a defensive advantage against. It's a real shame, because the combination of electric and melee typing hits a wide range of types for a lot of damage.

Take Tuvine for example. You have Uppercut and Oshi Dashi to threaten it, but then you're also weak to CPG. CPG is 0 hold while Oshi is 1 hold. That means you're taking a CPG before you can Oshi, so Golzy is probably getting KO'd before it can knock out Tuvine. Golzy has this same issue in most of its non-neutral matchups.

This typing problem has the side-effect of making Golzy a very high-risk tem. Iof you want Golzy to be effective, you need to carefully position it so that it can win its matchups. For example, you might want to invest in speed so that it's faster than max speed Vulffy. That way, you can always Oshi before a Dust Vortex. Or, you may want to guarantee you survive a Soil Steam from Mudrid, so you can hit back with Uppercut.

Another option is to play a very bulky Golzy with Reactive Vial, relying heavily on the Nullify effect to cancel out your weaknesses for two turns so Golzy can make the most of its otherwise fantastic offensive coverage. If you're looking to play a slow-ish Golzy, this may be the way to go.

Another way to support Golzy is to add a Tuwire to your team. Common Factor has the benefit if fixing poor typings, and Golzy really appreciates that kind of support. If you build Golzy for bulk and add a Tuwire to your team, then your Golzy might actually start to feel chunky for once.

Drawbacks aside, Golzy does have a lot to offer. As stated, electric/melee is great offensive typing. Sparkling Bullet and Show Off position it as an interesting partner for Skunch and Mushook. Charged Iron Filings is a powerful spread move, which applies the effect of Defuser to both targets. Oshi Dashi is always strong, while any tem with Cage has game-winning potential if used on a good turn for it. You can even slot Psychosis if you want to tech against stall without dedicating an entire tem to it.

The best way to think about Golzy is that it has a lot to offer – but at what cost?

Mushook

 

 

 

 

 

Role: Jabber (fast or slow), Attacker, Utility, synergy

Trait: Parrier

Gear: War Drum or defensive

Mushook is amazing. Easily one of the most consistent and versatile tems ever, Mushook is one of the best tems of all time. It's also up there with Skunch as the poster boy of PJab teams.

At 81 base speed, Mushook is on the faster end and is the 2nd fastest Jabber in the game. That means that, unless you specifically want to go for Jab → Wastewater combos, it's most likely going to be your fastest Jabber.

Perfect Jab alone is enough to give Mushook effective synergy with PJab teams, but it also has a high base ATK stat and decent HP and DEF, which gives it solid natural bulk. Uppercut does plenty of damage, and makes Mushook especially effective into the ever-present Vulffy, usually hitting it for a 2HKO. Bulkier variants of Vulffy do exist, however. The addition of Wastewater now gives Mushook very strong direct toxic type damage, letting it use both of its types offensively, and is no longer forced into toxic teams as an Urushiol user as its only primary option for toxic.

The 4th slot is very flexible. Mushook has access to Cage, and uses it well, so it's always a threat after one turn. Tenderness is a fantastic move at dealing with opposing physical tems, especially Yowlar and Skunch. If you're toxic-heavy then you can still use Urushiol. It's a good move.

If you're playing heavy winds then Turbo may be a useful option to give you some effective speed control. I like to run Tenderness, but everything mentioned above is totally viable and you can use whatever you want and it will be good. Just make sure you run the three moves in the image above. Those are Mushook's bread and butter, and what it really needs to be at its most effective.

For traits, you always want to be running Parrier. That trait is super strong. Tireless may be an attractive option, but it requires you play your Mushook in a way that doesn't have much synergy with the way PJab tends to play. It also requires you take a reduced STA stat, as well as forcing you to take a huge hit to your bulk. Tireless Mushook has similar carry potential to a Prideful Raican, but it's also a lot easier to counter. You don't get to effectively use your +1 ATK boost until the turn after you boost, which gives the opponent time to take your Mushook out. That's a big deal when you're investing heavily into speed to get the most out of the offensive power the trait provides. This becomes more apparent when you take a deeper dive into Parrier.

If you run the damage calcs, you'll learn that Parrier is worth over 500 TV's in DEF. Considering that a trait is literally “for free”, then that's like having 1500 TV's to play with on your Mushook. Parrier is incredibly strong, and allows Mushook to have a strong matchup into around half of the roster of Temtem. If it's physical, Mushook can sit in front of it and probably be just fine. Combine that with Tenderness and Parrier Mushook is great at shutting down physical teams by itself. It's the power of Parrier that makes Mushook one of the strongest counters to PJab, too. Beware of Mushook when running into the mirror. If you don't respect it, it will shut you down.

For gears, Mushook has a lot of options. Unless you're already using Skunch and giving it to that, War Drum is your only offensive gear option that makes any sense, unless you decide to go with Tireless. At that point, Sweatband can be used to restore more stamina between turns, which limits the amount of damage you deal to yourself when you OX to activate Tireless.

For Parrier, you want defensive gears. Coat is the go-to, though I personally don't like it at all. Doublescreen is the most common non-Coat gear, and is very effective at improving Mushook's general bulk by a lot. My preferred gear for Mushook, however, is Reactive Vial. With a well-built spread and RV, Mushook is able to sit in front of a lot of tems that it should otherwise lose to, and use the gear's effect to turn the matchup around into a winning one. This lets Mushook act as bait in the pick/ban phase, and you can use the gear to trick your opponent into taking tems they think have a favourable matchup into Mushook when in fact, your RV means that you will be winning that exchange.

For TV spreads, you have a few options. Speedy Mushook totally works on speedy PJab teams, and the faster Mushook is, the better Tenderness becomes. A fast Tireless Mushook with Turbo can be very scary if it sets up.

Mushook with close to 0 speed is also totally doable on a bulky team. If that's what you're going for, then definitely take Parrier. The benefit of this is it lets you invest heavily into SPDEF, which is the more traditional Mushook build. Those builds relied entirely on poison ticks for the majority of Mushook's damage, and the build still works to a degree. You could also play a bulky offensive Mushook that takes less in SPDEF and invests into ATK to make sure it hits hard all the time.

Mid-speed Mushooks also work, if it staggers around other tems on the team, like a Gyalis or a Valash.

Mushook can do basically anything, You can expect to see it a lot, and if you're playing PJab, it should be one of your first options as a Jabber.

Mastione

 

 

 

 

 

Role: Attacker

Trait: Pyromaniac
Gear: Fire Chip

You want fire? Mastione is fire. Pre-Cipanku, Mastione was in a bad spot. Quetza-Leno got added to the game, but Mastione didn't get it, meaning it was stuck with Embers as its primary STAB option, which meant it got totally outclassed by every other fire type in the game. Then it got Lava Wave, and now it's powerful.

Fitting well on teams with heavy water presence, Mastione has the highest damage output of any physical fire type tem that hasn't already gotten a boost. If you aren't wanting to play Prideful Raican, then Mastione will provide better immediate damage than Motican, but at the cost of lower speed and less bulk.

Lava Wave gains priority with water, which makes it an especially good slot on a team that's using any version of Synergy Master Koish. Meteor Swarm is a spread move, which gives Mastione an option to deal with Myx if it has to, while Flaming Meteorite is basically just a big nuke you can use when you need it.

You have three options in your 4th slot. Those are Tenderness if you feel you really need it to help against physical teams, Cage for generic trapping utility and Major Slash. The most preferred option among players is MSlash as it stops Mastione from being a monotype attacker that's easily walled. That's the problem with tems with moves of only one attacking type. Swap in a resist and it stops them from doing anything at all. MSlash helps deal with this problem a little, but not enough.

If you want to play a risky game, you can slot Rage in that 4th slot, letting Mastione be a huge damage threat from turn 2 onwards. If you feel confident that you aren't going to be leading Mastione into tems that threaten it on turn 1, then Rage may be a worthwhile slot. It's a very risky move to use as it also reduces your DEF by 2 stages, making Mastione very squishy on both sides as it already has very low SPDEF. If you can get it to work, however, then Mastione will be a very powerful tem.

Outside of just pure fire, pure damage, Mastione doesn't have much else to offer a team. By no means does that make it bad, as it does that one job very well, but if you're looking for a tem that can fill multiple roles at once, then another fire type may be a better choice.

Raignet

 

 

 

 

 

Role: Slow Jabber, attacker, utility, anti-mental

Trait: Electric Custodian

Gear: Taser or defensive

Raignet is another excellent tem. Its very diverse movepool, including access to Perfect Jab allows it to fill the role of an attacker, slow Jabber and a semi-support all in one slot. It has a very high degree of role compression.

Electropunch allows Raignet to modulate its speed as required. Without synergy, it's very slow and thanks to 1 priority, it gets to stagger itself under slow Jabbers, without even needing to tweak speed TV's to do so. With digital tems, it can be a fast attacker, using the synergy effect to go up to 3 priority, attacking at high speed instead.

As a slow Jabber, Raignet can set up KO's on following turns, punish swaps or invest a little into speed and Jab before other slow tems (like a Kalabyss, or uninvested Nidrasil). While not on the image, Charged Iron Filings is a spread move that lets Raignet hit multiple targets at once and nullify them, letting itself and its allies hit tems that otherwise resist them neutrally. Great for heavy earth teams to hit wind or nature heavy teams neutrally, rather than being hard walled by them.

Hypnosis is useful, even on a slow tem like Raignet. Yowlar (if Matcha), Kalabyss and Scaravolt are all common tems with lower base speed than Raignet, and it can help keep them under control and slow them down by putting them to sleep. It won't be as effective as a fast Hypnosis user, but it certainly helps against other slow tems.

Sparkling Bullet can be used with neutral-heavy teams, but Electropunch is generally just better. It has 5 more BP than the synergy version, and the 2 priority on Sparkling Bullet rarely matters. It's also not much cheaper than Electropunch, anyway.

As a side utility option, Raignet can run Cage to force boards that are favourable to the PJab player.

Electric Custodian is a good default trait to use for Raignet, drawing in electric damage onto itself, which it then resists and takes well with its above-average bulk. It's especially adept at protecting digitals, which it pairs well with thanks to Electropunch. If you want to play Zaobian, then running a Raignet with it is a must.

For gears, you generally want to use a defensive gear, though Taser is good if you plan to use Charged Iron Filings, as it will apply the burn to both targets, which is a lot of “free” bonus damage.

Raignet's electric typing lends itself nicely to an anti-mental role, threatening with Electropunch and CIF. Be careful of not KO'ing with CIF, as the nullify effect may end up helping the opposing mentals instead. Also look out for Myx, that's one mental that Raignet loses to, rather than beats, thanks to its weakness to CSpikes.

Seismunch

 

 

 

 

 

Role: Jabber, attacker, win-condition, raid boss

Trait: Earthbound is better, but Self-Esteem works on a budget.
Gear: War Drum, Defensive

Seismunch is one of those tems with a move that's designed in such a way that it becomes a build-around. “Seismunch teams” are a thing, and they have a lot of crossover with the PJab archetype.

Its signature move, Seismunch's Wreck - is a spread earth move that gains damage and 3 priority with melee synergy. This means that Seis teams tend to want at least two other melees to pair with it, and those melees just happen to also be ones that either have access to PJab, or benefit from it. Examples of melee types that have been used on Seismunch teams are Skunch, Mushook, Gyalis and Saipat.

Seismunch itself has a tendency to run Heat Up, buff on turn 1 and then come back in later to sweep and carry a game. I didn't include it on the image there, but you should probably be running Heat Up. Most Seis sets don't run PJab, but if you want to slot it on a PJab team, then there's no harm in doing so.

If you wanted to combine a Seismunch team and a PJab team together, then the simplest way to do so would be a triple-melee core of Skunch/Mushook/Seis. You have the two melee synergies for Wreck, and all three have access to PJab. The result is that you have a PJab core and a Seis core all together in one trio. That's two teams packed into three tems. A lot of role compression that lets you swap between the two team styles dynamically, as required.

Seismunch isn't without problems, however. The triple melee cores it usually asks its players to build mean stacking mental and digital weaknesses. If you plan to play with Seismunch, you absolutely must have at least two tems on the team dedicated to dealing with mental and digital, otherwise, you'll find that part of the team falls apart very quickly in those matchups.

The earth typing doesn't help Seismunch much either, as it gains weaknesses to water and nature, which are both very common attacking types and make it much harder to safely position to both set up, and to sweep. Seismunch will be a tem that you have to play with a lot and practice with before reaching a point at which it becomes consistent. However, if you do, the payoff is a strong carry that can close out games by itself.

In terms of gears, Seis likes defensive options. Doublescreen helps it to set up and sweep a little more safely, taking less damage from (most of) its counters, but remains susceptible to mono type tems like Cerneaf and Ukama. Reactive Vial lets it set up and stay in on tems it has risky matchups with, such as a tem like Garyo or Myx. If you want to play a high-risk high-reward strategy, then both War Drum and Iron Coating are potential options.

For traits, you should always aim for Earthbound. It's the better of its two traits and lets Seis “set up” into physical threats while still attacking. As a result, when spreading an Earthbound Seis, your TV's should focus more on SPDEF over DEF, if you have any left over after speed, ATK, HP and STA, which are all more important to invest in first.

If you're looking to make your Seis build a little more reliable, remember that Dim Mak deals fixed damage on 3 priority. Great for finishing off low-HP targets that otherwise outspeed you.

Zizare

 

 

 

 

 

Roles: Jabber, attacker, utility
Trait: Rested preferred, but Electric Custodian works if you need it but can't run Raignet

Gear: Gravel Bag (Required)

First things first, this is our first Soil Steam user. I need to make sure you know one very important thing. Soil Steam is a special move, but Gravel Bag makes it use the ATK stat in damage calculation. It does NOT change Soil Steam to physical.

This is very important, because it means that you can't Jab for Soil Steam, as it is hitting the SPDEF stat. Jab into Soil Steam DOES NOT WORK. Keep that in mind when using Gravel Bag users. Now, onto Zizare.

Zizare is tem that is practically designed for this archetype. It's got access to the absolute best Jab move in the game, but there's a catch – it's unique to Zizare. If you're not familiar with Zizare, or Piercing Wheel (because it's rarely played) then this is what you're looking at:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Piercing Wheel is a very good move. This move alone is enough to carry Zizare as a potential fit in a PJab team, but it's not without problems.

Zizare has a great ATK stat, but it's slow. REALLY slow. At 30 base speed, it's getting outrun by even Saku, Yowlar and Babawa. When playing Zizare, you can expect to always be going last in turn order, unless you're staggered to PW before your own attackers (you should be). Ziz also doesn't have the best SPDEF. It'll take hits on the physical side fairly well, but on the special side, you can expect to get 2HKO'd at best.

Zizare also has a fairly poor movepool. Those three moves in the image above are your only three good moves. Your 4th slot is open not because it's flexible, but because every other move it has access to is bad. Your choices in that slot are Double Edge, Clinch, Petrify, or Darkness. You can run DE if you happen to be raid bossing up a Yowlar or something, but other than that, you aren't getting much use out of anything. I personally go for Darkness because the priority lets me maybe get one more turn out of Zizare when it's otherwise guaranteed to go down that turn.

Soil Steam being special means you're also locked into Gravel Bag. You cannot run any other gear, because if you don't, then your Soil Steam hits for basically nothing, and then you go back to Zizare's old problem – no meaningful turn one options. Play Gravel Bag. It means you can only run one GB tem per team, which sucks, but that's just how it is. The benefit you have to this is that you can then have Petrify use your ATK stat, but… 50 BP on a hold counter that high feels kinda rough.

However, Zizare doesn't need anything else. The package of Soil Steam, PW and Rockfall are plenty to have it do its job. The traits are fairly flexible. Rested should probably be your default, but be aware it's a “once-per-battle” kind of trait, so you get your boosted damage for those two turns, and then you don't have a trait any more. Use those two turns wisely. I find it's best used with a HW Mouflank Cage, if you've been able to bait earth-weak tems to lead into your Mouflank.

You can run E-Cust too. It's overall a little weaker than Rested, as you're not guaranteed to get usage out of Ecust every game, but, if you wanted Raignet for its redirection effect, but it made you too weak to crystal, then Zizare with E-Cust can fill that role. It's still a Jabber, it's still got good damage, and now you resist crystal instead. It's pretty good.

Note that, even at 3 priority, PW will still be really slow because it's coming off of a base 30 speed stat. You need to invest speed TV's, at around 100 to have it sit around 0 speed Skunch levels. You can expect to have to invest speed on Zizare when making your spread, and, because it's so slow, it's a tem that only works on slow, bulky PJab teams. It's not able to Jab for fast teams, so unless you intend to Jab for Zizare, it's gonna feel a little weak.

Momo

 

 

 

 

 

Roles: Jabber, attacker (special), synergy
Trait: Stabmaster
Gear: Res Badge, Defensive

Do you need more neutrals for your Sparkling Bullet and/or Quetza-Leno synergies? Are you concerned about Tenderness and/or Parrier being too hard to get through for your already physical-heavy team? Consider Momo. Unique in that it's the only special neutral type, Momo helps the PJab core by being that neutral type that some variants of the team need, while hitting on the other side of the defensive spectrum, with a type that's resisted only by one other type.

The combination of Stabmaster, Undermine and Res Badge make sure that after one turn, Momo is always going to be a major threat to anything on the board. You can expect to hit just about everything for ~70%, unless it's a mental type. If the opponent swaps a mental in on your Undermine, that's fine too. They may not take much damage, but they take -1 SPATK, which makes them less of a threat into your mental-weak tems.

Bark is like Stare, except it also hits the SPDEF stat for -1 as well. You can use Momo in this way to tie a hybrid physical/special team together, with Bark on 3 priority helping act like a Jab for allied special attackers, or even just Momo itself. Since Undermine is 1 hold, using Bark guarantees that Undermine is up next turn to nuke that -1 SPDEF target. Not bad.

Willpower Drain provides some additional utility. Great for stamina control into tems with expensive moves like WCL, Faraday Cage, CSpikes, HKS and similar, or just tems with a low base stamina. It's especially powerful when used on tems with low base stamina and no stamina gear. If you can find a way to exhaust a target and hit them with WPD, then they're probably going to overexert that turn.

The 4th slot is usually Double Edge, but some people have tested both Refresh and Zen Meditation to some decent success. The choice is yours. In terms of gear, note that if using Mouflank and Momo on the same team, Mouflank needs the Res Badge more, so put another gear on Momo.

In closing, Momo does only one thing. It's very one-dimensional. However, it excels at that one job, which is really all a tem needs to be good. That, combined with some qualities unique only to Momo, and you've got a pretty good package ready for use.

Kauren

 

 

 

 

 

Roles: Jabber, attacker, raid boss, Anti-Myx

Trait: Both have their uses
Gear: Sweatband, Defensive, Gravel Bag (specific)

I honestly don't know what to think of Kauren, it's probably one of the weirdest tems on this list. Scavenger makes it an immediate candidate for raid bossing, which means you want it to stick around on the field for a long time, and it therefore wants a stamina gear. However, its movepool is one that's trying to take it in multiple directions at once, and it ends up not being good at anything in particular.

Stone Ball is a good move, and that's fine. If you're going down the physical attacking raid-boss route, then always run stone Ball. It has 65 base speed and access to Stare, so it can technically Jab for slower tems on your team, like a Raignet for example. Stare is arguably the worst Jab option, however, so you can probably find something better to do than click that. Willpower Drain is a great move, but it doesn't help Kauren define what it, as a Temtem, is supposed to do. It's a good move that's just… there.

Earth Wave is a spread earth move, which is good in theory, but it's 2 hold and 90 base power, which is fairly lacking. Stone Trench is available to Vulcrane (covered later) and that's a far better version of this move. I put it on the list to make you aware Kauren has it, however, for a reason I'm about to explain. Kauren can also use Stone wall, so, like Valash, it's a raid boss that's able to contribute to setting up by applying buffs to itself. I think that if you play Kauren, you probably always run Stone Wall.

The raid boss angle makes the most sense at first glance, but I think Kauren can fill one other role. It's pretty heavily anti-Myx. If you're really having problems with Myx (a common theme for these kinds of teams) then there's a very specific build you can choose to run. If you choose not to run the build I'm about to detail, still consider Earth Wave, just because it's a spread move.

If you take the Skull Helmet trait, it reduces melee and mental damage by 25%. That's like Babawa's Mucous, but for those two types instead. This effectively gives Kauren resists into both of Myx's types – one via crystal resist from being earth itself, and another from Skull Helmet. Add a Gravel Bag, and you have access to both Soil Steam and Sand Storm coming off of your much higher ATK stat. Sand Storm replaces Earth Wave as your spread move, while Soil Steam is your main single-target damage. Between your ability to hit hard, still hit through PM and resist everything Myx does, this makes Skull Helmet Kauren a convincing counter tem to use against Myx. You even have two move slots left to fill with utility like Stone Wall, Stare and Willpower Drain.

With careful TV investment, you can even set this build up to have a winning matchup against Mushook, thanks to Soil Steam getting past Parrier. This build is ultra-specific, but it has a (minor) place on the PJab archetype. However, do remember that since your damaging moves are both special, you will no longer be able to PJab for your Kauren at all.

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