RU Suspect Coverage: Alomomola

By Psynergy. Art by Tikitik.
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alomomola_suspect

Introduction

It's no exaggeration to say that Alomomola has been one of the premier defensive threats in RU for nearly as long as it's been around. Unlike most Pokémon that were suspect tested in RU, Alomomola was being tested for its unparalleled defensive abilities and the support it provides for a team. Alomomola has long been a major cornerstone of many popular cores in RU, performing effectively with Pokémon such as Registeel, as well as the previously omnipresent Mega Steelix. However, it wasn't until Alomomola gained access to Regenerator in BW2 that it actually became a relevant threat. During BW, Alomomola suffered greatly from being overly passive without offering much beyond Wish support, making it easy to pressure Alomomola offensively and threaten to set up in front of it. A huge base 165 HP made surviving even Grass- and Electric-type moves realistically possible for Alomomola, but access to Regenerator alone helped it function as the resilient defensive pivot all RU players know, allowing it to easily switch in and out against physical attackers due to its insane physical bulk. Scald and Knock Off also help Alomomola avoid being a complete liability against offensive threats despite its lack of offensive presence, disrupting many of its most reliable checks including Virizion and Sigilyph. Alomomola's ability to pass a huge Wish to a teammate while keeping itself healthy by switching out also prevents it from sacrificing all momentum when using Wish, allowing it to find a place even on some offensive teams. Alomomola's resilience and broad application on many teamstyles, despite little variation in its sets, ultimately highlights its powerful impact on the RU metagame.

Defensive

Alomomola always runs some variation of this set, since Wish support is one of the primary reasons to use Alomomola in the first place. The goal of the set is simple: switch into attacks and either disrupt a foe with status or pass a huge Wish to a teammate that needs it. Protect allows Alomomola to scout a foe's move and safely heal itself with Wish when necessary, as well as to disrupt common Choice attackers such as Magneton that otherwise have no issues dealing with Alomomola. This also pairs well with Toxic in order to wear down both offensive and defensive threats while keeping itself healthy with Wish. However, Alomomola is often used on teams that have other Pokémon running Toxic already, so Knock Off can be used instead in order to disrupt foes that rely on their items. Scald pressures physical attackers further and prevents them from attempting to set up safely, making it valuable despite Alomomola's awful Special Attack. Alomomola's role on a team is fairly straightforward, but it's an important role that Alomomola plays incredibly well.

Pro-ban arguments

Arguments in favor of banning Alomomola often point to its incredible bulk and ability to take on a wide variety of foes almost entirely on its own. Alomomola is very difficult to break through for many physical attackers in RU, which makes it easy for Alomomola to find an opportunity to switch in and pass a Wish to its teammate, or simply switch out again to maintain momentum. This makes certain defensive cores particularly difficult to deal with, especially since many prominent defensive Pokémon such as Registeel, Uxie, and Diancie don't have reliable recovery outside of Leftovers. Those who are pro-ban also argue that Alomomola's ability to easily pivot into a huge range of threats hurts the viability of more offensive play styles and makes otherwise great Pokémon a liability, since Alomomola's presence alone can kill their momentum. This argument is supported by the suspect ladder in which Alomomola was banned, since there was a notable rise in offensive teams and thus anti-offense Pokémon such as Sneasel being used to beat these offensive teams. Other arguments reference Dugtrio's ability to trap and remove many direct threats to Alomomola, such as Virizion, Hoopa, and Magneton, which only serves to harm these playstyles further. Others argue that despite its lack of offensive presence, Alomomola is actually capable of fitting on offensive teams itself, since it doesn't destroy all momentum for a team, and that this is further evidence of Alomomola's unhealthy presence in the metagame.

Anti-ban arguments

Arguments against banning Alomomola highlight its very passive nature and reliance on status to threaten anything directly. This in turn makes it easy to set up on Alomomola with Pokemon that don't fear burns, and setup sweepers with Substitute in particular can pressure it further because Alomomola often lacks the power to break a Substitute. It can also become quickly overwhelmed by powerful physical wallbreakers if it doesn't get the Scald burn it needs, so even though it can easily handle many offensive threats, its passive nature can make it difficult to deal with these threats directly. Those in favor of keeping Alomomola in RU also believe that its presence in the tier is beneficial for its ability to comfortably check powerful physical attackers such as Hitmonlee, Sneasel, and Emboar, which is supported by the rise of these threats on the suspect ladder. Some arguments go as far as claiming that Alomomola doesn't actually significantly hurt offensive playstyle at all, but rather that the tier as a whole is not a great environment for hyper aggressive archetypes and banning Alomomola won't change that. These arguments also often mention Dugtrio as well, though rather than claiming that Dugtrio makes Alomomola much more difficult to beat, they instead claim that it does the opposite, trapping and removing key teammates such as Diancie and Registeel that often make it difficult to break through Alomomola. Others suggest that Dugtrio is actually the true problem, shifting the focus off of Alomomola completely. While Alomomola does have the ability to wall many physical attackers and pivot into them, people in the anti-ban crowd generally don't believe that Alomomola is overwhelmingly difficult to stop or that banning it necessarily benefits the tier.

Conclusion

Alomomola ultimately remains in RU with a 57% majority of voters against banning it, so the sunfish will continue to stand as one of the most effective defensive threats in the RU metagame. This suspect test was relatively close and there wasn't an overwhelming majority of players on either side, though it's a significant enough margin to suggest that many players don't believe that Alomomola's presence in RU is problematic. However, this suspect test does also highlight the importance of Dugtrio in the RU metagame, as many players often referred to Dugtrio in arguments both for and against banning Alomomola. This suggests that Dugtrio may be the problem instead of Alomomola, since there are many influential threats that can easily be removed by Dugtrio's trapping abilities. Whether or not Dugtrio is considered worthy of a suspect test in the future remains to be seen, but for now Alomomola gets to keep its title as the best defensive pivot in RU.

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