Skarmory
Checks:
Teammates / Playstyles:
Checks:
- Landorus-I (hard): takes maximum of 43% from brave bird, can OHKO with focus blast after recoil.
- Talonflame (soft): takes max of 56% from Skarmory's brave bird, deals 74-88% with flare blitz. Careful of switching into brave bird, and of stealth rock
- Thundurus-I: Takes minimal damage from brave bird, can KO Skarmory with thunderbolt. Defiant variant can switch into defog, and deal a maximum of 89% with wild charge.
- Rotom-W: Takes minimal damage from brave bird, deals decent damage with volt-switch, can cripple with will-o-wisp.
- Deoxys-D: Can set up hazards while preventing Skarmory from setting up its own with taunt. Is 4HKO'd by brave bird, which is plenty of time to set hazards.
- Heatran: takes minimal damage from brave bird, can set up hazards, KO with lava plume, or cripple switch in with toxic
- Zapdos: takes minimal damage from brave bird, can KO with thunderbolt, and clear hazards with defog.
- Aegislash: takes minimal damage from brave bird, can KO with shadow ball.
Teammates / Playstyles:
- Skarmory does best on Stall, Semi-Stall, and balanced teams, due to it being able to reliably clear hazards, being neutral to hazards, and not being weak to Bisharp and pursuit. It also provides some security against set up sweepers such as Pinsir, which can break through Quagsire, and can phaze them with whirlwind.
- Skarmory functions best in defensive cores such as with Chansey, Heatran, and/or Venusaur. On balanced teams, offensive pokemon appreciate the the ability to fall back to Skarmory, as it doesn't lose to much momentum since it has whirlwind.