Alright, I constantly see talk about Scarf Meloetta and how it's oh so "popular" in this metagame. Well, I decided to try this aids monkey out and post results in here.
To make things short, it's not good. At all. I, along with a few others I'm sure, view it as somewhat of a specialized check to Mega Lop, like how Assault Vest Kabutops rose in popularity late XY and is still somewhat prominent today. However, unlike Kabu, it has far too many things setting it back that make it Kinda Bad.
To start off, it's really weak. While as I mentioned, its main use is to check Mega Lopunny, after that it doesn't really do that much. Its STAB moves, while not poor in the slightest, don't really do enough to revenge kill and / or clean late game. Just to show an example;
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ru-192801703
First big issue is that you are running Psyshock, I honestly don't understand why that move is considered standard. I guess it hits Dragalge slightly harder (still OHKO'd by Psychic after minimal previous damage, assuming 252 HP) and OHKOes Ass Vest Hitmonchan (which is
shit in RU and that's being generous. In all honesty I don't mind seeing it when I'm running a hazards based team, it basically means my opp can't spin), but that's pretty much it. Psychic hits significantly harder against pretty much everything relevant and has that nice 20% SDef drop rate (it does funny things like killing Sdef Rhyperior and Physically Defensive Aromatisse after the drop + the first hit).
Second is that while it does check Lopunny, which is nice, it is not a overspecialized check. It's a scarfer that can check Lopunny, it's not something you exclusively put in your team to deal with Lopunny.
Third you use Rotom-C and Magneton later in your post as better scarfers than Meloetta, and here you call Meloetta weak so:
252 SpA Meloetta Hyper Voice vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Spinda: 220-261 (84.2 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Rotom-C Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Spinda: 192-226 (73.5 - 86.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Rotom-C Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Spinda: 277-327 (106.1 - 125.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
-2 252 SpA Rotom-C Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Spinda: 138-163 (52.8 - 62.4%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Magneton Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Spinda: 211-249 (80.8 - 95.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Moltres Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Spinda: 264-312 (101.1 - 119.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Scarf Moltres hits harder than all scarfers, that's nothing new. Rotom-C hits harder with Leaf Storm the first time, but two Psychic / Hyper Voice do significantly more damage than two Leaf Storm and you are not forced to switch out. Meloetta hits harder than both Rotom and Magneton using Thunderbolt. It isn't weak when you compare it with other scarfers.
While I did play kinda Badly in this match (and was in elo hell cause fresh alt) and my team wasn't really as good as I liked it to be (I built it around scarf melo sue me), the point I'm trying to make still stands. The fact that it does 56 at best to offensive Cobal at -1 is kinda surprising, and based on that, it kinda shows that the set's usage tumbles after it does what it needs to, unlike AV Kabu, who has pretty good utility in matches where Scarf Molt is down / the other team doesn't have it, as it clears hazards for bulky offensive teams and can cripples Pokemon reliant on their item with Knock Off. It also has problems getting through walls like Aroma and Alomomola, which is really a waste of Melo's potential considering the fact that nearly EVERY other set it has trashes both of them (barring the Relic Song sets, which I don't think I've ever seen in high level play but that's besides the pont).
Of course it doesn't do much to Cobalion with Psyshock, it has 91 / 129 physical bulk. Start running Psychic:
252 SpA Meloetta Psychic vs. -1 0 HP / 0 SpD Cobalion: 286-337 (88.5 - 104.3%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO
It's a scarfer, of course it has problems with walls bulky walls. This is like saying Moltres is just wasting its potential to break Alomomola and Jellicent by running Scarf (unless you have Cased's luck, in which case every Hurricane hits, causes confusion and crit 80% of the tines). You aren't running Scarf Meloetta to break walls (you break a good chunk of them if you get that 20% drop tho), so I don't see how that makes it bad.
Also tbh I don't see how that's a team based around Meloetta. It just a regular team + Meloetta.
Another reason why it sucks is the fact that it's complete and utter bait for Pursuit trappers, like Spiritomb and Escavalier, as both switch into it with little problem and shit all over it. While it's pretty obvious when both will switch in, it's not hard to lure it in, and if that happens than Melo becomes virtually useless and, unless they're running more than one answer to Lop (i'd much rather use cress as a lop answer instead of this set lol), bunny becomes more difficult to deal with.
Finally, unlike other Scarfers, like Moltres, its STAB moves are not nearly as spammable as it'd like it to be. Both of them have immunities, and it makes it that much easier to switch in to it, and to an extent, Pursuit trap it, which is a huge downfall for it considering the fact that most scarfers are meant to do well against offense.
Being Pursuit bait is bad, that's a given, but is not necessarily the end of the world. Those Pokemon (Esca and Tomb, everything else takes about 70% min from Hyper Voice) put Meloetta in a hard spot, but playing around them is not completely impossible, specially with U-turn + the fact neither Pokemon runs Leftovers anymore. There's also the possibility of luring and killing them before they even do anything (remember Fire Punch Mesprit?).
Nothing is as spammable as Moltres' STABs. Rotom-C cannot blindly spam Volt Switch / Tbolt and while the Leaf Storm threat exists, you cannot spam that move either because of the SDef drop. Magneton is similar but the difference is that half of the tier resists Flash Cannon.
Don't get me wrong though, it's not like Meloetta's problems are specific to it. There are very few Pokemon in the RU metagame that can actually use a Choice Scarf effectively, like Moltres, Rotom-C, and Magneton. But as a set specifically used to check something viewed as broken (not gonna post my stance on lop but i think this post makes it fairly obvious), and when compared to other sets that are meant to do the same thing, I feel like Scarf Melo is really just bad. That's just me though.
This is the main problem of the whole post. You are seeing Scarf Meloetta as "that Pokemon that checks Lopunny" and you don't even bother seeing the positive things it has over other scarfers.
So why use Scarf Meloetta instead of other Scarfers?
Well unlike Moltres it isn't SR weak, so it does not require Rapid Spin or Defog support. It has the same base speed as Moltres, so it is faster than Rotom-C, which allows it to threaten Rotom-C itself and revenge kill Omastar. Meloetta also has absurd special bulk, which gives it tons of opportunities to switch in [252 SpA Life Orb Moltres Fire Blast vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Meloetta: 185-218 (54 - 63.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO] and allows it to revenge kill some threats without having to sac one of your Pokemon first. Its STAB hit fairly hard and they both have a good bonus going for them: Hyper Voice hits through Substitutes and Psychic's 20% SDef drop allows it to potentially more damage than any other scarfer and causes lots of switches. And lastly it has a bunch of coverage moves that allow you to revenge kill specific threats that might give you trouble, and additionally it learns Trick.
Just like every Pokemon, Meloetta has some drawbacks. But just don't ignore it has lots of possitive going for it as well. It might have not worked for you, but that doesn't automatically make it bad. Before Houndoom's ban I got to the top 10 with a team running Scarf Meloetta, and it worked nicely for me.
