Chatter doesn't Confuse unless the user is Chatot. If STABmons is doing anything different in that regard, it's incorrect behavior. So Chatter on other Pokemon is Hidden Power Flying without the IV requirement.
I focused on it the most because the introduction of the ORAS tutors was what brought up its suspect status. The idea was that when Diggersby comes in threatening FakeSpeed and the opponent switches out, it can now use an elemental punch or Knock Off to beat its standard checks. I still mentioned setup in my decision, however, but gave more attention to non-setup variants because those are the most common.
What immediately leapt out at me when ORAS came along was that Knock Off completes Diggerby's coverage so that only a few Levitators+Skarmory+in practice Sabeleye can laugh off a "perfect" set of Normal move/Ground move/Knock Off/whatever. (With Shell Smash being my personal focus, but it's actually somewhat immaterial what the fourth move is -it can just as easily be Fake Out, or heck, Fire Punch for Mega Scizor or whatever)
Yeah it
can run stuff like Fire Punch for Mega Scizor now and that helps it, but that only really stands out to me for the aspect of emphasizing how dangerous scouting it out can be. (Or laughing at the idea of scouting it because "of course" it can't counter Mega Sciz- gone'd) Taking Ice Punch or Fire Punch or the like always hinders Diggerby's overall utility to get a niche use -a niche use that may fit well to a team, but it's still a downgrade in Diggerby's overall potential.
Whereas Knock Off cleanly removes a
lot of checks, some of which were pretty shaky anyway. It also has the additional annoyance factor of letting Diggersby remove Leftovers/Rocky Helmets/etc, which can hurt some checks (Diggersby can actually 2HKO Quagsire if it isn't carrying Leftovers with Earthquake, if it gets lucky, vs Leftovers ensuring it can never 2HKO) and especially damages the ability to Rocky Helmet it to death -FakeSpeed Diggersby can fit in Knock Off to clear out Rocky Helmets on Scizor and the like, though I don't think this is a critical factor. (It's not like it turns Quagsire into a for-sure 2HKO)
To reiterate how I feel about setup, I refer to my points that Sableye and Quagsire can deal with it, while opposing FakeSpeed (or priority from something that resists Extreme Speed), Sturdy, phazing, and Red Card are also viable. These should not be hard to fit on a standard STABmons team and considering teams need to be prepared for setup in general, many provide overlap to other setup threats besides Diggersby.
FakeSpeed isn't a counter to an Extreme Speeder at +2 Speed -it's a way of getting in damage in spite of their own Extreme Speed, but then you either need to switch out to reset your Fake Out or be absolutely sure you'll survive the Extreme Speed in turn.
Sturdy is shaky. In addition to breaking it with Stealth Rock (Which is admittedly difficult to get set up in STABmons), Diggersby gets Bonemerang, which is Earthquake with a miss chance but punching right through Substitutes and Sturdy.
The only criticism I have of Red Card is that it's one-time, but that's fine because you usually only that that one use anyway. Well, that and it doesn't trigger if you're KOed, but generally a Red Carder has good reason to expect to survive.
I absolutely agree with phazing being a solid check to setup Diggersby, with the right Pokemon. I am concerned at how few Pokemon can both take a hit from +2 Diggersby/take two hits from Diggersby and phaze though. Part of the thing about Diggersby is that it gets Ground STAB coverage, as I've already commented on, and high Defense is
heavily weighted toward Rock and Steel type Pokemon, which gives Diggersby much better ability to push through the toughest of the tough than other Normal types. (The primary exception being Skarmory, since its Flying typing protects it normally)
Two, I specifically mentioned ScrappyKhan doing Belly Drum better (Stoutland by extension does too thanks to Scrappy). I think Meloetta is a better Shell Smasher thanks to Judgment and Stored Power. Yes I know that Meloetta is special and Diggersby is physical, but I didn't make that distinction in my reasoning because I was addressing setup as a whole not contingent on the physical/special spectrum split.
Scrappys definitely have an advantage in not needing to run specific anti-Ghost coverage, and I should've acknowledged that, but I have some difficulty with the Meloetta comparison -either she's sacrificing a move slot for a mediocre Extreme Speed or she doesn't have any priority at all, which makes her considerably more vulnerable than Diggersby is -Diggersby can just push right through stuff like Water Shuriken or Ice Shard by Extreme Speeding for the priority advantage against anything that isn't capable of surviving a hit from it, so basically you have to be talking a Rock type (no priority on the type), a Steel type (has priority, but it's not strong against Diggersby and Diggersby isn't actually that fragile), a Ghost type (Shadow Sneak is useless: you need priority from a different type), or to just be
really Physically bulky and/or Unaware. Meloetta can be taken down very consistently just by having priority at all, even though it isn't weak to anything except Sucker Punch, because it's very sub-optimal for it to run Extreme Speed and its Attack is bad enough that even at +2 it'll frequently do horribly inadequate damage with Extreme Speed, especially since you're probably not actually investing in Attack. (You
need the Special Attack and Speed investment)
Certainly, against a team devoid of priority Meloetta is a terror -but everybody is starting from the assumption that FakeSpeeders are staples for everything, even stall, so I'm not sure how that's a particularly relevant statement. If priority is a given -and we're all treating it as being a given- then Meloetta is actually pretty weak. Nifty, but weak.
I should apologize though because I was lumping Pokemon with access to Normal into that statement, which would also include Espeon, Azumarill, and Talonflame.
I still don't get why people list Azumarill. In almost every STABmons-relevant respect it's a bad Diggersby, with less Attack, no Normal STAB, inferior coverage for Extreme Speed (Water doesn't hit Steel super effectively), and serious 4MSS if you're trying to take advantage without overlapping too heavily with Diggersby. (OK, so you replace Belly Drum with Shell Smash. You're Bad Standard Azumarill, But Fast. If you try to fit in Extreme Speed, you're sacrificing something and becoming more like Diggersby. If you instead decide to run OU Azumarill, but replace Knock Off with Extreme Speed, you've only really gained the ability to push past priority on enemies, and not the most important abusers. And on and on)
Espeon I'll admit has Magic Bounce, letting it laugh at Sableye, but it also struggles badly with Steel types, having to run either Shadow Ball or Hidden Power to push past them, and it is even worse than Meloetta about having bad priority -it doesn't have STAB on Extreme Speed and has even worse Attack, and it's overall more fragile than Meloetta to boot. Like I said with Meloetta, it would be a terror if priority wasn't a given in STABmons -but it is a given, so it's much more niche. (In fact, it's so much harder to Baton Pass off to Espeon in STABmons than in Standard that Espeon is leaning heavily on being granted Shell Smash to stay relevant)
Belly Drum Talonflame is for sure good, but is frustrated readily by Rock types, and even Judgment-based coverage can only take it so far. It's the only Pokemon in the meta that I can agree is better at setup sweeping in any substantial capacity (Out of named examples thus far), because Belly Drum Gale Wings Brave Bird laughs at non-FakeSpeed priority and hits incredibly hard in general, but it's horrified by Stealth Rock and even with heavy bulk investment
is shut down badly by FakeSpeed, even if it has Extreme Speed itself.
