Mega Steelix: This is a kind of a 'no-brainer' Pokemon to use. Its bulk, power, and few reliable counters in the tier make it one of the most centralising Pokemon in the tier by far. Its power is a huge step up from regular Steelix and make it much harder to switch into, its physical Defense is now so massive it no longer requires any sort of investment, and its Special Defense has now been bumped up to a respectable degree. Even its weight increase gave it even more viability as Heavy Slam now hits its cap (120 BP) on even
Rhydon, who is no lightweight itself, and everything lighter than it, aka >90% of the tier. Basically, if you decide to run any of these Pokemon, most of which are commonplace:
Kangaskhan
Archeops
Uxie
Mesprit
Musharna
Pawniard
Sneasel
Mega Audino
Garbodor
Scyther
Vivillon
Swellow
Rotom (without Will-O-Wisp)
Xatu (without Heat Wave)
Mismagius (without Will-O-Wisp)
Cryogonal
Liepard
Mega Camerupt (without speed investment)
You'll
need a good Mega Steelix switch-in (which are few and far between), and one that can outlast it too considering how hard Mega Steelix walls some of these Pokemon and take heavy potshots at your team. The list also extends beyond these Pokemon; Mega Steelix can often squeeze its way safely into battle by switching into resisted attacks with more than enough health to survive any subsequent coverage moves (this can apply to Mawile, Tauros, Kecleon, Archeops, etc...), and proceed to start hitting things hard. Mega Steelix can easily afford a free moveslot as well: Thunder Fang does heavy damage to Pelipper and especially Mantine (which is common af nowadays), Stone Edge hits Rotom-S as well as the aforementioned two (albeit with less damage and accuracy), and Toxic just puts a timer on those three plus bulky Grass-types like Gourgeist, Tangela, and Torterra which none of them appreciate. Mega Steelix may not have reliable recovery, but it is not easy to wear down since most coverage moves simply bounce off its tough exterior while it does hefty damage to your team on a fairly consistent basis.
Also fuck this thing with Healing Wish support.
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heliolisk: it's just an inferior superior rotom ?_?
fooly
please what r u smokin' I want some
Heliolisk: Yet another "no-brainer" Pokemon to use. Earlier I talked about how its Volt Switches are really hard to stop due to its coverage, so it is really hard to counter in the traditional sense, but that's not the only problem at hand. Heliolisk has great power and speed, the speed especially putting it ahead of several Pokemon in the tier. Now, combine its offensive presence, wide and precise coverage movepool, and access to Volt Switch, and you'll see this is a Pokemon that can easily take the lives of many, be it directly or indirectly, before it goes down.
I see two possible arguments people would have against Heliolisk's ban. First off is the fraility, but
Heliolisk is so good at avoiding direct damage that this usually doesn't end up mattering, or even happening @_@. You can pack priority users and faster Pokemon to keep Helio in check, but
chances are you won't get to face Heliolisk with them unless you let it finish off one of your Pokemon without Volt Switching away, or if you pivot switch / bait an attack other than Volt Switch like some sort of prediction lord (if you do try the latter, you'll even need to ensure your revenge killer can take Heliolisk's attacks). However even if you do, Heliolisk can still switch out and try again later, forcing you to play the same prediction game again to force it out without taking major damage, but Heliolisk only has to predict once to screw up that plan.
The second point people would bring up is that its power is not overwhelming, nor does it have a boosting move. However, these people tend to overlook both Heliolisk's offensive stats and wide movepool. The difference between Surf Heliolisk and, say HP Water Rotom-S, is that Rotom-S uses HP Water almost solely for things like Mega Camerupt and Rhydon and not being too useful elsewhere (hell it doesn't even OHKO its targets); Heliolisk not only uses Surf for the various Ground-types, but can totally use it for revenge killing Fire-types. This is possible due to Heliolisk's power and excellent speed tier. Now realize that this trait of 'having its coverage moves be universally useful' doesn't just apply to Surf;
all of its coverage moves can hit multiple foes outside of their intended targets. Dark Pulse can hit Gourgeist, but why not use it against Mismagius, Mesprit, and Exeggutor as well? Focus Blast's intended use is to hit Ferroseed and Cradily, but even if those two aren't in play Heliolisk can just use it to smack other things like Audino, Cryogonal, and even Kangaskhan if it is feeling adventurous.
The sheer coverage, when coupled with Helio's offensive stats, not only make it tricky to counter, but also give it immense offensive presence at the same time, with Heliolisk barely suffering any sort of cost from running these moves. Heliolisk is not only tricky to counter, but it threatens a vast majority of Pokemon in the meta at the same time. It's just far too good and efficient at its job(s) and there's no reason not to use it right now, which is a sign that it may be more of a detriment than a healthy addition for metagame progression.
