Name: Hyper Offense Specialist
General Description:
A Pokemon designed to use excellent STAB coverage and high offenses to plow through enemies swiftly. This can be achieved either by forcing a switch and utilizing a stat-up, or simply having the right combination of threatening moves to regain offensive momentum after an opponent makes a KO and subsequently putting their team in a rough spot.
Justification:
Fifth Generation seems to be focused on taking out one battle style after another, as the sheer number of threats in combination is simply too much for a team to handle defensively. Additionally, new abilities like Sand Rush combined with high bulk, and a general increase in the number of bulky attackers have made bulky offense much more prevalent than hyper offense. There are no two better examples than Conkeldurr and Reuniclus, which both have terrifying offensive prowess and the bulk to match. Even Excadrill could be argued as a bulky attacker before its removal.
Questions to be answered:
- How important are resistances to a Pokemon utilizing Hyper Offense? Does it still need enough defense to switch in, or would it work better as a Pokemon that can sweep from a revenge kill or a teammate sacrifice ala Explosion, Healing Wish, etc.?
- What kind of teammates does a Pokemon that specializes in hyper offense need? Do they just need to cover its type weaknesses, or should they be supporting the hyper offensive Pokemon with screens and hazards?
- How important are sacrifices if allowing a Hyper Offense Pokemon in to sweep the opponent?
- What offensive and defensive qualities are the most important in a hyper offensive Pokemon in the 5th Gen metagame?
- How will balanced and stall teams react to a new hyper offensive threat built to savage the current largest threats in the metagame?
- Which Pokemon would be ideal partners for this new offensive presence, either as an offensive core or as a sacrifice?
- Where is the actual line between Bulky Offense and Hyper Offense? Is it just a matter of the Pokemon not increasing its defenses or is there more to it than that?
- In general, is Hyper Offense viable with so many threats in the 5th generation possessing a significant amount of bulk?
Explanation:
As mentioned above, all of 5th Gen has by and large been dominated by Pokemon that can be considered bulky offense. Multiscale Dragonite has to be the personification of this, but Reuniclus and Conkeldurr certainly fit the description, as do bulky Gyarados and Salamence to an extent. Even Latias is no slouch defensively, and before its removal, Excadrill could be considered somewhat bulky with 110/60/65 Defenses. Most of the Hyper Offense strategies I've seen revolve around sacrificing something to put up Screens, then trying (often unsuccessfully) to plow through your enemy on that timer. Mostly I think its the fact there's a vacuum in something that can hit the new threats hard, since you often have to rely on dragons that lure in Ferrothorn like the plague, and Jirachi isn't exactly uncommon either.
This would allow us to really explore a specific playstyle and really tailor a Pokemon unique to that niche, as well as answer questions about the effect of increasing the options for one playstyle over another. It gives a fair amount of flexibility. Mostly these questions are focused on creating a hyper offensive sweeper, but there is some wiggly room to figure out if the sweeper can also act as a support to teammates under the right conditions.