Agreeing with foongus look corks someone finally agreed with me can it get moved up now pls
I'm going to go ahead and back Diglett up as well. Even though it loses against so many Pokemon, the fact that it is able to completely eliminate key threats from the game with little to no counterplay makes it a phenomenal support Pokemon. The important bit is the lack of counterplay; if Diglett gets in on a specific Pokemon, that Pokemon will not live, because it cannot switch out; this means that even though something like 80% of the metagame beats Diglett, Diglett is still almost always able to perform its job when its job is necessary because it can almost always get rid of the remaining few Pokemon, making it a perfect partner for a multitude of win conditions due to its reliability.
Let me elaborate on just how potent Diglett is when used in conjunction with top tier sweepers. As we all know, Fletchling is an enormous threat right now, but it still suffers from having a ton of checks. Pawniard, Archen, Chinchou, Magnemite, and Tirtouga are all hugely popular and effective Pokemon that can check Fletchling to some extent. Archen is the only one of those that isn't trapped and taken out by Diglett (defensive Tirtouga wins, but is easily worn down to the point where Diglett will be able to eliminate it regardless). Focus Sash Abra is another Pokemon that can be used as a safety net against a possible Fletchling sweep; however, with Diglett, Abra will not hold any utility at all until Fletchling is at +2 because if it comes in earlier, it will be trapped and KOed or brought down to its Sash by Abra, opening up for a Fletchling sweep. Fletchling has been argued as being banworthy; it is of course, still very good without Diglett support, but the fact that so many of its checks and counters are eliminated through the support of only one Pokemon in Diglett is probably what pushes it over the edge. Despite not being a bird, Diglett still finds itself one of the key players in birdspam.
Fletchling isn't the only Pokemon that greatly appreciates Diglett's support, of course. Zigzagoon is an excellent win condition, but it needs quite a bit of support to pull off that clean sweep. It wants Stealth Rock support, Memento support, Pursuit trapping for Misdreavus, and the elimination of Pawniard. Diglett offers no less than three of those. Suppose you want to run Shell Smash Tirtouga with Aqua Jet, but Defensive Chinchou and Croagunk force you to run Earthquake. No need for that; just add a Diglett to your team. Omanyte also finds itself revenge-killed by Croagunk, leaving Diglett the mole for the job. Diglett is pretty much never sweeping a well-built team because it's just too weak, and heaven forbid the use of defensive diglett, but I think it's up to snuff with the other A- pokes purely because of its supportive capabilities.
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I don't think I should post twice in such a short period of time so I'm going to edit in my support for Aerow here as well
Sandshrew is definitely comparable to Drilbur in a lot of ways; even though Drilbur is usually better due to its significantly higher speed, Sandshrew still shouldn't be completely discounted. In addition, as sand sweepers, the two are also very comparable; in such a role, Drilbur's higher speed isn't AS notable, and although Drilbur is still more powerful, Sandshrew's greater physical bulk makes up for it by allowing it to take most priority moves more easily; Sandshrew's fast Knock Off also arguably makes it more effective overall in such a role by allowing it to Knock Off a switch-in to pave way for a sweep later in the match, and allows it to support a late-game Drilbur if both are used.
ah look more foongus support guess what that means rowan :0
Darumaka is just incredibly powerful; I've seen it being used and have used it myself a fair bit recently with solid results. Even if the accuracy drop sucks, the sheer power Darumaka brings to the table often makes up for it; it has almost no safe switch-ins, meaning with proper prediction, a kill every time it comes in isn't that far-fetched. Between U-Turn and a nuke in Flare Blitz, simply having Darumaka out will often put a huge amount of pressure on an opponent. I don't know if it should move much higher than that, although B- is certainly plausible, simply because it kills itself so quickly, between a vulnerability to all hazards, a weakness to Stealth Rock, and a reliance on Flare Blitz.
As for Dwebble, I agree that the metagame has adapted really well to it, and it's not as effective anymore. I just don't really like the idea of a suicide lead, as one of the most prominent Pokemon in the metagame, Archen, carries defog; even with Pawniard to discourage defiant, Pawniard will often not get more than one KO from the boost, anyway. Drilbur is another really notable hazard remover, and can also threaten most spin-blockers severely. Even outside of that, as Aerow mentioned, it still has trouble getting more than one layer of hazards up, with the ubiquity of Knock Off and Taunt. This isn't to say Dwebble is wholly ineffective, of course; it can still do its job against certain match-ups, and A- is still fairly good (considering how it's the current rank for Foongus @_@).
I'm going to go ahead and back Diglett up as well. Even though it loses against so many Pokemon, the fact that it is able to completely eliminate key threats from the game with little to no counterplay makes it a phenomenal support Pokemon. The important bit is the lack of counterplay; if Diglett gets in on a specific Pokemon, that Pokemon will not live, because it cannot switch out; this means that even though something like 80% of the metagame beats Diglett, Diglett is still almost always able to perform its job when its job is necessary because it can almost always get rid of the remaining few Pokemon, making it a perfect partner for a multitude of win conditions due to its reliability.
Let me elaborate on just how potent Diglett is when used in conjunction with top tier sweepers. As we all know, Fletchling is an enormous threat right now, but it still suffers from having a ton of checks. Pawniard, Archen, Chinchou, Magnemite, and Tirtouga are all hugely popular and effective Pokemon that can check Fletchling to some extent. Archen is the only one of those that isn't trapped and taken out by Diglett (defensive Tirtouga wins, but is easily worn down to the point where Diglett will be able to eliminate it regardless). Focus Sash Abra is another Pokemon that can be used as a safety net against a possible Fletchling sweep; however, with Diglett, Abra will not hold any utility at all until Fletchling is at +2 because if it comes in earlier, it will be trapped and KOed or brought down to its Sash by Abra, opening up for a Fletchling sweep. Fletchling has been argued as being banworthy; it is of course, still very good without Diglett support, but the fact that so many of its checks and counters are eliminated through the support of only one Pokemon in Diglett is probably what pushes it over the edge. Despite not being a bird, Diglett still finds itself one of the key players in birdspam.
Fletchling isn't the only Pokemon that greatly appreciates Diglett's support, of course. Zigzagoon is an excellent win condition, but it needs quite a bit of support to pull off that clean sweep. It wants Stealth Rock support, Memento support, Pursuit trapping for Misdreavus, and the elimination of Pawniard. Diglett offers no less than three of those. Suppose you want to run Shell Smash Tirtouga with Aqua Jet, but Defensive Chinchou and Croagunk force you to run Earthquake. No need for that; just add a Diglett to your team. Omanyte also finds itself revenge-killed by Croagunk, leaving Diglett the mole for the job. Diglett is pretty much never sweeping a well-built team because it's just too weak, and heaven forbid the use of defensive diglett, but I think it's up to snuff with the other A- pokes purely because of its supportive capabilities.
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I don't think I should post twice in such a short period of time so I'm going to edit in my support for Aerow here as well
Sandshrew is definitely comparable to Drilbur in a lot of ways; even though Drilbur is usually better due to its significantly higher speed, Sandshrew still shouldn't be completely discounted. In addition, as sand sweepers, the two are also very comparable; in such a role, Drilbur's higher speed isn't AS notable, and although Drilbur is still more powerful, Sandshrew's greater physical bulk makes up for it by allowing it to take most priority moves more easily; Sandshrew's fast Knock Off also arguably makes it more effective overall in such a role by allowing it to Knock Off a switch-in to pave way for a sweep later in the match, and allows it to support a late-game Drilbur if both are used.
ah look more foongus support guess what that means rowan :0
Darumaka is just incredibly powerful; I've seen it being used and have used it myself a fair bit recently with solid results. Even if the accuracy drop sucks, the sheer power Darumaka brings to the table often makes up for it; it has almost no safe switch-ins, meaning with proper prediction, a kill every time it comes in isn't that far-fetched. Between U-Turn and a nuke in Flare Blitz, simply having Darumaka out will often put a huge amount of pressure on an opponent. I don't know if it should move much higher than that, although B- is certainly plausible, simply because it kills itself so quickly, between a vulnerability to all hazards, a weakness to Stealth Rock, and a reliance on Flare Blitz.
As for Dwebble, I agree that the metagame has adapted really well to it, and it's not as effective anymore. I just don't really like the idea of a suicide lead, as one of the most prominent Pokemon in the metagame, Archen, carries defog; even with Pawniard to discourage defiant, Pawniard will often not get more than one KO from the boost, anyway. Drilbur is another really notable hazard remover, and can also threaten most spin-blockers severely. Even outside of that, as Aerow mentioned, it still has trouble getting more than one layer of hazards up, with the ubiquity of Knock Off and Taunt. This isn't to say Dwebble is wholly ineffective, of course; it can still do its job against certain match-ups, and A- is still fairly good (considering how it's the current rank for Foongus @_@).
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