I did some little stuff with Crobat, so I'll offer my two cents.This week's Pokemon:
Gastrodon: A necessary Pokemon on any serious Ground team, Storm Drain allows it to not only absorb Water attacks (a dreaded scenario for Ground) but to raise its special attack, allowing for moves such as Scald and Earth Power to hit well and hard. Ice neutrality is also a nice bonus, and the fact that it can be switched in to counter many offensive threats such as Keldeo (not running sub), Kyurem-B, and non-Grass Knot Greninja makes it a very reliable option, and gives it very unique presence on Ground mono. While Grass attacks are a sore spot, there are at least a few decent Ground Mons that can switch in to take a Giga Drain or Grass Knot. Toxic + Recover stall is another role Gastro can perform if needed, though shouldn't be set up on for the fact that it won't take +2 neutral hits well, and is too slow to Recover quickly enough to keep the stall going when attacked with powerful hits.
It will mainly be taken advantage of by anything that has Grass moves or uses sub, but it fills its advantageous role on Ground very well, and for that reason I'm going to give it A Rank.
I'm not well versed with Crobat and Lanturn, so I'll pass on those for now unless I get some better knowledge and experience with them.
Crobat: Perhaps Poison's fastest (and most frail) viable Pokemon out there, Crobat can perform two useful roles as an Anti-Lead (access to one of the fastest Taunts in the Meta, strong attacks in Brave Bird and Superfang, and disrupt with quick Confuse Ray and Roost) and Offensive Pivot (switching in on Ground attacks and either Brave-Birding or U-Turning). Because it's pure offensive capabilities are generally limited to Brave Bird (with considerable recoil) and Cross Poison (not really recommended as Pokemon such as Sniper Drapion can better take advantage of it, it won't counter its weaknesses or generally provide more damage than Brave Bird), there's no point in considering it as a sweeper in any sort. It can also defog, which is certainly nice (even though as AFD pointed out Skuntank is available and can block Psychic, it can't do much else but Sucker Punch and generally isn't worth a spot in itself on a team of only six).
In the case of dealing with Electric and Rock types, the best remedy would be to Nidoking, Nidoqueen, or Venusaur with fast U-Turn, so it definitely can be covered by its teammates (same applies to Psychic with Drapion). It's ability Infiltrator is decent to get past subs and the occasional Reflect, while Inner Focus is generally useless as it will outspeed almost anything with flinch chance (besides Fake Out, making it a good M-Cham counter).
My main gripe with Crobat is that it is frail as heck and is susceptible to almost all hard-hitting neutral attackers, making it tough to enter in as Pivot without the assurance that it resists or is immune, and has the problem of Stealth Rock if Tentacruel isn't an option to get rid of them. Common Offensive Pokemon like Terrakion, Tyranitar, Greninja, and Latios give it problems, three of which can outspeed U-Turn and need to be properly handled by teammates.
Overall, I'd consider Crobat to be a solid Poison addition that can perform two great roles, but needs some hazard support (Pivot) and max speed to get the job done. Does it play a good role against Psychic and Ground? Yes. Does it influence the metagame? Yes. Does it fill a ton of roles? No. Is it predictable? Perhaps. Does it define the metagame? No. For these reasons I give Crobat A Rank.
Shoutout to the Smog Issue 8 and Clearly for advice/ideas on what to say.
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