1v1 Suspect Coverage - Early Quickbans & Annihilape
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Art by Kolohe.
How did we get here?
SV 1v1 may have just completed its first suspect test with Annihilape, but that was by no means the first tiering action of the generation. There were other elements that were banned before Annihilape was looked at: Dragonite + King's Rock, Terastallization, Mimikyu, Scream Tail, sleep-inducing moves, and Cinderace.
- Dragonite's incredible bulk, mixed offenses, and Multiscale were already too much for SS 1v1, but in SV it also gained Encore, which made previously reliable counterplay such as weak speed control moves, setup moves, and status unreliable. On top of that, it could Terastallize, so it was no longer even held back by its silly 4x Ice "weakness". Ultimately, it had no viable counterplay other than itself. At the same time, King's Rock was also given the boot since it was flat out uncompetitive, especially on low ladder favorite Maushold.
- After Dragonite went, Terastallization was deemed to be an uncompetitive element following a fiery discussion. Months before the games came out, there was a general sense that the new generational gimmick was likely unbalanced, and once the games did release, most 1v1 players quickly decided Tera was not healthy for 1v1. Let's take a simple matchup, say Dragapult versus Choice Scarf Chi-Yu. Without Terastallization, this matchup is simple; Chi-Yu uses Dark Pulse and wins. But, with Terastallization in the mix, this matchup (and many like it) becomes a guessing game for the Chi-Yu user: do you use Tera Normal Hyper Beam expecting them to Terastalize into a different type, or do you use Dark Pulse expecting them not to Terastallize? Without being able to switch, players' ability to work around Terastallization was much more limited than 6v6 formats, since every Pokémon was capable of changing type. Some Pokémon, most notably Tera Flying + Acrobatics Roaring Moon, had fairly consistent matchups regardless of the foe's Tera type, but this was the exception rather than the rule.
- Post-Terastallization, another routinely problematic Pokémon surfaced: Mimikyu. With 2 sets, Mimikyu could cover nearly the entire metagame. First, Choice Band covered just about everything slower and many frail faster opponents with its dual STAB combination and Wood Hammer, using Disguise to get a free hit off. Simple. On its own, this set was not that overbearing, but its second set was much more sinister. With Disguise, Mimikyu could freely set up Substitute and Curse against faster foes, use Endure and two turns of Phantom Force (thanks to Custap Berry), and eventually finish them off after sufficient residual damage from Curse. Slower opponents were not safe either, since Mimikyu could set Curse against them turn 1 and rack up damage with Substitute. Using Bulk Up to outlast Choice Band Mimikyu would get you nowhere versus Curse Mimikyu, and using Taunt against Choice Band was equally as terrible. To put it plainly, covering both Mimikyu sets at the same time was incredibly limiting in the teambuilder and in battle, even without considering Curse Mimikyu's alternative item options or mixups like Bulk Up. Although Custap Berry was later discovered to be unreleased after Mimikyu was removed, Curse sets could have done much of the same with Salac Berry, so there is very little reason to give Mimikyu a second chance.
- If Mimikyu wasn't enough of a headache, I have great news: Scream Tail was even more infuriating! With Encore + Disable, Scream Tail could force opponents to chip themselves down with Struggle. Unlike most Encore + Disable users in 1v1, it actually had both good Speed and great defensive stats. With a fairly free item slot, it could defeat just about any Pokémon with some opportunity cost. Need extra Struggle damage? Rocky Helmet works. Want Speed? Choice Scarf + Trick or Protosynthesis + Booster Energy both work great for that. Even though Scream Tail was not as unbeatable as other banned Pokémon, it was much more insufferable to play against. If I didn't know better, I would say Scream Tail was tailor-made by Game Freak to make 1v1 players suffer. Good riddance.
- Sleep-inducing moves have long been a touchy subject in 1v1. Battles often last less than the maximum 3 sleep turns, and their random nature often brings the battle out of the hands of either player. However, certain sleep users, most notably Vivillon and Jumpluff, have consistently positive matchups where they can use Sleep Powder repeatedly to buy turns for Substitute, Quiver Dance, and Leech Seed. So, most newer 1v1 generations have partial bans on sleep-inducing moves since in the eyes of some, the competitive value of each move depends on how each Pokémon that has access uses it. In the aftermath of Scream Tail's quickban, Yawn in particular was brought up as problematic, with popular Pokémon like Skeledirge and Sylveon using it on their most common set, leaving a large proportion of games up to dice rolls. As a result of this, the 1v1 tiering council decided to re-evaluate all sleep-inducing moves at the same time as they voted about Annihilape's suspect potential. Initially, only Yawn and Spore were added to the banlist, leaving Sleep Powder as the only unbanned sleep-inducing move. However, not long after this was announced, a councilmember had second thoughts, pushing Sleep Powder over the ban threshold as well. With that, sleep-inducing moves have been put to rest, at least for now.
- Because Game Freak decided 1v1 players had not suffered enough, Cinderace was made available in SV in the middle of Annihilape's suspect. Much like Dragonite and Mimikyu, Cinderace was a demon from SS that returned to haunt SV 1v1. Imagine if Terastallization was banned on every Pokémon except for one… That's basically what playing SV 1v1 with Cinderace feels like. Between Counter, Taunt, Will-O-Wisp, Bulk Up, High Jump Kick, Trailblaze, Electro Ball, Gunk Shot, Giga Impact, Zen Headbutt, Blast Burn, and random resistance Berries, Cinderace has the tools to defeat basically anything. Iron Bundle, Garchomp, Great Tusk, and Dondozo all could lose to Cinderace (and regularly did on ladder…). The rabbit was quickbanned within 2 days.
Why Annihilape?
After an incredibly turbulent month, the metagame had mostly settled down; everything that was painfully bad for the metagame was gone (bar Cinderace's untimely appearance). However, Annihilape was quite a centralizing force. It had passable Speed, great mixed defenses, Defiant to block stat drops, and Bulk Up, Encore, Low Sweep, and Taunt to shut down opposing setup. Taking Annihilape down basically required a super effective move and/or multiple boosts, but each Annihilape set could get around this to some extent, making teambuilding quite strained and in-game decisions treacherous. Across 3 main sets, it had few true answers, but it lost many significant matchups by switching between sets, so it was less clearly problematic than other previously banned elements. Annihilape was much scarier in theory than in practice; sure it could defeat Sylveon, Ting-Lu, Corviknight, Meowscarada, Chi-Yu, Iron Valiant, Iron Bundle, some Skeledirge, and most Flutter Mane individually, but not all at once. The problem was that on Team Preview, Annihilape's set was not known, and once it was in battle, there was not much (if any) adjustment a player could do.
Sets
Weakness Policy: Bulky Offensive
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Weakness Policy Annihilape came with two main EV spreads and various move options, each with their own tradeoffs. Neither variant could take on stronger Fairy-types like Sylveon and Choice Band Play Rough Meowscarada. Specially defensive variants were reliable against the likes of non-Choice Specs Flutter Mane, Choice Specs Dragapult, Choice Scarf Gholdengo, and Chi-Yu, but they missed out on some physical attackers like Curse Dondozo without Taunt + Counter or Screech, Choice Band Azumarill without significant Defense investment, and Encore + Disable Iron Valiant without Gunk Shot.
Sitrus Berry: Stallbreaker
- Annihilape @ Sitrus Berry
- Ability: Defiant
- EVs: 184 HP / 252 Def / 72 Spe
- Impish Nature
- - Taunt
- - Counter
- - Rage Fist
- - Bulk Up / Close Combat / Low Sweep
Stallbreaker Annihilape was reliable against, well… stall of course! With Taunt + Counter + Bulk Up, Annihilape could sit in front of slow physical attackers like Dondozo, Iron Hands, and Donphan and stall Pokémon like Corviknight. The extra recovery from Sitrus Berry maked the Dondozo matchup reliable with Taunt turn 1 and could net wins against other bulky threats like non-Mental Herb Skeledirge. Slotting all of these disruption moves often meant forgoing a Fighting-type move, which would make Annihilape lose to things it shouldn't like Special Attack-boosting Iron Bundle and Chi-Yu. So, sometimes Low Sweep and Close Combat instead of Bulk Up made sense.
Roseli Berry: Fairy-type Lure
- Annihilape @ Roseli Berry
- Ability: Defiant
- Tera Type: Fighting
- EVs: 136 HP / 116 Atk / 240 SpD / 16 Spe
- Careful Nature
- - Counter
- - Gunk Shot
- - Rage Fist
- - Drain Punch / Encore / Taunt
Roseli Berry flips matchups against the likes of Choice Band Meowscarada, Azumarill, and Sylveon, and Counter can surprise many physical attackers like Donphan, but without Bulk Up + Taunt or Encore, it lost to stall Pokémon like Iron Defense Corviknight. Without Drain Punch, it would fall flat against things it shouldn't be losing to, much like the Stallbreaker set. Reliable answers to Roseli Berry sets and Weakness Policy / Sitrus Berry sets were hard to come by, but none of them were broken on their own.
Counters
All this talk about weak checks is not the whole story though; it's not like Annihilape counters didn't exist. The other top Ghost-types, bar Flutter Mane, were some of the best tools to counter Annihilape: Will-O-Wisp + Hex Dragapult, Taunt + Will-O-Wisp + Mental Herb Sableye, Mental Herb Skeledirge, and Reflect + Weakness Policy Gholdengo had practically perfect matchups versus Annihilape. Gholdengo and especially Sableye and Skeledirge did not appreciate Annihilape's limiting presence; they would all much rather be using different items and/or moves to defeat a greater variety of Pokémon. Outside of the other Ghost-types, Choice Band Talonflame and Mental Herb + Toxic + Counter Clodsire were both great against Annihilape, but other less common Pokémon like Farigiraf and Choice Specs Iron Jugulus had amazing matchups versus all Annihilape sets. Farigiraf and Iron Jugulis both gained much of their viability from Annihilape's presence; they're niche for a reason…
What did we decide? What's next?
Annihilape ended up staying unbanned after a fairly close vote. It may be retested at another point down the line, but it will be sticking around until the situation changes. As for what was next, there were complaints about Chi-Yu (and to a lesser extent, Iron Valiant), which brought a Chi Yu quickban about a week later. There are also concerns about another Cinderace situation with Greninja's upcoming Tera Raid event as well. Other centralizing Pokémon such as Iron Valiant and Gholdengo have been brought up as potentially problematic, but none have put a fire under 1v1 players like Chi Yu did, so they will stick around for at least a little while longer.
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