Melee Madness: Physical Attacking in SS Balanced Hackmons
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Art by Albatross.
Introduction
In standard play, special attackers are usually seen as stronger than their physical counterparts. Generally speaking, special attackers tend to have more applicable base stats, more diverse movepools, mostly stronger moves, and no need to deal with effects like Intimidate, burn, and Rocky Helmet. So, it might surprise you to hear that, in a metagame where the strongest special attacking tools and Pokémon are available, physical offense not only keeps up with its special counterpart but arguably outclasses it. This is Balanced Hackmons, a tier where anything that can be hacked in-game and is usable in local battles is allowed so long as it isn't banned from the metagame. The reasoning why physical offense is, and has been, so strong here falls to three key factors—a diverse and powerful selection of physical moves, overbearing abilities that buff physical moves, and multiple stellar physical attackers, all of which were introduced in Generation 8.
Bolt Beak & Fishious Rend
Despite their effective 170 Base Power, Bolt Beak and Fishious Rend are somewhat balanced in standard play by the fact that the Pokémon able to learn them in standard tiers have mediocre base stats and tend to lack coverage for resistant foes. In Balanced Hackmons, however, there are no such restrictions: Pokémon with sky-high attack stats, such as Zekrom and Palkia, can equip these moves and carry extremely strong coverage for any checks. Bolt Beak proved to be the more effective of the two, largely in part due to the presence of Electric Terrain, Transistor, and multiple fast Electric-types such as Tapu Koko, Regieleki, Zeraora, and Zekrom. In addition, Balanced Hackmons's short list of viable Ground-types, Zygarde-C and Groudon, do not enjoy the complementary coverage provided by a brutal Glacial Lance. Fishious Rend, while still incredible, wasn't as broken: the pool of viable Water-types is limited to Palkia and Barraskewda, which are somewhat balanced by needing to compete with Desolate Land users in order to use the move. This is contrary to Electric Terrain teams, which did not have such competition due to the scarcity of other Terrains. In the end, after a dual suspect test of Bolt Beak and Glacial Lance, Bolt Beak was deemed too powerful and banned from the tier. In the current metagame, Fishious Rend commonly sees use as the main STAB attack of Palkia and Barraskewda, as well as a coverage option on Fairy-types like Xerneas and Zacian to hit Fire-types like Ho-Oh.
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Zekrom @ Dragon MemoryGlacial Lance
Generally speaking, physical Ice-type attacks haven't been the most impressive. Icicle Crash has a relatively low Base Power and can miss, Avalanche has negative priority, and Triple Axel both can miss and activates adverse contact effects three times. This changed with the Crown Tundra DLC and the introduction of Calyrex-I's new signature move in Glacial Lance. Unlike the above three moves, Glacial Lance has 100% accuracy and no drawbacks on top of a ludicrous 130 Base Power, which instantly made it the Ice-type move of choice for every physical attacker. Glacial Lance is outstanding as a move largely due to its Ice typing, which allows it to hit a large portion of the tier for neutral or super effective damage, including some of the most common physical walls in Zygarde-C and Giratina. It also became the primary STAB attack of Kyurem-B and the new Calyrex-I, two incredibly dangerous (albeit frail by BH standards) offensive threats, and was the primary reason behind the banning of the immensely powerful Galarian Darmanitan-Z. Glacial Lance was dual suspect tested along with Bolt Beak and managed to dodge the ban hammer. Currently, it sees use on variants of almost every physical attacker as an easy way to bypass the hugely troublesome Zygarde-C, with the added benefit of severely weakening Giratina.
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Ho-Oh @ Life OrbWicked Blow
Upon the arrival of the Isle of Armor DLC, the newly introduced Urshifu formes brought along with them two new signature moves: Wicked Blow and Surging Strikes. Surging Strikes is wholly outclassed by Fishious Rend, which has better damage potential and only activates adverse contact effects once. Wicked Blow, however, is excellent thanks to the ease with which it dispatches Psychic-types. Wicked Blow provided a new way for physical attackers to break past Fur Coat Solgaleo and Lunala in the pre-Pokémon HOME metagame, with Lunala taking upwards of 60% and Solgaleo being forced to spam Recover in order to survive. Upon the arrival of the Crown Tundra DLC, Wicked Blow became a staple on offensive Yveltal as its main Dark-type STAB move, and Regigigas began using it as its primary way of overcoming Fur Coat Lunala. While Belly Drum was legal in the tier, Necrozma-DM also had a unique niche with the move: after using Belly Drum and activating Unburden via consuming its Sitrus Berry, it was able to outspeed and guarantee a one-hit KO on Imposter Chansey holding Eviolite if it dropped its Defense down to 295.
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Regigigas @ Toxic OrbTwo Terrifying Abilities: Gorilla Tactics and Intrepid Sword
Only a select few Pokémon have abilities that completely define them. Gorilla Tactics and Intrepid Sword are two of these defining abilities—compared to the "average" damage-buffing ability, which normally boosts damage by about 30% only if a condition is met (think Tough Claws or Sheer Force), these two abilities give an unconditional 50% boost to Attack. Intrepid Sword does not lock the user into a move, unlike Gorilla Tactics; however, Gorilla Tactics users can use this to their advantage by having an easier matchup into Imposter users. At the beginning of the generation, Zacian-C was unrestricted, meaning that it was usable without Rusted Sword. One of its most popular sets came to be Gorilla Tactics + Choice Band, which combined Zacian-C's absurd base stats with an effective double Choice Band to rip through the metagame and achieve staggering feats such as an OHKO on Fur Coat Zamazenta-C after minor chip. It was evident that this was completely overbearing, and just six days after the creation of the Balanced Hackmons council, Gorilla Tactics was quickbanned.
Zacian-Crowned @ Choice Band- Ability: Gorilla Tactics
- EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
- Adamant Nature
- - V-create
- - Double Iron Bash
- - Bolt Beak
- - Trick
After this quickban, however, the physical train was on the move, and it wasn't stopping; it didn't take too long for people to realize that Intrepid Sword did basically the exact same thing as Gorilla Tactics, and it became the new best option for a wallbreaker. Intrepid Sword was similar enough to do the same job, but it had some noticeable flaws—as the ability gave a stat boost, this boost could be manipulated or erased by Haze, Strength Sap, Spectral Thief, Unaware, and Topsy-Turvy. In addition, Intrepid Sword would activate again for Imposter users that transformed into a Pokémon using it, meaning that Imposter Chansey became a massive threat if it could get in safely. Despite these flaws, however, Intrepid Sword continued to be an oppressive ability that effectively mandated Fur Coat on the majority of teams. To make it even more unbearable, Baton Pass users had began using Intrepid Sword, which allowed them to effortlessly accumulate multiple boosts. After the release of the Crown Tundra DLC, a new wave of high-Attack threats and moves was released into the metagame and Intrepid Sword was judged to be too centralizing, being banned via suspect test soon after. Intrepid Sword would remain accessible for half a year afterwards, thanks to Zacian holding Rusted Sword, which itself was banned in large part due to granting access to the ability.
Type: Null @ Eviolite- Ability: Intrepid Sword
- EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
- Bold Nature
- IVs: 0 Atk
- - Substitute
- - Baton Pass
- - Strength Sap
- - Ingrain
Two Offensive Menaces: Zacian-C and Galarian Darmanitan-Z
Upon Generation 8's launch, easily the most controversial new addition to the game was Zacian-C, which boasted an insane typing, base 170 Attack, base 148 Speed, and an ability that gave a completely free Attack boost. In the context of Balanced Hackmons, Zacian-C's presence was overwhelming due to two primary reasons—the lack of viable physical walls and the lack of Forme Clause, meaning that teams would be able to use multiple Zacian-C. In addition to Zacian-C being inherently difficult to manage due to its offensive presence and set variety (Choice Band and Belly Drum were the main two at this point, with each having different checks), teams could opt to run multiple Zacian-C and throw them at the limited checks until they would eventually be overwhelmed. This level of power was seen by many as overcentralizing and unhealthy, and it didn't take long for Zacian-C to be "restricted"—this meant that the Pokémon itself was banned, but was still accessible through Zacian holding Rusted Sword. Without an item slot and being forced into using Intrepid Sword, Zacian-C was weakened but still remained as the premier offensive Pokémon in the metagame thanks to its unmatched offensive presence and strong defensive profile. The two nails in Zacian-C's coffin were the banning of Intrepid Sword (making it the sole source of the ability, further centralizing the offensive metagame around itself) and the discovery of the ImprisonForm set—people realized that, thanks to Zacian-C's massive Attack, it was perfectly fine relying on solely Anchor Shot for damage output in most circumstances. As such, sets with Anchor Shot, Imprison, Transform, and Recover began to appear, which would take advantage of Zacian-C's traditional walls by trapping them in, sealing their moves, and transforming into them; this would force them to struggle and KO themselves with recoil. It became impossible for teams to manage both offensive sets and ImprisonForm sets, and so Rusted Sword was quickbanned, removing Zacian-C from the metagame.
Zacian @ Rusted Sword- Ability: Multitype
- EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
- Jolly Nature
- - Anchor Shot
- - Imprison
- - Transform
- - Recover
Galarian Darmanitan-Z (often abbreviated to DGZ) was also around from the beginning of the generation. Whereas Zacian-C's claim to fame was absurd base stats and a surprising defensive profile, DGZ's success was largely attributed to it's typing—Fire / Ice is an excellent type pairing in Balanced Hackmons due to the relative lack of Water-types compared to other tiers and an absurdly powerful STAB attack in V-create. DGZ's base stats were also impressive, boasting huge Attack, surprising bulk for an offensive Pokémon, and a Speed tier that gave it the jump on Eternatus and Zamazenta-C. Many of the defensive Pokémon in the early stages of the tier were Steel-types, which was excellent for DGZ, as they were OHKOed by V-create and usually couldn't fit Flash Fire. DGZ also had ability flexibility—Gorilla Tactics / Intrepid Sword was standard due to the damage buffs they provided, Mold Breaker would cut clean through Flash Fire users, Magic Guard rid it of its crippling 4x weakness to Stealth Rock and allowed for a recoil-less Life Orb set, and Desolate Land let it switch in on and overwrite Primordial Sea's Fire-type immunity. The Isle of Armor DLC arrived and gave DGZ a new, more powerful Ice-type attack in Triple Axel, which was less reliable than Icicle Crash but had higher damage potential and thus improved its set options. DGZ's swan song was the Crown Tundra DLC, which introduced Glacial Lance, and it was clear that this borderline broken threat pre-DLC 2 would be overbearing with two super-powered STAB attacks at its disposal. It only took 16 days for DGZ to be quickbanned.
- Darmanitan-Galar-Zen @ Choice Band
- Ability: Intrepid Sword
- EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
- Jolly Nature
- - V-create
- - Glacial Lance
- - Flip Turn
- - Bolt Beak
Honorable Mention: Thunderous Kick
Introduced alongside Glacial Lance, Thunderous Kick isn't known for absurd Base Power or typing—instead, it makes its mark thanks to its excellent secondary effect of lowering the target's Defense by one stage. While this alone might not seem as strong as the other nuclear options on this list, Thunderous Kick is noteworthy, as it pretty much redefined the idea of an active wall—this is because it gave the most common defensive Pokémon in the tier, Zamazenta-C, a way to reliably pressure other defensive staples like Zygarde-C and Imposter Chansey. Thunderous Kick's main issue is its distribution, as there are only three viable Fighting-types in the tier (two of which, Zamazenta and Pheromosa, lack the bulk to safely build up Defense drops) and other offensive threats generally want more immediate damage from a move like V-create or Precipice Blades.
Zamazenta-Crowned @ Leftovers- Ability: Ice Scales
- EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
- Jolly Nature
- - Anchor Shot
- - Thunderous Kick
- - Spectral Thief
- - Recover
Final Thoughts
All of these newly introduced tools should make it pretty evident that physical offense is stronger here than in basically any other tier, by a considerable margin. However, that's not to say that special offense is unviable—far from it, as super-powered moves also exist for special attackers such as Dragon Energy, Boomburst, Blue Flare, and Astral Barrage. Thank you for reading, and feel free to check out discussions on the main forum thread or play SS Balanced Hackmons while it's still the current gen!
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