It's been a while since I've been active on the forum so this is probably going to be a longer post because I want to get some of my thoughts on the metagame out of my head. So if you read through this entire post, thank you. If you don't want to read through my longwinded analysis of the competitive meta of a 20-year-old children's game. The tdlr is that I think Skarmory is slightly overrated and its position as the undisputed 2nd best (or best depending on who you ask) Pokemom in ADV OU should instead go to Swampert.
As I'm sure all of us in this thread are aware Skarmory is a fantastic Pokemon in ADV OU. Spikes is a metagame warping move, it's one-half of the tiers defining defensive core, and it's the best counter to ladder cheese strats such as the much reviled by this thread, JaskPass.
But Skarmory is not peerless in possessing these traits. Many players in recent years have been opting for the role compression offered by Forretress on big 5-style teams. Trading Skarmory's spikes immunity and access to Roar for the flexibility in the team builder offered by combining a team's spiker and rapid spinner into the same team slot. Which if tournament results are any indication has been working quite well for these players. As throughout the first 9 rounds of this year's Jimvitational Tournament, featuring many of the tier's preeminent players, Forretress has earned itself a 59% win rate compared to Skarmory's 47%.
https://pokepast.es/bf67a05f8e2029df
Many offensive teams have also been choosing to drop Skarmory in recent times. Reaching down to the depths of UUBL and NU for Smeargle and Glaile respectively. To act as spikes leads that don't falter in the presence of the ever-threatening lead Zapdos or immediately go down a mon on turn 2 when faced with a Magneton.
Now all of this isn't to say that Skarmory has been completely replaced in its role as the tier's premier spikes setter. Or that Skarmory is a bad option to put on a team nowadays. But I think the times when people used to unequivocally proclaim that Skarmory was the best Pokemon in the tier are behind us. Skarmory is undeniably a potent force in the tier that every team needs to be prepared for, but it is not an automatic slot-in to make 90% of teams better in the same way that Tyranitar is. Or as unique in its role as Metagross often feels on offensive teams. Or as dominant in performing its main function as Swampert is as a rock resist. With the proliferation of Magneton throughout the meta from physical offense teams to bulkier Mag Dol teams; to recent innovations such as HP fire Celebi and Metagross that allow Pokemon that Skarmory traditionally checks to muscle through it. Skarmory has been facing more pressure from all corners of the meta than ever before. Speaking from my own experience I rarely build teams that don't have at least 2-3 electric or fire-type attackers that can hit Skarmory for Super Effective damage.
In my view, these factors have compounded to the point where I often find myself cutting Skarmory from all but the bulkiest of teams. In favor of the role compression offered by Forretress and Cloyster or Smeargle's better match-ups into most of the tier's common leads.
But unlike Skarmory, one Pokemon that I've increasingly found it hard to replace on almost any team I build is Swampert. Its function as the tier's premier rock resist is hard to replicate with any other Pokemon. Its closest competition comes from Flygon and Claydol who both have considerable flaws in my eyes compared to Swampert. In Flygon's case, its 4x weaknesses to ice and 2x weakness to dragon are far more exploitable than Swampert's own 4x weakness to grass. Its move pool is much shallower, lacking Ice Beam, Focus Punch, Roar, and Refresh in comparison to Swampert. Making Flygon a worse potential answer to Salamence, Blissey, Milotic, Skarmory, etc than Swampert.
While for Claydol its main utility comes from its ability to rapid spin. Meaning that it often has to trade hp in the mid-game to muscle its way through Gengar or spin away a layer of spikes. This makes it an inconsistent answer to Tyranitar or Aerodactyl as it often cannot preserve its hp into the late game like Swampert can. Especially as both Tyranitar and Aerodactyl often run hp bug and can force their way through a chipped Claydol.
Swampert on the other hand is a fantastic 1-team slot answer to all of the tiers most threatening offensive Pokemon. The standard defensive Swanpert set can survive multiple boosted stab hits from dd Tyranitar and Salamence while threatening a 2hko on bulky Tyranitar and a 1hko on Salamence with EQ and Ice Beam respectively. It also threatens a 1hko on Aerodactyl with Hydro Pump while taking less than 40% from all of its Choice Band boosted moves. It even checks Metagross and Mixed Salamence as it resists Metagross's Meteor Mash while threatening a 2hko and can cleanly survive a Salamence hp grass from full. All of this is further compounded by Swamperts ability to chip health in sand with protect, meaning that Swampert can often check more than 1 of these threats in a single game even with a layer of spikes on its own side of the field while being able to scout for Metagross's explosion and surprise hp grasses on Tyranitar.
Swamperts utility isn't even limited to checking offensive threats. With mono-surf sets acting as an effective status absorber and phaser, while still fulfilling Swampert's main role as a rock resist.
For these reasons, I've been finding it harder and harder to justify building a team without Swampert. It feels like what it brings to the table in terms of checking the tier's primer offensive threats while having access to a wide depth of utility moves is unique in the tier and desirable on the majority of teams. That's why I think that Swampert is well deserving of the title of 2nd best Pokemon in ADV OU, right behind Tyranitar, which many people until now have defaulted to giving to Skarmory.
(very real set)
