The bit in bold is what the problem is. If you are relying on revenge killing Salamence, doesn't that mean it has already done it's job by killing something? And, more often than not, it hasn't just got rid of one, but it has damaged another Pokémon for good measure, meaning something else can come in and sweep. Being able to revenge kill something doesn't make it any less powerful.
Didn't want to have to post in this thread just yet, but I'm really getting sick of people saying this. You can't just say this without actually knowing what the particular Salamence's job is, or how Salamence tends to switch into the match with the less defensive (suspect) variants.
DDMence's job is the easiest to stop, because its job is to
sweep. Sweeping is when you try to take out
all of the remaining members of the opponent's team when it comes time for the pokemon to set up. If it's revenge-killed and killed only one pokemon during its time in the battle as a result, how in the world is that a sweep? Unfortunately, it isn't, and it failed at its job on the team. As far as I'm concerned, if something is trying to fit the OC, then it can't constantly be getting revenge-killed, because the OC is only met when something can
sweep through the opponent's team with little to no support. If you sacked something that had very low health and was inevitably going to be death fodder, and then you revenge-killed DDMence, it hasn't done its job of sweeping, since it basically killed nothing. Yes, it can just switch out and try again, but DDMence does not have the best defenses, and needs all of its coverage, so it's often going to have to switch in after something else on its team has died if it doesn't want to take a crapload of damage on the switch-in. This means that his teammate's sacrifice was pretty wasted if, being the main sweeper on the team, it was only able to kill one thing before getting killed itself.
Mixmence on the other hand, can have the revenge-killing argument placed on it because its job is not to sweep, but to punch holes in the opposing team for something else to sweep. This means that its main job is to support its team. But where do we draw the line here? Mixmence does not have nice defenses compared to variants like Bulkymence (especially with the -SpD nature), and coupled with Stealth Rock + Sandstorm, there's a good possibilty that the player is going to have to
switch it in after something dies. Therefore, the revenge-killing argument can be provided for both sides, since something is often going to die just for Mixmence to switch in without taking a big hit from an attack
and Stealth Rock. In addition, unlike a true SC filler like Wobbuffet, Mixmence cannot control what he kills. If the opponent chooses to switch in death fodder and then revenge-kill Salamence after that, he didn't punch any holes in the opposing team, the member that damaged the death fodder did. Yes, he can just switch out, but once the opponent knows that you have Mixmence, they're going to be throwing out more attacks or statuses with their Mixmence-vulnerable pokemon. This means that it's going to be extremely difficult for Salamence to switch back in.
Oh yeah, and don't bother comparing this to Rayquaza (I know people like to do that for whatever reason), because it's pretty damn obvious that Rayquaza is a lot harder to revenge-kill and generally has better attacking stats, better movepool, immunity to Sandstorm, etc, etc. Seriously, just don't.
Anyway, I might post some of my experiences on this ladder later.
