There are a ton of points in favour of using #1 Chicken as evidenced by the amount of teams using it on the ladder and in NUPL. I've personally used both Combusken and Gorebyss with an absolutely gross amount of success for less effort than I've ever put in. It's like nothing else. This meta is accommodating to BP teams, but I don't see that it's really possible for that to change all that much as there are very few good answers to Combusken pass. Because of the points listed below I believe Combusken needs to go as it's extremely over-centralising and there are very few counters to its passing.
I'll quickly summarise [
EDIT: I said quickly but this turned out far from quick because I wanted to cover all bases] all the biggest points in its favour, some of these have been brought up. It all really boils down to 2 major points:
Ability to accumulate boosts easily and safely multiple times per match
Because of
1. Massive natural bulk with eviolite: allowing Combusken to setup all over the opposing team, even tanking STAB EQs from Golem / Rhydon after a bulk up. Not to mention those piss weak scalds that evaporate on Combusken.
2. Ability to set up on a huge amount of Pokemon. Combusken can setup all over Pokemon without STAB supereffective attacks and proceed to bulk up / SD on the switch, or if you really need that boost simply tank a STAB attack and BP out after using protect
3. Ability to utlise protect for a free boost. Meaning you can bring Combusken in safely on something that can't do much damage to it (i.e. half the meta) or that it threatens out with fire punch, and proceed to gain +1 attack, +1 defence and +1 speed (or +2 attack +1 speed), then accumulate a +2 speed safely, *middle fingers in the air* and boost out of there. Or, if the opponent has brought an extremely strong physical attacker in you may bulk up again to tank that hit and move on out.
Ability to pass to Pokemon that have massive utility with or without boosts
1. Avoidance of the most commonly used phasing moves (roar & whirlwind by a pass to Xatu and Dtail by a pass to Puff). The only consistent phase is circle throw which is utilised by
Poliwrath (for the record a
great switch-in and counter to all Combusken forms and Gorebyss forms - one that I've been using a bit) and Throh (sub-optimal compared to its multiple fighting type rivals, especially Gurdurr). However chucking the chicken in a circle puts a lot of pressure on your team as its a lucky draw as to who comes out, and you land pitiful damage on the target, especially if Xatu was battoned to, putting a lot of pressure on your team simply because the opponent is using Combusken and you absolutely HAVE to send in Poliwrath every single time
2. These pokemon simply become godly with boosts, prime examples are Gatr, Kanga and Xatu, and the crazy thing is they can rip through a few members of the opposing team, die, and Combusken can come out to start the fun again. For example, at +2 atk, +2 def, +2 spe and a CM set up Xatu has a 180BP move at its disposal. All of this is very simple to set up. With enough boosts they become extremely hard to bring down, you will end up tearing your team apart to stop them, while Combusken is most likely in good health chilling in the back
3. Even without boosts the mons Combusken likes to pass to can function as effective members of a team, heck you can even play games high ladder and just not pass out with Combusken and still do well. This boils down to the fact that the team needn't support Combusken, rather
Combusken supports the team with essentially no opportunity cost but everything to gain
Counters
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Haze. E.g. Murkrow, Qwilfish etc. Cryoganol gets bopped by fire punch.
Checks
- Clear smog (Steels, however uncommon with chicken pass, are immune). E.g. Dragalge, Weezing, etc.
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Circle throw (and dtail if the opposing team doesn't have a fairy type). Poliwrath and Throh. Walled by ghosts. Sub-Circle Throw wrath is nice for easing predictions, avoiding tomb wow etc but wears Wrath down over time.
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Encore. Liepard et al. Cannot come in on a Sky Uppercut but otherwise counters the FAR more common fire punch / flare blitz sets. Be wary that with prediction Liepard can be worn down and thus has been demoted to a check
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Dragon Tail. Lickilicky, Dragalge, Steelix. Another option I'd like to see more is
Dtail Samurott (forces a pass and surprise dtails the switch-in) but the opportunity cost is pretty high, and once the dtail is known it becomes a mission to kill / keep Samu alive depending on what side you're on.
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Offensive pressure. Props to my man
Montsegur who brought up: Rhydon which forces a 50/50. Roar = pass to Xatu, but rock blast / stoneedge is gonna hit Xatu. Rock move = switch to Gatr, but roar mitigates this. However given Combusken's great type synergy with its pairs and >+1 defence from Bulk Up it's not difficult to switch out.
(please message me if I've overlooked a mon or check, and I'll edit it in)
"The meta can change to deal"
This holds weight. As I said there are a few counters. However these are pretty limited, and the fact that they can by removed fairly easily by pretty much anything that Combusken likes to pair with is pretty scary. If you haven't played with or against Combusken pass it's gonna be difficult to see exactly how all these points play out in the meta. It can be easy to over-estimate how much the meta can adjust to counter Combusken-pass. The reality is there are few counters, and Combusken can easily setup at least once (usually twice) against any team with decent type synergy, no matter how the meta is structured. There is essentially
no opportunity cost for setting up Combusken, and as I said you have everything to gain from doing so.
More discussion on how the meta could change and whether we should wait longer for the meta to accomodate Combusken pass would be great, because at this point I think myself and everyone else have raised pretty much all the relevant points to do with the topic "Combusken OP or na?"
Theses are the main points. For a more in depth discussion of how
Combusken differes from Gorebyss see my posts and other's posts in the NU Viability Rankings thread, page 17. Essentially boils down to Chicken passing >1 times per match and Fish passing 1 time per match