TUO, Destiny Bond doesn't really stop checks. It just means you 141 instead of 241ing or whatever. For Carv, it doesn't work as well because a good portion of checks can just play around it. Foongus spores, ferro sets hazards, cottonee sets up hazards, chou can hit off with weak scalds and let lo recoil kill carv, ect ect
Let's take a look at what the A rank means
Reserved for Pokemon that are outstanding in the LC metagame and can sweep, wall, or support the majority of the tier. These Pokemon require less support than other Pokemon to be used effectively and have few flaws that can be overlooked when compared to their outstanding traits.
Now let's analyse Carvanha very briefly.
Pros:
- Capable of being a good sweeper as well as denting mons with LO Stabs thanks to it's 90/65/65 offenses and Speed boost.
- Capable of turning a bad matchup into one in your favor (Due to it's stellar speed + Destiny bond)
- Access to priority (Great for clean up duty)
- It can act as a great mon to take out potential counters and checks to your sweepers.
Cons:
- It is too frail.
- Reliance on Speed Boost
- It doesn't get Knock Off
Even a brief analysis reveals that it's Pros >>> Cons. But because of how frail it is, the opportunity cost to use this mon is slightly higher. To be very fair, we should be drawing links with Abra/Diglett/Gastly and other frail but offensively oriented mons of the viability rank of A. I don't see why we should under-rate this mon because it is still a very relevant threat. Being able to pack great offensive presence as well as forcing your opponent to be very conscientious about attacking this mon due to the threat of Destiny Bond, tells us that he is no less deserving of the A rank than any other frail offensive attackers in LC.
BUT, it is apparent that it's frailty is major hindrance to Carv in this scenario because we are forced to run LO to maintain strong offensive pressure and this greatly reduces it's viability and due to the lack of recovery and strong pivoting moves,
my overall comment is that even though it's frailty is a major con, it's offensive prowess still greatly outweigh it's frailty and in the hands of a experienced player (assuming everyone is equally experienced)
, it will perform it's role well with little to less support.
Thus, we should
drop it down to A at the very most. No more than that.
Edit : I was a retard. Carv doesn't get Knock Off. I was thinking of Foo.