Yup, that and dragonite. Both, to me, are mons that you can only deal with by being exceedingly careful in both teambuilding (incorporating multiple checks) and in battle (keeping your checks alive and never allowing either a free turn). For instance, I'm using Whimsicott as a (fairly shaky) check to Manaphy. Switch in on the Tail Glow and encore. I'm using Sand Rush Tyranitar as a check to Dragonite. But if I misread the Tail Glow or I miss a Stone Edge, I'll generally lose the match. Simple as that. Outside of these two threats, I agree that it's a surprisingly diverse metagame. Having to devote your item slot to a secondary ability really does balance things out quite a bit.
I haven't found Dragonite to be an issue, though admittedly I'm running a stall-y team. Unaware Physical walls laugh at it so long as they're not suspectible to Superpower or one of its STABs, and even coverage moves don't actually let it beat
non-Unaware Skarmory -+1 Fire Punch is only 50% damage, which means Skarmory can switch in on a Dragon Dance and Whirlwind it out. (This is shaky and not something to
rely on, even aside from the risk of being Burned, but it illustrate my point that Aerilate Dragonite can't beat it reliably)
Offensive teams have tools like Refrigerate Weavile, which has Fake Out
and Feint. (Which means Protect Dragonite isn't remotely safe from it) Dragonite is cool and all, but it's actually a much less overwhelming force than I expected and in fact its popularity on the ladder seems to be dropping.
I agree with Primordial sea manaphy being broken, but it does have some checks. Two great examples are Primsea Heliolisk and Desotran.
Thunder actually isn't a OHKO on bulky Manaphy, not without some other Ability to bolster Heliolisk's damage. Admittedly, Manaphy can't OHKO at +3 with any of its neutral coverage options at any better of a rate than 31.3% of the time, but if Heliolisk ever ends up with even leftover chipping damage after switching into a Tail Glow and being healed by Dry Skin, it'll be OHKOed and fail to get the OHKO. That's a lot shakier than I'd prefer. Unaware Heliolisk would be an actually reliable counter, though rather narrowly specialized if not being specifically used by a Rain team.
Desolate Land Heatran requires something like Wish support to not simply be worn down over repeated switches. It's a check, but honestly it's not a very
good check.
I haven't seen many blisseys, but whenever I do, I use the same thing that I used to Togekill:
Togekilled in Bliss (Lapras) @ Thick Club
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Perish Song
- Block
- Rest
- Protect
RIP Blisseys lol
... I'm not sure why Blissey would switch into or stay in on Primordial Sea Lapras? I mean, if it
does do that, this is a winner, but... why would Blissey stay in on this? It's obviously a Hydration abuser, and Blissey can't do jack to that, so obviously it's going to switch and never get hit with Block.
Personally I'd rather use No Guard on Dragonite, as that still lets it use Fire Blast while also giving it a perfectly accurate Focus Blast. It has a better movepool than Tornadus-T, and can afford to run a Modest Nature.
It's a lot slower than Tornadus-Therian and lacks Regenerator and U-Turn. Tornadus-Therian also has more Special Attack, Fire Blast is only slightly stronger than Heat Wave. (Not far off from the difference in Special Attack between the Pokemon, in fact) Ice Beam/Blizzard and Draco Meteor are the only substantial points in Dragonite's favor, and they're kind of lackluster reasons to run it over Tornadus-Therian.
Compound Eyes Durant's good fun too, as that negates the accuracy penalty of Hustle.
Nope. Hustle's 1/3rd drop in Accuracy is greater than a 33% increase in Accuracy. 50% more Accuracy is the equivalent to 33% less Accuracy. No Guard is better anyway, and I have difficulty imagining a team wanting 3+ No Guarders.