SPOILERS! Pokemon Sword and Shield Datamine Thread

The problem is it's weak to two common priorities in Aqua Jet and Mach Punch and takes neutral damage from the rest except for Ice Shard. If something outspeeds it or manages to tank a hit, then it goes down in one attack at half health and if your reliance is on Belly Drum then you can't even safely switch into any attacks without risking losing that setup.
Tbf, even at full health, that Darmanitan is not going to live anything.
I see your point, that's why you shouldn't be reckless with it and get away priority users, set up some hazards for Sash/Sturdy ... and then get to sweep. If it would be that easy, everyone would run it - simple as that
 
Why are people upset about Zamazenta not getting Will-O-Wisp? Why the hell would a shielded doggo with no obvious connection with fire nor the supernatural get Will-O-Wisp?
Because Will-O-Wisp is a move for a physically defensive pokemon but the issue I think there is fire types check it anyways.

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As fun as Zen Mode is, it won't be reliable except maybe in some niche VGC/Doubles strategies. Instead I posit a band or scarf gorilla tactics set that could turn out amazing. U-Turn, Icicle Crash, and Superpower are already more than enough to make it viable. Meanwhile it has Stone Edge, Earthquake, Zen Headbutt, Iron Head, and Flare Blitz for coverage. So many great options to go with.
 
Polteageist and Cursola: They learn Strength Sap. This is not a drill - these two ghosts have +100 BST over Shiinotic, have actual good abilities that further steal momentum from physical attackers, have better movesets and stat spreads than Drifblim, and they learn Strength Sap. I don't know how good either of them are (Drifblim is PU even with Tailwind and Defog) but Strength Sap is a move that causes frequent panic attacks in the CAP moveset discussion, so it is notable that we got not one but two new users.
Jellicent also gets it! Curious on its viability with it. I also can't help thinking how great Cursola would be if it swapped attack and defense.
 
Because Will-O-Wisp is a move for a physically defensive pokemon but the issue I think there is fire types check it anyways.
Sure, it would be nice to have, but why would ever get your hopes up about it? It would be like being mad about Silvally not getting Shell Smash. There's no reason why you should ever expect that to happen.

EDIT: I guess we should also be mad that Avalugg didn't get Will-O-Wisp either. It's also a physically defensive mon.
 
Really bizarre seeing a few of these moves come back as tms. Part of me is happy really simple moves like mega punch and mega kick came back after so much time on a hand's worth of movepools, other parts are kind of weirded out things so generally outclassed by other moves are coming back as TMs again. Hopefully they'll fiddle with those two in particular and adjust their accuracy and / or make them fighting type or something. Really looking forward to the move data being dumped to see which moves got more detailed tweaks.

Very happy with the massive TM overhall too. Glad to see things that had just the smallest handful of users who already naturally learned the move like Quash losing TM status. Happy to see eternal move tutors like the elemental punches come back as TMs. So, sooo happy to see Metronome back of all things as a TM. Shame it couldn't come back with the ridiculousness of Z-metronome too, but oh well.

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LIFE'S AS EXTREME AS YOU WANNA MAKE ITTT
I would very much prefer that Mega Punch/Kick stay as Normal-type moves. With the loss of Return, physical Normal-types and physical users of -ate abilities lose a very important move. Having MPunch as a 90/100% move and MKick as a 110/90% (similar to Flamethrower/Fire Blast) would be ideal in my opinion.
Of course there is a lot of quadrupedal or winged normal types who cannot punch or kick.
 
Frosmoth: 65 Speed sucks.. but after 2 QD boost it can outspeed anything except for scarf base 103s. HA reducing special attacks by half is really big, the only downside is this is the same gen roost was removed as a TM. Forunately, it does get giga drain so there's some recovery. I could see it running a pinch berry set to heal some of the incoming damage.

I know this thing with 100% accuracy blizzards under hail aurora veil looks appealing, but I'm actually considering frosmoth on rain teams to reduce fire damage, use water type weather ball for dealing with fires, and its a decent answer to grass types with bug buzz. Sadly 4MSS exist but what can you do.

Centiskorch: Kinda sad by this one, base 65 speed doesn't give it a lot of options, while it can be bulky with coil and can lower defense with fire lash, it doesn't have a lot of potential sets that fill a team slot. I guess its kinda nice that it can do a sub, leech life, coil set with its decent base bulk, but I don't know if that will go very far. At least it gets will-o-wisp so it can cripple some of its checks. Toxapex nullifies its existance though.

At least it got 3 really good abilities, actually tricky trying to figure out which one is best. White smoke is great to cancel intimidate and sticky web (but I think he can work around this anyway), flash fire gives it immunity to fire moves (which is good cause he's neutral otherwise and can't switch into many fire attacks), flame body can make the bulkier sets scary to use contact moves on, and potential cripple the said contacts with burns.

Boltund: If only it got ice fang. Stats suck, mixed choiced set of volt switch + elemental fangs sounds plausible with strong jaw to make up for the low attack, but can't see using it outside of potentially competitive boosted discharges in doubles after leading against the inevitable incinaroar spam.

Aegislash: decent nerfs, interested to see what it looks like. Lost pursuit too, but did gain close combat (basically now it has a stronger sacred sword to undo the nerfs), and psycho cut (now it can actually match toxapex, a potential hard wall to it).
 
The problem is it's weak to two common priorities in Aqua Jet and Mach Punch and takes neutral damage from the rest except for Ice Shard. If something outspeeds it or manages to tank a hit, then it goes down in one attack at half health and if your reliance is on Belly Drum then you can't even safely switch into any attacks without risking losing that setup.
I mean we still have ways of setting up Psychic Terrain. It might be worth it with how strong Darm is.
 
As fun as Zen Mode is, it won't be reliable except maybe in some niche VGC/Doubles strategies. Instead I posit a band or scarf gorilla tactics set that could turn out amazing. U-Turn, Icicle Crash, and Superpower are already more than enough to make it viable. Meanwhile it has Stone Edge, Earthquake, Zen Headbutt, Iron Head, and Flare Blitz for coverage. So many great options to go with.
I can't see why exactly it would be better in VGC, tbh, but yeah, Choice Scaf Gorilla seems better ... but also, it's the thing you would expect someone to run and then Darmanitan sets up ... so, while the Gorilla Tactics is Moreno reliable, Zen Mode will get a niche (finally!), maybe being as good.
But there is one thing I can promise you right now:
In draft leagues, this thing is going to be a thread
 
I can't see why exactly it would be better in VGC
VGC and Doubles would give it partners who could cover the bases and keep Darmanitan safe while it sets up. Stuff like Follow Me, Fake Out, setting psychic terrain, etc give it the chance to actually get the belly drum off. Of course then it runs into the issues of intimidate and fake out so... yeah nvm

Do we have any idea if any moves were buffed or nerfed, in terms of BP and Accuracy?
A few were. Most notable is Rapid Spin went up to 50 power and now raises speed one stage when it hits.
 
VGC and Doubles would give it partners who could cover the bases and keep Darmanitan safe while it sets up. Stuff like Follow Me, Fake Out, setting psychic terrain, etc give it the chance to actually get the belly drum off. Of course then it runs into the issues of intimidate and fake out so... yeah nvm
Ahh, I see, thank you. I'm more into singles/Monotype, so I keep forgetting about tactics in Doubles ^^"
But yeah, Zen Mode aside, Darmanitan could get an unexpected niche in both, Singles and Doubles, because it's a literal force of nature
 
Given that Farfetch'd apparently evolves while holding the Leek it feels strange that he doesn't have a High Critical Hit Ratio STAB move in Galar. Stick/Leek with one of those moves always crits. No Cross Chop and Karate Chop was removed from the game. Oh well.
 
Ugh, I can't help wishing that Stonjourner had its speed (70) and special defense (20) swapped. It is too slow to outspeed much of anything, but slightly high for a trick room sweeper. It also would improve its overall bulk, allow it to survive longer in doubles with its ability (which I wish wasn't totally useless in singles). I guess it would be a decent rock polish user... but still.
 

G-Luke

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Ugh, I can't help wishing that Stonjourner had its speed (70) and special defense (20) swapped. It is too slow to outspeed much of anything, but slightly high for a trick room sweeper. It also would improve its overall bulk, allow it to survive longer in doubles with its ability (which I wish wasn't totally useless in singles). I guess it would be a decent rock polish user... but still.
70 speed is a great stat for a bulky mon. Allows it to outpace other fat mons and gives it the option to creep slow speed wallbreakers.
 

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