Trapinch right now is able to take out both Pawniard and Onix easily, but how many threats it enables to wreck havoc on common builds is much harder to manage than last generation, as after Gothita and Gastly bans it can easily trap whatever it is needed for its team, running the bread and butter physically defensive trapper set or running a much more offensive set that can trap Ferroseed with Superpower. There is a wide variety of examples, but I would like to focus on Flying spam the most, and the reason behind that is that the Flying checks either are trapped by Trapinch (Onix, Pawniard), or can be easily abused (Chinchou). To add salt in the bruise, some Flying Pokemon such as Wingull and Vullaby are able to threaten those checks via coverage with Heat Wave Vullaby or typing by scaring Onix out with Wingull or potentially burning Pawniard. The consistency of Trapinch at trapping those threats never ceases to be amazing and thus acting as a centralizing presence any team should have answers to, but the burden is harder to bear if there are so many Pokemon that can benefit from a few Pokemon being removed that it is virtually impossible to handle all of them without carrying dead weight such as Munchlax (bad Pokemon, btw).
It has to go as soon as possible.
Cutiefly is able to act as the best Web setter in the metagame thanks to its high Speed, but what Shrug mentioned is really crucial as with the departure of Gastly, we have yet lost another Pokemon to handle Webs, becoming incredibly centralizing and enabling a literal
FUCKTON of threats in SD Corphish, Farfetch'd-Galar and Drilbur, Mudbray, Cufant, NP Vullaby and Croagunk, DD Onix... and even rarer Pokemon such as Krabby and Arrokuda! All of these are incredibly useful on their own under Webs and apply a lot of pressure on common teams if the hazard has been set, but that is not all, Cutiefly can provide further utility by crippling a Pokemon with Stun Spore or gaining momentum with U-turn, thus making the Web abusers even harder to control. Outside of Webs, Quiver Dance Cutiefly works wonders on several different teams, as Moonblast + coverage option puts work on the teams trying to scout for Cutiefly's coverage, whether it is Psychic to hit Mareanie, Energy Ball to ensure the OHKO on Water-types, or even Bug Buzz to severely damage its soft checks.
I am in favor of banning it, but I don't believe banning Webs is the key right now.
I'd pospone looking into Sticky Web if it proves to be as dangerous with Dewpider.
Both Gastly and Gothita gone meant a lot for Farfetch'd-Galar losing two of its offensive checks, being able to run a plethora of sets in Choice Scarf to put insane offensive pressure on common builds, as well as SD sets on Webs and Defog if role compression is needed. The raw strength of Galarian Farfetch'd, coupled with Scrappy allows it to muscle through most of the metagame having only Spritzee, Mareanie and Vullaby as reliable switch-ins. I would not say it is broken, but restrictive into teambuilding and practice trying to check it everytime possible. I feel it healthy in a bird metagame, but were Vullaby to be banned, it would be much harder to manage it.
Wingull has not lost anything important and remains as the threat it has always been. It is the Flying-type able to threaten out two of the Flying checks in Pawniard and Onix to abuse its STAB combination of Scald + Hurricane to punch holes through unprepared teams. Even Chinchou, which is supposedly Wingull's best answer, cannot risk at losing its item, and Wingull can scout much better without the presence of Pursuit thanks to Protect, whenever a revenge killer such as Scarf Pokemon tries to remove it. It is annoying by itself, but having Trapinch to remove Pawniard and Ferroseed for Wingull is amazing since the latter can hold against Wingull and cripple it.
I see no reason not to ban it after we are done with Trapinch.
Vullaby is competely annoying as ever, but with one difference. Pawniard sucks a lot as a soft check to it right now, and there are enough answers to Onix as well, making it able to run a plethora of sets to cover the needs of its team. Trapinch running wild in the metagame is a great thing to it too, since it can run both physical and Nasty Plot sets with no restrictions and just pick its checks and counters. The loss of Hidden Power Grass doesn't seem too big for it, and there is not anything that would like to get crippled by Knock Off, as it would enable Vullaby to turn its would-be checks unable to check it so easily, even Spritzee, who is its long time best answer in the metagame. It looks quite dangerous right now, and it could get even harder to manage as the metagame progresses.
God, this Pokemon is so bad. Not only after losing two Pokemon it could revenge kill, it just got even worse due to Trapinch's presence increasing much more, it cannot act as a safe Flying check due to Vullaby being able to carry Heat Wave or Wingull capable of burning it, as well as many other threats being able to switch in easily such as Mareanie, Mudbray, and even Onix, and force it out to gain momentum, setup, hit the switch in with a strong move or set Stealth Rock up. Trapinch just laughs at it by switching into it to outright trap it. Without Knock Off, this Pokemon feels empty, despite having a niche for hazard control on hyper offensive archetypes.
Onix is so good. Forcing switches to either set Stealth Rock up or boost with Dragon Dance means big things to it, as it can 2HKO most of the Pokemon with simply Edgequake coverage, limiting its answers to Trapinch if the opponent needs it to revenge kill it, and the only Pokemon in Mudbray being able to switch in into anyting and force it out, excluding revenge killing from strong priority moves such as Aqua Jet Corphish. In a metagame with Cutiefly going wild right now, I had the idea to use Dragon Dance Stealth Rock on Sturdy sets as the lead, and it really fares well thanks to the longevity this set provides to Onix, as well as reliably taking the birds out. It could be really threatening once Trapinch is out, but easily manageable and probably the to-go pick for many of the metagame teams.
It is criminal that this lad has gone overlooked considering the metagame state we are in. Both Gastly and Gothita gone, as well as Cutiefly and Trapinch may will be too poses the resurgeance of a Fighting-type able to compress roles by checking Water-types such as Mareanie and Corphish, since Mareanie lost an important tech in Hidden Power Psychic and is the long story's Corphish's best answer. I'm really sure that even Dark Pulse sets can work as useful as ever since Frillish is getting gradually better in the metagame and how Webs have drastically improved just makes Croagunk much better than it is, wallbreaking with relative ease common builds while using its asset of resistances to setup. However, Galarian Farfetch'd having Brave Bird and Timburr being less popular does not offer much to its Fighting-check role, leaving it useless. Worth a try after the metagame settles down.
Frillish is the best spiblocker in the game and a check to relevant Pokemon in Cutiefly, Wingull, Corphish and Onix by making use of its decent bulk to cripple them and sabotage the latter two's sweep attempts via the combination of Strength Sap + Will-O-Wisp. Strength Sap is a really powerful tool in a metagame filled with many physically offensive Pokemon, meaning that Frillish usually will get almost or completely recovered while being a pain in the ass. All of those traits is what makes it good on Webs and Hazard Spam teams, enabling the abusers of both to go wild. As of outside of hyper offensive archetype, its defensive utility poses a good starting point for defensive cores with Ground-types and
Man, Corphish is living its finest moment in this metagame. The fact that most of common builds lack of a solid Water-type check is a good thing for Corphish, as it can OHKO important threats such as Onix, Mudbray and frailer Pokemon such as Wingull unboosted, while being able to SD and 2HKO resists such as Mareanie. Even Corphish can afford to run Superpower as well for Life Orb sets, having a strong chance of OHKOing Ferroseed after Stealth Rock. The latter variant is probably the best one on Webs, where raw power allows Corphish to go wild with no chance of managing it easily whatsoever, having almost no good switching bar Croagunk.
Finally, Mudbray is another winner of the shift, being able to concentrate more into soft important threats such as Cutiefly and Onix, and being able to force many switches to put Stealth Rock thanks to its humongous 20 Attack, which can make use of to severely weaken the aforementioned switch-ins, having as example 2HKO to Spritzee with Heavy Slam, and non Scarf variants of Galarian Farfetch'd and Corphish with Earthquake. This ability is really appreciated by both Galarian Farfetch'd and Corphish, as it can threaten both Spritzee and Mareanie for them to wreck havoc on the opposing teams. Even in hyper offensive teams, if hazards have been removed in Hazard spam per se, Mudbray can act as a secondary Stealth Rock setter making use of its offensive presence to set Stealth Rock up again, in the same fashion for webs, but being able to outspeed important threats and dent them really good.
