Contrary is a very compelling option for both its offensive (Overheat) and defensive aspects. Offensively its benefits are obvious, giving us access to arguably the best boosting move in the game, Overheat, and near instantly fixes about 80% of our problems with passivity. We still aren't the perfect abuser of the ability given our weakness to Toxic, and our very lacking speed, but it gives us a very solid reason to be put on a team. Its defensive benefits are also worth noting, as it prevents Dragapult from breaking spdef invested Pyroak ever (barring crits), removing Shadow Ball's spD drop chance, as well as letting Pyroak check Astrolotl to a fair degree (barring Encore).
I would like to back
Contrary but only on the condition that we also
remove Leaf Storm. Having access to both Leaf Storm and Overheat as ways too boost our Special Attack is incredibly excessive and I have major balance concerns regarding this. Not only does it mean our strong STAB that also boosts us functionally have 16 PP, which obviously makes PP stalling it way harder (The fact that Overheat hits the main Pressure user in the current metagame for super-effective damage doesn't help with this at all), but it just makes Contrary even easier to accumlate Special Attack boosts than it already is, and its to the point where I would argue it would do it way too easily. There aren't a whole lot of mons in the metagame that are really able to tank both Overheat and Leaf Storm, and the most notable two that can (
) don't want to take an Earth Power, especially if Pyroak has already boosted. Pyroak's bulk also generally means that you don't really need to worry too much about having to switch out and give up your boosts unless you either get hit with Toxic or your opponent is running a Flying-Type wallbreaker.
As for why I would prefer Overheat over Leaf Storm, I think Overheat is paradoxically both the better move (Fire is obviously a better offensive type than Grass) and the move that opens up more obvious counterplay (Fire has stuff that just stops it (
) while Grass doesn't really have that), both of which I think are things we should be looking for in terms of buffing Pyroak.
As for
Flower Veil, I honestly don't really like it all that much to be honest. It just feels like an overall worse version of Contrary, and outside of the interaction with
and I guess
, it honestly does basically nothing, and while I understand that it can be argued that those two things are good enough on their own, I'm really not sure if I agree with that in all honesty (Adding a single mon, and one that is generally played in a support role at that, onto the rather small list of things that Pyroak is able to wall doesn't seem like much of an improvement in my opinion, and in the case of Dragapult, 90% of the time your ability is doing nothing). Besides, it just feels overall inferior to Contrary (Not only does Contrary do the "wall lotl" niche better, but it gives us another niche on top of it). For a similar reason,
I'm not really a big fan of
Sticky Hold or
Immunity either, as
Magic Guard does the things both of these abilities are trying to do at the same time and has more to offer as well (Item freedom is huge). As for what my opinion on
Magic Guard is, I honestly don't think I can really add a whole lot to the conversation that hasn't already been brought up.
I usually don't share my opinions here but I would like to speak in defense of Drought. Especially when compared to Grassy Surge, which people are considering to be better when I do not consider this to be the case.
Grassy Surge:
- Boosts Grass STABs
- Provides passive recovery
- It is now a Fire type that resists Ground kinda
Drought:
- Boosts Fire STABs and gives access to Solar Beam
- Synthesis is buffed
- It is now a Fire type that resists Water
- Pyroak now has a purpose as a sun setter that can potentially provide team support to Pokemon like Venusaur who has Chlorophyll or Equilibra whose Water weakness is lessened by Drought
I really don't see how Grassy Surge is less consistent offensively than Drought. Grassy Surge boosts Grass moves while Drought boosts Fire moves and allows access to Solar Beam, and Fire is the better offensive typing. Grass is a pretty ass offensive typing and I do not think it is what we should be leaning into in the Venomicon meta. I feel like it's pretty hard to argue that buffing Fire attacks would be worse. A boost to Fire attacks could also potentially allow it to deal more damage to Prologue than other offensive Grass types, which alone could set it apart from them.
As for the argument "there's no assurance Sun will be viable in the future," I would say there's no assurance ANYTHING will be viable in the future. So many CAPs have not stood generational changes well and there's no getting around that. Gen 9 could nerf Unaware and make Arghonaut unviable. It could nerf Fire Lash and now Astrolotl is unviable. The point is, we should not base what we do now on a future that we don't know about. And even if Sun does get nerfed, Pyroak having been viable in any generation at all will be an acheivement.
I don't think Drought would make Pyroak a top pick or even better than Hail, and I think one could argue that Contrary and Magic Guard are better abilities. But, I think that with a potential small boost to Sp. Attack or Speed (or even if you didn't), Pyroak would at least be a better sun setter than Torkoal, and that Grassy Surge isn't better than it. Grassy Surge provides passive recovery and allows Pyroak to keep using Boots, I'll give it that, but I still believe that Drought provides more.
Rillaboom is on its last legs and isn't very good at all, it doesn't really matter if something else outclasses it by this point. It's not relevant enough to make a Pokemon that does what it does but better. That being said, Grassy Glide would require Pyroak to get an Attack buff or else it's just worse than Rillaboom, 70 Attack isn't accomplishing anything.
Having access to Base 91 Priority, even in the Venomicon metagame, is definitely quite valuable and I feel isn't something you are giving enough credit. Pyroak's movepool in general is also just better suited for it to be a physical attacker, and in my opinion a resistance to Ground is more valuable than a resistance to Water in the current metagame (Outside of
, nothing is running Water coverage right now. Meanwhile, Ground has literally the most common coverage type in the entire game since GSC). The passive recovery given by Grassy Surge is also, for the most part, more useful than a boosted Synthesis since the extra healing given by Grassy Surge distributed out the entire team, as opposed to the extra healing brought by Drought, which is really only given to you by Pyroak.
I also don't think that Pyroak would be a better Sun Setter than Torkoal at all, mainly because Torkoal offers both an actual resistance to Fire and a form of hazard removal, two things that are very important for Sun teams to have. Besides, Sun teams in general just aren't very viable right now for the reasons Bloopyghost mentioned before (I would actually like to add to what they said in that Air Balloon
growing so much in popularity over this path month really works against it, since now as long as that Balloon doesn't get popped most of your Sun Sweepers are just unable to do their jobs properly).
I agree with you that Pyroak would need more Attack to take advantage of Grassy Surge though, but thankfully we aren't only changing just one thing with this buff so I don't think that should be used as a point against going with the ability.