Recent content by drakylon

It's worth noting that Ferrothorn needs to be very careful with switching in, especially if it's a specially defensive variant, as Melmetal does have access to Superpower to O/2HKO it on the switch. Banded Superpower also chunks both Rotom-H and Rotom-W quite hard on the switch, although...

The problem with this argument is that Naganadel puts immense pressure on the opponent to not allow it to gain any advantage however small, lest it become extremely difficult to impossible to reliably check. Even giving it a single free turn via switching against it limits your options to the...

If you see a Lando-T in your opponent's team preview, and they happen to send it in on a U-turn revealing a Rocky Helmet, why not just default to clicking Knock Off to invalidate that helmet for the rest of the battle? Sure, it won't exactly be KOing, but not only are we talking about chip on a...

Tangrowth's role isn't to be a blanket check across the entire metagame. No one is expecting Tangrowth to take attacks that are specifically geared to break walls, or strong super-effective STABs. It switches in on and checks a specific pool of threats while not sacrificing all momentum against...

HP Fire is also a thing, and was found on approximately 51% of Greninja above 1695 elo in February according to the moveset stats. Magearna isn't an entirely reliable counter to Greninja, as it takes ~35% from Protean LO HP Fire, and deals 70.8% max to a Fire-type Greninja (even assuming Naive)...

Latios @ Choice Scarf Ability: Levitate EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Timid Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Draco Meteor - Psychic - Trick - Recover / Defog Has a 100% chance to OHKO on both DD Zygarde-50% and Protean Greninja, a 90+% chance to OHKO post-transformation Ash-Greninja, and a slim chance to...

Victini @ Life Orb Ability: Victory Star EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpA Brave Nature IVs: 0 Spe - V-create - Bolt Strike - Glaciate - Hidden Power Ground / Shadow Ball / Energy Ball Despite having an actually respectable 100 base Speed, Victini utterly destroys offensive teams under Trick Room...

Defensive Core: PhysDef Rotom-W + AV Magearna Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers Ability: Levitate EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe Bold Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Will-O-Wisp - Pain Split - Hydro Pump - Volt Switch Magearna @ Assault Vest Ability: Soul-Heart EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 Spe Modest Nature IVs: 0 Atk...

Thank you for finally bringing this up. I've been contemplating this suspect for a while, and my ultimate opinion is that Sun in general isn't a problem. The problem comes when you stack dangerous Chlorophyll users on the same team -- and the sheer offensive presence of Bellsprout under sun...

All of those 'mons you list are 1/2HKO'd by +2 Play Rough or Iron Head, and cannot retaliate effectively aside from HP Fire Venusaur and perhaps Spore/Sleep Powder provided nothing else is already slept: +2 252+ Atk Huge Power Mawile-Mega Play Rough vs. 232 HP / 180+ Def Venusaur-Mega: 182-215...

I wouldn't call Toxapex a "straight up counter" to Mega Mawile, as the former only has an approximately 30% chance (ignoring random hax such as crits and misses) to beat the latter if Mawile Swords Dances on the switch and rocks are up: +2 252+ Atk Huge Power Mawile-Mega Play Rough vs. 252 HP /...

I'm fairly certain Mawile still 2HKOs everything viable in the tier, and that it'll be as overpowered as it was for the entirety of last gen for the same reasons as last gen. While the existence of Tapu Lele does hurt it a bit against offense due to the newfound unreliability of Sucker Punch...

In addition, the prevalence of opposing weather setters can severely inhibit the ability for dedicated rain or sun teams to function. Hippowdon and Ninetales-Alola in particular are fairly common even outside of weather teams for their overall utility, and can really limit the ability for a...

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb Ability: Poison Heal EVs: 180 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Def / 56 Spe Adamant Nature - Stealth Rock - Acrobatics - Earthquake - Fling This looks like a funky set, and it probably is. But, for the current meta, this can check a decent few threats, namely Amoonguss, Breloom...

Magearna gets Pain Split as well for recovery, which could allow it to fill a similar role to Rotom-W, though more offensive. Strangely Magearna does not get Toxic, so the only status it can spread is Thunder Wave, which means it's probably best to run an offensive set rather than full defensive...