Metagame np: Stage 16: Electric Feel (Pawmot Suspect Test)

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:sv/pawmot:​
Life Orb Pawmot is one of the most potent and consistent wallbreakers in the tier, with an amazing offensive typing that few Pokemon resist, strong STAB options in Close Combat and Double Shock, and a solid Speed tier to tie it all together. With Pokemon like Milotic, Rhydon, Rotom-H, and Alolan Sandslash being so important and common in the current meta, Pawmot gets more chances to switch in and terrorize teams than its poor bulk initially suggests. The pool of reliable defensive counterplay to Pawmot is somewhat shallow. Palossand, Golurk, and Venusaur do resist its STAB combo but are 2HKOed by Iron Fist-boosted Ice Punch on the switch. Mudsdale and Houndstone are fine Pokemon that don’t get 2HKOed by anything Pawmot can throw out, but they are prone to being worn down and have seen better days in PU. Finally, Galarian Slowbro and Bellibolt are tougher to wear down and good at baiting Double Shock, though they need to be near full to withstand Knock Off + Double Shock or two Close Combats, respectively. Past these Pokemon, though, there’s not a lot of good to work with, which many find too restrictive when building.

Even offensively playing around Pawmot can be challenging at times. Revenge killers like Arcanine and Choice Scarf Bruxish aren’t as prevalent as they used to be, and other speed control options like Alolan Persian don’t match up well against Pawmot. This is without mentioning that Pawmot resists Sucker Punch, the most common form of priority right now, and has STAB Iron Fist-boosted Mach Punch to pick off weakened revenge killers. While rare, Choice Scarf Pawmot is a perfectly viable set that helps it get around normally faster foes like Espeon and Choice Scarf Florges, and its cleaning potential must be respected.

With all of that in mind, Pawmot’s low bulk and vulnerability to all entry hazards mean it can’t always switch in as it pleases and needs to make the most of every turn, two problems exacerbated by the Life Orb recoil it often accrues. Even walls like Milotic, Alolan Sandslash, and Cramorant can potentially 2HKO Pawmot if they catch trying to switch in, which does limit its threat level some. Further limiting Pawmot’s threat level are (a) the fact that both of its STABs have immunities and (b) Double Shock not being spammable unless Pawmot Terastallizes into an Electric-type, which is a big commitment unless it’s already in a position to win. As such, bulkier teams are not totally helpless against Pawmot, and they can improve their odds against it even more by including faster Pokemon like Salazzle, Espeon, Choice Scarfers like Florges, etc.

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Suspect test information:
  • To participate in this supect test, create a new account on PS. You do not have to follow any specific naming convention, but your suspect account must have never played a game in PU before this suspect test went up or you will not receive valid requirements (resetting W/L does not count for this - the account you use must never have played PU before the test, full stop.)
  • At any point on your new account, use the command /linksmogon on Pokemon Showdown! You will receive instructions on what to do once you run this command.
  • You have to reach a COIL of 2800 in order to get reqs. For reference, the B-value for this suspect will be 7.
  • This suspect test will last 13 days, concluding on Sunday, June 29th, 2025 at 11:59 PM (GMT -4).
  • Check here to see if you have reqs.
  • If you have any questions about this new process, feel free to PM me or DugZa or post here!

GXE = Games Required
71 = 343
72 = 173
73 = 116
74 = 88
75 = 71
76 = 59
77 = 51
78 = 45
79 = 41
80 = 37
81 = 34
82 = 31
83 = 29
84 = 27
85 = 25

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Regarding the Tiering Contributor badge
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  • TC is awarded to those with 10 tiering-related votes across all tiers or 4 tiering-related votes in PU suspect tests.
If you have achieved the above threshold, feel free to PM DugZa or I with the links to your votes so we can process your request.
 
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We'll be holding two suspect test room tours this weekend:

  • Saturday, June 21 at 12:00 PM (GMT -4), hosted by gulch
  • Sunday, June 22 at 5:00 PM (GMT -4), hosted by leoperi

The winners of these tours will automatically qualify for voting reqs in the ongoing Pawmot suspect test. Be there or be Double Shocked!
 
this suspect piqued my interest a bit so decided to grab reqs quickly just recycling some of my old teams from last year. at first glance, i was surprised to see pawmot suspected, as it wouldn't have been on my radar for the top echelon of viability. i suppose the metagame certainly leans in a more balanced direction compared to last year with pkmn like gbro and milotic returning, and losing gastrodon has had significant ripple effects as well.

on the one hand, if you're building a balanced team, pawmot can be frustrating to account for in the builder. its set versatility allows it to essentially customize itself to be strong into whichever balanced cores it wants to break, and electric + fighting + x coverage is pretty much unwallable on paper. it's certainly true that a well-played and well-built pawmot would have consistency in breaking a lot of common balanced cores. also, to check pawmot, you sometimes have to run undesirable pokemon like palossand, golurk, or venusaur (mudsdale is even worse), which comes with ugly concessions against other threats.

that said, pawmot just isn't broken, not even close, and banning it is unlikely to accomplish the objective of freeing building restrictions. comparing it to a broken breaker that rose to nu (meloetta), melo had much more defensive utility, way better stats, more raw power, and most importantly was significantly more difficult to revenge kill or force out. pawmot is very frail, weak to any priority that isn't sucker punch, and is much more restricted by tera (non-tera elec is quite uncommon and makes pawmot way worse, generally). being weak to entry hazards in a balanced metagame and using life orb means your chances to do damage are more limited and being rkilled is not difficult for a well-built team.

the op mentions rhydon as a pokemon that pawmot can take advantage of and "terrorize", but i don't find that to be true. rhydon soft checks pawmot very well, eating close combat and pivoting into double shock, and tera rhydon works very well to reverse momentum and check pawmot reliably. there are several such cases where you can use good pokemon and adapt ingame with tera, pivots, etc to outplay the pawmot player and solve the 'issue' of an on-paper pawmot weakness; pawmot is so defensively weak and frail that any reversal in momentum will likely result in pawmot dying and the pawmot player being behind. this is especially true in a metagame where decent checks like pdef gbro and even bellibolt are quite common.

if pawmot is banned, some other threat will take its place. losing a revenge killer/momentum reverser against the likes of zoroark, rotom-h, and typhlosion-h for example would definitely be a drawback.

overall, pawmot is a good pokemon that encourages & rewards creativity and playing skill. although it can be annoying in the builder, it is not broken or overly stifling ingame and does not disrupt the metagame's balance enough due to top viability pokemon either soft checking it or faring quite well against it on a well-built team. this metagame appreciates dynamic balance breakers and i don't believe banning it will free building as much as it seems on the surface.
 
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Hi peeps. After getting reqs I would like to impart some wisdom on a potential voter or two.

This is very much not the first mon I would’ve put up for a suspect test but I’m not all too surprised it did because at times it feels jarring in the sense that if you don’t have a Pokémon such as :Wo-chien:/:Golurk:/:Palossand: then this behemoth gets to click with reckless abandon and can just claim kill after kill. And at times rocky helmet + aftermath :Skuntank: would appear as attractive counterplay.

But I’m of the opinion that there’s truly enough to deal with Pawmot; Firstly 339 speed is not too hard to deal with and the Pokémon is so fragile that is almost always met with a KO upon a counter-terrastalizing Pokémon. Scarf set is relatively easily scouted for with help from a bulky colbur berry Pokémon (Slowbro/Uxie/Palossand) and fairly exploitable from there on out.

Its most common set in :Life-Orb: is very prone to chip; Even more so when it’s hitting into :Rocky-helmet: on such things as :Bellibolt: which is only pressured by a 2hit ko allowing two max rolls.

252 Atk Life Orb Pawmot Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Bellibolt: 179-212 (42.4 - 50.2%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO

As mentioned in this very thread.

:Rhydon: is somewhat of a blanket check to Pawmot thanks to Tera poison - once it Tera’s; Pawmot will struggle to make a dent.

Also another one not mentioned is:Rotom-heat: Kept out of range of Close Combat, Rotom threatens an OHKO at -1 SpD or Will o wisp.

Other answers I’ve encountered are the max phys def :Arcanine: comfortably stalling out its 8PP moves within a game.

:Houndstone: causes major issues for sets without knock off.

Still of the opinion that worse offenders exist in PU;

:Scope-lens: :Rhydon:- not quite sure how this one dodged a suspect, To quote myself here Rhydon is just crammed full of the most tea-spitting calcs.

:Scope-lens: :Scrafty: Real nasty Pokémon, An entire array of equally gross sets.

Good luck to those still on the grind.
 
Two more suspect test room tours are coming to a PU near you this weekend:

-- Saturday, June 28 at 12:00 PM (GMT -4), hosted by asa
-- Sunday, June 29 at 5:00 PM (GMT -4), hosted by leoperi

Like before, the winners of these tours will automatically qualify for voting reqs in the ongoing Pawmot suspect test. If you don’t feel like laddering but wanna vote on the combat rat, this is your opportunity!!
 
I finally got my reqs so i figured i'd follow tom tradition and post the team i used and thoughts on the mon in question.

:salazzle: :decidueye-hisui: :dudunsparce: :florges: :rhydon: :spiritomb:
https://pokepast.es/6ad1de6bc57cf18b

Here is what I used to get reqs, spammed it every game! Basically you toxic everything and florges or rhydon wins lategame. Spiritomb is really cool, its able to beat subsetup sweepers with band infiltrator sneak and trick, and hits like a truck. It specifically synergizes really well with the dudunsparce set im using, because the dudunsparce set is great but loses to sub cm hyphlosion, sub qd moth, etc. Spiritomb is a breaker that checks fighting types and beats those mons for dudunsparce. I highly recommend the core or the team in general if you wanna try spiritomb!

As for pawmot, I am very much so in the do not ban camp. This team I would consider to have a weaker pawmot mu than most of my stuff, but it is still quite easy to play around it. I dont have mudsdale, or palo, but between protect scouting, max physdef florges, an elec immune, band sneak, and salazzle, I have plenty of ways to answer it stil. Like I said, this is what i would consider below average in pawmot prep for me, but I never struggled into pawmot. This is just how pawmot is in general. It is really strong as a breaker, but you have to get all your clicks right and position well against a well-prepared team to make substantial progress, and that is totally fair imo. For example, without palo or mudsdale, you still ideally need to tera your pawmot to break through the team I used, and even then it will get checked constantly, struggle to enter safely, etc. In a pinch, I can even go tera poison dudunsparce and boomburst it. This pokemon is in my opinion a very honest offensive threat with plenty of counterplay. Truly if i lost to pawmot, its usually because I didnt manage my resourcess properly in the early through mid-game, or my opponent outplayed me and nailed all their pawmot clicks when it is in. I have more beef with hecidueye and rotom-heat honestly...

I still personally think rotom-heat is more threatening than pawmot, and I believe if we lost pawmot, then we would lose an S tier milotic check, and in general an amazing offensive check to a plethora of other threats in the game. I think the main argument against pawmot is that it makes building restrictive to using one of mudsdale, palo, or glowbro, but i simply dont agree. I think that you can build creatively and still be fine vs pawmot and all the other major threats, and in my experience at least, layering checks with good hazard removal/control with a strong defensive piece is usually enough to have valid counterplay, and anything else is just a nice extra.
 
Pawmot definitely has shown that it's a potent threat in the current meta game. It seems any mon that threatens Milotic is immediately dangerous.

We have seen similar spikes of usage from mons such as Jolteon, Trevenant and Tatsugiri (even poli wrath! And lanturn).

Pawmot is as broken as it was pre shifts. Not very. It's certainly annoying but can be shutdown with clever counterplay and good prediction. Or you can just bring Palossand or Bellibolt.

However, bellibolt may be leaving the tier soon and pu is in a bit of a dire state. Offense is very strong. Pawmot has revival blessing which is underrated when used in conjuction with the woeful Wochien and Glowbro.

I personally will be voting dnb as I think Pawmot is a strong and versatile tool which does not feel too overturned and doesn't curtail building so much.

I would encourage a spotlight on the following extremely strong mons: Frosmoth, Rotom H
 
We're still missing some votes, but the outcome can no longer be changed.

Screenshot 2025-06-30 at 9.32.02 AM.png


A 50% + 1 (12/23) majority was required to ban Pawmot, which is no longer possible to obtain. Therefore, Pawmot remains legal in SV PU. The vote will stay open until 11:59PM (-4) on Tuesday, July 1 for the last couple of people to cast their vote.

Thank you to all for participating.
 
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