After helping some people with test games or building teams, the thought of Finchely's mention of Dusclops / Hazard control has always been stuck in my mind whenever I touch SV NFE again. Maybe it's because it's easier to optimize and innovate the archetype more than others, but it's probably the outcome that interests me the most. And at the moment, my conclusion to that is that Quaxwell
needs Fletchinder or another hazard control like Hattrem to keep a check on it, and even then, it's pretty dire IMO. It does make Fletchinder a capable defogger on its own, but that mon will have struggles, such as being vulnerable to flying-resistant mons, especially if you take into account the SD set that's being used to win vs Dusclops. Instead of highlighting the problem, I'll tell you how you yourself can build hazard stack cores, so you can do it yourself and find your own conclusions, although I won't go into the details. If you want to find the teams consisting of those, check my
UMPL dump as a reference.
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(Click here to see references)
This is what I consider to be the strongest spikes-structured team at the moment. Glimmet's ability to threaten Fletchinder, 2HKO a knocked Quaxwell, and Hattrem at once is a feat in itself. With Rest/Talk, you're capable of exploiting a flaw of the meta where support mons rely on its utility and aren't capable of wearing down Glimmet, most noticeably Tinkatuff and Ivysaur. Usually with this set, you want max HP to take on Night Shade, but you could easily speed creep this to be faster than Max Adamant Piloswine, Pignite, or 210 Ivysaur with minimal drawbacks and focus on pushing your wincons even further. Tinkatuff's here as it switches in mons that advantage of Glimmet's set, most noticeably Sliggo-Hisui. While Rest / Talk is awful in most cases, you can justify yourself in here since Sliggoo-Hisui is arguably the hardest Pokémon to switch in for any teams, so this is reasonable if you want to outlast your opponent. Tinkatuff also helps Glimmet in return for the hazard aspect. Mold Breaker neglects the Hattrem MU, and Pickpocket is a strong response to non-Hattrem teams. Quaxwell and Fletchinder hate taking Knocks, and especially Twave if they ever faces vs that. Then Dusclops mitigates the Piloswine + Spinning, and you have a really fat structure that slows down the pace of the tier, by a large margin. The last mon tends to be a variation of Dunsparce, Fletchinder, or both, as Dunsparce minimizes the Pilowswine + Special Attack weakness even further, and can act as a deadly para + setup user, and Fletchinder covers the Serv + Setup Monferno MU, and acts as a response to opposing Dusclops itself.
While the structure is strong right now, the team has its holes in terms of every check. Sometimes I find it difficult to stop Scraggy if I don't have Play Rough Tinkatuff or have to rely on Fletchinder to overwhelm it. I also think hazard removal from hazard stackers is also susceptible, as Quaxwell > Dunsparce feels like you're always missing something out. Either way, the structure still has a good amount of optimization and can drastically change itself to respond to the current counterplay.
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Quilladin's used if you want to oppress the Ivysaur MU(you're a bum if you somehow bring Ability Shield in the match), along with Tinkatuff + Dusclops MU. There's definitely a flaw here that it doesn't completely stop the Fletchinder from Defogging, but you can argue to adjust the Quilladin's moveset to punish switch-ins Fletchinder, such as running Rock moves or Roar. Quilladin can't really break Hattrem unless you knock it somehow, and that's probably the biggest reason why Quilladin teams are less interesting than the Glimmet one. Tinkatuff with Knock Off does help this, especially if you make it Pickpocket to lure in Hattrem. You're forced to bring a poison mon and/or Fletchinder to respond against Servine, and opposing poison type, and that means there's a bigger struggle to fit in another Piloswine counter or Scraggy counter. I don't think the core would age very well, but the goal here is explain my process so that you can exploit the faults of hazard control or find counterplay to these hazard-abusing teams.
Frogadier + Dusclops is also a thing, but I've never found a definitive core with it, so that's why it's not going to be mentioned here. Wooper-P +Tinkatuff are a hazard core that you could argue that you don't need a Dusclops or even a ghost type because of Wooper-P's ability Water Absorb. But since this is focused on Dusclops specifically, they're not worth mentioning tbh.
My conclusion is again, Quaxwell as a standalone spinner just sucks at doing the job, and I think you need another hazard removal to maintain hazard control. Another counterplay is using stallbreakers like Scraggy to punish their flawed structure, but that can be very inconsistent, as the opponent can pull something like Clef, and then you're definitely struggling to progress. Bringing more offensive wallbreakers with boots may be used more, which raises questions about hazard control. Mind you, though, hazard stackers will
ALWAYS be favoured as long as mons like Tinkatuff exist in this tier(
and for me makes hazard control miserable), but right now I can see why Dusclops should be looked upon despite the Piloswine ban. Again, I'm just here to post about Hazard Stack with Dusclops, since I've built it a lot and was motivated to post it. Helps that Dusclops is one of my favourite mons in general :3
