Announcement NP: Stage 21 - The Sound Of Music (Toxtricity Suspect)

[etern]

Toxtricity has been part of the SV NU metagame for a long time, however it's presence in the tier has slowly but surely become more controversial as it continues to be a dominant part of highly effective Hyper Offense structures, as well as a premier breaker for more balanced builds. The most infamous Toxtricity set runs a combination of the moves Shift Gear, Boomburst, and Overdrive, with the 4th move being more flexible depending on team composition (usually Drain Punch to break past Chansey) in conjunction with Throat Spray. This allows Toxtricity to outspeed the entire meta after one boost, and blast through most neutral targets in 2 hits thanks to the ridiculous breaking power of Tera-Normal Throat Spray Boomburst and Overdrive, both of which are bolstered by it's Punk Rock ability. Alternatively, some people opt to run Toxtricity on bulky offense / balanced builds, as it has just enough bulk and an interesting defensive typing which lets it softcheck a few popular Pokemon such as Flamigo, Scyther, Tornadus, and Bellibolt while acting as an extremely potent wallbreaker / revenge killer depending on whether it chooses to run Choice Specs or Choice Scarf. However, Toxtricity can still be contained to an extent by key defensive staples of the tier such as SpD Bronzong, Copperajah (with Earthquake), Chansey (counters choiced sets and can counter shift gear depending on Tera type), Rhyperior, and Duraludon, and also requires 1-2 turns of setup to reach it's full sweeping potential in some cases. Thus the question stands, does SV NU have enough resources to handle Toxtricity? Or is it's power level too much for the tier to handle.

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The instructions to participate in this test are as follows:

• 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 NU 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 NU 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.​
• Double check that you're listed as a voter here! If you aren't listed as a voter despite having valid reqs, please contact myself, Rabia, or a member of staff.​
• If you have any questions about this new process, feel free to PM me.​

The requirement to vote in this suspect test is a COIL value of 2800. The deadline for getting requirements will be Thursday, March 19th at 7pm GMT+11. ​

 

[Bernardo]

Before I play even a single game in this suspect for anyone that is gonna take part just because they like the challenge and don't necessarily know deeply about NU.

Toxt is stupid. Is a mon that the day it loses tera it will be much much much much weaker. Until than...

Shift Gear destroys offense out speeding and KOing everything. Perfect typing vs migo helps a lot and actually normal tera is a good enough defensively tera to give you that 1 free turn you need.

Specs doesn't have true walls. 90% of the universe is in range of Boomburst+Tera Boomburst .

Scarf is like cute and all but is more cheesy than anything to get an early turn surprise KO and try to build a win based on that. A lot of mid speed mons can do that.

Do I use it in tours and is super fun to see a wall evaporate? Yes and Yes again.

Do i think its ban worthy? I'm 75% sure yes but it shouldn't be a unanimous decision. But given if it wasn't for me PZ would have a 100% ban vote I think Toxt days are numbered.

 

[Diamonds_realm]

Something not mentioned in the OP that I think deserves a shout is the experimentation of physical shift gear sets. Now in a vacuum these aren't really broken at all, they're way easier to wall and overall just worse than the special sets, however they do have a notable niche being that they can easily just click shift gear and boost and still bluff being a special set until they finally attack, and the physical sets are capable of beating the vast majority of checks to special sets (namely the steels, chansey regardless of tera, and the rare golurk/palosand) meaning it can quite often really find a surprise KO against a piece it normally shouldn't and chip down another response after to open up holes for its teammates. And it's not like you're gonna expect it to reveal it's physical either, after all the special sets are far more common and devastating if not handled correctly, which only works in favor of physical sets because you're never going to play like they're physical until they actually prove it.

This all said I'm still not 100% certain on where I stand on toxtricity yet, but the added set variety of the, albeit still rare, physical sets make it enough of a headache that I can understand why people want it banned

 

[loocas13]

Did my homework. I don't think it is bannable but I think the tier will have a positive impact if it goes so I am voting ban. My points are summarized in the eternally post. Enjoy RU

 

[LBN]

I have no real claim to Toxtricity beyond "its stupid ban it" so I don't have much to add but the sound of music is a horrifically dogshit movie and im personally offended to have had the misfortune of having it on my screen against my will.

 

[Midwest Emo Band]

Voting DNB on Toxt.

Agreed on Toxt being broken after 2 turns but even then there's still counterplay depending on the last move.

Specs Toxt is less broken and gets to break walls instantly but getting choicelocked into an electric or normal move in the progress is easily abusable.

Duraludon is one of the most common mons in the tier and does well against most variations.

and if that's not enough just run Palossand/Golurk/Bastiodon/Tera Steel Soundproof Abomasnow/Scarf Inteleon/Scarf Barraskewda/Tera ghost Chansey(for the 1 person running drain punch)/AV regen Reuniclus/Spdef Coal if it's not modest toxt.

 

[Lucario]

Voting DNB on Toxt.

Agreed on Toxt being broken after 2 turns but even then there's still counterplay depending on the last move.

Specs Toxt is less broken and gets to break walls instantly but getting choicelocked into an electric or normal move in the progress is easily abusable.

Duraludon is one of the most common mons in the tier and does well against most variations.

and if that's not enough just run Palossand/Golurk/Bastiodon/Tera Steel Soundproof Abomasnow/Scarf Inteleon/Scarf Barraskewda/Tera ghost Chansey(for the 1 person running drain punch)/AV regen Reuniclus/Spdef Coal if it's not modest toxt.

You are right in the aspect of Specs being less broken than Shift Gear, but that's about it. Yes being Choicelocked into Overdrive or Boomburst does suck with Flygon and Chandelure being so good (and other Ground or Ghost types), but you are playing a risky 50/50 against Toxtricity. If you click wrong then you are now in a 5v6 scenario, and if you went Flygon hoping it clicked Overdrive but it clicked Boomburst, then you're down your only Overdrive check.

Duraludon "does well" against Toxtricity, and by that I mean it can switch in once, this is not counting Tera, either.

The list of "checks" you put are mostly unviable. If my team is weak to Toxtricity then I am not about to add Soundproof Abomasnow to make it better.

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Toxtricity is a dumb Pokemon because it plays the 50/50 game way too well. Overdrive and Boomburst are too hard to switch into repeatedly while Shift Gear sets have too much versatility in the 4th move. Not to mention Toxtricity leaving restricts the builder less, which is only a good thing. If I happen to get reqs with my Bellossom team, I will be voting Ban.