After clear concerns from the userbase after OMCL, the council has agreed on to suspect test Sturdy!
Even though FEAR strategies and similar are typically considered unreliable at best, especially now that Berry Juice is dexit'd, in a Shared Power context, ability stacking enables Sturdy-based users to have legitimate longevity to end games on their own and have less flaws to exploit.
Their strategy can vary quite a bit, the most prominent user (Nosepass) makes progress with Pain Split, further raising its consistency by getting back to full HP in the process, then traps and wears down the opponent with Sand Tomb, even having a spare move slot for Gravity or Smack Down to still leave a mark against Levitate teams and Flying-types. Carbink instead tries a more direct FEAR approach with Endeavor alongside Sand Tomb + Gravity or Smack Down not unlike Nosepass.
Counterplay to Sturdy users, while varied, can be rather inconsistent as it's heavily limited and determined by the exact team structure of the opponent:
- Entry hazards can force the Sturdy user out of the game by disabling such ability with the chip damage, unless Endure is revealed, which ensures that they're not inherently out of the game by them, with Nosepass in particular requiring less support as its raw 11 HP at Lv 1 means that it won't need Cheek Pouch to get fully healed, and the odds for healing are in favor of the Sturdy user, as statistically Harvest triggers 75% of the time within 2 turns, Levitate can further help on this weakness by only leaving Stealth Rock as an effective hazard, although it can be anti-synergistic if paired with Gravity.
- Ghost-types can prevent Carbink from making progress with Endeavor and PP stall it out long-term, but Carbink teams often pair it with a Scrappy or Mind's Eye user to cover this exact flaw.
- Multi-hit move users like Dragapult, Maushold, and Iron Crown can directly OHKO regardless of Sturdy by nature, but have longevity issues as the offensive team structures that fit such Pokemon tend to grant them minimal openings to enter the field, with Tera Fairy (or Carbink) also limiting this form of counterplay by blocking Scale Shot and Dragon Darts, similarly Tera Ghost is also an option to block Population Bomb.
- Item disruption with Knock Off is generally expected and also immediately countered with Sticky Hold.
- Substitute users can stop Pain Split and Sand Tomb from wearing them down, but the prevalence of anti-Substitute options in Harvest teams like Ghost-user Curse (which ignores Substitute) and phazing can render them rather inconsistent. Infiltrator support can also render this useless altogether.
- Status spreading of burns or poisoning can end the usability of the Sturdy user in general, but Purifying Salt can prevent such flaw altogether.
- Aggressive play as to prevent the opposing team from properly setting up their pool of abilities to support the Sturdy user can be valid, but this strategy is heavily matchup and momentum reliant.
While the above methods are limited as softer forms of counterplay, more reliable ways to dispatch such Pokemon exist, such as ability-ignoring options (Mold Breaker users and Sunsteel Strike), but are rather limited to Steel spam teams (Solgaleo, Excadrill, Tinkaton) and situationally in Dragon spam (Haxorus), Unnerve prevents berry consumption altogether bar in specific cases like switching out and fainting, but it's only seen on Corviknight now that Calyrex-I is banned, and it's also rather niche and an opportunity cost over Pressure for every other matchup, and attacks that do lingering extra damage like Magma Storm, Thunder Cage, and Salt Cure can similarly bypass Sturdy.
In Sturdy's defense, at the same time it can be argued that there's plenty of natural forms of counterplay that'd be viable regardless of its place in the metagame, with it also being clear that no team can properly fit all abilities that benefit Sturdy users without then being limited on teambuilding and thus actively hindering the other Pokemon of its team, and Sturdy in return does also provide a way to wall a wide variety of Pokemon as to complement defensive cores for balance and stall teams, but the question remains on whether such answers are satisfactory for a healthy and competitively diverse metagame.
Requirements:
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 Shared Power 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 Shared Power 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 requirements, please contact Chessking, dhelmise, Giagantic or a member of OM staff.
- If you have any questions about this new process, feel free to PM me or post here!
The requirement to vote in this suspect test is a COIL value of 2900 with B=2, with a supermajority (>=60%) of ban votes being required to ban Sturdy from Shared Power. The deadline for getting requirements will be <t:1773367200:f> Good luck to all!
