I said I'd never think I wasn't better alone
Can't change the weather, might not be forever
But if it's forever, it's even better
Following its rise in usage and performance in recent tours, the DOU Council has decided Espathra is deserving of a suspect test!
Despite a rather subpar statline, Espathra fulfills a unique role due to its combination of Speed Boost, Calm Mind, and Baton Pass. This allows Espathra to pass boosts in Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed (along with optionally Defense if using Grassy Seed with Rillaboom) to a teammate such as Gholdengo or Primarina to benefit from. While Baton Pass strategies are typically lackluster in doubles from being too slow and exploitable, Espathra however is quite effective, requiring only a turn or two to set up for it to achieve a threatening number of boosts.
Espathra is deceptively bulky, as Speed Boost allows it to invest heavily in bulk, while still moving before opponents to reduce incoming damage with Calm Mind, or Baton Pass before being targeted. Meanwhile, the aforementioned option of Grassy Seed with Rillaboom softens physical blows, with Intimidate from Incineroar also providing defensive cover. Both these teammates also importantly provide Fake Out, helping to safely create the one turn Espathra needs to start snowballing. Together, the two can even cycle Fake Out by switching between each other while Espathra Protects. Stored Power provides another angle to Espathra besides Baton Pass, as after boosts begin to rack up, Stored Power and therefore Espathra itself quickly becomes a threat on its own. Gholdengo is probably the strongest beneficiary of Baton Pass, as a strong spread special attacker immune to Fake Out and phazing, but other special attackers such as Primarina, Raging Bolt, or more, can also take advantage of Espathra's boosts.
As a Pokemon reliant on boosts, either for its own benefit or for a teammate, Espathra struggles if prevented from being able to set up successfully. With Espathra teams typically being built around supporting and benefitting from it, neutralising Espathra will usually also cripple the team as a whole. Calm Mind provides reliable damage mitigation on the special side, but Espathra's physical side is more vulnerable, particularly if not running Grassy Seed. Pokemon like Chien-Pao, Incineroar, and Roaring Moon all threaten serious damage against Espathra with their STAB attacks while being naturally immune to Stored Power, with Roaring Moon also outspeeding +1 Espathra and having Tailwind to outspeed it beyond that. Espathra's reliance on Fake Out support means Pokemon immune to it can cause problems; Gholdengo can set up itself or threaten with a super effective Shadow Ball, Dragonite can use Extreme Speed to hit Espathra before it uses Baton Pass no matter how high its Speed is, or (Covert Cloak) Tornadus can impair Espathra with a Prankster Taunt. Phazing such as Whirlwind from Ting-Lu can force out Espathra or a non-Gholdengo beneficiary and remove their boosts. One last option to deal with Espathra is Trick Room, turning its Speed boosts against it and allowing practically any Pokemon to move before it or the Pokemon it Baton Passes into.
As usual, 60% of the vote must be in favor to ban Espathra.
NOTE: THIS TEST WILL BE USING THE NEW SUSPECT PROCESS!
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 DOU 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 DOU 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, or a member of 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 2980 (using a B value of 5 - you do not need to worry about this).
The suspect laddering period will begin <t:1774656000:F> and the deadline for getting requirements is <t:1775433600:F>.
Additionally there will be 2 live suspect tournaments in the Smogon Doubles Showdown room. The winner of each of these tournaments will qualify for suspect voting, and should reach out to me, or another member of staff so we can verify and add them to the voting pool.
Suspect Tournament Times
<t:1774713600:F>
<t:1774814400:F>
Espathra will be legal during this suspect.