View attachment 875579
Voting
BAN, I feel like a lot of the discussion so far has focused too heavily on how easily Samurott itself can be checked, rather than what it actually accomplishes throughout a game.
I agree that Rocky Helmet has made Samurott considerably easier to deal with, and TankChomp in particular is probably the bane of its existence, but I don't think Samurott necessarily needs to win these interactions to have done its job. Unlike other Spikes setters, Samurott doesn't have to choose between attacking and setting hazards, which is especially important considering how much damage Ceaseless Edge can deal even to Pokemon that resist it.
I know how people love using the Clefable = Samurott wall example so, Adamant Black Glasses Hisuian Samurott does around 21–25% to physically defensive Clefable with Ceaseless Edge, so even if Clefable switches in and eventually KOs Samurott, it could have taken two hits while Samurott gets two layers of Spikes up. Now consider Mega Meganium coming in afterwards. Weather Ball does around 54–64% to Clefable, which has already taken a fair amount of damage from Samurott, while switching into Galarian Slowking isn't necessarily a great option either. With two layers of Spikes up, Earth Power has around a 95% chance to 2HKO even fully specially defensive Glowking from full, assuming it isn't running Shuca Berry. Glowking can still take a Weather Ball and threaten Meganium back, but between the damage from Weather Ball and the Spikes, it's losing over half its health just by switching in.
Samurott is well gone at this point, but the damage it dealt and the Spikes it left behind have already made it considerably easier for Meganium to make progress. I know this might sound like theorymon, but these are the kinds of interactions that happen in actual games. Investing fully in Special Defense and HP only gets you so far when you're losing 16% of your health every time you switch in, on top of whatever attacks you're supposed to be taking.
It doesn't even take two layers of Spikes for this to matter. Life Orb Pawmot's Ice Punch only has an 18.8% chance to OHKO TankChomp from full, but with just one layer, that jumps to 87.5%. This actually came up in a game I played using
Ultraman1's
team, where I felt comfortable clicking Ice Punch on a Garchomp that switched into Double Shock. It's a good example of how even one layer can completely change a matchup, especially when Garchomp itself is one of the better ways of dealing with Samurott.
Corviknight can obviously Defog these Spikes away, but that doesn't mean it's always going to get the opportunity to do so before they matter. Depending on its set, Samurott can also make removing them more difficult with Taunt or Encore, and there's still the rest of its team to consider. By the time Corviknight manages to remove them, those Spikes could have already helped secure a KO or put something in range of another attack. Removing the hazards afterwards doesn't undo that.
