being luck reliant is definitely not a reason to ban anything at all. or else literally all moves without 100% accuracy should be banned following this logic of yours. pokemon is a luck based game and sometimes you just have to accept it. sand veil and snow cloak are a different story because boosting evasion is seen as uncompetitive and unfair, but abilities like flame body and static pose no harm to pokemon's competitive scene.
Adding on to what lyd said, weather used to be permanent, so you could abuse Sand Veil to a much greater extent in Gen 5.
They are "good", the thread has been updated since the Zygarde ban, and the fact that you said that is offensive to not only myself, but also the various contributors to the thread who go out of their way to give their proven teams to the community despite gaining nothing from doing so.
I can actually answer this one a bit more in detail since I was around in DPP-era, when this was first introduced (Sand Veil ban). lyd and Felixx did well with answering, but I wanted to add more detail to this since it's not really a question often asked.
Yes, brightpowder is legal. In case you don't believe me, we actually had a game from SPL in Week 5 where it was used. You can't exactly plan a team out focusing on something like Static, but they're just nice to have and something to keep in mind like the other RNG based mechanics in this game. In the end it's luck dependent like getting a Scald burn or hitting a Focus Blast, but if it happens it happens, if not then it doesn't. There's always a risk associated with moves/abilities like that, and they're just other factors to keep in mind when making some moves. They can be used in competitive ways like sending in Static Zapdos as the opponent's Torn-T goes for U-turn to paralyze them, and while that's a specific scenario, it's not too different from fishing for a Scald burn, both of which again are luck/RNT dependent.
uhh, have u ever seen a defensive volcarona? well fat volcarona's way to beat mega mawile and potentially mega medicham with good pivoting is through a burn, as otherwise both deal over 50% with one of their coverage moves. similar thing with static zapdos, that aims to punish constant u-turns, especially from choice scarf landorus-t and tornadus-t with a potential paralysis. both static and flame body are legitimate tools that have a chance of punishing your opponent for something. but even the psychological aspect of these abilities already helps, as your opponent would be much less likely to u-turn everytime with choice scarf landorus-t if you have a static zapdos or theyd be more prone to not attack with mega mawile and instead double if you have a defensive volcarona so they dont risk a burn. if anything id say jirachi's iron heads are more "hail mary" than these because jirachi is forced to stay in on something that can threaten it to pull its strategy off, whereas flame body and static users can always pivot in and out.
Calm Mind + Pain Split is unrivaled as a stallbreaker Magearna. You should note that regular double dance Magearna has the potential to overwhelm stall as well, but it's by far more matchup dependant.
You knock its lefties turn 1 with sableye and wear it down with the rest of the team, really depends on what u need in certain matchups theres always gonna be 1-2 expendable mons u can use to trade hp for more chip on fini until it’s too low to beat anything
While I agree with you with the defensive answers, Lele still have enough offensive counter play because of poor bulk and average speed, can be revenge killed by a lot of mons
After Zygarde's departure, many mons that give Hawlucha trouble like M-Latias, Rotom-W, Zapdos, Tapu Koko benefitted from meta shifts such as Tangrowth's serious drop and CelePex being everywhere and started being used more frequently, so more teams are prepared for Hawlucha, and it became less effective as a sweeper. Hope I explained it correctly.
What Leo mentioned is correct but you can also utilize mons like Tangrowth, Amoonguss, Mega-Venusaur or even Zapdos or Ferrothorn to flat-out 'counter' it. Basically u need a way to hit it offensively and not die to its stuff too fast.
Regardless of Zygarde's presence in the tier, Hawlucha thrives on being one-of-a-kind. What I mean by that is that it is a physical set-up Pokemon that has very unique checks due to its coverage, bulk and access to roost as well as unburden. This leads to it needing specific attention during the teambuilding process and if it isnt given said attention there is a good chance that it can 6-0 after a Swords Dance boost. Since this used to be a rather common occurrence people started using it a lot more, leading to a rise in the viability rankings & usage overall. However, after some time this also lead to people being much more aware of it and Hawlucha is much worse than your average Pokemon if there is a 'counter' on the enemy team since it loses its unburden niche as well as electric (or any other seed) seed boost when forced out. Eventually it could get better again if people stop giving it the respect it deserves.
Usually, I try to use defensive pivots that do not give up momentum in order to cover the things I need to. Some examples of these are Assault Vest Magearna, pivot Rotom-Wash, and Rocky Helmet Tornadus-Therian. However, there are numerous other examples that are quite viable, making building bulky-offense less of a challenge than one might initially imagine and not entirely restricted.
Finch gave a good answer on bulky offense, but if you're going in a more hyper offense approach use complementary sweepers that take care of each others answers and use em as setup fodder. An example of this is something like blacephalon plus Kommo-O. Blace can be pretty deadly but is easilly revenged by ash-gren or trapped by ttar. Both these mons however provide a setup opportunity for either sub-drum or Clang Soul Kommo-o.
Nah, it's ok to catch Mega Alakazam and a few other things. Definitely worthwhile on some teams.
This is a dated set that was intended to do well vs stall, break through Clefable, and defeat Unaware Pokemon. It should probably not be used anymore.
