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You're totally welcome. This kind of thread is really useful to me and it's the kind of stuff I've been worrying over endlessly while building teams recently. I'm still somewhat new to the metagame so your thread has been a big help. Thanks for making it.

No problem! Feel free to suggest to me any Pokemon you have trouble dealing with. They'll probably end up being an imminent Victim :)

Sure. There's definitely a lot of monstrous offensive threats to choose from. Choice Band Talonflame, Dragon Dancing Mega Gyara and Dragonite, Mega Pinsir, the Genies and Excadrill in Sand to name a few. I think you made the right choice going with Zard-X and Mega Mawile first though, because I think they're both broken.

Also, though this might be a bit repetitive given your current victim, I would be really interested in a discussion on SubPunch Mega Mawile because, although it's less common, I think it's a bigger threat than the SD version.

I don't think Mawile is broken. The low speed and special bulk help in my case. However, I definitely want Charizard-X gone from the metagame forever. I also think Lando and possibly Aegi should go.

And thanks, I'll keep those suggestions in my. I definitely won't do SubPunch Mawile next, because it would be very repetitious. But it certainly could come. Arcanine is still the best counter, but the checks and other counters would likely change.

Yeah, SubPunch certainly can't be the next victim. I actually think SD Mawile isn't broken because of the reasons you mentioned but SubPunch is just so hard to face. Immune to intimidate, burns and can basically spam Play Rough or Focus Punch to almost guarantee a 2HKO on most mons, although the sub might go down in the process. Sucker Punch becomes easier to use as opponents must attack.

One thing I've heard is cool from alexwolf is Infiltrator Chandelure. It outspeeds Mawile and burns it through its substitute. This method fails if it has Knock Off, but Knock Off is pretty terrible on Substitute sets.

I think Mega Gyara should be the next victim. It hits really hard, has the annoying type switch mind games and great pre-evolution abilities. Additionally, it would be really interesting to find counters that Gothitelle doesn't just annihilate, because with Goth, Skarmory, Venusaur, Scizor, Ferro don't check Gyara very well.

Very true. Which do you think is worse, Ice Fang or Taunt? Both certainly have their merits.

Also, thanks for the infiltrate Chandelure idea. It could put in an emergency shift as a spinblocker as well, although Excadrill eats it up. Knock off is completely useless in a Sub set so it's a really good check. It can also take a Play Rough with enough investment so it can switch in on the sub too.

For the thread, Ice Fang is more relevant since the coverage makes Gyara really deadly. Taunt is more niche (Baton Pass is what I'm thinking of here), although I haven't used Taunt on Mega Gyara much so I could be wrong. Without Ice Fang, Flying Dragons become much better checks, as does Mega Venasaur (since Mold Breaker goes through Thick Fat, Ice Fang is Super Effective.)

Very true. However, my favorite application of Taunt is preventing Skarmory from whirlwinding me out.

Jukain didn't like that I put EQ on Charizard, so idk if it would get the same response. Probably not, as Ice Fang is useful v. Dragonite especially.

Jukain's complaint was a usage based complaint, right? I think you mentioned that he thought the Bulky, non EQ, version of Charizard to be a more common threat. In that case, I think Ice Fang is more suitable too because I think it's more common than Taunt. It's also the first slash on the analysis for Gyarados so I think it's reasonable to put that on the victim set.