Type: Steel / Ghost
Ability: Stance Change
Shield Forme Stats:
HP: 60
Attack: 50
Defense: 140
Special Attack: 50
Special Defense: 140
Speed: 60
Sword Forme Stats:
HP: 60
Attack: 140
Defense: 50
Special Attack: 140
Special Defense: 50
Speed: 60
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Notable STAB moves:
- Flash Cannon
- Gyro Ball
- Iron Head
- Poltergeist
- Shadow Ball
- Shadow Claw
- Shadow Sneak
- Steel Beam
Notable coverage moves:
- Close Combat
- Head Smash
- Psycho Cut
- Rock Slide
- Sacred Sword
- Solar Blade
- Zen Headbutt
Notability utility moves:
- Block
- Brick Break
- Destiny Bond
- King's Shield
- Metal Sound
- Reflect
Notable setup moves:
- Swords Dance
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Pros and Cons:
+ Two Formes: Stance Change and King's Shield make Aegislash a versatile threat that gets to have high offensive and defensive stats.
+ Flexible Stats and Attacking Movepool: equivalent base Attack and Special Attack stats let Aegislash go physically or specially offensive to better fit its team or metagame trends.
+ Amazing Typing: The Steel / Ghost typing offers plenty of useful resistances and 3 immunities, and a Fighting immunity distinguishes Aegislash from its Steel-type competitors. The STAB combination makes Aegislash a threat to defensive Pokemon like Clefable, Skeledirge, and Galarian Slowking as well as (presumably popular) Psychic-types. Mega Gardevoir, Mega Medicham, and Mega Alakazam are threatened by Shadow Sneak and must include coverage moves to hit Aegislash for non-resisted damage, while Galarian Slowking and Hatterene look poised to be prevalent.
+ Strong Coverage Moves: Close Combat provides almost perfect coverage with Aegislash's Ghost-type STAB moves, which keeps Dark- and Normal-types from switching in freely. Although it's niche, Head Smash could destroy unsuspecting Fire- and Flying-types looking to switch around Aegislash's attacks. Sacred Sword is an option against Iron Defense users like Corviknight looking to stall out Aegislash's PP.
- Bad Speed: Access to Shadow Sneak doesn't fully mitigate Aegislash being slower than threats like Tyranitar and Hisuian Samurott that don't even have great Speed to begin with.
- Weaknesses to Common Offensive Types: Unfortunately Aegislash has weaknesses to very common offensive types like Fire, Ground, and Dark. These make it unsafe to use as a spinblocker against Excadrill and Torkoal, which are more likely to be the OU spinners of choice.
- No Reliable Recovery: Even with King's Shield to stretch out Leftovers recovery, this is exactly what it says on the tin.
- Poltergeist's usual downsides: Aegislash's shiny new STAB move has negative synergy with Knock Off, which has fairly wide distribution in this format. Champions limiting the item movepool and encouraging consumable items like Berries twists the knife.
- Toxic's Narrowed Distribution: Aegislash and many other Pokemon lost Toxic from their movepools in the jump from SM/SS to SV and Champions. Aegislash previously enjoyed using Toxic to wear down its answers and draw out games with King's Shield and Substitute, but it also benefitted from its ability to switch into the more widely distributed Toxic.
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Potential sets
Swords Dance
Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe OR 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Poltergeist / Iron Head
- Close Combat / Iron Head
- Shadow Sneak
Aegislash's typing and Shield forme bulk help it to find opportunities to act as a Swords Dance wallbreaker, as physical walls like Corviknight and Mega Aggron won't be doing much to Aegislash with their preferred attacking moves, and Aegislash has the strong STAB Poltergeist to threaten Sinistcha and Galarian Slowking. Iron Head is an alternative over Poltergeist so that Aegislash can threaten itemless Pokemon, Unaware Clefable, and the otherwise-untouchable Hisuian Zoroark, but Poltergeist is a lot stronger and is unresisted by Skeledirge and bulky Water-types like Toxapex and Mega Slowbro. Although Aegislash could opt to run just STAB moves, fitting Close Combat helps it to wallbreak more effectively against Archaludon and deter Dark-types like Kingambit or Hisuian Samurott from switching in. This set could also take a bulkier approach with HP investment and King's Shield to milk Leftovers recovery, scout Choice Scarf attackers, and prevent revenge killing attempts.
Bulky Attacker
Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD OR 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Adamant / Brave / Quiet Nature
- Poltergeist / Shadow Ball
- Close Combat
- King's Shield
- Shadow Sneak / Iron Head / Flash Cannon
Aegislash's well-rounded kit makes it tricky to come up with a definitive bulky attacker set, but that fluidity can work to its advantage by keeping opponents guessing about its offensive bent. Ghost-type STAB and Close Combat threaten nearly the entire metagame for neutral damage, while Aegislash has King's Shield to stay versatile and return to its Shield forme to tank attacks. Shadow Sneak lets Aegislash pick off faster threats like Dragapult and Mega Delphox, but fitting Steel-type STAB moves improves Aegislash's ability to break through Clefable and other Fairy-types.
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Potential Teammate Options
Clefable: Clefable is one of the best options for managing Dark-types and absorbing Knock Off, making it a great partner to the Leftovers-reliant Aegislash. In turn, Aegislash makes an amazing answer to Galarian Slowking as well as Steel-types like Mega Scizor and Mega Aggron. Clefable can even keep Aegislash healthy with Wish support.
Skarmory and Corviknight: Either steel bird could pair up into a double Steel core with Aegislash. While Aegislash is a so-so spinblocker, it enjoys Skarmory's ability to stifle Excadrill, and Corviknight makes a great Excadrill answer as well. In return, Aegislash can threaten Ghost-types that these two would struggle against.
Grass-types: Most Grass-types pair nicely with Aegislash thanks to their Ground resistances, while Aegislash provides many of them with a helpful switch-in to Bug-, Flying-, Poison-, and Ice-type attacks. Hydrapple makes a great defensive pivot to bring in against Ground-type attacks directed at Aegislash, and it doesn't stack a Fire weakness. I've already mentioned Aegislash isn't a great spinblocker, but it still pairs nicely with Chesnaught and Mega Chesnaught thanks to their ability to absorb Knock Off and Shadow Ball. Aegislash's resistances to Flying, Fairy, and Psychic are appreciated by both Chesnaught formes.
Pivots: It's nice to have teammates that can help Aegislash hit the field safely when its typing alone won't cut it. Aegislash really enjoys ones to compensate for its weaknesses, while its own defensive typing can let Aegislash return the favor to its partners by switching into their checks.
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Checks & Counters
Dark-types: Even if none of them want to take Close Combat, Dark-types will be problematic for the slow Aegislash, and there's a lot of them here in Champions to start. Kingambit might have a lower base Speed than Aegislash, but it has Sucker Punch to play around that.
Mega Lopunny: Scrappy turns Aegislash's amazing typing into a flaw for Mega Lopunny to take advantage of. Mega Lopunny doesn't rely on High Jump Kick anymore, making King's Shield less effective as a stopgap to it, and it has options like Encore and Swords Dance to punish King's Shield.
Hisuian Zoroark: There's just one Pokemon that makes Ghost/Fighting nearly perfect coverage instead of perfect coverage, and it forces Aegislash to carry Steel-type attacks if it doesn't want to be deadweight in the matchup. Hisuian Zoroark's immunity to Shadow Sneak makes it a more challenging fast Ghost-type for Aegislash to face compared to ones like Dragapult or Gengar.
Fire-types: Strong Fire-types can blow Aegislash back with their super effective STAB moves. Volcarona's Flame Body can punish physical Aegislash sets, and Quiver Dance can help Volcarona set up on special sets. Ghost-weak Fire-types like Mega Delphox and Ceruledge will have to watch out for Shadow Sneak though.
Ground-types: Ground-types also put the pressure on Aegislash with their strong STAB moves. Hippowdon loves that Aegislash doesn't carry Toxic anymore, and Gliscor and Garchomp have Swords Dance and entry hazards to play around King's Shield. Excadrill and its Mega forme will have to watch out for Close Combat, but they enjoy that Aegislash can't run Air Balloon in this format (yet).
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The narrowed dex list and lower power level of this format help Aegislash stand out the way it did in early SS, and I can see it becoming a solid part of the early Champions metagame. While Champions has a mixed bag of changes for Aegislash between Toxic's distribution, Poltergeist's addition to its movepool, and the prevalence of Knock Off, I can't really see Aegislash outright flopping thanks to how good its natural qualities are. The popularity of Pokemon like Mega Lopunny, Hisuian Samurott, Kingambit, and Mega Charizard formes will put pressure on Aegislash, but I can still see Aegislash playing a key role when there's so many Pokemon, particularly Psychic- and Fairy-types, for it to check.
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