Comments! First, I want to thank everyone who has commented so far either here or on IRC to help improve each other's submissions. Now it's my turn.
As there have been many stat submissions and I fell behind due to college, I'm gonna limit myself here to submissions that have more fleshed out explanations. If I don't comment on your spread here, feel free to message me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
jas61292
You know how I feel about your speed stat. But with that said, I think you made the best possible slow spread. The reasoning for underspeeding Heatran while also being capable of outrunning Excadrill is something we talked about on irc and I at the time said 76 would be the way to go because of that. I'm having some second thoughts about that though. Perhaps it would be better to go to 79 Speed, so that you can outrun Adamant Landorus-T (not just Exca) if you want to, but you can still easily underspeed Heatran by using imperfect Speed IVs. Other than that, I question your statement on Gengar being weaker than Aegislash since Gengar so frequently holds Life Orb (even sometimes Specs) and how it can also use Thunderbolt. I would also have liked to have seen some calculations with Stealth Rock or Spikes interacting with CAP 18 or even just Sandstorm damage as Tyranitar and Hippowdon are pretty common in OU these days and even a simple negation of Leftovers might change a 3HKO to a 2HKO etc. The key factor people need to remember when looking at your spread is that it would likely run no speed investment and as a result have Modest, turning your spread into a total freaking NUKE. This may be considered good or bad, but that's certainly your spread's most defining characteristic.
Deck Knight
You also probably know how I feel about your speed stat. While there's certainly nothing glaringly awful about 103 speed (can't say the same for the even higher speed you initially were considering), it does limit the sheer offensive power output we can generate. I was sure to limit the SS for that reason last stage so CAP 18 wouldn't become a straight up offensive threat, but the downside is that neutral nature sets just don't quite pack the punch we'd like them to. That being said, 103 speed (aside from enabling us to outrun even ScarfChomp if we want to) has a super nifty benefit that you neglected to mention. Jolly Excadrill will not be able to outspeed Modest CAP 18 if your spread wins. Unfortunately the same can't be said for Landorus-T without pushing up the speed beyond the 105s, which I would definitely not advocate. This is mitigated I suppose by 252+ Speed Landorus-T isn't common except on Scarfers we can't outrun anyway. Because your spread can outrun Excadrill in that way, I actually am curious whether Modest or Timid would be most common and the versatility provided by nature alone is very interesting. I don't really buy your arguments about 103 Speed as they relate to Choice Scarf as I feel Keldeo would almost entirely outclass them unless we get a particularly interesting coverage movepool. It has better Hydro Pumps, better speed, and isn't so crippled by hazards like CAP 18 will be. Those are all super important things for a Scarfer to have. True, Keldeo may seem worse against the Fairies and Aegislash that our core needs to take on, but that's not necessarily true across the board, given how Keldeo resists Azumarill's Aqua Jet and Mawile's Sucker Punch, two other important benefits for Keldeo as a Scarfer. Focus more on the Life Orb and Leftovers in my opinion. Perhaps tailor a more specific defensive spread for Leftovers, rather than just tacking it on with the offensive LO set.
Albacore
I don't think I need to provide any comments on 89 speed. We all know what you're looking for. However, your spread differs from what many expect of something in an offensive core by being bulkier but less of a nuke. You accompany this decision with a lot of talk about Life Orb. I guess my main question for you is this: Is it better to be bulkier and rely on Life Orb for the extra damage output or to be more of a nuke off the bat and rely on Leftovers to augment bulk. Admittedly it's not an even trade off. The Life Orb makes CAP 18 far more powerful than even a set with 140 SpAtk and Leftovers. Similarly the 6.25% recovery of Leftovers each turn quickly surpasses the bulk of the LO set that loses 10% each time it attacks. The key with using those items on those particular builds of spreads is an important decision to make and I'd recommend you invest some time into calcs along the lines of 252 HP / 252 Speed (mostly Timid, but Modest I suppose too, since most Exca are Adamant), complementing the overall bulk that sets your spread apart from many, while not forfeiting the whole benefit of being faster than Excadrill in the first place. I know that sort of spread won't hit like a truck, but it should be able to tank a lot of things and maybe even spread burns while doing so. While it's a polljump to assume certain moves, there are many good sets that could use that sort of EV investment. That may be one good way to further distinguish your spread.
alexwolf
Your spread is ironically one of the more unique spreads despite being closer to what I expected than anyone else. Also, among all the spreads I've called out here for comment, yours has nearly exactly average bulk in both PT and ST. It's also the closest to the average BSR of all spreads. And it's not just the numbers. Looking into the calcs in general, I can tell that you walk a nice balance overall between bulk, speed, and power. I am somewhat concerned overall that because it's not clearly sacrificing any of the 3 that perhaps it may violate the build triangle. This may be unfounded though, since it's not particularly fantastic at any of the three either. Furthermore, the build triangle is more than just the raw stats too, so I think we could handle this spread and keep it within the triangle when it comes to movepool. But it is probably the one that is most threatening of doing so by giving such a versatile base in its stats. There's a reason that ganj4lf submitted a nearly identical spread that went ahead and sacrificed bulk. Think about what I've said here and present a clear argument for why it definitely won't violate the build triangle. What safeguards will need to be taken in movepool to ensure this? Do you think your spread would be broken with a recovery move, for example? I was looking at the 3 attacks Lefties set and certainly thought about a recovery move there as a fantastic "filler." Do you think that would be too good and why? I ask because with many other spreads submitted here, that potential recovery move probably wouldn't be broken.
Clankenator007
Although the BSR and the SS stood out at first as a flag for BSR abuse, looking at your spread more closely, you clearly have not done so, which is a relief! You've compensated for the super-high SS by having VERY mediocre PT and only reasonable ST. Furthermore, your BSR is high largely because you didn't choose to ride down the PS limit like so many others. So thank you for that :) (On a flavor note though, you could afford to drop it to 50 Atk to match Arcanine's 555 BST, without flagging as BSR abuse) As to the actual specific details, yours clearly sells it on that low PT and super high ST. However, that ST isn't quite the nuke that other sets are, since it's driven partly by the high speed. In fact, your spread is largely the same as Deck Knight's but with inferior PT. For that reason, I just have to ask you to distinguish yours from his, as his came first. Tell me why that lower PT is better for the CAP. Why do your reference points for deciding the PT matter more than his do?
ganj4lF
As you said, your spread is basically alexwolf's but with less bulk. In fact your spread is by far the least bulky spread in this thread. My question for you therefore is why? Just get more in depth. alexwolf provided a lot of calculations in his sub, so I'd like you to do the same. What things can your submission no longer tank if it goes offensive and what things can it no longer nuke if it goes defensive? And why is that level of power/bulk threshold preferable. At the moment it's just an unsupported argument restating the fact that it's a less powerful spread overall. We could tell that by looking at the BSR in the first place. I want you to point out more specific examples of what alexwolf's spread can hit hard with the 252 SpAtk EVs your spread wouldn't be running on a 252 HP set when it's trying to match alexwolf's bulk (and vice versa for your lower bulk when you match alexwolf's power.) Then tell me why those are important things for us to do worse against.
Additionally, I wanted to warn people ahead of time of what I perceive as BSR abuse in case they wanted to revise theirs spreads.
Admiral_Stalfos19 and
Elite Lord Sigma, your spreads definitely flag for BSR abuse and as they currently stand just can't be slated when there are viable non-abusive options.
Salt the Flesh and
hendrix96 your spreads are cutting it exceedingly close as well. I would be hard pressed to slate either of them for the same reason.
There are a number of other users who have spreads in this thread, but they just weren't fleshed-out enough yet to merit a comment. If you'd like one, again, message me privately or just post again in this thread either letting me know you've edited your post or copying it over into a new post and improving it.
As only 6 spreads so far have posted submissions that are argued well-enough so far, my provisional slate is identical to the 6 users I have tagged here. That however is very subject to change pending any other submissions that add more arguments or if someone above fails to adequately address a concern I or someone else in this thread have raised.
Finally, this is roughly a
26 Hour Warning. This thread will close at
5 PM EDT on Friday.
