Battle Spot Ditto

[Theorymon]

lmao +2 Behemoth Blade

[SET]
name: Revenge Killer
move 1: Transform
move 2:
move 3:
move 4:
item: Choice Scarf / Focus Sash
ability: Imposter
nature: Relaxed
evs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
ivs: 0 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

* With Imposter, Ditto becomes one of the most effective revenge killers in the format, dealing with massive threats such as Zacian-C, Calyrex-S, offensive Eternatus, and a variety of weakened Dynamax sweepers such as Seismitoad and Dragapult.

* Imposter has a special interaction with Zacian's Intrepid Sword, granting Ditto an Attack boost upon transforming. This can make weakening Zacian-C into KO range of +2 Behemoth Blade a serious win condition to consider.

* Ditto is a fairly capable user of Dynamax depending on what it copies, so always consider that as another potential win condition. Dynamax also allows Ditto to either get around a poor Choicelock or prevent itself from locking its move for three turns if used turn one.

* While any Pokemon appreciates Stealth Rock support, it's especially notable for Ditto, since Stealth Rock nullifies Focus Sash and makes revenge killing Calyrex-S much more reliable.

* Consider benching Ditto if facing a dedicated stall team or Trick Room team, as it has major issues breaking through them.

* While Zacian-C and Calyrex-S are excellent targets for Ditto to use for sweeping, make sure to pay attention to team preview, as well-crafted teams may have Pokemon in the back to specifically prevent Ditto sweeps. Examples include Quagsire and bulky Steel-types against Zacian-C and physically defensive Porygon2 and Mimikyu for Calyrex-S.

* Focus Sash Ditto needs a way to prevent Stealth Rock to be most effective. Teams with Choice Scarf Kyogre have a particularly good use for Focus Sash Ditto, since Choice Scarf Kyogre will be less expected with Ditto on team preview. Taunt users such as Tapu Fini, Grimmsnarl, and Yveltal are also good options to consider.

* When using Focus Sash Ditto, consider some forms of speed control to give Ditto a better chance at sweeping foes. Paralysis support is the easiest option to consider, with a wide variety of Pokemon to choose from such as Porygon2 and Chansey, but another option includes Trick + Lagging Tail from Prankster Grimmsnarl, Mimikyu, and Tapu Fini. The most extreme method is using Sticky Web support, but setters such as Galvantula and Shuckle make this strategy unfriendly to beginners.

* A Relaxed nature and 0 Speed IVs give Ditto the best chance of winning in the rare mirror match.

Items
========

* Choice Scarf makes Ditto better at revenge killing its weakened targets.

* Focus Sash is a high risk, high reward alternative that allows Ditto to switch moves, at the cost of being very vulnerable to Stealth Rock nullifying its Focus Sash.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Theorymon, 29010]]
- Quality checked by: [[Tox, 146], [greilmercenary9, 336524]]
- Grammar checked by: [[DC, 449990]]

 

[Theorymon]

Well that was fast, this is ready for Quality Control! Just a few things I want to note:

- I go more into strategy here than I feel is usually needed for our early analyses. This is because... I mean it's Ditto, not like I can really get into its moveset lol.

- I mention Focus Sash under items without the slash-in. So, it's currently at around 13% usage, and while usage isn't everything, I think it needs to be brought up so players are aware that Focus Sash Ditto isn't some unheard of thing. However, in the past when I've used it, it feels much less splashable because of the Stealth Rock vulnerability, so for now I have it as a mention instead of a slash-in. However, if any of you QCers feel differently, I don't mind adding it into the item slash-in!

 

[Tox]

Key points are covered.

I don't know if Focus Sash warrants more highlighting than you've given it, but it's certainly better than mere usage stats give it credit for—teams like more offensive Choice Scarf Kyogre stuff that might opt to employ it already have a big old whale as possible opener to shoo away any Stealth Rock setter, and it makes the poker + RPS elements of the team select screen game more difficult, for what that's worth.

No mention of Quick Claw anywhere is probably the right call, as well.


QC 1/2

 

[Theorymon]

That's a great point about Choice Scarf Kyogre actually! I just added a mention of that (come to think of it, when I used Sash Ditto, I did the same thing, and I saw it often too with Sash Dittos personally!), and I sorta toned down the "Choice Scarf is far prefered" in favor of "its a high risk, high reward item that needs some preperation".

 

[greilmercenary9]

The essential points are covered well. Ditto is an interesting mon to write an analysis for since there's obviously only so much variation you can talk about, but the biggest meta threats that it gives grief (Zacian-C and Calyrex-S) are here and accounted for. There are just a couple of extra subtleties that you might mention if there is room:

1. In addition to Ditto being benched against stall teams (and Trick Room teams, for whatever that's worth), it's worth noting that Ditto users should be aware of the pressure it exerts on Zacian-C/Calyrex-S at preview and seeing what checks the opponents might have to those mons both in general and when used without particular coverage moves (since of course the opponent knows their own set). The most obvious examples are Quagsire for Zacian-C and Physically Defensive Porygon2 for Calyrex-S (since Calyrex-S overwhelmingly prefers Psyshock as secondary STAB), but exploiting holes they left in their own coverage is also a consideration, such as certain bulky Steels being a pain for even +2 copied Zacian-C when it doesn't have Fighting coverage).

2. Well made Sash Ditto teams are generally going to have some kind of secondary speed support option that doesn't lower stages to give their Ditto the best chance to run wild. Paralysis is the main option especially with Zacian around, but other methods to ensure this (such as Prankster Lagging Tail against stuff that isn't immune to it) are sometimes used as well. More ambitious attempts at this sometimes might try Webs as well to mess with potential revenge killers for copy targets (esp for something like Scarf Calyrex-S) who avoided the other stuff, but getting the turns for setting up all that can be difficult.

Possible optional extra: if you want to sneak in other mentions of Pokemon that Ditto checks well in the meta right now, then physical Seismitoad (19th in usage!, but Power Whip is ubiquitous on physical of course), Heatran (as long as it doesn't have an intact Balloon), and several Dragons (mainly offensive Eternatus, especially Power Herb variants that want to give you the SpAtk boost too lol, and to some degree Kyurem formes and Reshiram/Zekrom, although these have enough bulk to cause probems especially if the opponent still has max available) are fair enough examples, but I don't think it's necessary to mention these unless you really think the extra examples would be helpful.

Feel free to heavily trim/shorten the first point as my explanation of it was perhaps too verbose and going too far into specific tactics for an analysis. In any case, once the general ideas of these are implemented this is QC 2/2 as what you already have looks excellent.

 

[Theorymon]

Thanks greil! Only thing I didn't implement in some way was mentioning Zekrom / Reshiram / Kyurem, because yeah Ditto can smack those, but Dynamax can make things a bit awkward if they aren't boosted + I figure most people are gonna connect the "Dragons are weak to themselves!!!" dots, so I mentioned Eternatus and Dragapult instead.

Anyways, this is ready for a GP check now! Apologies for whoever checks this, this set is quite a bit longer than what's usually gonna come out of these analyses, because Ditto is basically entirely "team and strategy" lol.

 

[DC]

Remove Add Comments
AC = Add Comma, RC = Remove Comma, AH = Add Hyphen, RH = Remove Hyphen

Ditto

lmao +2 Behemoth Blade

[SET]
name: Zacian's Nightmare (Choose something more simple and appropriate like "Revenger Killer")
move 1: Transform
move 2:
move 3:
move 4:
item: Choice Scarf
ability: Imposter
nature: Relaxed
evs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
ivs: 0 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

* With Imposter, Ditto becomes one of the most effective revenge killers in the format, dealing with massive threats such as Zacian-C, Calyrex-S, offensive Eternatus,(AC) and a variety of weakened Dynamax sweepers such as Seismitoad and Dragapult.

* Imposter has a special interaction with Zacian's Intrepid Sword, gaining Ditto an extra boost in Attack granting Ditto an Attack boost upon transforming. This can make weakening Zacian-C into it's own +2 Behemoth Blade's KO range of +2 Behemoth Blade a serious win condition to consider.

* Ditto is a fairly capable user of Dynamax depending on what it copies, so always consider that as another potential win condition. Dynamax also allows Ditto to either get around a poor Choice Scarf lock-in Choicelock,(RC) or can be used turn one to avoid prevent itself from locking its move in for three turns if used turn one.

* While any Pokemon appreciates Stealth Rock support, it's especially notable for Ditto,(AC) since this makes it a far more reliable revenge killer of Calyrex-S thanks to nullifying Focus Sash Stealth Rock nullifies Focus Sash and makes revenge killing Calyrex-S much more reliable.

* Consider benching Ditto if facing a dedicated stall team or a Trick Room team, as Ditto it has major issues breaking through them.

* While Zacian-C and Calyrex-S are excellent targets for Ditto to use for sweeping, make sure to pay attention to team preview, as well-(AH)crafted teams may have Pokemon in the back to specifically prevent Ditto sweeps. Examples include Quagsire and bulky Steel-types against a Zacian-C copy,(RC) or and physically defensive Porygon2 and Mimikyu for a Calyrex-S copy.

* Focus Sash Ditto needs a way to stop prevent Stealth Rock to be at its most effective. Teams with Choice Scarf Kyogre have a particularly good use-(RH)case for Focus Sash Ditto, since Choice Scarf on Kyogre will be less expected with Ditto on team preview. Users of Taunt users such as Tapu Fini, Grimmsnarl, and Yveltal are also good options to consider.

* When using Focus Sash Ditto, consider some forms of speed control to give Ditto a better chance of at sweeping foes. Paralysis support is the easiest option to consider, with a wide variety of Pokemon to choose from such as Porygon2 and Chansey, but another option includes Trick + Lagging Tail from Prankster Grimmsnarl (notable for the priority via Prankster), Mimikyu, and Tapu Fini. The most extreme method is using Sticky Web support, but users of this setters such as Galvantula and Shuckle make this strategy beginner unfriendly to beginners.

* A Relaxed nature and a Speed IV of 0 gives 0 Speed IVs give Ditto the best chance of winning in the rare mirror match.

Items
========

* Choice Scarf is the preferred item, making makes Ditto a pro better at revenge killing its weakened targets.

* Focus Sash is a high risk, high reward alternative,(RC) allowing that allows Ditto to choose its moves at any time switch moves,(AC) at the cost of being very vulnerable to Stealth Rock nullifying it's its Focus Sash.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Theorymon, 29010]]
- Quality checked by: [[Tox, 146], [greilmercenary9, 336524]]
- Grammar checked by: [[username, forum ID,]]

GP 1/1. [DC, 449990]

 

[Theorymon]

Thanks a ton for the hardwork DC , this is now done!