Garchomp @ Life Orb
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Scale Shot
Ever since it has been introduced into the OU metagame, Garchomp has been a force to be reckoned with due to its high stats and excellent movepool; however, in Generation 8 this takes a new turn thanks to the introduction of Scale Shot.
I know that I've labelled the fb audience as pretty fucking stupid various times throughout the years, but you also have to recognise the fact that majority of Pokemon's audience generally also understands that Garchomp is really strong, so the majority of this is practically useless. If you want to discuss how impactful Scale Shot was for it, then I'd rather you immediately address the impacts of it and not waste the audience's time.
Garchomp can use Scale Shot in conjunction with Swords Dance to quickly boost its Attack and Speed in order to tear teams apart. Couple this with Earthquake and Stone Edge's near perfect coverage and it's not hard to see why this set has been so dominant in the tier. This specific Garchomp set fits well on offensive teams as a win condition option that can quickly win games on its own.
Ignoring the fact that the last sentence here should've been the introduction, these points feel relatively incomplete. I know I just went on about how the facebook audience aren't complete fuckwits, but you also actually have to expand on your points; you can't just say "ok yeah sd scale shot + edgequake coverage is good" without expanding on what it breaks past, what allows it to set up, and as a result, you should also get a reason as to why it's actually fucking dominant in the first place. Remember that the entire point of a facebook spotlight is to explain why a mon is good to an audience that has a really limited understanding of competitive mons, not to randomly declare that a certain mon is good without explanation.
Just in case the above wasn't clear, this is exactly what I want to see from this paragraph:
- What meta trends favour Garchomp
- What mons included in those trends that it can force out and use as setup fodder
- These should also be Earthquake targets
- What Swords Dance allows you to break past
- What has changed since the last chomp spotlight (which was only a month ago fsr)
Since physically defensive walls such as Skarmory and Hippowdown can stay in on boosted Garchomp and threaten it out with a Whirlwind, it is quite beneficial to run a strong Special attacker such as Tapu Lele alongside it.
I have a lot of problems with this point here. Hippowdon is absolutely not a Garchomp answer. While it can absolutely take a boosted earthquake, best case scenario is that you're trading Hippo for a few turns of Toxic damage, so it's nothing worth mentioning. With that being said, I want you to replace this Hippowdon mention with Tangrowth and Buzzwole, since these two mons can actually wall chomp. I also think it's worth replacing Skarm with Slowbro, and specifically mention how it teleports into faster mons to revenge kill it. On that note, instead of mentioning strong special attackers, perhaps mention something that can chip these mons into range; mentioning random special attackers is cool and all but it does nothing in the grand scheme of things when these mons can just switch out and preserve their HP for Garchomp anyways. I would also like to see some examples of said mons, particularly stuff like Toxic Melmetal, Zeraora, etc. listed as teammates that are able to pressure these mons.
Screens from Tapu Koko or Regieleki complement Garchomp's good natural bulk well to give it safe opportunities to begin setting up. Priority attacks from Cinderace or Rillaboom are also appreciated, as they help check Pokemon that outspeed Garchomp at +1 Speed, namely Barraskewda in Rain or Choice Scarfed Spectrier and Dragapult.
I'm going to be honest here; I think everything in this section is completely unnecessary and are really awkwardly phrased. I'm not denying that partners like Tapu Koko or Cinderace aren't good but the reasons given are honestly awful; if you're running sucker ace primarily because you want to check scarf pult / horse, then I really should be questioning whether you're really qualified to be writing this.
This is exactly what I want to be see from this section:
- Other offensive threats that can pressure some of its checks, specifically defensively landorus, slowbro and tangrowth
- Specifically mention breakers like Toxic Melmetal, Gunk Cinderace, and Tapu Koko
- Slow pivots that can bring it in safely against mons that it uses as setup fodder
- Specifically mention slower pivots such as Slowbro, Mandibuzz, and Specs Magearna.
- If you have the room, mention the value of Future Sight.
- Assuming you still have the room, you could mention HO mons that can enable it
- Specifically mention Grimmsnarl and Pelipper, along with a couple of abusers