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Resource GSC Simple Question, Simple Answer Thread

What structural issues do teams without Snorlax tend to have?
Snorlax is a huge check to most things. Without it, Nidoking, Zapdos, Raikou, and Jynx require a much more intentional defense. Things you wouldn't think of as offensive threats because Lax covers them so well, like vanilla Starmie, also start to require mental bandwidth to handle in the builder that you normally wouldn't even need to think about. You also need to be more intentional about how you cover Gengar and even something like Mixed Ttar. Alakazam becomes a terror unless you run one of Blissey, Ttar, or Umbreon.

Lax isn't unique in covering all this, of course. But you'll need a committee of Pokemon to cover everything. Plus, on top of needing more teamslots, that committee will end up ceding a lot more momentum than Lax does. Lax forces really passive play in a way nothing else really can. That means you're spending more turns reacting, potentially even reeling from the lack of "reset button" that Lax provides, and fewer turns trying to make progress when using Laxless.
 
Snorlax is a huge check to most things. Without it, Nidoking, Zapdos, Raikou, and Jynx require a much more intentional defense. Things you wouldn't think of as offensive threats because Lax covers them so well, like vanilla Starmie, also start to require mental bandwidth to handle in the builder that you normally wouldn't even need to think about. You also need to be more intentional about how you cover Gengar and even something like Mixed Ttar. Alakazam becomes a terror unless you run one of Blissey, Ttar, or Umbreon.

Lax isn't unique in covering all this, of course. But you'll need a committee of Pokemon to cover everything. Plus, on top of needing more teamslots, that committee will end up ceding a lot more momentum than Lax does. Lax forces really passive play in a way nothing else really can. That means you're spending more turns reacting and fewer turns trying to make progress when using Laxless.

This is an amazing answer to pzwrd's question but I would also like to add that Snorlax's vast movepool makes it irreplaceable as well. There are very few angles a Snorlax can take to make itself completely unviable in the builder - the question is oftentimes more about making your team synergize with the Snorlax set you've selected. So not only does it check a variety of mons well as Jorgen says, it also can potentially:

- serve as your wincon
- absorb sleep with a viable rest talker
- support other wincons. One angle I often think of is Snorlax + double electrics, where you often find your goal is to boom the opposing lax to let your Zapdos and Raikou unleash hellfire(hellelectric?) on the opponent's team without the main built in electric check in their way.
 
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