Announcement Mamma Mia! - LC Suspect

[Novax]

Toedscool and Mudbray can trade hits with it quite safely and favorably.

Toedscool is just a one time answer . It loses to +2 np girafarig . Moreover , it can only switch in once on a twin beam . As far as mudbray is concerned , even it lacks reliable recovery unless you are running something like rest talk mudbray , and can only switch in once on a twin beam and no further .
196 SpA Girafarig Twin Beam (2 hits) vs. 116 HP / 236+ SpD Eviolite Mudbray: 8-12 (32 - 48%) -- approx. 17.6% chance to 3HKO
196 SpA Girafarig Twin Beam (2 hits) vs. 36 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Mudbray: 12-14 (50 - 58.3%) -- approx. 2HKO
196 SpA Girafarig Twin Beam (2 hits) vs. 36 HP / 36 SpD Eviolite Toedscool: 8-12 (38 - 57.1%) -- approx. 0.4% chance to 2HKO

 

[Levant Mir Celestia]

Scarfers aren't generally enough to beat Girafarig on their own, but they can definitely help in dealing with it. They can sometimes switch in quite favorably if you get the predict right. They are exploitable at times, but imagine a situation like having scarfed Larvesta click U-turn against Girafarig. Then YOU are the one generating momentum.

Prediction is, by default, never going to be a reliable answer. And that's assuming that Girafarig isn't a physical set with Trailblaze; if it happens to be, and your answer was a scarfed mon? Welp, you're sunk.

As for Nymble, it's a mon with paper-thin defenses, so of course it's not going to switch in. It serves as a revenge killer that is surprisingly hard to switch into.

Which it can't really do it Stealth Rocks are up, as it just drops. And the existence of Tera means that your revenge killing attempt just might fall flat. This, of course, ignores that they might switch out of the ridiculously telegraphed First Impression.

 

[Sciroccoo]

First, I thought Giraf would be quick banned from LC in view of his bulk/movepool/speed. Then, I learn about this suspect and I was like "ok, LC players played a lot of game with this pokemon and it will be a ban at an unanimous vote". But, I started to read this thread and I can't believe there are people who find it healthy in LC. Fortunately, historical LC players like Ninjadog, Door Money or Wesh Papillon provide some good elements in favor of a ban and I hope people will trust them because they have a really good point of view of this tier.

Nevertheless, I'm writing this in order to provide other elements about Giraf. Everything has been said but I want to insist on the moveset variety coupled to tera variety. As a reminder :
- Tera possibilities : Fighting, Ground and Dark are the most popular but we can also have Water / Fire / Normal.

- Best Sets :

• Girafarig @ Eviolite
  Ability: Sap Sipper
  Level: 5
  Tera Type: Fighting/Fire
  EVs: 76 Def / 196 SpA / 236 Spe
  Timid Nature
  - Nasty Plot
  - Twin Beam
  - Tera Blast
  - Thunderbolt/Protect
  This is the most common one. With its amazing bulk, you can easily setup with NP and start to hit hard on every pokemon because no-one resists to coverage Psy/Fight or Psy/Fire (except Slowpoke if you don't run Tbolt).
  * Tera Fighting is interesting in order to kill Pawn and provide Sucker Punch and First Impression resists.
  * Tera Fire is also interesting for Pawn but it allows you to kills Toedscool or Tinkatink at +2. You're also neutral to Sucker Punch while you're resisting to First Impression.
  * About Tbolt, well I'm not sure about this move and I think Protect is much better for Nymble. You avoid the First Impression and that allows you to keep the momentum and have another kill. It also allows you to scout moves from Scarf users like Mankey and Larvesta. After tera, Giraf resists to Uturn so you can scout with Protect and stay on this Uturn thanks to the resistance provided by Fighting or Fire type.
  
  
• Girafarig @ Eviolite
  Ability: Sap Sipper
  Level: 5
  Tera Type: Dark/Ground
  EVs: 196 Atk / 76 Def / 236 Spe
  Jolly Nature
  - Psychic Fangs
  - Earthquake
  - Crunch
  - Body Slam
  The Physical one is also really strong. You're not dependant on Tera Blast to kill Pawn because of EQ. Thanks to this coverage you can hit everything in LC and now you have luck-based moves with Body Slam and Crunch. 30% chance to para with Body Slam is just insane in LC and you also have a chance to drop the defense thanks to Crunch which hits effectively other Giraf or Ghost pokemon. Oh and I forget Sap Sipper! A grass immunity is huge on Tera Ground Giraf and it also allows you to boost your Attack...
  With Tera Dark, you're boosting Crunch while you're resisting Dark moves from Pawn or Zorua.
  
  
• Girafarig @ Eviolite
  Ability: Sap Sipper
  Level: 5
  Tera Type: Water
  EVs: 116 HP / 76 Def / 76 SpD / 236 Spe
  Timid Nature
  IVs: 0 Atk
  - Calm Mind
  - Wish
  - Protect
  - Tera Blast
  Ok, I hate to face this one. How are you supposed to kill it? Tera Water allows you to setup this monster on almost everything thanks to its amazing bulk : 25/14/14. Only 1 weakness thanks to Sap Sipper and you know how Electric pokemon are everywhere in LC (lol). Voltorb and Magnemite are ok in LC but not in every team and they are easily trapped by Diglett (like Mareanie btw). Moreover, it's easy to scout Magnemite moves thanks to Protect.

Well, I'll not spend too much time on other sets but keep in mind that you can also play Rest sets with CM or Nasty Plot and Early Bird Ability in order to heal you effectively.
Finally, I just want to show you 4 things :
- It's impossible to know at preview which Giraf you're facing.
- The best way to deal with it is to have your own Giraf + 2 checks at least because Pawniard is always easily killed by Giraf.
- Tera on Giraf adds too many uncertainties which limit your gameplan.
- There is nothing to easily revenge kill Girafarig.

Trust me, ban Girafarig.

(Sorry for my average English, I hope to be understandable).

 

[Askov]

Good morning

I'm not a lc player but i decided to ladder a bit for the suspect and i'm surprised with how there are people that thinks girafarig isn't broken.

Most people already covered why girafarig is really strong so i'm just realistically gonna reinforce some of the points. The reason(s) why i think it's broken is mainly (but not exclusively) because it can bypass any of its checks with tera. Tera fight invalidates pawniard as a check and gives you a u-turn resistance, fire beats stuff like tinkatink while still hitting steels in general pretty hard and not giving it a weakness to opposing girafarigs if you choose it over tera fight (and prob helps with sun? idk if it's a thing anymore in sv but it's prob neat vs it), ground does roughly the same while giving a neat twave immunity + not being rocks weak, tera water can help you vs stuff like non-tera'd shellder and rain/being a good type overall, giving you only one weakness if you're sap sipper.

Now you could say that it's too tera reliant but it's still a good poke even without tera, being able to run physical sets and wish/rest sets just fine (even tho i agree that those sets aren't on the same level as np/cm ones), giving the giraffe a good versatility as well given it's well distributed stats.

It's also worth mentioning that setup sets can even run protect/trailblaze/agility/substitute over tbolt to bypass some of its prio/scarf checks if it needs to.