SV OU MONOCLAW: THE MOVIE: THE ESSAY (CURRENT PEAK #14 @ 2033 ELO)

Delibird Heart · Jul 1, 2023

MONOCLAW : THE MOVIE : THE ESSAY : PART 1? : THE FALL OF ROME

Introduction

Hate it, love it, use it or lose to it, chances are you've heard about the hot new team that took over the SV OU ladder during this last week. Upon laying your eyes on it, it is likely your eyes widened in bewilderment as your mind filled with a thousand questions that were only met by the cold, unforgiving system message "catch these can act faster than normal thanks to its Quick Claw !". Well, be confused no longer, fellow player. In this RMT, I will reveal to you all the arcane secrets and the why how and what of this team. I already made, nay, composed a forum post about it a few days ago, but here I'll go over the specific details of each mon and stuff I didn't explain in the original. As is customary, here is my proof of peak, (and another one, achieved by IExistYouDont ) which hopefully will convince you to read my inane ramblings down below. So sit back, relax and enjoy !

Why ? (General ideas)

Now you may wonder, "what went through your head as put these six mons together and terrorized the ~~countryside~~ ladder ?" It's actually quite simple really. Slowbro-Galar has been a favorite of mine ever since it came out in the Isle of Armor, both because of it's funny design (a gun ??? in pokemon ???) and because of it's signature ability Quick Draw.

Quick Draw was a unique addition to the world of pokemon, in terms of abilities; An ability that allows the user to move first (in their priority bracket) 30% of the time. For the first time, there was an ability that allowed you to upset the turn order in your favor without any conditions, setting it apart from Prankster, which only works with status moves (and since gen 8, has been nerfed to not affect opposing dark types), and Gale Wings, which only sped up your flying-type moves. When this came out, it gave rise to a trend. For you see, Quick Draw was very reminiscent of another much older element of pokemon, known more by 9 year olds struggling on their way to the Elite 4 than by competitive players... the item Quick Claw. Much like Quick Draw, Quick Claw allows the holder to move first (within the same priority bracket), with a 20% chance. This item had never really seen any use, despite existing since gen 2, for a very simple reason: 20% is a pretty damn low chance. Thus, it was judged to be too big of an opportunity cost when compared to more reliable, constant items like choice items, life orb, or even leftovers, which had a guaranteed effect every turn.

However, with the addition of Slowbro-Galar, for the first time, things changed... See, the funny thing about these two elements, is that they can stack. When you send out your Galarian slow brother into battle equipped with a quick claw, the chance to upset the turn order is brought up to 44%, just under half. The reason for it not simply being 30+20 is because ~~gamefreak hates honest people~~ it is impossible for both Quick Claw and Quick Draw to trigger simultaneously, thus your chances to pull ahead the competition is 0.2 (proccing quick claw) + (or) (1 - 0.2) * 0.3 (not proccing quick claw AND proccing quick draw) = 0.2 + 0.24 = 0.44. This prompted a decent amount of players (myself included) to try their hand at building teams based on the slow shooter himself. But those trends quickly died down (after causing a quick claw debate), as it was judged that 44% was still too low of a chance, and wasn't enough to justify running slowbro-G on your team instead of another, more reliable nasty plot user such as Hydreigon, which had received the move this generation and had better speed, special attack, and typing to exploit it, in addition to being able to run any item it wanted instead of being locked into quick claw.

But dreams never die. And neither did my gen 8 unsatisfied dreams to find competitive success with Cowboy-Galar and his six shooter. So naturally, when I heard news of his return in gen 9 HOME, I was overjoyed. Having forgotten my debacles last gen, I quickly set out to build a team that would let him shine. Drawing inspiration from its usage last generation, and the recent metagame trends, I was convinced a Screens Offense team had the best chances to carry Slowbro-G to victory. Alas, I was unsuccessful, and despite my best efforts, going first couldn't prevent me from finishing last. Slowbro-Galar was simply too much of an awkward fit, surrounded by reliably fast mons that could hit hard and set up in the face of danger such as balloon Snealser or Booster valiant. Its double typing also meant it was weak to both Dark and Ground, two omnipresent types in SV OU as they were synonymous to the two top threats, Kingambit and Great Tusk. The reason I couldn't find success with slowbro-galar is that instead of focusing on what made it unique, I simply tried to force it onto an archetype it didn't really belong on where it would serve the role of a late game special sweeper, simply treating its gimmick as a replacement for a good speed tier instead of trying to exploit it fully. In such a spot, Slowbro-Galar suffered the comparison to mons like CM Enamorus or Iron Valiant, which were much more reliable and had better typings and offensive stats. There was simply no reason to favor it over one of these, as a 44% chance could simply not replace an actual speed tier.

However, instead of simply giving up, I got to thinking. To maximize these odds, I realized I had to play differently. Since the technology to let a mon hold two items simultaneously hasn't been unlocked yet (see y'all in gen 12), the only way to have more quick claws... was to simply put them on other mons. Statistically, more quick claw users = more chances to get procs over the course of a game, and thus, ~~if you don't understand anything about how probabilities work~~ more chance for Slowbrother to get those as well. The second thing was that the teams I was using before didn't compliment the Galarian devil's profile well, and what set it apart from other sweepers. In the midst of frail mons that desperately needed screens just to live a hit and have their chance ~~at glory~~ at sweeping, its bulk didn't shine, because switching around wasn't really much of an option, which meant it couldn't really decide when to come in, and often was badly matched up. The usual game plan with this kind of team is to set up then click attacking moves until the mon faints and rinse and repeat. However, if instead of these, you were to use other bulky but strong attackers then that part of Slowbro-Galar could be put at use better. Most of these mons were overlooked outside of TR because of their slow speed... but if I was to use more claws, then that wasn't really a problem. I kept the screens, because ~~it's absurdly broken~~ that was the one part of the original strat that DID compliment glowbro well.

How ? (The Team + Teambuilding process)

So, I needed a screen setter and four bulky but terrifyingly strong hitters to go with the star boi.

Grimmsnarl @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Spirit Break
- Taunt

In the role of the screen setter, I opted to use Grimmsnarl, despite the fact that Pult was getting more traction these days. There are several reasons for this: Grimm, when invested in bulk, is actually quite tanky, especially when you consider its ability to get prankster screens up to soften up incoming attacks. With a team focused more on durability than speed, this immediately made grimm a better fit than the fast but frail dragapult. Another reason is more of a meta read; while dragapult screens lead is complete fodder for the ever popular Samurott-Hisui, Grimm isn't, and easily 2HKOes it with spirit break even without any attack investment while also 4x resisting ceaseless edge, thus almost nullifying the advantage the move grants versus regular spikes. Fairy stab + defense investment also meant it could 1v1 some set up sweepers like physical valiant or dd bax, which could be useful in a pinch. It's also very good against lead meowscara and neutral vs glimmora. I decided to forgo the usual Parting Shot, as hard pivoting would be no problem in a team made of 100% beef, especially under screens, (besides dark-types' prankster immunity really made Parting Shot extremely unpractical with gambit being on every single team) and reserved the last moveslot for Taunt, which is key in preventing opposing hazards from going up and ace from using court change (which would otherwise single handedly destroy this entire team). The tera-type was simply defaulted to stab, as you NEVER want to tera Grimmsnarl with this team, and would much rather use it on one of the sweepers.

+1 252 Atk Baxcalibur Icicle Crash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Grimmsnarl through Reflect: 105-125 (26.6 - 31.7%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
0 Atk Grimmsnarl Spirit Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Baxcalibur: 204-242 (54.9 - 65.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 Atk Grimmsnarl Spirit Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Samurott-Hisui: 228-270 (71 - 84.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Iron Valiant Spirit Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Grimmsnarl: 234-276 (59.3 - 70%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Grimmsnarl through Light Screen: 253-298 (64.2 - 75.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Ursaluna @ Quick Claw
Ability: Guts
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Facade / Body Slam
- Headlong Rush
- Crunch
- Swords Dance

The first mon that came to my mind when I thought of a "hard hitter" was Ursaluna, a mon very well known for being unwallable and that was the subject of many ongoing ban debates (a very rare thing for an offensive mon with such a bad speed tier). This might seem like a strange choice, considering that, as I'm sure all of you now, what pushes Ursaluna over the edge is the combination of Guts + Flame Orb boosting an already incredible 140 base attack to levels that would make the likes of Azumarill and Mega-Medicham cower in fear. However, Ursaluna presented a plethora of useful attributes for such a team; compressing a Ghost and Electric immunity into one mon, being of course, extremely bulky (130/105/80), especially under screens, having access to Swords Dance and being a natural status absorber thanks to guts. It was simply too good to pass upon, and Ursaluna's already gargantuan physical attack meant that after a Swords Dance boost, it was already very hard to wall, even without a Guts boost. Besides, in a tier chock full of status, activating guts is far from an impossible task. Glimmora and Toxapex both commonly run toxic spikes, Glowking is known to throw out sludge bombs with little to no afterthought (a Mon Ursaluna always comes in on for free anyways), Cinderace, Dragapult and Skeledire all rock will-o-wisp which can very easily be baited by the other physical attackers on this team, etc. etc. Tera Normal allows you to go Plus Ultra and obliterate stall teams in an instant. Crunch is chosen as the dedicated coverage move to hit balloon Gholdengo, Dragapult without dropping your defenses, and the occasional Drifblim. If you~~'re a coward like blimax~~ you prefere consistency + para chance, you can run Body Slam over facade.

tankin':
4 Atk Iron Valiant Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Ursaluna: 312-368 (67.3 - 79.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Ursaluna: 378-446 (81.6 - 96.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

hittin':
+1 252+ Atk Ursaluna Facade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Landorus-Therian: 217-256 (68 - 80.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
-1 252+ Atk Guts Ursaluna Facade (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 248+ Def Landorus-Therian: 205-243 (53.6 - 63.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252+ Atk Guts Ursaluna Facade (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 248+ Def Landorus-Therian: 460-543 (120.4 - 142.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Ursaluna Facade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Enamorus: 178-210 (61.5 - 72.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Ursaluna Headlong Rush vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex: 254-300 (83.5 - 98.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Ursaluna Headlong Rush vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Clodsire: 678-800 (146.4 - 172.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Ursaluna Headlong Rush vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 358-423 (96.4 - 114%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Guts Ursaluna Facade (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Great Tusk: 237-279 (54.6 - 64.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Guts Ursaluna Facade (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 104 Def Zapdos: 405-477 (105.4 - 124.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Ursaluna Headlong Rush vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Alomomola: 378-445 (70.7 - 83.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Guts Ursaluna Facade (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 261-307 (51.7 - 60.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (fuck stall)

Iron Hands @ Quick Claw
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Wild Charge
- Ice Punch
- Swords Dance

Iron Hands. This name doesn't do the mon justice; it should be called Iron Meteor because this will hit like a fucking extinction event and end the dinosaurs a second time. Boasting the same monstrous 140 attack as the cocaine bear, but with an even better bulk of 154/108/68. Iron Hands was very popular in the Pre-HOME meta, and despite falling off harder than Humpty Dumpty once old mons returned, it seemed like a perfect fit for a quick claw mono. Almost nothing in the tier can OHKO Iron Hands, super effective or not, with the exception of a few banded or specs mons, making it extremely easy to get a swords dance up under screens, even in the face of would be checks such as defensive Great Tusk. Close Combat is chosen over drain punch simply because it has more immediate impact and allows for some impressive unboosted KOs against Baxcalibur or Ting-Lu. Wild Charge is chosen over Thunder Punch for the same reasons, the drawback of recoil damage being almost inconsequential to a 154 base hp colossus such as Iron Hands. Lastly, Ice Punch hits Amoonguss, Clodsire, Landorus-T very hard, and allows you to greatly damage Great Tusk without dropping your defenses with CC. It also provides physical boltbeam when combined with your electric stab, thus granting you almost universal coverage. Thanks to it's Electric/Fighting double typing, the futuristic sumo wrestler matches up very well against the terror of the tier, Kingambit, and can switch in on it all day erry' day, being perhaps an even greater counter to it than Great Tusk himself, as having fighting AND electric stab also means it doesn't care about Flying Tera gambit (by far the most populat mon) unlike Tuskuthy. This is a great trait to have, not only because gambit is on every single team but also because it's a mon that can easily abuse our grimm lead to set up swords dance and attempt an immediate sweep. Remain mindful of the rare Tera fairy variant, however. Tera Ghost might honestly not be the best tera for this; but it has a few useful traits: It gives you a neutral matchup against Iron Defense zama, removes your annoying Fairy and Ground weaknesses, allowing you to blow past Great Tusk and Iron Valiant much easier, and gives you normal and fighting immunity, which are always useful (for example against opposing Ursalunas). Be aware that teraing too early can expose you to Kingambit and Dragapult, mons you usually wouldn't fear too much.

+2 252+ Atk Iron Hands Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 358-423 (96.4 - 114%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Iron Hands Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Great Tusk: 226-268 (52 - 61.7%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252+ Atk Iron Hands Wild Charge vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 357-420 (113.3 - 133.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Iron Hands Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 104 Def Zapdos: 384-454 (100 - 118.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Iron Hands Wild Charge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Unaware Dondozo: 224-266 (44.4 - 52.7%) -- 25% chance to 2HKO
+2 252+ Atk Iron Hands Wild Charge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Alomomola: 566-668 (105.9 - 125%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Iron Hands Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Iron Moth: 341-402 (113.2 - 133.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Iron Hands Ice Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 480-566 (151.4 - 178.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Iron Hands Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 480-566 (126.3 - 148.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Iron Hands Ice Punch vs. 144 HP / 0 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 396-466 (110.3 - 129.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Iron Hands Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 172+ Def Amoonguss: 374-440 (86.5 - 101.8%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Iron Hands Wild Charge vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex: 378-446 (124.3 - 146.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 252+ Atk Iron Hands Wild Charge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Cresselia: 459-541 (103.3 - 121.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Iron Hands Ice Punch vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Clodsire: 282-334 (60.9 - 72.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252+ Atk Iron Hands Close Combat vs. 224 HP / 0 Def Cinderace: 576-678 (161.3 - 189.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Iron Hands Ice Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Enamorus-Therian: 350-412 (99.7 - 117.3%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO

Kingambit @ Quick Claw
Ability: Supreme Overlord
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Kowtow Cleave
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Low Kick

The master of the Meta. The one who pulls the strings. The gen 9 OU reaper. The SV Shogun. The... ok I think you get it by now. This mon has the meta in a fucking triple suplex vicegrip. Any team that lacks this and isn't full stall could almost be considered unviable (keyword almost, but still). Boasting a great Steel/Dark double-typing, excellent bulk, attack juuuust a little bit under Hands and Luna at 135 BUT compensated largely by Supreme Overlord which boosts all its moves by up to 1.5x when all teammates are fainted. What's there not to like about this guy ? Despite its speed being abysmal, it made its way on almost every overused team in the game. Now imagine what it can do in a team like this one where speed doesn't hold it back as much... shamone. Now, if you have eyes at all, you may have noticed that trickery is afoot... my Gambit doesn't run its trademark sucker punch. Now before you haha react and close this thread, hold on just a second. Of course, you're welcome to just replace kowtow (or any other move) with sucker should you wish to do so. However, I have ran this gambit completely and utterly ~~bitchless~~ suckerless for the entirety of my run up to the top of the ladder, and while it started as a meme, I ended up convincing myself this set had merit. Let me try to explain: With gambit being so prevalent, low kick is a good extra insurance for other gambits, should Iron Hands fall or be forced into tera ghosting before handling it. It also hits ting lu very hard, and is overall a nice move to have. Iron head is also very good to hit fairies on the switch like enam or valiant, who, after you've revealed low kick, will often believe you have no mean to hit them. Lastly, Kowtow is your dark stab, allowing you to hit mons like gholdengo without risking to lose the sucker mind game and your strongest move overall for neutral coverage (dark is a fantastic offensive typing). Notably, it allows you to break unaware Dozo at 4/5 fallen. And of course, you simply need SD because without it, Gambit's not actually that scary for a lot of teams. Zap, tera water garg, or even just Great Tusk... plenty of mons cannot be scared out by a swords danceless gambit. There's simply no space for sucker... Or is there ? For you see, in the mind of the opponent, suckerless Gambit does not exist. And the simple pressure of sucker punch is often enough to make your opponent misplay, switching out or using a status move in front of you as they predict you to sucker. Because of this, in practice, it's almost as if you DID have sucker, a 5th move of sorts. As long as your fourth move hasn't been revealed, at least. Besides, max hp investment + screens + the chance of a quick claw proc often means you don't care about having priority, most of the time. The tera type is pretty classic, but effective. Flying lets you soar above Great Tusk and fly away with the game, should you need to. It's also a decent defensive type in general, with the added bonus of becoming immune to the everpresent spikes. I will forgo calcs for this set, because I think we already all know what gambit is capable off.

Enamorus-Therian @ Quick Claw
Ability: Overcoat
Tera Type: Water / Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Earth Power
- Mystical Fire
- Calm Mind

At this point, the team desperately needed a special quick claw abuser. Enamorus-Therian quickly imposed itself as the most suitable mon for the job, granting the team some much appreciated ground and dragon immunities (but mostly ground) and following the typical very bulky, very strong, slow mon style that every other mon on this team shares. A thing you might have noticed while reading up to this point, is how weak to defensive Great Tusk the team is. While you haven't read its analysis yet (unless you skipped ahead), you know the last mon is gonna be Slowbro-G so that's 3 ground weak mons and 2 fighting weak ones so far... not looking great versus the mammoth boss himself. However, that's why enamorus-t is here; You can comfortably switch into it, especially if you know it carries stealth rock, as theses sets often drop Ice Spinner for it, thus completely unable to hit you, allowing you to comfortably get a cm up as they switch out. This mon has few real counters; Clodsire doesn't always appreciate switching into earth power and lets in Ursaluna for free, allowing you to keep the pressure up. Amoonguss resists your main stab, but can't really hit you back with anything, as after a cm or 2, even sludge bomb will barely tickle you and your ability Overcoat protects you from spores. Moltres fares no better; it's fire flying typing theoretically makes it resistant / immune to all of your moves... until it has to click roost. Only the elusive brave bird variant can pose serious threat to you. Glowking is the only real defensive counterplay to this, but even this can lose to cm (but you might have to tera first). Offensive counterplay is also limited; even something like Icicle Crash from bax won't kill you in one hit through reflect, nor will non-specs Gholdengo's make it rain. Enamorus-Therian also matches up great against Iron Valiant, even if it rocks thunderbolt or ice punch, with unboosted moonblast always OHKOing and 2HKOing even through Steel tera. In general, this deals well with almost any pokemon as nothing really switches into it (except Blissey) if you predict correctly, and nothing threatens it too hard outside of Gambit and Bax, who hate taking the risk of a quick claw proc. Your preferred Tera-type is water, as it takes everything great about this mon and makes it even better by giving you one of the best defensive typings in the game. Tera Fire is also a viable option which boosts the damage of your mystical fire, letting you ohko gambit and gholdengo at +1, while sharing with water the useful trait of resisting Steel and Ice, however be careful when clicking this one as it turns your ground immunity into a weakness, so make sure opposing landos, tusks, and ursalunas have been dealt with before clicking the shiny button.

+1 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Gholdengo: 358-422 (113.6 - 133.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Mystical Fire vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Gholdengo: 298-352 (94.6 - 111.7%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Dondozo: 247-292 (49 - 57.9%) -- 96.1% chance to 2HKO
252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Earth Power vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Clodsire: 160-190 (34.5 - 41%) -- 63.9% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
+1 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Kingambit: 380-448 (94 - 110.8%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian: 421-496 (110.2 - 129.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 64 SpD Toxapex: 312-368 (102.6 - 121%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Toxapex: 248-294 (81.5 - 96.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+1 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Slowking-Galar: 306-360 (77.6 - 91.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Slowking-Galar: 408-480 (103.5 - 121.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 120+ SpD Assault Vest Slowking-Galar: 224-264 (56.8 - 67%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Mystical Fire vs. 252 HP / 84 SpD Amoonguss: 402-474 (93 - 109.7%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Dragapult: 444-524 (116.8 - 137.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Enamorus: 313-370 (108.3 - 128%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Moonblast vs. 248 HP / 4 SpD Enamorus-Therian: 262-309 (74.6 - 88%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Garganacl: 342-404 (84.6 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Garganacl: 484-570 (119.8 - 141%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Zapdos: 381-448 (118.6 - 139.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+4 252+ SpA Enamorus-Therian Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Moltres: 210-247 (54.6 - 64.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Slowbro-Galar @ Quick Claw
Ability: Quick Draw
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Psyshock
- Surf
- Nasty Plot

The mon that started it all... Glowbrother. Acting as the team's second special abuser, glowbro is quite peculiar. It has good bulk (95/95/70) and decent attacking power (100), but nothing comparable to the behemoths it shares a team with. However, what glowbro lacks in statistics, it makes up for with two things. The first is extremely convenient typing; Poison psychic is an excellent stab combo that, when paired with water coverage, lets you hit a lot of would be annoying mons for super effective damage. Namely, iron valiant, sneasler, enamorus, clodsire, amoonguss, great tusk, heatran, and skeledirge, just to name the most notable. The second is the increased chance for procs. This unique traits allows slowbro to more "safely" handle situations where a proc would be greatly favorable such as revenge killing or stopping a sweep in its tracks, and to have a greater chance at actually sweeping than all your other mons. Psyshock is preferred over psychic as it straight up ohkoes non-defense invested clodsire (and 2HKOs max defense clod) and allows you to actually hit blissey. Surf is your chosen coverage option. While you lose the ability to super effectively hit gambit or gholdengo by choosing focus blast or flamethrower/fire blast, it allows you to not be hardwalled by anything, providing great neutral coverage which is further boosted by your tera. As with enamrous, tera water is excellent as it turns you into one of the best defensive types in the game. This also allows bro to take advantage of opposing rain teams. This resists both of valiant's and sneasler's stabs, and isn't really afraid of unboosted knock off either, while itself threatening to ohko with either psyshock or sludge bomb. A very desirable trait as the gardevoir gallade hybrid keeps rising in popularity. Its typing also lets it be a decent Zamazenta check.

tankin'
hittin'

Honorable Mentions (could they be HIM?)

While the current lineup works great and have types and traits that compliment eachother really well, there are no doubts other mons that could be used on this. Here are a few sets + a list of potential candidates:

hoarse (Glastrier) @ Quick Claw
Ability: Chilling Neigh
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 208 HP / 252 Atk / 48 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Icicle Crash
- Tera Blast
- Close Combat

(hoarse)

ooga (Brute Bonnet) @ Quick Claw
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Seed Bomb
- Crunch
- Close Combat / Growth
- Spore / Sunny Day

(quick claw spore is funne)

SUCK FTALL (Haxorus) @ Quick Claw
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Dragon Claw
- Tera Blast

(Mold breaker + sd fucks unaware, tera fire to not get goobed by will o + useful coverage vs corv and dengo)

Potential other candidates:
Baxcalibur (Swords Dance)
Crabominable (Bulk Up)
Glaceon (Calm Mind)
Hoopa-Unbound or Regular (Nasty Plot)
Iron Thorns (Swords Dance)
Meloetta (Swords Dance or Calm Mind)
Rillaboom (Swords Dance)
Slither Wing (Bulk Up)

The Claw Debacle (My two cents)

As you might be aware, this team's meteoric rise to popularity sparked up debate of banning Quick Claw, with it going as far as appearing as one of the topics on the latest tiering survey. Because I kind of started it all, I thought I'd give my thoughts here. Personally I don't think qc warrants a ban, either on grounds of being broken or on grounds of being uncompetitive. The broken allegations first: I think any good player can see the real reason for this team's success. Screens. They're simply very good in a meta like this, and when combined with very bulky mons that match up well against the very Hyper Offense oriented meta we're currently in, you've got yourself a recipe for success. Did quick claw help me on the way ? Sure, but would have real items been better ? Also yes in most of these games. You can also see that a large majority of these replays have very few procs (less than 2), and that a lot of these happens on useless turns. Statistically speaking, I did not "get lucky" for the most part.

Now onto the uncompetitivity. This one is a bit more delicate, as its partly subjective. We all have a good general concept of what is competitive and what isn't, but were we draw the line is what differs. In my opinion, quick claw is not very different from something like static or flame body. Both have similar chances of activating, are completely passive (eg require no direct action from the player using them apart from attacking / taking a hit and "getting it") and can greatly upset the result of a match. Now you might say, these abilities have counterplay. And sure, yes they do, don't hit the pokemon with a contact move... but that's easier said than done; even a generally safe option like clicking u-turn can become risky if it's predicted, and there are also situations where you simply don't have a choice but to take the risk because you have no other good plays than to try and kill the mon in front of you. In a similar fashion, quick claw has some counterplay (if you make a move that would lose you the game in the even that quick claw procs... there probably was a better play) in the form of switching to a mon that's safer or using a priority move. Static and flame body also work better with bulky, physically defensive pokemon who will be able to sponge more hits and thus get more chances to fish for activation; the same is true for quick claw; thus it also introduces an element of restriction on what you want to put it on, if you want to achieve consistent results. I also understand some people which to eliminate all "superfluous" random chances in the game, but whay you consider "superfluous" is also purely subjective... for me, quick claw is a legit item choice. You're free to disagree, of course :)

Shoutouts and Bonus content

I'd like to thank IExistYouDont for playing the team alongside me these last few days (and achieving an impressive peak of their own!), providing some of the calcs for this RMT (which I'll gladly admit are the part I hate doing the most in RMTs, so thanks a lot bro), and generally being a very cool and funny dude.

sufys12 for encouraging me since the start of my quick claw journey... seing how it turned out maybe you regret doing so now. LOL

blooclipse (idk the name of their forum account) for also being a claw enthusiast and experimenting with different claw sets.

AndViet for being a based member of the OU community in general and asking for this rmt to be made in the first place (probably wouldn't have done it else lol)

SetsuSetsuna for accepting this team into Team of the Week and also being a super cool mod/driver/whatever i don't remember showdown roles

njnp for not immediately trying to ban this after using it LMAOO

Vert for taking the team to the SSNL ~~after catching 4 consecutive beatdowns from it~~ and winning with it, proving to the world just how ~~lucky you were~~ good the team is in capable hands... seriously you're the goat of all time.

And all the people that used my team (and especially those who made videos about it aim Blimax RedEmption Jimothy Cool and ChiefGreenLeaf) !! Thanks to you all, y'all made me smile :)

(tldr: play this team if you also want to be a SUPER OPTIMAL player)

Glowbro Animation - Me
Grimmsnarl - Wallpapercave (couldn't find the original artist even after a reverse image search)
Ursaluna - e volution
Iron Hands - Kaosu
Kingambit - monaka_ (hc_pokemon)
Enamorus and SlowbroG - kelvin trainerk

Thanks for reading if you made it this far, hope it was worth your time :)

awyp · Jul 1, 2023

This is one of the best RMTs I've seen in a while. This team is really hard to beat not because of Quick Claw in itself but the synergy with the members all work so well together. Honestly, this team has changed the meta a bit because you have to prepare for these types of teams or you'll get obliterated. Ultimately for Quick Claw to get on the community survey based on how rowdy this team is, is an achievement.

OFFICIAL HOOD CLASSIC!

Thanks for posting Delibird Heart :D

edit: the ojama game was GOLDEN

spidget · Jul 1, 2023

Nice RMT. impressive that you gaslit a significant amount of OU players into thinking quick claw is broken. Well done

CTC · Jul 1, 2023

Yea nice team this is definitely conducive to the competitive nature of the ladder and shows how impressive you are as a battler!
Such a team must have not only been conceived by a cunning and stoic battler, but piloted to perfection by one as well!

(replay is not mine it is from a friend)

Yea on behalf of the community,
Go hug yourself

Delibird Heart · Jul 1, 2023

CTC said:
snip

ay that game was rigged and you know it lmao, you're the first one to get mad in videos whenever shit like this happens, cmon dawg don't be like this. I think you're really the last person that could blame anyone for getting mad when bad luck happens lol

have a nice day nonetheless :)

matte · Jul 1, 2023

nice team! I love this kind of creative shit. I don't think quick-claw is op bc i use dragonite

P.S. I have a winning record against this team

(5-0)

Srn · Jul 1, 2023

A painfully influential team...
In my version here, there's a few changes I prefer:

Skeledirge > Ursaluna: I think qc ursaluna is quite mid, really lacking in firepower without flame orb and doesn't offer too many useful qualities defensively. In the mirror matchup, iron hands is a huge threat, and while I initially had glastrier over ursaluna, the fighting weakness+overall lack of fairy resist bothered me, so I tried using skeledirge. Modest torch songs stack up quickly, unaware gives the team some relief against opposing set up spam, and it abuses quick claw+screens as well as anybody else on the team. Give it a try :]

Low kick > Spirit break on Grimmsnarl: 252 speed adamant hits 219, 1 point faster than jolly kingambit. Low kick does this:
96+ Atk Grimmsnarl Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Kingambit: 344-408 (100.8 - 119.6%)
and still 2hko's hsamurott. Gambit being the giga threat that it is, I prefer to respect it.

Drain Punch+Thunder Punch > Close Combat+Wild Charge: I love iron hands' bulk on this team and never thought it needed to be stronger. With skeledirge as the ghost type to help cover zamazenta, you can go tera grass giving this team a much needed water resist and still resist ground.

All in all, hate that this works lmao. Not an unbeatable team but there is no way to really prepare, just gotta pray QC doesn't proc. Nice work!

Delibird Heart · Jul 1, 2023

Srn said:
snip

Very interesting changes. I'll definitely try this out later, but I think I'll keep at least wild charge over tpunch on Iron Hands, cause +2 tpunch doesn't kill dengo. Low kick on grim was also something I considered, but ended up forgoing it because it needed attack invest to ohko gambit, but I think it's definitely a very good option. Thanks for the input :)

Woopatroopa · Jul 1, 2023

when is the next ~~psychotic~~ skillful team coming?

btw love that u put Jimothy cool in the videos section

SirSly720312 · Jul 1, 2023

What are your opinions on Shell Side Arm over Sludge Bomb? It could be useful in niche situations.

ant4456 · Jul 1, 2023

credit the many art pieces you use in this

Exotic64 · Jul 1, 2023

as you know im not a fan of this team at all, but mad respect for writing such detailed RMT. lets meet on the ladder again and settle the score

Delibird Heart · Jul 2, 2023

ant4456 said:
credit the many art pieces you use in this

Just added it, it had slipped my mind

SirSly720312 said:
What are your opinions on Shell Side Arm over Sludge Bomb? It could be useful in niche situations.

It's generally not worth it because of the poison chance diff. The only mon it would hit better than sludge bomb is Tera Dark Blissey, but even then, shell side arm only does about 25%. Just switch out, it's not like this team is lacking in physical wallbreakers.

ant4456 · Jul 2, 2023

thank you :>>>

showdownperson · Jul 8, 2023

Alright, but how does it feel to be the catalyst of a quick claw debate?

A1Gallade · Jul 8, 2023

This team was a pain in my ass on ladder but mad respect for making it work as honestly, you're right in that it would probably be just as if not more threatening with normal items. Good work fam.

Delibird Heart · Jul 8, 2023

showdownperson said:
Alright, but how does it feel to be the catalyst of a quick claw debate?

Pretty funny ngl. I definitely did not expect this to blow up as much as it did, nevermind actually being played in a tour or being on the tiering survey. Originally it's just a team I made to have fun and fuck around.

showdownperson · Jul 8, 2023

How often does this strat work? 20% of the time

IExistYouDont · Jul 9, 2023

showdownperson said:
How often does this strat work? 20% of the time

It works more than that, I can guarantee

Candelia · Jul 11, 2023

don't mind me trying and horribly failing to use the uber based monoclaw team

SV OU MONOCLAW: THE MOVIE: THE ESSAY (CURRENT PEAK #14 @ 2033 ELO)

Delibird Heart

awyp

'Alexa play Ladyfingers by Herb Alpert'

spidget

formerly Lifeismyth

CTC

Banned deucer.

Delibird Heart

matte

Srn

Water (Spirytus - 96%)

Delibird Heart

Woopatroopa

SirSly720312

ant4456

Exotic64

MDRRRRRRRR

Delibird Heart

ant4456

showdownperson

A1Gallade

Delibird Heart

showdownperson

IExistYouDont

Candelia

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