Gholdengo is one of the most meta-defining Pokémon in the National Dex Monotype metagame right now. Its great bulk, coupled with its broken ability, Good as Gold, forces types that use entry hazard removal to play under its terms or get endlessly punished as it swaps in freely. It can utilize a variety of items, from Z-Crystals to dampen Knock Off damage and bust through walls like Celesteela, Mega Sableye, and Gliscor before they are able to break through it, to Choice Scarf to lure and remove offensive checks like Mega Lopunny and Mega Charizard Y, and Trick passive walls like Ting-Lu or Clodsire. Gholdengo can also use Thunder Wave, shutting down offensive answers that resist its STABs, like Mega Charizard Y, Volcarona, and Hydreigon, that can come into it.
Gholdengo's great bulk also cannot be understated, as it is able to survive attacks such as +1 Flamethrower from Kommo-o, +2 Knock Off from Iron Valiant, and Choice Scarf Landorus-T's Earthquake, and OHKO them back with Twinkle Tackle or Corkscrew Crash. This bulk also strengthens the defensive core of Steel and Ghost teams, making it much more stressful to break the defensive cores of these teams. Couple this with Good as Gold, which functionally makes entry hazards near-unremovable, Gholdengo is able to outlast its checks, especially if these cannot afford to use Heavy-Duty Boots.
Based on these traits, it may seem that Gholdengo is immediately broken, so one may ask, "Why only test it now?" For one, its speed of 293 is mediocre at best, being outsped and threatened by middling speed breakers like Nidoking and Victini. Secondly, Defog users do have ways to punish Gholdengo; Zapdos carries Heat Wave, Latios can carry Groundium Z to lure Gholdengo in Defog to get blasted with Tectonic Rage next turn, and passive Defoggers can utilize U-turn like Corviknight and Crobat to bring in teammates that pose major threats to Steel teams, like Mega Charizard Y or Nidoking. However, even though Gholdengo has been forced out, the opponent's main goal of Defogging away hazards would not happen. There also exist Ground-types like the aforementioned Ting-Lu and Clodsire, and walls like Hisuian Goodra and Iron Hands, which can stave off Gholdengo's antics long enough for it to be manageable for their respective types. Aside from this, setup sweepers like Volcarona, Hydreigon, and Keldeo can take advantage of Gholdengo assuming it lacks the coverage or move to deal with these threats. Gholdengo also cannot be so bulky, offensive, and fast at the same time. For instance, it cannot both be fast enough to outspeed Tapu Bulu and not get OHKO'ed by Life Orb Iron Valiant's Knock Off at +2. National Dex Monotype also has a lot of hard-hitting threats that outspeed Gholdengo, and although they aren't outright OHKOs, keeping Gholdengo low enough prevents it from being able to set up or block Defog, which greatly diminishes Gholdengo's effectiveness.
Because of these reasons, we feel that a suspect is appropriate for assessing Gholdengo.
Suspect Test Information
- This suspect test will count towards the new tiering contributor badge!
- Reading this is mandatory to participate in the suspect test. The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 80 with at least 35 games played.
- Gholdengo will require a 60% majority of voters in favor of banning it in order for it to be banned from National Dex Monotype.
- You must use a fresh account that begins with the given prefix for this suspect test. That prefix is NDMS6GH. An example name would be NDMS6GH Kintoki
- You may not impersonate or mock another user with your account name. If there is any slight hesitation, you're probably better off picking a different name. We reserve the right to null your voting requisites if you are found impersonating or mocking another user with your account name. Moderator discretion will be applied.
- If you are found trying to manipulate voting requisites in any way, you will be met with a harsh infraction. Manipulating voting requisites ranges from faking your screenshot to asking another user to forfeit.
- The Pokemon that's being suspect tested, Gholdengo, will be allowed on the National Dex Monotype ladder for the next two weeks so that we can properly assess its position in the metagame.
- This suspect test will go on for two weeks. It will last until Friday, August 16th @ 11:59 PM EST (GMT-4).
- You are required to make sure that whatever you are arguing for is in-line with the Tiering Policy Framework. If what you're arguing for isn't, there's a very high chance that your post will be deleted.
- No uninformed one liners or posts;
- No discussion on other potential suspect tests;
- No discussion on the suspect test process.
- Your posts are expected to be respectful, please do not insult anyone.
- If you fail to follow these rules, you may be infracted without any prior warning.
Tagging dhelmise and Marty to implement this on ladder, thank you in advance
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