np: ORAS UU Stage 6 - Slow Hands

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Adaam

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Also I do not understand by what you mean by "Sure you can argue that I'm bad and had many opportunities to bring it in, but the fact remains that doing so via doubles is highly dangerous." Doesn't this imply to every Pokemon then?
Not exactly. Crawdaunt's awful bulk makes doubling into it more dangerous than if you were to double into something like Cobalion, which was my point. It's really hard to get it in safely to get that "guaranteed kill" unless you get it in via pivot moves.

And if you do Volt Switch out of a Reuniclus, for example, into Crawdaunt then good job. You capitalized on your opponents misplay and are rewarded. If your opponent swapped to Nidoqueen then you would be the one on the defensive.

As I said before, people should try tweaking the standard sets so Crawdaunt food can fight back. Using the above example, with Colbur Reuniclus, you have a 70% chance of smashing the lobster.

if it gets a safe switchin, Crawdaunt will most likely KO something and then switch out
This is just untrue. Again, lures exist so when Crawdaunt thinks he's getting a kill, he may be the one dying. Maybe it gets a kill every time it comes on against teams without any Water/Dark resists, but again, we have bulky Dragons, Grasses, and Steels that can actually switch in, take a hit, and force Crawdaunt out. Sure, you could click Ice Beam on the Mence switch or Superower on Hydreigon, but prediction is a poor argument to use. What if your opponent stays on with Florges on superpower? It goes both ways.

I admit these aforementioned checks aren't able to take repeated Knock Offs and Crabhammers, but they aren't supposed to. They force Crawdaunt out and then the player should play to limit any more free switches. If one somehow lets Crawdaunt fire 4 Crabhammers in a game, they deserve to lose.
 
This is just untrue. Again, lures exist so when Crawdaunt thinks he's getting a kill, he may be the one dying.
Gonna be a bit picky here, but when standard sets which are proven to be effective in a meta have to change for the introduction of a single mon, there might be a problem.
 

r0ady

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Gonna be a bit picky here, but when standard sets which are proven to be effective in a meta have to change for the introduction of a single mon, there might be a problem.
No, its called adapting to the meta. When sets that are borderline unviable are introduced to deal with a single Mon bc its just that threatening there's a problem (ie people running shit like HP ice zong and forrey in zygarde meta)
 
After laddering and tilting a fuckton and finally getting reqs, here's what I have to say about Crawdaunt:

It limits bulkier playstyles a hell lot, and forces them to run Chesnaught on every bulkier teams because that's the only thing that's switching into it. However, it still fears Ice Beam or Aerial Ace Crawdaunt and hence makes it very dangerous for bulkier builds. I have laddered with Choice Banded set and it just OHKOs half the metagame and yes, it is slow as shit but with proper support it just decimates every bulky Pokemon hence making it very easy for cleaners to clean through. As for the Life Orb set, it also decimates everything after a Swords Dance given if it outspeeds that Pokemon and if that Pokemon isn't weak to Aqua Jet. Therefore, I believe Crawdaunt is broken.
lol by saying that it forces something to run a team to run a counter ur basically saying by that logic that we should be bannin other wallbreakers like kyurem and hydrei.. sd sets are only threatening if you let it get up +2 for free which basically never happens given its shitty speed and low defensive stats / utility. adapting to a threat that just entered the metagame isn't new at all, its applied to a shit ton of mons in the past (e.g luke and to an extent nape in june 2014, feraligatr and mamo throughout the past year, and even the mass rise of popularity in mega aero in the last few weeks of spl 6 and reuni pre-open can be applied here) and almost every time people have complained that its broken as fuck for some reason. just because you have to adjust to something new doesn't mean its broken, especially considering its been like 4 days since the test started lol.

I do not why the council decided to suspect Crawdaunt over other BL Pokemon; Staraptor or Scolipede would have been a better idea over this thing. Anyways, I have used Crawdaunt + Nidoqueen which is a really cool core right now since bulky Nidoqueen beats most of Crawdaunt's checks and counters like Toxicroak, Heliolisk, Chesnaught and Salamence. I also saw some Florges running Speed EVs to creep Adamant Crawdaunt which is reminding me of the time people ran Speed EVs on Cresselia for Pangoro in RU.


e: Also I think the tier is perfectly fine with the new drops and Crawdaunt not existing. Bringing Crawdaunt back in is going to turn the metagame into a very unhealthy one.

tl;dr I do not want one of my mons to die whenever Crawdaunt switches in and therefore, I am going to vote ban.

running speed on florges isnt really something that you should be doing either way, but there are a good amount of answers on balance that can switch into craw and aren't something that is way far out and is unviable vs the rest of the meta (fatmence being the most prominent one, since it can switch into every set but lo with little trouble, and even then if it comes in safely it can roost stall out ice beam since its not really that strong lol. it may hit really fuckin hard but its kind of difficult to get in safely since as stated before its defenses are subpar as well as the fact that even if you manage to get it in you lose a lot of momentum if they have a proper switch in. i mean if you have a team full of mons that it comes in for free on then no shit its gonna be threatening lol. not to mention the fact that there is a ridiculous amount of things that can rk it (coba, whimsi, zapper, mence, hydrei, etc etc). i really think you are makin craw out to be something its not, because as stated earlier hard hitting wallbreakers that dont really have much chances to get in for free is nothing new to the meta
 
I play stall + PZ and I have been doing pretty well against Daunt. Fatmence, Scarf PZ, Florges, and MAggron can all check him at least decently well. Fatmence is even a decent counter and can often switch in on Daunt.

P2 with discharge is almost a check too:
0 SpA Porygon2 Discharge vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Crawdaunt: 194-230 (72.3 - 85.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

And note that P2 normally survives Knock Off followed by Aqua Jet even with no def evs and Calm nature if he has max HP. So if Daunt has LO then normally either both die (70%) or only Daunt dies (30%).

Aside from PZ those checks/counters are all nice Pkmns for stall teams to have and since there are probably more checks/counters against Daunt that fit on stall I would disagree with Stall not being able to beat Daunt. Daunt is hard on stall but in my experience so are other wallbreaker like Mamoswine , Tyrantrum, and MSharpedo. Daunt is just another very good wallbreaker that needs to be played carefully around IMO.

I almost got reqs and right now it looks like I will be voting NO BAN.
 
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Wanka

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Crawdaunt is checked offensively so easy its not even funny. I don't see UU having trouble adapting to it at all. The majority of the tier is offensive balance, BO, or HO. All of which have a plethora of options to check daunt with. It's weak to all entry hazards, susceptible to common forms of priority (NP nape and NP luc are really good mons rn) and the LO recoil is icing on the cake in making daunt easily revengable. It cant switch into shit either lol, its so goddamn frail. And the idea behind "oh slow volt switch ez pz" or "oh just double ez pz." 1. Ground types are cool and they all check forretress and cobalion. (pert, nido, donphan etc.) 2. Using the idea that you can just double into a wall breaker to ban a mon is stupid. Thats simply a prediction and predictions are healthy for a meta. Predictions are part of the nature of competitive pokemon so using them to ban a mon isn't plausible in the slightest.

Its just another strong wall breaker that we can adapt to quite easily. IMO it is offensively checked easier than mamo because of how dirt slow it is. People are using it on HO or slightly bulkier forms of offense which makes it even less broken because it is constantly letting in other powerful breakers that those builds are extremely pressured by. So at first glance I say we should let Mr. Krabs stay.

Gonna be a bit picky here, but when standard sets which are proven to be effective in a meta have to change for the introduction of a single mon, there might be a problem.
This is just plain and simply false. With this logic Salamence would've been banned ages ago. Idk if you've noticed but mence plays a giant role in the flow of the tier. It has been causing people to stray away from the norm since it was introduced into the tier. It isn't getting banned anytime soon either.
 

Kink

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King uu it seems silly to put arifeen on a podium under the assumption that his post was entirely speculation when the suspect test has gone on for only a couple days only and isnt even a true glimpse of how the tier would function in the coming months with spl around the corner as well. Anyone could throw a team together and throw out claims of "its fine" if you have half a brain. Trying to objectify statements in such a subjective aspect of tiering at times, suspect testing, seems silly to throw someone entirely under the bus over and openly claim your intention to make an example of.

Been like 5 days most of these posts dont hold legitmate grounds in the long run when the tier would stabilize anyways. Lol relax.
I normally never discuss laddering as an expression of skill, but yeah, I got to first on the suspect ladder with that team, it's not something I just "threw together", it was an example of a team that doesn't struggle against Crawdaunt whatsoever as long as the user plays correctly.

Further, it was more conjecture than speculation that Arifeen was making, and I clearly say "conjecture", which is a very different concept, but I'll get you the oxford definition.
  1. an opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of incomplete information.
Arifeen's post was not up to our standards in UU and we really care when 24 people bandwagon on a shit opinion. I'd also rather publicly explain these concepts to users rather than delete or infract someone.
 
I'm all for Crawdaunt being brought back down to UU. It is my favorite Pokemon and I feel like if it were dropped to the tier it would benefit the tier by mixing things up a bit as well as adding diversity and giving Crawdaunt some more flexibility. As for whether I consider it overpowered, I don't think it really is, it is certainly powerful but it takes some practice to truly utilize it and it's not like there aren't some good counters to it in both UU and OU (Chesnaught, Hydreigon, Whimsicott, etc.) So, in retrospect, just drop him back, give him some more flexibility and give the tier some more diversity!
 
Haven't seen Crawdaunt doing anything amazing yet. The only times it's taken out more than one of my opponent's Pokemon are when my opponent has no idea that it has Aqua Jet, they think I'm locked into a resisted move (despite using LO), or the rest of my opponent's team can't really do anything to it. Many games, it doesn't even come in because of its low defenses. Even with resistances, you can't come in on things like Entei's Sacred Fire or a Scald because of the burn chance.

As for taking out opposing Crawdaunt, any faster Grass-type can check it due to resisting Aqua Jet and most Mega's can survive accidentally switching into a Knock Off since Crawdaunt doesn't get the extra damage.
 
In fear that I hold the minority opinion, I have decided to post my thoughts on Crawdaunt. The suspect ladder seemed centralized by balance teams utilizing Crawdaunt and Azelf heavy offense. If I were to guess at least 60% of teams above 1300 on the ladder used Crawdaunt and for good reason.
I don't want to beat the proverbial dead horse, but for the sake of my argument I will reiterate some already stated points in this thread. Crawdaunt has incredible sweeping potential, fantastic STAB coverage, and great wall breaking ability because of Adaptibility, base 120 attack, and decent coverage options with Aerial Ace, Ice Beam, and Sludge Wave. Of course the question at hand here is: "Is Crawdaunt healthy for Under Used?" To answer this question I will present the argument of the pro-Crawdaunt contingent, disprove this argument, and then argue in favor of a Crawdaunt ban.

For reference I will use the argument constructed here (and a few other posts). The argument in favor of Crawdaunt can be boiled down into a few key points, and I have interpreted the three biggest points to be:
  1. The metagame has shifted from offense and therefore Crawdaunt lost its biggest niche
  2. Crawdaunt is not broken because it struggles against balanced teams
  3. Crawdaunt is easily enough checked offensively and countered by bulky grass-types
In the same format below, I have listed my counter points to this argument:
  1. In my experience on the suspect ladder, most of the teams I played were offense teams based around Azelf or Crawdaunt balance teams with a Crawdaunt "counter" in Chesnaught, Whimsicott, etc. Although I have a low sample size, Crawdaunt completely dispersed through the ladder, a team without a "hard" Crawdaunt stop can not be successful. Crawdaunt still dominates offense, as it finds enough opportunities to revenge kill or enter on a double switch. Also, it is not as easily "offensively checked" as people make it out to be but I will go into more detail about that in my next point.
  2. Crawdaunt does not struggle with balance whatsoever. The set and the coverage move are both impossible to predict. Every "counter" listed (Chesnaught, Whimsicott, Amoonguss, and Tangrowth) is outsped and 2HKOd by Crawdaunt, sample calculations are provided at the bottom of this post. None of those pokemon are counters, none of them hard wall Crawdaunt. Crawdaunt has no true counters because of its coverage moves and absurd base attack. I thought Whimsicott handled Crawdaunt too until I switched into an Aerial Ace. After Crawdaunt hits its check with its coverage move it goes HAM on balance.
  3. How can you you argue that Crawdaunt is easily checked offensively. Most of the Pokemon you listed can revenge kill Crawdaunt, they cannot switch into it. Lucario is OHKOd by Crabhammer, Salamence is OHKOd by Ice Beam, Toxicroak is OHKOd by Aerial Ace. Every time a pokemon with priority comes into revenge kill Crawdaunt a 50-50 is played. The Crawdaunt user can easily use your priority to pivot another Pokemon in safely or go for some damage or even a kill with Aqua Jet.
252 Atk Choice Band Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Amoonguss: 270-318 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery

0 SpA Life Orb Crawdaunt Sludge Wave vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tangrowth: 278-328 (68.9 - 81.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Choice Band Crawdaunt Aerial Ace vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chesnaught: 232-276 (61 - 72.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

0 SpA Life Orb Crawdaunt Sludge Wave vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Whimsicott: 411-484 (127.2 - 149.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

I know I have a small sample size, and this problem often occurs when something is being retested, but Crawdaunt is over centralizing and needs to be banned. Without Sludge Wave, Aerial Ace, and Ice Beam Crawdaunt would be manageable but it is impossible to know whether Crawdaunt has a coverage move or is packing Swords Dance. One wrong guess and it can completely decimate a team. Crawdaunt also cant be trap killed because of its Dark-type, so with hazard removal it can be incredibly difficult to revenge kill. I do not want to watch Crawdaunt in SPL, I do not want Crawdaunt in UU. Please follow me and vote to ban Crawdaunt.
 
  1. In my experience on the suspect ladder, most of the teams I played were offense teams based around Azelf or Crawdaunt balance teams with a Crawdaunt "counter" in Chesnaught, Whimsicott, etc. Although I have a low sample size, Crawdaunt completely dispersed through the ladder, a team without a "hard" Crawdaunt stop can not be successful. Crawdaunt still dominates offense, as it finds enough opportunities to revenge kill or enter on a double switch. Also, it is not as easily "offensively checked" as people make it out to be but I will go into more detail about that in my next point.
  2. Crawdaunt does not struggle with balance whatsoever. The set and the coverage move are both impossible to predict. Every "counter" listed (Chesnaught, Whimsicott, Amoonguss, and Tangrowth) is outsped and 2HKOd by Crawdaunt, sample calculations are provided at the bottom of this post. None of those pokemon are counters, none of them hard wall Crawdaunt. Crawdaunt has no true counters because of its coverage moves and absurd base attack. I thought Whimsicott handled Crawdaunt too until I switched into an Aerial Ace. After Crawdaunt hits its check with its coverage move it goes HAM on balance.
  3. How can you you argue that Crawdaunt is easily checked offensively. Most of the Pokemon you listed can revenge kill Crawdaunt, they cannot switch into it. Lucario is OHKOd by Crabhammer, Salamence is OHKOd by Ice Beam, Toxicroak is OHKOd by Aerial Ace. Every time a pokemon with priority comes into revenge kill Crawdaunt a 50-50 is played. The Crawdaunt user can easily use your priority to pivot another Pokemon in safely or go for some damage or even a kill with Aqua Jet.
Ok to be blunt it sounds like you have no idea what you're talking about.

1. I've literally built an offensive team in 5 minutes with absolutely 0 safe switch ins to Craw without making some aggressive predictions, the team only has 4 offensive checks to it. Yet I some how made it to over 1500 without much trouble. You say that a team without a solid Craw counter can't be successful, this really depends on your playstyle. If you're playing offense, your goal isn't to have switch ins to everything, you're trying to break everything. If you're playing stall/balance then of course you need a counter to it since your team will likely to be slow as shit, but this applies to every threat out there. Stall without counters to Lucario will lose to it. Balance without counters to Reuniclus will lose to it. That's just the peculiarities of each playstyle and doesn't make for any solid arguments.

2. So every Crawdaunt out there has Crabhammer, Knock Off, Aqua Jet and SD/coverage. It's just that last move that you should be wary of. So not that hard to predict. Not like Crawdaunt has 10 moveslots right? If it doesn't have SD then common bulky waters like Suicune and Alomomola can stop it pretty easily. If it has SD then your common grass types can counter/check it respectively.

3. Crawdaunt is literally checked by like 80% of the things that are faster than it and can take an aqua jet due to its piss poor bulk. I don't understand what you're trying to say. I don't understand why you necessarily need priority to revenge kill it either. I also don't understand why you would be trying to check a Crawdaunt by sending out a Lucario or Salamence on it. Unless you can double Crawdaunt in on something slower, which isn't the case very often since offense tends to be fast, it's not doing anything a majority of the time other than clicking aqua jet or switching back out. So yea, does not dominate offense as stated.

Honestly, the only playstyle Crawdaunt is overwhelming against is probably stall since it's too slow to revenge it. Even then Crawdaunt still needs to dodge some burns and hope the stall team doesn't have a bulky grass type.

I just think you're being extremely biased here and grossly over exaggerating on how good Crawdaunt really is.
 

njnp

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After reading a few of these posts mostly Arifeen's and especially Laurel's(no disrespect to them,they are friends). I feel like people should have to get reqs before talking in suspect threads so we can know they actually have a good feel for the meta. I also feel like this suspect is going to be like Mega Metagross in OU. This suspect vote seems it will be very close but I would hope daunt will stay just like Mega Metagross did and overtime it's presence will be not so felt like Mega Metagross in ou currently.
 
I'm probably never going to get reqs (thanks for 2650 guys), but I have to disagree with the sentiment anyways. Some people have some valuable input and only really play in room tours. Or tours in general.

Rest of it, I've said my opinion. Daunt craps on stall, fares well against balance, can't touch HO Outside of priority.
 
Daunt does not crap on stall. He is too fragile.

Being a stall player myself I am all for making stall viable but I do not see Daunt giving an unfair advantage against stall. He is for a big part limited to switching in after kills so either keep your Daunt counter alive or kill with his checks. He is fragile enough to have plenty checks and he is hindered by status as well as having 4MSS. At first I wanted to vote ban but my experience on the ladder has shown that from a stallers perspective Daunt is not that bad.
 
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Im not a UU player but after I got reqs and playing like 80 games I get my idea.

Well , there are many reasons why I think that Crawdaunt should be ban: His trait, Adaptability in combo with life orb or choice band lets it make heavily damages. Most common switch-in such as Toxicroak, Chesnaught, Hydreigon etc... are not even safe considering Aerial Ace, Ice Beam and Superpower variants. I have been laddering with CB Crawdaunt + Volt-Turn Core that allows him to enter without suffering too much damage which giving it great momentum. Also it it has access to a priority Aqua Jet which is boosted by his ability.
Crabhammer/Knock Off + Adaptability, is probabily the first reason why this Pokemon should be considered broken. After this suspect any balanced team, a bit like any offensive one, had to consider this issue in their teambuilding , almost impossible to check even if the oppo simply clicks the stab.
 
After reading a few of these posts mostly Arifeen's and especially Laurel's(no disrespect to them,they are friends). I feel like people should have to get reqs before talking in suspect threads so we can know they actually have a good feel for the meta. I also feel like this suspect is going to be like Mega Metagross in OU. This suspect vote seems it will be very close but I would hope daunt will stay just like Mega Metagross did and overtime it's presence will be not so felt like Mega Metagross in ou currently.
I have reqs tho
(ignore ranking it doesn't mean anything)

 
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Kink

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In fear that I hold the minority opinion, I have decided to post my thoughts on Crawdaunt. The suspect ladder seemed centralized by balance teams utilizing Crawdaunt and Azelf heavy offense. If I were to guess at least 60% of teams above 1300 on the ladder used Crawdaunt and for good reason.
I don't want to beat the proverbial dead horse, but for the sake of my argument I will reiterate some already stated points in this thread. Crawdaunt has incredible sweeping potential, fantastic STAB coverage, and great wall breaking ability because of Adaptibility, base 120 attack, and decent coverage options with Aerial Ace, Ice Beam, and Sludge Wave. Of course the question at hand here is: "Is Crawdaunt healthy for Under Used?" To answer this question I will present the argument of the pro-Crawdaunt contingent, disprove this argument, and then argue in favor of a Crawdaunt ban.

For reference I will use the argument constructed here (and a few other posts). The argument in favor of Crawdaunt can be boiled down into a few key points, and I have interpreted the three biggest points to be:
  1. The metagame has shifted from offense and therefore Crawdaunt lost its biggest niche
  2. Crawdaunt is not broken because it struggles against balanced teams
  3. Crawdaunt is easily enough checked offensively and countered by bulky grass-types
In the same format below, I have listed my counter points to this argument:
  1. In my experience on the suspect ladder, most of the teams I played were offense teams based around Azelf or Crawdaunt balance teams with a Crawdaunt "counter" in Chesnaught, Whimsicott, etc. Although I have a low sample size, Crawdaunt completely dispersed through the ladder, a team without a "hard" Crawdaunt stop can not be successful. Crawdaunt still dominates offense, as it finds enough opportunities to revenge kill or enter on a double switch. Also, it is not as easily "offensively checked" as people make it out to be but I will go into more detail about that in my next point.
  2. Crawdaunt does not struggle with balance whatsoever. The set and the coverage move are both impossible to predict. Every "counter" listed (Chesnaught, Whimsicott, Amoonguss, and Tangrowth) is outsped and 2HKOd by Crawdaunt, sample calculations are provided at the bottom of this post. None of those pokemon are counters, none of them hard wall Crawdaunt. Crawdaunt has no true counters because of its coverage moves and absurd base attack. I thought Whimsicott handled Crawdaunt too until I switched into an Aerial Ace. After Crawdaunt hits its check with its coverage move it goes HAM on balance.
  3. How can you you argue that Crawdaunt is easily checked offensively. Most of the Pokemon you listed can revenge kill Crawdaunt, they cannot switch into it. Lucario is OHKOd by Crabhammer, Salamence is OHKOd by Ice Beam, Toxicroak is OHKOd by Aerial Ace. Every time a pokemon with priority comes into revenge kill Crawdaunt a 50-50 is played. The Crawdaunt user can easily use your priority to pivot another Pokemon in safely or go for some damage or even a kill with Aqua Jet.
252 Atk Choice Band Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Amoonguss: 270-318 (62.5 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery

0 SpA Life Orb Crawdaunt Sludge Wave vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tangrowth: 278-328 (68.9 - 81.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Choice Band Crawdaunt Aerial Ace vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chesnaught: 232-276 (61 - 72.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

0 SpA Life Orb Crawdaunt Sludge Wave vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Whimsicott: 411-484 (127.2 - 149.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

I know I have a small sample size, and this problem often occurs when something is being retested, but Crawdaunt is over centralizing and needs to be banned. Without Sludge Wave, Aerial Ace, and Ice Beam Crawdaunt would be manageable but it is impossible to know whether Crawdaunt has a coverage move or is packing Swords Dance. One wrong guess and it can completely decimate a team. Crawdaunt also cant be trap killed because of its Dark-type, so with hazard removal it can be incredibly difficult to revenge kill. I do not want to watch Crawdaunt in SPL, I do not want Crawdaunt in UU. Please follow me and vote to ban Crawdaunt.
With all due respect, my post wasn't a pro-Crawdaunt post. It was a "this is how you should properly evaluate Crawdaunt" post. Bit of a difference. I also don't agree with you, but Yifeng said everything on my mind so I won't rehash.

also, http://pastebin.com/UyTzLca4, won me 23 str8 on the ladder last night against different Crawdaunt and non-Crawdaunt teams. Had no trouble.
 
*tl;dr at the bottom of the thread if you don't wanna read.

Although I've only played a few games with Crawdaunt, I would like to give my thoughts on it, as I have faced it quite a lot aswell.

IN GENERAL:

In my opinion, Crawdaunt has both advantages and disadvantages, and I will go over them 1 by 1, with calc, and some extra information to back it up. I will also go over each moveset, as they are all different and have different good things about them. It also has the capability of running a 4th special coverage move due to it's solid SpA stat, making it quite hard to face, and extremely difficult to switch into.

4 ATTACKS LO:

Crawdaunt in general, serves as an extremely strong attacker, due to it's strong base 120 ATK and it's ability Adaptability. Coupled with a super strong offensive typing in Dark/Water and access to priority makes it potent in scoring SOME very powerful 2HKO's on premier UU walls such as:

Florges:
252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Crabhammer vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Florges: 247-291 (68.6 - 80.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Crabhammer vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Florges: 367-434 (101.9 - 120.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO


Swampert:

252+ Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Crabhammer vs. 240 HP / 252+ Def Swampert: 229-270 (57.1 - 67.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery


Mega Swampert: (Although not a wall, still a very bulky mon):

252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Crabhammer vs. 212 HP / 0 Def Mega Swampert: 250-294 (63.4 - 74.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


Suicune:

252+ Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Suicune: 187-221 (46.2 - 54.7%) -- 8.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (Doesn't OHKO but finds it extremely hard to switch in. Also, don't factor in the lefties recovery in the calc, dunno how to turn that off without making Knock Off weaker.)


Tangrowth:

252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Tangrowth: 161-192 (39.9 - 47.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

0 SpA Life Orb Crawdaunt Ice Beam vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tangrowth: 265-312 (65.7 - 77.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery


Chesnaught:

0 SpA Life Orb Crawdaunt Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Chesnaught: 195-231 (51.3 - 60.7%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Life Orb Crawdaunt Aerial Ace vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chesnaught: 203-244 (53.4 - 64.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery


Mandibuzz:

252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Crabhammer vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mandibuzz: 190-224 (44.8 - 52.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery


Forretress:

252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Forretress: 148-177 (41.8 - 50%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Crabhammer vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Forretress: 153-182 (43.2 - 51.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery


Sableye:

252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Crabhammer vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Sableye: 338-400 (111.1 - 131.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO


If you may have noticed, Crawdaunt is impecable at severely hindering walls with it's incredible wallbreaking ability. It's access to Aqua Jet gives it a move that allows it to prevent it being revenge killed as easily. It's adaptability boosted and STAB, causing it to be quite strong, and doing a lot of damage. Some revenge killers such as:

Krookodile:

252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Aqua Jet vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Krookodile: 260-307 (78.5 - 92.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


Crobat:

252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Aqua Jet vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Crobat: 133-156 (42.7 - 50.1%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO


Revengers take quite a lot of damage from this move, and can easily be killed when weakened a little. This maximises Crawdaunt's wallbreaking potential, giving it maximum damage output it can with it's priority. This LO set can also run a variety of coverage moves, such as Aerial Ace, Sludge Wave, and Ice Beam.

However this is also an important issue. Crawdaunt simply cannot hit every wall. If it doesn't run that 4th coverage move, it can't hit Pokemon such as Chesnaught and Tangrowth. Without Aerial Ace, it's hard to hit Toxicroak and Poliwrath. Furthermore, some pokemon such as MAggron get 3HKO'd by this set, making it a bit more difficult to wallbreak at times against a handful of walls. Another one is Mega-Ampharos, taking it's dual STAB relatively well, but Ice Beam hurts it.

Although this set might miss some walls to hit, due to missing some coverage you use, it still hits extremely hard against some walls that might seemingly wall it well. With strong priority aswell, this set makes Crawdaunt quite a strong wallbreaker


SWORDS DANCE 3 ATTACKS CRAWDAUNT:

This set capitalises on Crawdaunt's priority to kill revengers and slow walls extremely easily. However this set has a ton of flaws. Crawdaunt is very frail. A Pokemon such as Krookodile can come in and survive on Aqua Jet at +0 and OHKO it. Due to it being so fragile, this lobster finds it very hard to get up a Swords Dance in the first place, but this is somewhat remedied by the fact that it threatens a lot of Pokemon out in the first place, letting it most likely, get an SD up. With a Swords Dance up, Crawdaunt becomes extremely threatening, allowing it to OHKO and 2HKO with Aqua Jet on it's own. Don't forget a +2 Knock Off also, which deals massive damage to bulky grass types such as Tangrowth and Amoonguss. Pokemon find it hard to switch in at +2, but the biggest flaw about this set is getting an SD up in the first place, but when it does, it can easily pull off sweeps even against walls such as:

Tangrowth:

+2 252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Tangrowth: 322-380 (79.9 - 94.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery


Amoonguss:

+2 252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Amoonguss: 468-551 (108.3 - 127.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO


Although this set hits these walls hard, due to it not being able to carry coverage, it has A LOT of checks. Without Ice Beam, it cannot hit some Pokemon very hard. Some examples are:

Ampharos:

+2 252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Ampharos: 244-289 (63.5 - 75.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Crabhammer vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Ampharos: 187-221 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- 94.9% chance to 2HKO


Ampharos can easily come in on a SD and OHKO, while surviving the Knock Off or the priority.

Chesnaught:

+2 252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chesnaught: 162-192 (42.6 - 50.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

+2 252 Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Crabhammer vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chesnaught: 169-199 (44.4 - 52.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery


Chesnaught can then, like Amph, deal massive damage back to Crawdaunt.

The main pro's of this set are the sheer hard hitting wallbreaking, and even sweeping capabilities, allowing it to sweep if none of the aforementioned mons are on the enemy team, as a +2 Aqua Jet is so strong, and Knock off's completely decimate teams in two.

However, the main con of this set is the fact it has more checks than the AOA set. The lack of the much-needed coverage moves makes it unable to beat some walls 1v1. Furthermore, a resisted Aqua Jet won't do as much as a normal one, and due to Crawdaunt's bulk, it cannot live a retaliation move. Also, due to it's terrible speed tier, it relies a lot more on it's priority than it should.


FINAL VERDICT:

Overall, I feel that Crawdaunt is an extremely prevelant force in the tier. It threatens teams so much, and when building, it is mandatory to keep in mind of Crawdaunt, and how it threatens your team. Without a solid Craw check/counter, (and there aren't many of those), you will get completely swept, most likely.

I have witnessed a rise in Pokemon such as Poliwrath just to specifically counter Crawdaunt. This is how threatening it is, and how it affects the way people can build. Unlike a pokemon like Hydreigon, which, doesn't have many checks, it still has multiple ways to defeat it, due to it being weak to Vacuum Wave, and lacking priority, unlike Crawdaunt, allowing it to get revenged. Poliwrath is a Pokemon which I would consider sub-par in the tier. I had never seen it on the ladder or anywhere on PS!, until Crawdaunt dropped. Since then, I have seen people, including myself resorting to Poliwrath. The fact that you need to use sub-par Pokemon just to counter it is extremely unhealthy for the tier, and makes it very over-centralising.

It is extremely hard to switch in on Crawdaunt efficiently, and not take a ton of damage, and if you make a wrong mistake you will be punished with an extremely strong move that could really hinder a wall. It's sheer wallbreaking power is enough to justify how strong it is in the meta right now. It's got access to a great SpA stat, and a variety of coverage, so even though it might be walled by some walls in the SD set, it's still extremely hard to come in on the LO AoA set with some easy prediction. Although Crawdaunt has a lot of checks offensively and defensively, it cannot be hard walled by many Pokemon. Bulky Grasses like Whim and Pokes like Zapdos cannot take an Ice Beam very well. A Poliwrath cannot take an Aerial Ace, and neither can a Toxicroak, for example. In fact, most of Crawdaunt's checks cannot switch in, but have to instead, come in on the revenge.

Due to Crawdaunt's lack of switch-ins, sheer wallbreaking potential, and overcentralisation, I could easily say that it justifies a ban. However, Crawdaunt has some big flaws, and these will be addressed.

First of all, due to Crawdaunt's pitiful bulk, anything that can live a +2 and +0 AJ and can attack quite hard will most likely OHKO or do heavy damage, such as Ampharos, Tangrowth etc. It's terrible bulk also makes oppositions' priority a major threat to Crawdaunt's survivability aswell, such as Infernape and Lucario's Vacuum Waves, Entei's E-Speed, etc. It's typing also makes it susceptable to a weakness to both Volt Switch and U-Turn. This isn't good for Crawdaunt at all, as Pokemon such as Rotom-C can live from Aqua Jet which does about 42 - 50 % (+2), and ohko with a Volt Switch. Bulky Attackers such as Crobat can take a +0 AJ with about 50% left, and do severe damage, or OHKO with a U-turn, such as CB Bat's U-turn doing 76 - 90. Crawdaunt's bulk also makes it impossible to bring it in. It must almost always be brought in on a free switch, from a U-Turn or Volt Switch, as it cannot afford to take a hit.

Crawdaunt's terrible speed also allows it to be outsped by A LOT of the tier, and can OHKO or 2HKO it due to it's terrible bulk. The only thing that remedies it's speed is Aqua Jet, which although it's a useful tool, doesn't usually do enough damage to OHKO faster Pokemon, such as Hydreigon, Rotom-C, Krookodile. (+0 AJ). Anything faster that resists an AJ can easily come in and kill it, or it's forced to switch to come in on another opportunity later on. Things like Florges can actually creep it and OHKO it with a Moonblast for example.

The final flaw of Crawdaunt is the fact that although it hits everything quite hard, and it's hard to switch in on, it cannot hit absolutely everything. It cannot have perfect coverage. Especially the SD set, which can only run 3 Attacks. Drop AJ, your outsped, drop Crabhammer or Knock and your extremely powerful STAB's are gone. Due to the lack of coverage on this set, it cannot hit some walls for extremely heavy damage and it can be countered/checked easily, by Poliwrath, Toxicroak, Ampharos, Hydreigon, Amoonguss, Tangrowth, Whimsicott, etc. The LO set, although it has more coverage, isn't perfect either. Take off the Ice Beam, Sludge Wave, or Aerial Ace, and your missing specific to hit.

In conclusion, the way this is going, although Crawdaunt hits so hard, it's so slow and frail that it cannot take any hits, and dies to all forms of priority. It needs to force switches to set up due to this aswell. Crawdaunt also has tonnes of checks, both offensively and defensively which make it completely managable in the tier at the current moment.

Thank you for reading, and I'm really sorry if it's both too long, or a bad piece of writing, as this is my first time writing anything of this sort. Please tell me if I said anything which raises an eyebrow, or disagree with.

*tl;dr:

Pro's:

power
priority
decent coverage

Con's:

slow
paper
not enough coverage
weak to priority
can't be double switched in well
weak to volt and turn
hard to set up

Thanks for reading, lucqq
 
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Sam

i say it's all just wind in sails
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what is crawdaunt even setting up on? I've probably played about 50 games between ladder and friends and I've seen a crawdaunt (my own or opponents) set up once or twice. crawdaunt needs to take weak resisted hits to be able to set up, but it doesn't have the laundry list of resistances that a mon like lucario does.

to an extent, crawdaunt punishes passiveness but I don't see that as 'uncompetitive'. in fact, I think that's really good for competitiveness. crawdaunt is a mon that takes incredible skills to use and is very much a risk vs reward type of mon. ice beam, sludge wave, aerial ace, etc are all viable options but there's something key here - they're all used only on the switch. crawdaunt is a very difficult mon to get in so it requires you to take advantage of its damage output once you get it in. mispredicting means you pretty much wasted all that you gave up to get it in (which is usually saccing a mon). if you get it right and manage to predict right and hit the mence with ice beam, awesome. if you don't, though, you're probably losing crawdaunt and probably losing the game. that's why I'll say that these coverage moves all perform well on paper but in the game they're generally not the optimal plays to make. they can be nice to maybe prevent fat mence from defogging or chesnaught from setting up spikes but they're not going to remove counters either. besides, any team with a "counter" to crawdaunt and 5 mons that immediately lose to it is a bad team.

it is very much a risk to use crawdaunt because of how few chances you're going to get to use it. while it is insanely threatening, it's also pretty easy to mitigate a lot of its threat with smart playing. yes, this may mean you don't get to play so 'mindlessly' but I don't see this as a bad thing. I think crawdaunt is great for the meta.
 
Sam pretty much stated everything about Crawdaunt that I think everyone needs to realize, and I whole heatedly agree. Crawdaunt is a great Pokemon, but everyone is speaking as if Crawdaunt is the bane for so many teams right now. In order to become a huge menace, it HAS to setup. It still hits hard without the SD boost, yes, but it isn't enough to take on an entire team by itself, and that's how a player can take advantage of it if they play smartly. Crawdaunt is actually really predictable once you face it, because it really depends on scaring your opponent to switch out so that it can get the SD boost. I know it doesn't work for every Poke' but if you predict and play it smart, then you won't have a problem taking it out. Coverage options in Ice Beam and Sludge Wave do help it out against it's supposed counters, but they only really work on switches and aren't used for much else, and also makes it difficult for Crawdaunt to take out mons it could take out before since it would have to forgo either Crabhammer or Knock Off.

Not to mention that Crawdaunt absolutely HATES priority. Since Sableye dropped, it is a bane for it since it has access to Prankster Will-o-Wisp. It has a chance of missing, yeah, but if it lands, then Crawdaunt is pretty much doomed. It can even Taunt Crawdaunt to make it unable to use SD and then burn it afterwards. I'm kinda expecting Sableye to be used a lot since it can be an annoyance to a lot of teams, so it's a semi-reliable way of checking it. Whimsicott can't do much to it besides Moonblast, but it can Encore Crawdaunt when it comes in to a SD and force it out. If Crawdaunt isn't carrying Sludge Wave or at least Ice Beam or Aerial Ace, it can't do much to Whimsicott, though is still capable of dealing good damage if it manages to get a hit.

My point is, people are really overstating that Crawdaunt is a powerhouse that is hard to stop, which is partly true IF it set ups. However, it has a difficult time finding a moment to set up, it faces coverage issues depending on what moves it decides to replace, and priority may become more prominent because of Sableye dropping, which may become a large bane for it.
 
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People should stop assuming perfect scenarios for Crawdaunt everytime. Do you really think it's the only Pokemon that shits on the tier if it picks the right move and set, and manages to setup every time?

Like Salamence
252 Atk Choice Band Salamence Outrage vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Suicune: 198-234 (49 - 57.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Salamence Outrage vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Porygon2: 156-184 (41.7 - 49.1%) -- 82.4% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Choice Band Salamence Outrage vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Cresselia: 192-226 (43.2 - 50.9%) -- 53.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Salamence Aerial Ace vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Whimsicott: 348-410 (107.4 - 126.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Choice Band Salamence Iron Tail vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Florges: 308-364 (85.5 - 101.1%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Salamence Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Doublade: 250-296 (77.6 - 91.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Life Orb Salamence Fire Blast vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Cobalion: 364-429 (112.3 - 132.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Salamence Fire Blast vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Forretress: 420-496 (118.9 - 140.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO


There's also DD Mence!

Crawdaunt isn't the only "frail" Pokemon that stomps shit at +2
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Reckless Mienshao High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Florges: 294-347 (81.6 - 96.3%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252 Atk Guts Heracross Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Suicune: 373-441 (92.3 - 109.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Adaptability Porygon-Z Tri Attack vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Umbreon: 309-364 (78.4 - 92.3%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252 SpA Life Orb Toxicroak Focus Blast vs. 240 HP / 0 SpD Swampert: 419-495 (104.4 - 123.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Mold Breaker Haxorus Outrage vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Porygon2: 316-372 (84.4 - 99.4%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock


Hint: Lots of offensive Pokemon are massive threats at +2 with LO. The issue for most of them, including Crawdaunt, is getting to that point without getting killed and actually doing something after setting up. Considering how frail and slow Crawdaunt is, and that half the tier seems to resist Aqua Jet, the actually doing something part is a problem.

What about Reuniclus? With one set it shits on offense, with the other set it shits on stall. Speaking of the latter, have you tried running a stall team without a dedicated Reuniclus counter? If you don't run Mandibuzz or Sableye, you just lose. Doublade is decent, but can't even handle Psychic reliably, let alone Shadow Ball. Yet stall being forced to prepare for Crawdaunt, just like it is forced to prepare to many other things, is a problem.

For the record, it's not only Reuniclus and Crawdaunt: Mega Absol, Chandelure, Cresselia, Feraligatr, Hydreigon, Hoopa, Infernape, Salamence, etc. Try running a stall team without FORCING yourself to run checks to those pokemon.

Another bad argument people have used is that "Offense has problems switch into Crawdaunt". Yeah definitely. Now, how many switch in does offense have for Kyurem, Salamence, Hydreigon, Entei, Mamoswine, etc? Offense isn't supposed to be able to freely switch around threats ?_?

My favorite is "I do not want to watch Crawdaunt in SPL, I do not want Crawdaunt in UU". Almost every single person who wanted to retest Crawdaunt was a SPL player, manager, former manager or almost certain pick for this SPL. Do you really think this is some semi-decent argument? Get a grip.

My second favorite was "Crawdaunt also cant be trap killed because of its Dark-type". You can't Pursuit trap a Dark-type Pokemon, this changes everything. There's absolutely no other way of dealing with frail and slow offensive Pokemon that aren't Pursuit weak.

You want to argue Crawdaunt is broken, that's fine. However, using blatantly flawed logic, ignoring how the metagame deals with other threats, posting a bunch of context-less calcs and completely worthless facts, and using silly buzzwords that don't really mean anything (Centralizing, overcentralizing, uncompetitive, etc) is not the way to do so. Tired of reading long posts without any real content. From now on I'm going to infract anyone saying shit like "You have to prepare your teams for Crawdaunt, therefore broken"*.

If you want to post, you'll have to do it properly.

*You have to prepare for every top threat. There's no BL Pokemon you won't have to prepare for (Goth being the exception, because you cannot prepare for Shadow Tag) and the same applies to some future drops / Pokemon Z megas / etc. If you don't like adapting to new threats, then you should play a less volatile tier, like Ubers.
 

Euphonos

inanod ng mga luha; damdamin ay lumaya.
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At first, I became quite skeptical to the Crawdaunt retest because of its sheer power (thanks to Adaptability-boosted STABs and base 120 Attack) to deal massive damage go the opposition. Its natural tendency to use Knock Off vs. numerous Crawdaunt switch-ins could be very annoying to handle. However, its subpar Speed is one of the biggest factors that struggled Crawdaunt to fulfill its role as a wallbreaker.

As such, Crawdaunt, while a "metagame-polarizing" menace in the UU tier (like Mamoswine), isn't exactly broken in the sense that there are a lot of checks, offensively and defensively; besides, Stall can still be deemed playable even while Crawdaunt is lurking around the corner.

Since I'm on mobile, I'll be happy to explain my stance further soon.
 
I got reqs using stall and I have to say Crawdaunt isn't as problematic as it might seem for stall because it's possible to build a good stall team with relevant cores that deal with crawdaunt in addition to many other physical threats (Chesnaught+Alomomola+Sableye+mega blastoise was the core i used). Basically my point is that Crawdaunt doesn't limit team building for defensive teams as much as mons like NP lucario, toxicroak, infernape or subcm gardevoir, chandelure or even lum berry dd mence.
If we can have things like salamence or infernape running around then I see no problem with unbanning Crawdaunt.
 

I got reqs using stall and I have to say Crawdaunt isn't as problematic as it might seem for stall because it's possible to build a good stall team with relevant cores that deal with crawdaunt in addition to many other physical threats (Chesnaught+Alomomola+Sableye+mega blastoise was the core i used). Basically my point is that Crawdaunt doesn't limit team building for defensive teams as much as mons like NP lucario, toxicroak, infernape or subcm gardevoir, chandelure or even lum berry dd mence.
If we can have things like salamence or infernape running around then I see no problem with unbanning Crawdaunt.
I used a completely different stall team (and got reqs by now) and I too did not have big problems with Crawdaunt. Many people say that Crawdauint is horrible for stall but I am starting to wonder if those people actually tried using stall on the suspect ladder.

He may seem horrible against stall and at first I thought that I would vote ban but if you actually use a good stall core well then you will see he is not that bad for stall at all.
 

freezai

Live for the Applause
is a Tiering Contributor
After entering the suspect with a bit of a skeptical view of Crawdaunt's suspect, I have to agree that it is not broken and would be a good addition to the tier.

I wanted to look at the matchups that Crawdaunt has versus different team builds. I wanted to note that imo adding Crawdaunt means that we get another powerful wallbreaker that punishes passivity not bulky teams. There is a fine line between a bulky stall team and a team that is downright passive. Crawdaunt can punish teams that give too many free moves, it can not however just wallop through a bulky team that is actually prepared for it. Adding a pokemon that can easily punish bad teams is definitely a favorable addition.

Taking a look matchupwise:
VS Offense: offensive teams do a good job of beating it just by taking advanatge of its slow speed and low bulk. Crawdaunt's matchup vs offense is average at best: worst case-scenario it never gets a chance to switch in or even revenge kill because a lot of faster threats resist aqau jet and Crawdaunt just sits as dead weight for the whole match. Best case scenario it gets a free switch through either a double switch or a revenge kill and gets one kill before being forced out again and possibly rendered as dead weight again.

VS Balance: Crawdaunt has a better matchup vs balance teams but nothing that I would stipulate as broken. Crawdaunt is actually both soft and hard checked by quite a lot of balance viable mons and balance staples. Bulky Toxicroak, Tangrowth, Zapdos, Roost Hydreigion,Coballion,Whimsicott and more can all can do a good job of checking Crawdaunt. Balance does have to play a little more carefully in terms of not playing like a duck and getting bopped over by your own passivity, but it does have options to revenge,check or counter Crawdaunt.

VS Stall: While Crawdaunt would appear to feast on stall due to its ability to feast on passivity, (theres that word again) stall does have a few hard counters to Crawdaunt. Chesnaught, Defensive Mega-Ampharos, Poliwrath (it is in the viability rankings and also checks Gatr which is something stall needs to do so I'm not picking through unviable garbage to try and supplement my argument), Tangrowth and Fatmence to an extent.
"Well what if Crawdaunt is running a 4th move of coverage instead of SD? Hahaha there goes your counter and I win!" A Crawdaunt without SD becomes significantly easier for a stall team to wall because it doesn't have to deal with the worry of getting set up on. Additionally, stuff like Suicune and Alomoloma can wall non SD versions of Crawdaunt because they no longer feel the pressure of possibly becoming set up bait.

Out of all these matchups its matchup vs balance is the most favourable and Offense the least. Crawdaunt will definitely be a threat if/when it gets unbanned purely because of its sheer power, but its power is not the only thing that defines it and its low bulk and speed make it a manageable pokemon in the tier that deserves to get unbanned.
 
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