Metagame np: SS DOU stage 0: Begin Again | Beat Up banned

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Top 5 Birds of Gen8
Preliminary Rankings​

With the nerf of Talonflame in Gen6, the Bird sub-typing took a major drop in viability in Gen7. But despite the loss of Zapdos, Birds are back and better than ever in Gen8. The introduction of Corviknight is the most obvious but also some previously nonviable mons may turn out to find a niche or even be high up the tier list due to all the changes taken place.


#1 Corviknight
Corviknight @ Assault Vest
Ability: Mirror Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Atk / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Body Press
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Brave Bird
Corviknight is a physical steel/flying attacker who I expect will fill the fairy resist and check role on many teams. He has decent bulk and attack, but clearly its best attribute is access to the new ability Mirror Armor which bounce back stat lowering effects. This means it is immune to intimidate and lowers the attack of intimidators.

Details on the sample set:
Meant to be used as a Max-Attacker. Brave Bird boosts speed, after 2 speed boosts you outrun max speed Dragapult. Body Press would be the second most common Max-Attack to raise its Attack stat.
Using max HP to get the most out of Maxing and Avest to take fire and electric type attacks. Attack EVs are a dump.


#2 Pelipper
Pelipper @ Focus Sash
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Hurricane
- Tailwind
- U-turn
With Char-Y gone, Pelipper seems to be easily the top weather setter. There are plenty of great Swift Swimmers to take advantage of Rain including new ones Barraskewda and Drednaw

The sample set is the same set commonly used it gen7, you could also use Damp Rock and/or move some of the Speed EV into HP


#3 Braviary
Braviary (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Tailwind
- Protect
Braviary is a powerful all out attacker. Its used similarly to Corviknight as a Max attacker with flying and fighting moves but with more power at the expensive of less bulk.

Sample set is curtosy of GenOne , he says "Max HP makes it impossible to kill when dynamaxed. And you can just pick up speed with Max Airstrike along the way"


#4
Hawlucha @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Limber / Unburden
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Atk / 40 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Thunder Punch
- Protect
Hawlucha is another Bird taking advantage of Fighting and Flying max moves. Its is not able to ignore intimidate but its access to Thunder Punch gives a niche role as a Gyarados check. Its naturally high Speed means you do not need to invest much EVs, and Limber is a nice ability for a mon that likes to go fast.

The Sample Set Speed EVs allow you to outrun max speed Gyarados. Max HP is to make the most of the 2x HP boost from maxing, dumped the remaining EVs into Attack.


#5
Togekiss @ Wiki Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 80 SpD / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Follow Me
- Thunder Wave
- Air Slash
- Fire Blast
Togekiss got a nerf in gen8 as it no longer can learn Tailwind. How ever it is probably the best redirection support. It still has access to Thunder Wave so can provide speed control and prevent what is paralyzed from moving by Air Slashing it.

With Fire Blast it can 2HKO a Copperajah with 252Hp/4SpD.
It lives a Copperajah Iron Head and can live a -1 Life Orb boosted Copperajah Iron Head. Dump into SpD
Helping Hand and Life Dew are other options
If you're to use body press, wouldn't it be better if you put the dump evs in Defense?
 

Solace

royal flush
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With the confirmation that speed adjusts mid-turn, I think TR is going to be absolutely huge this gen. You could have a fast TR setter with Room Service and be able to have your very slow partner Pokemon benefit immediately and be able to attack second before your opponent starts, saving a predictable protect set up turn. I could honestly see TR Gigantamax early game sweepers getting some play - slow hard hitters spreading damage around early or forcing out the opposing Gigantamax early to counter. Should be pretty fun!
 
With the confirmation that speed adjusts mid-turn, I think TR is going to be absolutely huge this gen. You could have a fast TR setter with Room Service and be able to have your very slow partner Pokemon benefit immediately and be able to attack second before your opponent starts, saving a predictable protect set up turn. I could honestly see TR Gigantamax early game sweepers getting some play - slow hard hitters spreading damage around early or forcing out the opposing Gigantamax early to counter. Should be pretty fun!
Trick Room has -7 Priority, the lowest priority bracket in the game, so you won't be seeing the speed adjusting on the turn where Trick Room has been set up.
 

Kenpwnchi

formerly Pwndkthnx
Hey, everybody!!! It’s Pwndkthnx. I’m so excited that Gen 8 has finally arrived, and I hope I can provide some quality insight going into the new tier. I’m going to use this post to talk about mons I like, and what they’re capable of bringing to the table.

Gyarados
Man. With Lando and Incineroar gone, Gyarados and Arcanine have become the top two users of Intimidate. My item of choice for Gyarados is Choice Band. Choice Band allows Gyarados to easily rip through foes with its great ATK and movepool. You can also use Dragon Dance if you wanna make Gyarados stronger. Gyarados even has Power Whip, allowing it to counter other Water mons like Milotic.

Arcanine
Arcanine is the premier Fire-type user of Intimidate (until Incineroar gets released, unfortunately). Arcanine gets a lot of great moves, and can even heal itself by using Morning Sun. Extreme Speed is clutch for picking enemies off. Also, Arcanine got Play Rough this Gen, and that can put in work.

Galarian-Weezing
Neutralizing Gas is great for nullifying Shadow Tag and Intimidate, but what I really love about Weezing is Misty Surge. I was scared I would lose my check to moves like Toxic, but everything worked out. Galarian-Weezing has Overheat to fight back against Steel-type Pokémon. I use Haze on this mon to keep shit clean.

Corviknight
Mirror Armor is crazy. Most Intimidate users, if not all, are ATKers, and Mirror Armor makes good use at turning their ability against them. This mon has Taunt to stop shit like Trick Room, Roost for recovery, and Tailwind for speed control. This Pokémon can most definitely check Hatterene with Iron Head.

Duraludon
This Pokémon only has two weaknesses, and a ton for resistances. Draco Meteor tears shit up. Stalwart allows Duraludon to successfully use Thunderbolt on Gyarados and/or Pelipper without worrying about Lightning Rod. This thing can use Dark Pulse to defeat Ghost-type and Psychic-type Pokémon.

Gothitelle
The only mon with Shadow Tag, and a fearsome one at that. With Snorlax back at her side, Gothitelle doesn’t mind keeping her victims ensnared. Gothitelle gets Fake Out now, and that is a big change. As long as she has support, she will always be strong.

Gen 8 is chaotic, but fun. As I adapt, it’s becoming more strategic. It’s all about knowing when to Dynamax, and I’m ecstatic that every mon can do it.
 

MajorBowman

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Bulk Up Roost Corviknight has been super fun in the few games I've played so far. It can set up on a bunch of stuff, and there isn't much around to check it. Intimidate is actively detrimental against it and makes a would-be check Arcanine basically just lose to Corv, and there are pretty few electric types that don't just suck. Probably a pretty solid Tailwind setter too but I haven't explored that yet. I've been pretty busy since the SwSh release, but I'll be diving back into playing some more games in the next few days. What I've seen so far has been super cool though, looking forward to a fun generation.

Also figured I'd take this opportunity to say that the council hasn't started talking about anything potentially banworthy yet, so if there's anything popping up that seems oppressive please discuss them in this thread. Some of the possible offenders just off the top of my head might be things like Gothitelle and Kyurem-B, but those are just personal thoughts and don't reflect the rest of council. The goal is to get our metagame into a playable and enjoyable state before our circuit tournaments start next year!
 
Bulk Up Roost Corviknight has been super fun in the few games I've played so far. It can set up on a bunch of stuff, and there isn't much around to check it. Intimidate is actively detrimental against it and makes a would-be check Arcanine basically just lose to Corv, and there are pretty few electric types that don't just suck. Probably a pretty solid Tailwind setter too but I haven't explored that yet. I've been pretty busy since the SwSh release, but I'll be diving back into playing some more games in the next few days. What I've seen so far has been super cool though, looking forward to a fun generation.

Also figured I'd take this opportunity to say that the council hasn't started talking about anything potentially banworthy yet, so if there's anything popping up that seems oppressive please discuss them in this thread. Some of the possible offenders just off the top of my head might be things like Gothitelle and Kyurem-B, but those are just personal thoughts and don't reflect the rest of council. The goal is to get our metagame into a playable and enjoyable state before our circuit tournaments start next year!
Kyurem-B is not available yet, so maybe Goth but I'm not seeing her that much. Most people are playing with Hatterene in her place.
 

MajorBowman

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Oh duh, totally forgot those extra 35ish mons couldn't be used when I was writing that post lol. I'd be surprised if people settled on Hatterene > Gothitelle tbh, Magic Bounce is cool but Shadow Tag is still pretty busted and Fake Out is insane.
 
I'm interested to see how Snorlax fares with its various changes. The pinch berry nerf has felt quite significant to me, with the 17% loss being rough in terms of its survivability. You can't just sit and recycle while soaking hits anymore because you aren't recovering enough really. Dynamaxing helps and hurts it, Snorlax can reach over 1000 hp when dynamaxed which is quite insane to me. While this really helps its overall bulk for a time, opposing dynamaxing means 3 turns of strong moves rather than just having to soak up a Z move or KO one mega pokemon.
I get the feeling that Belly Drum won't be any good, as the 50% hp cut with no defensive benefit seems like too much to support. Curse on the other hand seems like it has afford the time to set up, as a lot of Knock Off mons have seemingly been mished (Bisharp being a noticeable one) and SwSh being a bit fatter from what I've played.

Braviary and Corviknight (I've been converted on the Bulk Up Roost set as bowman mentioned) are mons that really excite me. They have Intimidate blocking abilities and Flying/Fighting STAB is so epic with dynamaxing. In your 3 turns you can boost your speed and attack enough to function well outside of the bulk gained from the hp boost. When the speed mechanics change is implemented on PS we will see some really cool interactions with Max Airstream boosting powerful mons like specs Sylveon.

On the topic of speed, I have been trying to figure out a good, solid fullroom archetype and honestly I've been struggling. The issue I've found is that very few setters have the bulk necessary to set TR even twice due to having to deal with a fat dynamaxing mon. Scrafty can't Fake Out and Lucario can't Final Gambit them. Psychic Surge Indeedee with Follow Me has felt like the most consistent way of setting, since stuff like Sky Drop has gone. Theres also a lack of really game changing attackers, Torkoal comes closest but has noticeable issues (Rocks, depending on sun a lot) so even setting TR hasn't felt massively rewarding for what I gave. Hatterene and Mimikyu seem to be the nost dependable setters, having decent offensive presence under TR and having nice traits to deny some of the counterplay to it.

Finally, gigantamaxing. A lot of the gmax pokemon are quite underwhelming to being with (Coalossal and Centiskorch, to name a couple, spring to mind) and others just like regular gmaxing more (Corviknight in particular prefers the speed boost from Max Airstream over the Defog effect of Wind Rage). It typically feels like a waste of an option since most don't have that damage threat like Gyarados or Braviary do. However, Lapras has been one I have wanted to try. Its a nice fat pokemon which is a decent rain check and I have theoried on a Perish Trapping mode. But its gmax move, Resonance, sets up Aurora Veil without the need for hail to be active (as far as a I know??) which is really cool. I think supporting stuff like Snorlax or Kommo-o would be epic, though I get the feeling I'd rather just dynamax them.
 
Body press is such a cool new move, being able to fully invest in defense and not have to worry about intimidate is amazing on a physical attacker.

The new goat mon is an obvious choice for it, but the one I've been having the most success with is Kommo-o:

Kommo-o @ Leftovers
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 232 HP / 252 Def / 20 Spe
bold/impish Nature
- Body Press
- Substitute/protect
- Iron Defense
- Flash cannon/poison jab/draco meteor

Kommo-o is the most viable fighting type that gets the move (it doesn't stack with bewear's fluffy) and I've been having a lot of fun with this set. The 20 speed EV's are to outspeed Dragapult after tailwind (although you can't do too much back), with the rest in hp and defense. After one iron defense, it's a roll to one shot defensive Rotom-W! Soundproof is there to combat sylveon and annoy toxicitry and works really well with sub.

I've been pairing it with scarf/specs g-max duraldon, with can take care of fairies with it's steel stab, which also boosts kommo-o's defense while doing so! Grimmsnarl is also a good team mate as it has fake out/light screen support and can drive out dragons. It can also g-max snooze when needed to create set-up opportunities for kommo-o.
 
How does Stonjourner look?

This guy, in case you forgot.

I'm not super well versed in doubles, but it has a few tricks up its rocky sleeves.
I can see this thing pairing nicely with Charizard. Wide Guard can protect Zard from Rock Slides and Muddy Waters, and Imprison can both protect Zard from Rock Slides and allow Zard to spam Heat Wave without being Wide Guarded.
 
I am gonna talk about the 3 new goddesses of support:

1574438293340.png
Alcremie: The goddess of all things sweet and delicious. Alcremie has a plethora of support moves to really make or break a match. Aromatic Mist to boost special defense, Aromatherapy to cure status (or Misty Terrain to outright prevent it), and Charm to cripple physical attackers. But the most important of all, she has access to Decorate, which gives the target (an ally) +2 attack and special attack, meaning that she can boost any attacker in a positive way. She also has access to the abilities Sweet Veil and Aroma Veil to protect her team from Sleep or Taunt/Attract respectively, which can be very beneficial as it allows Alcremie to not be shut down by Taunt. With 65/75/121 bulk along with Recover, Alcremie has the bulk to support for a decent amount of time. Mono Fairy type is a great defensive type along with allowing Alcremie to get STAB on Dazzling Gleam to do some good chip damage as well. On the negative side, her physical bulk doesn't really allow her to take more than 1 physical hit (if that, though she can increase it with Acid Armor if you feel the need to). In addition to that, the lack of healing support (Life Dew, Heal Pulse) and slow speed with no way to change that (Trick Room) definitely hurt Alcremie's support capabilities.


1574438311463.png
Hatterene: The goddess of fashion and beauty. Hatterene also has a ton of support moves to really help her team out. Aromatherapy to cure status, Heal Pulse to heal its ally (or Life Dew to heal itself and its ally though to a lesser degree), Healing Wish if you are in a pinch, Nuzzle to cripple sweepers with paralysis, Charm to cripple physical attackers, Trick Room to support slower mons and really turn the tides of the battle (it has a nice 29 speed allowing it to outspeed any 30 speed tier mons), as well as Skill Swap, After You (great in Trick Room), and Aromatic Mist for some further support (you might even be able to do something with Magic Powder). Hatterene has decent 57/95/103 bulk allowing it to survive a hit or two, and has great abilities in Healer and Magic Bounce, meaning it cannot be hit with Taunt. It has great special attack (136) and can do some hard chip damage with a STAB Dazzling Gleam. On the negative side, 57 HP really brings down its overall bulk, and its typing isn't the greatest defensively, especially in a tier with a lot of Steel and Ghost types. In addition, 29 speed is slow as heck if you aren't using Trick Room. You will almost always go last unless you are facing a team of Pyukumukus and Pincurchins.

1574438327810.png
Indeedee-F: The goddess of health and vitality. Indeedee also has a ton of support moves. Aromatherapy to cure status, Helping Hand to boost its ally's moves, Follow Me to redirect attackers to herself, Trick Room to support slower mons and shift the battle (female doesn't get Trick Room for some reason, only male), Fake out to flinch a foe, Heal Pulse to heal its teammates or Healing Wish to heal an ally in a pinch, and Light Screen/Reflect to increase bulk. She has a great ability in Psychic Surge, which allows her to automatically set up Psychic Terrain, boosting Psychic moves and preventing priority moves. She also has decent 70/65/105 bulk to allow her to take a hit or two, while also having Hyper Voice and Dazzling Gleam for doubles chip damage (or any Psychic attack to take advantage of Psychic Terrain). On the negative side, she has low physical bulk and only decent special bulk so she isn't surviving much, and her speed tier sits at 85, which means she will be slower than most, but on the faster side for Trick Room (unless holding an Iron Ball or Room Service). Also lack of any reliable recovery for itself with hurt its overall longevity.

I chose to highlight these three because they all have very similar stat spreads, and serve almost the same role, though they differ in a few regards. Overall, each team will likely see one of these (though likely never all 3 or even 2). Each have an advantage over the others, with Alcremie being able to boost its ally's attacking stats to huge levels and negate Taunt, Hatterene being able to support with Trick Room and negate status moves, and Indeedee being able to redirect attacks/flinch and prevent priority moves. For me personally, I opt to use Hatterene as she seems to be the most complete package, with reliable recovery for herself and others, access to Trick Room, status to cripple foes, and isn't taunt bait.
 
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Galarian-Darmitan, the choice master of dissaster.
4 HP 252+ attack 252 speed spa -0
Earthquake
Iron head
Ice punch
Rock slide
Ability: Gorilla tactics
Item:choice scarf (choice band may work with tailwind, but honestly it's overkill).
Earthquake will be the go to move if you are using a floating teammate, and i carry iron head for fairy trick room setters, namely hatterene, rock slide for flyers and ice punch for dynamax flyers.
It will team up excellently with any dinamax bird with access to both flying and fighting dinamoves (I'm running braviary btw) and allows them to setup unchallenged and boost darmitan is the process, he usually won't last much longer than that but he provides enough of a lead to snowball to victory.
 
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If you haven't been laddering much in SWSH this might surprise you but Beat Up is worthy of a ban discussion. With the introduction of Dynamax boosted Justified mons, mainly Arcanine, are able to become extremely bulky, removing the need to use spread moves like Terrakion does in previous generations because your opponent can't threaten a KO on the Justified mon. In addition Dynamax makes you immune to Fake Out and phasing and allows you to deal massive damage (often OHKOs) through Protect after a Justified boost. Because of these reasons some people have supported the idea of banning Beat Up. Beat Up is certainly not unbeatable but countering it feels similar to Eevee teams in early SM.

This is a Beat Up team that I've been laddering with recently. I would encourage anyone who hasn't seen Beat Up in SWSH to try it out. Z Strats also has a Beat Up team that might be better than mine.

Paste

Dragapult @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Beat Up
- Will-O-Wisp
- Disable
- Ally Switch

Dragapult is a powerful new addition to Beat Up teams. It is effectively the fastest unboosted mon in the game, only losing out to Ninjask and Accelgor. It is blessed with a Fake Out immunity thanks to its Ghost typing and a good support movepool. Will-o-wisp is extremely useful in supporting Arcanine's longevity because the only special attackers in the game that hit Arcanine for STAB super effective damage and outspeed Arcanine are Inteleon and Swift Swimmers (Ludicolo, Seismitoad and Mantine). Disable is a necessary tech move against Follow Me, which would otherwise stop any attempt at using Beat Up. You can also Protect with Arcanine against any threat and Disable the threat on the following turn. Cursed Body is a fantastic ability, enabling you to Disable opposing moves while using Ally Switch.

Arcanine @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Thunder Fang
- Extreme Speed
- Protect

This is a fairly standard offensive Arcanine. Thunder Fang over Wild Charge seems weird at first but the difference in max move power (120 BP vs 130 BP) is usually insignificant and using Wild Charge after dynamax has run out often kills Arcanine, cutting the sweep short. Recoil after dynamaxing is Arcanine's main weakness, so try and KO anything that you would want to Flare Blitz while you are still dynamaxed yourself.

Mew @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Transform
- Ally Switch
- Pollen Puff
- Beat Up

Mew provides a secondary Beat Up user as well as good support moves for Arcanine. Transforming into your boosted Arcanine is your main weapon against paralysis, which is the biggest threat to the team.

Clefairy @ Eviolite
Ability: Friend Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Follow Me
- Helping Hand
- Heal Pulse
- After You

Friend Guard pushes Dynamax Arcanine's bulk to even greater heights. After you is a decent check to Trick Room, although you are often able to use Follow Me to stop a number of Trick Room threats. Using Aromatherapy is another option that helps against paralysis.

Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Mystical Fire
- Shadow Ball
- Moonblast

This is going to sound silly but Sylveon is the teams check to Eiscue. Eiscue teams almost always carry Follow Me, which forces you to use Disable with Dragapult, which is slightly risky. For some strange reason ladder is running Follow Me + Ally Switch on the same set with Indeedee and sometimes Clefairy. I wont pretend to understand why but the team needed a better redirection check anyway. I lost a number of games after Disabling Follow Me just for Ally Switch to let Arcanine die. Sylveon ignores any Ice Face redirection nonsense and is good at cleaning up teams if Arcanine dies.

Lucario @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Drain Punch
- Meteor Mash
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Lucario is a somewhat shaky check to Beat Up's worst matchups (aside from Eiscue), sand and rain, and allows you to set up a second time if necessary. With a Dynamax boost and a Shuca Berry Lucario is able to take ~55% from Adamant Life Orb Excadrill's High Horsepower and OHKO Tyranitar with Max Steelspike. Dragapult's Will-o-wisp is very important in the sand matchup and ideally Lucario should never take such an attack from Excadrill but if necessary you can brute force your way through using the Shuca Berry. Drain Punch is especially helpful here as it allows Lucario to regain health after dynamaxing. Rock Slide is a great move against rain and some Focus Sash mons. While Dynamaxed Lucario can take an attack from Ludicolo and remove the rain (and potentially a sash Pelipper) with Max Rockfall.


Replays (some of these replays aren't the best but they should highlight why Beat Up can be so strong):
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1014922496. Despite being a loss I think this replay shows just how much specific counterplay it can take to stop Beat Up. Despite having 2 Focus Sashes, 2 Paralysis users and a Gothitelle my opponent needed to add Foul Play to their Bisharp after losing to me earlier. Even then they needed outplay me in general and get full paras on turns 4, 6 and 7 to win.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1014882902. A sand core forces me to lead Lucario, however my opponent has a Salazzle to make things worse. I screw up multiple times, forget about tech moves specifically designed for situations like these and somehow still manage to win with Mew + Lucario.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1014538127. Thanks to Dragapult + Dynamax Lucario is able to take multiple Max Knuckles from Scrafty while OHKOing TR setters.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1014512988. Opponent leads Follow Me + Trick Room, unboosted Arcanine is able to perform well with the help of Clefairy. If my opponent had more viable TR mons this could have been a more difficult game, although Mew + Lucario should have been able to clean up after TR ended.

I would like to see Beat Up used in higher level games (speaking of which there was talk of a kickoff tour at some point, do we have any news about that?) but at this point I think banning Beat Up is something that should be taken seriously.
 
Hmm. What about Gallade as a Beat Up abuser? Gets access to Max Airstream to fix it's middling speed as well as enough coverage to deal with pretty much anything.
 
Hmm. What about Gallade as a Beat Up abuser? Gets access to Max Airstream to fix it's middling speed as well as enough coverage to deal with pretty much anything.
Gallade lacks extreme speed, or any other type of strong priority move.

If you haven't been laddering much in SWSH this might surprise you but Beat Up is worthy of a ban discussion. With the introduction of Dynamax boosted Justified mons, mainly Arcanine, are able to become extremely bulky, removing the need to use spread moves like Terrakion does in previous generations because your opponent can't threaten a KO on the Justified mon. In addition Dynamax makes you immune to Fake Out and phasing and allows you to deal massive damage (often OHKOs) through Protect after a Justified boost. Because of these reasons some people have supported the idea of banning Beat Up. Beat Up is certainly not unbeatable but countering it feels similar to Eevee teams in early SM.

This is a Beat Up team that I've been laddering with recently. I would encourage anyone who hasn't seen Beat Up in SWSH to try it out. Z Strats also has a Beat Up team that might be better than mine.

Paste

Dragapult @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Beat Up
- Will-O-Wisp
- Disable
- Ally Switch

Dragapult is a powerful new addition to Beat Up teams. It is effectively the fastest unboosted mon in the game, only losing out to Ninjask and Accelgor. It is blessed with a Fake Out immunity thanks to its Ghost typing and a good support movepool. Will-o-wisp is extremely useful in supporting Arcanine's longevity because the only special attackers in the game that hit Arcanine for STAB super effective damage and outspeed Arcanine are Inteleon and Swift Swimmers (Ludicolo, Seismitoad and Mantine). Disable is a necessary tech move against Follow Me, which would otherwise stop any attempt at using Beat Up. You can also Protect with Arcanine against any threat and Disable the threat on the following turn. Cursed Body is a fantastic ability, enabling you to Disable opposing moves while using Ally Switch.

Arcanine @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Thunder Fang
- Extreme Speed
- Protect

This is a fairly standard offensive Arcanine. Thunder Fang over Wild Charge seems weird at first but the difference in max move power (120 BP vs 130 BP) is usually insignificant and using Wild Charge after dynamax has run out often kills Arcanine, cutting the sweep short. Recoil after dynamaxing is Arcanine's main weakness, so try and KO anything that you would want to Flare Blitz while you are still dynamaxed yourself.

Mew @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Transform
- Ally Switch
- Pollen Puff
- Beat Up

Mew provides a secondary Beat Up user as well as good support moves for Arcanine. Transforming into your boosted Arcanine is your main weapon against paralysis, which is the biggest threat to the team.

Clefairy @ Eviolite
Ability: Friend Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Follow Me
- Helping Hand
- Heal Pulse
- After You

Friend Guard pushes Dynamax Arcanine's bulk to even greater heights. After you is a decent check to Trick Room, although you are often able to use Follow Me to stop a number of Trick Room threats. Using Aromatherapy is another option that helps against paralysis.

Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Mystical Fire
- Shadow Ball
- Moonblast

This is going to sound silly but Sylveon is the teams check to Eiscue. Eiscue teams almost always carry Follow Me, which forces you to use Disable with Dragapult, which is slightly risky. For some strange reason ladder is running Follow Me + Ally Switch on the same set with Indeedee and sometimes Clefairy. I wont pretend to understand why but the team needed a better redirection check anyway. I lost a number of games after Disabling Follow Me just for Ally Switch to let Arcanine die. Sylveon ignores any Ice Face redirection nonsense and is good at cleaning up teams if Arcanine dies.

Lucario @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Drain Punch
- Meteor Mash
- Rock Slide
- Protect

Lucario is a somewhat shaky check to Beat Up's worst matchups (aside from Eiscue), sand and rain, and allows you to set up a second time if necessary. With a Dynamax boost and a Shuca Berry Lucario is able to take ~55% from Adamant Life Orb Excadrill's High Horsepower and OHKO Tyranitar with Max Steelspike. Dragapult's Will-o-wisp is very important in the sand matchup and ideally Lucario should never take such an attack from Excadrill but if necessary you can brute force your way through using the Shuca Berry. Drain Punch is especially helpful here as it allows Lucario to regain health after dynamaxing. Rock Slide is a great move against rain and some Focus Sash mons. While Dynamaxed Lucario can take an attack from Ludicolo and remove the rain (and potentially a sash Pelipper) with Max Rockfall.


Replays (some of these replays aren't the best but they should highlight why Beat Up can be so strong):
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1014922496. Despite being a loss I think this replay shows just how much specific counterplay it can take to stop Beat Up. Despite having 2 Focus Sashes, 2 Paralysis users and a Gothitelle my opponent needed to add Foul Play to their Bisharp after losing to me earlier. Even then they needed outplay me in general and get full paras on turns 4, 6 and 7 to win.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1014882902. A sand core forces me to lead Lucario, however my opponent has a Salazzle to make things worse. I screw up multiple times, forget about tech moves specifically designed for situations like these and somehow still manage to win with Mew + Lucario.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1014538127. Thanks to Dragapult + Dynamax Lucario is able to take multiple Max Knuckles from Scrafty while OHKOing TR setters.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1014512988. Opponent leads Follow Me + Trick Room, unboosted Arcanine is able to perform well with the help of Clefairy. If my opponent had more viable TR mons this could have been a more difficult game, although Mew + Lucario should have been able to clean up after TR ended.

I would like to see Beat Up used in higher level games (speaking of which there was talk of a kickoff tour at some point, do we have any news about that?) but at this point I think banning Beat Up is something that should be taken seriously.
The damage calculador isn't working on SWSH yet, but be werry, my galarian darmitan can 0HKO non Intimidate non HP invested arcanines and can out speed anything with it's Choice Scarf.
He may be the best counter available to this strategy.
 
Currently, I think the meta is near-balanced. Yes, there are some issues that are annoying, but I'm sure we're find out a way to counter them.


However, I think Grimmsnarl or rather its signature move G-Max Snooze may become an unpopular topic. Once it's in its Gigantamax form, it can spam G-Max Snooze, and cause both opposing mons to be "Drowsy". The move is basically a weaker version of Dark Void. To top it off, Grimmsnarl can use Fake Out to ensure speed control (set up by ally) and take full advantage of its Gigantamax form during the following turns.

This is the team I used:
Grimmsnarl-Gmax (M)
Ability: Pickpocket
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Fake Out
- Play Rough
- Darkest Lariat
- Protect

Gothitelle @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Psyshock
- Trick Room
- Heal Pulse
- Protect

Hitmontop (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Quick Guard
- Protect

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Power Whip
- Heavy Slam
- Leech Seed
- Protect

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Chandelure @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Shadow Ball
- Trick Room
- Protect
 

Stratos

Banned deucer.
Im honestly not that impressed by g-max snooze, youre basically spending your entire dynamax to sleep 2 things (or force switches, which is honestly probably a better use of the move). theres also obvious counterplay in an opponent just maxing their fairy and (1) ohkoing your dynamaxed grimm (2) setting terrain to prevent yawn. of course, the plus side to the move is that grimm is a good mon already, and you're not giving anything up by running it if you just decide to dynamax something else. but i think that comps heavily built around g-max snooze arent going to be very successful.
 
Im honestly not that impressed by g-max snooze, youre basically spending your entire dynamax to sleep 2 things (or force switches, which is honestly probably a better use of the move). theres also obvious counterplay in an opponent just maxing their fairy and (1) ohkoing your dynamaxed grimm (2) setting terrain to prevent yawn. of course, the plus side to the move is that grimm is a good mon already, and you're not giving anything up by running it if you just decide to dynamax something else. but i think that comps heavily built around g-max snooze arent going to be very successful.
Or steel coverage moves on dinamaxes of your own or on heavy hiters or an alcremie running sweet veil which stop sleep alltogether.
 
Rain spam has been working out pretty well for me, considering how you can pack enough weather-boosted nukes to take down opposing dynamax, saving your own dynamax to steamroll late-game. I started with a core of Ludicolo/Drednaw, with Drednaw's Head Smash being a great trade option vs. annoying mons like Lapras, Gyara, Rotom-W, that Ludi can't quite deal with in one hit. Lately I've taken to trying scarf Dracovish as well, bcos chunking water resists for 60-80% with Fishious Rend really helps with the Muddy Water spam later on.

Can't really paste sets cos I'm on phone now but they are quite brain dead - Fake Out/Muddy Water/Ice Beam/Giga Drain for Ludi, and Liquidation/Rock Slide/Head Smash/Superpower for Drednaw. maybe run protect somewhere but honestly you'd rather be wrecking face every turn.

Other notable abusers I've tried are Barraskewda and Seismitoed. Barraskewda felt incredibly tricky to pilot since you don't have any good spread moves and are basically forced to Dyna in order to stick around and sweep, which is kinda limiting. Seismitoed is like budget Ludicolo with a better matchup against electrics and can scare out Gastro with max grass knot, but you sacrifice fake out utility and being neutral to water means that opposing gyara or Rotom-W can just muscle past you with rain boosted STAB. the frog is decent when paired with Ludi (dual muddy waters just chunking everything is fun) but I'd ultimately prefer the single target elimination that Drednaw offers.

lastly Pelly itself has really enjoyed the dynamax mechanics - it's got Max Airstream to build up speed until it can sweep under its own weather. when your opponent is focusing on chunking down your other rain sweepers, you can often keep Pelly safe until the late game and clean house with whatevers left, especially when the other water resists are dead/chipped to hell. you can also dynamax to reset your own weather with Geyser midgame (like how a-ninetales ran Hail in USUM OU) and essentially play around every other weather setter to come up on top, so that's nice too.

overall I've been having a surprising amount of fun with this gen in spite of (or because of) the cheese, so here's to a great new gen ahead!
 

Level 51

the orchestra plays the prettiest themes
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Hello!! Earlier today I said that it's probably healthier to share threats and cores than to just dump pastes, so here I am putting my keyboard where my mouth is. So I played like 150+ battles on ladder with two different teams and I went through the Galar dex to note down some of my opinions on some of the legal Pokemon. 150 games is a large number but probably not enough to fully get a handle on a new format so I'll preface this with a disclaimer that some of these opinions could be totally wrong.

(Some other new Gen VIII Pokemon that are definitely noteworthy but which I don't know enough about to discuss yet: Dragapult, Grimmsnarl, Toxtricity, Stonjourner)

GOOD:

Braviary
This is the best Pokemon in the format for now I think. Braviary has access to the coveted Airstream / Knuckle combination which plays very well into the snowball-y nature of Dynamax in general, and Defiant just means that it's harder for opponents to stop or slow down the snowball by conventional passive means.

Gyarados
I want to speak to the CEO of Power Whip

Fossils
Fishious Rend and Bolt Beak are ridiculously powerful. Dracozolt has a better offensive typing probably—Bolt Beak is really good for stopping a snowballing Braviary or clearing up a late-game boosted Corviknight—but Dracovish has the better matchup against TR, Sand, and Rain thanks to its actually quite good defensive typing. Haven't really played around with the other two but Arctozolt looks like it could be potentially deadly on TR teams. Arctovish is probably just kind of bad. (If you're not convinced by these yet, do some calculations involving Dracovish's Fishious Rend on like Ferrothorn or Rotom-W or something.)

Rotom
I'm so glad Rotom is good again!! These basically do the exact same thing they did in BW and XY, which is burn things and stick around, but now with Dynamax they can actually do sizable amounts of damage with Max Lightning (also, for Rotom-W, Max Geyser won't miss at the most inconvenient times). With the increased viability of various Flying-type Pokemon, Electric is also a very nice typing to have (though Rotom-W needs to watch out for random Max Overgrowth from Gyarados lol who decided this was a good idea).

Sand
Sand is probably going to be the premier weather condition for this generation unless someone discovers something amazing about one of the other weathers. The already marginally-viable WP Tyranitar set got a boost this generation thanks to a few things going its way: Dynamax lets it survive more super-effective attacks; the most common Fighting-type move is now Max Knuckle, which is relatively weak; and Dynamax grants it an immunity to Low Kick because weight-based moves fail on Dynamaxed mons for some weird reason. Excadrill benefits from the drop-off in Intimidate and from having a great partner in Braviary to help snowball it even through resists.

Rain
Drednaw is a huge boon to Rain thanks to having both reasonable bulk, a solid Attack stat, and a cool secondary offensive typing; most Swift Swim users we've had in the past lacked one or two of those aspects. Head Smash is stupid. G-Max Stonesurge is also the only way I think I would consider setting Stealth Rock this generation, since the hyper-offensive nature of Dynamax in general means you don't really want to waste turns putting up SR while you get donked by an Airstream or something. Barraskewda seems kinda strong but in practice you kind of have to Dynamax it in order to get more than like one turn out of it, I think Drednaw is probably a bigger threat in general.

Whimsicott
Once the new speed mechanics go live on PS you will rue the day you said this wasn't a Tier 1 Pokemon

IFFY:

Corviknight
Having trouble figuring out how this one works. It's definitely super instrumental in some matchups (dunks on Sand teams as well as walls out most physically-biased teams) but every time I've used it it sort of just sits on the field and doesn't die but doesn't really contribute anything to the battle. I haven't tried its Bulk Up set yet so I definitely could just be using it wrong, though.

Indeedee
Indeedee feels kinda similar to a few of the less popular redirection users in previous generations like Clefable / Blastoise / Magmar in the sense that it really only sits on the field and clicks Follow Me. Indeedee has a few more tricks in Heal Pulse, Ally Switch, and maybe Fake Out on the off-chance you're not entering the field with Psychic Terrain, but as far as I can tell it just sits there and takes hits, which makes its 70/65 physical bulk all the more worrying.

Hatterene
I don't think Hatterene is that much better a TR setter than other pre-existing options which can also put out a similarly high amount of offensive pressure like Oranguru (through its partner via Instruct) or Chandelure / Jellicent. Magic Bounce isn't as relevant as you might think since Taunt and Sleep are no longer primary methods via which to stop Trick Room from going up. Not much to say about this one, it's strong but nothing super game-changing imo.

Duraludon
I've been meaning to ask: why do people use this? Is there something I'm not getting about this Pokemon? All it seems to do for my opponents is just sit there, maybe use some non-STAB super-effective move for like 40% a couple of times, and then die. Or they spend their Dynamax on it, so it's doing 60% instead of 40%. What does this do? Like and subscribe and let me know in the comments below what this does

Sun
This strikes me as a really bizarre line-up of Pokemon to put here, but Vileplume is legitimately the strongest Chlorophyll user in the format. 50 base Speed isn't that bad when most viable Pokemon sit around 70 to 100, and the lack of viable Electric / Misty Surge users in the format (Weezing is not a real Pokemon) makes Sleep Powder spam probably at least kind of viable if you can keep Sun up long enough. Charizard is also sort of scary with Solar Power, but from what I've seen of it in play it's less threatening in practice. (Or maybe people aren't using it properly, haha.)

CBDARM
As predicted, CBCBDARM is not actually very good, but I think Scarf CBDARM is actually probably a reasonable set. In a meta where a lot of speed control comes in the form of diddly +1s from Max Airstream, and on users and allies like Braviary / Excadrill / Mamoswine / etc (which are all slower than base 95), being able to revenge kill stuff unboosted is really nice. A lot of the time it gets to trade itself for your opponent's Dynamaxed mon, which is a really good trade because Dynamax is kind of good.

Scrafty
Close Combat is a nice addition that makes Scrafty actually capable of dealing significant damage but between Dynamax providing a flinch immunity, Psychic Terrain being the only relevant terrain, and Intimidate (as of now) being a dangerous ability to even have, Scrafty feels like it got boned kinda hard this generation. Poor guy, it isn't even his fault.

Galarian Corsola
This is just kind of annoying but it's somehow a legitimate late-game win condition especially because what we have of a meta so far seems to me rather physically-biased, which is just the kind of thing Corsola likes playing against. I've only run into it a few times and most of the time the opponent just brainlessly throws it out at the start, but I think if you conserve it in the back it's a great endgame win condition to play to as long as you have other tools to stop an opposing Dynamax snowball.

Obstagoon
I haven't seen this being used well yet but I think it definitely has potential. Nice bulk overall, strong ability selection (we all know how good Defiant is thanks to Braviary), access to the now-rarer Knock Off, and a solid speed tier. Also Obstruct is actually a pretty nice move, at least in theory, in the currently somewhat physically-biased pseudo-meta.

DON'T @ ME JAKE:

Galarian Weezing
ew.
 
Last edited:
Duraludon
I've been meaning to ask: why do people use this? Is there something I'm not getting about this Pokemon? All it seems to do for my opponents is just sit there, maybe use some non-STAB super-effective move for like 40% a couple of times, and then die. Or they spend their Dynamax on it, so it's doing 60% instead of 40%. What does this do? Like and subscribe and let me know in the comments below what this does
Sometimes the best offense is a good defense. Assault vest Duraludon possesses impressive bulk on all sides and due to his typing he has only two x2 weaknesses, and 120 SpAtt isn't really anything sleep on when built Modest.

I'll concede that his usage thus far seems mindless and uncoordinated but there's definitely a solid mon under those stats and typing, people are just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks at the moment but I predict he will be a solid pick, maybe not the next garchomp but solid.

I've been running him next to a Braviary with Tailwind and it's been pretty solid.
 
Some non Beat Up related thoughts on SWSH mechanics and the metagame in general:
Dynamax is very useful for snowballing with a x2 HP boost, being able to set weather/terrain/boost your stats as well as immunity to flinching and phasing. Status and stat drops are your main methods of checking dynamax pokemon, as well as your check to the base form. As a result many of the best abusers of dynamax are immune to one of these methods, such as Braviary. This immunity can be matchup specific as well, eg Excadrill can be a good user of dynamax when the opponent doesn't have intimidate on their team. I've seen people waste their dynamaxes on a pokemon that was vulnerable to their opponent's Snarl or Intimidate and end Dynamax at -2 attack/special attack, don't do this.

Another aspect of dynamax I haven't seen discussed at all is the relatively flat base power of max moves compared to Z moves. For example Air Slash (75 Base Power) goes to 140 BP with a Z crystal. Max Air Slash is 130 BP. Hurricane (110BP) goes to 185 BP with a Z crystal (~32% stronger than Z Air Slash) but is only 140 BP as a Max Move (~8% stronger than Max Air Slash). As a result using lower base power moves on a pokemon you may intend to dynamax is a potentially viable strategy, either because the added effect of the regular move is better eg. Volt Switch (120BP as a Max move) vs Thunderbolt (130BP as a Max move), or with pokemon that have low power STAB moves, eg. Nasty Plot Togekiss can use Max Airstrike without suffering from low powered STAB and then after Dynamax ends it has +3 speed with its 60% flinch rate. So far I haven't found too many ways to utilise this mechanic but I think it is under-explored.

I think speed tiers are quite weird in SWSH so far. Dragapult is the fastest unboosted pokemon in the metagame with base 142 speed. After Dragapult there is a massive drop off with Mew and Arcanine, at base 100 and 95 respectively, as the next fastest commonly used pokemon (there are viable pokemon between base 142 and 100 but they are either fairly niche or not very common so far. I suspect pokemon such as Hydreigon could increase in popularity in part due to the current speed tiers). The next interesting thing about speed in SWSH is that many pokemon between base 100 and base 80 don't run max speed. Arcanine, Rotom, Braviary and others all want to invest in bulk on some sets and often forgo running max speed.

Some thoughts on the new pokemon that Level 51 didn't talk about:

I think Dragapult is a good pokemon. It reminds me of Tapu Koko in the first few days of SM where people were unsure of whether physical or special was the better set. Unlike Tapu Koko I think both sets may remain popular over time (also I don't think its as good as Koko either). I do think that Will-o-wisp is Dragapult's best move and should be used on pretty much any non choice set. Being able to burn physical attackers is very useful because of all the Intimidate immune pokemon running around and Dragapult naturally outspeeds +1 neutral natured base 80s (Braviary and Gyarados).

Grimmsnarl is quite a useful pokemon. Prankster Thunder Wave is so useful in the rain matchup, max Airstrike and Dynamax in general. Full paralysis is also one of the few ways of making a Dynamax pokemon lose its turn. If a Dynamax pokemon takes 3 turns while paralysed there is a ~42% chance that it will lose at least 1 of their Dynamax turns, which makes it very risky to Dynamax against Grimmsnarl.

Toxtricity is really able to take advantage of the speed situation I discussed earlier. At base 75 Toxtricity finds itself slightly slower than a lot of major threats, however these threats don't always run enough speed for Toxtricity, which allows it to be effective against bulkier teams. Punk Rock combined with its typing allows it to check some common threats such as Braviary and Sylveon. It can boost its already decent power with Throat Spray and Max Ooze (or both). So far I think its a decent pokemon that is threatening in the right matchups, although struggles against some common teams, sand in particular, and is too slow against offensive sets which hold it back from being a major threat.

Stonjourner's Power Spot is an interesting ability but I don't think that Stonjourner is a particularly good pokemon. Some people might think that you can just invest in Special Defense like Kartana did in SM but Kartana only worked because it had the attack stat of a positive nature base ~135 with no investment and a number of useful resistances. I think Stonjouner teams may have occasional success but not enough to make players consider Stonjourner when teambuilding.

Here are some notable sets that I've tried:

Grimmsnarl (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Spirit Break
- Thunder Wave
- Reflect

I first added Reflect to Grimmsnarl as a filler move because I felt I didn't really need Protect that much. After using Reflect this has become one of my favourite sets so far. With many Intimidate immune pokemon in the meta its very hard to find a good blanket check to physical attackers. Reflect Grimmsnarl allows you to stall out physical Dynamax pokemon and mitigate their boosts. Spirit Break lowers special attack and does respectable damage off a base 120 attack stat. Dragapult is the most common Dark weak so far and most other Dark weak pokemon are special attackers so I haven't missed not having Dark STAB on this set. With Reflect, Spirit Break and Thunder Wave Grimmsnarl is very useful at checking opposing Dynamax pokemon, allowing you to stall out Dynamax turns against nearly any threat. You could also run special bulk on this set, I've just mostly been using physical.

:braviary:
Braviary (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 188 HP / 252 Atk / 68 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Tailwind
- Protect

Braviary appears to be considered the best pokemon in the format right now and I would agree. This set is pretty standard, the speed lets you outspeed Dragapult in Tailwind or at +2. I usually find that I mostly boost speed with Max Airstrike rather than Tailwind on this set so you could drop Tailwind for Bulk Up or even normal STAB but Tailwind is probably the best option in general.

:arcanine:
Arcanine @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 200 SpA / 56 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Snarl
- Roar
- Protect

I think special Arcanine is the best set right now (aside from Justified). Being a fire type that loses to Corviknight makes physical sets fairly mediocre and the likes of Gyarados have speed boosting methods that make Wild Charge sets inconsistent, not to mention that Gyarados + Lightningrod does see some usage. Snarl gives you a really solid Sylveon check and Roar is a useful move in general, especially now that boosting via Dynamax is on essentially every team. The speed is for Modest Ludicolo outside rain, but I'm sure better benchmarks will become standard over time.

:gyarados:
Gyarados @ Life Orb
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Bounce
- Power Whip
- Protect

With the amount of Intimidate counterplay available and the option to boost speed via Max Airstrike I think Gyarados is better off running Moxie most of the time. Its very difficult to Intimidate Gyarados because it hits every viable Intimidate pokemon for STAB super effective damage, except other Gyarados (but they should be running Moxie as well). Dragon Dance is a good option to use over Power Whip, although I find I don't use speed boosting moves other than Max Airstrike that often. A Sitrus Berry is also a good alternative option, especially on Dragon Dance sets.

:rotom-fan:
Rotom-Fan @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 80 SpA / 176 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Air Slash
- Nasty Plot
- Protect

This is a niche set I came up with for Rotom-Fan. The main idea is its a Max Airstrike user that beats opposing Max Airstrike. Rotom-Fan resists Flying and Fighting and can set up a Nasty Plot against most Max Airstrike users and then Dynamax on the next turn. An interesting aspect of this set is it can be used as a bulky pivot in matchups where Dynamaxing Rotom isn't viable, taking advantage of the Max move power mechanic I discussed earlier, although Thunderbolt can be used over Volt Switch. I don't think Rotom-Fan is that good but it hasn't disappointed me so far. The speed is for Timid Pelipper.

:araquanid:
Araquanid @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Water Bubble
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Sticky Web
- Wide Guard
- Protect

Araquanid gained access to Hydro Pump in SWSH yet I'm yet to see anyone use special Araquanid other than myself. Unfortunately the rise of flying types limits the viability of Araquanid and Sticky Webs in general
252 Atk Water Bubble Araquanid Liquidation vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 186-222 (54.5 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Water Bubble Araquanid Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Mew: 200-236 (58.6 - 69.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Special Araquanid is stronger than physical variants and is also Intimidate immune (granted Intimidate is less useful in SWSH but its still nice to have), although you have to deal with Hydro Pump's shaky accuracy.

:excadrill:
Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- High Horsepower
- Rock Slide
- Protect

I've found Swords Dance Excadrill struggles to find opportunities to set up and its STAB combination can't touch Gyarados. Rock Slide enables Excadrill to hit opposing Gyarados and reset sand with Max Rockfall. This set is probably more popular than the gen 7 Swords Dance set and I would recommend Rock Slide over Swords Dance on Excadrill right now.

:sylveon:
Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Mystical Fire
- Shadow Ball
- Hyper Beam

Specs Sylveon is very powerful in SWSH. At +1 with a neutral nature Sylveon speed ties with Positive nature base 100s, which outspeeds a large portion of the metagame. Sylveon pairs well with Dynamax Flying types, such as Braviary, and can sweep easily once opposing Steels have been weakened. This set has very poor physical bulk so you may want to drop some speed for HP.
 
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