They can still reliably break Slowking, though. At least from my experience.
Your experience =/= everyone’s experience. I personally find Slowking to be fairly reliable check to these guys. Flareon? LO wall breaker sets can’t 2HKO and is easily stalled out and eventually killed. Camerupt? Has nothing on Slowking besides Explosion, but if that is a significant factor then Leafeon can’t reliably contain physical Shiftry and the like. Rapidash? Has to predict the switch perfectly to break through. Entei? Mixed sets can be stalled out nicely, whilst Calm Mind or Specs sets are generally walled by or setup fodder for Munchlax. And so on.
It doesn't go to waste when considering you need to outpace Pokemon such as Rhydon so that you don't get raped by Megahorn (like Slowking does).
Yes but I was talking about ‘fast’ threats. Besides, Slowking can comfortably survive one Megahorn and OHKO back, so it isn’t entirely raped by the move.
It isn't a "reliable" enough Fighting check, in my opinion. I think you need a Ghost in NU for the sole purpose of reliably checking Fighting types. There are Pokemon such as Primape can completely plow through Slowking with U-turn, while Hitmonchan and Medicham can both still break through Slowking. If fighting-resists are that important, I would definitely not rely on something like Slowking, I would use a Ghost.
Or better still, use both. And there’s a good reason why you shouldn’t rely entirely on one or the other to check Fighters; they have to be extremely wary of Skuntank! As far as Ghosts go, Dusclops fares the best with its bulk and access to WoW and/or Earthquake, but even then it still has to predict well sometimes. And Slowking actually has the offensive output to beat down hard on said Fighting types, rather than just try to wall them, which is the fundamental difference between wall and tank.
On top of this, Leafeon boasts many important resistances, namely to Ground and Grass. Munchlax + Slowking are absolutely destroyed by anything like Shiftry, Offensive Leafeon, Victreebell, etc because Slowking simply doesn't have the Defense to compensate for the weakness. Leafeon can at least tolerate shit like U-turn from Primape, and even like Fire Fangs from Flareon and Luxray.
Okay let us clarify this U-turn thing you’re talking about once and for all, assuming a 252 HP / 252 Def + Defense spread for both:
463 Atk U-turn vs. 334 HP / 394 Def Leafeon:
35.93-42.51%
463 Atk U-turn vs. 394 HP / 284 Def Slowking:
41.62-49.24%
That’s Jolly CB Primeape’s U-turn vs. maxed out Leafeon and Slowking. Obviously Leafeon takes less damage, but the difference is only 18%, which may make the world of difference to you, but not me. What
does make the world of difference to me is the equivalent set of calcs for Close Combat, and I don’t think I need to do them to make my point clear.
I don’t care if Slowking + Munchlax can’t counter offensive Grass types, that is obvious. But Grass is the easiest offensive type in the game to resist, and I find that most of them can be comfortably checked with Skuntank or Dodrio alone. Fighting is harder not just because it is a better type but also because of the Skuntank factor.
Pinsir and Skuntank will absolutely obliterate Slowking. Much faster than Leafeon anyway, who can at least take a hit from each. Muk + Qwifish two exceptions to the "Leafeon is always better" rule, I guess.
Skuntank most commonly runs Sucker Punch / Poison Jab / Pursuit / Explosion with a Life Orb. This set easily 2HKOs Leafeon but is forced to sacrifice itself in order to take out Slowking. Even if running Crunch, both Pokemon are only 2HKO’d, and Skuntank may even run Fire Blast, which hits Leafeon for a lot harder than anything it can muster against Slowking. Additionally, Slowking can paralyze back and deal up to 50% to a 4/0 variant with Surf. Leafeon’s best option is Return, which does only 37%, and is a specialized move because you have to lose an important support option in order to use a second attack.
Pinsir commonly 2HKOs both Pokemon with X-Scissor, the only difference is that with Choice Band (and Adamant) it has a small chance of OHKOing Slowking. However again, Slowking can do more back, up to 60% with Surf in addition to possible paralysis. Leafeon’s best option is Aerial Ace for about 41% max, and is again specialized.
I would respond to the other couple of points I left out, but it would just be me repeatedly explaining how you completely missed the point. I am not in any way saying that Leafeon is an inferior Pokemon. In fact, it is the better Pokemon overall. I
am saying that Leafeon is in no way as good a defensive partner to Munchlax as Slowking is; not even close. Against a high proportion of physical Pokemon it is reliant on them not preying on the huge discrepancy in physical to special bulkiness by using a stray special attack. Many of them have access to one of Sludge Bomb, Fire Blast/Overheat and Ice Beam, that are viable options for dealing with problem bulky Pokemon like Leafeon that are much more vulnerable on the other side. Slowking is more reliable in this way due to great overall bulk, and can take special hits a whopping 82% better than Leafeon can. This is in addition to the fact that Slowking is quite annoying to switch into for the same reasons as Slowbro in UU, except even better because there’s no Clefable, Chansey, Lanturn and other annoying Pokes. It is capable of checking most of the strong Fighting Pokes, takes on the Fire Pokes that Munchlax can’t, and lures in many others to be crippled (or even killed) very efficiently. Defensive Leafeon just doesn’t do that anywhere near as well, and is actually an invitation for many threats to switch in fairly harmlessly while it does whatever. But that isn’t to say that it is not a good standalone Pokemon.
