It probably will be banned and then skuntank's usage will fall and the anti meta game pokemon (skunky =D) might have a new role instead of a espeon killer.
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NU Discussion Thread (Mark II)
- Thread starter twash
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Skuntank is good because that powerful Sucker Punch makes it a fantastic revenge-killer. It can use Pursuit to trap and eliminate stuff like Dusclops - helping the likes of Primeape - and once it has revenged or trapped something it gets to blow up on something else to get two kills for the price of one.
Smart play can somewhat mitigate the damage it does, however.
Smart play can somewhat mitigate the damage it does, however.
Quilfish can't learn Rapid Spin.
Sandslash can and has better stats then Pineco. :/
Sandslash also doesn't roll over and die from a Fire attack and can come in on a resisted Rock. Hell, Armaldo can come in on more things than Pineco.
There's unique, and then there's outclassed. Pineco fits in the latter. The only thing I can really think of Pineco for is Spikes and Exploding.
But spikes + explode is done much better by qwilfish :/
And back to the Skuntank issue...yes it does well against Espeon (especially if you run a specially defensive one), but there is much more that it does. Ghosts are also viable offensive threats, like Haunter, and Skuntank handles them well. It's Sucker Punch is arguably the best priority move in NU, and checks lots of frailer attackers like Manectric and weather sweepers. Skuntank can also run a hellish Life Orb set, using any combination of Crunch / Pursuit / Sucker Punch / Taunt / Explosion.
And back to the Skuntank issue...yes it does well against Espeon (especially if you run a specially defensive one), but there is much more that it does. Ghosts are also viable offensive threats, like Haunter, and Skuntank handles them well. It's Sucker Punch is arguably the best priority move in NU, and checks lots of frailer attackers like Manectric and weather sweepers. Skuntank can also run a hellish Life Orb set, using any combination of Crunch / Pursuit / Sucker Punch / Taunt / Explosion.
Pineco does have a niche; he can set up Spikes and Rapid Spin at the same time. Sure, his stats are pretty poor, but that's at least worth something.
I can certainly attest to that. Personally, I run SP/Pursuit/Explosion/Taunt. I cannot underappreciate how valuable Taunt is for a Skuntank, as it stops a lot of things from trying to take you down, such as Will-o-Wisp and Thunder Wave from crippling Skuntank. Besides, I find it far too easy to simply eliminate a Ghost, save Skuntank for later. Most expect him to try to explode the turn after he kills the target anyway, and I have seen teams with both Haunter and Espeon.
I almost feel a bit saddened at the prospect of Skuntank use declining with Espeon's inevitable move to UU.
That is what I meant. Really, if it did go to UU, Espeon would rot in there due to the existance of Alakazam and Mismagius.
Espeon can be easily countered in the NU Metagame.
The NU Metagame has a lot of Pokémon who have access to Psychic and in some situations (Example: Primeape vs Espeon) it is so easy to expect the Psychic. All you need to do is go into a powerful Pursuit killer such as Skuntank. Espeon is trapped, the only thing it CAN do is switch out.
The fact that people HAVE to use to many Psychic Pokémon is due to the fact that the NU Metagame is full of powerful Fighting types, and you really need a Pokémon on your team that can check Primeape, Hitmonchan, ... Psychic Pokémon are somewhat nessecary in the NU Metagame, and I love how they get along, yet there are such powerful counters, to name some: Shiftry (gets a Free Nasty Plot after a switch into Psychic), Crawadaunt (gets a free DD), Sharpedo, ...
The NU environment doesn't really have a metagame, but it has some extremely powerful Pokémon and lovely combinations (Water-Dark, Grass-Dark) who can stand their ground. It is extremely easy to run a Water-Grass-Fire core in the NU Metagame and fill it on with some powerful Scarfed Fighting Types because you'll have Shiftry, Crawadaunt, Skuntank, ... to set up on every Psychic Move...
The NU Metagame has a lot of Pokémon who have access to Psychic and in some situations (Example: Primeape vs Espeon) it is so easy to expect the Psychic. All you need to do is go into a powerful Pursuit killer such as Skuntank. Espeon is trapped, the only thing it CAN do is switch out.
The fact that people HAVE to use to many Psychic Pokémon is due to the fact that the NU Metagame is full of powerful Fighting types, and you really need a Pokémon on your team that can check Primeape, Hitmonchan, ... Psychic Pokémon are somewhat nessecary in the NU Metagame, and I love how they get along, yet there are such powerful counters, to name some: Shiftry (gets a Free Nasty Plot after a switch into Psychic), Crawadaunt (gets a free DD), Sharpedo, ...
The NU environment doesn't really have a metagame, but it has some extremely powerful Pokémon and lovely combinations (Water-Dark, Grass-Dark) who can stand their ground. It is extremely easy to run a Water-Grass-Fire core in the NU Metagame and fill it on with some powerful Scarfed Fighting Types because you'll have Shiftry, Crawadaunt, Skuntank, ... to set up on every Psychic Move...
Shiftry dies to Signal Beam. Skuntank eats HP Ground. Crawdaunt is outsped and KO'd with Signal Beam. Sharpedo is really the only real revenger I can think of outside of shoddy Pursuit trapping.
Your opponent will be so eager to finish off that Fighting type, that he or she will go for Psychic, or Trick in the worst case. However it depends of the situation in the game, but early on the game, Shiftry can be a great switchin in those Psychics, since nobody overpredicts early in the game. And if Espeon isn't scared but LO, then Shitry will def take it out with a Sucker Punch, because people tend to forget that Shitry has access to Sucker Punch.
Crawadaunt is a bad switch-in when Espeon is LO, but a good one when it is Scarf. The switchin here also depends of the situation in-game, if you have either scouted your opponents team.
Sharpedo won't outspeed Espeon either, unless it got up Agility and kill it with a Crunch. Aqua Jet won't be enough.
And actually I wasn't speaking about direct counters to Espeon's Psychic, but counter to Psychic in general.
Yeah but Sub Espeon is such much better I have no idea why someone would run scarf. The reason for this is because these "counters" aren't counters after a sub. And in the case of Primeape vs Espeon, the espeon player could just as easily sub and the predicted switch to a dark and kill it.
That's the worst case scenario. I know what you mean and I share your opiinion, however there are so many users who play Scarf, like it is the only set, when some other sets are more fragile but require a bit skill to use. Even if they subbed up, Shiftry or Skuntank could come in Sucker Punch away, and Espeon can be revenge killed by any sweeper. In this last case you TRIED to predict and read your opponent, but at some times it just doesn't work out.
I just wanted to point out that Psychics are pretty fragile in the nU environment and that you have the epic Fighting-Dark combination which can be brought into your Fire-Water*Grass core to make it even more eficient.
Espeon is kill able alright but it has checks, not counters, just checks. The same way salamence has checks in OU Espeon has checks in NU. Both have no counters though. Stunktank, can't live 2 hp grounds, and dark types fall to signal beam. I must say it's checks are extremely good but if you foe sends out espeon mid game they can predict a skuntank switch and hp ground, then after you tank is gone. Espeon can possibly sweep.
Heres a rather good set for Porygon2 that abuses Shedinja's ability Wonderguard.
Porygon2 @ Chople Berry
Nature: Modest
Ability: Trace
252 Sp.A / 252 SpE / 4 Def
~ Tri Attack
~ Ice Beam / Charge Beam
~ Hidden Power [Psychic / Flying]
~ Shadow Ball
Tri Attack used for powerful STAB. Ice Beam could be used for flying types and to hit NFE dragons like Shelgon hard. Charge Beam could be used to boost Porygon2's decent special attack much higher and to hit flying types and water types hard. Because fighting types are the only types that can hurt this Porygon after it switches in and traces Wonderguard, Hidden Power Psychic / Flying is used to knock them out quick before biting the dust. Chople Berry helps decrease the damage from a fighting type attack and helps porygon eliminate possible counters. A defensive variant could be used aswell, with an EV spread something like:
Bold 252 HP / 252 Sp.D / 4 Def
or
Calm 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Sp.D
Porygon2 @ Chople Berry
Nature: Modest
Ability: Trace
252 Sp.A / 252 SpE / 4 Def
~ Tri Attack
~ Ice Beam / Charge Beam
~ Hidden Power [Psychic / Flying]
~ Shadow Ball
Tri Attack used for powerful STAB. Ice Beam could be used for flying types and to hit NFE dragons like Shelgon hard. Charge Beam could be used to boost Porygon2's decent special attack much higher and to hit flying types and water types hard. Because fighting types are the only types that can hurt this Porygon after it switches in and traces Wonderguard, Hidden Power Psychic / Flying is used to knock them out quick before biting the dust. Chople Berry helps decrease the damage from a fighting type attack and helps porygon eliminate possible counters. A defensive variant could be used aswell, with an EV spread something like:
Bold 252 HP / 252 Sp.D / 4 Def
or
Calm 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Sp.D
Sadly sheninja is never used in NU (it still is good though) so the tracing thing doesn't work the often. But the idea of cople berry should not be wasted. Since primapes and medicham often switch in to a porygon 2 to revenge kill it and porygon 2 can live the fighting attack and OHKO them. I think porygon 2 learns psychic (correct me if I'm wrong) so try using that. Also try to replace something for recover so it can be a wall after the fighting types are gone.
true, the thing is I'm suprized no one is using scarfed skuntank, it can switch into espeon and kill it o.o. Then we would have a mini OU with scarf skuntank getting popular and stuff. But scarftank is probably a gimmick and is out classed by other sets =(
I've used ScarfTank, and it's slightly more reliable than normal Skuntank because Sucker Punch sucks (pardon the pun). Although, I've been running Specs Espeon too, and Skuntank gets 2HKO'd by Signal Beam, meaning Espeon can just throw one out and catch Skuntank, and escape while you Crunch or stay in and kill you should you Pursuit.
Wait doesn't scarftank outspeed specspeon and OHKO with pursuit? Unless I am wrong. Also may I ask what set you would run? Would it be fully physical or would it be mixed?
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