Piloswine (UU) [QC 0/2] [0/2]

:gs/Piloswine:
[OVERVIEW]
Piloswine boasts a unique Ground and Ice typing granting it not only a coveted dual STAB combination of Ice Beam and Earthquake, but also excellent pivoting abilities against the likes of mixed attackers such as Ice Beam Nidoqueen, being immune or resisting two of her attacks. This feature along with its high Attack stat, decent bulk and longevity as a sleep talker, make it a great choice in the team to fill in the role of a Ground type, which it has to compete for with other Nidoqueen, Quagsire and Sandslash, although it does have to watch out for Fire Blast Nidoqueen. Its Ground and Ice typing also give it the benefit of not being weak to common coverage moves for Electric types such as Hidden Power Ice or Ice Punch, while also not being susceptible to Psychic. Its non-weakness to Psychic means that it, unlike Nidoqueen, can stay in to threaten Psychic types with powerful Earthquakes and shrug off the hits thanks to Rest and Sleep Talk allowing it to 3HKO Hypno and 2HKO Mr.Mime. Thanks to Earthquake in combination with Ice Beam, Piloswine is one of the most difficult offensive threats for opposing players to find an effective switch-in to. Bulky Water types that are likely to switch into it such as Slowbro or Gyarados either cannot afford to take repeated hits from Earthquake or run the risk of being frozen with Ice Beam. Though a decent pivot against Bolt Beam spamming, Piloswine has a low speed and middling defences causing it at times to rely too heavily on Rest Talk for recovery and leaving itself at odds against setup sweepers like Granbull who can use Curse to boost its defense or even Scyther who in a pinch can hope to setup while the sleeping Piloswine only has a 33% chance of rolling Ice Beam to hit it.

[SET]
name: Iced Earth (Sleep Talker)
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Ice Beam
move 3: Rest
move 4: Sleep Talk
item: Leftovers

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
===========
Piloswine has the strongest Earthquake in the tier, which allows it to 3HKO bulky pokemon like Hypno or Slowking and Quagsire (with Spikes) or 2HKO offensive threats such as Nidoqueen, Mr.mime, Kadabra, Qwilfish, Kabutops, Omastar and the bulky Ampharos, or OHKO the frailer Electric types such as Electrode, Magneton, Electabuzz as well as Haunter.

Since it threatens Poison, Rock, Steel and Fire types for super effective damage, it acts as a counter against Ice Beam Nidoqueen, though the Piloswine user must be weary of staying in on the alternative Fire Blast variants. Piloswine's Ice Beam perfectly threatens those pokemon that have an immunity or resistance to the Earthquake with a 2HKO or OHKO, such as the Flying and Grass types (Scyther, Bellossom, Crobat, Victreebell, Jumpluff, Gligar). This complements Earthquake’s threat range so well, that it is both spammable and viable for creating mixup situations with the opponent, leaving them guessing what to switch in next. Even some of Piloswine’s strongest checks in Gyarados, Slowbro, Slowking and Politoed have to worry about getting frozen. Rest grants Piloswine with a method of recovery for its middling defence stats and, when complemented with Sleep Talk, allows it to handle a miscellaneous amount of mixed and special attackers discretely well, such as Hypno, Mr.Mime, Haunter, and Nidoqueen. The latter 3 are typical users of Hypnosis or Lovely Kiss, while Hypno and Mr.Mime are also commonly seen using Thunder Wave, which doesn’t affect Piloswine. Therefore Sleep Talk allows Piloswine to excellently sponge and absorb all status moves. While Sleep Talk does give Piloswine a valuable second or even third chance at life by restarting sleep cycles and replenishing health, users of Piloswine should be mindful of how this can become reasonably exploited by the opponent, who may try and gain momentum while Piloswine is at the hands of RNG. Flying types such as Gyarados may capitalize on the turns Piloswine is asleep to start bombarding the Piloswine user’s team with attacks. Additionally, switching in a sleeping Piloswine on a Scyther may not be advisable, since its otherwise reliable 2HKO against it with Ice Beam can only occur if it successfully manages to roll the move (which has a 33% chance of happening) while the Scyther sets up Swords Dance. On the other hand, Sleep Talk is not a guaranteed method for survival, since it may end up rolling the wrong moves against pokemon that Piloswine is attempting to threaten or defend its team against.

Slowbro is sufficiently bulky to survive being 4HKO’d from Earthquake and may find easy entry against Piloswine and threaten it back with Surf. Gyarados can also prove to be one of Piloswine's toughest matchups, as it boasts the bulk, typing and offensive movepool to threaten it back and brush off any hits. These two threats are the reason for which many players decide to opt for a faster, and less predictable Nidoqueen, who can threaten them with Thunder.

Team Options
==========
While relatively on the bulky side, Piloswine does not have much of an out against physical attackers, especially Pinsir and Granbull. Omastar, Haunter and Magneton can help in this regard. Haunter and Magneton resist Bug and Normal typing, making excellent partners that work with Piloswine against the likes of Pinsir and Scyther as well as no-Hidden-Power Granbull. Magneton and Haunter act as great checks against Hidden Power Bug Scyther, while Piloswine can help threaten hidden power Ground + Wing attack variants. Omastar can assist against the onslaught of Curse Granbulls that may attempt to sweep, as long as they don’t have Hidden Power Ground. The 3 aforementioned Normal type checks are all susceptible to Earthquake and Ground coverage. Piloswine can act as a check to most Ground types such as Sandslash and Nidoqueens that don’t use Fire Blast. On the other hand, Slowbro and Slowking are capable of patching up this weakness, as they resist Fire typing and threaten Nidoqueen back with STAB Pyshic or Surf, and can severely weaken Hidden Power Ground Scyther. They can even provide support in the form of Thunderwave, which can facilitate Piloswine’s ability to sweep against much faster pokemon. In turn, Slowbro or Slowking love to see bulkier Electric types like Magneton and Ampharos kept in check, which Piloswine takes care of easily.

Piloswine is a great enabler of pivoting against offensive threats that use Electric type moves, such as Mr.Mime and Haunter. Therefore, it can act as a great teammate for bulky Water types like Gyarados, Slowbro or Slowking. Gyarados especially loves Piloswine’s ability to switch in on incoming Thunders from Mr.Mime and Haunter, who are faster than it. Additionally, Piloswine can help overload many of Gyara’s awkward matchups, including Hypno or Slowking, by bombarding them with constant Earthquakes and Ice Beams. The Slowtwins also appreciate bulkier Psychic types being taken care of. Even Sleep Talk Mr.Mime and Lanturn appreciate seeing Hypno as well as Magneton and Ampharos removed, as this enables them to threaten the entire metagame with their excellent special attacking combos in Psychic+Thunder and Surf+Thunder, respectively.

Qwillfish is also a great teammate for Piloswine, since it can give it some much needed support with Spikes which allow it to 3HKO Granbull, Slowking with Earthquake or 2HKO Bellossom with Ice Beam. Qwillfish has a chance to chip some of the Water or Grass types which are able to 2HKO or OHKO it. Furthermore, with the move Haze it can act as a soft check against the likes of Kabutops, who forces Piloswine out and threatens to sweep by setting up a Swords Dance.

Other answers to Fire Blast Nidoqueen may be Hypno or Granbull, who don’t resist her moves but have sufficient bulk to withstand many hits. Hypno can use Psychic to threaten a 3HKO and Granbull can slowly setup Curses and gain the advantage. Hypno can also use Light Screen support to aid Piloswine in many unfavorable matchups, such as Blastoise and Slowking or non-Razor-leaf variants of Bellossom. Thanks to this support it can successfully escape being 3HKO’d while dealing solid damage back and potentially fish for critical hits. In return, Piloswine can aptly threaten Chansey and Scyther, which threaten Hypno, or threaten to OHKO or 2HKO Normal resistors that wall Granbull.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
==========
It is not always advisable to swap Sleep Talk and Rest with other moves as Piloswine loses a lot of its potency without this set. Roar is an alternative option to Sleep Talk, thus granting the team another viable defensive tool which can help prevent Pilo being setup on by the likes of Granbull and Scyther. Piloswine doesn’t greatly benefit from its loss of its recovery moves and can only do so much to prevent Baton pass with the move Roar. It, at least, isn’t weak to electric coverage the same way Qwilfish, Crobat and Gyarados are. The lack of Sleep Talk makes it less able to act as a pivot/tank therefore it is advisable to run this set on more defensive or bulky teams (with Heal Bell support) as opposed to offensive ones, who require safer options to switch into Electrics without fear of their pivot getting chipped to critically low health. Among Piloswine's other moves available, Curse and Ancient Power can help complement its STAB Earthquakes. The former move gives it further durability against physical attackers, while boosting the power of its Ground moves whereas Ancient Power grants a chance of getting a fearsome all-around stat boost. Blizzard appears to be a more powerful choice than Ice Beam but does not achieve any significant KO thresholds with the extra base power besides OHKOing Jumpluff (although it could be worth noting that it can 3HKO Granbull after spikes). Rock Slide too, though initially it appears stronger than Ancient Power, does not provide a justifiable power boost and still lacks the same strength that Ice Beam provides. It could be used in conjunction with Curse, allosing Piloswine to build on its physical strength.

Checks and Counters
================
**Water-types**: all Water Types in the tier, with the exception of Quagsire, have a winning matchup against Pilosine, either due to being able to outspeed it or withstand its strongest STAB and in turn threaten a 2HKO. More notably, Gyarados is the only water type that Piloswine cannot strike with Earthquake, which makes it a liability due to it not being able to deal significant damage to it. Slowbro and Slowking are also extremely tanky and can fair very well against it but do fear getting crit by Earthquake. Blastoise is also worth mentioning due to the ability to come in and remove entry hazards, one of the things that make Piloswine's offences so potent.

**Scyther and Pinsir**: Pinsir can switch in on Earthquakes without being particularly fearful of Ice Beams. It may also threatn to set up a Swords Dance and can 2HKO Piloswine with a Submission at +2. Scyther, in a pinch, may attempt to use a Swords Dance of its own while Piloswine is asleep and enable a turning of tables in the favor of the opponent, although it may be 2HKO’d by Ice Beam.

**Granbull**: Piloswine only scratches the mark of a 3HKO against Granbull, and though it outspeeds it, the situation may escalate quickly if the Piloswine user isn't careful about Curse and Rest Sleep Talk cycles boosting it up.

**Bellossom**: Bellossom speed ties with Piloswine but has different tools in its arsenal to make it feel uncomfortable, despite Piloswine can 2HKO it with Hidden Power Grass. Aleternatively, it can break through Light Screens easily if it lands a crit with the boosted chance that Razor Leaf can offer. It is also is one of the few pokemon that can inflict Paralysis to it, potentially crippling it.

**Fire-type Attacks**: Nidoqueen is faster than Piloswine and commonly uses Fire Blast to 2HKO Piloswine, turning a one sided matchup into a favorable one for her. Arcanine, too may OHKO it with Fire Blast.
 
Last edited:

Estarossa

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:gs/Piloswine:
[OVERVIEW]
This wooly-mammoth-swine hybrid boasts a high attack stat and one of the most unique dual STAB typings in the game, Ground and Ice. It often finds itself competing for a team slot with other Ground types, such as Nidoqueen or Quagsire, and is a perfect choice for anyone choosing a simple yet effective coverage movepool with a reliable combo of Rest and Sleep talk for longevity. so straight off the bat what you haven't told me is why would I want to use Piloswine over one of these? There's some important points to bring up here: strongest EQ in the tier, ice beam Nidoqueen answer (make sure to comment that it needs to be v careful of fire blast tho) and solid scyther check, ground type thats not weak to common coverage against Nidoqueen from other Electrics, and a solid check to Psychic-types, in particular 3HKOing Hypno and 2HKOing Mime. In particular one thing to note is that its EQ can 3HKO Hypno while not being Psychic weak. Thanks to Earthquake in combination with Ice Beam, Piloswine is one of the most difficult offensive threats for opposing players to find an effective check to switch into, but after a correct guess, isn't all all that threatening. Its pretty threatening? even stuf like Slowbro doesn't like taking repeated EQs which can rly sting with crits, and an important facet is that the best piloswine answers like Gyara and Slowbro are vulnerable to being frozen when they take repeated Ice Beams. Though a decent pivot against Bolt Beam spamming, Piloswine has a low speed and middling defences causing it at times to rely too heavily on Rest Talk for recovery and leaving itself open for setup sweepers like Granbull and Scyther. The Scyther point is nice, but in particular its that it can't rly check Scyther when its sleeping because you only have a 33% chance to pull something useful. The wording needs to be careful here as Scyther doesn't want to try and set up on a sleeping pilo particularly. It's special attack also isn't the greatest so any pokemon that are bulky enough to shrug off its Ice Beams can take advantage of it, such as Gyarados. With this in mind, an able player can put Piloswine's offensive tools to the test and find openings and force their opponents to take on an exploitable defensive stance.



[SET]
name: Iced Earth (Sleep Talker)
move 1: Earthquake
move 2: Ice Beam
move 3: Rest
move 4: Sleep Talk / Roar if i'm honest and ik Holly would agree with me here, i dont rly think this should be slashed with Sleep Talk, sleeptalk-less pilo is such a momentum drain and loses one of the most dangerous aspects of Piloswine: that its actually immensely threatening to switch iinito all the time cause of that combo.
item: Leftovers

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
===========
Piloswine's superb attack stat is complemented by one of the strongest physical attacking moves in the game, Earthquake, which allows it to stick it to Electric types, none of which in the tier have a means to avoid Ground type moves. Piloswine's higher attack than Nidoqueen and access to a more reliable, albeit slower, recovery combo with Rest and Sleep talk can make it a preferable choice over the queen of UU, if the team does not need to call out flying type pokemon from switching in, like Gyarados. This is a lot of fluff to basically say it has the strongest EQ in the tier, and a lot of this inormation belongs in the overview. Since it threatens Poison, Rock, Steel and Fire types for super effective damage, it acts as a counter against Ice Beam Nidoqueen, though the Piloswine user must be weary of staying in on the alternative Fire Blast variants. Piloswine's Ice Beam perfectly complements Earthquake, threatening even those pokemon that have an immunity or resistance to the latter move with a 2HKO or OHKO, such as the Flying and Grass types (Scyther, Bellossom, Crobat, Victreebell, Jumpluff, Gligar). With this in mind, the dual stab combination will never leave an opposing team completely safe to switch in their checks to it, especially after many teammates are weakened. Mention how Piloswine also gets a lot of chances to fish for Freezes with Ice Beam against its switch-ins like Gyarados over time. Rest grants Piloswine with a method of recovery for its middling defence stats and, when complemented with Sleep Talk, allows it to handle a miscellaneous amount of mixed and special attackers discretely well, such as Mr.Mime, Hypno, Haunter, and Nidoqueen.

While Sleep Talk does give Piloswine a valuable second or even third chance at life by restarting sleep cycles and replenishing health, users of Piloswine should be mindful of how this can become reasonably exploited by opponents who can gain momentum while the hairy swine is at the hands of RNG, for example a Scyther could set up a Swords Dance in the hopes that Sleep Talk rolls an Earthquake or Rest, or, on the other hand, This is rather risky on a scythers part, not only do they get 2hko'd by ice beam, but they can't even 2HKO you back at +2, while it also not being remotely safe for it to try and BP after. The more pressing issue is you need to be aware that your Piloswine can't rly switch-into and check a Scyther once its sleeping because its only got the 33% chance. the opponent decides to switch in a Water type expecting an Ice Beam without fearing Earthquake. Not seeing how this is effected by Rest honestly given your examples will be fine either way Slowbro is sufficiently bulky to survive a 4hko from Earthquake and may find easy entry against Piloswine. Gyarados can also prove to be one of Piloswine's toughest matchups, as it boasts the bulk, typing and offensive movepool to threaten it back and brush off any hits. These two threats are the reason for which many players decide to opt for a faster, and less predictable Nidoqueen, who can threaten them with Thunder. Roar is an alternative option to Sleep Talk, thus granting the team another viable defensive tool which can handle setup sweepers such as Scyther, Granbull i wouldn't wanna try and use it vs Bull honestly , though you can theoretically mention it rpeventng Pilo being set up on, and Pinsir or baton passers such as Mr.Mime and Girafarig by phazing them away. The solid Baton Pass matchup is the bigigest one for this honestly since its counterplay thats not weak to Electric like Gyara/Qwil or vulnerable to para's like Pluf. Its negative priority means that Piloswine's health should be preserved, and this warrants strategic defensive play as well as the right amount of support, such as Heal Bell users to cure Piloswine from status inflictions or self induced sleep through Rest. The lack of Sleep Talk however makes it less able to act as a pivot/tank therefore it is advisable to run this set on more defensive or bulky teams as opposed to offensive ones, who require safer options to switch into Electrics without fear of their pivot getting chipped to critically low health. Mention what I talk about above how it loses a lot of offensive potency too.

Team Options
==========
For Piloswine to be beneficial, one must make the most of its switching capabilities. Not really sure what this means here, it seems a bit buzwordy. Being immune to Electric type attacks is something that many Water and Flying pokemon can benefit from without the worry of letting other teammates take unnecessary damage. Gyarados for instance needs Ground types on its team to absorb Thunders coming its way. Piloswine can help threaten many faster or slow electrics that might resist Gyarados's attacks like Magneton or Ampharos. The two pokemon together have immunities to Electric and Ground typing (and the hazards that come with it) that allow for excellent pivoting maneuvering. Something I don't see commented on but highly relevant is how Piloswine can actually assist Gyarados offensively here, it really helps to overload a lot of gyara checks like Hypno / Slowking. The Psychic-matchup in general ffor Piloswine is pretty relevant here since Gyarados doesn't like Mime or Twave Hypno/Slowtwins at all iif itis Rest-less. Qwillfish is also a great teammate for Piloswine, since it can give it some much needed support with Spikes which allow it to 3HKO Granbull, Slowking with Earthquake or 2HKO Bellossom with Ice Beam. Qwillfish has a chance to chip some of the Water types or Grass, which can be annoyances for the mammoth and use their presence as an opportunity to set down the hazards.
While relatively on the bulky side, Piloswine does not have much of an out against physical attackers, especially Pinsir and Granbull. Omastar has much synergy due to it resisting Normal and Bug types and has the potential to switch into stray Fire Blasts (ideally). Given the main user of Fire Blast in this tier i'm really not seeing this one. Just focus on how iti helps deal with Scyther and Bull.
Slowbro and Slowking too can help patch up the holes in Piloswine's defences, especially on the special side. Slowbro iis pretty garbage on the special side honestly. Slowbro has a strong chance of 3HKOing Granbull while surviving a 3HKO from it, can switch into Fire Blasts that target Piloswine and Slowking can paralyse targets that are coveted by the slow pig, like Hypno, Mr.Mime or Scyther.

Things i'm not seeing mentioned in here explicitly but are hugely relevant with Piloswine:

- Fire Blast Nidoqueen answers (you do bbring up Slowking but you don't actually go into detail about this at all)
- Light Screen Hypno to let it put even more pressure on Water-types, help with Nidoqueen/Gyarados/Mime

This section really needs to be organised a bit better too as it's a bit awkward to read right now, there's also a lot of fluff here that could probably be cut down upon. Also think you can talk about a few other Pokemon that synergise well offensively wiith Piiloswine other than Gyarados here, Rest Talk Mime and Lanturn spring to miind as ones that love Piloswine helping them pressure Psychics, while they cover the poorer water mus.



[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
==========
Among Piloswine's other moves available, Curse and Ancient Power can help complement its STAB Earthquakes. The former move gives it further durability against physical attackers, while boosting the power of its Ground moves whereas Ancient Power can help target flying moves in a similar fashion to Ice Beam, with the difference that it can deal slightly more damage to Scyther, thanks to Piloswine's superior Attack stat and grants it with the chance of getting a fearsome all-around stat boost. Blizzard appears to be a more powerful choice than Ice Beam but does not achieve any significant KO thresholds with the extra base power besides OHKOing Jumpluff (although it could be worth noting that it can 3HKO Granbull after spikes). Rock Slide too, though initially it appears stronger than Ancient Power, does not provide a justifyable power boost and still lacks the same strength that Ice Beam provides with. It could be used in conjunction with Curse, allosing Piloswine to build on its physical strength.

Checks and Counters
================
**Water-types**: all Water Types in the tier, with the exception of Quagsire, have a winning matchup against Pilosine, either due to being able to outspeed it or withstand its strongest STAB and in turn threaten a 2HKO. More notably, Gyarados is the only water type that Piloswine cannot strike with Earthquake, which makes it a liability due to it not being able to deal significant damage to it. Slowbro and Slowking are also extremely tanky and can fair very well against it. Blastoise is also worth mentioning due to the ability to come in and remove entry hazards, one of the reasons that make Piloswine's offences something to worry about. Would mention how some of these Water-types need to be careful of Crits however, especiially if Piiloswine is behind Light Screen and can safely fish for them. Quagsire, despite not having stab Surf, can threaten to setup a Belly Drum and start sweeping if an Speed or Defence boost is passed to it. Quag bit is a biit weiird, eq + eq + bd actually kills quag and for it to have got in wiith a speed boost it'd have to have taken one of those already, even an iiice beam over one of the eq's would probably have done it. Defense boosts are also p uncommon on the chains since its mostly just amnesia and agility passes apart from some more niiche chanis with stuff like Curse Giraffe/Mime.

**Granbull**: Piloswine only scratches the mark of a 3HKO against Granbull, and though it outspeeds it, the situation may escalate quickly if the Piloswine user isn't careful about Curse and Rest Sleep Talk cycles boosting it up. Doesn't seem like it deserves a 2nd place menton consdiering how hard EQ hits Bull on switch in. This point is fine but should be lower down.

**Scyther and Pinsir**: Scyther has the ability to switch in on an Earthquake and threaten to set up a Swords Dance. Although it is 2HKO'd by Ice Beam, Scyther may take advantage of Piloswine's sleep talk cycles and use the chance to setup even more. Definitely wouldn't send Scyther in on an EQ to set up SD considering its note even a safe pass into very much afterwards, taking advantage of sleep cycles iis also p risky unless you are in a position where you need to start making plays like that t make up for a bad position. Pinsir can do the same, with the difference that it resists Earthquake and doesn't mind Ice Beams as much. Jumpluff may predict a Rest or Earthquake and force Piloswine into a corner with its many support moves, such as Encore and Leech Seed. Don't know what pluff is doing here but wouldn't really include it in the checks and counters considering ice beam and inability to do anythng beyond encoring.

**Grass-types**: Bellossom speed ties with Piloswine but has different tools in its arsenal to make it feel uncomfortable, despite Piloswine can 2HKO it (with Spikes). Giga Drain can make Bellossom escape the 2HKO mark and recover any lost HP, pooppy move considering 8 PP and subs whereas Razor Leaf and Hidden Power Grass are also able to put a severe dent in the mammoth's health levels. You call this section Grass-types but its honestly the only one thats actually a Pilo check lol

**Fire-type Attacks**: aside from being faster than Piloswine, Arcanine has access to Fire Blast which may OHKO it. Flareon may do the same, but has the added benefit of being able to start a Baton Pass chain by setting up Growths. Nidoqueen occasionally may use Fire Blast for the specific purpose of aiming for targets that otherwise tank its other attacking options.Fire Blast is more the more common option these days so its very weird way to mention it (generally better for like Pilo/Scyther etc, ice beam does have advantages with freeze fishing tho and i tend to use it when i'm running gyara since it can ezily freeze shared checks and gyara deals with pilo/scy fine). Anyway Nidoqueen should be the main point of this section, with a brief mention of Arcanine. Don't like the Flareon Mention, pretty niche mon in general, doesn't exactly want to come in on the chaining section vs Pilo anyway and you are unlikely to switch pilo into it unless you know its not flamethrower at which point its no check anyway.
Not stamping this, had quite a lot of comments but wanted to cover the more surface level stuff first without this getting too overwhelming to read. If you have any questions hmu in GSC disc.
 
Not stamping this, had quite a lot of comments but wanted to cover the more surface level stuff first without this getting too overwhelming to read. If you have any questions hmu in GSC disc.
Implemented everything. Well I didn't actually talk about Light Screen support in the Checks and Counters because I wasn't sure that's what you wanted. I hope it's a lot less of an annoyance and contains more substantial stuff.
 

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