[QC 0/2] Palkia

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palkia xy.gif


[Overview]
Thanks to its great Special Attack stat, amazing defensive and offensive typing, decent speed tier, and move pool boasting crucial coverage, Palkia has established itself as one of the best special attackers and wallbreakers in the Ubers metagame. Its base 100 Speed places it above many of the tiers topmost threats, including Groudon, Kyogre, Xerneas, Yveltal, Ho-Oh, Zekrom, and Necrozma-Dusk-Mane, which allows it to potentially threaten these Pokemon, among others, and open holes for its teammates. Its most common coverage options also scare away common defensive Pokemon such as Ferrothorn and Toxapex, and it overall excels against defensively-oriented teams. Palkia also boasts a decent Special Defense stat which allows it to take a few powerful hits, such as at least 1 Thunder and full health Water Spout from Choice Specs Kyogre. However, Palkia can somewhat struggle against offensive teams since it can't often find opportunities to switch in and does not have boosting moves to threaten them back. Specially defensive Pokemon like Blissey and some Calyrex-Ice sets also do well against Palkia, with the former crippling it with status and the latter easily OHKOing it with Glacial Lance. Even still, despite its flaws, Palkia is a very dangerous Pokemon that should not be underestimated.

[SET]
name: All-Out Attacker
move 1: Spacial Rend
move 2: Hydro Pump
move 3: Thunder
move 4: Fire Blast
item: Lustrous Orb
ability: Pressure
nature: Timid
evs: 4 HP / 252 Spa / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

This set takes advantage of Palkia's speed to hit big metagame threats hard. Its signature Spacial Rend is a great tool against the many other Dragon-types in the tier, especially with its power boosted by Lustrous Orb. Hydro Pump is another strong Lustrous Orb-boosted STAB move that makes Ho-Oh and Heatran reluctant to come in. Thunder 2HKOs Kyogre and is granted perfect accuracy by its own rain with an added benefit of warding Lugia, Toxapex, and Skarmory away. Fire Blast burns away Excadrill, Ferrothorn, Corviknight, and many other threats in the tier.

Because Palkia struggles against offensive teams, teammates that do well against them should be dedicated a slot. Pokemon like Lunala and Rayquaza can threaten offensive Pokemon that Palkia can struggle against, like Marshadow, Pheromosa, and Eternatus. Magearna can threaten Zekrom and Xerneas can deal with both Kyurem forms as well as Choice Specs Dialga after a Geomancy.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
====
Leftovers can be run over Lustrous Orb to give Palkia more longevity, though Spacial Rend and Hydro Pump do lose a fair bit of power. Opposite Leftovers, Life Orb can also be run to give all of its moves increased power, though this severely cripples Palkia's longevity and makes it more reliant on team support to stay healthy throughout the game, which can possibly be exploited by the opponent.
Focus Punch can be run over Fire Blast to allow Palkia to hit Blissey for good damage, though it loses coverage against some Steel-types and Focus Blast runs off of its Attack stat, making Palkia susceptible to burns.

Checks and Counters
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**Fairy-types**: Like many other Dragon-types, Palkia is deathly afraid of Fairy-types, specifically Xerneas and Magearna. Magearna is overwhelmingly favored to OHKO Palkia with Fleur Cannon, and Xerneas' Moonblast is a clean OHKO. Xerneas can also predict a switch and set up a Geomancy boost.

**Faster Pokemon**: Fast offensive Pokemon, such as the aforementioned Marshadow, Pheromosa, and Eternatus, as well as Pokemon like Mewtwo, Naganadel, and Calyrex-Shadow all threaten to OHKO Palkia. However, all but Calyrex-Shadow do not want to switch into Palkia and are restricted to revenge killing it.

**Status**: Palkia generally hates any form of status. Burn nullifies Focus Punch's power, paralysis removes its ability to outspeed common Pokemon, and Toxic heavily limits its potential due to reducing its longevity.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Pietrym, 554573]]
- Quality checked by: [[username1, userid1], [username2, userid2]]
- Grammar checked by: [[username1, userid1], [username2, userid2]]
 
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Hi! Locking and shelving this because a Palkia analysis is already in progress. If you want to write about a Pokemon that hasn't been done yet, check out the reservation index and respond to the thread with what mon you'd like to write about.
 
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