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Project Research Projects - Infernape @ 86

  • Thread starter Thread starter UT
  • Start date Start date
this mon is carried in ou by three things being its vanilla ability, its ability to tera, and its broken signature move that is shut down only by regen and magic guard (and cloak ig)
in aaa its signature ability is effectively obsolete, tera is fully obsolete, and at least one of regen/magic guard is on basically every good team. this is why pixilate garg is the only good set

unhappy UT ?
 
I only had an hour or two and a few games with it, but I've actually done a 180 and I think Garganacl might have some promise.
Some things about Garganacl that remain true:
- Good bulk. Rock typing sucks but it absolutely can take a couple super effective hits from uninvested pokemon like Great Tusk, Ting-Lu, and Corviknight.
- Salt Cure. Magic Guard usage is at an all time low with Roaring Moon structures falling off in favour of more offensive builds and other users like Zamazenta and Iron Treads leaning more towards SoR/Bulletproof respectively. This is without even talking about how the last time Garganacl was used we were still using MGLO Quaquaval on every other team. Well, maybe you weren't. I was. But I think Garganacl's best abilities now are Water Absorb and Sap Sipper.
Sap Sipper is the one I went with. You wall Zarude, Brambleghast, Ogerpon-H, and I'm sure Iron Moth if you run mixed bulk. Also, and this is a big one - Sap Sipper blocks Strength Sap. The more I play the more I begin to recognise how many things Sinistcha beats, and unlike other Sap Sipper candidates I've considered like Great Tusk and Ting-Lu, Garganacl has the valuable niche of having recovery. I paired this guy with Swampert and Zarude - two Knock Off pivots that hate Sinistcha, but I want to try this guy more now alongside Great Tusk, Zamazenta, Ogerpon-Wellspring, and maybe a few others.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...93657284-rl8snfu01uyqrhl73hwinxx8ta8ii76pw?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-2493662057
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...93667390-brnlqrigqb57x4fgtbg58p40vji02wgpw?p2
I don't think this is the last time I'll use Garganacl this gen but I urge people to give him a try - regen hurts, but most of them are Water-type or weak to Body Press. Great Tusk has no recovery, Landorus-T has no recovery, Zamazenta has no recovery, and just one predict is enough to put out a ton of chip on those guys.
 
I tried Water Absorb on Garg but due to irl absolutely killing me wasn't able to do as much testing as I'd like.
Garg has a simple problem - it dies to Tusk and Zama while offering absolutely no counter threat. If you see Crown, you might have to run for your life too idk. I considered running an EE/levitate set as well but I feel like it then becomes super weak to Water types as well.

Salt Cure is definitely so much fun to click but idk if Garg can really work in a meta where Regen/Magic Guard is everywhere as I saw The Hisui Region point out. Oh also I forgot you instalose to Ghold as well.

Garg is fun as hell but it's an uphill battle to make it work when you're gonna face down 4 supereffective types every game:/

UT present :psytear:
 
UT said:
Betticus IV you literally requested this mon plz

Giagantic matte GlalieGoesBoom Glory Time2Bonk porcupine21 April zoe Greybaum Isaiah Racool summoning all
Click to expand...
Pinging the person that only plays offense slop to build with beefy mons like this is crazy, but nonetheless I can oblige.

While looking at garganacl I realized something crucial; this mon is beyond garbage, BUT, we can save it with some innovation. I present to you:

:garganacl:
Garganacl @ Stone Plate
Ability: Rocky Payload
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Salt Cure
- Curse
- Stealth Rock / Recover

Now, I know what you're probably thinking, "He'll just get one-tapped by Zamazenta" "this just makes him even more dogshit" "what the fuck were you thinking", and while I was skeptical myself, I decided to test out my hypothesis by bringing it to the pinnacle of AAA battling, Ladder.
Here are my results:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-2493961477-nu1duen15ud2u6wv2tbdt6j1fffkh3rpw As we can see, the mere presence of Garganacl forces the opponent to lead something that can of course immediately pressure it, which in this case was Samurott-Hisui. This simple play by them brought their downfall, as I was quickly able to set up my board with EE Iron Hands & WBB Sinistcha, quickly sealing the opponents fate, all thanks to Garganacl giving me the lead advantage.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-2493962452-wb0k2014x9pf1rv8f4lyneast2na5fdpw Now this match starts off a little differently, but after a bit of squabble Garganacl is able to enter the field and click Stealth Rock (1) time and get off crucial chip on the Quaquaval. After a couple more turns I manage to get the advantage, and at turn 18 Garganacl enters the field. Left with no switchins to Stone Edge & Salt Cure, the opponent disconnects in a fit of rage, netting me yet another victory.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9almostanyability-2493966849-nubehfd589l47bsgypip4to9jsxrkmdpw This match is similar to the first replay; we mindcontroll the opponent into respecting the Garganacl and leading Great Tusk, letting my Iron Hands quickly set up a Sub + a Swords Dance, and again this alone gives me enough advantage to force the opponent into a forfeit

With all this in mind we can conclude that this mon is capable of not only dealing massive damage (cmon, 21% to a quaquaval is pretty impressive) but also mindcontrolling the opponent into always netting you a early advantage in the lead matchup. I hope this is sufficient and is what you were looking for UT
 
I am putting this project on hiatus until the new year; thank you to everyone who has participated this year, I think we've found some fun mons, and I look forward to seeing what we can cook up next year!
 
UT LETS ACTUALLY HAVE SOMETHING THAT IS VASTLY UNDERUSED AND UNDERRATED!


0392Infernape.png

Infernape: Fire/Fighting - 76/104/71/104/71/108

On a surface purely statistical look, Infernape is lackluster, just shy of having decent speed (350) and generally low offenses and non-existent defenses; however, what it does bring to the table is an amazing movepool that lets it fill several roles from a difficult to switch in Poke to rock setter. Its typing and evenly spread offenses lets it tackle both common defensive and specially defensive mons within the meta such as Corviknight and Great Tusk. I think it is unforgivably under used and should be explored to see if it can fit into the metagame as a unusual breaker / setter.

I think there are quite a few variants of it you could run from SOR mix like below:

Infernape @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sword of Ruin
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Flamethrower / Overheat
- Gunk Shot
- Stone Edge

MGLO setter / pivot:

Infernape @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock

and more...

I don't think it will revolutionize the metagame or anything of that sort but I think it is a viable and niche option that brings unique combinations to the table that other fighting and fire types lack/
 
Giagantic said:
UT LETS ACTUALLY HAVE SOMETHING THAT IS VASTLY UNDERUSED AND UNDERRATED!


0392Infernape.png

Infernape: Fire/Fighting - 76/104/71/104/71/108

On a surface purely statistical look, Infernape is lackluster, just shy of having decent speed (350) and generally low offenses and non-existent defenses; however, what it does bring to the table is an amazing movepool that lets it fill several roles from a difficult to switch in Poke to rock setter. Its typing and evenly spread offenses lets it tackle both common defensive and specially defensive mons within the meta such as Corviknight and Great Tusk. I think it is unforgivably under used and should be explored to see if it can fit into the metagame as a unusual breaker / setter.

I think there are quite a few variants of it you could run from SOR mix like below:

Infernape @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sword of Ruin
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Flamethrower / Overheat
- Gunk Shot
- Stone Edge

MGLO setter / pivot:

Infernape @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock

and more...

I don't think it will revolutionize the metagame or anything of that sort but I think it is a viable and niche option that brings unique combinations to the table that other fighting and fire types lack/
Click to expand...
MY DEAR FIREMONKEY
 
I can't say I'm a fan of this mon at all after doing some testing on mostly the lower ladder for it. Infernape is just too slow for an offensive mon and also not really that strong enough to really warrant using and feels just outclassed by other notable top tiers, alongside pretty poor coverage options that feel sad in practice.

Infernape used Grass Knot!
It's super effective!
(The opposing Swampert lost 70% of its health!)
Infernape lost some of its HP!

The opposing Swampert used Flip Turn!
It's super effective!
(Infernape lost 32.8% of its health!)
Infernape fainted!

Anyways, I did use 3 sets that ranged from not coming out of the poke ball to sometimes doing mildly interesting things.


:infernape: @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Stone Edge

Fourth move can be changed to earthquake or whatever else to hit Ghold if thats a concern, I went with edge since lower ladder loves scarf Zapdos for whatever reason. It can be okay as a breaker but the speed really is a hinderance for sweeps and also struggles vs some common staples like Pecharunt and Primarina, and the bulk I found was not really good enough to switch-in on things either. It just didn't have the stats to justify this set and I was pretty disappointed.


:Infernape: @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast
- Grass Knot

I was a bit more surprised by this set in practice, as it was able to put in work whenever it actually was able to click a move. STAB Focus Blast is pretty strong even versus resists as is Fire Blast, and was able to threaten a decent amount of teams. I went with Grass Knot but honestly, it will struggle a lot with the Water's as seen above and its coverage otherwise on the special side is laughably bad. It still runs into the same issues of being frail and kinda slow but generally i did find a bit more success with this compared to the physical counterpart.


:Infernape: @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sword of Ruin
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- Stealth Rock

Scarf can help it's kinda poor speed but in return it does become more of a Cleaner/Pivoting role. It was ok but when Roaring Moon exists and Cinderace is also a fast Fire-type so its very hard to justify in most cases, but I found it can be used in some cases for the extra STAB and being a Rockers Setter. Of the three sets this is probably the one I could recommend the most since it is a small role it can carve out for itself that I did find a bit of use for, and the bulk/power is a bit less of an issue since it doesn't worry about it as much.


With all that being said, I really don't think this is a good choice in the current metagame, as there is simply just too many things that are way more min-maxed stats wise and that can occupy its roles that I at least tested a lot better, alongside some of the common staples such as the Waters being pretty consistent checks regardless of set.
 
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