
Flamigo has been one of the strongest and most popular Pokémon since day one. Fighting + Flying is resisted by very few Pokemon and that is further complimented by a high base 115 Attack, Scrappy, high base power moves like Close Combat and Brave Bird, and Terastallization. Flamigo also has a pretty good Speed tier, which lets it outpace other slower offensive Pokémon like Choice Specs Gardevoir, Nasty Plot Rotom-Mow, and Heracross; while Choice Scarf sets can outpace slower Choice Scarf users like Gardevoir and Rotom-Mow. While seeing overall less usage than choiced sets, it is still able to run surprise Swords Dance sets that get free opportunities on common Pokémon such as Copperajah, Arboliva, Brute Bonnet, etc., as they try to switch out on a predicted choiced move, making interactions vs this Pokémon really obnoxious at the early stages of the game. In terms of defensive counterplay, the best answers to Flamigo are Slowbro, Oricorio-Pom-Pom & Altaria. However, these are OHKOd by Swords Dance sets with either a boosting item like Sharp Beak, or Tera types used to target their weaknesses in conjunction with Tera Blast. This isn't mentioning how Choice Band sets still do a lot of damage, and can always U-turn out to a breaker that can abuse this answers, especially vs Slowbro. Choice Scarf sets, while weaker than Choice Banded ones, still have the added bonus of being faster than all the other common Scarf users, while still hitting decently hard, enough to revenge kill them with minimal chip damage.
All this being said, Flamigo can be kept in check to an extent. Outside Krookodile, Flamigo doesn't have great defensive utility and may struggle to find opportunities to switch in safely, and even then Krookodile has seen other moves like Gunk Shot or Stone Edge that hit Flamigo decently hard due to its average defenses. Choice Scarf sets can be dealt with easily by using defensive Pokémon like Slowbro, Mudsdale, Palossand, etc. Flamigo often suffers a massive amount of recoil when using Brave Bird, which can be further compounded by Rocky Helmet chip from common answers like Slowbro and Palossand. Swords Dance and Choice Band sets can be offensively kept in check by Pokémon like Kilowattrel, Weavile, Choice Scarf users, and Indeedee.
Credits to Yourwelcomethanku for helping with the writeup for this suspect.
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Tagging Kris and Marty to announce it on the RU ladder, thank you both!GXE | minimum games |
78 | 50 |
78.2 | 49 |
78.4 | 48 |
78.6 | 47 |
78.8 | 46 |
79 | 45 |
79.2 | 44 |
79.4 | 43 |
79.6 | 42 |
79.8 | 41 |
80 | 40 |
80.2 | 39 |
80.4 | 38 |
80.6 | 37 |
80.8 | 36 |
81 | 35 |
81.2 | 34 |
81.4 | 33 |
81.6 | 32 |
81.8 | 31 |
82 | 30 |
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