UU Skarmory [QC 3/3] [GP 2/2]

[Mystras]

[OVERVIEW]

Skarmory serves as one of the best checks to top offensive threats such as Bisharp, Scizor, and Gyarados through its fantastic Defense, great defensive typing, and Roost. Skarmory's Spikes makes it a fantastic support option for bulky offense and balance teams as well, helping its teammates more easily deal with Regenerator Pokemon like Amoonguss and Tangrowth. On defensive and stall teams, it has the option to keep physical wallbreakers such as Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor in check with Iron Defense + Body Press, or have utility against other setup threats such as Bisharp and Reuniclus with Whirlwind. Skarmory faces direct competition from Celesteela, which has higher Special Defense to check threats like Kyurem and Hatterene, but Skarmory has higher Defense to check Pokemon like Bisharp and Tapu Bulu as well as reliable recovery, which lets it easily run Rocky Helmet to punish Pokemon like Scizor. Skarmory is a big target for Electric-types such as Zeraora and their momentum-grabbing Volt Switch, and its passivity means that it lets in dangerous Pokemon like Victini and Primarina much more easily than Celesteela. Coverage run for Celesteela will also severely threaten Skarmory, such as Nidoqueen's Fire Blast and Kommo-o's Flamethrower.

[SET]
name: Physically Defensive
move 1: Spikes
move 2: Roost
move 3: Brave Bird / Body Press
move 4: Whirlwind / Toxic / Iron Defense
item: Rocky Helmet
ability: Sturdy
nature: Impish / Bold
evs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe


[SET COMMENTS]

Spikes lets Skarmory contribute important damage to defensive pivots such as Amoonguss, Tangrowth, and Jirachi over the course of the game for its teammates to capitalize on, and it has plenty of chances to use it against Pokemon such as Tapu Bulu and Lycanroc-D. The choice of Brave Bird or Body Press comes down to what Skarmory needs to threaten for its teammates; Brave Bird hits Grass-types super effectively and hits Azumarill and Gyarados neutrally, whereas Body Press threatens Lycanroc-D and Bisharp. Whirlwind and Spikes have amazing synergy for spreading residual damage, and Whirlwind also phazes setup threats such as Dragon Dance Gyarados, Calm Mind Reuniclus, and Belly Drum Azumarill. Toxic cripples Defoggers that have a naturally good matchup against Skarmory such as Salamence, Volcanion, and Rotom-W, and it also hinders switch-ins that pressure Skarmory out such as Zeraora, Victini, and Thundurus. Iron Defense, alongside Body Press, makes Skarmory an especially good answer to Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor but leaves it unable to pressure Belly Drum Azumarill. Rocky Helmet punishes the likes of Scizor, Zarude, and Azumarill for repeatedly attacking Skarmory. 96 Speed EVs let Skarmory outspeed Conkeldurr and Adamant Azumarill. This still leaves Skarmory with enough bulk to avoid being 2HKOed by Mamoswine's Icicle Crash after Stealth Rock. Sturdy alongside Whirlwind makes Skarmory come in handy during emergency situations, such as Celesteela boosting with Meteor Beam on hyper offense teams.

Skarmory fits best on balance, stall, and bulky offense teams as a blanket check to physical attackers such as Lycanroc-D and Krookodile that provides crucial Spikes support to outlast the opposing team. Specially defensive pivots such as Slowking and Chansey let Skarmory focus on its specialty by serving as more reliable sponges to Pokemon such Nihilego and Alakazam. Chansey also checks special variants of Victini, whereas Slowking can check all variants. Zeraora heavily appreciates Spikes support wearing down its checks such as Rhyperior, Nidoqueen, Amoonguss, and Tangrowth. In return, Skarmory enjoys reliable Knock Off support making Pokemon like Gastrodon and Tapu Bulu more pressured by entry hazard damage. Wallbreakers such as Toxtricity and Victini perform even better when Spikes worn down their checks, such as Rhyperior and Kommo-o. Choice Specs Keldeo can overwhelm the likes of Chandelure and lure in Amoonguss and damage it heavily with Air Slash to the point where it can no longer switch in reliably with entry hazards up. Stealth Rock setters such as Rhyperior and Nidoqueen form an excellent entry hazard stacking core with Skarmory, as they are able to pressure hazard removers such as Rotom-H and Salamence, with Sheer Force Life Orb Nidoqueen even helping break through other bulky cores. Grass-types ease the pressure of strong Electric- and Water-types such as Zeraora and Azumarill. Tangrowth and Amoongus are notable because they put Defoggers to sleep with Sleep Powder or Spore.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Iron Head is an option to punish Hatterene attempting to reflect entry hazards with Magic Bounce, but it lacks other uses. Stealth Rock can be used if Skarmory has no other teammates that can use it, although it really prefers to use Spikes, which is more capable of wearing down bulky cores and Regenerator Pokemon because it can have multiple layers. Defog is also another option on bulky balance and stall teams over Spikes or in the fourth moveslot, but Skarmory does not match up well against the majority of entry hazard setters, including Nihilego and Nidoqueen. Leftovers allows Skarmory to use Roost less often on accumulated smaller hits, but it leaves it unable to punish U-turn from Jirachi and Scizor. An alternative EV spread running maximum HP and Defense lets Skarmory better stomach hits in general, but makes its matchup against Azumarill much worse. Shed Shell can be considered to avoid being trapped by Magnezone on teams with Skarmory as their only answer to Pokemon like Dragon Dance Gyarados. Skarmory can go for a suicide lead set with Stealth Rock and Spikes alongside Custap Berry, but this set is outclassed by Mew's lead set due to its better Speed tier and access to Explosion.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Electric-types**: Electric-types are the bane of Skarmory's existence because they threaten to gain easy momentum with Volt Switch, and most are immune to Spikes or run Heavy-Duty Boots. Rotom-H and Rotom-W are able to switch in and at least remove Skarmory's Spikes with Defog. Thundurus-T and Rotom-H can also set up on Skarmory with Nasty Plot, and Zeraora can freely use Knock Off after it comes in.

**Fire-types**: Victini completely takes advantage of Skarmory by coming in easily and threatening to blow through it generate momentum with U-turn. Chandelure is even worse because it is an overall threat to balance and stall teams Skarmory finds itself on, and it often uses Skarmory as an entry point to throw out its powerful Choice Specs-boosted attacks or set up a Substitute. Victini and Chandelure sometimes run Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid Spikes and other entry hazard damage completely, making them more difficult to check throughout the game.

**Special Attackers**: Strong special attackers such as Primarina, Keldeo, and Kyurem will have no trouble forcing Skarmory out with neutral attacks, and Skarmory usually ends up as setup fodder for the likes of Galarian Moltres and Meteor Beam Celesteela if not running Whirlwind. However, all but Celesteela have to be wary of coming in on a Toxic, and Keldeo and Kyurem have to be careful with super effective Brave Bird or Body Press.

**Hatterene**: Hatterene's Magic Bounce denies Skarmory's entry hazards, Toxic, and Whirlwind, enabling it to set up on Skarmory with Calm Mind and threaten with Mystical Fire.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Mystras Leoxses, 530118]]
- Quality checked by: [[Estarossa, 461329], [Martha, 384270], [Twilight, 344575]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429], [CryoGyro, 331519]]

 

[Estarossa]

[OVERVIEW]
- Skarmory is a Physical Defensive pillar of the metagame, being able to keep in check key threats such as Gyarados, Terrakion, and Bisharp with Brave Bird and the newly added Body Press
- Skarmory's role is flexible; it can choose whether it wants to exacerbate hazard damage by setting down Spikes or remove the hazards if the team needed the role compression.

So the main focus i'd put on here and its big niche in the tier is that its the best spiker in UU for more balancey teams, offering defensivee utility vs pokemon like bish / gyara / bulu and its great defensive typing and phys bulk.

You should focus on the competition it faces from Celesteela which shares its same typing and checks stuff like Latias a lot better, but comment on how Skarmory offers a more phys def orientated approach that's less passive than defensive steela due to spikes + ww/toxic and has immediate recovery.

You can then comment on how it can also offer hazard removal to fatter teams if necessary, although it can struggle against quite a lot of common hazard setters like mew, krook, nidoqueen.

- Its instant recovery from Roost is another key point that puts Skarmory ahead of its competitors in terms of its longevity.
- However, Skarmory does have some glaring flaws compared to the rest of its Steel-Type brethren.
- It is a much bigger target for Electric-Types and especially when they threaten with Volt Switch for easy momentum. This is really the case for celesteela too.
- Its low HP and SpDef means that Skarmory is not at all reliable against strong special hitters, even ones it should resist such as Latias using Draco Meteor or Choice Specs Primarina spamming Moonblast, leaving Celesteela superior in that regard.
- This also means threats that run coverage for Celesteela will also severely threaten Skarmory, such as Nidoqueen running Fire Blast or Kommo-o running Flamethrower.

When you talk about its downsides definitely comment on how it can let in stuff like Zeraora / Victini a lot more safely than celesteela, which can easily chip them for 24% because of leech seed + protect, especially due to their boots. Instead of commenting on those specific scenarios that you mentioned with its bulk,just put it into the comparison to celesteela i mentoned above that celesteela is a lot better as a specially orientated wall to deal with latias.

- Skarmory can also be very passive against certain foes depending on what its running, and its tendency to be worn down and need to Roost can leave it susceptible to Taunt users such as from the likes of Krookodile and Kommo-o.
- Spikes on Skarmory are not always useful given the prominence of Heavy Duty Boots user of the tier which include Zeraora, Victini, and Slowking, While this is true they still have a lot of benefit towards stuff like the regen grasses, and nidoqueen etc. You can deifnitely comment that it requires knock off support to get the full adavantage of them however. and its much harder to fit Rapid Spin to keep one's own hazards since the only reliable spinner is Tentacruel. you could instead comment that spikes kind of discourage the use of defog except as an emergency, so often force you into either relying on boots yourself or force tenta into your team.

[SET]
name: Physically Defensive
move 1: Spikes/ Defog
move 2: Roost
move 3: Brave Bird/ Body Press
move 4: Whirlwind (add space) / Toxic / Iron Defense
item: Rocky Helmet (add space) / Leftovers
ability: Sturdy
nature: Impish/Bold
evs: 252 HP/ 160 Def/ 96 Spe

Slash Iron Defense, mention how it lets it serve as a reliable answer to SD roost scizor in particular, and lets it boost its body presses, talk about the drawbacks when doing this of not having brave bird however.

[SET COMMENTS]

this first paragraph is kind of in the wrong order here, the ordering you should comment on is -

• Moves
• Items
• EV Spread

Fix tis order when you implement this check, but i'll just comment on the specific points as they come for now to make it neater to read.


Paragraph 1
- While speed on a wall would seem strange, not really, speed is arguably the most important stat in the game and when skarmory lives in a specific speed region it does live in it makes a lot of sense, this is just unecessary fluff. 96 Speed EVs allow it to outspeed Azumarill and allow it to chip it with Brave Bird or Roost before Banded Azumarill can KO with Liquidation and rack up Rocky Helmet chip in the process, and Roost noticeably out heals the damage from Knock Off after its item has been removed. it also means you can get a brave bird off against BD azu when in liquidation range, which is also valuable. In the process you also outspeed conk which is worth mentioning.
- Its defense is still very high and still leaves it out of 2HKO range from Mamoswine's Icicle Crash, and still act as a reliable check to Krookodile with Body Press. When you add this to the end just comment something like "96 Speed EVs allow Skarmory to outspeed Azumarill.... text... while having enough bulk to avoid the 2HKO from Mamoswine's Icicle Crash2.
- The dip in defensive integrity against Terrakion is more noticeable however as it is much more likely to be 2HKOed by its Close Combats on the switch, so be more cautious. If you wanted to make this point you could mention max defense as an alternative spread, i don't think its really worth the mention though because speed for azu is really beneficial, +2 LO CC still OHKOs u, Skarmory still offers value through helmet chip and making CB rak think about what it clicks though.
- Spikes are often what Skarmory is used for to pressure bulkier teams, but Defog is also another option as it has ample opportunities to given its bulk and it adds insult to injury on Tapu Bulu as it also removes its Grassy Terrain. This needs to talk more about why Spikes are so valuable, its not just pressuring bulkier teams in the slightest but it offers very important chip on defensive pivots like Amoonguss, Tangrowth, and Jirachi. Skarmory is also a rly nice setter of them because it walls these Grasses (and bulu too) after something has been sleep foddered, as well as the load of opportunities it gets while forcing physical attackers out..

Split Defog mntion up into a separate bullet point and talk about how its a solid option for fat balance and stall teams that offers key role compression between a scizor/conk answer and (spikes immune) removal that gets plenty of defog opportunities.

Mention that while generally not ideal, as it would much rather set spikes, skarmory can use stealth rock if nothing else on its team can fit it.

- Roost is what sets it apart from other Steel-Types for longevity as it does not need to wait a turn for Wish like Jirachi or wait several turns to get back to high health from Leech Seed like Celesteela. This sort of thing should be in the overview, explaining what roost does is unecessary fluff otherwise.
- The choice of Body Press or Brave Bird comes down if the team needs Skarmory needs to be more able to threaten Bisharp and Terrakion or be able to deal more damage to Amoongus or deal neutral damage to Azumarill and Gyarados. yea the main reason to run brave bird is for azu more then anything, switch the order of these two though because of the slashes.
- Whirlwind is not as recommended when not using Spikes because Skarmory needs to be dishing out some sort of damage while on the field, so Toxic is used in its stead if it's running Defog. This isn't really strictly correct, you need to split these two points up but mention how whirlwind + spikes synergises well together, and how whirlwind can help combat some stuff like reuniclus and glowbro, (bd azu too) lets you still somewhat deal with bisharp if braave bird etc.

Toxic you should explain how its helpful to cripple common hazard removers like Salamence and rotom-w/h, this can be more valuable than whirlwind on some spikes teams because it helps you keep up your spikes more consistently and ccan also cripple some other pokemon that might try to switch in and pressure you like volcanion and latias too.
- Rocky Helmet is usually preferred because Skarmory is usually suspect to being hit by Knock Off anyways,This isn't the reason, its because it gets extremely valuable chip on things like Terrakion, Scizor, Azumarill etc. and if it keeps its item, it is able to further punish physical attacks as it Roosts off the damage.
- Leftovers allows Skarmory to not be mandated to keep Roosting off accumulated smaller hits, but leaves it more passive against the likes of wallbreakers such as the aforementioned Choice Band Azumarill or Terrakion.

These team options are far too long here, for reference you will probably want to make around 5-6 different points in most team options, which you have gone way over.

Paragraph 2
- Skarmory fits best on Balance and Stall as a blanket way to deal with physical attackers and provide crucial Spikes support to outlast the opposing team. Skarmory works excellently on spikes BO builds too, what you fit it on tends to depend on whether you are running Spikes or Defog more then anything, but don't just limit it to balance/stall here.
- Chansey is a near perfect compliment to Skarmory's walling capabilities for its ability to wall out the special hits that would severely threaten it, provide Stealth Rock support, throw out Toxics of its own to rack up more passive damage, and use Teleport to pivot back into Skarmory when a physical threat would come in. When you write team options you want to be more specific and give actual examples than just talk about "special hits". Chansey checks things like Volcanion, Latias, Nidoqueen, , Primarina etc for example. When you talk about Teleport be careful here because you have basically suggested rocks + teleport, these are two different sets and play iin two different ways with skarm builds, teleport chansey pairs super nicely on the more BO / balancey spikes builds letting your wallbreakers get in to abuse skarmory's spikes, but will have you run a different rocker.

- Zeraora absolutely needs a mention here (and a very high one). Skarmory offers incredible support to zeraora by setting spikes to wear down its switch-ins ilke Amoonguss / tangrowth and make other checks like nidoqueen / rhyperior struggle even further, while setting further spikes up against the grass type switch ins. Skarmory also offers a fantastic switch-in to zeraora checks like Tapu Bulu and Scarf Krook. Zeraora importantly offers you a strong offensive check to stuff like Terrakion and Latias.


- Hatterene is also a viable partner because it acts as a very hard check to Latias, and in return Skarmory keeps in check Scizor and Bisharp from spamming their Steel STABS.
- Furthermore, Hatterene's Magic Bounce keeping away the opponent's hazards gives less incentive to actually use Defog and remove the hazards Skarmory built up, which is paramount against another player who runs Skarmory or uses Spikes Mew. You can combine these two Hatterene points very easily and shorten it by just mentioning that it offers a strong win condition with cm sets while offering bounce support that appreciates spikes wearing down switch-ins like Jirachi. If you do this, make it a more general point about some win cons and mention cm g-bro and cm-latias too, and move it further down after wallbreakers.

- Wallbreakers such as Diggersby, Crawdaunt, Victini, and Kommo-o appreciate the increased hazard damage Skarmory creates to push past certain thresholds.

You shoudl go into more detail here and give some examples of what the hazards help against. Diggersby and Crawdaunt don't really tend to fit on the morebulkier builds you'd run a skarmory on either and would fit better with say a lead hazards mew. Comment on how Victini and Kommo-o appreciate Primarina being worn down, Victini also likes checks like Kommo-o / Chansey (if special) worn down. Other pokemon you could mention as wallbreakers her are like Bulu, Toxtricity, Nidoqueen.

- Taunt users such as Krookodile and Mew deny the opposing hazards and Defog attempts, and the have two just mentioned also use Knock Off to remove any Leftovers or Heavy Duty Boots.

Make this point about rocks setters that form hazard cores with Skarmory, try and combine clanger rhyperior queen into this point, i wouldn't bother with the mew mention personally here, just krook.

- Ground-Types and Volt Absorbers are much more necessary because Skarmory is larger target for Volt Switch than most other Pokemon.
- Nidoqueen is notable among them because its a solid check to Zeraora, a especially hard wallbreaker to switch into with hazards up, and can run Stealth Rocks or Toxic Spikes you are always going to use it for rocks on these sort of builds, stacking both spikes is kinda meh and you won't fit rocks somewhere else easily anyway to stack residual damage and pose a greater threat to offensive teams. If you wanted to mention Nidouqeen, combine it into your previous point with Kommoo + Victini, no need to make this a separate point.
- Rhyperior is also a fantastic partner that counters Rotom-Heat strong check to Zeraora too that would try to use Skarmory as setup bait and threaten to OHKO it or use the opportunity to setup Stealth Rocks.
- Grass-Types are nice to have as they ease pressure off of Skarmory from strong Electric and Water-Type attacks. Always give examples in these situations.
- Amoongus is a notable example for its resistances to both of Primarina's and Keldeo's STABs and Amoongus appreciates a Ground immunity to compensate for its neutrality to the type. Mention tangrowth too.
- Water-Types are able to keep in check the Fire Types Skarmory is not thinking of taking, and Skarmory provides invaluable support against big threats such as Tapu Bulu and Tangrowth. This point should be unecessary once you've mentioned Slowking + Chansey, want to save on space since this is very long.
- Quagsire and Tentacruel are big examples on stall teams; the former is able to shut out both Rotom-W and Rotom-H and serving as a check to Swords Dance Terrakion so Skarmory does not have to bear the burden entirely on its own, and the latter is the only reliable form of Rapid Spin support and completely dominates Celesteela with Liquid Ooze. Again this is less important of a point compared to some of the alternatives. Stuff like dealing with celesteela is easily done by the teleport users you mention in slowking + chansey, while i think the quagsire point is unecessary here with a lot of stalls not even using it anyway lately.

Tentacruel is a fine mention if you want to briefly mention it for rapid spin + knock off support (against boots users like slowking) however, but just make it brief.

- Slowking is also a durable Fire resist on Balance that tanks hits from Latias better, and Slowking appreciates that Skarmory is able to punish U-Turn with Rocky Helmet while gaining health from Regenerator switching out. This should be put with your Chansey point to talk about other defensiv pivots, you can compare it to chansey as another Nidoqueen + Latias answer, and also offers teleport support. You can also compare that it checks all Victini variants, while Chansey checks special ones.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
- Custap Lead Skarmory, specify that this runs both rocks and spikes which uses Custap Berry to move first after its used its Sturdy to either set another layer of Spikes or kill itself with Brave Bird so that neither spin nor Defog can go off, is very reliant on taking your opponent by surprise or not having a Taunt user which other leads like Grimmsnarl and Mew are. This is'nt true, Lead skarmory runs spikes + rocks + taunt + brave bird. the issue is that its slower than a lot of common removers like salamence / rotoms that mew outspeeds / ties with, while killing urself with brave bird is also not as reliable as explosion is from mew at immediately stopping removal opportunities or getting one of your breakers in. The comparison to grimmsnarl also makes 0 sense as its a screens setter not hazards setter.
- Shed Shell is not considerable, because Magnezone is not widely used enough to justify running it over items that actually help Skarmory outside of the specific matchup. I would reword this to something like "Shed Shell can be used on teams overly reliant on Skarmory to check Pokemon like Gyarados and DD Salamence to avoid being trapped by Magnezone, but giving up the chip damage of Rocky Helmet is hard to justify and this is only beneficial in very specific matchups".
- Running Stealth Rocks on Skarmory is an option when the team needs some sort of hazards and wants the walling prowess but the opportunity cost of not running Spikes is simply too much for to forgo, and there's usually room for Stealth Rocks on one of Skarmory's common teammates moved to mentions
- Iron Defense is able to be used to boost Body Press's damage output and increase its defensive capabilities even further, but it is very difficult to fit on Skarmory's moveset over other moves, and it still suffers against most of the same things it did before. moved to slash

Checks and Counters
===================

**Electric-Types**:
- Electric-Types are the bane of Skarmory's existence because they threaten to gain easy momentum with Volt Switch; Rotom-H and Thundurus-I in particular can use Skarmory as a setup opportunity with Nasty Plot and Rotom-W will always be able to at least Defog or Pain Split the way the hazards Skarmory built up if it comes in on Skarmory. No zeraora mention? its immune to spikes and uses you for easy volt switches.

**Fire-Types**
- Victini and Rotom-H can all take advantage of Skarmory threaten to deal massive damage. Try to only mention things in one of these sections.
- To add insult to injury, Victini can run Heavy Duty Boots on mixed sets special boots is arguably its best set so its not just mied as to avoid hazards entirely and Rotom-H is able to grab an easy Pain Split or Defog to make some sort of progress even if Skarmory switches into one of its counters such as Gastrodon or Rhyperior
- Volcanion is also able to launch a Steam Eruption which cripples the switchin with a potential Burns since Skarmory will be taking big damage from it if it stays in. Volcanion easily removes your spikes which is probalby the bigger issue, so even if you switch into chansey / slowking you are back to 0 while volc has boots.

**Special Attackers**:
- As stated earlier, Skarmory's special bulk is so unimpressive that it even falters to repeated special hits such as from Latias Draco Meteor or Primarina Choice Specs boosted Moonblast. Don't really like this phrasing, you should instead comment on how these special attackers can easily force it out even with neutral moves like prim or keldeos specs water stabs. It also gives set up opportunities to things like Latias, sub kyurem (esp if not ww. Mention Magnezone also as a specific mention because of magnet pull. mention how some of this stuff is vulnerable in switching in however, latias / kyurem hate coming in on toxic, keldeo on brave bird.
- This also means it's easy target to special attackers that hit it at least neutrally such as Choice Specs Keldeo if its not running Brave Bird, Kyurem if its not running Body Press, and Moltres-G.

**Taunt**
- Taunt users such as the aforementioned Mew, Krookodile, and Kommo-o will leave Skarmory unable to phase with Whirlwind, Roost off damage, or use Spikes, leaving it much more vulnerable if it is at low enough health. Taunt is not particularly common on clanger atm. You also need to directly bring these in letting it spike up / roost still if skarmory came in on something else, while skarmory would only actively try to check krook and defensive clanger here (which honestly struggles to fit taunt).

**Celesteela**
- Celesteela can come in on Skarmory for free and use the opprotunity to either use Leech Seed, or threaten Skarmory with Flamethrower.
- On hyper offense, Celesteela can use Skarmory as a free opportunity to gain 2 Special Attack boosts by KOing with Meteor Beam and still has its Fire coverage available.
- If Sturdy is still intact however, Skarmory can threaten to Whirlwind after Autotomize or if the Celesteela player prematurely used Meteor Beam.

This point isn't worth making separate imo, put the auto steela mention into the special attackers + set up section. You can throw a mention to normal defensive steela too but its really not alone in terms of abusing you like this, chansey / slowking also generate free momentum with teleport for instance.

**Hatterene**
- Hatterene's Magic Bounce completely denies Skarmory's hazards, can use it as a setup opportunity with Calm Mind, and has Mystical Fire as coverage to severely threaten Skarmory.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[username1, userid1]]
- Quality checked by: [[username1, userid1], [username2, userid2], [username3, userid3]]
- Grammar checked by: [[username1, userid1], [username2, userid2]]

I'd like to have another look at this once its been implemented. The team options in particular are extremely long so i'd like to cut these down a little more later after you have implemented the suggested changes.

 

[Mystras]

I'd like to have another look at this once its been implemented. The team options in particular are extremely long so i'd like to cut these down a little more later after you have implemented the suggested changes.

ok i should be done here and ready for the next check up

 

[Estarossa]

Purple = Add stuff that i've reworded
Blue = Comments
Red = Remove

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[OVERVIEW]

- Skarmory, through its fantastic physical defense and great defensive typing, serves as one of the best checks to key threats such as Tapu Bulu, Bisharp, Mamoswine, and Gyarados.
- It's access to Spikes also makes it a fantastic suportive option to bulky offense and balance teams, helping its teammates more easily deal with Regenerator Pokemon like Amoonguss and Tangrowth.

You could probably also include a point on how its a nice fit on more defneisve and stall teams here, through answering some of these really dangerous physical breakers like Mamo, can also mention the utility it can bring through beating stuff like Conk and SD scizor with ID + BP too here for these fatter teams, or keeping some stuff like Bisharp, Reuniclus, Slowbro-Galar in check with whirlwind.

- Skarmory is a Physical Defensive pillar of the metagame, being able to keep in check key threats such as Gyarados, Terrakion, Tapu Bulu, and Bisharp with Brave Bird and the newly added Body Press. Its worth noting here that LO terrakion literally 2hkos you with cc, (cb can with edge), and +2 LO cc will nuke you too, pretty poor answer especially if you don't even have body press to threaten it. Skarmory can be very viably used to shave off its hp with helmet in certain situations but to clarify it as a good check to terrak is a bit dodgy.
- It is for these reasons that Skarmory's big niche in the tier is as the best Spiker on Balance and Bulky Offense teams that appreciate the defensive utility against these threats with its great defensive typing and bulk.

- Skarmory faces direct competition from Celesteela, trading its good matchup Latias for more offensive utility with Spikes and the ability to better deal with Pokemon like Tapu Bulu. Likewise its access to single turn recovery unlike Celesteela means it can easily run Rocky Helmet, allowing it to more easily punish Pokemon like Tapu Bulu, Scizor, and Terrakion.
- It faces competition from Celesteela who shares the same typing but has much higher Special Defense, which means it is a better check to threats such as Latias.
- However Skarmory still maintains the advantages of being able to better take a physically defensive role while not being as passive thanks to Spikes plus Whirlwind or Toxic accumulating residual damage over time.
- Roost is also what sets it apart from other Steel-Types for longevity as it does not need to wait a turn for Wish like Jirachi or wait several turns to get back to high health from Leech Seed like Celesteela.
- Skarmory's role is flexible; it can choose whether it wants to exacerbate hazard damage against by setting down multiple layers of Spikes or remove the hazards if the team needed the role compression. I'd probably remove this bit because we're deslashing Defog to a mention now, we can just mention this in the moves section instead.


- However it shares weaknesses with Celesteela such as being a bigger target for Electric-Types and especially when they threaten with Volt Switch.
- This also means threats that run coverage for Celesteela will also severely threaten Skarmory, such as Nidoqueen running Fire Blast or Kommo-o running Flamethrower.
- It also invites Heavy Duty Boots users such as Victini and Zeraora in much easier than Celesteela who runs Leech Seed protect to at least deal chip while giving itself health.

- Spikes on Skarmory, while it still have the benefits of hitting Regenerator Grass-Types and Nidoqueen, are not always useful given the prominence of Heavy Duty Boots users in the tier which include Zeraora, Victini, and Slowking, so it requires Knock Off support to get the most out of it.
- Spikes also come with the caveat of discouraging Defog, so the teams relying on Spikes are also either relying on Heavy Duty Boots themselves, or force in a Tentacruel as Rapid Spin support.

these comments are rather unecessary for the overview. Spikes are precisely amazing because they do target stuff like the regen grasses and grounds like nidoqueen / krook. Not being able to hit boots users is an annoyance but spikes will always be useful in all matchups because it targets so many common glue mons and specially tang/amoong, and the presence of options like tentacruel or trick latias etc that can get the boots off of slowking means its really not too tricky to get the boots off.

w.r.t the spikes and defog comment, this is a bti unecessary to comment in the overview too. its kinda fluffy and not really an issue with skarmory itself, but also you can easily still run Defog with spikes skarmory on more bulky teams, there's no inherent need for you to actually use it yourself if you don't want to remove hazards and comes with more consistency in terms of actually removing compared to tentacruel which can have issues with finding removal opportunities and having poor mu's vs common setters. Teentacruel is stil la solid option on spikes skarm teams that provides spin + knock + secondary azu check etc but you aren't being forced into only running this so the comment feels a bit off base and not rly true.

[SET]
name: Physically Defensive
move 1: Spikes / Defog qc has decided to just make this a mention now to declutter this set a bit.
move 2: Roost
move 3: Brave Bird/ Body Press
move 4: Whirlwind / Toxic / Iron Defense
item: Rocky Helmet / Leftovers was going to deslash this last time but wanted to wait on input from other QC members just incase some wanted it still slashed. Leftovers can somewhat help with some rolls but its not really worth it most of the time compared to the vitally important chip that Helmet gives you on stuff like Terrak, Azu, Scizor.
ability: Sturdy
nature: Impish/Bold
evs: 252 HP/ 160 Def/ 96 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

Paragraph 1
- Spikes are often imperative to deal important chip damage against defensive pivots such as Amoongus, Tangrowth, and Jirachi over the course of the game for Skarmory's teammates to capitalize on; this is especially notable because Skarmory can keep stacking Spikes on top of Amoongus or Tangrowth if something else was sleep foddered and it still has other easy opportunities to set more layers as it forces out most physical attackers. You could probably cut down on the wordiness here, saying something like "Spikes let Skarmory contribute important chip damage for its teammates against defensive pivots like Amoonguss, Tangrowth, and Jirachi. Skarmory finds many chances to set these versus threats like Lycanroc-Dusk and Tapu Bulu, and can also set them versus Amoonguss and Tangrowth once a teammate is asleep." Just a suggestion but this analysis really needs cutting down.

- Defog is also another option on fat Balance or Stall teams as it offers the role compression with its defensive utility against Scizor and Conkeldurr, is Spikes immune itself, and has ample opportunities to Defog away hazards. move this down to after iron defense mention now its not a slash anymore. wouldn't mention that it has a poor mu vs a lot with offensive hazard setters like kommo-o and nidoqueen however.
- Stealth Rocks are not ideal, given that Skarmory really prefers to focus on Spiking, but can still use it if the team has no other room for it. Move this to OO imo, dont really think its worth a mention here.
- The choice of Brave Bird or Body Press comes down if the team needs Skarmory needs to be more able to damage specific targets such as Azumarill and Gyarados in the case of Brave Bird or Bisharp and Terrakion mention lycanroc-dusk instead imo, body press is nice for rak but u only force it out if its at +0 and can never hard switch into it in Body Press's case. Worth noting that Brave Bird lets you pressure opposing Gras types like Amoong/Bulu/Tang, which u cant do with press.
- Whirlwind and Spikes have amazing synergy together, spreading residual damage to larger portions of the opposing team, phases setup threats such as Dragon Dance Gyarados or Calm Mind Reuniclus, and punishes Azumarill for activating Belly Drum.
- Toxic is nice to cripple Defoggers such as Salamence, Volcanion, and Rotom-W so they'll lose out to Skarmory in the long term and it also cripples threats that would pressure Skarmory out such as Zeraora, Victini and Latias.
- Iron Defense makes Skarmory an especially good answer to Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor and boosts its Body Press damage output, but this is combination still suffers against special attackers and makes Skarmory especially worse against foes like Victini, Latias and Thundurus-I. if you wanna make a comment like this talk about how it means u have to drop Brave bird however, so you'll struggle to pressure stuff like BD azu and grass types more effectively. You still are kinda passive to lati anyway if you dont have toxic, since it easily roosts off ur BB damage.
- Rocky Helmet is usually preferred item of choice because it punishes the likes of Scizor, Terrakion, and Azumarill, and continues to rack up damage with Roost restoring its health.
- Leftovers allows Skarmory to not be mandated to keep Roosting off accumulated smaller hits, Any examples here of where it turns 2hkos into 3hkos etc? atm this doesn't really say anything helpful about why you'd want to use leftovers but leaves it more passive against the likes of wallbreakers such as the aforementioned Choice Band Azumarill or Terrakion.
- 96 Speed EVs lets Skarmory outspeed Conkeldurr and Adamant Azumarill, better checking Choice Band variants of the latter and getting a guaranteed Brave Bird off against Belly Drum variants when out of Aqua Jet range alongside the Rocky Helmet damage. This still leaves Skarmory with enough bulk to avoid being 2HKO'd by Mamoswine after Stealth Rock.
- 96 Speed EVs allow it to outspeed Adamant Azumarill and allow it to chip it with Brave Bird or Roost before Banded Azumarill can KO with Liquidation, rack up Rocky Helmet chip in the process, and launch Brave Bird as a final attack when Skarmory gets eventually put in Liquidation range; as a side benefit, it also outspeeds Conkeldurr and it still has the bulk to avoid being 2HKOed by Mamoswine's Icicle Crash while still acting as a reliable check to Krookodile with Body Press. This is quite long so just trying to cut down on the info a bit in places.

Paragraph 2
- Skarmory fits best on Balance, Stall, and Bulky Offense teams as a blanket way to deal with physical attackers and provide crucial Spikes support to outlast the opposing team.
- Specially defensive pivots such as Slowking or Chansey bring the most out of Skarmory's walling capabilities as they are more reliable sponges to Pokemon such as Latias and Nihelego. Nihilego, and Volcanion. You should also comment on Victini for Slowking, and mention that Chansey can check special variants. Also should be mentioning that these two Pokemon can use Teleport to help bring in offensive partners to take advantage of the spikes, and act as reliable switch-ins to Celesteela for Skarmory in process.
- Zeraora is a fantastic partner for being able to soak Volt Switches, I wouldnt mention this, you don't really want to be sending your Zeraora into opposing Zeraora for instance aat risk of a Knock / CC, you could like use it to take a washtom/heattom but you want to be careful about doing this too much, and you should absolutely be using other checks to Zeraora anyway if you are using Skarmory like nidoqueen, bulu, amoonguss etc. provides Knock Off to get rid of Heavy Duty Boots and Leftovers, give examples when you talk about removing boots, worth mentioning that realistically it never will as they will just switch out of slowking etc so i wouldnt mention this either and is a solid offensive answer to Terrakion and Latias; in return, Skarmory is able to act as a solid answer to Grass-Types such as Tapu Bulu, handles Choice Scarf Krookodile, and wears down many of Zeraora's checks such as Nidoqueen and Rhyperior with Spikes. Yea this should be the main focus when you talk about zeraora + skarmory, its spikes basically mean that every time amoonguss / tangrowth want to come in on it they are actually coming out net negative from the interaction with spikes + rocks up, making the volt turning off zeraora even more nasty. mentioning other checks like nidoqueen / rhyp is great too, but you should absolutely be talking about the regen grasses here.
- Wallbreakers such as Toxtricity and Tapu Bulu appreciates their checks being worn down by Skarmory's hazards for their checks to be worn down throughout the course of a game. This reads really really strangely. again we need examples in this sort of thing, and a mention of victini really ought to be here too. something like "Wallbreakers such as Toxtricity, Victini, and Tapu Bulu appreciate checks like Rhyperior, Kommo-o, and Amoonguss being worn down by Spikes. Toxtricity and Victini can help to form VoltTurn cores on these Spikes teams, while Tapu Bulu can provide a check to Zeraora and offensively pressure Primarina" would work, but try to write this in your own words imo.
- Stealth Rocks setters such as Rhyperior, Nidoqueen, Krookodile and Mixed Kommo-o provide excellent hazard cores with Skarmory. Again is there any other synergy these mons can provide here? eg. that Rhyperior / Nidoqueen check Zeraora, that rhyp also checks heattom too. You can definitely comment on that these more offensive sorts of hazard setters also really nicely pressure opposing removal options like Rotom-H, Tentacruel, and Salamence, helping to better keep up the hazards.
- Ground-Types and Volt Absorbers are much more necessary because Skarmory is larger target for Volt Switch than most other Pokemon; an example is Gastrodon who counters both Rotom-H and Rotom-W, and a solid check to Zeraora. You've already brought up a bunch of ground types and volt absorbers too, this point feels a little redundant to me.
- Grass-Types are nice to have as they ease pressure off of Skarmory from strong Electric and Water-Type attacks; Tangrowth is notable because it is a good check to Terrakion which Skarmory can have issues keeping in check. you might as well bring up amoonguss too, try and specifically comment on this as being solid zeraora answers and mention how they can potentially get removers like rotom-heat / salamence slept imo.



[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
- Custap Lead Skarmory uses Stealth Rocks and Spikes alongside Custap Berry by using Sturdy to live one hit then uses Custap's speed increase next turn to set another layer of hazards up before dying or killing itself with Brave Bird so that it denies either Rapid Spin or Defog attempts; this strategy is not as reliable as Mew's own lead set, which uses Explosion is at denying hazard removal ? while letting in a teammate in more easily, and Mew is faster than many Defoggers such as Rotom-Wash and Volcanion for its own Taunt to go off sooner.
- Shed Shell is considerable on a team over reliant on Skarmory for Pokemon such as Dragon Dance Gyarados but losing Rocky Helmet chip or Leftovers makes it hard to justify as Shed Shell is just for that specific matchup.
Mention rocks too.

Reorder this to have custap lead skarm be the last mention.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Electric-Types**:
- Electric-Types are the bane of Skarmory's existence because they threaten to gain easy momentum with Volt Switch; Rotom-H and Thundurus-I in particular can use Skarmory as a setup opportunity with Nasty Plot and Rotom-W will always be able to at least Defog the way the hazards Skarmory built up if it comes in on Skarmory or Pain Split to gain some health back. heattom can defo defog hazards too even if it tends to prefer other non defog sts.
- Zeraora is also hazard immune thanks to Heavy Duty Boots and will often use the opportunity to grab a free Knock Off or Volt Switch throughout the course of a game.

**Fire-Types**
- Victini and Chandelure are both examples of Fire-Types that can completely take advantage of Skarmory; Victini being able to fire off its strong V-Creates or Blue Flares or generate momentum with U-Turn, and Chandelure takes the opprotunity to scare Skarmory out and uses Substitute. This assumes that chadny only uses sub sets, which isnt rly true with other stuff like scarf, toxtect, specs etc, some of htem that i'd consider better sets than sub anyway.
- Volcanion is also problematic as it is able to make some sort of progression even if Skarmory switches out into one of Volcanion's counters such as Blissey or Gastrodon by using Defog and remove all the hazards Skarmory built up It doens't make progression if you are running Slowking or Chansey, but its also denied you your progression. if anything it letting you into slowking / chansey of your own actually makes progression for you due to teleport, but it just fairly reliably denies your hazards and can put dangerous chip on ur slowking with burns / poisons too.
- To add insult to injury, all of them run Heavy Duty Boots to avoid hazard damage completely and make them more difficult to check throughout the game.

**Special Attackers**:
- Special attackers that have even strong neutral attacks such as Primarina and Keldeo will have no trouble forcing Skarmory out, and Skarmory usually ends up as setup fodder for the likes of Calm Mind Latias, Substitute Kyurem, Meteor Beam Celesteela, and especially Iron Defense Substitute Magnezone iirc we are only making Specs magnezone a set, so don't comment on this and just make it a point after all of this that magnezone instead can just flat out trap skarmory. if not running Whirlwind; however, all of them barring Celesteela and Magnezone have to be weary of coming in on a Toxic and Keldeo and Kyurem have to be careful on coming in on a potential Brave Bird and Body Press respectively.

**Taunt**
- Skarmory's tendency to be worn down and need to Roost without Leftovers recovery means that it is susceptible to Taunt users such as Mew and Krookoodile, leaving it unable to heal off damage, phase with Whirlwind, or set more hazards. idk about this point, i dont think its worth having a mention for, since its only mew thats really the problem since krook has to be very very careful about body presses etc.

**Hatterene**
- Hatterene's Magic Bounce completely denies Skarmory's hazards, enables Hatterene to use it as a setup opportunity with Calm Mind, which Skarmory can't even phase out with Whirlwind, and has Mystical Fire as coverage to severely threaten Skarmory.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[username1, userid1]]
- Quality checked by: [[username1, userid1], [username2, userid2], [username3, userid3]]
- Grammar checked by: [[username1, userid1], [username2, userid2]]

QC 1/3 when this is implemented. Please be very careful while implementing this as there was a lot of stuff that was missed from my previous check, feel free to ask for help on anything you are confused about in the #analyses channel in uu disc.

this got really long in places with the moves and overview, so i tried to rewrite some bits of this to be more concise for you. It'd be worth you reading over everything after you've implemented this check however and seeing if there are places you can do this yourself.

 

[Mystras]

Purple = Add stuff that i've reworded
Blue = Comments
Red = Remove

Hide

[OVERVIEW]
- Skarmory, through its fantastic physical defense and great defensive typing, serves as one of the best checks to key threats such as Tapu Bulu, Bisharp, Mamoswine, and Gyarados.
- It's access to Spikes also makes it a fantastic suportive option to bulky offense and balance teams, helping its teammates more easily deal with Regenerator Pokemon like Amoonguss and Tangrowth
- On defensive and stall teams it has the option to keep in check physical breakers such as Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor with Iron Defense plus Body Press or have utility against other setup threats such as Bisharp and Reuniclus with Whirlwind.
- Skarmory faces direct competition from Celesteela, trading its good matchup Latias for more offensive utility with Spikes and the ability to better deal with Pokemon like Tapu Bulu. Likewise its access to single turn recovery unlike Celesteela means it can easily run Rocky Helmet, allowing it to more easily punish Pokemon like Tapu Bulu, Scizor, and Terrakion.
- However it shares weaknesses with Celesteela such as being a bigger target for Electric-types and their momentum grabbing Volt Switch.
- This also means threats that run coverage for Celesteela will also severely threaten Skarmory, such as Nidoqueen running Fire Blast or Kommo-o running Flamethrower.
- It also invites Heavy Duty Boots users such as Victini and Zeraora in much easier than Celesteela who runs Leech Seed protect to at least deal chip while giving itself health.

[SET]
name: Physically Defensive
move 1: Spikes
move 2: Roost
move 3: Brave Bird/ Body Press
move 4: Whirlwind / Toxic / Iron Defense
item: Rocky Helmet
ability: Sturdy
nature: Impish/Bold
evs: 252 HP/ 160 Def/ 96 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

Paragraph 1
- Spikes let Skarmory contribute important damage to defensive pivots such as Amoonguss, Tangrowth, and Jirachi over the course of the game for its teammates to capitalize on, and has plenty of other opportunities on Pokemon such as Tapu Bulu and Lycanroc-D to set more layers.
- The choice of Brave Bird or Body Press comes down what Skarmory needs to actually threaten; Brave Bird allows Skarmory to hit Grass-types super effectively as well as hit Azumarill and Gyarados neutrally, whereas Body Press threatens Lycanroc-D and Bisharp.
- Whirlwind and Spikes have amazing synergy together, spreading residual damage throughout of the opposing team with hazards up, phases setup threats such as Dragon Dance Gyarados or Calm Mind Reuniclus, and punishes Azumarill for activating Belly Drum.
- Toxic is nice to cripple Defoggers such as Salamence, Volcanion, and Rotom-W so they lose out to Skarmory in the long term and it also hinders threats that would pressure Skarmory out such as Zeraora, Victini and Latias.
- Iron Defense makes Skarmory an especially good answer to Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor with Body Press, but leaves Skarmory unable to pressure Belly Drum Azumarill as well as not deal significant damage to the likes of Amoongus, and Tangrowth.
- Rocky Helmet is usually preferred item of choice because it punishes the likes of Scizor, Terrakion, and Azumarill for repeatedly attacking into it, while Skarmory continues to rack up damage alongside Roost restoring its health.
- 96 Speed EVs lets Skarmory outspeed Conkeldurr and Adamant Azumarill, better checking Choice Band variants of the latter and getting a guaranteed Brave Bird off against Belly Drum variants when out of Aqua Jet range alongside the Rocky Helmet damage. This still leaves Skarmory with enough bulk to avoid being 2HKO'd by Mamoswine's Icicle Crash after Stealth Rock.

Paragraph 2
- Skarmory fits best on balance, stall, and bulky offense teams as a blanket way to deal with physical attackers and provide crucial Spikes support to outlast the opposing team.
- Specially defensive pivots such as Slowking or Chansey bring the most out of Skarmory's walling capabilities as they are more reliable sponges to Pokemon such Nihilego, and Volcanion. Chansey checks special variants of Victini, whereas Slowking can check all variants, and both have Teleport, making them better switchins to Celesteela as well as being able to put offensive teammates in a favorable position to attack while Spikes are up.
- Zeraora heavily appreciates Spikes support wearing down its checks such as Rhyperior, Nidoqueen, and the Regenerator Grass-types and Skarmory enjoys reliable Knock Off support removing Heavy Duty Boots, Leftovers, or Black Sludge away from Tapu Bulu or Amoongus to make them more pressured by hazard damage.
- Wallbreakers such as Toxtricity and Victini perform even better when Spikes are wearing down their checks such as Rhyperior and Kommo-o, and the two can even form a VoltTurn core to pressure their checks further. Choice Specs Keldeo is another example because it can overwhelm the likes of Chandelure, and can lure Amoonguss and damage it heavily with Air Slash for it to unable to switch in reliably later with hazards.
- Stealth Rock setters such as Rhyperior, Nidoqueen, Krookodile provide excellent hazard cores with Skarmory, as they are able to pressure hazard removers such as Rotom-H, Salamence, and Tentacruel, and the Regenerator Pokemon themselves, either by Toxic, powerful attacks, or Knock Off removing their items.
- Grass-types are nice to have as they ease pressure off of Skarmory from strong Electric and Water-types such as Zeraora and Primarina; Tangrowth is notable because it is a good check to Terrakion which Skarmory can have issues keeping in check, as well as Amoonguss who can put Defoggers to sleep with Spore.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
- Iron Head on Skarmory is an option for Hatterene to punish it attempting to bounce back hazards, but its use is limited to just Hatterene.
- Stealth Rocks can be used if Skarmory has no other teammates that can use it, though Skarmory really prefers to use Spikes.
- Defog is also another option on fat Balance or Stall teams alongside Spikes as it offers the role compression with its defensive utility against Scizor and Conkeldurr, is Spikes immune itself, and has ample opportunities to Defog away hazards if it needs to.
- Leftovers allows Skarmory to not be mandated to keep Roosting off accumulated smaller hits, but leaves it more passive against the likes of wallbreakers such as the aforementioned Choice Band Azumarill or Terrakion.
- An alternative spread of max HP and Def lets Skarmory better stomach hits from Terrakion, but this makes Skarmory's matchup against Azumarill much worse off and Terrakion can still shatter Skarmory with +2 boosted attacks.
- Shed Shell is considerable on a team over reliant on Skarmory for Pokemon such as Dragon Dance Gyarados to be trapped by Magnezone but losing Rocky Helmet chip or Leftovers makes it hard to justify as Shed Shell is just for that specific matchup.
- Custap Lead Skarmory uses Stealth Rock and Spikes alongside Custap Berry so that Skarmory uses Sturdy to live one hit then uses Custap's speed increase next turn to set another layer of hazards up before dying or killing itself with Brave Bird so that it denies either Rapid Spin or Defog attempts; this strategy is not as reliable as Mew's own lead set when its Explosion is more capable of denying Defog or Rapid Spin while letting in a teammate in more easily, and Mew is faster than more Defoggers such as Rotom-Wash and Volcanion for its own Taunt to go off faster.


Checks and Counters
===================

**Electric-types**: Electric-types are the bane of Skarmory's existence because they threaten to gain easy momentum with Volt Switch, and most even run Heavy Duty Boots to ignore hazards entirely. Rotom-H and Rotom-W are both able to switch in and at least Defog away the hazards built up, Thundurus-T and Rotom-H also have the option of using Skarmory as a setup opportunity with Nasty Plot, and Zeraora is able to threaten an easy Volt Switch or Knock Off after it comes in.

**Fire-types**: Victini completely takes advantage of Skarmory by coming in easily and threatening to blow through Skarmory with its powerful Fire STAB or generate momentum with U-turn. Chandelure is even worse because it is an overall threat to many kinds of teams Skarmory anchors on and often uses it as an entry point to come in and either throw its powerful Choice Specs attacks or setup with Substitute. To add insult to injury, both of them run Heavy Duty Boots to avoid hazard damage completely and make them more difficult to check throughout the game.

**Special Attackers**: Special attackers that have even strong neutral attacks such as Primarina and Keldeo will have no trouble forcing Skarmory out, and Skarmory usually ends up as setup fodder for the likes of Calm Mind Latias, Substitute Kyurem, and Meteor Beam Celesteela if not running Whirlwind; however, all of them barring Celesteela have to be weary of coming in on a Toxic and Keldeo and Kyurem have to be careful on coming in on a potential Brave Bird and Body Press respectively.

**Hatterene**: Hatterene's Magic Bounce completely denies Skarmory's hazards, enables Hatterene to use it as a setup opportunity with Calm Mind, which Skarmory can't even phase out with Whirlwind, and has Mystical Fire as coverage to severely threaten Skarmory.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[username1, userid1]]
- Quality checked by: [[username1, userid1], [username2, userid2], [username3, userid3]]
- Grammar checked by: [[username1, userid1], [username2, userid2]]

QC 1/3 when this is implemented. Please be very careful while implementing this as there was a lot of stuff that was missed from my previous check, feel free to ask for help on anything you are confused about in the #analyses channel in uu disc.

this got really long in places with the moves and overview, so i tried to rewrite some bits of this to be more concise for you. It'd be worth you reading over everything after you've implemented this check however and seeing if there are places you can do this yourself.

 

[Mystras]

ignore that i accidentally posted it

 

[autumn]

QC 2/3
Now you can write this up into paragraphs before the third check. I'm on Discord if you need any help with this / want me to look over anything I commented on again.

Hide

[OVERVIEW]
- Skarmory, through its fantastic physical defense and great defensive typing, serves as one of the best checks to key threats such as Tapu Bulu, Bisharp, Mamoswine, and Gyarados.
- point about how access to roost allows it to consistently check these physical threats
- It's access to Spikes also makes it a fantastic suportive option to bulky offense and balance teams, helping its teammates more easily deal with Regenerator Pokemon like Amoonguss and Tangrowth
- On defensive and stall teams it has the option to keep in check physical breakers such as Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor with Iron Defense plus Body Press or have utility against other setup threats such as Bisharp and Reuniclus with Whirlwind.
- Skarmory faces direct competition from Celesteela, trading its good matchup Latias for more offensive utility with Spikes and the ability to better deal with Pokemon like Tapu Bulu. Likewise its access to single turn recovery unlike Celesteela means it can easily run Rocky Helmet, allowing it to more easily punish Pokemon like Tapu Bulu, (you mention this 3 times) Scizor, and Terrakion.
- However it shares weaknesses with Celesteela such as being a bigger Skarmory is a big target for Electric-types (such as?) and their momentum grabbing Volt Switch. (idt you really need to link this point to celesteela because it's an issue with skarm on its own and this is a skarm overview and not a steela one)
- This also means threats that run coverage for Celesteela will also severely threaten Skarmory, such as Nidoqueen running Fire Blast or Kommo-o running Flamethrower. (move this point above the last one following the change)
- It also invites Heavy Duty Boots (item should be formatted as Heavy-Duty Boots, will highlight throughout) users such as Victini and Zeraora in much easier than Celesteela who runs Leech Seed protect to at least deal chip while giving itself health. (you can just make this point about skarm being too passive in a lot of matchups and letting dangerous pokemon in. in general, if something faces competition from another pokemon, it's 100% good to mention but there are other negatives to the pokemon taht are separate from the competiton)

[SET]
name: Physically Defensive
move 1: Spikes
move 2: Roost
move 3: Brave Bird (space) / Body Press
move 4: Whirlwind / Toxic / Iron Defense
item: Rocky Helmet
ability: Sturdy
nature: Impish (space) / (space) Bold
evs: 252 HP (space) / 160 Def (space) / 96 Spe

all slashes on sets should have a space before and after them for upload to the dex

[SET COMMENTS]

Paragraph 1
- Spikes let Skarmory contribute important damage to defensive pivots such as Amoonguss, Tangrowth, and Jirachi over the course of the game for its teammates to capitalize on, and has plenty of other opportunities on Pokemon such as Tapu Bulu and Lycanroc-D to set more layers.
- The choice of Brave Bird or Body Press comes down what Skarmory needs to actually threaten; Brave Bird allows Skarmory to hit Grass-types super effectively as well as hit Azumarill and Gyarados neutrally, whereas Body Press threatens Lycanroc-D and Bisharp.
- Whirlwind and Spikes have amazing synergy together, spreading residual damage throughout of the opposing team with hazards up, phases setup threats such as Dragon Dance Gyarados or Calm Mind Reuniclus, and punishes Azumarill for activating Belly Drum.
- Toxic is nice to cripple Defoggers such as Salamence, Volcanion, and Rotom-W (that naturally have a good matchup against Skarmory) so they lose out to Skarmory in the long term and it also hinders threats (something like switch-ins is more accurate because they can switch into skarm pretty risk free) that would pressure Skarmory out such as Zeraora, Victini and Latias.
- Iron Defense makes Skarmory an especially good answer to Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor with Body Press, but leaves Skarmory unable to pressure Belly Drum Azumarill as well as not deal significant damage to the likes of Amoonguss, and Tangrowth.
- Rocky Helmet is usually preferred item of choice because it punishes the likes of Scizor, Terrakion, and Azumarill for repeatedly attacking into it, while Skarmory continues to rack up damage alongside Roost restoring its health.
- 96 Speed EVs lets Skarmory outspeed Conkeldurr and Adamant Azumarill, better checking Choice Band variants of the latter and getting a guaranteed (not always guaranteed if it needs to be out of range) Brave Bird off against Belly Drum variants when out of Aqua Jet range alongside the Rocky Helmet damage. This still leaves Skarmory with enough bulk to avoid being 2HKO'd by Mamoswine's Icicle Crash after Stealth Rock.

Paragraph 2
- Skarmory fits best on balance, stall, and bulky offense teams as a blanket way to deal with physical attackers (such as?) and provide crucial Spikes support to outlast the opposing team.
- Specially defensive pivots such as Slowking or Chansey bring the most out of Skarmory's walling capabilities as they are more reliable sponges to Pokemon such Nihilego, and Volcanion. Chansey checks special variants of Victini, whereas Slowking can check all variants, and both have Teleport, making them better switchins to Celesteela as well as being able to put offensive teammates in a favorable position to attack while Spikes are up.
- Zeraora heavily appreciates Spikes support wearing down its checks such as Rhyperior, Nidoqueen, and the Regenerator Grass-types and Skarmory enjoys reliable Knock Off support removing Heavy Duty Boots, Leftovers, or Black Sludge away from Tapu Bulu or Amoonguss to make them more pressured by hazard damage.
- Wallbreakers such as Toxtricity and Victini perform even better when Spikes are wearing down their checks such as Rhyperior and Kommo-o, and the two can even form a VoltTurn core to pressure their checks further. Choice Specs Keldeo is another example because it can overwhelm the likes of Chandelure, and can lure Amoonguss and damage it heavily with Air Slash for it to unable to switch in reliably later with hazards.
- Stealth Rock setters such as Rhyperior, Nidoqueen, Krookodile provide excellent hazard cores with Skarmory, as they are able to pressure hazard removers such as Rotom-H, Salamence, and Tentacruel, and the Regenerator Pokemon themselves (only really nidoqueen does this so not super accurate), either by Toxic, powerful attacks, or Knock Off removing their items.
- Grass-types are nice to have as they ease pressure off of Skarmory from strong Electric and Water-types such as Zeraora and Primarina; Tangrowth is notable because it is a good check to Terrakion which Skarmory can have issues keeping in check, as well as Amoonguss who can put Defoggers to sleep with Spore.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
- Iron Head on Skarmory is an option for Hatterene to punish it attempting to bounce back hazards, but its use is limited to just Hatterene.
- Stealth Rocks (Stealth Rock not Rocks) can be used if Skarmory has no other teammates that can use it, though Skarmory really prefers to use Spikes. (why?)
- Defog is also another option on fat balance and stall teams alongside (do you mean instead of spikes? the original slashign had that. if you don't, say what move you'd drop for defog) Spikes as it offers the role compression with its defensive utility against Scizor and Conkeldurr, is Spikes immune itself, and has ample opportunities to Defog away hazards if it needs to.
- Leftovers allows Skarmory to not be mandated to keep Roosting off accumulated smaller hits, but leaves it more passive against the likes of wallbreakers such as the aforementioned Choice Band Azumarill or Terrakion. (also prevents it from punishing uturn from rachi/scizor)
- An alternative spread of max HP and Def lets Skarmory better stomach hits from Terrakion, but this makes Skarmory's matchup against Azumarill much worse off and Terrakion can still shatter Skarmory with +2 boosted attacks.
- Shed Shell is considerable on a team over reliant on Skarmory for Pokemon such as Dragon Dance Gyarados to be trapped by Magnezone but losing Rocky Helmet chip or Leftovers makes it hard to justify as Shed Shell is just for that specific matchup.
- Custap Lead Skarmory uses Stealth Rock and Spikes alongside Custap Berry so that Skarmory uses Sturdy to live one hit then uses Custap's speed increase next turn to set another layer of hazards up before dying or killing itself with Brave Bird so that it denies either Rapid Spin or Defog attempts; this strategy is not as reliable as Mew's own lead set when its Explosion is more capable of denying Defog or Rapid Spin while letting in a teammate in more easily, and Mew is faster than more Defoggers such as Rotom-Wash and Volcanion for its own Taunt to go off faster.


Checks and Counters
===================

**Electric-types**: Electric-types are the bane of Skarmory's existence because they threaten to gain easy momentum with Volt Switch, and most even hover above Spikes or run Heavy Duty Boots to ignore hazards entirely. Rotom-H and Rotom-W are both able to switch in and at least Defog away the hazards built up, Thundurus-T and Rotom-H also have the option of using Skarmory as a setup opportunity with Nasty Plot, and Zeraora is able to threaten an easy Volt Switch or Knock Off after it comes in.

**Fire-types**: Victini completely takes advantage of Skarmory by coming in easily and threatening to blow through Skarmory with its powerful Fire STAB or generate momentum with U-turn. Chandelure is even worse because it is an overall threat to many kinds of teams Skarmory anchors on (just say it theatens balance and stall so you say what you mean) and often uses it as an entry point to come in and either throw its powerful Choice Specs attacks or setup with Substitute. To add insult to injury, both of them sometimes run Heavy Duty Boots to avoid hazard damage completely and make them more difficult to check throughout the game.

**Special Attackers**: Special attackers that have even strong neutral attacks such as Primarina and Keldeo will have no trouble forcing Skarmory out, and Skarmory usually ends up as setup fodder for the likes of Calm Mind Latias, and Meteor Beam Celesteela if not running Whirlwind; however, all of them barring Celesteela have to be weary of coming in on a Toxic and Keldeo and Kyurem have to be careful on coming in on a potential Brave Bird and Body Press respectively.

**Hatterene**: Hatterene's Magic Bounce completely denies Skarmory's hazards, enables Hatterene to use it as a setup opportunity with Calm Mind, Skarmory cannot even it phase out with Whirlwind, and has Mystical Fire as coverage to severely threaten Skarmory.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Mystras Leoxses, 530118]]
- Quality checked by: [[Estarossa, 461329], [martha, 384270], [username3, userid3]]
- Grammar checked by: [[username1, userid1], [username2, userid2]]

 

[Twilight]

QC Check

[OVERVIEW]
Skarmory, through its fantastic physical defense and great defensive typing, serves as one of the best checks to key threats such as Tapu Bulu, Bisharp, Mamoswine, and Gyarados. Its access to instant Recovery recovery in Roost allows it to remain stalwart against these threats and consistently check them. Skarmory's access to Spikes also makes it a fantastic supportive option to bulky offense and balance teams, helping its teammates more easily deal with Regenerator Pokemon like Amoonguss and Tangrowth. On defensive and stall teams it has the option to keep in check physical breakers such as Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor with Iron Defense plus Body Press or have utility against other setup threats such as Bisharp and Reuniclus with Whirlwind. Skarmory faces direct competition from Celesteela, trading its good matchup Latias matchup for more offensive utility with Spikes and the ability to better deal with Pokemon like Tapu Bulu. Likewise its access to single turn recovery unlike Celesteela means it can easily run Rocky Helmet, allowing it to more easily punish Pokemon like Scizor, and Terrakion. Skarmory is a big target for Electric-types such as Zeraora and their momentum grabbing Volt Switch. Skarmory's passivity in many matchups means that it lets in dangerous Pokemon like Victini and Latias much more easily than its competitors such as Celesteela and Jirachi. I wouldn't really call Jirachi competition This also means threats that run coverage for Celesteela will also severely threaten Skarmory, such as Nidoqueen running Fire Blast or Kommo-o running Flamethrower.

[SET]
name: Physically Defensive
move 1: Spikes
move 2: Roost
move 3: Brave Bird / Body Press
move 4: Whirlwind / Toxic / Iron Defense
item: Rocky Helmet
ability: Sturdy
nature: Impish / Bold
evs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe


[SET COMMENTS]

Spikes let Skarmory contribute important damage to defensive pivots such as Amoonguss, Tangrowth, and Jirachi over the course of the game for its teammates to capitalize on, and has plenty of other opportunities on Pokemon such as Tapu Bulu and Lycanroc-D to set more layers. The choice of Brave Bird or Body Press comes down what Skarmory needs to actually threaten; Brave Bird allows Skarmory to hit Grass-types super effectively as well as hit Azumarill and Gyarados neutrally, whereas Body Press threatens Lycanroc-D and Bisharp. Whirlwind and Spikes have amazing synergy together, spreading residual damage throughout of the opposing team with hazards up, phases setup threats such as Dragon Dance Gyarados or Calm Mind Reuniclus, and punishes Azumarill for activating odd choice of word Belly Drum. Toxic is nice to cripple Defoggers such as Salamence, Volcanion, and Rotom-W that have a naturally good matchup against Skarmory so they lose out in the long term and it also hinders switch-ins that would pressure Skarmory out such as Zeraora, Victini, and Latias. Iron Defense, alongside Body Press, makes Skarmory an especially good answer to Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor with Body Press, but it leaves Skarmory unable to pressure Belly Drum Azumarill as well as not deal significant damage to the likes of Amoonguss and Tangrowth. This doesn't really matter because you literally just set up to +6 on them and break through them, assuming another user is induced with sleep that is Rocky Helmet punishes the likes of Scizor, Terrakion, and Azumarill for repeatedly attacking into it, while Skarmory continues to rack up damage alongside Roost restoring its health. I do not like Terrakion as an example because CC 2HKOs, use something like Zarude instead to change the examples up 96 Speed EVs lets Skarmory outspeed Conkeldurr and Adamant Azumarill, better checking Choice Band variants of the latter and getting a Brave Bird off against Belly Drum variants when out of Aqua Jet range. This still leaves Skarmory with enough bulk to avoid being 2HKO'd by Mamoswine's Icicle Crash after Stealth Rock. I think a small line about Sturdy would be nice, especially with Whirlwind.

Skarmory fits best on balance, stall, and bulky offense teams as a blanket way to deal with physical attackers such as Lycanroc-D and Krookodile and provide crucial Spikes support to outlast the opposing team. Specially defensive pivots such as Slowking or Chansey bring the most out of Skarmory's walling capabilities as they are more reliable sponges to Pokemon such Nihilego, and Volcanion. Replace the Volcanion mention with a Psychic-type like Latias or Alakazam because saying 'more reliable sponges' implies Skarmory would switch into Volcanion. Chansey checks special variants of Victini, whereas Slowking can check all variants, and both have Teleport, making them better switchins to Celesteela as well as being able to put offensive teammates in a favorable position to attack while Spikes are up. I don't see the need to expand on this. Zeraora heavily appreciates Spikes support wearing down its checks such as Rhyperior, Nidoqueen, and the Regenerator Grass-types and Skarmory enjoys reliable Knock Off support removing Heavy-Duty Boots, Leftovers, or Black Sludge items I think it's a little unnecessary to list all these different items when frankly they aren't even the most common options on these two. By just being general like this you can at least be broader about other potential targets. away from Pokemon like Tapu Bulu and or Amoonguss to make them more pressured by hazard damage. Wallbreakers such as Toxtricity and Victini perform even better when Spikes are wearing down their checks such as Rhyperior and Kommo-o, and the two can even form a VoltTurn core to pressure their checks further. Not relevant to Skarmory Choice Specs Keldeo is another example because it can overwhelm the likes of Chandelure, and can lure Amoonguss and damage it heavily with Air Slash for it to be unable to switch in reliably later with hazards. Stealth Rock setters such as Rhyperior, and Nidoqueen provide excellent hazard cores with Skarmory, as they are able to pressure hazard removers such as Rotom-H, and Salamence, the latter even helping break through other bulky cores with Sheer Force Life Orb boosted attacks. Grass-types are nice to have as they ease pressure off of Skarmory from strong Electric and Water-types such as Zeraora and Primarina; Tangrowth is notable because it is a good check to Terrakion which Skarmory can have issues keeping in check, as well as Amoonguss who can put Defoggers to sleep with Spore. You say this like it is unique to Amoonguss because Tangrowth can also put stuff to sleep with Sleep Powder. You clearly aren't specifying just AV Tangrowth here so you may want to reword this.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Iron Head on Skarmory is an option for Hatterene to punish it attempting to bounce back hazards, but its use is limited to just Hatterene. Stealth Rock can be used if Skarmory has no other teammates that can use it, though Skarmory really prefers to use Spikes, because they are better able to wear down bulky cores and Regenerator Pokemon with multiple layers. Defog is also another option on fat balance and stall teams over Spikes or on the 4th moveslot as it offers the role compression with its defensive utility against Scizor and Conkeldurr, is Spikes immune itself, and has ample opportunities to Defog away hazards if it needs to. I would rather you mention how Skarmory struggles to beat a majority of the hazard setters in the tier like Nidoqueen and Nihilego. Leftovers allows Skarmory to not be mandated to keep Roosting off accumulated smaller hits, but leaves it more passive against the likes of wallbreakers such as the aforementioned Choice Band Azumarill or Terrakion, and also leaves it No need to say so much, and again it isn't a good Terrakion switchin. unable to punish U-turn from Jirachi or Scizor. An alternative spread of max HP and Def lets Skarmory better stomach hits from Terrakion, but this makes Skarmory's matchup against Azumarill much worse off and Terrakion can still shatter Skarmory with +2 boosted attacks. Shed Shell is considerable on a team over reliant on Skarmory for Pokemon such as Dragon Dance Gyarados to be trapped by Magnezone but losing Rocky Helmet chip or Leftovers makes it hard to justify as Shed Shell is just for that specific matchup. I don't see the need to list the downsides with this because you specify it is team specific Custap Lead Skarmory uses Stealth Rock and Spikes alongside Custap Berry so that Skarmory uses Sturdy to live one hit then uses Custap's speed increase next turn to set another layer of hazards up before dying or killing itself with Brave Bird so that it denies either Rapid Spin or Defog attempts; this strategy is not as reliable as Mew's own lead set when its Explosion is more capable of denying Defog or Rapid Spin while letting in a teammate in more easily, and Mew is faster than more Defoggers such as Rotom-W and Volcanion for its own Taunt to go off faster. Idk why there are 4 lines on this. Just make it simple and say that it can run a suicide lead set with Spikes and Stealth Rock alongside a Custap Berry; however, Mew generally does the job better because of its Speed tier and access to Explosion.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Electric-types**: Electric-types are the bane of Skarmory's existence because they threaten to gain easy momentum with Volt Switch, and most even hover above Spikes or run Heavy-Duty Boots to ignore hazards entirely. Rotom-H and Rotom-W are both able to switch in and at least Defog away the hazards built up, Thundurus-T and Rotom-H also have the option of using Skarmory as a setup opportunity with Nasty Plot, and Zeraora is able to threaten an easy Volt Switch or Knock Off after it comes in.

**Fire-types**: Victini completely takes advantage of Skarmory by coming in easily and threatening to blow through Skarmory with its powerful Fire STAB or generate momentum with U-turn. Chandelure is even worse because it is an overall threat to balance and stall and often uses Skarmory as an entry point to come in and either throw its powerful Choice Specs attacks or set (Space) up a with Substitute. To add insult to injury, both of them sometimes run Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid hazard damage completely and make them more difficult to check throughout the game.

**Special Attackers**: Special attackers that have even strong neutral attacks such as Primarina and Keldeo will have no trouble forcing Skarmory out, and Skarmory usually ends up as setup fodder for the likes of Calm Mind Latias, and Meteor Beam Celesteela if not running Whirlwind; however, all of them barring Celesteela have to be weary of coming in on a Toxic and Keldeo and Kyurem have to be careful on coming in on a potential Brave Bird and Body Press respectively.

**Hatterene**: Hatterene's Magic Bounce completely denies Skarmory's hazards, enables Hatterene to use it as a setup opportunity with Calm Mind, Skarmory cannot even it phase it out with Whirlwind, and has Mystical Fire as coverage to severely threaten Skarmory.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Mystras Leoxses, 530118]]
- Quality checked by: [[Estarossa, 461329], [martha, 384270], [username3, userid3]]
- Grammar checked by: [[username1, userid1], [username2, userid2]]

3/3 once you've implemented all of this

green = add
red = remove
purple = comment

 

[Band]

amcheck
add remove comments

amcheck

Skarmory, through its fantastic physical defense and great defensive typing, serves as one of the best checks to key threats such as Tapu Bulu, Bisharp, Mamoswine, and Gyarados through its fantastic physical defense and great defensive typing. Its access to instant recovery in Roost allows it to remain stalwart against these threats and consistently check them. Skarmory's access to Spikes also makes it a fantastic supportive support option to bulky offense and balance teams, helping its teammates more easily deal with Regenerator Pokemon like Amoonguss and Tangrowth. On defensive and stall teams it has the option to keep in check physical breakers such as Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor with Iron Defense plus + Body Press or have utility against other setup threats,(AC) such as Bisharp and Reuniclus,(AC) with Whirlwind. Skarmory faces direct competition from Celesteela, trading its good Latias matchup for more offensive utility with Spikes and the ability to better deal with Pokemon like Tapu Bulu. i feel you could elaborate more on this sentence Likewise its access to single turn reliable recovery unlike Celesteela means it can easily run Rocky Helmet, allowing it to more easily punish Pokemon like Scizor,this comma is bolded and striked through, fix that and Terrakion. Skarmory is a big target for Electric-types such as Zeraora and their momentum(add hyphen)grabbing Volt Switch. Skarmory's passivity in many matchups means that it lets in dangerous Pokemon like Victini and Latias much more easily than its competitor, Celesteela. This also means threats that run coverage for Celesteela will also severely threaten Skarmory, such as Nidoqueen running Fire Blast or Kommo-o running Flamethrower.

[SET]
name: Physically Defensive
move 1: Spikes
move 2: Roost
move 3: Brave Bird / Body Press
move 4: Whirlwind / Toxic / Iron Defense
item: Rocky Helmet
ability: Sturdy
nature: Impish / Bold
evs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe


[SET COMMENTS]

Spikes let Skarmory contribute important damage to defensive pivots such as Amoonguss, Tangrowth, and Jirachi over the course of the game for its teammates to capitalize on, and has plenty of other opportunities on Pokemon such as Tapu Bulu and Lycanroc-D to set more layers. The choice of Brave Bird or Body Press comes down what Skarmory needs to actually threaten; Brave Bird allows Skarmory to hit Grass-types super effectively as well as hit Azumarill and Gyarados neutrally, whereas Body Press threatens Lycanroc-D and Bisharp. Whirlwind and Spikes have amazing synergy together, spreading residual damage throughout of on the opposing team with hazards up, phases and phazing setup threats such as Dragon Dance Gyarados or Calm Mind Reuniclus, and punishes Belly Drum Azumarill for using Belly Drum. Toxic is nice to cripple Defoggers such as Salamence, Volcanion, and Rotom-W that have a naturally good matchup against Skarmory and it also hinders switch-ins that would pressure Skarmory out such as Zeraora, Victini, and Latias. Iron Defense, alongside Body Press, makes Skarmory an especially good answer to Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor but it leaves it Skarmory unable to pressure Belly Drum Azumarill. Rocky Helmet punishes the likes of Scizor, Zarude, and Azumarill for repeatedly attacking into it, while Skarmory,(AC) while it continues to rack up damage on them alongside Roost allowing it to restoring restore its health. 96 Speed EVs lets Skarmory outspeed Conkeldurr and Adamant Azumarill, better checking Choice Band variants of the latter and getting a Brave Bird off against Belly Drum variants when out of Aqua Jet range. This still leaves Skarmory with enough bulk to avoid being 2HKO'd 2HKOed by Mamoswine's Icicle Crash after Stealth Rock. Sturdy alongside Whirlwind makes Skarmory come in handy during emergency situations such as against Meteor Beam Celesteela on hyper offense.

Skarmory fits best on balance, stall, and bulky offense teams as a blanket check to way to deal with physical attackers such as Lycanroc-D and Krookodile and provide crucial Spikes support to outlast the opposing team. Specially defensive pivots such as Slowking or Chansey bring the most out of Skarmory's walling capabilities as they are more reliable sponges to Pokemon such Nihilego and Alakazam. Chansey checks special variants of Victini, whereas Slowking can check all variants. Zeraora heavily appreciates Spikes support wearing down its checks such as Rhyperior, Nidoqueen, and the Regenerator Grass-types Amoongus, and Tangrowth.(AP) and In return, Skarmory enjoys reliable Knock Off support removing items away from Pokemon like Gastrodon and Tapu Bulu to make them more pressured by hazard damage. Wallbreakers such as Toxtricity and Victini perform even better when Spikes are wearing have worn down their checks such as Rhyperior and Kommo-o. Choice Specs Keldeo is another example of a good teammate because it can overwhelm the likes of Chandelure,(RC) and can lure Amoonguss and damage it heavily with Air Slash for it to be unable to switch in to the point it can no longer switch reliably later with hazards up. Stealth Rock setters such as Rhyperior,(RC) and Nidoqueen provide an excellent hazard stacking cores core with Skarmory, as they are able to pressure hazard removers such as Rotom-H and Salamence, with the latter even helping break through other bulky cores with Sheer Force-(add hyphen) and Life Orb-(add hyphen)boosted attacks. Grass-types are nice to have as they ease the pressure off of Skarmory from strong Electric-(add hyphen) and Water-types such as Zeraora and Azumarill;(RSC) .(AP) Tangrowth and Amoongus are notable because they also check Terrakion,(AC) which Skarmory has issues keeping in check, as well as and put defoggers to sleep with Sleep Powder and Spore respectively.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Iron Head on Skarmory is an option for to punish Hatterene to punish it attempting to bounce back hazards, but its use is limited to just Hatterene. Stealth Rock can be used if Skarmory has no other teammates that can use it, though Skarmory it really prefers to use Spikes, because they are better able to wear down more capable of wearing down bulky cores and Regenerator Pokemon with due to their multiple layers. Defog is also another option on fat balance and stall teams over Spikes or on the 4th moveslot, but Skarmory does not matchup well agaisnt the majority of hazard setters such as Nihelego and Nidoqueen. Leftovers allows Skarmory to not be mandated to keep Roosting off use Roost less often on accumulated smaller hits, but leaves it unable to punish U-turn from Jirachi or Scizor. An alternative spread of max HP and max Defense lets Skarmory better stomach hits from Terrakion, but this makes Skarmory's its matchup against Azumarill much worse off and Terrakion can still shatter Skarmory with +2 boosted attacks. Shed Shell is considerable can be considered to avoid being trapped by Magnezone on a teams over reliant overreliant on Skarmory as their only answer to for Pokemon like Dragon Dance Gyarados to be trapped by Magnezone ,(AC) for example. Skarmory can also go for a suicide lead set with Stealth Rock and Spikes alongside Custap Berry, but this set is outclassed by Mew's own lead set for due to its better Speed tier and access to Explosion.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Electric-types**: Electric-types are the bane of Skarmory's existence because they threaten to gain easy momentum with Volt Switch, and most even hover above are immune to Spikes or run Heavy-Duty Boots to ignore hazards entirely. Rotom-H and Rotom-W are both able to switch in and at least Defog away the hazards built up,(RC).(AP) Thundurus-T and Rotom-H also have the option of using Skarmory as a setup opportunity with Nasty Plot, and Zeraora is able to threaten an easy Volt Switch or Knock Off after it skarm or zeraora? specify it here comes in.

**Fire-types**: Victini completely takes advantage of Skarmory by coming in easily and threatening to blow through Skarmory with its powerful Fire-type STAB or generate momentum with U-turn. Chandelure is even worse because it is an overall threat to balance and stall,(AC) and often uses Skarmory as an entry point to come in and either throw its powerful Choice Specs-boosted attacks or set up a Substitute. To add insult to injury, both of them sometimes run Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid hazard damage completely,(AC) and make making them more difficult to check throughout the game.

**Special Attackers**: Special attackers that have even strong neutral attacks such as Primarina and Keldeo will have no trouble forcing Skarmory out, and Skarmory it usually ends up as setup fodder for the likes of Calm Mind Latias and Meteor Beam Celesteela if not running Whirlwind;(RSC).(AP) However, all of them,(AC) barring Celesteela,(AC) have to be weary of coming in on a Toxic,(AC) and both Keldeo and Kyurem have to be careful on when coming in on a potential Brave Bird and or Body Press,(AC) respectively.

**Hatterene**: Hatterene's Magic Bounce completely denies Skarmory's entry hazards, enables enabling it Hatterene to use it Skarmory as a setup opportunity with Calm Mind,(RC) .(AP) Skarmory cannot even phase it out with Whirlwind, and Hatterene has Mystical Fire as coverage to severely threaten Skarmory.

 

[Mystras]

done

 

[Adeleine]

Add/Fix Remove Comment
(AC)/(RC): Add/Remove Comment

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[OVERVIEW]

Skarmory serves as one of the best checks to key threats such as Tapu Bulu, Bisharp, Mamoswine, and Gyarados through its fantastic physical Defense and great defensive typing. Its access to instant recovery in Roost allows it to remain stalwart against these threats and consistently check them these threats. Skarmory's access to Spikes also makes it a fantastic support option to for bulky offense and balance teams, helping its teammates more easily deal with Regenerator Pokemon like Amoonguss and Tangrowth. On defensive and stall teams it has the option to keep in check physical breakers such as Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor in check with Iron Defense + Body Press, (AC) or it can have utility against other setup threats (RC) such as Bisharp and Reuniclus (RC) with Whirlwind. Skarmory faces direct competition from Celesteela, (AC) due to its higher Special Defense that allows it which has higher Special Defense to check threats like Kyurem and Hatterene, whereas Skarmory's focus on Physical Defense lets it check other threats such as Bisharp and Tapu Bulu. Likewise its access to reliable recovery unlike Celesteela means it can easily run Rocky Helmet, allowing it to more easily but Skarmory has higher Defense to check Pokemon like Bisharp and Tapu Bulu as well as reliable recovery, which lets it easily run Rocky Helmet to punish Pokemon like Scizor (RC) and Terrakion. Skarmory is a big target for Electric-types such as Zeraora and their momentum-grabbing Volt Switch, (period -> comma) Skarmory's and its passivity in many matchups means that it lets in dangerous Pokemon like Victini and Primarina much more easily than its competitor, Celesteela. This also means threats that run Further, coverage run for Celesteela will also severely threaten Skarmory, such as Nidoqueen running Fire Blast or Kommo-o running Flamethrower. Nidoqueen's Fire Blast and Kommo-o's Flamethrower.

[SET]
name: Physically Defensive
move 1: Spikes
move 2: Roost
move 3: Brave Bird / Body Press
move 4: Whirlwind / Toxic / Iron Defense
item: Rocky Helmet
ability: Sturdy
nature: Impish / Bold
evs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe


[SET COMMENTS]

Spikes lets Skarmory contribute important damage to defensive pivots such as Amoonguss, Tangrowth, and Jirachi over the course of the game for its teammates to capitalize on, and it has plenty of other (if defensive pivots are also spike setting opportunities, you should explicitly say so) opportunities to set layers of Spikes on Pokemon such as Tapu Bulu and Lycanroc-D to set more layers. The choice of Brave Bird or Body Press comes down what Skarmory needs to actually threaten for its teammates; Brave Bird allows Skarmory to hit Grass-types super effectively as well as hit Azumarill and Gyarados neutrally, whereas Body Press threatens Lycanroc-D and Bisharp. Whirlwind and Spikes have amazing synergy together (RC) for spreading residual damage, (AC) on the opposing team phazing and Whirlwind also phazes setup threats such as Dragon Dance Gyarados or and Calm Mind Reuniclus (RC) and punishes as well as punishing Belly Drum Azumarill. Toxic is nice to cripple Defoggers such as Salamence, Volcanion, and Rotom-W that have a naturally good matchup against Skarmory, (AC) and it also hinders switch-ins that would pressure Skarmory out such as Zeraora, Victini, and Thundurus-I. Iron Defense, alongside Body Press, (AC) makes Skarmory an especially good answer to Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor but leaves it unable to pressure Belly Drum Azumarill. Rocky Helmet punishes the likes of Scizor, Zarude, and Azumarill for repeatedly attacking Skarmory (RC) while it continues to rack up damage on them alongside restoring restores itself with Roost. 96 Speed EVs lets Skarmory outspeed Conkeldurr and Adamant Azumarill, better checking allowing it to better check Choice Band variants of the latter and getting a Brave Bird off against Belly Drum variants when out of Aqua Jet range. This still leaves Skarmory with enough bulk to avoid being 2HKOed by Mamoswine's Icicle Crash after Stealth Rock. Sturdy alongside Whirlwind makes Skarmory come in handy during emergency situations, (AC) such as against Meteor Beam Celesteela boosting with Meteor Beam on hyper offense teams.

Skarmory fits best on balance, stall, and bulky offense teams as a blanket check to physical attackers such as Lycanroc-D and Krookodile and provide that provides crucial Spikes support to outlast the opposing team. Specially defensive pivots such as Slowking or and Chansey bring the most out of Skarmory's walling capabilities as they are let Skarmory focus on walling Pokemon it walls best by serving as more reliable sponges to Pokemon such Nihilego and Alakazam. Chansey checks special variants of Victini, whereas Slowking can check all variants. Zeraora heavily appreciates Spikes support wearing down its checks such as Rhyperior, Nidoqueen, Amoonguss, and Tangrowth. In return, Skarmory enjoys reliable Knock Off support removing items from making Pokemon like Gastrodon and Tapu Bulu to make them more pressured by entry hazard damage. Wallbreakers such as Toxtricity and Victini perform even better when Spikes have worn down their checks, (AC) such as Rhyperior and Kommo-o. Choice Specs Keldeo is another example of a good teammate because it can overwhelm the likes of Chandelure, (AC) and it can lure in Amoonguss and damage it heavily with Air Slash to the point where it can no longer switch reliably later with entry hazards up. Stealth Rock setters such as Rhyperior and Nidoqueen provide form an excellent entry hazard stacking core with Skarmory, as they are able to pressure hazard removers such as Rotom-H and Salamence, with the latter Nidoqueen even helping break through other bulky cores with Sheer Force (removed hyphen) and Life Orb-boosted attacks. Grass-types are nice, (AC) as they ease the pressure off of Skarmory from of strong Electric- (added space) and Water-types such as Zeraora and Azumarill. Tangrowth and Amoongus are notable because they also check Terrakion, which Skarmory has issues handling, and put Defoggers to sleep with Sleep Powder and Spore, (AC) respectively.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Iron Head is an option to punish Hatterene attempting to bounce back entry hazards (RC) but its use is limited to just Hatterene. with Magic Bounce, but it lacks other uses. Stealth Rock can be used if Skarmory has no other teammates that can use it, although it really prefers to use Spikes, because they are which is more capable of wearing down bulky cores and Regenerator Pokemon due to their because it can have multiple layers. Defog is also another option on fat bulky balance and stall teams over Spikes or on the 4th in the fourth moveslot, but Skarmory does not match up (was "matchup") well against the majority of hazard setters, (AC) such as Nihelego including Nihilego and Nidoqueen. Leftovers allows Skarmory to use Roost less often on accumulated smaller hits, but it leaves it unable to punish U-turn from Jirachi or Scizor. An alternative spread of max HP and max EV spread running maximum HP and Defense lets Skarmory better stomach hits from Terrakion, but it makes its matchup against Azumarill much worse off, (AC) and Terrakion can still shatter Skarmory with +2 Swords Dance-boosted attacks. Shed Shell can be considered to avoid being trapped by Magnezone on teams overreliant on with Skarmory as their only answer to Pokemon like Dragon Dance Gyarados. Skarmory can also go for a suicide lead set with Stealth Rock and Spikes alongside Custap Berry, but this set is outclassed by Mew's own lead set due to its better Speed tier and access to Explosion.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Electric-types**: Electric-types are the bane of Skarmory's existence because they threaten to gain easy momentum with Volt Switch, and most are immune to Spikes or run Heavy-Duty Boots to ignore entry hazards entirely. Rotom-H and Rotom-W are both able to switch in and at least Defog away the hazards built up. remove Skarmory's Spikes with Defog. Thundurus-T and Rotom-H also have the option of using Skarmory as a setup opportunity can also set up on Skarmory with Nasty Plot, and Zeraora is able to threaten an easy Volt Switch or Knock Off after Zeraora comes in. can also freely use Knock Off after it comes in.

**Fire-types**: Victini completely takes advantage of Skarmory by coming in easily and threatening to blow through Skarmory it with its powerful Fire-type STAB moves or generate momentum with U-turn. Chandelure is even worse because it is an overall threat to balance and stall teams Skarmory finds itself on, and it often uses Skarmory as an entry point to come in and either throw out its powerful Choice Specs-boosted attacks or set up a Substitute. To add insult to injury, both of them these sometimes run Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid Spikes and other hazard damage completely, making them more difficult to check throughout the game.

**Special Attackers**: Strong special attackers that have even strong neutral attacks such as Primarina, Keldeo, and Kyurem will have no trouble forcing Skarmory out, and it Skarmory usually ends up as setup fodder for the likes of Galarian Moltres and Meteor Beam Celesteela if not running Whirlwind. However, all of them, barring Celesteela, have to be weary wary of coming in on a Toxic, and both Keldeo and Kyurem have to be careful when coming in on a potential with Brave Bird or and Body Press, respectively.

**Hatterene**: Hatterene's Magic Bounce completely denies Skarmory's entry hazards, enabling it to use Skarmory as a setup opportunity set up on Skarmory with Calm Mind. Skarmory cannot even phase phaze it out with Whirlwind, and Hatterene has Mystical Fire as coverage to severely threaten Skarmory it.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Mystras Leoxses, 530118]]
- Quality checked by: [[Estarossa, 461329], [Martha, 384270], [Twilight, 344575]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429], [username2, userid2]]

1/2

 

[romanji]

I can't believe it. Skarmory has finally been GP'd

 

[Mystras]

all done

 

[CryoGyro]

GP 2/2

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[OVERVIEW]

Skarmory serves as one of the best checks to key top threats such as Tapu Bulu, Bisharp, Mamoswine, and Gyarados through its fantastic Defense, (comma) and great defensive typing, (comma) and Roost. Its access to instant recovery in Roost allows it to consistently check these threats. Skarmory's access to Spikes also makes it a fantastic support option for bulky offense and balance teams as well, helping its teammates more easily deal with Regenerator Pokemon like Amoonguss and Tangrowth. On defensive and stall teams, (comma) it has the option to keep physical wallbreakers such as Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor in check with Iron Defense + Body Press, or it can have utility against other setup threats such as Bisharp and Reuniclus with Whirlwind. Skarmory faces direct competition from Celesteela, which has higher Special Defense to check threats like Kyurem and Hatterene, but Skarmory has higher Defense to check Pokemon like Bisharp and Tapu Bulu as well as reliable recovery, which lets it easily run Rocky Helmet to punish Pokemon like Scizor. Skarmory is a big target for Electric-types such as Zeraora and their momentum-grabbing Volt Switch, and its passivity in many matchups means that it lets in dangerous Pokemon like Victini and Primarina much more easily than Celesteela. Further, Coverage run for Celesteela will also severely threaten Skarmory, such as Nidoqueen's Fire Blast and Kommo-o's Flamethrower.

[SET]
name: Physically Defensive
move 1: Spikes
move 2: Roost
move 3: Brave Bird / Body Press
move 4: Whirlwind / Toxic / Iron Defense
item: Rocky Helmet
ability: Sturdy
nature: Impish / Bold
evs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe


[SET COMMENTS]

Spikes lets Skarmory contribute important damage to defensive pivots such as Amoonguss, Tangrowth, and Jirachi over the course of the game for its teammates to capitalize on, and it has plenty of to set layers of Spikes on chances to use it against Pokemon such as Tapu Bulu and Lycanroc-D. The choice of Brave Bird or Body Press comes down to what Skarmory needs to actually threaten for its teammates; Brave Bird allows Skarmory to hits Grass-types super effectively as well as hit and hits Azumarill and Gyarados neutrally, whereas Body Press threatens Lycanroc-D and Bisharp. Whirlwind and Spikes have amazing synergy together for spreading residual damage, and Whirlwind also phazes setup threats such as Dragon Dance Gyarados, (comma) and Calm Mind Reuniclus, (comma) and as well as punishing Belly Drum Azumarill. Toxic is nice to cripples Defoggers such as Salamence, Volcanion, and Rotom-W that have a naturally good matchup against Skarmory such as Salamence, Volcanion, and Rotom-W, and it also hinders switch-ins that would pressure Skarmory out such as Zeraora, Victini, and Thundurus-I. Iron Defense, alongside Body Press, makes Skarmory an especially good answer to Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor but leaves it unable to pressure Belly Drum Azumarill. Rocky Helmet punishes the likes of Scizor, Zarude, and Azumarill for repeatedly attacking Skarmory while it restores itself with Roost. 96 Speed EVs let Skarmory outspeed Conkeldurr and Adamant Azumarill, allowing it to better check Choice Band variants of the latter and get a Brave Bird off against Belly Drum variants when out of Aqua Jet range. This still leaves Skarmory with enough bulk to avoid being 2HKOed by Mamoswine's Icicle Crash after Stealth Rock. Sturdy alongside Whirlwind makes Skarmory come in handy during emergency situations, such as Celesteela boosting with Meteor Beam on hyper offense teams.

Skarmory fits best on balance, stall, and bulky offense teams as a blanket check to physical attackers such as Lycanroc-D and Krookodile that provides crucial Spikes support to outlast the opposing team. Specially defensive pivots such as Slowking and Chansey let Skarmory focus on walling Pokemon it walls best its specialty by serving as more reliable sponges to Pokemon such Nihilego and Alakazam. Chansey checks special variants of Victini, whereas Slowking can check all variants. Zeraora heavily appreciates Spikes support wearing down its checks such as Rhyperior, Nidoqueen, Amoonguss, and Tangrowth. In return, Skarmory enjoys reliable Knock Off support making Pokemon like Gastrodon and Tapu Bulu more pressured by entry hazard damage. Wallbreakers such as Toxtricity and Victini perform even better when Spikes have has worn down their checks, such as Rhyperior and Kommo-o. Choice Specs Keldeo is another example of a good teammate because it can overwhelm the likes of Chandelure, (comma) and it can lure in Amoonguss and damage it heavily with Air Slash to the point where it can no longer switch in reliably later with entry hazards up. Stealth Rock setters such as Rhyperior and Nidoqueen form an excellent entry hazard stacking core with Skarmory, as they are able to pressure hazard removers such as Rotom-H and Salamence, with Sheer Force Life Orb Nidoqueen even helping break through other bulky cores with Sheer Force and Life Orb-boosted attacks. Grass-types are nice, as they ease the pressure of strong Electric- and Water-types such as Zeraora and Azumarill. Tangrowth and Amoongus are notable because they put Defoggers to sleep with Sleep Powder and or Spore, respectively.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Iron Head is an option to punish Hatterene attempting to bounce back reflect entry hazards with Magic Bounce, but it lacks other uses. Stealth Rock can be used if Skarmory has no other teammates that can use it, although it really prefers to use Spikes, which is more capable of wearing down bulky cores and Regenerator Pokemon because it can have multiple layers. Defog is also another option on bulky balance and stall teams over Spikes or in the fourth moveslot, but Skarmory does not match up well against the majority of entry hazard setters, including Nihilego and Nidoqueen. Leftovers allows Skarmory to use Roost less often on accumulated smaller hits, but it leaves it unable to punish U-turn from Jirachi or and Scizor. An alternative EV spread running maximum HP and Defense lets Skarmory better stomach hits in general, but it makes its matchup against Azumarill much worse. Shed Shell can be considered to avoid being trapped by Magnezone on teams with Skarmory as their only answer to Pokemon like Dragon Dance Gyarados. Skarmory can also go for a suicide lead set with Stealth Rock and Spikes alongside Custap Berry, but this set is outclassed by Mew's own lead set due to its better Speed tier and access to Explosion.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Electric-types**: Electric-types are the bane of Skarmory's existence because they threaten to gain easy momentum with Volt Switch, and most are immune to Spikes or run Heavy-Duty Boots to ignore entry hazards entirely. Rotom-H and Rotom-W are both able to switch in and at least remove Skarmory's Spikes with Defog. Thundurus-T and Rotom-H can also set up on Skarmory with Nasty Plot, and Zeraora can also freely use Knock Off after it comes in.

**Fire-types**: Victini completely takes advantage of Skarmory by coming in easily and threatening to blow through it with its powerful Fire-type STAB moves or generate momentum with U-turn. Chandelure is even worse because it is an overall threat to balance and stall teams Skarmory finds itself on, and it often uses Skarmory as an entry point to come in and either throw out its powerful Choice Specs-boosted attacks or set up a Substitute. To add insult to injury, both of these Victini and Chandelure sometimes run Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid Spikes and other entry hazard damage completely, making them more difficult to check throughout the game.

**Special Attackers**: Strong special attackers that have even neutral attacks such as Primarina, Keldeo, and Kyurem will have no trouble forcing Skarmory out with neutral attacks, and Skarmory usually ends up as setup fodder for the likes of Galarian Moltres and Meteor Beam Celesteela if not running Whirlwind. However, all of them, barring Celesteela, but Celesteela have to be wary of coming in on a Toxic, and Keldeo and Kyurem have to be careful with super effective Brave Bird and or Body Press, respectively.

**Hatterene**: Hatterene's Magic Bounce completely denies Skarmory's entry hazards, Toxic, and Whirlwind, enabling it to set up on Skarmory with Calm Mind and threaten with Mystical Fire. Skarmory cannot even phaze it out with Whirlwind, and Hatterene has Mystical Fire as coverage to severely threaten it.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Mystras Leoxses, 530118]]
- Quality checked by: [[Estarossa, 461329], [Martha, 384270], [Twilight, 344575]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429], [username2, userid2]]

 

[Mystras]

should be all good to go

 

[Hilomilo]

uploaded