SM Drifblim QC: 0/1

[Aaronboyer]

[OVERVIEW]
Drifblim has a couple of characteristics that help it stand out from common Flying-types such as Swanna and Rotom-S. Unlike most Flying-types, switching into Stealth Rock helps Drifblim get closer to consuming its berry and activating Unburden. Drifblim also possesses three immunities, allowing it to switch into foes such as Choice Band Furfrou safely. However, against Flying-resistant Pokemon such as Golem and Mawile, all Drifblim can do is cripple them with Will-o-Wisp unlike Swanna or Toucannon, who could force them out with super effective attacks. In addition, Drifblim’s stats are far from ideal; its gargantuan HP can circumvent its below-average defenses, but because it often finds itself with a quarter of its health or less, it’s not hard for Drifblim to get picked off by priority users like Kecleon or bulky attackers like Granbull. Its meager base 80 Attack is not much to celebrate either, making Drifblim even more dependent on the high base power of Acrobatics and Explosion to make progress. Nevertheless, once Unburden is active, Drifblim becomes one of the fastest Pokemon in the metagame and is extremely scary for weakened teams to face late-game.

[SET]
name: SubAcro
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Acrobatics
move 3: Knock Off
move 4: Will-o-Wisp / Explosion
item: Sitrus Berry / Liechi Berry
ability: Unburden
nature: Adamant
evs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 52 Def / 192 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

• Substitute safely and purposefully depletes Drifblim’s health while simultaneously shielding it from harmful status ailments and Sucker Punch users.
• Acrobatics doubles in power after berry consumption, allowing Drifblim to start walloping teams unprepared for fast offensive Flying-types.
• Knock Off gives Drifblim near-perfect coverage outside of the incredibly rare Carbink, and is useful for removing items, notably Eviolite from bulkier defensive pieces, like Bronzor and Mareanie. Drifblim can also remove Rocky Helmet from defensive Mawile, only having to take recoil damage once.
• Will-o-Wisp neutralizes passive physical attackers that Drifblim otherwise struggles against such as Golem, Sandslash, and Mawile.
• Conversely, Explosion severely dents or KOes the opposition, and pairs nicely with Acrobatics since the only relevant Ghost-type that would want to switch into Explosion is Gourgeist.

Set Details
========

• 192 Speed EVs allow Drifblim to outspeed Pokemon such as Toucannon, Torterra, and Exeggutor before Unburden, and all base 98 Speed and slower Choice Scarf users after Unburden including Swanna, Electivire, Silvally, and Sawsbuck. Because Drifblim’s HP stat is so huge, investing the remaining EVs into its Defense improves its odds of surviving weaker physical attacks such as Life Orb Floatzel’s Aqua Jet and burned Golem’s Rock Blast. However, 12 HP EVs are required to make Drifblim’s maximum HP divisible by four.
• Unburden doubles Drifblim’s Speed after consuming its berry.
• Drifblim should equip a Sitrus Berry when utilizing Will-O-Wisp to give itself more longevity against physical attackers it would otherwise struggle with. On the other hand, Liechi Berry gives Drifblim a significantly higher damage output for all of its attacks including Explosion, although it needs to reach a quarter of its health to consume and puts Drifblim at greater risk of being KO’d by a priority attack.

Usage Tips
========

• At Team Preview, quickly account for any Flying-resistant or physically defensive Pokemon that Drifblim won’t be able to break through on its own. It's also important to quickly determine if the opposing team is offensive or defensive and if there are any passive Pokemon Drifblim can set up a Substitute against freely without fear of it breaking.
• Against more offensive teams where Drifblim cannot generate free turns to deplete its health low enough to get within range of Unburden activation, letting the opponent freely get Stealth Rock is beneficial for Drifblim. Once Stealth Rock is laid on your side, Drifblim can start double-switching so that whenever it's finally time to start dishing out hits, Drifblim is perfectly in range of consuming its held berry.
• Getting opposing entry hazards up before Drifblim starts abusing Unburden is key, as the supermajority of Pokemon Drifblim struggles to break through like Golem, Sandslash, and defensive Rotom-S all lack reliable recovery options.
• If Drifblim is at low health, the opposing Pokemon is not in range of an Acrobatics KO, and no opposing Ghost-types are remaining in reserve, use Explosion. Most Ghost-types in ZU happen to have a secondary typing that is weak to Flying (i.e. Gourgeist, Trevenant, Shedinja), so catching them off-guard as they attempt to switch into a predicted Explosion may prove costly for the opposition.

Team Options
========

• Entry hazard support from Pokemon such as Torterra, Crustle, and Mareanie can provide crucial chip damage to put foes within range of Acrobatics.
• Having a sturdy Dark-resistant teammate such as Silvally-Fighting can help ease Drifblim’s matchup versus Silvally-Dark and various Sucker Punch users like Golem and Pawniard.
• Normal-types with Earthquake as coverage such as Komala and Bouffalant deal strong damage against Golem and Mawile but often don’t pick up KOs against them. Drifblim can lure in these shared checks early-to-mid-game and put them within range of Earthquake. Vice versa, severely denting the opposing team’s Flying-resist can open an avenue for Drifblim to clean up late-game. Choice Specs Silvally can also prove to be an effective lure for problematic Rock- and Steel-types.
• Similarly, pairing Drifblim with Swanna capitalizes on breaking down each other’s checks. Swanna can break through Mawile, Alolan Golem, and Probopass as well as provide entry hazard removal support, while Drifblim can remove Eviolite from Bronzor and Mareanie.

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

• Substitute + Calm Mind takes advantage of its slightly higher Special Attack, but Drifblim has a lackluster special movepool and there are an abundance of bulky Normal-types like Komala, Kecleon, Lickilicky, and Bouffalant that can easily sponge Hidden Power Fighting.
• Weakness Policy + Endure sets are also quite potent, but lack consistency due to the requirement of correctly predicting when a super effective attack is incoming. A Drifblim at one hitpoint also leaves itself extremely susceptible against priority attackers, and with Endure and three attacking options, Drifblim has even less counterplay than it does with SubAcro against opposing Sucker Punch users.
• Sucker Punch could be used over Knock Off, but after Unburden activates Drifblim outpaces the overwhelming majority of the metagame anyways. Knock Off also has way more utility crippling passive foes like Bronzor.
• Disable works well in tandem with Substitute to prevent foes from being able to effectively break Drifblim’s Substitute, although it would take up a moveslot and severely hamper its primary niche of abusing Unburden to clean up against weakened teams.

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

**Flying-Resistant Pokemon**: Golem, Alolan Golem, Probopass, and Stunfisk all resist Drifblim’s Acrobatics and can revenge kill it with a STAB super effective attack. In Mawile’s case, the combination of Knock Off and Rocky Helmet recoil eventually wears Drifblim down.

**Priority Move Users**: Gourgeist-S, Muk, and Kecleon can all revenge kill Drifblim with Shadow Sneak after Unburden is activated. Swanna, Floatzel, and Basculin can do the exact same with Aqua Jet.

**Bulky Pokemon**: Bulkier foes such as Granbull, Lickilicky, and Colbur Berry Beheeyem can all take a hit from Drifblim and retaliate with a strong STAB attack or Knock Off in the case of Lickilicky.

**Electric-types**: Prior to Unburden activating, Electric-types such as Electivire, Rotom-S, Raichu, and Zebstrika can all outspeed and KO Drifblim with Wild Charge or Thunderbolt.

**Chlorophyll and Swift Swim Users**: Sun and Rain sweepers in their respective weathers are one of the few examples of Pokemon that outspeed Drifblim even after Unburden activates. These weather abusers tend to be supported by Volbeat who gets to use Sunny Day or Rain Dance before Drifblim can KO it with Acrobatics due to its Prankster ability.

**Silvally-Dark**: Drifblim is susceptible to easily being Pursuit-trapped by Silvally-Dark if Unburden isn’t active and it doesn’t have a Substitute up. If Unburden is active, Silvally-Dark tends to get burned or blown up in the process but is almost always successful in removing Drifblim from the game.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Aaronboyer, 239454]]
- Quality checked by: [[BLANK, BLANK]
- Grammar checked by: [[BLANK, BLANK], [BLANK, BLANK]]

 

[UT]

Archiving due to inactive QC team