Hey me again. I'll leave my thoughts and expand upon on a nom that
Bouff briefly mentioned.
Nomination: Mega Sharpedo
A+ ----->S
I'm sure a lot of you saw this coming, but sharpedo is so devastating at this moment that it truly has become meta-defining. We all know what Sharpedo does, so I won't bore you with the details; rather, I'll talk about how the metagame has shifted in favour of sharpedo over the past month.
Darkspam hazard stacking cores with Bisharp+Klefki (or just spikes in general with sharpedo) are ridiculously hard for any team to realistically handle. This is exacerbated by the fact that most of Sharpedo's commonly used checks, bar Clefable, 1) lack recovery and 2) despise spikes or 3) have fallen in viability. I'll go through some general checks (apply to most sharpedo sets) and more situational checks:
General Checks:
Cobalion: Lacks reliable recovery, 3HKOd by waterfall, hates spikes.
Swampert: Easily worn down due to lack of recovery.
M-Blastoise:
Must be kept at full to actually check, as it is 2HKOd by crunch.
Suicune: Much less common and can only really fish for a scald burn to beat 1v1.
Tsareena: Must be brought in after sacking something, 2HKOd by crunch.
Conkeldurr: Not used nearly as often as it faces significant competition from more versatile fighting types; more opportunity cost to use it (aka using this mon often opens more weaknesses on your team then you'd like).
Clefable: Probably your best option, but is still 3HKOd and must be kept at full to actually switch in.
Scizor: Forced to roost if brought in immediately and, again, can only be brought in at full.
Situational Check (if ice fang):
Keldeo: No recovery, gets worn down easily.
Primarina: Similarly has no recovery and can't switch in more than once.
Situational Check (if psychic fangs):
Hydreigon: Less viable at the moment and either a) lacks recovery or b) is forced to roost upon switching in,
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We can clearly see that Sharpedo is ridiculous to handle on its own. The checks that people are using (aka the ones I've listed) both lack recovery and get worn down to the point where they can get broken past (not hard if running a dark spam core with bisharp as well) and despise spikes. Moving on, offensively, checking Sharpedo is significantly harder this gen, simply because of the fact that priority is way less common -- most notably, the fall of Entei and Conkeldurr's viability. Not only that, but it's much easier to support Sharpedo this gen with Bisharp's existence, as it synergizes extremely well with hazard stacking.
Overall, metagame trends have really gone in favour of Sharpedo, as teams utilizing it have more tools at their disposal (bisharp) to take advantage of hazard stacking. Likewise, its ability to break past its checks with little effort (can literally 3HKO most, and most mons that people use to handle sharpedo bar clefable lack recovery) combined with the fall of staples that could otherwise threaten it out (entei, conk, etc.) means that sharpedo is an extremely dominant pokemon at this moment and deserves to rise.
