BSS Stealth Rock Annihilape

[Tachipoyo]

[SET]
name: Stealth Rock Setter
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Rage Fist / Drain Punch
move 3: Taunt / Encore / Final Gambit / Curse
move 4: Rock Tomb / Bulldoze / Low Sweep / Fling
item: Sitrus Berry / Light Ball
ability: Vital Spirit / Defiant
nature: Jolly
tera type: Normal / Steel
evs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 108 SpD / 140 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

* Annihilape's good bulk and significant offensive presence makes it an easy to use Stealth Rock setter.

* Rage Fist is Annihilape’s strongest move; its power and coverage often lets Annihilape either defeat or significantly chip one of the opponent’s Pokemon on top of getting Stealth Rock up.

* Taunt gives Annihilape a strong matchup into bulky walls such as Hippowdon and opposing setup foes like Volcarona, while also making it easier to boost Rage Fist’s power.

* Encore is an incredibly powerful move that can lock the opponent into an attacking move to boost Rage Fist's power. Alternatively, it can lock the opponent into a status move.

* Final Gambit has excellent synergy with Rage Fist; not only do they cover for each other's immunities, Final Gambit punishes foes that refuse to attack Annihilape to avoid boosting Rage Fist, allowing Annihilape to still take out a foe.

* Curse is an excellent way for Annihilape to retire itself from the while putting significant pressure on the opponent to switch out and shutting down gimmicks such as Baton Pass.

* A variety of lead Annihilapes run speed controlling moves. By using a Speed reducing move against a faster opponent rather than leading with Stealth Rock, Annihilape can scout the opponent's set, as well as providing support to its teammates. It also prevents foes from setting up on Annihilape. Speed reducing moves can help against those. Speed reducing moves are also better than Taunt and Encore at shutting down opposing Dragon Dance and Quiver Dance.

* Rock Tomb is an excellent Speed reducing move for its ability to hit Dragonite and threaten Volcarona. Its low accuracy should be noted as a risk, however.

* Bulldoze cannot hit Flying and Levitate Pokemon. In exchange, it is much more effective against Steel-types such as Gholdengo and Tinkaton.

Tera Types
========
* **Normal**: Ghost-type attacks are incredibly common. Pokemon such as Gholdengo, Dragapult, comma and opposing Annihilape all struggle against an unexpected Tera Normal.

* **Steel**: Tera Steel has excellent synergy with Annihilape. It's noteworthy for halving the damage from common Dragon and Fairy-type moves.

EV Spreads
========

* **252 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 108 SpD / 140 Spe with Jolly**: This spread outspeeds critical Pokemon such as Dragonite, Adamant Baxcalibur, and Modest Gholdengo. The Special Defense investment lets Annihilape live Choice Specs Dragapult and Choice Scarf Gholdengo’s Shadow Ball with ease.

* **172 HP / 4 Atk / 180 Def / 76 SpD / 76 Spe with Careful**: This spread compromises some of Annihilape’s Speed to invest into more bulk. It still outspeeds Garchomp at -1 and certain sets of Dragonite, comma and lives Dragapult’s Choice Band Fairy Tera Blast on a roll.

Abilities
========
* **Vital Spirit**: Vital Spirit adds to Annihilape’s reliability as a lead. Immunity to sleep moves from common Pokemon such as Breloom, Dondozo, Hippowdon, and Skeledirge lets Annihilape thrive.

* **Defiant**: Defiant is a strong option. While Intimidate Pokemon are far from common from the format, Defiant can take advantage of an opposing Annihilape’s speed control moves.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Tachipoyo, 613881]]
- Quality checked by: [[Theorymon, 29010]]
- Grammar checked by: [[UT, 523866]]

 

[Theorymon]

Gonna check this now!

* Taunt lets Annihilape come out more confidently against Pokemon such as Hippowdon, denying the opponent’s lead from using Stealth Rock, blocking Pokemon who try to set up on Annihilape, or Encore it down to a status move like Stealth Rock. It is also noteworthy for forcing the opponent to use only attacking moves, making it much easier to boost Rage Fist's power.

I think this can be a bit more concise since I see a description of what Taunt does, which the dex already provides. Maybe change the last sentence to something akin to "It's also noteworthy for forcing the opponent to boost Rage Fist with attacks". Its a minor thing, but stuff like that can add up!

* Vital Spirit adds to Annihilape’s reliability as a lead. Immunity to sleep moves from commonplace Pokemon such as Breloom, Dondozo, Hippowdon and Skeledirge lets Annihilape thrive. However, Defiant is a nevertheless a strong option. While Intimidate Pokemon are far from common from the format, Defiant can take advantage of an opposing Annihilape’s speed control moves.

I'd like this to be put in an Abilities section, and for the Vital Spirit and Defiant stuff to be labeled bullet points. The ability hilariously enough, is an important point that can confuse both OU AND novice battle stadium players (aka the kind of people that probably need to read this set to understand why its good). Folks from OU are likely to be surprised by Vital Spirit over Defiant because of how OU Annihilape went, and newer BSS players might be surprised that forgoing the "I got Breloom down" makes sense.

I'd format it like this. Luckily, I think the writing for this is perfect, so its just a format change that helps highlight an interesting point about this Pokemon! It also is inline how we've been updating analyses on the dex to have a more clear, consistent format. This will be pretty important come Series 2 analyses, I'll explain that later when it gets started up!

Abilities
========

* **Vital Spirit**: Vital Spirit adds to Annihilape’s reliability as a lead. Immunity to sleep moves from commonplace Pokemon such as Breloom, Dondozo, Hippowdon and Skeledirge lets Annihilape thrive.

* **Defiant**: Defiant is a nevertheless a strong option. While Intimidate Pokemon are far from common from the format, Defiant can take advantage of an opposing Annihilape’s speed control moves.

Really that's all I have. Besides a formatting nitpick and a way to be a bit more concise, I think this analysis does a great job of covering what makes lead Annihilape good. Implement that minor stuff, and this is as good as QC Approved 1/1!

 

[Tachipoyo]

oh, sorry for the late response. I didn't get any notifications so I thought this was still stuck in limbo oops

The changes should all be applied now though, again sorry for the wait

 

[Theorymon]

Looks good to me, QC Approved 1/1!

GP Team

 

[UT]

add remove conjecture

GP Check

[SET]
name: Stealth Rock Setter
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Rage Fist / Drain Punch
move 3: Taunt / Encore / Final Gambit / Curse
move 4: Rock Tomb / Bulldoze / Low Sweep / Fling
item: Sitrus Berry / Light Ball
ability: Vital Spirit / Defiant
nature: Jolly
tera type: Normal / Steel add spaces around all theses slashes
evs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 108 SpD / 140 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

* Annihilape has proven itself to be a trustworthy Stealth Rock setter with its bulk, allowing it to reliably survive almost any attack. Not needing a Focus Sash to guarantee survivability, as well as its significant offensive presence, makes this Annihilape very easy to use. Annihilape's good bulk and significant offensive presence makes it an easy to use Stealth Rock setter.

* Rage Fist is Annihilape’s strongest move. A spammable, high-powered Ghost-type attack move; its power and coverage often lets Annihilape either defeat or significantly chip one of the opponent’s Pokemon on top of getting Stealth Rock up.

* Taunt gives Annihilape a strong matchup into bulky Pokemon walls such as Hippowdon and opposing setup Pokemon foes like Volcarona, comma while also making it easier to boost Rage Fist’s power.

* Encore is an incredibly powerful move. Similarly to Taunt, it can either move that can lock the opponent into an attacking move to boost Rage Fist's power. Alternatively, locking the opponent into a status move means they become entirely powerless it can lock the opponent into a status move.

* Final Gambit has excellent synergy with Rage Fist. Not only does Rage Fist hit the Ghost-types that are immune to Final Gambit, against opponents who shy away from hitting Annihilape to prevent Rage Fist from snowballing out of control, a healthily-kept Annihilape can Final Gambit at least one member in the opponent’s team. Fist; not only do they cover for each other's immunities, Final Gambit punishes foes that refuse to attack Annihilape to avoid boosting Rage Fist, allowing Annihilape to still take out a foe.

* Curse is an excellent way for Annihilape to retire itself from the field, all the while while putting significant pressure on the opponent to switch out and shutting down gimmicks such as Baton Pass.

* A variety of lead Annihilapes run speed controlling moves. By using a Speed reducing move against a faster opponent rather than leading with Stealth Rock, Annihilape can confirm what move the opponent wants to go for before deciding on a course of action scout the opponent's set, as well as providing support to its teammates. Its also useful in preventing opponents who try to set up It also prevents foes from setting up on Annihilape. Taunt and Encore are not as reliable methods of shutting down Encore against setup moves that boost speed (Dragon Dance, Quiver Dance). Speed reducing moves can help against those. Speed reducing moves are also better than Taunt and Encore at shutting down opposing Dragon Dance and Quiver Dance.

* Rock Tomb is an excellent Speed reducing move for its ability to hit Dragonite and threaten Volcarona. Its low accuracy should be noted as a risk, however.

* Bulldoze cannot hit floating Flying and Levitate Pokemon. In exchange, it is much easier to click more effective against Steel-types such as Gholdengo and Tinkaton.

Tera Types
========
* **Normal**: Ghost-type attacks are incredibly common. Pokemon such as Gholdengo, Dragapult, comma and opposing Annihilape all struggle against an unexpected Tera Normal.

* **Steel**: Steel as a Tera Type Tera Steel has excellent synergy with Annihilape. It's apostrophe noteworthy for halving the damage from common Dragon-type and Fairy-type moves, the latter of which Annihilape is weak to and otherwise struggles against.

EV Spreads
========

* **252 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 108 SpD / 140 Spe with Jolly**: This spread allows Annihilape to outspeed outspeeds critical Pokemon such as Dragonite, Adamant Baxcalibur, and Modest Gholdengo and etc. With this much special defense investment, Annihilape lives The Special Defense investment lets Annihilape live Choice Specs Dragapult and Choice Scarf Gholdengo’s Shadow Ball with ease.

* **172 HP / 4 Atk / 180 Def / 76 SpD / 76 Spe with Careful**: This spread compromises some of Annihilape’s Speed to invest into more bulk. It still manages to maintain enough speed to outspeed outspeeds Garchomp at -1 and certain sets of Dragonite, comma and lives Dragapult’s Choice Band Fairy Tera Blast (Fairy) on a roll.

Abilities
========
* **Vital Spirit**: Vital Spirit adds to Annihilape’s reliability as a lead. Immunity to sleep moves from commonplace Pokemon such as Breloom, Dondozo, Hippowdon, comma and Skeledirge lets Annihilape thrive.

* **Defiant**: Defiant is a nevertheless a strong option. While Intimidate Pokemon are far from common from the format, Defiant can take advantage of an opposing Annihilape’s speed control moves.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Tachipoyo, 613881]]
- Quality checked by: [[]] don't forget these
- Grammar checked by: [[UT, 523866]]

GP 1/1!

GP Team done

 

[Tachipoyo]

changes all applied!

 

[Theorymon]

This is now onsite, with a simple Series 2 conversion that mentions a few paradoxes too!