Torkoal: generally sun only.
Treads/Tusk: excellent mons that still can't always threaten Gholdengo if it air balloon sets. Plus both struggle to switch into it.
Talonflame: lol
Glimmora can't threaten air balloon Gholdengo and Glim being mainly a lead, is not often around to even attack or threaten Gholdengo. As for the boots remark, if you expect every team to run four to five boots yet don't see the problem with that... And Maushold is complete match-up fish garbage. The options for hazard removal are limited as is and even though Corv and the Dons are excellent mons on their own, they are quickly overwhelmed against the kind of offensive pressure Gholdengo hazard stack teams exert, plus Corv cannot beat such teams. You also have to actually get Tusk/Treads in which isn't exactly the easiest against a well built Gholdengo team.
The kind of 50/50s here are heavily weighted in the Gholdengo player's favor. If they predict right, the spinner side loses a huge amount of momentum (and also lets some variants of Balloon Gholdengo to sub up). This also is on top of the base 50/50 of even clicking EQ vs Spin because you don't yet know if the Gholdengo is even balloon. Great Tusk is also tspikes weak and its lesser defensive utility on top of guaranteed spikes damage (2-3 layers worth) means it won't get many chances to spin.
While Palafin and Iron Bundle are blatantly broken, Gholdengo has a massive influence on the tier and tye more I see it and play with and against it, the more I'm convinced it's simply an unhealthy presence. Other ghosts would be fine spinblocking replacements (Dragapult, Annihilape) and would be great, but would be far less overbearing by comparison.
Why is the entire front half of your argument about a mon beating an entire team? Of course Treads/Tusks aren't beating an entire team themselves, they're spinners with good offensive presence. Not "incredibly broken mon that can 6-0 without the help of their own team". Bringing in these shadowy ideas of 'team comps' on both ends without spelling out what you'll definitely see doesn't really make sense in context either because again, this is about hazard removal and being able to reliably make Gholdengo die for coming in.
And Balloon Gholdengo is so common you're not clicking EQ on it without knowing. Like weighted in their favor?
| Gholdengo Spinner Chart | Predicted Switch | Predicted No Switch |
| Actual Switch | Gholdengo loses 75%, is outsped, dies | Gholdengo gets in untouched |
| Actual No Switch | Mon you're facing gets item knocked off (or you die first? depends what's in) | Hazards removed, +1 speed. |
To be clear, these outcomes are not seriously bad for the spinner. Like if they switch and you predict right, the hazards remain. But also Gholdengo dies vs basically every spinner we're discussing. This isn't a multiple-attempt trade pattern. Iron Treads and Tusks ARE killing.
And if whatever hazards are up is that devestating to you that killing the spin blocker is still losing you the game, that REALLY seems like a compositional issue. Because this would happen with any ghost. Or are we at the point now where if hazards are not brainlessly cleared in any situation, they're too strong.
Set with Shadow Ball or Nasty Plot is 2HKO to OHKO and in this meta exist the big Terastelize to change type and take advantage, dual screens and shied trial to protect Gholdengo.
Again, spinner comes in. Spinblocker pivots after. If predicted wrong, Spinner team will go to their pivot. Nasty plot is not a unique punish to Gholdengo in terms of pivot punishing/spinblocking. Aegi did similar things, as did Gengar in gens long past.
I really feel like I'm missing part of the argument... we've HAD spinblocking be a major piece before in Gen 5 and before. I don't think we need to wax poetic about what it was like, people have always hated hazards. But even in more recent gens, its been possible to taunt defoggers out. Compared to all these gens except 8, we've had hazards be even less interactive as the defoggers would get chunked just answering them. Boots only came out last gen to alleviate that. Preventing hazard clears has ALWAYS been a thing, and Gholdengo isn't moving the mark on what the relationship is between hazard clearers and 'spinblockers', he's just added a layer back to more consistently answer defog. And no, I don't think there's any way to construe this mon as broken right now. Full teams and dedicated strategies should require full teams.
The biggest thing Gholdengo does over another ghost type is make Corviknight partake in spinblocking...
Garchomp has been pulling heavy weight. It’s easy to partner it with switchins for dragonite and corviknight!
