The Shared Power council has decided to suspect test Houndstone!
But why?:
This bad boy has already been nerfed with the Sand Rush ban, leaving it with just Fluffy as its only legal ability. Currently, you can often see it on more defensive teams, often paired with Frosmoth, Wo-Chien, Mudsdale, Dachsbun, Garganacl and other Pokémon with defensive/utility abilities, this kind of team have been quite popular and can be quite difficult to take down. But it still has a place on offensive teams, as it has the unique move Last Respects that makes it quite attractive as a cleaner and a priority STAB move in Shadow Sneak.
Fluffy is a really powerful ability that was already mandatory on one of the most popular team archetypes last generation, and the generational changes only made it stronger, as physically oriented teams can no longer use Long Reach to break pass the walls protected by the fluff, at least not until HOME brings back Decidueye as datamines suggests. For similar reasons, defensive teams can't use Heatran like they did last gen, but they have been able to replace it with other Flash Fire users and the new ability Well-Baked Body. While on these teams, an ability Houndstone loves is Stamina, as it not only make it harder to kill but also increases the damage it can deal with Body Press, a move that it uses to take down the Normal and Dark types that try to tank Last Respects.
In the offensive side, Houndstone doesn't fall behind, Last Respects allow it to deal heavy damage mid-to-late game as it gains 50BP each time an ally goes down, this can keep growing until is the last Pokémon standing. And Fluffy is still quite good on offensive teams, as it allow them to set up without taking all that much physical damage.
But is far from the perfect Pokémon, the lack of reliable recovery make it tricky to use on defensive teams as it can be worn down, you often have to leave it to the end for it to be healthy enough to sweep if you don't want to use Wish, Natural Cure + Rest or some Ability combo like Rain Dish + Drizzle to keep it healthy during the game. It also lacks the power to hurt anything before Last Respects builds up damage as it only has a decent 105 base Attack, and with only 68 base Speed it can be quite hard for it to sweep teams before taking too much damage.
Suspect details:
During a Suspect, each player must climb the ladder until they've acquired the GXE necessary to participate in the voting. Primarily, everyone that participates needs to make an alt account following these guidelines:
- Every game must be played on the official Pokémon Showdown site and on a new account (creation date no earlier than today, December 4th, 2022) with "SPERRO [Nick]"--for example, I could create one called "SPERRO Kaen" to ladder with.
- To qualify for voting, your alt must play a minimum of 25 games, and you must have a minimum GXE of 75.
- Houndstone will be allowed on the ladder during the suspect.
- The suspect test will end on Sunday, December 18th @ 11:59pm (GMT-5).
- When posting proof of meeting reqs, feel free to use this thread as a means to civilly elucidate any topical opinions regarding whether or not Hounstone should be banned (Optional).
- It is mandatory to provide proof of ownership of the alt account as well. (Post a picture of your reqs with your smogon name featured).
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