One last option that has yet to be brought up is a stat nerf. Speed and attack are the two most obvious stats to cut if we were to go this route, although I personally believe nerfing attack is the better option between the two. It's true that one of the main issues with Cawmodore is that there's a lack of good revenge killers; this is something I agree with and acknowledged extensively in my earlier post, and cutting Cawm's speed would certainly remedy this to an extent. The lack of good revenge killers, however, is really just a different way of stating that Cawm is a matchup-fishy Pokemon. Cutting speed would reduce this, sure, but I don't think it's addressing it at the source. Cawmodore is such a binary Pokemon in no small part due to its ability to completely remove positioning from the game where it is present for other powerful setup sweepers. It's for this reason that I would personally much rather nerf attack than speed - rather than simply aim to reduce the matchup-fish element by adding more Pokemon that can outspeed and kill it, we would be putting Cawm in line with other powerful wincons that require you to strategically weaken your checks and counters instead of just hoping that you don't run into them. For a Pokemon such as Volcarona, you will almost always need to force damage onto a specific set of Pokemon such as Dragapult or Astrolotl if you hope to have a successful sweep. There is a plethora of common and splashable Volcarona checks, but this doesn't make Volcarona any less of a great sweeper - these checks are very susceptible to being overwhelmed over the course of a game via smart positioning and team composition.
This is a tactic that does not really exist for Cawmodore though. At the least, it exists in a far more diminished capacity. Cawmodore does not need its teammates to force damage on its checks and counters in the same way that other setup sweepers do, because it either has the power to outright win against most anything in a 1v1, or for the few exceptions (Argho and Cyclohm) it requires them to be at roughly half of their health which can be unrealistic to ask of your teammates. This is especially true when these Pokemon are already uncommon, so prepping with the strategy in mind of forcing damage onto them will often be a wasted effort. Once again, the binary all-or-nothing nature of Cawmodore is at the forefront of its problematic matchup-fishy factor: once it sets up, there is very little that survives an OHKO. Cutting its attack, though, would force the Cawm player to position their wincon in such a way that more conditions need to be met before a successful sweep can occur, in the same vein as other comparable Pokemon like Azumarill, Volcarona, and NP Alakazam. If Cawmodore was unable to outright OHKO Toxapex or the Rotoms, I think it would be a much less stressful Pokemon to encounter. Cutting its attack from 92 to base 70 (not as harsh as it might seem) would let Toxapex survive the OHKO from +6 Acrobatics, meaning it either has an extra chance to proc a Scald burn or can survive a hit and use Haze. This would also notably let Dragapult survive a +6 BP after one round of rocks or helmet damage so it wouldn't need to be at full health to successfully revenge kill, and would let the Rotoms survive any hit with the exception of Knock Off, now a 25% chance to OHKO on standard Rotom-H and a 0% chance to OHKO on the standard OU pivot Rotom-W set. I'd also advocate that if we went the route of nerfing attack, Knock should also be removed to preserve the Rotoms as a true counter, as well as letting Aegislash be another consistent and splashable answer.
Honestly though, I still think removing Volt Absorb is the most elegant solution for all the reasons stated by others above me. This was really more of an exercise in creativity and an attempt to find a different route which I had not yet seen discussed. I can also see Knock being removed in addition to Volt Absorb as argued by quziel, although I worry this would be more of a pseudo-ban than a nerf but I'm not really sure if that's such a bad thing either. If the bird went to D tier/UR I think I'd still be happy. Given that DLC2 is now in just nine days (crazy!!!!!!!) we should really wait to act on Cawmodore, but I'm happy with the solutions proposed so far and my stance is still ultimately just to axe Volt Absorb, though I thought I'd propose this anyways to see if anyone had a strong opinion about it.
This is a tactic that does not really exist for Cawmodore though. At the least, it exists in a far more diminished capacity. Cawmodore does not need its teammates to force damage on its checks and counters in the same way that other setup sweepers do, because it either has the power to outright win against most anything in a 1v1, or for the few exceptions (Argho and Cyclohm) it requires them to be at roughly half of their health which can be unrealistic to ask of your teammates. This is especially true when these Pokemon are already uncommon, so prepping with the strategy in mind of forcing damage onto them will often be a wasted effort. Once again, the binary all-or-nothing nature of Cawmodore is at the forefront of its problematic matchup-fishy factor: once it sets up, there is very little that survives an OHKO. Cutting its attack, though, would force the Cawm player to position their wincon in such a way that more conditions need to be met before a successful sweep can occur, in the same vein as other comparable Pokemon like Azumarill, Volcarona, and NP Alakazam. If Cawmodore was unable to outright OHKO Toxapex or the Rotoms, I think it would be a much less stressful Pokemon to encounter. Cutting its attack from 92 to base 70 (not as harsh as it might seem) would let Toxapex survive the OHKO from +6 Acrobatics, meaning it either has an extra chance to proc a Scald burn or can survive a hit and use Haze. This would also notably let Dragapult survive a +6 BP after one round of rocks or helmet damage so it wouldn't need to be at full health to successfully revenge kill, and would let the Rotoms survive any hit with the exception of Knock Off, now a 25% chance to OHKO on standard Rotom-H and a 0% chance to OHKO on the standard OU pivot Rotom-W set. I'd also advocate that if we went the route of nerfing attack, Knock should also be removed to preserve the Rotoms as a true counter, as well as letting Aegislash be another consistent and splashable answer.
+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 303-357 (99.6 - 117.4%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Bullet Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 262-309 (82.6 - 97.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Rotom-Heat: 314-370 (103.6 - 122.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 48 Def Rotom-Wash: 300-354 (98.6 - 116.4%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Bullet Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 262-309 (82.6 - 97.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Rotom-Heat: 314-370 (103.6 - 122.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 48 Def Rotom-Wash: 300-354 (98.6 - 116.4%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 255-301 (83.8 - 99%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Bullet Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 220-261 (69.4 - 82.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Rotom-Heat: 266-313 (87.7 - 103.3%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 48 Def Rotom-Wash: 254-299 (83.5 - 98.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Bullet Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 220-261 (69.4 - 82.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Rotom-Heat: 266-313 (87.7 - 103.3%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
+6 252 Atk Cawmodore Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 48 Def Rotom-Wash: 254-299 (83.5 - 98.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Honestly though, I still think removing Volt Absorb is the most elegant solution for all the reasons stated by others above me. This was really more of an exercise in creativity and an attempt to find a different route which I had not yet seen discussed. I can also see Knock being removed in addition to Volt Absorb as argued by quziel, although I worry this would be more of a pseudo-ban than a nerf but I'm not really sure if that's such a bad thing either. If the bird went to D tier/UR I think I'd still be happy. Given that DLC2 is now in just nine days (crazy!!!!!!!) we should really wait to act on Cawmodore, but I'm happy with the solutions proposed so far and my stance is still ultimately just to axe Volt Absorb, though I thought I'd propose this anyways to see if anyone had a strong opinion about it.
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