Lower Tiers Top 5 reasons why Piloswine can outclass Nidoqueen in GSC UU (you won't believe #4)

[cherryb0ng]

Top 5 reasons why Piloswine can outclass Nidoqueen (you won't believe #4)
​

s/o to Holly who involuntarily inspired me to make this thread.

1. Piloswine has higher Attack (and lower special attack).​

Piloswine is an amazing pokemon because it has a naturally high amount of splashability in terms of offence. Though Nidoqueen can hit more things super effectively, that advantage can sometimes pale in comparison with Piloswine’s secondary STAB, Ice Beam. That’s because there aren’t many things that resist Ground and aren’t already weak to Ice (take Scyther and Bellossom for instance). Furthermore, her Ice Beam is weaker than Piloswine’s because of it being STAB, even though she has higher SpA. That means that Pilo’s Ice Beam is better than Nidoqueen’s Ice Beam and in some situations even better than her Fire Blast.

Pilo and Nido calcs

Non super-effective hits
Piloswine Ice Beam vs. Granbull: 102-121 (26.6 - 31.5%) -- 31% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
Nidoqueen Fire Blast vs. Granbull: 98-116 (25.5 - 30.2%) -- 0.8% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
Nidoqueen Ice Beam vs. Granbull: 78-92 (20.3 - 24%) -- possible 6HKO after Leftovers recovery
Super-effective hits
Nidoqueen Fire Blast vs. Scyther: 168-198 (51.3 - 60.5%) -- 93.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Piloswine Ice Beam vs. Scyther: 175-206 (53.5 - 62.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Piloswine Ice Beam vs. Bellossom: 153-180 (43.3 - 50.9%) -- 56% chance to 2HKO after Spikes and Leftovers recovery
Nidoqueen Fire Blast vs. Bellossom: 146-172 (41.3 - 48.7%) -- 12.3% chance to 2HKO after Spikes and Leftovers recovery

A noticeable difference is that Piloswine has the ability to 2HKO things like Scyther or even threaten a 3HKO against Curse Granbull by attacking it first with an EQ and then spamming Ice Beam.

2. Piloswine is a sleep talker. ​

Perhaps you could say that Nidoqueen can walk the walk because she’s faster, but Piloswine can definitely Talk the Talk. In spite of what her name implies, Nidoqueen is a great pokemon for her jack-of-all-trades abilities. She can use Earthquake and threaten many things, she has some speed and can end games early, has Thunder to KO water types, Fire Blast can hit things even Pilo cannot threaten, and she's sufficiently bulky to allow herself to take hidden power Ice or Water. She even has a recovery move in Moonlight. But she cannot do all of these things at once. Piloswine on the other hand, doesn’t even have to worry too much about prediction. Either way it’s going to hit like a truck. It’s also not afraid of status at all thanks to the moves Rest and Sleep Talk which let it replenish health and fight back against many threats. That just gives it an edge in certain situations such as facing a Psychic type like Mr.Mime without being worried of Hypnosis or facing a Jumpluff and fearing its Sleep Powders or Stun Spores. Furthermore, Sleep Talk may have a tendency to be annoying for the users, but it comes with some unpredictability so opponents may end up keeping a weakened Jumpluff in fear of losing their Slowbro in the back only to lose Jumpluff to an Ice Beam. You cannot predict this psycho killing machine, not even when it's sleeping.

3. It eats bolt beam for breakfast. ​

Talk about power hungry. Real liveboars are known for tearing through just about anything in its way limb from limb and eat just about anything. That isn’t too far from what mr.Swine is able to do. It preys upon Electric users with a limited coverage by just coming in with almost no care in the world. And the best part? It can do this sufficiently well in OU too! No wonder it’s friends with Quagsire. It still has to watch out for Hidden Power Waters, though, and, unlike Nidoqueen, has some other weaknesses to look out for.

4. The meta just isn’t ready for a Ground+Ice type. ​

What I mean with this is two things. Firstly, its typing makes it one of the few Ground pokemon in GSC UU that shrugs off Ice Beam. And second, its ice typing comes with the benefit of not being weak to Psychic like Nidoqueen is. Piloswine matches up against Psychic types way better than Nidoqueen, to the point that even Baton Pass users don’t want anything to do with this beast. But that’s Nidoqueen’s fault for wanting to be the center of attention. Do you think we’d have so many viable Psychic types in a metagame with Scythers and Granbulls running rampant if Nidoqueen weren’t considered top-tier UU material? How many Fighting types are there in UU that counter Piloswine? NONE. Wake up! Stop kidding yourselves, folks. The truest counter to Piloswine is Gyarados who doesn't take anything from EQ while not being afraid of Ice Beam (ok, maybe a little afraid of freezes).

5. Piloswine can play the game more slowly.​

Having access to Rest and two of the most powerful attacking moves in the game means that Piloswine doesn’t have to necessarily attack every turn, giving the opposing player the difficult onus of trying to win back some momentum and playing in an aggressive way that can cost them some valuable teammates. Nidoqueen can typically get a lot of value out of every turn she’s on the playing field but sometimes she can get caught off guard and be forced to pick a move just to save the team from a sweep or herself from silly chip damage (I’m looking at you, Magneton and Ampharaos).

CONCLUSION​

Piloswine has the intelligence of a pig and the sturdiness of a mammoth and it knows that with its god-like powers, it’s able to make opponents tremble in fear without even looking at them.
That said, I still think that Nidoqueen is still the tried and true top tier ground type that she is, because in old generations the prowess of a mixed attacker is also proven by how many different situations they can find themselves in and take out even their own checks. I even think that Ice Beam Nidoqueen can prove more viable in certain situations in today's meta. Piloswine still struggles in some matchups like Gyarados, who can b****slap it across the planet and not care about Ice Beam at all.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed my brief showcase of why I love Piloswine so much and I also hope that I’ve proven that you don’t need a Physical Special split to get value out of Ice and Ground typing. I am pretty happy to have pushed this pokemon in past tournaments and given some attention that players may have previously considered a little bit more tentatively.
Until then, it’s best to be prepared for the monstrosity that it becomes in DPP.

​

 

[cherryb0ng]

My past 15 notifications have all been reactions on this post. I'm happy that you guys appreciate it.

I may add further remarks on when exactly Fire Blast Nidoqueen is better and when Ice Beam is actually better than Piloswine.
Nidoqueen naturally has more malleability and uses so many more moves when compared to Piloswine.
I also may post examples of other viable moves that Piloswine can use, without trying to make my it redundant to go here because I am also in charge of writing Piloswine's smogdex analysis. lol

 

[BKC]

Outstanding challenging of conventional wisdom. Granbull has also been posited as a potential #1, but it is already known to be top-tier, whereas this even bolder choice introduces an entirely new facet of play into the metagame. I am pleased to see these long-standing boundaries being pushed. I rest easy knowing that perhaps one day soon, Granbull and Piloswine will be able to wrest Nidoqueen (also known as the Margaret Thatcher of GSC UU) from her throne. Bravo. Encore (which one would be foolish to use against Piloswine).

 

[dawnbuster]

Piloswine is a mon I have been using a lot lately and I think its excellent personally. Its capable of switching into common Pokemon like Hypno, Scyther, Electrics, and Haunter and seriously threaten the opposing team. Looking at the S to A- rank Pokemon on the GSC UU VR, its pretty much just Slowbro, Gyarados, and Blastoise(who you can all still try to freeze btw), that can switch into it and 2HKO. Piloswine is a mon that if not respected in the builder, then it will be a serious pain to deal with, as it hits most of the tier very hard and is a pain to switch into, made worse by the fact it comes in on such crucial Pokemon. Ground + Ice coverage is just extremely potent in GSC UU due to nothing resisting it and given how many teams in this tier stack Ground weaknesses given how well Pokemon like Nidoqueen, Qwilfish, and Haunter pair together. Combined with it’s ability to check Pokemon like Scyther, Hypno, Haunter, and non Cross Chop or Fire Punch variants of Electabuzz, I think its a top tier Pokemon honestly lol. Of course, its not perfect, as it still lets in the mentioned Water types (letting in Toise to spin sucks), has a Spikes problem, and is not as easy to fit onto teams, but Pilo is definitely a great choice in GSC UU.

Pilo + Lanturn + Jumpluff team that ms Holly made…

This is my favourite team with the mon easily. It looks very odd and is very far from what I usually like to run in GSC UU, but the defensive core of Lanturn + Piloswine + Jumpluff is insanely potent. Lanturn in particular is an excellent partner for its ability to counter the Water types that give Piloswine trouble as well as provide security against threats such as Mr. Mime. This team is pretty passive outside of Piloswine but it play the game at a slower pace and try to fish for freezes on the few Pokemon able to reliably check Piloswine. Haunter pairs well with Piloswine as well, as Piloswine lets in Blastoise to spin away Spikes then Haunter can block it reasonably well.

 

[cherryb0ng]

Holly pretty much hit the nail on the head there, as far as Piloswine's defensive prowess. The ground typing + non weakness to Ice gives many teams the much needed room to breathe against the likes of Thunder+Ice Beam, a very common pick for Nidoqueen.
Add to that the fact that many balanced or non HO teams will have at least 1 type of check to Granbull (Magneton, Haunter, Omastar or even Kabutops and the rare Graveler) and you have another good reason that justifies Piloswine's presence, making it super easy to fit in a team slot if you choose it over Nidoqueen.

A very good offensive core that I personally like is made from this trio:
Offence core #1 - SD Pass Trio (Click the mons to see their set)


I don't know who invented it but the answer might be whoever came up with idea of passing Swords Dance to Nidoqueen. This isn't only really effective, but also super malleable, so you can pretty much slap 3 other pokemon that you like unto this trio however you see fit and you'll be good to go (recommend a psychic type). There are few things that can contest a Granbull with hidden power groud coverage. If you sucessfully manage to pass a +2 attack boost to Granbull, then there is a good chance you will be able to deal massive amounts of damage against many things with either Return or a coverage move. Passing a +2 to Piloswine is also great for similar reasons but its "ice coverage" (even though it's technically STAB) does not have anything to benefit from it (but every flying not named Gyarados gets 2hko'd or better anyways). Pokemon like Slowbro or Slowking cannot reliably switch in on a plus 2 Earthquake if Spikes are down, and it even threatens Blastoise with a 2HKO.
Scyther is hp bug so it can effectively threaten any Psychic pokemon that might try and attack it. This is especially important against the likes of the Slowtwins who have a naturally high bulk and might choose to stay in just to cripple or weaken Scyther if the opposing player has a reason to think that they are instead running Hidden Power Ground. Return is there to deal damage to Gyarados, a natural check to Scyther (but not a true counter). The idea is to attack at +2 or unboosted on the switch in and avoiding taking large amounts of damage from Hidden Power Flying, weakening to the point that it cannot attempt to phaze it or threaten it back if you were to reattempt this on another occasion. If you manage to "lure ko" the Gyarados, then your Piloswine is free to wreak havoc.

You can alternatively pass a +2 to a mono attacking curse Granbull or even a Lovely Kiss Curse Hp Ground Granbull. The possibilities are many but I recommend changing Scyther's coverage to check some of Granbull's checks if you get rid of HP Ground (also bewear that the DVs should be maxed out, so remember to change them back to normal).

 

[cherryb0ng]

Goodness, where are my manners? I never posted a team here.

Scyther, Pilo, Granbull team that I built back in UUFPL

Scyther leads are becoming a little bit more prevalent. I'm not a huge fan of Bug+Normal coverage but you want to be able to threaten any psychic leads off the bat. Might not be a great idea to stay in on qwilfish lead t1 and just go to your own, perhaps attempt to weaken it and then pass +2 to Pilo or Granbull. You can alternatively put Twave on Slowbro over Psychic. It's not a terrible idea considering the slow nature of this team. Hypnosis will be very helpful against HP Ground Granbull, Nidoqueen and Bellossom.

 

[cherryb0ng]

IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING. GSC UU in the UnderUsed Premier League has had the lowest Nidoqueen usage yet! 4 Weeks and it has barely been used at all. 2 of which it was overshadowed by Piloswine and f*ckin Quagsire.

I feel at fault here. Y'all should just stop using Piloswine. It's been 6 months and I feel like I have terribly influenced the meta, even though I didn't enter UU Snake Draft or GSC PL. Now Light Screen is paired with Piloswine and it's even more threatening than it was before.

It freezes Gyarados constantly (I won a tour by doing that), it crits Blastoise. Just stop disrespecting the Queen! LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE.

 

[cherryb0ng]

Hello folks. Just another update. I made a video that was a copypaste of this post a while ago, then I was unsatisfied with it and spent 3 months on making it as informative as possible. Hope you enjoy my weird antics.
By the way Piloswine is overcentralizing now.