If Muk was Poison/Dark starting in GSC, how good would it be?

[Hardboned]

Assuming no other changes, does Muk possibly make it to OU? No movepool changes either meaning its only Dark move is Thief so its really only good defensively. Also, is there a better place to post this? Theorymon stuff in general?

Also, for fun, how good would it be if it did get the good Dark moves like Pursuit and Crunch?

 

[dawnbuster]

This would be a nice buff for Muk in UU. It means you are less threatened by Pokemon like Hypno, Slowbro Mr. Mime, and Haunter, since you are now Psychic immune. GSC UU would have its first real Dark type. Muk wouldn’t use its Dark typing offensively, since Thief is too weak and what not, but defensively it is helpful. The potential disadvantages of a Dark type (such as a loss of a Fighting resist) don’t matter in UU because Fighting attack’s don’t get used. Muk would be more viable in UU if it was a Dark/Poison type.

 

[Hardboned]

This would be a nice buff for Muk in UU. It means you are less threatened by Pokemon like Hypno, Slowbro Mr. Mime, and Haunter, since you are now Psychic immune. GSC UU would have its first real Dark type. Muk wouldn’t use its Dark typing offensively, since Thief is too weak and what not, but defensively it is helpful. The potential disadvantages of a Dark type (such as a loss of a Fighting resist) don’t matter in UU because Fighting attack’s don’t get used. Muk would be more viable in UU if it was a Dark/Poison type.

It'd for sure be great in UU just for the fact it'd be the only Dark-type available in UU with respectable stats. Being able to take on each Psychic and Ghost sounds good. Also, for fun, Im gonna throw in a bonus question of how good would Muk be if it got all the Dark-type moves it'd want in the OP

 

[cherryb0ng]

Sounds like an interesting question. It could have more benefits in OU as well but that really depends. First of all if it were to get pursuit would it be any good as a dark type? The dark typing obviously worsens it's chances of walling Machamp without improving much else. Immunity to psychics is cute but... Idk

 

[Hardboned]

Sounds like an interesting question. It could have more benefits in OU as well but that really depends. First of all if it were to get pursuit would it be any good as a dark type? The dark typing obviously worsens it's chances of walling Machamp without improving much else. Immunity to psychics is cute but... Idk

Yeah but to be fair, Machamp sometimes runs Earthquake so it wouldn't change the matchup too much

 

[Jorgen]

It'd be a pretty solid check to Egg, but a million weird things already do that. But it also shuts down Alakazam funnily enough. Not to mention Espeon if it doesn't pass. And it'd be a decent second look to Jynx. Not bad!

It would lose the Machamp and Hera matchups though, which is a semi-big deal (Machamp coverage in particular is part of the appeal of Muk on some teams). However, it's quite unreliable against those threats as-is and even if it weren't, I'd argue being good into Psychics is more impactful in today's GSC.

Still, being good into Psychics is, like, counterplay to anti-meta pokes. People like Psychics because they're good against meta-definers Gengar and Nidoking, which in turn are two notoriously weak matchups for Muk. This wouldn't change with a Dark typing (funnily enough in the case of Gengar).

So, I'd say it's still a niche pick, but probably a more viable niche than the one it currently occupies.