Why has Bronzong leaving made this Pokemon such a hot subject for debate? It has an edge on speed tier compared to other Dragon-types, and its Draco Meteor is strong, but what makes it problematic is the massive amounts of coverage it has at its disposal. Fire Blast allows Goodra to completely invalidate Escavalier as a check and threaten other Steel-types such as Copperajah and Stunfisk-Galar, Thunderbolt allows it to exploit Water-types that serve as special walls such as Mantine and Vaporeon, and Iron Tail allows it to make Diancie obsolete as a check while also hitting specially-defensive Sylveon for good damage. It also has access to other coverage options such as Hydro Pump, Sludge Bomb, and Superpower if the Goodra user decides to use them. Goodra normally uses Expert Belt sets to abuse its wide coverage, allowing it to do extra damage to most defensive staples in the metagame.
It also has access to Sap Sipper, as well as an enormous base Special Defense stat of 150. This allows it to come in and exploit many Pokemon such as Vileplume, Salazzle, Vaporeon, Xatu, and more. This bulk also makes it a lot harder to revenge kill by many common faster Pokemon such as Rotom-Mow, Heliolisk, Inteleon, and Salazzle, which desentivizes using these Pokemon as speed control.
There are some downsides to Goodra as a breaker, however. For one, Draco Meteor is not very strong from Goodra compared to other breakers we have in the tier, meaning that it ends up relying on its coverage to break more often as Draco Meteor will struggle to OHKO neutral targets. There are also soft checks, with Pokemon such as Toxic Vaporeon and specially defensive Sylveon able to handle Goodra at full health, as well as more solid long-term checks such as Snorlax and Gigalith. A major factor on the anti-ban side, however, comes from the fact Goodra needs to run Modest in order to break defensive cores reliably. This leaves it at a middling speed tier, and along with its mediocre physical bulk, it allows fast physical Pokemon to pressure and revenge kill it with even a little chip.
Other sets, such as Choice Scarf and Choice Specs, have potential - however, Choice Specs struggles a lot due to a choice-locked Goodra being a lot easier to handle by the opposition, and although Choice Scarf is a potent revenge killer, it has the same issues along with struggling with lack of power. Assault Vest sets are solid glue for builds weak to offensive Water-types, but they don't have nearly the same breaking power as Expert Belt, and therefore aren't as much of a threat.
- Reading this is mandatory for participating in the suspect test. The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 79 with at least 50 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 79 GXE, down to a minimum of 30 games at a GXE of 83. Also, needing more than 50 games to reach 79 GXE will suffice. **It is now 79 GXE**
GXE | minimum games |
79 | 50 |
79.2 | 49 |
79.4 | 48 |
79.6 | 47 |
79.8 | 46 |
80 | 45 |
80.2 | 44 |
80.4 | 43 |
80.6 | 42 |
80.8 | 41 |
81 | 40 |
81.2 | 39 |
81.4 | 38 |
81.6 | 37 |
81.8 | 36 |
82 | 35 |
82.2 | 34 |
82.4 | 33 |
82.6 | 32 |
82.8 | 31 |
83 | 30 |
- You must signup with a newly registered account on Pokemon Showdown! that begins with the appropriate prefix for the suspect test. For this suspect test, the prefix will be NULW. For example, I might signup with the ladder account NULW Meri Berry
- Laddering with an account that impersonates, mocks, or insults another Smogon user or breaks Pokemon Showdown! rules may be disqualified from voting and infracted. Moderator discretion will be applied here. If there is any doubt or hesitance when making the alt, just pick another name. There are infinite possibilities and we have had trouble for this repeatedly. If you wish to participate in the suspect, you should be able to exhibit decent enough judgement here. We will not be lenient.
- We will be using the regular NU ladder for this suspect test. We will not be creating a new Suspect Ladder. At the beginning of every battle, there will be an announcement denoting the ongoing suspect with a link to this thread.
- The aspects being tested, Goodra, will be allowed on the ladder.
- Any form of voting manipulation will result in swift and severe punishment. You are more than welcome to state your argument to as many people as you so please, but do not use any kind of underhanded tactics to get a result you desire. Bribery, blackmail, or any other type of tactic used to sway votes will be handled and sanctioned.
- Do not attempt to cheat the ladder. We will know if you did not actually achieve voting requisites, so don't do it. Harsh sanctions will be applied.
- The suspect test will go on for two weeks, lasting until Friday, February 18th @ 11:59pm (GMT-5), and then we will put up the voting thread in the Blind Voting subforum.