Arctovish has one huge claim to fame: Fishious Rend. This single attack makes it a devastating wallbreaker, and even with Slush Rush banned, Arctovish can still get the damage boost on multiple slower walls and versus switch-ins. With Arctovish only recently unbanned, the ZU metagame was not necessarily ready for such a powerful wallbreaker to return. A majority of the council––Tuthur, Drud, Jett, and myself––voted for a suspect test, while only a minority––czim and kay––voted against.
It's most certainly the lack of switch-ins to Fishious Rend that makes Arctovish as good as it is, and it even has tools to work around what could absorb the attack. For starters, a good chunk of the defensive metagame is slower and vulnerable to Arctovish, so once it's in, there's a shining opportunity to spam Fishious Rend. Special walls and Ground-types like Clefairy, Rhydon, and Stunfisk are some of the most vulnerable to this attack. Checking Arctovish isn't as simple as switching into a bulky Water-resistant wall either given Fishious Rend can still do loads of damage to walls like Eldegoss, and Arctovish of course uses STAB Ice-type attacks like Icicle Crash and Freeze-Dry to deal with others like Altaria, Poliwrath, Qwilfish, and Tangela. Even opposing Ice-types like Jynx and the mirror ought to fear Stone Edge, and there's a bit of variability within sets that can make it tough to deal with, too. If you assume it's Choice Band and locked into Fishious Rend, you could lose your Grass-type if you stay in and catch an Icicle Crash. The broken aspects of Arctovish all stem from Fishious Rend being an overwhelmingly powerful weapon in its arsenal with good compliments to limit switch-ins and snag KOes.
As many switch-ins Arctovish may limit, it still is awfully limited itself when it comes to getting on the field. In no way shape or form will a mid-speed Water / Ice type be difficult to deal with offensively. Top tier threats like Rotom, Sawk, Thwackey, and Gurdurr all revenge kill Arctovish without a problem. Arctovish is also heavily item dependent: it will need Heavy-Duty Boots to counteract its Stealth Rock weakness, Choice Band to get the most out of Fishious Rend, or an item like Life Orb to boost coverage like Freeze-Dry. These limitations means there may only be a few turns out on the field for Arctovish to wallbreak, and wallbreaking itself may end up very circumstantial depending on the matchup; clicking Fishious Rend when Poliwrath / Jynx switches in would ruin any and all momentum. Scouting and playing around Arctovish is a valid way to deal with it, as while Tangela and Appletun may fear Ice-type attacks, they can at least tank a Fishious Rend if necessary. Wishiwashi is bulky enough to switch into Arctovish and pivot out, and some walls like Miltank are fast enough to avoid the Fishious Rend boost while they're already in. You need a fair degree of positioning when using Arctovish and, even then, its wallbreaking potential is by no means guaranteed.
- ***THIS IS NEW TO GEN 8 SUSPECTS*** Reading this is mandatory for participating in the suspect test. The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 77 with at least 50 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 77 GXE, down to a minimum of 30 games at a GXE of 81. Also, needing more than 50 games to reach 77 GXE will suffice.
| GXE | minimum games |
| 77 | 50 |
| 77.2 | 49 |
| 77.4 | 48 |
| 77.6 | 47 |
| 77.8 | 46 |
| 78 | 45 |
| 78.2 | 44 |
| 78.4 | 43 |
| 78.6 | 42 |
| 78.8 | 41 |
| 79 | 40 |
| 79.2 | 39 |
| 79.4 | 38 |
| 79.6 | 37 |
| 79.8 | 36 |
| 80 | 35 |
| 80.2 | 34 |
| 80.4 | 33 |
| 80.6 | 32 |
| 80.8 | 31 |
| 81 | 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 ZUVA. For example, I might signup with the ladder account ZUVA Ho3n.
- 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.
- The aspect being tested, Arctovish, will be allowed on the ladder.
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- 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.
- Unlike previous tests, we will be posting the voting identification thread immediately after this thread. Please avoid getting more games before getting confirmed.
- The suspect test will go on for about 14 days, lasting until February 25th at 11:59 PM GMT -5, and then we will put up the voting thread in the Blind Voting subforum.
This thread will be open to allow all users to share their thoughts on this suspect test and discuss with one another their thoughts. Should you have any questions about the suspect test, feel free to message me or anyone else on the ZU council. Keep in mind that our suspect tests are decided by the community; anyone who achieves voting requisites is allowed to vote. The outcome is up to you. Happy posting and laddering!
Avoid posting one-liners or posts that do not contribute to any discussion. They will be deleted.
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and its different formes. I'm a huge fan of Silvally as a pokemon and its uniqueness is what drives me to make this post.
is seeing a ton of use and multiple sets as an offensive Ice-resistant Pokemon to make counterplay more rewarding. This is true for 
and 
as well, being a deterrent for Ice Beam from Jynx and using the forced switch as a setup opportunity. There’s also ole reliable 
that is one of the best defensive answers still, and some walbreakers like 
find switch-ins to and punish defensive Ice-types like Articuno. While we lost about 4 very important Ice-types, I’d say it was for ZU’s betterment and to the chagrin of your TL who’s addicted to spamming hail teams ;-;)7.
), so I see that as a good sign. We’re still looking to increase meta activity and discussions, and we always welcome dedicated, knowledgable individuals to help us out on ZU’s council. April shifts are around the corner, ZUPL is also sooner this year, and we’re in the middle of an importanr seasonal; this is to say the metagame is still somewhat volotile and we’ll be monitoring it closely. I’ll have more to say once my run in the tour is over but for now I do like the current teambuilding landscape and recent discoveries with the meta.
The loss of Wishiwashi had quite a big impact on Jynx's viability in ZU. Obviously, Wishiwashi was a pretty great answer to Jynx and by far our best option for teams that needed a Specially Defensive Water-type (as may have probably realised, trying to replace Wishiwashi hasn't been easy and Type: Null as a slow SpDef pivot is unfortunately extremely mid). However, Wishiwashi was also one of the best Pokemon for getting in Jynx safely and the loss of another slower pivot in Perrserker has definitely made it harder to build dedicated pivot based teams around Jynx. This leaves us with very few Pokemon that can deal with all of Jynx's sets reliably, namely Articuno, Clefairy, Type Null or using multiple Pokemon like Klinklang and Gourgeist-S to pivot round its attacks. It should also be mentioned that most of the best switch-ins to Jynx hate being Tricked, especially Articuno which would give Jynx the very use Heavy Duty-Boots in return.
Another fast wallbreaker which benefitted from Wishiwashi going, but Eldegoss too. Special sets have also started to run Head Smash to deal with Articuno/Crunch for Jynx further eliminating one of its would be checks, although even without this it can Flip Turn and wear down special walls and not give them a chance to recover (which Eldegoss can shrug off easily and Wishiwashi can regain momentum against a lot of Pokemon). Physical sets still work with Ice Beam as well although may not be necessary depending on how Tangela usage changes. Honestly, without Poliwrath or Jynx on your team, this Pokemon is very annoying to deal with due to the lack of solid Water-type switch-ins we have, and Jynx struggles a lot more against the physical coverage Basculin may carry. It Speed tier is also really good at the moment since it outpaces the base 95s (Jynx, Silvally formes...) and Morpeko.
Finally, I have to talk about the new Pokemon of course. Lassie has been fine for the most part and despite the fact it puts further pressure on our questionable hazard removal options given its favourable matchups (rip Torkoal /s), it has certainly been one of the more fun parts of the metagame (at least to me). I do hope we get better hazard removal because it feels like fat teams are quite limited unless you go potentially boots spam stuff, but Rhydon is also a culprit of this problem (rip Eldegoss). Otherwise, its a fine mon, we have enough answers to it, the speed is pretty nice for some of the above mons as well and the weakness to rocks certainly makes it harder to use and more punishable if not running boots.
The state of the metagame is pretty meh at the moment, but I'm sure that a few changes will make teambuilding and playing not only more enjoyable but the metagame as a whole will be more healthy. I'm curious to hear what others have to say on some of these Pokemon since I feel like the order I want to go about things may be different to others (Basc first so far) but ultimately I'd definitely support a suspect of some kind at the very least, and to a lesser extent potential for a quickban of some kind.
