hyw
Banned deucer.
Yeah I have a huge problem with Landorus-T as well. According to the Smogon analysis, it checks "Primal Groudon, Ho-Oh, Swords Dance Arceus, and Klefki." Assuming the Choice Scarf set (the only set viable aside from its niche as Stealth Rocker on Sticky Webs), it doesn't really check any of these at all.
The first two you don't wanna switch into because of both Lava Plume and Sacred Fire burning you at best and 2HKOing you at worst, and you flat-out fail to check Ekiller idk why that's in the analysis lol.
Furthermore, the metagame is constructed in such a way that pressures its viability: every team has a built-in Klefki check in Primal Groudon anyway, locking yourself into a Ground move is shitty because all teams overprepare by default with Pokémon like Salamence, Giratina-O, and Lugia so as to not get swept by Double Dance Primal Groudon, and U-Turn is so piss weak you don't even OHKO Darkrai. You're forced to run Jolly for Deoxys-Attack which further cuts your firepower. I concede that Ground is a great offensive typing nevertheless but at best, due to Choice-lock, you'll find yourself forcing the opponent to coinflip whether you'll Earthquake or U-Turn, and this strategy relies on both match-up and the fact that you've offensively stacked hazards prior. How high is the payoff? Quite low in practice. Hell, you even fail to beat Mega Gengar because they'll just scout you with Protect.
Picking off Deoxys-Attack or low-health Darkrai sans loss of momentum is an undeniable asset, but given the preparation for Ground-type attacks the metagame has shifted in equilibrium towards, in addition to the overall lack of damage output, plus the obligation of using Choice Scarf to find any effectiveness hinder Landorus-T below the A rank at best. A more appropriate placement would be that above Shaymin-Sky in B rank as both are similar in that their speed grant them: revenge-killing capabilities whilst their lack of firepower hold them back tremendously. The glaring difference in this comparison would be their defensive utility but really, what are you Intimidating? Salamence? Ekiller? Ho-Oh? Arceus-Ground? None of these things actually mind Intimidate because you're either 2HKO'd anyway or, even worse, your lack of raw damage results you in becoming set-up bait.
A good metric in measuring viability would be asking oneself how many top-tier teams have incorporated the Pokémon in question and I honestly can't think of any good team using Landorus-T other than Hack's Sun, which fitted it perfectly, as it had Klefki with Spikes and the team benefitted from the aforementioned positive attributes such as that of a revenge-killer able to pick-off frail attackers, Ground-immunity, and so on.
My two cents and also s/o Hack and zf etc the rankings are so much cleaner now lmao gfj
The first two you don't wanna switch into because of both Lava Plume and Sacred Fire burning you at best and 2HKOing you at worst, and you flat-out fail to check Ekiller idk why that's in the analysis lol.
Furthermore, the metagame is constructed in such a way that pressures its viability: every team has a built-in Klefki check in Primal Groudon anyway, locking yourself into a Ground move is shitty because all teams overprepare by default with Pokémon like Salamence, Giratina-O, and Lugia so as to not get swept by Double Dance Primal Groudon, and U-Turn is so piss weak you don't even OHKO Darkrai. You're forced to run Jolly for Deoxys-Attack which further cuts your firepower. I concede that Ground is a great offensive typing nevertheless but at best, due to Choice-lock, you'll find yourself forcing the opponent to coinflip whether you'll Earthquake or U-Turn, and this strategy relies on both match-up and the fact that you've offensively stacked hazards prior. How high is the payoff? Quite low in practice. Hell, you even fail to beat Mega Gengar because they'll just scout you with Protect.
Picking off Deoxys-Attack or low-health Darkrai sans loss of momentum is an undeniable asset, but given the preparation for Ground-type attacks the metagame has shifted in equilibrium towards, in addition to the overall lack of damage output, plus the obligation of using Choice Scarf to find any effectiveness hinder Landorus-T below the A rank at best. A more appropriate placement would be that above Shaymin-Sky in B rank as both are similar in that their speed grant them: revenge-killing capabilities whilst their lack of firepower hold them back tremendously. The glaring difference in this comparison would be their defensive utility but really, what are you Intimidating? Salamence? Ekiller? Ho-Oh? Arceus-Ground? None of these things actually mind Intimidate because you're either 2HKO'd anyway or, even worse, your lack of raw damage results you in becoming set-up bait.
A good metric in measuring viability would be asking oneself how many top-tier teams have incorporated the Pokémon in question and I honestly can't think of any good team using Landorus-T other than Hack's Sun, which fitted it perfectly, as it had Klefki with Spikes and the team benefitted from the aforementioned positive attributes such as that of a revenge-killer able to pick-off frail attackers, Ground-immunity, and so on.
My two cents and also s/o Hack and zf etc the rankings are so much cleaner now lmao gfj
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