Not sure if this conversation is serious or not.
But, I'm on the side that
is incredibly hard to drop.
Even if you don't have room for it as a back 5 mon, it can still be your lead, and do
things if it doesn't become sleep fodder.
is droppable when you have Rock/Ground types like
that can check/provide a pivot against opposing
. A mon like
checks
and counters
which is quite nifty. I think lax is a requirement on triple Psychic teams though. But if your team has options to pivot against or wall lax, why run your own when it will just get walled itself? Though I am a big fan of bolt beam lax for getting rid of
. Some people use
as a lead which is odd to me (b/c it's slow, not having a chance to do something vs
,
, and
).
is droppable when you have enough walling on the special side, though,
also has the potential to scare off or even wall
and
. I tend to find
stronger than Lax, I don't know for sure if that is true, b/c one of its weaknesses is that it can allow other mons to heal up, but I have hard time droping it.
With
, you lose out on a speedy and very powerful Hyper Beam + hard to switch into Body Slam, in a meta with Physically weak mons. If opposing mons are at half health and paralyzed, and you have a healthy
odds are you will win.
can play the roles of a lead, a revenge killer, a mid game wall breaker, and a sweeper. It's hard not to find room for it.
i mean same with snorlax and still chansey (theres only a handful of people who drop chansey more than 5% of the time).
since you implied you see an issue, what do you think the issue is?
I suppose the issue is that it can make players feel that they are required to run
without looking at other possibilities. I mean, if you are holding off a mon to use until the end game,
/
vs
>
vs
, because the birds are more likely to survive from full health. I would like to see what sort of teams can really not use
, and be optimal for it. I am pretty sure that stall is bad, I could see wrap teams not using it. I could maybe see
,
, or one of the birds maybe replacing it.
sounds like an intriguing replacement, not sure if I'm being baited, but I do like the mon. It can do over 50% damage to
with a single Pump, while not being 2Hkoed by EQ, it can come in on Hyper Beams, and free up
. I'm assuming that
is the replacement sweeper?
Sometimes, I wonder if it's not a good idea to say that the Normals are required on teams, because that narrows what people think are options, but I don't want to give the idea to new players that running random stuff will work.
Main Questions
I guess one question I have is, which really is the most replaceable Normal? And: How do we know if a team is more optimal without it?
Is
really replaceable? What would a team without it look like?
---------------------
But I do have another question: Are triple Psychic teams really the most consistent teams? I have trouble running them, and it feels like everyone is prepared against them. Yes, I run Bide
a lot, because it amuses me, and I'm trying to figure out if it works or not,... it does force out opposing Lax. But, I don't see that having a large impact on my success using triple Psychic teams, as the most important attacking move on Reflect sets, imo, is Body Slam. And I'd rather use a move that out damages Ice Beam Lax than go into a freeze war with opposing Lax. I've had some trouble with the old Reflect+EQ Lax sample team too.