Suspect Reasoning
Ever since people realised this thing was actually really good, Slowking-Galar has been a menace to the NatDex UU tier, to the extent that Slowking-Galar is so far considered the single most problematic Pokemon among NDPL players and the NDUU playerbase as a whole, even after months of attempts to adapt to it. With nothing else to steal the spotlight from Slowking-Galar, it’s finally time to suspect Slowking-Galar.
While the Assault Vest set is easier to fit, the Calm Mind set is notoriously difficult to stop once it gets going and the main thing that sparked this suspect test, thanks to an immunity to Toxic, enough physical bulk to not be OHKOd by much and dodge more 2HKOs than a Pokemon with ‘only’ 95/80 bulk even max invested should rightfully be able to (especially from non STAB SE coverage moves), and enough special bulk to be practically untouchable uninvested after a Calm Mind. Sludge Bomb’s ability to poison letting it wear down things it might struggle against and strongly deter switchins, the ability to Scald burn things that would normally break it.
Additionally, it has a number of item options to assist it in dealing with Pokemon that might otherwise trouble it: Waterium Z allows it to deal with Steels and Grounds who otherwise wall its Sludge Bomb, as well as negating Knock Off as being a way to deal significant damage to it; Shuca berry allows it to catch unaware Krookodile off guard as well as give it additional opportunities to status Swampert and Hippowdon; Colbur berry allows it to fish for a burn on Bisharp and make last ditch Black Hole Eclipse attempts from Zarude much less effective. Poisonium Z is rarely seen but is a decent enough nuke if none of the other choices seem useful.
What’s more, unlike a number of Calm Mind setup sweepers, it has the ability to come in and set up repeatedly thanks to Regenerator, meaning even if you can stop it in its tracks once, it often won’t be enough in the long run. It can also freely spread status with Sludge Bomb and Scald if it can’t set up, crippling typical switchins, and has enough bulk to avoid being Pursuit trapped by everything except Choice Band Bisharp (who still needs rocks to actually OHKO), which is fairly uncommon. It also still has a decent amount of defensive utility, checking Mega Altaria and having a number of resistances that lets it pivot into coverage moves aimed at other Pokemon, though obviously not as much as its Assault Vest set.
While this does leave Slowking-Galar semi reliably checked by things like Swampert, Choice Band Krookodile, Seismitoad, Melmetal (and to a lesser extent, CB Urshifu-Rapid-Strike), NP RestTalk Moltres-Galar, Rhyperior, Bisharp and the rare Diggersby, the majority of these things cannot switch in to it repeatedly for fear of being statused and losing to it anyways. The only exceptions to this are Seismitoad and Moltres-Galar, who both usually carry a way to deal with status or are immune to Scald in the former’s case.
This means that Slowking-Galar is often free to spread status unimpeded, making it a menace even if it somehow can’t CM and win, as this replay from NDPL shows, where, despite being limited from a sweep by Aegislash, it cripples the Hatterene, deals a hefty chunk to said Aegislash and Rhyperior, burns and eventually 1v1s (or would have 1v1d) the Amoonguss, and very nearly 1v1s the Aegislash anyways due to Aegislash being a SpDef variant (if Shadow Ball didn’t get the SpDef drop, Slowking-Galar 1v1ing was definitely plausible, brought down to if the Aegislash could successfully fish for a SpDef drop). However, it’s usually rare for this to not occur as it often feels like Slowking-Galar just wins from team preview. Those of you who were around during the Mega Venusaur meta may be getting a sense of deja vu from “bulky poison type beats its checks by secondary status effects of its move(s)”.
Worse still, however, is the recent discovery of Grassy Seed Slowking-Galar+Tapu Bulu. After the Grassy Seed boost, Slowking-Galar doesn’t even need to status any of those mons to beat them anymore (except for Diggersby, Seismitoad and Moltres-Galar, though if Grassy Terrain is still up Diggersby loses). This renders teams without the capacity to out momentum the Slowking-Galar’s team at a massive disadvantage, many losing immediately the moment it sets up.
However, Slowking-Galar is obviously not invincible. The prevalence of Spikes from Pokemon like Skarmory and Mew significantly reduces its ability to set up repeatedly due to weakening the effectiveness of Regenerator, making it more manageable in the long term and wearing it down a feasible task. Additionally, while not reliable answers, Swampert, Krookodile and strong physical wallbreakers like Melmetal are all common Pokemon anyways and are often enough to deter Slowking-Galar for long enough to let something else set up and win before Slowking-Galar has a chance to set up, with said strong wallbreakers (especially physical ones but special wallbreakers with SE STABs such as Aegislash can work if it hasn’t gotten too many CMs) able to at least attempt to overwhelm it mid sweep. The list of checks that are actually common are notably remarkably small, however.
While keeping up momentum to keep it from having opportunities to set up is a bit of a cop out solution (because that works for every sweeper) but it works more than usual due to Slowking-Galar’s poor speed forcing it to rely on taking hits to do much. Furthermore, despite it not having a lot of weaknesses, it also doesn’t have a lot of resistances either, and isn’t bulky enough to take reasonably strong neutral hits that well, meaning it often can’t switch in directly on many vaguely offensive threats safely, and making it reliant on doubles or a pivot to get it in.
Additionally, while Grassy Seed does negate a lot of its checks as answers, it is reliant on another Pokemon’s terrain, and if it activates Grassy Seed before it can properly sweep, say from having to come in on something while terrain is up or being phazed in, or is forced out, it can no longer benefit from Grassy Seed, and if the terrain setter dies and terrain ends before it gets the chance to come in, it’s left with a now useless item, unless the Slowking-Galar team just so happens to be facing a team with a Grassy Terrain setter of its own. As a result, it is dramatically less free to come in repeatedly and spread status.
252 Atk Choice Band Krookodile Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Shuca Berry Slowking-Galar: 189-223 (47.9 - 56.5%) -- 89.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Zarude Black Hole Eclipse (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Colbur Berry Slowking-Galar: 205-243 (52 - 61.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Colbur Berry Slowking-Galar: 211-249 (53.5 - 63.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Bisharp Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowking-Galar: 284-336 (72 - 85.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Diggersby Earthquake vs. +1 252 HP / 252+ Def Grassy Seed Slowking-Galar in Grassy Terrain: 176-210 (44.6 - 53.2%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
0 SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Slowking-Galar: 212-252 (53.8 - 63.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
0 SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. +1 252 HP / 4 SpD Slowking-Galar: 144-170 (36.5 - 43.1%) -- 98.5% chance to 3HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
252 Atk Zarude Black Hole Eclipse (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Colbur Berry Slowking-Galar: 205-243 (52 - 61.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Colbur Berry Slowking-Galar: 211-249 (53.5 - 63.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Bisharp Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowking-Galar: 284-336 (72 - 85.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Diggersby Earthquake vs. +1 252 HP / 252+ Def Grassy Seed Slowking-Galar in Grassy Terrain: 176-210 (44.6 - 53.2%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
0 SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Slowking-Galar: 212-252 (53.8 - 63.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
0 SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. +1 252 HP / 4 SpD Slowking-Galar: 144-170 (36.5 - 43.1%) -- 98.5% chance to 3HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
Suspect Test Information
- **This is new to National Dex UU suspect tests** Reading this is mandatory to participate in the suspect test. The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 79 with at least 40 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 20 games at a GXE of 83. Also, needing more than 40 games to reach 79 GXE will suffice.
GXE minimum games 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 81.2 29 81.4 28 81.6 27 81.8 26 82 25 82.2 24 82.4 23 82.6 22 82.8 21 83 20
- You must use a fresh account that begins with the given prefix for this suspect test. That prefix is NDUUGK. For example, I could signup and qualify with the name NDUUGK Niadev.
- You may not impersonate or mock another user with your account name. If there is any slight hesitation, you're probably better off picking a different name. We reserve the right to null your voting requisites if you are found impersonating or mocking another user with your account name. Moderator discretion will be applied.
- If you are found trying to manipulate voting requisites in any way, you will be met with a harsh infraction. Manipulating voting requisites ranges from faking your screenshot to asking another user to forfeit.
- The Pokemon that's being suspect tested, Slowking-Galar, will be allowed on the National Dex UU ladder for the next two weeks so that we can properly assess its position in the metagame.
- This suspect test will go on for two weeks. It will last until October the 16th at 11:59 PM GMT+1.
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and 
become much stronger in how they're able to click Hydro Pump, since glowbro can be 2hkoed by them. Grass Knot on this set is just a random filler to lure swampert more immediately, can be Flamethrower or just about any coverage.
likely is a loser of the change to this since you cant just attempt to last-ditch muscle through Slowbro-g as easily as you sometimes could with Slowking-g. Higher defense stat is also appreciated for DD 
check and general special sponge. It's primary problem over Slowbro-g tho is being taken out a bit easier by Pursuit and that you don't have the Scald Sludge combo, which is basically an omnipotent clicking formula. Nevertheless, it works great if you want to support your team with that nice sponge to absorb most attacks. It's generally reccomended to run a Nihilego, as the one thing you do not check is 
, a pretty scary breaker at the moment.
/
and other
cuz hopefully this thing is on it's way out fast.
