RU Suspect Coverage: Obstagoon

By Oathkeeper. Released: 2022/06/23.
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RU Suspect Coverage: Obstagoon

Art by Swiffix.

Introduction

It's gonna rock and roll all day and all night. That's right, it's Obstagoon. For a good chunk of the current generation, Obstagoon has been tearing through RU. With the STAB combination of Facade and Knock Off, excellent coverage in Close Combat, and decent Speed tier, Obstagoon is incredibly challenging to account for in the teambuilder. Did I mention it has Guts for its ability? Yeah, that just makes it more of a nuisance to switch into. Additionally, after Cobalion and Mienshao rose to UU, no Fighting-type in RU outspeeds Obstagoon without a Choice Scarf. Throw in the fact that Obstagoon can avoid getting decimated by First Impression with Obstruct, and lower the attacker's Defense two stages in the process, and it is easy to see why Obstagoon is a dominating force in RU and earned the suspect test. Needless to say, the test is warranted; let's go over why.

Set

Obstagoon

Amusingly enough, the acronymn KISS (keep it simple stupid) comes to mind with this one-and-only Obstagoon set. Flame Orb is a must for activating Guts. Knock Off and Facade make it dreadful for the opponent to switch something in safely— the combination is only resisted by Diancie, which is actually in NU. Close Combat is mostly used for Steel-types that can withstand both STAB moves, like Registeel, Steelix, and Stakataka. Overall, this set has basically perfect coverage. Obstruct prevents First Impression users like Golisopod and Flygon from revenge killing Obstagoon. Switcheroo is a neat alternative to cripple common switch-ins like Rhyperior, and stealing a foe's Leftovers can help Obstagoon survive much longer. In the end, it's a matter of how well its switch-ins can eat up hits and how many times it can get on the field.

Reasoning for Ban

Oh man, how long do we have here? There are plenty of reasons for banning Obstagoon. First off, Guts boosts its Attack immensely, giving it an Attack stat of 418, and the chip damage from burn doesn't bother it very much. If that wasn't bad enough, try switching into this thing safely without losing a Pokémon or at least a precious item. Steel-types are able to eat a Facade or Knock Off, but then just get pummeled by Close Combat on the following turn. First Impression users also fail to check Obstagoon thanks to Obstruct, which also drops their Defense and allows Obstagoon to OHKO them instead. It also has an amazing Speed tier for the metagame. Sitting at 317 Speed, there are only a few threats that can quickly take Obstagoon out quickly without a Choice Scarf, like Raikou and Mimikyu. Even though Obstagoon suffers from a 4x Fighting weakness, it has the tools to beat most of the common Fighting-types in the tier. Lucario, non-Choice Scarf Heracross, and Pangoro are outsped by Obstagoon and fall to Facade or Close Combat; these Pokémon can't even check Obstagoon like intended, making it quite tough to pin down. Lastly, and this is a big one, it constricts teambuilding to the point where you often need at least two checks to Obstagoon on a given team to not get overwhelmed by it. This basically sums up how much of a problem Obstagoon is in the meta, but what about the people that don't really see Obstagoon as a problem? Well.............

Reasoning for No Ban

No threat is without its checks or counters, and there are ways to take down Obstagoon reliably. The few Fairy-types of RU are great examples. Galarian Weezing has the great ability Neutralizing Gas, which nullifies any ability on the field including Guts. Without Guts to back it up, Obstagoon doesn't hit as hard enough to beat Galarian Weezing:

252 Atk Obstagoon Facade (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Weezing-Galar: 114-135 (34.1 - 40.4%) -- 45.1% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery

Other Fairy-types that can threaten Obstagoon include Mimikyu, Choice Scarf Gardevoir, and Choice Scarf Togekiss, which can also take advantage of it with Air Slash. Diancie runs physically defensive sets, which almost wall Obstagoon's entire set, and can OHKO it with Body Press. Fairy-types aren't the only Pokémon that Obstagoon fears. It also hates Aura Sphere from Celebi and Raikou, as well as Colbur Berry Reuniclus's Focus Blast and even Body Press from Registeel. These Fighting-type coverage moves can make it difficult for Obstagoon to get onto the field safely, since many passive Pokémon can afford to run them. In addition to these threats, there are also threats that naturally outspeed Obstagoon and can put a huge dent in it. These include Noivern, Crobat, Flygon, and Sharpedo after a Speed Boost. So yes, even something as annoying as Obstagoon has its flaws.

Conclusion

With a majority vote of 20+ votes for it to be banned, Obstagoon is no longer allowed in the RU metagame.

HTML by Ryota Mitarai.
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