Looking Back: Silvally's History in SS NU

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Introduction

In Generation 7, Game Freak introduced the Pokémon Silvally, a clone of Arceus that, in theory, could have been incredible but in practice fell flat on its face upon release for several reasons, from its uninspiring stats to its lack of reliable recovery. However, with Generation 8's arrival Silvally was blessed with a buff: an increase in Base Power to Multi-Attack. Thanks to this—and the overall decrease in power level this generation—some of Silvally's formes gained great increases in relevancy in NU. And although the September tier shifts have mostly put an end to its reign of dominance, the mark Silvally left on NU over the past several months will stay forever. In this article, I will go over the Silvally formes that had the most impressive runs in NU this generation.

The Formes

• Silvally-Fairy @ Fairy Memory
• Ability: RKS System
• EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
• Jolly Nature
• - Swords Dance
• - Multi-Attack
• - U-turn
• - Flame Charge

Silvally-Fairy was only in NU for one month, back when the tier was in its alpha stage, but it was easily the best of the Silvally formes during that time. As a typing, Fairy is extremely potent for its offensive and defensive capabilities; combine the potency of its typing with its at the time great stats, powerful Multi-Attack, and boosting moves, and you get a terrifying sweeper with wallbreaking potential. Silvally-Fairy was able to force out potent foes like Sneasel and Scrafty and find opportunities to set up or just fire off powerful Multi-Attacks. Additionally, it had great offensive synergy with wallbreakers like Haunter and Toxicroak, which made it even more potent as a pivot.

Earlier this generation, NU suffered from a dearth of good Water-types. Lanturn's viability was never particularly stable, and it took a while for Wishiwashi to pick up in usage. Enter Silvally-Water, a Pokémon capable of compressing the defensive traits of a Water-type with the offensive prowess of any Silvally. The big selling point to Silvally-Water was its coverage; despite Water being a pretty easy typing to switch into, Pokémon such as Toxicroak and Eldegoss weren't safe switch-ins because of Psychic Fangs and U-turn, respectively. The latter move was particularly troublesome, as Silvally-Water was capable of capitalizing on switches to foes like Eldegoss, Gourgeist-S, and Wishiwashi by bringing in strong wallbreakers like Drampa and Abomasnow that could easily take advantage of such Pokémon. Furthermore, thanks to its great power and positive matchups against common entry hazards setters, Silvally-Water was also a capable Defogger, still maintaining great wallbreaking power while adding to the utility it could offer. Unfortunately, as NU developed, Pokémon that could offer the same defensive utility as Silvally-Water emerged, resulting in its slow decline in viability.

• Silvally-Dark @ Dark Memory
• Ability: RKS System
• EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
• Jolly Nature
• - Swords Dance
• - Multi-Attack
• - Psychic Fangs / Iron Head
• - Flame Charge / U-turn

Before Sneasel's ban, Silvally-Dark didn't have a great time establishing a niche in NU. Sneasel was faster and possessed an amazing combination of STAB Knock Off + priority, making it much easier to justify on teams. Once it was banned, however, Silvally-Dark was quick to step into the limelight as a potent wallbreaker and late-game cleaner. This generation, Dark has been a particularly potent typing. Offensively, NU has lacked amazing switch-ins to Dark-types moves, which made Silvally-Dark's STAB Multi-Attack super punishing, and Silvally-Dark offered a helpful resistance to Ghost too, giving it some defensive purpose on teams. Additionally, its coverage further complicated counterplay to it. Because there weren't a great number of blanket physical walls to take repeated hits, teams sometimes relied on Pokémon like Clefairy and Toxicroak to check Silvally-Dark, which were vulnerable to Psychic Fangs and Iron Head. We even saw Silvally-Dark take up a more supportive role as the months passed, with the moveset of Multi-Attack / U-turn / Swords Dance / Defog letting it compress several roles into one Pokémon. Sadly, Silvally-Dark now finds itself as a fringe option at best as a result of Sneasel's unbanning and the dropping of several Fairy-types with the September tier shift.

It seems almost impossible nowadays that NU once lacked great Fire-types. With Ninetales and Rapidash holding fairly prominent positions in the tier, it's easy to forget about the dark days when Silvally-Fire was a legitimate option in the tier. And yet, this was the case back in April. Other than absolutely dreadful Fire-types in Flareon and Heatmor, Silvally-Fire was the best we had, and it didn't disappoint. Despite not having the best of coverage, Silvally-Fire's offensive pressure was felt by all that tried switching into it. Dragon-types like Drampa and Silvally-Dragon were easily removed with Dragon Claw, while Silvally-Water and Wishiwashi were hampered by their poor longevity. Silvally-Fire even held a very strong position on the sun teams that were running rampant at the time, making its STAB Multi-Attack even more difficult to switch into. However, Silvally-Fire fell from grace in May with the drop of Rapidash, which usurped its role almost entirely thanks to its superior coverage, Speed, and ability to hold an item. Silvally-Fire was sort of able to adapt to this by running a mixed set to better pressure Water-types, but it never matched its former success, and with Ninetales coming to NU in September, Silvally-Fire all but disappeared from relevancy.

• Silvally-Dragon @ Dragon Memory
• Ability: RKS System
• EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
• Jolly Nature
• - Swords Dance
• - Multi-Attack
• - Iron Head
• - Flame Charge

Silvally-Dragon held a huge role in NU before September. Originally picking up huge traction around April because of the prominence of Silvally-Water and Silvally-Fire, Silvally-Dragon established itself as perhaps the most difficult forme to deal with defensively. Dragon + Steel coverage was really potent, leaving only Steel-types like Galarian Stunfisk and Ferroseed to defensively deal with Silvally-Dragon. Additionally, the rise of Silvally-Dragon forced more Clefairy to go physically defensive instead of specially defensive, which helped special attackers on the Aurora Veil builds Silvally-Dragon was frequently seen on. Sadly, Silvally-Dragon has mostly disappeared from NU this month. The original drops of Drampa, Alolan Exeggutor, and Duraludon made it much harder to fit on teams because of these three being significantly better, but even with the banning of Drampa and Alolan Exeggutor, Silvally-Dragon hasn't managed to reestablish any sort of meaningful niche because of the prominence of Steel- and Fairy-types.

• Silvally-Ghost @ Ghost Memory
• Ability: RKS System
• EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
• Jolly Nature
• - Swords Dance
• - Multi-Attack
• - X-Scissor
• - Substitute

While there was much initial hype surrounding Silvally-Ghost's drop, it really never lived up to people's expectations. Two main reasons stand out as contributing factors: competition with other Ghost-types and the prevalence of Silvally-Dark. NU was defined for a good bit of time by Ghost-types like Cofagrigus, Decidueye, and Rotom, and although Silvally-Ghost offered a different take on Ghost-types—a physical setup option—it struggled to gain much traction because of Silvally-Dark. Dark and Ghost are incredibly similar in terms of offensive coverage, and because Dark is a generally superior defensive typing, Silvally-Dark mostly usurped any potential for Silvally-Ghost. Eventually, however, Silvally-Ghost adapted to current trends to stop Ghost-types, namely the rise of Miltank, by running a Substitute set that gave it significantly more leeway against teams, and to this day Silvally-Ghost has managed to hang around as a solid setup sweeper.

Silvally-Steel has easily been the best Silvally forme in the current NU metagame, eclipsing its original time in NU by a long shot. Originally, Silvally-Steel mostly saw use as a strong Swords Dance sweeper that could provide more utility by forgoing Flame Charge for Defog; the defensive traits it offered weren't viewed as necessary. However, this changed dramatically with the new toys September gave NU. With the drop of several potent Fairy-, Ice-, and Dragon-type attackers, the defensive utility of Steel-types has never been more appreciated and necessary before. Checking foes like Ribombee, Vanilluxe, and Duraludon; providing hazard control; and helping support strong wallbreakers like Choice Band Mudsdale with Parting Shot, Silvally-Steel is anything but a one-trick pony and has easily cemented itself as a top-tier option in NU.

Final Thoughts

The tale of Silvally in NU is an interesting one. From going from irrelevant in Generation 7 to metagame-defining at the start of Generation 8 and now being just another part of the tier, the Silvally formes have gone on a truly wild ride. It'll be interesting to see if any of the currently NU Silvally formes can step back up to their former glory, and if a potential return to NU from Silvally-Fairy results in yet another dominant Silvally!

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