SV Monotype Suspect Coverage: Chien-Pao
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Art by Albatross.
Introduction
Since the start of SV Monotype's lifespan, Chien-Pao quickly proved itself to be one of the greatest offensive options available for Ice and Dark teams thanks to its powerful offensive presence. Said offensive presence came from its ability, Sword of Ruin, which allowed it to break walls such as Toxapex and Corviknight while sweeping through offensive threats such as non-Choice Scarf Iron Valiant. Aside from this, Chien-Pao also had great revenge killing options in Ice Shard and Sucker Punch and a great Speed tier, which let it outpace most of the unboosted metagame.
However, even with such strengths, Chien-Pao naturally had some weaknesses, being easily taken out by Fighting-types like Choice Scarf Sneasler and Keldeo, the latter of which would occasionally run Vacuum Wave as priority; Body Press users such as Skarmory; and bulky foes like Gouging Fire and Archaludon. Because of these weaknesses, Chien-Pao could sometimes struggle to make offensive progress, such as finding it difficult to set up Swords Dance.
The Merciless Blade: Sets
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Chien-Pao (Ice) @ Heavy-Duty BootsWith Swords Dance, Chien-Pao served as a late-game setup sweeper capable of taking advantage of passive walls like Clodsire and Pecharunt to set up and sweep through teams after a boost. Ice teams appreciated it taking out Steel-types like Hisuian Goodra and Kingambit with Sacred Sword, while Dark teams liked Chien-Pao's ability to deal with Fighting-types such as Great Tusk with Icicle Crash. Additionally, thanks to its great priority options, Chien-Pao took out even lightning-fast speed control like Choice Scarf Enamorus with unboosted Ice Shard and sand-boosted Excadrill with boosted Sucker Punch.
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Chien-Pao (Ice) @ Choice BandChoice Band Chien-Pao was truly like a bloodthirsty predator hunting for its prey. Its sheer power and coverage meant that even the sturdiest of walls were afraid to switch into a move from Chien-Pao, which would leave them barely hanging on to tell the tale. For example, Flying, even with its available defensive resources, had to sacrifice a teammate to deal with Chien-Pao, while supposed "checks" such as Archaludon and Toxapex feared switching into it.
Chien-Pao (Dark) @ Choice Scarf- Ability: Sword of Ruin
- EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
- Jolly / Adamant Nature
- - Icicle Crash
- - Crunch
- - Sacred Sword
- - Psychic Fangs
Choice Scarf Chien-Pao was also an option. Despite being niche compared to Choice Band and Swords Dance variants, it still retained its offensive prowess even without Swords Dance or Choice Band boosts. Now, it was able to take on even the fastest of Choice Scarf users such as Enamorus, Iron Valiant, and Meowscarada, and the only way it could be dealt with was either through priority or with a wall like Skarmory or Corviknight.
Pro-Ban
Due to its terrifying offensive prowess, most of the playerbase saw Chien-Pao as an overwhelming threat to deal with, and it grew more overwhelming after Ursaluna-B's ban, which used to revenge kill it with Vacuum Wave. With a 3.87 / 5 score among qualified voters, Chien-Pao quickly received a suspect test following the conclusion of Ursaluna-B's.
There were two main points of the pro-ban argument. First, Chien-Pao's offensive prowess was further enhanced with the amount of great teammates it had on both Dark and Ice that support it. On Dark, Kingambit was its partner in crime, as thanks to its Steel typing, it handles Fairy-types such as Flutter Mane, Hatterene, and Enamorus. Choice Scarf Meowscarada outspeeds and threatens Choice Scarf users like Iron Valiant and Greninja, while Ting-Lu stacks entry hazards with Stealth Rock and Spikes. Mandibuzz removes entry hazards with Defog for non-Heavy Duty Boots sets and pivots Chien-Pao in with U-turn, and Sableye was able to take on Zamazenta thanks to its Fighting immunity and weaken it and other physical threats with Prankster Will-O-Wisp. On Ice, Alolan Ninetales is valuable due to its ability to set up Aurora Veil to slightly improve Chien-Pao's bulk. Kyurem breaks through walls Chien-Pao could struggle with like Toxapex and Corviknight. Froslass acts as a lead by setting up entry hazards and taking out a threat with Destiny Bond, while Alolan Sandslash removes entry hazards with Rapid Spin.
Second, Chien-Pao's raw power from its high Attack and Speed, ability, and coverage. Because of this, Chien-Pao restricted creativity in teambuilding, as all teams had to pack a Pokémon that dealt with it so that they would not be 6-0'd by it. Furthermore, Chien-Pao had ways to ruin opponents' gameplans by hax, notably Icicle Crash's flinch chance potentially ruining counterplay. One popular way to deal with it was using Choice Scarf users like Greninja and Hoopa-U on Dark teams and even the sturdy wall itself, Archaludon. Other ways to deal with Chien-Pao included using Pokémon with access to super effective priority and even the less common Dondozo, which was the only Pokémon that could somewhat eat hits from Chien-Pao.
Anti-Ban
The main reason behind support for Chien-Pao to remain legal in SV Monotype was the amount of counterplay options against it. Chien-Pao lacked proper bulk, and its typing was poor defensively. Aside from this, because it is a basic rule in Pokémon that they can only hold one item and use four moves, Chien-Pao had to forego other options in favor of more important needs for both itself and the team, which meant that it would struggle against some walls like Toxapex or Gholdengo if Psychic Fangs or Crunch were forgone. Hence, there were many ways for teams to deal with Chien-Pao, particularly Swords Dance sets. Swords Dance Chien-Pao needed more support when coming up against certain walls, failing to remove Skarmory and Archaludon from full HP even at +2 and being taken out in turn by Body Press. Water teams packed shields and swords against it like Toxapex, Dondozo, Keldeo, and Choice Scarf Hisuian Samurott.
Suspect Results
Chien-Pao's suspect test received 37 qualified voters, and on May 19, with 32 people voting so far, Chien-Pao was officially banned from SV Monotype with a 71.9% ban majority. This makes it the fourth Pokémon to be banned by suspect test after the bans of Urshifu-S in November 2023, Baxcalibur in March 2024, and Ursaluna-B in early May 2024.
Despite the ban of one of SV Monotype's most polarizing Pokémon since the start of the metagame, there are others that still remain the topic of discussion and debate within the community like Kingambit, Gouging Fire, and Flutter Mane. As the metagame begins to adapt to Chien-Pao's ban, who knows what threats will start taking over?
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