Ubers UU Suspect Coverage: Chien-Pao

By Finchely. Released:2024/06/07
« Previous Article Next Article »
Ubers UU Suspect Coverage: Chien-Pao Art. Description: Chien-Pao is leaping down from a rocky surface above it. It is in the Distortion World, and multiple islands and waterfalls are on the horizon behind it.

Art by uppa.

Introduction

With the tier shifts in March, multiple Pokémon dropped to Ubers UU for the first time, among them Chien-Pao. With its potent ability in Sword of Ruin and great Attack and Speed, Chien-Pao immediately cemented itself as one of the most powerful and threatening wallbreakers in the tier, capable of threatening out common defensive Pokémon like Giratina, Solgaleo, and Landorus-T. Being among the fastest Pokémon in the tier, Chien-Pao ran a Choice Band set that could 2HKO almost any Pokémon that wasn't Magearna. As time went on, people began noticing how Choice Band sets left Chien-Pao vulnerable to hazards and being offensively checked, so a new Swords Dance set began to pop up. Using its ability to force switches, Chien-Pao found many opportunities to set up to become one of the most threatening sweepers in the tier. Chien-Pao's offensive dominance of the tier created a metagame some found unhealthy, and after a survey in which Chien-Pao scoring a 3.17 / 5 from the general playerbase and a 3.31 / 5 from the qualified voters, the council voted and decided to suspect Chien-Pao on March 15th.

Sets

Choice Band

Chien-Pao

Chien-Pao's Choice Band set ripped through defensive structures, with the only reliable switch-in being physically defensive Magearna. Zamazenta-C was also sometimes used to check Chien-Pao, but it had no access to reliable recovery, and some Choice sets would use Sacred Sword or even Tera Blast Ground to rip through both Zamazenta-C and Magearna without the help of teammates. The Choice Band set paired very well with Landorus-T, a Pokémon that not only threatens Magearna with STAB Earthquake but also blocks its Volt Switch and can even help bring in Chien-Pao with the help of U-turn. Another bulky slow pivot that was sometimes paired with Chien-Pao was Corviknight, which had the ability to Defog away the hazards that held Chien-Pao in check. In the event that the opponent did not have a Magearna, Chien-Pao had the ability to claim a KO every time it was brought in, or at the very least force a Tera on the opponent's part. Chien-Pao forced defensive staples such as Solgaleo and Giratina to Tera, but in the process they would lose out on the valuable traits of their original typing, allowing Pokémon such as setup Arceus and Mewtwo to sweep. A downside of this set though, was that it left Chien-Pao liable to chipped down by Spikes, Stealth Rock, and Toxic Spikes, as well as getting by the occasional Sticky Web.

Swords Dance

Chien-Pao

As opposed to the previous set's role as a wallbreaker, Chien-Pao's Swords Dance set was one of the strongest cleaners in the tier. Using the many switches Chien-Pao forced, it had no issues with finding opportunities to set up a Swords Dance and easily tear through a majority of the meta. A few of the advantages of the Swords Dance set over the Choice Band set was that it could use Heavy-Duty Boots and ignore the hazards that it so despised and that it wouldn't be left vulnerable once Choice-locked. Chien-Pao's Swords Dance in set in particular allowed it to overcome offensive counterplay. For example, Pokémon like Deoxys and Choice Scarf Chi-Yu could force out a Choice-locked Chien-Pao but would collapse to the priority that Swords Dance Chien-Pao carried. The biggest weakness of this set was that it would have difficulty sweeping if the opponent had kept their Magearna or Zacian healthy. While Chien-Pao could use Tera Blast to circumvent its inability to break past Magearna, it would also mean giving up on Sucker Punch to deal with faster threats. Whereas Band Chien-Pao appreciated bulky pivots such as Landorus-T, the Swords Dance set preferred to be paired with mid-game wallbreakers such as Mewtwo that could punch holes in the opponent's team, facilitating a clean sweep late-game from Chien-Pao.

Pro-Ban Reasoning

Chien-Pao had only a single reliable switch-in in Magearna, but even that one was liable to being worn down over the course of a game by Choice Band Tera Dark Crunches, hazards, and other Pokémon it needed to check. Before Chien-Pao dropped, not every team needed a physically defensive Magearna, or even a Magearna at all. But after it dropped, it became nearly impossible to find success without running specifically this Magearna set, a metagame development that many found to be too centralizing. It was also difficult to correctly play around Chien-Pao because it had so much set variety. Not only was it not always clear from Team Preview whether Chien-Pao would be Choice Band or Swords Dance, guessing which moves it was running also proved to be frustrating. Tera Blast sets were niche and not very good, but they still existed to punish Magearna, which would always be a safe switch-in otherwise. Furthermore, Chien-Pao had a nasty tendency to sometimes win games off of RNG; Crunch and Icicle Crash's ability to cause Defense drops or flinches could feel very uncompetitive at times.

No-Ban Reasoning

Even before Chien-Pao had arrived, Magearna was considered one of if not the best Pokémon in the tier, so now needing to have Magearna on every team was not a large ask in the teambuilder. Similarly to Magearna, Zacian was also already one of the best offensive presences in the tier prior to Chien-Pao arriving and could be used to revenge kill it. Even if the two Pokémon could not reliably check Chien-Pao for the entirety of a game, they worked well enough that with good play, Chien-Pao was not unbeatable. Chien-Pao also could easily get whittled down by hazards with its Choice Band set, and its Swords Dance set lacked the initial power to break past Magearna unless it had Tera Blast. Chien-Pao was also a great Mewtwo check, which was a previously controversial Pokémon. Chien-Pao also had difficulty actually getting on the field, as it had little in the way of bulk or useful resistances and immunities outside of its immunity to Psychic-type moves.

Conclusion

In the early days of Chien-Pao's tenure, the hype around its seemingly unstoppable offensive prowess was very high. But as the weeks went by, people began becoming much more accustomed to Chien-Pao's presence in the tier. Magearna's usage increased, having a 40% usage rate by the end of the month compared to its 34% usage rate in February. Even so, Chien-Pao's presence on the tier was still a highly controversial topic, as was reflected in the final vote to see whether or not Chien-Pao would remain legal in Ubers UU. In the end, Chien-Pao escaped the ban hammer, with only 11 out of 23 voters opting to ban the Pokémon. Despite how centralized Chien-Pao made the Ubers UU metagame, the community ultimately decided that it was not too much for the tier to handle, and Chien-Pao has since remained one of if not the best offensive breaker in the tier.

HTML by uppa.
« Previous Article Next Article »