Magby is yet another Belly Drum user to be suspected in Little Cup. To really understand the gravity of this suspect test, there comes a bit of history with Little Cup and Belly Drum sweepers. There is, of course, the notorious Swirlix, often debated as one of the best Pokemon in LC ever. More recently, Zigzagoon ripped up the tier and promptly was banned from the metagame. Considering this would be the third significant Belly Drum user to be banned, why not approach Belly Drum? Well, not all Belly Drum users are problematic or even viable. Plenty of good Pokemon do not use Belly Drum in their main set, and a particular portion of Belly Drum users are not viable at all. So what separates the good Belly Drum users from the awful, and where does Magby sit?
Belly Drum, as a whole, can be seen as too strong of a move, considering it is an instant boost to maximum attack; however, the main component which sets the banned drummers from the bad drummers is the supporting staff around it. Swirlix has the ability Unburden, which essentially allows it to outspeed the entirety of the tier in the same turn as maximizing its attack. That being said, it could be argued that this was not even Swirlix's best set, as the Cotton Guard Calm Mind (CGCM) was also deadly in its respect. These factors led to one of the strongest Pokemon Little Cup has ever seen. Zigzagoon, on the other hand, while it does have very marginal base stat totals, does have one thing which sets it apart from everything else—a base 80 STAB, +2 priority attack. Combined with some other less impactful but still annoying aspects, such as Quick Feet or Thief, and the banning of the premier Ghost-type in Gastly made Zigzagoon far too overwhelming for the current Little Cup metagame. As for other drummers, options like Munchlax could be used, but there are often vastly better sets and would generally be a wasted slot. Poliwag has an amazing speed stat and can give itself a chance to set up with Hypnosis, but Poliwag has no priority and no useful coverage whatsoever.
And finally, we reach Magby. In summation: Magby is a very fast Pokemon with respectable coverage options and a sufficient priority move, making the Pokemon suspect worthy. Magby reaches a max speed of 19, only outsped by the blistering fast Diglett and rarely seen Elekid, and the occasional Choice Scarf user. 19 speed gives Magby a tie against opponents like Ponyta and Staryu, who would go from reliable answers to Magby to 50/50 chances of winning a speed tie. Going first on nearly everything in the tier was a significant part of what made Zigzagoon problematic in the first place, but Magby has the option of using other coverage moves while still going first on the majority of the tier. Magby has a fantastic coverage option in Thunderpunch, which covers Pokemon who typically eat a Fire STAB, such as Frillish, Staryu, and Mareanie. To round out coverage, Magby typically runs Mach Punch. Where Pawniard's Sucker Punch might have been able to score a revenge kill, Magby now outspeeds and eliminates immediately. Combined with the distinct lack of viable Rock-types in the tier, Magby can afford to run these moves and have partners such as Diglett remove potentially sweep-ending threats. Of course, this does not stop most priority users, such as Fake Out from Mienfoo and Mach Punch from Timburr. The former can get burned from Flame Body, completely crippling the Pokemon and allowing Magby to continue. The latter? Magby eats a Mach Punch from Timburr from full and can send its own fist back at him for the kill. Essentially, if you give Magby a chance to set up his Belly Drum, you need to either with a coinflip on a speedtie, have a Diglett in the back, have one of the very few options who eat a Fire and Thunder Punch from full health and keep it at full health, or hope to chip it down, often sacking several Pokemon in the process.
The good news? All hope is not lost; Magby often cannot set up for free and requires significant support of some kind to make it through the turn where it uses Belly Drum. Playing a fast-paced game and not allowing your opponent the freebie will enable you to potentially outplay the Magby, which could make it a completely worthless slot on a team. Magby does not have significantly different sets, such as Swirlix, and does not have a +2 priority STAB move, such as Zigzagoon. Magby's most problematic presence on the metagame is nearly exclusive to cheese-based teams, where the player is attempting to take advantage of the opponent's lack of preparation for Magby, and with several different options to potentially win, your odds are high that one of them works out in your favor. Finally, Magby only reaches a top speed of 19, so any Choice Scarf user who does not die to a Mach Punch is an immediate threat to Magby, even more so if you can mask that you are running the plus speed item.
With all of this in mind, the LC Council has decided to suspect test Magby as our finale for the generation. I urge all who are interested in participating in the last suspect test before the new games to get out there and get reqs!
The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 78 with at least 50 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 78 GXE, down to a minimum of 30 games at a GXE of 82. As always, needing more than 50 games to reach 78 GXE is fine.
GXE | minimum games |
78 | 50 |
78.2 | 49 |
78.4 | 48 |
78.6 | 47 |
78.8 | 46 |
79 | 45 |
79.2 | 44 |
79.4 | 43 |
79.6 | 42 |
79.8 | 41 |
80 | 40 |
80.2 | 39 |
80.4 | 38 |
80.6 | 37 |
80.8 | 36 |
81 | 35 |
81.2 | 34 |
81.4 | 33 |
81.6 | 32 |
81.8 | 31 |
82 | 30 |
When posting in this thread, please keep in mind these rules:
1. No one-liners or uninformed posts.
2. No discussion on other potential suspects or the suspect process.
3. Be respectful.
Your post will be deleted and possibly infracted if you fail to follow them.
Umpapumpapum, pumpapum, pumpapumpum
Umpapumpapum, pumpapum, pumpapumpum
Umpapumpapum, pumpapum, pumpapumpum
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