Following Sneasler’s quickban, the Champions OU council voted to suspect test Hisuian Samurott!
Hisuian Samurott has become the face of Champions OU, being one of the most defining Pokemon in the tier for quite some time, largely because of how consistently it can make progress with Ceaseless Edge. Setting Spikes while still dealing meaningful damage is especially potent in a metagame without Heavy-Duty Boots, where even a single layer can quickly add up over the course of a game. Hisuian Samurott is also far from limited to simply setting hazards, as its strong Water / Dark STAB combination, Sharpness-boosted attacks, and access to options such as Encore, Taunt, Sucker Punch, Sacred Sword, and Flip Turn make it difficult to comfortably respond to. This is further complicated by the variety of sets it can run, with Black Glasses, Choice Scarf, Focus Sash, and Swords Dance variants all performing noticeably different roles.
Black Glasses sets are particularly effective at forcing progress while maintaining the threat of Sucker Punch, and Swords Dance can punish passive attempts to remove its Spikes or recover. Encore and Taunt make this even more difficult, as Pokemon such as Corviknight can be punished for attempting to Defog, while defensive Pokemon like Clefable and Galarian Slowking risk giving Hisuian Samurott opportunities to take advantage of them. Choice Scarf sets trade immediate breaking power for the ability to revenge kill faster threats like Dragapult and Cinderace while generating momentum with Flip Turn. This versatility means that preparing for one variant does not necessarily leave a team comfortable against another. Beyond its individual strength, the Spikes it creates also place considerable pressure on defensive cores and make offensive threats like Blaziken and Mega Charizard X considerably harder to handle.
On the other hand, Hisuian Samurott is not without reliable counterplay. Pokemon such as Primarina, Mega Meganium, and Hydreigon can check many of its sets, while Rillaboom threatens it offensively and Grassy Terrain can help mitigate the chip damage caused by Spikes. Cinderace can also use Court Change to turn Hisuian Samurott's own hazards against its team. Rocky Helmet users such as defensive Garchomp and Corviknight can punish its contact moves, and Hisuian Samurott's middling Speed leaves non-Choice Scarf variants vulnerable to faster offensive threats such as Meowscarada and Mega Floette. Its high usage can also be attributed to how much role compression it provides, since it can set Spikes, make progress, revenge kill, and generate momentum depending on the set. This is also where much of the concern around Hisuian Samurott comes from, as rather than being overwhelmingly strong on its own, Ceaseless Edge makes it incredibly easy for it to create progress and has made accounting for Spikes a constant part of building and playing in the tier.
The main question of this suspect is whether that level of influence is too much for the tier, or if Hisuian Samurott's existing counterplay is enough to keep it around.
The instructions to participate in this test are as follows:
- Create a new account on PS. You do not have to follow any specific naming convention, but your suspect account must have never played a game in Champions OU before this suspect test went up or you will not receive valid requirements (resetting W/L does not count for this - the account you use must never have played Champions OU before the test, full stop).
- At any point on your new account, use the command /linksmogon on Pokemon Showdown! You will receive instructions on what to do once you run this command.
- Double check that you're listed as a voter here! If you aren't listed as a voter despite having valid reqs, please contact dhelmise or lax.
- If you have any questions about this new process, feel free to PM me.
has the following matchup chart:
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(no set data but I guess Earthquake 2HKOs? It goes here until we get an update.), 
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is a huge blow for hrott, taking 18% per hit is loads and can severely cripple hisuian samurotts longevity, for example corviknight wins the 1v1 against hrott now. Moreover, the addition of monsters like (washed) rillaboom, mega golisopod, the rebirth of mega charizard-y, mega garchomp Z even is a solid answer as it can OHKO with Draco Meteor. The list of offensive answers goes on and on and frankly offensively pressuring hisuian samurott is a very easy task.
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