To those who struggle with Chien Pao, there's actually a way to not only reliably check it, but also render it harmless.
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donor)
Iron Hands @ Bright Powder
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Defog
- Will-O-Wisp
- U-turn
Bright Powder (legal for some godforsaken reason) nerfs Triple Axel to a 74 BP average before Technician applies, and each Triple Axel hit will count for Flame Body, giving Iron Hands - assuming all hits connect - a 51% chance of burning Chien after two hits (weakening the last one) and a 65.7% chance after three hits. And once Chien is burned, it will no longer count for its own Beat Up, working in its disfavor. And let's just say Flame Body is dissuasive when it comes to clicking Knock against it.
The true "good" way to deal with Chien is the standard Intimidate/Fur Coat + Rocky Helmet set, but it's interesting to see how niche sets can be Chien's absolute nightmare.
This is a great check! I’ve also been able to reliably switch into it with this Primarina (Comfey) Triage set:
Primarina @ Leftovers
Ability: Triage
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Draining Kiss
- Giga Drain
- Stored Power
Triage is a bit quirky in this meta right now from what I can see. Definitely could be a problem but I haven’t had too much of a chance to play this new DLC2 meta with some of the new mons.
One counter to this set I’ve encountered is ironically a Chien Pao set, but it inherits from Tsareena instead of those technician sets. Queenly Majesty blocks Triage priority and its Dark typing makes it completely immune to Stored Power. Plus the Chien Pao I faced still had Triple Axel (and Knock Off too I think?) which still packed a punch.
This Primarina set is essentially worthless when faced with Queenly Majesty/Dazzling/Armor Tail mons with Psychic resist or immunity… but will inheriting mons with these abilities be worth taking up a whole slot on the team? I think so if Triage is here to stay.
... you get the point). I still think it should have been given a test run though.
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This mon with Technician Axel is kinda dummy, hate for this to be 5 posts in the past 24 hours about it, but it's really really good. I've been using two hard checks to it on each team and can still struggle sometimes depending on the set. But honestly my opinion comes from me using it rather than playing against it, specifically the Ambipom set for Beat Up too. If opponents don't have a solid ice resist it just wins. One game I even Knocked the opposing Toxapex, pivoted out and was able to 2HKO with Axel it when it came back in. Again, I don't know if it's necessarily broken but I'm kind of leaning towards that way.
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I started putting this mon on my teams as a Chien-Pao check, but soon realized that it is an extremely good sweeper in its own right. Triage Draining Kiss can clean games super easily and Stored Power deals with most Unaware walls. I've been preferring Synthesis as a 4th move over something like Giga Drain just for the reliability. The Fairy type is also SUPER useful since Cyclizar inheritors can't switch you out or really touch you at all and you can just get to +6 on them for free and it checks the ever present :roaringmoon:@
that everyone and t.heir mom has been running on ladder. Feels much easier to check than Pao because of how weak Draining Kiss's base power is, but it's so easy to set up with this mon that I could see it becoming problematic though it's probably more of a Triage problem than a Primarina problem.
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While not necessarily a new threat, SD Espeed Lax has been doing super great work for me recently. People seem to be undervaluing Indeedee inheritors, likely due to how prevalent Chien-Pao is.I've seen some other Espeed users but I like lax the best because of its great bulk so when you have to go for a Crunch/Drain Punch you can pretty easily.
all seem like they have some very fun and cool abilities while having access to both Fire and Dragon STAB and Dragon Dance. I also lowkey think that 
could be a good donor with Fire Lash as the STAB to snowball further.
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for Levitate+recovery, 
for SFLO, 
for clicking buttons, and I think 
could be in consideration if you aren't already using one.
but TIL homeboy doesn't get Psycho Cut.
Mega Launcher is back, drop your Darkrais and say hello to the real one. Just kidding, Darkrai is stronger and faster, Keldeo's only niche is having more STABs and only slightly better bulk. Only worth if you REALLY want to use Keldeo.
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(INH
because Azelf's 120 ATK stat boosts the power of Beat Up.
or these 
needs to go imo - while persistently underutilized by the player base, Sun presents ridiculous challenges when team building and players are forced to run objectively garbage shit (like Flash Fire Metagross) to counter it.
) and I gotta get around to trying Persian-A on things, seems super fun.