With the ban of Kingambit, the metagame is sure to change drastically as it was both a warping presence and an important defensive part of various teams. While this does obviously make Dragapult much better than it already was, and it's a mon we should keep an eye on as the metagame develops, I also think a fair amount of mons get better from the ban of Kingambit. Keep in mind these are just my own personal opinions and I'm probably (definitely) wrong.
WINNERS
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It was really tough, or felt really tough to get consistent mileage out of offensive psychics due to their tendency of being pursuit trapped by Kingambit. Lele was still very good in a good player's hands, but other psychics fely hard to justify due to the risk. Stuff like the Mega Latis have nice defensive utility and I know some people experimented with them like sub two attacks mega latios, but now they have more room to experiment and see use. I also thing specs Latios will be much stronger thanks to Tera dragon dracos no longer being easy to punish with pursuit. Lele also has more freedom to run specs again... For better or worse.
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Ghost types were similarly held back by Kingambit and feel much stronger in a post Kingambit metagame. Gholdengo can run bulkier sets to check major targets now and not risk getting instantly removed, especially now no longer needing to run fighting coverage to try and fight back. Basculegion meanwhile feels like an amazing addition to rain, BascuF in particular due to the special breaking power and unique defensive utility it brings. I don't know if other ghosts will see a ton of usage though.
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More general Pokemon also appreciate the Gambit ban. TornadusT felt like it was very easy to get trapped and chipped hard by pursuit, while often inviting Gambit in to exert pressure so it feels a bit better as a pivot and defogger again (try nasty plot defog sets btw). Weavile also felt somewhat weak to Gambit due to the hazard vulnerability and Gambit getting entry on both stabs, so it could be forced to take pursuit chip on the way out. Weavile I think has potential to be very solid in the new post Gambit meta.
I'm honestly not sure if there are any real losers for this ban tbh. I guess Iron Hands loses a target it could check easily, but while laddering for reqs and using an Iron Hands team I noticed it could still put in a lot of work even in non Gambit match ups. Particularly Tera water or grass is great to help the rain and sun match up a fair bit. I think Garganacl also gets a little better since there's one fewer mons that can put a lot of pressure on it quickly.
Interested in hearing the thoughts of other players though. Any mons that you think are better/worse in the meta post Kingambit?
good post, love to talk somewhat briefly about the
elephant dragon in the room, dragapult
holy shit this thing is annoying
to call dragapult hard to build around is an insult to the term building. you need 2 checks for this thing bare minimum, and they need to be at basically full hp throughout a game or they will stop being checks very quickly. it's able to provide either incredibly potent stab options with dragon darts, specs draco meteor or shadow ball, as well as being able to hold up incredible momentum with u turn
so anyways, how's our main check to dragapult doing?
oh.
so yeah dragapult just got really dangerous really fast, id expect SOMETHING coming later this week, but until then prepare yourself for some real fun times with ladder
now, let's get into the meat and potatoes of the post, im going to list some of the pult "checks" by both how easy they are to slot on a team and how effective they are at actually answering pult
HOW TO BEAT DRAGAPULT:
Garganacl @ Leftovers
Ability: Purifying Salt
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Salt Cure
- Recover
good ol tera fairy ironpress garg, with fairy + purifying salt, you're basically completely untouchable to pult, if it's sub ddance you can just set up alongside it with iron defense or threaten a nasty amount of chip with salt cure
Iron Valiant @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Encore
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast
cm encore ival seems like a neat cplay option, if pult ddances on the switchin you're kinda fucked, as well as if it clicks sball, but otherwise you're able to encore it into whatever dragon move it just clicked and use that oppurtunity to set up a cm or two, somewhat unreliable, but still a decent option
Tyranitar @ Tyranitarite
Ability: Sand Stream
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 148 HP / 252 Atk / 108 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
mtar seems pretty solid into pult, as its able to pursuit it while being a ghost resist, main issue is it struggles with longlevity a lot, alongside its 4x fighting weakness meaning you're in for a rough match if the pult is tblast fighting, alongside its tendency to get worn down by hazards and pult endlessly pivots in and out until you're chipped enough to die to tera specs draco
Ting-Lu @ Leftovers
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock/Spikes
- Ruination
- Whirlwind
uu's resident toilet bowl is here to save the day, with its resistance to ghost moves and its just obscene natural bulk, ting lu is able to brute force its way though pult with eq and leftovers, and is also able to whirlwind it out to stop any setup it may have done, has a lot of the same issues as mtar however, with its tendency to get worn down by rocks and spikes a lot as well as being weak to status or specific sets (tblast fighting)
Bisharp @ Eviolite
Ability: Defiant
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 128 HP / 252 Atk / 128 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance / Pursuit
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
this seems like major cope, which is why im putting it kinda low on paper this works about as well as kingambit did as a pult check, which as you'd know if you played the metagame was not very well sometimes, a lot of the issues reg gambit had but it can't hold an item so its harder to apply well
Audino-Mega @ Audinite
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Dazzling Gleam
- Flamethrower
this pokemon definitely beats pretty much every pult set, but is also taking up a mega slot and doesn't do much else outside of the mu, making it a hard sell to 99% of teams
Wigglytuff @ Leftovers
Ability: Frisk
Tera Type: Water/Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Gentle Nature
- Dazzling Gleam
- Wish
- Protect
- Knock Off
the only reason why im even giving this pokemon the light of day is because senko mentioned it as a joke when I asked for any answers to pult. never ever run this pokemon it probably still somehow loses to pult even though it's literally immune to most of its moves