Pokémon Sinistcha

[NoobHereWaddup]

Base Stats: 71/60/106/121/80/70
Typing:

Abilities: Hospitality/Heat Proof
Notable Moves:
- Calm Mind
- Leaf Storm
- Energy Ball
- Matcha Gotcha
- Nasty Plot
- Scald
- Stun Spore
- Strength Sap
- Shadow Ball
- Trick Room
- Memento
New Move: Matcha Gotcha: 80 BP, 90% accuracy Grass type special attack. Recovers 50% of damage dealt and has a 20% chance to inflict burn.
New Ability: Hospitality: On switch-in restores 1/4 of an ally's max HP.

The Pros:
- Access to Matcha Gotcha and Scald means that it can constantly threaten burns.
- Sinistcha has decent healing options with its signature move Matcha Gotcha and Strength Sap
- Its Grass typing matches up well against some notable OU pokemon like Great Tusk, Dondozo, Garganacl and Sandy Shocks.
- Can set-up Trick Room and pivot into a Trick Room abuser with Memento.

The Cons:
- A low speed stat that makes you wonder why does it not learn Shell Smash, combined with its average HP stat, makes it easy to revenge kill Sinistcha.
- Very vulnerable to top OU Pokemon like Kingambit, Dragapult, Gholdengo, Baxcalibur and Heatran
- A lackluster list of abilities, Hospitality is useless in singles while Heatproof isn't the greatest ability out there.

Terastalize potential:

: Removes the Dark weakness, and with Tera Blast, it can hit Dark types who would be checks, like Kingambit, for super effective damage.

: With Heatproof, it essentially takes neutral damage from Fire-type moves, leaving it with multiple resistances and only a Ground and Fighting weakness, both of which dont do well against Sinistcha's base typing.

: An overall great defensive typing that gets rid of 2 of Grass' weaknesses, and gives a STAB boost to Scald.

Potential Sets:
Bulky Sweeper
Sinistcha @ Leftovers
Ability: Heatproof
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 248 HP / 180 Def / 80 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Matcha Gotcha / Scald
- Calm Mind
- Shadow Ball
- Strength Sap

- The Defense EVs allow Sinistcha to survive +3 Ice Spinner from Lilligant-Hisui, Acrobatics from Sneasler, Ivy Cudgel from Flamemask Ogerpon, Knock Off from Choice Band Mamoswine and Life Orb Lokix.
- 80 Special Defense EVs also allows you to live an unboosted Shadow Ball from Timid Gholdengo.
- Matcha Gotcha and Scald allow Sinistcha to pressure switch-ins, while Matcha Gotcha trades consistency for a bit of extra recovery.
- Strength Sap also punishes physical attackers not capable to OHKO Sinistcha

Trick Room Setter
Sinistcha @ Focus Sash
Ability: Heatproof
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Memento
- Strength Sap / Stun Spore
- Scald

- Memento support allows Trick Room Abusers like Glastrier, Ursaluna, and other Pokémon that can benefit from Trick Room like Kingambit, Crawdaunt and Conkeldurr to set-up with ease.

Conclusions:
A Pokémon with a great moveset that gets dragged down by it's stats, personally i don't see it being OU due to its speed stat and the fact it can't learn Shell Smash.

 

[Swagodile]

The issue with Heatproof is that it was previously only on Bronzong, a Pokemon that had Levitate too, and Rolycoly, an NFE that's only 4x resistance to Rock.

Heatproof on a Grass type is pretty good.

 

[ExistingKirb]

No Shell Smash is a bit of a shame, but access to Nasty Plot and Calm Mind are still nice to have. (Personally, I run Nasty Plot and go to town with Matcha Gotcha.)

Nasty Plot is the more aggressive SpA booster that makes your Matcha Gotchas even stronger, meaning you drain even more HP to keep yourself healthy. Calm Mind is the more defensive SpA booster that lets you gain a nice power boost along with patching up your somewhat lackluster SpD stat. Both are good options depending on what role you want your Sinistcha to fulfill.

 

[Magcargo]

I am very grateful this Pokemon does not have Stored Power or Shell Smash. I always struggle with Polteageist due to those moves letting it sweep on a dime, esp under Psychic Terrain. This Pokemon will be far more managable.

I think it has potential still. The signature move is pretty good, esp since mons like Kingambit cannot exactly switch in for free. Strong Shadow Balls from 121 base special attack are no joke. Nonetheless, I agree it likely won't be an OU staple. It'll be a great Pokemon in the lower tiers for sure.

 

[sims796]

I had an interesting match and convo with another player who used Matcha. They used it similarly to how I played Drifblim pre dlc. This is my Drifblim set:

Purple Haze (Drifblim) (M) @ Grassy Seed
Ability: Unburden
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 Def / 40 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave / Calm Mind
- Strength Sap
- Hex /Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp

After a seed, not even Kingambit with 5 SO can one shot. Between WoW and Sap, it can either snowball on a physical attacker or shut something down with T Wave if you go that route.

I bring this up to point out the similarities between the two. Sinistea lacks Unburden, but has more immediate power. It also has IRON DEFENSE. Between CM and ID, it can become a decent late game cleaner. Matcha Gotcha doesn't have the best typing, but it builds up.

I stress IRON DEFENSE because there's another big diff between the two. Will o Wisp has a 75% chance to do it's job, compared to 20% chance. That hurt against King, and Drifblim is so reliable I can call it an outright Counter if played right. Mayhaps something like:

Sinistcha-Masterpiece @ Grassy Seed
Ability: Heatproof
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind / Nasty Plot
- Iron Defense
- Strength Sap
- Matcha Gotcha

Enough Calm Minds and anything's powerful. It also gets Stun Spore.

 

[viol and bass]

I'm pretty high on this mon. It can be stupidly hard to break. I think Tera Poison is quite good, because the poison status is probably the CM+Strength Sap set's biggest weakness, and unlike Tera Steel, you actually get to resist Fire with Tera Poison. This allows you to resist tera Hearthflame's stabs for instance while only being weak to potentially Zen Headbutt.

This is probably one of the less exploitable Strength Sap mons that exist. Normally faster Substitute or Taunt users prevent a Strength Sap user from recovering, but since boosted Matcha Gotcha can serve as suitable recovery as well and likely break subs, you're really mitigating that weakness of the move. Also I'm not sure if people realize this, but Heatproof also halves the damage from burn, so if you're burned, you'll actually still heal a bit every turn with Leftovers. The prevalence of fast Encore shitters is pretty annoying for this thing, but that's probably true for any fat setup.

 

[Loginator]

I had an interesting match and convo with another player who used Matcha. They used it similarly to how I played Drifblim pre dlc. This is my Drifblim set:

Purple Haze (Drifblim) (M) @ Grassy Seed
Ability: Unburden
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 Def / 40 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave / Calm Mind
- Strength Sap
- Hex /Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp

After a seed, not even Kingambit with 5 SO can one shot. Between WoW and Sap, it can either snowball on a physical attacker or shut something down with T Wave if you go that route.

I bring this up to point out the similarities between the two. Sinistea lacks Unburden, but has more immediate power. It also has IRON DEFENSE. Between CM and ID, it can become a decent late game cleaner. Matcha Gotcha doesn't have the best typing, but it builds up.

I stress IRON DEFENSE because there's another big diff between the two. Will o Wisp has a 75% chance to do it's job, compared to 20% chance. That hurt against King, and Drifblim is so reliable I can call it an outright Counter if played right. Mayhaps something like:

Sinistcha-Masterpiece @ Grassy Seed
Ability: Heatproof
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind / Nasty Plot
- Iron Defense
- Strength Sap
- Matcha Gotcha

Enough Calm Minds and anything's powerful. It also gets Stun Spore.

It does not get Will-O-Wisp

 

[sims796]

I was comparing Drifblim to Cha

 

[Bombdogger]

Assault Vest complements its bulk along with the potential status spreading and self healing.

 

[Swagodile]

Assault Vest complements its bulk along with the potential status spreading and self healing.

Yes, that's what I ran on it too. An AV set with Matcha Gotcha, Scald, Shadow Ball, and Hex.

 

[Pipotchi]

I actually think this mon can have a bit of potential. It can stand up as a spinblocker vs all but the most offensive of great tusks, paired with two ways to recover hp it can do this multiple times a game. lesser spinners like torkoal, toedscruel, and iron treads can all be thwarted too.

unlike the other ghosts that can attempt this, it actually ties into a functioning set that wont be a complete waste of time.
copied from the op:

Sinistcha @ Leftovers
Ability: Heatproof
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Matcha Gotcha / Scald
- Calm Mind
- Shadow Ball
- Strength Sap

you can do that role just with the most standard of sets. obviously defog can't be stopped, but a lot of people are still using rapid spin for their removal, so i think it could be a useful niche addition to balance teams. dunno if i would pair it with gholdengo and try and double-down on stopping all removal outside of cinderace, but these ghosts do cover some of each other's checks, so it might not be the most worst teambuilding decision ever.

 

[sims796]

I actually think this mon can have a bit of potential. It can stand up as a spinblocker vs all but the most offensive of great tusks, paired with two ways to recover hp it can do this multiple times a game. lesser spinners like torkoal, toedscruel, and iron treads can all be thwarted too.

unlike the other ghosts that can attempt this, it actually ties into a functioning set that wont be a complete waste of time.
copied from the op:

Sinistcha @ Leftovers
Ability: Heatproof
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Matcha Gotcha / Scald
- Calm Mind
- Shadow Ball
- Strength Sap

you can do that role just with the most standard of sets. obviously defog can't be stopped, but a lot of people are still using rapid spin for their removal, so i think it could be a useful niche addition to balance teams. dunno if i would pair it with gholdengo and try and double-down on stopping all removal outside of cinderace, but these ghosts do cover some of each other's checks, so it might not be the most worst teambuilding decision ever.

I would probably use a consumable item of some sort, to alleviate the Knock weakness. Everyone thinks an unstabbed itemless Knock Off will do shit. It never does.

 

[MC Squared]

Polteageist is a breaker, whereas Sinistcha is a cleaner, hence why it doesn't get Shell Smash. The lore said that it fixes things, and its design shows a non-broken cup

 

[Grim Thoughts]

The thing with this mon is that it directly competes with Brambleghast. They have a similar power level and will likely end up in the same tier. Brambleghast hits harder thanks to stronger STABs, can Rapid Spin, is faster, is immune to Flying special attacks and a few other strong special moves, has leech seed, gets Spikes, and hits physically. Sinistcha is bulkier, has a signature move that heals and can burn, is neutral to Fire type moves, has Scald, has Trick Room, and hits specially. Notably, both can use Strength Sap very well. These two serve the role of a pivot that proves offensive pressure while also supplying great defensive utility, so I imagine it might be hard for them to share a tier if the usage is split between themselves. I imagine that Brambleghast will be more popular, as it hits harder, is faster, and covers both sides of the hazard game while Sinistcha does neither, but the utility of Trick Room and a move that burns and heals is not to be underestimated. Brambleghast will probably rise to UU thanks to Poltergeist and Sinistcha will be RU, is my prediction. Honestly, this thing is better than I was expecting

 

[Magcargo]

I have been using Sinistcha recently on a few teams and I think this Pokemon is better than I gave it credit for. This Pokemon's MUs vs Ogerpon, Rillaboom, and Great Tusk are pretty solid thanks to its typing, good defense, and Strength Sap and it does well enough vs several other key threats like Garganacl, Slowking-Galar, and Alomomola / Dondozo. Macha Gotcha is an amazing STAB move due to healing off potential hazard damage (even without boots) and burning potential switch-ins like Kingambit. 20% (18% if you count the miss chance) is a fair deal worse than the 30% burn rate of Scald, but it is nonetheless dangerous to switch into. Heatproof is also low-key an amazing ability to make it much harder for the likes of Cinderace and Iron Moth to revenge kill you. STAB Shadow Ball is also a great tool to have, as it is chunking most Grass resist like Corviknight, Heatran, and Zapdos, for OK damage. Tera Steel or Poison are amazing on this Pokemon to get rid of its weakness to Toxic.

I had some skeptisms about this Pokemon possibly being a bit too honest, but I think it fulfills a nice niche. Despite lacking Shell Smash, I think it is better than its cousin, Polteageist, in OU.

 

[sims796]

It's absolutely amazing is what it is. I'm not trying to oversell it either, it's just so much better than what I - nay, we - had possibly gave it credit for. I thought it would be a mid tier UU, with enough effectiveness to win a few matches here or there in OU if you wanna spice up the monotony of your games, but it's an honest to goodness legitimate pick in OU. A low tier pick, but a solid OU pick

It's disgusting how it can be when it gets going. It' benefits the current metagame trends so hard, just like the post above me highlighted. And I believe it has so much untapped potential. It has Stun Spore, Hex, Scald even if you wanna do that instead (Heatran should hate it).

The Calm Mind+Grassy set is particularly brutal.