| Isaiah | cumps | DFM | Ivar57 | QT | LordBox | Atha | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspect | Ice Scales | Ice Scales | Walking Wake | Walking Wake | Ice Scales | Walking Wake | Walking Wake | 4-3 Walking Wake |
WHY:
Following a 4-3 Council Vote, the Council has elected to suspect test Walking Wake!
Walking Wake has become one of the strongest special attackers in the metagame, with good speed, decent bulk, and sporting high-powered STAB moves in Primordial Sea-boosted Weather Ball, Hydro Pump, and Draco Meteor to threaten most Pokemon. With a Choice Specs and the move Knock off, it can remove key items like Assault Vest & Leftovers from defensive walls and dish out too much damage for neutral targets to handle. It gains access to powerful x1.5 boosting abilities such as Primordial Sea and Dragon's Maw to further augment its STAB attacks.
The high powered nature of its attacks leaves few forms of secure counterplay, as almost all offensive resists risk getting 2HKO'd such as Roaring Moon and offensive Primarina, or are susceptible to Draco Meteor. Most bulky neutral targets like Gholdengo and Zapdos are OHKO'd. Defensive answers such as Regenvest Manaphy and Empoleon risk losing their item and are susceptible to hazards, greatly reducing their hit taking capability. It can also opt to use Flip Turn to pivot and gain momentum, especially causing an issue for Blissey.
It is not too difficult to get in with its bulk, speed, Water / Dragon typing, fire immunity, and with the support of teammates.
Furthermore, Weather Ball circumvents traditional Water-type counterplay in Desolate Land, as they still have to withstand a powerful Fire-type attack– which only Iron Moth has the longevity and typing to do reliably. This has led to a rise in Water-Absorb Steel-type Pokemon such as Heatran, Skarmory, and Gholdengo, as traditional forms of counterplay are too prone to being worn down and/or losing outright to its strong attacks.
Walking Wake can also elect to run a Dragon's Maw set, dealing devastating draconic damage to Water resists and Dragon resists alike. Walking Wake is most commonly seen paired with other special attackers, as it can quickly wear down the few specially defensive walls in the way of its teammates and form strong volt-turn cores with physical attackers. It can even effectively wield a Choice Scarf set, trading some power in exchange for flipping the matchups vs faster revenge killers like Roaring Moon and Zamazenta.
However, Walking Wake is not without its flaws. Its common sets all rely on a choice item, and both of its STABs have an immunity leading to difficult mind games on what move to use. Teams also boast many sturdy resists to Water- and Dragon-type moves, often stacking multiple checks to it such as the popular Regenvest Manaphy + Scream Tail + Iron Moth core, where it can struggle to lock into the correct move multiple times in a row. Locking into the wrong move at the wrong time can severely setback progress made vs Regenerator users or give an opportunity for others to heal. It is fast, but still easily outsped and threatened by many top threats such as Roaring Moon, Scream Tail, Zamazenta, Latios, and Ogerpon. Walking Wake is also susceptible to hazard damage, as it neither runs Heavy-Duty Boots nor has reliable recovery. Primarina, Empoleon, and the aforementioned Water Absorb Steel-types are still usable counterplay without an item. Notably, Walking Wake has to choose between Primordial Sea and Dragon's Maw, leaving the other unboosted STAB attack option relatively weak and either suffering matchups into Water resists/immunities or Fairy types, and leading to it often not running coverage moves outside of its STABs.
HOW:
During a Suspect test, each player must climb the ladder until they've acquired the GXE necessary to participate in the voting. Primarily, everyone that participates needs to make an alt account following these guidelines:
- Every game must be played on the official Pokemon Showdown! site
- Create a new account (creation date no earlier than today, May 8) with "AAAWW "--for example, I could create one called "AAAWW Your Mom" to ladder with. Having the prefix at the beginning of your alt name is mandatory, AKA not in the middle (e.g. The AAAWW Man) and not at the end (e.g. The AAAWW).
- To qualify for voting, your alt must meet the required GXE and games played threshold; it starts at 78% GXE at 25 games, down to 75% GXE at 40+ games.
- Walking Wake will be allowed on the ladder during the suspect.
- The suspect test will go for two weeks and end on May 23 at 10:00pm GMT -5
- When posting proof of meeting reqs, feel free to use this thread as a means to disseminate topical opinions regarding whether or not Walking Wake should be banned.(Optional)
- It is mandatory to provide proof of ownership of the alt account as well. (Post a picture of your reqs with your smogon name featured)
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(click sprites for team)
RegenVest neutral to Water that's insanely easy to Knock or Flip on. This mon fucking sucks btw why do people run it why do I run it.
Admittedly, this isn't meant to be as much of a Wake check as it is a Moon check, but it is often a Wake switch-in for its teams with RegenVest. The physdef spread takes 56% from Specs Weather Ball with no AV.
Heavily boots reliant and it doesn't exactly enjoy taking a Specs Draco. It can switch into Flip Turns but it's otherwise risky.
Good check but it's a Blissey in generation 9 Almost Any Ability. Extinct species. Also takes a worrying amount from Naive rain-boosted Flip Turn if you want to run that nature.
