I mean if we want to make the viability rankings be updated it probably would help if we put down our what we think some of these home changes should be (or maybe not but I've already written these out so, no turning back now.) And as someone who is a Poison dingus I should probably do my crew.
I'll start with the Poison darks as I've covered them in the discussion threads before here: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sv-monotype-metagame-discussion.3710724/post-9645372 so I'll try to keep them much briefer but if you want a bit of a deeper dive into my thoughts onto them, you've got that.
Alolan Muk: Unranked to S/A
Overqwil: Unranked to A
Skuntank A to B
Okay now new stuff which will be a lot longer of reads.
Slowking Galar Unranked to B/A
Sneasler unranked to A
I'll start with the Poison darks as I've covered them in the discussion threads before here: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sv-monotype-metagame-discussion.3710724/post-9645372 so I'll try to keep them much briefer but if you want a bit of a deeper dive into my thoughts onto them, you've got that.
Easily the most important mon Poison got through home, and the new best Dark type for Poison. It has so much good going for it with its amazing special bulk, solid 105 base attack, incredible offensive movepool, which includes not only Drain Punch giving it an actual form of recovery but also STAB Knock off which is just safe to fire off no matter the situation as it will make progress. The only notable downsides is the fact that it has no priority while being incredibly slow at base 50, a lacking support movepool and no way to boost up outside of Acid armour (and it doesn’t get Body press to take good use of it) but make no mistake it is glorious.
Sucks as a conventional Dark on Poison due to having easily the worst special bulk, but it is has the best physical bulk of the trio, Intimidate can stuff mons even harder with a strong support movepool to back it up. And if it doesn’t want to play support, Swords Dance/Agility, a strong base 115 attack with its two strong STABS and water coverage allow it to go to town. But that pitiful special bulk and needing support to break types due to only have water for coverage gives it some hard downsides.
Being the only dark type prehome gave Skuntank a lot of oomph but with two new ones there isn’t as much reason to run it anymore. It still has plenty of unique tools mainly in the form of Nasty plot to become a special sweeper, Fire spin for trapping opposing walls or choice locked Psychic moves and chipping these threats down and of course Sucker punch to smack the shit out of Ghost and Psychic but its time in the sun has faded.
Okay now new stuff which will be a lot longer of reads.
Slowking Galar is a special tank that gives Clodsire a run for its money in terms of raw bulk. Combined with Regenerator and a neutrality to Psychic it can consistently find reasons to come in throughout a match. With boots it can provide strong pivots constantly with Chilly reception and heal with Slack off while with Assault vest it can come in and laugh at special threats such as Volcarona, Iron Moth, Hatterene and Enamorus (It is also the only real check Poison has to Lando-I so thats cool). It also gets a wide variety of moves to choose from such as Ice beam, Flamethrower, Earthquake, Surf and Power gem to name a few. It sadly has two massive issues which makes my confidence of it being an A rank shaky at best.
A. Its Slow (haha) and while bulky, it has to choose between being a special tank but being crippled by Poison’s horrid hazard removal or run boots and ignore the hazards but become less reliable at taking on special threats that Poison may need it to (I.e Lando-I has a 6.3% chance to OKHO if modest and Ghold has a 55% chance to 2HKO with Shadow Ball)
B. Currently the metagame has a lot of Dark, Ghost and Ground teams running around it and those types feast on Glowking, especially Dark and Ground which are primarily physical teams with one or two special threats which just makes Glowking mostly just sit on the sideline and come in a shack food in these matchups.
A. Its Slow (haha) and while bulky, it has to choose between being a special tank but being crippled by Poison’s horrid hazard removal or run boots and ignore the hazards but become less reliable at taking on special threats that Poison may need it to (I.e Lando-I has a 6.3% chance to OKHO if modest and Ghold has a 55% chance to 2HKO with Shadow Ball)
B. Currently the metagame has a lot of Dark, Ghost and Ground teams running around it and those types feast on Glowking, especially Dark and Ground which are primarily physical teams with one or two special threats which just makes Glowking mostly just sit on the sideline and come in a shack food in these matchups.
Sneasler has become everyone’s favourite mon to talk about posthome (mostly thanks to Dire Claw) with its blazing 130 Speed and 120 Attack and it will fuck you up because of it. With Two main ways you’ll see it being ran. You’ll either see a choice scarf set that relies on being the fastest thing alive to constantly fire off attacks and U-turning around the field spreading Poison onto everything with its ability, Poison touch. Or getting Unburden going and becoming the actual fastest mon alive to sweep, especially if it gets a Swords Dance. And with Dire claw being the fun move that it is, fishing for a 50% (+30% Poison with Poison Touch) chance of status never hurt anyone, except the person being hit with sleep from it. It also similarly to Toxicroak provides an immense leg up in the Dark Matchup being once again a great answer into the obligatory end game Gambit.
It does come with a few draw backs, more than if it was on fighting due to Poison’s unique issues.
A: Poison hazard control issues, yadada you’ve heard this before but with the choice scarf set wanting to constantly blitz in and out even stealth rock chip can quickly add up and result it in just dying.
B: If it is trying for an Unburden sweep, due to Poison’s different mons and different type matchups it can force Sneasler to suffer from 4 moveslot syndrome having a hardwall on an opposing team that the rest of Poison can sometimes struggle to breakthrough or will force Sneasler to give up on the sweep early.
C: Kingambit, due to the nature of Sneasler likely being a Poison team's only fast mon that can kill gambit without being OKHOed by Sucker punch, it needs to be preserved carefully throughout a match against Steel and Dark teams unless they want to completely crumple against a gambit.
It does come with a few draw backs, more than if it was on fighting due to Poison’s unique issues.
A: Poison hazard control issues, yadada you’ve heard this before but with the choice scarf set wanting to constantly blitz in and out even stealth rock chip can quickly add up and result it in just dying.
B: If it is trying for an Unburden sweep, due to Poison’s different mons and different type matchups it can force Sneasler to suffer from 4 moveslot syndrome having a hardwall on an opposing team that the rest of Poison can sometimes struggle to breakthrough or will force Sneasler to give up on the sweep early.
C: Kingambit, due to the nature of Sneasler likely being a Poison team's only fast mon that can kill gambit without being OKHOed by Sucker punch, it needs to be preserved carefully throughout a match against Steel and Dark teams unless they want to completely crumple against a gambit.
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