Base Stats: 85 / 75 / 77 / 70 / 105 / 94 BST: 506
Abilities: Mold Breaker, Own Tempo, Pickpocket (HA)
Notable moves: Brick Break, Brutal Swing, Bulldoze, Encore, Endure, Fake Out, Fling, Foul Play, Gigaton Hammer, Heavy Slam, Ice Hammer, Knock Off, Light Screen, Play Rough, Pounce, Protect, Reflect, Rest, Rock Slide, Skill Swap, Skitter Smack, Sleep Talk, Stealth Rock, Stone Edge, Substitute, Swords Dance, Tera Blast, Thunder Wave
Gigaton Hammer
Base Power: 160
Accuracy: 100%
PPs: 8
Desc: Cannot be used twice in a row.
Pros:
+Stellar Defensive typing, capable of switching into numerous threats in virtue of its sheer number of resistances and immunities
+Decent bulk, the Special side in particular, which in combination with Assault Vest can provide some impressive calcs.
+Gigaton Hammer is a very powerful move in general, hitting harder than many other stronger Steel-type Pokémon with their regular STABs, mainly those relying on Iron Head.
+Support movepool is pretty usable, with options such as dual screens, Knock Off to remove items, the possibility of setting up Stealth Rocks, status in Thunder Wave, Encore to disrupt bulky walls and Swords Dance to try and boost its damage output.
Cons:
-Stats are not very great in general, the Attack stat in particular is incredibly dissapointing, making its damage output very underwhelming outside of Gigaton Hammer, move which also has a negative effect that prevents Choiced sets from being good options.
-Its bulk is only decent at best, needing plenty of investment to make it able to comfortably take the hits it needs to.
-While the Speed is certainly decent, it falls just short and leaves it vulnerable to multiple faster offensive Pokémon
-It is, ironically, pretty much unable to threaten Steel-types in any way that isn't via Status or hindering them with Knock Off, they can comfortably switch into its dual STABs.
-Its abilities are not bad but they're certainly not enough to significantly boost its viability
Terastal potential:
If Tinkaton is to be used offensively, or at least, oriented towards dealing damage, it may be a good idea to run either a Fire- or Ground Terastal type in order to hit Pokémon that can switch into both Fairy- and Steel-type moves, such as other Steel-types, Toxapex or Fire-types in general. Ground may be better overall thanks to it hitting many more targets and also providing it a solid defensive typing to work with, though you mainly miss on hitting both Corviknight and Scizor hard.
Fairy Terastal is also a solid option, while losing the resistances provided by the Steel-type may hurt, there are certain matchups in which it may be beneficial to get rid of it, which in turns removes its weaknesses to Fire and Ground, which may allow it to better check what it's supposed to, as many Pokémon usually carry that kind of coverage. The additional damage boost to your much weaker Fairy STAB may also come in handy too in setup sets. Steel-type Tera is also an option for further boosting your Gigaton Hammer's damage, but I find the Fairy one to be more worthwhile. I guess it will really depend on the matchup.
Potential sets:
Tinkaton (F) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Fairy/Ground/Fire/Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 196 Atk / 64 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Gigaton Hammer
- Knock Off
- Play Rough
- Ice Hammer/Tera Blast
This is my first idea of an AV set for Tinkaton, 64 Spe allows you to outrun 252 Spe Adamant Breloom. With AV equipped, it is capable of tanking 2 +1 Shadow Balls from Flutter Mane, one of the broken threats roaming the tier right now, who you also easily OHKO with Gigaton Hammer if it decides to stay for some reason.
Tinkaton (F) @ Metal Coat / Life Orb
Tera Type: Fairy/Ground/Fire/Steel
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Gigaton Hammer
- Swords Dance
- Play Rough
- Tera Blast
A very simple setup set, 224 Speed plus Jolly Nature ensures you outspeed max Speed base 90 Pokémon. Gigaton Hammer's damage output is actually pretty impressive after a single boost of Swords Dance, for example, it comes close to OHKOing 252 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk with 1 layer of Spikes up, a Pokémon with 115 HP and 131 Defense, which makes it fairly bulky from the physical side.
+2 252 Atk Metal Coat Tinkaton Gigaton Hammer vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 343-405 (79 - 93.3%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO after 1 layer of Spikes
It has a 6.3% chance of OHKOing it with no prior damage if running Life Orb instead of Metal Coat.
Of course, the damage output of every move not named Gigaton is subpar in general, and you'll need to setup as soon as possible to even attempt to damage Pokémon that aren't vulnerable to your Steel STAB.
Overall thoughts
Pretty cool Pokémon, but unfortunately, I can't see it being relevant in OU, its stats leave a lot to be desired, but it does have some tools to at least function to some extent, here's hoping it becomes a lower tier staple at least.
