nominating whimiscott (someone else writes the analysis if its accepted)
why is whim viable and deserving of an analysis?
dice used whim in xy and i was interested in it but meta was awful for whim. later on, i explored it again in oras and found it to be far more effective with a more offensive and set up-based meta.
it's an anti-meta mon that exploits the abundance of resisted, immunities and support moves to wear down your opponent's team. if it's played properly, it will take down 1-2 mons from your opponent and weaken the rest of the team. the biggest challenge of using whim is that you need to know the meta and competitive mons theory deeply. if you don't, you will misuse whim and make it basically a dead slot. whim has a high skill floor to be utilized efficiently.
how to play whim well is to understand whim's role. you switch whim into free turns or risk-free supp moves (hazards, sub, stat boosts, trick room, and etc) and then threaten with encore. what you do is, you force a low risk with high reward 50/50. if they switch out and you sub or leech, then you just successfully started loop. if you have sr up, then minimum of one pokemon will faint to whim. other mons will be also weakened. so basically, you use whim to leverage free turns into long term health leech.
mons that whim leverages on are: latios, latias, groudon-primal (certain sets), darkrai, klefki, giratina-o, defensive yveltal, arceus-dragon, kangaskhan-mega (fake out/sucker encore is lol), and pretty much any time your opponent clicks a set up move (which includes top meta threats such as mence and xern!).
mons that whim HATES: sableye, diancie, ho-oh, and ekiller. obviously, ekiller priority can fuck over whim but its possible to play around it. magic bouncers r something that you just need teammates to deal with. ho-oh is troublesome if sr isnt up, otherwise ho-oh teams just gets owned with constant forced switching and taunted defogs.
i understand that whim can look a bit gimmicky but i swear it works very well. there's also potential for memento sets but i havent bothered looking into these possibilities.
vs zf: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ubers-355547402
vs trout: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ubers-298895621
vs lvl 56: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ubers-298889687
vs steel: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ubers-298126202
there's many more replays but i only selected few good ones that really showcases whim's potential.
why is whim viable and deserving of an analysis?
dice used whim in xy and i was interested in it but meta was awful for whim. later on, i explored it again in oras and found it to be far more effective with a more offensive and set up-based meta.
it's an anti-meta mon that exploits the abundance of resisted, immunities and support moves to wear down your opponent's team. if it's played properly, it will take down 1-2 mons from your opponent and weaken the rest of the team. the biggest challenge of using whim is that you need to know the meta and competitive mons theory deeply. if you don't, you will misuse whim and make it basically a dead slot. whim has a high skill floor to be utilized efficiently.
how to play whim well is to understand whim's role. you switch whim into free turns or risk-free supp moves (hazards, sub, stat boosts, trick room, and etc) and then threaten with encore. what you do is, you force a low risk with high reward 50/50. if they switch out and you sub or leech, then you just successfully started loop. if you have sr up, then minimum of one pokemon will faint to whim. other mons will be also weakened. so basically, you use whim to leverage free turns into long term health leech.
mons that whim leverages on are: latios, latias, groudon-primal (certain sets), darkrai, klefki, giratina-o, defensive yveltal, arceus-dragon, kangaskhan-mega (fake out/sucker encore is lol), and pretty much any time your opponent clicks a set up move (which includes top meta threats such as mence and xern!).
mons that whim HATES: sableye, diancie, ho-oh, and ekiller. obviously, ekiller priority can fuck over whim but its possible to play around it. magic bouncers r something that you just need teammates to deal with. ho-oh is troublesome if sr isnt up, otherwise ho-oh teams just gets owned with constant forced switching and taunted defogs.
i understand that whim can look a bit gimmicky but i swear it works very well. there's also potential for memento sets but i havent bothered looking into these possibilities.
vs zf: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ubers-355547402
vs trout: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ubers-298895621
vs lvl 56: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ubers-298889687
vs steel: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ubers-298126202
there's many more replays but i only selected few good ones that really showcases whim's potential.