Marigold
formerly KuraiTenshi26
People began to realize that Koko's blend of actually good defensive typing and speed tier is more important than trying to break with the rooster itself. For example:
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Just as I had predicted, (and subsequently getting crap for it with some people even going as far as deleting my posts) the Specs set has finally dropped from its number one spot in item usage with Electrium Z taking its spot. Even more surprising is that the Scarf set saw more usage than the Specs set in last month's usage statistics.
So what do you guys attribute these changes to and what do you guys think the future holds for Tapu Koko in the SM OU metagame?
- Switching consistently into Torn-T and making it lose momentum is actually huge, because most slow defensive switch-ins let in a faster wallbreaker for free as Torn U-turns out. However, switching in Koko typically forces in a fat grass type (most grounds fear HP Ice) and that's much more manageable to switch into than a Medicham or Mawile. Electrium Z even prevents Torn from getting any progress with Knock Off as well, so it truly saps Torn's momentum or forces it to hard predict with U-Turn (can be capitalized on).
- Being a consistent and offensive Hawlucha check is so important for the frailer teams that Koko fits on. Most ppl rely on one-time specific EV spreads to deal with Lucha and even then it can adapt to those. Koko has the ability to roost up and stay healthy enough to switch in on the bullshit cleaner, as opposed to stuff like Explosion Scarf Lando or standard lefties Fini.
- Being an offensive switch-in to Zapdos that doesn't fear paralysis is also so nice, because even mons like Heatran become shakier answers once they get paralyzed by Discharge.
Another important thing to consider is that Specs Koko can be inconsistent. You gotta make hard reads with it and many tournament builds throw protect on stuff to scout out choice locked options, which really hurts the effectiveness of Specs Koko. Instead, it's easier to just have a dedicated wallbreaker alongside Koko do the killing. Koko is a god tier facilitator of bringing in the wallbreaking machines because of how it forces in a very specific set of mons which are breaker food. It's not the most consistent breaker itself.