I thought I'd post about something I've been having a lot of fun testing recently. By no means am I saying this isn't being used or that it is original, but I do think in general Aerodactyl isn't seeing as much usage as I believe it deserves.
Aerodactyl @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Wide Guard/Taunt/Roar
- Tailwind
- Sky Drop
Being one of the only truly viable tailwind setters in the format besides Pelipper and at a bit of a stretch Whimsicott, as well as the few viable rock types besides Gigalith and at a stretch Nihilego, I feel Aerodactyl has some massive draws as a utility lead. The first and most straightforward of which is a fast Rock Slide. In previous formats Rock Slide was often said to be the best move in the game due to its great flinch chance when factoring in both targets. While it is less common this year, it is still just as useful as ever for breaking sashes, fishing for flinches and picking off heavily weakened Pokemon. Wide Guard allows Aerodactyl to protect its partner from the plethora of spread moves in this format, such as Discharge, Dazzling Gleam, EQ, Blizzard and Eruption/Heat Wave, while also protecting itself ensuring that you at least survive from your Focus sash if your opponent expects the spread damage to finish you off. Taunt is predominantly used to prevent Trick Room being set up by P2, as well as preventing their recovery/toxic stall. It is also useful in preventing sub+seed Celesteela from stalling you out. On the other hand, Roar can be used to guarantee that you prevent Trick Room from Mental Herb Oranguru, as well as being useful versus set up mons such as Z-stockpile Gastrodon/Araquanid or Sub+Calm Mind Tapu Fini. Tailwind is here obviously for speed control, though granted it isn't used all that much. Often times I have found that the threat of Tailwind was better than actually using the move. Still, with so little speed control in the format tailwind can be huge in setting up a win condition. And finally Sky Drop, my favourite part of the moveset. The fact that Sky Drop can just cock block a Pokemon for a turn is huge, but the fact that they can't Protect or switch the next turn is huge. I love pairing it with some kind of nuke option, such as Z moves or terrain/choice item boosted STAB moves. Considering how fast Aerodactyl is, I often have my say on what I want gone for the turn, allowing my partner to focus on its target and then have a pretty much guaranteed KO the next turn.
The spread is straight forward enough, though max speed really does take advantage of the fact that seemingly very few Tapu Koko are max speed nowadays, making it pretty much faster than the entire unboosted metagame. Something that hasn't come in to play yet and I'm not sure about the mechanics of but what I imagine should work in theory is that its ability Pressure coupled with its fast speed should allow you to check whether or not an opposing Tapu Lele is scarfed depending on if their terrain goes off before your Pressure, but I'm not sure if terrains go off before other abilities so I'd like confirmation on that.
I've personally been testing this set with a bulky specs Tapu Lele, in my opinion the epitome of a nuke and one that really appreciates the speed control. It is slow enough to deny opposing Tapu Koko leads the terrain advantage and just puts a dent into anything unresisted. It can just delete opposing Tapus, or at the very least 2HKO Bulu outside of psychic terrain, as well as things like Arcanine, Gastrodon, Milotic (especially after a Sky Drop) and clean 2HKO any P2 in psychic terrain. But enough about that, really it can work with all sorts of things that love getting off guaranteed damage, value speed control and appreciate Wide Guard support, which tbh seems pretty damn broad to me.