Pheromosa

Pheromosa has a small niche in DOU as a fast, strong attacker mainly used to pin down the metagame's many offensive threats. Notably, it boasts the highest unboosted Speed in the metagame, outrunning even the likes of Naganadel, Dragapult, and Zeraora. Pheromosa also possesses a potent STAB combination alongside Ice Beam, both of which come off its high attacking stats—this entire package makes it a predator to the likes of Naganadel, Landorus, Kyurem-B, Rillaboom, Mew, and Heatran, excelling in an all-out attacking role to check fast, offensive team archetypes. Its strong STAB U-turn particularly comes in handy, as it also lets Pheromosa safely break down defensive backbones, and it keeping momentum lets strong offensive teammates maintain pressure, such as Naganadel and Heatran. Still, Pheromosa is ultimately flawed because of its frailty. It essentially cannot come onto the field safely if not a lead or replacing a KOed teammate, though slow pivots such as Incineroar and Rillaboom mitigate this weakness. Pheromosa is also vulnerable to priority attacks, particularly the omnipresent Fake Out, which often forces it to play defensively, though Tsareena, Tapu Lele, and Indeedee-F do alleviate this. Its most glaring weakness, though, is its ineffectiveness when outsped, as even average attackers can OHKO it through its paper-thin defenses. Choice Scarf attackers, such as Urshifu-R and Genesect, and opposing speed control, such as Tailwind or Trick Room, easily invalidate Pheromosa.