Forretress

Forretress's access to Rapid Spin and all three entry hazards allow it to provide unmatched team support. Reliable Rapid Spinners are rare in DPP OU, and Forretress is one of the best at it. It takes advantage of defensive teams commonly using choiced Tyranitar to prevent Rapid Spin via Pursuit trapping. Forretress also can fight back against Ghost-type spinblockers such as Gengar and Rotom-A with Payback, as it will 2HKO Gengar and 3HKO defensive Rotom-A after Stealth Rock in sand. With its stellar typing and bulk, Forretress is generally able to set up at least a layer of either Spikes or Toxic Spikes. Forretress with Rest or Wish support is notably a good answer to defensive teams without a spinblocker. Defensive Pokemon often deal with Forretress with status, Knock Off, and entry hazard damage, allowing Forretress to set up entry hazards of its own and Rapid Spin easily. Forretress can run both specially defensive and physically defensive sets: specially defensive sets can set up entry hazards on more Pokemon and notably can survive Magnezone's Hidden Power Fire. Physically defensive sets take less damage from foes trying to wear down Forretress with physical moves, such as Skarmory using Brave Bird and Metagross using Earthquake.

Forretress has noticeable flaws that mostly limit it to use on defensive teams. Forretress struggles to fit Explosion and cannot phaze, meaning it is setup fodder for the majority of the tier. Forretress's Fire weakness is easily exploitable by offensive Pokemon such as Heatran, Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Dragonite, mixed Flygon, and Jirachi. Since Forretress needs to set up entry hazards and Rapid Spin away entry hazards, it can struggle with trying to do too much, since if it needs to come in multiple times and use Rapid Spin. Especially if it lacks Rest, it is deathly afraid of Knock Off and status, because it is slow and will get worn down quickly. Forretress also is trapped by Magnezone and typically cannot fit Earthquake to fight back.