Roserade

Roserade is one of the best Spikes and Toxic Spikes setters in the metagame and the only one with a significant offensive presence. With access to Sleep Powder, Leaf Storm, and a high base 125 Special Attack stat, Roserade can set Toxic Spikes on the many Water- and Ground-types of the tier such as Swampert, Suicune, Hippowdon, Starmie, and Quagsire. Toxic Spikes are useful in dealing with grounded threats such as Tyranitar, Swampert, Machamp, Suicune, Infernape, and Blissey. Roserade is also the most common grounded Poison-type, allowing it to remove opposing Toxic Spikes for these Pokemon upon entry. Despite its offensive leaning stats, with investment, Roserade is also a solid defensive Spikes setter and can answer Breloom by virtue of resisting its most common attacks. Crucially, Roserade is the only common Spikes setter that isn’t trapped by Magnezone. These qualities and its resistances make it unique as a Spiker compared to Skarmory, the other most common Spiker in the metagame. As a lead, Roserade is a decent disabler with a Choice Scarf, as it outspeeds all common unboosted leads and either puts them to sleep should they lack a Lum Berry or offensively threatens them with powerful coverage.

Unfortunately, Roserade has critical movepool issues, faces heavy competition from Skarmory, and is really easy to wear down. Sadly, Roserade has to choose between using Spikes or the combination of Sleep Powder and Leaf Storm, as they are illegal all together. This forces offensive Roserade sets to either forgo its best offensive tools for Stun Spore and Grass Knot or set Toxic Spikes instead. While Toxic Spikes are very effective against certain Pokemon such as Tyranitar, common team structures are built to mitigate their impact. Due to the rise of Clefable, some stall teams are entirely immune to Toxic Spikes, while many offensive teams stack Steel-types, Lum Berry, and non-grounded Pokemon. As a Grass-type, Roserade doesn’t have many options to hit Steel- and Dragon-types; often, it is forced to pick between Hidden Power Ice and Hidden Power Fire, both of which leave it walled by Heatran unless it uses Hidden Power Ground. As a Spiker, Skarmory is often more effective than Roserade due to its defensive typing, much better Defense stat, and access to recovery in Roost. Roserade’s own defensive typing, low Defense, lack of reliable recovery, and vulnerability to Spikes and sand make it really easy to wear down. It often cannot fulfill defensive roles long-term, even with full investment. Because of this, balanced teams built around Roserade can have significant defensive holes that are difficult to cover with the options available.