Gastrodon

Gastrodon holds a place as one of the premier defensive Spikes setters in the tier. Its good natural bulk, coupled with a fantastic defensive typing that renders it weak only to a rare offensive type in the metagame, ensures that it can be very difficult to take down. Sticky Hold provides Gastrodon with further utility as one of the best Knock Off absorbers available, improving its matchup against Rapid Spin Cyclizar, which is the most common Pokemon in the tier. However, Gastrodon's mediocre attacking stats and lack of status spreading and disruption moves mean that it often struggles to punish setup sweepers like Calm Mind Slowbro and Suicune for staying in. Despite Gastrodon's high HP stat, its low Defense stat leads to strong physical wallbreakers such as Mienshao, Golurk, and Crawdaunt often being able to take it down. Lastly, its Water / Ground typing's sole weakness comes into play as a vulnerability to Grass-type coverage attacks, including Energy Ball from Armarouge and Grass Knot from Empoleon.