Hawlucha

Fighting

Hawlucha has solid niches on Fighting teams as a Defogger and as a sweeper. As a Defogger, Hawlucha's high Speed allows it to reliably remove entry hazards like Sticky Web and Toxic Spikes while also outspeeding most fast Taunt users like Krookodile and Cobalion. Its Flying typing also allows it to switch into almost all entry hazards safely and gives it an immunity to Ground-type attacks, while its combination of high-powered STAB attacks allows it to threaten and potentially force out opposing hazard setters and Defoggers such as Araquanid and Decidueye, giving it a good offensive presence. As a sweeper, Hawlucha helps pressure Grass- and Bug-types like Mega Venusaur, Tapu Bulu, Heracross, and Araquanid with its powerful Flying-type STAB move in Acrobatics, and it can use its STAB attacks to serve as a powerful cleaner against types such as Dark, Grass, Bug, and even Steel. On top of this, Hawlucha utilizes Substitute and Swords Dance in order to set up in front of passive Pokemon like Cradily and utility Mew, which makes it a very threatening sweeper. Regardless of its set, Hawlucha's impressive Speed stat and access to Unburden allow it to outspeed the entire metagame, including all Choice Scarf users such as Terrakion and Gengar and weather sweepers like Sand Rush Excadrill, after Unburden activates. Even without the boost from Unburden, Hawlucha can still outspeed and threaten Pokemon such as Heracross and Mega Gallade. However, Hawlucha sports horrendous 78 / 75 / 63 bulk, which does not allow it to survive many strong attacks; however, Hawlucha's bulk does prevent its Substitute from being broken by most weak moves such as Mega Sableye's Knock Off and Klefki's unboosted Foul Play. Hawlucha is the only Defogger on Fighting, but it still can end up being dead weight in certain matchups like Flying and Electric due to its lack of offensive presence against these types. Despite its offensive perks, Hawlucha heavily relies on Swords Dance in order to do respectable damage to its targets due to its relatively low base 92 Attack. Along with that, it fights for a teamslot on Fighting as a sweeper with Kommo-o because Kommo-o is a more reliable sweeper that can set up more quickly and assist with more matchups than Hawlucha such as against Psychic and Electric.

Flying

Hawlucha is a great addition to hyper offensive Flying teams, as its ability Unburden backed by Swords Dance and its powerful STAB attacks allows it to act as a good setup sweeper. Thanks to Unburden it single-handedly becomes the fastest Pokemon in the metagame. Its part Fighting typing allows it to act as a dangerous wincon against many types such as Ice, Normal, Steel, and Dark and lets it take on a plethora of threatening Pokemon, such as Kyurem-B, Chansey, Ferrothorn, and Tyranitar, for the team. Thanks to Substitute, Hawlucha can easily set up on defensive Pokemon such as Mega Sableye and Mew, as it can evade their status and weak attacks and safely set up Swords Dance behind Substitute. However, even though Hawlucha is a fantastic setup sweeper, before Unburden is activated, fast Pokemon such as Greninja and Choice Scarf Latios to outspeed it, and Hawlucha is also very weak without a Swords Dance boost. Additionally, its poor defensive stats make it difficult for Hawlucha to find opportunities to set up, especially against offensive teams that constantly apply pressure to Hawlucha. This also leaves it weak to the common priority users of the tier such as Dragonite, Mega Scizor, and Azumarill.