Stakataka

Steel

Stakataka's high Attack, abysmal Speed, and access to Trick Room make it a great Trick Room sweeper for Steel teams. Its secondary Rock typing offers useful coverage in important matchups such as Flying and Fire and grants it a neutrality to Fire that helps it set up on Fire-types such as Victini locked into V-create. Stakataka boasts the strongest Gyro Ball in the metagame, limiting the number of Pokemon that can switch into it. Under a Trick Room, Stakataka outspeeds nearly every single Pokemon in the game, making it an instant offensive threat once it sets up. Because of this, Stakataka also shines against more offensively oriented types such as Dragon and Psychic, which do not have many Pokemon that can constantly switch into it. This is complemented by its Beast Boost ability, which allows it to quickly snowball against many teams after gaining an Attack boost by KOing a Pokemon. Stakataka makes excellent use of STAB Stone Edge in tandem with Rockium Z, as it can allow it to blow past defensive Pokemon such as Celesteela and Skarmory after a boost. On top of its great offensive prowess, Stakataka has a very respectable 61 / 211 / 101 bulk, giving it plenty of opportunities throughout the game to set up with Trick Room. Its bulk is less great than it initially seems, however, as Stakataka is required to run 15 Defense IVs and a Lonely nature in order for Beast Boost to increase its Attack instead of its Defense. While Stakataka has a decent offensive typing, it suffers defensively, with two quadruple weaknesses to very common offensive typings in Fighting and Ground, which Steel teams do not appreciate stacking a weakness to. Outside of Trick Room, it is very easy to check, as many Pokemon can outspeed it and take advantage of its common weaknesses and average special bulk. Despite being a dangerous threat to offensive teams, Stakataka finds itself checked by common defensive walls such as Ferrothorn and Swampert. Stakataka also often finds itself overly reliant on Continental Crush in order to obtain an Attack boost, as it has little wallbreaking power before a boost. Additionally, Stakataka is very predictable and can usually be played around, as the foe will likely know when it will set up with Trick Room. Stakataka's dependence on Trick Room can also make it detrimental to faster teammates such as Excadrill, making Stakataka hard to fit on certain teams.