anaconja
long day at job
Heres a topic of conversation for people to maybe focus around if interested: what are some standout defensive threats this gen? Whether it be tanks or walls, what new or improved mons can put in work in gen 7?
Heres an answer from me:
Mantine @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 SpD
Lax Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Defog
- Scald
- Toxic / Haze / Other
Mantine is incredible in Nature Swap gen7. A defogger that can handle Rain teams almost entirely by itself, as well as being a great blanket wall to physical attackers. Water STAB threatens common SR setters and its huge bulk can allow for it to tank even a STAB rock type move such as Head Smash from Aggron and threaten with Scald. Whats more, it can possibly run a scary swift swim set, although it should be pretty obvious from the team preview which type of Mantine is being used. Mantine basically just ticks a lot of boxes and is a premier bulky water and defogging option imo.
Honorable mentions: Lax Tentacruel and Bold Salamence are both still great this gen, Tentacruel gets a big boost by the removal of a 10% debuff to its special defense and also loves having a new z-move option of healing.
- Careful Slowbro-Mega is incredibly bulky, gaining 50 points in Special Defense aided by burns from Scald and Shell Armor preventing crits.
- Bold Dragonite turns from set-up sweeper into a physical tank, with 91/134/100 bulk boosted by Multiscale. Additionally, it has access to support moves such as Haze, Heal Bell, Tailwind, and Thunder Wave.
- Bold or Impish Goodra patches up its subpar Defense stat and allows it to run Hydration memes in Rain. Sap Sipper and Gooey also have their niches.
- Relaxed Espeon is similar to Sableye-Mega, trading a better typing for higher power and speed, and the abilty to run an item.