Why does Speed even matter for a wall? How might normal interactions change when a wall is faster than the Pokemon it is tasked to take on?
Many walls we see in play are often slow, and are therefore characterized on their ability to absorb significant amounts of damage and shrug it off. Because of their reactive nature (as opposed to a proactive nature), these walls are specifically used to invalidate the actions of their opponents. With a faster wall, we now are being preventative. We have pointed at Scream Tail quite a bit here, but I think there's a lot of merit in observing that Scream tail can prevent its foes from acting in the way they want because of its high base speed, and use of moves like Encore. Because Scream Tail, a fast wall, moves first, it can decide the pace of play and make the opponent react to its more defense-based actions. Mega Latias has a similar function in older gens since it has the speed to usually outpace most of its foes, and thus allow the user to decide which actions that they want to do that turn. Do you need to heal to get out of critical hit range? Great, click Recover. do you have enough HP to bolster your defenses? Great, click Calm Mind. the fact is, the fast wall has the autonomy to do what it wants without having to try and predict what the foe may do, beyond cases of priority attacks which are often easily anticipated.
The opponent, therefore is now put into a reactive playstyle, which causes them to consider what they can do to prevent the wall from acting. The same thought process applies: "do I have priority moves to prevent the fast wall from acting?" might cross their mind, for example. The opponent facing the Fast Wall must consider what they can do to prevent the fast wall from just doing what it wants: are they able to out boost it? Would switching to a different party member work better? The player facing the fast wall must regain control of the pace of play in order to ensure the fast wall doesn't put a fast end to their match through its means of controlling the narrative.
Some status and utility moves seen on walls can be Speed dependent, as the original concept mentions. How can these moves be made more effective/change in application with a high Speed stat?
Speed is something that is variable, as we've seen with the change in generations. Paralysis immediately comes to mind as a way to generate artificial speed through slowing down the opponent. By clicking Thunder Wave, not only do you halve the opponent's speed, but you also put them on a stupid RNG system that might even prevent them from acting at all. When paired with a moderately fast Pokemon, you would be able to create opportunities later in the match to artificially outspeed your foes, which would be essential for success. But when the Thunder Wave user is already VERY fast, the use of Thunder Wave now become a lot more preventative in nature. But Paralyzing a foes when you're already fast, you are able to effectively shut it down from ever being able to set up and sweep past you in a meaningful way. Provided your attack doesn't miss, this is almost a guaranteed way to maintain control of play.
Encore is another example, as we've come to understand. If moving second, you have almost no control over what you're locking the opponent into. But if moving first, you can actively choose whether or not you want to lock the opponent into the move they just used, and then manipulate that case to your advantage. You also can maintain the mind game aspect of it all too, forcing your opponent to perhaps misplay on the expected Encore. I see very little reason to use Encore on anything remotely slow, you lose your autonomy (in general I think Fast Walls provide a lot of user autonomy and control). We can look at a direct CAP example with Astrolotl with Base 114 speed and encore (and also Will-o-Wisp, another example). Astrolotl makes effective use of Encore because it's got an ability that allows it to enter battle pretty regularly, and a base speed that's high enough to outpace many metagame threats both with AND without investment. Meaning that the threats Astrolotl wants to outspeed can be prepared for with proper Speed EVs and then the remaining EVs can be spend on making Astrolotl tanky enough to survive a hit and then lock the foe into it as it switches out, restoring HP in the process. Astrolotl's high base speed allows for it to be EV'd bulkier, which therefore allows it to use Encore effectively.
Will-O-Wisp is another move that becomes more effective from a defense perspective when used by a fast user. Returning the Astrolotl example, one of the ways it might be effective from a more defensive utility perspective is that it can use Will-o-Wisp to halve any physical damage it might otherwise take. This halving imparts some pseudo physical bulk upon Astrolotl as now it does not have to worry as much about physical attacks coming from the Pokemon it just outsped and burned.
In general, status moves are very effective on faster Pokemon if we want to consider a defensive perspective. With a faster defensive Pokemon using these moves, they continuously control the pace of play in a match which is imperative in play.
The concept notes how Speed as a stat can be worthwhile to invest into instead of bulk on defensively inclined Pokemon. Can the changed interactions from a high Speed stat contribute to being a successful wall regardless of a lack of investment? If so, how? When might a Pokemon aim to focus on Speed investment over bulk?
I got ahead of myself in the last question when I referenced Astrolotl, but I think the point still stands. Astrolotl has a high base speed, but it only cares outspeeding a certain number of Pokemon depending on its application. Therefore, the remaining amount of EVs can be used to determine the right stat spread that would allow Astrolotl to avoid a 2HKO from something it might mean to check. Now Astrolotl still runs a lot of speed in general, but I think there's a limit to where speed will ultimately be a prioritize in the moveset: once you outspeed all the Pokemon you aim to check or counter, you don't want to waste any more EVs in Speed when they could be spent in bolstering defense or even giving the wall just enough offense to cleanly pick up a very specific knock out, for example. But, if the Pokemon we aim to check requires an maximum investment in Speed for one reason or another, then we're going to have to either maximize the speed, or accept that this Pokemon will not check the that fast Pokemon. The question then becomes, what does moving before the faster Pokemon allow us to do in a match. If the only way to check the faster Pokemon is to outspeed it and either cripple it or knock it out, then you better believe we're going to want speed at the cost of some defensive presence.
Speed is an incredibly powerful stat, and we need to consider that. It will inevitably interact with offense and defense simultaneously, regardless of how much we fine tune our build. As such, it's really important to consider the fine line we tread with balancing them. How offensive would our build need to be in order to beat our intended targets 1v1? Is offensive potency even a bad thing for a successful CAP 33? Is it possibly even necessary?
I feel like offensive potency is something like salt in this process. We will need some of it in order to ensure that we manage to complete the process of walling a set of Pokemon, but we don't want too much offense lest we start to turn into something more like a tank. In my humble opinion asuccessful Wall has a very specific offensive presence that can prove to be fatal under proper circumstances. If we consider Mega Slowbro in ORAS, with a set like:
Slowbro @ Slowbronite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 72 Def / 184 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
Notice how there's still a potential for offensive progress to be made via Scald and Psyshock, but it comes off of a Base 30 Speed. While 130 SpA is definitely a HIGH special attack stat, if the target resists Water or Psychic moves, like Ferrothorn, or doesn't fear a Burn, like Zadpos, Rotom-W or Cyclohm, then Mega Slowbro can be a detriment to the space. Furthermore, anything faster than it (read almost everything) running Taunt will be able to shut down the parts of Mega Slowbro that pose the biggest threat: Mega Slowbro's ability to heal itself and slowly set up with Calm Mind while not fearing Critical hits with Shell Armor.
Slowbro does not immediately win 1v1s, but instead requires careful play in order to find openings in which it can start setting up and force a checkmate. It does not have an immediate offensive presence, but almost nothing is taking down a Mega Slowbro at +3 Spa and +3 SpD without boosts of its own, and if this Mega Slowbro has been sweeping through the opposing team, there's almost no way to stop it.
Furthermore, I think boosting leans well into the idea of a fast all, as observed with Mega Latias. Mega Latias has a Base 140 SpA which, again is nothing to coff at, but it still cannot break through al the defensive threats it faces withut some additional set up on its own. Luckily, Mega-Latias is able to check a lot of common threats from ORAS and SM OU through its inherent bulk, and force openings with it speed. A +0 Mega Latias wins very few 1v1 matchups, but a +2 Mega Latias might pose a much greater threat. I think this CAP should have some kind of similar offensive capability, albeit not with such exaggerated win and loss conditions. We should not be winning matchups 1v1 unless given ample time to set up our offenses in a significant way. Perhaps this boosting potential could be used as a way to punish the opponent for playing poorly around this wall.
Very Fast Immovable Object considers Pokemon like Mega Latias, Talonflame, and Scream Tail as examples of Pokemon that fit its concept. Are there any others that are worth considering? What makes these examples effective at being walls even without dedicated investment? Are they offensive in any important ways when actualizing this concept? If so, how?
Other fast Pokemon that can be played as walls that come to mind are:
- ADV OU Defensive Flygon, which manages to be one of the few Pokemon that check Tyranitar by threatening Earthquake or Toxic (though it does have to be wary of Ice Beam) by nature of just being faster than an unboosted Tyranitar.
- DPP Ubers Lugia sports a Base 110 Speed and a solid defensive typing given its circumstnces. However, what makes Lugia most effective is its naturally insane bulk. Lugia does not rely on its offenses in DPP Ubers, rather it relies entirely on its speed and Defenses to bolster its bulk with moves like Reflect and Roost, while letting turns of Toxic whittle down foes, and using a coverage move every now and then to accelerate the process.