Gallade - Blades of Fury

[whistle]

@ Spiritomb

against max defense Spiritomb...

Adamant LO +2 Stone Edge vs 252/252+ Spiritomb
766 Atk vs 346 Def & 304 HP (100 Base Power): 206 - 243 (67.76% - 79.93%)
Adamant LO +2 Shadow Sneak vs 252/252+ Spiritomb
766 Atk vs 346 Def & 304 HP (40 Base Power): 83 - 98 (27.30% - 32.24%)

which is an essentially guaranteed 2HKO after SR + Leftovers (minimum 95.06%)

meanwhile, Spiritomb can't do much back to Gallade (it only gets one Shadow Sneak since Gallade will Shadow Sneak itself the second turn)

0 Atk Spiritomb Shadow Sneak vs 0/0 Gallade
220 Atk vs 166 Def & 277 HP (40 Base Power): 116 - 138 (41.88% - 49.82%)

since Stone Edge + Shadow Sneak nearly always KOes 252/252+ Spiritomb, Stone Edge + Burnt Stone Edge will always KO (100 + 40 vs 100 + 50).

if you decide to EV your Spiritomb offensively...

252+ Atk Spiritomb Shadow Sneak vs 0/0 Gallade
331 Atk vs 166 Def & 277 HP (40 Base Power): 170 - 204 (61.37% - 73.65%)

Adamant LO +2 Stone Edge vs 252/0 Spiritomb
766 Atk vs 252 Def & 304 HP (100 Base Power): 283 - 334 (93.09% - 109.87%)

whichever way you EV Spiritomb, it's dying before Gallade dies. note that 252 HP / 252+ Def Spiritomb has significantly less staying power against many of the other things it's supposed to check, like Rotom, Mismagius, and Alakazam, which means most Spiritombs should be running SpD (which makes it take more damage from Stone Edge relative to the first calculation while still not doing any more damage to Gallade). conclusion: Spiritomb can sacrifice itself to stop Gallade from sweeping an entire team, but you'll probably lose another Pokemon at least if you have no other priority / faster Pokemon.

@ Drapion

Adamant LO +2 Close Combat vs 252/252+ Drapion
766 Atk vs 350 Def & 344 HP (120 Base Power): 366 - 432 (106.40% - 125.58%)

(similarly this isn't a very good spread for stall Drapion because it neglects its good special resistances)

if you decide to EV Drapion offensively then it is an okay check

Adamant LO 252 Atk Crunch vs 0/0 Gallade
306 Atk vs 166 Def & 277 HP (80 Base Power): 205 - 243 (74.01% - 87.73%)

but you still can't switch Drapion into Gallade
383 Atk vs 256 Def & 281 HP (120 Base Power): 250 - 295 (88.97% - 104.98%)

 

[Lemmiwinks MkII]

I was merely pointing out that you really underestimate Gallade as a threat to offensive teams. It isn't as useless as you make it out to be since it can, with proper support, be a huge threat to offensive teams. Even with it's shitty defense, it has a decent enough special defense to grab a couple of chances to launch Close Combats, or even get Swords Dance up against offensive teams (who aren't all about speed with Rhyperior running around as well). Not to mention being great with dual screens.

Unfortunately, the offensive metagame is so physically based these days that opportunities on special attackers are few and far between. If it is a special attacker, it is often Moltres or SubCM Raikou, both Pokemon that Gallade has no business against.

I see where you're coming from though, and I never meant to convey the idea that Gallade is completely deadweight against offense. But IMO it is far down the threat list for someone playing offense, who is mainly concerned with Pokemon that are either blindingly fast with reasonable power, have very strong priority, or can somehow disrupt their offensive momentum. Gallade fits none of those, and is therefore nothing all that special. Something like Honchkrow fits the bill better because it actually has a priority move that can be considered 'strong'.

This isn't a non-issue because if you were to say "Gallade makes stall useless, but is a liability on an offensive team" then Gallade's BL status would be much harder to justify. That's why I was pointing out that it isn't the case.

No, it wouldn't, that's the point (I assume you meant 'against' instead of 'on', as clearly Gallade is a decent choice on an offensive team) . If Gallade is considered broken vs. stall, then it is broken regardless of how useless or useful it is anywhere else. The important point is that Gallade is certainly nowhere near 'broken' vs. offense, so it shouldn't factor into the argument. To what degree his particular use is here will therefore not fill or 'unfill' the characteristic under which he is deemed to fit.

 

[Thund91]

You really don't have to use stall. You have to adapt to the metagame. I'm on the fence with Gallade as it handles a 'decent' portion of the metagame (stall mostly), but from an offensive standpoint, he is just another offensive threat like Blaziken, Honchkrow, Mismagius, etc.

I took the Arcanine from an offensive standpoint instead of Stall, which is why I said its difficult to pull a spin because it ruins the momentum of the offensive pace. But from a more defensive standpoint, the spinning is still hard to pull off because your common spinners (Donphan, Hitmontop, etc.) are constantly switching out due to the high powered offensive pace. And with the lack of recovery from there is not good. Mismagius can bring down all three of these with Taunt and Nasty Plot. Rotom can do it as well to a lesser extent. Sure you have Spiritomb to check, but a team can be built to lure in Spiritomb and kill it. This brings me back to the point with using Arcanine as a check to Gallade because you practically require two things to check Gallade efficiently, spin + Arcanine. Spin is needed so that Arcanine doesn't take 25% everytime. Stall is just difficult to use, period. People just have to stick to semi-stall, bulky offense, or heavy offense. The win rate for Stall is really low at this stage.

The thing is, Arcanine is shakey at best. It has intimidate, sure. But if you come in on Stealth Rock (or possibly Spikes) on a -1 Close Combat, your left with such low health, your forced to use Morning Sun, giving the right time to bring in an Arcanine check. Since Morning Sun will only retain a little bit of HP, the next time around, Arcanine might die. Overall, Arcanine is not doing anything but forcing it to switch-out while loosing over half of its hp with Sr down.

orb = max hp / 120 def - 51.82% - 61.20% +25%
lum = max hp / 120 def - 34.64% - 40.89% +25%

If I were me, I'd use Defensive Arcanine as a "back-up" check, but not a dedicated check to Gallade if I was to use a stall team. Personally, I haven't tried stall yet but I could imagine checking Gallade with Arcanine a nightmare. Offensive Arcanine is a good check though.

In that case we should bring Yanmega back. Yanmega is easily stopped by stall, but breaks offense. Gallade is easily stopped by offense, but breaks stall. So if Gallade is allowed why shouldn't Yanmega? IIRC most of the arguments for Yanmega being banned was that the Specs set is guaranteed to take something out on offense, and the Speed Boost set can just sweep the entire team by itself. Poeple were forced to stick things like Registeel and Milotic on their teams to deal with it, just like stall teams are forced to run things like Shadow Sneak Spiritomb and bulky Arcanine to deal with Gallade.

So Yanmega test now plox?

 

[Heysup]

Unfortunately, the offensive metagame is so physically based these days that opportunities on special attackers are few and far between. If it is a special attacker, it is often Moltres or SubCM Raikou, both Pokemon that Gallade has no business against.

I see where you're coming from though, and I never meant to convey the idea that Gallade is completely deadweight against offense. But IMO it is far down the threat list for someone playing offense, who is mainly concerned with Pokemon that are either blindingly fast with reasonable power, have very strong priority, or can somehow disrupt their offensive momentum. Gallade fits none of those, and is therefore nothing all that special. Something like Honchkrow fits the bill better because it actually has a priority move that can be considered 'strong'.

At least we reached some sort of common ground :)

No, it wouldn't, that's the point (I assume you meant 'against' instead of 'on', as clearly Gallade is a decent choice on an offensive team) . If Gallade is considered broken vs. stall, then it is broken regardless of how useless or useful it is anywhere else. The important point is that Gallade is certainly nowhere near 'broken' vs. offense, so it shouldn't factor into the argument. To what degree his particular use is here will therefore not fill or 'unfill' the characteristic under which he is deemed to fit.

Yea I meant against.

Anyway, the point is that people could call Gallade being broken versus stall teams "irrelevant" if Gallade was a liability to use against all other teams. That's practically the same thing as Clefable. A while ago, Clefable completely destroyed all forms of stall, but it wasn't deemed BL because anything remotely offensive could rip it in half. I just don't want that to happen with Gallade because it is a threat versus offensive teams, but not to the same degree as stall teams.

Though Gallade is very threatening to offense with a Choice Scarf, but whatever.

 

[Rolf]

Thanks for the calcs, I was doing other things and didn't have time to get them.

According to Lonelyness' comment on the first post though, more Gallade are running Leaf Blade to take out Slowbro in lieu of Stone Edge. That would make Spiritomb a good counter, would it not?

And if they don't run Leaf Blade than Slowbro should work well.

 

[franky]

In that case we should bring Yanmega back. Yanmega is easily stopped by stall, but breaks offense. Gallade is easily stopped by offense, but breaks stall. So if Gallade is allowed why shouldn't Yanmega? IIRC most of the arguments for Yanmega being banned was that the Specs set is guaranteed to take something out on offense, and the Speed Boost set can just sweep the entire team by itself. Poeple were forced to stick things like Registeel and Milotic on their teams to deal with it, just like stall teams are forced to run things like Shadow Sneak Spiritomb and bulky Arcanine to deal with Gallade.

So Yanmega test now plox?

Fair enough . Although, I'm not completely against Gallade, I'm on the fence with it (I said it many times). The question is: is Gallade on the same level of dominance in terms of dominating a certain style of play like Yanmega was? Gallade needs to match the dominance level Yanmega has, because right now it doesn't. Stall is still possible but alot harder. Offense was jsut downright difficult to use back when Yanmega was there.

 

[Lemmiwinks MkII]

A while ago, Clefable completely destroyed all forms of stall, but it wasn't deemed BL because anything remotely offensive could rip it in half.

It was more the fact that stall learnt to adapt to Clefable in a way that wasn't completely unreasonable. After all, a newbie coming into the metagame with no previous knowledge or experience would most probably, and understandably, look at Close Combat on defensive Hitmontop and wonder why they are using a move with an effect that is inherently contradictory to the main purpose of stall, which is defensive preservation. With greater knowledge of the metagame comes greater understanding as to why things are so.

Anyway, apart from that I think we are on reasonably good terms now. Let's just keep the topic focused and relevant to the point from now on.

 

[whistle]

Thanks for the calcs, I was doing other things and didn't have time to get them.

According to Lonelyness' comment on the first post though, more Gallade are running Leaf Blade to take out Slowbro in lieu of Stone Edge. That would make Spiritomb a good counter, would it not?

And if they don't run Leaf Blade than Slowbro should work well.

leaf blade is 90 bp whereas stone edge is 100 bp which means spiritomb still isn't going to like taking a +2 hit

Fair enough . Although, I'm not completely against Gallade, I'm on the fence with it (I said it many times). The question is: is Gallade on the same level of dominance in terms of dominating a certain style of play like Yanmega was? Gallade needs to match the dominance level Yanmega has, because right now it doesn't. Stall is still possible but alot harder. Offense was jsut downright difficult to use back when Yanmega was there.

1. gallade doesn't need to be the same level of "broken" as yanmega, it just needs to satisfy a characteristic. i would argue that yanmega "oversatisfied" the offensive characteristic.

2. offense had to adapt a lot to yanmega by using more priority than usual. stall has to adapt to gallade by using bulky arcanines and shadow sneak spiritombs. even when offense adapted by using priority, they could still get swept some yanmega under the right conditions. even when stall plays perfectly against gallade, they can still lose a pokemon or more to gallade under the right conditions.

the way you're phrasing the last two sentences seems like you're saying "stall is usable but offense was downright impossible" but when i actually read the words you used, what you're actually saying is "stall is hard" and "offense was hard"... ?_? (for the record, offense was NOT impossible during yanmega)

3. on a side note, what is the basis for the argument that "since yanmega was banned for making offense impossible, gallade should be banned if it makes stall impossible"? (i wasn't aware that yanmega was banned because it could sweep through offensive teams...) the offensive characteristic says that a pokemon is BL if it can sweep through a majority of teams with little effort. is stall really a majority of teams?

 

[capefeather]

A Pokémon should not be banned because it allegedly destroys a certain style of play.

The main reason for this is Smogon's philosophy behind testing and banning. AFAIK, we're supposed to look at a metagame as if it were the only one that ever existed, even ignoring metagames of previous versions entirely. In this context, we would go about this as if Gallade always existed in UU, and thus stall (at least, stall that doesn't get run over by Gallade) never existed. A good example of this is Latias. It's been said quite often that Latias single-handedly destroys special hyper offense. Even Stathakis, THE HO guy (if I'm not mistaken), has avoided using his special HO team in OU (unless he changed his mind since posting his RMT lol). Otherwise, special HO is a very viable playstyle. So should Latias be Uber? No; rather, we treat the metagame as though special HO was never that viable ever.

Thund brought up Yanmega. Yet, if it were only threatening towards offense, I wouldn't say Yanmega is BL. Indeed, the argument that it destroys offensive play was not the only argument. As I understood it, the main argument that Yanmega is BL was that it had a small pool of checks AND all of those checks wouldn't really fit in an "offensive" team. I'm pretty sure the implication was that it gave stall somewhat of a hard time as well. I mean, I don't play stall much, but to me, four or five viable checks doesn't seem like good news for the variability of stall.

I think Gallade would have to have a significant detrimental effect on non-stall teams to be moved to BL. Whether he does accomplish this, and by extension whether UU is a degenerate metagame right now, is what I think each of us should really focus on determining.

 

[franky]

1. gallade doesn't need to be the same level of "broken" as yanmega, it just needs to satisfy a characteristic. i would argue that yanmega "oversatisfied" the offensive characteristic.

In a sense it does. Yanmega can threaten a major portion of the metagame, while Gallade is around there imo (almost). Gallade isn't as threatening as Yanmega, therefore it needs to be on the same level of "broken" in terms of offensive capabilities in order for it to become BL.

the way you're phrasing the last two sentences seems like you're saying "stall is usable but offense was downright impossible" but when i actually read the words you used, what you're actually saying is "stall is hard" and "offense was hard"... ?_? (for the record, offense was NOT impossible during yanmega)

I meant that Stall is slightly harder since the bar has been raised due to the prevalence of sweepers coming down to UU. Its not only Gallade, its Alakazam, Rhyperior, etc as well. The reason why Stall is slightly harder to run than before is cause' of that reason. However, the offensive style of play was extremely harder to run back when Yanmega was there imo. I guess this should clarify it, as Yanmega affected an entire style of play by itself, while Gallade had a bit of back-up in order to make it slightly harder.

3. on a side note, what is the basis for the argument that "since yanmega was banned for making offense impossible, gallade should be banned if it makes stall impossible"? (i wasn't aware that yanmega was banned because it could sweep through offensive teams...) the offensive characteristic says that a pokemon is BL if it can sweep through a majority of teams with little effort. is stall really a majority of teams?

Much like the 1st point, in a sense that Yanmega can dominate a certain style of play (fitting the offensive criteria), Gallade can also dominate a certain style of play like Yanmega (fitting the offensive criteria). I do agree that it shouldn't be judged on what style of play it dominates, but its just an example on the raw power that Yanmega had, in comparison to what Gallade is doing now. "If Gallade can match the dominance Yanmega had (offense wise), then it should be sent to BL"

 

[whistle]

In a sense it does. Yanmega can threaten a major portion of the metagame, while Gallade is around there imo (almost). Gallade isn't as threatening as Yanmega, therefore it needs to be on the same level of "broken" in terms of offensive capabilities in order for it to become BL.

why? there is no warrant for why a "less threatening" Pokemon needs to be "more broken" for it to be banned. in fact, I would argue that how threatening a Pokemon is is directly correlated to how broken it is. the reason Yanmega was so threatening was that I can count the number of safe switch-ins it had on a single hand, and *that* (as far as I know) is the reason it was banned. conversely, the more broken a Pokemon is, the more threatening it is -- if it can sweep a majority of teams with little effort, you will probably think "oh shit" whenever it comes out.

I meant that Stall is slightly harder since the bar has been raised due to the prevalence of sweepers coming down to UU. Its not only Gallade, its Alakazam, Rhyperior, etc as well. The reason why Stall is slightly harder to run than before is cause' of that reason. However, the offensive style of play was extremely harder to run back when Yanmega was there imo. I guess this should clarify it, as Yanmega affected an entire style of play by itself, while Gallade had a bit of back-up in order to make it slightly harder.

I suppose this is true, but I don't think the whole debate about whether Gallade crushes stall or not is very relevant (at least not until someone convinces me otherwise) because of #3.

Much like the 1st point, in a sense that Yanmega can dominate a certain style of play (fitting the offensive criteria), Gallade can also dominate a certain style of play like Yanmega (fitting the offensive criteria). I do agree that it shouldn't be judged on what style of play it dominates, but its just an example on the raw power that Yanmega had, in comparison to what Gallade is doing now. "If Gallade can match the dominance Yanmega had (offense wise), then it should be sent to BL"

my point here is stated more elaborately by capefeather, but the point is essentially that even if a Pokemon makes a playstyle harder or impossible (the latter of which is probably impossible to prove), it doesn't mean it's broken. the reason I nominated and voted Yanmega BL was because it could basically 2HKO everything with a few rare exceptions, not because it made offense impossible. (in fact, even on stall teams, those rare exceptions can be easily taken advantage of). offense just happened to get the short end of the stick because it was more challenging to fit one of these checks on an offensive team. if someone can explain why neutering a play style necessarily means Gallade satisfies the offensive characteristic I'd be more than happy to hear because I'm basically playing the devil's advocate here.

 

[Heysup]

At the Yanmega vs Gallade argument:

I actually found offense easy to run with Yanmega around. All Offense needed to do was run some priority or even just a slow hard-hitter like Azumarill. In fact, it wasn't even the fact that Yanmega screwed over Offense (which it didn't) that it was made BL. It was the fact that it had very very minimal counters that made it BL. What could reliably switch into it other than Chansey? NOTHING! Yanmega was check-able, but it wasn't remotely easy to counter without using that fat piece of Pursuit bait known as Chansey.

Gallade DESTROYS stall in every way, shape, and form, but that isn't why it is 'broken'. It's the fact that you are forced to use certain Pokemon to counter Gallade, and that these Pokemon don't exist unless you are running some sort of offensive team. This means in common battle conditions it will sweep without effort unless everyone is running hyper offense with 2-3 Choice Band normal-types, which is suicide.

If it was just for "beating stall" you could argue the same for Blaziken, but it has checks and even counters that actually exist on stall teams and you don't need to use a piece of shit Pokemon to check it. Gallade forces you to use some shitty, and otherwise unviable, easily removable defensive Pokemon to stop it, and they can't even reliably stop it.

I'd also like to add that Froslass' addition to the metagame makes all of these Theorymon counters shit as well. Spikes are stupid easy to set up, and this makes Pokemon like Arcanine defenseless against Gallade. The least it will come in with is like 62.5% HP. Does that sound like a working counter to you?

 

[BurtonEarny]

Its also pretty easy to spin in this meatagame heysup

 

[Mrobinson587]

Though Gallade is very threatening to offense with a Choice Scarf, but whatever.

We have only REALLY been talking about the SD set. What happens when people start using CS or CB or sets utilizing its support movepool?

IIRC people didn't start using specs Lens Yanmega with widespread usage until later in the metagame.

Also Gallade does not have to be on the level of brokenness that yanmega was to be considered BL. How many times has any suspect received a unanimous vote that it was bannable?

 

[Heysup]

Its also pretty easy to spin in this meatagame heysup

It's really not if you use the right Spin Blockers or even offensive team.

For example, if I send out Froslass and get spikes up, then you send in like Spiritomb or something, I'll send in some heavy hitting Wall breaker (Like Mixed Blaziken) after. So I wouldn't even need a Ghost to block spin.

Or I could use something like TrickChoice to block spin, and that even stops Hitmontop.

It's definitely not easy to spin against even 'decent' players.

 

[BurtonEarny]

It's really not if you use the right Spin Blockers or even offensive team.

For example, if I send out Froslass and get spikes up, then you send in like Spiritomb or something, I'll send in some heavy hitting Wall breaker (Like Mixed Blaziken) after. So I wouldn't even need a Ghost to block spin.

Or I could use something like TrickChoice to block spin, and that even stops Hitmontop.

It's definitely not easy to spin against even 'decent' players.

Spiritomb is the lead, froslass is kod

Heysup spinning is much easier than you are letting on.

hitmontop has no trouble with spiritomb, and any rotom/ missy that has the ability to stop hitmontop from spinning is ko'd by spiritomb the first time they come in.

 

[Heysup]

Spiritomb is the lead, froslass is kod

Heysup spinning is much easier than you are letting on.

hitmontop has no trouble with spiritomb, and any rotom/ missy that has the ability to stop hitmontop from spinning is ko'd by spiritomb the first time they come in.

I was using a non-lead scenario with example Pokemon, but even in a lead scenario, Froslass (the max HP variant) will set up 2 layers at the very least, or just KO Spiritomb with Destiny Bond and get 1 layer up. In any event, I can just send in [insert fire-type attacker, Taunt/Sub Sweeper, or Guts Sweeper here] and force you into a situation where you won't be able to spin until its too late, something is going to take huge damage from that Fire-type attacker. What Spinner can take on something like Blaziken with 75% left?

The other example, was if you somehow managed to get your spinner out in a good situation, assuming your Spinner is Hitmontop, I can just switch in my TrickChoice ghost either KO you if you are weak enough, or Trick you a choice item. Spiritomb won't be able to come in on a Specs Shadow Ball or Thunderbolt from Missy or Rotom with Spikes and SR still in play.

If a good opponent doesn't want you to spin, they won't let you.

 

[BurtonEarny]

I was using a non-lead scenario with example Pokemon, but even in a lead scenario, Froslass (the max HP variant) will set up 2 layers at the very least, or just KO Spiritomb with Destiny Bond and get 1 layer up. In any event, I can just send in [insert fire-type attacker, Taunt/Sub Sweeper, or Guts Sweeper here] and force you into a situation where you won't be able to spin until its too late, something is going to take huge damage from that Fire-type attacker. What Spinner can take on something like Blaziken with 75% left?

The other example, was if you somehow managed to get your spinner out in a good situation, assuming your Spinner is Hitmontop, I can just switch in my TrickChoice ghost either KO you if you are weak enough, or Trick you a choice item. Spiritomb won't be able to come in on a Specs Shadow Ball or Thunderbolt from Missy or Rotom with Spikes and SR still in play.

If a good opponent doesn't want you to spin, they won't let you.

Honestly, how many choice ghosts have you seen? No teams run right now make it that hard to spin. I have played them heysup its not like I'm speaking from inexperience. You have played most of the top teams as well and should know that spins are little more than free.

 

[d2m]

Honestly, how many choice ghosts have you seen? No teams run right now make it that hard to spin. I have played them heysup its not like I'm speaking from inexperience. You have played most of the top teams as well and should know that spins are little more than free.

Trickband Tomb is great, though. I ran him for a little while before realizing how overcentralized Spiritomb had become as a check on my team. Having a powerful Shadow Sneak is a great asset against Gallade.

 

[BurtonEarny]

Trickband Tomb is great, though. I ran him for a little while before realizing how overcentralized Spiritomb had become as a check on my team. Having a powerful Shadow Sneak is a great asset against Gallade.

slower than hitmontop, so the trick wouldn't help in this case.

 

[d2m]

slower than hitmontop, so the trick wouldn't help in this case.

Assuming you aren't running double ghost. Although it's not specifically FOR Hitmontop so much as things that try to set up on Tomb, like Raikou for instance.

 

[whistle]

Raikou used Substitute!
Raikou lost 25% of its HP!
Raikou made a Substitute!
Spiritomb used Trick!
But, it failed...
d2test: oh fuck

what exactly differentiates sd gallade from other powerful physical attackers like sd blaziken? basically the only thing i can see is that gallade has close combat > superpower. then again, what on a stall team can take out blaziken? if the argument is that stall teams have to play around gallade with checks, then doesn't the same thing apply to playing around blaziken's superpower? at least spiritomb has a guaranteed -50% HP with shadow sneak...

 

[BurtonEarny]

Assuming you aren't running double ghost. Although it's not specifically FOR Hitmontop so much as things that try to set up on Tomb, like Raikou for instance.

double ghost is very rare... froslass + spiritomb/ missy are about the only ones and froslass is a suicide lead.

 

[d2m]

Raikou used Substitute!
Raikou lost 25% of its HP!
Raikou made a Substitute!
Spiritomb used Trick!
But, it failed...
d2test: oh fuck

what exactly differentiates sd gallade from other powerful physical attackers like sd blaziken? basically the only thing i can see is that gallade has close combat > superpower. then again, what on a stall team can take out blaziken? if the argument is that stall teams have to play around gallade with checks, then doesn't the same thing apply to playing around blaziken's superpower? at least spiritomb has a guaranteed -50% HP with shadow sneak...

In order for that to happen, you'd have to switch Tomb INTO Raikou in the first place, because if you're banded, you can't switch attacks once you're in.

 

[MapleSandwich]

what exactly differentiates sd gallade from other powerful physical attackers like sd blaziken? basically the only thing i can see is that gallade has close combat > superpower. then again, what on a stall team can take out blaziken? if the argument is that stall teams have to play around gallade with checks, then doesn't the same thing apply to playing around blaziken's superpower? at least spiritomb has a guaranteed -50% HP with shadow sneak...

Because once Spiritomb is gone, Gallade can just set up Swords Dance and rape pretty much everything all over the place. If someone plays cleverly and takes your Tomb out early game when you suspect he's not running Gallade and then he pulls it out late-game when everything you have is weakened, you're going to get run over without exception.