I'd like to clear some things up concerning Balloon Fairy-types as I'd say I've helped popularize them. They are not solely for walling Garchomp and if one is to try to deal with Chomp, there are much better options available. One of the big advantages of Balloon is the Spikes immunity serving as hazard-resilience. The main reason I started using Balloon Tinkaton was not because I wanted to wall Chomp, but in order to run it without having to run Treads for removal, thus stacking weaknesses. I also think the general popularity of Balloon sets are overblown (or at least people are using them more than they should be).
As I said earlier, part of the reason I started using this set was for the partial Spikes immunity for no removal teams. This is not a Chomp answer and if you are using it as such, stop. Not only does it fold to any set running coverage which most should be using at this point, it does nothing to prevent Garchomp from just stacking Spikes and switching out. What Air Balloon does do is allow Tinkaton to be used more comfortably without hazard removal, but its main role is to be paired with Pickpocket to enable wincons. The best use of Balloon Tinkaton is to steal Boots from Lokix or Tornadus-T or a Scarf from Mienshao to allow mons like Calm Mind Latios to be much more effective in their attempt to eventually sweep. I can't emphasize enough how terrible it is as a Chomp check and if you see me running Balloon on this, that's not the goal there.
Balloon Azumarill is more openly used as a way to check Chomp, but I think there are a few aspects here that make it less of an option people "rely" on and more as an HO specific tech that allows you to ease some matchups. HO as a playstyle can't fit solid resists to everything and, as such, can leave itself open to certain offensive threats. One of the reasons Azu has been one of the best choices on HO lately is because of how much it covers while still being a good offensive threat. It gives you room to play around fast wallbreakers like Greninja, Keldeo and Latios that can prevent proper positioning and Balloon is essentially just an extension of that, giving the team a straight up Ground-immunity that also has a pretty great matchup into our Ground-Types. The Spikes immunity here also helps. Again, people may be pushing their luck trying to justify it as a Chomp answer when it's at most a check and I would generally recommend items like Boots, AV or CB on styles like BO as well as Sitrus on offenses that can handle Ground-Type attackers, but considering it to be anything besides a tech option (an especially effective one considering Garchomp and Excadrill's usage) does not sit right with me.
I've also seen a good amount of people complaining about Garchomp's effect on the hazard game. I just want to make it clear that the main concerns council raised were concerning the Swords Dance set which has little consistent counterplay, especially defensively, so hazard sets are not the main thing on our radar. There are also a few takes that I've seen and that I'd like to address real quick concerning how Chomp affect the hazard game.
- Garchomp forces you to spam Heavy-Duty Boots.
Heavy-Duty Boots in this generation have been everywhere and Chomp is not the main reason for that. Notably, even without it around, most previous UU metas often needed 3-4 Boots mons per team, sometimes more. The main reason for that is that hazard setters don't need to be especially efficient to make hazard-weak mons suffer when facing them. Sure, running a mon like Ogerpon without Boots sounds nice, but the moment your opponent gets Rocks+1 Spike up, you are getting worn down incredibly quickly regardless. Garchomp makes Spikes more common, but consistent teams will still keep prioritizing consistency against a variety of matchups including hazard-stack. Even if setters like Sandy Shocks, Greninja and Ogerpon are less common than Chomp, the moment they show up, you're in serious trouble if you don't account for them.
However, even considering the previous point I raised, I would say building with 0-2 Boots users is pretty realistic currently. Going back to Air Balloon, the double-purpose of this item is actually quite useful in the case where you're looking for hazard-resilient mons, but still want a useful item. Tinkaton as previously stated appreciates this, but you have other Rock-resistant options that take little damage from hazards with a Balloon, most common of which being Excadrill. There are also a decent amount of rather good mons that don't really care about hazards. Latios is pretty obvious being Spikes-immune and Rock-neutral, but Mienshao and Rotom-Wash are two underrated options that can also deal with hazards very well. You also have ways to deal with hazards that don't require hazard-resilient mons and, in fact, I'd say the meta's centralization around Garchomp makes doing that easier in a way. Mandibuzz is obviously very effective at controlling Chomp's hazards, being an extremely hard-counter to the mon in general and, due to most teams often not bothering to have hazards elsewhere with Garchomp being a great setter, you'll often be able to play completely hazard-free with Buzz. You can also play more aggressively either by giving Garchomp few opportunities to Up by threatening 1HKOs with offensive threats like Latios, Greninja or Deoxys-Speed or by luring it with uncommon Ice moves that can also be useful for mons like Latios, Zapdos and Tornadus-T. I don't think you need to bend over backwards to deal with Chomp's hazards considering how often it ends up as a team's dedicated hazard setter.
- Garchomp makes it harder to Spin.
This one was brought up concerning Rocky Helmet+Rough Skin taking out mons attempting to Spin on it. While I do think Excadrill is a rather flawed Spinner into Chomp, contact damage is one of the more minor issues it might face attempting to remove. First of all, Rocky Helmet Chomp has been seeing somewhat of a decline, at least in high-level play, due to getting worn down far too quickly and, when considering Helmet is mostly ran on slow Tank sets, this is especially an issue because of how quickly it can fall into Excadrill's double Earthquake range. Second, if your opponent really wants to spinblock you, they can just use some kind of Tera Ghost or one of our Ghost-Types. Even if Sinistcha ends up losing to Excadrill, it'll have severely chipped it and prevented it from spinning which is all it needs to do. If your opponent is especially determined to keep hazards up, they'll dig up something like Balloon Basculegion-F to stop you. It's not like other hazard-setters are nice to Excadrill anyway. Greninja, Ogerpon and Sandy Shocks all threaten it heavily and god forbid you have to try to keep Rocks off against a Hippowdon. Anyway, all these issues are concerning one mon and, as said earlier, a lot teams get by using hazard-resilient options or Mandibuzz.
Also gonna move on to some more general takes I've heard:
- Garchomp makes other Ground-types bad.
No, other Ground-types besides Exca are just bad. Most of them are slower than they should be and get worn down quickly (looking at Mamoswine and Ursaluna specifically). Hippowdon and Gastrodon are awkward momentum sinks and Sandy Shocks hates having to plan around Latios. Other Ground-types would get a bit better with Chomp gone, but you gotta realize that the reason others aren't being used is moreso because they have serious flaws holding them back than because they're outclassed.
- Banning Garchomp might make Zapdos broken.
I guess this one might not be that common, but it's been a concern among council. I think Garchomp is a pretty poor Zapdos answer all things considered as it lacks recovery and struggles to hurt it. Even if it's a more offensive set that has the damage output to muscle through Zapdos, Hurricanes are most likely gonna 2HKO Chomp making it unreliable at best. I'd say Zapdos is pretty much uncouterable over long games, which may seem like an issue, but a Zapdos that has the time to break through everything is ridiculously rare. Most likely, teams that are weakest to Zapdos are those who can't properly rack up damage on it... such as teams using passive Garchomp variants. Banning Chomp would remove a common voltblocker, but in terms of keeping Zapdos in check, I don't think it currently makes it that much easier.
- Revenge-killing options for Garchomp are unreliable.
Alright I understand where this is coming from. Garchomp is extremely bulky for an offensive mon and can Tera to resist Scizor's Bullet Punch and Arcanine's Extreme Speed. However, I think these are very on-paper worries. Garchomp, even when running offensive sets, is an important part of a team's defensive integrity. You might need it to take a stray resisted move once or twice and, on top of hazards and the damage it may take while setting up, chip adds up very quickly. And then, there's the -1 Defense it gets from Scale Shot. At this point, it's usually weak enough that its natural bulk and the resists it can gain from Tera don't matter all that much. 80% from Mienshao CC, 60% from Lokix Fimp, 50% from Tera Water Azumarill Aqua Jet, 45% from Tera Grass Ogerpon Ivy Cudgel on a resisted hit. Those are all pretty realistic ranges you can hit, especially the first two and you can force further Scale Shot uses for priority users saccing mons like Latios if you really need it, but I doubt it. Yes, Garchomp can sometimes still be healthy enough to make revenge-killing difficult, but I'd say it happens somewhat rarely.
I feel like my posts lately have just been a somewhat unorganized thought-dump, so I apologize for that. Anyway, it might seem from the majority of this post that I'm pro-DNB for Garchomp, but in reality, it's pretty complicated. I don't think Chomp is broken, but its impact on builder is something I've felt pretty heavily as slotting proper Ground-resists can feel difficult as Zapdos, Torn-T, Latios and Hydrapple can't properly switch into Scale Shot. I also think the tier is in a somewhat unstable state where consistency is difficult to achieve and it's especially hard to stray from the beaten path while achieving consistency with playstyles like BO and Balance where you have some extremely important checklists to fill and will pretty much always end up with Mandibuzz+Steel structures. I doubt Garchomp leaving the tier would fix this issue or even come close, but removing it alongside some other common and dangerous mons can lead the tier to a better path. However, whether that issue is caused by something else or even exists at all is not something I'm sure of. I'm pretty much completely 50/50 on this mon and would probably have some issues with either keeping it or removing it. I guess if there's one thing I want to make clear with this post, it's that I think the blame of Chomp's negative effects on the meta are caused pretty much entirely by Swords Dance sets, especially in the builder.
. Baloon forces you to be even more careful because you lose it on any damage taken, not just Knock. To me this is a very similar situation in which specific Pokemon are forced to run certain specific item to be a check to one mon.
