Project Victim of the Week: NU Edition

[Stories]

Approved by the NU mod team
OP stolen from the ZU version with changes by 5Dots

Victim of the Week: NU Edition​

With new metagames comes new stages of development, devising common strategies that impact playstyles. In each meta, however, there are always key Pokemon which must be prepped and acknowledged for in the teambuilding process. This project allows for new ways to tackle these threats and to develop a greater understanding of the tier as a whole. This project also serves as a resource for newer and experimented players alike.

• Every round, one Pokemon will be picked from the "SV NU Viability Rankings" to be discussed. The submission stage will last from Monday to Thursday.
• During the round, post a Pokemon of your choosing from the Viability Rankings which is able to check / counter the current threat, with a Set, Description, and Calculations if necessary. (Note that they MUST be viable, no unviable Pokemon or gimmicks like Luvdisc or Choice Specs Passimian.)
• From Friday to Sunday, you'll vote for one or two checks and counters, and, at the end of the round, results will be archived with a link to the posts so that eventually we'll have a bank of checks and counters for each viable threat in the tier with descriptions and sets to match.
• The same Pokemon may be picked, but they have to have a different set. For example, two people cannot both pick Swords Dance Bruxish, but having one person pick Swords Dance and the other pick Choice Band is okay.

Rules:
When nominating your check or counter, please take into consideration this definition from The Smog:
​

Definition

• Only post viable sets, or we will reject your submission. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to let us know on here, Pokémon Showdown!, or Discord.​
• Reservations are allowed, but if you do not edit your post in the 24 hours following your post, anyone is allowed to take your submission.​
• If you think someone else's submission is unviable, please let me know with a reasoning of why.​
• If your submission isn't clear enough, back it up with some calcs (you can use this website to calc.)​
• Please do not submit any Pokémon or items from the blacklist, I will reject your submission and most likely ask you to delete your post.​

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Blacklist:

• 

Current Victim
Passimian
Submission Deadline: March 17, 11:59 PM GMT-4
Voting Slate Deadline: March 26, 11:59 GMT-4

Passimian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Defiant
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Earthquake / Rock Slide​

Here’s a great example of a submission of a COUNTER to Passimian by Fragmented:

COUNTER

Dachsbun @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Well-Baked Body
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Protect
- Wish
- Body Press / Play Rough
- Roar

Dachsbun is a counter to Passimian. It can easily switch in on any of Passimian's moves bar Gunk Shot, which it can still live a hit if it switches in. Dachsbun can proceed to recover off the damage to keep it healthy as a switch-in to Passimian. Dachsbun does not have the greatest offensive presence, but can still chip away at Passimian, wearing it down for other teammates to finish off. Dazzling Gleam can be considered as an option over Play Rough if you're worried about proccing Defiant, but it leaves Dachsbun very passive.

252 Atk Passimian Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dachsbun: 60-72 (18.8 - 22.6%) -- possible 5HKO
252 Atk Tera Fighting Passimian Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dachsbun: 81-96 (25.4 - 30.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Passimian Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dachsbun: 33-39 (10.3 - 12.2%) -- possible 9HKO
252 Atk Passimian U-turn vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dachsbun: 24-28 (7.5 - 8.8%) -- possibly the worst move ever
252 Atk Passimian Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dachsbun: 68-80 (21.3 - 25.1%) -- 0% chance to 4HKO
252 Atk Passimian Gunk Shot vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dachsbun: 162-192 (50.9 - 60.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Def Dachsbun Body Press vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Fighting Passimian: 96-114 (28.1 - 33.4%) -- 0% chance to 3HKO
0 Atk Dachsbun Play Rough vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Fighting Passimian: 176-210 (51.6 - 61.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

 

[Stories]

Table of Contents

Start of Victim
Checks and Counters
Results

 

[Stories]

Archives

Nothing yet!

 

[Stories]

Leaderboard

Nothing yet!

 

[Oathkeeper]

Bruxish @ Mystic Water
Ability: Strong Jaw
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Psychic Fangs
- Liquidation / Aqua Jet
- Tera Blast


Yep, this demon of a fish serves as a nice check to Passimian since even with a better defensive typing in Fairy, Bruxish has no reliable recovery and subpar bulk. While Bruxish is frail-ish and doesn't reliably eat up Passimian's attacks with its moves, Tera Fairy can serve it well and make it not susceptible to Knock and U-turn. With Tera acting like mega evolution (activates regardless of who's faster), Bruxish can activate it right away and take advantage of the better defensive typing for Passimian and just kill right back with "still" STAB Psychic Fangs.

252 Atk Strong Jaw Tera Fairy Bruxish Psychic Fangs vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Passimian: 390-462 (114.3 - 135.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 Atk Passimian Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Fairy Bruxish: 124-147 (44.7 - 53%) -- 30.5% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Passimian Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Fairy Bruxish: 67-79 (24.1 - 28.5%) -- 97.1% chance to 4HKO
252 Atk Passimian U-turn vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Fairy Bruxish: 48-57 (17.3 - 20.5%) -- possible 5HKO
252 Atk Passimian Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Fairy Bruxish: 138-163 (49.8 - 58.8%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO​

 

[Fragmented]

Dachsbun @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Well-Baked Body
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Protect
- Wish
- Body Press / Play Rough
- Roar

Dachsbun is a counter to Passimian. It can easily switch in on any of Passimian's moves bar Gunk Shot, which it can still live a hit if it switches in. Dachsbun can proceed to recover off the damage to keep it healthy as a switch-in to Passimian. Dachsbun does not have the greatest offensive presence, but can still chip away at Passimian, wearing it down for other teammates to finish off. Dazzling Gleam can be considered as an option over Play Rough if you're worried about proccing Defiant, but it leaves Dachsbun very passive.

252 Atk Passimian Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dachsbun: 60-72 (18.8 - 22.6%) -- possible 5HKO
252 Atk Tera Fighting Passimian Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dachsbun: 81-96 (25.4 - 30.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Passimian Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dachsbun: 33-39 (10.3 - 12.2%) -- possible 9HKO
252 Atk Passimian U-turn vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dachsbun: 24-28 (7.5 - 8.8%) -- possibly the worst move ever
252 Atk Passimian Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dachsbun: 68-80 (21.3 - 25.1%) -- 0% chance to 4HKO
252 Atk Passimian Gunk Shot vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dachsbun: 162-192 (50.9 - 60.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Def Dachsbun Body Press vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Fighting Passimian: 96-114 (28.1 - 33.4%) -- 0% chance to 3HKO
0 Atk Dachsbun Play Rough vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Fighting Passimian: 176-210 (51.6 - 61.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

 

[Rabia]

@ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Shed Skin
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Glare
- Rest

Sandaconda is a check to Passimian. Although Tera Fighting Close Combat does a MILLION, you can respond with your own Tera Ghost and completely blank it. Sandaconda can consistently rack up Rocky Helmet damage throughout a game on Passimian too until it uses Knock Off, in which case it gets free turns to throw off Glare or set Stealth Rock.

 

[plznostep]

Vespiquen

Vespiquen

Vespiquen @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- U-turn
- Toxic
- Spikes
- Roost

Vespiquen is a counter to Passimian. Vespiquen has a 4x resistance to fighting moves, which are Passimian's strongest attacks while not caring all too much about most of Passimians coverage options with the exception of a few such as Rock Slide, which Vespiquen is 2HKO'd by but can terastallize to remove this 4x weakness and take much less from this move. Vespiquen also doesn't like Knock Off, as removing Vespiquen's Heavy-Duty Boots can be quite detrimental due to Stealth Rock's taking away half of its HP everytime it switches in but you can get around this by utilizing terastallization, which Vespiquen already likes to do in a game to get rid of its poor typing. Ghost can allow Vespiquen to keep its favourable match up fighting types such as Passimian and Medicham while also spinblocking, for example. While this Tera Typing may make Vespiquen weak to Knock Off, without an item Knock Off does not do significant damage and even if Vespiquen still has its item, it fails to KO, making this not that big of a deal. Vespiquen can take advantage of Passimian in numerous ways, such as pivotting out with U-turn, spreading Toxic to cripple Passimian and other opposing Pokémon and can even set up spikes in front of it. It also has reliable recovery so it can do this all throughout a game. Lastly, Vespiquen doesn't care about some of Passimian's most common terastallization typings like Fighting and Poison, as Gunk Shot even after a terastallization fails to 2hko Vespiquen and for the aforementioned 4x resist to fighting.

Calculations
252 Atk Tera Fighting Passimian Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Vespiquen: 44-52 (12.8 - 15.1%) -- possible 7HKO
252 Atk Tera Poison Passimian Gunk Shot vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Vespiquen: 132-156 (38.4 - 45.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Passimian Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Vespiquen: 71-84 (20.6 - 24.4%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
252 Atk Passimian U-turn vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Vespiquen: 25-30 (7.2 - 8.7%) -- possibly the worst move ever
252 Atk Tera Poison Passimian Rock Slide vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Vespiquen: 224-264 (65.3 - 76.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
52 Atk Passimian Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Tera Ghost Vespiquen: 142-168 (41.3 - 48.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO (with item)
252 Atk Passimian Knock Off vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Tera Ghost Vespiquen: 96-114 (27.9 - 33.2%) -- guaranteed 4HKO (item already knocked off)
252 Atk Passimian Rock Slide vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Tera Ghost Vespiquen: 56-66 (16.3 - 19.2%) -- possible 6HKO ​

 

[5Dots]

Apologies for getting this slate in late, but the submission phase of the first week of Victim Of The Week is now over! Thank you to everyone for your submissions and their efforts. Here is the slate:
CHECKS

USER	POKEMON	SET
Oathkeeper​	​	Swords Dance Bruxish​
Rabia​	​	Physically Defensive Sandaconda​

COUNTERS

USER	POKEMON	SET
Fragmented​	​	Physically Defensive Dachsbun​
plznostep​	​	Physically Defensive Vespiquen​

To compensate for the lateness of this post, the deadline will be set back to Tuesday at 11:59 PM GMT-4. Please vote for one check and one counter. You cannot vote for your own submission.

I will be voting for as a check, and as a counter.

 

[Fragmented]

as check
as counter

 

[Danny]

sandy/bun

 

[Stories]

Sandy as a check