"[Analysis] New Dark Trio (Mandibuzz, Krookodile, Bisharp) in PvP"

#PokemonGO: Hello again, fellow travelers! It's that PvP analysis guy, back again already after yesterday's Master League article to take a peek at the surprise release of a trio of Gen 5 Darks, all of which have been highly anticipated. So let's see how they perform in PvP formats of the current and close future metas!A disclaimer: my analysis is strictly from a PvP usability standpoint. I'm just a PvP guy, so that's what I'll be focusing on here. So without further ado, let's dive in....All The BuzzMANDIBUZZ is probably the most anticipated of this trio in PvP play, and it's easy to see why. In Great League, it has higher bulk than known flying tanks Tropius (about 20 more Defense and 5 more HP) and Noctowl (30 more Defense and 10 more HP), and more overall bulk than Azumarill, Munchlax, Defense Deoxys, and others, and JUST trails Umbreon. (Close enough that they're basically the same depending on IVs.) And on top of that, it gets the crazy energy generation of Snarl, plus a moveset that includes Shadow Ball AND Foul Play (and again akin to Umbreon, Dark Pulse as well), the only thing in the game so far that has Ball and Foul Play. So good is the potential of Mandi that Niantic nerfed it before it was ever released, by removing Sky Attack from its movepool and leaving it with the mediocre Aerial Ace instead.Last point before we dive headlong into the sims: the typing. Dark/Flying is a mixed bag, retaining all of the standard Flying vulnerabilities (Electric, Ice, Rock) and Dark's standard weakness to Fairy. The good news is that Flying negates Dark's famous vulnerability to Fighting damage (and Bug too, for that matter), and Mandi gets the best of both worlds as far as its resistances go: Grass and a double resistance to Ground on its Flying side, and all of Dark's standard resistances: Dark, Ghost, and a double to Psychic (the type AND the poorly named move! 🙃).Okay... rolls up sleeves, cracks knuckles ...NOW let's get into some sims.So first let's roll the curtain all the way back and look at open Great League. It's hard to pin down the "best" moveset, as they're all good. With Snarl as the (probably preferred) fast move, there are four move set combos in particular that stand out, and I'll highlight their best points before I note what they ALL do:Shadow Ball/Foul Play is likely the crowd favorite out of the gate. There are no Pokemon that it and it alone can beat, but it does defeat Froslass, Whiscash, and Alolan Raichu, all of which at least one of the other sets cannot beat. This is a good all-arounder moveset.Foul Play/Aerial Ace is the only other move combo that reliably beats Whiscash (because of throwing out FOUR Foul Plays), and also beats Alolan Raichu as well as the mirror versus FP/SB Mandibuzz, but falls just a little short against Froslass (as Foul Play just doesn't deal quite enough damage to finish Froslass off before it reaches a second, killer Avalanche).Shadow Ball/Aerial Ace is not surprisingly a mix of the two sets above, beating Froslass and Alolan Raichu thanks to Shadow Ball, Mandi thanks to Aerial Ace.But the surprise (for me, at least) is Shadow Ball/Dark Pulse, which also beats Froslass and the mirror (all damage is still resisted, but Pulse deals more of it), and uniquely also beats Thunder Ferrothorn and Vigoroth, the ONLY moveset with enough raw unresisted power to reliably do so. (Foul Play can tie Viggy but normally loses unless it has great IVs and Vigoroth does not, and even with perfect PvP IVs, the best Aerial Ace can do against Ferro is tie.) The one downside to the SB/DP combo is that it's the only one listed here that does NOT beat Alolan Raichu (being just a little to slow to head off a closing Wild Charge, while any set with Foul Play or Aerial Ace to at least bait can limit AhChu to a Thunder Punch instead and shake that off for the win).All four of these sets can overcome the following in 1v1 shielding (in purely alphabetical order): Cresselia, Defense Deoxys, Drifblim, Haunter, Hypno (neither Ice nor Thunder Punch do enough), Alolan Marowak, Medicham, Meganium, Mew (even with Wild Charge, yes), Munchlax, Pelipper, Registeel (yes, really!), Sableye, Shiftry, Skarmory, Swampert (regardless of whether SW or EQ), Toxicroak (it DOES get uncomfortably close, though!), Tropius, Venusaur, and Shadow Victreebel (take THAT, Grasshole!), among others. In short, it's very good against Psychics, Grasses, Ghosts and a few others, and can outtank most other tanks out there. That is a good place to be in Great League!One more wrinkle to consider: what about the other fast move, Air Slash? As you might expect, it IS generally a little worse, though certainly still very viable. Because I'm sure you're wondering, here are the big differences:Movesets driven by the quick energy from Snarl defeat DDeoxys, Registeel, and usually (as noted) Alolan Raichu, Froslass, and Whiscash. Air Slash cannot reliably beat any of those.Air Slash, on the benefit of its steady Flying damage, defeats Abomasnow and Scrafty and reliably wins the mirror against any Snarl Mandibuzz. Furthermore, running Aerial Ace as well also presents the only way Mandibuzz reliably defeats Last Resort Umbreon.Overall not an expansive list of new wins, but some really nice ones! Snarl is better overall, but there will certainly be some formats (perhaps Halloween Cup?) where I could certainly see Air Slash Mandi pulling a bit ahead just because of what is (and is not) around it.Speaking of narrowed formats, let's look at a couple, starting with the delayed (but still coming!) Flying Cup. (As a side note, I almost wonder if part of the reason Niantic moved it was to allow Mandi to be in it. Hmmmm.... 🤔) I actually already looked at Mandi briefly in a speculative bit in my full Flying Cup meta review (wow, that was a MONTH ago already?!), but worth mentioning again: even with hatch-level IVs, it can outtank Skarmory (with either fast move), Gyarados, and Gligar and even scrape by with a win against Aerodactyl! Of course, that Aero win gets much easier with good, post-trade IVs, and with an excellent trade IVs, you could even sneak away with a win over Altaria! Not a bad body of work at all!In The Silph Arena's ongoing Sunrise Cup (again simmed with hatch-level IVs), Mandi's best overall moveset seems to be the Shadow Ball/Dark Pulse one, primarily due to the prominent presence of Ferrothorn (which, if you remember, only SB/DP reliably beats), as well as Blim and A-Wak, Skarmory, Vigoroth (another Dark Pulse speciality), Swampert and Quagsire (Whiscash requires Foul Play, remember), Pelipper, Linoone, and more. Not a dominating performance (Sunrise is actually not a very Flying-friendly place with big Ices and Electrics and Galarian Stunfisk around), but still viable for anyone looking to mix things up!As for Halloween Cup... sorry, but not today. I am still planning to do a full budget/meta review for that format as I did for Flying Cup and many other metas before, so Mandi (and the following two Dark Pokémon as well!) will be a part of that. Patience is a virtue, right? (Please put down the stones and rotten fruit! 😬) For now I'll just say that Honchkrow (same typing but much less bulk) was going to be one of my surprisingly all-star recommendations, so you can just imagine with Mandi will be able to do!There is certainly more I could go into--different shielding scenarios (though I DID look, they still tell mostly the same story anyway), various IV spreads, speculative future metas, etc.--we still have two more Pokémon I haven't even MENTIONED yet, and I don't want to burn you out completely. So my last mention on Mandi is this: it's usefulness may not be limited to just Great League. 😱 That's right... despite topping out below 2200 CP (a mere 2138 for a hundo), there is a case to be made in Ultra League. Mandibuzz easily handles both Giratinas and of course other Ghosts (Gengar, Drifblim), continues to dominate Psychics (Armored Mewtwo, Gallade, Cresselia), still beats Grasses like Venusaur, Meganium, and Ferrothorn, Fighters like Toxicroak and Poliwrath (not even Ice Punch can take this big boy down!), and then things like Snorlax, Swampert, Charizard, and Scizor just for good measure. It's probably a little better in open UL rather than Premier Cup--mostly due to the appearance of the Giratinas, A-Mewtwo, and Cress in open--but do note that it also beats things you'll likely see pop up only in Premier like Shadow Snorlax, Shadow Exeggutor, Shadow Gallade, and the oddly-popular-this-season Slowbro. Anyway, don't let anyone tell you Mandibuzz is just a Great League contender. It is amazingly competitive in Ultra as well!So what's the verdict? There has truly been a lot of buzz on Mandibuzz coming to PvP, and now we see why. It should have an immediate impact on GBL Great League and pretty much any GL condensed meta (Cup formats) moving forward, including potentially Flying Cup and Halloween Cup coming up soon. So good is Mandi's combination of top tier bulk, fast charging Snarl, and great charge moves that it can even stand tall in Ultra League despite trailing most of its opponents by over 300 CP. In terms of PvP, THIS is the one you want to grind for the most during this ongoing Red Rocket Egg event. Hopefully we get more ways to acquire them before too long! Good luck hatching, my friends!But we're not done. While Mandi will certainly have the biggest impact, there ARE two more new Darks to cover as well....They're Kreepy and They're Krooky...♫ ...the Sandile family! snap, snap 👌KROOKODILE is the only one of these three Pokémon that requires evolving TWICE, from a hatched Sandile up to Krokorock for 25 candy and then finally to Krookodile for 100 more candy. Is it worth all that? Ehhhh....Here's the good news: Krookodile also has Snarl to quickly power up its charge moves, and Crunch for spam with Outrage or great big Earthquakes for closing power. It also gets quite big, so much so that unfortunately there is no way to get a hatch level one small enough for Great League (even a theoretical 0/0/0 Level 20 Krook is over 1500 CP), but that means it could have play in Ultra League and potentially even Master League, exceeding 3000 CP (3046, to be precise) when maxed out.The bad news: well, again, there's no way to get it in Great League right now, and its pre-evolution lacks Snarl and isn't very good. But presumably we WILL be able to get Krook itself in Great League at SOME point down the line, and once we do... eh, even then it doesn't look ready to make a huge splash, if we're being honest. Yes, the Sandile/Krokorock/Krookodile line are the first and so far only Ground/Dark types in the franchise, and those are two typings with some very good offensive applications. But the problem is that Krook just doesn't have much bulk to speak of, with decent HP (roughly 130) but less than 100 Defense. (For a close frame of reference, similarly-built Swampert still has about 5 more HP and 10 more Defense in Great League.) So while it DOES still beat some big names--A-Wak, Hypno, Drifblim, Haunter, Registeel, Bastiodon, AhChu, Froslass, and both Stunfisks being among them--there is a far larger list of things that rip through it like wet tissue paper, including anything Water, Grass, Fighting, Fairy, or Flying, and even most of its fellow Darks. And no, Outrage is no better... it's actually worse. So don't be TOO upset that we can't play with it in GL yet. It has some decent niches, but overall I don't expect it to break out. Maybe in the right limited meta sometime?Alright, what about in the bigger leagues? Mandibuzz made a good splash in Ultra... can Krook replicate some of that success? Eh... some, but not much. You can still get the Giratinas, which is good, plus the other big Ghosts and Psychics. (Snarl and Crunch will tend to do that for you.) Earthquake still beats Melmetal, plus Escavalier, Scizor, and even Alolan Muk, which are nice to see. But that is basically where its usefulness ends. You don't get Regi, you don't get Fires, and forget about it with the Fighters and Fairies and Grasses and Waters. Heck, even Altered Giratina can turn the tables. Yet again, Krookodile's prospects are torpedoed by that subpar bulk, still trailing Swampert and just barely outpacing flimsy options like Toxicroak and Machamp (all of which thoroughly destroy Krook).Master League can sometimes smooth over low bulk due to everything being maxed out, so is that the case here? Well, kinda. The win/loss record is less lopsided, at least, with nice wins over things like Metagross, Melmetal, Heatran, Rhyperior, Zekrom, both Giratinas, and even big bad Dialga, as well as Magnezone, Gengar, Electivire, and Scizor in Premier Cup. Maybe it can carve out a spot on somebody's team, but continuing to get bodied by Waters, Ices, Fairies, Fighters, and even many Dragons is worrisome, to say the least.So what's the verdict? Krookodile LOOKS awesome, and arriving as the first Ground/Dark in the game is exciting. But unfortunately it looks like it mostly fails to live up to the hype. It does some things well, but even with its niches there are usually better, more reliable options. Krookodile is just too frail to live up to its full potential, which is a shame. And again, no way to even get it in Great League... yet.One more... can we end on a high note?Sharp Edges Have ConsequencesWith apologies to Linkin Park:♫ I guess that I had to find out for myself♪ Sharp edges have consequences♭ Now every scar is a story I can tell♬ Should've played safer from the start♫ Loved you like a house of cards♪ Let it fall apart....Pretty sure there's a B Sharp somewhere in that song. Get it? B Sharp?Guess I better not quit my day job.Anyway, Bisharp in PvP is kind of a more balanced, more promising version of what Absol always wanted to be, keeping the same promising Snarl/Dark Pulse to start with, replacing the slower Megahorn with the spammy X-Scissor, and swapping out Absol's Thunder for options Iron Head and the always-enticing Focus Blast instead. It also has roughly the same HP as Absol but 25 additional Defense, giving it a frail body, but FAR bulkier than Absol and its Haunter-like physique. So while Absol is quite pitiful in PvP, Bisharp at least puts up an argument. It does pretty standard Dark things (beating Ghosts like A-Wak, Haunter, Drifblim, and Froslass, plus Psychics like Hypno, Cress, AhChu, and Mew) AND handles most Grasses (Shiftry, Aboma, Ferro, Shadow Vic, even Venusaur and Tropius) thanks to spammy Bug damage from X-Scissor. It also takes out things like Skarmory and Pelipper by just outracing them with hard hitting, unrelenting neutral damage.That's the "standard" moveset, but there are ways to trick our your ride Sharpie. Iron Head doesn't do much for it, despite having STAB, but Focus Blast can. Pairing Blast with Dark Pulse drops several Grasses (Aboma, Tropius, Victreebel) and even some Ghosts and Psychics (A-Wak, Haunter, Mew, AhChu), but look at the list of potential gains: Registeel, Umbreon, Bastiodon, Dewgong, and Lapras. If you want to go that route, though, it might be better to actually shed Dark Pulse, give up being a true Dark type, and go full on Swiss Army Knife mode with X-Scissor and Focus Blast. Now you get some of those Grasses back (including Meganium for the first time, though Trop and Shadow Vic can still persevere), as well as Alolan Raichu, keep all the Steels, Ices, and Umbreon thanks to Focus Blast, and even pick up a nice win over Galarian Stunfisk. Bisharp is rather gimmicky, but it's a pretty good gimmick! And yes, Bisharp CAN work in Great League, it just requires a trade to get IVs that fit in Great League (10-10-10 hatch floor is too high)... here's just one example: 4-8-9 IVs, which basically does the same things I just spoke to above.EDIT: You can avoid messing with IVs entirely if you get a REALLY high IV Pawniard... because you can potentially max it out and use it in Great League! In this case it looks like you DO want Iron Head, since it already comes packing with Fury Cutter for Bug damage and the always handy Night Slash. That means you still shred the Grasses and Psychics, still get Haunter and Drifblim, and also Darks like Zweilous, Umbreon, Sableye, and even Mandibuzz! There is some very nice potential here... thanks to the couple of folks that prompted me to take a closer look!Can Bisharp bring its road show to any other leagues? In Ultra League, it appears it does enough things to at least merit a little discussion. Yes, it also beats the Giratinas, more reliably than Krookodile, plus the other Ghosts you've come to expect by now, and Cresselia. Disappointingly though, Gallade and Armored Mewtwo fend it off with their Fighting charge moves (Close Combat and Dynamic Punch, respectively). As compensation, Bisharp is the only one this Dark trio that DOES manage to beat Dragonite (thank you, Steel typing!), and it also capably handles the Grasses that show up at this level... only those few with Fighting (Virizion), Fairy (Whimsicott, Lilligant), or Ground (Meganium, Sceptile) moves win, and Bisharp beats literally ALL other Grasses with X-Scissor. And you get Scizor and Alolan Muk as bonuses!Now what if, as before, we plug Focus Blast in? Well this time, to do so with X-Scissor just gives up too much, but pairing Focus Blast with Dark Pulse shows some real promise. You give up Venusaur, Shadow Abomasnow, and Tangrowth (though those look like the ONLY Grasses that flip to losses, thankfully), but gain tasty targets like Snorlax, Empoleon, and Lapras. I dunno... Bisharp seems like a little bit of stretch either way in Ultra, but there's a team out there that could use it, I'm sure. Maybe even yours?Well, YOUR team is now plugging away in Master League for the next couple weeks, so let's see if Bisharp fits at all there. Well, it does max below 3000 CP, and while that's not a disqualifier necessarily (remember Mandibuzz in Ultra League!), unfortunately the actual record IS a dealbreaker. Yes, the Giras are still there, plus big names Dialga, Mewtwo, and Metagross, but that's the extent of it. A very good start, but not where you also want to end, and that's exactly what Bisharp does at this level.So what's the verdict? Well it's no Mandibuzz, but Bisharp shows some promise in Great and Ultra Leagues, and (at least via trade) is immediately available in both. You can run it as a classic Dark with some extra anti-Grass utility thanks to X-Scissor, or as more of a home run hitter with Focus Blast along the same vein as FB Mewtwo/Gengar/Ampharos. Both have their limitations, and will rarely be plug and play options without serious thought going into the team crafted around them... doing so will have consequences and leave scars, as Linkin Park warned 😏. but Bisharp can and likely will work for somebody out there. Be on the lookout!Whew... we made it through all three! So the real quick TL;DR is:Yes, you want Mandibuzz. In fact, you may even want two: one for Great League and one for Ultra League (yes, really!). It has good moves that work even though none of them really offer any coverage, simply because Mandibuzz is incredibly tanky. It can soak up a LOT of damage, even super effective damage, and hang in long enough to turn even some bad matchups around. THIS is the one you want most out of this event, folks.Krookodile will probably work in some limited Great League metas, but unfortunately I don't see much of a future for it in any league's open (or even Premier Cup) format, as it's just too flimsy. And more unfortunately, all hatched ones are too big for Great League, so hope for a wild release down the line. Nothing doing on this guy yet.Bisharp can run as a Dark/Bug hybrid, a Dark with the potential to flip stuff with Focus Blast, or as a trick play with Snarl powering up spammy Bug charge move damage and Focus Blast home runs. This is one that will require special care and feeding--and the right team!--to work, but I think it CAN work, especially in Great League. (And yes, you CAN fit a Level 20 Bisharp in GL via trading... hatch IVs are too big.)But there we have it! Hopefully you made it to the end and maybe learned something along the line. I sincerely hope you did, and that your time reading through was worth it!For more PvP tidbits, you can find me on Twitter for near-daily PvP analysis nuggets, or Patreon (with my own private server, if you're interested in that). And please, feel free to comment here with your own thoughts or questions and I'll try to get back to you!I hope you are able to hatch these new Dark Pokémon during this event and get started using them! But as you do, please be safe out there, Pokéfriends.Thanks again for reading, and hatch you... I mean, catch you next time! via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/34XSkWs