[Guide] Competitive Analysis: Oblivicorn

[Lord Windos]

I just remember something that could be a problem: Chainite. One of its abilities, Shadow Tag, would be banned by normal Smogen agenda, due to its very nature preventing counter play. However, it is arguably its most useful ability as well, given that Cursed Body is less than useful due to its sub par bulk hindering it from taking too many hits. Thoughts on what to do with this monster?

The thing to consider with that is does Chainite pose enough of a threat with Shadow Tag to guarantee a win condition?  That's why Shadow Tag Gothitelle was banned from everything except Ubers.  It would trap something that couldn't touch it, and then set up Calm Minds to its heart's desire, Rest whenever needed, and sweep.  There wasn't a reasonable answer to that outside of the ultra powerful physical attackers residing in the highest tier of play.

If Chainite can reliably do something similar with its own Shadow Tag sets, it's a problem.  If not, it's a bit more like the usual Arena Trap pokemon.

A Chainite with a set similar to Gothitelle's would likely be Curse (it's only dual boosting move), Rest, Shadow Sneak (because of the speed drops), and Drain Punch (for that perfect type coverage and extra recovery).  That might be a bit too much for the game, but it depends on how well special attackers can dent the ghost after a couple of curses.

Such a set could still have a niche in Ubers play if it's banned from the lower tiers, though, since Gothitelle found one there with Shadow Tag, so there's that to still consider.  And with Nucleon around (and other powerful special attackers, but mainly Nucleon.  Urayne and N-Jerbolta can do the same thing too, technically), Chainite can't really afford to try setting up until the radioactive eevee is dead, so there's likely not as many issues with Shadow Tag Chainite in the highest tiers.

Chainite is Dark/Ghost, though, so Curse would act as a HP drain move, not a boosting one. It seems the creators made a deliberate effort in excluding moves that boosted more than one stat on the dark monster, so it only gets SD, Nasty Plot, and Iron Defense to work with. Which means that Shadow Tag is most likely good for it trapping and eliminating key targets, or setting up a boost and going to town with the rest of its coverage. Granted, it could always cram Iron Defense, SD and Rest on it, then just work with one attack to try and KO them all, so there is that...

Its typing, high HP, decent stats, and an actual movepool basically makes it a better Wobbofett. It doesn't get Counter, Mirror Coat or Encore, but it has more than enough Atk and coverage to spell the doom of just about everything if its built right. It would be a real nightmare with status moves as well, since it could switch in and trap Wall/Atks, and hit them with Either Burn, Toxic, or Paralysis, and they could do nothing but try and nail it down before it procs those moves. If it isn't Ubers worthy, its certainly a threat to always account for!