calcs +3 252 SpA Xurkitree Gigavolt Havoc (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 72+ SpD Amoonguss: 444-522 (102.7 - 120.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO



+3 252 SpA Xurkitree Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Steelix-Mega: 301-355 (85 - 100.2%) -- 25% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock



+3 252 SpA Xurkitree Gigavolt Havoc (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Blissey: 679-801 (95 - 112.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

more calcs 252 Atk Krookodile Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Shuca Berry Xurkitree: 201-237 (65.4 - 77.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO



252 Atk Aerodactyl-Mega Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Shuca Berry Xurkitree: 148-175 (48.2 - 57%) -- 91.8% chance to 2HKO



252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Shuca Berry Xurkitree: 247-292 (80.4 - 95.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Hey there, I'm gonna drop my thoughts on something that'e been bothering me with the discussion thus far.This seems to be an unpopular opinion for some reason, but I believe Xurkitree is easily the most problematic of the three. While it does have quite poor defensive capability compared to a lot of other prominent threats, in addition to seemingly viable counterplay on paper, I've found it quite hard to put into practice. The problem it causes not only lies in the heavy constraint is places on teambuilding, but also how these constraints transfer into actual play, thus making many situations that are extremely low risk for the Xurkitree user.The main problem that Xurkitree imposes in the teambuilding phase.Before its addition to the tier, there were an abundance of decent or better electric checks, that mostly focused on checking Raikou. Nowadays, its presence mandates that you pack a few solid offensive checks able to revenge kill it, as its Tail Glow set has the power to invalidate a large portion of viable defensive counterplay to it. Ways of dealing with Tail Glow Xurkitree are typically reduced to offensive pressure and revenge killing with either:a) faster Pokemon with strong Ground-type coverage like Aerodactyl, Krookodile, and Nidoking. Xurkitree's defensive capability might suck but its rarely put out of commission by a single unboosted neutral attack.Most if not all of its offensive checks are poor switch ins to Xurkitree, meaning its always a couple good plays away from shattering a team's defensive backbone.b) Faster dragons that can switch into Xurkitree's coverage at least once and can apply offensive pressure. This basically means Latias, Kyurem, and Hydreigon; Pokemon that can resist Thunderbolt, Grass Knot, and not fall right over to HP Ice. These switch ins are all flawed for one reason or another. Latias is prone to being trapped via Pursuit, Kyurem has a weakness to Stealth Rock, common priority like Bullet Punch and Mach Punch, as well as an overall poor defensive typing. Hydreigon often doesn't include Roost in its movesets due to the majority of them packing Choice Scarf or Specs. Dazzling Gleam is also a strong option for Xurk to use, which smack Dragon-types a fair bit harder (especially Hydreigon) while also not hurting its overall impact in most games.Conventional defensive answers to Electric-types that were highly successful in the past such as Amoonguss, Mega Steelix, Swampert, and Blissey are simply no longer as effective as they used to be. Xurkitree's overwhelmingly high Special Attack in conjunction with Gigavolt Havoc lets it plow through tradtionally good special walls, and its coverage options are just right to let it threaten anything that could otherwise to attempt to check it through unique typing or abilities.As most of us reading are well aware, Tail Glow isn't the only thing that sets Xurkitree apart as a dangerous wallbreaker. Choice Specs and Zap Plate sets have been popping up that have proven effective as well. I've mentioned previously that most, if not all, of the Ground-types that inhabit UU are not even close to true counters to Xurkitree, and only faster ones such as Krookodile and Nidoking actually tend to pose a threat to it. Offensive Nidoqueen sets as well as Mega Swampert and Mamoswine take a hit in their abilty to reliably check Electric-types, as anything slower than Xurkitree run the risk of being crushed by its insanely high-powered coverage options. As such, I have had battles where slamming Specs- or Zap Plate-boosted Volt Switches into my opponent's team was extremely low risk for me while my opponents played from behind, trying to check powerful wallbreakers, or getting stuck in dangerous VoltTurn cycles.The mere idea of Volt Switch going rampant after a Ground-type dies is often more than enough to keep said Ground-type from switching into Xurkitree. It can become a massive strain on any team, as the risk of losing their only stop to Xurkitree's Electric moves is often coersive enough to make your opponent play conservatively with it. This once again displays the extremely low risk that Xurkitree takes to use, and in conjunction, the high reward that often comes with it. In addition, while Xurkitree sports relatively poor defensive stats and capabilities, many Pokemon still struggle to outright KO it with unboosted neutral hits. In many games, Xurkitree usually trades with a target that isn't a healthy Krookodile, Nidoking, Latias, or Aerodactyl. A bit of theorymonning on my part (mostly courtesy of Cynde ), but even Shuca Berry sounds like a viable option, allowing Xurk to tank Earthquake from Krookodile, Mega Aerodactyl, and even Earth Power from Nidoking (guaranteed without Stealth Rock). Xurkitree doesn't exactly need Gigavolt Havoc to break through teams that lack Blissey (most), and Shuca Berry would seem like its most viable option to neuter a group of its potential checks.To wrap this post up, I'd like to talk about Xurkitree's matchup against various playstyles in the current metagame, and explain why none of them are particualrly bad for Xurkitree.* Offense, most commonly seen in UU with a decent defensive backbone to cover a couple key threats with most of the team relegated to applying offensive pressure. Xurkitree's "bad" matchup vs offense is often grossly overinflated. Straight Hyper Offense that has the capability to quickly overwhelm Xurkitree is few and far between, the reasoning boiling down to the effect that losing a defensive backbone can have on the consistency of a team (tldr HO is somewhat unreliable in the current state of UU). Common defensive staples on Bulky Offense such as Togekiss and Empoleon can end up giving Xurkitree a dangerous amount of breathing room. In addition, the option of Volt Switch makes Xurkitree a potent momentum grabber, which can put offensive teams on the back foot. As I've elaborated beforehand, it's extremely high-risk to send your Ground-type into Xurkitree, which makes it much more favorable for the Xurkitree user to grab free momentum via Volt Switch. When people say that Xurkitree tends to have a poor offense matchup, I feel that many are saying this without the right idea of what exactly the word "offense" implies in UU. Xurkitree's matchup vs a majority of the offense in UU tends to be slightly tougher, but quite far off from being truly poor.* Balance; bascially nonexistent in the current metagame thanks to the large number of threats that it has to attempt to handle defensively. As a more defesively inclined team style, the number of Pokemon Xurkitree takes advantage of is bound to increase in this scenario. Balance has an even harder time stopping Tail Glow because of this. It's also harder to stop Volt Switch since one wrong play can end up with a dead Ground-type, which is more than likely a key member of the teams defensive core. If played halfway decently, Xurkitree can find itself in a lot of low risk situations where it can deal significant damage.* Stall, I believe, actually has a slightly better matchup against Xurk than that of balance teams. While Xurkitree's Tail Glow can allow it to crush most defensive answers with relative ease, stall teams have somewhat adapted and thus caused an influx of Kyurem, Latias, Krookodile, Mega Aerodactyl, and now Weavile, that attempt to check Xurkitree offensively and/or cripple it for the remainder of a match. Stall has commonly employed tactics like these throughout the various generations, and this trend is no different. However, for reasons I've stated previously, none of these options are exactly safe options against it, and Xurkitree can often end up forcing a huge amount of damage onto a key member of a defensive team before it can be safely revenge killed.With that, all of my thoughts have been laid out fairly well. I ultimately don't have any say in how the vote will actually go, but I'd gladly urge anyone to support this thing leaving UU before open starts.---------As a final final note, I'd like to refute anything I said that might have shown Arcanine in anything resembling a positive light in my last post in this thread. I deeply regret anything that I said that might keep it out of D rank for a few more days, apologies.