After playing around 200 games on the suspect ladder(lmfao rip me), both with and without marshadow, I'll post something that's probably fairly unpopular, likely incorrect and irrelevant, but important to my playstyle.
Benefits:
- Spectral Thief - This is a no-brainer, it makes marshadow what it is. It gives marshadow the capability of stealing all positive stat changes(no negative ones) and take them, and then attack the opponent.
- 125 Base Speed - This translates into 383 speed, which is an insane speed tier. Can outspeed and OHKO un-scarfed Tapu Lele, and other threats.
- Beautiful Coverage - Fighting/Ghost STAB is incredible, allowing unresisted coverage for any type.
These 3, added together, make an incredibly broken pokemon that crushes everything in it's path.
BUT
Let's consider the amount of things we can do about this.
- Trick Room: Once trick room is up, marshadow gets flattened by anything that doesn't hit like a pack of slightly wet instant noodles. It's useless, apart from whatever it can tickle with it's "technician boosted" shadow sneak.
- Intimidate: Yes, many physical attackers are crippled by intimidate, and they've always been able to play around it. However, keeping marshadow switching out means that eventually, you'll be hitting it on the switch in. If it doesn't, then it hits like a pack of slightly wet instant noodles.
- Tapu Fini: After playing against many fini, i've realized that spectral thief really doesn't counter Fini at all. Sure, it can steal a calm mind boost, but let's look at this- 252 Atk Marshadow Spectral Thief vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 127-151 (36.9 - 43.8%) -- 99.8% chance to 3HKO. Meanwhile, marshadow's getting cucked by unboosted moonblasts.
- Tailwind: suddenly, 383 speed doesn't matter because your opponent outspeeds you anyways, and Salamence-Mega won't be touched after an intimidate or a tailwind.
- Diancie-Mega: This new pokemon took our metagame and changed it greatly, and it's yet another pokemon that beats Marshadow. Spectral thief does less than a pack of slightly wet instant noodles, and dies instantly to a moonblast. The argument to be made here is that it can take diancie's defense boosts away, but it's the kinda pokemon that gets them back anyways.
- pokemon with a higher speed tier: Looking at Tapu Koko, Deoxys-Attack, Gengar-Mega, and Shaymin Sky. All of these pokemon are used fairly frequently, and with marshadow coming in, they still continue to run circles around it. (Hint: increase usage)
BUT
I understand that i've lowballed marshadow's abilities by a bunch with this point, but as a marshadow user myself, these are all the things that I greatly struggled against. You can definitely pair it with teammates who counter these counters, which is why I believe that marshadow is not broken enough to be banned. Change the meta? yes. However, it's in no way unhealthy, since many common playstyles/pokemon already put it in check.
Final word: Apologies if this seems biased, it is, because i struggled a lot getting reqs to vote here. For the last hundred games or so, i lost to a lot of shit even though I had a marshadow on my team. (this is still biased)
Benefits:
- Spectral Thief - This is a no-brainer, it makes marshadow what it is. It gives marshadow the capability of stealing all positive stat changes(no negative ones) and take them, and then attack the opponent.
- 125 Base Speed - This translates into 383 speed, which is an insane speed tier. Can outspeed and OHKO un-scarfed Tapu Lele, and other threats.
- Beautiful Coverage - Fighting/Ghost STAB is incredible, allowing unresisted coverage for any type.
These 3, added together, make an incredibly broken pokemon that crushes everything in it's path.
BUT
Let's consider the amount of things we can do about this.
- Trick Room: Once trick room is up, marshadow gets flattened by anything that doesn't hit like a pack of slightly wet instant noodles. It's useless, apart from whatever it can tickle with it's "technician boosted" shadow sneak.
- Intimidate: Yes, many physical attackers are crippled by intimidate, and they've always been able to play around it. However, keeping marshadow switching out means that eventually, you'll be hitting it on the switch in. If it doesn't, then it hits like a pack of slightly wet instant noodles.
- Tapu Fini: After playing against many fini, i've realized that spectral thief really doesn't counter Fini at all. Sure, it can steal a calm mind boost, but let's look at this- 252 Atk Marshadow Spectral Thief vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tapu Fini: 127-151 (36.9 - 43.8%) -- 99.8% chance to 3HKO. Meanwhile, marshadow's getting cucked by unboosted moonblasts.
- Tailwind: suddenly, 383 speed doesn't matter because your opponent outspeeds you anyways, and Salamence-Mega won't be touched after an intimidate or a tailwind.
- Diancie-Mega: This new pokemon took our metagame and changed it greatly, and it's yet another pokemon that beats Marshadow. Spectral thief does less than a pack of slightly wet instant noodles, and dies instantly to a moonblast. The argument to be made here is that it can take diancie's defense boosts away, but it's the kinda pokemon that gets them back anyways.
- pokemon with a higher speed tier: Looking at Tapu Koko, Deoxys-Attack, Gengar-Mega, and Shaymin Sky. All of these pokemon are used fairly frequently, and with marshadow coming in, they still continue to run circles around it. (Hint: increase usage)
BUT
I understand that i've lowballed marshadow's abilities by a bunch with this point, but as a marshadow user myself, these are all the things that I greatly struggled against. You can definitely pair it with teammates who counter these counters, which is why I believe that marshadow is not broken enough to be banned. Change the meta? yes. However, it's in no way unhealthy, since many common playstyles/pokemon already put it in check.
Final word: Apologies if this seems biased, it is, because i struggled a lot getting reqs to vote here. For the last hundred games or so, i lost to a lot of shit even though I had a marshadow on my team. (this is still biased)