Pokémon Pelipper

[CaptainDaimyo]

Base Stats: 60 HP / 50 Atk / 100 Def / 95 SpA / 70 SpD / 65 Spe
Abilities: Keen Eye | Drizzle | Rain Dish (H)
Notable Moves:
- Hurricane
- Roost
- U-Turn
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Knock Off

Movepool

Learned Moves:
Growl @ Lv. 1
Supersonic @ Lv. 1
Air Slash @ Lv. 1
Water Gun @ Lv. 1
Tailwind @ Lv. 1
Agility @ Lv. 1
Quick Attack @ Lv. 1
Protect @ Lv. 1
Soak @ Lv. 1
Wing Attack @ Lv. 15
Water Pulse @ Lv. 20
Stockpile @ Lv. 28
Spit Up @ Lv. 28
Swallow @ Lv. 28
Fling @ Lv. 34
Mist @ Lv. 41
Roost @ Lv. 48
Hurricane @ Lv. 55
Hydro Pump @ Lv. 62
TM Moves:
Fly, Body Slam, Take Down, Hydro Pump, Surf, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Hyper Beam, Agility, Waterfall, Swift, Rest, Substitute, Thief, Protect, Icy Wind, Endure, Sleep Talk, Rain Dance, Facade, Helping Hand, Air Cutter, Aerial Ace, Water Pulse, Tailwind, U-turn, Fling, Seed Bomb, Air Slash, Brave Bird, Giga Impact, Gunk Shot, Acrobatics, Hurricane, Liquidation, Tera Blast, Snowscape, Chilling Water

Pros:
- With Drizzle, Pelipper becomes a staple Pokémon in Rain teams, being used as a Rain setter.
- It's support role is greatly appreciated by Pokémon that become really scary under rain, such as Barraskweda and Palafin.
- Pelipper offers great utility due to its access to U-Turn, as well as the now-rare Knock Off.
- It has some decent physical bulk with a 100 Defense stat.
- Pelipper's Flying-typing provides a useful Ground immunity for its team.
- Pelipper has good longevity thanks to its access to Roost, allowing it to stay healthy for a longer time, providing more rain for its teammates.
- Pelipper is one of the few Pokémon in the current metagame with access to Knock Off, boosting its utility.

Cons:
- Although it possesses a decent Defense stat, it's special bulk is poor, with only 75 SpD.
- Pelipper's stats are overall mediocre, meaning that it is often forced out.
- Sets that lack Heavy-Duty Boots will tend to get worn down pretty easily due to Pelipper's weakness to Stealth Rock.
- Pelipper's typing is poor defensively, with a 4x weakness to Electric and a 2x weakness against Rock.
- Terastalizing Pelipper will make it more prone to type weaknesses, meaning Pelipper is a Pokémon not worth Terastalizing.

Terastal Potential:
- Due to its role as a support Pokémon not really meant for offensive roles, it is not really recommended to Terastalize Pelipper.
- Tera-Water loses its Ground-immunity and makes it worse against Grass-types. The only upside is that its Rock-type weakness is removed.
- Meanwhile, Tera-Flying, despite keeping the Ground-type immunity, makes it even more vulnerable to Ice-Types.

Potential Set:
Utility
Pelipper @ Damp Rock / Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Hurricane / Hydro Pump
- Roost
- U-turn
- Knock Off

This set allows Pelipper to help bring in its teammates via a slow U-turn, as well as hamper offensive threats or weaken defensive Pokémon thanks to its recent access to the very-coveted Knock Off. This Pelipper set is best utilized as a lead weather setter, where you can either pivot to a Pokémon that can perform well in rain, such as Palafin and Barraskweda, or by weakening opposing Pokémon by removing their item. Damp Rock allows Pelipper to not switch in more often in order to set up weather again, at the cost of gaining a weakness to Stealth Rock. For the latter reason, running Heavy-Duty Boots is reasonable, but Pelipper has to switch in more frequently to set up rain.

In conclusion, Pelipper, like in the previous generations, still remains a useful support Pokémon that is appreciated by Pokémon that can take advantage of the weather it sets up. It is further appreciated due to its access to utility options that can help in its team's offensive power. However, in the current meta full of speedy Pokémon, Pelipper might have some new struggles to deal with.

How do you think Pelipper will perform in Generation 9? Will it still remain as the tier's main rain setter, or will some other rain setter prove to be more effective? Finally, how will Pelipper perform after losing Defog in exchange for Knock Off? Feel free to discuss.

 

[STEELDRAGON]

Unfortunately it lost Scald, still has Chilling Water but not as good. The only Drizzle pokemon in the game and plays a critical role on rain teams. Been using it a lot and its doing really well

 

[CaptainDaimyo]

Unfortunately it lost Scald, still has Chilling Water but not as good. The only Drizzle pokemon in the game and plays a critical role on rain teams. Been using it a lot and its doing really well

Oof rip Scald, although it still has Hydro Pump and Surf

 

[Novax]

moreover , roost is now only 8 pp max . losing defog is huge , which means you will have to run a seperate hazard control . Having knock off is nice though , given the amount of mons which lost knock off . Losing scald will be a problem for more defensive sets , which means there might be some space for semi rain specs peli which were very rare last gen.

 

[escarlata]

Pelipper's typing is poor defensively, with a 4x weakness to Electric and a 2x weakness against Rock.

Water/Flying is traditionally an amazing defensive typing, despite the Electric and Rock weakness, and it's the main reason why Mantine has seen OU usage in the past despite being Mantine. Weakness to SR sucks but Electric and Rock as offensive coverage options are at an all time low whereas Water, Ground and especially Fighting are more common than ever.
The fact that the immediate next con you listed is "Terastalizing Pelipper will make it more prone to type weaknesses " just exemplifies this point.

 

[Bold School]

I've tried rain. Pelipper is still good. I don't actually miss Scald much on it. Surf in the rain is honestly fine and better power. The real issue is it doesn't get Defog anymore. So you have to find your hazard clear elsewhere. The good news is that will free up an extra attacking move.

I ran this set:

Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
- Hurricane
- Surf
- U-turn
- Roost

Despite minimal offensive investment, it's actually a pretty decent threat to throw off Hurricanes and Surfs to chunk something that is switching in. Having two STABs means you can put your opponent in some pretty interesting 50/50s. The slow U-Turn is also pretty good at getting your rain abusers in safely.

 

[STEELDRAGON]

I have noticed since the most recent bans, Pelipper's viability has took a a bit of a hit since the 2 best Rain abusers are gone now. It's still decent though but outside of dedicated rain teams it's pretty underwhelming. It's low stats hold it back as well