LC Spotlight: Pancham
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Pancham's Beginning
When Pancham was first introduced, it was just a cute panda with a big niche in its signature move Parting Shot, which lowers the foe's Attack and Special Attack by one stage and makes Pancham switch out. This let Pancham work well as a slow pivot with its low Speed and allowed you to safely bring in a frail setup sweeper such as Zigzagoon, or it could be used to gain momentum by bringing in a Pokémon with a favorable matchup against an offensively weakened foe. Pancham also had the ability Scrappy, which let it hit Ghost-types with its Fighting-type attacks even though its only viable Fighting-type attack was Circle Throw, a move that worked well with entry hazard support because it forced switches and stacked entry hazard damage.
However, the thing that pushed Pancham back was its shallow movepool, which didn't include a strong Fighting-type STAB attack or coverage moves outside of Crunch, Shadow Claw, and Stone Edge, and Pancham had a low Attack stat compared to other Fighting-types and no reliable way to recover without access to Drain Punch. All of this caused Pancham to face huge competition from more viable Fighting-types such as Mienfoo, Meditite, and Timburr, which overshadowed its niches and caused its viability to plummet; thus, Pancham was almost never used except for Parting Shot.
Pancham's Rise to Power
Everyone prayed that Pancham would get some useful tutor moves in ORAS, such as a reliable STAB attack, like Drain Punch or even Superpower, or Knock Off, which Pancham could use to remove items from Sticky Hold Pokémon thanks to Mold Breaker. Their prayers were rewarded when they found out that ORAS gave Pancham all the new toys it wanted to play with, such as the coveted Drain Punch and the useful Knock Off, in addition to a lot of unexpected coverage moves, such as Iron Head, Gunk Shot, Thunder Punch, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, and Zen Headbutt. With these moves, Pancham's viability rose, and it became able to run useful Swords Dance, Choice Scarf, and bulky all-out attacker sets, which allowed it to take its place as one of the best Fighting-types in Little Cup.
Playing with Pancham
Pancham is most commonly used as a pivot thanks to its access to one of the single most potent moves in the game, Parting Shot. This move not only allows Pancham to gain momentum for its team, continuously forcing the opponent into a bad position, but also gives Pancham's teammates the opportunity to set up more easily, which is useful in a tier where threats like Omanyte and Zigzagoon can cleanly sweep entire teams given a single chance to set up. However, it is risky to use Parting Shot when facing an opposing Pawniard, as Parting Shot will give Pawniard +3 Attack due to Defiant, so Drain Punch is the better move to use. Drain Punch is a reliable STAB move that also provides Pancham with a bit of greatly appreciated recovery, and it can deal a large amount of damage to Pokémon that don't resist it thanks to Pancham's naturally high Attack stat. Knock Off is arguably the most spammable move on Pancham's moveset, and it can permanently cripple a variety of switch-ins to Pancham on top of providing good coverage with Drain Punch; Pancham is an especially effective user of Knock Off because its ability, Mold Breaker, means that even Sticky Hold users will not be able to keep their items. Pancham also has a number of excellent coverage options at its disposal, with the most prominent being Gunk Shot and Zen Headbutt. Fairy-types are one of the few to resist both Fighting- and Dark-type attacks, but even the bulkiest of Fairies are 2HKOed by Pancham's immensely powerful Gunk Shot. Zen Headbutt, on the other hand, is handy for eliminating troublesome Poison-types, particularly Croagunk and Foongus.
By forgoing Parting Shot for Swords Dance, Pancham can turn its role around and instead act as a dangerous wallbreaker. The rest of its moveset stays the same, but instead of focusing on pivoting to key teammates, the Swords Dance set aims to set up and proceed to crush the team with ridiculously strong attacks, preferably after faster Pokémon have been paralyzed or eliminated. Once Pancham has doubled its Attack, even Spritzee struggles to avoid the OHKO from Gunk Shot, and most walls will be unable to break through the health Pancham regains with Drain Punch. Although this set is much less intimidating to offensive teams, it is still able to function as an effective bulky Fighting-type.
As with most Fighting-types of a comparable caliber, Pancham is mostly self-sufficient; it is able to simultaneously provide a large amount of utility for its own team and severely threaten the opposing team with little to no support. With that being said, the Swords Dance set greatly appreciates paralysis support, because Pancham's low Speed and lack of priority moves mean that faster Pokémon can revenge kill a weakened Pancham with little to no effort. Furthermore, both sets are weak to fast offensive Psychic-types, such as Gothita and Abra, so Pursuit support from the likes of Houndour or Stunky is greatly appreciated. The Parting Shot set can be paired with sweepers that are extremely dangerous once they set up, such as Omanyte, Zigzagoon, and Fletchling; a slow Parting Shot also allows Pancham to safely bring in dangerous wallbreakers that are tough to switch into, such as Cranidos, Bunnelby, and Vulpix. Pancham can be used in a dual Fighting-type core, although the stacked weaknesses should promptly be covered by the rest of the team.
Playing against Pancham
Pancham's enormous statistical bulk means that it can avoid the OHKO from just about anything short of a powerful STAB super effective attack. Despite this, Pancham's longevity is actually one of its largest issues. Drain Punch, although decently powerful, doesn't actually heal Pancham for as much as it would like; when coupled with its low Speed, Pancham is quite easily worn down. As such, the best means of dealing with Pancham is usually to simply just repeatedly throw various attacks at it. While it can avoid 2HKOs from most neutral attacks, 3HKOs are generally feasible for most offensive Pokémon, especially if Pancham has been hit by Knock Off, which is likely to happen given that many of the Pokémon Pancham will be switching into, including Pawniard and Scraggy, carry it. Of course, be careful about having Pokémon that are frail or weak to Drain Punch stay in, as they will allow Pancham to recover back a sizable portion of its health.
Other than that, extremely powerful attacks, such as Life Orb Abra's Psychic or Doduo's Brave Bird, can KO Pancham, although getting such strong attackers in safely can be a difficult task. Gothita is able to trap and KO a weakened Pancham, but cannot cleanly OHKO it, so a bit of support is still required; it also cannot switch in safely. Furthermore, if Pancham lacks a specific coverage move, there are still Pokémon that can effectively wall it. If Pancham decides to drop Gunk Shot, then Fairy-types such as Spritzee and Snubbull become an issue, whereas if Pancham loses out on Zen Headbutt, then Croagunk, Foongus, and Skrelp can deal with it. However, these Pokémon should be wary of Pancham simply utilizing Parting Shot to pivot to the appropriate teammate.
Conclusion
Overall, Pancham turned from a gimmick with a small niche in Parting Shot into a huge threat with a perfect coverage movepool after ORAS move tutors were introduced, so make sure to try out Pancham if you haven't done so yet—you won't be disappointed!
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