OU Protect + Leftovers Melmetal [DONE]

[NeonJolteonWasUsed]

[OVERVIEW]
Making use of its excellent bulk, powerful attacking options, and strong defensive type, Melmetal is a dangerous threat that demands the respect of every serious team, capable of trading hits with almost the entire tier and coming out on top. Its obscenely powerful Double Iron Bash and coverage options combined with its amazing bulk make Melmetal capable of checking and forcing out threats such as Tapu Lele and more softly Weavile and Kartana, while taking the opportunity generated by switching in on these threats to dismantle the opposing defensive core cores with relative ease. Melmetal is also highly customizable, making great use of status moves like Toxic and Thunder Wave to facilitate not only itself but teammates as well. However, while it is does not outright crumble to any stray special attack, Melmetal is still quite vulnerable to many super effective special attacks coming from the likes of Heatran, Blacephalon, Volcanion, and Volcarona and even common coverage options like Tapu Lele's Focus Blast and Dragapult's Flamethrower. This problem is further compounded by Double Iron Bash's limited PP and the common Water- and Steel-types that resist it, as well as the constant Spikes and Knock Off found within the tier. Furthermore, Double Iron Bash's nature as a multi-hit contact move also makes Melmetal quite exploitable by things such as Ferrothorn's Iron Barbs, Zapdos's Static, and Heatran's Flame Body if it is not running Protective Pads. However, despite these flaws, Melmetal is still one of the most powerful forces in the tier, ready to drive anyone foolish enough to underestimate its presence, for a lack of a better term, nuts.

[SET]
Melmetal @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 20 HP / 252 Atk / 192 SpD / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Double Iron Bash
- Protect
- Earthquake / Superpower
- Toxic / Thunder Punch

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========

Taking advantage of its natural bulk and the extended longevity provided by Leftovers and Protect, Melmetal receives some much desired staying power, consistently switching into the likes of Tapu Lele, non-Choice Scarf Tapu Fini, Dragapult, and Galarian Slowking, and with proper scouting, it even helps handle the likes of Weavile, Tyranitar, and Kartana. Protect allows Melmetal to gain extra recovery from Leftovers, scout moves, and turn the tables on opposing Choice item users such as Dragapult and Volcanion that may try to force Melmetal out with the threat of a move it cannot hope to take. Earthquake is great coverage in tandem with Double Iron Bash, demolishing common Steel-resistant foes like Heatran, Toxapex, and opposing Melmetal, while Superpower is an option to hit Ferrothorn significantly harder while maintaining good coverage against Heatran and opposing Melmetal. Toxic is used in the last slot to cripple Pokemon that withstand the combination of Melmetal's coverage such as Rotom-W, Slowbro, and Zapdos, while Thunder Punch is an alternative option that can allow Melmetal to hit Corviknight and Skarmory very hard and still put meaningful pressure on Slowbro. Thunder Wave may also be considered over Toxic or Thunder Punch to allow Melmetal to slow down many Pokemon that would otherwise be faster and capitalize on slower targets with the nauseating combo of full paralysis alongside Double Iron Bash's extremely high flinch chance. High Horsepower is an option over Earthquake on teams making use of Rillaboom or Tapu Bulu; however, the loss in power, contact properties, and imperfect accuracy make it suboptimal outside of such teams. The listed EV spread allows Melmetal to outspeed everything up to Gastrodon and maximizes recovery from Leftovers, dumping the rest of the EVs into Attack and Special Defense to help it check Dragapult, Tapu Lele, and Galarian Slowking while letting it hit back as hard as possible. It is preferred to invest in Special Defense because Melmetal's HP and Defense stats are already naturally high.

Team Options
========

Melmetal fits best on bulky offense teams that appreciate its ability to check many Psychic- and Fairy-types such as Tapu Lele, Galarian Slowking, Tapu Fini, and Clefable while not letting up as much offensive pressure as other Steel-types. As such, Pokemon that enjoy having something to fall back on against these Fairy-types such as Dragapult, Garchomp, Hydreigon, Urshifu-R, and Weavile make for excellent teammates; Garchomp in particular is a strong defensive teammate that can check Heatran and scout Tapu Lele with Protect to bring Melmetal in with much less fear, also setting Stealth Rock to put even more pressure on the opposing team. Because Melmetal is so easily pressured by Spikes, it is also important to bring a Defogger such as Tornadus-T, Zapdos, or Landorus-T that keeps these entry hazards off the field to promote Melmetal's ability to play the long game. Rillaboom is another great teammate that takes advantage of Melmetal's ability to pressure shared checks such as Zapdos and Ferrothorn, while in return, Rillaboom makes Melmetal even more difficult to remove from the game thanks to Grassy Terrain halving the power of Earthquake and providing it even more passive recovery. On such teams, however, it is much preferred to run Superpower over Earthquake to avoid suffering the same power drop from Grassy Terrain. Swords Dance Weavile is notable as a deadly partner for Melmetal early- and late-game, absolutely loving Melmetal forcing massive damage on Ferrothorn and Toxapex so Weavile can sweep later on in the game. Melmetal's Protect can even help scout Shadow Ball from the likes of Dragapult and Blacephalon to allow Weavile to get a free switch opportunity to get a Swords Dance off. Urshifu-R and Dragapult both make for great offensive partners thanks to Melmetal reliably taking advantage of and breaking through shared checks like Slowbro and Toxapex in the case of Urshifu-R and Clefable and Blissey in the case of Dragapult, while in return, they put immense pressure on many of the Steel-types Melmetal struggles to make progress against. Magnezone is also a notable teammate, trapping troublesome Steel-types such as Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Corviknight for Melmetal and making it even scarier to deal with.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Substitute is an option over Protect on teams that already have a Steel-type that covers most of Melmetal's roles defensively to ease prediction and make checks such as Toxapex and non-Body Press Ferrothorn unable to do anything to Melmetal, letting it continue ravaging the opponent's defensive core; this does, however, compound Melmetal's longevity issue even further as well as making it even more prone to entry hazards. Choice Band sets with Double Iron Bash, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Superpower, and 212 Speed EVs to outspeed uninvested Clefable may seem appealing to get the most out of Melmetal's sheer power; however, they require lots of prediction to pull off properly due to how common foes resistant to all of the moves they typically run are. Protective Pads is an option to allow Melmetal to bypass contact effects such as Flame Body, Static, Rocky Helmet, and Ferrothorn's Iron Barbs, which is especially synergistic with Thunder Wave to paraflinch otherwise sturdy checks such as Slowbro, Skarmory, and Corviknight into KO range of its coverage options. Lastly, faster spreads on Melmetal may be considered to reach certain benchmarks, one example being a spread of 20 HP / 252 Atk / 128 SpD / 108 Spe to outspeed Hippowdon.

Checks and Counters
===================
**Water-types**: Pokemon such as Slowbro, Rotom-W, and Toxapex quite safely come in on Melmetal and do not really mind any attack that Melmetal could reasonably throw at them, and while much more loose of a check, Urshifu-R is able to soak up a hit from Melmetal in a pinch and threaten it back with extremely powerful STAB moves. However, Toxapex very often finds itself 2HKOed by Earthquake, and all the others must be wary of Toxic or Thunder Wave.

**Steel-types**: Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Corviknight all pose as massive roadblocks to Melmetal, taking basically any attack Melmetal has at its disposal and punishing it with heavy damage from Body Press. Ferrothorn can punish it even further with Iron Barbs and set entry hazards, cripple it with Knock Off, or use Leech Seed; it does have to be worried about taking repeated Superpowers, however.

**Residual Damage**: Melmetal, (AC) while quite sturdy, isn't completely impenetrable; Spikes in particular pose a huge threat to Melmetal, cutting into its HP every time it hits the field and forcing it to play much more carefully when they are around so as to not faint early on. Iron Barbs on Ferrothorn and Rocky Helmet users such as Buzzwole and Toxapex also prey on Double Iron Bash's double hit and contact-making nature to force massive damage on Melmetal by simply taking an attack.

**Volcarona**: Volcarona's mere existence is enough to make Melmetal think twice about using Double Iron Bash; not only does it threaten it with a burn with Flame Body, but if Melmetal is not running Toxic, Volcarona is able to use it as setup fodder, not fearing anything besides a very rare Rock Slide.

**Zapdos**: Zapdos very easily stuffs out Melmetal, only caring about the possibility of Toxic. Otherwise, it threatens Melmetal with paralysis from Static, uses it as an opportunity to remove entry hazards with Defog, or, in the case of offensive variants, uses it to start unleashing an onslaught of powerful Thunderbolts, Hurricanes, and Heat Waves onto Melmetal's team.

**Burn**: Pokemon such as Volcarona, Heatran, and Rotom-W all heavily threaten Melmetal with the possibility of getting burned, which puts it almost entirely out of commission. Not only is the negation of Leftovers recovery crippling, but halving the Base Power of Melmetal's moves makes it almost completely unable to make any meaningful progress besides inflicting Toxic.

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/neonjolteonwasused.568778/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/pulsar512b.469728/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/slowpoke-fan.617219/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/

 

[pulsar512b]

qc coming in, comments in red. after you've implemented this tag me and i'll take another look.

[OVERVIEW]
Making use of its excellent bulk, powerful attacking options, and strong defensive type, Melmetal is a dangerous threat in the metagame that demands the respect of every serious team, capable of trading hits with almost the entire tier and coming out on top. Its obscenely powerful Double Iron Bash and coverage options leveraged by its amazing bulk (and being a Steel-type) makes Melmetal capable of checking and forcing out threats such as Tapu Lele, and more softly Weavile and Kartana, while being able to take the opportunity generated by switching in on these threats to dismantle the opposing defensive core with relative ease. Melmetal is also highly customizable, being able to make great use of even status moves like Toxic, and Thunder Wave to facilitate not only itself , but teammates as well. However, while it is not outright crumbling to any stray Focus Blast, Melmetal is still quite vulnerable to the many special attacks in the tier (want you to rework this, i think it's more the super effectiveness of these special attacks than anything else. also definitely mention defensive waters as a major issue), many of which tend to even be super effective into it coming from the likes of Heatran, Blacephalon, Volcanion, Volcarona, and even common coverage options like Tapu Lele's Moonblast (i assume this should be focus blast), or Dragapult's Flamethrower, this problem only being further compounded these are different thoughts that should be in different sentences. it doesnt matter if melm is sufferring from spikes or knock off if blace is just gonna flamethrower it. by just how vulnerable it is to the ever present Spikes and Knock Off that are commonly found within the tier. Double Iron Bash's nature as a multi-hit contact move also makes Melmetal quite exploitable by things such as Ferrothorn's Iron Barbs, Zapdos' Static, and Heatran's Flame Body if it is not running Protective Pads. However, despite these flaws, Melmetal is still one of the most powerful forces in the tier, ready to drive anyone foolish enough to underestimate its presence, for a lack of a better term, nuts.

[SET]
Melmetal @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 20 HP / 252 Atk / 192 SpD / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Double Iron Bash
- Protect
- Earthquake / Superpower
- Toxic / Thunder Punch

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========

Taking advantage of its natural bulk, and the extended longevity provided by Leftovers and Protect, Melmetal receives some much desired staying power, being able to consistently allow itself to switch into the likes of Tapu Lele, Non-Choice Scarf Tapu Fini, Galarian Slowking, and with proper scouting, even be able to help handle the likes of Weavile and Kartana. Protect allows Melmetal to gain extra recovery from Leftovers as well as scout moves from, and turn the tables on opposing Choice Item users such as Dragapult, Volcanion, and many others that may try to force Melmetal out with the threat of a move it cannot hope to take. Earthquake is great coverage in tandem with Double Iron Bash, demolishing common resistances like Heatran, Toxapex, and opposing Melmetal, while Superpower is an option to hit Ferrothorn significantly harder while maintaining good coverage into Heatran and opposing Melmetal. Toxic is used in the last slot to cripple Pokemon that are able to withstand the combination of Melmetal's coverage such as Rotom Wash, Slowbro, Bulky Volcarona (cut this one), and Zapdos, while Thunder Punch is an alternative option that can allow Melmetal to hit Corviknight, and Skarmory very hard whilst still being able to put meaningful pressure on Slowbro. The listed EV spread allows Melmetal to outspeed everything up to Gastrodon, and maximize recovery from Leftovers, dumping the rest into Attack and Special Defense respectively to maximize its tanking potential, and allow it to retaliate as heavily as possible. briefly mention high horsepower as an option maybe? maybe also twave as a possibility. mention it's ability to check pult somewhere! very important. also probably worth mentioning that it's not as important to invest in defense due to melm's high natural def.
Team Options
========

Melmetal fits best on Bulky Offense teams that appreciate its ability to check the many Psychic and Fairy types present (such as?) while not letting up as much offensive pressure as other Steel types. As such, Pokemon that enjoy having something to fall back on VS these such as Dragapult, Garchomp, Hydreigon, Urshifu, and Weavile make for excellent teammates, Garchomp in-particular is a strong defensive teammate who can scout from Tapu Lele itself with Protect and bring Melmetal in with much less fear, all the while being able to set Stealth Rock to put even further pressure on the opposing team (mention Heatran as something melm doesn't want to deal with). Because Melmetal is so easily pressured by Spikes, it is also important to also bring a Defogger that is able to keep these hazards off the field in order to promote Melmetal's ability to play the long game such as Tornadus Therian, Zapdos, or Landorus Therian this isnt a huge deal imo, probably cut this. Rillaboom is another great teammate who is able to take advantage of Melmetal's ability to pressure shared checks such as Zapdos or Ferrothorn, while in return Rillaboom is able to make Melmetal even more difficult to remove from the game thanks to Grassy Terrain halving the power of Earthquake, and providing it even more passive recovery, on such teams however, it is much preferred to run Superpower (or High Horsepower) over Earthquake to avoid suffering the same power drop to Melmetal's coverage. Swords Dance Weavile is notable as a deadly partner for Melmetal in the early and late game, absolutely loving Melmetal being able to force massive damage on Ferrothorn and Toxapex, so Weavile can sweep later on in the game, Melmetal's protect can even help scout Shadow Ball from the likes of Dragapult or Blacephalon to allow Weavile to get a free switch in opportunity to get a Swords Dance off. Variants of Melmetal making use of Thunder Punch appreciate Tapu Koko as a teammate for not only being able to help pressure Ferrothorn (this isnt very intuitive so I would prob just cut this whole part with Koko, tbh) , but also make Thunder Punch strong enough to naturally 2HKO Corviknight and Skarmory thanks to Electric Terrain, Tapu Koko is also able to notably quite safely switch into non-Toxic Zapdos, a Pokemon which Melmetal can typically only ever hope to Toxic to make progress against. mention shifu/pult/stuff that hates clefable. thats a big one thats not here. also you can mention magnezone which traps steels for it.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Ice Punch may be considered as a means to hit Pokemon such as Hippowdon, Landorus Therian, Garchomp, and still hit Zapdos quite hard, but generally all of these Pokemon are crippled hard enough by Toxic as is and Ice Punch has very little notable targets outside of them you should move this up to the set comments i think. Substitute is an option over Protect on teams that already have a Steel type that covers most of Melmetal's roles defensively to ease prediction and make checks such as Toxapex and non-Body Press Ferrothorn unable to do anything to it as it is free to continue dismantling the opponent's defensive core, this does however compound Melmetal's longevity issue even further as well as making it even more prone to hazards.

Checks and Counters
===================

Bulky Water Types: Pokemon such as Slowbro, Rotom Wash, and Toxapex are able to quite safely come in on Melmetal, and do not really mind anything say any attack. you say one turn later that toxic is an issue. tbh probably rephrase that bit too to say that they may need to be worried about Toxic or Thunder Wave that can cripple them or something along those lines that Melmetal could reasonably throw at them, Slowbro and Rotom Wash must be wary of variants carrying Toxic however. mention shifu as a less bulky water type that annoys it

Steel Types: Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Corviknight all pose as massive roadblocks to Melmetal, being able to take basically any attack Melmetal has at its disposal and punish it with either heavy damage from Body Press, or in Ferrothorn's specific case, punish it even further with Iron Barbs and setting hazards or Leech Seed up, it does have to be worried about taking too many repeated Superpower however. Furthermore while a lot more loosely, Flame Body Heatran is able to significantly help dance around Melmetal, and make it a lot less confident to recklessly use Double Iron Bash for fear of being essentially taken entirely out of commission by a stray Burn. move heatran to a new burn section (see below)

Residual Damage: Melmetal while quite sturdy, isn't completely impenetrable, Spikes inparticular pose a huge threat to Melmetal, massively cutting into its HP every time it hits the field and forces it to have to play much more carefully when they are around so as to not faint extremely early on . Iron Barbs on Ferrothorn or Rocky Helmet users such as Corviknight and Skarmory also prey on Double Iron Bash's double hit contact nature to force massive damage on Melmetal without having to do much of anything. rocky helmet/iron barbs is much more important, emphasize that. also mention these steels in their own section (dont mention rocky helmet there). maybe want to add non-steels that run rocky helmet here (buzzwole etc).

Volcarona: Volcarona's mere existence is enough to make Melmetal think twice about using Double Iron Bash, not only is it capable of easily inflicting something like 'does it threaten' is more accurate it with a Burn off of Flame Body, but if Melmetal is not running Toxic, it is able to even use it entirely as set up fodder afterward, not fearing anything besides a very rare Rock Slide.

Zapdos: Zapdos with even minimal investment cut the minimal investment part. is able to very easily stuff out Melmetal, only caring about the possibility of Toxic, otherwise being able to threaten it with Paralysis from Static, use it as an opportunity to remove hazards with Defog, or in the case of offensive variants use it to start unleashing an onslaught of powerful Thunderbolt and Hurricane onto Melmetal's team.

mention burns

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/neonjolteonwasused.568778/

Quality checked by:

Grammar checked by:

 

[Slowpoke Fan]

NeonJolteonWasUsed tagging to implement the QC

 

[Slowpoke Fan]

Please tag me after implementation so I can go through it again for the 2/2

add remove highlight comment

[OVERVIEW]
Making use of its excellent bulk, powerful attacking options, and strong defensive type, Melmetal is a dangerous threat in the metagame that demands the respect of every serious team, capable of trading hits with almost the entire tier and coming out on top. Its obscenely powerful Double Iron Bash and coverage options leveraged by its amazing bulk makes Melmetal capable of checking and forcing out threats such as Tapu Lele, and more softly Weavile and Kartana, while being able to take the opportunity generated by switching in on these threats to dismantle the opposing defensive core with relative ease. (Melmetal is just as shaky of a Lele check if the latter is Specs, I think you can rewrite this as soft-checking a variety of offensive threats since it can also soft check Dragapult. Also 'dismantling' feels a bit strong, I think you can omit the last bit and mention how Melmetal uses its status moves combined with its power and coverage to make progress after switching into dangerous offensive threats in the next sentence.) Melmetal is also highly customizable, being able to make great use of even status moves like Toxic, and Thunder Wave to facilitate not only itself, but teammates as well. (this one) However, while it is not outright crumbling to any stray special attack, Melmetal is still quite vulnerable to the many super effective special attacks in the tier coming from the likes of Heatran, Blacephalon, Volcanion, Volcarona, and even common coverage options like Tapu Lele's Focus Blast, or Dragapult's Flamethrower. This problem is only further compounded by the many bulky Water-types found roaming the tier (also mention Electric-types since Rotom-W and Zapdos are commonly-used Pokemon that check it) who can stomach Double Iron Bash with ease, and just how vulnerable it is to as well as the ever-present Spikes and Knock Off that are commonly found within the tier. Double Iron Bash's nature as a multi-hit contact move also makes Melmetal quite exploitable by things such as Ferrothorn's Iron Barbs, Zapdos' Static, and Heatran's Flame Body if it is not running Protective Pads. However, despite these flaws, Melmetal is still one of the most powerful forces in the tier, ready to drive anyone foolish enough to underestimate its presence, for a lack of a better term, nuts.

(Please refer to Spelling and Grammar Standards for appropriate terminology, e.g. Urshifu-R for Rapid-Strike, (insert typing)-type, early-game, switch-in, etc)

[SET]
Melmetal @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 20 HP / 252 Atk / 192 SpD / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Double Iron Bash
- Protect
- Earthquake / Superpower
- Toxic / Thunder Punch

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========

Taking advantage of its natural bulk, and the extended longevity provided by Leftovers and Protect, Melmetal receives some much desired staying power, being able to consistently allow itself to switch into the likes of Tapu Lele (as mentioned earlier, Melmetal is a pretty shaky Lele check if the latter is Specs, so specifying the variant would be nice if you don't want to swap it with something like Choice Specs Dragapult), Non-Choice Scarf Tapu Fini, Galarian Slowking, and with proper scouting, even be able to help handle the likes of Weavile and Kartana (consider mentioning Choice Band Tyranitar since it resists Stone Edge and can take a couple of Crunches while retaliating with DIB). Protect allows Melmetal to gain extra recovery from Leftovers as well as scout moves from, and turn the tables on opposing Choice Item users such as Dragapult, Volcanion, and many others that may try to force Melmetal out with the threat of a move it cannot hope to take. Earthquake is great coverage in tandem with Double Iron Bash, demolishing common resistances like Heatran, Toxapex, and opposing Melmetal, while Superpower is an option to hit Ferrothorn significantly harder while maintaining good coverage into Heatran and opposing Melmetal. Toxic is used in the last slot to cripple Pokemon that are able to withstand the combination of Melmetal's coverage such as Rotom-Wash, Slowbro, and Zapdos, while Thunder Punch is an alternative option that can allow Melmetal to hit Corviknight, and Skarmory very hard whilst still being able to put meaningful pressure on Slowbro. Thunder Wave may also be considered over Toxic or Thunder Punch to allow Melmetal to bring other Pokemon down to its level of speed (Thunder Wave is still very useful for slowing down Pokemon that are faster than Melmetal even after being paralysed, so something like slowing down its switch-ins would be preferred), and capitalize on it slower targets with the nauseating combo of full paralysis alongside Double Iron Bash's extremely high flinch chance. High Horsepower may be is an option over Earthquake on teams making use of Rillaboom or Tapu Bulu, however the loss in power and imperfect accuracy (also mention how the move makes contact) make it sub-optimal outside of such teams. Ice Punch may be considered as a means to hit Pokemon such as Hippowdon, Landorus Therian, Garchomp, and still hit Zapdos quite hard, but generally all of these Pokemon are crippled hard enough by Toxic as is and Ice Punch has very little notable targets outside of them. (Ice Punch will be included in the AV set, you can omit this) The listed EV spread allows Melmetal to outspeed everything up to Gastrodon, and maximize recovery from Leftovers, dumping the rest into Attack and Special Defense respectively to help it check Dragapult, Tapu Lele, and Galarian Slowking while being able to hit back as hard as possible. It is preferred to invest first in Special Defense because of the fact that Melmetal's HP and Defense stats are already naturally so high.

Team Options
========

Melmetal fits best on Bulky Offense teams that appreciate its ability to check the many Psychic- and Fairy-types present such as Tapu Lele, Galarian Slowking, Tapu Fini, and Clefable while not letting up as much offensive pressure as other Steel-types. As such, Pokemon that enjoy having something to fall back on VS against these such as Dragapult, Garchomp, Hydreigon, Urshifu, and Weavile make for excellent teammates, Garchomp in-particular is a strong defensive teammate who can check Heatran, and scout from Tapu Lele with Protect to bring Melmetal in with much less fear, all the while being able to set Stealth Rock to put even further even more pressure on the opposing team. Because Melmetal is so easily pressured by Spikes, it is also important to also bring a Defogger that is able to keep these hazards off the field in order to promote Melmetal's ability to play the long game such as Tornadus-Therian, Zapdos, or Landorus-Therian. Rillaboom is another great teammate who is able to take advantage of Melmetal's ability to pressure shared checks such as Zapdos or Ferrothorn, while in return Rillaboom is able to make Melmetal even more difficult to remove from the game thanks to Grassy Terrain halving the power of Earthquake, and providing it even more passive recovery,. oOn such teams however, it is much preferred to run Superpower over Earthquake (you can also mention High Horsepower here like you did above) to avoid suffering the same power drop to Melmetal's coverage. Swords Dance Weavile is notable as a deadly partner for Melmetal in the early- and late-game, absolutely loving Melmetal being able to force massive damage on Ferrothorn and Toxapex, so Weavile can sweep later on in the game, Melmetal's protect can even help scout Shadow Ball from the likes of Dragapult or Blacephalon to allow Weavile to get a free switch-in opportunity to get a Swords Dance off. Urshifu-Rapid Strike, and Dragapult both make for great offensive partners thanks to Melmetal being able to reliably take advantage of a very common check to them in Clefable, while in return they are able to put immense pressure on many of the Steel types Melmetal struggles to make progress against. (Melmetal does help Urshifu-R and Dragapult pressure Clefable, but Clefable is not exactly a very common Urshifu-R check while both are soft-checked by some Steel-types, e.g. Ferrothorn can eat Surging Strikes from Urshifu-R while Heatran is a pretty decent Dragapult check. I think writing more deeply about this would help, e.g. Urshifu-R and Melmetal can break through shared checks like Slowbro and Zapdos, Melmetal helps Dragapult threaten Clefable and Blissey while Dragapult takes advantage of Slowbro and Buzzwole) Magnezone is also a notable teammate for being able to trap troublesome Steel-types for Melmetal such as Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Corviknight, making Melmetal even scarier to deal with.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Substitute is an option over Protect on teams that already have a Steel-type that covers most of Melmetal's roles defensively to ease prediction and make checks such as Toxapex and non-Body Press Ferrothorn unable to do anything to it as it is free to continue dismantling the opponent's defensive core, this does however compound Melmetal's longevity issue even further as well as making it even more prone to hazards. (mention the pads, CB and ID Press sets because they aren't getting analyses in the new slate, only AV will be getting an analysis outside of protect)

Checks and Counters
===================

Water Types: Pokemon such as Slowbro, Rotom-Wash, and Toxapex are able to quite safely come in on Melmetal, and do not really mind any attack that Melmetal could reasonably throw at them, and while much more loose of a check, Urshifu-Rapid Strike is able to soak up any one hit from Melmetal in a pinch and threaten it back with extremely powerful STAB moves. They all must be wary of the possibility of Toxic or Thunder Wave however.

Steel Types: Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Corviknight all pose as massive roadblocks to Melmetal, being able to take basically any attack Melmetal has at its disposal and punish it with either heavy damage from Body Press, or in Ferrothorn's specific case, punish it even further with Iron Barbs (Rocky Helmet should be mentioned here as well since it's a common item that Ferrothorn runs) and setting hazards or Leech Seed up (Knock Off is also annoying for Melmetal), it does have to be worried about taking too many repeated Superpowers however.

Residual Damage: Melmetal while quite sturdy, isn't completely impenetrable, Spikes inparticular in particular pose a huge threat to Melmetal, massively cutting into its HP every time it hits the field and forces it to have to play much more carefully when they are around so as to not faint extremely early on. Iron Barbs on Ferrothorn or Rocky Helmet users such as Buzzwole, and Toxapex (as mentioned above, Ferrothorn also likes using Rocky Helmet) also prey on Double Iron Bash's double-hit contact nature to force massive damage on Melmetal without having to do much of anything by simply taking an attack.

Volcarona: Volcarona's mere existence is enough to make Melmetal think twice about using Double Iron Bash, not only does it threaten it with a Bburn off of Flame Body, but if Melmetal is not running Toxic, it is able to even use it entirely as set up (should be setup according to Spelling and Grammar Standards) fodder afterward, not fearing anything besides a very rare Rock Slide.

Zapdos: Zapdos is able to very easily stuff out Melmetal, only caring about the possibility of Toxic, otherwise being able to threaten it with Paralysis from Static, use it as an opportunity to remove hazards with Defog, or in the case of offensive variants use it to start unleashing an onslaught of powerful Thunderbolt and Hurricane onto Melmetal's team. (please mention Heat Wave Zapdos)

Burns: Pokemon such as Volcarona, Heatran, and Rotom-Wash are all able to heavily threaten Melmetal with the possibility of getting burnt, a status condition that puts Melmetal almost entirely out of commission. Not only is the negation of Leftovers recovery crippling, but halving the base power of Melmetal's moves makes it almost completely unable to threaten to make any meaningful progress besides through Toxic.

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/neonjolteonwasused.568778/

Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/pulsar512b.469728/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/slowpoke-fan.617219/

Grammar checked by:

 

[Slowpoke Fan]

2/2, hello GP Team

 

[SolarBeam]

1/1, GP Team done

pokemon go creature

blue = add
red = remove
(orange) = comment

[OVERVIEW]
Making use of its excellent bulk, powerful attacking options, and strong defensive type, Melmetal is a dangerous threat in the metagame that demands the respect of every serious team, capable of trading hits with almost the entire tier and coming out on top. Its obscenely powerful Double Iron Bash and coverage options leveraged by combined with its amazing bulk makes make Melmetal capable of checking and forcing out threats such as Tapu Lele (RC) and more softly Weavile and Kartana, while being able to take taking the opportunity generated by switching in on these threats to dismantle the opposing defensive core cores with relative ease. Melmetal is also highly customizable, being able to make making great use of even status moves like Toxic (RC) and Thunder Wave to facilitate not only itself (RC) but teammates as well. However, while it is does not outright crumbling crumble to any stray special attack, Melmetal is still quite vulnerable to the many super effective special attacks in the tier coming from the likes of Heatran, Blacephalon, Volcanion, and Volcarona (RC) and even common coverage options like Tapu Lele's Focus Blast (RC) or and Dragapult's Flamethrower. This problem is only further compounded by Double Iron Bash's limited PP (RC) and the common resistances in the Bulky Water- (AH) and Steel-types (AH) ever present in the metagame that resist it (resistances to refer to mons is incorrect + "ever present..." is redundant with common), as well as the constant Spikes and Knock Off commonly found within the tier. Furthermore, Double Iron Bash's nature as a multi-hit contact move also makes Melmetal quite exploitable by things such as Ferrothorn's Iron Barbs, Zapdos's Static, and Heatran's Flame Body if it is not running Protective Pads. However, despite these flaws, Melmetal is still one of the most powerful forces in the tier, ready to drive anyone foolish enough to underestimate its presence, for a lack of a better term, nuts.

[SET]
Melmetal @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 20 HP / 252 Atk / 192 SpD / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Double Iron Bash
- Protect
- Earthquake / Superpower
- Toxic / Thunder Punch

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========

Taking advantage of its natural bulk (RC) and the extended longevity provided by Leftovers and Protect, Melmetal receives some much desired staying power, being able to consistently allow itself to switch switching into the likes of Tapu Lele, Non-Choice non-Choice Scarf Tapu Fini, Dragapult, and Galarian Slowking, and with proper scouting, it even be able to help helps handle the likes of Weavile, Tyranitar, and Kartana. Protect allows Melmetal to gain extra recovery from Leftovers, (AC) as well as scout moves, and turn the tables on opposing Choice Item item users such as Dragapult (RC) and Volcanion (RC) and many others (implied from such as) that may try to force Melmetal out with the threat of a move it cannot hope to take. Earthquake is great coverage in tandem with Double Iron Bash, demolishing common resistances Steel-resistant foes like Heatran, Toxapex, and opposing Melmetal, while Superpower is an option to hit Ferrothorn significantly harder while maintaining good coverage into against Heatran and opposing Melmetal. Toxic is used in the last slot to cripple Pokemon that are able to withstand the combination of Melmetal's coverage such as Rotom-W, Slowbro, and Zapdos, while Thunder Punch is an alternative option that can allow Melmetal to hit Corviknight (RC) and Skarmory very hard whilst and (whilst is british, also avoiding while repetition) still being able to put meaningful pressure on Slowbro. Thunder Wave may also be considered over Toxic or Thunder Punch to allow Melmetal to slow down many Pokemon that would otherwise be faster (RC) and capitalize on slower targets with the nauseating combo of full paralysis alongside Double Iron Bash's extremely high flinch chance. High Horsepower is an option over Earthquake on teams making use of Rillaboom or Tapu Bulu; (replaced comma with semicolon) however, (AC) the loss in power, contact properties, and imperfect accuracy make it suboptimal (RH) outside of such teams. The listed EV spread allows Melmetal to outspeed everything up to Gastrodon (RC) and maximize maximizes recovery from Leftovers, dumping the rest of the EVs into Attack and Special Defense respectively to help it check Dragapult, Tapu Lele, and Galarian Slowking while being able to letting it hit back as hard as possible. It is preferred to invest first in Special Defense because of the fact that Melmetal's HP and Defense stats are already naturally so high.

Team Options
========

Melmetal fits best on Bulky Offense bulky offense teams that appreciate its ability to check the many Psychic- (AH) and Fairy-types (AH) present such as Tapu Lele, Galarian Slowking, Tapu Fini, and Clefable while not letting up as much offensive pressure as other Steel-types (AH). As such, Pokemon that enjoy having something to fall back on against these Fairy-types such as Dragapult, Garchomp, Hydreigon, Urshifu (Urshifu-R, Urshifu-S, or "both Urshifu formes), and Weavile make for excellent teammates; (replaced comma with semicolon) Garchomp in particular (RH) is a strong defensive teammate who that can check Heatran (RC) and scout from Tapu Lele with Protect to bring Melmetal in with much less fear, all the while being able to set also setting (it's not really all the while, it doesn't do that at all times) Stealth Rock to put even more pressure on the opposing team. Because Melmetal is so easily pressured by Spikes, it is also important to also bring a Defogger such as Tornadus-T, Zapdos, or Landorus-T (moving example next to category) that is able to keep keeps these entry hazards off the field in order to promote Melmetal's ability to play the long game such as Tornadus-T, Zapdos, or Landorus-T. Rillaboom is another great teammate who is able to take that takes advantage of Melmetal's ability to pressure shared checks such as Zapdos or and Ferrothorn, while in return, (AC) Rillaboom is able to make makes Melmetal even more difficult to remove from the game thanks to Grassy Terrain halving the power of Earthquake (RC) and providing it even more passive recovery. On such teams, (AC) however, it is much preferred to run Superpower over Earthquake to avoid suffering the same power drop to Melmetal's coverage from Grassy Terrain. Swords Dance Weavile is notable as a deadly partner for Melmetal in the early- (AH) and late-game (AH), absolutely loving Melmetal being able to force forcing massive damage on Ferrothorn and Toxapex (RC) so Weavile can sweep later on in the game. (replaced comma with period) Melmetal's protect Protect can even help scout Shadow Ball from the likes of Dragapult or and Blacephalon to allow Weavile to get a free switch in opportunity to get a Swords Dance off. Urshifu-R (RC) and Dragapult both make for great offensive partners thanks to Melmetal being able to reliably take taking advantage of (RC) and break breaking through shared checks like Slowbro (RC) and Toxapex in the case of Urshifu-R and Clefable and Blissey in the case of Dragapult, while in return, (AC) they are able to put immense pressure on many of the Steel-types (AH) Melmetal struggles to make progress against. Magnezone is also a notable teammate, (AC) for being able to trap trapping troublesome Steel-types (AH) such as Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Corviknight for Melmetal such as Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Corviknight (RC) and making Melmetal it even scarier to deal with.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

Substitute is an option over Protect on teams that already have a Steel-type (AH) that covers most of Melmetal's roles defensively to ease prediction and make checks such as Toxapex and non-Body Press Ferrothorn unable to do anything to it Melmetal, letting it as it is free to continue dismantling the opponent's defensive core; (replaced comma with semicolon) this does, (AC) however, (AC) compound Melmetal's longevity issue even further as well as making it even more prone to entry hazards. Choice Band sets consisting of with Double Iron Bash, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Superpower, and 212 Speed EVs to outspeed uninvested Clefable may seem appealing to get the absolute most out of Melmetal's sheer power; (replaced comma with semicolon) it does however, (AC) they require lots of prediction to pull off properly due to how common resistances foes are resistant to all of the moves it will they commonly run are. Protective Pads may be is an option to allow Melmetal to bypass contact effects such as Flame Body, Static, Rocky Helmet, and Ferrothorn's Iron Barbs, which is especially synergistic with Thunder Wave which can Paraflinch to paraflinch otherwise sturdy checks such as Slowbro, Skarmory, and Corviknight into KO range of its coverage options. Lastly, (AC) faster spreads on Melmetal may be considered to reach certain benchmarks, one example being a spread of 20 HP / 252 Atk / 128 SpD / 108 Spe in order to outspeed Hippowdon.

Checks and Counters
===================
(unbold all these and add asterisks around)
Water Types **Water-types**: Pokemon such as Slowbro, Rotom-W, and Toxapex are able to quite safely come in on Melmetal (RC) and do not really mind any attack that Melmetal could reasonably throw at them, and while much more loose of a check, Urshifu-R is able to soak up a hit from Melmetal in a pinch and threaten it back with extremely powerful STAB moves. However, Toxapex very often finds itself 2HKOed by Earthquake, and all the others must be wary of Toxic or Thunder Wave.

Steel Types **Steel-types**: Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Corviknight all pose as massive roadblocks to Melmetal, being able to take taking basically any attack Melmetal has at its disposal and punish punishing it with either heavy damage from Body Press. (replaced comma with period) or in Ferrothorn's specific case, Ferrothorn can punish it even further with Iron Barbs and setting set entry hazards, crippling cripple it with Knock Off, or using use Leech Seed; (replaced comma with semicolon) it does have to be worried about taking repeated Superpowers, (AC) however.

**Residual Damage**: Melmetal, (AC) while quite sturdy, isn't completely impenetrable; (replaced comma with semicolon) Spikes in particular pose a huge threat to Melmetal, cutting into its HP every time it hits the field and forces forcing it to play much more carefully when they are around so as to not faint early on. Iron Barbs on Ferrothorn or and Rocky Helmet users such as Buzzwole (RC) and Toxapex also prey on Double Iron Bash's double hit and contact-making nature to force massive damage on Melmetal by simply taking an attack.

**Volcarona**: Volcarona's mere existence is enough to make Melmetal think twice about using Double Iron Bash; (replaced comma with semicolon) not only does it threaten it with a Burn off of burn with Flame Body, but if Melmetal is not running Toxic, Volcarona is able to use it as setup fodder, not fearing anything besides a very rare Rock Slide.

**Zapdos**: Zapdos is able to very easily stuff stuffs out Melmetal, only caring about the possibility of Toxic. (replaced comma with period) otherwise being able to threaten Otherwise, it threatens Melmetal with Paralysis paralysis from Static, use uses it as an opportunity to remove entry hazards with Defog, or, (AC) in the case of offensive variants, (AC) use uses it to start unleashing an onslaught of powerful Thunderbolt, Hurricane, and Heat Wave Thunderbolts, Hurricanes, and Heat Waves onto Melmetal's team.

Burns **Burn**: Pokemon such as Volcarona, Heatran, and Rotom-W are all able to heavily threaten Melmetal with the possibility of getting burnt burned, a status condition that which (dex info) puts Melmetal it almost entirely out of commission. Not only is the negation of Leftovers recovery crippling, but halving the base power Base Power of Melmetal's moves makes it almost completely unable to make any meaningful progress besides inflicting Toxic.

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/neonjolteonwasused.568778/
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Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/pulsar512b.469728/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/slowpoke-fan.617219/
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Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/