How viable is Quaquaval in competitive?

Question

Quaquaval has moxie right so if combined with its signature move aqua step and a focus sash could it be in ubers or atleast ou?

Comments

Since the games are newly out, a competitive meta has yet to be established so we cannot answer this question for sure. However, we can make educated guesses, which mine would be that it would land in UU, as quite the physical powerhouse but mediocre-low defenses.

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Even if Palafin, Iron Bundle, and Iron Valiant all get banned, Quaquaval will still likely be outclassed by Cloyster, Gyarados, Hawlucha, or Pawmot. However, it looks useful than a few older starters, like Samurott and Inteleon, so I predict Quaquaval will end up in UU or RU. Moxie and aqua step will help, but focus sash is pretty useless when almost everyone uses stealth rock.

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If you scarf Quaquaval, then KO something weakened with Aqua Step, you've got yourself a pretty dangerous sweeper.I feel that Quaquaval is very useful.

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Scarf Quaquaval already outspeeds most things, and having high speed with no attack raising moves makes it easy to tank. The swords dance life orb set might be good enough for OU, now that Palafin and Iron Bundle are banned.

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Moxie boosts attack anyway. Scarf would just make sure it doesn't get KOd before even moving.

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Yes, but most good players know that Quaquaval has moxie and would switch to a tank when the opponent sends out a Quaquaval.

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Scarf just seems to work for me.  Maybe I just fight bad players, but think it works. Hey, I use Quaq in national dex monotype. Is scarf better there or something?

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Should this question's answer be updated now thst Quaquaval has fallen to UU?

Answer 1

Apparently my predictions were wrong, and the people on Smogon now rank Quaquaval above many other offensive waters and a few OU Pokemon, like Meowscarada, Pawmot, and Ceruledge.
source
Quaquaval also had almost 7% usage (OU 1695 stats) in December, which is more than enough for OU. Because it's both viable and popular, I think Quaquaval will stay in OU for the foreseeable future. Focus sash is often an useless item because of entry hazards and priority moves, but this moveset was pretty successful last month.

Quaquaval @ leftovers
Ability: moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly nature
- bulk up
- aqua step
- close combat
- ice spinner

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Answer 2

UPDATE: QUAQUAVAL IS NOW IN UU my guess would be its reliance on swords dance or bulk up to start its chain and you have to actually HIT the aqua step and still dodge priority due to aqua jet not being very powerful. It having to set up with mediocre defenses leaves it open .
And scard Quaquaval is not great bc aqua
Step or close combat is easily walled by clodsire which is one of the most important walls in ou as of now

Comments

I wouldn’t answer based on a “guess”.

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All of this was true while Quaquaval was both OU and viable. It would be nice if we could get an answer that explains Quaquaval's decline in terms of recent metagame changes.

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I feel like the answer should also talk about how well it does in UU. I play UU often, so I'll answer this shortly.