Should Prankster Riolu get Banned?

C

Card Slinger J

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Okay now we all know that Speed Boost Blaziken got banned from Smogon, so here's another new candidate that is likely to get banned as well and it's Prankster Riolu. The reason why it's so broken is because of this scenario:

Setup Stealth Rocks, Leech Seed, Toxic Spikes, or two of each. Then switch into Riolu in order to use Roar, because of it's Dream World Ability Prankster Riolu gets priority to use Roar first before the Defending Pokemon gets to use a move regardless how fast it is. Knowing that Riolu is going to take a hit it's holding a Focus Sash so that it can use Copycat to copy Roar to pretty much sweep the opponent's team.

Because of Stealth Rocks and Toxic Spikes their Pokemon takes damage until they are KO'ed. Unless you can counter Riolu with a Priority move like Sucker Punch with it having 1 HP left you're screwed. No matter what attack you deal Riolu's Prankster will ensure that it's attacks go off for the rest of the battle until you've won, not even Rapid Spin works cause it doesn't have priority.
 
Prankster only grants you a +1 priority to non-damaging moves. That means that Roar will have -5 priority when used with Riolu (it's usually -6) and will still be slower than most moves.

You can, however, use Copycat to trace the attack last used in battle. Copycat is not bound by negative priority, so if you copy Roar then you do have a priority shuffling move. However keep in mind that Riolu needs to survive a hit in order to pull this off (Focus Sash is not good in a game riddled with Sandstorm and entry hazards), and will still die to other priority users. It's an interesting Pokemon, but it's not worthy of a ban at all as it's so situational.

That said, I am curious as to how well Riolu performs in Little Cup...
 
Why is every thread you make about a certain Pokemon or card getting banned...I mean really. This thing isn't broken at all. It would still get pwned by Whimsicott and Thundurus, much better Pranksters...

A good Flying type used Aerial Ace! Riolu fainted!

I tested Riolu in Little Cup, and Cottonee is a much better Prankster. Stick to Riolu being an attacker.
 
^Thanks for the little cup advice!
These types of Pokemon aren't ever banned because they're gimmicks. Sometimes they do sweep, but only on teams that have absolutely no type of counter whatsoever. Blaziken wasn't necessarily a gimmick, just a monster-fast sweeper. :)
 
^Coming from the Blaziken comment, it is quite easy to take down (like Ninjask)...hit it hard with something like Aerial Ace or Psychic, and then just use a priority attack like Quick Attack, Extremespeed, or Bullet Punch before it can use Baton Pass.
 
This is a gimmick. Nothing more. It has no effectiveness in this metagame at all. It's like Bibarel without Moody. Useless.
 
I agree..Cardslinger..Please stop having Every topic that you make about banning this, or that's unfair, or this should be cancelled, or the world is going to end. It's starting to get old.

Riolu isn't that good.
 
Now that you mention it I didn't realize I've been posting threads that way until now. So I apologize If I annoyed anybody... -___-
 
It's not annoying at all. Just try to make some of your threads broader, like a thread about Gimmick Pokemon in general.
All in all, Riolu stays. There's a million things I would choose over it even if the gimmick did work.
 
As an LC player, I can say that I've never seen someone use Prankster Riolu. I'll just leave it as that, as there are much more better options like Prankster Cottonee.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top