Competitive Pokémon History - Keldeo Quiz

Answer: 129

Much like Terrakion, this allowed Keldeo to be quite the menace to bulky teams. It was well complemented by its good base 108 Speed, enabling it to outrun prominent faces such as Garchomp, Salamence and Volcarona.

Answer: It strikes the target on their Defense stat instead of Special Defense

Secret Sword is basically a Fighting type version of Psyshock, and is marginally stronger than it to boot. Because Chansey and Blissey are weak to Fighting and also have low Defense stats, Secret Sword gave Keldeo an excellent matchup against them, which was extremely valuable for a special attacker. Thus, the move had an excellent niche for Keldeo to utilize.

Answer: Politoed

Ninetales would be a strictly poor pairing with Keldeo, as its Drought ability calls forth the sun, which neuters Keldeo's Water type attacks.

Tyranitar and Abomasnow wouldn't be the worst pairings in the world, but they also wouldn't be the best, as their respective weather setting abilities would damage Keldeo at the end of every turn.

Politoed, meanwhile, brought forth a raging maelstrom within Keldeo the likes of which nearly makes Kyogre jealous. With the Drizzle ability, Politoed is able to amplify the potential of Keldeo's Hydro Pumps, which would be astonishingly strong. To give an idea, despite its resistance to the move, Latias, a generally bulky Pokémon, has to be at full health lest it wish to be 2HKOed by the move. Other resistant Pokémon such as Tentacruel and Starmie don't keel over to the move, but also take a ton of damage from it as well.

With an allied Politoed, the number of Pokémon who could actually take a hit from Keldeo reliably diminished greatly. As such, the pairing was naturally quite common.

Answer: Justified

Justified grants its user a +1 to Attack if they are struck by a Dark type move.

Keldeo was definitely the least profitable user of this ability. As a Pokémon who is strictly a special attacker, Attack boosts simply do nothing of use for it.

Answer: Mega Altaria

Mega Altaria resisted both of Keldeo's STAB types and had the bulk to handle even super effective Icy Wind reasonably well. It's stallbreaking set, the infamous "King DDD" set was capable of just boosting right in Keldeo's face and threatening a sweep. Mega Altaria's specially offensive set could also bypass Substitute with Pixilated Hyper Voice should Keldeo be using the move. Both sets generally tended to carry Heal Bell and thus weren't too bothered by status from a Scald burn or Toxic if Keldeo had either of those moves.

Other counters to Keldeo included Mega Venusaur, Amoonguss and Celebi.

Answer: Poor coverage options

Hydro Pump and Secret Sword are fine STAB options. However, threats which resist those two moves have typically been able to stop Keldeo pretty easily. It's best coverage options over the years have pretty much just been Icy Wind and a Hidden Power typing. Those moves are both pretty bad for primary coverage moves, but they're the best that Keldeo has ever had to work with.

Answer: Standard play (OverUsed)

Keldeo began by being allowed in UU after its usage in standard play declined. Keldeo resided in UU for sometime until it was eventually banned from the tier after its second suspect test, a tightly contested debate that ended with a 71% majority of qualified voters agreeing that Keldeo was too much for the tier.

Keldeo was off to a sluggish start in standard play, but as balance teams were beginning to become the face of the meta, it was found that Keldeo possessed a series of unique attributes that made it adept and cutting them down. Positive matchups against balance staples such as Ash-Greninja, Chansey, Ferrothorn, Heatran and Mega Scizor were incredibly useful. As such, it took quite awhile, but Keldeo eventually received enough usage statistics to become a native member of standard play a mere two weeks before the generation ended.

Answer: No

Keldeo, along with its fellow Swords of Justice, would be made available courtesy of DLC released several months after the eighth generation commenced.

Answer: Flip Turn

Flip Turn is basically a U-Turn clone, doing the same exact thing only being a Water type move instead of a Bug type.

It did have at least a little bit of value on Keldeo, as it could pivot its way out of predicted switches into Pokémon Keldeo matched up poorly against. However, most of the Pokémon who actually check Keldeo could be worn down immensely constantly switching into its powerful attacks anyway, so it would be acceptable for Keldeo to just try and damage them heavily upon switching in instead of pivoting. As such, Flip Turn did not make the most impact on Keldeo.

Answer: Yes

Specifically, Mantine and Primarina had nothing at all to fear from Keldeo, resisting both of its STAB moves. With Hidden Power being removed, they no longer had to be concerned about switching into a super effective Hidden Power Electric as they had in the past. Mantine can use its Water Absorb ability to block Flip Turn, should Keldeo have it, as well as Haze to stop last-Pokémon Keldeo from trying to break through it with Calm Mind. Primarina's RestTalk set eats hits from Keldeo forever, while its own Calm Mind set can easily boost alongside Keldeo and eventually win.