Competitive Pokémon History - Durant Quiz

Answer: Hustle

Hustle gives the user a free +1 to their attack in exchange for imposing a -15% accuracy on all of their moves. Though the negative aspect of it was certainly quite hindering, the free +1 in Attack to an already fairly strong Pokémon makes Durant doubtlessly quite potent.

Answer: 109

At 109, Durant crucially outsped big name threats in UU such as Cobalion and Galvantula. In RU, this involved Moltres, Entei and Rotom. This allowed it to best put its meaty Attack stat to use.

Answer: 48

Paired with a meagre 58 in HP, and Durant is immensely specially frail. Any Pokémon it cannot outspeed that is using a specially offensive move of virtually any kind can therefore deal with Durant quite easily.

Answer: Gothorita

With its evolved form Gothitelle being banned, a Gothorita with Eviolite was needed for Durant to use this strategy with any sort of success. The idea was to use Entrainment on a target, then switch Durant out for Gothorita. Gothorita's ability Shadow Tag prevents the opponent from switching, meaning they'd have a Pokémon with easily the worst ability in the game on the field, unable to ever switch out.

The reason this strategy was viewed as gimmicky is because the opponent can still switch their Truant Pokémon out on the turn before Durant switches out for Gothorita. The idea is also highly telegraphed, so the opponent is almost certain to know that a Gothorita is coming into play on the ensuing turn, and can thus switch a Pokémon in who has a good matchup with Gothorita.

Answer: Life Orb

Previously, Durant's only way of gaining a reliable, long term boost to its damage output from an item was by using the Choice Band, which locked it into whichever move it picked first until it switched out. This was exploitable, as the opponent could make a prediction as to what move Durant would lock itself into, then switch a Pokémon in who could take that particular move. It wasn't a perfect strategy, as it's always possible to make an incorrect prediction, but it at least left room for plenty of counter play.

Life Orb provides that meaningful long term boost to Durant's damage output without the negative side effect of locking it into that one move. Because of this, Durant can simply use a more appropriate move if the opponent switches something into it. With a high base 109 Speed, its probable that Durant will outspeed its assailant and, with Hustle and Life Orb supplementing its offenses, it will probably be able to heavily damage, if not KO, whatever switched in.

Because of this, the limited set of defensive options in RU made Durant out to be a bit too unreasonable to be allowed to remain in the tier. It was banned to UU, where it was a fairly regular, mid tier Pokémon.

Answer: No

Durant's movepool was sparse, but in conjunction with its good offensive stats, it offered just enough options to fend off any would-be counters. Rock Slide OHKOes any Fire type who is hit super effectively by it, and it only needs minor chip damage to 2HKO Infernape, who is outsped by Durant by one single point. STAB X-Scissor and Iron Head with the Hustle boost were quite powerful and difficult to switch into, while Superpower, Thunder Fang and Crunch could cover anything Durant's STAB or Rock Slide missed out on.

As a result, Durant could not be reliably countered here.

Answer: Hone Claws

Hone Claws provides a +1 to both Attack and accuracy upon use. The accuracy boost is most notable, as it conveniently overshadows the accuracy reduction imposed by Hustle. Essentially, after one Hone Claws boost, Durant is at +2 Attack with perfect accuracy- a scary dilemma for the opponent to try and deal with.

Answer: Scizor

Scizor was significantly stronger than Durant, with a much higher Attack stat, more broadly useful ability in Technician, powerful priority in Technician-boosted Bullet Punch, a better boosting move in Swords Dance, the ability to be a useful pivot with U-Turn, and far, far better bulk.

The only advantage Durant had was its base Speed, but Scizor's powerful priority Bullet Punch that it frequently found itself spamming made this advantage seem weak and insignificant. As a result, there was never, ever a reason to use Durant instead of Scizor if the player's main goal was to win a game.

Answer: First Impression

First Impression is a 90 base power move with a +5 priority bracket, meaning only faster users of the move or Pokémon using Extreme Speed, Fake Out or Protect will move before Durant if it uses First Impression. The move was stronger than Durant's previously strongest Bug type move, X-Scissor.

However, it can only be used on the very first turn Durant hits the field. Because of Durant's Hustle ability, it annoyingly has a chance to miss and be unusable until Durant switches out and comes back in later. Still, it's a powerful priority move that gave Durant the potential to revenge kill, making it out to be quite useful.

Answer: Durant checks Heatmor

Rock Slide or Stone Edge with the Hustle boost are strong enough to easily OHKO Heatmor. Durant also easily outspeeds Heatmor, thus making it out to be a good check. However, Durant definitely cannot switch into Heatmor, as any Fire type move in Heatmor's arsenal will easily OHKO Durant.

As such, it's only a check, but it generally has the advantage due to its higher Speed and access to strong coverage moves.