*sets up rocks on your Lando-T's U-Turn*

>>715499313 (OP)
As someone who gives 0 shit on pokemon competitive, why are terrain hazards consider good? All I see is that it does shitass damage and wastes a turn if it's not someone's ability

>>715500904
>shitass damage

>>715500904
That little bit of damage allow you to one shot kill some pokes. Every turn counts.

>>715500904
Pokemon battles have no real drawback to switching.
Theoretically everytime the opponent uses a super effective move, there's nothing stopping you from switching to a pokemon that resists it, then using a healing move as the opponent then switches themselves to something that beats what you switched to.
There's a lot more nuance to that, but that's the gist of it.
Stage hazards give you chip damage on the opponent every time they switch.
So not only are they not able to switch forever, it also incentives them to switch less.

>>715500904
Hazards are the only thing that punish switching. If they didn't exist singles matches would take forever. Also 25-50% to certain Pokemon isn't "shitass damage" and basically forces the use of Heavy Duty Boots on a lot of rock-weak Pokemon.

>>715499313 (OP)
this thing's legendary themes in the remake was boppin

>>715500904
Retard

fat fucking dum frog

>>715500904
Disables sturdy.

>>715500904
the term is kind of retarded but its called "actualization of momentum". basically when you have the initiative and the opponent needs to either switch out or lose a pokemon (or lose more health than they can afford on the current pokemon) its actually a bad thing to pull the trigger right away. As soon as you actually commit to an attack on a turn that the opponent switches into a better match up, you lose your momentum and have to gain it back with a sacrifice or a series of switches/predictions.
Hazards let you rack up damage and give you a payoff for keeping momentum, every turn you have the initiative and make a prediction that keeps you in a favorable matchup, you get more hazard chip damage on the opponent. In essence you are extending the amount of damage you get before you have to give up your momentum and pull the trigger.
It leads to this awkward dance where continually switching is more effective than attacking (unless you use mentum moves like U-turn or voltswitch) because you force the opponent to switch out too.

>>715499313 (OP)
ok but why does this thing have a gender?

>>715503764
So you can fuck it.

>>715503764
>Heatranny

Sneaky Stones is only good in the fake online format.

I miss Heatran with hidden power ice...

>>715504824
>But can't breed

I dont know how you can stand comp pokemon with all the rng. It just makes me so mad when I lose because of random chance

>>715503764
Its literally called "Heatrans"

>>715499313 (OP)
That thing is so fucking ugly

>>715503764
It's a minor legendary, like really minor. It's a legendary that's just rare like the Kanto birds but even they're more special.

>>715501379
I see

>>715500904
>enemy sends out revenge killer and you just know it has super effective
>switch to resisted mon which at least reduces damage to 1/4
>but he put Stealth rock and Poison spikes so now your switch is taking some damage and poisoned along with the attack
>stealth rock basically murders Charizard and Moltres and neuters most Flying or Fire types
Even if you're not playing at a level where you and your opponent are switching you can setup them up asap and Stealth Rock would do an average of 62.5% even if you only switch when a pokemon faints.

>>715499313 (OP)
>Lando-T
>using U-Turn on Heatran and not Earthquake

>>715508584
>He doesn’t know
You ever see up? Imagine that with Heatrsn

>>715508584
The Lando-T user, knowing that Heatran is weak to earthquake, predicts the opponent to switch out their Heatran that will get OHKOd, so they click U-turn instead to gain momentum.
The Heatran user, knowing this, instead stays in and sets up Stealth Rock, making the Lando-T user actually lose momentum instead.
This is a pretty standard interaction.

>>715500904
its not comp pokemon is doubles and rocks is too slow for that but ppl that play a fake shit format where they gotta ban alot things and the games still broke its pretty good

>>715507035
So it's Dragonite tier?

What is the current Smogon meta like? I haven't touched it since gen 6.

>>715509364
What happens if the Lando uses earthquake though.

>>715509453
air balloon sorry fag

>>715509410
I hope you enjoy legendary pokemon

>>715509453
The Heatran user gets mad and cusses him out in the chat.

>>715500904
The two big reasons are punishing switching, and getting ranges to oneshot.
Switching is a really powerful option, and hazards make it a limited resource.
The second is more important. A lot of pokemon fall *just* short of being able to reliably oneshot average targets, and hazards push that bit of extra damage. If you deal 90%, they survive with 10% then fuck you up. If you deal 12.5% first, then when you deal 90%, they die.

>>715509595
what if my lando has no speed investments and the opponent is running max speed iv/ev heatran

>>715503764
It was originally not supposed to be a legendary, but they axed its pre-evos. Then they made it a legendary for some fuckinf reason.

>>715501085
Are those...SNEAKY PEBBLES??? AAAIIIIEEEEEEEEE SAVE ME HEAVY DUTY BOOTS-SAMA!

*Hydropumps you with Blasto*
*Mach punches you with Brelo*
*Earthquakes you with Tyran*

>>715509739
That is actually a thing that happens.
So yeah Heatran will die but get off a meaty chunk on Landon with Magma Storm or it'll set up rocks.
Then at that point, since it's a defensive Lando-T you'll need to play it carefully to try and get it HP back via leftovers either with crazy double switches or U-Turns (after removing rocks).

>>715509871
oddish used abador!

There are too many free clicks and legendary Pokémon that I havent bothered with pokemon since Knock off, even then not like Gen 4 and 5 were that great either