Is this a viable competitive strategy?

Question

Let's say I'm in a double battle with a Regigigas and a Cofagrigus. On Turn 1, Cofagrigus uses some attacking or setup move, or whatever it needs to do, and Regigigas uses a weak contact move, such as Smack Down or something on Cofagrigus, thus giving Regigigas Mummy and freeing it from the prison that is Slow Start. Could this actually work in a battle and let Regigigas live up to it's full potential, or is this too farfetched to work?

Answer 1

Edit: For some reason I saw/thought of Slacking and then proceeded to write about Slacking the entire time. Somehow I didn't even check once. But pretty much everything I said is also true for Regigigas so whatever. I'm dumb @.@

This is a variation of hundred similar things. If this happened perfectly and uninterrupted then, possibly just through surprise (though someone would probably instantly know what you were trying) then it could. There'd be a couple problems though:

Cofigrigus has niche and is a good disrupter with WoW and Mummy but it's not a great Pokemon by any means. It has trouble with it's defensive role as it lacks real synergy and is difficult to fit onto a team without being a splash on or deadweight.

As I mentioned, it's not that hard to see through this strategy. You'd essentially have to waste a turn with slacking and Cof first, meaning your opponents could just gang up and beat Slacking turn one. Unless they're running Stall, they can easily 2HKO Slacking with whatever combination of sweepers. They risk their sweeper getting burned or Mummy'd but it's better than them losing, and if Slacking is you're main wincon they're still at an advantage. Even then, moves like Fake Out are very common place, meaning it could take more than one turn for slacking to set up. And THEN there are mindgames with the super common Protect, essentially wasting Slacking's useful turns.

Slacking also hits hard - even a weak move would dent Cof, meaning it's significantly easier to beat Cof too. If your opponent has any wits about them, they can easily gang up on Slacking and then beat the weakened Cof next turn.

Lastly, though this is a relatively small point, being forced to run a weak move on Slacking is kinda just wasteful. Slacking has good moves and coverage, restricting that to essentially three slots sucks.

So...I wanna say no. It's pretty fun and I'd highly suggest using it low ladder, it'd probably feel awesome if and when it works. But to take seriously? I wouldn't bother.

Comments

Aw, man, you beat me to this answer before I could see it...

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Would this apply to Regigigas too?

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Yes - Regi is bulky so could maybe survive the hits, but not as fast as many popular Pokemon regardless. Even if no Fake Out it'd be done by turn 2

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Mister... Or Apache Attack-helicopter ofc, no discrimination here!
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that I, I like Gible,  who has done this same very thing... Is now feeling bad for you and sincerely hope that you life will soon get better despite all this negative attention the press is giving you.

I do hope I helped a little atleast. :)
-I like Gible

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If you're talking about this strategy then feel fee to answer yourself with a differing opinion. But you might wanna source your experience and skill so we know that you know what you're talking about.

Answer 2

Yeah, that's definitely viable, but you'll have to keep in mind:
1) Regigigas will effectively have only three moves, since one moveslot has to be used for a weak contact move you're probably not going to use after turn 1.
2) A lot of people are probably going to predict your strategy and try to shut it down; mummy's actually the one of the most common anti-Slow Start / Truant (Bring Slaking to the party, too!) strategies that I've seen.

I'd suggest only using this strategy in lower tiers for those reasons, but other than that, go for it.