Hitmontop vs Scrafty --- Pros and Cons of each Intimidate Pivot?

Question

Hitmontop and Scrafty are great users of the eject button, cushioning and tanking attacks for teammates whilst also getting off an intimidate. Scrafty has higher bulk overall, boasting a higher HP, defense and sp.Defense stat whilst Hitmontop possesses higher attack and speed. However, Hitmontop also has access to match punch and bullet punch, and isn't x4 weakness to fairy either.

The question is:
Which one is more viable in 2020 VGC / Battle Stadium Doubles? What are the pros and cons of each?

Answer 1

You highlighted most of the big points, but I’ll just go through the pros and cons of each.

Hitmontop

Pros

• Good support movepool: wide guard, quick guard, helping hand, uproar, All weathers except hail, feint
• Slightly higher attack
• Lots of priority- bullet punch, Mach punch, vacuum wave, sucker punch

Cons

• Less bulk in all stats
• Not the most diverse physical move pool

Scrafty

Pros

• snarl
• very diverse physical move pool
• bulky
• immunities to psychic and prankster
• Taunt

Cons

• Less attack
• slow
• Shallower supportive move pool
• 4x weakness to fairy

In addition, I'd like to point out that Hitmontop is ranked #65 in usage in Battle Stadium Doubles, whereas Scrafty is #105. I'm assuming this is Series 6 and not series 5 because Incineroar is most definitely the best intimidate + fake out pivot.

I'd say that the common Hitmontop set is Fake out/Helping Hand/Close Combat/Your choice. You can run wide guard or quick guard if you're worried about something in particular, but Togekiss, Tyranitar and Psychic Surge are gone so I don't think it's necessary. Usually Sucker Punch is valuable to hit ghost types, put with all of its priority moves, you'll see weakness policy procs often as well.

Scrafty is a lot more varied. You'll almost always see fake out, but other than than that, you can do a lot of things with it: Snarl, taunt, throat chop, brick break, and lots of coverage. since it's fairly slow, an interesting but gimmicky thing to o would be to have it on a Dusclops Trick Room + Bulldoze team so you can bulldoze and lash out late game. Usually Scrafty will have more attack investment since it doesn't offer as much support.

Overall, it really depends on the team you're using. Hitmontop is used as a supportive pivot that can boost teammates' survivability and damage output. It has a good fit on teams with fast, frail early game Dynamaxers, especially those with weakness policy. On the other hand, Scrafty is more of a supportive mon for Trick Room teams, helping Trick room go up and often late game cleaning alongside Dusclops. (Intimidate + Snarl + Drain Punch can be annoying alongside Dusclops.) The 4x weakness hurts, but there aren't as many fairy types anymore so it can definitely be utilized.

I hope this helps!

Comments

Awesome!