Gen 9 OU
Kingambit @ Leftovers / Black Glasses / Heavy-Duty Boots / Lum Berry
Ability: Supreme Overlord
Tera Type: Flying/ Fire / Fairy / Dark
EVs: 96 HP / 252 Atk / 160 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Kowtow Cleave
- Iron Head
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance
This is one of the most important Pokemon released in the Gen 9 metagame. When the dust settled and threats like Chi-Yu, Annihilape, Chien-Pao, Espathra, Gholdengo, Volcarona, and Garganacl got banned or became easier to handle, Kingambit emerged as the single best Pokemon in the meta and a suffocating presence in the teambuilder and meta, mandating the presence of Great Tusk on balance. It's not very difficult to see why this Pokemon is so good, it has great defensive stats, a great typing offensively and solid defensively, Swords Dance, Sucker Punch, and most importantly of all, the ability Supreme Overlord, turning it from a very good bulky attacker to possibly the best late game Pokemon ever. If you have more Pokemon on your team than the opponent, the opponent is more than likely in a winning position, which can be viewed as unhealthy by some. This Pokemon started to pick up steam around 2 or 3 months ago, and I believe the only reason why it was not suspected was because of the release of Pokemon home coming up.
Oh and also, Kingambit is the best abuser of Terastalization. Its movepool is linear, usually it's this exact set of mives, maybe with Low Kick or Tera Blast instead of Swords Dance, but the ability to terastilize into several viable options makes this Pokemon a threat. With Flying, you resist Fighting and have a Ground immunity, letting you set up on Great Tusk. With Fire, you resist Fire and are immune to Will-O-Wisp. Fairy lets you resist Fighting, not have a Stealth Rock weakness, and keep your favorable match up against Dragon types like Dragapult, Baxcalibur, and Roaring Moon. Tera Dark boosts Kowtow and Sucker to absurd power levels, and makes you less weak to Ground and Fire.
Kingambit can find many opportunities to set up with its bulk and natural typing, which offers plenty of neutralizes and resistances. For example, you can set up on Dragapult's Shadow Ball, Meowscarada's Flower Trick or Knock Off, and Tornadus-T's Bleakwind Storm.
Good teammates for Kingambit are slow wallbreakers like Hoopa Unbound, Arcanine-Hisui, Samurott-Hisui, and Sheer Force Braviary-Hisui, or fast attackers like Dragapult and Iron Valiant, which can force the enemy into uncomfortable Sucker punch scenarios. Gholdengo is another powerful Pokemon that pairs well with a kingambit, with Ghold liking Gambit's resistance to Dark, Steel and Gambit appreciating the Fighting immunity.
Kingambit loves Entry hazard support wearing its checks down. Stealth Rock setters like Glimmora and Kleavor can help Kingambit deal with Corviknight, while spikes setters like mixed Life Orb Garchomp and Hisuian Samurott can wear Great Tusk with Spikes. Life Orb Garchomp can lure a Tusk trying to spin its spikes away and prank it with a Life Orb Draco Meteor, which will KO after Spikes I believe. Samurott-H forms a dark type offensive core with Gambit, and Great Tusk cannot switch into its Aqua Cutter or Razor Shell, so spikes are way easier to maintain.
Both Slowking-Galar and Landorus-Therian can be fantastic defensive teammates, as Slowking can resist Fighting and help Gambit break through Great Tusk with its Future Sight support, while being able to bring Kingambit in safely by forcing switches with its assault vest set, or with its slow Chilly Reception pivot set, having a similar effect to Teleport in gen 8. Landorus-Therian packs a Ground immunity and Fighting resistance, as well as the obvious Intimidate making it force switches it can take advantage of with U-turn.
However, Kingambit has its counters. If you're up against a lone Kingambit that has a Swords Dance boost, and your Great Tusk just took fifty from an Iron Head, just use the power of friendship, which will overcome anything. Your showdown elo rating might tank a bit, but the real elo is just the friends we made along the way.
Leftovers are the main item of choice, allowing you to gain passive recovery. Black Glasses can be considered to strengthen your Sucker Punch and Kowtow Cleave without a drawback such as losing your HP. Heavy-Duty Boots is to avoid taking Stealth Rock damage on Tera Flying and Fire sets, making it easier for Gambit to come in and Swords Dance up at any given moment. They can be used with other Tera options too, as the lack of Stealth Rock and spikes chip can help Kingambit make the most of its defensive typing. Boots will let it take hits easier under hazards, but I'd recommend Leftovers the most. However, Hisuian Samurott and Kleavor are pretty good Pokemon from my experience, so Boots could become the standard item sometime in the future, regardless of Tera Type.
160 Speed EVs and Adamant allow Kingambit to outspeed the common EV spread used by Substitute Skeledirge and uninvited Corviknight, without sacrificing any power or bulk.
