Unaware or Water Absorb on Clodsire in Gen 9 Ubers?

Question

More of a general question, not looking for one superior ability: in what situations is Water Absorb superior to Unaware, and vice versa? What are some ideal teammates for each ability, and what are the general pros and cons of each choice?

Comments

Water Absorb is usually preferred to have a solid Bundle or Wake counter.  Unaware is only ever run if you need a guarantee against set-up Miraidon or even most others (excluding Koraidon in some cases).  I personally think Water Absorb is a more universal ability to use, but it just depends on what the team needs

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You'll probably get a better answer if you ask here: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/simple-questions-simple-answers.3710794/

Answer 1

You didn't ask there, so I asked for you.

We do this so Clod doesn't ignore a Miraidon's Draco Meteor SpA drop for the most part.
theres also an option to terra steel in order to completely wall bundle
Also especially now you get a immunity to kyogres water spout

source

Water Absorb is the preferred ability, as it deters Iron Bundle's Hydro Pump and more comfortably tanks Draco Meteor from Miraidon, since Unaware would otherwise ignore the Draco Meteor special attack drop. It also checks Tera Water Miraidon, which is an important trait it possesses over Ting-Lu. Unaware checks non-Life Orb Calm Mind Miraidon while beating Calm Mind + Taunt Flutter Mane, as well as making Iron Moth's Fiery Dance boosts less of a threat.

source

Comments

Are there any upsides of using Unaware instead?

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Apparently Clodsire already has an analysis that mentions abilities.

> Water Absorb is the preferred ability, as it deters Iron Bundle's Hydro Pump and more comfortably tanks Draco Meteor from Miraidon, since Unaware would otherwise ignore the Draco Meteor special attack drop. It also checks Tera Water Miraidon, which is an important trait it possesses over Ting-Lu. Unaware checks non-Life Orb Calm Mind Miraidon while beating Calm Mind + Taunt Flutter Mane, as well as making Iron Moth's Fiery Dance boosts less of a threat.

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If you could put that into the answer, I’ll BA.

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What about now that miraidon is banned?

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I think water absorb is still better since Kryogre and bundle are still major threats, and there are many other Pokémon who use Draco meteor. Also many setup sweepers are physical dragon dance, which clod can’t check, so unaware is only useful against very few mons

Answer 2

The way I see it, unaware just ignores all stat changes to either side. However, Water Absorb removes the water weakness on Clodsire. So, I would go for water absorb but it depends on the style of play personally.

Comments

Not necessarily. For example, if Clodsire had a -2 Def stat change and was attacked by a physical move, Unaware would not negate that stat change to the attack’s power.

> when a Pokémon with this Ability is targeted by a damaging move, the accuracy stat stages of the attacking Pokémon are ignored during accuracy calculation, and the Attack and Special Attack stat stages of the attacking Pokémon are ignored during damage calculation.

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Unaware is usually more useful because stats boosts are more common than stat drops. A bunch of factors in Clodsire's types, stats, and moves and the gen 9 Ubers metagame make water absorb better in this particular situation.

Answer 3

Water Absorb.

http://www.deviantart.com/angelrosestar/art/Clodsire-992228691

Unaware can turn off the ability's status changes, so it cannot be intimidated. However, Water Absorb restores HP when hit by a Water-Type move.

Do I need to list a bunch of Water-Type legendaries?

-Suicune
-Kyogre
-Palkia
-Phione
-Manaphy
-Arceus holding Splash Plate
-Keldeo
-Volcanion
-Silvally holding Water Memory
-Tapu Fini
-Rapid Urshifu

Comments

That is not how unaware works, you can still be intimidated. Also, most of these Pokémon aren’t viable in Ubers. The question also asked for teammates that work with each ability

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Palkia is in UBERS?

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Yes, of the Pokémon you listed, Arceus Water, Kyogre, Palkia, Urshifu, and Walking Wake are the only Water-type legendaries viable in Ubers. As this question asks for Gen 9 Ubers specifically, it's probably in your best interest to know about the tier before answering.

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Then where Arceus?

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As I mentioned earlier, all Arceus forms are in Ubers in Gen 9.