Welcome to DevonCorpPress! We believe in sharing the VGC stories and ideas of anyone in our community. We’ve recently noticed the efforts of Andrew Armstrong on X with his extensive Pokemon breakdown threads. After being given his permission, we’re incredibly excited to feature his work on DevonCorpPress. This piece in particular may be of interest to many of you struggling with Annihilape in the Scarlet/Violet Regulation H format!

- Ryan B Hebert

Founder of DevonCorpPress

By popular demand, the thread for today is everyone’s (least) favorite Angy Monke: Annihlape ft. Maushold!

Like always, before we can talk about how to beat duo, we need to understand what makes them good

So first, Annihilape. It’s base stats are pretty good all around: 110/80/90 bulk and 115 Atk with 90 spd. Annihilape’s typing and ability are amazing. Ghost + Fighting is one of the best offensive combos in the game, and Defiant boosts it’s Atk +2 when any stat is lowered.

Now for Maushold, a very fast normal type Pokémon. What sets it apart are its abilities and moves. It gets Technician to boost weak/multi hit attacks, and it gets Friend Guard to lower damage to allies. As for moves, it gets Follow Me, Taunt, Beat Up, and Population Bomb

Before we get into the deadly synergy between these two Pokémon, let’s dive into Annihilape’s weaknesses: Ghost + Fighting is a terrible defensive typing. This makes Annihilape weak to ghost, psychic, fairy, and flying. It only resists poison, bug, and rock with a fighting immunity

It’s bulky, and strong, but not enough to be eating lots of hits, and its best moves have flaws. Drain Punch is amazing for healing, but even with STAB you want a +1 or +2 before you punch. Rage Fist boosts +50 every hit it takes, but only starts at 50bp

This puts Annihilape in a bit of an awkward spot, but that’s where Maushold takes this duo to the next level. Maushold has amazing defensive synergy with Follow Me. You want to hit Ape with a Shadow Ball? Follow me negates it. Spread attack? Friend Guard weakens it

But that’s not the scary part. If you ignore Maushold, it can side Beat Up to boost Rage Fist to 250bp on the spot. Taunt can shut down Trick Room, status moves, etc. Some sets even run Population Bomb, which reaches 200bp if all moves hit (300 with STAB and 450 with Technician)

What this amounts to is a powerful duo with lots of options that are safe for them but force 50/50s for the opponent. Beat Up + Rage Fist, Follow Me + Bulk Up, Protect + Bulk Up. Protect + Population Bomb/Super Fang, and that’s just two mons on the team. It’s a lot to handle!

So how do we stop it? Well, here are just a few suggestions that I have tried that work well for me:

Option 1: Fast, strong spread moves. Annihilape is fast but often sacrifice speed for bulk or power. If you hit ‘em with, say, Eruption + Expanding Force, that’s gonna hurt!

Elaborating on this, strong spread moves often force it to tera turn 1 and can allow you to create offensive pins. Fire and Psychic are the most common ways to do this but several strong fairies do exist (Sylveon, Ninetales Alola, etc)

Option 2: Remove Maus immediately. Strong Players won’t let you get away with this as easily, but if you’ve got two very strong single target attacks, you can force them to redirect to Maus and knock it out. This removes Friend Guard without boosting Rage Fist.

Option 3: Redirection (preferably follow me) of your own. This makes beat up useless and can slow down the Ape considerably. Unaware Clefable is the strongest option, but Indeedee, your own Maushold, Magmar etc all good. Safety Goggles and Tera can ignore Rage Powder.

What do you do while redirecting? You fire off strong attacks or set up your self. If you can set up Quiver Dance, Iron Defense, etc. faster than they can Rage Fist, you can often win.

Option 5: Be annoying. Taunt, Encore, Disable, Thunder Wave, etc. A lot of the strength of this duo is lost when Maus can’t follow me or Ape can’t Bulk Up or Protect. This isn’t foolproof, but it’s definitely helpful

Option 6: Strong Normal types with big physical defense. What good does rage fist do again, normal types? They make Ape click drain punch, which is less good for them. Both Ursalunas, Farigiraf, and Indeedee M are good options

What if you want to use it though? What are some good ways to utilize the duo?

Option 1: Slap it on to a strong team of 4. Psyspam, Rain, Dozo, etc. are all good cores that can benefit from a strong mix-up.

Option 2: More Support! A second redirector like Amoonguss, Sinistcha, and Indeedee are all really good and all can add healing. Fake Out cycling from Incin and Rillaboom is always welcome. Weather/Terrain control and screens can slow down fast, strong teams.

Option 3: More set up sweepers! If you’ve got the friend guard redirector and more support, add another sweeper! Gholdengo also has amazing synergy so I’d think there first.

In conclusion, MausApe is a force to be reckoned with and should be respected in the teambuilder and practice. It’s beatable, tho! And in several ways, so I think that with a little prep most teams can have a decent matchup! Hope this helps! Follow and let me know what to cover next!

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