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Should You Pull? Gordie & Coloassal

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TL;DR: Should You Pull?

What Does It Do?

The stylish Gym Leader of the Circhester Stadium (well, at least if you played Pokémon Sword) was surrounded by curiosity from part of the community: his signature Pokémon Pokémon, Coalossal, very well knowns by the competitive VGC community, had a signature move that's not as well know in Tar Shot, which introduced a new mechanic to the series where a Pokémon straight up took double damage from Fire moves if it was hit by it. This game originally had no equivalent to such mechanics, but with the introduction of Sygna Suit Wally, we now have a solid grasp onto the mechanics of such moves, so let's see how Gordie makes his debut here!

As expected from the Rock Gym Leader, Coalossal is a Rock-type Tech Pokémon. It boasts a solid 390 Attack and Special Attack, although it has no special moves, but its Speed is very low at just 198, making its gauge generation not the best at base. Defensively, 678 HP with 226 Defense means that Gordie shouldn't be too worried about physical moves at all, but 154 Special Defense puts the pair in a situation closer to the common Striker on that side. The moves include Rock Tomb, which drops the opponent’s Speed by 1 stage, and Flame Charge, which boosts the user’s Speed by one stage - both moves cost two gauges, so you shouldn’t expect much damage from them. Tar Shot also costs 2 gauges and drops the opponent’s Speed by 1 stage, but has the added effect of lowering the target’s Fire Type Rebuff by 1 rank, increasing the damage they take from Fire moves - this is easily Gordie’s main selling point and why one would consider running him for a team, although its single target nature and limited uses means that it might not be as easy to fully take advantage from it. The Trainer Move is Not Just Yet!, which raises the user’s Attack by 2 stages and Defense and crit by one stage - it’s a good option for helping your own support finish your buffs, although a full self-sufficiency relies on MPR. As expected, the Sync Move Stylish Hard Rock Impact is based on Speed drops, which is not the best effect. Gordie & Coalossal also have access to Gigantamax, with Max Flare summoning Sun and also being boosted by Fire Rebuff, Max Guard having the niche of a targetable Damage Guard Next, and G-Max Volcalith summoning the Rock Damage Field on the opponent’s side of the field - a notably weak effect, as we saw before with Bertha.

The passives include Hot to the Touch 4, a new passive that can burn the opponent when they target the user, and Posthaste 9, raising the user’s Speed by two when they’re hit - this is a bit contradictory, as they’re two passives that rely on the user getting hit, but Coalossal is not a very notable main tank. The last passive is Hunter’s Instinct, which is also limited by Coalossal’s low BP moves on top of not having the greatest setup condition.

All of those make for a kit that can do a few things, but has a very clear purpose: supporting Fire-types. Fire Rebuff alongside Sun makes Gordie a much better support for Fire units than for Rock, which can sometimes make use of his Speed drops, but still won’t get any great benefit, and even for his own damage, Fire Rebuff will make Max Flare a better burst move than G-Max Volcalith. Although with a pretty weak DPS, his Sync Move can reach pretty good damage, but also limited by the purpose of his own kit, as summoning sun and giving Fire Rebuff means that any Fire-type Sync Move will have, at least, a 2.25x damage boost from Gordie himself.

How To Use It?

Sync Grid Considerations

Luckily for most people, Gordie is perfectly fine as a ⅕ Sync Pair, as the main reasons to use him come from his base kit. ⅖ gives some low multipliers and a bit of utility to his Max Moves, like G-Max Volcalith Defense Crush 2, while ⅗ gives the stronger multipliers to him - like mentioned before, his DPS is hard to save, but it can enable him to become a Tech Nuker with tiles such as Inertia and Cakewalk (which can be helped by Rock Tomb: Trip Up 9). But if any utility can have more consideration, it’s Head Start 1, as Fire-types tend to have one way or another to decrease the Sync Countdown and can be easily be combined with Gordie.

Game Modes

Champion Stadium: Master Mode

As a pair that focuses on burst damage, this is probably Gordie’s best bet. Fire Rebuff and a single summon on sun with a Max Move promotes a bursty playstyle that fits well with the mode - alternatively, he could be used to boost Cakewalk and Hunter’s Instinct multipliers, but there’s more efficient pairs at doing this than Gordie.

Legendary Arena & Gauntlet

Gordie can be used as a debuffer and Sync Nuker here - Fire Rebuff is removed between bars, so its efficiency is a bit neutered here, but Gordie can actually shine as a Tech Nuker more in this case, as he can self-buff it.

Extreme Battles

Fire Rebuff can be the difference between your Fire unit having enough firepower to beat a stage or not - right now, enemies don’t have a way to deal with negative rebuffs, and with the wide variety of Fire damage dealers, Gordie can actually have decent versatility here.

Battle Villa 

Outside of Max Flare, Gordie has nothing noteworthy for Battle Villa.

Is It Worth Pulling?

As a Spotlight Sync Pair, keep in mind that Gordie will eventually make his way to most accounts naturally. That being said, he provides a unique boost not available to anyone else at the moment, but also won’t do much beyond that. A usable unit for sure, but unless he’s a true favorite, pulling him may not be the best idea even with a decent performance.

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About the Author(s)

I'm from Brazil and like games and competitive stuff, studying engineering on college and helping other people in general.

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