- ↓ 0.03
- ꩜ 0.12
- ↑ 5.00
{F} → Earthquake : 120
This attack also does 20 damage to each of your Benched Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)
{F}{C}{C} → Heavy Impact : 90
illus. Hasegawa Saki
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The longer and bigger its tusks, the higher its rank in its herd. The tusks take long to grow.
televisionnation
While Donphan Prime was quite a force back in HeartGold & SoulSilver, this re-trained version with the double the Earthquake power sees no play in Sword & Shield Standard. The attack is too weak to 2-hit KO key meta threats for favorable prize trades & unfortunately Brilliant Stars Manaphy does not protect your bench from your own attacks, only from your opponent’s.
Lost Origin Sableye also ruins it. I wonder what it would take to make the archetypical Donphan playable in 2022, maybe push Earthquake to 150 or 160 to guarantee a 2-hit KO on all VSTARs & most VMAX? Make Brilliant Stars Manaphy protect yourself from self-inflicted damage? It bothers me that Manaphy doesn’t self-protect since it holds back cards like Donphan, maybe the next iteration in years to come will shake the meta once more…
Twylis
It has much better support in Expanded, but obviously much more severe competition. Strong Energy and Prism Star Diancie allow it to two-hit KO most things, and Choice Belt allows for everything else (and OHKOs some smaller basic Vs). The Bench Barrier Mr. Mimes also protect from bench recoil.