Competitive Pokemon History - Giratina-A Quiz

Answer: Spin-blocker

At the time, entry hazards like Stealth Rock or Spikes could only be removed with Rapid Spin. Ghost types block Rapid Spin, or "spin-block" which gives the typing n inherent defensive niche even on the frailest of Ghosts. As easily the bulkiest Ghost in all of franchise history, this meant that entry hazards basically were never removed if one had a healthy Giratina-A on their party. Forretress and Starmie had zero chance of ever prevailing in removing hazards from their side against Giratina-A, as it was so absurdly bulky that they could do nothing but flail at it while it slowly whittled them away.

As an emphasis for how amazing Giratina-A was at spin-blocking, Cloyster, a Pokémon who was otherwise pathetically useless in Ubers, actually started to see usage since it was the only Rapid Spinner in the game who could hit Giratina-A super effectively with its STAB Ice type attacks. Even then, Giratina-A would often prevail!

Answer: 150

Out of anything that was even slightly viable in Ubers, Giratina-A's colossal HP stat was only eclipsed by Blissey, Wobbuffett and was only matched by its Origin forme. With its sturdy 120/120 Defense and Special Defense, Giratina-A was built to last for the long haul!

Answer: Pressure

Out of all the Pokémon to have ever been given Pressure for an ability, Giratina-A is easily the most famous abuser and may be the greatest fit for the ability. Giratina-A's massive bulk was built to stall with, and because it often engaged in wars of attrition with an opponent's entry hazard control, sapping up that Rapid Spin and Stealth Rock PP would really start to become a factor as the game lasted longer and longer.

Answer: Dialga

All four of the given options could defeat Giratina-A one-on-one if they met upon the battlefield in equal conditions rather easily. However, Dialga could also take a more aggressive approach and just switch straight into whatever Giratina-A tried to hurt it with, and still come out on top. Dialga was only neutral to Dragon, and could sponge a few hits from Giratina-A rather easily. It could then proceed to set up against it easily with Bulk Up, while using Rest to nullify any damage or status received in return, then destroy Giratina-A with a boosted, super effective Outrage. Alternatively, Dialga could also just launch a powerful Draco Meteor, OHKO Giratina-A, and wipe its hands (paws? claws?) clean with it immediately.

Other counters Giratina-A had to watch out for were Arceus-Dark and Arceus-Ice. Arceus-Ghost and Darkrai were also pretty consistent at doing this deed, but could falter in some slightly common circumstances, so playing them with initial caution before going for the kill was recommended.

Answer: Its passivity

Giratina's 100/100 Attacking stats aren't actually horrible for a defensive Pokémon. However, the fact that Giratina has to resort to Rest/Sleep Talk to heal itself and not invite everything in the meta to switch into it for free means it only has two movepool options to be useful apart from just sitting there and taking hits all day. With those two moveslots, Giratina was constrained to choosing two of Will-O-Wisp, Roar, Dragon Tail and Toxic. Dragon Tail is the only one of those four that does direct damage, meaning Giratina is just about always shut down by a simple Taunt or Substitute, as it cannot threaten users of these moves at all once they've entered play. Even then, anything that's specially offensive and not deliberately weak to Dragon can switch in fairly easily, even moreso if they're immune to Toxic. Giratina's overall passivity makes it extremely one dimensional, easy to predict, and fairly straightforward to deal with.

In practice, this means it needs a lot of team support to not end up turning into a liability at some point.

Answer: Giratina-O cannot hold a Chesto Berry

Giratina-O is confined to a Griseous Orb in order to actually be Giratina-O. This is one of the quirks to using Giratina-A instead: you get total freedom of Giratina's held item, while its Origin forme can only ever use one item. Giratina-A's ChestoRest set therefore seeks to abuse this advantage. Giratina-O is just about always a better offensive threat than Giratina-A, but it cannot pull off a ChestoRest set due to its item restrictions, which makes Giratina-A worth considering.

Answer: Defog

Giratina-A's prime niche up to this point had been blocking Rapid Spin, and preventing the opponent from removing perilous entry hazards from their end of the field. Defog therefore ruined this niche completely when it got buffed in the sixth generation, as Defog also removed entry hazards and bypassed the opposing Pokémon regardless of their type or ability to do so. Thus, Rapid Spin became rare as Defog became a far more efficient option. With it, the demand for spin-blocking declined dramatically, as did teams looking for Giratina-A's ability to be the best spin-blocker in the game by far.

Answer: Entry hazard removing

It went from being the best at denying entry hazard removing to becoming an entry hazard remover over the course of one generation. Giratina-A's ability to easily check Primal Groudon, the best entry hazard setter in the game, combined with its access to Defog meant Giratina-A could frequently come into play as Primal Groudon set Stealth Rock to just remove it easily.

It did compete with support forms of Arceus, the Lati twins and its Origin forme in this job, though it was better than the latter two when used on a stall team, and it was a good pick for if someone wanted their support form of Arceus to set Stealth Rock instead of remove it.

Answer: Yes

Giratina-A got a little bit better, even if its overall one-dimensional dynamic did not change too much. Mega Lucario rose in popularity as a deadly sweeper and wallbreaker with the buffs it received in the seventh generation, but it still could not do a single thing to overcome Giratina-A. Additionally, Necrozma-DM vaulted into the top five best Pokémon in Ubers with its introduction, yet it too fell almost all the time if it tried to confront Giratina-A. Giratina-A became renowned as the most durable entry hazard remover in the game.

As the power levels of the tier rose, Giratina-A's bulk held fast and enabled it to keep up with many of the newcoming and old-time threats of the day.

Answer: The Great Wall

Simply put, Giratina-A is one of the bulkiest Pokémon to have ever existed. Unlike Lugia, it has a monstrous HP stat to complement its sizable defenses. Unlike Blissey, Giratina has amazing mixed bulks, so a player cannot simply switch in a physical or special attacker on Giratina and easily win, unlike switching in a physical threat to scare off Blissey, or a specially offensive threat to easily thwart Skarmory.

As such, "The Great Wall" is a perfectly fitting title for Giratina-A.