Introduction
Snorlax is primarily a defensive mon, good for pivoting due to its immunity to ghost and nothing except fighting hitting it super effectively. Also due to it being a gen 1 normal mon it gets a very wide range of attacks for it to pick from such as Earthquake, Heat Crash, Heavy Slam, Darkest Lariat and its “signature” move, Rest, just to name a few. Lax can be hard to take off the field if sent in properly, especially with recovery due to its huge hp pool and its rather large Special Defense stat. Due to its hp and Special Defense stats being so high it is the premier Special Defense mon of the February meta. Lax (Which I will be calling it from now on because I am too lazy to write Snorlax every time I wanna refer to them.) is capable of taking most hits, specifically from the current best Special Attackers, Serperior and Nidoqueen. Lax is a great mon due to it being able to sponge attacks with the help of its tremendous bulk and being able to fire back hits with its very solid 110 base attack.
The Best Defense is a Good Offense.
Like I said at the beginning of the analysis, Lax has a surprisingly high Attack stat which combined with its wide move pool really makes it a formidable mon to go up against if ill prepared. Its sweeping coverage makes it a very good mon to have on your side. This is the obligatory “person shows calcs against meta threats” part of the analysis.
The Viper in my Bosom Against
Serp which is probably one of, if not the scariest mon in this current meta AV Lax actually pairs really well against it. (Shocker I know, who would have guessed the specially bulky mon beats out the special attacker.) But wait there’s more to this than just simply taking 2 Leaf Storms from Serp and only taking ~50%. If you run Heat Crash, (which I would advise for this specific match up and Skarm but we’ll get to them later,) you get a guaranteed 2HKO (83.1 - 98.2%) even with max bulk (65.9 - 77.6%) and Lefties recovery on the Serp. Even if the Serp is sub seed you can instantly break it’s sub and even if it gets off a seed somehow, you still 2HKO it with Heat Crash.
Because We Focused on the Snake, We Missed the Scorpion.
The Queen has come to redeem her throne as the 2nd best Special Attacker of the current meta. Nidoqueen also doesn’t have a favorable matchup into Lax. The most she can do into Lax is with her Sludge Wave (22.2 - 26.4%) which if you’re running Sheer Force (which you probably should,) can’t even poison Lax who isn’t running Immunity. So wave bye bye to the main way to even stand a chance. Now onto the calcs for Lax’s side. Lax’s best option is Earthquake in this scenario as he has a guaranteed 2HKO if the Nido is running Life Orb or anything but Lefties, if the Queen has a snack packed just in case there is a 99.6% chance of still 2HKOing the Queen herself. Now it is notable that this is from the lowest of low rolls which is really only 1 damage roll so you have to be incredibly unlucky to even have a shot at rolling this and even if you do there is nothing the Queen can do back to you so you’ll be fine my little angels.
Only Through Conflict Do We Evolve
Now Lax definitely has some shortcomings, I love them but they do not match up well into Skarmory, Paldean-Tauros-Blaze, Close Combat Ceruledge, or Houndstone. All of these mons can effectively 2 shot your Lax or even 1 shot in the case of Life Orb +Atk Pauros Close Combat. Recovery is necessary to beat any of these mons.
A Bird in the Bush
Now onto Skarm. Oh boy this is a toughy. While yes you do a good chunk of Skarms health with Heat Crash (40.1 - 47.3%) you will take chip from Rocky Helmet and it is only a 3HKO. The Body Press coming right back at you will hurt (45.4 - 53.6%) though if you run a Lefties Lax over an AV Lax you have a chance to not die if the opponent Skarm doesn’t have Rocky Helmet. I cannot say if you will die from the Rocky Helmet chip though I will just assume so. Lax is not safe to keep in here also due to Skarm having access to Roost which will simply bring it back up to about full and then you have very little you can do at that point. Though if you run Expert Belt Lax Heat Crash comfortably 3HKO’s Skarm right back.
Is Worth 2 in the Hand.
Now onto the other matchups. Like I said at the beginning, Lax struggles against these rather oppressive physical attackers. CC Ceruledge does good damage into Thick Fat Lax (56.7 - 67%) but it is hit back hard by EQ (80.4 - 94.8%) though this causes a problem. If the Ceru is Sashed and has Weak Armor, you have just given Ceruledge a free set up as now it can outspeed and kill you next turn with CC. There is another roll you can do if the Ceru is using Air Balloon, use Darkest Lariat (68.7 - 81%). Darkest Lariat will also proc weak armor but the only Balloon Ceru’s I’ve seen have Flash Fire so you can freely hit Ceru. Now this doesn’t remove the whole CC kills afterwards conundrum but you are now able to hit Houndstone and aren’t sitting there like a fool in front of a Ceru.
Onto Pauros, I’ll try to make this one quick. EQ doesn’t even do half (31.9 - 37.8%), you lose this matchup, game over. Now Houndstone oh boy Houndstone. You do not win this one either, basically it’s the same as Skarm except without Rocky Helmet. Max defense Houndstone Body Press hurts (35.9 - 42.4%) the only hope you have against this thing is to Heat Crash (24.4 - 28.7%) due to Fluffy making Darkest Lariat not as good comparatively. Even then the only way out to not get 3HKOed by the deceased canine is to have lefties and that is a bad gamble. You have a 3.4% chance of not getting 3HKOed with Lefties and lemme tell you, that is not a gamble you wanna be taking. Honestly just pulling Lax out of that one is the best move. You do not win that battle of attrition unless you are a weirdo and use a Chesto Rest set like me.
All Good Things Must Come to an End.
This is just the closing statement of the analysis. I will be thinking of making this a monthly thing but no promises. Anyways I personally believe Lax is a better Specially Defensive mon compared to Aromatise due to Lax being able to reliably hit and recover as well as having far more bulk. While Aromatise isn’t bad I prefer the big guy/gal. I like being able to attack with my bulky mons and Aromatise is a Big Stall™ mon that I personally just dislike. Now my little angels, go forth and use this information for whatever stage of the tournament you find this in! Seraphim Alice out!
Written by Alice