Would this strategy work for Shedinja?

For context, it’s doubles on Sw/Sh. This may also work on Scarlet and Violet. I haven’t thought a lot about what Pokémon would work or a strategy, just this initial setup.You send out a Pokémon with Skill Swap and another with Sturdy. You skill swap sturdy, and switch out the original sturdy Pokémon to Shedinja if it hasn’t fainted already. You then skill swap on Shedinja. Status moves and weather conditions would still damage it though, so you would send out Pokémon that can stop these with their abilities or moves. Would this make Shedinja practically unstoppable?

Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.

The first thing you should know is that there’s no such thing as a “practically unstoppable” strategy in competitive Pokemon. Even though Pokemon isn’t the most balanced video game out there, the Pokemon Company still organizes multiple tournaments with hundreds of participants each year. If a “practically unstoppable” strategy exists, would you really expect none of those tournament players to know about it?

The second thing you should know is that this wouldn’t work in gen 9 because Shedinja isn’t obtainable in gen 9.

So let’s say you still want to attempt this in gen 8, even though you know it’ll eventually fail. Skill swap doesn’t work on wonder guard, so you would need either entrainment or gastro acid. No Pokemon learns both gastro acid and entrainment in gen 8, and the only Pokemon that learns gastro acid and skill swap is Mew, which is banned in VGC22.sourceYou would need to switch after using gastro acid. This effectively gives the opponent 2 opportunities to attack an ability-less Shedinja (1 opportunity with protect, but that costs an entire move slot on Shedinja). So a gastro acid strategy can be stopped by any Pokemon with a non-normal attack.

Entrainment isn’t that much better. The only Pokemon that learns entrainment and skill swap is Audino, and the only Pokemon that learn entrainment and role play are Lilligant and Audino. Lilligant’s speed won’t matter here because it’s still slower than almost all the offensive Pokemon in VGC22, so let’s use Audino. Audino will need to survive 2 turns in order to transfer sturdy onto Shedinja. This is what happens if Audino attempts to survive 2 turns against the most common offensive threats in VGC22 (ignoring Dynamax).

252 SpA Solar Power Charizard Blast Burn vs. 252 HP / 128+ SpD Audino in Sun: 229-270 (109 - 128.5%) – guaranteed OHKO156+ SpA Kyogre Water Spout (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 128+ SpD Audino in Rain: 198-234 (94.2 - 111.4%) – 68.8% chance to OHKO132+ Atk Groudon Precipice Blades vs. 252 HP / 128 Def Audino: 114-135 (54.2 - 64.2%) – guaranteed 2HKO+1 196+ Atk Zacian-Crowned Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 128 Def Audino: 196-232 (93.3 - 110.4%) – 62.5% chance to OHKO

sourcesourceIn short, no

This COULD work. It would be better in triples though. You can’t Skill Swap Wonder Guard. You would need a Pokémon to first use Gastro Acid, such as Drednaw, to negate Shedinja’s Wonder Guard so you can then Skill Swap. The only Pokémon I could find with Skill Swap and sturdy is Carbink. If you manage to get the Gastro Acid and Skill Swap off without Shedinja dying (Hard in triples and probably impossible in Doubles against anyone decent), I think this set would be pretty decent.

Shedinja @ Heavy-Duty BootsAbility: Wonder GuardEvs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 ?Adamant Nature- Swords Dance- Shadow Sneak- X-Scissors- Sunny Day

So Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid hazards. Sunny Day to erase dangerous weather. The rest to sweep. If you can get the gimmick off I see this maybe working, although Shedinja would still die to Toxic or Will-O-Wisp, so maybe get an ally to Thunder Wave Shedinja or use Safeguard after Carbink swaps out. I think this would take care of all the threats to your plan.

It would still be hit by poison, burn, and weather conditions, but if you send out a pure fire type with skill swap and a shedninja and use burn up it would make it immune to all damage