Has been played in VGC16 at some point? Yes. Good? No. We're talking low C tier in a format that was centrallized heavily on top picks thanks to an immense power disparity. And that's ignoring the fact that VGC16 viability is irrelevant to a discussion of an entirely different format.Your first sentence is wrong since Shiftry has been played with Groudon in VGC16 (as a nice anti-meta pokemon), and that we now have two viable Drought user.
I still believe it's a better supporter than Venusaur, mainly because of how reliable Fake Out is compared to Sleep Powder, plus the acces to Snarl, Tailwind, Focus Blast to deal with Tyranitar... Fake Out into Tailwind shouldn't be underestimated. Offensively, while Leaf Storm still does a decent job, other do indeed a better job. It can though also be played Physical with Leaf Blade and Knock Off, depending on what you need, its Atk is actually better than his SpA. It has enough options to make it playable in my opinion.
It's not meta-defining at all, but somewhere in the C-tier ?
If you need Fake Out and Tailwind there are far more useful Pokemon these tools can be used with so that you don't have to stoop down to Shiftry's level; those moves do not have such poor distribution as to make Pokemon like these desirable. Stick Scrafty or Hitmontop on a team with Tailwind Mega Charizard Y and you've accomplished almost the same thing. Lets cover the other moves you listed:
- Snarl: A defensive tool not suitable for a fast and frail Chlorophyll abuser like Shiftry
- Focus Blast: A highly inaccurate move that isn't powerful enough to OHKO the big threats to sun teams you'd usually use a Fighting move for such as Mega Kangaskhan, Tyranitar, Heatran etc... thanks to Shiftry's low Special Attack.
- Leaf Storm: Usable by almost every Grass-type, and Venusaur's is more powerful.
- Physical Attacking: Special sets are almost always preferred for fast attackers given the option due to physical sets being highly vulnerable to tools such as Intimidate and Will-O-Wisp. Despite this, Shiftry would still need stronger moves than just Leaf Blade and Knock Off to deal significant damage to foes given its average Attack stat.
Your team will almost always be improved by reworking it to include the neccesary tools Shiftry can utilise elsewhere and removing it from your team.
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