One in three teams
At the Nice Regional, on October 17 and 18, Sneasler was among the four most used Pokémon: around 33% of teams brought it on day one and 37% of those that made day two, according to the stats published on Bulbagarden and Nimbasa City Post. Only Incineroar and Rillaboom showed up clearly more often.
Its stats explain why: base 130 Attack and 120 Speed, on a Fighting and Poison typing. Close Combat is super effective against staples like Incineroar or Archaludon, and does four times the damage to Kingambit and Tyranitar. In the Reg M-C tournament data collected by Pikalytics, almost every Sneasler runs Close Combat and Dire Claw, about three in four run Protect and half run Fake Out.
Unburden: double Speed
Unburden doubles Sneasler's Speed as soon as it loses its item, and the boost lasts as long as it stays on the field. With a Jolly nature and all 32 stat points in Speed, Sneasler has 189 Speed at level 50; with Unburden active, 378.
That number beats everything that doubles its Speed with weather: an Excadrill in sand reaches 308, a Venusaur in sun 290 and a Basculegion in rain 286, all with a Speed-boosting nature and 32 stat points in it. Choice Scarf Garchomp stops at 253. Once Unburden is active, Sneasler moves first except against priority or Trick Room.
Focus Sash or White Herb
In the online tournaments Pikalytics tracks, the two most common items are Focus Sash and White Herb, and which one leads changes from one event to the next. Both trigger Unburden, but in different ways.
Focus Sash lets it survive at 1 HP a hit that would knock it out from full health. It is the safe option: Sneasler has low Defense, and with the Sash it acts at least once and, from then on, extremely fast. The catch is that it only works at full HP: sandstorm chip or a Fake Out turns it off.
White Herb resets stat drops back to zero, once. Sneasler uses it up on its first Close Combat, which lowers its Defense and Special Defense: it gets both back and keeps the doubled Speed. It is also used up if an opposing Incineroar comes in with Intimidate, because White Herb removes the Attack drop. With Incineroar on more than half of the teams on day two in Nice, Unburden often kicks in before Sneasler has even attacked.
With Indeedee: Psychic Seed
There is a third route: Psychic Seed. If Indeedee comes in with Psychic Surge and sets Psychic Terrain, the seed is consumed right away, raises Sneasler's Special Defense and triggers Unburden: double Speed from turn one, without taking a single hit. Indeedee and Sneasler were together on the team that won Baltimore.
Psychic Terrain has a flip side. It blocks the opponent's priority moves against grounded Pokémon, so it protects Sneasler from Fake Out or Sucker Punch, but it also stops Sneasler's own Fake Out from hitting grounded opponents. And it powers up the Psychic-type attacks of any grounded Pokémon, the opponent's included, which is exactly the type that hurts Sneasler the most.
How to beat it
Psychic deals four times the damage to it: a Psychic attack hurts it badly even when it moves second, so Sneasler has to act first or Protect. Trick Room flips everything around: under it, being the fastest means moving last.
Burn is the other answer: it halves the damage of Close Combat and Dire Claw for the whole battle, and Will-O-Wisp does not depend on Speed. Being Poison type, on the other hand, it cannot be poisoned. Against Focus Sash, any chip damage beforehand works, like Tyranitar's sand or a Fake Out. And if it holds White Herb, Intimidate is worth less: better to save it for after the Herb is gone.
On the meta page you will find Sneasler's usage and adjusted win rate, always up to date, and in the damage calculator you can check who it outspeeds with and without Unburden.
