Paradox vs Originals comparison - Donphan

Hi I'm going to be doing an analysis of all the paradox pokemon to see which ones are better than their originals and which ones aren't. I've played pokemon for a while but I'm still a bit of an amateur in doubles so if there are any corrections people have feel free to put it in the comments. That being said today is Donphan which has both a future and past paradox in Iron treads and Great tusk respectively.

Roles: In singles Donphan tends to be a utility pokemon with some offensive capability, with not much other options. In contrast both of it's paradoxes can be either stronger offensive threats or be mixed utility. I'm honestly not sure what to do with it in doubles as most vgc doubles don't run hazards, so I guess it'd be mostly offensive with knock off for support, and I'll just say it probably loses doubles focusing the analysis on singles from here on out.

Type: Defensively Iron treads has the best typing as it gets a second immunity, and has 8 resistances, one being a 1/4 to rock letting it easily switch in to get rid of stealth rocks. With Great Tusk having probably the worst defensive typing as while the bug and dark resists can help with common moves like u-turn and knock-off it has 6 weaknesses 2 of which are very common types. Ranking: 1) Iron Treads, 2) Donphan, 3) Great Tusk Conversely Great Tusk has the best offensive typing hitting 8 types for super effective damage and only being resisted by 2. Including the everpresent steel-type (and terra) with either of it's types in case of dual-type ghost or grass. Iron Treads would be second if not for the fact it often doesn't carry steel type offensive moves as it doesn't get many strong physical steel stabs, it's best choice being iron head, instead usually taking moves of other types from it's wider coverage movepool, so for this purpose it's tied with Donphan. 1) Great Tusk, 2) Donphan, Iron treads

Stats: Overall BST: In terms of overall BST Donphan is stamped out by both of it's counterparts which are tied at 70 points higher. Physical Bulk: Great Tusk crushes the other two in terms of physical Bulk with other two being tied for second. Highly benefitting it's resists which mostly have a physical bent, but not to it's main weaknesses which are often more sp atk leaning types. 1) Great Tusk, 2) Donphan, Iron treads. Special Bulk: Iron Treads wins out here as the best, it's decent sp bulk good against it's water and fire weaknesses. 1) IT, 2) GT 3) Donphan. Speed: Of the three IT is the fastest at 106 putting it on the higher end of most pokemon, to threaten many things if speed invested, beating out GT's more upper-middle of the pack 87. Interestingly Donphan's lower speed is potentially to it's benefit as it means it can move after some of the faster hazard setters allowing it to rapid spin, get the speed boost and then use it's pretty good atk stat to threaten damage or kills at the possibly now slower hazard setter, forcing them to switch out to prevent this which can be read to set rocks. Of course this doesn't help against the slower hazard setters and 50 spd is too fast for better trick room sets. 1)IT, 2) GT, Donphan. Physical attack: Great Tusk wins out here having the highest damage on it's main attacking stat, though surprisingly Donphan doesn't come in last here. 1)GT, 2) Donphan, 3) IT. Sp Atk: Ok let's be real none of these guys are running special attacks, though technically Iron Treads wins here.

Ability: Both IT and GT get basically the same ability when using a booster energy helping out their spd and atk respectively making them much more threateningly offensively. Without booster energy protosynthesis is a bit easier to use as it's easier to set up sun, and helps mitigate it's weakness to water types though does potentially open it up to solar beams and chlorophyll pokemon. While Quark drive can prevent sleep and helps boost volt switch or wild charge if it runs it. Donphan on the other hand is usually running sturdy which is kind of mixed on it, if it's your lead it does let you guaranteed set up stealth rocks if not hit by a multi-hit, however it becomes useless if your opponent sets up hazards which is it's job to clear as it will take damage, making you need to run boots or leftovers on it for it to keep maximum uptime. 1) GT, IT, 2) Donphan

Moves: Great Tusk gets the best Offensive set of the three having extremely good physical STAB moves in fighting and ground with headlong rush and CC, it also gets pretty good coverage in ice spinner for it's flying weakness and can carry knock off and or rapid spin for support. Iron Treads comes in second here, having a wider coverage range getting both ice and electric coverage including volt switch which is very good for repositioning with it's high speed if facing a strong threat, with the same amount of coverage. However it gets weaker Ground STAB and doesn't have great offensive Steel STAB options usually forgoing it entirely. Donphan has technically the widest range of cover options, however most of these don't help it against it's weaknesses and aren't often used like trailblaze and poison jab. 1) GT, 2) IT, 3) Donphan.

Overall: Great Tusk is the overall better of the two paradoxes just because it's able to exert far more offensive pressure than it's counterpart, that said both of them beat out Donphan able to carry out both the same role better and play other roles donphan can't. So for this round Paradox wins.

Paradox -1 Current timeline -0. Next up will probably be Amoongus.