>>41188525Our spooky viking boi can do a lot of things that Claydol can't though. And its pretty exciting.
Runerigus' new "soul" ability, Wandering Spirit, activates on contact with Runerigus similar to Mummy with Confagrigus. Only this time, instead of changing the attacker's ability to Mummy (as a sort of Entrainment effect), Wandering Spirit implements a Skill Swap effect, gaining the attacker's ability and giving them your ability in return. If you avoid making contact in your following turns, you can avoid a weird game of ability tennis, but unfortunately most of Runegrigus' physical Ghost STAB does just that. Earthquake should probably be your favored attack in this case. I don't feel I really need to say how cool this ability is, even if its effectiveness is situational, relying on the foe as it does in making contact. Luckily Runerigus is equipped to take just such attacks and potentially cripple your opponent while doing so.
Runerigus also has a lot of cool options that no other Galar Ground Pokemon has: Disable, Crafty Shield, Destiny Bond, Will-O-Wisp, Fake Tears, and Toxic Spikes are all its sole dominion. It also gets access to Haze, shared only with Quagsire, to stop boosters in their tracks.
Runerigus also comes with lots of setup options - Amnesia, Iron Defense, Calm Mind, and even Nasty Plot, all of which it can potentially pass to a Doubles teammate with Power Swap and Guard Swap.
The lack of Shadow Sneak is a bit sad, but otherwise this Pokemon has an incredible range of sets it can run and will be a helpful member to any team, mono-Ground or no.
