>>31216130On its own, Swagger isn't that bad. However, Prankster users would run full defensive spreads along with Swagger, Thunder Wave, Substitute, and Foul Play. This lets them easily KO enemies without any offensive investment and your only real counter play was to get lucky enough times in a row. The two most prominent users were Liepard, who is frail even with investment and has a poor typing, and Klefki, which has neither of those problems.
Swagger not only boosts the damage they deal to themselves with confusion but it also significantly boosts Foul Play's damage. Due to the way the combo works, you had to get through the full paralysis chance, plus the confusion chance, and even if you did that most of the time you were hitting a sub. All while you get either one shot or two shot by the boosted Foul Play.
Because Substitute has priority, it also meant that unless the Swagger user was very unlucky, that you'd eventually get fully paralyzed or hit yourself in confusion, which gives them a free Substitute with which to either KO you behind or repeat the combo on any subsequent switch-ins, or in the worst case scenario, both.
So yes, it was pretty much because of luck. I wouldn't be surprised if Happy Hour Jirachi ends up suspected this gen, either, for similar reasons.
