>>54042900The meta, mainly.
Spikes are better than Stealth Rocks right now. SR was great because, pre-gen 8 nothing could avoid being damaged by them short of Magic Guard. Even a 4x resist at least gets their sash or sturdy broken.
But now that HDB exists, most rock weak mons will be running them. So SR is only going to be hitting neutral or worse targets. One (1) layer of spikes is as good as neutral SR.
Yes, anything with HDB will be immune to Spikes as well, but most viable mons with HDB are also Flying-type, so they're immune to Spikes anyway.
Another issue with Spikes before gen 9 was that it took 3 turns to get them up to full, while Defog or Rapid Spin only took 1 turn. SR was 1 turn, which was a better tradeoff. Now that Gholdengo exists, you can protect your investment in Spikes.
And on top of all of that, Samurott just matches up better against the top mons.
Great Tusk? Afraid to switch in on Samurott for fear of the Razor Shell/Aqua Jet 1-2 punch. Kleavor can't threaten it for shit.
Dragapult? Volatile matchup for both sides. Dragapult usually OHKO's if it gets the first hit, but Samurott and Kleavor both OHKO with Ceaseless Edge/Night Slash.
Kingambit? Samurott resists both of its STABs and one-shots with Sacred Sword. Matchup is more volatile for Kleavor, who needs to fear the Iron Head.
Gholdengo? Samurott outspeeds by exactly one point, even the most defensive variant gets two-shot by Ceaseless Edge, and can't significantly threaten Samurott in return. Kleavor can't OHKO and gets OHKO'd by even a -2 Make It Rain.
Terastal compensates for a lot of these bad matchups, but then you're using up your tera to counter a lead. Samurott is rarely the biggest threat on a team.
If H-Samurott and Kleavor were dropped in gen 7 (maybe gen 8, but definitely gen 7), Kleavor would be the superior one. Or it would at least be arguable.
