Community POTW #036

[Serebii]

Time for the next Pokémon of the Week and the RNG spat out another classic

It's Golduck, the strange duck with psychic powers without the extra type. It has always been a fan favourite, partially due to Psyduck.

http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-xy/055.shtml

Go nuts

 

[avsimone]

Golduck is an interesting Piketon. It's got a nice sweeping ability in swift swim which can allow it to blast through teams in rain with a boosted STAB, or it can cancel out all other weather with cloud nine. It makes taking care of ninetales and tyranitar easier. However it's move pool isn't great. It has enough to get the job done, but it doesn't have the stats to do so. With a decent physical move pool you could in theory have a physical set, but without a boosting move or a decent attack, most people will find it lacking. It's special stat is usable, especially with a rain boosted hydro pump or surf, but it's slightly less powerful than a kingdra and with not as much bulk and a not as good defensive typing. Pretty much you're looking at an NU Kingdra

 

[Kitt Geekazaru]

Wow, so I'm the first one.
Abilities:
Damp- Explosion and Selfdestruct will not work while the Pokémon is on the field. A rather useless ability. It is definately outclassed by it's other abilities. It can only ever be used situationally, and most of the time it will never do anything.
Cloud Nine- All weather effects are negated while the Pokémon is on the field. Also situational. However, it is more likely to have an effect, and can seriously mess up the opposing team.
Hidden Ability (Available):
Swift Swim- When rainy, The Pokémon’s Speed doubles. However, Speed will not double on the turn weather becomes Heavy Rain. This ability is probably better than it's other abilities. Unfortunately, it is one of the slower users of swift swim. It will still give Golduck a needed boost, as its stats are mediocre.

Pros:
+Good moveset
+Decent Special Attack stat
+Has a priority move
+Evolves from Psyduck
Cons:
-Bad abilities
-Low overall stats

We bring the feast, just add rain!
Golduck @ Life Orb/Choice Specs/Damp Rock
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
- Aqua Jet/Mud Bomb
- Psyshock/Ice Beam
- Scald/Hydro Pump/Surf
- Simple Beam/Rain Dance/Ice Beam
Golduck has a good special moveset and it shows. It can run a Life Orb set that allows it to cripple other Pokemon with Scald and Simple Beam, while still attacking with priority and being able to attack special walls. It can go all attacking with a Choice Specs set, or it can even hold a Damp Rock and set up rain itself.

Other Options:
Cloud Nine, Soak, Calm Mind, a physical set

Double & Triple Battle Options
It knows Surf, Rain Dance, Dual Screens, and Wonder Room? It really doesn't have a good place here, but I suppose it could be used with a Water Absorber...

Countering Golduck
It's not too hard. Hit it with a super-effective move, or even a neutral STAB move, and it should be gone rather quickly.

 

[GothicKlown]

The fact Golduck has never been classified as a Water/Psychic type bugs me....Would of been a cool thing for Golduck to gain 2 resistances (Though 3 new weaknesses makes it iffy) ..... Decent Pokemon in lower tiers, but not much really has changed at all from Gen 5. So in all honesty, it's POTW page isn't going to be much different. It get's Clear Smog and Simple Beam this gen as egg moves, as well as access to Power Up Punch and Confide through TM. Most of which are horrible moves to use competitively. I dunno...It does have a few Physical attacks that can be used with Power Up Punch, and with base 82 atk it can make an unpredictable moveset with Aqua Tail and Zen Headbutt.
No stat changes, no ability changes, nothing....Expect to see mostly Gen 5 Golducks in XY/OR and AS. Probably running Calm Mind sets. And this is only assuming they decide to use Golduck over better Water types like Samurott

 

[Mestorn]

I once used a Golduck during my playthrough of Pearl and regretted it… How can you not OHKO Cynthia’s Garchomp with Ice Beam? (sobbing)

Golduck is an interesting water type, possessing an abnormally large movepool (beyond the standard Water and Ice fare) complemented by… lackluster stats. Not a single stat at or above 100. On the bright side its stats aren’t horrid either, with DEF as its lowest at a slightly below average 78. In the end, Golduck’s main problem is that it is outclassed by most other pokemon.

Duck of DOOM
Golduck (Swift Swim)
Item: Choice Specs
-Hydro Pump/Surf
-Ice Beam/Blizzard
-Psychic/Surf/Brine
-Focus Blast
Nature: Modest (+SATK, -ATK)
EVs: 252 SATK/252 SPD/4 HP

Send the duck in during Ideal duck weather and watch it blast stuff. Hydro Pump+STAB+Specs+Rain = decimation for anything not resistant/immune to water. Surf is more reliable, but the power drop is noticeable. Ice Beam provides excellent coverage, while Blizzard provides more oomph, it is even less reliable than Hydro Pump. Psychic and Focus Blast are for additional coverage, while Brine is a reliable option for sweeping weakened teams.

Let’s see that dog laugh now
Golduck (Swift Swim)
Item: Choice Band
-Waterfall
-Aqua Jet/Zen Headbutt
-Low Kick/Cross Chop/Brick Break
-Ice Punch
-Body Slam/Low Sweep/Shadow Claw
Nature: Adamant (+ATK, -SATK)
EVs: 252 ATK/252 SPD/4 HP

Same premise as before, different attacking spectrum. While Golduck’s physical movepool is more robust, its suffers from a lack of high powered moves and a lower attacking stat. Waterfall for STAB, Ice Punch, Zen Headbutt (optional), Shadow Claw (optional) and Fighting move of preference for coverage, and Aqua Jet for priority. Body Slam and Low Sweep give Golduck some utility for its partners.

Other Options

-Cloud Nine
Golduck gets a gem of an ability in Cloud Nine, but with weather not as prominent as before the value of this ability has dropped.

-Soak
Type shenanigans are fun

-Hypnosis/Yawn
Sleep is good for the body… and seeing your opponent cry in frustration

-Clear Smog
Phazing is good

-Screech
Cutting anything’s defense in half makes them significantly softer

 

[Kraleck]

Golduck. I like the design from this classic Gen I Pokémon, but the Stats and Abilities are rather middling.

Stats:
-HP - Good - Base 80 is a nice starting point to see.
-Attack - Slightly-Above Average - Base 82 isn't winning many fights, but can be usable, I guess.
-Defense - Slightly-Below Average - Base 78 isn't too bad, but makes Golduck less capable at taking hits.
-Sp.Atk - Good-bordering-Great - Base 95 is pretty sweet, but won't break any backs without Rain-boosted STAB Moves.
-Sp.Def - Average - Base 80.
-Speed - Good (non-Trick Room) - Base 85 is barely above the borderline for non-Trick Room usage, but Rain and Swift Swim makes it better.

Abilities:
-Damp - No. Just no. Move on.
-Cloud Nine - Can be useful to negate Hail, Sandstorm, and Strong Sun, but it also negates Rain...
-Swift Swim (Hidden, Available [Poké Transfer]) - The best of the 3, but Golduck's Speed pales in comparison to Luvdisc, Floatzel, Lumineon, Poliwag, and Poliwhirl and it's comparable to Kingdra and Qwilfish.

Overall, Golduck got a cool design and little battle prowess. It's not bad, though. Cool and situational combos like Soak + Synchronoise, Encore + Disable, and Simple Beam + Screech/Icy Wind/Low Sweep are available to it.

 

[SmeargleRocks]

This isn't a spread or anything but keep in mind Damp Telekinesis Golduck is the only pokemon you can use to prevent other geodude in hordes explode on you or bulldoze other geodude incase your battling a shiny, its very handy and just using telekinesis on the shiny one and watching the others kill each other makes it loads easier to catch

 

[Minedreigon]

Positives
+ Nice movepool including Calm Mind, Psyshock, Ice Beam, Hone Claws and all sorts of useful moves.
+ Has decent offensive stats for a mixed attacker, and in lower tiers it can really put those to good use.
+ Very nice ability in Swift Swim making it usable in Rain Offence teams.
+ Not too frail at 80 / 78 / 80, and at lower tiers this is good.
+ Only two weaknesses at Electric and Grass.

Negitives
- Its stats are only par at best in higher tiers.
- Outclassed on rain teams by multiple swift swim sweepers.
- Only has water stab.
- Even in lower tiers, it's outclassed as a water type mixed attacker by things like Samurott.
- The other abilities it has, being Cloud Nine and Damp, are awful.
- Tools such as high powered Hydro Pumps have been nerfed this gen.
- Most of it's competition got buffed by a few stats, while the poor duck lost perma drizzle.
- isn't as cute as Psyduck

 

[Mye]

Positives
+ Nice movepool including Calm Mind, Psyshock, Ice Beam, Hone Claws and all sorts of useful moves.
+ Has decent offensive stats for a mixed attacker, and in lower tiers it can really put those to good use.
+ Very nice ability in Swift Swim making it usable in Rain Offence teams.
+ Not too frail at 80 / 78 / 80, and at lower tiers this is good.
+ Only two weaknesses at Electric and Grass.

Negitives
- Its stats are only par at best in higher tiers.
- Outclassed on rain teams by multiple swift swim sweepers.
- Only has water stab.
- Even in lower tiers, it's outclassed as a water type mixed attacker by things like Samurott.
- The other abilities it has, being Cloud Nine and Damp, are awful.
- isn't as cute as Psyduck

Also a few more cons: all of its good 5th gen tools got nerfed in some way. Hydro pump surf and ice beam had their powers reduced, encore only lasts three turns instead of 4-5, and rain isn't permanent making swift swim a lot less fun. In addition, a few of its lower-tiered counterparts (seismitoad and poliwrath) had their attack increase by 10 each to 95, making physical sets inferior by comparison.

 

[Vespa]

Registered just to post this set.

Scrooge McDuck

Golduck
Swift Swim
Life Orb
-Hone Claws
-Hydro Pump
-Blizzard
-Cross Chop/Aqua Jet
Nature Quiet -Speed +SpA
EVs 252 SpA and...
Now you only need to have a speed stat over 100 at level 50 to out speed the timid base 130s(they cap out at 200) in the rain so put as many EVs you want to get that speed stat or a higher one and pour the rest into attack. But you'll then have to do some math so you dont squander any EVS in the distribution. This is possible with the reduced speed stat of a Quiet nature so you dont have to give up Atk, Def or SpD

The set is a little hard to get up and running but once the set up is complete and the opposing team has been a bit tenderized you can imagine what those once unreliable Hydro Pumps and Blizzards are going to do now that they will almost never miss. Cross chop completes nice coverage and hits pretty hard after the +1 attack boost. Haven't tried Aqua Jet myself but it could work well with the STAB, rain boost and +1 Atk.

Even works in OU if you play smart.

 

[jesusfreak94]

If you're running Hone Claws Golduck, you might as well use a full physical set. A +1 Adamant Aqua Tail is hitting ~12% harder than Hydro Pump, and Ice Punch isn't a far cry from Blizzard in terms of power. In fact, you could even run Mega Kick. I know it sounds weird since Mega Kick is normally a terrible move, but it gets boosted to near perfect accuracy by Hone Claws and otherwise has absolutely no drawbacks. Mega Kick + Cross Chop gets great neutral coverage, just missing out on Ghosts. Between those and Aqua Tail, you really only miss out on a couple of things like Jellicent, Gourgeist, and Trevenant, two of which you won't have to worry about if you're playing in NU. In addition to hitting harder on average, you also are free to run an Adamant nature to boost Cross Chop's power, you don't have to split EVs between offenses, and you don't have to run a -Spe nature, which means you need to use fewer EVs to hit an optimal speed benchmark. If you want to run a specially based set, you could always use Calm Mind. Hydro Pump's accuracy is usable enough even without an accuracy boosting move, and Ice Beam at +1 hits a good deal harder than a +0 Blizzard. You miss out on a fairly strong Cross Chop, but you can make up for it with Focus Blast.

To be honest, though, I think Golduck's biggest niche lies in its Cloud Nine ability. There are just so many other fantastic Swift Swim sweepers running around in NU (and especially in higher tiers) that there's little reason to use Golduck. It's usable, but it's just outclassed. Cloud Nine gives Golduck a pretty unique niche, though. With it, Golduck can actually be a pretty decent threat to opposing weather abusers. You can come in on several Swift Swimmers and pick them off with the proper coverage moves (Signal Beam for Ludicolo, HP Grass for Seismitoad, etc.). You can also switch in on SunnyBeam Fire-types like Typhlosion and ignore the Sun, which prevents them from nailing you with Solar Beam while you KO back with Hydro Pump. While you can't switch in directly, you can even revenge kill Shifty (and other slower Chlorophyll users) by using Cloud Nine to temporarily cancel Sun's effects. It's not a huge niche, but it's something cool that nothing else can do quite like Golduck.

 

[Pokeman Man]

Golduck can maybe serve as a Rain Dance set up in lower tiers (because in places like UU or RU it's definitely outclassed)
Surprisingly, Golduck has a pretty cool "support" movepool.


Golduck
- Rain Dance
- Scald
- Encore / Icy Wind
- Hypnosis / Yawn / Clear Smog / Toxic / Disable
Item: Damp Rock
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs and Nature
252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Def
Calm nature (+SpD, -Atk)

Set up and leave. Rain Dance... sets up the Rain. It activates your Swift Swim on the next turn, allowing you to outspeed most (?) leads even with no Speed investment. Scald is simply a reliable STAB move, preventing you from being taunt bait, and can possibly burn your opponent. It even gets boosted in the Rain! Icy Wind can force a switch, because -1 Speed is really annoying. Encore is usable for throwing off leads if they decide to set up hazards or use Protect on the first turn. Should they switch, you can hit them with a Hypnosis (while inaccurate, a sleeping Pokemon is almost rendered useless) on the switch. Yawn can force some switches to prevent first turn set-ups or just simply forcing Pokemon out (or putting one to sleep, even better). Clear Smog removes stat changes, which can be useful considering Golduck's good typing and decent (?) bulk. Toxic is always a good move, residual damage on any Pokemon is always useful, especially hitting any kind of wall with it. Disable can be fun to use with Encore, if they decide to stay in. It can force a switch, while you can switch to your Rain sweeper and proceed to hit hard. Swift Swim is a necessity here (and really your only choice) because it allows you to outspeed leads after you Rain Dance. Max bulk lets you take hits, of course. This set can also run physically defensive with 252 Def and a Bold nature. 0 Atk IVs are recommend for Anti-Foul Play.

Note that Icy Wind + Clear Smog are illegal together, as Icy Wind is a 5th Gen Tutor Move, and Clear Smog is a 6th Gen Egg move.

 

[Mye]

Golduck can maybe serve as a Rain Dance set up in lower tiers (because in places like UU or RU it's definitely outclassed)
Surprisingly, Golduck has a pretty cool "support" movepool.


Golduck
- Rain Dance
- Scald
- Encore / Icy Wind
- Hypnosis / Yawn / Clear Smog / Toxic / Disable
Item: Damp Rock
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs and Nature
252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Def
Calm nature (+SpD, -Atk)

Set up and leave. Rain Dance... sets up the Rain. It activates your Swift Swim on the next turn, allowing you to outspeed most (?) leads even with no Speed investment. Scald is simply a reliable STAB move, preventing you from being taunt bait, and can possibly burn your opponent. It even gets boosted in the Rain! Icy Wind can force a switch, because -1 Speed is really annoying. Encore is usable for throwing off leads if they decide to set up hazards or use Protect on the first turn. Should they switch, you can hit them with a Hypnosis (while inaccurate, a sleeping Pokemon is almost rendered useless) on the switch. Yawn can force some switches to prevent first turn set-ups or just simply forcing Pokemon out (or putting one to sleep, even better). Clear Smog removes stat changes, which can be useful considering Golduck's good typing and decent (?) bulk. Toxic is always a good move, residual damage on any Pokemon is always useful, especially hitting any kind of wall with it. Disable can be fun to use with Encore, if they decide to stay in. It can force a switch, while you can switch to your Rain sweeper and proceed to hit hard. Swift Swim is a necessity here (and really your only choice) because it allows you to outspeed leads after you Rain Dance. Max bulk lets you take hits, of course. This set can also run physically defensive with 252 Def and a Bold nature. 0 Atk IVs are recommend for Anti-Foul Play.

Note that Icy Wind + Clear Smog are illegal together, as Icy Wind is a 5th Gen Tutor Move, and Clear Smog is a 6th Gen Egg move.

Scratch out hypnosis, as yawn is way better due to its pseudo-phazing ability and scratch out toxic/disable as otherwise a set like this is entirely outclassed by jellicent (with jelli having access to recover and cursed body, allowing it to do almost the same thing only with better recovery and an extra moveslot).

 

[Mestorn]

How to cook duck

With Golduck's subpar stats, it is not hard to take down in higher tiers of play. Even in lower tiers, a strong neutral hit will leave the fowl reeling, making it easy to check. But this duck has more tricks than your average duck hunter and its counters are very different. First it is important to ascertain what set Golduck is using: special, physical or annoyer. Each has very different counters, though Ferroseed blocks all of them handily. Otherwise, match up your defensive 'mon with the ducks favored attacking stat. Golduck's physical attacks are easier to take than its special but as long as you aren't weak to its STAB, you should be ok. Taunt is another good option, as golduck has plenty of options that can mess with you. Finally check your weather: is it raining? is your pokemon reliant on weather? Golduck messes with weather, so avoid using relying on it unless you can ascertain its ability.

BTW: Electric and Grass attacks.

 

[Ironthunder]

Stats
Mediocre. They all hover around the 80s, aside from SpAtk, which is 95. Not bad, but not particularly good either.

Abilities
Damp: NO.
Cloud Nine: Probably its best ability. Weather teams get screwed over bad.
Swift Swim:- Meh. Speed boosting's good, but screwing their SS team's better. There are many better SS users than Golduck. As in, pretty much everything aside from Magikarp. And that's debatable.

Movepool
Oh dear... Physically, Cross Chop, Aqua Tail, Aqua Jet, Zen Headbutt, Waterfall, Brick Break, Shadow Claw, Iron Tail, Ice Punch, and maybe Mega Kick?. Specially, there's Hydro Pump, Psychic, Psyshock, Surf, Scald, Brine, Signal Beam, Mud Bomb, Focus Blast, Clear Smog, Ice Beam, Blizzard and Future Sight. Setup-wise, there's Amnesia, Psych Up, Screech, Calm Mind, Wonder Room, Confuse Ray, Rain Dance, Refresh, Simple Beam, Mimic, Worry Seed and Endure. Wow, how many moves?Shame it doesn't get the stats to run this properly. Wonder Room deserves special mention, as the best way to get around walls, without having to switch. Swapping defenses is a huge boost.

Set
YOU ARE GOLD!
Golduck@Choice Specs/Scarf/Leftovers?
Cloud Nine/SS
Modest
-Wonder Room/Brine
-Psychic/Psyshock
-Surf/Scald/Hydro Pump
-Clear Smog/Focus Blast

Simpleish set. STAB and psychic move, then choice of power or setup/wall stopping. Brine's best for finishing off that damaged pokemon.

Counters
Anything faster with Energy Ball/Thunderbolt. Alakazam destroys the thing, but the issue for Golduck countering is the lack of true hard counters, due to the diversity of its movepool.

Pros/Cons
+Decent typing, pure water.
+Massive movepool
+Gets a couple of good moves that can completely flip a battle
+It's evolved from Psyduck. That's a redeeming factor in itself.
-Stats aren't amazing...
-Slow. Outsped by pretty much everything else in competitive battling, and a few that aren't. Lilligant is a huge threat due to Petal Dance. Hell, Dedenne might be capable of beating a Golduck!

Conclusion
This guy has a niche. It should not be used outside of this niche in any tier above NU. In NU, it can try to sweep, but NU SS teams aren't too common, and that's how it can possibly sweep.

Subnote: This guy's best use is as a HM/field move slave ingame. It gets Strength, Flash, Surf and Waterfall, plus a couple of others in the older games.

 

[Eliteknight]

If you're running Hone Claws Golduck, you might as well use a full physical set. A +1 Adamant Aqua Tail is hitting ~12% harder than Hydro Pump, and Ice Punch isn't a far cry from Blizzard in terms of power. In fact, you could even run Mega Kick. I know it sounds weird since Mega Kick is normally a terrible move, but it gets boosted to near perfect accuracy by Hone Claws and otherwise has absolutely no drawbacks. Mega Kick + Cross Chop gets great neutral coverage, just missing out on Ghosts. Between those and Aqua Tail, you really only miss out on a couple of things like Jellicent, Gourgeist, and Trevenant, two of which you won't have to worry about if you're playing in NU. In addition to hitting harder on average, you also are free to run an Adamant nature to boost Cross Chop's power, you don't have to split EVs between offenses, and you don't have to run a -Spe nature, which means you need to use fewer EVs to hit an optimal speed benchmark. If you want to run a specially based set, you could always use Calm Mind. Hydro Pump's accuracy is usable enough even without an accuracy boosting move, and Ice Beam at +1 hits a good deal harder than a +0 Blizzard. You miss out on a fairly strong Cross Chop, but you can make up for it with Focus Blast.

To be honest, though, I think Golduck's biggest niche lies in its Cloud Nine ability. There are just so many other fantastic Swift Swim sweepers running around in NU (and especially in higher tiers) that there's little reason to use Golduck. It's usable, but it's just outclassed. Cloud Nine gives Golduck a pretty unique niche, though. With it, Golduck can actually be a pretty decent threat to opposing weather abusers. You can come in on several Swift Swimmers and pick them off with the proper coverage moves (Signal Beam for Ludicolo, HP Grass for Seismitoad, etc.). You can also switch in on SunnyBeam Fire-types like Typhlosion and ignore the Sun, which prevents them from nailing you with Solar Beam while you KO back with Hydro Pump. While you can't switch in directly, you can even revenge kill Shifty (and other slower Chlorophyll users) by using Cloud Nine to temporarily cancel Sun's effects. It's not a huge niche, but it's something cool that nothing else can do quite like Golduck.

This got me thinking so I made the set with Gibb's Permission

Golduck@Life Orb
Cloud Nine/Swift Swim
Adamant
252att/252spe/4hp
Hone Claws
WaterFall
Ice punch
Cross chop

Spoiler: Calcs

+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Golduck Cross Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Shiftry: 517-611 (161 - 190.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Golduck Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Spiritomb: 192-227 (63.1 - 74.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Golduck Cross Chop vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Feraligatr: 172-203 (55.1 - 65%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Golduck Cross Chop vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Omastar: 283-335 (100.3 - 118.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Golduck Cross Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Liepard: 593-699 (220.4 - 259.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Golduck Waterfall vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Liepard: 355-419 (131.9 - 155.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Golduck Waterfall vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mismagius: 208-246 (79.3 - 93.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

 

[Ilan]

This got me thinking so I made the set with Gibb's Permission

Golduck@Life Orb
Cloud Nine/Swift Swim
Adamant
252att/252spe/4hp
Hone Claws
WaterFall
Ice punch
Cross chop

Spoiler: Calcs

+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Golduck Cross Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Shiftry: 517-611 (161 - 190.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Golduck Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Spiritomb: 192-227 (63.1 - 74.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Golduck Cross Chop vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Feraligatr: 172-203 (55.1 - 65%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Golduck Cross Chop vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Omastar: 283-335 (100.3 - 118.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Golduck Cross Chop vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Liepard: 593-699 (220.4 - 259.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ Atk Life Orb Golduck Waterfall vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Liepard: 355-419 (131.9 - 155.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Golduck Waterfall vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mismagius: 208-246 (79.3 - 93.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

It doesn't convice me to use him in NU.. Shiftry and Liepard are frail like hell anything can bring them down.. He isn't even psychic so those aren't his counters..
why would you use physical golduck when you have feraligatr? with swords dance/dragon dance, better attack stat,better defenses and priority! All golduck has over him is 7 more speed (feraligatr also got superpower if a fighting move is that crucial)
boostingתkilling something and having to switch isn't that bad.. not every pokemon goes 6-0 if you can punch some walls with him he did his job.(talking about superpower on a boosting set)

So yeah he is outclassed here unless you are using him in a rain team for swift swim then he has some niche.


And when/if Feraligatr will get sheer force, physical golduck will be viable in NU since Feraligtr will probably rise to RU/UU then. Or when he will get a mega (he will get a mega evolution one day might be in november TBH).

 

[Mye]

Don't forget about samurott, who has better mixed attacking stats, access to knock off, in addition to swords dance for boosting. Being outclassed as an offensive presence, golduck can only really be relied on as an anti-weather defensive pokemon should altaria's 4x ice weakness be of concern. A set like this would probably be the only one it can use without being outclassed:

Golduck @ Damp Rock/Icy Rock (Cloud nine)
Bold/Calm, 252HP/252Def or 252 SpDef/ 4SpAtk
-Rain Dance/Hail
-Yawn
-Scald
-Disable

A set like this may seem confusing, so I should probably explain it. Rain dance and hail are the two weather options, with golduck taking no damage off the latter thanks to its ability. Yawn and scald allow you to spread status around with the former ruining commong jellicent switch-ins and the latter ruining physical set-up sweepers. Disable works quite well in the last slot as it enables golduck to stop opposing weather leads from doing their job while also giving you at least 2 turns to reset your own.