09. Matchup Matrix — Threats × Archetypes (Quick Reference)

The who-beats-who grid for the 24 full-page threats, distilled from each page’s Checks & counters and ★ Offense angle blocks. Rows = threats (tagged with VR tier + verified 2026-04 weighted Usage% from 02-viability-tiers.md). Columns = the archetype taxonomy defined in 04-archetypes.md. Megas/Z-Moves are the only extra mechanics.

Use the ★ Offense-lens table first — it’s the section the aggressive-Offense builder (06-building-offense.md) lives in. The big grid is the cross-archetype reference; the per-threat “what answers it” list is the lookup index.

Legend (cell shorthand)

• wall — has a reliable defensive switch-in / out-passives it.
• revenge — no clean switch-in; outspeed/priority/Scarf to KO after it commits.
• race it — no clean answer; out-damage or out-sequence before it does (a damage race you must win).
• loses to it — the archetype is structurally soft to this threat; expect to drop a mon.
• runs it — this is a staple of that archetype (the threat is on your side, not the opponent’s).
• chip→KO — answer only works behind hazard chip / after a layer is down.
• ± — set-dependent (the verdict flips on which set it is).

Archetype names match 04-archetypes.md exactly: Offense = the aggressive build this guide targets; BO = Bulky Offense; HO = Hyper Offense; Bal = Balance; then Sun / Sand / Rain / Stall (Stall = stall/semi-stall).

The grid — threats × archetypes

Cells read “how that archetype handles the threat on the opposing side” (or “runs it” if it’s a staple of that archetype). Tier · Usage% in the first column.

Reading the grid for your Offense build: scan the Offense column. “runs it” = a piece your aggressive build can field (cross-check the ★ table for the right set); the others are how Offense answers it on the opposing side. Note the recurring Offense pattern is revenge / race, not wall — by design Offense carries ≤1 defensive piece (see 04-archetypes.md), so it beats threats with speed, priority, hazard chip, and disjoint breakers, not switch-ins.

What reliably answers each threat (per-page distillation)

One line each, lifted from the threat page’s Checks & counters block — hard counters first, then revenge/soft checks. This is the lookup index when you need “what stops X.”

1. Gholdengo — Kingambit (Dark/Steel resists both STABs, Sucker 2HKO rolls OHKO from full), Garchomp EQ (pops Balloon); soft: Fire breakers (Char-Y/X, Volcarona), faster Scarfers. Don’t target it with status-category moves (Good as Gold); don’t spin/Defog through it.
2. Zamazenta — Unaware walls (Dondozo/Clodsire/Clefable no-sell Body Press), Toxapex (Hazes + Regen); soft: anything >412 + Fairy STAB (Booster IV at 546, Specs Lele, Scarfers). Frail Band dies to a clean revenge; never give the ID set clean Iron Defense turns.
3. Alomomola — Melmetal/Ferrothorn (out-passive it); soft: Kyurem Specs Freeze-Dry heavily chunks, Grass (Serperior/Ogerpon-W Power Whip), Knock-the-Boots + hazards. You go through it (Ice/Grass/Knock), never out-stall it.
4. Landorus-Therian — Kyurem (4× Ice OHKO, #1 answer), Terapagos (tanks EQ); soft: Dragonite, Ogerpon-W, Great Tusk Ice Spinner (4×), any faster Ice/priority. Its 4× Ice weakness is the hard ceiling.
5. Ogerpon-Wellspring — Zamazenta (eats +2 Ivy Cudgel near full), Mega-Venusaur (resists both STABs), Dragonite (resists both, Multiscale); soft: base-110+ Scarfer (525), priority. Keep the Zama/Venu wall unchipped; never feed Water Absorb.
6. Kingambit — Zamazenta / Great Tusk (4× Close Combat OHKO), Skarmory (Sturdy/Roost); soft: Iron Valiant (trade), Future Sight to break the Sucker mind-game. Faster attackers do NOT safely revenge — switching is the clean answer.
7. Dragonite — Zamazenta (outspeeds, eats +1 ESpeed), Skarmory/Corviknight/Mega-Scizor (Steel/Flying), Toxapex (Haze, pre-Z); soft: Great Tusk, FS/phaze, Scarf 110s (525). Hazards + chip break Multiscale; bait the one-time Z.
8. Garchomp — Alomomola (Regen wall), Skarmory/Corviknight, Unaware Clefable/Dondozo depending on coverage; soft: Iron Valiant, Tapu Lele Moonblast OHKO, Dragonite ESpeed. 4× Ice; click non-contact moves vs Rough Skin/Helmet.
9. Tapu Lele — Steel/Psychic-resistant pivots that respect Focus Blast (Mega-Scizor, Corviknight, Heatran if it avoids the Fighting hit), Blissey/Chansey ± (Psyshock flips it); soft: Scarfers >475, priority after terrain ends, chip. Stall the 5-turn terrain, then click priority.
10. Slowking-Galar — Gholdengo (resists FS, GaG blocks T-Wave — the structural answer), Mega-T-Tar (Pursuit), Kingambit, Melmetal/Heatran; soft: Dragonite, fat Grounds. Trap the pivot or the engine evaporates.
11. Toxapex — Kyurem Freeze-Dry, Tapu Lele Specs Psyshock (terrain-boosted pressure; OHKO only after chip or into non-physical spreads), +2 Gholdengo, Manaphy/Ursaluna; soft: Dragonite (+1 EQ), Electric/Ground/Psychic. Race it — it only Recovers/chips back. Beat the Haze with breakers that don’t set up.
12. Zapdos — Diancie-Mega (Power Gem pressures/chips Zapdos + Magic Bounce), Mega-T-Tar, Heatran (Flash Fire); soft: Kyurem Ice Beam OHKO, Lele Psyshock, any Ground that blanks Volt Switch. Don’t feed Static with contact; punish with Rock/Ice.
13. Diancie-Mega — Ogerpon-Wellspring (#1, takes any move + threatens back), Zamazenta (412 outspeeds), Mega-Scizor (sans Mystical Fire); soft: anything ≥350 Spe / priority (Kingambit Sucker, Scizor BP), Blissey. Don’t lead a generic status-hazard setter - it bounces; use speed pressure or damaging hazard moves.
14. Great Tusk — Tapu Lele / Iron Valiant (2× special STAB OHKO the offensive spread), fat physical pivots (Slowking-Galar/Pex/Alomomola), Corviknight (immune to Ground, Defogs); soft: faster neutral, priority into a Headlong-Rush-dropped Tusk. Standard max-Atk Booster Tusk stays 300 Speed; Scarf or tailored Speed-boost Tusk reaches 450, so pivot Fairies in safely.
15. Gliscor — Kyurem (4× Ice Beam OHKO), Manaphy, Melmetal/Ferrothorn; soft: Ogerpon-W, Dragonite, Great Tusk Ice Spinner after chip. Race it with Ice; don’t let it Protect-farm orb ticks.
16. Terapagos — Blissey/Chansey (eat +2, Toxic), Unaware (Clodsire/Dondozo ignore CM), phazers (Ting-Lu WW); soft: anything >295 Spe + ~50% (Scarf Lele, IV Specs Moonblast). Its super-effective damage reduction only applies at full HP — chip below full, then revenge.
17. Ting-Lu — Ogerpon-Wellspring (Ivy Cudgel 2HKO, #1), Gliscor (PH/Ground-immune), Melmetal; soft: Iron Valiant/Great Tusk physical Fighting 2HKO. Use physical breakers — Vessel of Ruin taxes your special damage a full tier.
18. Urshifu-Rapid-Strike — Toxapex (resists both, Regen), Amoonguss/Mega-Venusaur/Tangrowth, Ogerpon-W (Water Absorb); soft: faster Scarfers/Booster (>483), Will-O-Wisp halves it, bulky Psychics/Fairies. A single burn heavily blunts it.
19. Kyurem — revenged, not walled: Iron Valiant (faster), Diancie-Mega (Dragon-immune, Ice-neutral, faster), Zamazenta (412); Steels not named Heatran/Gholdengo (Scizor, Corv); Blissey/Chansey ± (lose PP war to Pressure). Keep SR up (2× / 25%) and force it to commit.
20. Charizard-Mega-Y — Diancie-Mega (#1, resists WB + bounces conventional hazards), Latios-Mega, Dragonite (Multiscale), Flash Fire Heatran (Fire-immune), Toxapex; Stealth Rock itself (4× = ~2 entries). Keep rocks up and stall sun turns; SR is the cheapest answer.
21. Iron Valiant — Scizor-Mega Bullet Punch after chip (the cleanest priority answer), Volcarona, Dondozo/Clodsire (Unaware), Corviknight; soft: faster + priority (Scarf Lando EQ, boosted priority). Survives Sucker from full — Iron Head/CC OHKOs it back. Keep SR up; it has no recovery.
22. Raging Bolt — Chansey/Blissey, Ferrothorn, Ting-Lu (Electric-immune, stomachs Draco once and phazes); soft: Tapu Lele (terrain blocks Thunderclap into grounded targets and Lele OHKOs back), Ground-types (Garchomp/Tusk/Lando/Treads) on the right move. Bring a Ground; keep SR up vs the non-Boots sets.
23. Scizor-Mega — Charizard-Mega-X (4× Fire OHKO without DD, #1), Heatran (Steel/Fire wall), Fire-types generally; soft: Raging Bolt (eats +2 BP), bulky Ground/Fighting, faster Fire/Fighting. Keep a Fire it can’t revenge; deny it the clean SD turn.
24. Iron Treads — Ogerpon-Wellspring (Ivy Cudgel cleanly OHKOs standard/offensive sets, #1), Char-X/Char-Y, Mega-Venusaur, Great Tusk (mirror, outbulks); Gholdengo denies the spin. Respect the turn-one Booster-Speed window (513 > 412).

★ Offense-lens — the table the aggressive-Offense builder reads first

For aggressive Offense specifically (06-building-offense.md): the single best offensive answer to each threat, and whether Offense must wall / race / revenge it. “Run it?” flags the pieces your build can field as breakers, pivots, or cleaners (the ★ Offense angle calls them out). Offense almost never walls — its verb is revenge or race, backed by hazard chip and disjoint breakers.

How to use this table

• “Run it? ✓” — these 16+ are the pieces your aggressive build draws from. Cross-reference 05-common-cores.md for the disjoint-breaker pairs (Gholdengo + Iron Valiant; Zamazenta + Kyurem; Char-Y + Raging Bolt) and 06-building-offense.md for slotting them.
• “Run it? ✗ / ±” — Alomomola, Toxapex, Ting-Lu are the walls you build to break (the opposing structure from 04-archetypes.md); Gliscor/Zapdos/Scizor-Mega have a niche offensive set but you usually face them.
• The verb pattern is the thesis. Offense revenges the fast frail threats (Zama, IV, Lele, Diancie, Urshifu, Kyurem) and races the regenerating walls (Alomomola, Toxapex, Ting-Lu) — it does not out-wall them. Win the hazard war (Gholdengo makes removal awkward), win the 412 race, and bring two breakers that share no answer so no single wall blanks both. That is the entire discipline; everything in this matrix feeds it.

See also: 02-viability-tiers.md (tiers + the one authoritative usage table) · 03-top-threats/ (the 24 pages this grid summarizes) · 04-archetypes.md (the column definitions) · 05-common-cores.md · 06-building-offense.md · 08-speed-tiers.md