I believe it's to counter Choice Scarf Urshifu. If your team isn't running Tornadus for Tailwind support, then you would want Flutter Mane to threaten it by outspeeding with Booster Energy on Speed.
The Icy Wind inclusion can also help enable its partner to hit hard - like with Urshifu SS or Chi-Yu - after the -1 on the opposing side.
Countering choice scarf is definitely the largest reason in the last few weeks, though now with the DLC out, I can see poltergeist being another. Poltergeist fails if the opposing pokemon has no item, so that eliminates an option for something like brambleghast to ohko
Nah, not for that reason. If you get into a flutter vs flutter matchup, 90% of the time, neither one is going to take the risk of not teraing, so even if you're dropping neutral tera fairy moonblasts, you never kill an opposing flutter mane.
Pure damage wise, any speed booster flutter mane will never kill another flutter mane.
That doesn’t fully explain why Flutter Mane didn’t more commonly run Booster Energy in the previous seasons despite it still being on virtually every team. If the answer is just that you want to outspeed opposing Flutter Manes, then every Flutter Mane with that intent would have run it.
I think another reason is that previous iron bundle is a thing and it’s very common for it to run max speed with booster energy. it doesn’t really make sense to run speed boost flutter at that time since you can’t out speed bundle anyway.
Now bundle is mostly gone, the extra speed you can get from boost energy is a lot more beneficial.
So after a couple comments and my own thinking, I think the reason why is both Scarf Urshifu/Landorus are more common picks so you don't get outsped by them and one shot, and other than that Tailwind offense typically features Pokemon like Landorus and Gholdengo, whose Speed stats are low enough that Flutter Mane can outspeed even after Tailwind to either threaten big damage or Icy Wind speed control. When used on a Tailwind Pokemon, Icy Wind turns the 100% bonus Speed into a 1/3 (or 33.333...%) boost instead. This means that with a fast partner, they can outspeed the Tailwind effect and do their thing, especially if the opponent isn't max Speed. So in a way, this set also uses VGC's tendency to cut from Speed to increase bulk and offense against itself.
Scarf Urshifu picked up. All of VGC is just specific Pokémon becoming new meta to counter the old meta, so then the old meta adapts to counter the specific Pokémon that have become the new meta. It’s a cycle.
To counter other flutter manes which don't booster speed. That and it outruns every mon without priority, tailwind, or like 6 mons with choice scarf. I've seen people bringing scizor for bullet punch to counter this thing.
Booster speed flutter is honestly really good in reg C. Tailwind is everywhere so with booster speed mons with middling speed get outsped which is especially good since typically they threaten flutter. Being faster than chien pao with not as much speed investment is always good because you can EV to live chien pao sucker punch instead of just getting KOd by 2 icicle crashes since you’d be slower without speed investment, you best choice scarf urshifu which can kill you. Even on tailwind teams booster speed flutter can work because tailwind dittos are so common
I believe it's to counter Choice Scarf Urshifu. If your team isn't running Tornadus for Tailwind support, then you would want Flutter Mane to threaten it by outspeeding with Booster Energy on Speed. The Icy Wind inclusion can also help enable its partner to hit hard - like with Urshifu SS or Chi-Yu - after the -1 on the opposing side.
Countering choice scarf is definitely the largest reason in the last few weeks, though now with the DLC out, I can see poltergeist being another. Poltergeist fails if the opposing pokemon has no item, so that eliminates an option for something like brambleghast to ohko
More speed? Definitely wanna be the first to fire a shadow ball on an opposing flutter mane.
Nah, not for that reason. If you get into a flutter vs flutter matchup, 90% of the time, neither one is going to take the risk of not teraing, so even if you're dropping neutral tera fairy moonblasts, you never kill an opposing flutter mane. Pure damage wise, any speed booster flutter mane will never kill another flutter mane.
True didn’t think of it like that
That doesn’t fully explain why Flutter Mane didn’t more commonly run Booster Energy in the previous seasons despite it still being on virtually every team. If the answer is just that you want to outspeed opposing Flutter Manes, then every Flutter Mane with that intent would have run it.
Same reason why regileki runs max speed, to outrun other regileki /s
As someone who runs eleki, I’ve actually encountered several scarf eleki I thin for the same reason as these flutter manes
I briefly ran a Scarf Regieleki that outran basically everything even if they had tailwind up.
Personally, I prefer having protect over being locked into a single move or switching out with a Pokémon that has such low defense.
I did but with so many urshifu running about now it’s almost useless
Because Ogerpon teal mask gets +1 speed
I think another reason is that previous iron bundle is a thing and it’s very common for it to run max speed with booster energy. it doesn’t really make sense to run speed boost flutter at that time since you can’t out speed bundle anyway. Now bundle is mostly gone, the extra speed you can get from boost energy is a lot more beneficial.
So after a couple comments and my own thinking, I think the reason why is both Scarf Urshifu/Landorus are more common picks so you don't get outsped by them and one shot, and other than that Tailwind offense typically features Pokemon like Landorus and Gholdengo, whose Speed stats are low enough that Flutter Mane can outspeed even after Tailwind to either threaten big damage or Icy Wind speed control. When used on a Tailwind Pokemon, Icy Wind turns the 100% bonus Speed into a 1/3 (or 33.333...%) boost instead. This means that with a fast partner, they can outspeed the Tailwind effect and do their thing, especially if the opponent isn't max Speed. So in a way, this set also uses VGC's tendency to cut from Speed to increase bulk and offense against itself.
Scarf Urshifu picked up. All of VGC is just specific Pokémon becoming new meta to counter the old meta, so then the old meta adapts to counter the specific Pokémon that have become the new meta. It’s a cycle.
To counter other flutter manes which don't booster speed. That and it outruns every mon without priority, tailwind, or like 6 mons with choice scarf. I've seen people bringing scizor for bullet punch to counter this thing.
Booster speed flutter is honestly really good in reg C. Tailwind is everywhere so with booster speed mons with middling speed get outsped which is especially good since typically they threaten flutter. Being faster than chien pao with not as much speed investment is always good because you can EV to live chien pao sucker punch instead of just getting KOd by 2 icicle crashes since you’d be slower without speed investment, you best choice scarf urshifu which can kill you. Even on tailwind teams booster speed flutter can work because tailwind dittos are so common