Ankylo (FFC)

Overview
Ankylo’s an incredible vivosaur, sporting 50 Defense and the best defensive support in the game (+99%) to complement Ankylo Combo, its broken confuse skill. Ankylo has an incredible amount of benefits: small costs on all of its moves, relatively consistent status including confuse and poison, and a team skill that’s easy to access due to its compatibility with all of the top tiers excluding Krypto. Unfortunately it does have some drawbacks. It can’t equip a Gold Head fossil, so its LP is a little on the low side for such a high tier vivo. On top of that, its support reduces Attack by -20%, and it doesn’t have Rallying Cry, which Saichan does. This means that while Ankylo is a very strong vivosaur in its own right, it gets more or less outclassed by its fiery sibling.

General Gameplan (Early Game)
Ankylo Combo is the move of choice here. Spam it as frequently as you can and immobilize the opponent.

Midgame/Endgame
Ankylo Combo works just as well in midgame and endgame as it does anywhere else. In endgame, though, specifically in 1v1 situations, Toxic Spear shines. Ankylo Combo (not confused) > Toxic Spear (confused 1) > Ankylo Combo (not confused) is a solid endgame thanks to the poison dishing some extra damage and reducing the amount of luck needed for the confuse skill.

Optimal Teammates/Strategies
Ankylo and Zanth work well as an anti-offense core with elemental synergy. Basically, Ankylo meshes with anything that needs or likes confuse.

Winning/Losing Matchups
Ankylo actually has an advantage over Saichan thanks to it having the same offensive tools behind a Water typing. With this Water typing, however, Ankylo suffers from Air-types beating it. Specifically, Ankylo’s biggest threat is Parium, who counters Ankylo handily thanks to EB and its raw offensive strength being able to break Ankylo faster than any other vivo can, while being able to tank its hits. Ankylo also suffers from a lack of RC, meaning status spam or other well-equipped teams can beat Ankylo at its own game.