Wallbreakers in OU

Introduction

Wallbreakers are a very important aspect of any singles metagame. A tier without wallbreakers is one where balanced and defensive teams dominate and offensive teams struggle to keep up the pace. Wallbreakers are generally very influential on the way people build teams, and many teambuilders go to great lengths in order not to be weak to them.

Paradoxically, though, a lot of people just forget to use wallbreakers despite being very much aware of their presence in the metagame. This becomes evident when you look at the BL list, which consists almost exclusively of wallbreakers, and from the fact that Landorus, a wallbreaker so powerful that it was eventually banned, never broke 7% usage on the OU ladder.

Wallbreakers tend to be seen more as threats than assets to teams, which is a shame, as the majority of them need at least one wallbreaker so as not to falter against defensive teams. The purpose of this article is not so much to encourage people to cover these Pokémon in teambuilding but rather to show the wide range of wallbreakers available in OU, of which this article only shows a sample.

What is a wallbreaker?

There is some ambiguity as to what makes a Pokémon a wallbreaker, but generally speaking, the purpose of a wallbreaker is to punch massive holes in defensive teams by overwhelming walls and breaking common defensive cores. They can do this through raw power, great coverage, access to a boosting move, or the ability to attack both physically and specially. None of these are mandatory on a wallbreaker, but these are all desirable traits.

Wallbreakers should not be confused with stallbreakers, which use more defensive tactics to bypass walls such as Taunt, status, Knock Off, a status immunity, or defensive boosting. The best way to tell a wallbreaker from a stallbreaker is that wallbreakers exclusively run offensive spreads, while stallbreakers run defensive spreads.

Examples of wallbreakers

Life Orb Hoopa-U

Hoopa-U is undoubtedly the ultimate wallbreaker. Simply put, it has every single quality one can expect from a wallbreaker. First of all, it has a ton of raw power, both physically and specially. Base 170 Special Attack is beyond anything OU has ever seen, and base 160 Attack is second only to Kyurem-B outside of Mega Evolutions. It also has access to extremely powerful STAB moves: physically, a 100 Base Power Dark-type move in Hyperspace Fury (which is a very spammable STAB move in OU due to the only Pokémon commonly seen in OU that resist Dark and have reliable recovery being Clefable and Mega Altaria), and Psychic as a special option, neither of which have relevant drawbacks. Most importantly, though, Hoopa-U has incredible coverage. Dark / Psychic / Fighting hits the entire OU tier at least neutrally, which leaves Hoopa-U with a free moveslot for Gunk Shot (to OHKO Fairies as opposed to 2HKOing them), Fire Punch (which hits Klefki, Ferrothorn, and Scizor harder than any other move), Grass Knot (which OHKOes Hippowdon), Substitute, or even Nasty Plot; indeed, Hoopa-U has a very strong boosting move on top of all its other qualities at its disposal, enabling it to completely decimate stall teams. However, Nasty Plot is rarely used on Hoopa-U, with most people preferring a mixed set, which is slightly weaker against hard stall (unlike the Nasty Plot set, it does have some semi-decent counters, namely Mandibuzz and Porygon2) but performs better against more common balanced teams due to it not requiring a turn of setup. Finally, Hoopa-U boasts very good special bulk for a wallbreaker on top of all its offensive prowess, with 80 HP and 130 Special Defense being the same as Latias's. This enables it to switch in on special attackers such as Alakazam and Starmie with relative ease.

Unfortunately, Hoopa-U is brought down by it bad physical bulk, which leaves it very vulnerable to physical attackers. This, combined with its low Speed, makes it fare poorly against offensive teams, a trait shared by almost every wallbreaker.

Does well against: Hoopa-U performs best against balanced teams that rely on bulky Psychic-types such as Slowbro and Celebi or Poison-types such as Mega Venusaur and Dragalge to handle strong Fighting-types such as Keldeo and Mega Lopunny. Almost any defensive core featuring a special attacker and lacking Mandibuzz has huge problems with Hoopa-U in general.

Counters: Hoopa-U does not have any true counters. The best you can really do is specially defensive Mandibuzz, which handles the standard mixed set of Hyperspace Fury / Psychic / Drain Punch or Focus Blast / Gunk Shot perfectly but fails against Nasty Plot if Stealth Rock is up. Defensive Mega Scizor and defensive Skarmory do well against variants that do not run Focus Blast or Fire Punch, as does Play Rough Klefki, though it lacks recovery.

Checks: Like all other wallbreakers, non-Choice Scarf Hoopa-U can be checked rather easily by faster physical attackers, particularly by fast Dark-types, which resist both of Hoopa-U's STAB moves, and Fairies, which can switch into Hoopa's Dark and Fighting coverage moves with ease and strike back with a super effective STAB move. Simply put, if you don't want to have trouble against Hoopa-U, use Mandibuzz or use offense.

Tail Glow Manaphy

If Hoopa-U is the king of wallbreakers, then Manaphy is the prince. And yet, you wouldn't know that from its stats alone, with base 100 in both offenses being pretty poor by OU standards. What makes Manaphy such a threatening wallbreaker is its access to Tail Glow, one of the best boosting move in the game. In one turn, Manaphy can raise its Special Attack by three stages. This gives its Scald higher power than Choice Specs Keldeo's Hydro Pump without even needing an item. Unlike most non-Mega wallbreakers, Manaphy is not forced to run a Life Orb in order to properly wallbreak and has the freedom to run Leftovers or any other item depending on team support or personal preference. Tail Glow isn't Manaphy's only quality, though; it also has access to great coverage moves. The most common set is Tail Glow / Scald / Ice Beam / Energy Ball, which gives Manaphy the best overall coverage (Ice Beam hits Dragon- and Grass-types, while Energy Ball targets opposing Water-types), but Manaphy also has access to other options, such as Psychic for Mega Venusaur, Hidden Power Fire for Ferrothorn, Shadow Ball to hit Latios, Slowbro, Starmie, and Celebi in a single slot, and Dazzling Gleam for Kyurem-B. It can even run Rain Dance over one of its coverage moves, which not only boosts the power of Scald, enabling it to break past Chansey and Unaware Clefable, but also gives it an effective status immunity thanks to Hydration. Manaphy also has excellent bulk for a wallbreaker as well as a great defensive typing, giving it the ability to set up on a large number of Pokémon. Another important detail is Scald's ability to burn checks such as Ferrothorn, Mega Venusaur, and Kyurem-B, wearing them down effectively.

Despite its many good qualities, Manaphy is not perfect. Its most obvious flaw is its complete lack of initial power: it requires a Tail Glow boost in order to pose an offensive threat. This means that, despite its bulk, it performs poorly against offensive teams due to the fact that it must give a free turn to the opponent, making it very easy for fast-paced teams to exploit, especially given its lackluster Speed by OU standards. Manaphy's other big problem is its inability to fit all it wants into one set. Unlike Hoopa-U, which can easily fit all the coverage it needs, Manaphy will always be walled by something no matter what coverage moves it runs.

Does well against: Manaphy performs best against teams that use Heatran or bulky Ground-types such as Hippowdon or Landorus-T and whose Pokémon that resist Water are very vulnerable to getting worn down by Scald burns or hit super effectively by Manaphy's secondary coverage moves.

Counters: Much like Hoopa-U, Manaphy has no hard counters; however, unlike Hoopa-U, there will always be something that can switch into whatever combination of moves it happens to be carrying. Ferrothorn beats variants lacking Hidden Power Fire, while Venusaur handles Manaphy without Psychic. Chansey and Unaware Clefable can handle it unless it runs Rain Dance. Grass- and Dragon-types beat it if it lacks Ice Beam, while Water-types handle it if it lacks Energy Ball. Kyurem-B can take all of its relevant coverage moves, but it is a rather unreliable check due to its Stealth Rock weakness and hatred of burns. In fact, all of these checks bar Chansey dislike getting burned by Scald, including Unaware Clefable, which cannot afford to use Heal Bell in front of Manaphy.

Checks: Fast Electric- and Grass-types, particularly Raikou and Serperior, serve as solid checks to Manaphy unless it runs a damage-reducing Berry. Dragons such as Latios can switch into most of Manaphy's moves, but they can only rarely OHKO it back unless Manaphy is weakened.

Belly Drum Azumarill

Azumarill is a bit of an anomaly amongst wallbreakers: it's one of the very few that can claim to be quite good against offensive teams. The combination of its great bulk and phenomenal defensive typing, dual STAB moves that very few offensive Pokémon can switch into, relatively strong priority, and, of course, raw power makes it a headache for many offensive teams to handle. And yet, thanks to Belly Drum, it functions as a very effective wallbreaker. Belly Drum cuts down Azumarill's health by half (or one quarter, if you take the recovery from Sitrus Berry into account), turning it into an absolute monster that not only can barely be checked by any slower Pokémon thanks to the combination of Play Rough and Knock Off obtaining nearly perfect neutral coverage, but also has very strong priority to strike faster ones as well.

Unfortunately, Azumarill isn't without its flaws either. Its low Speed leaves it outpaced even by certain walls (even if it runs maximum Speed, it is outsped by base 80 Speed Pokémon), and while +6 Aqua Jet hits hard, it's not strong enough to OHKO a lot of bulkier threats. Notably, faster Pokémon that resist Water act as very good checks to it. Azumarill also has a hard time setting up because of Belly Drum cutting its health in half, meaning that most Pokémon can deal enough damage to it as it sets up to bring it in KO range of most priority moves; fortunately, Azumarill is very resilient to most common priority users thanks to its resistances to Sucker Punch, Aqua Jet, and Ice Shard.

Does well against: Azumarill is effective against teams that rely on Ferrothorn, Heatran, or any other Steel-type as their Fairy check, as well as teams that rely on Slowbro to handle Water-types. It also performs well against teams whose only Pokémon that resist Water are weak to Fairy such as Latios and Keldeo, as long as it doesn't try to set up.

Counters: Mega Venusaur is a hard counter to Azumarill, only fearing the very rare Jolly Return. Rotom-W is also good answer to Azumarill, but it cannot switch into it repeatedly. Defensive Celebi can deal with it rather well despite taking a lot of damage from Knock Off, as it outspeeds Azumarill and Leaf Storm enables it to KO it after a Belly Drum. Unaware users, specifically Quagsire and Clefable, are perfect answers to the Belly Drum set, but they cannot switch into a Choice Band-boosted Play Rough.

Checks: Faster Pokémon that resist Water such as Serperior, Latios, Kyurem-B, and Toxicroak can check Azumarill as long as they are healthy enough to take a +6 Aqua Jet and are able to deal at least 75% damage to it. However, very few of them are able to switch into Play Rough or Knock Off, making them checks to Azumarill only if it has used Belly Drum beforehand.

Life Orb Kyurem-B

As a former Uber and proud owner of the highest BST in the OU tier outside of Megas, it's easy to imagine how Kyurem-B can be considered a very strong wallbreaker. After all, it boasts an unmatched base 170 Attack as well as a very respectable base 120 Special Attack. Furthermore, it has impressive coverage, with the combination of Ice Beam and Teravolt Earth Power hitting everything neutrally and Fusion Bolt rounding off its coverage by targeting Water-types. As a result, it is very difficult to counter, and most of its so-called "counters" can easily be hit by a secondary coverage move. Kyurem-B's stats and movepool enable it to choose between a physically and specially based set, both of which have slightly different checks and counters. It also has other perks, such as solid bulk and useful resistances to Grass, Electric, and Water, which enable it to switch in on a few Pokémon such as Mega Manectric and Starmie, as well as access to reliable recovery in Roost, giving it some longevity.

But Kyurem-B does have a handful of flaws, with the most obvious one being its lack of a good physical movepool. Its only physical moves of note are Fusion Bolt, Outrage, Dragon Claw, and Iron Head, meaning that it can't take advantage of its excellent base 170 Attack as much as it wishes it could. Moreover, Dragon is very redundant with Ice offensively, meaning that Kyurem-B rarely gets the opportunity to use a Dragon-type STAB move. Due to its Ice typing, Kyurem-B also suffers from a crippling Stealth Rock weakness, and its bulk is mitigated by its weaknesses to various common types such as Fighting, Dragon, and Fairy. As a result, it has a hard time finding free turns against offensive teams. And while Kyurem-B can theoretically 2HKO the entire OU tier, it cannot fit all the moves it needs to do so in a single set.

Does well against: Kyurem-B performs well against a number of common balance cores, such as Venusaur + Heatran, Hippowdon + Starmie, Garchomp + Skarmory, and Mega Slowbro + Gliscor. Fire / Water / Grass cores in particular tend to be weak to Kyurem-B, as it resists two of these types and can hit all three of them super effectively with the combination of Ice Beam, Fusion Bolt, and Earth Power.

Counters: Much like Manaphy, Kyurem-B's counters are entirely dependent on its moveset. Scizor and, to some extent, Ferrothorn handle non-Hidden Power Fire variants quite well. Mixed defensive Clefable beats non-Iron Head variants, but it struggles to take Ice Beam from full health and can be 2HKOed by Fusion Bolt from a physically based set. Specially bulky pokemon that are not weak to Electric, such as Chansey and Mew, can handle any set lacking Outrage.

Checks: Any faster attacker that can hit Kyurem-B for STAB super effective damage, such as Latios, Keldeo, Mega Diancie, or Mega Gardevoir, is able to check Kyurem-B, especially if it resists one or more of Kyurem-B's common coverage moves. Some steel-types like Jirachi and Magnet Rise Klefki serve as decent checks, given that they do not switch into Eath Power

Mega Gardevoir

Mega Gardevoir was one of the three wallbreaking Megas that gained huge popularity after the Aegislash ban, and despite competition from new Megas in ORAS, it is still one of the best and most feared wallbreakers in the tier. Pixilate-boosted Hyper Voice hits extremely hard, and Fairy happens to be a great offensive typing in OU. Mega Gardevoir also has access to Psyshock, enabling it to break past Poison-types, and Focus Blast, which hits most Steel-types very hard. Its last moveslot is a choice between Will-O-Wisp to permanently cripple would-be counters such as Scizor and Metagross, Taunt to break past Chansey, or even Calm Mind to easily rip through slow teams. Mega Gardevoir also sports solid special bulk and a decent defensive typing, which lets it switch in on Pokémon such as Latios and Thundurus without too much difficulty.

Unfortunately, Mega Gardevoir suffers from bad physical bulk, enabling faster physical attackers to dispose of it easily. This, combined with its mediocre Speed, makes it rather poor against offensive teams. The fact that it relies on an inaccurate move to hit Steel-types, a very common type in OU, is also a big flaw, and any Steel-type that is only 2HKOed by Focus Blast and can OHKO Mega Gardevoir back, which is not difficult for a Steel-type to do, has a 51% chance to check it in practice.

Does well against: Mega Gardevoir is effective against teams that rely on Ferrothorn or Heatran to handle Fairy-types, as well as teams that employ Latias or bulky Starmie as their entry hazard remover.

Counters: Steel-types with a secondary typing that resists Focus Blast can handle Mega Gardevoir quite well. Scizor, Metagross (though these two hate Will-O-Wisp), Jirachi, Klefki, and, to some extent, specially defensive Skarmory can all handle it rather well. Chansey beats any set that lacks Taunt or Calm Mind, while Victini checks it rather well but gets worn down easily due to its Stealth Rock weakness and lack of recovery.

Checks: Fast Fire- and Steel-types, such as Talonflame, Choice Scarf Heatran, and Excadrill in sand, all act as good checks to Mega Gardevoir.

Serperior

Serperior is similar to Manaphy in the sense that it wallbreaks through boosting its stats as opposed to raw power. However, unlike Manaphy, Serperior boosts its stats while simultaneously using a 130 Base Power STAB move. This makes it very easy for Serperior to get out of hand, especially considering that it can sharply boost its Special Attack while finishing off a weakened Pokémon. It's also a very easy and mindless Pokémon to use, as Leaf Storm is the optimal move to use in the vast majority of scenarios: anything that switches into Serperior and is slower than it will need to be able to take a +2 Leaf Storm, Dragon Pulse, and whichever Hidden Power Serperior is running. Serperior also has excellent Speed for a wallbreaker, which enables it to clean many offensive teams once priority users have been removed. Finally, it has access to multiple useful utility moves such as Glare to paralyze faster foes, Taunt to beat the likes of Chansey and Unaware Clefable, Substitute to dodge Scald burns and Sucker Punch, and Synthesis to recover its HP. It also has useful resistances to Water and Ground, two very common types in OU.

Unfortunately, Serperior also has a lot of very glaring flaws. Its most obvious one is its lack of immediate power, which renders it unable to wear down its checks, an unfortunate trait that makes it different from almost every other wallbreaker. Serperior also has very poor offensive coverage, forcing it to choose between Hidden Power Fire and Ground to hit Steel-types. There's also the fact that Grass is a very poor offensive typing that is resisted by very common types such as Steel, Flying, Dragon, and Fire.

Does well against: Serperior performs well against bulky Water- and Ground-types such as Slowbro, Rotom-W,and Hippowdon, which give it a free turn to both set up and attack. Common cores such as Hippowdon + Starmie + Ferrothorn that are very weak to Grass + Fire coverage are also weak to Serperior by extension. Teams whose only answer to Fire + Grass coverage is a Dragon such as Latios have a very hard time against Serperior.

Counters: Mega Venusaur and defensive Mega Altaria are both universal counters to Serperior. Talonflame handles all sets rather easily besides the rare Coba Berry + Hidden Power Rock variant, which is easily walled by almost any Steel-type. Tornadus-T is also a good check, only really fearing Glare. Heatran easily takes care of non-Hidden Power Ground sets. If Serperior does run Hidden Power Ground, Scizor, Ferrothorn, and Skarmory beat it. Specially defensive Unaware Clefable can handle any set not running Taunt.

Checks: Priority users such as Weavile, Choice Band Scizor, and Mega Pinsir are quite good checks to Serperior, as is Sucker Punch Bisharp,though it must be wary of Substitute. Klefki can switch into Serperior and paralyze it, making it easy for the rest of the team to handle, but it will be KOed by +2 Hidden Power Fire in the process.

Mega Pinsir

Mega Pinsir may have fallen out of popularity ever since the transition to ORAS, but don't be fooled by its low usage. Mega Pinsir is still a fearsome wallbreaker that, thanks to Aerilate, hits very hard. Most Pokémon that resist Flying in OU lack reliable recovery, which makes Mega Pinsir all the more threatening. And thanks to Close Combat and Earthquake, both of which obtain almost perfect neutral coverage alongside Aerilate Return, Mega Pinsir can also run Swords Dance, an excellent boosting move that lets it break past Pokémon such as Skarmory and Slowbro, and Quick Attack, a decently powerful priority move that enables Mega Pinsir to hit faster attackers and can even clean offensive teams if Mega Pinsir manages to set up a Swords Dance.

However, Mega Pinsir's solid bulk is offset by its terrible defensive typing, which is made even worse by its quadruple weakness to Stealth Rock. Another less obvious problem with Pinsir is that the OU metagame is already strongly prepared for powerful Flying-type attacks. After all, most teams require a good Talonflame check, and most of these (Electric-types and bulky Ground-types) also handle Pinsir very well. As a result, most teams have a natural answer to Pinsir, making it difficult for it to perform well in this hostile metagame.

Does well against: Mega Pinsir performs excellently against balanced teams that rely on faster attackers that are weak to Flying such as Keldeo and Lopunny to revenge kill wallbreakers and offensive threats in general. Teams and cores whose answer to Talonflame cannot properly handle Pinsir, particularly ones with specially defensive Hippowdon such as Hippowdon + Slowbro + Tornadus-T, can usually be broken by Pinsir.

Counters: Physical walls such as Garchomp, Hippowdon, and Skarmory handle Mega Pinsir pretty well, especially if they have a resistance to Flying. Bulky Electric-types such as Zapdos and Rotom-W handle Pinsir fairly well, as does Mega Manectric due to Intimidate. However, because of base Pinsir's access to Hyper Cutter, Intimidate will not activate if Pinsir has not yet Mega Evolved.

Checks: Faster Pokémon that resist Flying all act as good checks to Mega Pinsir, with Thundurus and Mega Aerodactyl being particularly good in this regard. Raikou, Mega Metagross, and Mega Diancie are also good checks, but they take a good chunk of damage from Earthquake, especially Raikou.

Mega Medicham

Mega Medicham is probably the simplest, most straightforward wallbreaker in OU. While other wallbreakers may rely on boosting moves or coverage, Mega Medicham only uses one thing to wallbreak: sheer, raw power. Thanks to Pure Power, Mega Medicham reaches the equivalent of base 250 Attack, and its 130 Base Power High Jump Kick is incredibly powerful: just to give you an idea, it easily 2HKOes physically defensive Hippowdon, one of the physically bulkiest Pokémon in OU. It also has Zen Headbutt as a secondary STAB move that, while not as powerful, still hits very hard and provides necessary coverage for Flying-, Fairy-, and Poison-types. Mega Medicham also gets Fake Out, a very useful tool for both chip damage on faster Pokémon and to safely Mega Evolve, as well as Bullet Punch; both of these moves give it some revenge killing capabilities against offense.

Mega Medicham's flaws are just as simple as its qualities. It is very frail even by wallbreaker standards and suffers from a poor defensive typing, both of which which prevent it from actually switching into most of the Pokémon it threatens, and its mediocre Speed leaves it very easily revenge killed by anything healthy enough to take a Bullet Punch. Medicham also has very poor coverage, with its only viable coverage moves being Ice Punch and Thunder Punch, both of which are rather weak.

Does well against: Mega Medicham performs at its best against teams that rely on Hippowdon, Clefable, or Quagsire to handle Fighting-types, as well as cores such as Venusaur + Heatran, which are weak to its dual STAB moves.

Counters: Mega Sableye is a hard counter to Mega Medicham, being immune to both its STAB types and taking no significant damage from any of its coverage moves. Any Psychic-type with defensive investment handles it, particularly Mew, Reuniclus, Victini, and Cresselia. Slowbro handles it if it doesn't run Thunder Punch, and Celebi and Mega Latias counter variants lacking Ice Punch.

Checks: Most faster attackers with a resistance to Fighting can check Mega Medicham rather easily, particularly Latios, Latias, Tornadus-T, Starmie, and Choice Scarf Landorus-T.

Conclusion

Wallbreakers come in various shapes and sizes in OU and differ by their methods of wallbreaking, what they are able to take advantage of, and what offensive threats they are able to check. This wide variety of wallbreakers makes it all the easier to fit one on a team. So remember, if your team struggles against balanced and defensive teams, there are many options at your disposal, and there will usually be one that works well for you.

« Previous Article

Home