BW2 General Metagame Discussion Thread

[Cheapoman]

I'm guessing that all the changes from BW2 have been implemented already on PO?

 

[Tobes]

Tornadus-T. I've never been so amazed and disappointed at the same time, because before the base stats came out I expected it to be an OU lugia, a flying wall, and it turned out instead to be an amazing bulky offense mon instead.

Oh and KD24. I'm in the PO alpha testing, where else can I be? its the only one that shows up when i look for servers. Am I doing something wrong?

Smogon is using Pokemon Showdown for BW2, where Kyurem-B and Kyurem-W are banned.

 

[Exc4libur]

In my last test, Volcarona with Giga Drain has been Spectacular, a set with Quiver Dance/Giga Drain/Bug Buzz/Fire Blast @Life Orb has been beautiful. Any one else test out the Moth?

 

[shrang]

I've been using Rain Volc with Giga Drain over Bug Buzz at the moment and kills like everything. Now that it has Giga Drain, I can chuck Life Orb on it and it will leech all the health off bulky Waters and continue sweeping. Seriously, you know this thing is amazing when you OHKO Tornadus-T with +1 Hurricane and Thundurus-T with +1 Fire Blast (in the rain).

 

[alphatron]

Has anyone been using landorus-T at all? I've seen no talk and no usage yet (though I've only had a few matches).

So mamoswine continues to be amazing. Giga drain chlorophyll venusaur continues to kick ass. Giga drain volcorona is way better than I expected, and thundurus-T is not as threatening as I thought he would be. The lack of switch ins is still scary as hell though. There's sp. def Camerupt and... =\

 

[toshimelonhead]

Ok so general impressions so far:

1.) It's too early to tell if Rain will dominate. Even though it's probably the best weather right now, much of that is to everyone testing out the new genies and Keldeo. Sand, while clearly receiving the short end of the stick, probably will get Garchomp and Excadrill back. Excadrill was always a borderline suspect IMO and I think Garchomp is worth a retest to balance out the rain.

2.) Looking forward to Mollux playtesting with the new rain mons, especially since Mollux has a great support movepool.

3.) Didn't get time to test tonight, but I'm wondering of the viability of an Agility / Nasty Plot / Thunderbolt / Hidden Power Ice set on Thundurus-T.

4.) The new Tornadus form is amazing with Choice Specs and Rain.

5.) Is BW2 going to be on the Smogon PO server? Has there been an executive decision that Smogon is moving to Showdown?

6.) Keldeo seems underwhelming at the moment, largely because Amoonguss and Gastrodon stop it cold, both of which are common right now. The new Tornadus also checks it pretty well.

7.) Haven't seen much Volt-Turn at all.

ok I'll put more up later

 

[Bribery]

I also found Keldeo a little underwhelming given how common Tornadus-T and Scarf Thundurus-T are at the moment. Also Amoonguss is practically on every team and it stops Keldeo in its tracks.

Speaking of Amoongus, SubCM Jirachi has been great so far. Jirachi setups all over it since Substitute blocks Spore and Clear Smog. Also, more Rain teams means more Ferrothorn for Jirachi to setup on.

 

[Ithilanor]

-Mamoswine's benefited hugely, since it's good against the Therians and the various dragons who improved.
-For all the excitement over Outrage DD MoxieMence, I haven't seen much of him, and honestly don't expect to...there's too much going on that's better.
-Volcarona is great, getting a pair of extremely useful moves, the ability to go on almost any team, and gaining a good deal of unpredictability.

 

[Jaetheho]

Want amoonguss to not get countered by subcm jirachi? Use a physical set with seed bomb and foul play ;) seriously. Foul play rocks.

Anyways, amoonguss isn't just a good counter to Keldeo, it also checks thundurus, starmie, and those other rain mons... It is the biggest cockblock to politoed. Like seriously. I really wanna try volcarona now..

 

[Ithilanor]

Heatran, Slowbro, and Amoonguss are THE FWG core. Slowbro and Amoonguss can just switch out when their health gets a bit low, and Heatran takes on the sun teams that plague the duo. An interesting defensive partner for this, I've found, is Bronzong - it is immune to the Ground attacks that plague the core (since none of them resist it) and is a reliable check to both formes of Tornadus. Partnered with another Ground immunity (maybe a Therian, if you wish) and a final attacker, it makes for a really nice balanced team, or one can try full stall with Blissey and... Vaporeon? I'm not sure what would go there.

I'd like to hear more thoughts on this...the core is definitely great, but what's the best home for it?

EDIT: On the balanced team note, Tornadus-T seems like a good candidate - provides another ground immunity, it's a great pivot, and can help with the general idea of chipping away at opposing teams.

EDIT2: I'm somewhat skeptical of trying to go full stall in this meta; between the wallbreaking powers of things like Thundurus-T and Keldeo, and the generally increased variety of powerful threats, trying to be defensive and reactive seems like a recipe for disaster.

 

[Mario With Lasers]

Sand also got Sand Rush Sandslash from the Cool Hole, so I guess it's worth adding to the first post (unless no one has even touched Sand until now...).

 

[Jaetheho]

Don't forget superpower stoutland

 

[Griff]

i've been trying to use amoonguss to check thundurus-t but it's not working lol. it dies from a +2 hp ice and it does a shit ton regular. idk.
bluemon, is stoutland going to work with so much rain usage?

 

[JSND]

Latios
Jirachi
Tornadus

There, i think those three are promising in BW2 meta

 

[Griff]

Latios
Jirachi
Tornadus

There, i think those three are promising in BW2 meta

thats why mamo is good as shit, it kills all of those. you should use it like, right now.

 

[JSND]

Mamo can lose to Iron Hax tho

 

[Griff]

Mamo can lose to Iron Hax tho

oh it's not like i have 5 other pokemon on my team or anything. do people even use iron head hax? lol..

 

[JSND]

It depends on how K W and K B banned or not...

Im planning to use some crazy Jirachi set that used T Wave as its main draw to slow down threats and spam the hell out of Meteors, or Maybe Celebi, because we need more Tinkerbell(IIRC its the sets name) exposure lol

 

[canno]

Sub Keldeo has been amazing so far. It's pretty simple, switch in on something you threaten (or locked into something ineffective) and then sub up. This lets you get off two hits on Jellicent / Amoongus and allows you to hurt Thundurus-T/Tornadus-T. His Hydro Pumps hit hard as all fuck, and I'm using it in a sand team. Imagine that in a rain team. Holy shit. Of course, it sufferers from coverage (Hydro Pump / Secret Sword / HP Ghost only gets you so far) but hitting something twice makes it worth it.

Also, TTar got the elemental punches. Does this mean it can stop running Fire Blast and use Fire Punch, or is it still inferior (not having to split your EVs is good). It also helps the DDance set and the CB set a bit.

 

[bubbly]

Don't forget superpower stoutland

Holy **** why I not hear earlier? That is just going to be ridiculous. I'm already updating my old Stoutland teams as being great with Amoonguss for extra backbone, and since Stoutland beats just about all the new threats easily. Oh, AND Tornadus breaks Steels / Tyranitar etc for it.

EDIT: Needs a Politoed remover though. Hmm. Need some help on that.

 

[Dr Ciel]

oh it's not like i have 5 other pokemon on my team or anything. do people even use iron head hax? lol..

Scarfrahci would resent this statement as it is one of the most proficient Iron Head haxers in the game today.

 

[Danger Mouse]

Don't forget superpower stoutland

Yeah, I was going to point this out too. With Superpower, stoutland loses its one big disadvantage - its inability to hit steel types. Also, nobody is making mention of the fact that Hydreigon got roost as well? With its good bulk, it could conceivably run a bulky set now, or simply roost off life orb recoil.

 

[Dr Ciel]

Holy **** why I not hear earlier? That is just going to be ridiculous. I'm already updating my old Stoutland teams as being great with Amoonguss for extra backbone, and since Stoutland beats just about all the new threats easily. Oh, AND Tornadus breaks Steels / Tyranitar etc for it.

EDIT: Needs a Politoed remover though. Hmm. Need some help on that.

Now Stoutland can have near perfect coverage with a band set. Assuming a set of Frustration/Superpower/Wild Charge/Ice Fang, Stoutland can literally take out every OU threat.

 

[Nova]

Sub Keldeo has been amazing so far. It's pretty simple, switch in on something you threaten (or locked into something ineffective) and then sub up. This lets you get off two hits on Jellicent / Amoongus and allows you to hurt Thundurus-T/Tornadus-T. His Hydro Pumps hit hard as all fuck, and I'm using it in a sand team. Imagine that in a rain team. Holy shit. Of course, it sufferers from coverage (Hydro Pump / Secret Sword / HP Ghost only gets you so far) but hitting something twice makes it worth it.

Also, TTar got the elemental punches. Does this mean it can stop running Fire Blast and use Fire Punch, or is it still inferior (not having to split your EVs is good). It also helps the DDance set and the CB set a bit.

Ttar already had fire punch, fire blast was for skarm while still wrecking ferrothorn

 

[Danger Mouse]

Holy **** why I not hear earlier? That is just going to be ridiculous. I'm already updating my old Stoutland teams as being great with Amoonguss for extra backbone, and since Stoutland beats just about all the new threats easily. Oh, AND Tornadus breaks Steels / Tyranitar etc for it.

EDIT: Needs a Politoed remover though. Hmm. Need some help on that.

Run double sand and a grass type (celebi or shaymin). Run Tyranitar with Pursuit...if you can force the froggy out you can catch it with pursuit as it tries to flee.