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np: Doubles Stage 3.5 — Mama Said Knock You Out
- Thread starter Stratos
- Start date
Dialga may have weakness to EQ and Close Combats, but that isn't exactly hard to patch up with the likes of Landorus-T, Gyarados, Togekiss.
Don't forget that Dialga is a Dragon / Steel type. That's some godly typing, offensively and defensively. It's the only dragon without dragon weaknesses (Ice, Dragon, Fairy), and it only has two easily controllable weakness in EQ and Fighting-types. Steel-typing grants it many useful resistances as well as a STAB Flash Cannon to destroy Fairies and Tyranitars. Combine that typing with its bulk, and it is one hard tank to take down. It's pretty much Heatran on steroids (without the STAB spread moves).
Dialga has an amazing movepool fitting for an Uber. Its special movepool has pretty much everything it needs to destroy everything (outside of its STAB moves, Aura Sphere, Fire Blast, Thunder(bolt), Blizzard/Ice Beam, Earth Power). It has a great support movepool, too, most notably Thunder Wave and Trick Room. Dialga is one versatile Pokemon, and it's unpredictable what set or coverage moves you will be facing. You can be facing a slow OTR Dialga or a fast offensive Dialga, all-out attacking AV Dialga, a defensive Dialga that spreads paralysis, Specs Dialga, Dialga with Magnet Rise or Substitute, Dialga with Safety Goggles or Rocky Helmet.
Palkia may not have that amazing typing of Dialga, but Dragon / Water typing comes pretty darn close. Its only weakness is to Dragon- and Fairy-type moves. Base 100 Speed with Palkia's colossal offensive potential and solid bulk is quite darn good. It's like Charizard Y, in a sense that it is a hard hitting, bulky special attacker with 100 base speed. Except Palkia has even less exploitable weaknesses (neutral to Rock Slide and Thunderbolt), A LOT bulkier, and does not use up a mega slot. Also Palkia is a lot less weather-dependent.
Palkia, just like Dialga, has an amazing special movepool. They both have similar movepools, except Palkia has a high crit Spacial Rend and STAB Water-type moves that are bolstered further in Rain. It also has support options like Thunder Wave and Trick Room.
You guys are essentially dropping a Pokemon with equal/greater power of Mega Pokemon, without using up a Mega slot.
Now compare Kyurem-B to Palkia/Dialga. Unlike the latter, Kyurem-B has a crappy typing, being weak to Fighting, Fairy, Dragon, Steel, and ROCK SLIDE. Its movepool is decent, but not ridiculous like Dialga/Palkia, with absolutely no support options like T-Wave/TR. It wishes it had 170 SpA instead of 170 Atk, to truly take advantage of its typing and special-leaning movepool, but instead it has to make do with 120 SpA. It fits into our Doubles metagame relatively seamlessly without causing much disturbance.
Kyurem-B is an exceptional case, and I consider it the benchmark for dropping Ubers. Any Pokemon that is better than Kyurem-B should not be dropped, since it would significantly alter the power balance of Doubles.
Don't forget that Dialga is a Dragon / Steel type. That's some godly typing, offensively and defensively. It's the only dragon without dragon weaknesses (Ice, Dragon, Fairy), and it only has two easily controllable weakness in EQ and Fighting-types. Steel-typing grants it many useful resistances as well as a STAB Flash Cannon to destroy Fairies and Tyranitars. Combine that typing with its bulk, and it is one hard tank to take down. It's pretty much Heatran on steroids (without the STAB spread moves).
Dialga has an amazing movepool fitting for an Uber. Its special movepool has pretty much everything it needs to destroy everything (outside of its STAB moves, Aura Sphere, Fire Blast, Thunder(bolt), Blizzard/Ice Beam, Earth Power). It has a great support movepool, too, most notably Thunder Wave and Trick Room. Dialga is one versatile Pokemon, and it's unpredictable what set or coverage moves you will be facing. You can be facing a slow OTR Dialga or a fast offensive Dialga, all-out attacking AV Dialga, a defensive Dialga that spreads paralysis, Specs Dialga, Dialga with Magnet Rise or Substitute, Dialga with Safety Goggles or Rocky Helmet.
Palkia may not have that amazing typing of Dialga, but Dragon / Water typing comes pretty darn close. Its only weakness is to Dragon- and Fairy-type moves. Base 100 Speed with Palkia's colossal offensive potential and solid bulk is quite darn good. It's like Charizard Y, in a sense that it is a hard hitting, bulky special attacker with 100 base speed. Except Palkia has even less exploitable weaknesses (neutral to Rock Slide and Thunderbolt), A LOT bulkier, and does not use up a mega slot. Also Palkia is a lot less weather-dependent.
Palkia, just like Dialga, has an amazing special movepool. They both have similar movepools, except Palkia has a high crit Spacial Rend and STAB Water-type moves that are bolstered further in Rain. It also has support options like Thunder Wave and Trick Room.
You guys are essentially dropping a Pokemon with equal/greater power of Mega Pokemon, without using up a Mega slot.
Now compare Kyurem-B to Palkia/Dialga. Unlike the latter, Kyurem-B has a crappy typing, being weak to Fighting, Fairy, Dragon, Steel, and ROCK SLIDE. Its movepool is decent, but not ridiculous like Dialga/Palkia, with absolutely no support options like T-Wave/TR. It wishes it had 170 SpA instead of 170 Atk, to truly take advantage of its typing and special-leaning movepool, but instead it has to make do with 120 SpA. It fits into our Doubles metagame relatively seamlessly without causing much disturbance.
Kyurem-B is an exceptional case, and I consider it the benchmark for dropping Ubers. Any Pokemon that is better than Kyurem-B should not be dropped, since it would significantly alter the power balance of Doubles.
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Stratos
Banned deucer.
im not gonna lie, when i told audio i was thinking about drop-testing dialga i thought it had 120 SpA not 150. Realizing that mistake is what caused me not to post that myself. That said, I'm still not opposed to dropping it as a last-priority thing. From my (admittedly limited) experience in Dubers, Dialga has to choose between supporting its team and being an offensive menace, and of course draco meteor forces it to switch out. It doesn't have recovery and it's a little slow.
Of course, Draco Meteor is a nuke and it has a couple great supporting options too. If we dropped it, it would be top tier, and most likely be re-banned. However, we're not doing much else with our suspect testing process at the moment (unless you want another kang test hyuk hyuk) so no harm no foul imo. remember that droptest ≠ drop. we can theory dialga to be more powerful than everything but I'd at least like to see it.
I'm not a fan of dropping palkia because water/dragon is nearly unresisted coverage and palk can nail the two resists (ferro and azu) with fire blast and tbolt respectively. In addition, it's faster than Dialga. Overall, seems too offensively dominant to allow into the tier since it's also hard to kill with that bulk.
Of course, Draco Meteor is a nuke and it has a couple great supporting options too. If we dropped it, it would be top tier, and most likely be re-banned. However, we're not doing much else with our suspect testing process at the moment (unless you want another kang test hyuk hyuk) so no harm no foul imo. remember that droptest ≠ drop. we can theory dialga to be more powerful than everything but I'd at least like to see it.
I'm not a fan of dropping palkia because water/dragon is nearly unresisted coverage and palk can nail the two resists (ferro and azu) with fire blast and tbolt respectively. In addition, it's faster than Dialga. Overall, seems too offensively dominant to allow into the tier since it's also hard to kill with that bulk.
Pwnemon, I know you don't mean it, but Dialga's performance in DUbers has no bearing whatsoever in terms of how it will perform in Doubles. I want to clarify this point, because I dont want people reading your post and think, "Pokemon that are okay in DUbers = okay in Doubles.
Dialga can easily do support and offense with its AV set - cant use TR/TWave, but it can support the team with its ridiculous special bulk with essentially 0 weakness on the special side (except for Landorus's Earth Power). It can also easily be OTR Dialga @ Adamant Orb/Life Orb/Safety Goggles.
Suspect testing Dialga would only bring us one step closer to actually dropping Dialga. The fact that we suspect-tested Dialga may cause others to request additional ubers for potential drops, which is not a trend I'd like to further reinforce, either.
Dialga can easily do support and offense with its AV set - cant use TR/TWave, but it can support the team with its ridiculous special bulk with essentially 0 weakness on the special side (except for Landorus's Earth Power). It can also easily be OTR Dialga @ Adamant Orb/Life Orb/Safety Goggles.
You are forgetting the fact that we would need to replace our regular ladder with a Dialga ladder for ~2 weeks, and I doubt our playerbase would have the patience for that if we're not truly serious about dropping Dialga. I would only consider these tests if I am 90% convinced that the drop wont significantly disrupt the current power balance of our metagame. Dialga is simply not the case, and we shouldn't be testing these ubers so casually ever.
Suspect testing Dialga would only bring us one step closer to actually dropping Dialga. The fact that we suspect-tested Dialga may cause others to request additional ubers for potential drops, which is not a trend I'd like to further reinforce, either.
Is there really anything to suspect test? The metagame is balanced as it is. If we were to suspect something, I think it would be out of pure boredom. Ubers pokemon are there for a reason, suspect testing them is not worth the effort. I took the list of banned pokemon and made a brief explanation on each one of them on why we shouldn't be dropping them. BUT BEAR IN MIND that I haven't played Ubers seriously since November/December, so my descriptions might be bullshit, pls don't h8 on me ppl ;-;
- Mewtwo - Too powerful, overall godlike stats and movepool. He can supportive or be an offensive behemoth. Your pick on how to pwn your opp.
- Lugia - Better defenses than cress (worse HP tho), Multiscale, reliable recovery, half-decent support movepool( Tailwind, Safeguard and TWave, to name a few), fast, has some offensive pressure.
- Ho-oh - Never used him a lot, only a few times in Dubers, so what I'm about to say might be bullshit I dunno. Super belky, decent Atk, beast movepool but unfortunately has a button of weaknesses, not many resistances and is slow.
- Kyogre - Water fucking Spout powered by godly SpAtk with STAB, he is also super belky. Not fast but can run Scarf to fuck stuff in the butt hard. ITS THE KING OF UBERS PEOPLE.
- Groudon - Beast on the physical side, godlike attack with STAB Earthquake, super fucking good Defense, decent HP, cool support movepool. But sad pokemon on the special side.
- Rayquaza - might be worth a test, it needs to setup to become a fucking god, but this is doubles people! And he's really frail, making it worse, but if he manages to setup without being killed, stuff will die, a lot. He has priority too!
- Dialga - Pwne said it all
- Palkia - Pwne said it all
- Giratina, Giratina-O - Super fucking belky, decent support movepool, GiraO has an amazing mix of offensive pressure and support, Shadow Force breaks through protection people!
- Arceus - do I even need to explain him? He can be literally everything, a wall, offensive beast, tank...
- Reshiram - Half-decent support movepool, godly offensive movepool packed with 150 SpAtk, just slow, which can be fixed with a Scarf. Landorus-T on steroids without Intimidate.
- Zekrom - Physical Reshiram, nothing to say besides that.
- Kyurem-White - Kube with a good special movepool and 170 SpAtk (POWAR), might be worth a suspect test.
- Xerneas - Geomancy + Fairy Aura + STAB Moonblast + 130 SpAtk + Half decent coverage = Nope, he's bulky, so he won't have any trouble setting up ; Has a good cleric support set with a cool support movepool.
- Yveltal - Might be worth a test, belky-ish, decent offensive stats (but mediocre speed [99]), awesome offensive movepool, unfortunately meh support movepool.
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yeah sounds a good idea suspect test KyuremW, maybe have a better nuke power but still have KyuremB's weakness and speed.
Maybe not, Kube already does buttloads of damage, with a better movepool and a Dragon STAB, it might be 2 stronq 2 handel
I'd much appreciate if we steer the direction away from theorymonning which ubers would not break Doubles, and instead discuss about the current metagame. If there's an Uber that really deserves to be dropped, it would stick out like a sore thumb; intentionally searching for Ubers to drop for the sake of more suspect tests is totally unnecessary.
Let's stick to talking about the current metagame. What cool things have you tried out (or witnessed) recently that deserves more attention? What is the current trend you see in the doubles playerbase?
One Pokemon that I tried out recently with great success is Zygarde. I kinda scoffed at it, when I first saw Arcticblast use a Sub Zygarde, because it just seemed so weak with 0 utility. However, then I started trying out Glare Zygarde, and it does a ton of work for the team. If you're using Zygarde, you probably want to take advantage of its ability to paralyze speedy Ground-types like Scarf Landorus-T, Garchomp, and Excadrill with Glare. Otherwise, you're probably better off with other Ground-types that packs a hella lot more punch. Its impeccable bulk allows it to tank hits and start spreading out paralysis. Of course, Zygarde has its signature Land's Wrath, which also gives you more flexibility in terms of its teammates. It's kinda reminiscent of Suicune, in that it's no offensive powerhouse, but it has the tankish build with a defining utility option to support the team and dish reasonably strong hits. Here's the specific moveset:
Zygarde @ Leftovers
Ability: Aura Break
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 112 HP / 248 Atk / 148 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Glare
- Land's Wrath
- Rock Slide
- Protect
Enough Speed to outrun Jolly Breloom; invested heavily in Attack; the remaining EVs went to HP. Tanks Earthquakes and an HP Ice (among other moves) like a boss. A pretty solid answer to Charizard Y / Heatran if Garchomp doesn't fit your team / you dig that paralysis support.
Let's stick to talking about the current metagame. What cool things have you tried out (or witnessed) recently that deserves more attention? What is the current trend you see in the doubles playerbase?
One Pokemon that I tried out recently with great success is Zygarde. I kinda scoffed at it, when I first saw Arcticblast use a Sub Zygarde, because it just seemed so weak with 0 utility. However, then I started trying out Glare Zygarde, and it does a ton of work for the team. If you're using Zygarde, you probably want to take advantage of its ability to paralyze speedy Ground-types like Scarf Landorus-T, Garchomp, and Excadrill with Glare. Otherwise, you're probably better off with other Ground-types that packs a hella lot more punch. Its impeccable bulk allows it to tank hits and start spreading out paralysis. Of course, Zygarde has its signature Land's Wrath, which also gives you more flexibility in terms of its teammates. It's kinda reminiscent of Suicune, in that it's no offensive powerhouse, but it has the tankish build with a defining utility option to support the team and dish reasonably strong hits. Here's the specific moveset:
Zygarde @ Leftovers
Ability: Aura Break
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 112 HP / 248 Atk / 148 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Glare
- Land's Wrath
- Rock Slide
- Protect
Enough Speed to outrun Jolly Breloom; invested heavily in Attack; the remaining EVs went to HP. Tanks Earthquakes and an HP Ice (among other moves) like a boss. A pretty solid answer to Charizard Y / Heatran if Garchomp doesn't fit your team / you dig that paralysis support.
Artic didn't let me finish editing my accidental unfinished post D:
Zygarde's only niche is glare with some bulk, I don't see that as enough reason to use him, I can just use Icy Wind or Tailwind from Pokemon with better offensive pressure. Cress can use Icy Wind or TWave and be bulkier, Zygarde only has a better offensive pressure, 100
Atk is pretty meh in my opinion. Sure Land's Wrath is cool and stuff but still. For me he has that single niche which isn't worth a place in my team unless in a very specific situation. If you could post the importable for your Zygarde team and maybe a replay I might change my mind :]
He also looks like toothpaste, which sucks I guess.
Zygarde's only niche is glare with some bulk, I don't see that as enough reason to use him, I can just use Icy Wind or Tailwind from Pokemon with better offensive pressure. Cress can use Icy Wind or TWave and be bulkier, Zygarde only has a better offensive pressure, 100
Atk is pretty meh in my opinion. Sure Land's Wrath is cool and stuff but still. For me he has that single niche which isn't worth a place in my team unless in a very specific situation. If you could post the importable for your Zygarde team and maybe a replay I might change my mind :]
He also looks like toothpaste, which sucks I guess.
Dropping any Uber is a fucking terrible idea. Kyurem-B for me is already something I'd rather not see in the tier but it's not broken or anything. Anything with the power and bulk of cube but with actually decent typing and movepool is broken so let's just completely forget about that. The only thing I'd really appreciate is Mega Gengar being suspect tested along the way because I consider trapping abilities to be very unhealthy for the metagame and Mega Gengar is the only mon that can really abuse that, but it's not used a lot so I lack the sufficient experience with it to really make a good case for it rn. Expect me to bring it up somewhere along the way though :]
I don't see the need to suspect test Mega Gengar, it does sooo much else besides Perish Trapping, it traps and kills weakened pokemon, stops TR with a fast Taunt and has a fast DBond. If you're Hitler you can use Disable too.
And seriously, dealing with Perish Trap is just too easy, just get a ghost, something that can OHKO Gengar (he's really frail) or Taunt. It's heavily based on team matchup and I don't see it on the ladder a lot. BUT we aren't going to test anything anytime soon, and perish trap is indeed a gimmick, so it might be worth a shot. If we're going that way I suggest that we test Perish Song not Mega Gengar.
EDIT: Let's also not forget that Perish Song without Shadow Tag can be used to force switches, so a complex ban (Perish Song + Shadow Tag) is possible too.
Arcticblast edit: I don't feel like making a post right now but I don't think you understand how Mega Gengar works at all
Rocker edit: That is exactly how I used him, and it worked well tbh. how does he work then? I do admit that I used him only a few times.
And seriously, dealing with Perish Trap is just too easy, just get a ghost, something that can OHKO Gengar (he's really frail) or Taunt. It's heavily based on team matchup and I don't see it on the ladder a lot. BUT we aren't going to test anything anytime soon, and perish trap is indeed a gimmick, so it might be worth a shot. If we're going that way I suggest that we test Perish Song not Mega Gengar.
EDIT: Let's also not forget that Perish Song without Shadow Tag can be used to force switches, so a complex ban (Perish Song + Shadow Tag) is possible too.
Arcticblast edit: I don't feel like making a post right now but I don't think you understand how Mega Gengar works at all
Rocker edit: That is exactly how I used him, and it worked well tbh. how does he work then? I do admit that I used him only a few times.
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You are completely missing the point of suspecting mega gengar Roxer123. No one thinks perish trapping is broken, as it is not hard to beat. What people want to suspect is megagar for WoW trapping, because that is what makes megagar broken imo. The ability to trap and burn physical attackers like mega kangaskhan, twice suspected, and terrakion, makes them useless. It can even come in on scarf lando locked into a move that isnt eq and proceed to make that useless too. This forces 2 v 1 situations as now megagar and its partner can gang up on the other opponent, not needing to worry about the burnt poke. The whole idea of being able to let pokes like deo a and skymin stay in the meta is because they cant beat two opponents at once, but megagar completely ignores this, as now those pokes that are broken in singles only have to worry about one poke, making them so much scarier.
This is why i think we need to suspect mega gengar, but most definitely not for perish song.
This is why i think we need to suspect mega gengar, but most definitely not for perish song.
Well I guess I'll give my opinion on MegaHar
Power: MegaGar certainly has a nice 170 SpA stat along with a good speed tier to back it up (outspeeds Skymin) and can certainly bring the pain. While it's not the weakest move there is, sometimes I find Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb's damage disappointing. I do wish Gengar could have access to some stronger STAB moves, but Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb still has a great output and helps Gengar remove threats with its Shadow Tag ability.
Support: Gengar, IMO, is used for support most of the time. The ability to support your teammates with Shadow Tag and remove there threats is great. It also gives them free switches and more breathing room; for example, the opponent has a Heatran and a Kanga out, so you can use this opportunity to switch into something like Keldeo to guarentee a kill with Keldeo which gives your other Pokemon like Amoonguss or others an easier time. like Pwnemon stated the ability to control the battlefield temporarily and to almost always force a good situation with Shadow Tag kind of pushes it, which is why I am considering getting it banned.
How to beat it: With the Attacking Set on the rise, most counters to Perish Songs are long gone. Again, Pwnemon explains it very clearly: you have to prevent it from getting free switches into your Pokemon that can't do anything about it. I'm probably going to make another post later on about Gengar getting free switches but for now, I think Gengar may be a little too much.
Power: MegaGar certainly has a nice 170 SpA stat along with a good speed tier to back it up (outspeeds Skymin) and can certainly bring the pain. While it's not the weakest move there is, sometimes I find Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb's damage disappointing. I do wish Gengar could have access to some stronger STAB moves, but Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb still has a great output and helps Gengar remove threats with its Shadow Tag ability.
Support: Gengar, IMO, is used for support most of the time. The ability to support your teammates with Shadow Tag and remove there threats is great. It also gives them free switches and more breathing room; for example, the opponent has a Heatran and a Kanga out, so you can use this opportunity to switch into something like Keldeo to guarentee a kill with Keldeo which gives your other Pokemon like Amoonguss or others an easier time. like Pwnemon stated the ability to control the battlefield temporarily and to almost always force a good situation with Shadow Tag kind of pushes it, which is why I am considering getting it banned.
How to beat it: With the Attacking Set on the rise, most counters to Perish Songs are long gone. Again, Pwnemon explains it very clearly: you have to prevent it from getting free switches into your Pokemon that can't do anything about it. I'm probably going to make another post later on about Gengar getting free switches but for now, I think Gengar may be a little too much.
My biggest problem with mega Gengar is that it is so diverse. It can be offensive or supportive, and it is also good as a non-mega. A reason that Kang isn't broken is that it has one main set and a few variations off of that one set. There are rarely any surprises. Gengar can be a purely offensive threat, a supportive offensive threat (shadow ball + focus missblast have literally perfect coverage) with something like taunt, a mega attacker, a (perish) trapper, and probably so many more things. That is my issue with Gengar. I also want to say that perish song by it self isn't broken; it is useful for forcing switches and has the nasty side affect of forcing you to switch too, so it isn't usually broken. It's late where I am, so I'm going to bed, but I'll edit this post with more points / post again.
Diversity is not an issue with megagar that makes it broken, Qazoo306. Literally the only problem with megagar is the WoW trapping set. Any set without WoW is easily beaten by Lando t, scarf exca, chomp etc. AND THE PERISH TRAPPING SET ISNT BROKEN. As long as you dont be stupid and go for protect, or something like that, to be disable/encored, you can easily wear down megagar in the turns you have, as it has very little bulk (60/85/95 iirc, correct me if im wrong).
Ive already explained why the WoW trap set is broken (imo), but there is no other set that gengar can run that is anywhere near broken.
Ive already explained why the WoW trap set is broken (imo), but there is no other set that gengar can run that is anywhere near broken.
Late ... But my opinion on testing any of those übers is that they are so good at what they all respectively do, you would be dumb NOT to use them in the OU metagame. Giratina can wall entire teams with 0 effort. While something like Dailga can be one of the bulkiest, biggests, heavy hitting pieces of crap that's ever been in the meta. His unique typing alone makes it very annoying to deal with. Despite some theorymonning, it's in mine, And I'm sure plenty others opinions that every über is already banned for a very very good reason.
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Here's my take on the current meta:
A few things have come to mind.
1. Rise in usage of the Musketeers.
Mostly Terrakion and Keldeo. Mega Kang is pretty much staying for good, and as the metagame continues to evolve into more offensive playstyles, the two Fighting-types are finding their ways onto more and more teams. Their Speed and power help make them very valuable assets besides their ability to check MKang. Terrakion boasts a very powerful Close Combat and a strong STAB spread Rock Slide, and Keldeo has a lot of less powerful but more supportive moves, like Scald for burns and Icy Wind for Speed Control. Both also have Quick Guard, which is a very useful tool to support frailer sweepers such as Deo-A or MGengar.
2. Seismic Toss > Power Up Punch on MKang.
This is something I didn't really expect, but it's happening. Switches are a lot more frequent now, because of more offensive playstyles; thus, setting up for a sweep is becoming more difficult and less rewarding. The rise in usage of MGengar and other Ghost-type Will-o-Wispers also nullifies Power Up Punch's ability to aid Mega Kang. I've seen a lot of people go to Seismic Toss instead, which is quite dangerous. The most relevant thing is that it bypasses Mega Gengar's burn, making MGar even less of a check to MKang. Plus, the consistent 200 HP damage is more than enough to 2HKO most Pokemon, sometimes even through Sitrus! 0 HP Pokemon need a base HP stat of at least 90 in order to survive the 2HKO from Seismic Toss, and only do so with a Sitrus Berry. (Which is real clutch because the ponies have base HP stats of 91.) Seismic Toss also deals more initial damage to even Pokemon like Tyranitar / Bisharp in comparison to Power Up Punch, which gives Mega Kang the option of a more hit-and-run playstyle. It's a reliable method of damage output that hits all Pokemon but Ghost-types, regardless of whether MKang gets burned or not.
Unfortunately this means that Mega Kangaskhan can now circumvent burn trappers like Mega Gengar (which is really relevant if some of us want to suspect MGar) but it also takes away on MKang's ability to handle more defensive teams (somewhat). However, the meta is shifting away from defensive, and so is MKang.
A few things have come to mind.
1. Rise in usage of the Musketeers.
Mostly Terrakion and Keldeo. Mega Kang is pretty much staying for good, and as the metagame continues to evolve into more offensive playstyles, the two Fighting-types are finding their ways onto more and more teams. Their Speed and power help make them very valuable assets besides their ability to check MKang. Terrakion boasts a very powerful Close Combat and a strong STAB spread Rock Slide, and Keldeo has a lot of less powerful but more supportive moves, like Scald for burns and Icy Wind for Speed Control. Both also have Quick Guard, which is a very useful tool to support frailer sweepers such as Deo-A or MGengar.
2. Seismic Toss > Power Up Punch on MKang.
This is something I didn't really expect, but it's happening. Switches are a lot more frequent now, because of more offensive playstyles; thus, setting up for a sweep is becoming more difficult and less rewarding. The rise in usage of MGengar and other Ghost-type Will-o-Wispers also nullifies Power Up Punch's ability to aid Mega Kang. I've seen a lot of people go to Seismic Toss instead, which is quite dangerous. The most relevant thing is that it bypasses Mega Gengar's burn, making MGar even less of a check to MKang. Plus, the consistent 200 HP damage is more than enough to 2HKO most Pokemon, sometimes even through Sitrus! 0 HP Pokemon need a base HP stat of at least 90 in order to survive the 2HKO from Seismic Toss, and only do so with a Sitrus Berry. (Which is real clutch because the ponies have base HP stats of 91.) Seismic Toss also deals more initial damage to even Pokemon like Tyranitar / Bisharp in comparison to Power Up Punch, which gives Mega Kang the option of a more hit-and-run playstyle. It's a reliable method of damage output that hits all Pokemon but Ghost-types, regardless of whether MKang gets burned or not.
Unfortunately this means that Mega Kangaskhan can now circumvent burn trappers like Mega Gengar (which is really relevant if some of us want to suspect MGar) but it also takes away on MKang's ability to handle more defensive teams (somewhat). However, the meta is shifting away from defensive, and so is MKang.
Yea, Keldeo & Terrakion are definitely rising stars of this metagame. Anything that can reliably beat Kangaskhan is great. Terrakion inches a bit more as the better musketeer imo, since 1) it also takes out Charizard 2) STAB Rock Slide is powerful 3) resists Normal STAB and neutral to Brave Bird.
Seismic Toss becoming a rising trend in Doubles is news to me, though, and I personally hope that's not the case. You say that burn makes Seismic Toss more appealing for constant damage, but Power-up Punch effectively offsets burn's Attack drop. Also Tyranitar and Bisharp takes way more damage from Power-up Punch than Seismic Toss (PuP OHKOs Bisharp). If anything, M Kangaskhan should consider Facade to continue dishing out massive damage after burns. I see little reason to use Seismic Toss on Kangaskhan.
Seismic Toss becoming a rising trend in Doubles is news to me, though, and I personally hope that's not the case. You say that burn makes Seismic Toss more appealing for constant damage, but Power-up Punch effectively offsets burn's Attack drop. Also Tyranitar and Bisharp takes way more damage from Power-up Punch than Seismic Toss (PuP OHKOs Bisharp). If anything, M Kangaskhan should consider Facade to continue dishing out massive damage after burns. I see little reason to use Seismic Toss on Kangaskhan.
I ran Seismic Toss on Mega Kangaskhan a few times. It plays entirely differently from regular Mega Kang, being a bulky tank that fucking refuses to die with Wish, and throwing out constant 200 HP hits. I mean by no means is it a fantastic set, but it's definitely pretty cool as an option imo. Seismic Toss + Fake Out + Wish + Protect / Safeguard / Helping Hand / Sucker Punch is a fun set, even though it's not nessescarily top percentage.
After a lot and a lot of experience around the metagame as of recently I'm going to give my two cents on the metagame.
Firstly, I'm seeing a very notable rise in Hydreigon and Aegislash. Hydreigon is good at beating down things like Mega Gengar (and Aegislash I suppose) which is likely one of the biggest reasons for its popularity alongside laughing at Bisharp's Sucker Punch. Aegislash is likely becoming common (especially the Sub set) due to the rise of Return + Drain Punch + Ice Punch Kangaskhan. Its great typing is also a plus in general, and with Sun dying down a bit its Aegislash's time to shine I suppose.
Keldeo as stated by everyone is popular as a lot of teams have no solid answer to it, having to lose 1-2 mons at least before it goes down. I've also seen more MVenusaur than usual, likely as a good answer to Keldeo.
Another set that imo has risen a bit (that I also love using) is Scarf Thundurus-T (Scarf Zapdos as well), which can outspeeds Jolly Scarf Landorus-T and knock it out with HP Ice, knock out Terrakion with Grass Knot, and take out things like Keldeo with a nice and friendly Thunderbolt (and Volt Switch is great for momentum and general style points).
I could go on and on (rain being better to DDance Gyarados on the rise and further tbh), but those are some of the more notable trends imo.
Firstly, I'm seeing a very notable rise in Hydreigon and Aegislash. Hydreigon is good at beating down things like Mega Gengar (and Aegislash I suppose) which is likely one of the biggest reasons for its popularity alongside laughing at Bisharp's Sucker Punch. Aegislash is likely becoming common (especially the Sub set) due to the rise of Return + Drain Punch + Ice Punch Kangaskhan. Its great typing is also a plus in general, and with Sun dying down a bit its Aegislash's time to shine I suppose.
Keldeo as stated by everyone is popular as a lot of teams have no solid answer to it, having to lose 1-2 mons at least before it goes down. I've also seen more MVenusaur than usual, likely as a good answer to Keldeo.
Another set that imo has risen a bit (that I also love using) is Scarf Thundurus-T (Scarf Zapdos as well), which can outspeeds Jolly Scarf Landorus-T and knock it out with HP Ice, knock out Terrakion with Grass Knot, and take out things like Keldeo with a nice and friendly Thunderbolt (and Volt Switch is great for momentum and general style points).
I could go on and on (rain being better to DDance Gyarados on the rise and further tbh), but those are some of the more notable trends imo.
But what about stuff that are losing their spot on the metagame? I almost never see TTar and Cresselia anymore, and they're both awesome mons. Same goes for Bisharp and Terrakion. I've also seen weather going down in usage, the last I saw a Rain team was in Mediocre Mons a few weeks ago. Support mons are going down in usage too, Top and Amoong are rare in the ladder, I almost never see them anymore too.
On thing I've noticed with all of your observations is that they are all powerful special attackers, and so that made me think. How do you deal with special attackers? For physical attackers you have intimidate and burns, but there are no special counterparts to those physical checks. Have you seen any interesting checks to those powerful attackers?
Edit: I forgot to mention, but my general method is to use fast and powerful physical attackers like lando-t because many special attackers have crap physical bulk.
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Special bulk is more common than physical bulk, so it's easier to tank a special hit and retaliate with a strong attack.
EDIT: Almost all special attackers are super fast and rely on outspeeding and dealing damage rather than tanking a hit and doing damage, so Thunder Wave heavily cripples them i,e: Shaymim-S, Charizard-Y