Evolution of the Metagame

[MattL]

It's inevitable. New sets, cores, and playstyles rise to popularity all the time as the metagame shifts and evolves. Pokemon rise and fall in viability when different things become popular and then fall out of popularity. This thread is for discussing how certain Pokemon, sets, cores, team builds, etc. go from being not all that common to being standard to take advantage of the metagame at that time, and then possibly fall out due to the ubiquity of new threats that can more easily handle them.

Questions you could think about:
-Which Pokemon or cores have recently become popular?
-Which formerly popular threats are no longer as viable?
-Which Pokemon change which set is the "standard" set for them?
-What do you predict to become popular in the (possibly near) future to deal with the metagame as it is right now?
-Which playstyles or team builds have become more or less viable?

A nice example is Aegislash. During about the first month of Gen 6, most Aegislash had Swords Dance. Then, people realized how spammable Shadow Ball was and how much damage it could deal to the physically defensive Pokemon that could handle the Swords Dance set. Thus, the standard set became the mixed set with King's Shield and 3 attacks. Now, it seems like the Sub Toxic set is on the rise to deal with Pokemon such as Mandibuzz and specially defensive Hippowdon, which wall the King's Shield + 3 attacks set.

We're still early in XY, so if this thread manages to stay open and active for a really long time, it will be interesting to look back and compare how the metagame is in the future to how the metagame used to be in early Gen 6. The metagame will undoubtedly continue to evolve and I think it will always be interesting to see why things become popular and unpopular as we head into the future.

So what's popular now that didn't used to be? Discuss.

 

[scene]

Defensive tank Zard-X taking over the spotlight from its more offensively-inclined friends has been pretty spectacular. With WoW and Roost, it's seriously annoying to take down with a lot of common threats, and often foregoes a Fire STAB to run Earthquake for potential roadblocks like Heatran, generally along with Dragon Claw. The Dragon Dance set is certainly still potent, but the tank build has some serious advantages. Mixed Zard-Y with Flare Blitz is something I've been seeing recently too, trying to muscle its way past special walls with a sun-boosted Blitz off a very reasonable base 104 Attack.

 

[ShootingStarmie]

I just posted something similar in the Viability Ranking Thread, and I think that a core of Landorus-I / (Pursuit trapper - usually Tyranitar or Bisharp) / Keldeo is really on the rise. This core was pretty popular back in generation 5, and the effectiveness of this core is one of the main reasons as to why Landorus-I was deemed Uber last generation. What makes this core so incredible is that Tyranitar can trap and eliminate just about any of Keldeo or Landorus-I's checks. Keldeo's best checks happen to be Psychic types, mainly Latias, Latios, Celebi, etc, while Fairy types and Mega Venusaur are also commonly used to check Keldeo. With Landorus-I and Tyranitar, most of Keldeo's checks can be eliminated pretty easily, as Tyranitar easily traps just about any Psychic or Ghost type, while Landorus can get past Mega Venusaur or Fairy types with Sludge Wave / Psychic respectively.

It's not seeing much usage at all, but I think Landorus-I will start to run U-turn on it's sets more, just so it can gain momentum on it's common switch ins' and allow Keldeo to come in for free easily. I also think that this core alone will make Mega Gyarados pretty popular. The reason being for this is that Gyarados checks Keldeo nicely, while also not being too afraid of Tyranitar / Bisharp or Landorus-I. Seeing Gyarados in the team preview alone will make people think twice about spamming Hydro Pump with Keldeo, as it allows Gyarados to possibly set up a Dragon Dance and sweep.

 

[Gary]

As of lately, I'm beginning to see a steady rise of Offensive Calm Mind Clefable with Life Orb. A simple set consisting of Calm Mind / Moonblast / Flamethrower / Softboiled is a very effective sweeper in the metagame capable of setting up on a multitude of defensive Pokemon (including even Chansey) and slaughtering defensive teams with ease. I'm not kidding, stall has a lot of trouble dealing with this set, because stall's go to special walls, Chansey, is complete setup fodder. On top of that, Quagsire is 2HKOed by Moonblast, and most of stall's phazers (Hippowdon and Skarmory) take heavy damage from a boosted Moonblast or are just outright OHKOed with Flamethrower. That only leaves Heatran, one of the only things stopping Clefable from sweeping first turn. However, with Heatran gone, Clefable has very little issues setting up on most of the Pokemon found on stall, and very little can stop it from getting to +6 and just running through everything. This set isn't only limited to breaking stall, because with Clefable's outstanding bulk, even offensive teams can struggle to break through it after a boost or two and when its checks are gone.

Overall, Offensive Calm Mind Clefable has proven itself to be one of the most effective stallbreakers in the tier, which is why it has being seeing more use in SPL and on the ladder.

 

[ShootingStarmie]

I've been laddering recently, and I have to say that the metagame is constantly changing. I dunno if this has become standard now, but Extransory Greninja is really being used a lot up on the higher ladder. I think this is mainly due do to the fact that it does great damage to it's best checks (Azumarill, Conkeldurr, Mega Venvsaur, etc), and it's move choices are really dependent on what else you're running on your team.

Ferrothorn is also on the increase. People are starting to realise how much of a monster it is for most teams as it can counter Azumarill, as well as check so much stuff like Landorus-T and Mega Gyarados. It also offers great team support in the form of Leech Seed, entry hazards, and wearing down physical attackers with Rocky Helmet + Iron Barbs, and it's pretty easy to fit onto most defensive / balanced teams, making it's usage really high at the moment.

I think the last point I'd like to make is that Offesive Calm Mind Clefable with Magic Guard is a threat. Like, a really big threat. It often comes as a surprise to most opponents trying to check it, but honestly it really packs a punch at just +1, and most people don't expect Flamethrower, which roasts nearly any Steel type trying to counter it. I actually faced a guy recently with Dual Screens offense with an offensive Calm Mind Clefable, and it really just eats most offensive teams for break fast, as it's far to bulky to break down, and it's far too powerful to take hits from it repeatedly at +1.

I really like watching the metagame progress, and people are starting to become really creative right now actually n_n

 

[TaBuu]

While playing on the higher ladder, I've come across Pokemon variants that are slowly appearing with more frequency.

• Air Balloon Aegislash
  I speak from extensive usage and I can honestly see why Air Balloon Aegislash becomes a more frequent occurrence in the higher ladder. The ability to spinblock one of the most potent Rapid Spinners in OU (Excadrill) and act as a general check towards bulky Ground-Types is a huge asset for Hyper Offensive teams. Air Balloon Aegislash tends to forgo King's Shield for a coverage move ; this forces the user to play pretty aggressively with their Aegislash, something many opponents may not be accustomed to, considering just how staple King's Shield seems to be on Aegislash. Air Balloon Aegislash is just an amazing all around check for so many Pokemon such as DD Dragonite, Garchomp, Skarmory, Quagsire, Landorus-Therian, Hippowdon, Landorus-Incarnate, etc.
• Taunt Greninja
  This thing is more than capable of shutting various Pokemon such as Lead Deoxys-Defense, SR Lead Chomp, Chansey and Ferrothorn. Taunt Greninja is not super popular because people generally enjoy Greninja's ability to use other coverage moves and abuse its ability, Protean, to the fullest. However, I think over time, people will begin to realize the potency and support it can bring for both offensive and defensive teams alike. Being able to shut down set-up sweepers and defensive walls is a pretty nice niche to hold in the higher ladders.
• Stall Teams that pack Lati@s + Quagsire
  This may have been around for a bit, I'm not sure. But it seems stall teams really love packing these two Pokemon together. Lati@s is deathly scared of clicking Defog when Bisharp is present on the other team. To alleviate that situation and ensure +2 Bisharp doesn't sweep their stall team, Unaware Quagsire fits right in, ignoring the +2 boost and threatening back with a STAB Earthquake. To be honest, I'm not sure just how effective it is for many stall teams as any competent player may choose to keep their hazard layer alive and even at +0, Knock Off hurts Quagsire quite a bit (252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Quagsire: 175-208 (44.4 - 52.7%) -- 23.8% chance to 2HKO). Regardless it's a great core that works pretty well in the higher ladders.

 

[Sharpteeth]

Gengar. Gengar is rising, and it's screwing up my team.
Common sets are Sub/Wisp, with Shadow Ball + Sludge Wave/Focus Blast.

People are rediscovering how good Gengar is, even without the Mega. It serves as a 100% counter to the SD Diggersbys that have been creeping around, and is a solid check to Scarf Chomp, Specs Keldeo, messes up stall.

I haven't used it, but it's been common enough.

 

[Vert]

These are the three 'mons which have seen a new spotlight this month. Behold April's dynamic three.

Bulky Dragon Dance Mega Charizard X is starting to see more usage over its Offensive DD-couterpart. It survives the Psyscho Boost from LO Deoxys-S which revenge kills the Offensive variant which is a huge plus. It has easier time setting up and can get more boosts. It's also a team player early-game with Roost, its typing, and good bulk. I can see the Bulky DD set being more favorable as the metagame progresses just like how Bulky DD Gyarados became the better choice in BW most of the time.

Breloom is increasing in usage. People are starting to realize how good Breloom is despite Mega Charizard Y and Low Sweep getting nerfed. It is a surprise check to Mega Pinsir, Talonflame, and Mega Charizard XY with Focus Sash. Mach Punch has a great utility in killing weakened threats and destroys Bisharp and Mega Tyranitar which are powerful threats. Bullet Seed hits like a truck and defeats Focus Sash SD Garchomp which is also increasing in usage. Spore cripples one Pokemon in the match and it can be used for possible Swords Dance bait, so you can sweep your opponent once you removed almost all the Mach Punch resists (pretty easy now with Bisharp). It even destroys the Quagsire + Chansey core on stall teams which has also grown in popularity. I could see it being bumped to A- in the viability ranking threads, but that's not the point, Breloom is becoming extra popular and is really good.

Finally, Sand Rush Excadrill has been wrecking lots of teams. Its ability to single-handedly crush teams with Earthquake, Rock Slide, and Iron Head (with LO of course) makes it a devastating force. It can't be revenge-killed by Deoxys-S or be Thunder Wave'd by Thundurus-I which is usually HO teams only way to beat Excadrill. It also provides Rapid Spin support or Stealth Rock depending on what your team needs. I personally don't like Swords Dance just because Excadrill already does a lot without it and sand has been limited now, but Sand Rush Excadrill is definitely one of the most defining forces in OU right now. Holy crap.

 

[Valmanway]

Jirachi has really fallen from former grace this generation, which is mainly due to the Steel nerf, where new Pokemon such as Aegislash and Greninja can make mince meat out of it, as well as old Pokemon such as Gengar, Bisharp, and Tyranitar are now able to destroy what was once their check or counter. Jirachi also can't paralyze everything now due to Electric-types getting a paralysis immunity, making Rotom-W a big threat, and to make things worse, Thundurus has been allowed into OU this gen, taking away Jirachi's paralyzing niche. Other threats include both Mega Charizards and Talonflame, which are easily some of the most commonly seen and threatening presences for Jirachi to face. I'd say I feel bad for Jirachi, but I hate paraflinch, so...

 

[alexwolf]

Here are some ways that the metagame has evolved over the last month:

Acrobatics / Aerial Ace Gliscor with 96 Speed EVs

First of all, don't use Aerial Ace on Gliscor, Acrobatics is always better. They both 2HKO Mega Heracross or OHKO it after a CC drop, have a mere 5 BP difference, and Acrobatics can actually benefit from the mutiple Knock Off that Gliscor absorbs. Moving on, Gliscor is the best defensive answer to Mega Heracross, so it has started running a Flying move to threaten Heracross back immediately. Gliscor has also started running enough Speed to outrun Adamant Mega Heracross, which is stall's only hope against this merciless killer (and Doublade, but this thing is very easy to take advantage of and wear down). In general, most defensive Pokemon near the base 100 Speed mark that have a way to threaten Mega Heracross have started running 250 Speed, to outrun it. Such examples include Psychic Celebi, WoW Mew, and WoW + Taunt Victini. Some even run 274 Speed Speed, to outrun even Jolly Mega Heracross.

Mew is becoming the defensive Psychic-type of choice for most balanced and defensive teams

Mew hard counters Mega Medicham and can outspeed and burn Mega Heracross, meaning it has favorable match-ups against two of the ''dangerous three''. Other Psychic-types are rising in usage to deal with Mega Medicham too, such as Slowbro and Cresselia, but Mew has the advantage of outspeeding Mega Heracross, which is huge.

Defensive teams are using defensive Starmie for anti-hazard support

There are two reasons why this happens. The first and obvious one is that you can keep your own hazards on the field, and can use Spikes too if there is room in your team. The second and probably most important is because defensive teams rely on Stealth Rock weak Pokemon to deal with many dangerous Pokemon. Some examples are Taunt + WoW Victini, which checks Mega Gardevoir and Mega Medicham, and Mega Aerodactyl, which deals with Birdspam, Mega Char Y, and Landorus, and can revenge kill a lot of dangerous Pokemon such as Mega Medicham and Mega Heracross. With Aegislash getting banned, Starmie has a very easy time spinning and actually beats most Stealth Rock setters one on one with its Reflect Type set. Another reason of Starmie's rise in usage is because Magnezone is getting very popular, which means that Skarmory, stall's go to anti-hazard Pokemon before, has to run Shed Shell, which is easy to remove with Knock Off, a move that a lot of Pokemon wants to deal with carry, such as Bisharp, Landorus-T, and Mega Scizor.

 

[Prinz]

As for offensive mons that are rising we can obv see Gardevoir, Heracross and Medicham and as alexwolf already said these 3 are incredibly good against stall teams and therefore people is using things like Mew, Cresselia, Slowbro and Victini to check them. The usage increase of these mons is because of the ban of Aegi, in fact these 3 mons can run other moves than Shadow Ball, EQ and Fire Punch that they needed to hit Aegislash to use other options that are generally better overall like Taunt for Gardevoir, Fake Out for Medicham or Sword Dance for Heracross to make some examples. Also, people finally realised how good Magnezone is, and how cool it's as a support move and so they are using it with Pinsir, Diggersby, fairy types and dragon types. All of them want steel types to be out of the game and Magnezone can do that job pretty well. In particular that RMT: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/d-m-f-p-drag-mag-offense.3514130/ really shows how good Magnezone HO are nowadays. As for balanced teams, Mew is reasing in usage as alexwolf pointed out in his post. Adding to that, mons like Talonflame (the Sharp Beak set introduced in the last World Cup is rly popular right now) Landorus, and Rotom-W are all rising in usage, the latters in particular are used much in balanced teams because they can check threats like Tyranitar, Excadrill, Pinsir, Talonflame and Garchomp well. Another important thing for balanced team in the last months was CBB and Unbirthday's RMT which showed people how good Scarf Heatran and Offensive Venusaur are, and now they are quite common in balanced teams because of that RMT too.

 

[effyouzion]

As was predicted during the Aegislash test, stall is done for. There are too many threats to cover and not enough team slots. You need checks for:

-MHera
-MMedi
-MGard
-M Pinsir
-CM Clefable
-DD ZardX
-Sub/DD Gyara
-Belly drum (and choice band) Azumarill
-Specs Keldeo
-Band Terrakion
-Random swords dancers (Garchomp, Terrakion, etc)
-CM Alakazam
-Sub/wisp Gengar

And then you need:

-A heal beller
-A wish passer
-Rocks setter
-Rocks remover

Before, when you didn't have to worry about MHera/Gard/Medi, you could do cover everything with the right team. Now, you just don't have the team slots. Gard and Zam can be played around, but Medicham can't -- you need a defensive psychic to eat those HJKs and psycho cuts. Then you need a switch in to Hera. You still need Heatran to cover CM Clefable, and you definitely still need MVenu to cover BD Azu and sub/DD mega Gyara. Throw in Chansey as your beller/wisher and a stealth rocks user/remover, and you still have gaping holes everywhere.

At first I thought it wasn't a big deal (read a couple of my past posts, I was pretty confident that I could handle the new threats with smart plays) -- but I was wrong. The meta evolved in ways I didn't account for, and now we have a cluster fuck of shit that you just can't prepare for. The tier is a rock paper scissors game at this point. Either your team can beat the other guy's team, or you can't. To an extent, the game has always been like that -- but now we have so much variety in the Pokemon that we can choose that it's worse than ever.

TLDR: The banning of Aegislash added 5 new extremely strong wall breakers to the top of the ladder that you now have to prepare for (Gard, Hera, Medi, Zam, and Terrakion), on top of everything else that you already had to deal with, and you just don't have the team slots to prepare for them. The meta right now is either overpower the other guy, or lose.

 

[Tesung]

thats bs fren sorry
u can't run the same old skarm bliss quag keld counter shit that was never super effective anyways, u gotta actually be somewhat creative and find new ways to beat shit as well as use things with offensive presence. Semistall is a rle good and effective play style, and now that it doesn't have to deal with aegis or mawile it just got easier.

 

[effyouzion]

Aegislash was a staple on balanced / semi stall (whatever you want to call it), so I disagree with the idea that those play styles are better off after his ban... because those were the teams that were actually using him.

I like creative solutions. That's why I dislike the current state of the meta. Currently, there is no room for creativity -- you will get stomped by something that you just don't have the team slot to prepare for.

No Venusaur / Amoongus? Azumarill stomps you
No Heatran? Clefable stomps you
No Mew / Cress? MMedi stomps you
No Gliscor / Doublade? MHera stomps you
No AV Torn-T / CharX? Gengar (and the up and coming taunt mega Zam) stomp you
No Skarm / Rhyperior? Pinsir stomps you

That's already 6 slots, and you don't even have a cleric or wish passer yet. You also lack the freedom to use cool, underused shit, like Alomomola or Celebi or Mantine or random mon X, because each of those threats is mandatory for a stall team to have covered in the current meta, and each of those threats has so few counters.

 

[Nog]

Aegislash was more seen on HO than any other play style and all of the recent smogon bans are making stall better, not worse. At the very least it's keeping things the same when talking about stall alone. Aegislash and Mega Mawile were bitches to stall and now they're gone, but were replaced by Medicham and Heracross as stall breakers. Pinsir, Gengar, Azumarill, etc were already popular and stall survived just fine. Also I'm gonna agree that the "standard" stall is pretty ass and full stall is as a whole, offensive teams evolved and adapted to beat stall and stall is now starting to adapt back. To say that stall is getting worse because people discovered stall breakers is ridiculous and your formula for stall is more so for full stall (which is bad rn), you don't have to run a wish passer or a cleric on every stall team. A lot of semi stall teams don't run either and are able to handle or play around common stall breakers.

 

[alexwolf]

Stall didn't have to use Aegislash to benefit from its presence, js. Stall teams had it harder after the Aegislash ban, i don't think anyone can argue this, as Terrakion, Mega Heracross, and Mega Gardevoir are huge pains in the ass for stall that you can't cover unless you make your team faster (pack a revenge killer such as Mega Aero, use Speed on your speedy walls, have a win con, etc) and are all very common and much better with Aegislash gone. However, the banning of Mega Mawile definitely helped stall, which is not obliged to use a Fire-type anymore just to deal with Mega Mawile, so that's nice.

In general, stall has started becoming faster and less passive, but it's definitely still a very viable playstyle, though the strain that Mega Heracross puts on defensive cores is kinda unreal.

 

[effyouzion]

It's ridiculous to say that a metagame that includes Mega Heracross, Mega Medicham, Mega Gardevoir, Mega Alakazam, and Terrakion is better for stall than a meta without those 5 mons. Before the Aegi ban, those mons were very rare at the top of the ladder because Aegislash was everywhere. Heracross was sitting at 2.2% usage in the 1825 stats for June -- now he's going to be leaving UU and entering OU for the first time since... ever? And no doubt he will be suspected at some point in the future. It's an unhealthy cycle. What's next, we ban every other mega in the tier to keep things in check?

It's not a good time for stall. I'm still working on finding an offensive team that gives me consistent results, so I won't comment on offense yet. But I will say that the meta is in a weird place right now and I think the Aegislash ban is the main reason.