Resource ORAS OU Simple Questions, Simple Answers MKII (Read the OP First!) (Now with 100% more Rules!!!)

I can only think of AV Torn-T, Mega Latias and Goodra. Mega Alt and Mega Venu consumes too much momentum
I think Goodra just like tangrowth can lose depending on the spread, specs Keldeo destroys Goodra, it's a nice check if you do have a reliable fighting immunity or resistance.
 
Is Trick Room the least viable it's ever been in this generation? It seems I've been able to have some luck cracking the shell of the ladder with it in the past, and can't seem to find a good formula this time around.
 

Martin

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Is Trick Room the least viable it's ever been in this generation? It seems I've been able to have some luck cracking the shell of the ladder with it in the past, and can't seem to find a good formula this time around.
I think OTR 'mons and TR cores such as AM's OTR Slowking+Mamoswine core are p. ok, but full TR is a p. bad strategy in general as it is too reliant on mediocre Pokémon like Cresselia to really stay afloat as well as just being generally p. difficult to maintain due to no auto-setting ability.
 
I think OTR 'mons and TR cores such as AM's OTR Slowking+Mamoswine core are p. ok, but full TR is a p. bad strategy in general as it is too reliant on mediocre Pokémon like Cresselia to really stay afloat as well as just being generally p. difficult to maintain due to no auto-setting ability.
But hasn't that always been true? It's been fine in the past 2 generations.
 
I've had incredible success with Trick Room myself (just check the link in my signature). I think you just have to be creative. There's a lot of Trick Room builds out there that can take advantage of the meta, conserve momentum, and even be matchup resistant. Orthodox Trick Room is not doing well in OU, but there's a ton of unorthodox Trick Room that can be great.
 
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I've had incredible success with Trick Room myself (just check the link in my signature). I think you just have to be creative. There's a lot of Trick Room builds out there that can take advantage of the meta, conserve momentum, and even be matchup resistant. Orthodox Trick Room is not doing well in OU, but there's a ton of unorthodox can be great.
I saw that you referenced Mattybrolic's build in there. I helped him with that, actually. I was never super impressed by the team and not sure why. Who knows, maybe my play-style doesn't go with Trick Room anymore like it used to. Also, perhaps I'm just bad. I'll send you a PM.
 

Halcyon.

@Choice Specs
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Is Trick Room the least viable it's ever been in this generation? It seems I've been able to have some luck cracking the shell of the ladder with it in the past, and can't seem to find a good formula this time around.
Full Trick room doesn't work well in ingles do to the nature of how the move works. You take up 1 turn to use it, one turn to switch to your breaker, and then you get a whopping 2 turns to maybe do something before you have to switch back out again. It works better in doubles because they take fewer turns to get things done and most matches hover around 10 turns.

That being said, single Pokemon that use TR like Reuniclus and Slowking/bro can make use of Trick Room as a counter to offensive teams that rely on their speed and power to win against bulkier teams. But I would suggest not trying to build specific TR based teams, as they tend to not work well.
 
Full Trick room doesn't work well in ingles do to the nature of how the move works. You take up 1 turn to use it, one turn to switch to your breaker, and then you get a whopping 2 turns to maybe do something before you have to switch back out again. It works better in doubles because they take fewer turns to get things done and most matches hover around 10 turns.

That being said, single Pokemon that use TR like Reuniclus and Slowking/bro can make use of Trick Room as a counter to offensive teams that rely on their speed and power to win against bulkier teams. But I would suggest not trying to build specific TR based teams, as they tend to not work well.
Right, but that's how it has always been. Is it even less viable now, in your opinion, than it has been since its release?
 
Right, but that's how it has always been. Is it even less viable now, in your opinion, than it has been since its release?
They certainly seem less viable, offensive trick room mons are quite niche and you rarely see them because it's hard to build teams with them but OTR is still usable, i personally like Cofagrigus for that because it has the bulk to be a reliable TR setter and can set up Nasty Plot easily while being able to defeat the likes of Mega Medicham and Mega Lopunny, which are fairly common in this meta but Slowbro/king and Reuniclus are also usable i guess, i just never saw them because Trick Room is too non-standard and has some noticeable drawbacks but if played right, it can pay off really well.
 

Halcyon.

@Choice Specs
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Right, but that's how it has always been. Is it even less viable now, in your opinion, than it has been since its release?
Yes because mons that commonly set up Trick Room were hurt immensely by the increase in Dark-type usage both as a Pokemon type and in coverage options/Knock Off. Scizor and Ttar are really good and beat most TR setters.
 
Right, but that's how it has always been. Is it even less viable now, in your opinion, than it has been since its release?
The metagame is way more aggressive than It was on gen 4 but a bit more forgiving than gen 5, so yes wasting a turn in a gimmick that more often than not can constrict team building vs all the new wallbreakers of base 70-95 speed did put a dent on trick room.

Add in spdef Talonflame, full speed mega Scizor, specs Keldeo scarf Ttar, full speed Azumarrill along cleffable and you get a bunch of stuff that shit on most slow bulky attackers and wallbreakers preferred on trick room since these guys can actually avoid the ohko or outright threaten the users of trick room efficiently.

And then there is the buff to dark types...specifically Bisharp giving negative fucks about trick room, then there is also offensive heatran wich I almost forgot about.
 
After a pretty long hiatus, i'm trying to come back into playing Showdown, but i can't find a comprehensive beginner's guide on teambuilding that i could swear was here before.
Anyone have a pointer as to where as i should look?
 
After a pretty long hiatus, i'm trying to come back into playing Showdown, but i can't find a comprehensive beginner's guide on teambuilding that i could swear was here before.
Anyone have a pointer as to where as i should look?
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/teambuilding-guide.3552468/

If you have any questions feel free to PM me; I've been building in ORAS for awhile and like to think I'm decent at it.

There's also the sample teams thread if you just want a solid team from the get-go.
 

HailFall

my cancer is sun and my leo is moon
Can anyone pass me the Sub-SD Moldbreaker Pangoro set? With that new tournament stall is everywhere and i love memes

Pangoro @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Crunch
- Gunk Shot

This is what ive used in the past. Crunch hits almost everything on stall for neutral dmg, gunk shot gives coverage on stuff like clef. You can go bulkier with it if you want (run enough speeed for 8 speed skarm max attack rest in hp adamant) though i think this is better to outspeed some stuff like rotom-w on faster teams
 
Pangoro @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Crunch
- Gunk Shot

This is what ive used in the past. Crunch hits almost everything on stall for neutral dmg, gunk shot gives coverage on stuff like clef. You can go bulkier with it if you want (run enough speeed for 8 speed skarm max attack rest in hp adamant) though i think this is better to outspeed some stuff like rotom-w on faster teams
Why not Knock Off over crunch
 

HailFall

my cancer is sun and my leo is moon
Why not Knock Off over crunch
crunch gives more consistent damage on stuff like mega sableye and other mons after losing their item, knock off is honestly pretty weak without the boosted damage from knocking off the item. If you want i guess knock off is an option though.
 
Why is SubPunch not popular anymore? I'm aware of it losing popularity back in previous generations.
Because of the faster pace of the metagame, and because many of the mons that ran it now have better things to do. For example, now that breloom has technician, it would much rather be running mach punch, bullet seed, etc. Also, there are lots of really powerful wallbreakers (thinking of CM clefable and TG Manaphy) which can become tough to stop in the one turn it would take to sub. Just my thoughts, though
 

Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
FWIW Focus Punch is one of Breloom's better options, even though you would basically never want to carry Sub on it.
 
I'm a tad new around here, and I have a few questions to ask, if you don't mind.

Are Breloom and Talonflame viable in OU? I wanna use them, but I just can't seem to find room on my teams for them.

Also, which playstyle is the best to play as right now, vs. the average OU player? I've seen a ton (and I mean a TON) of stall, so I'm assuming that's the best right now?

Finally, why is Diancie good in OU? Yea, I know it's good, but, why? This question is kinda along the lines of "chocolate tastes good, but, why?" What traits does Diancie have that warrants an A+ rank in OU Viability Rankings right now? (It's not because of its versatility, I can tell you that.)
 

Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
I'm a tad new around here, and I have a few questions to ask, if you don't mind.

Are Breloom and Talonflame viable in OU? I wanna use them, but I just can't seem to find room on my teams for them.

Also, which playstyle is the best to play as right now, vs. the average OU player? I've seen a ton (and I mean a TON) of stall, so I'm assuming that's the best right now?

Finally, why is Diancie good in OU? Yea, I know it's good, but, why? This question is kinda along the lines of "chocolate tastes good, but, why?" What traits does Diancie have that warrants an A+ rank in OU Viability Rankings right now? (It's not because of its versatility, I can tell you that.)
Breloom and Talonflame are both good choices in the OU metagame, with Talonflame being splashable and with Breloom being probably the second best non-mega Fighting-type behind Keldeo. (edit: actually terrak is probably more consistent 'cause rock is cool offensively but the point is loom is still good)

Bulky offense is the best playstyle atm. Stall is only common on the ladder because it is reasonably low-risk to play, but as a playstyle stall is probably the worst of the three "blanket" playstyles (offense, balance, stall)

Diancie is very good because both rock and fairy are very dangerous offensive types, because it is splashable and because it is very threatening towards the best playstyle without falling flat vs. stall like Mega Manectric or Mega Aerodactyl do. It is argubly the best mega in the metagame atm, with it being roughly tied with Scizor for this position. Versatility is not the only deciding factor in viability because, while it helps, if you are one of the best Pokémon in a particular role then versatility doesn't matter much (see: Mega Medicham)
 
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I've just gotten back into the games after several years so I'm terribly out of touch, but would it be possible - even if it isn't advisable - to set up an all-dragon OU team? The very light reading I've done makes me think I'd like to try a tank Mega Altaria, but I've no real idea what I might want past that.
 
Breloom and Talonflame are both good choices in the OU metagame, with Talonflame being splashable and with Breloom being probably the second best non-mega Fighting-type behind Keldeo. (edit: actually terrak is probably more consistent 'cause rock is cool offensively but the point is loom is still good)

Bulky offense is the best playstyle atm. Stall is only common on the ladder because it is reasonably low-risk to play, but as a playstyle stall is probably the worst of the three "blanket" playstyles (offense, balance, stall)

Diancie is very good because both rock and fairy are very dangerous offensive types, because it is splashable and because it is very threatening towards the best playstyle without falling flat vs. stall like Mega Manectric or Mega Aerodactyl do. It is argubly the best mega in the metagame atm, with it being roughly tied with Scizor for this position. Versatility is not the only deciding factor in viability because, while it helps, if you are one of the best Pokémon in a particular role then versatility doesn't matter much (see: Mega Medicham)
You say stall is "reasonably low-risk to play", but I'm not sure what you mean by that, especially when you say afterwards it's "probably the worst of the three "blanket" playstyles".

Also, if it's pretty bad, then why do people persist in playing it? Is it because it requires so little thinking to play stall?
 

Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
You say stall is "reasonably low-risk to play", but I'm not sure what you mean by that, especially when you say afterwards it's "probably the worst of the three "blanket" playstyles".

Also, if it's pretty bad, then why do people persist in playing it? Is it because it requires so little thinking to play stall?
Pretty much. Stall functions by playing safe and it minimises the chance of getting you screwed over by factors beyond your control. It is easier to play than offense and balance in some respects, and you can generally half focus on something else while you're playing it whereas you need to think more carefully the more offensively you go. This isn't to say it's mindless, but generally speaking it's the easiest way to both attain and retain a rating once you get past around 1500-1600, and even then it's not to say you can't hit, say, no. 1 with an offense build.

The key reason why it is probably the worst comes from the fact that it is in many respects the easiest to break and given that a meta such as the current one awards more aggressive play. Power creep is a big factor here, and just like any playstyle there are certain things that it just loses to. With Pokémon like Mega Medicham being all over the place as well as stallbreakers like Heatran, Talonflame, Serp etc. being as good as they are, it makes the playstyle very matchup dependent (a problem with gen 6 in general) and as such less consistent than offense.

My explanation isn't great (if someone else who's a bit better at this game than me could explain it better please do) but I hope I've cleared it up even slightly. At the end of the day, the laziest playstyle will be very common because it is the least taxing to use, even if it can be viewed as somewhat sadistic by some people (a viewpoint which I personally disagree with because I think that it's just as valid to play defensively as it is to play offensively regardless of how much some may say it's a waste of time).
 

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