thoughts from laddering and crying my eyes out on skype because this game is headass
- the most common of the new toys i've seen on the ladder so far, and for good reason...that being that it nukes the fuck out of everything on most offensive teams thanks to its good speed tier, and being a good volca check is a plus too. originally i went with the standard set from oras ou, but ive learned that focus blast is relatively useless unless you dont like dealing with gigalith sand (don't knock it btw gigalith is actually half decent), so running ancient power / tailwind / flame charge in the last slot are ideal options. ancient power in particular is nice since it fucks with other chary, chandy, tini, and talon (the latter is guaranteed to live it invests nearly all of its evs in spd, but honestly, you are going to want to run at least
some speed). unfortunately its pretty useless vs aero unless it switches in and you get the boost. tailwind and flame charge are basically preference, but since so many teams rely on speed to deal with zard it serves as a nice way to fuck with those kind of builds. i think it ties with maero as the mega slot to use at the moment...jus depends on how u wana go with ur team i guess.
e:
Omfuga brought up wisp on skype to beat latias and maero which is also a good option that i didnt think of somehow
- another thing that fucks with offense. pursuit is a big plus in this metagame, and trapping latias is huge for things like zard and tini. ice priority is really valuable in this meta given how common ddnite and mence are, and its stab combo fucks with everything, barring stuff like keld which hates losing its item anyway.
- kind of underwhelming...it checks what it needs to and is probably the best hazard cleaner, but rachi, weavile, and zor are so common that its really easy to take advantage of. ive only tried dual stab + recover defog but im thinking the hw set from last gen could be nice on offense as well.
- unsurprisingly slapped on every team because its so fucking annoying. probably the most reliable sr setter, and the most reliable scarfer, and the most reliable fairy resist, and the most reliable at being a pain in the ass to deal with late game
- not too common but specs sets are probably the best way to go on this thing, since scarf sets are relatively weak (but hey its an iron head resist and outspeeds rachi ! ). latias is annoying for it to deal with but its not too much of a problem since keld should almost always be with weav or some other trapper
- surprisingly, muk is pretty decent. poison / dark is pretty good stab typing, it has good bulk, and knock / pursuit + poison touch is hard to switch into for a lot of teams. obviously its slow as fuck, but the bulk and power more than make up for it.
- this thing is stupid good, and probably the best cleaner in the tier. z belly drum is pretty easy to set up due to the defensive utility it has, and serving as an answer to weav / keld + drag immunity in one slot makes it the one of the, if not the best wincon for bulky offense, maybe tied with dnite or mence.
- speaking of which...uh...not too much to say lol. dd / dclaw / extreme speed / eq is probably the best way to go on this thing, but maybe flynium z is also good a la mence. multiscale lets it dd up without trouble (see a trend here) and its a good zard / keld / tini check. i dont think outrage is worth running because most times you'll find yourself in a situation late game where locking yourself into it will mess you up.
- out of the 30ish games i played since the ladder up, these guys have been surprsingly rare for some reason, only seeing thundy in about 3 games. it's weird mainly because these things are probably the best mons in the tier atm, especially kyub, because well its kyub lol. theres just no reliable way to switch into it. the defensive typing / speed isnt the greatest but the stab combo and coverage is enough to nuke something everytime it comes in unless you dont predict right. same goes for terrakion, the best thing to switch into it is probably doublade, aside from that youre basically hoping that you predict right. thundurus is probably the least tight of the three, but its still retarded to deal with. np tbolt focus blast hp ice / twave is the most consistent set and its good speed tier and offensive typing give it p limited switch ins. i was thinking of using lo knock off to lure in latias / spd rachi, but i guess in most cases the other moves have utility.
- these guys have been pretty uncommon as well, but i dont think theyre on the same level as the 3 above so im putting them separately (except scoli and diggersby maybe). torn-t isnt very surprising to me since weavile and mega aerodactyl are extremely common, although it still retains that style of being annoying as fuck. volcanion is kinda slow, gets pooped on by lati, and has a lot of checks that are too common right now. mega slowbro needs some support but i actually think it could be a really good wincon for defensive teams. loomer is pretty decent vs offense but grass fighting isnt great against most mons and its speed holds it back too much i think. i dont really have anything worthwhile to say on the rest, since they're pretty self explanatory. i think sd gliscor and sd scoli could be good but i havent actually seen either of them to give a good opinion on it.
as far as the oldies go...i mean victini hydreigon and mega aero are all still great in this metagame, and i think p2 could see a bit of a rise in usage since it tanks everything and just twaves. chandy is p nice as a chary answer and ghost resists arent very common rn.
i havent actually tried it yet, but
r0ady brought the idea of z hail snow cloak mamoswine up on skype, which works kind of like the sandstorm chomp set in ou. ground / ice coverage is pretty antimeta rn and the evasion boost can be dumb af. its probably underwhelming in practice since it doesnt outspeed maero unless theyre running ada and it isnt as strong without lo, but its a cool idea nonetheless. another z move Ting was happy hour rachi, and uh...fuck that thing.
