Smogon Shoddy Server Statistics - October 2009

[BurtonEarny]

Looking at the stats, and see the uu percents I have to say I feel like it doesn't accurately show the usuage of the suspects due to them not being allowed for the entire month... At any rate, its always fun to look at the stats... much appreciated.

[Elevator Music]

lol 79.11%

if anybody didn't have a reason for just assuming that a last pokemon that was hidden was Garchomp, they do now

[mtr]

| 16 | Garchomp | 3412 | 13.32 |

This is a further barometer of the Ubers metagame becoming more stall-oriented. Because of Forretress running wild, Garchomp, who is almost always scarfed in Ubers, can't abuse Outrage and Dragon Claw to revenge kill dudes because it gives free turns to Forry. Garchomp uses rises when the metagame becomes more offensive oriented, because then Garchomp's great speed becomes more useful. When the game waxes towards stall, Garchomp suffers in favor of Palkia and Dialga, who have greater mixed capabilities.

| 14 | Ninjask | 396 | 1.55 |

Ninjask as a lead in Ubers. Come on, my cicada, get into the top 10! Ninjask should really be a top ten lead because of his favorable matchups against many leads.

[mudkip72]

Nice Doug, already the stats are here! Salamence usage surprises me, but it could be due to people experimenting ExtremeSpeed D-Nite. Garchomp suspect usage does not surprise me at all. Other than a few things, nothing major seems to have changed from last month.

The thing that really stands out to me is Venasaur usage. I never thought that thing had potential to be in the top of UU.

Also, the usual 15% of people are still using the max 252 HP Scizors instead of the 248 EVs that reduce SR damage. This is probaly certain to remain consistant.

[ThePatriot]

heracross for uu!lol Thanks for the stats doug!

[M BLADE]

OU: Salamence at #6 lol. Dragonite got a huge boost, now in the middle OU tier rather than low. Extremespeed is really useful.
Interesting to see that Aggron comes somewhat close of the OU mark. Ok, not so close. Since this tier is infested with Choice users and Sandstream, Aggron with his 500 resistances is great.
Mamoswine is coming down even more...
While Latias is everywhere.

UU: Aggron was the only one that got a HUGE boost on usage after the HSSG changes. You won't believe how this thing hits damn hard.
Arcanine at #9. He didn't get a OMFG rise on usage like Aggron, but Morning Sun did boost the usage up. He's annoying now. Annoying, walls quite a bit of pokes, hits hard from both sides, can run sets like SunnyBeam with Morning Sun... damn, he's too versatile now.
Regirock... wow. Quite a downfall there. Still find it more useful in OU than UU(Curse set with Sandstream is hell hard to take down)
While Quagsire is slowly climbing to UU(well, since he's the only counter to any sets that Aggron has... Recover helped it tremendously too)

[Mr.E]

How about a total for "Rotom-A" in Uber/Suspect usage, as well as in lead stats?

[mudkip72]

Originally Posted by Fat Mr.E

How about a total for "Rotom-A" in Uber/Suspect usage, as well as in lead stats?

I second this, although it seems a bit pointless for ubers (but still a valid suggestion). Well, I quickly combined suspect usage, and Rotom-A was used 6666 times (lol). This puts it between Manaphy (#5) and Metagross (#6) so its quite common.

[mtr]

All right, since I've done my obligatory musings on the metagame, its time for some attempts at comedy (combined with more musings, of course).

| Metang | Usage | 62 | 0.0 |
| Metang | Item | Other (5) | < 4.8 |

Woot, looks like some guys are doing their damnedest to make sure the 'Metang@' meme never dies.

| Jumpluff | Attack EV | Max | 5.6 |

What in tarnation?

| Salamence | Move | Hydro Pump | 8.2 |

Still hanging on to SpecsMence?

[IcyMan28]

The shift that Ho-oh has brought to Ubers is highly interesting. While Kyogre held its number 1 spot by a comfortable 15% over Palkia last month, it sits ahead of Groudon by a mere 6% this time around - never thought I'd see the day.

Salamence's drop isn't too surprising. Scizor remains omnipresent, which allows Gyara, Heatran, and Rotom-A to make use of their steel resists. Still, Mence won't be going anywhere any time soon, unless of course Garchomp and Latias stick around for certain (who knows).

[Staraptor Call]

Suspect is extremely centralized, and I'm not just talking about Garchomp usage. The top 5 used Pokemon all have over 31% usage, a mark topped only recently by Scizor is Standard. This shows just how centralized Garchomp makes the metagame in order to deal with it, and is another argument in favor of Garchomp staying Uber. Even the leads are much more centralized than in Standard.

[blasphemy1]

I think Dragonite usage can be accredited to not only Extremespeed, but the rising awareness of why you would use Dragonite > Salamence. Good to see him more.

Salamence dropping 4 spots is huge, although I always knew Gyarados had the potential to overtake him(especially in a Scizor infested metagame).

No surprise with Venusaur at #4. Great bulk, status options, useful typing, and the ability to beat down Raikou is nice.

[Adoleo]

I'd never thought I would see the day when Salamence would step down as the #1 Dragon in OU. It's good seeing Gyarados become #2 with all the Scizor running around. Also, something that caught my eye was:

 48 | Crobat     |  26378 |    3.33

If I'm not mistaken, that would mean Crobat finally became OU?

[boredomisbliss]

im actually surprised to see latias overtake salamence, sure latias is great and beats mence 1v1 but mence is overall more useful. latias is great at revenge killing whereas mence cannot, but salamence can use his mixed attacking capabilities really well. latias does not have as much in terms of setup, sure it has CM but unless it carries HPfire on a CM version its gonna lose to scizor anyways (or get haxed), and the only way it beats blissey is trickscarf, in which case it is hardly a sweeper. mence on the other hand breaks stall singlehandedly =/ and DDmence is still really nice even with scizor

[blasphemy1]

Originally Posted by Fat boredomisbliss

im actually surprised to see latias overtake salamence, sure latias is great and beats mence 1v1 but mence is overall more useful. latias is great at revenge killing whereas mence cannot, but salamence can use his mixed attacking capabilities really well. latias does not have as much in terms of setup, sure it has CM but unless it carries HPfire on a CM version its gonna lose to scizor anyways (or get haxed), and the only way it beats blissey is trickscarf, in which case it is hardly a sweeper. mence on the other hand breaks stall singlehandedly =/ and DDmence is still really nice even with scizor

I do think Salamence is far more versatile, but Latias handles stall more easily than Salamence(unless there is something like Perish Song Celebi/Mismagius or a Hazer). Latias has Calm Mind + Substitute/Refresh to beat stall, as well as Trick(Scarf or Specs hurts stall a lot), while Salamence must rely on Outrage. Outrage is pretty bait-able and the fact that it is weak to Stealth Rock and is hit by SS makes it a poor stall breaker. An easy way to force Salamence to Outrage on a stall team is sending in something like Rotom-A, who doesn't care about Fire Blast, and isn't hit by EQ. Stall teams can then exploit these turns to set up entry hazards with Forretress or Skarmory.

[Bribery]

I'm not surprised that Gyarados passed Salamence for #2, but I am shocked that it dropped down to #6. I had to read it twice to make sure I wasn't seeing things xD. Salamence is so much more unpredictable than Latias or Heatran, and mispredicting against it can cost you the game.

I'm so glad to see Dragonite climbing up the charts, being one of my favorites. It's already at #25 and I wouldn't be surprised it it breaks into the top 20 at least.

Venasaur made quite a huge jump in UU. I guess to fill the void left by Roserade moving to OU.

[tophway]

^and power whip :)

[petrie911]

Metagame trends at the OU/UU border

Cresselia has fallen below the OU/UU line. If this keeps up, she will enter UU. However, if Garchomp ends up back in OU, I can see her returning to OU.

Heracross is barely above the line, but his usage has been steadily dropping. If this trend continues, he will join UU.

Crobat usage continues to rise. Super Fang really helped him out, and he's not far from finally having his place in OU.

Porygon-Z usage has been slowly falling. He doesn't look to be in danger of falling from OU soon, but it's a future possibility.

Metagame trends at the UU/NU border

Kangaskhan's usage has been ridiculously inconsistent. He was at 6.11% in August, 2.90% in September, and 3.56% now. He's currently above the line, but who the hell knows if this will last.

Hippopotas took a massive dive from last month, where it was just above the line. I don't think NU has much to worry about losing him.

Hitmonlee also lost a ton of usage, and is now below the line. Though this reason is fairly clear. Why use Hitmonlee when you have Gallade.

Regirock is just barely below the line. Gallade hurt it, but who knows if things will continue like this.

Electrode, Drifblim, Nidoqueen, Magneton, Gardevoir, and Typhlosion are all far below the UU/NU line, despite being above it before. Gardevoir and Drifblim make sense, but any ideas on the others?

Leafeon usage is way up. She could join UU easily with that kind of usage.

Quagsire is above the line. Though no surprises there; he's got a great typing, great ability, and finally recover.

[gingbino11]

| Azelf | Move | Reflect | 12.8 |
| Azelf | Move | Light Screen | 11.4 |

Not all Screen Azlef are Dual-Screen?


| Beautifly | Attack EV | Very High (200+) | 13.3 |
| Chansey | Attack EV | Max | 5.6 |
| Cranidos | SpAttack EV | Very Low (<50) | 1.4 | Above 0?
| Drowzee | Speed EV | Max | 42.9 |
| Gallade | SpAttack EV | Max | 1.3 |

Some people need to be checked for tumors in the head.



| Blissey | Attack EV | None | 100.0 |
This is good to see, though.

[X-Act]

October Stats:

Scizor: 31.81%
Gyarados: 20.28%
Latias: 20.07%
Rotom-A: 20.02%
Heatran: 19.61%
Salamence: 19.37%

September Stats:

Scizor: 32.22%
Salamence: 20.89%
Gyarados: 20.11%
Heatran: 19.84%
Rotom-A: 19.69%
Latias: 19.41%

So overall Salamence was used only 0.91% less than Gyarados in October, while Gyarados was used only 0.78% less than Salamence in September. So overall, Salamence lost 1.69% of usage to Gyarados, translating to about 1100 usages out of around 2.35 million.

Big deal?

Somehow, I don't think so.

[Haunter**]

| Garchomp   | Move         | Swords Dance     |    55.2 |

Finally people are starting to realize the beast that SD Chomp is. I was pretty surprised when people said that scarf-Chomp was the most common set on the suspect ladder as I used to face a lot of SD Chomp. SD is on over 55 of Chomp's sets which means that I was pretty much right, instead.

Also:

| Garchomp   |  3. Tyranitar  |     7718 |    36.66 |

I'm surprised that only around 1\3 of the suspect teams try to abuse sand veil and TTar's ability to pursuit Latias (one of the best Chomp's checks).

Thanks for these stats Doug, an excellent job as always.

[Deucalion2]

I really wish that this Suspect test would last a lot longer. It'd be nice to see if we could reach the point where everything plateaus and is subject only to minor variations, because what's happening at the moment is very interesting.

[Broth3r]

Originally Posted by Fat cmurph

Dude people have been discussing Latias's "uberness" for a while, hence why it's a suspect now. I mean shit, it used to be uber not too long ago

I am aware of that, but what i meant was that his current use in OU (and not his former Uber status) will generate more discussion.

[fitzy72]

Thanks doug
This has to have been the most interesting month in ages.

[Diana]

Very interesting stats, thanks Doug.

Rotom-A and Latias now over 20%, can't say it was too unexpected, they're amazingly useful despite Pursuit.