Smogon Shoddy Server Statistics - October 2009

[Coronis]

Originally Posted by Fat 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.

Well, I for one don't rely on Sand Veil, and the opposition usually has a T-tar, so thats a bonus.

[Toaster]

Thanks alot doug.

its about time salamence fell,Making latias the most used dragon in OU.

Garchomp conquering suspect is no suprise.I also expected to see missy ruling UU soon.

[malomyotismon]

Latias usage continues to rise and I hope this dose not spark the so called "noobs" and "newbies" to think she is uber just because of high use if that was the case scizor would be uber lol, but with only base 110 attack and scizor and tyranitar as allmost perfect counters as well as blissey wallsing some sets it's not like she is hard to stop like chomp she can not hit as hard as scarf gengar can nor dose she have focus blast to kill ttar with.

[DJXO9]

Guys, the suspect metagame is not what the OU metagame will be like if the suspects are voted OU. 79.11 for Garchomp is extremely high, and easily the most used suspect, but it does not mean that the OU metagame with Garchomp will be this centralized. Players are encouraged to use each of suspects, and it is pretty much mandatory.

If you ladder without using Garchomp, you don't earn any SEXP with him, so you don't get voting privileges. So, if you don't use Garchomp, whats the point of laddering? And obviously, Garchomp is the main suspect here, not Manaphy or Latias. So it stands to reason that Garchomp would have and insanely high usage.

[Haunter**]

Originally Posted by Fat DJXO9

Guys, the suspect metagame is not what the OU metagame will be like if the suspects are voted OU. 79.11 for Garchomp is extremely high, and easily the most used suspect, but it does not mean that the OU metagame with Garchomp will be this centralized.

I don't think that somebody is saying that the current suspect metagame is the projection of what the standard metagame would be with the suspects voted all OU.

Players are encouraged to use each of suspects, and it is pretty much mandatory. If you ladder without using Garchomp, you don't earn any SEXP with him, so you don't get voting privileges. So, if you don't use Garchomp, whats the point of laddering? And obviously, Garchomp is the main suspect here, not Manaphy or Latias. So it stands to reason that Garchomp would have and insanely high usage.

This is not completely true. You actually earn SEXP even when facing a suspect (read: if your opponent uses it).

[DJXO9]

Meh. I forget who it was, but somebody said something about, how because the suspect metagame is so centralized, Garchomp is Uber. I'm just saying that its not surprising at all that the top suspect is so overused.

[Ciele]

Salamence dropping to 6th place is simply shocking. I know that I've seen a lot less Mences recently, but it's been the No 1 OU Dragon since I started playing competitively, and is quite the shock seeing it down that low.

I can also see Latias getting the vote for Uber now. It's usage is getting higher every month, and it won't be long until people get fed up of playing against it, as it is probably broken.

Nice to see Dragonite at #25 for leads too. I'm sure that I contributed a lot to that!

[lordkira]

I'm surprised to see Dragonite that high in the tier.
Sure the anti-lead with es is nice but it seems like there are quite a bit of people using offensive ddnite with es as a replacement for flamethrower or fireblast
it's an ok option but not that great in my opinion.
well my opinion i guess but wow

[Lucalibur]

well...lucario is still top 10 so fine for me,i am highly surprised about salamence and i am happy that gallade rise usage in UU,he is a powerful pokemon but often underated,thanks for the stats there...i am also very happy dragonite is rising,i made my own custom mixed nite that show the clear difference from nite and mence,so with more persons using they might come across me and see the set hah! just kidding but awesome that nite is going up again....

[Boingo]

| Magcargo | Item | No Item | 20.3 |

People, if you use Magcargo at least give him an honest chance. He's really not that bad. Poor thing. :(

[Kachalski]

Just a few of my musings:

Empoleon: Fell three places. lots of teams in the RMT Forum recently have been Empoleon based teams, it looks like he might be running out of steam there.

Latias: If we lose Latias, I'm gonna have 1 hell of a lot of trouble making a team. Latias counters so many threats with minimal predicition, but I have never thought "Oh damn, Latias, now I loose" I can always handle her in any team I make.

Salamence: Wow, Salamence falling. He was always at the top ever since I started competitive, so this is a shock.

Registeel: Dammit people, Registeel needs to be used more. Registeel for OU!

Porygon2: Porygon-Z is essentially John and Edward, and Porygon2 is everyone else. It's an absolute travesty.

Crobat: 11th in lead use? Damn, it's coming back to OU.

Also, some figures from everyone's favourite Dragon:

 
| Latias     | Item         | Leftovers        |    33.3 |
| Latias     | Item         | Choice Scarf     |    28.1 |
| Latias     | Item         | Life Orb         |    23.8 |
| Latias     | Item         | Choice Specs     |    13.5 |
| Latias     | Item         | Light Clay       |     1.3 |

So, Bulky sets are still the most common, with Choice Scarf just falling behind. Daul Screening is still exsistant though.

| Latias     | Nature       | Timid            |    78.2 |
| Latias     | Nature       | Modest           |    18.4 |
| Latias     | Nature       | Other (2)        | <   2.0 |

Outspeeding Infernape seems to still be the main priority.

| Latias     | HP EV        | None             |    72.0 |
| Latias     | HP EV        | Max              |     9.3 |
| Latias     | HP EV        | Other (5)        | <   8.7 |
| Latias     | Attack EV    | None             |   100.0 |
| Latias     | Defense EV   | None             |    94.7 |
| Latias     | Defense EV   | Other (3)        | <   2.2 |
| Latias     | SpAttack EV  | Max              |    74.6 |
| Latias     | SpAttack EV  | None             |    13.7 |
| Latias     | SpAttack EV  | Other (3)        | <   8.4 |
| Latias     | SpDefense EV | None             |    96.0 |
| Latias     | SpDefense EV | Other (3)        | <   1.5 |
| Latias     | Speed EV     | Max              |    88.5 |
| Latias     | Speed EV     | Other (4)        | <   4.8 |

Ok, what Latias set uses no HP EVs. Even Choice Scarf has the ususal 4 EVs. Attack is as it should be. Defence is a bizzare one. 13.7 percent of people obviously don't want to atually attack with Laitas, while it would appaer others don't want to defend at all.

| Latias     | Move         | Surf             |    67.4 |
| Latias     | Move         | Draco Meteor     |    53.7 |
| Latias     | Move         | Dragon Pulse     |    50.8 |
| Latias     | Move         | Thunderbolt      |    50.5 |
| Latias     | Move         | Recover          |    44.8 |
| Latias     | Move         | Trick            |    35.5 |
| Latias     | Move         | Calm Mind        |    30.2 |
| Latias     | Move         | HP-Fire          |    15.0 |
| Latias     | Move         | Grass Knot       |     6.5 |
| Latias     | Move         | Roar             |     6.2 |
| Latias     | Move         | Reflect          |     6.0 |
| Latias     | Move         | Other (12)       | <   3.6 |

Draco Metoer does more than Surf to Infernape, but still. HP Fire is on the rise, what with the rise of Scizor. I suspect Thunderbolt will rise even more, considering all those Gyarados running around. Apparently, Light Clay Latias doesn't even use Daul Screens.

[SHUCKLE MAN]

Originally Posted by Fat Stormkid5

Porygon2: Porygon-Z is essentially John and Edward, and Porygon2 is everyone else. It's an absolute travesty.

:D

I would actually love Porygon2 to beat out Porygon-Z in usage one day though. It gets so close, every month, but never quite makes it. :(

Even better, would be for Porygon2 to be OU, and Porygon-Z to be UU. Just for the whole novelty of it, but I do think Porygon2 is probably more effective in OU than Porygon-Z, although Porygon-Z would probably be better in UU than Porygon2.

[Lord Blood]

Contrary to the standard leads, I have yet to see an Azelf or an Aerodactyl as a lead and I've played approx. 100 battles.

[mtr]

Originally Posted by Fat Lord Blood

Contrary to the standard leads, I have yet to see an Azelf or an Aerodactyl as a lead and I've played approx. 100 battles.

Who have you been playing? But I also have gone many battles without seeing Azelf or Aerodactyl, and instead seeing hordes of Metagross and Jirachi leads.

Speaking of which...

| 10 | Smeargle | 21843 | 2.76 |
| 11 | Crobat | 19710 | 2.49 |

Looks like Smeargle has fallen back down after the spurt of popularity it enjoyed in September thanks to KG/August's team. While Crobat continues to rise.

[Coronis]

First of all, I don't see why everyone is saying that Sala being 6th is such a big deal, it is barely behind all the pokemon ahead of it, excluding Scizor. Also to the people talking about Latias being ube because of usage...come on guys. Just because a pokemon is used a lot, and is one of the suspects, it doesn't mean people will vote it uber. Frankly, I'd be surprised if Latias got more than 5 votes for uber.

[capefeather]

StormKid: I've looked at a considerable amount of detailed stats and I'm pretty sure 4 EVs count as no investment. Lots of things don't make a lot of sense otherwise.

[Coronis]

Every 4 EVs is an extra point on that stat.

[DougJustDoug**]

Originally Posted by Fat capefeather

StormKid: I've looked at a considerable amount of detailed stats and I'm pretty sure 4 EVs count as no investment. Lots of things don't make a lot of sense otherwise.

You are correct. Anything less than 10 EVs is considered "None". Perhaps I should have made the stats group label "Very Very Low (<10)", but I figured anything like that would be confusing, and not statistically helpful. I also did not want to group "remainder EVs" in with the "Very Low" category (50 or less). Specifically because when most people assign the remaining 4-6 evs in most spreads, they are not doing it competitively. Perhaps there should be distinct "Very Very Low" and "None" categories, but that seems to be slicing things pretty thin. And considering how the least-used stat distributions are accumulated into "Other" anyway -- it just seems kinda silly to make the distinction.

But, yes, obviously there is some competitive impact to those remaining 4-6 EVs, albeit very small, except in some very rare circumstances, perhaps involving some pokemon's SR damage, or similar.

And since we are on the topic of stat groupings, if someone is stupid enough to give their pokemon 251 EVs in a given stat -- it WILL be categorized as "Max". I doubt this happens much at all, but now you know...

[LoveDensity]

Some pretty nice statistics to talk about..

Latias is now #3 in usage where it should belong or perphas take the #2 spot. Latias is a force to be reckoned with and like Scizor, single-handlely changed the metagame to prepare for it. The recent statistics may give some people to think about Latias' status as OU or Uber. Rotom-A is also close behind Latias and is undoubtedly another versatile Pokemon that could be fitted into many teams.

Salamence's drop comes to me as a little surprise, but somewhat evitable. With the addition of ExtremeSpeed, we could see a spike in Dragonites usage that went up about 10,000 which means some teams may now prefer Dragonite over Salamence. The versatility of Latias doesn't help Salamence's usage.

We could also see a drop in Smeargle usage and a rise in Crobat usage. As Smeargle topped the charts as one of the primer leads last month, other leads adapted and prepared for it. We could see an increase of Lum Berry Metagross leads and Taunt leads that just demoralizes Smeargle. The rise of Crobat could also be because of the addition of Super Fang. Azelf also seems to solidify itself as a #1 lead.

Suspect usage is not surprising. Garchomp was expected to centralize the metagame and other Pokemon have risen to prepare for it and the team styles that come with it. Metagross as the #1 lead is justified as it does beat sleep leads notably, Roserade, a Pokemon that utilizes Toxic Spikes to hinder Garchomp and Azelf, the #2 lead.

[blasphemy1]

Isn't it more beneficial to run 4 SpD > 4 HP on Latias anyways, since it has an odd HP stat?

[Polywrath]

Thanks Doug

What happened salemence?

[Mr.E]

Latias is the best pokémon in OU, it's no surprise it continues to rise. There's a reason it was long considered Uber before dropping down less than a year ago.

Originally Posted by Fat 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.

Yeah, Garchomp being uber made Metagross and Azelf be the top leads... oh wait. Take it to the Suspect topic. -_-

[blasphemy1]

Originally Posted by Fat DJXO9

For me at least, I only make an effort for an odd HP stat if the pokemon is going to be taking a beating from Stealth Rock, whether its switching in and out, or 4x weak like Yanmega. Latias usually doesn't switch in and out, but if it does, it will probably be damaged in some other way before taking 8 hits from Stealth Rock.

Well, for choiced sets(41.6%) and any sets with Draco Meteor(53.7%), switching in/out happens a lot. I know Scizor just spams U-turn, which forces you to switch, but Draco Meteor's lackluster power at -2 warrants correct EVs. The smogon analysis even has 4 HP, which to me just doesn't make any sense.

Also, Latias is often a revenge killer for pokemon like DD Gyarados/Salamence, so often it switches in after a pokemon dies/while they are using DD.

EDIT: Where did your post go?

[Mr.E]

Latias doesn't take extra damage from any residual damage sources by giving it 4 HP EVs. (302 HP / 8) doesn't reach the next whole number for rounding purposes, that's 304.

[DJXO9]

Originally Posted by Fat blasphemy1

Well, for choiced sets(41.6%) and any sets with Draco Meteor(53.7%), switching in/out happens a lot. I know Scizor just spams U-turn, which forces you to switch, but Draco Meteor's lackluster power at -2 warrants correct EVs. The smogon analysis even has 4 HP, which to me just doesn't make any sense.

Also, Latias is often a revenge killer for pokemon like DD Gyarados/Salamence, so often it switches in after a pokemon dies/while they are using DD.

EDIT: Where did your post go?

I deleted it because I read his post wrong. But, now that were into this conversation--

While 4 Sp Def EVs gives you more Special bulk than 4 HP EVs, the 4 HP EVs provide more overall bulk, albeit very, very tiny. And the chances that Latias, or any other pokemon that isn't weak to Stealth Rock for that matter, will be switching into Stealth Rock 8 times without taking any other damage is very small.