Smogon Shoddy Server Statistics - November 2009

[Scruffy]

Whoever is surprised by Venasaur's jump in usage obviously hasn't played a lot of UU. That thing is fucking everywhere as it can fill a ton of niches on any style of team; sleep inducer, physical/special wall, t-spikes absorber, LO wall-breaker, Swords Dance sweeper, Specs user, ect. I think the spike in usage was mainly because it's able to check Raikou and force out Rhyperior in the new UU, and simply because people are now using more offensive Vena than the bog-standard defensive spread than in the past (which was really the only thing anyone really ever used). (LO usage jumped from 16.7% in October to 21.9% in November, and Leftovers/Black Sludge dropped from a combined 71.2% in October to 61.9%).

For all the people that think Honchkrow is BL, here's some statistics to make your case: Everyone who is saying Honch is BL agrees that its LO set is what makes it BL. Considering 75.2% of the people using Honch use LO makes it clear that the LO set is far superior than running any other set because of its effectiveness (Choice Scarf was only used 16.4%).

Also worth noting is the fact that Roost isn't as common as I'ld of thought (27.8%). Sure, that seems pretty high, but most LO sets suggest Roost to recover some HP lost from Brave Bird and LO recoil. And besides, if you're not running roost, you should be running the next move in line that gets you more type coverage, which you would think would be HP Grass, but even that is only getting 9.8% usage.

I clearly believe that Honch is BL, and the insane usage of the LO suggests that people are abusing it to the fullest.


I also thought that Moltres would be seeing more usage since it's a possible suspect, but seeing that it's not even in the top 20 (23rd to be exact) at least shows to me that people aren't exactly abusing him as much as one should, especially if it's BL material. I'm not saying usage dictates what is BL or UU, but what I am saying is that it's hard to tell if a pokemon is BL or UU by not using it (and therefore testing it I suppose).

[DougJustDoug**]

Originally Posted by Fat Lemmiwinks MkII

| Honchkrow  | SpDefense EV | None             |   100.0 |

How odd. I used a Honchkrow with 118 Special Defense EVs during the second half of this month, and I played at least a few dozen times, which should account for at least 0.2% of Honchkrow use. At what point does certain usage become negligible and rounds down to 0.0?

Any usage detail with less than 1% usage is considered statistically insignificant, and is discarded.

[Dummy007]

I'm so proud of myself, one of the 2% who doesn't run Bullet Punch on Scizor.

The fall in Scizor usage surprised me a little, but not much. In fact, not much in OU surprised me.

UU Heracross... *shudders*

[Takua]

Good job, Doug!

[reyscarface]

Whoa Gyarados first jumped to #2 then got down to #6, thats really incredible to see considering how good Gyarados is.

ps to the Aero guys that say it loses to most leads: Aero doesnt need to win vs other leads, it just does what the user wants it to do, not let the opponent get SR while getting SR of its own.

[Snorlaxe]

nice job Doug; I'm extremely surprised at Venasaur's ranking as the number one UU Pokemon. I know that it's usage has shot up since Roserade departed from UU (and that the Scarf version was becoming popular), but I had no idea that it was used THAT much. It's like the Scizor of UU! I havent played the new UU yet, so I look forward to playing with Venasaur.

[SHUCKLE MAN]

The UU list has now been topped by it's 3rd Grass-type (Shaymin, Roserade, and now Venusaur). Since Grass-types are my favourite, I'm rather pleased about this. :)

To be honest, I never thought I'd see a metagame where Venusaur could be so useful. Heck, it's nice that Grass-types in general can be so effective in UU. It makes a change to a metagame dominated by Dragons and Steels.

[Lemmiwinks MkII]

Originally Posted by Fat DougJustDoug

Any usage detail with less than 1% usage is considered statistically insignificant, and is discarded.

Okay, I will bear that in mind in the future, thanks!

Originally Posted by Fat Scruffy

Also worth noting is the fact that Roost isn't as common as I'ld of thought (27.8%). Sure, that seems pretty high, but most LO sets suggest Roost to recover some HP lost from Brave Bird and LO recoil. And besides, if you're not running roost, you should be running the next move in line that gets you more type coverage, which you would think would be HP Grass, but even that is only getting 9.8% usage.

I would guess that just as much of that 4th LO slot can be attributed to Pursuit along with Roost. Night Slash will also contribute rather heavily; I'd guess at roughly a 3:3:2:1 ratio for Roost, Pursuit, Night Slash and HP Grass respectively.

The high Drill Peck usage can attributed to the fact that Brave Bird is currently not on the on-site analysis, and a certain proportion of battlers on the ladder are noobs that just copy the analysis. This can also explain the inflated Night Slash usage somewhat, which is nearly twice as high as the Choice Scarf percentage.

[Age of Kings]

Thanks Doug.

I haven't laddered lately, but it seems the OU top 10 has been really intense. Salamence is back in #2 after that big dive in usage though Latias in still in #3. Still the same few Pokemon switching slots on and off though.

[mudkip72]

Thank you Doug. And people surprised at the rebound of Mence and drop of Gyara, it really isn't that big. Aside from Scizor the top 6 are very close to each other.

Also....
| Scizor | HP EV | Max | 15.7 |
The amount of people using the "wrong" amount of EVs for bulky Scizors increased a bit. 248 HP is the way to go peoplez!

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by Fat mudkip72

Thank you Doug. And people surprised at the rebound of Mence and drop of Gyara, it really isn't that big. Aside from Scizor the top 6 are very close to each other.

Also....
| Scizor | HP EV | Max | 15.7 |
The amount of people using the "wrong" amount of EVs for bulky Scizors increased a bit. 248 HP is the way to go peoplez!

For the purpose of these statistics, 248 is considered under the max category, I'm like 95% sure.

At this rate Rotom and Espeon will be joining NU, how sad, they were both in the top 20 a couple of months back. Also the fact that Venusaur jumped from 39th to 1st over the past 8 months or so is just incredible. Obviously this is due in part to the tier changes, but a large part of it should be attributed to people discovering it's true potential. Makes you wonder how many other Pokemon out there are just waiting for someone to create the perfect move-set for them, so they can have their shot at stardom.

[Purple Wobbuffet]

Originally Posted by Fat mudkip72

Thank you Doug. And people surprised at the rebound of Mence and drop of Gyara, it really isn't that big. Aside from Scizor the top 6 are very close to each other.

Also....
| Scizor | HP EV | Max | 15.7 |
The amount of people using the "wrong" amount of EVs for bulky Scizors increased a bit. 248 HP is the way to go peoplez!

I thought there was an article in the Smog about this, and here's a link:
http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue2/saving_hp2

Deoxys-l is a suspect. In a uber warstory it said "My team is weak to MixDialga, because I don't have Deoxys-l, so all teams are weak to MixDialga.

[lordkira]

The Anti-Lead Dragonite set is rising eh?
Mmmm...interesting...

[E.A.]

Thanks doug, the stats are helpful :D

In other news:
October 2009: Jirachi | 110560 | 13.96
November 2009: Jirachi | 118266 | 16.20

Nice to see Jirachi return to his August / September usage and then some.

[M BLADE]

UU:Arcanine sure is being used a lot in UU. It's actually the most feared poke in UU, being able to do basically everything, and that being a FIRE type with a somewhat shallow movepool. It is bulky, it is fast, it hits hard from both sides, it has a strong priority attack, can recover its health...
Venusaur is #1 only because it's a natural replacement for Roserade. Not able to set Spikes or Toxic Spikes, but bulkier.
Aggron sure took a hit on usage. People just forgot about Aggron, and the ones i saw were being horribly used.

WOW... i just noticed that Meganium is more used than Typhlosion by 1 USAGE. It is now the less used starter. What a shame...

OU: Tyranitar is finally being used more because it can deal with some of the most used pokes without many problems: Rotom and Latias.

Heracross fell even more. Poor Heracross, he deserves OU for sure. It needs the right partners to work effectively(or hope it meets a stall team, which Heracross gladly runs over by brute force).

Weavile is quite low at usage too. Damn you Scizor...
Weavile is less potent than Infernape and Lucario, but it is way less suscetible to revenge kills. Unless you fight against Skarmory/Jirachi/Metagross. Weavile is also better against the most used Scarfers(Latias, Flygon, Rotom without Overheat...)

[Jibaku*]

For the purpose of these statistics, 248 is considered under the max category, I'm like 95% sure.

Incorrect
251-255 EVs are considered "Max" in these statistics

[Lee]

Everybody please welcome Linoone to UU. ^_^

Thanks Doug.

[Staraptor Call]

| 55 | Ludicolo | 17332 | 2.37 |

If/when Manaphy becomes OU, Ludicolo will likely rise to OU due to an increase in Rain teams.

[ARandomDude]

Originally Posted by Fat Staraptor Call

If/when Manaphy becomes OU, Ludicolo will likely rise to OU due to an increase in Rain teams.

I would disagree. Manaphy's niche is not on a rain team. Most rain teams make use of swift swimmers with boosted STAB moves to plow through the opposition. Manaphy is hardly this type of pokemon. It loses momentum for rain teams.

Manaphy's niche is its ability to basically have a 1 turn full heal move, which combined with its bulk can help it survive for quite a while while still dealing decent damage. I think it functions sort of like Suicune, an anchor who is quite hard to kill, and late game due to lacking initial power.

[Stylish Interval]

I'm inclined to agree with the above, that Manaphy is a better Suicune because of it's ability to use the Rain to heal itself completely while retaining bulk.

Ludciolo, though, could find a use as it could set up Rain, Leech Seed, and switch out to Manaphy to help it set up possibly, allowing Manaphy to not carry that Rain move (although I'm sure you'd still want it, as 5 turns may not be enough for you).

I don't see Ludicolo faring well against Manaphy either, unless it gets up Leech Seed - but then again, using Ludicolo for the purpose of beating Manaphy wouldn't help your team very much :/

[Toaster]

Thanks Doug

Not suprised by Venasaur being #1 at all as this was expected,I guess people really miss roserade :(.

And also:

| 12 | Milotic | 12920 | 12.71 |

Milotic fell out of the top ten ? well im guessing this is contributing to the Venasaurs and Raikous in the tier,some pokemon who used to be walled by it got a boost too,take a look at arcanine for example.

Espeon is #55 now,So im thinking its going to be NU if it takes one more dive in UU?

[shrang]

| Latios | Item | Soul Dew | 100.0 |

Wow no Dual Screeners??

[capefeather]

Originally Posted by Fat mudkip72

Thank you Doug. And people surprised at the rebound of Mence and drop of Gyara, it really isn't that big. Aside from Scizor the top 6 are very close to each other.

I was aware of that, but this is a matter of pride! >:(

[verycoolguy]

Originally Posted by Fat Snorlaxe

nice job Doug; I'm extremely surprised at Venasaur's ranking as the number one UU Pokemon. I know that it's usage has shot up since Roserade departed from UU (and that the Scarf version was becoming popular), but I had no idea that it was used THAT much. It's like the Scizor of UU! I havent played the new UU yet, so I look forward to playing with Venasaur.

Uh, Venusaur is not like Scizor at all. Venusaur is just extremely versatile and can fill many different roles while almost all Scizor are used as scouters, and a godly one at that, which is undeniably welcome to any team....countering Scizor can be difficult..

[Haunter**]

Originally Posted by Fat Staraptor Call

If/when Manaphy becomes OU, Ludicolo will likely rise to OU due to an increase in Rain teams.

Yes, I was just thinking of that. Also, Ludicolo is an excellent Manaphy counter, being 4x resistant to its stab and neutral to ice beam\energy ball\hp electric, while hitting back with stab energy balls. Its 100 base SpD also helps.

Thanks for these stats Doug.