Metagame NP: RU Stage 5: Gods and Monsters (HOUNDOOMINITE IS BL2, READ POST #178)

[Molk]

Sup everyone, after quite a long period of waiting, we've finally been graced with the release of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire!!! Of course this means there are going to be some big changes to the metagame at large, RU's going to be flooded with quite a few new Mega Pokemon to work with (detailed info about them can be seen in the OP of this thread here: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/oras-ru-speculation-thread.3518080/, the ORAS move tutors have given some Pokemon new toys that might shake things up a bit (Knock Off/Drain Punch/Gunk Shot Pangoro, Drain Punch Slurpuff, Outrage Tyrantrum, and Protean+Tutor Moves Kecleon are some good examples), and on top of all that there's the possibility of a tier shift bringing even more to the table, with Kingdra, Houndoom, Quagsire, and Diancie being very possible drops, and Gligar, Alomomola, and Whimsicott having real chances of leaving us.

Of course with all the massive changes going on, we're all going to be in quite a bumpy ride. Because of this, RU's going to be holding a council vote or two at the very beginning to sort through some of the obvious outliers as quickly as possible (If you were around for the XY RU beta, you might remember that we did this before`during a similar time when there were things such as Kyurem and Azelf running around). After that, we'll go back to using the traditional suspect test system for all our votes :].

If you want to talk about RU with a bunch of people in real time, check out our irc channel, #rarelyused! Theres almost always something going on there, and it's almost always a blast to be a part of. Simply click this link here: http://client01.chat.mibbit.com/?channel=#rarelyused&server=irc.synirc.net, type in your username, and you're good to go!

The NP song is Gods and Monsters, as many of the new Pokemon that are shifting from UU to RU, as well as the new megas added to the tier with ORAS, there will be many powerful new Pokemon that shape the metagame. We'll just have to see what happens with these new monsters shaping hte metagame n_n.

this song better have trumpets llamas

you cant have hoenn without trumpets

EDIT: by the way, i'm probably going to post some of my own personal thoughts in a bit!

have fun! :)

 

[Pearl]

lol bouff's futile attempt at getting 1st post

edit: i might or might not edit this post into something useful depending on whatever comes to my mind

edit2: lol at gods & monsters having trumpets

 

[Bouff]

gallade will be a monster. this is a fact.



ok but seriously, what's stopping this monster from getting qb'd? it has amazing attack and speed, better defenses than its pre-mega evo form, boosting potential, and a great movepool to back it up. there might be some decent answers like doublade, but even then, nothing is really stopping it once it gets +2.

mega sceptile and glalie also look pretty cool, i think mscept + molt will be pretty common in the tier.

 

[Camden]

With everything shaking up, I think this is the perfect time to finally throw myself right into RU. I can't wait to actually test out all of our new options.

But yeah, considering how good Gallade is, it'll find itself in OU pretty quickly. I'll be happy to see it go.

 

[Hot N Cold]

Lana del Rey is so mainstream >:(

People don’t come to see freaks in the heat of day, they come in the evening when the darkness moves in and speaks of mystery and the unknown. When logic loosens it’s vice grip and the imagination comes out to play. Night allows the stars to shine and we come alive. No. Daytime is for kiddie shows, clouds and cupie dolls. If that’s what you’re used to, but you’re in a real freak show now. My Freak Show!

Molk @ RU Freak Show

 

[Afro Smash]

#NoQuickBans
#JusticeForMegas

 

[skies]

omg great song choice :D


Also, interested in Mega Gallade because it'll just go to town with its insanely powerful Close Combats u_u. Will post more later maybe, but just wanted to pop in and say good song lol

 

[Imanalt]

I really like mega altaria on paper, if just because of its stellar matchups with the other megas. Sceptile cant really touch it and dies to return, and even +2 gallade fails to ohko after sr with ice punch, assuming you got your mega in before the sr damage
(+2 252 Gallade-Mega's Ice Punch vs 248/252 Altaria-Mega (264 - 312 HP) Damage: 74.58% - 88.14%)
meanwhile return ohkos back, so while its not a hard counter unless its completely full, its at worst a very decent check.

Also you counter megashark if anyone uses that:
(252+ Sharpedo-Mega's Ice Fang vs 248/252+ Altaria-Mega (112 - 132 HP) Damage: 31.73% - 37.39%)

Altaria also offers good supporting options between defog and heal bell, as well as maintaining offensive presence with a pretty strong return and a flamethrower that 2hkos doublade.


So yeah it seems like the best "broken mon beating broken mons" and as such seems like an absolute staple on all teams that arent just 100% offense

 

[P is For Penguin]

fear mega altaria its scurry, also mega beedrill isnt too bad either also kudos pearl on first :3

also mega lop is a thing :) cuz its really good as well

 

[Expulso]

Fletchinder is a lord, it revenges:
- Mega Gallade
- Mega Lopunny
- Mega Sceptile
- Mega Beedrill
- probably some other megas I'm forgetting b/c there are like 25 of these lmao

lol what are this dumb megas?

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

I have been trying out Slurpuff (which is kind of my baby) with its new access to Drain Punch and man it is good. After setting up a Belly Drum, this thing is just an absolute boss and is almost unstoppable once it sets up. Play Rough, Return, and Drain Punch slaughter everything in RU except Doublade, which isn't very hard to wear down with Fletchinder+Clawitzer. With Drain Punch, Slurpuff can now smash Registeel and Rhyperior and heal back a lot of HP. Being able to heal itself from Belly Drum damage is also absolutely awesome and allows Slurpuff to sustain itself while sweeping, so now it's not easy to pick off after setting up anymore. The only problem I have with this thing is trying to set up, but once it sets up, Slurpuff is basically invincible once Doublade is gone (unless you're really unlucky and Play Rough misses).

Fletchinder, as I had expected, is very useful. It revenge kills a lot of the new Megas as I had said in the speculation thread, and it's still a majestic cleaner with SD and +1 Acrobatics to wreck stuff. It's really good and is still an awesome revenge killer and win condition.

I plan on trying out Mega Gallade, Mega Sceptile, Mega Glalie, and a million other megas+Tyrantrum and Pangoro soon, as they all look to be quite promising.

EDIT: Also I heard Adaptability Dragalge is now a thing in ORAS, Specs Alge looks to be really terrifying now. Dragalge for S Rank, y/n?

 

[Mew2]

Abuse the OP stuff while you can my friends :)

Also echoing what Expulso said, Scarf Moltres and Mega Pidgeot will be very anti meta pokemon because they check a ton of the new megas like Mega Gallade, Sceptile and more.

 

[TheTraininator]

Since we're getting Adaptability Dragalge, whose Draco Meteor hits harder than Latios', I can see it getting more use too. A wallbreaking Dragon who can get around Fairies will be nice to have.

 

[KaitanTitan]

If I recall correctly, from the research threads from XY, Adaptability Dragalge's Draco Meteor hits about as hard as Reshiram's. Now given that it also has a massive special defense, Adaptability Sludge Bomb to nuke Fairies, Thunderbolt, Scald, and T-Spikes, I think HA Dragalge could put in some serious work in RU. Now, where was it confirmed that we could get it in ORAS?

 

[tutterydiglett]

If I recall correctly, from the research threads from XY, Adaptability Dragalge's Draco Meteor hits about as hard as Reshiram's. Now given that it also has a massive special defense, Adaptability Sludge Bomb to nuke Fairies, Thunderbolt, Scald, and T-Spikes, I think HA Dragalge could put in some serious work in RU. Now, where was it confirmed that we could get it in ORAS?

Ugh it's somewhere in Serebii. I had it open a few hours ago and I lost it again. I'll try to do some digging, but what I can tell you is that

1) it's found on the water lol duh

and

2) you get it as skrelp, not Dragalge

edit: actually not sure if I'm allowed to post the link cause one of my posts like this got deleted so I'll just PM it to you lel

 

[Kristy Haruka]

I can't wait for Adaptability Skrelp and Dragalge!

 

[TheTraininator]

Is ROCK HEAD TYRANTRUM released too?

Nope. Skrelp is because it's wild in OR and Dex Nav allows any wild Pokemon to be caught with a hidden ability, but Tyrunt can't appear wild. Sorry.

 

[EonX]

Ok, we've talked about all the new Megas, so I'm going to focus on Dragalge.

Adaptability Dragagle will be insanely good. Poison / Dragon is a very underrated defensive typing, and having Adaptability will not only make Specs set hit a metric fuckton, but it also makes defensive sets very difficult to set up on. Also note that Adaptability may allow for the use of Assault Vest to make Dragalge more of a pivot (it resists Fire, Grass, Electric, Water, etc.) I really can't wait to try this out. Dragalge has always been kind of a neat Pokemon and now it just got a huge reason to be used.

 

[Lyto]

I've been testing out mega pidgeot a little and it's turned out to be a lot better than I expected, filling a similar role to Moltres but with a higher SpA (135 rather than 125) and Spe stat (121 rather than 90), as well as a very abusable no-miss (!) stab hurricane. Heat wave is a weaker replacement for fire blast, but unfortunately misses out on ohkoing pokemon such as Jolteon on the switch, which can then ohko back with tbolt. U-turn and roost are both good moves as well, though thankfully Pidgeot doesn't suffer from SR as much as . Another option for it is HP Grass to hit Omastar/Lanturn/Rhyperior, all pokemon which would otherwise resist Pidgeot's primary moves.

Against the new megas it isn't quite as good, being outsped by Lopunny (which can ohko with hjk), Sceptile (which does around 60% with hp ice I believe, though the calculator is down so I can't check :(), and Beedrill (which does around the same with poison jab I think, but again I can't check), however it can outspeed and ohko mega Gallade.

 

[Punchshroom]

Sceptile (which does around 60% with hp ice I believe

Why would Sceptile run HP Ice though, since STAB Dragon Pulse hits pretty much every single target harder. Why not run HP Fire for all the Steels, most notably Bug / Steels, in the tier that would wall its dual STAB?

 

[Lyto]

Why would Sceptile run HP Ice though, since STAB Dragon Pulse hits pretty much every single target harder. Why not run HP Fire for all the Steels, most notably Bug / Steels, in the tier that would wall its dual STAB?

I knew I'd make a mistake somewhere
I saw a sceptile running it for gligar earlier so that must be where I got the thought from, please ignore that :s

 

[atomicllamas]

Yo, so I've played a couple of games, I've stopped for now though cause PS! is not updating the ladder very well. Anyways this meta is pretty new and pretty cool right now (and will be cooler when we get rid of the super broken stuff (Mega Gallade is so overcentralizing LOL)). But one Pokemon that has been doing pretty well for me in the current meta game is Physically Defensive Weezing, as it has the ability to deal with some of the new megas such as Altaria, Beedrill, Lopunny, and Steelix, and has a positive match up against a couple other Megas such as Sharpedo and Glalie. On top of this, it also deals with classic RU Pokemon such as Escavalier, Rhyperior, Hitmonlee, Durant, Gligar, and Doublade, while setting up Toxic Spikes and spreading burns.

Weezing @ Black Sludge
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Fire Blast
- Will-O-Wisp
- Toxic Spike
- Sludge Bomb

There is probably a good place to squeeze in Pain Split, but I am using it on a team with wish support so I didn't think that was as necessary. So yeah, what have you guys been using to deal with the new megas? Any underrated NU mons that people should consider using in ORAS?

 

[Kawaii Kyouko]

Same as you, Llamas. Weezers is proving to be a really solid option currently.

 

[mallpal]

escavalier seems pretty solid, checking m-glalie, m-scept, m-altaria lacking fire blast, dragalge, bd puffer and probably one or two others i'm forgetting. still suffers from being easy to wear down and w-o-w prone, though

kind of off-topic, but does anyone know if the tier shift is still set to go down at the start of december?

 

[Hot N Cold]

I'm gonna post one of the most broken megas which should be banned, a brief analysis.

Lopunny-Mega @ Lopunnite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- High Jump Kick
- Ice Punch / Baton Pass
- Power-Up Punch / Fake Out / Encore

Mega-Lopunny is insane, even if looks like is outclassed by Gallade-Mega (both are broken btw). Lopunny-Mega unlike Gallade one can run an Adamant nature easily (in my opinion is the way to go) since Lopunny is already fast, access to Fake Out and is not relevant the speed lost between Jolly or Adamant; only Dugtrio and opposite Jolly Lopunny-Mega and still even using Adamant Nature you are outrunning Whimsicott max speed which is like one of the fastest mons in the tier.

Another thing that deserves be noticed on Mega-Lopunny over much other megas his his great coverage in only two moves thanks to Scrappy, Return + HJK is a perfect coverage unlike Mega-Gallade you're hitting super effective against Doublade and Spiritomb, which otherwise could be huge threats. Great coverage only with two moves means that you have a lot of room to support your Lopunny or the rest of your team.
Power-Up Punch helps to beat way easier defensive teams and along with Scrappy means that you're not walled by ghost types so you're getting +1. Baton Pass is great specially if is paired with Power-Up Punch so you can sweep with yourself and still support your temmates after all. Ice Punch is one of the best option for the last two slots on a Gligar metagame. Encore is really good since Lopunny is so fast so will work pretty well against any kind of booster, wall etc