This post will not be related to the impending suspect of Vigoroth / Exeggutor (or possibly Dynamic Punch?), but I just wanted to comment on various metagame trends to give more casual players of the tier a comprehensive, yet concise overview of how the relevant drops we've received recently (i.e. Bouffalant, Pawniard, Exeggutor, Gorebyss, Audino, Glalie, Camerupt, Altaria) have impacted teambuilding.
To start, Exeggutor has probably had the most dramatic impact on our metagame. Its entry into the tier has increased the usage of Bug-type coverage on various Pokemon, meaning you can expect to see these coverage moves more often:
-
Kadabra's Signal Beam
-
Grumpig's Signal Beam
-
Stunfisk's HP Bug (or Sludge Wave, but if you're investing in SpA to OHKO Exeggutor as it switches in, HP Bug lets you preserve more bulk as it does more damage to Eggy than Sludge Wave does)
-
Adamant / Jolly Quilladin's Pin Missile
-
Sawsbuck's Megahorn
-
Bouffalant's Megahorn
With Pawniard dropping, 220 once again became the new benchmark to hit in Speed, and Fighting-type coverage moves have increased for certain Pokemon. Not only that, but it landing has also made Pokemon such as Stunfisk, defensive Pelipper, and Monferno better on the whole, which in turn created other meta trends that I'll touch on in a moment.
-
Roselia is now normally ran offensively with a spread of 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Speed Modest (220 Speed total there) and runs HP Fighting
-
Grumpig runs enough Speed for Pawniard with a Colbur Berry, along with either HP Fighting or Focus Blast
-
Misdreavus' minimum Speed should be 220, and is now able to run HP Fighting for Pawniard again if you're not running Pain Split or double status
-
Vigoroth no longer runs 241 Speed to creep Misdreavus which were previously creeping Mightyena; instead, Misdreavus now creeps Pawniard by +1, which means Vigoroth now creeps Misdreavus by +1 at 221 Speed total and runs a Careful nature over Jolly
While it is probably fairly obvious by this point, Pawniard dropping also benefited team archetypes based on stacking hazards (whether those hazards be Sticky Web or Spikes + SR) by giving them another option for punishing Defogs outside of Purugly's Defiant. There have been other ramifications related to Pawniard dropping, such as Duosion's AA set becoming much worse.
Monferno being more common thanks to Pawniard, Exeggutor, Bouffalant, and Audino all dropping (as I stated in my last post here:
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/np-pu-stage-4-october-all-over-throh-remains-banned.3554725/) means that physically defensive Stunfisk, Grumpig, physically defensive Pelipper, and Altaria especially will be used frequently to account for Monferno weaknesses during teambuilding (although Monferno possibly running Thunder Punch to mess with Pelipper / U-turn to mess with Grumpig is still problematic). Offensively, faster options that can either take a Mach Punch like Choice Scarf Mr. Mime, or simply outspeed it with its own priority like LO mixed Floatzel with Aqua Jet have also been used more often to check Monferno.
+
Exeggutor’s Chlorophyll set (Modest in Sun: 418 / Timid: 458, or ran with bulk for CS Rotom-F at 448 Speed total) and SS Gorebyss (Modest after SS: 406 / Timid: 446) dropping caused an increase in the usage of Scarfers and fast Pokemon in general, assuming your team doesn't already contain fat answers to these special attackers such as Tank Regice or Audino:
-
Timid LO Electrode (416) - beats Modest SS Gorebyss
-
Choice Scarf Modest Chatot (420 with HP Fighting) - outspeeds Modest Egg / Modest Gore and OHKOes both after SR
-
CS Monferno (426) - outspeeds Modest Egg / Modest Gorebyss and OHKOes Egg, but needs prior damage on Gorebyss
-
CB Ninjask (either Jolly (460) or Adamant (419) - beats Modest Egg / Modest Gorebyss if Adamant, and Timid variants of both if Jolly; needs prior damage on Gorebyss, but OHKOes Egg
-
CS Rotom-F (447) wins against these two, except for Timid Chloro variants of Egg
-
CS Mr. Mime (459) outspeeds both, but needs prior damage on both targets
-
CS Sawsbuck (475) OHKOes both with Megahorn on Egg / Seed Bomb or Horn Leech on Gorebyss
-
CS Modest Raichu (478) outspeeds and OHKOes Gorebyss, but needs prior damage to beat Eggy in Sun
-
CS Dodrio (492) outspeeds both and OHKOes Egg, but needs prior damage on Gorebyss
-
CS Modest Floatzel (493) outspeeds both, but needs prior damage on both targets
-
CS Simipour (496) outspeeds both, but needs prior damage on both targets
As stated above, Audino dropping has had a significant impact on shaping the meta, as it walls many special threats and can stop them with Thunder Wave, meaning that Choice Scarf mons (those above basically) are not nearly as necessary now as they were for revenge killing threats such as SS Gorebyss.
What's more, is that it provides the tier with a more reliable Wish user in general, which greatly benefits more defensive styles of teams. Lickilicky's Wishes that it passes are slightly bigger than Audino's, but the issue with Licklicky being used for Wishpassing is that it is often forced to use its Wishes for itself rather than for its teammates due to its lack of Regenerator. Audino is able to Wish, and then pass the Wish, while simultaneously recovering some HP via Regenerator; this in turn lets it come back in to do the same thing again and again.
Audino is yet another reason why Fighting coverage is so good in this tier, as we have many Normal-types at the moment (Bouffalant, Vigoroth, Stoutland, etc.) that need to be accounted for during teambuilding.
Bouffalant dropping has in general given the tier answers to various Grass-types via its ability Sap Sipper, both offensive Grass-types and defensive ones, which directly hindered Roselia and was part of the reason why it recently fell out of S rank.
On the opposite end, faster, floating Ghost types with access to Will-O-Wisp, essentially Misdreavus and Drifblim, have become more common for their ability to hard counter SubSD variants of Bouffalant that run Frustration and Earthquake. Gourgeist-Super also beats Bouffalant handedly for the same reason, while Spell Tag WoW + 3 Attacks Dusknoir is able to at least get a Burn in before Bouffalant uses Substitute, assuming Dusknoir outspeeds. Bouffalant is another reason why Monferno has increased in usage, given LO Monferno checks and OHKOes Bouffalant if a Substitute hasn't been set up yet.
While it's probably the least relevant among these recent meta trends, Camerupt dropping has provided another answer to threatening Electric-types in the tier, such as HP Ice Zebstrika and Choice Scarf Rotom-Frost. Rotom-F's Blizzard misses the 2HKO, which allows Camerupt to setup SR fairly reliably. Audino Wishpassing to Camerupt is a nice strategy to keep SR up on the field throughout matches.
I'm also in agreement with the others before me who've stated that offensive variants of Camerupt are pretty lackluster and SpDef sets are simply more effective.
As far as offensive answers go, Camerupt dropping has given Electric-types in the tier the option of running Water coverage. While not ideal given you lose out on Lightning Rod, Surf is an option for Raichu that lets it OHKO Camerupt after a Nasty Plot, and HP Water is a possible option for the others that don't have access to Surf to let them 2HKO Camerupt on the switch after Leftovers/SR have been factored in.
252 SpA Rotom-F Blizzard vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Camerupt: 135-159 (39.3 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Raichu Surf vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Solid Rock Camerupt: 261-308 (76 - 89.7%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252 SpA Life Orb Raichu Surf vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Solid Rock Camerupt: 515-608 (150.1 - 177.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
There have been many other changes in the meta recently, and this post barely touches on Altaria and completely misses talking about Glalie's ability to set up Spikes on many Pokemon in the tier via its decent Speed stat, but I felt these were overall the most pertinent.