Rarely Used (RU) Tier

[awonawonawon]

This is a wonderful idea, Smogon! Absolutely ingenious! By cramming half of UU into this new teir, every Pokemon can for sure now shine in the right metagame!

To commemorate this momentous achievement I present you with this:

1000 internets free of charge! Enjoy, Smogon.

 

[Oglemi]

Some pretty dangerous threats I've noticed so far:

SubCM Cresselia: She is such a beast, and there's very little in the tier that can actually break her subs even on the physical side. It's also a neat way to dodge Sucker Punch from Honchkrow, as well as avoid Toxic. I've been running Substitute / Calm Mind / Moonlight / Ice Beam and an EV spread of 252 HP / 252 Def Bold nature. The attacking move of choice is tricky, and I chose Ice Beam since nothing is immune to it.

Hone Claws Durant: Durant is pretty much the fastest thing in the tier, and he basically just destroys any wall in the tier right now. Even most Weezings are 2HKOed. I've been running Hone Claws / Iron Head / Rock Slide / X-Scissor with an EV spread of 252 Atk / 252 Spe Jolly nature.

Bulk Up Gurdurr: This thing is pretty beast, though Toxic ruins it, and he's pretty easy to phaze if he hasn't accumulated enough boosts. Though, he has an awesome priority move, and he gets all the coverage he needs with just Bulk Up / Mach Punch / Drain Punch / Payback.

Scolipede: He's super fast, and a STAB Megahorn is awesome to have in this metagame. Even without any Attack investment, he does about ~45% to practically everything in the tier that doesn't resist his Megahorn. Also Toxic Spikes are pretty kick ass to have in this meta.

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

RestTalk Cress>SubCM Cress imo

Sub Moonlight here equals RestTalk, as Cress is pretty slow, the only advantage I can see sub having is the blocking of stat drops. Also, RestTalk=waayyyy more PP.

 

[Wrave]

I have been using Stone Edge on Gurdurr since the biggest pains have been Honch and Mega for me. I am going to try Mach on it though.

Cofag as a TR mon is nice as it screws over Mega and Sharky.

 

[Boarbaque]

Some pretty dangerous threats I've noticed so far:

Hone Claws Durant: Durant is pretty much the fastest thing in the tier, and he basically just destroys any wall in the tier right now. Even most Weezings are 2HKOed. I've been running Hone Claws / Iron Head / Rock Slide / X-Scissor with an EV spread of 252 Atk / 252 Spe Jolly nature.

Scolipede: He's super fast, and a STAB Megahorn is awesome to have in this metagame. Even without any Attack investment, he does about ~45% to practically everything in the tier that doesn't resist his Megahorn. Also Toxic Spikes are pretty kick ass to have in this meta.

I tried out a Hone Claws Durant in UU and it did moderately well, but it had a lot of counters.

I am glad there is an RU tier now, because a Hone Claws Durant fits in as a top threat here.

I also love that Scolipede gets to shine here as well.

Honestly a lot of bug pokemon are excelling in RU:
- Durant (Hone Claws Sweeper)
- Scolipede (Fast and Strong Toxic Spiker)
- Yanmega (Speed Boost/Tinted Lens Sweeper)
- Venomoth (Quiver Dance Baton Passer)
- Ninjask (Swords Dance/Speed Boost Baton Passer)
- Scyther (Eviolite Swords Dance Sweeper)
- Galvantula (Compoundeyes Special Sweeper)
- Accelgor (Fast Spiker and Decent Special Sweeper)
- Crustle (Stealth Rocks Lead/Shell Smasher)

I would also like to suggest that we make an RU tier for 4th gen as well. Although it is a generation late, I would think people would generally enjoy being able to have a smaller selection of choices for NU (since 4th gen NU is like 300 pokemon).

Cofag as a TR mon is nice as it screws over Mega and Sharky.

The rise in Cofagrigus usage might make the usage of Slaking and Archeops rise as well. I have seen a pretty successful team that had Cofagrigus give Mummy, then have Slaking pursuit him.

 

[Nerffie]

It's hilarious how effortlessly Honchkrow rips through teams in this tier.

 

[TickingSeedotBomb]

I HATE Cresselia. She's so hard to deal damage to and she can slowly kill you with her Calm Minds. She has substitute or Psycho Shift for status ailments.

I also dislike Honchkrow, he's hard to deal with. Nothing else is really that hard for me though. Never fought Durants surprisingly

 

[SlimMan]

Ok then since borderline is a UU banlist but OU is not it means that blissey isn't as good as cresselia and it may become a UU one day if it usefulness falls and it will be killed much more easily than cresselia.Totally logical...

I assume you're talking about Gen4.
If Blissey had fallen to UU, and it was broken in UU, we would have sent it to BL. Just like we did with Cresselia.
Or if Blissey had fallen to UU, and is was not broken in UU, then we would've kept it in UU.

But it doesn't mean that Cresselia is better than Blissey. Because Blissey could hypothetically suck in UU if it ever fell. Or it could be even more broken than Cresselia was if it ever fell.

I won't keep up with this conversation because there's no point to do so.

ok

1)I would like to learn what are the obvious reasons.I can explain to you via pm or vm what i meant with '' for obvious reasons '' if you want.
2)I just said my opinion and about 5-10 people started talking about and i just answered to explain better what i meant.
3)Thank you :)

1)Well, I've been trying to explain them. Just like you've been trying to explain yours. But I don't think yours are any good, and you probably don't think mine are any good.
2)But we were just talking about why our opinions are a certain way, just like you were doing. And it seems to have come to naught.
3)You're welcome. ;D



Also, I'm agreeing with Boarbeque that this is a Bug-dominated metagame. Interestingly, although Bugs are common and powerful, things like Cresselia and Sharpedo manage to excel nonetheless (by virtue of amazing stats and ability, respectively, but it's still impressive).

 

[Dr. Alex]

Swellow is also a badass sweeper.

Oh, and Scarf Primeape ftw

 

[Spork]

One pokemon that is pretty great is Krookodile. He's like an RU TTar. He has great trollish speed (92) that outspeeds most of the tier, has Dark STAB and Pursuit, gets STAB Earthquake, and Stone Edge / Rock Slide for coverage (his offensive movepool actually extends beyond this though). I personally run a Jolly Moxie Hone Claws set with Crunch, Earthquake and Stone Edge (after a Hone Claws, not much can take (or evade) a hit thanks to great coverage, and the fact that Krook has SE STAB against the tier's premier walls, meaning it's quite easy for him to get a Moxie boost). Getting rid of Sharpedo / Yanmega is unfortunately pretty vital for that sweep though.

A Choice Band set w/ Pursuit, Crunch, Earthquake, and Stone Edge/Rock Slide might work also, with either Moxie or Intimidate (depending on whether he functions as more of a cleaner or momentum gainer).

 

[Wrave]

If we want to do a banlist for RU, I will gladly nominate both Cresselia and Honchkrow. I have to sacrifice a mon for both.

 

[Spork]

If we want to do a banlist for RU, I will gladly nominate both Cresselia and Honchkrow. I have to sacrifice a mon for both.

The obvious response to this is "build a better team", lol.

I agree that Cress is crazy broken, but until certain other pokes are banned, I don't think Honchkrow is near to being the "most broken" yet, and he's actually quite vital right now as he can check a fair few top threats.

 

[Choice Socks]

Cress isn't broken, bulky but not broken. In a bug dominated meta it really isn't hard to kill any psychic pokemon.

 

[Oglemi]

I find it hard to believe that Cresselia is broken atm. Sure, she's damn good, but not broken. If anything, I'd nominate Durant to be the only broken thing so far. I haven't swept with anything this easily since Staraptor in UU last gen.

Some more things that are pretty impressive:

Weezing: He's finally one of the best physical walls around again, and though he gets 2HKOed by +1 Durant, he can at least tank a hit and KO back with Flamethrower. Also, him and Umbreon form a pretty decent defensive core again.

Honchkrow: This thing's power is kind of ridiculous, and the mind games he forces people into are kind of insane. I've been running a Scarf set of Brave Bird / Pursuit / Heat Wave / Superpower and it's amazing. Definitely a top-tier threat.

Venomoth and Yanmega: Both are damn strong, and are hard to revenge kill due to Sleep Powder and Speed Boost respectively. Priority is also not very common in RU, and both 4x resist Mach Punch and Vacuum Wave.

 

[moonbound]

Magneton theoretically seems like a good poke to use. Tbolt and HP fire/rock is pretty good against most of ru. Since there is no real need to trap steels, he can run sturdy to ensure that he always gets one hit or twave off. Eviolite makes him pretty bulky, with decent 50/95/70 defenses to start with, or he can run a scarf revenge killing set with volt switch.

 

[Choice Socks]

Honchkrow: This thing's power is kind of ridiculous, and the mind games he forces people into are kind of insane. I've been running a Scarf set of Brave Bird / Pursuit / Heat Wave / Superpower and it's amazing. Definitely a top-tier threat.

I've been running this too, but with sucker punch > heatwave. He is a excellent counter to venomoth as you switch in on the predicted sleep powder with full immunity and outspeed for the OHKO.

 

[Oglemi]

I've been running this too, but with sucker punch > heatwave. He is a excellent counter to venomoth as you switch in on the predicted sleep powder with full immunity and outspeed for the OHKO.

Yeah that's actually the reason I decided to go with Scarf lol. It's also nice to nail stuff like Yanmega before a Speed Boost and a couple of other things like Durant and Scolipede. Honchkrow really doesn't even notice the drop in power from LO or CB.

 

[Oglemi]

Double post cuz I can.

Anyway, after much tribulation, I got an IRC channel set up that will cover all discussion of the RU metagame mostly because we had 3 channels of confusion and I know that TFC and rey wouldn't appreciate RU talk in #dreamworld atm.

Join us at #rarelyused for awesomeness.

For now this will be the "official" channel.

 

[Heysup]

I've been really liking Qwilfish as a Spiker with Intimidate, it's pretty fun. Great fighting resist. I guess this tier is lacking spinblockers but Golurk is good and I have yet to try out Haunter.

 

[TLK]

I've not played that much of RU, but Dusknoir looks like it'll be a beastly spin blocker in this tier.

I'm only basing this from the tier lists, but it looks arguably easier to spin block in this tier than in all the others.

 

[Ninja-persian]

This tier is awesome! I think gastrodon can be quite the pokemon in this tier as a special wall, storm drain making it an effective tank and only one weakness. I am using a gastrodon right now, and I can say it can come in in many special attacks from some good pokemon in the tier. It can also counter cress pretty well!

 

[GatorBoi]

Cress isn't broken, bulky but not broken. In a bug dominated meta it really isn't hard to kill any psychic pokemon.

I totally agree with this Cress can be taken down. I find the eviolite munchlax is alittle more challenging for me to deal with due to the lack of fighting in this tier. This tier is awesome and I don't see many problems with it.

 

[Red Alert]

every cress I've encountered hasn't been able to do anything to my quagsire. They usually run sub/cm or something and wind up getting out-stalled. If they don't have sub then toxic beats 'em pretty quickly.

 

[Raikaria]

Defensive Quagsire ends up in a stall war against RestTalk Cress, neither can break the other, barring multiple Criticals, or a Sp.Def drop from Psychic, if Cress is running it.

Unaware dosen't ignore your own stat changes, after all.

 

[Gneiss is nice]

I've been running this too, but with sucker punch > heatwave. He is a excellent counter to venomoth as you switch in on the predicted sleep powder with full immunity and outspeed for the OHKO.

I've actually been using Honchkrow on my OU Hail team, and he destroys things. He's unfortunately sorta squishy, but he hits like a truck. He's very useful in OU for me, so I can only imagine how useful he is in RU.