The Top 10 Titans of the 5th Gen OU Metagame [VOTING OVER]

SmashBrosBrawl said:
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What effect did Ninetales have on the metagame?

Thanks to drought, ninetales presence suddenly makes full sun teams viable and power up sweepers like venusaur, volcarona and wallbreakers like victini and darmanitan. Even niche mons like sawsbuck become viable, all thanks to the massive benefits that permanent sun provides. Sun teams are yet another part of the weather infested metagame we have now and despite their flaws (massive weakness to hazards, ninetales frailty makes it difficult to win weather wars), sun is probably the most dangerous of all weather. Theres nothing scarier than the sight of a clorophyl sweeper getting a stat boost when you no longer have any way to change weather.

In what main roles was Ninetales used?

Pretty much anything ranging from nasty plot sweeper to special wall. This is not a testament of how good ninetales is but of how bad it actually is outside of setupping sun. The fire fox unfornately finds little to do on a team due to its frailty, bad typing and terrible offensive stats, which means its choice of set is hardly relevant. As long as you dont give it a life orb literally anything can work since ninetales job is unfornately just survive and win the weather war. Its not uncommon for players to sack ninetales early when playing against weatherless teams as it wont be doing much through the battle
What caused it to have a significant impact?

Sun teams are a powerful archetype with clorophyl sweepers getting boosted speed, growth users getting a double boost and fire types getting boosted stab moves. This makes sun team specially scary to weatherless teams to face since they cant change the weather. Ninetales is also important for keeping the common and powerful rain teams in check and increase the viability of several pokemon that would otherwise never see the light of ou like venusaur.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in OU?

Just smash it with powerful moves. Simply put, ninetales inst a threat at all. It can certainly be annoying with will-o-wisp, hypnosis and pain split shenanigans but at the end of day its lack of reliable recover and terrible typing makes it easy to beat. Garchomp, terrakion, politoed, tyranitar, gyarados, latios among others can simply destroy ninetales with their stab moves and dont really care about anything except a possible will-o-wisp burn. Focus on dealing with ninetales teammates and not with the fox itself.
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Yesss thanks a ton. Now after I get the OP updated we can start the voting phase. I've decided to start from #1 and work our way up to #10 because I feel like the first couple of spots are easier and less controversial then the last few slots, so having less Pokemon to work with towards the end will make it much easier. Besides, I think we can all guess what Pokemon is #1 on this list.
 
Voting for #1 spot​

Alright the voting has begun! We are going to be first voting for the #1 spot. Now this is an important decision because we're ranking a Pokemon that has been deemed the most influential and has had the largest impact of any Pokemon in the entire OU tier, so choose wisely! You're not required to write any sort of description about your vote, but if you want to then you're more then welcome to. The voting will always last for two days, as I feel that is more than enough time to cast your votes. Happy voting!

My vote is...

Politoed:
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for #1

I don't think there's any doubt that this thing has had the biggest impact on the metagame this generation. It brought Drizzle, a playstyle only seen in Ubers, down to OU. That's crazy. It caused several Pokemon to be banned to Ubers, it caused an entire complex ban, and it's made many Pokemon viable and many Pokemon nonviable. Politoed without a doubt is the most influential Pokemon in the tier. It shaped the metagame as we know it.

EDIT: Remember guys, you don't HAVE to write anything to go along with your votes. I just like to because I want people to know why I made this decision.
 
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I am also voting for...
Politoed:
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Like Gary said, it's the catalyst for half the bans this generation, including the first complex ban that I know of (to be fair, I started playing in late 2010), and even though Tyranitar has been bringing permaweather for two full generations longer, Politoed is the face of OU weather. I guess we should be thankful that something as relatively harmless as Politoed got Drizzle and not, you know, Zapdos.

Scratch that, if something as naturally good as Zapdos got Drizzle, we'd have banned him long ago. Goddammit, GameFreak.
 
I am voting for ...

Ferrothorn

I honestly don't think a defensive Pokemon has had as much impact on the metagame since GSC Snorlax. Ferrothorn was simply blessed in typing, stats, movepool ... it's a great wall on either side, capable of lasting many hits, laying down hazards and even hitting reasonably hard. Almost every set for every OU Pokemon mentions how it can get past thus thing because it is simply the most versatile wall in BW OU. This Pokemon has shaped the offensive and defensive face of the BW OU meta, almost as much as weather, and I'd say more than any individual weather setter.
 
Voting Politoed for #1

I mean, this is easy; Politoed is without a doubt the most influential pokemon in the OU tier. Drizzle is one of the best abilities in the game, as it summons rain, the most powerful weather in the game. Rain caused the complex ban of Aldaron's proposal, and ended up banning pokemon like Tornadus-t. This shows the power of permanent rain. Like Gary said, it's made Pokemon viable and many Pokemon nonviable (tentacruel, tornadus-t,). Politoed is the most influential OU Pokemon as it basically shaped the metagame into weather wars. I would say more, but It's quote obvious that Politoed has had the biggest impact on the OU metagame; I wouldn't be surprised if there was a unanimous vote for Politoed for the #1 slot.
 
Voting Politoed for #1

This is pretty obvious, as gen 5 OU is known for the weather wars thanks to Tyranitar, Ninetales, and Politoed itself. Politoed last generation was at the bottom on usage stats in gen 4, as it was placed in the NU tier. With Dream World, Politoed's usage sky rocketed thanks to Drizzle. Some argue that Politoed is so centralizing, that some people claim that it's broken. Politoed is what makes bulky Grass types like Amoonguss and Celebi so much more viable and needed to tank powerful boosted Water type attacks. Starmie, Keldeo, Rotom-W, Tornadus(-T), and other rain sweepers are all extremely powerful thanks to Politoed. Politoed created play-styles like rain stall which would have been impossible to pull off last generation. All in all, it's what made gen 5 what it is. It's dominance is clear throughout the whole generation.

So yeah, Politoed is obvious.
 
I would vote for Politoed for #1.

Politoed single-handedly destroyed the metagame for the entirety of BW. Pretty much every single suspect can be traced to either Politoed's helpful effects, or a reaction to Politoed's helpful effects. Drizzle is unignorable, buffing defensive pokemon with weaknesses to fire types like Jirachi and Ferrothorn, buffing scary offensive threats like Keldeo and Gyarados, and making the game more about the weather than anything else. I hate the little fucker, but I can't deny that it was the most influential on the metagame.
 
Voting for Politoed for #1

I think you'd be hard-pressed to think of a reason why Politoed wouldn't be considered the most influential Pokémon in BW OU. I mean, rain may not be the most used weather anymore, but it absolutely defines our metagame. When was the last time you heard people talking about Fire-types in OU without saying "unfortunately its STAB gets weakened under the rain"? They don't because rain defines everything. It isn't too hard to see why either. I mean, Politoed makes things like Tornadus viable, made Keldeo suspect-worthy, and caused Swift Swim, Manaphy, and Tornadus-T to be banned. Politoed's rain also gives its abusers three base 120 power moves with 100% Accuracy and a 30% chance for a secondary effect (Hurricane, Scald, and Thunder), which is a large contributing factor to the complaints of BW being a "brainless" metagame. Hell, if it weren't for Politoed, chances are Victini and darmanitan would have a good shot at OU, Kingdra and Tornadus would never be seen, Ferrothorn and Tentacruel wouldn't be nearly as annoying, and Gastrodon would be out of a job. The effect that Politoed has had on the metagame was and is enormous. It is undoubtably deserving of the #1 spot.
 
Voting...

Politoed for the #1 spot.

The first complex ban in the history of the OU metagame was done solely for this little guy, that alone makes it the most influencial poke in this generation. But not only that, it has caused at least three fourths of the meta to be influencial themselves, do you think jellicent would have been that big of a wall had rain not been ever present? Thundurus or Tornadus-T wouldve been banned? Would hydro pump be one of the most feared moves in the game? To this day, even though we have nerfed rain to no end, it is still the most problematic and influencial of all the weathers.
 
Nominating Garchomp.

What effect did Garchomp have on the metagame?

Garchomp started out as one of the most annoying Pokemon in the game, and was recognized as the face of Sand offense / balance back in BW1 up until it was banned. For some, Garchomp was a fun Pokemon to use which could almost always turn around a game in the blink of an eye, but for the non-delusional ones, Garchomp was an annoying, broken, and game-changing Pokemon which needed to go simply because of the immense luck factor it brought into the game. It turned Sand into no doubt the most solid weather out there, and because it could literally beat all of its checks and counters one way or another through luck, it was one of the most annoying Pokemon to face once it got behind a Substitute. It made Poison Heal Gliscor extremely popular, and that's definitely saying something. Gliscor could only beat Garchomp 60% of the time about, as if it were weakened or missed a few Ice Fangs it could easily fall prey to Garchomp. If anything was annoying, it was the fact that Garchomp could become even more annoying through the use of hazards and teammates. Tyranitar + Skarmory + SubSD Garchomp was very popular in the era, and because of the ability to cause switches and weaken its own counters after repeated switching and weakening, Garchomp was definitely terrorizing in its prime. Pair it with paralysis additionally and you have something even worse, as this basically makes hitting it with anything short of a 100% accuracy move unreliable completely.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

The power it held and the ability to turn games around completely. Garchomp today is known as a Stealth Rocker, Bander, Scarfer, or Swords Dance user. Back then Garchomp was almost an exclusive SubSD Sand Veil abuser. Garchomp was extremely deadly back in the metagame it was in, and considering Gliscor and Skarmory were probably the most reliable counters to Garchomp at the time (if you can call them that), and it made them very popular at the time. It controlled weather basically, and made Sand the most prominent weather at the time. Garchomp could deal very well against all other forms of weather, even Hail, which made it able to command the sandstorms in its own favor.

How did / do you deal with Garchomp in OU?

Garchomp was almost always an annoyance with Sand Veil and under Substitute, and only a few select Pokemon could 100% deal with it consistently. Skarmory is probably the most reliable one of them all, as Garchomp needs to carry Fire Blast to beat it. Garchomp was also hard countered by Gliscor, Hippowdon, and other strong physical walls to an extent. Nowadays Garchomp has spread a bit set-wise, and for the most part bulky waters, Landorus-T, steels like Skarmory and anything with Ice Shard or something that outspends it is useful for taking down Garchomp.
 
Voting Politoed for #1.

I feel like most of the reasons for the obvious #1 have already been said. BW was defined by Politoed, with a good number of the bans having Politoed's ability to blame for being broken. While Politoed itself isn't a very good pokemon, it's Drizzle ability has completely shaped the metagame to be based around abusing weathers. Politoed has also given way for pokemon like Tornadus, Tentacruel and Toxicroak to be viable in OU. Rain is definitely the defining force in Gen 5 OU, so the #1 should obviously be the toad behind it. #2 might be more interesting to see what people think.
 
Aerophoenix said:
I am voting for ...

Ferrothorn

I honestly don't think a defensive Pokemon has had as much impact on the metagame since GSC Snorlax. Ferrothorn was simply blessed in typing, stats, movepool ... it's a great wall on either side, capable of lasting many hits, laying down hazards and even hitting reasonably hard. Almost every set for every OU Pokemon mentions how it can get past thus thing because it is simply the most versatile wall in BW OU. This Pokemon has shaped the offensive and defensive face of the BW OU meta, almost as much as weather, and I'd say more than any individual weather setter.
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While Ferrothorn has, indeed, had a great impact on the metagame, what exactly caused him to be so effective? One of the main factors is the ability to counter rain.

Therefor, I am, too, voting Politoed for #1. Rain has been a dominant force throughout the whole meta, no, it has been THE dominant force throughout the meta. There's just no way you can slap some Pokemon on your team and call it a day without having several things that can check rain threats. Back before Aldaron's Proposal and Manaphy's ban I can only imagine how stupidly dominant rain was. There's just no question about it, rain king for #1.
 
People have already said everything I was going to bring up. Politoed is the most influential Pokemon of the fifth generation, no doubt.
 
Politoed for #1

I really don't think I need a paragraph for this, Politoed, if we're being real, started the weather war. The real weather war is between Sand and Rain, Hail and Sun are just bystanders.
 
Robert Alfons said:
While Ferrothorn has, indeed, had a great impact on the metagame, what exactly caused him to be so effective? One of the main factors is the ability to counter rain.

Therefor, I am, too, voting Politoed for #1. Rain has been a dominant force throughout the whole meta, no, it has been THE dominant force throughout the meta. There's just no way you can slap some Pokemon on your team and call it a day without having several things that can check rain threats. Back before Aldaron's Proposal and Manaphy's ban I can only imagine how stupidly dominant rain was. There's just no question about it, rain king for #1.
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Even with rain cast aside, Ferrothorn deals with such an incredible number of threats. Yes, many of these threats are rain threats, because rain is an incredibly huge force--I'm not denying that. And I firmly believe that, if instead of ranking Pokemon, we ranked general things that shaped the BW OU meta, I'd agree that "weather" would be #1 (maybe #2 after Stealth Rock but that's beside the point). But as I said, I have a hard time ranking an individual weather starter--even one as influential as Politoed--as #1 when it's only part of the larger "weather" archetype that was so big this Gen. Having to share that spotlight with Ninetales, Hippowdon and especially Tyranitar means they're each a little less impactful.
Please understand I agree that Politoed us huge and he's easily #2 in my books, but I feel like Ferrothorn helped greatly shape the BW OU meta from day 1. I mean, let's give a little credit to the first BW OU Pokemon to get featured in a Smog article.

Also, everyone, please remember to write your reasoning for your vote, even if it's just a few sentences.
 
Voting for Politoed #1

This is a pretty easy vote. Politoed pretty much made OU what it is today. So many Pokemon were usable or made to be een better because of the Rain Politoed brought to the table. It made people have to run at least 2-3 resistances against common Rain abusers. Many Pokemon shined due to their ability to counter Rain, Ferrothorn, former RU Gastrodon, Amoongus and Celebi. Not only that, but Politoed has caused so many bans from Swift Swim+Drizzle, Manaphy, Tornadus-T, Thundurus-I and even a suspect for Keldeo. Also, Politoed isn't a dead weight weather summoner like Ninetales. It's typing gives it handy resistances and has respectable Special Attack to abuse moves like Hydro Pump that hits other T-Tar and Ninetales SE. Politoed is the face of OU (that sounded stupid).
 
Aerophoenix said:
Even with rain cast aside, Ferrothorn deals with such an incredible number of threats. Yes, many of these threats are rain threats, because rain is an incredibly huge force--I'm not denying that. And I firmly believe that, if instead of ranking Pokemon, we ranked general things that shaped the BW OU meta, I'd agree that "weather" would be #1 (maybe #2 after Stealth Rock but that's beside the point). But as I said, I have a hard time ranking an individual weather starter--even one as influential as Politoed--as #1 when it's only part of the larger "weather" archetype that was so big this Gen. Having to share that spotlight with Ninetales, Hippowdon and especially Tyranitar means they're each a little less impactful.
Please understand I agree that Politoed us huge and he's easily #2 in my books, but I feel like Ferrothorn helped greatly shape the BW OU meta from day 1. I mean, let's give a little credit to the first BW OU Pokemon to get featured in a Smog article.

Also, everyone, please remember to write your reasoning for your vote, even if it's just a few sentences.
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Well judging by the amount of likes on Swamp Rocket's concern about justifying votes through descriptions, a lot of people don't seem to want to do that, so I'm not requiring voters to do that. If you have the time, it would be nice if you could do it, however, it's not required.
 
Politoed

One obvious flaw with requiring paragraphs is that you're eventually going to keep seeing the same things over and over. For instance, I'd probably discuss the bans caused by Politoed, the requirement for at least two or three Water resists due to Rain, the raw dominance and power of Rain playstyles, the number of Pokemon it has made more and less viable, and a couple of other things that have already been expanded upon many times in other paragraphs. I'll just sum it up by saying that while Politoed may not be the most powerful Pokemon to ever run around in OU, the effect it has had on the metagame with Drizzle far outshines the raw impact of anything else. I've long thought of Politoed as the "King of 5th Gen OU," and so I can't think of another Pokemon more deserving of the #1 spot.
 
There's not much to say for Politoed that hasn't been said already, but I guess I can repeat stuff again.

Politoed is pretty mediocre, but thanks to Drizzle it has affected the meta heavily during the entire course of BW and BW2. What Drizzle has over all the other nominations is that it has had a constant and powerful effect on the meta, affecting bans (Manaphy and Drizzle+Swift Swim, plus arguably others) and making certain pokemon good (Gastro and maybe Amoongus were pretty good for their ability to handle rain). There really isn't any reason why Politoed SHOULD'T be #1, as Drizzle has had arguably the biggest and most constant impact on the meta.
 
To be honest, I think the paragraphs will make much more sense once the choices aren't as obvious. Obviously most people think that Politoed is #1, but for something like #5 or #6, people's choices will most likely be different. This is where the paragraphs become effective. I can understand why some people might think it's a waste of time, but it's a few sentences on why you think this Pokemon should be placed in this position. It really doesn't take long to explain yourself, and the benefits that paragraphs bring to this project (weeding out bad voters, generating discussion etc), far out weighs the cons ("time wasting" and "pointless").

All in all, I think you guys should give Gary a break, and instead of writing about how the system is flawed, type up why you think Politoed (or any other Pokemon) is #1. Sorry if I came off harsh here, I haven't had much sleep 9.9
 
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