Hey guys, i feel like it is time to give my opinion on TS. You may know me as balderr(2), TierShift, or the guy that keeps haxing Arkeis :)
First of all, huge props to PureQuestion for making TierShift! Many have tried to create a metagame in which a lot of lower rank pokemon are viable, with complicated buffs, weird new mechanics or complex changes, but this concept is so simple and at the same time does what it needs to do: make lower tier pokes viable in a OU-like metagame. This doesn't mean that actually more pokemon are viable than in OU, but definitely different pokes and strategies. So far I have enjoyed the tier really much, it is vastly different from regualr OU and I am still discovering new things daily!
At first i expected a few NU threats to be hugely overpowered, such as Shedinja, Pikachu, Charizard, Shuckle and Regirock. This is obviously not the case, with the first three being complete shit (seriously people, don't use Shedinja), Shuckle strong but only without hazards and Regirock pretty okay on Sand teams. But my point is, nothing is too OP, everything balances each other out nicely, so again, thanks PureQuestion for this awesome metagame!
The tier puts a huge emphasis on weather, with a lot of good weather abusers getting +15 to all their stats. For that reason, I have not seen many good weatherless teams (kudos, Arkeis). Weather wars are really important in this tier, more so than in OU, losing the weather war generally means losing the game. This may sound boring, but there are many new ways to confront the weather war, with all the newly viable pokes. There are 3 main weathers, rain, sun and sand:
Rain teams are offensive of nature and usually feature Politoed with at least one Hydration pokemon, such as Swanna, Lapras or Whiscash. These pokemon can act as status absorbers and have a move with which they recover all their health and lose their status, Rest. It is generally not really easy to win the weather war with Toed, but if you manage and your Lapras/Whiscash is healthy, it is basically gg. Generally these teams try to switch in Toed really often, so predict well and take the frog down when playing against it.
Sun teams are mostly offensive of nature as well. They need Ninetales, a spinner or bouncer, Dugtrio and some abusers. There are a hell of a lot new Chlorophyll pokemon, all insanely strong such as Sawsbuck, Exeggutor and Victreebel. At the very beginning there were a lot of sun teams, but the usage seems to have died down. The disadvantage of these teams is that Ninetales is really a bad poke and hard to keep alive, the good part is that the sun abusers threaten the other weather inducers, so it might be hard to get your own weather up against sun. Sun teams rely immensely on their bouncer/spinner, so take advantage of that while playing against it.
Sand teams can be defensive or offensive. Sand stall is in my opinion the best style of team at the moment and the top of the ladder seems to agree. Sand doesn't rely so much on abusers, but on residual damage and not giving the opponent's weather a chance to shine. That doesn't mean that they don't have abusers, Stoutland is the main Sand Rush user, with Sandslash also doing a good job. Sand stall tries to win the weather war by hazards, restricting other inducers to maybe 3 switchins. Try to status the inducers, that is your best chance of winning the weather war when playing against sand.
As I just explained, weather is so important, that i would recommend every team to be based around weather and also have solid answers to other weathers. A strong antiweather mon like Sigilyph is a welcome addition to a lot of teams.
And now here is what you all have been waiting for, the awesome pokemon nobody uses but is awesome:
Shelgon @ Eviolite
Trait: Overcoat
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Atk / 236 Def
Impish Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Sleep Talk
- Rest
Well, here I am giving you some nice food for thought. You might declare me crazy for using gimmick sets and stuff, but well, I wanted to give it a try and I must say that I am very positively impressed. As the metagame is very physically oriented, it can really shine right now. First of all, it is a good status absorber and immune to SS/hail damage. Secondly, it walls most physical attackers into oblivion and sets up on every physical attack barring the unusual outrage. After a few dragon dances, it OHKO's almost everything and at +6, it can 2HKO even physically defensive Forretress and Skarmory. The only ways to deal with it are strong special attackers, which most teams have just 1 of, Taunt users, which are not that common, and phazers. The first 2 are usually easy to eliminate, while the last can be completely demolished by sacrificing your other members for a final last poke sweep. So, what do you guys think of Shelgon?
