National Dex: 19 Types, 19 Teras
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Art by uppa.
Introduction
Generation 9's Terastal mechanic is a game changer, revolutionizing the way we approach the returning Pokémon in National Dex. Picture this: a dynamic array of Tera types, each wielding the power to skyrocket a Pokémon's STAB moves to unprecedented heights. From flipping potentially losing matchups on their heads to equipping Pokémon with a new devastating coverage move, the possibilities are endless. With a plethora of usable Tera types, every Pokémon becomes a force to be reckoned with. Yet, amidst the excitement, some shine brighter than others, due to being either too much of a liability defensively (hello Bug-type!) or simply outclassed offensively. Fear not, this brilliant article is here to delve into the thrilling world of Tera types, ranking them based on their viability and usability in the tier!
Amazing
These Tera types vastly improve how their Pokémon function, and generally have various uses. There is generally no better substitute for these types on Pokémon they are used on, and they are the best choices for the utility they provide.
Dragon
Dragon
- Slowking-Galar @ Heavy-Duty Boots
- Ability: Regenerator
- Tera Type: Dragon
- EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
- Sassy Nature
- IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- - Sludge Bomb
- - Future Sight
- - Chilly Reception
- - Thunder Wave
While not used much offensively, Dragon is one of the tier's most popular defensive types, mainly due to Ogerpon-W leaving the tier in shambles. Similarly to Grass, it provides useful Water and Electric resistances while also keeping a Fire resistance for most Pokémon. Galarian Slowking is a prime example of a Tera Dragon user, leveraging its newfound Fire resistance to function as a sturdy check to Mega Charizard Y and operate as a pseudo-check to Ogerpon-W, switching in easily and crippling it with Thunder Wave or threatening it prior to Terastallizing with Sludge Bomb. However, Terastallizing into a Dragon-type does come at the cost of no longer being able to safely pivot into Fairy- and Fighting-types like Iron Valiant and Tapu Lele, as most teams rely on Galarian Slowking to check them.
Fairy
Fairy
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The Fairy type since its conception has been a dynamo both offensively and defensively, transforming otherwise mediocre Pokémon stat-wise like Clefable into OU staples while also completely shutting down the dominance of Dragon-type STAB post-BW. Tera Fairy in NatDex is equally as polarizing, forcing teams to prepare to beat a Gliscor with only two uncommon weaknesses or have a Fairy-resistant Pokémon that can take Tera Fairy Iron Valiant's Moonblast repeatedly. In Iron Valiant's case, Tera Fairy turns its Choice Specs set into a premier powerhouse, allowing it to chunk even Fairy-resistant foes with its STAB Moonblast. This also removes its Flying and Fairy weaknesses, dissuading Tornadus-T and Clefable from attempting to revenge kill it. Defensively, Tera Fairy is also stellar, having only two weaknesses that aren't common offensively, key resistances to types like Fighting and Dark, and numerous neutralities. This is also the case with Gliscor, as once it Terastallizes into a Fairy-type, opposing teams are left helpless trying to pick it apart once their Kyurem or Urshifu-R can no longer consistently force it out. Losing Gliscor’s original typing does have drawbacks though; with Gliscor notably now being able to be worn down by Spikes, its biggest boon is now its biggest nightmare.
Grass
Grass
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While Grass is generally regarded as the weakest of the Fire / Water / Grass trio due to a relatively lacking offensive presence and notable weaknesses to Fire and U-turn, it comes with other traits that greatly benefit some select Pokémon. Water and Grass resistances make Tera Grass users some of the best checks against Ogerpon-W by providing an answer to its STAB moves, while the extra Ground resistance never hurts. Heatran utilizes these benefits to expand its defensive and offensive reach, turning its Water and quad Ground weaknesses into resistances, while its ability negates Fire-type attacks looking to set it ablaze. This allows it to now check Ogerpon-W, as well as other Heatran, Mega Charizard Y, and Volcarona lacking Bug Buzz, with the latter two frequently investing in Scorching Sands and Hidden Power Ground to snipe Heatran before it Terastallizes. It comes with offensive pros as well, as Heatran can now trap and remove Gliscor and Garganacl with Magma Storm and Taunt, turning the tables on the former and forcing the latter looking to snipe Heatran with Earthquake to Terastallize itself On the flip side, Rillaboom stands out as an offensive Tera Grass user after the unfortunate power decrease to Grassy Glide, which it often needs to use as its sole STAB move. It chooses to remedy this issue with Tera Grass, almost returning it to its glory last generation and greatly improving both its revenge killing and late-game cleaning capabilities. However, Grass's type weaknesses hurt these Pokémon, most notably leaving them vulnerable to Tornadus-T and Zapdos's Flying-type STAB moves, which Heatran used to check, whereas Rillaboom could otherwise use a Tera type such as Electric to circumvent these weaknesses. Heatran also loses its Poison immunity post-Terastallization, leaving it vulnerable to stray Toxics.
Psychic
Psychic
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Tera Psychic has blessed us with an upgrade to one of the most powerful wallbreakers to ever grace NatDex OU, Choice Specs Tapu Lele. Terastallization gives this monster an unneeded but very much appreciated boost to its Psychic. Prior to Terastallization, Choice Specs Tapu Lele was already extremely threatening, being able to 2HKO the entire tier with a correctly chosen attack, but it was prone to losing momentum if it predicted wrongly. With Terastallization, however, this is a different story; Tapu Lele can now literally 2HKO the entire tier (outside of immunities) with solely its Psychic-type STAB moves, making it near impossible to deal with defensively. Sturdy Steel-types that would usually pivot into it like Mega Scizor and Ferrothorn are blasted away after taking Stealth Rock damage. This doesn't come without a cost, though, as losing the defensive utility of its secondary Fairy typing means it is now weak to Dark, which makes it extremely susceptible to being Pursuit trapped, or revenge killed by the numerous Dark-types in the tier. On the other hand, Psychic has never been known as a premier defensive type, with a majority of the premier OU Psychic-types in the past being either frail attackers or somewhat of a liability defensively. In spite of that, it does have one very specific use defensively, which other Psychic-types have leveraged in the past: resisting Fighting and Psychic. That specific resistance combination has played a key part in why Pokémon like Reuniclus and Mega Latias have been important defensive pieces on bulkier teams: giving them their ability to handle Mega Medicham’s STAB combination. Toxapex takes advantage of this perfectly, as while it's usually forced to switch to whatever you want to risk sacking by Mega Medicham, it now effectively walls it completely, being able to threaten it out with the possibility of a Scald burn or Toxic; this is a prime example of defensive Terastallization being used effectively. Furthermore, Tera Psychic allows it to safely scout Tapu Lele sets and threaten those locked into a Psychic-type move with Toxic. Unfortunately, Psychic’s liability on the defensive end comes to bite back, as now Toxapex is unable to check a majority of the things it used to be able to; Pokémon ranging from Weavile, Volcarona, and Barraskewda now can break past it with ease, while Toxapex is also unable to absorb Knock Off. This makes Tera Psychic a huge risk defensively, but it could potentially be worth it on a well-prepared bulky team, which can often have to end up losing a Pokémon each time Mega Medicham comes in.
Steel
Steel
- Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
- Ability: Multiscale
- Tera Type: Steel
- EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Jolly Nature
- - Dragon Dance
- - Dual Wingbeat / Roost
- - Earthquake
- - Ice Spinner
With resistances to more than half the types in the game and helpful Toxic and sand immunities, it goes without saying that Steel remains an ideal typing for offensive and defensive Pokémon alike to Terastallize into. While Pokémon such as Toxapex and Galarian Slowking use it strictly defensively, it finds its greatest niche as a way for dangerous sweepers to gain opportunities to set up. Dragonite turns its Ice, Fairy, and Dragon weaknesses into resistances, being able to set up on the likes of Choice-locked Tapu Lele, Iron Valiant, and Weavile, even potentially being able to accumulate multiple Dragon Dances. From there, it can potentially wreak havoc while resisting attempts to revenge kill it with common priority moves such as Mega Lopunny's Fake Out and Mega Scizor's Bullet Punch, although it does have to watch out for defensive Terastallization responses from the likes of Landorus-T and Heatran given its newfound weakness to their respective STAB moves.
Water
Water
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Water has historically been one of Pokémon's best types, thus making it naturally high in demand as a Tera type option. Offensively, Water-type Pokémon appreciate the potential of a rain boost to break past most neutral defensive Pokémon. The poster child of this strategy is Barraskewda, using Terastallization to boost its STAB move spam courtesy of rain. Given Barraskewda's nonexistent defensive utility and lack of a secondary STAB move, it gains nothing from an alternate Tera type, while Tera Water lets it cleanly 2HKO even Water-resistant Pokémon such as Kyurem and Rotom-W with a devastating Liquidation. So, how do teams deal with this Tera terror? With their own defensive Tera Water user! Water doubles as one of the best defensive types in the game, with notable resistances to Fire and Water as well as a wide range of neutralities, giving offensive Pokémon few ways to exploit these Terastal users after transforming. While this can be used to give defensive Pokémon such as Landorus-T greater utility in a pinch, it serves an excellent role on bulky wincons as well. Garganacl, burdened by its Rock typing bestowing a crippling weaknesses to prominent attacking types such as Fighting, Ground, and Water, leverages Tera Water to effectively set up Curse on the likes of Landorus-T and Mega Lopunny, where it can become such an unbreakable behemoth that even Pokémon that can target it super effectively such as Ogerpon-W and Ferrothorn soon find themselves washed away.
Solid
These types are almost always used on offensive Pokémon to boost their STAB moves and have limited use outside of that. The Pokémon using these types would usually make more use of the damage boost rather than any defensive or coverage option. This also covers types that have niche defensive applications and are only used in emergencies.
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Fire
DarkStabs
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These types are most commonly used as a STAB boost due to how potent they are offensively, rewarding these Pokémon for mindlessly clicking their STAB moves with little punishment. Weavile in particular plows through checks like Toxapex and Mega Scizor courtesy of the power boost from Tera Dark, making it a pain to pivot around. Tera Dark also comes with the added benefit of removing Weavile’s Stealth Rock weakness, giving it significantly more opportunities to come in and wallbreak. Interestingly, Terastal's added mechanic of boosting moves below 60 BP up to that number applies to Pursuit if the opposing Pokémon stays in, allowing Weavile to always KO Mega Latias, Mega Latios, and Tornadus-T after Stealth Rock leaving no room for attempting to outplay it. Cinderace uses Tera Fire for a much-appreciated power boost to its Pyro Ball, OHKOing Volcarona and Tapu Lele without prior chip damage, allowing it to function more effectively as an offensive check to these Pokémon. When worn down into Blaze range, it becomes a potent wallbreaking tool, achieving impressive feats such as OHKOing most Galarian Slowking and Kyurem variants while being strongly favoured to 2HKO defensive Landorus-T. Other offensive Pokémon like Hydreigon, Choice Band Victini, and Hisuian Samurott are Pokémon that utilize Terastallization in this way, boosting their offensive capabilities to be beyond what their checks could normally handle.
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Electric
GroundCoverage
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While these types offer relatively limited defensive utility and Pokémon such as Landorus-T and Raging Bolt would rather use a defensive Tera type than their STAB, types such as Electric and Ground find their utility in offering valuable coverage options. Iron Valiant, for all its offensive potency, sometimes finds itself lacking in power on its Calm Mind set, missing KOs against Pokémon resistant to its dual STAB moves such as Toxapex and Volcarona. To circumvent this, it bolsters its Electric coverage in Thunderbolt with a STAB boost, OHKOing the former's physically defensive sets and 2HKOing offensive variants of the latter even after a Quiver Dance. It comes with some defensive utility as well, giving it a resistance to Hurricanes from Tornadus-T and Zapdos and Bullet Punches from Mega Scizor while preventing the likes of Galarian Slowking from crippling it with a last-ditch Thunder Wave and coming with only one weakness to Ground. Similarly, Tera Ground also provides its users with important coverage, albeit in a different form. This shines in Serperior, as the Ground typing does little for it defensively other than the aforementioned Thunder Wave immunity and Sludge Bomb resistance against Galarian Slowking. However, Tera Ground allows it to utilize Tera Blast to fantastic effect; while it had to choose between Hidden Power Fire to hit most Steel-types such as Ferrothorn and Mega Scizor and Hidden Power Ground to specifically snipe Heatran in generations 6 and 7, it can now cover all of its bases. Although generally Tera Blast sees relatively limited usage due to potentially leaving the Pokémon as a Tera sink, Serperior separates itself from the rest, as it can still cripple Tera Blast's targets in Heatran and Galarian Slowking with Glare, alongside the fact that even base Tera Blast can be used to conserve its valuable Leaf Storm PP against the likes of Tornadus-T and Zapdos, making Tera Ground an additional bonus.
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Ghost
Flying
PoisonUtility
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All three of these types have extremely specific uses, but when they are used, they provide immense value to the user in circumventing certain bad matchups and winning them one-on-one. This is most prominent in Ferrothorn’s case, where Tera Ghost allows it to flip the script on Mega Medicham and Mega Lopunny aiming to force it out, crippling or outright KOing them. While Superpower Ogerpon-W normally demolishes teams reliant on Ferrothorn to check it, Tera Ghost gives it another card up its sleeve in an emergency to make sure Ogerpon-W doesn’t get out of control. Tera Ghost also gives Ferrothorn the ability to spinblock Great Tusk, which can be crucial in games where entry hazard pressure must be maintained to force progress. On the contrary, Tera Flying on Iron Boulder is used purely in enabling it to sweep teams undeterred, reversing its matchup against Ground-types like Landorus-T and Gliscor to let it set up freely on them. Its newly gained Flying typing can also be used in a pinch to set up against or KO Rillaboom and Lopunny, which otherwise threaten to KO it or waste its Booster Energy. While Tera Poison’s best years are long gone, with the hype of Calm Mind Cresselia dying down, it still sees some use in Nasty Plot Darkrai and Rotom-W, with the former using it to prevent Iron Valiant and Tapu Lele from revenge killing it and the latter leveraging the Toxic immunity to consistently wall and use Defog on Spikes Gliscor and switch into Alomomola and Toxapex without fear of being crippled by Toxic.
Bad
These types have little to no use in the current metagame and are often overshadowed by types that offer similar offensive or defensive potential, minus the liabilities. Offensive Pokémon usually have better options for the STAB boost with their secondary typing or would rather have a Tera type with greater defensive utility.
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Bug
Rock
Normal
Fighting
Ice
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Unfortunately, some types simply come with too many flaws to justify dedicating Tera types; in most occasions, these bring about liabilities to the Pokémon's original typing. Although Tera Bug comes with a resistance to both Fighting and Ground, it brings with it a nasty Stealth Rock weakness as well as weaknesses to common attacking types in Fire and Flying. Only Heatran can sometimes see use out of it over Tera Grass, trading a Fighting resistance for a Stealth Rock weakness, while the lack of good offensive Bug-type Pokémon and coverage give it no opportunity as a STAB type. Similarly, Tera Ice has nonexistent defensive utility, whereas Pokémon such as Tapu Koko and Great Tusk, which utilize Ice-type coverage to hit the likes of Landorus-T and Gliscor, can do just fine without Terastallizing, leaving no need for the power boost. It sees limited usage, though, as Kyurem can wield a monstrous Tera Ice Blizzard supported by Galarian Slowking. Tera Normal gives its users nonexistent coverage options and few relevant resistances without Dragapult and Gholdengo in play. It sees niche applications on Ursaluna to boost Facade to nuclear levels and on Taunt Gliscor utilizing Swords Dance and Facade as its only attacking move, although both of these Pokémon prefer defensive typings such as Fairy. The detriments of Tera Rock's typing make it provide little defensive utility, while Iron Boulder would prefer the defensive application of another Tera type over the power boost, as that could potentially allow it to boost further. However, the relatively niche Ogerpon-C is forced to use the Tera typing, and it sometimes does so to good effect by 2HKOing the likes of Toxapex and Clefable with Ivy Cudgel.
While Tera Stellar came into the DLC with some hype, those expectations were quickly doused, as the type fundamentally fails to meet any of the reasons a Pokémon would Terastallize. Offensively, it boosts the power of Tera Blast, which lowers its user's attacking stats on use, which may persuade Contrary users like Serperior and Enamorus to use it. Unfortunately, it provides no super effective coverage other than the niche occasion where they face another Tera user, and the former can simply use Leaf Storm alongside Tera Ground, whereas the latter is niche as is. Defensively, it keeps its user's original typing, meaning it fails to address one of the main reasons to Terastallize: flipping one's defensive matchup to turn a weakness into an advantage. Unfortunately, this crystalline option fails to shine brightly in the competitive scene of National Dex.
Final Thoughts
To sum this article up, the advent of Terastallization has sparked a transformative wave in navigating NatDex OU, providing a myriad of ways for players to creatively bypass certain threats and reverse usually losing matchups. With the plentiful choices we are offered, it's clear that there are going to be some shining brighter than others, with types like Steel, Water, and Fairy rising leagues over the rest in viability, courtesy of the impressive offensive and defensive utility they offer. Unfortunately, not all types are created equal, with Bug, Normal, and the newly introduced Stellar struggling to find relevance in the current metagame, often overshadowed by other more versatile and effective alternatives. With all that said, Terastallization as a mechanic adds an interesting and fun new layer of depth in teambuilding and gameplay not previously achievable, encouraging players to find new successful combinations in our ever-evolving tier.
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