Roaring Moon Suspect Coverage

By adem. Released:2024/03/16
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Roaring Moon Suspect Coverage Art

Art by Albatross.

Introduction

Roaring Moon's initial quickban right after the release of Scarlet and Violet has always been shrouded in controversy due to faulty implementation of Booster Energy, where one of the primary reasons for its ban was coded incorrectly to boost all stats by 1.5x instead of 1.3x. The early National Dex OU metagame was also filled with a plethora of different offensive threats, which made defensively checking Roaring Moon nigh impossible and also bolstered the viability of hyper offensive teams that it thrived on. With most of the these Pokémon long banned, the coding error fixed, and the metagame settling down after the latest DLC, there was plenty of speculation on whether Roaring Moon could potentially see the light of day in National Dex OU again. Boasting a monstrous base 139 Attack stat alongside base 119 Speed, Roaring Moon was built to be an offensive powerhouse. Roaring Moon‘s impressive natural bulk and solid defensive typing are also a game changer, letting it set up freely on numerous Pokémon such as Galarian Slowking, Heatran, Alomomola, and Tapu Lele locked into Psychic. Dragon Dance in conjunction with Booster Energy and a colorful movepool also doesn't help its case, allowing it to pick and choose its checks, with various ways of outright winning on Team Preview. However, Roaring Moon is not without faults, as its relatively mediocre STAB combination forces it into coverage options that generally require it to Terastallize to net KOs, meaning it requires a lot of investment to attempt a sweep. Furthermore, while its special bulk is great, its physical bulk leaves a lot to be desired, oftentimes resulting in it being revenge killed easily. These factors, alongside its overwhelming popularity in tiering surveys for a long while, have led to it being suspected down from Ubers.

Sets

Dragon Dance

Roaring Moon Image

Dragon Dance is by far Roaring Moon's most potent set, being able to easily set up freely with Tera on a majority of Pokémon, rack up a few Dragon Dances, and sweep teams. Knock Off is Roaring Moon's strongest STAB option, annihilating even neutral targets after a boost. Booster Energy activating upon entry makes up for Acrobatics's lack of STAB and lets it bust through Dark-resistant Pokémon like Clefable and Zamazenta. Taunt is the most common move in the last slot, allowing it to bypass Curse Dondozo and set up freely on Toxapex and Alomomola, as well as Gliscor and Landorus-T with Tera Flying. Earthquake is a more specific option that lets it break past Tapu Koko, Mega Diancie, and Mega Tyranitar with ease. Flying is its main Tera type, as it boosts Roaring Moon's Acrobatics to obscene levels, as well as turning defensive Landorus-T and Gliscor into setup fodder. Tera Steel is also an option that lets it completely nullify Tapu Koko and Mega Diancie, as well as easily beat Ferrothorn if it carries Taunt. Jaw Lock is a more niche option, but it allows Roaring Moon to trap and take advantage of passive checks like Ferrothorn and Clefable and freely set up on them.

Choice Band

Roaring Moon Image

Choice Band Roaring Moon has seen significantly less usage compared to Dragon Dance variants, but it is still extremely potent in its own right. Capitalizing on its absurd immediate damage output coupled with Tera Dark, Choice Band Roaring Moon is incredibly hard to switch into without a sturdy Dark answer like Clefable or Zamazenta. Iron Head lets Roaring Moon break through Clefable as well as OHKO Iron Valiant and Mega Diancie, as well as netting a 2HKO on Mega Tyranitar. Earthquake gives it a stronger hit against Toxapex while still hitting the aforementioned Fairy-types hard. Outrage lets Roaring Moon break Zamazenta and also provides a stronger STAB option against neutral targets like Toxapex and Gliscor. This set was often used alongside sun setters like Torkoal and Mega Charizard Y to amplify its breaking power to impressive levels, letting it annihilate defensive cores that would usually be good into sun like Toxapex + Mega Latias / Mega Tyranitar.

Keep Banned

Roaring Moon has not received a warm welcome to the tier, with Dragon Dance sets being immediately deemed far too much to handle. Taunt sets are near impossible to check defensively, and Tera lets it immediately flip the matchup on the few remaining checks to a boosted Roaring Moon. Relying too much on the few specific checks to the Taunt variant makes teams significantly more susceptible to Earthquake variants, which often open a large enough hole in teams for Roaring Moon's other teammates to easily sweep at the worst. The possibility of Jaw Lock sets also throws a wrench into things, meaning one wrong move could lead to Roaring Moon getting to +6 Attack and Speed and easily sweeping the rest of the team. Roaring Moon's insane special bulk also allows it to even beat its supposed “checks” by virtue of just tanking the move, such as Tapu Koko's Thunderbolt only having a 12.5% chance to OHKO Tera Flying Roaring Moon, and this is assuming Tapu Koko doesn't just Dazzling Gleam expecting Roaring Moon to not Tera. However, Choice Band sets also become far too straining to deal with; while their checks overlap with other offensive Dark-types, Roaring Moon has tools to break past these checks, and its defensive utility compared to Weavile and Darkrai is like night and day, letting it actually switch into weaker special attackers like bulky Heatran and Iron Crown.

Unban

While most of the vocal community have been vehemently against letting Roaring Moon drop down, there are a few outliers who believe that it has a place in the tier. The main argument against its ban has been that its ability to bypass checks and set up easily has been heavily exaggerated and that it is much easier to handle in practice. For the Dragon Dance set, Taunt variants still struggle with common Pokémon like Mega Tyranitar and Tapu Koko, as well as being outsped and either revenge killed or locked into Dragon Dance by Booster Energy Iron Valiant. Earthquake variants struggle with breaking through bulkier Pokémon like Ferrothorn and can easily be crippled by Thunder Wave Clefable or have their boosts Hazed away by Toxapex. Furthermore, Roaring Moon's reliance on Tera means that it often lacks the needed damage output and can be easily revenge killed or denied safe setup if another Pokémon has already used Tera. It was also brought up that Roaring Moon's reliance on Terastallization and Booster Energy meant that it often only could only set up once per game and its sweep could be stopped by a timely defensive Terastallization such as Tera Steel on Zamazenta or Clefable. Choice Band sets can also easily be dealt with, as its checks often overlap with other offensive Dark-types like Weavile and Darkrai. Its poor offensive typing also means it can easily be scouted by common Regenerator Pokémon like Toxapex and Alomamola and pivoted around accordingly.

Results

As expected, Roaring Moon easily surpassed the requirements to keep it banned, with an overwhelming 44 keep ban votes to 18 unban votes. This result finally answered the question everyone had in their minds since Roaring Moon's initial quickban more than a year ago of whether it would be balanced in a more developed metagame, with a properly coded in Booster Energy. With this suspect out of the way, National Dex OU can continue to progress and develop smoothly, hopefully evolving into a balanced and fun tier to play for all.

HTML by Steorra.
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