SCL III Coverage - Ubers
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Art by Deka.
SCL III started right after the Teal Mask expansion was released and many exciting things were added to SV Ubers. The one the playerbase found most concerning is the new move that Koraidon gets in DLC 1: Scale Shot. With the exchange of its item slot for Loaded Dice, Koraidon obtains a stable high Base Power Dragon-type STAB move that also raises its Speed by 1 stage, turning it into a strong wallbreaker, as an unboosted Scale Shot has a good chance to 2HKO the sturdiest walls like physically defensive Toxapex and Skeledirge. Before the DLC, the metagame was fine walling Koraidon mainly by stopping its Fire-type coverage and Fighting-type STAB attacks, and its Dragon-type options were Dragon Claw, which is weak, and Outrage, which locks Koraidon into it; however, with the introduction of Scale Shot, the playerbase quickly realized that Koraidon is now extremely hard to stop. This was made even worse with people exploring new options like Ribombee as the fastest Sticky Web setter, which helped Koraidon click its strongest moves in Flare Blitz, Close Combat, and Low Kick with more ease.
Surprisingly enough, even though Sticky Web + Koraidon appeared to be the most dominant style during the early DLC 1 metagame, no player used such a team in the first week. What’s more astonishing is that a dominant Pokémon in the name of Miraidon has only one single use. That’s understandable, though; Miraidon struggles against offensive builds overall, as it doesn’t have the resistances Koraidon has, and its vulnerability to physical priority in Extreme Speed and Sucker Punch, its tendency to invite entry hazards setters if it clicks the wrong move, and the drawbacks of Draco Meteor probably discouraged people from running Miraidon, given how all kinds of setup sweepers were dominating the early metagame.
A triple physical wall core of Skeledirge + Groudon + Giratina-O is not only a nightmare for Koraidon but also helps against many other physical attacking cores, including entrocefalo's offensive core of choice in the game, though depending on their sets, it's not an absolutely hopeless matchup for him. He revealed a setup Landorus-T pretty early, which failed to accomplish anything except chipping Giratina a bit, and getting it chipped to low HP early also harmed entrocefalo’s team's ability to handle Groudon. Skeledirge became quickly a problem, so entrocefalo decided to attack after trading Ting-Lu for two layers of Spikes on turn 24, but he did not make all the right predictions with Calyrex-I, which heavily limited his options after its HP went low. Without the threat of Landorus-T and Calyrex-I, M Dragon could easily pivot with the said defensive core against Choice item Koraidon even if it is a Choice Band variant, but at the moment where Zacian-C looked ready to sweep, entrocefalo revealed a surprising Unaware + Counter physically defensive Clodsire to revenge kill it, so the game was still playable; however, as Draco Meteor would bypass Unaware, entrocefalo would need to play perfectly to win this endgame. This was a very close one, with M Dragon showing his guts by gambling on entrocefalo for not bringing Miraidon, as well as with entrocefalo again showing its teambuilding talent to keep the game until the last moment despite an overall very bad matchup.
From Team Preview, it looked very likely that the game would be down to which side’s Miraidon would win faster; however, the game actually went to quite a haxy endgame.
SoulWind led with Landorus-T, which caught a Koraidon lead from Exilline for early momentum. After Exiline revealed U-turn Gliscor as Landorus-T set up its Stealth Rock, he decided to immediately trade his Koraidon, which successfully invalidated SoulWind's Landorus-T with a burn and two Flare Blitzes. SoulWind tried to trade hazards at the cost of Calyrex-I taking a U-turn from Gliscor, to a point where he could not confidently bring Calyrex-I again and gave Exiline another layer of Spikes. What was more disastrous about SoulWind’s gameplan is that Exiline's team appears to be a Heavy-Duty Boots spam, so the hazard trading strategy plan was void, and it was probably too late as well at this point, as SoulWind had already sacrificed half of Calyrex-I's HPs before knowing Exilline's team structure. Exiline appeared to be the first one to start the offense with Miraidon and successfully take away SoulWind's Clodsire with two Draco Meteors, but with -4 Miraidon on the field, he exposed himself to danger, as Zacian-C came in to try to sweep against it. Exiline decided to chip Zacian-C with Gliscor—at the risk of a Tera Flying, though—and won the Speed tie with his own Zacian-C, which put SoulWind into an extremely difficult situation, as his only powerhouse left was Draco Meteor Miraidon. Again, Exiline did not choose the safest path and clicked Draco Meteor against SoulWind's Arceus-Water instead, exposing himself to either risking a Speed tie against Air Balloon Miraidon or having to sack Clodsire. He decided to risk a Speed tie with its -2 Miraidon, and not only did he get it, but he also baited SoulWind’s Tera, which then left SoulWind’s Miraidon into Extreme Killer range with its Air Balloon broken; this forced SoulWind to stay in with Miraidon, giving Exiline a chance to reset his Miraidon's stat drops, and with full hazards up, Soulwind had to give up against Exilline’s Extreme Killer Arceus + Miraidon combo in the endgame.
This game showed how a critical Speed tie has the potential to completely swing the game.
As SCL progressed, the Ubers playerbase continued to explore methods to deal with Koraidon effectively. Several approaches were tried, but the surge of Kyogre usage in Week 3 with an astonishing 75% winrate demonstrated one of the best ways to contain the almighty red dragon by taking away the sun, thus invalidating Orichalcum Pulse's boost.
Being the old king of Ubers, Kyogre again revealed its versatility with the critical weather control, its terrifying rain-boosted STAB attacks, and the offensive-ruining Thunder Wave spam. Not even a Water Absorb Clodsire can be confident against Kyogre, as its Ice Beam naturally hits very hard, and Clodsire users often refuse to trade Clodsire's HP for Kyogre early-game when Clodsire would need to handle a huge range of other special threats such as setup sweeper Miraidon and the fearsome momentum killer Flutter Mane. The following game in week 3 reflected how Kyogre effectively improved the ability of a team to contain Koraidon:
Both teams are very similar. The existence of Landorus-T on both sides indicated the offensive nature of the game, but the Iron Bundle on SiTuM's side grants him a huge advantage against Icemaster, as it can effectively force in Zacian-C early, and in an offense vs offense matchup like this, bringing Zacian-C in too early is a disaster. On the other hand, SiTuM's Koraidon also struggles with Icemaster's Landorus-T + Kyogre core, as Intimidate + Drizzle will easily invalidate Koraidon if it's not a Swords Dance variant, and even if it is, a precisely timed Tera Fairy Kyogre would also solve most issues Koraidon would create.
Early-game, SiTuM put in every effort he could to let in Iron Bundle, which pressured Icemaster a lot, as the damage of Hydro Pump against Kyogre revealed a Choice Specs Iron Bundle, and with SiTuM correctly predicting Kyogre’s Thunder with Miraidon, Icemaster had no choice but to invite Iron Bundle on his Arceus-Ground switch to Miraidon; with the threat of Hydro Pump, he decided to go Eternatus and got caught with an Ice Beam OHKO. Losing Toxic Spikes's pressure is a huge cost to pay for Icemaster, but it let Zacian-C come in and use Tera Steel to take down SiTuM’s Landorus-T. The game was pretty much won for SiTuM's side at this point, with a Choice Scarf Miraidon and a Choice Specs Iron Bundle as his revenge killing options and an Arceus-Water to pivot around Arceus-Ground, Zacian-C, and Kyogre, but it seemed to be not SiTuM day, as not only did he miss Overheat on turn 9 and end up sacking his speed control as a result, on turn 14 Icemaster hit a Thunder on a Koraidon switch-in, which not only hit despite its pitiful accuracy under the sun but also got a paralysis. Just in a split second, all this hax put Situm in a downside on trading, and with Icemaster successfully setting up Dragon Dance Arceus-Ground late-game, SiTuM had no more room to pivot and finally lost to Icemaster's bulky setup Miraidon.
Even with all that effort by the Ubers playerbase, Koraidon is still the most recognized Pokémon among the SCL playerbase, and it finally reached 100% usage in Week 4 thanks to its sheer power and its out-of-the-chart level of versatility.
The increasing dominance of Koraidon affects teambuilding a lot. There are some honorable mentions sparking in SCL with some incredible games such as these, where the premier Last Respects user Basculegion shows its terrifying endgame cleaning ability against the lack of Dark- and Normal-types in the metagame thanks to the dominance of Koraidon. Not only do the mechanics of Last Respects help Basculegion rise in viability, it is also helped by its surprising ability to take a hit, especially against Koraidon thanks to its amazing typing advantage.
We also see a surge in usage of Gliscor, the infamously impassable OU titan, in Ubers. With a significantly decreased usage of Choice Specs Miraidon, the addition of Gliscor heavily influences the viability of Ting-Lu, one of the best Pokémon prior to the DLC. Not only does Gliscor outclass Ting-Lu in terms of longevity and utility, but the more physical offensive oriented metagame favors Gliscor as well. Landorus-T, one of the best pivots before DLC, also sees its viability get hit by Gliscor, as with Scale Shot Landorus-T is not a soft check to Koraidon anymore, and its utility is thus heavily limited to being effective only against Zacian-C. As of Week 5, the previously premium Ground-type dual types have a total of 7 wins out of their 31 times of usage.
Furthermore, the dominance of Koraidon affected a lot the building process of offensive teams as well. While Koraidon is still a must-have with its scary Scale Shot set, checks to Scale Shot Koraidon should also be considered, as it would reverse sweep with ease against unprepared offensive teams. Zacian-C, one of the premier physical offensive Fairy-types, was therefore commonly picked for its immunity to Dragon-type attacks (and by extension to Scale Shot) and as a hard-hitting, fast physical offensive threat. The popularity of these two resulted in an obvious trend to physical offense in the teambuilding process of offensive teams; overloading opponents’ physical walls and cleaning up the opposing team with a fast sweeper such as the aforementioned dual appeared to be way more reasonable with Koraidon and Zacian-C stuck together in a team, which further brought down Miraidon usage in those teams, as often Miraidon was the sole special attacker in the team.
This physical-side tendency forced players to give more consideration to physically oriented Pokémon in their builds, cutting budgets on the special side, which had a significant effect on week 6, with an astonishing Miraidon winrate of 75% as well as a 2/3 Kyogre winrate. The tendency of physical overload structure in offensive teams also rewarded Skeledirge users, which won every game in that week where it appeared. Even though Skeledirge was no longer a safe check to Koraidon, it still handled Zacian-C, Calyrex-I, and most of the non-Taunt Arceus, and its Will-O-Wisp would be a huge pain for those physical overload style offensive teams. This was reflected perfectly in the following game.
A typical game reflecting the chaotic DLC1 Ubers situation in the teambuilder. Exilline went for a non-Steel team and got caught by M Dragon’s Chien-Pao, which immediately claimed Gliscor on turn 1, setting the super fast pace of the game. On the other hand, M Dragon's only physical pivot appeared to be Landorus-T, which basically left M Dragon on the edge every time when Exiline put his Extreme Killer Arceus and Koraidon on the field. Exilline threatened a Choice Scarf Koraidon on M Dragon’s Chien-Pao, which forced M Dragon to switch, doubling to Flutter Mane immediately to force in M Dragon's Zacian-C, which proved to be crucial later in the game. Both sides doubled on turn 4, but M Dragon went for Landorus-T in order to set up Stealth Rock, which put him in an embarrassing situation, as his team is heavily physically oriented, and a Will-O-Wisp from Skeledirge is destructive to say the least. M Dragon decided to take it with Landorus-T and even tank a sun-boosted Torch Song, further weakening his ability to check physical attackers from Exiline’s team. With more than 60% of his Landorus-T's HP gone, M Dragon switched to Arceus-Ground, and Exilline safely put his Heavy-Duty Boots Koraidon on field by sacking his Flutter Mane. This forced M Dragon to stay in with his Arceus-Ground, as he could not allow a free Swords Dance from Koraidon, and successfully got in Landorus-T for Intimidate by switching correctly with Eject Button Hatterene. However, this was probably one of Exiline's plans, as now with Landorus-T, Arceus-Ground, and Zacian-C all weakened, Extreme Killer with Tera became absolutely unstoppable for M Dragon, which put an end to the game.
After the astonishing winrate of special attackers and Skeledirge in W6, players brought back their attention to the premier special attacker, Miraidon, and the usage of Miraidon finally came back to match its cornerstone status in the metagamed with all positive win rates across the weeks.
In the later stages of the tournament, as the playoff picture had become extremely clear, players appeared to be reusing previous weeks’ teams, and hyper offense started to become the most used style. The signature hyper offense style in DLC1 would undoubtedly be Ribombee Sticky Web. Sticky Web was proven to be extremely dangerous if players did not prepare for it, which resulted in everyone slotting in Sticky Web countermeasures like Giratina-O (the best Defog user in the tier), Calyrex-I (the best Trick Room setter and attacker), Choice Scarf Landorus-T (the best Sticky Web-immune revenge killer), and a Magic Bounce user like Hatterene or spinner such as Glimmora, Great Tusk, or Iron Treads in the early weeks. Funnily enough, players were also aware of the countermeasures against Sticky Web, and thus Ribombee was not even used until week 4, which instantly caught opponents off guard, like in this game:
Speaking of getting caught off guard by Sticky Web, here is another one with an awaited meeting in Week 7:
Two Ubers titans finally met on Week 7, with a pretty unexpected matchup where you can barely saw Fc’s answer to entrocefalo’s Sticky Webs in the team, besides any Taunt brought on either Koraidon or Miraidon. The lead is Miraidon vs Ribombee, a common lead situation for Sticky Web hyper offense. For whatever reasons Fc may have, he clicked Electro Drift instead of Taunt; following up with Draco Meteor later indicated Miraidon was not a Choice set, which made the first-turn action all the more mysterious. As said, Webs going up was a huge advantage for entrocefalo's side based on Fc’s team structure, as it severely limited the two forms of speed control on Fc’s team. Turn 7 was another moment of Landorus-T of this tournament: +1 Scale Shot just takes it down instantly with five hits. Without any reliable stop for a setup Koraidon, Fc was forced to go for paralysis, which entrocefalo beautifully anticipated, switching the sweeping plan from one sweeper to another immediately. With no choice, Fc was forced to go for a Speed tie with his Choice Scarf Koraidon, which he lost, and the game was pretty much set. Definitely one of the most unexpected ways we could imagine the clash of the two Ubers titans to go down.
Besides the danger of getting caught by Sticky Web, Terastallization and Speed tie seemed to be the main themes of SV Ubers in DLC 1 as well. With the limitation of defensive checks, Zacian-C, Koraidon, and Miraidon often found themselves facing each other, whereas guessing the correct Tera and rolling dice on Speed tie were often key factors in determining the winner. While the top 3 Pokémon in the tier were the ones that took advantage of Terastallization the most, the choices of a good Tera type for them were surprisingly enough pretty restricted. Koraidon often went with Tera Fire for the nuclear power of its Fire-type moves and to trade a 4x weakness for a resistance to Fairy-type attacks. Miraidon often went with Tera Fairy in order to dodge the Dragon-type attacks on activation and neutralize Ground-type attacks, as well as occasionally Tera Ghost for dodging Extreme Killer Arceus’s Extreme Speed; Zacian-C was often found running Tera Flying in order to dodge an incoming Ground-type attack and sometimes used Tera Steel to further boost the power of Behemoth Blade, which can even OHKO a Tera Fire Koraidon from full after a Swords Dance and minimal chip, which could be seen in Week 6:
Besides Tera types being more and more predictable, players also adapted to it by making a thoughtful approach during the game, such as the following one with astonishing play by Gondra:
Gondra brought Zamazenta and met Giratina-O, which basically made for a 5 vs 6 matchup. Furthermore, Gondra’s team was quite offensively oriented and did not appear to take hazard stacking well, meaning that Fc’s Gliscor + Giratina-O core seemed to be a massive pain for Gondra. Gondra immediately surprised us with his Landorus-T surviving a Draco Meteor from lead Miraidon on turn 1, after which he immediately went for Swords Dance Zacian-C and took down Gliscor within 3 turns. Then, Gondra beautifully pivoted his team against Fc’s Choice Scarf Koraidon and the re-entering Miraidon, putting his Zacian-C on the field again with a free Swords Dance opportunity and claiming another KO with Fc’s second switch-in to Zacian-C, Arceus-Ground, with a correctly timed Tera Flying. Now, with the risk of Kyogre, Fc’s Koraidon could no longer freely use Tera Fire to take down Zacian-C, and he decided to go for his own Zacian-C, trying to win a Speed tie with an insurance of Tera Steel instead. Gondra again made the correct move by clicking Close Combat instead of Behemoth Blade, beautifully catching the opposing Tera Steel Zacian-C while winning the Speed tie. Though the win did not help Gondra’s team make playoffs, it was still a great demonstration of skill by Gondra.
Overall, Koraidon proved its dominance in DLC1 throughout SCL III with its extreme STAB coverage, insane power output, tier-leading Speed, and the versatility brought by the sun from Orichalcum Pulse.
The dominance of Koraidon is very impactful to say the least. The premier special attacker, Miraidon, was significantly less used compared to Koraidon. With Koraidon gaining Scale Shot, it led the metagame towards an offensive direction. Miraidon used to be uncheckable by just spamming Draco Meteor, but as the metagame became more offensive, players started to find Miraidon hard to use, as the side effect of Draco Meteor often provided their opponent with a setup opportunity that could ruin everything, and Dragon Pulse often found itself too weak to even threaten a standard Dragon Dance variant of Arceus-Ground.
The surging usage and winrate of Clodsire were also solid evidence of this: Clodsire is never a safe check to Miraidon, as it never safely takes a boosted Draco Meteor from Miraidon. Therefore, it’s clear that the use of Clodsire precisely reflected the drop in use of the Choice Specs and Life Orb sets.
Besides the big losers, Ting-Lu and Landorus-T, Eternatus is another notable presence that received only 12 uses among the player base for a 50% winrate overall, and more notably one third of its usage was in the first week of SCL as well. It's probably because its Speed tier was no longer attractive with all the base 135s flying around. Furthermore, the rising Gliscor, especially the specially defensive variant, preyed on Eternatus almost all the time. As a specially offensive Dragon-type, it didn't hit as hard as Miraidon, and it did not have a reliable boosting move. On the defensive side, Eternatus’s value as a Poison-type was held back by its Dragon and Ice weaknesses, and its vulnerability towards Thunder Wave also made it struggle against most Kyogre in SCL III. Its support movepool, with only Toxic and Toxic Spikes, also meant that Clodsire outclassed it as a support Poison-type with access to entry hazards in Stealth Rock and Haze and Counter as niche options.
To conclude, Koraidon definitely shaped the whole DLC1 metagame with one move given to its moveset. The threat of Scale Shot Koraidon was so big that even the premier special attacker Miraidon found itself dropping behind significantly in usage during SCL III, resulting in the surge of Clodsire, which could take advantage of its Water Absorb against Kyogre’s STAB moves, and the flop of Ting-Lu, the only reliable Draco Meteor switch-in in the tier. Meanwhile, Kyogre remained an important member in the tier thanks to its weather-summoning ability Drizzle and ability to chip Clodsire for Miraidon to break through it afterwards.
The dramatic change of position of Koraidon and Miraidon is very interesting. With the addition of Scale Shot to Koraidon, it became the most horrible threat to face, no matter what type of team players were running. And when the metagame became largely offensively oriented, Miraidon started to find itself struggling to catch up, as the power of Draco Meteor became less required and people became more concerned by the side effect of the move, which used to be spammable in the previous metagames. At the point of DLC1, it appeared that Miraidon would be more acceptable in an offensive metagame, and vice versa with Koraidon with Scale Shot.
Two teams at the end went into another tiebreaker, and this time Studio Gible took the win and finally crowned themselves champions of SCL III. Congrats to Studio Gible, and if you want to look at other high-level games, check the SCL III Replay thread, and we're looking forward to seeing you again in the Ubers metagame discussion!
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