Sun & Moon Overused through SPL - Part One

The Smogon Premier League is one of the most prestigious tournaments of Smogon, allowing older and more recent generations of high level players to compete together for the famous red trophy. But this edition is also the first official tournament to showcase the new Sun & Moon OverUsed tier, and it is likely to define the basis of the metagame. This article will be a week-by-week recap of the metagame's development in the first four weeks, featuring one of the 15 SM OU games that took place, as well as a team used by one of the players that represented a popular archetype of the metagame. In conclusion, a short spotlight will present a new Pokémon that was regularly used though the tournament.

Week 1

Battle of the Week: blunder vs Adam

One of the first-week OU pairings pitted Youtube star blunder against his former SPL teammate and top player Adam. While the latter brought a classic offense build including a Salamence + Tapu Lele + Mega Metagross trinity supported further by Magnezone, Adam opted for a playstyle that had yet to see high usage in SM OU at that point but had potential: Trick Room. blunder was off to a good start, crippling the opposing Necrozma with Tapu Fini, but he quickly met a cumbersome wall to overcome in Tapu Bulu, with the Leech Seed set revealing itself to be an annoyance. After some key switches, Adam's POrygon2 KOed a weakened Landorus-T, while blunder's Tapu Fini cleaned up Necrozma; however, Porygon2 was more of a threat to blunder's team than he thought. While keeping Trick Room active, it progressively weakened Magnezone and Metagross and allowed Alolan Marowak to KO both Tapu Fini and Magnezone. blunder desperately clawed his way to a comeback, having Salamence set up on Marowak and KO both Adam's Tapu Bulu with Supersonic Strike and Porygon2. Unfortunately, it proved to be short-lived, as when Adam's Mimikyu came onto the field, it was able to set up both Trick Room and Swords Dance on blunder's switch out to Magnezone, forcing him to sack Magnezone, Tapu Lele, and Salamence just so he could outspeed and finish off Mimikyu with Mega Metagross. Adam continued to have the edge in the final 1v1 between Magearna and Mega Metagross. blunder missed the Zen Headbutt flinch, and Magearna was able to finish off Metagross to lock in the win for Adam.

Team of the Week: Bulky Offense by GeeMick

Frenchman GeeMick used this team against Eo for the first week of SPL. It is a standard bulky offensive build that showcases quite well what can be expected from the archetype in the early SM OU metagame. Mega Metagross is indubitably one of the best Mega Evolutions in the metagame: the combination of typing, coverage options, Attack, and bulk that lead to its suspect test in XY OU leaves it able to capitalize on most potential switch-in to offense, which is the most popular playstyle at the moment. Magnezone traps and KOs the likes of Mega Scizor and Celesteela, two of the most notable switch-ins to Mega Metagross, and decently dents other Steel-types such as Magearna. The omnipresence of the infamous Tapu group makes Steel-types more powerful than in the previous generation (which is no small matter), and GeeMick's team takes advantage of both Tapu Bulu and Tapu Lele. Both enjoy Magnezone's ability to destroy annoying Steel-type threats, but they are also great potential wincons for the team depending on the match-up. Tapu Lele's efficiency and versatility make it a very prominent threat. Here, GeeMick employs a Choice Scarf set, which gives Tapu Lele the Speed it needs to outspeed most of the metagame to rip apart offensive builds with its nearly unresisted coverage once Magnezone has done its part. On the other hand, Tapu Bulu, known for its Choice Band set, is also a good Swords Dance user, boosting its Attack stat to sky-high levels. It proved to be one of the MVPs during GeeMick's game, breaking through the opposing Landorus-T, Mega Slowbro, and Tapu Fini. Finally, Landorus-T and Rotom-W, the most used pivots during Generation VI, confer momentum to the rest of the team. GeeMick's squad boasts new and old elements of the classic bulky offense archetype that dominated ORAS with visions of sustaining its prominence well into SM OU.

Week 2

Battle of the Week: p2 vs Get this Money

p2 vs Get this Money was an unexpected matchup, since both players were initially put as substitutes on their team rosters. While they are newcomers to the SPL scene, they have proven themselves to be capable players through other tournaments. Both players brought bulky offense, which is definitely the most popular archetype in the tier right now, for apparently a neutral matchup. p2 led off with his Latios, while Get This Money went for Landorus-T. Both p2 and Get this Money attacked during the first turn, with Latios taking 64% of Landorus-T's HP while the Therian used Knock Off but did not remove an item, meaning that the Latios probably had a Z-Crystal; however, it never had a chance to use it, since Mega Metagross's Pursuit KOed it Turn 3. p2's Alolan Marowak came in as the revenge killer and took off some 81% of Terrakion's health, weakening a potentially annoying Pokémon for its teammates. The next turns saw both sides' Tapu Fini fighting each other with their Defog and Nature's Madness, crippling the opposing Ferrothorn and Alolan Marowak. The game started to become actually interesting when p2's Celesteela started to put in good work against GtM's squad (especially after dodging a Nature's Madness) and crippled its theorical switch-in, Volcarona, with a surprise Air Slash, putting his opponent into a tough position, especially after a great bluff of p2's on Turn 30 (it is worth watching the game just for it), which led GTM to stay in with its Ferrothorn against Celesteela, which also had Flamethrower and roasted the Grass-type Pokémon. While his Garchomp got burned by a Volcarona's Fire Blast in return, crippling a good potential wincon, it looked like p2 definitely took the edge after Ferrothorn's death. After that, both sides had their Pokémons weakened, and at Turn 40, Get this Money only had a Choice Band Terrakion, a Mega Metagross, and an almost fainted Volcarona remaining, while p2 had his Battle Bond Greninja and his burned Choice Scarf Garchomp. Coming in as Tapu Fini's revenge killer, Greninja was able to use Water Shuriken on Terrakion, KOing Volcarona, and at that point, it just looked like GtM had to send Mega Metagross in and attack to win; however, p2 used a last trick, revealing that his Greninja did not have the Choice Specs and crushing Mega Metagross with Dark Pulse, allowing the transformed Pokémon to finish the game.

Team of the Week: Stall by reyscarface

Stall has seen little to no usage during the first steps of the metagame in Sun & Moon, mainly because of the number of offensive threats being hard to handle, even for experienced teambuilders. However, this team was used twice by reyscarface during the first two weeks of the tournament, and it won both of its games without having been actually threatened. It is a standard team overall, not that much different from what appeared during late ORAS: the famous Mega Sableye + Chansey + Skarmory core has been featured on the best stall teams of the Generation and is able to check a lot of threats while keeping a good form of hazard control in a Stealth Rock setter, a Spiker, and a Magic Bounce user. Clefable here takes the Unaware spot, being able to check setup sweepers and providing a cleric to the squad, making it even harder to shut down with status moves, while Toxapex is the latest trend of the generation. Its combination of typing, great bulk, good movepool, and access to one of the best abilities in the game makes it an indispensable Pokémon for stall, since it can set up Toxic Spikes, use Haze against annoying setup sweepers, burn everything with Scald, and check threats such as Pheromosa and Mega Scizor. Last but not least, Dugtrio is an amazing way for a stall to remove annoying Pokémon such as Heatran, non-Scarf Tapu Lele, Hoopa-U, and Magnezone. At the moment, stall is using Dugtrio to trap and KO the classic stallbreakers (such as Hoopa-U and Heatran), which allows the archetype to perform well in SPL, but people are starting to complain about it (and the Dugtrio issue, with the Pokémon even seeing a suspect test right now), which is going to bring the players to use better anti-stall tactics. And that leads us to the battle of the week.

Week 3

Battle of the Week: Ciele vs TDK

Two big names fought each other during the Week 3. While Ciele is considered one of the most consistent players of the website, having a Smogon Tour and a Grand Slam trophy, TDK, the current OverUsed Tier Leader, is a great teambuilder and a very solid player, which was easily enough to turn this matchup into a deserved highlight. Looking at Team Preview, both players brought solid bulky offenses that both had Landorus-T, Mega Metagross, and Tangrowth; TDK added a solid DragMag core with Magnezone, Garchomp, and Magearna, while Ciele opted for three special attackers in Heatran, Greninja, and Tapu Koko, with the last two having a good matchup against offense in general and Heatran probably covering stall, since TDK brought it last week against FlamingVictini. TDK revealed his Tangrowth to be physically defensive during the first turns and put Ciele's Mega Metagross to sleep. Both players circled around each other, switching around their Pokémon and revealing some sets until Turn 12, when TDK was able to send his Metagross in and Mega Evolve it, revealing an Agility set and crushing Ciele's own Metagross in the process. However, it was unable to OHKO the opposing Greninja, so he had to switch it back out. A few turns later, Tapu Koko appeared to be a problem for TDK's team, since his Magnezone was KOed by Heatran and it revealed Hidden Power Ice, which meant that TDK had to play smart around it, especially since Magearna, while able to tank a few Thunderbolts, had no way to recover its lost HP. Greninja weakened Magearna even more after it revealed itself to be running Hidden Power Fire, but TDK's Scarf Garchomp started pressuring Ciele at the same moment. Both players took risks in order to send their respective wincons into the field, and finally TDK's Garchomp was able to shut down Tapu Koko, while his Tangrowth caught Ciele's Greninja on a predicted double switch with Giga Drain. At that point, TDK's Garchomp was able to significantly damage both Tangrowth and Landorus-T with Outrage, putting the latter in Stealth Rock range and letting Mega Metagross KO the Grass-type Pokémon with Ice Punch. The match ended with a victory for TDK, but both sides played very well, which made it a pleasure to watch.

Team of the Week: Bulky Offense by Ciele

If reyscarface's team was the classic stall, the team Ciele used in the BotW is representative of what you can find on bulky offense right now. Like GeeMick's Week 1 team, it uses Metagross as its Mega, confirming its position as one of the most dangerous Pokémon in OverUsed. A Fire / Water / Grass core supports it and showcases the most used Pokémon on offense, such as Protean Greninja, which is a pain for offensive squads and can also lure the likes of Ferrothorn and remove them for Tapu Koko with Hidden Power Fire. It also features Tangrowth as well as a stallbreaker in Magma Storm Heatran, which held the Shed Shell, allowing it to keep pressure on stall teams all the game without being revenge killed by the classic Dugtrio. Assault Vest Tangrowth is a nice glue for a team, being able to check a ton of Pokémon such as Tapu Fini, Tapu Koko, and Tapu Lele, as well as Keldeo, Manaphy, and Greninja. Its large movepool allows it to hit a ton of threats at least neutrally, and Hidden Power Ice can 2HKO each variant of Landorus-T and Garchomp without a problem. Finally, Tapu Koko and Choice Scarf Landorus-T form a VoltTurn core with a high Speed tier to revenge kill pretty much everything in OverUsed while keeping momentum for the rest of the team.

Week 4

Battle of the Week: ABR vs Sabella

Week 4 paired OLT regular qualifier Sabella with ABR, who had to defend the excellent SPL ratio he had during the last edition. Both players used some DragMag bulky offense, and ABR's team is also featured as the team of the week. The lead matchup put Sabella at an advantage, since his Mega Metagross was able to OHKO ABR's Clefable with ease. Unfortunately, the Clefable was the rarely seen Focus Sash set, and it tanked the Meteor Mash to respond with a clean Thunder Wave. Since Metagross did not have Bullet Punch, Clefable was also able to set up Stealth Rock during the next turn. After his Clefable's demise, ABR immediatly continued pressuring Sabella by sending Nidoking in, for which his opponent had no good switch-ins if he predicted right. But he did not have to, and when Sabella switched in its Nihilego, he was met with the bad surprise of seeing the opposing Nidoking using a Substitute; just for a sacrifice 25% of its Nidoking's life, ABR was able to basically get a KO each time he was able to use Substitute. Sabella was forced to let Nihilego get KOed to break the Substitute and get the momentum. Turn 9 saw a violent Supersonic Strike war between the two Landorus-T, in which ABR's was able to tank the hit thanks to Intimidate while Sabella's fainted. From there, ABR started to play around Sabella's Tangrowth with Keldeo, Landorus-T, and Magnezone, sacrificing his Ground-type Pokémon to put it in Keldeo's range, allowing him to KO it with Secret Sword. Sabella was forced to revenge kill it with his paralyzed Mega Metagross, but ABR was able to cripple it with a Thunderbolt from his Magnezone, putting it in the range of Keldeo; this one then revealed to be holding Choice Scarf and was able to KO Mega Metagross and Greninja, giving Nidoking a chance to finish the game with Sludge Wave.

Team of the Week: Bulky Offense by ABR

The team ABR played against Sabella, while being solid, is not what we are used to seeing in the Sun & Moon metagame. At a glance, it definitly looks like an ORAS team, but it has been adapted to the seventh generation. One would probably think its Clefable is a standard utility Pokémon, carrying Stealth Rock and perhaps Thunder Wave to support the rest of the team, while in fact ABR is using the rare Focus Sash set, which was first used in Smogon Tour by McMeghan. Clefable, which lost in usage because of its low utility against the top-tier Pokémon (such as Tapu Lele, Tapu Bulu, Tapu Fini, Mega Metagross, offensive Landorus-T, Celesteela, and Magearna), becomes a good anti-lead that can set up Stealth Rock for the team and is able to cripple some annoying Pokémon with Thunder Wave—ABR's game is a great example of how it works. Magnezone provides great support for the rest of the team; Mega Metagross, while being one of the most dangerous Pokémon in the tier, appreciates Ferrothorn or Skarmory being removed. The team's matchup against offense is improved by a Choice Scarf Keldeo, which is, despite Tapu Fini's high usage on offense, an excellent revenge killer, able to surprise the likes of Tapu Koko, Pheromosa, Choice Scarf Landorus-T and to clean weakened offensive teams in general. As a wallbreaker, ABR is using a Substitute Nidoking, a set he created himself during ORAS but has not seen high usage; however, against SM's classic bulky offenses, it can almost get a KO everytime he can set up a Substitute thanks to the perfect coverage given by Earth Power, Sludge Wave, and Ice Beam, which allows it to OHKO almost all the top-tier Pokémon (Mega Metagross, Landorus-T, Tapu Fini, Magearna, Tangrowth, Heatran, etc), while the lack of Flamethrower is covered by Magnezone against either Ferrothorn or Scizor (which don't still switch easily on an Earth Power either). Finally, top-ranked Pokémon Landorus-T is a nice glue for a team, giving some defensive utility through a Ground and Electric immunity as well as good raw power thanks to Swords Dance and its Z-Move. Though this team is not actually what you would call "original", it is proof that old veterans always have a trick left.

Sun & Moon Spotlight

Magearna @ Assault Vest: Ability: Soul-Heart; EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD; Modest Nature; - Fleur Cannon; - Flash Cannon; - Volt Switch; - Aura Sphere

The Assault Vest set is Magearna's most used, and it is easy to understand why. Its already solid bulk and typing, paired with the Special Defense boost from its item, make it a good check to Pokémon such as Tapu Lele, Mega Alakazam, Hoopa-U, Latios, Tapu Bulu, and Greninja if needed. All those Pokémon being basically hard to deal with for offensive teams, Magearna is actually a godsend, especially since it does not break the offensive tempo of those squads. Its spread is quite standard, maximizing its HP to take hits from both physical and special attackers, but also to hit as hard as possible: a fully invested base 130 Special Attack is not very funny to deal with, especially with the beast's moveset. Fleur Cannon is an extremly powerful STAB move that you can click to cripple those Ground-types that want to come on a Volt Switch and can inflict heavy damage on anything that does not resist Fairy. It will also be a good move to click against Alolan Marowak if you are not sure it is worth double switching on it but still want to weaken this foe that can not recover its lost health. Flash Cannon acts as the second STAB move, which you can go for if you don't want to have Fleur Cannon's stat drops, while Volt Switch allows Magearna to pivot on almost everything (bar Alolan Marowak), since most common Ground-types will be afraid of Fleur Cannon. Finally, Aura Sphere is a good coverage move that can hit Ferrothorn and Excadrill, two Pokémon that would otherwise be good Magearna switch-ins. A Choice Specs set may be also fun to use with the same moves if you already have a solid defensive backbone, but the Assault Vest one is definitly the most valuable set in OverUsed.

Conclusion

The first four weeks of SPL lay the groundwork for the new Sun & Moon OverUsed metagame, and though the metagame trends look more in favor of offensive teams for the moment, who knows how it will evolve during the following weeks? We are now in the midseason, and you can use this pause to look at matches in the Logs & Replays thread or have a look at the usages. The Smogon Premier League continues!

HTML by anto.

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