SS Monotype Recap
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Art by Swiffix.
Introduction
With the release of Sword and Shield, Monotype had to deal with a significant loss with the Dex cut. While this affected every other tier as well, Monotype depends on having a decent number of strong and versatile Pokémon per type to function, which the Dex cut took away from most types. This, with the new Dynamax mechanic and numerous moves being deleted from the game, made for a very unique Monotype metagame, to say the least.
Early Days & Dynamax Ban
The early days of Monotype were a mess, with the metagame being particularly dominated by certain Max Moves and Pokémon, like Gyarados utilizing Max Airstream + Max Geyser to boost its Speed, set rain, and pick up an Attack boost with Moxie. Offensive Pokémon very quickly dominated the metagame, leaving defensive Pokémon with little viability, as nearly any offensive threat could take them out with Dynamax. Other Max Moves such as Max Quake and Steelspike allowed your offensive Pokémon to gain defensive boosts, making them harder to take out even when Dynamax had ended. It became quickly known that Dynamax was inherently unhealthy and broken, leading to its quickban. Before a month had passed after the generation's release, its newest mechanic, Dynamax, had been removed from Monotype, with every other tier following suit quickly after.
Home Era
Many Monotype players describe this era of Monotype as perhaps the most boring metagame, as with a limited Dex and no generational mechanic to play around with, it felt pretty stale. However, some staples were released back into the metagame, such as Zeraora, Keldeo, and Kyurem-B. Perhaps the most notable return was Kyurem-B, as it had gained access to Dragon Dance and a reliable physical Ice-type STAB attack in Icicle Spear. With very few checks, this Kyurem-B instantly polarized the metagame and easily became a titan in its own right. A new addition to Monotype was Melmetal, which became another major centralizing force in the metagame with its tremendous bulk and sky-high Attack, alongside its signature move in Double Iron Bash.
Melmetal Suspect
Melmetal was a massive problem in the early days of Monotype. The tier was not robust enough to handle such a powerful wallbreaker, giving Melmetal a unique edge. Due to its naturally high physical bulk, it could tank hits from Pokémon such as physical Dragapult while also being able to 2HKO every wall in the metagame with its signature STAB move in Double Iron Bash and coverage moves such as Superpower, Earthquake, Ice Punch, and Thunder Punch. Strong special wallbreakers, such as Keldeo and Hydreigon, were the main Pokémon capable of checking Melmetal. However, due to the variety of special walls available to Steel teams, this wasn't much of a problem. These different attributes allowed Melmetal to do extremely well in the metagame, becoming a centralizing force and being banned following a suspect test by the Monotype community.
Kyurem-B Suspect
With Kyurem-B's main check in Melmetal banned, this titan quickly began to warp the metagame around it. With newfound access to Dragon Dance and unresisted BoltBeam coverage, this threat was a menace to every team. Its high HP stat allowed it to set up 101 HP Substitutes against Blissey and Galarian Corsola, stopping them from breaking them with Seismic Toss and Night Shade. This tremendous natural bulk, especially when supported by Aurora Veil from Alolan Ninetales, allowed Kyurem-B to become an extremely threatening Dragon Dance sweeper. Due to the length of time Kyurem-B stays in each time it comes in, Leftovers is reliable enough recovery to allow it conveniently regain HP. Only a few Pokémon were able to keep Kyurem-B in check after it set up a Dragon Dance, such as Avalugg and Choice Scarf Dragapult. For these reasons, the Monotype community decided to ban Kyurem-B after a suspect test.
DLC 1: Isle of Armor
The first DLC re-introduced a ton of staples to Monotype such as Blissey, Kingdra, Volcarona, Magnezone, and Azumarill while also introducing the two Urshifu formes. Both Urshifu-R and Urshifu-S were dominant forces in the initial metagame; however, due to rain being a nearly unstoppable force with Urshifu-R, Damp Rock was quickbanned by the Monotype council. The Galarian starter trio also gained access to their hidden abilities around this time, allowing Cinderace and Rillaboom to become extremely viable. Cinderace would mainly use a Bulk Up + 3 Attacks set, while Rillaboom took full advantage of its Grassy Surge and newfound move in Grassy Glide, allowing it to clean past anything that didn't resist it. Fire, Fighting, Water, and Fairy teams regained a lot from this DLC and refreshed the metagame, which, up to this point, was stale due to the small dex Monotype was working with.
Magearna Quickban
Magearna was the first ban after the first wave of DLC. Its access to setup moves like Calm Mind and Shift Gear and coverage options such as Draining Kiss, Stored Power, and unresisted BoltBeam coverage made it a potent setup sweeper. Furthermore, Magearna was effective in several matchups, most notably Dark, Poison, Water, and Grass, and a great defensive typing in Steel / Fairy gave it a place on both typings. Klefki was an exemplary partner for Magearna due to its utility options such as priority dual screens to give Magearna leeway to set up, Spikes to weaken foes, and Thunder Wave to cripple Urshifu-R and Galarian Darmanitan. Dual screens specifically gave Magearna so much defensive prowess to the point where it started running Weakness Policy sets to capitalize on super effective attacks. Defensive Pokémon such as Toxapex and Ferrothorn feared super effective coverage moves like Thunderbolt and Focus Blast, while other passive Pokémon like Slowbro and Galarian Weezing were forced out due to them being setup fodder. As a result, the council quickbanned Magearna due to it making several matchups extremely difficult.
DLC 2: Crown Tundra
The Crown Tundra re-introduced approximately 60 fully evolved and legendary Pokémon. New legendaries such as Giratina, Palkia, and Xerneas were immediately added to the banlist. With big names such as the Guardian Deities, Forces of Nature, and Ultra Beasts returning and being allowed, the council decided to unban Damp Rock, Kyurem-B, Magearna, Melmetal, Smooth Rock, and Urshifu-R from the previous banlist to see if they would be less centralizing; Melmetal and Urshifu-R ended up being the only two that have a place in the current metagame. Several types like Ghost, Fairy, and Dragon improved with DLC 2 additions such as Spectrier, Tapu Bulu, and Garchomp. Poison-types like Nidoking, Nihilego, and Dragalge complemented Ground, Rock, and Dragon teams, absorbing Toxic Spikes and checking Fairy-types like Hatterene and Clefable. Other Pokémon such as Metagross and Guzzlord came with this addition, but were awful and outclassed by Jirachi, Hydreigon, and Celebi from DLC 1. The Crown Tundra metagame is probably the most competitive out of all the DLCs.
Landorus Quick Ban
With the removal of Hidden Power and the generally lower power level due to the lack of Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves in Generation 8, Landorus proved to be quite hard to take down for several types. Its slightly above average Speed tier and coverage made Landorus hard to deal with, as Sludge Wave and Focus Blast gave it the tools to deal with and remove threats such as Tapu Bulu and Kyurem due to its sheer power while also being fast enough to deal with threats such as Victini and Galarian Darmanitan. It also had Gravity, which meant that Flying-types, such as Celesteela and Zapdos, could easily be dealt with using Earth Power, paving the way for its teammate in Choice Band Excadrill, while colorful coverage in the form of Knock Off, Psychic, and Rock Slide meant that it could also deal with special walls such as Slowking and Latias, Poison-type checks such as Amoonguss and Galarian Weezing, and Flying-types such as Mantine and Tornadus-T. As Monotype Winter Premiere League was ongoing, and the council saw proof that Landorus was too strong for the metagame, it was quickbanned. Nidoking replaced it as the premier special attacker for Ground teams, while Flying teams used Landorus-T for their Electric-type immunity.
Zapdos Syndrome
Choice Specs Zapdos stormed the Crown Tundra metagame with its shiny new move, Hurricane. Coupled with its already good coverage in Heat Wave, its excellent Speed tier and bulk, Static's paralysis chance and Hurricane's confusion chance, and its ability to easily pivot out of switch-ins such as Heatran, Galarian Slowking, and Tyranitar with Volt Switch to bring in teammates like Zeraora and Landorus-T, the community felt that Choice Specs Zapdos was broken and was suspect test-worthy. It didn't help that, at the time, Electric had an extremely high usage rate in the Monotype World Cup and was giving players a headache on how to counter Zapdos, as Electric-immune Pokémon had to gamble on Hurricane's accuracy, while general special walls had to be wary of Volt Switch. Justifications and proofs were given by both sides; Hurricane's inaccuracy coupled with the loss of momentum of incorrectly choosing the move to be locked into, Zapdos's weakness to Stealth Rock, and its average Speed tier meant that players could counter it with offensive pressure or scouting. No council action was taken, and with the departure of Urshifu-S and Dracovish, the metagame shifted to having more offensive types, such as Ghost and Ice, become prominent. Checks to other offensive threats, like Galarian Moltres and Kyurem, also worked against Zapdos, like Nihilego and Assault Vest Mamoswine becoming more trendy, making the thunderbird more manageable. A few months later, by the end of Monotype Premier League VII, it seemed that the community has figured out how to deal with Electric-type teams, which was reflected in its atrocious winrate.
Urshifu-S Suspect
The one-punch bear, Urshifu-S, which was freed at the start of DLC 2, proved to be constricting once again, as it invalidated types such as Steel and Ghost due to the sheer strength of its signature move, Wicked Blow, and it also restricted other teams, as its Dark + Fighting STAB attacks only had limited switch-ins. Rare Fairy-types, such as Galarian Weezing and Tapu Fini, couldn't even come into Urshifu-S in fear of its coverage moves in Iron Head and Poison Jab. Urshifu-S could also pivot out of these checks with U-turn to let its teammates, such as Galarian Zapdos and Zarude, take advantage of these; Sucker Punch also circumvented its rather awkward Speed tier. Furthermore, Urshifu-S's ability in Unseen Fist made it unscoutable with Protect, which forced the opposition to guess which move it was going to lock into. Choice Band Urshifu-S was an extremely strong wallbreaker, able to decimate defensive cores of Flying, Steel, and Poison teams, while Choice Scarf also had merit, as it notably outsped threats such as Choice Scarf Tapu Lele and Choice Scarf Galarian Darmanitan and was able to blow through faster types, such as Dragon. Before it was banned, Bulk Up sets were explored, as Grimmsnarl, one of its teammates in Dark, provided dual screens to magnify its bulk, allowing it to ease predictions and punish switches. Due to these reasons, the council suspected Urshifu-S, which resulted to it getting banned with a very narrow margin of 64.3% voting Ban. This led to Fighting being the only truly unviable type in the Sword and Shield metagame, while Dark teams trended towards screens hyper offense, with Galarian Moltres and Hydreigon breaking down the same balanced teams that the one-punch bear used to do.
Dracovish Quick Ban
Shortly after the departure of Urshifu-R, Choice Band Dracovish took center stage as it became the next unwallable titan of Monotype. Strong enough to 2HKO even the bulkiest physical Water answers in Ferrothorn and Toxapex with Fishious Rend under rain when using a Choice Band. This monstrosity threatened Water-immune or resistant Pokémon such as: Slowbro, Mantine, and Toxapex due to its coverage moves in Crunch, Stone Edge, and Psychic Fangs, allowing its teammates, such as Barraskewda, Dragapult, and Hydreigon, to overwhelm the opposing team. Faster types, such as Electric and Dark, which could check Choice Band sets offensively, had to be wary of Choice Scarf sets outpacing and removing Tapu Koko and Hydreigon. Dracovish's decent bulk also made it quite difficult to revenge kill outside of wearing it down with entry hazard and Rocky Helmet chip. Combined with the ability of Water teams to set rain and pivot Dracovish in with Slowking's Teleport, Pelipper's U-turn, or Swampert's Flip Turn, and Dragon teams excellent wallbreaking capabilities through Hydreigon, Kyurem, and Dragapult, Dracovish thrived and forced extremely bad trades for those who faced it, leading to it being quickbanned by the council. Water teams adjusted by using Future Sight Slowking in tandem with Urshifu-R to wallbreak in rain to pave the way for Barraskewda, while Dragon teams used techs such as Iron Defense Kommo-o, SubRoost Kyurem, and Nasty Plot Hydreigon to break down the Dark, Poison, and Steel teams that Dracovish terrorized.
Aegislash Suspect
Aegislash has been a longtime titan in the Monotype metagame due to its amazing defenses and ability to complete Steel teams' immunity trio between Heatran and the various Flying-types. This core made Steel teams very hard to break, even with super effective attacks, meaning Pokémon with strong neutral coverage, such as Bisharp, would have less trouble breaking the defensive core. In addition to supporting Steel teams' already incredible defensive utility, alongside the types' natural ability to stack hazards, Aegislash became a great late-game cleaner with Shadow Sneak. However, there were a decent number of checks to Steel teams, notably Galarian Moltres, Hydreigon, Nidoking, and Cinderace, which allowed the metagame to adapt to the defensive threat. Since quite a few types had an answer to Aegislash, the community decided to keep it around for the first time in Monotype history.
Luck-Based Items & Moves Quick Bans
At this point in the metagame, people were starting to get tired of King's Rock and its main user, Cloyster, so there was discussion around items that introduced luck-based elements, such as flinching or evasion. For this reason, numerous items that were deemed uncompetitive, for a multitude of different reasons, were banned from Monotype, such as King's Rock, Bright Powder, Lax Incense, Quick Claw, and Focus Band.
Current Controversial Pokémon
The current metagame is enjoyable to a decent degree and is regarded as the metagame with the widest variety of usable types. However, Pokémon such as Galarian Moltres, Kyurem, and Aegislash stand out way beyond the rest due their ability to dismantle even to the strongest of types. These behemoths are kept in check, however, by the metagame's shift to using sturdy yet strong walls in the case of Galarian Moltres and Kyurem, such as Nihilego, Trick Room Hatterene, and Melmetal, or by using the plethora of existing "steelbreakers" in the case of Aegislash, such as the aforementioned Galarian Moltres and Kyurem, Hydreigon, Kommo-o, Volcanion, and various others that can overwhelm Steel teams.
Galarian Moltres is an excellent setup sweeper that only got traction after the departure of Urshifu-S due to its ability to break apart types such as Steel and Poison, which the bear used to do. Coupled with dual screens support from Grimmsnarl on Dark teams or support from teammates on Flying teams that can deal with its checks in Kyurem and Tapu Koko, Galarian Moltres can be a menace to go against with its decent bulk, Taunt, Nasty Plot, and ability in Berserk when given the chance to set up. It is notable that the Monotype council tied when a vote to suspect Galarian Moltres occurred, further cementing the dark bird's possible negative influence on the metagame.
Kyurem, with its new move in Freeze-Dry, greatly pressures even the sturdiest defensive cores of types such as Water, Poison, and Ground. SubRoost sets coupled with Freeze-Dry and Earth Power give Kyurem near-perfect coverage while punishing Pokémon that pivot out of it, while Dragon Dance + Icicle Spear sets takes advantage of its massive bulk to PP stall Pokémon such as Toxapex, Corviknight, and Galarian Slowking. Kyurem still has its holes, despite its near-perfect coverage decent bulk, as setup sweepers such as Scizor, Volcarona, and Hatterene quickly take advantage of Kyurem and can easily turn the tables against Dragon and Ice teams. Unlike in the case of Galarian Moltres, no one on the Monotype council found Kyurem too overbearing.
Aegislash cannot be adequately described in a short paragraph due to its sheer number of sets and how well it meshes with Steel's defensive core, but its most prominent set is a specially defensive one consisting of King's Shield, Toxic, Shadow Ball, and Substitute or Shadow Sneak, which chokes both offensive and passive types such as Electric and Steel. Fortunately, due to the nerf in King's Shield, loss of 10 points in both base Attack and Special Attack, prevalence of "steelbreakers", and SS Monotype being a decently offensive metagame, Aegislash finds itself unable to consistently pull off what it's meant to do, and its poor Speed leaves it reliant on Shadow Sneak to pick off threats or else it risks getting massively damaged. Aegislash also survived a suspect test, as the community did not believe that it is too overbearing for the metagame.
Final Thoughts
With the Sword and Shield Monotype current generation metagame coming to a close, it can be safely said that this metagame is once again dominated by types such as Flying and Water. However, due to the new Pokémon and items, such as Heavy-Duty Boots, present in the metagame, formerly borderline types such as Electric and Ice had their opportunity. What changes could Scarlet and Violet make to shake up the Monotype metagame? Find out in the Monotype room now that SV has dropped!
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