Here's another report. First, a team (sample worthy perhaps? until the first ban wave?). I just used it the entire time on my climb to top 1:
View attachment 631399
lo kommo balance
https://pokepast.es/be1fe3129f03415a
this replay shows how to pilot the team vs other balance
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9typesplit-2120059965-wbboan7xa0guwu36j557w6j9jma4z9rpw?p2
Notable meta developments and some thoughts:
There's no development, except that now I realize it's extremely uncompetitive. The way this meta plays out, darkrai almost never loses its boots, and given its bulk and the relevant psychic types
, and the potency of defensive pivots (especially
), it gets a lot of opportunities to switch in. And whenever it does so, it gets to click ice beam (except for like one knock for each check early game). This becomes a viable wincon in balance vs balance, there's actually no opportunity cost in fishing for a freeze, and darkrai is splashable. The outcome of a freeze depends on the darkrai answer:
is very likely to die,
loses all of its longevity,
doesn't check darkrai anymore. Please let's not have type split deteriorate like this - at least include darkrai in the first poll or whatever.
I've lost to last mon darkrai with my ~50% primarina due to ice beam freeze, unfortunately no replay.
See the replay earlier in this post and also this one:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9typesplit-2119859181-vg9kohq37cuxl6ba4ebplijayr3yk17pw
Zacian is broken with this new life orb set. idbp steel birds no longer survive the 2hko from cc, and mola scald is counterplay only 30% of the time. The only real counterplay is dondozo and balloon intact gholdengo, which zacian has to steel beam in order to break. Please ban.
Zacian @ Life Orb
Ability: Intrepid Sword
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Steel Beam
- Tera Blast
+3 252 Atk Life Orb Tera Ground Zacian Tera Blast (80 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Unaware Skeledirge: 234-276 (56.7 - 66.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+3 252 Atk Life Orb Zacian Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 227-269 (67.9 - 80.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Tera Ground Zacian Steel Beam vs. 252 HP / 120+ Def Landorus-Therian: 328-386 (85.8 - 101%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
+3 252 Atk Life Orb Zacian Steel Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Weezing: 296-350 (88.6 - 104.7%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO
+3 252 Atk Life Orb Zacian Tera Blast (80 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Zapdos: 213-252 (55.4 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
No development, I just realized it's broken and uncompetitive, please ban.
The ladder is filled with sylveon, mostly flame orb facade sets. There's not much to say, it's quite good IMO, the roles it provides are valuable: it checks various HO threats (like iron val, darkrai, chipped dnite etc), and it burns right through spdef unaclef fat:
252+ SpA Pixilate Sylveon Facade (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Clefable: 207-244 (52.5 - 61.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
I saw people use various sets, mostly belly drum and dd, notably all looking to abuse boomburst. Good mon. Incidentally, non-boomburst kommo is decent counterplay to these, thanks to soundproof. Thanks Dantheman1cool for this tip :)
I matched into one other person running this, (and i lost to them), but one is still great compared to day 1 when no one else brought volcanion. This mon is good, people, like, you should be using it more i think (2 of the teams i shared here both have good sets) also yes scald > steam eruption on spdef volcanion because pp reasons.
(tera opinion ahead)
There's a delicate balance in viabilities of all the playstyles, and IMO it's kept intact by tera. If tera were to be banned, overall, defensive mons would be significantly buffed, and offensive ones, especially on the physical side and with insufficient natural coverage, would be nerfed. The only way I see this play out is like so: certain mons like zacian and volcarona evade ban, and stall gets a piece banned (dondozo?).
It's consistent with the vision of the om (modern gen 3 but different execution from mg1/mg2) to ban tera, there's no arguing that. But the above outcome IMO would be much less fun and interactive/competitive than the current meta. There are a lot of threats to account for (compared to actual gen 3), and tera provides this intricate flexibility in defensive pivots that makes balance feel good to build and play. Once the blatantly broken abusers are banned, at least.
It should also be kept in mind that tera as a mechanic is heavily nerfed by the om restriction. I'll be open minded in regard to points in favor of tera ban that anyone actually goes ahead and makes.